We stayed the night at Nora's base. Even in Nora's area, Your Highness was wildly popular.
After all, Your Highness was bright and easygoing, and she didn't have that intimidating aura like Nora did. She might actually be the second most popular princess I'd met, right after Selene.
And through her interactions with people from outside, Your Highness's mood had been getting better and better. Being locked away must have left something unfulfilled, after all.
Before we departed, Nora came out to the front of the building to see us off.
"Come again whenever the mood strikes. You're welcome to stay long-term, even. It'd be good stimulation."
"Thank you, Big Sister Nora!"
Your Highness replied with teary eyes. I'd been worried about how things would go after her little tantrum, but it seemed like spending the night catching up—even though yesterday was their first meeting—had allowed them to build a good relationship.
"The Thunder Emperor, Kuubi, and Alicia—I'm entrusting them to you. I don't expect problems in Tony's area, but... Alicia holds a special position. Can't rule out there being troublemakers."
"Rest easy, Nora. With the three of us there, your sister is the safest person in this entire Code," Kurahi said with an easy smile, while Kuubi let out a bored snort. Then, as if remembering something, Nora looked at me.
"Come to think of it, Kurai. Do you recognize this person?"
Nora snapped her fingers, and an image materialized in the air.
What it showed was—a large man wearing a disturbing mask, attacking Nora's knights.
My eyes were involuntarily drawn to the figure.
It's a strange way to put it, but there was something about that unique, dance-like footwork that naturally pulled your gaze in—a compelling force, almost coercive.
Nora's knights were falling one after another with almost no resistance.
Wait, hang on—that person in the image is obviously Kaiser. The same Kaiser who entered the Code with me.
A mask wasn't going to fool my eyes.
"Yeah, I know him. That's Kaiser. He's the strongest dancer in the world—used Tempest Dancing to save multiple countries."
"Danc...er...?"
Please don't make me repeat that. I'd been somewhat skeptical myself, but this really was dancing.
"He's a man sent by Angus. He's being controlled by the mask. I never imagined my elite reinforced knight order would be taken down without a fight. He'll likely become our greatest enemy."
Controlled by the mask...? My eyes went wide at those words.
Looking back at the image, I could see a horde of thugs emerging where the knights had fallen, hauling the unconscious bodies away somewhere.
Hmm, hmm—I see. This is— "There's nothing to worry about, Nora. He's not being controlled at all."
"What!?"
A Level 8 Hunter was a hero. Among Phantoms, there were no shortage of monsters that tried to manipulate people, so their resistance to brainwashing should have been flawless.
"He's just pretending to be controlled. The proof is—look, not a single one of them is dead. If Kaiser were being serious, nobody would have walked out of there alive."
"Hmm..."
Nora groaned with a skeptical expression. Honestly, I didn't know exactly what Kaiser's intentions were in attacking Nora's knights, but it was probably a necessary action for protecting Prince Angus.
Kaiser and Saya, at a bare minimum, were a hundred times more capable than me, so there was nothing to worry about.
"Just leave everything to him. Leave it to the experts."
"Just... what exactly are you?"
Nora let out a deep sigh.
I couldn't tell her now. But she'd find out soon enough. We were already in the final countdown to full protection (roughly speaking). Before everything was settled, let's go sightseeing in the next area.
§ Tony's area was completely different from what I'd seen when I visited a few days ago.
I'd noticed it while traveling on the spider, but buildings had sprung up along both sides of the road where there hadn't been any before.
The number of people out and about was far greater than last time. Your Highness's eyes were sparkling. Cool, who'd been looking down from beside me, said with wide eyes: "Wait—are those market stalls?"
No way... There shouldn't be any shops in this city. I'd asked Nora, I'd confirmed with Tony, and I'd asked Zaza and the others too. Everyone had said in unison that there was no need for such things... But now that someone mentioned it, they really did look like stalls. And the crowds had all brought something with them when they came outside.
I gave the spider instructions and let it descend to ground level from the building we were perched on.
Right on cue, a sleek, brilliant-blue spider landed beside us.
Tony hopped off the spider, waved in our direction, and called out in his usual friendly way.
"Hey, Kurai. So? What do you think of my city? Pretty impressive, right?"
"What's all this?"
"I tried it out. Those words you said to me. Turns out—yeah, you're right. It's not bad at all."
Tony grinned.
Come to think of it... during our last meeting, I might have mentioned something about how running a shop even if it seemed unnecessary could turn out to be surprisingly interesting. It wasn't exactly advice or anything...
And the fact that he'd built all this in barely three days—his initiative was something else.
Alicia climbed down from the spider after me and greeted them with a smile. It was our third arrival, so we were getting used to it.
"Nice to meet you, Big Brother Tony. I'm Alicia Code."
"Oh, I know you. I was watching. That said, there was interference at Nora's place and inside the first building, so I don't know exactly what happened—but it looked like you were having a whole lot of fun."
"Yes! I'd been curious about your area too, Big Brother Tony. Kurai gave me a little spider as a souvenir, and when I heard you were the one who made it—"
Your Highness, you're way too excited about souvenirs from me. I almost felt bad.
At her words, Tony grinned even wider.
"Is that so, is that so? Rough deal, Kurai. That said, after that, I got an earful from the King myself—turns out charging straight into the King's surveillance network is a no-go. But hey, it was useful for future reference."
So he'd been watching when I used the small spider too. That nearly killed me, you know...
Tony pulled out a leather pouch about the size to sit in his palm, stuffed full, and handed it to Your Highness.
Her eyes lit up at the gleaming gold coins inside.
"Here's some spending money. Use it at the shops around here—go take a look. That said, everything they sell is stuff generated by the system, but... there's so much of it that there are things you've never seen before."
"Big Brother Tony!! Thank you!"
...I caught a glimpse of it, but were those gold coins Tony was handing over Zeburdia gold?
This guy was even freer than the other royals.
"I made it so only I can mint the gold coins, and distributed them to the citizens. Among the citizens, collecting gold coins has become a status thing. Not sure how long it'll last, but everyone's been accessing the city system trying to find products that sell better. Pretty fun, right?"
"Mm-hmm, yeah! It's lively, and I think it's great."
I liked it—it was like a festival. I'd always thought the streets were a bit too plain.
"Everyone's so focused on getting gold coins that their actual jobs are falling by the wayside, though."
That's what happens when work and daily life aren't connected...
Your Highness, who'd been fidgeting with the pouch of gold coins in one hand, grabbed my arm and said: "Kurai, let's go shopping! Big Brother Tony, come too!"
"Can't be helped. I'll personally give you the tour."
Tony grinned with delight. Two princes shopping together—this was going to cause a commotion.
I scratched my head, already spotting the crowd gathering and whispering as they caught sight of Tony.