Chapter 130
“A good thing?”
I stared intently down at the box.
It looked like an ordinary gift box at first glance.
The only thing that bothered me was its considerable size, large enough to fit a person inside with room to spare.
Actually, there was a surefire way to find out, rather than making various guesses.
[Mystery Box]
A box made by Erzebet.
Something extremely dangerous is inside.
It seems best not to open it.
“Hmm.”
There was no harm in listening to the system.
I was curious about what might be inside, but I still had plenty of time left to browse the gallery alive and well.
Head Mod*: Is it really a good thing? It doesn't look like it
Vampire Till Death: It is
Vampire Till Death: So hurry up and open it
Head Mod*: lol, okay
“I'm definitely not opening it.”
Being imprisoned by a beautiful girl's obsessive love was welcome, but browsing the gallery mattered more to me.
“I can just send it back.”
I was just about to send it straight back to Vampire Till Death without even storing it when I looked down at the box.
“Hmm, it won't come apart...”
Dryer was crouched down, trying to open the box.
I'd completely forgotten.
Ever since Dryer had moved into the bunker, she had been helping with various household chores.
She had even taken it upon herself to check the packages from the gallery users and organize the storeroom...
“Stop!!!”
“Eek!”
I hurriedly shouted at Dryer, but it was too late.
-Clack
Pandora's box had been opened.
It was only a box, but I couldn't see inside.
It was filled with nothing but darkness whose depth I couldn't fathom at all.
The moment I looked into it and felt goosebumps spread across my entire body...
Vampire Till Death: You opened it?
Along with Vampire Till Death's chat message, something began bursting out of the box.
“!”
Something very long, branching out in many directions and looking slimy...
“Tentacles?”
Red tentacles.
They looked as if they were made of blood, and bright-red tentacles began pouring out of the box.
“H-Head Mod!”
Seeing the tentacles burst out, I quickly pulled out a shotgun and pulled the trigger.
-Bang!
The bullet struck a tentacle dead-on!
“Did I get it?”
-Wriggle
But the tentacle quickly regenerated the damaged section and returned to its original form.
Since they seemed to be made of blood, they returned to normal almost immediately even after suffering physical attacks.
“Watch out, Malphite!”
Penny came running out at the commotion and shouted at me with a horrified expression.
“...!”
But by then it was already too late.
The tentacle, restored to its original shape, charged toward me at breakneck speed...
“Huh.”
But it simply passed straight by.
What was that about? Were they not hostile toward me?
If anything, the tentacles were friendly toward me.
-Wriggle
They rubbed their cheeks against me like puppies, then quickly flew behind me.
The tentacles' target wasn't me, but Dryer.
“Aaaah!”
Thin and thick tentacles completely bound Dryer's body and lifted her into the air.
“Gasp, this feels great.”
“Stop saying weird things and save me!”
Once the tentacles had successfully restrained Dryer completely, they began attacking her indiscriminately.
-Smack!
“Ow, ow!”
One tentacle flew like a whip and flicked Dryer right on her pale forehead.
-Whack!
“Heeek!”
Another tentacle that flew in after it struck Dryer squarely on the crown of her head.
Dryer was tossed around by the sudden, underhanded attacks, her face crumpling into a miserable expression.
“What is this all of a sudden...”
I had no idea what was going on.
Just then, a chat message arrived from Vampire Till Death.
Vampire Till Death: Head Mod, are you okay?
Head Mod*: No, what the hell is going on?
Vampire Till Death: Don't panic. Listen to me.
Vampire Till Death: It seems a succubus is targeting you, Head Mod.
Vampire Till Death: The blood magic I sent will detect the succubus, so don't worry.
“Huh?”
Apparently, Vampire Till Death was misunderstanding the situation.
He had immediately offered to save me out of nowhere.
Head Mod*: Yeah, I know?
Vampire Till Death: Huh?
Head Mod*: We've been living together from the start. She's safe, so it's okay, okay? Let her go.
So, in order to clear up the misunderstanding, I told him that she wasn't a dangerous succubus.
Vampire Till Death: ...Living together?
Head Mod*: Yeah.
Vampire Till Death: ＼ - /
But instead of improving, the atmosphere only grew more hostile.
Head Mod*: She's not some weird succubus.
Vampire Till Death: Then what is she?
Head Mod*: She's a likable gallery regular, Dryer, you know, that...
Vampire Till Death: A pervert who pretends to be shy while flaunting her huge breasts?
“...!”
Dryer, who was bound by the tentacles, must have seen the chat, because she began struggling with a flushed face.
But this was a world governed by the logic of strength.
In the end, Dryer drooped limply, her face crumpling into a miserable expression.
Vampire Till Death: I understand it was a misunderstanding.
@: I'll let you go now.
Fortunately, the tentacles quickly released Dryer and went back into the box.
“They went back surprisingly obediently.”
I thought the kidnapping and imprisonment were about to start again.
But that had been when I first learned the taste of blood, and things were different now.
Thanks to that, the matter was resolved without trouble.
The incident ended without any victims, apart from Dryer, who had been repeatedly flicked on the forehead and branded a pervert.
“Then I guess I'll go back to browsing the gallery.”
I returned to my room.
The Otherworld Destruction Gallery's featured posts were being generated as quickly as one would expect from a gallery of its size.
Even if you put it off for just one day, let alone a few weeks, it would easily move several pages ahead.
“I can't afford to fall behind on gallery posts.”
I was just about to start carefully rereading the featured posts I'd put off.
[Title: Breaking) Noble Kidnaps, Imprisons, Takes Emperor Hostage, and Threatens Him...jpg]
(GIF of a noble holding the young emperor hostage and staging a sit-in)
(GIF of armed knights swarming around the audience chamber)
Yeah.
[Upvotes 8421] [Downvotes 102]
- Fuck, why is this real?
- No, this is actually real?
- Amazing Adrian.
- I thought there'd be a nude male orc pic, so why is this real?
- Seriously, fuck lol. We should've escaped to Kellierton then, damn it.
“What is this now?”
And a live-update post about a noble taking Emperor Adrian hostage had gone up among the featured posts.
*
“Open this door and surrender immediately!”
“Fuck, I'll smash it down!”
Inside Emperor Adrian's audience chamber.
The noise coming from beyond the door was deafening.
All sorts of curses and shouts, along with furious denunciations.
“Heh heh, well, this is something.”
Helian, Adrian's court mage, awkwardly stroked his beard and smiled.
Every one of those negative noises was directed at Helian.
The authority of the court mage whom everyone had once looked up to had long since vanished.
“I find myself missing the previous emperor.”
Helian stared blankly out the window.
It was a clear afternoon without a single cloud in the sky.
It was a day when Helian missed the previous emperor—or, more precisely, Frederick, who had called himself emperor.
“Back then, everything was beneath my feet...”
Helian was a top-class mage who had been close to the level of an archmage.
In other words, he wasn't actually qualified to be a court mage.
However, he was exceptionally good at choosing the right side.
At times he had been Frederick's confidant, and at others, the pope's longtime partner in power.
“Who could have imagined it would come to this?”
Back then, he had never dreamed that he would end up holding the emperor hostage.
“Isn't that right, Your Majesty?”
Helian stroked his faded beard and lowered his gaze.
The child emperor, now only eight years old, met his eyes.
A powerless puppet emperor and, now, a hostage who was his ticket to staying alive.
“I never thought you'd do this.”
“I never thought it would come to this either.”
The child emperor, Muffin, did not cry.
Instead, he looked at Helian, whom he had believed to be his loyal subject.
“...Surrender even now. I'll help you avoid the death penalty.”
“How could I do that? The madman pounding on that door is the Hero.”
Everyone knew Darian.
Adrian's true Hero, and...
“The Gallery Hero...”
A man chosen personally by Head Mod himself.
He was reforming Adrian through his fervent faith in Head Mod.
He had dragged every rotten root into the light, burned it, and sent the guilty to the executioner's block.
And the court mage, Helian, who thought he had hidden himself well, was next.
“Don't worry.”
Helian spoke in a voice that he himself did not know whether he was addressing himself or Muffin.
“The moment I secure a ship and get out of here, I'll set you free.”
“...Yeah.”
Muffin was only eight, but he was also the sole emperor of the empire.
Muffin's small head throbbed.
The betrayal of Helian, whom he had thought was like an uncle, and the crimes the cathedral had committed all this time.
The monsters from the place called ‘outside’ that came invading with endless greed.
“Couldn't everyone just live happily, eating desserts from the market?”
The market opened by Head Mod had poured out an astonishing variety of desserts.
That alone made him feel as if he possessed the whole world, so why were they all so desperate to kill everyone else?
Muffin rested his small hand against his chin and thought deeply.
Then it happened.
-Boom!
The iron door to the audience chamber, which could not be opened even by several strong men pushing against it, was ripped open.
It had been crumpled open literally like a sheet of paper.
“...Crazy monster bastard.”
Beyond Helian's mutter, a blank-faced man walked in through the mist.
It was Darian, the Gallery Hero.
“It's all over, Court Mage. Release His Majesty and atone before Head Mod... no, before the Nameless God.”
In other words, he was telling Helian to die.
Helian was a mage in a realm ordinary people could never reach.
With a wave of his hand, he could take the lives of several low-ranking knights.
But not the Hero.
Even if he somehow managed to land an attack, Darian would regenerate his body in an instant.
“Don't come any closer!”
Darian's approach made Helian place his hand against the child emperor Muffin's neck.
Darian stopped in his tracks.
Then he simply crossed his arms and looked at them with the same expressionless face.
“I can't die here. How, how did I survive...”
There were no old men in Adrian.
It was a figurative expression, but it was also true to some extent.
Whether through the Great War, famine, disease, or any other means, they had all died.
Helian had survived every time.
“I'm not planning to die yet.”
Though he was well past sixty, his attachment to life was more tenacious than anyone's.
Helian made a vow to himself.
This time, too, he would survive somehow.
But Darian, looking back and forth between the gallery and the clock, suddenly spoke to Helian.
“Court Mage.”
“What is it?”
“Don't try to confine His power within the limits of your shallow thinking.”
The person Darian called ‘Him’ could only be Head Mod, whom he tacitly revered as the Nameless God.
Helian glanced behind Darian.
The audience chamber was located at the highest point in the empire.
But with his abilities, escape wasn't impossible.
‘That strange ball of fire won't be able to shoot me, either. The emperor is in my hands.’
If he escaped into the sky, there would be no way to catch him.
It was just as he was thinking that.
Darian stared blankly beyond the window.
His expression was filled with anticipation, as if he couldn't even see Helian standing right in front of him.
“Where the hell are you looking!”
Helian shouted in fear.
Even so, Darian stared in that direction for a full minute without replying, then suddenly smiled.
“You didn't heed my advice.”
“You mean Head Mod? Fine, I admit those spells are impressive. But what can he do here?”
He could escape into the sky, where no one could reach him.
On top of that, he was holding the emperor hostage.
No matter how he thought about it, there was no way to stop him.
Then Darian faced Helian with a chilling smile.
“Anything.”
At that moment.
-Crash!
Suddenly, the audience chamber window shattered.
Just as Darian finished speaking, something flew in silently.