It seemed the technological capabilities of this advanced physical civilization exceeded even what I'd imagined.
The room I'd randomly chosen to stay in was more than worthy of inspiring amazement. The amenities I'd casually checked upon arriving were something else entirely.
At first glance, it was a simple room with seemingly no furniture. But when I pressed the various switches lined up along the wall in order, the room transformed without a sound.
A comfortable bed appeared. A closet stuffed with clothes materialized. A shelf loaded with food popped into existence. A toilet showed up. A shower room emerged. I had no idea what kind of structure could achieve this, nor why anyone would design it this way, but the entire room could provide everything you needed.
On top of that, anything you dirtied would be clean again once you put it back. Food and drink replenished themselves automatically. I'd stayed for one night, and it was pure comfort.
At the very least, there was no risk of struggling with food, clothing, or shelter. With this level of convenience, you'd lose all motivation to work.
Now I understood why "Her Highness" had been able to live so comfortably even while imprisoned.
There was a large smartphone-like panel embedded in the wall, so I fiddled with that too.
All sorts of text was displayed, but unfortunately, I couldn't read the characters. However, the functions became apparent once you tried using them.
I pressed the small icons in sequence. A music player. A function that attracted spiders. Something marked with a smartphone-like icon that was probably a communication feature. One button that created a nearby hole—was that for sending items, or just a garbage disposal?
If only I could read the text, I'd understand so much more. What a shame. Some buttons did nothing when pressed, but I could ask Jan or Olivia about those later.
It would've been perfect if Code weren't such a messed-up city.
I flopped onto the bed and thought about what to do next.
Right now, my goal was to regroup with Kaiser and Saya. But I had no idea where they were.
There was no point going to the gate at this stage, and I'd already told them that even if we couldn't regroup immediately, they should proceed with completing their objectives on their own. If we could sync up when meeting with our client, that would be enough.
If what those bikers had said was true, Kaiser and the others should be getting close to another royal as well. It wasn't the direction I'd predicted, but at least we were getting closer to our goal… or so I thought.
So what could I do right now? —Keep my eyes on "Her Highness," I supposed.
I still knew nothing about Princess Alisha. After all, she was a princess who'd been locked away for who knows how long. Even if I managed to unlock the door, protecting someone who probably didn't understand the current situation would be no simple task.
If I could convey my intentions to her beforehand, protecting her would be much easier. I couldn't hear her voice through the door, but depending on the method, I thought communication might still be possible.
Maybe I was surprisingly suited for infiltration missions.
I'm not bragging, but I'm great with princesses. Since this year alone, this would be the third one I'd met. There might be quite a few princesses in this world.
Now that I thought about it, Princess Alisha, the Zebuldian princess, and Princess Seren all gave off a similar sort of vibe.
Then there was the question of what to do with the bikers. Since "Her Highness" was imprisoned, the chances of the bikers making a move on her were probably low. But if I were to break her out, they could become an obstacle.
If only I could somehow convince them—but I had zero confidence in that. I was great with princesses, but I was terrible with thieves. Their faces were way too scary.
It really drove home how weak I was without powerful allies around. Ah, if only Kaiser and the others could resolve the commission on their own so I could just keep lounging here.
Fed up with my own helplessness, I rolled around on the bed when, at that moment, the door burst open.
"Pant, pant… Klye Andrich. There you are."
It was Olivia. Something had happened—her face was pale and drained of color.
Her hair was disheveled, and she wore an apron dress. Seeing her like that, my eyes widened instinctively, and I sat up.
"W-What's wrong? Why are you in such a panic? ……I haven't done anything, I swear. I followed orders—"
"Done anything… ugh—"
Olivia looked like she was about to die. She extended her arm, and the floor rose up, producing a cup filled with water.
Olivia drained the cup in one gulp, tossed it aside, and spoke in a strangled voice.
"Pant, pant… Forget that—th-the bikers… they're all dead!"
"……Huh? Wait—what? All dead? What do you mean, all dead?"
"I mean the rest of the royal guards besides you are gone! Every last one of them has been disposed of! Damn it, those useless idiots!"
Olivia's words came out in a furious snarl. Her attitude toward me had always been curt, but this was on another level entirely.
All of them disposed of—what the— I had no idea what was going on, and Olivia rattled off the explanation at breakneck speed.
"……Apparently, the bikers tried to assassinate the guards of another prince and seize their positions. I knew they were dissatisfied, but when I checked on them just the other day, they didn't have any such insane plan. Their subordinates had only just been burned, and they went ahead with something like this right after. I let my guard down. I figured they'd wait for another inspection before acting, so I moved quickly—but I never imagined that trash like you would be the only one left… Grrr…"
"Th-That's… that's terrible. Cheer up. Hey, want a chocolate bar?"
I tried to console Olivia, who had sunk to her knees and buried her head in her hands.
Once a thief, always a thief—she was practically dripping with bloodlust. Seeing this advanced civilization's technology and still charging in for a fight—something like that would never even occur to me.
She slapped the chocolate bar away and raised her head.
Her pale face, hair stuck to it with sweat, held something almost demonic.
"Shut up… If it were just one, fine, but having to replace twenty-seven guards… This is really bad. There's no time left, and I can't afford to be picky."
"What are you going to do?"
"……At this point, Jan will deliver the finishing blow. Citizens—I'll take anyone. You—find the rest of the guards and bring them in."
!?
……What kind of unreasonable request was that? I'd only just arrived yesterday… And what did she mean by "finishing blow"?
I stood there dumbfounded, and Olivia took a deep breath to compose herself.
"Stupid is fine. Useless is better than nothing. Starting today, you're the leader of Her Highness's personal guard. Authorization change—Klye Andrich, Class 3."
The card in my pocket grew hot. I pulled it out, and the star insignia stamped on it had increased from one to three.
………I'd gone up two ranks without doing a single thing.
Olivia spoke in a cold voice.
"You can't command the other guards at Class 1. Be grateful."
"……But you're Class 5, Olivia, and even you couldn't control them."
The words slipped out before I could stop them. Olivia's eyes went wide, and she glared daggers at me.
"……Are you, by any chance, picking a fight with me?"
"No, that's not what I mean, but… you're assigning me restrictions and I already failed because I wasn't strong enough…"
Normally, with that kind of power, you wouldn't fail. Even I could tell right away that the bikers were bad news. If it were me, I would've restricted their movements first thing.
Olivia's cheek twitched as she answered my excuses.
"……The restriction placement isn't perfect either. If they refuse to comply, there's no choice but to dispose of them. You watch yourself too. ……Well, at Class 3, you can't use restriction placement anyway."
It looked like I had to go find new guards with barely any weapons to my name.
……Well, if she said do it, I'd do it. If she'd take anyone, I'd prefer to recruit some more well-behaved guards.
"……To find new guards, should I just go stand at the city entrance and scout people?"
"That would… probably be difficult. Even working backwards from the number of cards issued, there aren't many people entering Code right now."
So where should I gather people from? If bringing them from the Imperial Capital was an option, there were plenty of candidates.
Wait—what about bringing Kaiser and Saya in when we regrouped? Assuming they hadn't already become guards for another royal, that was.
As I furrowed my brow, Olivia sighed, and with a look of half-resignation, proposed something outrageous.
"Wherever you get them from, I don't care, but the easiest source would be convicts. Code's prisons are hell on earth. Find me the least terrible bunch from among the incarcerated. If you can't round up the required number, you'll suffer the same fate."
………This city was completely insane. Saya, Kaiser—please come rescue me soon. I'd totally hit my limit.
§ § § Well, well—what a blunder for someone like me.
When consciousness returned, that was the first thought to cross Kaiser's mind.
He was seated in a chair. Cold iron restraints locked both his hands and feet in place, and no matter how hard he tried, not a single one budged.
Handcuffs of ordinary metal should have been torn apart easily, but it seemed destruction was not going to work.
It wasn't that he'd been careless. He'd already steeled himself for this possibility.
The problem was that Code's technology and methods exceeded what Kaiser had anticipated.
That a drug existed which could penetrate the resistance of a Level 8 Hunter—someone who'd made it to Solo status—was beyond belief.
He'd used the card, passed through the gate, and been led to what lay beyond. During the interview, his consciousness had begun to fade—and the moment he'd tried to resist, the mechanized soldiers standing by the wall had attacked.
Despite his weakened state, he'd managed to destroy several before losing consciousness entirely.
Where had he gone wrong? There was no need to even think about it.
From the very beginning. Those had been pieces of equipment designed specifically to capture high-level Hunters.
Status-alteration traps were a common type found even in the Treasure Hall, and for a Solo Hunter, they were a fatal threat. He'd never be foolish enough to walk into such a trap, and as a matter of course, Kaiser possessed enough resistance to shrug off most poisons used by humans—a basic standard for high-level Hunters.
Status-alteration resistance was notoriously difficult to enhance. If Kaiser couldn't withstand it, then neither Saya nor Klye could have.
It went without saying that Kaiser had also considered the possibility of the commission itself being a trap.
Normally, such a commission would be rejected at the Explorer's Guild the moment it was submitted. But these were exceptional circumstances. The Guild had likely investigated the card, but verifying the safety of something produced by an advanced physical civilization was another matter entirely.
Both Klye and Saya had considered that risk. Especially Thousand Transformations, whose cunning and foresight were beyond question—it was unthinkable that they'd overlook that possibility.
But no one had said a word about it aloud. Kaiser accepted that truth.
Because the probability had been low.
There was no reason for it in the first place. What reason would anyone have to lure a peerless high-level Hunter into infiltrating the impenetrable Code? That was precisely why, even while remaining vigilant, he'd proceeded with the mission.
Thousand Transformations had said nothing, but they'd done their utmost. To avoid being caught in one net, they'd entered Code separately. He'd even considered the possibility that the pass card itself was a trap and swapped it for a different one from the others' set. He'd used a false name.
And yet this was the result. The problem must have been something far more fundamental.
Fortune within misfortune—he appeared to be uninjured. If he could somehow deal with the restraints, he could fight.
Someone was nearby. Pretending to still be unconscious would be easy, but it would be discovered in an instant anyway. In that case, he ought to hold his pride.
Kaiser coughed softly and raised his head.
"To ambush someone right off the bat… what refined taste you have. Is this how you treat the people you've recruited?"
"Heh heh… My apologies for that. But I'm afraid I lack the suicidal bravery to face a monster with a total evaluation over ten thousand head-on."
A quiet, suppressed chuckle. The man standing before the restrained Kaiser wore impeccably tailored clothing befitting a man in his prime.
His hair and beard were neatly groomed, his appearance impeccable. His features were sharp, but the way his gaze naturally looked down on Kaiser—from Kaiser's experience—was characteristic of someone born into power.
From his bearing, he was likely some noble of Code. His clothing appeared no different from that of the outside world in appearance, but the material was clearly different.
The man sneered at Kaiser, who continued to study him in silence.
"To think that the gas which incapacitates any Code citizen in an instant wouldn't work on you, and that you'd actually resist the mechanized soldiers—I'd heard the rumors, but a high-level Hunter really is unbelievably durable."
"Heh heh… high-level Hunter…? What are you talking about? I think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding here."
"Your name was… Kai, wasn't it? A false name perhaps, but no matter. Kai—pretending otherwise is pointless. We have technology that measures a person's abilities. Your total evaluation is 12,230. Your capabilities are outstandingly beyond the level of anyone we regularly deal with."
Kaiser remained calm precisely when danger was greatest. He scrutinized the information the man had provided.
Total evaluation 12,230. He didn't know what that number signified, but it seemed the man hadn't possessed Kaiser's information in advance to target him specifically.
"I'm flattered by the praise. But to conclude I'm a high-level Hunter on that basis alone—that's quite the leap."
"You claim you're not a Hunter?"
"I'm simply very strong. That's all. I trained my body. This world has plenty of strong people who aren't Hunters."
It wasn't a lie. Among the bounties Kaiser had taken down, some had possessed power rivaling that of high-level Hunters.
His words gave the man a momentary look of interest, but he quickly shrugged.
"Fair point. But it hardly matters. We sent three cards through the Explorer's Guild, and two promising warriors took the bait. The best outcome would be reducing the Guild's fighting force—our greatest enemy at present—while increasing ours. But simply boosting our numbers is fine too… no complaints there."
So the commission itself had been a trap. They'd expected three Hunters and set up preparations to capture them.
For Kaiser, there was both bad news and the best possible news.
The commission being a trap, and two out of three being captured—that was the bad news.
But one had gotten away. That was the best possible news.
Code had failed. They'd deliberately lured high-level Hunters into their midst, and one had slipped through.
A peerless, Level 8 Hunter.
If the commission was a trap, then the claim that a princess was being held captive by nobles was probably fabricated too.
But that kind of thing was something a Level 8 Hunter who planned for every eventuality would figure out immediately. The commission had been suspicious from the start.
"The other one was a woman… she seemed a bit weaker than you. She went down without even scratching a single mechanized soldier. Her evaluation was quite a bit lower than yours, though—I'd love to pit them against each other and see who's stronger."
It seemed this man was poor at reading the room.
No—it was probably inexperience. The city's power was so overwhelming that he'd never needed to develop guile.
The one who'd gotten away was Thousand Transformations. Unlike Kaiser, who'd been captured without a fight, Klye had slipped through.
This might be the worst possible news. They'd been shown the gap in their abilities.
No—or perhaps it was all within that young man's calculations.
The young man who'd brought Kaiser and Saya under his command had never shared any concrete strategy with them. Suspiciously so.
At the time, Kaiser had assumed it was because they hadn't yet earned his trust. But what if it was because the likelihood of capture was high?
As an extreme thought—even using Kaiser and Saya as decoys to attract the enemy's attention was within the realm of possibility.
Never once had a commission ended in failure. The strongest Treasure Hunter.
He'd said his combat ability was low, but achieving victory without raw power required something else to compensate. Something that more than made up for it.
It was ruthless beyond measure, but as a Treasure Hunter, there were times when such decisions were necessary.
All the more so when facing Code. For the sake of ultimate victory, no choice was too extreme.
"You think I'll obediently follow orders after being treated like this?"
"You will. Obedience would be ideal, but unfortunately, I can't trust you. You're too strong. That's why I have this—even in Code, this is a rare item."
The man reverently produced a mask from a box. A white mask with a texture like flesh. It writhed strangely and continuously, radiating an unmistakably sinister aura.
"A mask used to create slaves. It was apparently employed to force convicts into labor. The compulsion it exerts is quite powerful. There aren't many, but I won't hesitate to use one on you. After all, we're desperate to win. If we lose, not only will we fail to become king, we won't even remain royalty. This has enormous significance in Code—a terrifying notion. That's why everyone goes all out—"
What was he even talking about? But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
A mask that created slaves. A product of the advanced physical civilization. This world had its share of collars and the like that could forcibly compel someone through pain, but this mask was on an entirely different level.
Could his resistance hold against that mask's power? There was far too little information to judge.
Then—there was nothing left but to do his absolute best.
Kaiser poured strength into his restrained limbs. From deep within his body came a sharp cracking sound. The tremendous pain that followed made him grimace.
The man's expression tensed for the first time.
"W-What was that sound!?"
"Just… snapping a few of my bones, that's all. Sorry, but my body isn't cheap enough to hand over to others intact."
Being captured was one thing—he could accept that as his own responsibility. But becoming an obstacle to mission completion was unacceptable.
The commission may have been gone, but Code was still the enemy. Thousand Transformations would act accordingly.
Smiling through the agony of his body's protest and the searing pain of deliberately inflicted damage, Kaiser let the grin come.
He'd let them break him. The foundation of Tempest Dancing was body control. Destroying his own body to the point where it was temporarily useless—it was easy enough.
"Insolent fool… Kai, I prohibit self-injury!"
"Guh!?"
The man's words sent Kaiser's entire body locking up—as if his body had received commands from somewhere other than his brain.
So this was another of Code's technologies. But the compulsion didn't seem to be that strong.
Kaiser overpowered the unknown technique's command through sheer force, shattering flesh and bone.
Cold sweat poured from his entire body. There was no part of him left that could move even with effort. With Kaiser's vitality, even biting through his tongue wouldn't kill him, but at this level of destruction, he wouldn't be able to move properly for a while.
At the very least, it would buy enough time for Thousand Transformations to make progress on this mission.
The man kicked Kaiser, still wearing that smile.
"Utterly insane… Don't underestimate Code's medical technology! Wounds like these will be healed in no time."
"……Heh."
The white, flesh-like mask was roughly pressed over his face. From its chilling surface, something began seeping into Kaiser.
It came with a strange, almost pleasant sensation—which was precisely what made it terrifying.
Before consciousness faded, he plunged his awareness deep into the innermost depths of his mind. A mental defense technique against psychokinetic abilities.
If everything went well, he might be able to leave a residual influence even after being manipulated.
The rest is in your hands, Thousand Transformations.
And then, Kaiser's consciousness sank deep into darkness.