After Her Highness's room, I was next escorted to a room on the second floor of the building.
That small room apparently served some kind of mechanism — just passing through it allowed you to move freely between floors. You'd go through the room and arrive at your destination in no time.
The moment I pushed open the large double doors, a wave of heat and noise engulfed me — the mingled stench of alcohol and food, the roar of voices.
The spacious room, reminiscent of a dining hall, looked exactly like a bandit's hideout.
Bottles of liquor were scattered haphazardly everywhere, along with men whose faces screamed "criminal" — a sight you'd rarely see even among Red Hunters.
Some had their feet kicked up on tables, playing card games. Others had drunk themselves into oblivion and were sprawled flat on the floor. The sheer chaos of it all made me widen my eyes.
I thought I was being brought to meet the royal guards, but— I glanced over at Jean to check if there'd been some mistake, but Jean said nothing.
Seriously? These are the royal guards? That's new.
...Then again, thinking about it calmly, the only people who came into this city from the outside were exactly the sort of people you'd expect...
Jean waded through the feasting guards without the slightest hesitation and stopped in front of an exceptionally massive man who had claimed the farthest space for himself.
He had to be over two meters tall, with a physique built like bedrock. His face was one you'd rarely see even among Hunters — fierce and bestial, wrapped in an animal-like aura.
He reeked of booze, presumably from heavy drinking, but his eyes were sharp. The moment he noticed us, his face twisted into an unmistakable scowl.
Jean spoke to him without batting an eye.
"Biker, I've brought the new royal guards. I won't tell you to behave yourself. Just try not to reduce their numbers any further."
"...Tch. So they really went ahead and increased the guards."
The man called Biker spat the words out, then slammed his fist onto the table with enough force to rattle every bottle and plate on it.
Just as he looked — staggering physical strength. The metal table, which was bolted to the floor, trembled from the impact.
For a moment, I held out a sliver of hope that maybe he was actually reasonable, but— Biker bared a savage grin and leaned in close.
"The name's Biker Grid. I used to run a half-decent thief outfit on the outside. Heard there'd be plenty of action in Code, so I signed up — then Jean caught me, and now here I am. Plenty of good food and booze, sure, but there's no gig more boring than guarding a princess locked in a room."
Biker Grid... Never heard of him. Probably some local wanted criminal.
His tone dripped with exhaustion. Bad attitude and zero motivation on top of that... I was starting to think even I, passive as I was, came out ahead.
"The other guards were originally members of the Grid Thief outfit — my subordinates. Don't expect anything from you. Do whatever you want, but don't get in our way. I'll kill you."
"Ah, yes."
That was a dead-serious look in his eyes. Jean had literally just said not to reduce their numbers, and this guy had no intention of honoring that.
Right, right, of course. This is what thieves are like. It's actually almost nostalgic in a roundabout way. I hadn't seen a textbook thug in a while...
Jean seemed to have given up pressing the matter any further. Fair enough — I wasn't exactly the type to want a long conversation either.
He was like a slightly weaker, even worse version of Arnold.
"You're free to use the rooms in this building as you please. After that, just try not to die. I'm leaving the rest to you, Biker."
Having said everything he came to say, Jean promptly left the room. The nerve of that guy, leaving me — obviously the weakest person in this nightmare — all alone.
"Try not to die." If only I had an escort, I could at least wander around outside. But even I knew better than to ask Biker to play bodyguard.
Biker had apparently lost all interest in me and started gulping straight from a bottle. What the hell was I supposed to do now?
Standing there in a daze, a man sitting next to Biker called out to me in a friendly manner.
"Hey, new guy. Which organization did you come from? How many people have you killed?"
Unbelievable — first words out of his mouth. Was this hell?
"...Never killed anyone, actually. I'm more of a brainy type."
"!? No way — a murder virgin?! That explains the dumb look on your face! What's your name?"
"Krai."
Biker's companion slapped the table and roared with laughter.
I'd never heard the term "murder virgin" before, but fine — I'd stay a murder virgin forever if it meant avoiding that life.
The oppressive heat was making my head spin. Then one of the crew, wearing something like clunky goggles, let out a loud exclamation.
"Boss, this guy's got an overall rating of four! I heard the next guard was going to be trash, but this is something else! How the hell did he get a pass card? Seriously!"
"...Connections."
"Bwahaha, what a hopeless guy. But hey, for someone like you, this might actually be lucky... All you gotta do is eat, drink, and sleep. No idea how they stock up, but there's booze and food to spare."
Eat, drink, and sleep... Even I could manage that much.
It looked like Biker's crew had no immediate plans to dispose of me. Biker himself was looking at me like garbage, but at least he hadn't made a move.
For the time being, I was deeply uncomfortable. I wanted to be alone as soon as possible.
I prided myself on being able to handle most situations, but these textbook thugs got under my skin. I'd been attacked by enough of them over the years.
"Sure, I can eat and sleep, but nobody's explained anything, so I have no clue what's going on. Why would they pick someone with an overall rating of four to be a royal guard? And nobody even told me..."
Also, wasn't an overall rating of four absurdly low? What was the scale? Was it out of ten, or out of one hundred? No, if the cap was one hundred, four felt way too low — maybe it was out of fifty?
There had to be more competent people around.
Olivia and Jean had both been polite enough and answered a fair number of questions, but there was still nowhere near enough information.
I couldn't probe too deep without raising suspicion, but if things stayed this way, I'd end up as nothing more than a freeloader.
I intended to have Saya and Kaiser handle the protection of the royal family, but even so, that would be pathetic. Maybe if I gathered some intelligence, they'd help me search for the Treasure Weapon... Though someone like Kaiser could probably finish that kind of intel-gathering in the blink of an eye.
As I sighed, one of Biker's crew called out to me with a red, drunken face.
"I know the answer!"
He explained with a know-it-all grin. Was he actually surprisingly nice?
"The reason they made you a guard is that if the royal guards fall below the required number, the city system automatically assigns mechanized soldiers to fill the gaps. Mechanized soldiers in Code are stupidly strong, and on top of that, only the King and the person being guarded can give them orders. You can't hand that kind of uncontrollable weapon to a bird in a cage, right?"
"...For starters, do you know why she's being locked up?"
"Heh heh heh... I get your question. We wondered the same thing."
Even this bunch of thieves had their doubts. The man grinned with a malicious look as he answered my question.
"Course we know. We got into Code a little earlier than you, and it'd be stupid not to gather intel after suddenly being made a guard."
He took a swig straight from the bottle, then explained with unfocused eyes.
"Long story short — Princess Alisha is an inconvenience. She's got the blood of the Code King and holds a right of succession to the throne. But nobody wants her to become King."
A right of succession. This was starting to sound like a headache.
"There are five other people with succession rights, and every noble in Code is backing one of them. You might think they should just get rid of her, but it's not that simple. Know why?"
"...Because it would be sad?"
"Yeah, right. If every royal in Code happened to die in an accident, the whole thing would be over. This city isn't just some ordinary city, you know?"
The man's eyes gleamed with the relish of someone sharing a great story.
The whole thing would be over. Not an ordinary city. Before I could fully process what that meant, the man pressed on.
"Listen up. This city is a relic of an advanced physical civilization. The people here have been using its systems without fully understanding them, but there are some things they do know. The most critical part of this city's functions — only a Class 9, the Code King, can operate it. And the only people who can become the city's King are those who carry the King's blood. That's how the system works. It can't be changed."
Come to think of it, Olivia and Jean had both used the word "regulation" several times.
Jean had mentioned the system was inflexible, but I hadn't realized it was a rule built into the city itself from the start — not one imposed by people.
"In other words, Princess Alisha is the backup for when all the other heirs die in some accident and there's no one left. Nobody knows what would happen to this city if the Code King's bloodline ran dry. Olivia and Jean were probably dispatched by noble factions from the various camps after negotiations."
I see, I see... It might be a common enough story, but it was still terrible. To be born into such an incredible city and end up imprisoned for that reason— Maybe the reason Princess Alisha had smiled at me wasn't because she was content with her situation, but because she simply didn't know about the outside world.
She really was nothing more than an emergency contingency. And the claim that the client had brought — that if every royal were evacuated, the city would become inoperable — was starting to sound credible.
The problem was that I had no way to protect her... Would Kaiser be able to break down even that door?
I didn't know if the other royals were in similar situations, but I wanted to get my job done, get my hands on a smartphone, and leave this country as fast as possible.
Come to think of it, I'd barely done any work this time around. I needed to rendezvous with Kaiser and the others soon... Things were going well enough for now, but I never let my guard down. The moment I got cocky, something bad was always right around the corner.
"So basically—"
At that point, the man's tone turned sharp with irritation.
His booming voice echoed across the room, drawing every eye.
"What they're telling us is to play bodyguard for a girl who'll never become King. Meanwhile, the other organizations got hired by the other royals and are running wild. And apparently those guys — unlike us — actually have a 'war' planned. Everyone's busy kissing up to the next Code King candidate. We got our ticket into Code, came all this way together, and this is what we get? No wonder people want to drink, right?"
I couldn't relate in the slightest, but I had a rough sense of the situation now.
Maybe the Explorers' Association had been about to send Red Hunters precisely because they'd sensed the state of affairs in Code. At the very least, Red Hunters could infiltrate Code more inconspicuously than we could and would have gotten along better with the other organizations. Whether that was a good thing or not was another matter.
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you... Actually, I have a simple question — why were you guys chosen as Princess Alisha's guards?"
The moment I asked, the air froze solid.
Something had struck a nerve. Biker's bloodshot eyes locked onto me with a glare.
The others, who'd been drinking freely just moments ago, started clicking their tongues one after another. One of them shouted.
"We're fighters! When it comes to combat, we're way above most organizations! The only problem is we got into Code in the wrong order. We were just unlucky! Bad luck landed us as Alisha's guards. That jerk Jean gave us some bogus excuse about the numbers being just right for the guard roster."
That sudden outburst made me flinch involuntarily.
Around him, his comrades began voicing their agreement one by one.
True to form for a thief outfit — they believed strength was everything. If I'd been a Code noble, I wouldn't have hired them.
No matter how strong they were, their character was the type that would attack their own master... Actually, wait — were the people hired by the other royals probably the same kind of people? If so, their frustration made a certain amount of sense.
Why couldn't they just try living more peacefully? Why did they have to be so violent?
I had plenty of thoughts on the matter, but I decided to smooth things over with some harmless words.
I'd be stuck here for a while, at least, and picking a fight would not be a smart move.
If Rize and the others had been here, they might have thrown a punch instantly. But this time, I was alone.
I didn't want to suck up to a bunch of thieves, but I needed to be a bit more tactful. I put on an indignant expression.
"Seriously, what a joke. A weak organization gets promoted while a fighting outfit like yours ends up playing bodyguard. If the nobles were going to hire guards, they should've picked you guys. Jean really went and did something unnecessary."
"Right? Right?"
"And wasn't Code supposed to be recruiting soldiers? You guys have incredible combat ability — keeping you on the sidelines makes no sense! It's a loss for the city itself! If someone just talked to them, they might understand. If you want, I could go negotiate?"
"!?"
Biker, who'd been listening with a sour expression, opened his eyes wide. The other members stared, round-eyed.
Go negotiate?
That was an offhand remark. But thinking about it calmly, it didn't sound like a bad idea.
Jean didn't seem to think Biker's crew was suited for guard duty. If I played my cards right in negotiations, maybe they could be swapped out for other members — no, probably not.
Those two clearly had zero expectations for Biker and his crew. There was the minimum guard count requirement, time constraints, and they weren't exactly desperate. There was no way they'd agree to a personnel swap just because I asked. I wasn't a Level 8 here.
Realizing my careless words had shifted the room's atmosphere, I quickly apologized.
"...Sorry, that was a slip of the tongue. Negotiations would never work. I'll go cool my head."
I was getting tired. The sun was still high, but there didn't seem to be any work to do. I'd find a room I could use and go to sleep.
There were plenty of things to think about, but they could wait until tomorrow.
Just before I left the room, a voice called out from behind me. It was Biker.
"...New guy, that was an interesting idea. Negotiations, huh? Looks like maybe we all got a bit off-balance coming to Code. We have our own way of doing things."
"I..."
I wasn't sure what he meant, but apparently my suggestion had appealed to him. If that was the case, maybe things would work out for my life here going forward.
I gave Biker and his crew a quick bow, avoided any further conversation, and left.
§ § § The High-Mobility Fortress City Code. The city was divided into seven major areas.
The number of areas corresponded to the number of rulers in Code. Just as a kingdom lent territory to nobles, each area was governed by the power holder within it.
The power holders of Code were different from those in the outside world. In Code, where class hierarchy took the form of absolute authority over the city system, power holders were synonymous with the strong.
Those who possessed real, practical power over the city.
In other words, the rulers of the seven areas were the supreme authority — the sole Class 9, the Code King, and the children born of his blood who were granted Class 8 status at birth.
And among the King's six children, the youngest daughter — Alisha Code — occupied the most peculiar position of all. Her area existed quietly in a narrow corner near the outer wall, far from the city's center.
At the heart of her area stood a tall building. In one room of the building that the city had constructed solely for Alisha to live in, Jean and Olivia sat facing each other.
"How did it go?"
"Mm... Just as we'd heard beforehand — a vacant sort of man. Ideal for an additional guard. Unlike his predecessor, he shouldn't be foolish enough to try to break down Her Highness's door and get himself killed."
"...The previous ones really were hopeless, weren't they? To think they'd try to defy the city's system... Utterly reckless. On the other hand, perhaps it was fortunate that the idiots revealed themselves while we still had time."
At Jean's words, Olivia shrugged in exasperation.
Alisha Code's few attendants. Jean and Olivia's job was to manage Alisha Code.
Not to care for her — to manage her. They existed solely to keep Alisha alive and unharmed during the interim, stockpiled as she was for the worst-case scenario. For that purpose, the two of them had been selected through consultation among the senior nobles of each faction, granted Class 5 — the highest rank obtainable by citizens — and sent to Alisha.
The building created under the King's authority was essentially a massive vault. Every material, every function — everything Code could currently deploy had been poured into it.
Jean and Olivia felt almost nothing toward Alisha.
The lock on Alisha's door could never be opened by force, and all of her care was handled by the city system. Education and exercise were presumably managed by the system as well, but neither of them had ever even heard Alisha's voice.
Their work was practically nonexistent. After several years since their assignment, opportunities to even visit Alisha's room had become quite rare.
Boring, but important — and utterly unforgiving of failure. That was what being Alisha's attendant looked like from their perspective.
Wine and cheese sat on the table.
Jean plucked a piece, brought in via the city system, and let out a sigh of genuine relief.
"Still, I'm glad we were able to replenish the guards. If we'd gone through the trouble of swapping everyone out only for the new guards to be executed by the city system and we couldn't make it in time — that would have been the end of both Biker and us."
"I thought it would be straightforward, but it turned out to be surprisingly difficult. We have our own constraints here — you'd think they could at least prioritize the minimum headcount and be flexible about it."
Alisha had originally been assigned twenty-eight mechanized soldiers as guards. The directive to replace all of them with humans had come to Jean and Olivia barely a month ago.
They had a rough idea why.
Because soon, Princess Alisha would have served her purpose.
The Code King was elderly — over a hundred years old even by human standards. Even Code's advanced medicine could keep him alive no longer.
The King would die. And when that happened, Princess Alisha needed to transition from a backup to someone who simply... ceased to exist.
Upon the King's death, Alisha was to be eliminated promptly.
That was the final order given to Jean and the others.
Mechanized soldiers were powerful to begin with, but mechanized soldiers serving as royal guards were truly impregnable. They obeyed only the commands of the King and Alisha herself, and they would protect Alisha at full force without hesitation about their own destruction.
With such beings guarding her, it would be impossible to eliminate Alisha quickly.
The ones who would carry out the deed directly wouldn't be Jean and Olivia — it would be Biker and his crew. Men with no aversion to killing, high combat ability, absolutely unsuitable as guards, but perfectly sufficient for cleanup duty.
A fortunate accident had created an opening among the guards, and they'd managed to fit in these useless men. There was no margin for complacency, but at least they could breathe easy for now.
"The people above probably want to crush even the slightest chance of Her Highness becoming King. Though I keep telling them there's no need to worry — it could never happen."
Princess Alisha did not have what it took to become Code's King.
It was questionable whether she even understood the class hierarchy, and unlike the other royals, she'd never practiced using the city system since childhood.
She existed solely as a spare. At this stage, her authority was frozen and she was cut off from the outside. The only significant power remaining to her was the right to appoint royal guards.
If one of the other princes had died, nobles who'd lost a candidate to back might have rallied around Alisha. But that kind of accident had never materialized either.
I didn't think there was any urgent need to eliminate a harmless princess so quickly, but everyone was desperate.
Jean and Olivia, stuck with the Alisha assignment, were half out of the loop — but they understood the sentiment.
In Code, authority was everything. In just one or two months, fates would change.
"The King's condition is supposed to be quite bad. Whether he'll last a month... Everyone's scrambling to claim the next throne. That's what absolute power does. And nobody here is exactly on great terms."
"If only the Second Prince could take the throne... Actually, we received word that if we could help his faction seize the crown, we'd be given important positions. He was the only one who sent us that kind of contact. He says he's been quietly placing people for a while now, and the recent recruitment should have gathered him plenty of soldiers. I think there's a real chance."
"No, it's hard to say. We don't know what kind of talent each faction has been collecting. There's just a rumor — apparently some groups are trying to directly recruit powerful warriors from outside."
Lowering his voice, Jean continued.
"You remember that idiot who attacked Code a while back? If someone could recruit a warrior of that caliber as an ally, the succession war would tilt heavily in their favor."
In Code's class system, the King held authority that was entirely separate from everyone else's.
Even the nobles — even the other royals — even if every last one of them united, they could not stop a King who was truly wielding power.
In Code, the King stood above every rule. The city system would not protect anyone targeted by the King, and the city system would never punish the King. Mechanized soldiers and city weapons, which were supposed to come with numerous usage restrictions, could be deployed without any limitation whatsoever — but only by the King, Class 9.
This was why every holder of succession rights — with the exception of Princess Alisha — was eyeing the throne with fierce ambition.
The one who would determine Code's next King was neither the current King nor the citizens.
The one who would determine Code's next King was — the Proof.
The King's Proof, a scepter kept in the topmost chamber of the King's Tower at the city's center, where the Code King's throne resided.
Currently owned by the reigning Code King, it would become unclaimed the moment the King drew his last breath.
And whichever Class 8 — whichever of the King's children — seized it first would become the next King.
A battle for the throne among the King's children, all of whom possessed equal authority within the city. In Code, which had no external enemies, this was unquestionably the greatest war one could call it.
No matter what手段 they used, as long as they claimed the throne and seized control of the city system, every problem would be solved.
All existing enemies would become nothing more than submissive subjects. It would even be trivial to massacre opposing factions entirely. In fact, the current King had once, after securing the throne, slaughtered all his brothers who had attempted rebellion — former Class 8s, every last one.
The royal guards were soldiers for seizing the throne. Mechanized soldiers were incomparably powerful, but they came with numerous restrictions. Within the city, mechanized soldiers could essentially only be used for self-defense — they could not be deployed to retrieve the King's Proof.
The recent flood of pass cards had been issued for no reason other than the approaching succession war.
Nominally, it was to strengthen Code's military capability. In reality, each faction was seeking strong soldiers — mercenaries with combat ability exceeding that of Code's residents, hardened by the dangers of the outside world. Each one trying to outdo the others.
Of course, these mercenaries would also serve as military assets if an invasion from the outside were ever to begin.
"In any case, our job is to maintain the status quo. We just need to make sure Biker and his lot don't do anything stupid again. I doubt they'll make a move for a while — but if they were ever gone, we'd have to find another way to deal with Her Highness."
The city system still had vast uncharted territory. Eliminating a royal was fraught with risk.
If Biker and his crew became unusable, things would get complicated. Neither Jean nor Olivia had any desire to personally lay a hand on Alisha.