"Is this the Boss's room?" Ren couldn't help but ask as the two of them arrived at the room where the Boss lived. He found that the Boss's room was only on the second floor of the building, and it looked more like a storage room than a place where someone lived...
"Because the Boss is short, a normal room doesn't suit him," Texas replied.
"Oh... so that's why it's a storage room," Ren nodded in immediate understanding, without needing to ask anything further. Although that was a little laughable, another part of Ren couldn't help but sympathize with the Boss's race...
"Well, I'm going in," Texas said to him before opening the door.
After seeing what the inside of the room was like, Ren was quite surprised. The room was much larger than he had imagined... Along the left wall, from the entrance to the very end, were numerous wine cabinets lined up on display. On the other side, there were many luxurious-looking record boxes on show. On the center wall at the far end, there was a large poster of the Boss with text written in Columbian. 'The Number One Rapper of Columbia' In the center of the room, there was a bar-like table and sofa, with 'Yith', a man with bird-like feathers wearing a tuxedo that covered his face, sitting and polishing a glass at the table in front of the Boss. Behind Yith, an expensive-looking piano was set as a decoration, as if it were the final piece that made the room look even more luxurious.
"Well, well, look who it is! Isn't it the famous son of Gaul?"
"H-hello, Boss," Ren greeted the other, whom he hadn't seen in several days, nervously. He was worried he would be called in to be scolded or reprimanded for the trouble he caused a few days ago. But it seemed that wasn't the case... because the Boss now seemed to be in too good a mood to do something like that.
"No need for formalities, just be casual. I heard that a few days ago, you and the others caused a huge scene. Sigh... you didn't even think to invite me. I may look like this, but I'm a sensitive old man, you know."
The Boss, sitting at the table, said in a slightly hurt tone, which prompted Yith to hand him a glass.
"Yith, get the kid a Zaritaza."
"But Chief... Mr. Ren isn't 20 yet," Yith objected reluctantly.
"Hey! To hell with the law... my bar, my rules!"
Hearing that, Yith could only sigh before taking a bottle from the back, pouring it into a small metal shaker, shaking it, then pouring the contents into a glass and placing it on the table next to the Boss.
"Well, what are you standing there spacing out for? Come, sit here! I have important business to discuss with you."
"Yes, sir," Ren nodded before walking over and sitting down at the table next to the Boss, where a glass of light green liquid was placed. He hesitated for a moment but picked it up and took a small sip. After tasting the sweetness that spread throughout his mouth, with no scent of alcohol at all, he glanced at Yith.
"..." Yith said nothing, only signaling to him that it was okay. This made Ren realize immediately that he was trying to help him. 'Thank you, Mr. Yith!'
Texas, who was also walking in, was stopped by the Boss.
"Sorry, Texas, but I'm going to have to ask you to wait outside for a bit... I have some important business to discuss with this kid."
Texas wasn't surprised. She just nodded and was about to walk out. But at that moment, Ren offered.
"Uh... Boss, can Texas stay and listen?"
"Hmm? Are you sure? This is important business related to your personal matters."
"It's fine. I trust Miss Texas," Ren replied confidently. The reason he wanted Texas to stay was so that at least she could help him with the Boss, in case the Boss got drunk and said something strange.
"Hmm... since he said so himself, Texas, have a seat. Yith, get her a Risoritaza."
"Yes, sir," this time, Yith didn't refuse but chose to obey.
"I don't like strong drinks, Boss," although Texas grumbled after hearing the name of the drink, as she was sitting down, her tail was wagging back and forth as if she were happy. Ren had only just realized that Miss Texas liked to drink this much...
"Alright, the important thing I'm going to tell you is, I received a letter from the 'Twin Empresses' two days ago. They want to invite you to 'Leithania' as the last heir of Gaul, to receive some treasure they've kept for you."
"In addition, they also wrote a letter of apology for everything that country has done to you... The human experimentation in that research institute was something the royal family and government agencies were never aware of, including the fact that you were locked up in there for 7 years. They didn't know about that either."
"The Twin Empresses seem to genuinely want to take responsibility for it. They're even willing to give back a part of the mobile city they seized from Gaul, just as long as you agree to meet with them once."
After hearing everything the Boss said, Ren immediately asked.
"...First of all, who are the 'Twin Empresses'?"
"The Twin Empresses are the current rulers of Leithania. After they successfully reclaimed the empire from the 'Witch King', the evil tyrant, they both established themselves as the next monarchs of Leithania," Yith was the one who answered that.
After hearing that the Witch King was dead... Ren looked very shocked.
"The Witch King... is dead?" His shocked expression was immediately noticeable to the Boss and Texas.
"You know the Witch King... but you don't know the Twin Empresses?"
Ren hesitated for a moment before he told the Boss the story of his dream. "I saw him in a dream... He came to the research institute with some knights, slaughtered all the researchers in that lab, and saved the remaining children, including me."
"Hmm... the Witch King saved the test subjects? That's the first time I've heard something like this. Usually, I only see news that the Witch King is the one leading the research himself," the Boss muttered, thinking back to the various rumors from years ago, while sipping the wine in his hand.
"Is it possible your memory was altered? I heard those mages from Leithania can do things like that," Texas asked. Ren didn't deny the possibility.
"It might be possible. But I'm quite confident in what I saw. That Witch King... he might have looked very scary, but he treated me and the other kids very well. Which I don't understand why."
"Hmm... then it might be possible that the 'Twin Empresses' are the ones lying," the Boss muttered before turning to him. "So what's it going to be? Do you want to refuse them?" the Boss asked while sipping the wine in his glass.
"...If I do that, will everyone in the company get into trouble?"
The Boss looked surprised. Texas also turned to him. Before long, a laugh erupted from the Boss.
"Hahaha! Kid! You don't have to think about things like that! Even if the Twin Empresses or the Emperor of Ursus were standing in front of me, I wouldn't be scared one bit! As long as they don't rap badly at me, they can't even make a feather on my body tremble!"
'What kind of comparison is that...'
After he finished laughing, the Boss spoke with a serious tone once more.
"I just want to make sure you don't throw away a good opportunity like this. Although I don't know what the Twin Empresses' goal really is, the fact that she wants to apologize to you is probably true. After all, that country did a lot to you, including selling you off directly by their own government officials this time. If this were to be announced to the whole world... I guarantee that those still loyal to the Gaulish Empire, who are still hiding in various cities, would definitely not be pleased. It could escalate into something huge, maybe even another great war."
Hearing that, Ren could only shake his head slowly.
"You're overestimating me, Boss. I don't think I have that much influence..." Ren gave a dry smile. Although he didn't know how important the title of Prince of Gaul was, it probably wasn't big enough to cause that much chaos.
But the Boss just laughed sarcastically.
"Hah... overestimating? You foolish kid... the chaos you're talking about already happened a long time ago!"
"Bolívar, Rim Billiton, Columbia. At the very least, mobile cities from these three countries have people looking for you. And if they hear you talk about restoring 'Gaul', they would probably bring all their mobile cities to join you without hesitation." "At the same time, major powers like Victoria, Ursus, and Leithania probably wouldn't just stand by and watch. They might offer you some conditions. But if those conditions don't end well... get ready for the second War of the Four Emperors."
"Now do you understand how big of a deal you are?"
"W-well, it sounds pretty big, but I still don't understand why my existence is so important. Since they can just establish a new Gaul without me..."
The Boss shook his head wearily, as if hearing a ridiculous question.
"Isn't that obvious... because you are the last royal of Gaul."
"Sir?"
"Listen, kid. The country of Gaul was once known as the capital of Terra, said to have many of the world's top soldiers gathered there, plus cutting-edge technology that's hard to comprehend. And that's not even including the power of magical knowledge that surpassed even Leithania's. Do you really think a great country like that could fall in less than a week?"
"I think... they were betrayed," Ren replied in a flat tone. He still remembered the dream image of his city being destroyed by its own forces.
That answer made the Emperor pause for a moment before sighing.
"That was part of it. But what was truly important was... the disappearance of the Emperor of Gaul during that time."
"After his disappearance, those foolish rebels acted without thinking and slaughtered all the relatives in the Gaulish royal family, seeing that they were weakening. It was only after the war ended that they realized that most of the mobile city's equipment required an access code, and that code was in the bloodline of the royal family, who were now all in their graves, thanks to them."
"That's why even though the war ended, and the three empires won and seized the mobile cities from Gaul, they got nothing in return. Neither the knowledge nor the technology that Gaul had hidden away. The reason for that is what I said earlier..."
"After decades have passed, I still hear that there are many treasure troves from Gaul scattered all over Terra that still can't be opened or decoded... because the people who could do that have all vanished from the world."
"Are you trying to say... what those people really want from me isn't the identity of a prince, but the blood inside me?"
"Yes... although there may be some groups who want to gather the members of the royal family with a pure heart, it wouldn't be wrong for me to say that most people want to take advantage of your blood more than your status."
"Then... what should I choose?" Ren asked in confusion.
Hearing this, the Boss pushed up his sunglasses with his flipper before replying coolly.
"It doesn't matter what you choose, kid... What you want to choose, that's what's important."
"Then... what if I just want to be an employee here and live a peaceful life?"
"Then you can do that! Like I said... this is Penguin Logistics. We can do whatever we want! And if there are any problems, I'll take care of them myself!" "Remember what I said before? Even if those Twin Empresses or the Emperor of Ursus were standing in front of me, they couldn't make a single feather fall from my body!"
The Boss finished speaking, stood up on the table, and then flapped his flippers in the air as if he were shadowboxing in a drunken stupor.
"If their target is my employee, I don't mind teaching those little punks born yesterday who haven't even been weaned off their mother's milk a lesson: don't mess with me, the Emperor of Terra!!"
'The Boss is so cool...' Ren, seeing this side of the Boss, felt a deep admiration for him.
"It's not good to brag too much, Chief," Yith said.
"A mascot like the Boss can only be a shooting practice dummy..." Texas replied.
Both Yith and Texas cut him off coldly, which made the giant penguin very angry.
"Are you guys looking down on your chief, huh!!"
BAM!!! Suddenly, the entrance door was thrown open, and a familiar figure poked her head in. It was the red-haired girl with a golden halo on her head, peeking through the crack in the door.
"Yo, Boss! Heard from Lappie that Ren woke up—Oh! Ren!! I finally found you!" The red-haired girl expressed her excitement before running through the door to hug him from behind.
Ren, being suddenly hugged, was a little surprised... Even though Exusiai was a girl who seemed to get along with everyone easily, she always kept a distance from others. He knew the reason for that from her memories. Simply because she was a Sankta, she was not used to the unreadable emotions of others, so it was not strange that she felt like she didn't understand them and often kept her distance.
"Ren~ You haven't forgotten our promise, have you~" the girl asked with a charming smile, holding out both her hands to him as if expecting something.
Ren finally remembered what he had promised her... "Yes, yes, about the gun, right... feel free to take a look," Ren took the Gun of Judgment out of his inventory and handed it to the girl. Anyway, it was something others couldn't use if they didn't know his method of gathering particles. As long as the gun wasn't loaded with real bullets, it probably wouldn't be dangerous...
"Woo! Thanks!! Hmm?... This is much lighter than I thought! No wonder you can use it."
"Are you saying I'm too weak to use just a gun?" Ren asked with a smile. Exusiai nodded without a second thought.
"That's right! Your body—Ow! That hurts!! I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to say that!!" Ren, having pinched the girl's cheek to his satisfaction, said with the same smile.
"Be careful what you say next time... because this time, I won't go easy on you," Ren narrowed his eyes coldly. He had been holding back this feeling for several days...
"Wh-why do I feel like your aura has changed? Wh-who are you! Bring back that gloomy Ren right now!"
"Unfortunately, that version of me is dead... and this is my new upgraded form! Ren Version 2.0!" Ren puffed out his chest with pride. After clearing up his past issues and having no more burdens about his old identity to worry about, he now had 100% ownership rights to his body. There was no need to feel guilty anymore.
"Really? But I think your upgraded form still looks like a dried shrimp—I-I'm sorry! I won't speak without thinking again!" Exusiai, who was teasing him, raised her hands above her head when she saw the young man reaching for her cheeks again.
Croissant, who was entering the room with Sora, after seeing the two of them playing, couldn't help but tease them with a smile. "You two got close really fast~ It seems the princess's kiss back then really developed your relationship."
After Croissant finished speaking, Sora, who was nearby, couldn't help but blush. Texas, hearing this, just wagged her tail and lifted her own glass of liquor to drink.
"I-I told you, that was an emergency," Exusiai replied with an embarrassed face, before quickly changing the subject. "What I'm more curious about is... Ren! How can you change your race to Sankta?" "A human of another race who can change into another race... this is the first time I've ever seen it!"
Hearing Exusiai's question, Ren was silent for a moment... It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, he just didn't know how to explain it in a way that everyone would understand.
"Hmm... maybe it's my personal ability?" Ren replied vaguely. He didn't want to use the words "soul connection" because it sounded ridiculous and a bit over the top.
"You mean your racial ability?" Croissant asked.
"I'm not sure," Ren replied honestly that he himself wasn't sure, so it wasn't strange that others couldn't find an answer.
"Then... your ability is that you can change into another race by kissing that person," Exusiai nodded as if she understood everything.
"Huh..." Ren, who was nodding, had to freeze when he heard something strange in her sentence.
And for some reason, Exusiai suddenly started acting like a teenage detective who had been shrunk into a child, pointing a finger at him. "There is only one truth... Confess!! Who was that Lupo girl you kissed!"
For some reason, the way everyone, including Texas, was looking at him sent a chill down his spine.
"My power works through blood! Not through kissing!!" Ren shouted back. And after trying to explain how his power worked to everyone until they roughly understood, Exusiai seemed quite interested in the memories he had received from her. She now understood why he knew about her sister. Croissant said that the reason his personality seemed strange at that time was because he had received Exusiai's optimistic outlook on the world, and he would become like that for a while after turning back into a Sarkaz again.
After answering both their questions to their satisfaction, Ren was able to slip away, leaving the two women to get the Boss drunk instead. He came to sit and talk with Senpai Sora, who was sitting on a nearby sofa, and asked about her health.
"I think your condition is more worrisome than mine," Sora replied with a smile, but Ren shook his head in denial.
"Not at all. I'm more worried about you, Senpai. Because in the end, it was because of me... that you got into trouble."
"But we got through it together, didn't we! Because of your words, I had the courage to fight back then... That was the first time I felt like I could be useful to others."
Hearing that, Ren showed a slightly angry expression. "Senpai Sora, I told you, your voice—"
"I know, I know. Because my voice is a song that can sing out the hearts of others," Sora smiled happily. Ren nodded.
"That's right! And I'll be very angry if you look down on yourself again. What's worse than a bad instrument is seeing a singer who looks down on their own voice..."
"It seems you really like music, Ren," Sora asked with a smile. She noticed that he seemed happy every time he talked about music.
"Because my mother was a musician," Ren replied proudly. Although he hadn't learned much from his mother, he could play many types of Western musical instruments because he had received basic training.
"Then shall we play the piano together! I've been looking for someone to play with for a long time," Sora invited him excitedly.
"You mean that piano in the back? I thought it was just a decoration..."
"Who said my piano is a decoration, huh!! This is a Saepero E75 from Columbia, you know!!"
"Haha! The Boss is drunk! The Boss is drunk!!" "Yith, get the chief another glass of Full Moon Dew, quick!"
"Sigh... yes, yes." "These crazy girls must be trying to get me drunk for some reason! Heh... they won't get me! Because this Emperor never gets drunk~"
Even though he said that, the little round penguin was swaying groggily. Because while talking to him, the Boss had already downed several glasses. 'It seems that even if the body is immortal, a Beast Lord still has his limits...' 'Hmm... a Beast Lord?' Ren, who suddenly muttered that name in his thoughts, was surprised. Why did he just mutter that name?
......... Several hours later. On the rooftop of the Penguin Logistics safe house.
There, the figure of a silver-haired Lupo girl was sitting on the railing. Creak! Hearing the door open, the girl didn't even turn to look, because she could already sense the other person.
"Hmm? Done being sweet with your coworkers and now you're thinking of flirting with me... you charming prince."
"Please stop teasing me about that," Ren grumbled, walking to stand next to the girl who was now turning to smirk at him.
"The sweet-talking with the girls, or the prince thing, which one do you want me to stop teasing you about?..."
Ren rolled his eyes in annoyance before getting straight to the point. "Why did you join Penguin Logistics, Lappland?"
"Because it might be more interesting. And I might be able to do things more conveniently. As you can see... I'm not Infected anymore. Thanks to someone who helped with that."
Hearing the word "Infected," Ren looked at the traces on her body and asked with concern. "Is your condition back to normal now?"
"Yes... at least, it's much better. I don't have to endure nightmares like before, no sharp pains, or need to use medicine... It's a feeling of being a normal person that I haven't felt in a long time."
"But it's not completely gone, is it..." Ren said.
"Yes... there are still times when I feel a sharp sting, but it's probably just a hallucination that happens after being infected for a long time. It will probably go away on its own soon." "Well... in the sense that, if I don't become Infected again, that is," Lappland grinned, as if saying that getting infected again wasn't unusual for her.
"If you get infected again, just come to me...."
"Ooh... how kind, my prince. Are you a saint or a savior from those fairy tales? The one who helps all the Infected without expecting anything in return?"
Ren looked troubled... he had been thinking about that constantly these days. "That's what worries me. I just found out that Oripathy has no cure. But for me... I can turn the minerals on their bodies into power. Even though it makes them seem like normal people, it's not a cure, just reverting the stones in their bodies back to normal. And I don't know if I should use this power on others."
"Hmm... are you consulting me?" Lappland asked.
"Because you're the only one I can talk to..."
"Ooh, just me?" Lappland, hearing this, revealed a wide smile. "Hmm... that's right. If you're consulting me, I'd probably tell you... you don't need to care about them."
"Because it might get me into trouble?" Ren had already thought of this answer, which was why he was worried about whether he should use this power to help others.
"Trouble? No, no... that's not what I was thinking at all. I just see those things as pointless and not worth caring about. Why would you invest in helping the whole world? When you have your own burdens and duties to handle." "It's true that doing so might be for the good of the world. But for me, who has lived on this earth for 24 years, I've never once liked this world that devours the flesh of living beings. Even if you help them, you'll have to help them again the next day. It's something that will go on and on, endlessly, if you keep helping them."
"I admit, I'm grateful for your help... I was also annoyed and in considerable pain from this disease. But at least this infection has taught me many things. Even though most of them were bad, it's something that suits someone like me, and only I can do it! You understand, right?"
"Yes... I understand that you're crazy and a psychopath beyond saving," Ren looked at the girl with contempt.
This made Lappland laugh with delight. "Haha! Yes, yes, that's what I mean! You don't need to care about others. Just do what you want, like me, and everyone else in this world." "They all just do things for themselves!"
"Do things for myself..." Ren muttered Lappland's words. For some reason, he felt a little better after hearing that.
"Alright... I'm feeling a little hungry now. Shall we go get something to eat?"
"Get something to eat? Then let's go to the kitche—wait, what are you doing?!" Before Ren could finish, he was picked up by the other. And before he could say anything, she had already jumped off the balcony railing.
"If we're getting food, we have to go outside, of course!!"
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