Chapter 101
What is Emergency Revival Mode supposed to be, too?
Thinking that, I looked at the water spirit that had appeared before Mirne.
It wasn't Undine. The water spirit I had taken from Mirne was with me.
Then it must have been created temporarily, which meant the number of mods she had installed was beyond my ability to gauge.
'Still, the timing is awfully fortuitous.'
Mirne happened to be here right when I visited the Fairy Kingdom.
If I hadn't caught her in the act, Mirne would have carried out one of her schemes.
I looked at Mirne and Beastman Creed as they hurried out of the Fairy Kingdom.
Then I checked the method of gaining recognition from the beastman race that had just been granted to me.
"Haha."
As soon as I checked the method, a laugh naturally escaped me.
In truth, I had been curious about many things concerning beastmen.
Elves, fairies, and giants were each single races, but
every beastman belonged to a different species, so I had wondered how I could gain recognition from all of them.
Even if they were all beastmen, dogs and monkeys would have completely different ways of life.
Unless there was a kingdom where all animals lived together peacefully, I really wondered how they decided on a representative of the beastmen.
But.
'So there was a method like this.'
The advantage was telling me that there was no need to choose a representative of the beastmen in that manner.
Why was Beastman Creed a lion beastman who openly displayed his lion's mane?
That was because the law of the jungle applied extremely strongly to the beastman race.
The strongest beastman represented the beastman race.
The larger and smaller differences arising from species differences were left for each species to decide among themselves,
but the direction in which the beastman race as a whole should move was determined by the strongest beastman.
Therefore, the method of gaining recognition from the beastmen was also extremely simple.
'Does that mean I just have to find a beastman suitable to serve as their representative and actively support him?'
Then how was I supposed to find that representative?
The advantage neatly resolved this as well.
[ The location of a beastman suitable to serve as the representative of the beastmen is being identified immediately. ]
[ The location of Beastman Vark has been marked on the Empire map. ]
'It handles everything for me from beginning to end. Does that mean Emergency Revival Mode is that absurd?'
Since it could create a water spirit that had not existed moments ago and make me avoid suspicion, it seemed like a mod that forcibly patched up causality.
The fortunate thing was that it at least had a penalty.
'But it's frustrating that every time I pressure Mirne like this, she always has some means of responding.'
If not for the system, she would have been a truly hopeless enemy to face.
How had the Crown Prince continued regressing while holding on to hope even in such utterly hopeless situations?
'I had heard there was even a time when she erased the Kingdom of Maselin for no reason, only to suddenly reappear absurdly powerful.'
As expected, I had to remove the mods that were the root cause.
Even if I harmed Mirne right now, she would use the mods to restore everything to its original state.
To stop her from pulling such tricks, I needed to remove her protagonist privilege.
But how was I supposed to remove it?
Was there even a way to remove it in the first place?
As I thought that inwardly and once again began walking toward the Fairy Kingdom,
- In the end, Mirne too has no choice but to follow the laws of this world
- Even if she plays ambiguously at the boundary of those laws, what matters is that she is still included within that boundary
The Crown Prince's memories surfaced as though they had been waiting for this moment.
This time, they did not merely surface—it was as though waves were crashing over me.
- Then couldn't we do the same?
- If my regressions are also possible because they lie at the boundary of the laws
I could feel the Crown Prince's rage.
- Then the first thing I must do is kill the gods beside Mirne with the Second Sword
- I must deal with the artificial gods created solely for Mirne
- The biggest problem is Romper
Which regression was this memory flowing into my mind from?
I could not measure it precisely, but it was definitely from a late-stage regression.
- I must kill Romper
- Because he affects Mirne the most
- Of course, the best method would be to bring the Holy Kingdom under the Empire's heel, but I have never succeeded with that method even once.
Was he writing a memoir?
The Crown Prince continued listing the things he needed to do, and then
- The next thing necessary is to be recognized as a noble
- More precisely, I must be recognized as an irreplaceable existence whom no one in the world can replace
- To do that, the Empire must not fall. At present, the position of the Empire's Crown Prince is irreplaceable on the continent
- When the Crown Prince and a noble title are combined, one becomes a peerless existence
At last, he got to the main point.
- And the moment I become a noble, I can obtain the treasures of the other races through legitimate procedures
- If I had those... and combined them all into a single sword
- I would surely be able to cut away the absurdities surrounding Mirne
Was this the reason I needed to obtain a noble title? And the reason I had to procure the materials myself?
As I thought about that, Luminix and I had already arrived in front of the walls of the Fairy Kingdom.
"Come to think of it, Luminix, weren't you the king of the Fairy Kingdom?"
"That's right."
"Then instead of coming all the way to the walls, it seems we could have flown directly to the royal palace. Was there a reason for this?"
"Since this is also my first visit after leaving my post, I wanted to observe more closely how they have been living. I apologize for not telling you in advance."
"No. You were away for a long time, so I understand."
I agreed with Luminix and suppressed my presence as much as possible.
And the same was true of Luminix.
With our presences completely suppressed, we hid our appearances as well and crossed the wall.
What greeted us was
"Ah... The continent has been really boring lately. They aren't even having any wars."
"That confession attack was so much fun. Don't they do things like that anymore?"
"Can it really be true that there isn't a single piece of news anywhere on the continent exciting enough to make my brain tingle?"
"Come to think of it, as far as I know, a few people came over from the Eastern Continent recently. Why aren't they causing any trouble?"
"I wish they would cause trouble. My body has been heavy because of the recent curse, so moving around isn't easy. Watching things is my only pleasure, you know."
The fairies were wandering around looking utterly listless, their arms hanging limply at their sides.
The fairies were also extremely small. Except for those who had deliberately enlarged themselves, most of them were about the size of a human palm.
Those fairies walked around with something like a holographic screen floating right in front of their eyes.
It was exactly like people in a futuristic city walking around wearing virtual-reality devices.
'Of course, they were fairies instead of people.'
As we carefully moved around without touching the fairies,
we naturally recalled the conversation we had just heard.
'What could make their bodies heavy because of a recent curse? You should have borne most of the curses yourself.'
'That part puzzles me as well. I even bore the source of the curse myself and eliminated it... I cannot imagine why they would say the curse has grown worse recently.'
Communicating with Luminix through gestures, glances, and the shapes of our mouths, we continued toward the royal palace.
'But if they walk around at the size of a palm, why do the walls and houses, along with most other things, resemble those of humans so closely?'
'Because they most enjoyed watching humans. Perhaps because of that influence, they seem to have arranged most things to resemble the environments where humans live, regardless of their own body shapes.'
So did that mean the entire fairy race was completely obsessed with human culture?
That must have been why they kept saying that humans had not been doing anything interesting lately.
Even while suffering from the curse, they remained obsessed with the dopamine produced by humans.
In the midst of that, I saw an entirely different possibility.
'Then are the fairies currently peeking all over the place, with peepholes opened throughout the continent?'
If I could only use that more strategically,
the Empire's intelligence unit would come to use the name Eye of the Continent instead of Eye of the Empire.
Mirne must have come to the Fairy Kingdom knowing this.
The moment I reached that conclusion,
"Luminix, I'm sorry, but we should stop checking on the citizens here."
I immediately released my concealment.
"A human! A human!"
"How did a human get in here?!"
"No, he isn't just a human! He's the Crown Prince of the Empire!"
"Watch your words! You'll die! You could die! If you touch the Empire's fire, you'll just die!"
"Get flat! Watch his expression!"
Why had Mirne withdrawn so readily?
Could this really have been Mirne's first visit?
The moment those two questions came to mind, I propelled myself straight toward the royal palace.
Luminix immediately released his concealment as well and followed me, matching my movements.
"It's Luminix!"
"Our king!"
"How is the king together with His Highness the Crown Prince?"
"The pact! The pact has been fulfilled! Our king is in fairy form!"
"Then shouldn't the curse have disappeared completely? Why are we still cursed?"
Hearing the voices from behind us made me even more certain.
That jar containing the calamity said to have come from the Eastern Continent.
Could there really be only one?
I naturally thought there couldn't be.
The fact that they were a curious race also bothered me.
"Are you heading straight to the royal palace?"
"More precisely, I need to go meet the king now."
Who was the most curious person in the Fairy Kingdom?
And who was most capable of actively satisfying that curiosity?
'The king.'
A fairy temporarily acting as king in Luminix's absence.
Bang!
The moment I saw the royal palace, I leaped toward it and lightly slashed through the wall blocking my way.
I had no time for this.
If Mirne had come here now to harvest what she had sown until this point,
today was undoubtedly the most dangerous day the Fairy Kingdom had ever faced.
In fact.
"Everyone, cease all activity."
The first thing I witnessed as soon as I arrived at the audience chamber inside the royal palace was
"...Gulp."
the sight of fairies holding brushes up to a painting that looked obviously sinister.
'The more I think about it, the only way to describe it is insane.'
Had she scattered calamities herself, intending to retrieve them and play the hero?
Since she could not tamper with the pact, was this her way of earning the fairies' trust?
It was time to smash that laughable scheme.
Of course.
'You worked hard, Mirne.'
I'll take all the rewards for myself, too.