Ohime-sama was exceptional. From what I'd observed, her learning ability and physical aptitude both surpassed mine, and her temperament was far more gentle than Nora's—she even had the magnanimity to listen to the words of a lowly person like me.
Her only weakness was that having been kept confined, she was somewhat out of touch with the outside world. In the outside world, Ohime-sama would be just another person, so I needed to make her understand how to get your way without asking nicely—from now on, as someone under protection, she'd have to learn that.
Fortunately, even without any real ability, I knew how to force things through. Well, I had an excellent and cooperative childhood friend and little sister, so I rarely had the chance to use those methods—but still.
On the other side of the door. In the only room she was permitted to be active in, Ohime-sama spoke with a tense expression.
"R-Really? I'm the one who has to do it?"
"Well, you don't have to if you don't want to... But out in the outside world, if there's something you want or something you want to do, you have to make it happen with your own strength. That's just how it works for everyone out there."
"...Real One, is this really how you've been getting by all this time? It kind of sounds different from what I heard..."
Rusha looked up at me with furrowed brows and a skeptical expression. Well, it wasn't like I'd survived purely on tantrums, but I wouldn't deny that I'd relied on other people's help and muddled through with stopgap measures. Still, this time I really didn't see any other option.
To be honest, whether the Code King made me chocolate or not, I didn't really care either way.
I loved chocolate, but I wasn't obsessed with it. In the outside world, there were plenty of sweets besides chocolate. If Treasure Weapons could store candy other than chocolate, the lineup would surely be far more impressive.
Ohime-sama took several deep breaths, then stepped away from the door and stared at a single point. The Code King was probably watching from there, she figured.
An indescribable tension radiated from Ohime-sama—who until just recently had shown nothing but an innocent, carefree demeanor.
Then, clasping her hands together, she spoke in a sweet, wheedling voice.
"Pa-pa, Alisha wants chocolate made for her. It's my once-in-a-lifetime plea! Pretty please?"
Ohime-sama gazed up at the sky, tilting her head as if pleading.
...Well, look at that. When Rusha had taught her this, she'd been dead set against it.
There was a certain regal dignity in the way she'd discarded her pride (meaning unknown). Even Rusha, her teacher, had eyes wide with surprise. That "coaxing" performance had been that perfect.
I didn't know if it would work on the Code King—the one who hadn't been swayed by that magnificent kowtowing—but still.
"...Real One. I think I'd like to take a moment to reflect on my actions up to this point."
Don't you go reflecting on things after making someone else do the dirty work! Poor Ohime-sama!
Ohime-sama remained frozen with her head tilted for a while, but soon, her already flushed face turned even redder. The color spread all the way down to her neck.
Beads of cold sweat trickled down. If this "coaxing" method taught by Rusha herself didn't work, then I'd have no choice but to steel my resolve.
And then, Ohime-sama collapsed right there, rolling onto her back on the floor, waving her arms and legs and shaking her head back and forth while screaming.
"NOOO! Alisha wants chocolaaaaate! Chocoooo-laaaaaate! Pa-paaaa! Choco-laaaaa-te! Pleeease!"
...So the "coaxing" hadn't worked after all. Rusha had said it was foolproof, so I'd had my hopes up...
Her "tantrum" was impressively awful as tantrums go. But somehow, the desire for chocolate didn't really come through.
Ohime-sama had probably reached the point of reckless abandon by now. Having gone this far, there was no turning back.
Even someone as talented as Ohime-sama apparently lacked talent when it came to throwing tantrums.
Liliz's tantrums back in the day had been nothing like this. She'd thrown tantrums in mud puddles without a care, rolled around, clung to people—even started undressing. Truly invincible. The current Liliz had become a fine young lady (for the second time).
The key to a good tantrum was to keep repeating it until the other party gave in. I could see Ohime-sama was on the verge of breaking from the look on her face, so to encourage her, I shouted.
"Ohime-sama, you're not embarrassing yourself enough! Throw away even more dignity and show it off! It's working! It's definitely working!"
"You know, Real One... I just want to say upfront... I've never done anything like this before, okay? Really! I mean, there's no way I'd show my brother something this undignified, right? Despite all this, I'm actually quite the proper young lady, you know?"
Rusha, who hadn't been much help when it came to "tantrums," remarked. Well, if you had any sense of shame, you couldn't really throw a tantrum.
Even I couldn't throw a tantrum. If I tried, there was no way my demands would be met—kowtowing would be a better option.
But right now, I had to cheer Ohime-sama on. She was fighting with everything on the line.
I widened my eyes, thoroughly burning the image of Ohime-sama's noble struggle into my retinas, and cheered her on.
"You can do it, you can do it, Ohime-sama! Just a little more! Come on, throw something!"
"Y-You... you bastard...! Making the Spare do something so ridiculous!"
"!?"
"Hiih!?"
A voice suddenly rang out from seemingly nowhere, and I couldn't help but widen my eyes in shock. Rusha flinched and looked around with an upward gaze, while Ohime-sama—who had been writhing around moments ago—froze mid-motion.
Huh? What? What was that?
I checked behind me, but there was no one else besides us. Hearing a voice when no one was around... and it was a voice I didn't recognize.
...Well, whatever. Let me regroup and encourage Ohime-sama, who had stopped moving.
"Ohime-sama, hey, why did you stop?! It was going so well!"
"Eh?! Ch-Choco-laaaaa-te!"
"Cut it out!!"
It was a rebuke like a thunderclap striking right overhead. Along with the voice, a violent wave of dizziness hit me.
—And when it subsided, I was standing alone in an empty white void.
Rusha, who had been with me moments ago, and Ohime-sama, who had been throwing her tantrum—they were both gone without a trace.
There was no room, no corridor. I could barely see my own body, but beyond that, there was truly nothing. Pure white.
What was going on? I blinked, trying to process the sudden situation, and a voice descended from above.
"Make the Spare stop that immediately! It's unbearable to watch!"
"...Who are you?"
"...My name is Cross Code. I am the King of this Code."
Cross Code. The King of this Code.
At those words, I widened my eyes.
The Code King was one of the people I'd been assigned to protect. And he was supposed to be the most difficult one to protect.
After all, the Code King was the most privileged individual within this Code's urban system. Naturally, he would be an important figure for the nobles who were, as far as we knew, our virtual enemies and the ones who had apparently imprisoned the royal family—and I could imagine he would be the most well-defended.
But to think that he would contact me directly—if it were his daughter, that might be one thing, but me of all people—and for those imprisoning the King to allow such a thing was completely unexpected. Furthermore, if the information Gregg and the others had gathered was accurate, the King hadn't shown himself in public for some time now—no one had even heard his voice.
Contact with the Code King was supposed to be the biggest hurdle in completing the commission. Even someone incompetent like me could tell this situation was abnormal.
...Was this voice really the Code King? How suspicious.
Doubtful, I listened as the voice calling itself the Code King spoke.
"Make the Spare stop that foolishness at once! You know that she is, at least nominally, a member of the Code royal family, don't you? No matter what you try, I absolutely refuse to produce chocolaaaaate!"
"N-Now, now, calm down, Father."
"Wh-Who—who—who the hell are you calling Father?! Don't lump the Code royal family together with commoners! Besides, if you take the Spare's side, how will that look to the others?!"
Come to think of it, "Spare"—was that what they called Ohime-sama? The Biker gang members had called Princess Alisha "Spare" too, but that seemed awfully harsh even so.
If this was really Ohime-sama's father, would he really call his own daughter that? If anything, that ice-cold manner of address seemed more like proof that the speaker wasn't her parent.
I'd met quite a few royals by now, and not a single one had treated their own daughter that way.
For that matter, my own parents had doted on Lucia more than their biological son. Well, of course—if I were in my parents' position, I'd do the same!
So then, if this voice wasn't the Code King, who was it? The most likely answer was one of the people holding the King captive.
And the fact that they were sending a message like this meant Ohime-sama's tantrum was actually having an effect. As expected, tantrums were invincible.
I shrugged and said, in a hard-boiled tone.
"She's not 'Spare.' She's Alisha—Princess Alisha. You shouldn't use that kind of name for her."
"...What did you say?"
"There's nothing wrong with making some chocolate for her. It's not like you'll run out. If a father makes candy for his daughter, nobody's going to have a problem with that."
"Ggh... You don't understand our situation... How insolent. I am the King of this Code, you know? You understand that defying my command means—"
The Code King faltered for a moment, then tried to intimidate me with threatening words.
Oh please, did they think I'd be scared by threats like that? Too bad—I'd met enough royals by now to know better.
A real king—someone truly worthy—had far more depth than that.
Besides, when I thought about it (and I'd had the same impression when I met Nora), this person's words didn't sound at all like those of someone who was confined and forced to obey.
Well, there was no point in making an enemy of this self-proclaimed king for nothing. My real objective—talking about the commission—was naturally out of the question.
What I needed to do now was somehow endure until Kaiser and the others took care of the commission. Given that this person was likely an enemy, I should act carefully to avoid raising any alarms.
...Also, honestly, I did feel a bit responsible for Ohime-sama becoming addicted to chocolate.
If this continued, the effects would be apparent even after she was rescued, and I'd been thinking I should do something about it soon.
"Alright, alright. I never said I wouldn't do it. I was thinking Ohime-sama had been eating too much chocolate too—"
"!? You're the one who gave the Spare that strange thing!"
"Wh-When it turned out like that, I wasn't expecting it at all. Also, she's not 'Spare,' she's Alisha."
I'd heard stories before about wealthy young ladies becoming obsessed with commoner food, but I never imagined Ohime-sama would become this fixated on chocolate.
She'd gone from a sweet, smiling girl to someone who would now lie about there being no chocolate bars left. If things continued like this, even if the commission went smoothly, I might get chewed out by Gaark or the higher-ups at the Explorer's Guild.
"Right... Cross, was it? Anyway, could you calm things down on your end for now? I'll distract Ohime-sama. If she just doesn't eat chocolate for a while, I think she'll go back to normal—it's not like she's actually addicted or anything."
Chocolate was certainly delicious, and I loved it too, but it wasn't the single best thing in this world. There were plenty of more delicious foods out there, and even among things the Code could produce, there were surely better options.
Right now, Ohime-sama was just excited by a new stimulus. The fact that she'd been cooped up in her room for so long was probably part of it.
"Hmm... But you're the one who created this situation. What do you suggest I do about it?"
"Well..."
True, right now Ohime-sama was in a state of reckless abandon. She was selling her pride for chocolate.
I'd made things worse with my encouragement about it "working," and calming her down now was probably going to be difficult.
And that was when I thought of a good idea.
"If I just say I'll do it, she should calm down, right? ...How about I tell her that making it is fine, but researching how to make chocolate will take time?"
"...I suppose it can't be helped. Don't cause me any more trouble."
"Sorry, sorry. I'll try to talk her into it somehow."
I bowed my invisible head repeatedly in apology, and the self-proclaimed Code King gave a small snort.
"I don't trust your words—but I can see that you haven't harbored a single shred of animosity toward this Code. Not even for an instant, not even the slightest bit. An animosity that even Code citizens rarely sense. You simply... lack ability! More so than anyone I have ever seen. To think that before I die, I would end up speaking to someone so incompetent—"
...No, I don't think it's quite that bad? I was trying my best to live my life, you know.
And what exactly had he been watching to make that assessment? ...I felt like I'd been moving around more than usual, even.
"...I came here to protect the royalty."
"Don't say anything—I know. I had the urban system analyze every word and action of yours since entering the Code. Since arriving in this city, you've been drifting along without thinking about anything, acting on momentum alone—accomplishing nothing! Biker and Nora—well, they simply self-destructed on their own. I know about Angus's plan, but the Explorer's Guild wouldn't be foolish enough to send someone like you. I'll make sure to warn Angus and the others not to be misled by your irrelevant words and actions."
To think that even after being completely honest, they wouldn't believe me—what even was I?
"Hmm...? Plan...? Angus?"
"...That is not something you need to know. Just do what I told you. Understood?"
"Ah, yes..."
Another violent wave of dizziness struck. When I came to, I was back where I'd been before.
I checked my Barrier Ring, but it didn't appear to have activated. The Code's technology—neither magic nor Resonance Stones nor electronic mail, but something else entirely. Though sending a voice didn't seem like it should require anything that fancy. Still, this city was truly terrifying.
Rusha, who had been watching me with wide eyes, spoke cautiously.
"Um... Real One, did you just disappear for a moment? Where did you go?"
...It seemed like I'd vanished entirely. What was going on with this city?
The Barrier Ring shouldn't have activated. Teleportation was supposed to be a grand-scale magic spell... I needed to be careful not to draw too much attention to myself.
Oh well.
"No, it's nothing. Just had a quick chat with the King."
"!? Whaaaaat?! How did you manage that?!"
That's what I'd like to know.
As I managed to maintain a hard-boiled smile, a voice tinged with confusion came from Ohime-sama's room.
Ohime-sama—who until moments ago had been crawling on the ground throwing a tantrum—had gotten up and pressed herself against the door.
"Klye!! It's—it's okay! The chocolate! The Code King said he would!"
"Yeah, yeah, that's great."
"It'll take some time, so it's not right away! But that's fine! I can't believe it! That undignified display was worth it!"
"Y-Yeah, good for you..."
Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's how it would go, huh.
It seemed the person behind that voice had faithfully relayed my proposal to the real King. It probably wasn't a method that would work every time, but at least we'd bought some time.
If she knew that the promise of chocolate wasn't real, she'd be devastated at how happy she was right now.
But it would be fine—Kaiser and the others would come to the rescue soon enough. All I had to do was redirect Ohime-sama's attention away from chocolate, and everything would be perfect.
Ohime-sama, who had been excitedly talking to me, her expression suddenly turned suspicious.
She peered up at me from below, watching my eyes intently, and tilted her head.
"Klye? You don't seem very happy? You're going to be able to eat all the chocolate you want from now on..."
The prospect of unlimited chocolate wasn't entirely unappealing—but now, how to convince her?
I sighed, and to redirect the attention of Ohime-sama—who had been completely captivated by chocolate—I shrugged and said.
"...Well, I am happy, but out there in the outside world, there are lots of things even more delicious than chocolate, you know."
"!?"