Fortuitous Encounter in the Game Becomes Reality – Episode 27
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Fortuitous Encounter in the Game Becomes Reality – Episode 27
9. Last Struggle (1)
The butler had to swallow dryly at Anna's killing intent-filled gaze.
The assassination attempt on Adrian was something they had already tried once.
There was no reason they couldn't do it a second time.
"Right, that's how it should be. There's no need to overthink it, is there?"
No matter how he looked at it, eliminating Adrian was the surest method with no loose ends.
"But if we do that, your relationship with the Lord will become irreparable. Moreover, the media's attention is currently focused on the young master..."
"Butler."
He knew he shouldn't say this, but because of his pity for Adrian, the butler ended up contradicting Anna.
When her chilly gaze turned toward him, he bowed his head even deeper.
"Yes, Madam."
"How long have you worked under me?"
"This year makes it thirty years."
"Then there's no way you wouldn't know, right? The fact that I absolutely detest being lectured."
"I—I'm sorry."
The person who had fed poison even to a seven-year-old child was the Anna standing before him.
Considering her suspicious and wary temperament, what he had just done was something he should never have done.
Naturally, the butler's face turned ashen.
And when Anna picked up the wine bottle on the table and approached, his whole body began to tremble.
–Drip drip.
"You think I wouldn't know that? But no matter how I weigh and consider things, I see no better method than this, which is why I'm doing it."
He thought she might just swing the wine bottle at him.
But Anna merely poured the contents of the bottle over the butler's head.
"Why is it that in taking care of things behind me, you seem to have gotten smarter than me?"
–Tap tap.
However, when Anna started tapping his head with the wine bottle and the impact grew strong enough to ignore no longer, the butler had to kneel and beg.
"I'm sorry. I was thoughtless. I just felt sorry for the young master..."
"Pity, you say?"
"Yes. I swear, I had no other thoughts."
Did she like his honest answer?
Or was she thinking of something else?
She put the wine bottle back in its place on the table and helped the butler to his feet.
"Then you can be the one to take the fall."
"Pardon?"
"It's not just some commoner, you know. We're talking about the death of a lord's son in name, at least, so someone has to pay the price for that sin."
At Anna's next words, the butler's face went deathly pale.
"You did something you weren't ordered to do out of your loyalty to me. Understood?"
To think that, just because he misspoke once, she was now trying to discard the man who had served her for thirty years.
Flames of fury surged in the butler's chest, but...
"You don't want to?"
At that single question—"You don't want to?"—his head cooled instantly.
He realized that once Anna had made up her mind, there was no way he could avoid having the crime pinned on him, no matter how vehemently he denied it.
Terrifying as it was, nobles were a calamity-like existence that commoners could never dare oppose.
If he thought of his family, the best choice was to obediently follow.
"I understand. Please leave it to me. I will prove my loyalty to you, Madam."
"Hoho, good. I like that answer."
Seeing Anna's expression return to normal, he felt relieved, thinking at least his family would be safe.
"Make sure you handle it properly this time. If you fail again, I'll commission an assassination on your boss."
With those last words, Anna left the room.
The butler cursed his self from a few minutes ago, but it was already far too late to regret.
If by some slim chance Adrian survived this crisis, a path to survival might open—but he thought that possibility was infinitely low.
* * *
[As of this moment, our Kingdom of Reinharts declares that the war with the Empire of Kroysen has ended, and we pledge to forget the mistakes of the past and cooperate with each other for the sake of peace.]
Ten days after the armistice negotiations began.
At long last, this accursed war had come to an end.
Watching the king's declaration together with the commanders of each house in Count Otis's division commander's office, I had to let out a sigh of relief.
Even though information that armistice talks were underway had been made public and quite some time had passed, the negotiations had still not been concluded, so the atmosphere in the unit had been unsettled.
Naturally, talk spread here and there that the war might flare up again, and just in case, we had even held a review parade yesterday.
If the war broke out again, it was obvious it would be fiercer than before.
However, today the war ended without any incident, and not only I, but all the commanders gathered in the division commander's office, simultaneously let out a sigh of relief.
"Come now, everyone have a drink. Is this not a joyous day?"
Count Otis uncorked the expensive champagne he had prepared to celebrate the end of the war and personally poured a glass for each brigade commander.
Until just before the war broke out, I had thought of him as nothing but a lazy superior, but once the war actually started, the way he conducted himself made him a faultless, excellent superior.
"To the victory of the 23rd Provincial Division!"
–Clink!
Although the war ended as a war of attrition without winners or losers, the people of the 3rd Division under the 2nd Corps had no hesitation in using the word *victory*.
The reason was that everyone present here was certain to rank high in the list of military merits.
Count Otis, of course, and the brigade commanders receiving the glasses all wore bright expressions.
"To think the day would come when I benefit from my subordinates. Thanks to Brigade Commander Lawrence, I can look forward to the conferment of rewards for merit."
"Haha, that's right. Brigade Commander Lawrence, I truly thank you. Thanks to you, my position within my house has greatly improved."
"I was also able to further cement my position as heir. Please visit our house whenever you wish. We will give you a grand welcome."
And their joy returned as goodwill toward me.
Naturally so.
It was no exaggeration to say that most of their military achievements had occurred because of me.
"It's all thanks to Your Excellency's excellent character in trusting and supporting your subordinate."
"You're a truly humble man, you know?"
If I had been obsessed with racking up military achievements, the atmosphere in our division would not be this warm.
But then Count Otis said something unexpected.
"It might have been better for you if the war had continued a little longer."
When I tilted my head, not understanding what he meant, he smiled and patted my shoulder.
"If you'd piled up more achievements, becoming a lord might even have been possible. Unfortunately, with the merits you have now, a non-hereditary viscountcy is probably the limit."
The difference between holding a baron's title as a hereditary lord and holding a non-hereditary viscountcy as a non-lord is enormous.
No matter how high a non-hereditary title is, if you have no fief and cannot pass your title on to your children, you are practically a half-baked noble.
Of course, even as a half-baked noble, simply having a title allows you to accumulate wealth that commoners could never dream of and live in luxury, but by your children's generation you become a fallen noble, which is why Count Otis reacted this way.
"It's fine. It's not like I fought for the sake of military achievements."
The count, who did not know my true intentions, gave a wry smile at how I really seemed not to care.
"What a pity. You have ability in abundance, yet you're in an environment where you can't fully make use of it."
"This is making me feel unnecessarily sorry."
"It's really fine. You don't need to worry."
Either way, once I push Cedric out, I will become the formal heir of our house.
But even though I waved my hand and said it was fine, it seemed these people couldn't shake off their sense of discomfort.
"Hmm. I think this is as good a time as any for you to take refuge with our house. I have a daughter, you see, so someday I'll arrange a meeting."
The count's consideration was especially excessive.
Trying out of the blue to attach his own daughter to me.
I could only smile and vaguely brush it off by saying I would think about it.
"Right, give it serious thought. You will always be welcome."
But if she's the young lady of House Otis, isn't she *that* person?
The one famous for being a nutcase?
It was a matter unrelated to me anyway, so I turned my gaze out the window of the division commander's office.
'I'm finally going back.'
Once I return to the house, something Anna and Cedric have never even imagined will happen.
As I raised the champagne glass to my lips, I felt a strange mix of tension and anticipation.
* * *
The day after the end of the war between the Kingdom of Reinharts and the Empire of Kroysen was declared.
The provincial army, composed of lords and private soldiers, was disbanded immediately.
After exchanging farewell greetings with the comrades with whom I had joined forces and fought, I packed my luggage and set out on the road back toward the Lawrence Viscounty.
The distance to the fief is five hours.
Naturally, with no intention of wasting that brief time, I logged into the game right away and have been hunting for three hours now.
"Hoo.... It's slowly starting to take a toll on me."
The level that must be reached to clear Fortuitous Encounter Quest step 8 is 250.
But my current level is 202.
Nearly ten days have passed since I reached level 200, but leveling hasn't been going smoothly, so it feels like I'm just treading water.
I think our party's combat ability improved greatly thanks to the recent Death Knight battle.
However, as we've grown stronger, the monsters we have to face have also grown stronger, and the amount of experience required to level up has increased, making it impossible to level up more than once a day like before.
This isn't our problem.
It's the problem of being an understrength party.
Just looking at the monsters we're dealing with now, they're ones that are normally fought by a standard five‑man party.
'Should I just act crazy and recruit party members?'
No, that's still not it.
It's better not to do anything that attracts attention if possible.
Even if it's slow, if we keep hunting steadily like this, we'll reach max level eventually.
'And battles that are no different from real combat will be engraved in my bones and flesh, so I should think of it as good experience proportional to the hardship.'
Didn't I realize that while fighting Death Knight Pascal in the last Fortuitous Encounter Quest.
Even if your stats are similar, your combat ability can improve dramatically depending on how you make use of them.
When we face the named monster in the next Fortuitous Encounter Quest, it will probably be difficult to clear it by just raising levels in an ordinary way.
So it'll be easier on my mind if I don't get impatient and think of it as refining myself.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Leaning against the corpse of the huge lesser dragon, Elder Drake, I was sitting and taking a break, then slowly got up to resume hunting.
But for some reason, Arcia, who would normally follow me without a word, was just sitting there, staring into empty air.
"Blackie, what's up with you now?"
But it wasn't just her who was acting strange.
Black Eagle, who had been flying smoothly in the sky, suddenly dove toward me as if charging, settled on my shoulder, and started flapping his wings hard in some incomprehensible manner.
Since nothing like this had ever happened before, I was taken aback and, just in case, asked Black Eagle.
"Don't tell me, did something happen outside?"
–Kriik!
In response to my question, Black Eagle nodded vigorously as if to say yes.
With my expression hardening, I checked on the unmoving Arcia and immediately logged out.
[Exiting Chronicle Online.]
As Chronicle Online shut down, my consciousness receded into the distance, and my whole body tingled as if shocked by static electricity.
This was a phenomenon that occurred during the process of the goggles linked to virtual reality transferring control of the body back to the brain.
–Rrrrrrr!
And as soon as my senses of reality returned, what greeted me was a vibration that shook my entire body and—
–KWOOM!
A deafening explosion that assaulted my eardrums.
"W‑what the!?"
Ripping off the goggles and practically throwing them aside, I held up the ring‑type artifact I'd received from Father before departure and darted my eyes around to grasp the situation.
"Kh!"
The first thing that came into view was Arcia, standing guard in front of me and deflecting incoming Force with a dagger imbued with Aura Blade.
"Great Shield!"
Emergency situation.
Rather than fully checking the situation, I immediately used the 7‑circle defensive spell embedded in the ring to support Arcia.
The barrier formed around the ring expanded its range, canceling out the blue Force in her stead.
Thanks to that, once she had a bit of breathing room, she began her report.
"It seems to be assassins. Their aura is similar to the ones we took care of last time."
But what she said next was something I hadn't expected.
This is supposed to be an assassin attack?
Since when is assassination this flashy?
"Do assassins these days also carry Force Swords (Vanguard armament)?"
"I don't know about that. But the enemy is clearly equipped with Vanguard Force Armor and Force Swords, and there are three of them."
With three Vanguards, they could easily wipe out a single medical train in an instant.
"But for three Vanguards launching a surprise attack, the surroundings look way too intact, don't they?"
"Fortunately, it seems Sir William was maintaining a battle‑ready posture. While he was stalling for time, the rest of our allied Vanguards deployed quickly and are engaging the enemy."
Good.
With five allied Vanguards, it shouldn't be difficult to handle them.
"But it doesn't look like the situation is going to be that easy."
It didn't take long for me to realize that Vanguards weren't the only problem.
–KWAANG!
The ceiling of the medical train, including my room, was torn away, and a gigantic metal spider revealed itself.
"Armored Golem?"
It was a previous‑generation weapon that had been phased out with the advent of Vanguards.
Thick armor, nearly 100 tons of mass, and agile maneuverability that doesn't match that weight.
It was best described as a close-combat attack tank.
"There are a total of six."
Three Vanguards and six Armored Golems.
So the enemy clearly isn't just some run-of-the-mill assassin guild.
It has to be one with a big name.
Watching the Armored Golem tearing through the wall of the medical train like paper as it approached, I let out a sigh.
"Looks like Great-Aunt has switched the target from Sir William or Sir Pesius to me."
Well, that would be the easiest for her.
Judging by the scale of the enemy, I can feel a strong determination not to let me enter the territory.
"Arcia."
"Yes."
"One Force Sword is enough, right?"
"Of course."
I took out the exclusive equipment I'd obtained by clearing stage 5 of the Fortuitous Encounter Quest from subspace.