The Great Cursed Realm of the Dark Continent.
In Takuto's office in the palace of Mynoghra, he let out a sigh of relief as the situation in the Dark Continent finally reached a momentary conclusion.
"Hah, every nation on the Dark Continent is finally gathered under one banner..."
"You've worked hard, Master Takuto. In the end, everything was settled without us having to lift a finger, except for Sutherland."
Atou, holding a drink, congratulated Takuto as he stared intently at the political map drawn before him. The exhaustion and effort of all that came before were now being repaid. She gazed at him fondly as he slumped comfortably in his chair, waiting for the king's words.
"Well, we had our talks with the top three powers on the Dark Continent. At the city-state level, they had no choice but to nod along, no matter how they struggled, I suppose."
"That is absolutely correct." Atou nodded in agreement with Takuto's words.
To say that all the nations of the Dark Continent would unite against the Orthodox Continent Alliance sounded impressive, but in truth, it simply meant securing Sutherland as an ally. Fonkavun was already in a honeymoon relationship with Mynoghra, and the two other city-states were inherently lacking in military strength, so even if they joined, their participation would be purely for show.
That suspicion turned to certainty when he met with the leader of the criminal city-state, Gramfil.
"To be able to join the great Mynoghra! Rather, they should have sent envoys of surrender at an earlier stage! Well, I do acknowledge that their leader came directly to the Great Cursed Realm himself..."
"Even so, he was trembling with fear to a rather pitiful degree."
"He was said to be a 'Criminal King,' so I had some expectations, but when the lid was lifted, he was just a brute."
"Well, I suppose it's also partly because we're such an impossible standard to compare anyone to."
Atou's words brought to mind the leader of Gramfil, who had recently come to the palace to gauge their mood. The sight of him looking at them and shaking like a leaf wasn't merely a frog caught in a snake's gaze—it was more like trapped prey. After all, maintaining a normal train of thought while facing the current Takuto was difficult enough. This was their first meeting, so Takuto had deliberately projected all the regal fear and awe of a king to intimidate him.
The newfound power gained through Vittorio's scheme—the Authority of Ira—proved effective in situations like this as well.
Its utility went far beyond mere combat capability, allowing for a great deal of flexibility in various aspects. It was so convenient that one couldn't help but use it.
Regardless, now, he had to handle the matter before him steadily, yet swiftly, one step at a time.
In that sense, we can count it as good news that both Gramphill—the city-state whose ruler had been dubbed the Crime King—and Iron Henge have submitted to our rule. It need not be said how troublesome it would be to deal with if they had resisted or proposed negotiations instead.
"Not getting bogged down down in trivial matters is something to be glad about. Of course, we can't trust them completely, so it's essential to set up preventive measures, but I think stationing a few of our subordinates there should handle that."
Honestly, he was living up to his intimidating name. In name, he was the lord of a nation, but in reality, he was barely a step above a city mayor like Anterize of Dragontan. The state was a bit too small to treat him as a proper head of state, yet formally they were allied, and in substance, they were subordinates who had fallen under his wing.
One couldn't be too harsh on them. The situation would be different if the other party held malice or lacked respect, but Takuto had no interest in bullying those who showed submission.
"Still, we're already eight months in... Ideally, I would have liked to have secured things midway through."
Honestly, Takuto's impression was that the annexation of the city-states had taken too long. Due to several irregular events occurring elsewhere, he hadn't been able to devote sufficient force to the city-states to deal with them.
In other words, that also meant the city-states occupied that level of importance.
Whether they were there or not didn't really matter; they were just noisy embellishments, elements that could have been handled any way he wished. However, there was only one reason Takuto was concerned about this delay.
"In exchange, we secured Sutherland more quickly, so the outcome was good, wasn't it? Either way, those two nations wouldn't become significant fighting forces, and the annexation was primarily for the search for Kuruhoshi Keiji anyway."
"Right, right. Keiji Kuruhoshi. He wasn't in Sutherland or Fonkavun, so he must be in one or the other..."
Takuto nodded. Indeed, the annexation of the city-states was merely a waypoint.
Its true purpose was contact with Kuruhoshi Keiji. As a TRPG player, recruiting him as an ally could become a crucial element in the coming battle...
"We should start the search immediately. We can't rely on personnel from their nations, so I'll need to send subordinates with strong search capabilities, even if I have to be forceful about it."
Four months left. Would they find him right away?
Regardless, nothing would start unless they began. The moment Takuto was about to decide on the policy for the Kuruhoshi search—
As a player, and as one wielding the power of the God Ira, Takuto's ears picked up the sound of flight.
"—!? Lord Takuto!!"
In an instant, with swift movements, Atou and the escort "incompetent" moved in to cover Takuto.
Eventually, with a soft thud, an arrow pierced Takuto's work desk.
"We're under attack! Move to high alert immediately!"
Atou shouted, directing the soldiers who had been guarding outside.
Meanwhile, Takuto merely furrowed his brow, contemplating the phenomenon.
Impossible.
That was Takuto's first reaction.
The palace of Mynoghra was surrounded by Dark Elf guards, and moreover, if an intruder had entered the Great Cursed Realm, Takuto would have known by now.
Assassins were a possibility, but in that case, there should be no way to evade the "Insight" ability held by the "failures" acting as guards.
Fundamentally, judging from the arrow's trajectory, the point of impact, and its velocity, it could only have been fired from a location that was utterly impossible.
However, Takuto had one hunch about the faction capable of doing the impossible.
"Hm? Perhaps... no, an arrow scroll?"
Another impossibility: something like a piece of paper was wrapped around the middle of the arrow standing vertically on the desk.
The sound of Dark Elf soldiers rushing over could be heard.
Amid the rapidly changing situation, Takuto wore a stunned expression, more astonished by the fact that someone still used such methods in this day and age than by the shock of the attack.
...
...
...
Speaking of arrow scrolls, they were challenges or declarations, a remarkably old-fashioned method...
The ensuing chaos was tremendous.
The king had been directly attacked.
The guards panicked and offered apologies, Atou alternated between fury and despair at his own inadequacy, and Vittorio, who had heard the commotion from who knows where, could only be seen peering in from outside the window with a grin.
Although the search of the surroundings was deemed pointless and had already concluded, a prickling tension still lingered in the air of Mynoghra’s palace.
All of today’s duties were cancelled, and Elder Mortar and Gia, who had been dispatched to Sutherland, returned in a hurry, delivering their report.
From top to bottom, it was chaos.
While the responsiveness was satisfactory, the commotion was a bit excessive, lacking in calmness. As Takuto felt that this was an issue to be addressed in the future, he unfolded the letter tied to the arrow.
What on earth could be written inside?
Takuto moved to immediately check its contents, but—
(The handwriting... the handwriting is far too messy.)
This attempt was thwarted at its very first step.
The script was so illegible that the content could not be deciphered at all.
For a moment, he was wary that some sort of spell might be inscribed, but those thoughts dispersed as he barely made out the characters for "challenge letter."
It was simply and purely bad handwriting. Nothing more, nothing less.
Naturally, Takuto did not voice this thought aloud.
(But I’m hardly one to talk, am I?)
Honestly speaking, Takuto himself was not in a position to criticize anyone else’s handwriting.
A bitter memory surfaced in his mind from when he first began governing as the king of Mynoghra, recalling the immense struggle he had in signing his name for approvals.
He was, after all, a modern child. And one who had spent a long time confined to a sickbed.
He had almost no opportunities to hold a pen and write by hand, and most things could be handled with a keyboard.
It was hardly surprising that he only realized how poor his own penmanship was after coming here.
This bitter memory, which in a way resonated with the text before him, prevented him from criticizing the sloppy letter.
But that was Takuto’s problem; it had nothing to do with his confidant, Atou.
"Takuto, isn't this writing incredibly messy?"
A bead of sweat traced a line down Takuto's forehead.
Even though it wasn't about him, he somehow felt as if he were the one being criticized.
It's fine, it's not about me.
Takuto told himself that, but Atou, who was peering intently over his shoulder at the text, showed no signs of noticing.
"Also, there are typos, scribbles to cover them up, misaligned lines... it's really hard to read..."
"Uh, y-yeah. It sure is!"
Takuto replied in a strangled voice without thinking, but it seemed Atou hadn't noticed. He breathed an internal sigh of relief, but after a moment's thought, he realized this writing wasn't his own, so there was no need to be this concerned. Calmness returned.
Setting aside the issue of his own poor handwriting for now, deciphering was the priority. With that thought, Takuto's gaze returned to the difficult text.
"Should I call the Deciphering Team? From the Magic Research Institute?"
"You want those people who decipher ancient scrolls to look at this? I feel a bit sorry for them..."
"W-well, yes. For now, I'll do my best too."
In the end, after going back and forth with Atou, the deciphering was successful.
The fact that the first character was the word for "challenge" was a lucky break. Guessing at the content based on that, they managed to make progress in identifying the rest.
As suspected, the contents were a challenge letter from Kirihara Keiji.
He demanded a decisive battle in the barren wasteland near the city-state of Gramphil, where they would assess each other's standing.
"A decisive battle... Hmph, what is he thinking?"
"A resolution with Kirihara Keiji has already been reached. Is there any need to continue humoring that man's whims?"
"However, judging by the content, it seems we do need to go there once."
Even from the choice of words, the content, and the handwriting, one could discern the sender's feelings quite clearly.
In particular, his note regarding seppuku was poorly written, yet his inner turmoil was vividly apparent. It seemed something interesting was developing.
Takuto did not know what had befallen him. But it appeared that compared to when he had retreated somewhere, his spirit and resolve were now firmly set.
At this change, Takuto grinned involuntarily. Before vigilance, joy came first at knowing his formidable opponent was not yet broken.
And Takuto did not run from a challenge. Though he was the top-ranked player in 'Eternal Nations,' this was also a matter of his own pride.
He would not be cowed by such an archaic gesture. That was not the Takuto Ira he knew.
He would only crush the enemy standing in his way. And he would do it head-on, thoroughly.
That was Takuto's way.
"You have decided to settle this, haven't you?"
And his subordinate knew Takuto's nature well.
Atou felt a certain understanding upon seeing his master actually looking so delighted, and with a combative smile.
He would do exactly that. A king would make that judgment. After all, this was the same Takuto he had known ever since he existed within the game called 'Eternal Nations'...
However, there existed something to dash both their spirits.
"Well, I'd like to, but I can't. Seriously, Atou, you haven't forgotten about the Grand Ritual, have you?"
At these words, Atou let out a small "Ah," and brought his hand to his own mouth.
His expression revealed surprise and the embarrassment of having forgotten something crucial.
At the same time, Takuto also laughed softly, looking troubled.
His mind was completely focused on the fight with Harakiri Keiji. But the situation would not allow it. He knew it, but it left him quite frustrated.
"What's going to happen with this, then?"
"At least it's better than having no GM abilities. We need to somehow talk him into joining our forces."
"You think he'll be of any use?" Atou asked with a worried expression. Takuto thought that such a reaction was natural given the contents of this message, but he had to correct that misunderstanding.
"Without a doubt, he'll be of use. My wariness of him is no empty boast. Well, we can't say how much this seppuku-loving Keiji will have improved, but at the very least, he's not an opponent we can afford to be careless with."
"Even though Lord Takuto has already defeated him once...?" For the TRPG faction, he had once suffered a rather painful defeat. For Atou especially, who had her very self stolen away, speaking dismissively of that opponent must have been a complicated feeling.
But the matter had already been settled. If that was the case, then no matter how many times they fought, the result would be the same. Furthermore, the opponent had been stripped of his invincible GM privileges. That fact was precisely what had led to Atou's previous statement.
And yet, even so, Takuto answered Atou's words with denial.
"He has already lost once. When someone who's gotten carried away suffers a crushing defeat, they generally end up in one of two states." He held up a finger, explaining as if flowing naturally, his words so carefully prepared and weighed that Atou swallowed hard.
"They either rot away where they are, or they recover and grow enormously." Defeat could drastically alter a person's fate, especially a crushing one. Takuto spoke from his own experience. The truth was, since he had lost Isla due to his own defeat, he had completely discarded any notion of relying on others.
Of course, he couldn't yet say with confidence that he was perfect. But at least, the bad habit of treating matters lightly, as he once had, was gone. Takuto had ascended to a higher plane through defeat.
Which way the pendulum would swing for Keiji Kuribara, he didn't know. But he had sent a challenge letter.
To Takuto Ira, the supposedly defeated foe, to the opponent whose matter should have been settled.
Before our side could uncover them, the other side made the first move.
"I won't let my guard down. I haven't forgotten that much."
Takuto designated this as one location, the most critical point.
Takuto Ira indeed recognized Kurahara Keiji as an enemy.
Even if the means to settle it directly were blocked, even if it became impossible to harm each other by any method...
In this world, anything could happen.
"Indeed, a duel. It's perhaps not quite proper to think this way in this situation, but..."
Takuto smirked.
"—I'm looking forward to it, just a little."
That smile was truly that of a king of ruin, and at the same time, the very thing many people worshiped as an evil god.
=Message===
Alliances have been concluded with the following nations:
[Criminal State Gramphil]
[Technological State Ironhenge]
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