Chapter 324
Simon and Loraine were walking side by side down the hallway of the study hall.
"You want to walk around with me?"
Loraine's face held a suspicious expression as she asked back.
"Yeah, even just for one game is fine, please."
"I don't mind."
Loraine swept her fingertip through her black hair, dark as the night sky.
"You're not the type to do this. What's the reason?"
"Mm, just,"
Simon replied with a faint smile, keeping his tone light.
"I wanted to talk with you."
"..."
Loraine lowered her long eyelashes. Instead of answering, she simply gave a small nod and started walking away.
After her acceptance, the two began searching the building together.
Searching wasn't anything special. They just walked down the halls, and whenever they felt a "hunch" about a classroom, they'd go in, rummage through desks, and open drawers.
However, inside the Keyzen campus, there were plenty of students hiding with the intent of getting a "student kill".
"Wahaha! If you want to pass through here…!"
A male student guarding the alley shouted loudly, preparing to rush them—
"!"
—only to flinch at the sight of Simon and Loraine, lowering his stance in fright.
"...Just pass! Please, go right ahead!"
As he stepped aside, Loraine raised her hand slightly in what might have been a thank-you gesture and passed by. Simon, without much reaction, followed behind her.
'…Jeez, I almost got smashed to bits.'
Sweat dripped down the male student's forehead.
'Those two holding hands like that… are they going after the student council president or something?'
This place was dangerous. The male student quickly left the building.
"Ah, found one here!"
Resuming the search, Simon pointed at a yellow card stuck to the wall. But Loraine shook her head.
"Not that one, I already have a yellow card."
It seemed Loraine was aiming for a set of seven cards of different colors. Simon took glasses out of subspace and put them on.
"Leave it to me. What colors do you have?"
"Navy and yellow."
Simon had navy and orange. If they picked colors that didn't overlap, it should work out.
Once he put on the glasses, the whole building was dyed yellow. That meant only yellow cards would appear here.
Simon promptly led Loraine out of the building, then entered one marked in blue.
"There's a lot here."
The two roamed the empty classrooms, searching for cards.
Simon had recently learned that even in the same blue zone, there were lighter and darker areas.
And in those darker areas, the chance of finding a card increased significantly.
'If I didn't have these glasses, I'd be in trouble.'
Simon quickly rifled through a desk drawer and found two cards, but couldn't enter due to the entry condition.
"Simon."
At that moment, she pointed to a card stuck to the floor.
"How about this?"
[Difficulty: Medium]
[Entry limit: 2 people]
[Entry condition: Male and female students must enter together.]
"Not bad."
They had found a card for two people, with a decent difficulty level.
The "male and female together" condition felt slightly suspicious, but—
"Let's do this one."
"Mm."
Loraine stepped onto the card first and was sucked in, with Simon following right after.
[You are entering a new game.]
Simon recalled a line from a fairy tale Anna had read to him as a child.
—"All animals that walk on two legs are great," declared the Pig Princess.
The Pig Princess had been a character Simon liked when he was young.
She was bold and refreshing, beating down bad people without hesitation.
—Mom! Then what about the animals that walk on four legs?
—The four-legged ones were considered livestock.
—That's weird. Why would a pig discriminate against pigs? The only difference is two legs or four legs.
—It must have been important to them. That's why the pigs who walked on four legs tried hard to walk on two.
Remembering that, Simon opened his eyes.
The reason he recalled it was because the world inside the card seemed to perfectly recreate that childhood fairy tale.
Various animals in suits and dresses stood on two legs, sipping wine.
'Hmph,'
Rolling his eyes around, Simon surveyed his surroundings. In the lavish banquet hall, dogs, rabbits, goats, and sheep held wine glasses as they chatted.
He briefly worried they might speak in animal cries, but they spoke proper Continental, with excellent pronunciation.
Their upright posture seemed utterly natural. Using their forelegs like hands to hold wine glasses looked completely normal, as though that was their original purpose.
'Such a well-crafted world.'
Now Simon understood why Endolas Vaudeville's ability, along with Neftis, was counted among the continent's ten great mysteries.
"Simon."
Simon turned his head and froze when he saw Loraine in a dress. His face flushed red.
'Ugh.'
Her shoulders were bare, her neckline plunged to reveal cleavage, and her skirt was so short it barely covered her lower body. On her head sat a headband with animal ears.
For a student, the outfit was embarrassingly revealing.
'…Endolas Vaudeville's taste, huh.'
It felt unpleasant, like peeking into some creepy middle-aged man's preferences. Loraine, clearly also uncomfortable, kept tugging her skirt down with an annoyed look.
"Black again."
'…That's the problem?'
Simon gave a wry smile.
He himself wore a party tuxedo, but compared to the care put into Loraine's design, his looked half-hearted.
'Even having the shirt inside the tux be black is overkill.'
And, like Loraine, he also wore a headband with animal ears.
"Pfft."
A horse in a suit passing by glanced at them and scoffed.
"Four ears? What a hideous animal."
"Humans, as always."
It seemed they weren't exactly welcomed guests at this animal banquet.
Simon tried to take off the ridiculous headband, but it wouldn't come off.
"Simon."
Loraine came over, her animal ears twitching.
'....'
Simon's face heated up all over again. Her chic expression paired with the comical, twitching animal ears was absurdly mismatched.
"What are we supposed to do here?"
"I'm not sure either."
At that moment, a new message appeared in their vision.
[You are "Knights".]
[Knight Objective: Protect the Pig Princess until the time limit expires.]
'Knights?'
Their roles and mission were set.
Loraine glanced around and spoke in a small voice.
"Then there must be others with different roles too."
No sooner had she said it than a new message appeared.
[Among the animals, an "Assassin" is hiding.]
[Assassin Objective: Assassinate the Pig Princess before the party ends.]
[There are two Assassins.]
[The Assassins are animals participating in the party. They cannot be distinguished by appearance.]
'Aha.'
Now he understood everything.
This place was clearly a world created by Endolas Vaudeville based on the famous fairy tale Animal Kingdom, the one Anna had read to him.
And among the animals attending this party, two were real Keyzen students. They were targeting the Pig Princess' life.
"So the fact that we're Knights must already be obvious."
"That's right."
Their appearances hadn't changed, they still looked human. It was easier to just assume that whatever they did, they were under the Assassins' watchful eyes.
"Then where's the Pig Princess?"
Their eyes darted around.
Among the countless pairs of animals, there was no pig in sight. Nor was there any animal in a dress lavish enough to be called a princess.
"Let's gather information first."
"Mm."
The two decided to split up and ask the animals various questions.
"Excuse me, where is the Pig Princess?"
At Simon's question, an elderly wolf in a suit waved his arm dismissively.
"Ma'am, may I ask you something?"
A goat in a dress snorted and ignored him.
'Tsk, this makes it difficult.'
While gathering information, he had planned to feel out whether they were Keyzen students, but overall, the animals were avoiding both Simon and Loraine.
"Looking for the Princess?"
A fox sprawled on a sofa chuckled.
"The Princess hasn't come out yet. The main character always appears at the end, you know."
The fox spoke smoothly. He hopped down from the sofa and walked over to Simon.
"Interesting."
Then he examined Simon's face closely.
"I thought it couldn't be, but it's true—a human came here."
"…Is it bad if a human comes?"
"Humans walk on two legs too, so there's no reason they can't. You're not 'livestock', after all. Still, for such a hairless, shameful animal to come all the way here, well."
The fox smirked.
"Make sure you don't cause any trouble for the Pig Princess."
With that, he wagged his tail and walked away.
Simon stared seriously at the fox's back.
'Could he be an Assassin?'
His behavior was slightly suspicious, but since he freely spilled information about this world, he didn't seem like a Keyzen student.
Simon crossed the fox off his mental suspect list, then continued observing and speaking to other animals.
'Whoever's transformed into an animal is acting well.'
He had hoped at least one of them would show signs of panic in this sudden situation, but every animal in the banquet hall was behaving naturally.
If someone had been hiding in a corner, glancing around nervously, or reacting strangely to others, he could have guessed they were an Assassin, but there wasn't a single one like that.
'It doesn't seem like the Pig Princess has arrived yet, so let's not rush.'
After gathering information, Simon and Loraine met up again. They brought plates of cake and desserts to a table and began talking. Loraine, too, had received the same cold treatment from the animals.
Combining the information they'd gathered, they concluded:
The party was hosted by the Pig Princess, and she would appear at the very end of the event.
Humans were the lowest rank here.
All animals considered walking on two legs sacred. They disliked humans, but allowed them into the banquet hall solely because humans also walked on two legs.
They despised animals that walked on four legs, viewing them as livestock.
Simon spoke up.
"This game's motif is the fairy tale Animal Kingdom. You get the idea?"
"I'm not sure. I'm not great with fairy tales or nursery rhymes."
"Really?"
Simon gave her a rough summary. It wasn't a complicated story.
The farm animals revolted, drove out the humans, and built a kingdom.
At first, it was an equal society, but one day, a pig started walking on two legs. Claiming, "I am greater and more evolved than you", it tried to place itself above the others. It called itself the "Pig Princess".
Many animals, envious of the Pig Princess, tried to walk on two legs. The Pig Princess favored them, and eventually, a class system formed among the farm animals.
Animals walking on two legs wore fine clothes and ate expensive food.
Living as a tyrant, the Pig Princess one day looked in the mirror and realized she had become exactly like the humans she so despised. She hanged herself.
"…What the heck is that all of a sudden?"
Loraine, who had been listening intently, frowned.
"What kind of fairy tale is that? It's more like a gruesome story."
"In the children's version, the Pig Princess realizes her mistake, goes back to walking on four legs, and lives happily ever after. Anyway, here's my thought."
Simon explained the strategy he planned to use in this game, and Loraine nodded in agreement.
That gave them a bit of breathing room before the Pig Princess appeared.
"By the way, Simon."
Loraine said,
"You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about."
"Ah."
He'd been so focused on the game, he'd forgotten.
In fact, approaching Loraine had this purpose as well.
Simon spoke casually.
"Professor Sillage, you know."
"?"
"What kind of mission did he take on that made him suddenly quit as a Keyzen professor?"
Loraine blinked.
"Why are you curious about that?"
Simon quickly thought up a reason.
"O-of course I'm curious! He was one of my favorite professors in the first semester, and then he just disappeared without saying anything."
"Mm."
Loraine closed her eyes in thought for a moment, then answered.
"It's confidential, so don't tell anyone else."
"Mm! Of course."
Her voice took on a secretive tone.
"Professor Sillage went into a dungeon."