Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 105
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Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 105
27. Civil War or a Comedy Sketch? (2)
"Arcia, if the Second Prince tries anything funny, don't hesitate kick him right in the groin, got it?"
"Yes."
"Black Eagle will be circling the Royal Palace the whole time. So if an emergency happens, make sure to send me a telepathic message. I'll support you right away with Black Eagle's magic sharing skill."
"Yes."
One day before D-DAY.
Like a parent sending a child off to the water's edge, I checked every piece of Arcia's fully equipped gear with Force equipment one by one, cautioning her again and again.
That was how little I trusted the Second Prince.
Because I knew that bastard still had feelings for Arcia.
It was obvious he'd try some trick the moment he had the leeway.
If I were a heartless piece of trash, I would've used her selfishly no matter what she went through but I cherish Arcia like family, like an extension of myself.
That's why I didn't want her to have even the slightest unpleasant experience.
So in case of an unexpected situation, whether the plan fell apart or not, her safety came first.
Thanks to that, on the inside of her gauntlet the shield side that didn't hold a sword ten bracelets were strung together in a cluster.
All of them were artifacts for her personal protection.
"Then I'll be off."
Just as I was about to send her to the Second Prince's raiding unit.
Even after all that preparation, something still didn't sit right with me.
So I thought of one item and snapped my fingers.
"What's this?"
Then I took out a short white rod from my subspace and handed it to her.
It was the Holy Sword I had named "Excalibur" after the Earth-style name.
"It's a Holy Sword."
"Isn't it precious?"
At Arcia's question, I lifted her chin and delivered my line with the same cheesy flair as a movie dub voice actor.
"You're more precious."
"That gives me goosebumps."
At that very Arcia-like reaction, I let out a snicker and pulled my hand away from her chin.
Then I dropped the playfulness from my expression and gave her a serious piece of advice.
"There's one thing you need to know."
"Speak."
"I'm not certain, but there might be a Grandmaster hiding in the Royal Palace. If you ever end up in a fight with him, surrender no matter what."
Since she was always by my side, she knew exactly what I meant.
That is the Kingdom's hidden arrangement my Father mentioned, the King's secret unit that no one knows about.
"No, not just a Grandmaster if you're in danger from an unexpected number of enemies, surrender too. Got it?"
"You're saying to prioritize my own safety above all."
"Right."
Only after hearing that answer did I let her go.
Arcia walked off calmly.
But before long, she stopped in her tracks.
"You be careful too, Adrian."
A short, hesitant remark she blurted out.
With those words as her farewell, she alone stepped onto the Lord's estate teleport gate.
As Arcia vanished with a flash of light, I turned around and muttered a brief thought.
"Cute."
* * *
"Oh, welcome, welcome. Count Klein."
The place Arcia appeared was a small manor on the outskirts of the capital, Lionel.
As small as the manor was, it was more than enough to hide a raiding unit of fewer than thirty people.
When Arcia appeared, Prince Luke, Marquis Vincent, and even Margrave Ignis three Aura Masters in total along with all twenty High Knights of the raiding unit welcomed her.
"I greet His Highness, Prince Luke Win Rhinehearts."
Arcia paid her respects to the Second Prince with her usual calm expression.
In response, the Second Prince patted her shoulder a couple of times and nodded, saying she'd come at just the right time.
'Should I hit him?'
For some reason, Arcia disliked the Second Prince.
But there was no change in her expression, and after receiving the greeting with a conventional attitude, she also greeted Marquis Vincent and Margrave Ignis.
The Second Prince's eyebrow twitched at that, but he too seemed to think it wasn't the time, so he didn't show his feelings.
"This is reassuring. I still haven't forgotten what I saw at the hunting grounds."
"I'm honored."
Marquis Vincent and Margrave Ignis genuinely welcomed her.
Adrian was so eccentric that he had a strong negative image among the nobles, but Arcia had a completely opposite image.
Despite being a genius who became an Aura Master at 20 alongside Adrian, she never acted arrogant, was always modest and elegant, and possessed flawless beauty.
Since knighthood itself is a rough profession, Arcia stood out all the more among such people.
Moreover, she silently guarded her fiancé's back even amid his violent outbursts, making her the very ideal that every knight wished for.
No, not just knights she could be called the ideal of all men.
Because of that, while Adrian was capable yet nobles shied away from approaching him, they desperately wanted to get close to Arcia by any means.
"Are you really going to marry Marquis Adrian?"
At that moment, 'Wesley,' the eldest son of the Caskbell Margrave family who had been greatly overshadowed by Arcia but was expected to become an Aura Master in his 20s after Prince Luke asked that tactless question.
The Caskbell Margrave family was the house of Isabella, who had been the ringleader of those who bullied Adrian during their academy days.
At that, Marquis Vincent glared at him as if to say, "What nonsense is this before a war?" but not only Wesley Caskbell many knights wore expressions of curiosity.
Arcia, without showing any sign of displeasure at the rude question, kept her usual expression and answered simply.
"If Lord Adrian wishes it."
From Arcia's standpoint, she couldn't refuse Adrian's orders, so it was only natural, but to those listening, it gave the impression that Arcia liked the other party even more than Adrian did.
At that, the Second Prince, feeling uncomfortable, cleared his throat and settled the situation.
"Are we on a school trip?"
"Haha, my apologies."
Wesley Caskbell scratched his cheek with an awkward expression.
With the situation settled, Arcia asked the Second Prince.
"Is there an operation I need to familiarize myself with?"
The Second Prince checked the time on his bracelet-type terminal and nodded.
"Alright, since Count Klein has gathered as well, shall we begin the briefing?"
Still, they were all professionals at the Second Prince's reaction, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
The Second Prince tapped his bracelet-type terminal with his finger.
Then, a large three-dimensional holographic map rose in the center of the hall where they were gathered.
"The key to this war is how much of the Kingdom's military strength we can preserve while achieving victory. We're always in a position where we must watch the Croysen Empire's stirrings, so if we can prevent even the loss of a single Heaven-Piercing Fortress or a single Vanguard, we must do our utmost to prevent it. That's why our strike force is so vital."
The Second Prince's strike force has the mission of bringing an early end to the war.
Naturally, when it came to an early end, nothing was more certain than striking the enemy's head.
"It's cowardly for a knight, but if it's for the kingdom, wouldn't using poison be acceptable?"
Once again, it was Wesley Caskbell.
At that, the Second Prince who hadn't noticed before felt a subtle irritation and shook his head.
"You think I haven't tried? Poison doesn't work on that one."
"What?"
"He possesses a Holy Relic called 'Ten Thousand Poisons Resistance.' A treasure of the royal family given by Father. So keep your mouth shut and listen quietly."
"Ah, understood."
At the Second Prince's prickly response, Wesley Caskbell clamped his mouth shut.
"We have to shove a sword into his neck ourselves. But that's no easy task. After all, he's the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Rhinehearts."
The Second Prince, who had shrugged his shoulders, changed his expression and curled up the corners of his mouth.
"But with what I've acquired this time, I'm confident we can strike that one's head without much difficulty."
As he snapped his fingers, a secret path leading to the Crown Prince's Palace and the main palace appeared on the map.
"This is the blueprint used when the Royal Palace was built. Even the secret passages are marked here."
"Ooh."
The Royal Palace's secret passages were the most classified of classified information.
It is a top-secret command that only the person who becomes the master of that palace is granted the authority to know.
"Although most of the marked secret passages have collapsed over time, a preliminary investigation confirmed that two passages can still be used."
As the Second Prince snapped his fingers again, X marks appeared over several passages on the map, leaving only two.
And those two passages were the real prize.
They connected from the Crown Prince's bedchamber straight to the King's office.
"If we sent some half-baked assassin, they'd fail, but with us, that's a different story. We'll use this passage to deal with the Crown Prince and secure His Majesty the King. That's the core of this operation."
"We're going to strike through the secret passage" that was all the Second Prince had to say, drawn out at length.
But those who heard his plan clenched their fists.
It was a plan simple enough that success could be easily predicted.
If a force of this caliber appeared at their feet and launched a surprise attack, who wouldn't fall?
"To prevent any leak of the operation, I hereby forbid the use of communication and telepathy artifacts as of this moment. I trust you understand?"
At the Second Prince's chilling question, everyone nodded in agreement.
The Second Prince nodded in satisfaction at that.
"Good. Then from now on, we begin simulating each scenario."
"Yes!"
And so, one day before D-DAY, the Second Prince's preparations which would become the signal flare of the civil war proceeded smoothly.
'Should I hit him? No, this is still within acceptable bounds.'
Of course, in the midst of it all, Arcia had to struggle against violent urges as the Second Prince frequently engaged in skinship, rubbing her shoulders and patting her back.
At least the Second Prince had some sense of discretion and didn't cross any lines that would cause problems.
And so the day grew late.
Perhaps because of the big event ahead, everyone spent the night sleepless, and then the morning of D-DAY dawned.
* * *
An old, now-disused underground waterway.
The Second Prince, Arcia, and the strike force, fully armed with Vanguard equipment, sped through it swiftly on hoverboards.
On foot, it would have cost them considerable time.
But in this age of advanced technology, it was a distance that took less than a minute.
Their top priority was not securing the King's person, but the Crown Prince's life.
So they infiltrated the Crown Prince's Palace first through the secret passage.
"W-What?"
Yet the Crown Prince, who should have been fleeing from them in panic and shock, was nowhere to be seen.
Sensing that things had gone wrong, the Second Prince bit his lip.
"Was the operation leaked in advance?"
Only a fool would have missed it.
But now was not the time for lamentation.
If the Crown Prince had fled, they would simply move on to the next target.
"You wretches! How dare you do you know where this is?!"
Fortunately, it seemed only the Crown Prince had fled in haste the King, unaware of anything, ended up facing the elite force that burst through the secret passage.
The Second Prince and his faction breathed a sigh of relief, but the King, seeing his second son barging into his office with armed men, flew into a rage.
"I apologize, Father. Please entrust yourself to me for a moment."
"Luke, you bastard!"
BEEP!
Unlike the Crown Prince's Palace, a blaring alarm rang out as guards rushed in without pause.
But the royal knights guarding the King were no match for them.
After all, Marquis William and Second Prince Luke were the very Knight Captains leading that royal guard.
Some even lost all will to fight and laid down their swords, unable to raise them against their own superiors.
Thanks to that, the King of Rhinehearts was subdued by the Second Prince all too easily.
"What are you scanning for?"
Though they had missed the Crown Prince, securing the King's person was as good as victory.
The strike force celebrated, feeling they had achieved their objective surprisingly easily.
Yet for some reason, only Arcia refused to let her guard down.
Marquis Vincent tilted his head at her.
"I'm preparing for the worst."
"The worst?"
An answer of unclear meaning.
Marquis Vincent dismissed her as being overly sensitive, letting out a hollow laugh and telling her to relax.
But it was then.
[Your Majesty, do you require assistance?]
A stranger's low voice echoed from empty air, and the King, utterly enraged, shouted.
"Protect me!"
[As you command.]
At the same moment, a man in pitch-black armor appeared and cut down five Vanguards surrounding the King with a single stroke of his sword.
"W-What?"