Chapter 37
“Thank you so much for saving Lady Repi!”
While Laura and I were struggling with the pursuers, a man named Daniel suddenly barged in and helped us.
He claimed to be Repi's guardian and expressed his gratitude to us.
“Daniel oppa!”
“I've been looking everywhere for you, Repi! What on earth happened?”
“I... I was scared! Waaahhh!”
“And where did you leave the laurel?!”
Repi's finger pointed at us.
More precisely, at Laura's head.
“The laurel...? Are you elves from the Forest of Arseria, by any chance?”
Daniel's eyes went wide.
[Yes, that's right. / You have some nerve stealing our belongings.]
The world suddenly stopped, and a choice appeared.
Perhaps Laura was flustered too, because she looked at me.
‘Which one should I choose?’
“Either one should be fine.”
Laura nodded at that.
“Yes, that's right.”
“I knew it from those ears... Then you must have come here to take back the laurel, too.”
Ears?
Come to think of it, Laura's ears had become much longer and pointier than before.
I touched my own ears and found the same thing.
It seemed the story had assigned us the roles of elves.
“Arseria's laurel, a medium that allows one to use interdimensional magic. But this is the only laurel currently in our possession.”
[Where are the other laurels? / Stop hiding them and hand them over right now!]
“Where are the other laurels?”
“The other four must be in the hands of the Bahamut Empire! They claim that the delegation was attacked and that they lost the laurels they were supposed to return, but they must already be planning to secretly transport them to the imperial court through the various lords.”
“How do you know that?”
The gist was this.
A year ago, the Bahamut Empire had borrowed five laurels from the elves of Arseria.
They had asked to borrow their strength, claiming that there was magic they needed for a large-scale purification project in the forest.
The elves did not trust humans, but based on ten years of exchanges as a delegation, including Daniel, they proposed a conditional lending arrangement.
Specifically, they made an agreement allowing the laurels to be used on the condition that the imperial delegations and elven elders accompany them.
The Bahamut Empire accepted, and several months passed without any apparent problems.
The Empire continued to report on the purification work, and the elves were sufficiently satisfied with the results.
However, while the delegations and elves were returning home with the laurels, they came under attack by unknown assailants, and the five laurels were scattered.
“I was a member of the Arserian delegation at the time! I barely survived thanks to the help of some skilled people, but... the Empire is still hunting down the survivors.”
But the survivors had nowhere to go.
The Bahamut Empire was trying to eliminate all the witnesses, while other nations had closed their borders because of the Cold War, leaving them unable to seek asylum.
“We now belong to an organization called ‘Abyss.’ We know it is a seditious group opposing the Empire, but... we had no choice if we wanted to stop the Empire's conspiracy.”
“Then what does Repi have to do with this incident? Why is she traveling with you?”
“Of course she does.”
Daniel opened his eyes wide, as if I had asked the most obvious question in the world.
“She was the delegation's representative. Lady Repi is destined to become the saintess, after all.”
* * *
“So the Empire is plotting something bad with the laurels, and we have to stop them?”
“Mmm...”
“Why? Isn't that right?”
Daniel and Repi took us to one of the Abyss branches in District 15 of the capital.
We arranged a meeting with the branch leader to find the locations of the remaining laurels, and we were heading underground.
“Daniel keeps weaving in subtle lies. For now, our objective is to find the laurels, so let's play along.”
More importantly, wasn't the very name Abyss suspicious enough?
Still, I liked the fact that they were standing up to the vile Empire.
We could give them the benefit of the doubt for now.
Knock knock
“Come in.”
A cold voice echoed through the corridor.
From beyond a dim room lit only by a small oil lamp came the sound of phlegm rattling in someone's throat.
“Please understand; I have always lived in the dark, you see. Even now, it is actually so bright that it hurts my eyes.”
“You're not human.”
“Heh heh, you noticed already? But I'm rather hurt that you put it that way. Human blood certainly flows through my veins, too. There aren't any chairs, so would you mind listening while standing?”
‘Sis, that person is super ugly.’
‘Shh!’
Would our private conversation affect the NPCs too?
“Ahem! Ahem!”
Unfortunately, it did.
Fortunately, it did not seem to have much of an impact on the story, as the branch leader delivered his scripted line.
“The other laurel we found is at ‘Remnant Academy.’ But we don't know its exact location. How do you plan to gain access to the academy?”
[We will enroll through the official procedures. / We don't have much time.]
“We don't have time. From the look of things, ‘Abyss’ already has an operation prepared, doesn't it?”
[Entering Nightmare difficulty]
“Hahaha, I see you're not ones to be trifled with! Am I to take that as your willingness to join our ‘Academy Invasion Operation’?”
“Invasion? Academy invasion?”
“Invasion. It means we're going to storm the academy.”
It was certainly the fastest way to seize the laurel.
Since I had always believed that the Empire's academy deserved to be brought down at least once, I sent the branch leader a satisfied sign of acceptance.
“Understood. Then we'll brief you on the invasion plan later. In the meantime, look around the city and familiarize yourselves with the geography.”
The branch leader soon dismissed us.
However, perhaps he had one more thing to add, because he kept the oil lamp lit and called us back as we were leaving.
“I can see that you aren't officially dispatched forest wardens from Arseria. Did you run away from home? Well, it's none of my business, but at least I hope you learn how to use the laurel before you leave. Ask Daniel; he'll be happy to explain it to you.”
* * *
The system in World of Arseria is unusual.
Every physical attribute, including strength, agility, and mana affinity, was governed by the system.
Players received quests from NPCs and could raise each stat through hunting, sparring, and completing missions.
But the truly unusual thing was that, while equipped with a laurel, you could use every kind of magic available in reality, albeit in a limited capacity.
This was also why World of Arseria had become so popular.
It had added just one element of freedom to a thoroughly controlled game world, but the ways to make use of it were endless.
For example, possessing just one laurel allowed you to freely use spells of the first circle or below.
This system was particularly effective when playing as a duo.
One person could fight hard while the other supported them by finding the right spell for the situation.
[Cast: Inertia Tensor Adjustment]
“Wow, it's not heavy at all!”
The reason Laura, whose Strength stat was insufficient, could swing a two-handed sword without hesitation was that she could use this spell's assistance.
Since a two-handed sword could be treated as an integrable rigid body, I could preserve its power by altering the physical quantities of its inertia tensor rather than simply reducing its weight.
Using the Kronecker delta kept the equations from becoming too complicated, and made it easy to modify the second-order magic circle governing the terms of a non-inertial coordinate system in response to the sword's constantly changing trajectory.
With a suitable swordsmanship-assistance system combined with my magic, Laura was putting on such an overwhelming performance that it would be believable to say she was the reincarnation of a hero from a past generation.
“I can't believe we defeated a hydra this easily...!”
Daniel cried out in shock.
[We defeated all 10 hydras within the time limit]
[Magi difficulty has been adjusted to 10]
Even when we lacked firepower, we could resort to an advanced cast and wrap plasma around the sword.
[1st Circle Advanced Cast: Plasma Frequency Adjustment]
“Hyaaaaaah!”
Laura's sword traced a semicircle before slamming into the ground.
Sparks of many colors flew along its path, making her seem truly worthy of the title ‘Hero of Aurora.’
[We have broken through the Labyrinth of the Incomprehensible]
[Exploration difficulty has been adjusted to 10]
Laura and I cleared the various side quests one by one before the academy invasion.
We stormed a strange laboratory and defeated the hydras released by an eccentric doctor, and we explored an underground dungeon containing valuable treasures.
The sensations were astonishingly realistic and filled me with wonder, but even that dulled as we continued playing the game.
[We defeated the Knight Commander]
[Infamy difficulty has been adjusted to 10]
It bothered me that strange system windows with incomprehensible content kept popping up in the middle, so I set them to display only on Laura's side.
“Did you clear the quest?”
I asked Laura, who had won the spar against the Knight Commander.
Laura stared into empty space for a moment, then moved her eyes from side to side.
[Nightmare: Magi 10/Exploration 10/Infamy 10 · Duo]
[A special reward has been granted]
“Yeah! Something like a present came in!”
[Prologue: The Child of the Oracle END]
“Should we stop here for today? Professor Cheon said he got us some delicious chicken.”
[Nightmare Part 1: Remnant Academy Invasion Operation]
“Chicken? I love it!”