Chapter 278 : Something Feels Off (3)

A few days after Alon headed toward Greynifra.

"Ah—so this is loneliness."

[He’s started his nonsense again.]

"Shut up, snake head."

[If you didn’t talk nonsense, I would’ve kept quiet.]

[Meow-]

As Evan and Basiliora began their usual comedy routine, Alon watched them.

"Marquis?"

He suddenly turned to look at Penia, who had called him.

“What is it?”

“Oh, it’s just… You looked so serious. I wondered what you were thinking about.”

He lightly shook his head, as if it were nothing.

“No, I was just recalling what Evan told me earlier.”

“Ah, that information.”

Evan had brought back some information when he stopped by a village.

There were three key pieces of information.

One was about the underworld.

It was about how public safety in the Allied Kingdom had rapidly deteriorated due to the explosive increase of abyssal creatures.

Perhaps even more than in the Psychedelia that Alon originally knew.

"Hmm."

Of course, since he only heard about it, he couldn't properly compare it to what he’d faced in the game.

But it was clear that it was a serious issue.

‘……Is someone creating abyssal creatures again, like last time?’

Alon continued to trace the route of the abyssal beings.

“Hm, well, there certainly was a lot to pay attention to. Especially—what was his name again? Eliban? I heard he's been gaining quite a bit of fame recently.”

Penia nodded and agreed with Alon’s words.

It was true, just as she said.

Eliban was rising to fame through heroic actions that players typically showed in Psychedelia, based on the original story's timeline.

‘No, he’s actually moving faster than in the original.’

According to Alon’s memory, Eliban only started gaining real fame after he dealt with the first of the five sins that appeared in the middle of the game.

In other words, by the timeline of the original work, that was supposed to happen a year from now.

But the current Eliban had already gained fame by resolving bizarre incidents at an astonishing pace, even without dealing with the sins.

"-"

Of course, it was a good thing for Alon.

The harder Eliban worked, the more peaceful the world became.

‘Thinking like this makes me feel like I’m some great hero worried about the world’s safety.’

Though his face remained calm, Alon felt a strange emotion.

Thinking back, all he ever wanted was to live peacefully, doing nothing and bothering no one—how did he end up here?

It was a sudden realization.

Of course, Alon’s actions were fundamentally for his own survival.

He was going through all this in order to reach the lofty yet humble goal of "living a carefree life, eating and playing without worries."

…Well, the amount of things he had to do for that modest goal had increased a bit.

Still, he wasn’t particularly dissatisfied.

Most of the time, he was doing it because he wanted to, not because he had to.

“But what you’re most concerned about is that, right?”

"...?"

Penia fidgeted with her fingers and cautiously spoke.

“Yes. That rumor about marrying the Elf Queen.”

“I was curious about that too. Is it true?”

Even Evan, who had been bickering with Basiliora, chimed in, and Alon looked at him coldly.

“Does that sound true to you?”

“It’s not?”

“Of course not. Didn’t I already say so earlier?”

Back when Evan brought the news, Alon had clearly dismissed it as nonsense.

Evan shrugged once.

“You did say that, but, you know… there are a lot of times when people deny something and it turns out to be true, so I had to ask.”

“There were such times—"

Alon started to reply but stopped.

Thinking back, that sort of thing had happened before.

But only for a moment.

“In any case, it’s absolutely not true. The rumor must have gotten twisted somewhere along the way.”

“Then it’s strange. Don’t the Allied Kingdom and the Interracial Alliance usually have a bad relationship?”

“They do.”

“Then how did the rumor spread?”

“Oh, you’re right.”

Penia agreed with Evan’s question.

Alon also wondered for a moment where such a rumor might have come from before offering a guess.

“If I think about it from my perspective, it’s likely from Ashtalon.”

“Ashtalon?”

“Yes, because Zukurak is there.”

“In any case, if it’s really just a false rumor, that could be a bit troublesome.”

“Well, it is a bit awkward.”

The only person who could pass information from the closed-off Interracial Alliance to the Allied Kingdom was likely Zukurak in Ashtalon.

At that moment—

Boom—!

As if it had been waiting, a loud noise echoed from somewhere deep in the silent forest.

“?”

“?”

Alon immediately turned toward the direction of the sound.

“What was that noise?”

“Maybe just some monsters fighting and knocking over a tree or two?”

It felt a bit too loud for that, but Alon soon lost interest.

It was a relaxed afternoon, with sunlight filtering through the shining leaves.

“Are we here?”

***

By the time Alon reached the vicinity of Greynifra after some time had passed—

In the capital of the Kingdom of Ashtalon—

“Hoo—”

Stalian V let out a heavy sigh.

It wasn’t as if anything major had happened.

Everything was running smoothly.

The recent surge in bandit exterminations was progressing quite well.

And the secret project related to the bizarre gates with the lizardmen was also going smoothly.

Even so, the reason worry clouded Stalian V’s face was because of the strange occurrences that had begun recently.

‘What the hell is this…?’

Lately, Stalian V had been plagued by bad luck.

Of course, it wasn’t severe.

Just a few inconvenient incidents happened each day.

For example, he’d be walking on perfectly flat marble floors and suddenly trip, or be startled awake at night after seemingly being struck by something—small, trivial things like that.

But even trivial things, if they happen every day for nearly two weeks, are bound to wear a person down.

‘Why on earth is this happening…’

Stalian looked at his reflection in the mirror.

Anyone could see his complexion was terrible.

Due to the nightmares that started a week ago, his eyes were sunken, and bruises covered his body.

‘…Something’s definitely going on.’

After nearly two weeks of this, Stalian V instinctively realized something was definitely wrong.

However, the fact that he didn’t know why this was happening only added to his stress.

“Hoo—”

He took a deep breath to calm himself.

Despite the streak of misfortune, the long-awaited day had arrived.

‘Is it today?’

Zukurak was supposed to return today with the results he had been waiting for.

Remembering that fact, Stalian V cheerfully walked to his office as usual.

And then—

“Your Majesty.”

“What is it?”

“A letter has arrived.”

“…A letter?”

He was confused by the report he received the moment he arrived at work.

Stalian V quickly took the letter handed to him by the servant.

“What in the…?”

His hands trembled uncontrollably from the shock.

And for good reason.

The letter he had just received was—

“A… a corrective letter?”

It was a corrective letter.

“???”

Stalian V stared blankly at the letter, not even opening it yet, realizing something was deeply wrong.

It made no sense.

He had done nothing wrong, and his relationship with Rosario wasn’t bad.

More than that—

When the incident in Rosario had occurred, he had made a generous donation toward recovery efforts, just like the other kingdoms.

In other words, there was absolutely no reason for Rosario and Stalian V to have a falling out.

The servant who delivered the letter was drenched in cold sweat, bowing deeply.

With trembling hands, Stalian V finally opened the letter.

“…!”

And saw its contents.

No—more precisely—

He saw torn pieces of paper so shredded it was hard to call it a “letter” at all.

‘What… what is this…?’

He tried to decipher the contents, but couldn’t read it at all.

The parts with writing were so slashed and torn it was impossible to make out anything.

In addition—

At the end of the letter, a small pen nib fragment glittered as it caught the light.

The only thing Stalian V could infer from the letter was one thing.

That the person who had written it had been extremely angry.

Stalian V unconsciously swallowed dryly.

And then, he realized.

Who the sender was.

“Cardinal Yutia…?”

Cardinal Yutia Bludia.

The de facto ruler of Rosario and, with the Pope missing, the one who held more power than even the Saints.

He was momentarily stunned by the confusion, but then his brow furrowed sharply.

The Allied Kingdom generally respects Rosario.

But this was a different matter.

A cardinal from Rosario sending a barely legible corrective letter to threaten the king of a nation was clearly crossing a line.

“Bring me some stationery immediately.”

Stalian V intended to respond in kind—by sending a letter rather than going in person.

But—

“No need for that.”

A woman’s voice rang out.

He instinctively turned his head.

“I wanted to see you quickly, so I came myself.”

Their eyes met.

With a calm smile on her lips—

Her red, gem-like eyes—

No, with an eerie stare, Yutia Bludia was looking directly at Stalian V.

“So, Your Majesty… is this a good time?”

Just seeing her was enough to feel a suffocating, chilling aura radiating from her entire being.

It was clearly a breach of etiquette.

She had entered the royal office without permission—

And was now forcing an audience under the guise of formality.

This was the kind of behavior Stalian V hated the most.

Normally, he would have shouted at her on the spot—so he took a deep breath.

No matter how powerful the person before him was, he was still a king.

He had to maintain his dignity.

“Cardinal Yutia. No matter how important this is—”

But.

Crrrrack—!

The moment he began to speak, he saw it.

The enormous steel door Yutia had entered through, engraved with various sigils, had been crumpled like paper.

Stalian V was a king.

Which meant he was quick to judge a situation.

“No matter how important—?”

“Of course, I have time.”

He immediately responded to Yutia’s rhetorical question.

Satisfied, she smiled sweetly and took another step forward.

“That’s a relief, Your Majesty. It would’ve been disappointing otherwise.”

“…Yes, a relief indeed.”

In his 20-year reign—

Stalian V, using his masterful political drift skills, narrowly avoided disaster.

‘Am I… still alive?’

For now, he silently applauded himself for surviving.