Game Opportunities Become Reality Chapter 181
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Game Opportunities Become Reality Chapter 181
43. The Development of the Duchy of Lawrence (2)
"I will rise for today."
Marquis Walker, the Chancellor of the duchy, had to scratch his cheek as he watched the grand duke rise just one hour after taking his seat.
"I will trust and entrust the rest to you."
"Yes, please go ahead."
Even when it was a marquisate, Adrian only set the broad framework for estate management, while Walker handled the detailed administrative matters realistically on his own.
Still, back then Adrian had devoted two to three hours a day to domain affairs, but somehow, even as the number of people to rule grew, the territory expanded, and his status rose, Adrian's interest in administrative work had only diminished further.
However, he could not scold him about it as he usually would.
The reason was that this was the early days of Adrian's marriage, when sparks flew the moment he merely made eye contact with his partner.
"Quite the hot-blooded one, aren't you..."
In fact, it was fortunate enough that he even sat down for an hour at all.
After the ceremony, Adrian and Arcia had stayed cooped up in their room for ten days without coming out.
Aside from the lady-in-waiting entering the room three times a day with meals and a few important documents, there was no contact with the outside world at all.
Compared to that, the fact that he had come out to handle work a month after the wedding was already a great improvement.
"Still, well... Having an heir is a good thing."
There was no news of pregnancy yet, but with things the way they were, how could a child not come?
Everyone figured it was all for the best.
Still, thanks to Adrian having firmly established the nation's foundations and placed talented people in the right positions, no problems arose even when the leader was temporarily absent.
Thanks to that, Marquis Walker and the duchy's key ministers began to believe that the most important virtue of a king was not administrative skill or tolerance, but the ability to judge people.
Adrian excelled in every ability, but among them, his eye for people was unmatched.
Those he placed in high positions were all people with strong responsibility, integrity, and competence.
That was why even the sensitive situation of the nation's leader being away could pass so quietly.
Marquis Walker even began to wonder whether Adrian was testing them in preparation for leaving for long periods in the future.
"Come on, let's not think such ominous thoughts."
He shook his head, thinking that such intense lovemaking couldn't possibly last long anyway.
Right now, the two who had been rushing nonstop had belatedly awakened to love, but in the end, everything had its limits.
"They're surely at their limit by now. Even this much is impressive enough."
This was practically a prophecy from a life senior who had entered his tenth year of marriage.
Once an heir was born, the nation would become even more stable, so he considered this all part of the process.
"..."
But.
And so one month passed, and two months passed.
Even three months after the wedding, there was no change in the situation.
At this point, even those who had smiled with understanding gradually wore expressions of shock.
As if asking, is this even possible...
"The two of them are so magnificent, they must surely be intoxicated by each other's beauty."
"How can one person have looks, ability, and strength everything?"
"I once saw His Highness the King's body while helping him change clothes his muscles would put most Knights to shame."
"They say the ministers' households have been getting quite strict lately because of His Highness the King. Heh heh."
"Anyway, they really are amazing."
At the excited whispers of the ladies-in-waiting, Marquis Walker felt himself shrink in comparison.
Marquis Walker, unable to dare say anything to Adrian, thought to himself alone.
'You'll waste away to nothing at this rate.'
* * *
[LV. 288]
I nodded, looking at my greatly increased level.
With new party members joining, the level-up speed had risen dramatically over the past few months.
Now, only a mere 12 levels remained until the final stage.
It was fair to say the countdown had begun.
"Is that so nice? A person without a body would be miserable living like this."
Arcia and I, who had been absentmindedly fidgeting with each other's hands, pulled apart with startled expressions at Chester's words.
Who would have thought that habits from reality would carry over into the game so faithfully.
"It's too late to act coy now. Stroking each other's cheeks, sweeping back hair, tickling... Even as a virtual being without a physical body, I get goosebumps."
"Haha, my apologies."
Having Grandpa Ho-ho fairy (Chester), who bears the likeness of Grand Duke Lucas in life, say such a thing made me feel a bit embarrassed.
But looking at Arcia's face, I couldn't help but smile.
And the same went for Arcia.
We were completely smitten with each other.
"I almost find myself wishing that the support unit had been a male form or a fairy form instead of Arcia."
"Everything is fate. Isn't it true that even Grand Duke Lucas never anticipated my meeting with her?"
"You're seriously smitten."
Arcia is no mere homunculus.
Her soul and the potential she holds are all the more precious because of the form she takes now.
The greatest creation born from Grand Duke Lucas challenging divine authority.
She could be called a new form of humanity.
Because she can do everything a human can, and possesses extremely high potential and stats.
"At the very least, I can only say it's fortunate that we haven't stopped investing time into the攻略 the strategy."
That's directly tied to survival, so there's no choice.
After all, one needs power to protect happiness.
So my top priority was to secure every Opportunity.
"I have something to report."
And Chester reminded me once again that I needed to hold firmly to that goal.
I noticed from his suddenly serious expression that something had happened and narrowed my brow.
"Has it happened again?"
"Correct. But this time is different from usual. It wasn't the third active management terminal that was hit, but the seventh terminal, which was scheduled for future activation."
It was the terror of an unidentified force attacking the core terminals of the Hollywood System.
"It hasn't been stolen, has it?"
"It ended in destruction again this time. But unlike before, this incident made two things certain."
Since we hadn't been able to catch any clue about the enemy until then, I widened my eyes in surprise.
"What are they?"
"First, they did not find the management system through hacking or signal tracing."
"That's right. Because this time, a non-operational facility was attacked. Wait, that means..."
"Correct. They possess information about our facilities. Though judging by the sporadic nature of their attacks, it seems the information isn't complete."
Where on earth are they getting such information?
Even I had no idea about it until Chester told me.
"There's still no lead. In the memories I have, the only person besides the System who knew that information was Grand Duke Lucas himself."
Incomplete information.
But this makes one thing certain.
"In any case, it's clear that they are a group directly or indirectly connected to Grand Duke Lucas."
"That would seem to be the case."
With this, the danger they posed increased significantly.
"What's the second thing?"
"The second is their identity."
And then the second clue brought up their identity.
In the end, this was the core of it.
"The first could be chalked up to coincidence, but if something like the second occurs, it's inevitable. So I pre-installed various mechanisms in each facility to speculate even a little on the enemy's clues."
As expected of Chester.
A being carrying Grand Duke Lucas's memories wouldn't just sit there and take it.
"And thus, I was able to perceive it."
I swallowed dryly and waited for what he'd say next.
"The fact that a faint trace of black mana can be felt from them."
"Black mana?"
In other words, there are fiends or demons behind them.
Black mana is the exclusive domain of the demon race.
There are beings with dark attributes like Blake, but their attributes have nothing to do with black mana.
"Ah! After Grand Duke Lucas's death, how was his body handled?"
If demons are behind this, they might have tampered with the corpse.
Moreover, while Grand Duke Lucas's death is famous, how his body was handled after his death has never been made known.
To my urgent question, Chase replied calmly, telling me not to worry.
"After cremation, the ashes were scattered in the sea before the Holy Land. It was done covertly through Blue Moon so that even the Imperial Family of the Bringham Empire wouldn't notice. Grand Duke Lucas himself wished for it to be handled that way, thinking someone might mobilize a Black Mage."
Then that's a relief.
If those bastards had gotten their hands on Grand Duke Lucas's corpse and were tampering with it, they'd be my mortal enemy.
No, aren't they already my enemies anyway?
"I think we need to discuss how to respond to this."
"Indeed."
Still, finding out the enemy's identity was huge.
Thanks to that, we can now counter them.
"Hmm..."
After a moment of deliberation, I curled the corners of my lips upward.
"It's disconcerting, but not a bad situation."
"Pardon?"
At Chester's confusion, I recalled a Holy Relic I had obtained three months ago when I followed Blake to the Dragonlands.
"A compass that tracks black mana. It seems the time has come to actively put that item, which I had set aside, to use."
A vague Holy Relic chosen by intuition.
But looking back now, it seems it was a choice made for today.
"At that level, isn't it less intuition and more foresight?"
"Whether it's intuition, luck, or foresight, if there's something usable, we should use it."
"But isn't there a problem? If you step forward directly, the enemies might realize that Adrian-nim is behind the Hollywood System that is, behind Grand Duke Lucas's Opportunity."
You need not worry about that.
"We just don't step forward directly. There's a mega-global organization that will cling to this situation with more sincerity than anyone, and coincidentally, I happen to have ties with that organization's leader."
"The Sepia Church... You mean Saintess Ibril?"
"Correct."
It all clicks into place, doesn't it?
Until now, we couldn't approach the enemy rashly and could only take hits one-sidedly, but now we have a way to restrain them.
"Indeed, if it's Ibril-nim, she would shield Adrian-nim no matter what unexpected situation arises."
There was no need to tell her the exact truth, but it meant that even if any unexpected situation occurred later, the chances of her questioning me were very low.
"So all the work Adrian-nim has done until now pays off like this."
Chester let out a hollow laugh even though the Hollywood System's management terminal had been destroyed.
Indeed, things seemed to be flowing too well, just as I said, so his face held admiration more than a sense of crisis.
"Ibril-nim is the best card."
Calling her a card isn't quite right.
Still, she is my close ally.
Anyway, with things having come to this, I relaxed my thoroughly tensed muscles and placed my hand on Arcia's shoulder beside me.
In response, Arcia naturally leaned into me.
Whoever the enemy is that stands in the way of my happiness will pay a thorough price.
* * *
Ibril Barnet, with her coronation ceremony as Saintess two months away, has been throwing herself into her work lately.
Thanks to that, she was able to learn the duties of a Saintess very quickly, but everyone around her worried about her.
The reason was that she had started devoting herself to work right after Adrian got married.
Anyone close to Ibril would have to be a fool not to know she liked Adrian.
And that Adrian, in turn, thought of her only as a cute younger sister.
Even if it was a bittersweet girl's one-sided love, the fact that the one she loved was in another woman's arms could not help but be a great shock.
So, wherever Ibril wasn't looking, everyone wore pitying expressions.
"Still, it's a relief."
"What is?"
"Her heart seems to have settled she's gradually finding her original pace again, isn't she?"
In the Holy Land Everhill, the priestesses who were carrying out work akin to being Ibril's aides and secretaries smiled bitterly as they talked.
"That's true, indeed."
"The world is wide, and there are plenty of wonderful men out there. Surely someone better than His Highness the King, Grand Duke Lawrence "
"Is there?"
"In some respects, there are many who are better."
"In some respects, huh? Haah, we'll have to scrutinize quite carefully then."
But it didn't take long for their faces, which had been finding peace, to twist.
"A- A crisis!"
"What is it?"
The cause was what one priestess belonging to the same Saintess Department as them announced as she came running.
"His Highness the King of the duchy, Grand Duke Lawrence, has submitted a request to visit the Saintess Department!"
The culprit who had recently been clouding Ibril's complexion appeared at an ill-timed moment, as if intending to shake the heart of the girl who had only just begun to regain her composure.