Finally acknowledging Alicia's words, Klye broke into a run. All that remained was to defeat Jean.
For all his boasts, Jean Code's movements were swift—he was clearly accustomed to fighting.
But Alicia hadn't been idle for the past three days either. She had been engaged in intense mock battles with Lady Nora's knight order.
She'd equipped reinforced gear, taken Lady Nora's supplements, and trained to become a variety of enhanced soldiers. The treatments hadn't been completed in time, but the current Alicia was extremely close to being an enhanced human.
She transformed the multi-purpose unit into a sword while simultaneously linking her thoughts with the city system, harnessing its computational power to accelerate her thinking.
Sword clashed against sword, and Jean's eyes widened in shock.
"What the—!?"
Jean, big brother, had absolutely no idea how to use the city system.
The city system was not a tool. For the Code royal family, the city system was like an extension of their own body.
When fused with the system, one could even glimpse the near future.
Jean was clearly well-trained, with abilities slightly higher than Alicia's and considerable combat experience, but that was only a margin that could be easily overturned.
Furthermore, Alicia had greater freedom of movement thanks to having Morris's unit.
"Damn it! How is this possible!?"
She dodged the thrown old knife with trajectory prediction and caught the sharp kick using the arm transformed from her unit.
That was all it amounted to.
True, Jean was quite strong, but not in the same league as someone outstanding like Kuahi or the Thunder Emperor.
The moment Alicia had caught up to him before he could obtain the Royal Staff, Jean was already finished.
With every exchange of blows, the composure drained from Jean's expression. He must have realized he was at a disadvantage.
"Damn it! If only Kenbi—if only Kenbi were here!"
There was no leeway to check on the battle at the entrance. But the fact that reinforcements still hadn't arrived surely meant Kurahi and the others had successfully held off Kenbi's group.
Jean was sent flying into a wall by a punch from the unit arm Alicia controlled.
The outcome was already decided. Alicia stood before the crouching Jean.
"It's over. Admit your defeat, Brother Jean."
"Not... yet!"
Jean pulled a spherical device from inside his coat. But Alicia had predicted this and immediately thrust in an arm to neutralize it.
She smiled at the stunned Brother Jean.
"Anything else you'd like to try?"
"...Damn it."
Jean's fate would likely be decided by Lady Nora and the others in consultation. His downfall was that he had no companions who could walk the Royal Path with him.
If even one thing had been different, the outcome would have been reversed.
Revenge for Brother Angus had been achieved. The battle was over. All that remained was to claim the Royal Staff and ascend to the throne.
And then, Alicia's new and enjoyable life would begin.
Just as she was thinking this, alarms suddenly blared throughout the entire building.
"Huh!?"
"What—what's going on!?"
Red warning lights illuminated the wide corridor. Jean, too, looked around with a tense expression.
Alicia accessed the city system to assess the situation, and then—she froze.
"Klye!? What are you doing!?"
§ § § Following Her Majesty's orders, I hurried along the empty corridor of the Royal Tower.
I was in a state of fairly resigned confusion about the whole situation.
I had come here with the sole aim of protecting the royal family, so why was I being made to run through the Royal Tower?
And on top of that, Her Majesty was saying something about... conquering the world?
I came to rescue a royal family that was being forced to act by the nobles. I came to rescue them, that's all.
As if the situation wasn't strange enough, now Her Majesty was saying things like that—.
Well, in any case, we'd found the last royal family member, Jean, so all that remained was to protect him—but the Royal Staff, she'd asked.
If she asked, I supposed I couldn't refuse.
Besides, there was something that had been on my mind.
There wasn't a single person in the Royal Tower. Unhindered, I made my way to the top floor—to the front of a large black door.
When I stood before it, the card I was holding grew faintly warm, and the door opened.
Inside was the same room where the King had called me in his final moments.
The spacious area was the same as before, but the ceiling that had once sparkled with brilliance was now dark and devoid of its luster.
Where the throne had been, there was now a pedestal, and floating above it was a staff—the same one the King had shown me.
Walking through the silent throne room, I stood before the staff floating in midair.
The King's Staff was a strange rod made of metal with an unusual sheen.
Atop the staff head, for reasons unknown, floated a large, round gemstone—a treasure jewel.
And looking at it up close like this, I realized—I had seen this staff before.
No, more than that—I owned one.
"This is... 'Round World'!"
Undoubtedly. It was a staff-type Treasure Weapon that translated the words of others.
A rare find that was almost never discovered, and unlike most other staff-type Treasure Weapons, it didn't support the wielder's magic—a peculiar staff.
Until now, it had been considered an item from a high-level magical civilization, but the fact that one was here meant that Round World was actually a Treasure Weapon from a high-level physical civilization. This was a new discovery. The thrill of being a Hunter.
I reached out my hand, and the King's Staff that had been floating descended into my palm.
The cool touch, and for a staff, an unexpectedly heavy weight. This was undoubtedly Round World. Every detail of its appearance was identical.
The King had said this staff was the activation key for Code. If so, could my own staff activate some other Code as well?
Well, I'd probably never find out, but it was a romantic notion.
Now then, what to do with this staff...?
Should I deliver it to Her Majesty, or—?
My gaze was glued to the pedestal before me.
There was a hole in the pedestal, as if daring someone to drive the staff into it. In fact, it had been embedded there when I'd been called by the King.
Hmm... She had asked me to bring her the staff, after all.
But there was no point in agonizing over it. While I stood here, Kurahi and the others were still fighting.
Convincing myself, I raised the staff and drove it into the pedestal.
A firm resistance. Suddenly, a noisy alarm blared, and the ceiling glowed red.
Huh!? What—is this!? I instinctively let go and looked around.
On the other side of the pedestal, just above it, a string of strange characters had appeared—ones that hadn't been there before. I couldn't read them at all, but the alarm and the light showed no sign of stopping.
Calm down, Klye Andrich. This is exactly the kind of moment when you need to stay composed—.
Had I done something wrong? Was something missing?
I took a deep breath and observed my surroundings.
I looked at the staff embedded in the pedestal. When the King had shown it to me, it seemed to have been driven in much deeper.
My Treasure Weapon Master's instinct was telling me something. I snapped my fingers and gripped the staff.
This meant—I probably needed to drive it in more firmly. I was sharp today.
Putting my full weight behind it, I drove the staff deep into the pedestal. The gemstone at the top flickered.
And with a solid clunk, the alarm and the light stopped.
See? It had to be driven all the way in. Still gripping the staff, I let out a sigh of relief—then noticed that the text displayed on the other side of the pedestal had become readable.
"Invasion by non-royal-succeeded individual detected. City functions shutting down per municipal law. Time until complete functional cessation: 4:35."
Startled, I inadvertently released the staff. The displayed text became unreadable again.
Oh no...
The ground shook violently. The walls that had been blackened changed to something transparent.
The city was sinking. The top of the Royal Tower was, in other words, the highest point in this city. Going near the window, I could clearly see the countless buildings crumbling and sinking.
It was, even to an untrained eye, the obvious end of a city called Code.
I—I'd done it. Wait, Code was an aerial city, wasn't it?
Could it be... falling?
"Klye!? What did you do!?"
"Impossible... my city—"
Her Majesty and Jean came rushing in. Her Majesty pulled up a terminal and checked it with a desperate expression, then touched the staff embedded in the pedestal.
But there was no sign of the collapse stopping. Her Majesty approached with a rigid expression.
I instinctively made an excuse.
"I didn't do anything... it just broke."
"Is this... Klye's plan? The thing about traveling the world—that was a lie!?"
Her Majesty's face was on the verge of tears. Now might be the time for my most sincere groveling.
I placed my hands on the shoulders of the weeping Her Majesty and spoke with as much earnestness as I could muster.
"Your Majesty... even without Code, you can still travel the world. You're free now."
"!!"
Her Majesty's eyes widened as if she'd realized something.
Thinking about it calmly, the commission was to protect the royal family. Nobody had told me not to destroy Code, so maybe it was fine to have destroyed it.
"You piece of garbage!! How dare you do this—I thought you were incompetent, but I never imagined you'd be this useless! Why on earth would you drive the King's Staff into the pedestal! Are you an idiot!?"
"...Brother Jean, you're noisy."
"Wha—"
Jean, who had collapsed and was wailing, was unceremoniously kicked across the floor by a Her Majesty who was sharper than usual.
Her Majesty hurriedly clutched the staff and said, looking at me: "Klye, what do you want?"
"Huh? What do I—"
"You want something, don't you? Hurry!"
Pressed by Her Majesty, I blurted out an answer.
"A smartphone! I want a smartphone!"
It was the Treasure Weapon I had wanted to get my hands on all along.
At my answer, Her Majesty displayed countless virtual terminals and operated them with a grim expression. Before long, the floor in front of me opened up, and a pedestal rose from below.
On the pedestal, exactly as I'd requested, sat a brand-new smartphone. Unlike the terminal from before, the metallic moss green color was incredibly cool.
Paralyzed by this unexpected fortune, Her Majesty said to me: "Will this do?"
"...There are other things I want, too."
"Time's up."
A crack appeared in the King's Staff, and it shattered to pieces. Only the treasure jewel that had been floating above the staff head remained, falling to the floor.
The tremors were growing stronger by the minute. If we didn't hurry, the Royal Tower might collapse like the other buildings.
Her Majesty picked up the treasure jewel and, with a slightly sorrowful smile, said: "Code is finished. Klye, let's go home."
§ § § That day, for better or worse, became a date etched into the history of the Explorer's Guild.
The high-mobility fortress city Code, which had been rapidly approaching the Explorer's Guild headquarters while regaining its mobility, lost altitude at breakneck speed before the eyes of the panic-stricken crowd and crashed to earth.
Just five kilometers from the city—a terrifyingly close distance.
A great number of citizens who escaped from the crashed city flooded into the city, triggering an uproar of unprecedented proportions.
Multiple nations have indicated that high-level Hunters were closely involved in the incident, but the Explorer's Guild has not issued an official statement.