Chapter 57

‘What now?’

What is the problem this time? What’s with the [Warning] again?

At this point, I wasn’t even flustered. Do you know what my first thought was?

‘Good grief, it’s always something with you. Honestly.’

It pops up at every critical moment just to cut me off. I mean, is it really that unhappy with me deciding not to do the quest? What exactly is so objectionable?

I started arguing with the status window. In my mind, of course.

‘Why should I do a quest that doesn’t even have a reward? Will it put food on my table or money in my pocket? Huh?’

‘Answer me! If I don’t do this quest or whatever, do I actually die?’

An immediate response.

“…….”

Well, I wasn’t shocked. This was the second time. It said the same thing last time—that I’d die if I didn’t comply. So you’re playing that card again, are you?

I believed it naively back then, but not this time. This proves it. The status window isn’t some mindless system. It wants something from me.

‘If you really want me to listen, answer me straight. How exactly am I supposed to die?’

Another dodging answer.

‘What specifically does “setbacks in the progression of the Main Story” mean?’

We’re just going in circles. I’m asking how I die and how it’s destroyed. It’s driving me crazy.

‘Go ahead, say it’s beyond my access rights. Say it!’

It’s being quite firm this time. But I’m not the type to just take its word for it. This sounds like wordplay to me. If I die of old age, that’s still death; if Denabi falls a thousand years from now, that’s still destruction. It keeps talking in circles without providing any real evidence.

‘What you’re doing right now is no different from that Adele girl. You know that? If you keep acting like this, it’s going to be hard for me to cooperate.’

Silent again because things got inconvenient? Your tactics are so predictable. At the very least, shouldn’t you tell me what that sword actually does?

‘From where I stand, just giving the sword to Adele seems way better for Denabi! If you keep dragging this out, I’ll have no choice but to take action!’

Even as I questioned it, the battle between Jin and Adele raged on. Adele’s attacks surged toward Jin like falling stars.

It was right then.

The surrounding scenery shifted completely. Without any omen or transition, like a jump cut in a movie, I suddenly found myself standing in a completely different place.

“What is… this place…?”

—Splash.

Water splattered against my feet as I stumbled. Ripples spread outward. It was a lake. A boundless lake that reflected the sky like a transparent mirror. I was overwhelmed by the vast sky filling my vision and its perfect reflection in the water.

Aside from the sky and water, the only things there were me and a single tree standing before me. The flowering tree had its roots submerged beneath the water. Just as I was about to convince myself that no sane person could accept this situation, a voice echoed from the void.

If the sound of water droplets falling onto a surface could suddenly sound like a voice, it would sound like this. The voice was beautiful. But it was the voice of an inanimate object.

I realized instinctively. This is the status window. Or rather…

‘It’s the voice of the will acting through the status window…!’

Until now, the status window had conveyed all information solely through messages. This was the first time it had spoken to me directly. Of course, bringing me to a space like this was a first, too.

I felt as if I had suddenly been moved from the world of a text-only novel into the world of a movie. A world with sound and moving forms. But so what?

“What is it?! What do you want?! Why did you bring me here? Are you trying to scare me?!”

I shouted. It wasn’t that I wasn’t intimidated. In fact, I raised my voice even louder because I was scared.

“What I want isn’t a surprise like this! I want an answer to my question…!”

Then, the voice from the void spoke.

It called my name.

“I know what my name is! Answer the question! Dammit!”

“What?”

It questioned me.

Questions. It was asking me questions. A strange sense of dissonance clawed at my mind.

‘…Why are you suddenly asking me that?’

To me, the status window had always been an entity that gave answers. It wasn’t an entity that posed questions. But now, a sudden question.

Strangely, I found it interesting.

“…Funny.”

I suppose since it has a will, it can ask questions too.

I replied toward the voice in the void.

“I haven’t. Not once. I’ve never thought about that kind of thing.”

Who would bother agonizing over that?

I simply thought the same as any other reader.

I just assumed Denabi was an unlucky place.

I left it at that and moved on.

What kind of reason could there be for misfortune?

The status window raised a question against that very way of thinking.

“So, is this what you’re trying to say? That there’s a reason for the incredibly petty and wretched luck of this godforsaken fief? Is that what you want to tell me?”

“And it’s related to the Sword of Four Seasons?”

The voice in the void echoed my words.

A wind blew.

Simultaneously, the appearance of the world changed once again.

To be precise, the tree changed.

Since water, the sky, and I were the only other things existing in this world.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

The tree transformed through the four seasons in four stages.

A tree in full bloom,
A tree lush with green leaves,
A tree shedding crimson autumn foliage,
A tree with frost settling on its bare branches.

As expected, the changes occurred like jump cuts in a movie.

There was no omen, no process.

The Tree of Four Seasons simply reflected its forms onto the lake in succession, and the world expressed the four seasons through the tree’s appearance.

That was all.

The voice in the void spoke again.

“A question?”

They were familiar questions.

Since I came here, I hadn’t spent a single day without thinking about those very things.

To some, I had found an answer;
To some, I had no clue;
And to some, I am still agonizing over them even now.

“A question… huh.”

Not an answer, but a question.

Those were profound words. They sounded like someone grasping at clouds.

But it was an interesting thought.

“Fine, whatever.”

But listen here.

“You bastard, I told you to answer me! Why do you keep spouting these riddles…!”

Immediately after I shouted, a mace slammed into the marble floor.

“…Gah, fuck! You scared me!”

Marble fragments splattered at my feet.

Jin took a step back, dodging Adele’s strike.

The eyes of the crowd lingered on me as I spat out the curse, then quickly returned to the fight.

What the hell.

I was back without any warning?

One moment it kidnaps me to some unknown world, and the next, it dumps me back here out of the blue.

Truly a law unto itself.

“…I seriously want to smack it once.”

I narrowed my eyes at the status window in front of me.

Despite how I had pressed it for an answer.

In the end, all the status window gave me was that damn ‘question.’

‘Still, I’ve learned one thing.’

The will hiding behind this status window.

The bastard knows me well.

Because now, I actually felt like digging into the quest.

What moved my heart wasn’t a hundred warnings like “You’ll die if you don’t clear the quest,” but curiosity regarding that ‘question.’

‘The Sword of Four Seasons is not an answer, but a question.’

Those words felt like they were teasing me.

Why?

Because I’m dying of curiosity now.

I have to find out what the hell the Sword of Four Seasons is.

So, I’ll do it.

That sword thing. I won’t hand it over.

I don’t even know where it is, anyway.

And I just thought of a great plan.

A plan to kill three birds with one stone: keep the sword, stall for time, and even solve the fief’s problems.

‘…Alright.’

Let’s do this.

But to do that, I have to stop this stupid, meaningless brawl first.

Jin’s blade scraped the floor, sending sparks flying.

Another hideous scar was carved into the marble floor of the Great Hall.

‘You idiots! Do you have any idea how much that costs?!’

These fools who only know how to fight wouldn’t know.

So, I had to go to someone who would.

I approached Alejandro.

He, too, was focused on watching the duel.

I could see the intensity in his eyes.

I called out to him.

“Father.”

“Shane.”

Alejandro answered without even turning his head.

I said to him.

“That Sword of Four Seasons. Let’s just give it to them.”

Then the status window started making a racket again.

‘Shut up! I’m not actually giving it to them! You stupid status window!’

Alejandro turned to look at me.

“Do you know what it is?”

“No. I’ve never seen it or heard of it.”

Another lie added to the world.

“But I think I know where it is.”

“How?”

I shifted my gaze to Adele.

I answered while looking at her.

“Why would an Emperor’s Hunter come all the way to this countryside in person? Aren’t they a unit meant for dungeon subjugation? Clearly, that Sword of Four Seasons isn’t in a Denabi Castle warehouse or lying on some road—it’s in a dungeon.”

“As for which dungeon it is…”

“We just have to point them in a general direction.”

‘For instance, a place we want cleared out.’

A faint smile lingered on Alejandro’s face for a moment before vanishing.

Alejandro rose from the throne and reached for the rack beside him.

His javelin was there.

There was not a shred of hesitation in his subsequent movement.

He took the spear and threw it.

—Thud!

The spear embedded itself in the center of the Great Hall.

The lodged spear acted as a barrier between Adele and Jin.

More accurately, it seemed the two, sensing Alejandro’s killing intent, had dodged the spear at the same moment.

The fighting stopped.

Alejandro spoke to the two of them.

“That is enough.”

Adele looked up at Alejandro.

She laughed as if amused.

She extended her mace and pointed it at Jin.

“This is my first time in this neighborhood, and it’s quite fun.”

“I should think so. Since my son was your opponent.”

“Oh my. He was your son? I had no idea.”

‘…How could you not know when they look so much alike?’

I barely held back the urge to butt in with a retort.

Alejandro spoke.

“Enough with this farce. I will reconsider your proposal.”

“Ah! You should have said so sooner! Should I be happy about this or not…? Anyway, shall we begin negotiations? Your Excellency?”

“No.”

“Hmm?”

“Your opponent is not me.”

Alejandro raised his hand and pointed at me.

At that, Adele’s gaze turned toward me as well.

Right. That’s how it should be.

Now, those eyes of yours will have to follow me and no one else.

Player substitution.

I’m your opponent now.