By an overwhelming margin, at that.
Gracia had long reigned in first place with 420 points.
But then, out of nowhere, an absurd score of 600 appeared and snatched back first place, so of course everything exploded into chaos.
-Didn’t Gracia come down from the mountain after reaching level 24 in sword proficiency?
-Yeah, yeah, that’s why it was 420 points
-If it’s 600 points, just what level did they hit?
-Was 600 points even a possible score?
-;;; Isn’t this a bug?
-This is actually insane.... it hasn’t even been that long since they cleared main quest 6 party dungeon
-Wasn’t that a demigod trait dungeon... that one too
-How does this make sense? I heard it even took Gracia like three months just to hit level 24
-If level 24 is 420 points and 23 is 410 and 22 is 400, then with a 180-point gap, are we saying they hit level 42?
-???????
-How the hell do you even get 600 points
-Didn’t some guy say that no matter how much of a Phantom he is, there’s no way he’d take first on main quest 7 lolol
-Honestly we all thought that, right
-... No but is this actually possible?
A score and speed that common sense simply couldn’t accept.
Faced with a result that literally transcended imagination, every player could only draw question marks.
-Even if you say “Randolph of the five great powers” from the Abyss Labyrinth is just the same name, Randolph himself has now perfectly proven he’s an insurmountable wall
-Gracia’s just trash now lolol
-All the rankers need to reflect, how is everything they’ve stacked up still worse than just one Phantom?
-It was all hype and hot air lolol
-Pure, absolute hype, fr fr
-Hey, I seriously think Baal of the four evils and Phantom are connected?
-Is Baal some kind of monster that’s linked to proficiency levels?
-There are records that the Hexagon heroes of the Old Empire all got way stronger at once when they wiped out Baal
-So there’s definitely something there
-Are you telling me Phantom is really the one who summoned the four evils?
-;;; That’s scary as hell, doesn’t that mean Phantom also knows how to break the seals on the rest of the four evils?
-If all the seals on the four evils get undone, isn’t that basically Pangaenia destruction-flag?
-If that happens Earth’s done for too lol
-Even now, Master needs to stop slandering Phantom and slam his head down in apology
-It’s not just Master lol, looks like there are plenty of guys here who need to slam their heads down too
-To be brutally honest, wasn’t there basically a truckload of people here who cursed Wilhelm the moment the great expedition failed? Saying he just poked a hornet’s nest for nothing?
-People also wouldn’t shut up about him monopolizing stars and unique-grade stuff
-You think only one or two people were out here thinking Phantom “stole” what they couldn’t get because they just weren’t good enough?
-Wasn’t this literally the place that openly ran the “Let’s hinder Phantom” campaign? The same guys now putting on masks and chanting Phantom-god, Phantom-god are honestly disgusting lololol
-What happens if Phantom starts a purge?
-... Then we’re actually fucked for real
-Blood will form rivers and corpses will pile up into mountains
-No but why would Phantom even release the four evils;;; say something that makes sense, people
-Do not insult the honorable Phantom-god!
-Phantom-god!
-Phantom-god!
***
When I used the Teleport Book and returned to the Labyrinth City, the scenery had changed a lot.
Warp engineers.
More than ten warp engineers were setting up warps.
Several already-finished warps were exuding their imposing presence at various entrances.
At least there won’t be a case where every warp breaks down and sinks.
There were about five warps visible to the eye alone.
Considering that it cost around five million gold to install a single warp, they were spending tens of millions of gold.
“You’ve returned, my lord.”
And in the middle of them stood Hudson.
Because I’d entrusted him with overall control of the city, it seemed Hudson was also leading this warp construction.
Spotting me, Hudson broke into a broad grin and said,
“I saw the changes in the Hall very well. As expected of you, my lord!”
My lord, huh.
Not wrong, but it still feels awkward.
I shrugged my shoulders and looked over the construction site.
“Isn’t that too many warps?”
“The number of warps in a city is directly its competitiveness. It’s like a guaranteed check that we’re safe from the abyss.”
True enough.
If you want to build a city, proving its “safety” is also important.
Hudson was right that the number of warps visible at a glance equaled the city’s competitiveness.
Hudson quietly added,
“... Shall we reduce them?”
“Mm. No. Hearing it, you’ve got a point.”
“By the way, where did Saintess Seah go?”
“She’s in the Mercenary City Cartel.”
“Ah, so she must have her own business to handle there?”
I nodded.
In Cartel, Seah was in the middle of treating Aria, the White King’s daughter.
Joaquin and the other mercenaries had rushed off to report what they’d seen to the city’s lord.
“My lord. We have successfully disposed of all the Old Empire’s treasures you entrusted to me. The details are all written in this report here.”
Hudson handed over a stack of documents.
It didn’t seem to be just paperwork on the sale of the Old Empire’s treasures.
I slowly skimmed through the report, then tilted my head.
“The amount has increased beyond what I expected.”
The profit from selling the Old Empire’s treasures was 1.5 billion gold.
When I asked back, surprised at the figure far above my expectations, Hudson nodded.
“Yes. Our negotiations with Arcana’s city council went very smoothly.”
“It doesn’t seem like 1.5 billion gold is all, though.”
“Arcana wants full-scale trade with this Labyrinth City. So I used that as leverage to rip a few concessions out of them.”
There was no way we could hide the origin and sell this many Old Empire treasures.
Splitting them up for sale was impossible too.
Inevitably, they’d have no choice but to notice it was all connected to the Abyss Labyrinth, so instead he’d simply opened that information up and squeezed concessions out of them in return.
Casino Hudson, and matters related to the bank.
After all, it wasn’t only the Old Empire’s treasures buried here.
This was a city that had directly received the White King’s grace.
It was a move showing they wanted to establish ties with the White King as well.
Eventually, Hudson drew a letter from his breast.
“And it turns out one of the city councilors is an Imperial. He secretly made contact with me.”
“... An Imperial?”
It was surprising enough that an Imperial was one of the councilors of the golden city Arcana, but the fact that he’d secretly approached Hudson was even more unexpected.
“Yes. I suppose he found me quite interesting. He asked if I had any intention of participating in a ‘special-class auction’ being held in the Empire.”
“Then this letter is?”
“He told me to open it if I was thinking of participating. I haven’t opened it yet, though...”
Meaning he’d been waiting for me.
I slowly took the letter from Hudson.
Rip—!
Once I removed the seal and opened it, there was a single sheet of old-fashioned stationery inside.
After checking the contents written on it, I nodded.
... The items being sold are incredible.
What was written on the stationery was the location of the special-class auction, and a few of the items that would appear there.
After confirming the representative items, I couldn’t help but be quite surprised at the level.
If I’m lucky, Baal’s armor might show up.
At this level, it wouldn’t be strange at all for Baal’s armor to appear.
Even if it didn’t, it was still a golden opportunity to infiltrate the Empire.
Because you couldn’t approach the Empire by ordinary means.
Of course, I did have the emperor’s seal I’d received from the Silver Fox Mask, but if I showed that, my identity would instantly be exposed along with an enormous amount of attention.
So there was no way I could let this chance slip by.
The Empire, Darkan Territory.
“... Hm?”
“What is it?”
Seeing my puzzled reaction, Hudson asked.
I passed the stationery back to Hudson.
“Read it. Don’t you see anything strange?”
“C-can I really read it?”
“It’s an invitation sent to you anyway.”
From the start, it wasn’t mine but Hudson’s.
Hudson took the stationery with trembling hands and began to read.
“... It lists the representative items going up in the special-class auction. ‘Ashmut’s Crimson Blade’, ‘Diaros’s helm’, ‘Berserker set’... cough! Every one of these is a legendary-grade treasure or higher, isn’t it?”
“Things you can’t get through normal routes.”
All of them were treasures you couldn’t obtain without downright heavenly luck.
Yet they were being put up as auction goods you could buy with gold.
“The Empire really is the Empire. Even the scale is on an Imperial scale.”
“Keep reading.”
“... Let’s see. Besides the fact that this special-class auction is being co-hosted by House Darkan and House Dersian, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly odd. Other than that... ah, it says we can also put items up for auction, but if they’re not at least on par with the examples above, don’t even dream of it.”
“Darkan, Dersian. Don’t those sound familiar?”
Hearing my question, Hudson stroked his chin.
“Darkan is one of the Empire’s famous swordsmanship houses. They’ve produced countless Imperial regular knights. Dersian is... Dersian, huh. This is my first time hearing it, though...”
No matter how hard he thought, nothing came to mind, and Hudson tilted his head.
House Darkan was renowned as a swordsmanship clan, but House Dersian was unfamiliar to him.
Well, it was possible Hudson simply didn’t know.
Isabella’s castle.
Isabella von Dersian.
Isabella’s roots lay in House Dersian.
She’d been kidnapped into the desert and called the snake princess, but in essence she was of Dersian blood.
But at present, Isabella had taken advantage of the Desert Queen’s death and headed alone for the desert city Faisalmer.
She had left saying she would inherit the desert and then return.
How coincidental.
That the host of the special-class auction happened to be Dersian.
I’d known that name existed within the Empire, but this contact had come faster than expected.
Should I wait for Isabella?
Inwardly, I shook my head.
It’s better if I make contact first.
Beyond the name, I also knew nothing about House Dersian.
Why Isabella, an Imperial, had opened her eyes in the desert, and what circumstances lay behind that—perhaps it was better for me to grasp those first.
“Have you perhaps had dealings with either of those houses?”
“I just find it a little strange that a famous swordsmanship house is gathering people to hold an ‘auction’.”
“Mm. True enough... and seeing that closed-off Empire inviting promising outsiders to take part, this might not be a simple auction.”
This wasn’t an auction that only bought and sold items.
It was an Imperial-style social venue.
They would gather promising people and, among them, privately approach those who particularly stood out.
If an Imperial great house like Darkan was involved as a host, there had to be something more.
They were not people who moved for money alone.
“Buying items will be important, but selling them will be just as important.”
“We’ll have to show them items they wouldn’t even dare dream of buying.”
In short, to get in touch with House Darkan or House Dersian, buying items would matter, but putting things on the block to “show them off” would be equally important.
If we made contact with those two houses, it would likely be possible to step deeper into the Empire’s interior.
And of course, if luck favored us in the process, we might even obtain Baal’s armor.
“Do we have items to put up on the auction block?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
I did have some.
It might be worth considering putting up the Baal Helm to find the owner of Baal’s armor.
If someone owned Baal’s armor, they would absolutely want to buy the Baal Helm.
The Skull Crusher I’d just acquired would obviously cause an uproar the moment it appeared.
Or I could just put up the Throne of Radiant Light and draw every gaze in the Empire.
“And even if we don’t put anything on the block, there’s more than enough chance those two houses will reach out.”
“Because we have a lot of gold?”
“Won’t they see us as people connected to the White King?”
“Ah. Well... that’s true too.”
Hudson agreed.
In the background of them inviting him, it was highly likely they believed this labyrinth and the White King were connected.
They would never fail to report that, so even without actively taking part in the auction, the odds were high those two houses would initiate contact.
Since there had been no exchange whatsoever between the White King and the Empire.
Yet now, in a city of the five great powers that had suddenly appeared, a man named Hudson was selling items from the labyrinth, so from the Empire’s perspective it was worth tossing out some bait.
Now that I’d taken that bait, the Empire would fall back into deliberation.
About how to deal with us.
They were sure to rack their brains trying to grasp the intentions of the five great powers and the White King.
“By the way, my lord. If it’s not rude to ask, ‘Baal of the four evils’... did you awaken him?”
“It wasn’t intentional.”
“... Cough! Cough!”
Hudson choked.
He’d been thinking “no way, no way,” and that “no way” had come back to kill him.
“Don’t worry. It’s not that there’s no way to control him.”
I hadn’t meant to, but since I’d awakened one of the four evils, I planned to deal with it as best I could.
They’d said that as long as I obtained Baal’s armor I could at least keep him under control, so I had no choice but to bet on that.
And even without me stepping up, a subjugation squad might take him down.
As long as they weren’t fools, the nearby cities would all chip in to form a subjugation squad.
It was easy, since they only had to block one of the five neutral cities connected to the Mountain of Trainees.
They’re not stupid enough to cut the warps and sever ties altogether, right. They’re still supposed to be city lords, at least in name.
If they didn’t block him at the neutral-city line, no one would know where the four evils would bounce to.
The moment the choices for where the four evils could go ballooned into dozens or hundreds, it would become difficult to rally forces.
And then, if the Empire or the Goddess Church stepped in, the cities that had first cut ties with the neutral cities would find it hard to avoid responsibility.
There was a strong chance their cities would be forcibly taken.
So before things blew up needlessly, gathering strength was the wise choice.
“By the way, where did Isaac go?”
“Ah... well.”
Hudson scratched his head.
A posture that said he found it hard to talk.
As I watched him closely, Hudson let out a deep sigh and said,
“... He ran away from home.”
“............?”
***
White King’s Hall.
The White King quietly gazed at the one standing before him.
“... You returned alive.”
“Were you hoping I wouldn’t return?”
The White King’s daughter, Aria.
She had regained consciousness and returned to Kramdel.
The White King shook his head.
“I simply thought it would not be easy. I tried to send the fastest Qiongqi, but I was already a step too late.”
“You must have feared the Black King.”
“I do not fear him.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what do you speak?”
“Raktusha. He was stronger than the Four Great Masters. I’m sure the other direct subordinates of the Black King are the same.”
Originally, they had been about equal.
But now, it meant the Black King’s side had surpassed the White King in overall strength.
Raktusha was not even the strongest among the Black King’s direct subordinates.
Even so, he had exceeded the Four Great Masters.
If Aria had judged it so, then that was the truth.
“Do not worry. I will not remain idle either.”
“You’re making preparations?”
“Mm. All of the Four Great Masters will grow stronger. And, the fifth great master have been added as well.”
“... The fifth great master, you say?”
Aria, too, had heard a story on her way to Kramdel.
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