Game Opportunity Becomes Reality: Episode 112
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Game Opportunity Becomes Reality: Episode 112
28. A New Wind (4)
"This time Viscount Tienne was executed and his family's title and domain were confiscated, leaving the whole household out on the streets, right? So I went to the Viscountess Tienne and asked if she'd be interested in becoming my concubine."
"How mischievous. And then?"
"She told me to shut my mouth, saying I was just some provincial baron with a snot-sized domain!"
"Hah, she ought to know her place. A woman who's lived her whole life as a noble what does she think she'll do now?"
"So I'm planning to have some people harass her a bit and then make the offer again. Who knows? Maybe she'll come begging for me to take her in?"
Arrogant conversation shared in the thrill of victory.
"You have no idea how much the Young Lady of the Caskbel family ran her mouth during her school days. The way she looked down on everyone around her as if she were the First Lady how unsightly it was. With her family ruined, I feel relieved."
"Speaking of which, I heard the Young Lady of Caskbel was the one who bullied Lord Marquis Lawrence. Is that true?"
"That's right! And now that she has no backing, she's as good as dead."
"Oh, I can't wait! Hehehe!"
A silky laugh where jealousy and fury had sublimated into ecstasy.
"How do you think politics will flow from here?"
"Isn't it a two-way race between the House Heins Ducal, the King's maternal family, and the House Argon Marquis, the Crown Prince's maternal family?"
"Come now, don't leave out the Marquis Lawrence family. Once Marquis Lawrence becomes a duke and Count Klein becomes a marquis, they can't be ignored."
"But no matter how capable those two are, they have no supporting factions, do they?"
"It's just that Marquis Lawrence has no interest in central politics if he ever stepped forward, people would come running from all directions to latch on, and a massive faction would form in no time."
"True."
"And don't forget. The day that girl he sponsors becomes the Saintess..."
Even the discussions of political nobles huddling together over vested interests.
The place where various emotions and thoughts swirl is the royal family's party hall a venue that could well be called another battlefield for nobles.
With my keen ears and Arcia's, we could clearly hear the conversations around us as we approached the entrance to the royal party hall, a spectacle of opulence.
At that, the surrounding nobles readily stepped aside to make way for me, and the chamberlain serving as doorman offered a salute.
"Please announce us."
"Yes, understood."
Then the chamberlain cleared his throat and spoke into his ring-shaped microphone.
"Lord Marquis Adrian Lawrence! Lord Count Arcia Klein! Lady Ibril Barnet are entering!"
With the announcement, the party hall's doors, adorned in gold and white jade, slid open automatically.
I escorted Arcia with my right hand and Ibril with my left into the party hall, and with every step I took, silence spread around me.
Even though the music never stopped, people ceased dancing, and a path opened through the crowded hall before me like Moses' miracle.
'This feels like I've become the main character, doesn't it?'
No matter what anyone says, today's protagonist is the Crown Prince.
But in this very moment, more attention was fixed on me than on the Crown Prince, who had entered earlier with his family.
I walked straight to the head table where the King, Queen, and Crown Prince with his wife were seated.
Then Arcia and Ibril, as taught, gently lifted the hems of their dresses and bowed their heads, while I placed my right hand over my left chest and bowed.
"We greet the Golden Lion of the Kingdom of Rhinehearts."
That was a greeting directed at the King.
"Welcome, Marquis Lawrence, Count Klein, and Lady Ibril."
Yet the King responded to our greetings with such blatant indifference.
Ibril, new to royal parties, flinched, but I wore an expression of unconcern as I pulled my arms to raise my partners and myself upright.
It seems he still holds Prince Luke's death in his heart.
His death was also partly the King's responsibility for failing to hold the center despite having ample ability.
In any case, the throne will soon pass to Crown Prince Mikhail, so there's no need to be swayed by his moods.
I casually turned my head to survey the King's surroundings.
'There they are.'
Having easily found the person I sought, I curled the corners of my mouth slightly.
[Gabriel James, Former Marquis / Grand Master]
Race: Human
Age: 65
Affiliation: Knight Captain of the Shadow Knights Order, Kingdom of Rhinehearts
Talents: Physical Ability (Supreme), Aura (Supreme), Learning (High), Command (Average), Politics (Low)
Traits: Slaughter Ranger, Stealth, Single-Strike Severance
Relation: Interest / Neutral
Status: Observing / Curious
He was the hidden contributor to this war, the King's own arrangement, and the only Grand Master in the Kingdom of Rhinehearts.
Up until now, I had seen only two Grand Masters, including Duke Francis, and by the stats displayed through talents and traits, Duke Francis seemed slightly superior.
But such evaluations can't be taken as an absolute measure of strength, so who is truly stronger won't be known until they clash.
-Clink.
The black knight in stealth, whose eyes met mine, looked slightly startled, then glared at me.
Thanks to that, his status changed from 'Observing / Curious' to 'Observing / Wary.'
'So his identity was Gabriel James, the former Marquis.'
He was a figure known to have been the kingdom's finest sword before Marquis Vincent's generation, and had supposedly died after falling into Mana rampaging.
Honestly, I thought he'd be a secretly trained assassin from outside, so this is unexpected.
For someone of high nobility, a Marquis no less, to have achieved Grand Master what more could he possibly want that he'd hide his identity?
Many questions surged up, but since for a while ours was a relationship of cold indifference, I set aside my curiosity and turned my gaze to the Crown Prince.
"I thought you'd come with Diana surprising."
He said it coldly, but is he still worried about his younger sibling, after all?
To his question, I answered calmly with a smile.
"Unfortunately, my two arms are already spoken for. Instead, I've arranged good partners."
"Is that so?"
He's smiling, but it feels reluctant.
Yet the moment his gaze fell on Arcia and Ibril, he wore a gracious smile as if nothing had been wrong.
"Both of you are exceptionally beautiful."
"I I'm honored."
Arcia, wearing a silver evening dress with a faint green sheen to match her eye color, and Ibril, in a mini dress of mixed white and blue like a cleric's vestments, were more beautiful and dazzling than anyone at the party.
Moreover, the diamond necklace Arcia wore and the sapphire necklace Ibril wore were treasures worth enough to acquire a mid-sized company, so being anything less than dazzling would have been a problem.
At the Crown Prince's compliment, Ibril, a commoner, bowed her head in deep gratitude, but Arcia, familiar with him, nodded as if it were only natural.
"This is my first time seeing Lady Ibril in person. Having only seen her on broadcast TV, seeing her in the flesh feels like meeting a celebrity."
"I'm flattered."
Ibril seemed burdened by the Crown Prince's attention, struggling to keep the conversation going even as questions continued.
That marked the fifth time the conversation lapsed into silence.
Deciding he'd done enough, the Crown Prince introduced me to his family.
The Crown Princess wasn't particularly outstanding in looks, but as a princess from a neighboring country, she was full of grace.
"Oh, wow! It's really Marquis Lawrence. Wow, he's incredibly handsome."
"Haha, thank you, Your Highness."
Between the Crown Prince and Crown Princess there was one son and one daughter, ages nine and seven, both looking quite mischievous.
Even royalty, they're still children their bright, cheerful demeanor brought an involuntary smile to my face.
The boy showed great interest in me, and the girl in Arcia.
Thanks to that, we were held up by the Crown Prince's family for quite a while, and a long line of nobles formed behind me, waiting to greet the King.
Seeing those impatient nobles standing quietly without a word, power really is a bully, as they say.
Only after quite some time did I manage to break free from the children though I shook off the kids, the Crown Prince followed me along.
"Within two to three days at the earliest, a week at the latest, the promotions of Marquis Lawrence and Count Klein will be decided. The domains will be arranged as the two of you wished."
That's welcome news.
The domain was approved in the form of uniting the Duchy of Lawrence, the Marquisate of Klein, and the Viscounty of Lawrence into one, as planned by Deputy Lord Baron Walker.
This must be a considerable burden even for the royal family, yet the fact that it was approved so easily shows that the Crown Prince's estimation of me has risen even further.
Well, just from him foisting Princess Diana onto me, that was clear enough...
"Conversing with Marquis Lawrence is always a pleasure. Haha."
After that, we talked at length about matters of state.
Most of it felt like they needed my insight, so I broke out in a cold sweat, but setting skills aside, I managed to get through the crisis somehow by relying on knowledge from Earth, where the political system was far more advanced than here.
The Crown Prince looked utterly satisfied and made no effort to hide his favor toward me.
'When did all these people gather?'
Around us, nobles eager to join the conversation were flashing hyena-like looks.
But I ignored them completely and glanced at the clock.
Seeing this, the Crown Prince tilted his head.
"Is something the matter?"
"It should be about time for Princess Diana to arrive."
And then.
Right on cue, the doorkeeper announced Diana's arrival.
"Her Highness Princess Diana Anne Rhinehearts! And the Provisional President of the Prius Republic, Israel Oscar Prius, are entering."
"Huh?"
"Who did you just say?"
Princess Diana was currently at the center of attention.
Not in a good way, but in a bad one.
Rumors had spread that the Crown Prince had gifted her to me as a reward for winning the civil war.
She, once famed for her excellent character and beautiful appearance, had now fallen to being a laughingstock in high society.
Yet seeing her enter alongside the leading candidate for the Republic's next president left everyone visibly confused.
After all, no matter how chaotic its politics, the Prius Republic was unquestionably a stronger nation than our kingdom.
"To think you mobilized Israel Oscar Prius. Truly impressive."
"I pulled some strings. Princess Diana is under my protection, after all. Should I let bad rumors spread about someone like her?"
"Is this what they call being considerate, or defying common sense..."
I shrugged.
Originally, I'd planned to leave Princess Diana alone, but the more I looked at her, the more I felt she was a waste to ignore.
So I felt the need to stack up a bit of a debt with her.
If I kept building goodwill like this, wouldn't she eventually step onto the stage without refusing my request?
Of course, it wasn't decided that I'd actually debut her as an idol.
That was just a metaphor.
Anyway, thanks to the hard-earned Izrael, the two people I thought resembled me greatly in terms of ability and in terms of presence finally came face to face.
Crown Prince Mikhail, the golden-haired fox-featured heir to the Kingdom of Rhinehearts.
Commander Izrael, the black-haired, black-eyed prospective president of the Prius Republic, with eyes that looked ill-tempered.
I introduced Commander Izrael, who had come back from greeting the King, to the Crown Prince.
"Hmm."
"Hmm."
It seemed I wasn't the only one who thought they resembled each other the two showed immediate aversion toward one another at first sight.
Was this a sort of kindred-spirit repulsion?
And so the party's night grew ever more heated.
* * *
Everyone has a plausible plan, but putting it into practice exactly as hoped is nearly impossible.
Life is a series of 'unexpected turns,' and no small number of accidents and failures strike down the target.
But sometimes, failure and unforeseen coincidence combine to produce unintended results.
'Grand Duke Lucas's masterpiece that changed human life the Hollywood System.'
A month ago, the management system of this Hollywood came under attack by black-clad thugs, causing a temporary system shutdown.
It was quickly restored thanks to a backup system hidden elsewhere, but this was the first incident since the Hollywood System's commercialization, and as a result, the system developed a small, unexpected error.
A kind of bug had been created and the problem was that it scurried around the virtual world like an actual insect.
But to the Hollywood System, which managed vast amounts of data, that bug was a trivial issue, a matter outside its priorities.
And so the bug was thoroughly neglected, and a month passed.
"So it's you, is it?"
But just as a small drop of water bores a hole through rock over long years, the neglected bug, dismissed as trivial, slowly grew in size and began to make its presence known.
At this point, the Hollywood System could no longer leave the bug alone.
Opportunity Manager Chester stepped into a terrain in Exit Online a famous rival game to Chronicle Online where data had been bizarrely destroyed, and spoke.
"A real bug, indeed."
There, numerous NPCs had clumped together to form a monster shaped like a giant caterpillar.
[W-Who?]
"Hah, it can even express emotions? An unintended artificial intelligence has been created."
Sensing hostility in Chester's bewildered voice, the bug shrank back.
Instinctively, it recognized that the total amount of data its opponent possessed was overwhelming.
"If it were up to me, I'd take it right away and run all sorts of experiments, but with it having wrecked the surroundings like this, there's no choice. It must be eliminated."
And so Chester, an artificial personality created by replicating Grand Duke Lucas's memories, reached out toward the bug.
Soon, the corrupted data around him began to be restored.
[Krrrraaaack!]
Under Chester's touch, the bug let out a chilling scream, then began to spew out the clumped-together NPCs as if vomiting them up.
And a moment later.
"Hm? What's this?"
As the grotesque shell was completely shed, a core emitting a most beautiful light was revealed at its center.
The moment he saw that core, Chester withdrew his power and marveled.
"It seems it roamed the virtual world and absorbed a great deal of knowledge."
That core had evolved again and again, transforming into a fairly well-refined artificial personality.
A completely unexpected situation.
At that, Chester's intention to immediately remove the bug changed.
"If I put it in a doll, it'd make a useful errand runner in the real world?"