Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality Chapter 215
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Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality Chapter 215
49. The King of the Duchy Is the Fixer (4)
"Guards! What are you doing!"
Ricardo desperately called for the guards, but for some reason, no answer came to his shout.
-THWACK!
"Gah!"
Before Ricardo could even wonder why, Adrian's punch sent him flying into the office door.
"Y-you madman! A leader of a nation striking a politician of another country are you out of your mind?"
Intense pain surged through his cheek.
Curses inevitably spilled from his mouth.
"Hah, and kidnapping a president was sane?"
When had he ever been treated like this?
Adrian's actions were utterly incomprehensible to Ricardo, feeling bizarre, and they stirred not only rage but an unfamiliar emotion 'fear.'
Thanks to that, Ricardo's composed demeanor vanished, replaced by nothing but the urge to get out of there as fast as possible.
So he urgently grabbed the doorknob of the office.
-WHOOOOSH!
A sight he never could have imagined unfolded before him.
"W-what is this?"
Naturally, stepping out of the office should have led to the mansion's interior hallway.
But what entered Ricardo's view was a canyon of dizzying, sheer heights.
The wind tickled his cheeks, and the damp scent of soil stimulated his sense of smell.
Ricardo turned his head as if possessed, and there floating alone in empty air was a familiar door, with the office interior visible through it.
"Out here, no one will care how loud you scream."
Then Adrian stepped through the doorway, and the door connecting the office to the canyon vanished like a mirage.
"Wait, please. Your Highness the King, let's settle this through conversation!"
Despite his cheek already swollen from the hit and his expression feeling awkward, Ricardo forced a smile and made that offer.
"Take the hits first."
But Adrian wasn't having any of it.
As if he had come today solely to beat him to death, he only kept swinging his fists.
-SMACK! THWACK!
"AAARGH! Stop!"
Moreover, despite his scrawny build, he was so strong and fast that Ricardo Ordein even as a swordsman at the level of a low-rank knight couldn't even put up a fight.
With his front teeth knocked out by Adrian's punches, Ricardo flew through the air and tumbled noisily across the floor before staggering back to his feet.
"AAARGH! Damn it! You crazy bastard!"
Had he lost his mind from becoming an unexpected punching bag?
Ricardo pointed a finger at Adrian and screamed in fury.
"Do you think you'll get away with this?! This country is a democratic republic! No one stands above the law! Do you really think defying the law will be forgiven!?"
Once his refined, polite speech vanished, Adrian smirked.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"What?"
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Are you serious right now? You dare kidnap and assault the Supreme Assemblyman of the Republic and expect to walk away "
"Got any proof?"
"What does that mean?"
"Proof that I beat you."
Ricardo found this utterly absurd, wondering what nonsense this was.
But soon, he grasped what Adrian was getting at.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is it? You're just going to deny everything?"
"Just as expected of a politician you catch on quick."
In other words, Ricardo was the prime suspect in the disappearance of the Izrael President, yet he was denying it and Adrian was making him feel exactly how that felt.
Ricardo flared up and shouted.
"There's no way this can be swept under the rug by mere denial!"
Even so, Adrian's answer was utterly simple.
"If I thought I couldn't get away with it, I wouldn't be doing this, right?"
"...."
"I'm a man who thinks before acting, you know. Meaning I'm not reckless enough to kidnap and beat you without a plan."
Adrian's confident attitude radiated genuine assurance that he could indeed resolve this situation.
Whatever his scheme was, it didn't seem like empty boasting.
"That can't be."
Even if it looked impulsive, every move he made was calculated that was the reputation of the man before her, Adrian.
Come to think of it, she recalled how she had been unilaterally crushed in the public opinion war waged through the media.
Because of that, Ricardo felt fear creeping up once more.
"Enough talk."
As Adrian raised his fist again, Ricardo cried out desperately.
"You're misunderstanding right now! I have nothing to do with the President's disappearance! I swear! Believe me!"
"You'd get beaten less if you told me where you hid the President, but lying means you want more, huh?"
"How can you possibly know whether I'm lying or not!?"
Adrian let out a mirthless laugh, and his expression turned cold.
As if everything up to now had been a joke.
"There's a way to know everything."
* * *
The office of Supreme Assemblyman Ricardo Ordein of the Prius Republic.
"Huuuuh!"
Ricardo, who had been sitting blankly, swallowed air, then collapsed sideways with a suppressed groan.
I sneered inwardly at the sight, but apart from me, the servants who had been bringing out refreshments rushed to him in alarm.
"Assemblyman!"
"Assemblyman, are you alright!?"
On top of that, the office door burst open and a Vanguard-armed guard entered, making the place even noisier.
I, meanwhile, paid no mind and calmly lifted my teacup with leisure amid all the fussing.
After a moment, Ricardo, his eyes bloodshot, looked at me and shoved the guards toward me, trembling.
"That man tortured me."
"What?"
"I was tortured! What are you doing! Arrest him now!"
But even under Ricardo's orders, the subordinates only hesitated with awkward expressions.
"Assemblyman, please calm down first."
"Does my word mean nothing to you!? Arrest him!"
Ricardo sensed something odd from his subordinates' reactions, but it seemed my presence loomed over him as sheer terror at the moment.
However, the butler's following words were something he could not let pass, and Ricardo froze.
"Tortured, you say? Didn't you just meet His Highness the King for the first time?"
"What?"
Ricardo should have been dragged somewhere unfamiliar and beaten to the point of torture.
Naturally, if the employer had gone missing, the mansion should have been in an uproar.
"Wh-what are you talking about right now?"
"Pardon? Did I say something strange?"
The servants all looked at him as if he were the strange one, merely voicing their confusion.
I barely held back my laughter at Ricardo's foolish expression and delivered the finishing blow.
"The Assemblyman seems tired, doesn't he? Looks like you had a bit of a dream."
"A dream?"
That's right.
Meaning everything he had just experienced up until now was not reality.
Quick-witted Ricardo's expression hardened.
"So this is what you meant by no evidence? Because it was all illusion spell?"
Correct.
To be precise, it wasn't a spell it used spirits.
Avoiding Ricardo as if dealing with a madman, I shook my head.
"It seems the Assemblyman needs rest, so let's have our meeting another time."
"Not on your authority!"
Ricardo tried to grab me, but the servants panicked and held him back.
Then, recalling something, Ricardo shouted into the air.
"Heaven-Piercing Fortress! Search for traces of Mental-series magic manifesting in my mansion!"
[We accept the request of Supreme Assemblyman Ricardo Ordein.]
The Heaven-Piercing Fortress of the Prius Republic responded, but if it were going to be caught, it would have already reacted to protect its charge and attacked long ago.
[No traces of Mental-series magic from casting or artifacts are detected.]
"Wh-what?"
I leisurely exited the office, saying,
"I'll come again later. Let's have a proper talk then."
He stared at me in a daze, and outside the office, August was waiting, dressed in an impeccably neat suit for once.
Then the office door closed, and I let out a low chuckle as I walked down the mansion's long, long corridor.
"Funny making a fool of someone like this."
At that, August, the top-tier Mental-series Spirit Summoner, asked,
"You're not going to kill him?"
"Judging him is the President's duty."
"I see."
"Have you located President Izrael?"
He answered with a somewhat awkward expression, as if the formal attire was uncomfortable.
"They say President Izrael and Field Marshal Ansen were thrown into a labyrinth on Oslei Island in the southern region."
"Is there a labyrinth in a place like that?"
A labyrinth can be seen as a sort of multidimensional space separated from reality.
It's a facility built by the now-extinct giants of the Mythic Era a space perfectly suited for hiding or imprisoning people.
The most famous labyrinth is the one located in the permafrost of the Bringham Empire.
It was known to hold countless treasures, but it was a Forbidden Land dangerous enough to be called a miniature Dragonlands.
"Unlike the Bringham Empire's labyrinth, the returns are very poor for the effort, and the interior is vast with such complex passages that a first-time visitor could take anywhere from two to three months or even years to find their way out."
"Is that so?"
Unlike the Bringham Empire's labyrinth, there was almost nothing to be gained here, but they had no choice but to enter to rescue the two.
I never thought I'd end up exploring a labyrinth like this.
At least thanks to the Myriad Mirror, I wouldn't have to worry about losing my way.
* * *
Currently, the President of the Prius Republic, Izrael, and the Commander of the Defense Force, Field Marshal Ansen, were in grave danger.
That danger wasn't because they'd been thrown into a labyrinth and forced into an expedition they never asked for but because they had come face-to-face with an utterly extraordinary being.
'Good heavens....'
A colossal body lying sprawled across a corner of the labyrinth.
An appearance that seemed to embody the very darkness of the world.
They had come face-to-face with a dragon a staple that never failed to appear in stories.
This was absolutely not a case of mistaking it for a drake or some lesser wyrm.
The massive body covered entirely in black scales was on a completely different scale from such creatures.
Even with its belly pressed to the ground, its head alone seemed a good seventy to eighty meters high, and from head to tail it looked to easily exceed three hundred meters.
Even the great wyrm basilisks or hydras paled in comparison.
And Izrael, a Grand Mage of the 7th Circle, could feel it with certainty.
A boundless Mana, like gazing upon an ocean.
"I I humbly greet Your Greatness. I am Izrael Oscar Prius, President of the Prius Republic."
What terrible luck.
Izrael was certain that the saying "even falling backward lands you on your nose" must have been coined for this very situation.
He had never heard of a dragon living in a labyrinth, so while he was taken aback, he greeted the being as politely as possible so as not to offend it.
At that, the dragon's blood-red gaze, fixed on President Izrael and Field Marshal Ansen, flashed.
[This labyrinth is only ever used as a resting place on occasion, so there's no way the outside world would know of it. How did you know to come find me?]
Black dragons were usually portrayed as evil dragons in tales, but from this being alone, a mere brief exchange revealed deep refinement.
"Ah, no. Our encountering Your Greatness was purely by chance."
[I was under the impression that no humans set foot in this labyrinth.]
"Haha, well, we were actually kidnapped by a hostile faction and abandoned here."
Izrael figured there was no point in spinning the truth, so he plainly confessed his situation.
[Still the same your own kind can't stop devouring one another. Humans, honestly....]
"My apologies."
Cold sweat ran down his back.
Even with an enemy blade at his throat, he wouldn't be this tense.
Izrael bowed his head to the dragon, whose expression was unreadable, and spoke.
"We deeply apologize for disturbing your rest. We shall take our leave now."
He had tried to withdraw without provoking the being's ire as much as possible.
[Wait.]
Of course, it wouldn't let them go so easily.
[Even if I don't take pleasure in killing, now that you've discovered my resting place, I can't very well let you live.]
Even if someone knew a dragon's lair, any sensible human wouldn't dare try to invade, but among humans there were fools who defied common sense.
Since such an annoying swarm of flies might come buzzing in, it was far cleaner to simply eliminate them than to trust their silence and let them go.
Naturally, President Izrael's and Field Marshal Ansen's faces turned pale.
"As I appear, I am the leader of a nation that is quite powerful in the human world. If I die here, an investigation will surely be launched."
A way of saying that killing him would only bring more trouble.
Fortunately, that appeal seemed to carry some weight with the dragon.
"We will keep this absolutely secret. If you wish, I will even swear the Oath of Mana."
[The Oath of Mana... But the old man beside you doesn't appear to be a Mage.]
"Then you need only dispose of me. I ask that you spare this young man and let him go."
As Field Marshal Ansen spoke, prepared to sacrifice himself, Izrael grew frantic.
"Mighty, mighty one, would you not be capable of something like erasing a person's memories?"
[It is possible. But the brain is an area full of variables, so there's no telling how it might recover.]
He must not die yet, but no other way to escape this place immediately presented itself.
Field Marshal Ansen, thinking it fortunate that at least President Izrael could survive, was about to close his eyes....
-Squeaaaaak!
[Huh?]
At the sound that rang out without warning above their heads, everyone expressed confusion.
And soon, upon confirming that the sound had been made by a black eagle, their eyes went wide.
That was because it was an eagle belonging to someone in Izrael's memories.