Chapter 12 Well, Let's Do Well With The Same Protagonist (2)
Kingdom of Prona.
As one of the kingdoms that appears in the game, ‘The Hero's Party', it is acknowledged as the world's breadbasket and is a relatively peaceful kingdom with weak monster population.
Because it is peaceful, the soldiers have little to no real combat experiences, so their levels are low, like wise, the nation's power is weak. Because of this, they always have to look out for other kingdoms, and the crops they work hard to grow are taken away in the name of a gift of friendship.
As such, the Kingdom of Prona held particularly high expectations form the Hero of this generation.
If the Hero of the Kingdom of Prona is superior to those of other kingdoms, other kingdoms will no longer be able to ignore Prona's authority.
Only if it happened as such….
“Hero. What happened to your companions who went on the journey with you?”
“Doesn’t Your Majesty know already?”
“…I want to hear from you.”
“Got exported to another party.”
“You’re taking it very lightly…”
“Welp, what to do? They said they like other Heroes more than me.”
The bureaucrats began to murmur.
William, the king of Prona, raised his hand to calm them down, then raised his voice to rebuke Cloud.
“You shouldn't have let them go, no matter what! Each and every member of your party was an important talent and a citizen of the Kingdom of Prona!”
Eri is the second daughter of the Duke of Oler, who has a strong influence in the Kingdom, and meanwhile, she also possess strong talent in magic arts.
Neria is a promising knight whose talent has been recognized by the Kingdom's Knight Commander, not to mention Ophelia, a holy Saint Candidate.
All of them are talents and valuable assets of the Kingdom of Prona.
The fact that such people changed to another party was as good as passing on these talents to another kingdom.
In response to the king's wrath, Cloud continued to look at him without showing any signs of fright or frustration.
“I understand what Your Majesty is worried about. And, then the only thing I can to tell you, is not to worry about that.”
"What?"
“Eri, as you all may know, is the blood of the Duke of Oler. Blood is thicker than water. If there's ever a call from the Duke of Oler, she will answer.”
That was correct.
If Eri is summoned by her blood-related father, Duke of Oler, she will definitely come and other kingdoms will have no justification to stop her.
“What about Neria and Ophelia?”
“A knight of Neria's magnitude, aren't they overflowing in our Prona Kingdom? There are even way better knights.”
This, too, was irrefutable.
It's true that Neria has great talent, but she's not the best knight in the kingdom.
If otherwise, it would be blantly disregarding the other Knights of the kingdom.
“We don't even have to think about it when it comes to Ophelia. No matter how reputed a Hero, Gis is, will there be reverence for a foreign woman as the Saint Candidate? Even if he did try to do something, his supporters would object. And Ophelia, who is not a Saint, is just a slightly superior nun. She has no symbolism whatsoever.”
A religion's power comes from its uniqueness.
That is why symbols are so important in religion. Because it makes the faith of the church stronger.
A hundred priests with outstanding divine power are inferior to one ordinary person chosen by the Goddess herself.
Because the mass will rather follow that ordinary person instead of those outstanding priests.
When Cloud calmly spoke the facts, King William and the other officials went silent.
Rather than being surprised by his words traced with logic…
‘From when did the Hero Cloud had this kind of personality?’
It was because they were baffled by Cloud's sudden change of attitude.
Cloud, who was originally a commoner, could not even properly look at the king, who was much higher in status than a poor-dirt commoner like him.
So was his way of talking.
Originally, he only responded with a little trembling tone when the king spoke to him.
But now he did not hesitate to boldly express his opinion to the king.
Not even stuttering for once! Not even once!
The hall became quiet.
The king spoke again.
“…After the end of the Imperial Social Banquet, your whereabouts were unclear for the past three months. What on the earth were you doing hiding your identity during that period of time?”
This time there was no immediate answer.
After a brief pause, the answer came.
“…I was contemplating on life.”
It was a lie.
He can't say about the last month due to a hectic lifestyle, but he randomly played and ate for the first two months. But there was no way for the king or other officials to know that.
"…is it so. I see. You must be tired from travelling all the way to here, so have your time and get some rest. Butler, give him a place to stay.”
“By your order, Your Majesty.”
The head butler bowed his head and led Cloud and left the hall. As he left, the officials who had their lips zipped, opened their mouths one by one.
"Your Majesty, it seems that the Hero has changed a lot. Of course, it's in a positive way.”
“Did the Minister feel the same?”
“Yes, my lord. I think letting the three of them go was a big trigger.”
“I think so too.”
The Commander of the Imperial Knights added to the words of the Prime Minister.
“Honestly, when I met him before, he was just a random clumsy person. However, the Hero I saw today did not show any of such derogatories at all. Rather, he seemed like a mature warrior.”
“So the Knight Commander can give praises too, shocking.”
It was the same Knight Commander who always looked down upon Cloud. When he showed such an abrupt change of attitude, William and other officials had no choice but to laugh.
Of course, it was a polite laugh.
“Losing three talents of the kingdom and the Hero finally coming back to his senses. This is so… Haa, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.”
“Of course it's a good thing, Your Majesty. If Your Majesty has no objections with it, I would like to teach him once again.”
“If the Knight Commander says so, I can feel reassured.”
“I will look for new worthy companions who can accompany the Hero, in the meantime.”
"Gladly, Prime Minister. With your efforts, the future of the kingdom seems to be very bright.”
A harmonious court outstretched.
The very next day, the news that the Hero had vamoosed and ran away from the royal palace was hurriedly brought in the court.
“That Hero… no, get that punk right now!”
“Your Majesty, but…”
“Shut up and go catch him!!”
William was caught in by the back of his neck by this annoying prick.
* * *
Goodness, those old foggies blabber so much.
I'm already so busy, I don't have that much time to listen to those old chaps' chit-chat.
‘If I had known this would happen, I would not have entered the capital.’
I had never thought that I would actually be caught at the front door. I couldn't wonder how even a minor guard knew my face.
‘Now, if possible, I should not go to the capital of Prona Kingdom.’
Perhaps the king is going to give me a lot of support, but I have no intention of accepting those.
It would be nice to get it all at once.
I will have money to travel, I will have useful colleagues, and I can also get various other favourable conditions.
But, I have to vomit it all back one day, anyways.
Where in the world is anything free? There's no free lunch in my world view.
Later, when I increase in power and create a proper force, they will try to use the support I got in the past as an excuse to put on a leash.
If you stretch out your hand and cut that leash, from that day on, you'll become an ungrateful beast who doesn't know grace.
So, it is better not to receive support from others.
I can earn my travel expenses and can buy my own food.
My money, my rules.
It can be said that this is one of the basic rules for living in this harsh fantasy world.
– Creeee…!
The wolf, which was taller than most people, bared its fangs and howled wildly.
It wasn't that threatening.
Blood was still dripping from the severed front paw.
-Creee… Kurrr!
Realizing that time was not on its side, he lunged towards me with its jaws wide open.
Its teeth still feel razor sharp, but his leaping speed did not. I slipped beside him, and with another dodge, I swung my sword.
Wolf Buster-!
There was a large splitting gash on the side of the ferocious wolf's neck. I don't know if it's because of the game system, but while using this technique, a beast's defense can be easily breached through.
Thanks to this, it was easy to subdue these big wolves as well.
Anyway, the 1000 gold value is worth this skill.
– Kiiiiiiii…
The wolf, who had fallen sideways, could not even breathe properly and let out a painful groan.
“Are you sick? No worries, I will finish it quickly.”
The sword was positioned in the center of the nape and passed through—to relieve the pain, for once and all. I took out a dagger and split the wolf's belly, then put my hand and scoured the inside.
After poking the large organs a few times, I could feel a small bead like thing and fished it out. When the bead soaked in blood was washed with water, the bead turned yellow.
The inner core of the giant blue wolf.
When you kill a level 22 giant blue wolf, it has a chance to drop inside an inner core, which increases your agility by 2.
I swallowed it without hesitation and went deeper inside the cave. The dungeon wasn't over yet.
After slaughtering the giant blue wolves that kept hindering me after that, l reached the deepest part of the cave.
Inside the deep cave, three jars were lined up.
Common sense says that it's strange to have a jar in a wolf's nest, but…
Fantasy, right?
So, just do it.
I swung my sword and smashed all three jars. There I saw, something sparkling among the shards of the jar.
The glitter was of a silver ring, and I knew what it was.
The reason I entered this cave was because of this ring.
Blue Wolf Ring.
-A ring that increases the wearer's agility by 20%.
‘Are some already obtained?'
Starting from the capital of the Kingdom of Prona, I searched for the rings going along the game route. Some of which I don't know whether the previous Cloud had it, I only procured the ones that were still available.
Here is a list of the rings I got.
Bandit's Soiled Ring.
-Increases poison damage by 20%.
A ring from a peasant family handed down from generation to generation.
-Increases the effect of using recovery items by 30%.
Berserker's Ring.
-Attack power increased by 50%, durability decreased by 50%.
A Lost Family's Ring.
-Durability increased by 50.
An Unknown Knight's Red Ring.
-Attack power increased by 10%.
Adding the Blue Wolf Ring I just got.
—I got a total of 6 rings.
Originally, there should have been about 5 more, but it was probably obtained by them while Cloud and his party were still traveling.
‘Besides that, this guy doesn’t even have a single ring.’
Did he give it all to those three?
It was probably the most probable outcome.
Anyway, this punk was crash riding the one and only Netomazo route. I was already thankful that he had not even pulled out and gifted his livers and gallbladder too, for this fu*ked up body is the only thing I'm left with.
I'm glad they didn't got the most important ‘An Unknown Knight's Red Ring'.
This ring of an unknown knight has an ambiguous performance right now, but if you strengthen it later, it becomes very useful.
‘I got everything that was needed from the Kingdom of Prona, and then, the next is the Kingdom of Alitia.’
I had to move fast.
Hmm, there are places I still need to stop by before that.
* * *
A small rural town in the southern part of Prona Kingdom.
There is a boy in that small town that doesn't even has a name.
An ordinary boy with blonde hair and blue eyes that could be found anywhere.
The boy was wielding a wooden sword alone on the hillside of the village.
‘Found him.'
I looked at the boy and grinned.
The boy's name is Mars.
A knight of great misfortune who sacrificed his life to protect the city from the forces of the Four Heavenly Kings later, but lost all his fame to some ntr deepsh!ts for them to become the real saviors, heroes and what not.
He is the main character in the sequel of the ‘The Hero's Party'—'The Tale Of A Knight's Affair'.
