Golden Experience

*

“I think it’s a good thing, really. I’m glad, truly. Rare-chan seems to be enjoying herself every day. She chats with Lyra-san a lot, and sometimes they even have tea parties at the castle.”

Blanc, who had recently acquired the skill [Flight], was using it to overlook the capital of the country called Aural from above. The long event was now down to the last two days, today and tomorrow.

Blanc, who had allocated a significant amount of experience points to skills related to [Flight], [Summoning] and [Training], had become a [Greater Vampire], overcoming sunlight completely.

The country Aural is known for having more knights compared to other nations, and they are said to be quite formidable. Although in the recent battle, Rare didn’t seem to cause much damage, it was because the knights she faced were mainly stationed in the inner regions.

The knights responsible for guarding the capital and those deployed to the border areas were much stronger. The ability to nurture such knights is crucial for nobles to climb the social ladder in this country.

The players, however, have plenty to do in this nation. The monsters inhabiting this country are relatively strong compared to those in other countries, and the territories of these monsters are vast, or rather, deep. If you divide the territories, the deeper you go, the higher the threat level of the monsters, becoming more powerful.

The monsters on the outskirts might not pose much of a threat, but occasionally, powerful monsters from the depths may appear. To protect the city from such threats, they emphasize the training of knights.

In terms of the game, it could be considered a nation for intermediate to advanced players.

Blanc, from above, witnessed knights clashing swords in the city. It wasn’t some festival or event; they were earnestly fighting. However, their opponents were fellow knights. Human knights were in conflict with each other.

Most of them were wearing full-body armor, making it hard to tell, but they were probably humans. Like Hiers, this country also had a majority of human residents. This was mentioned in the official site’s description. While the site didn’t specify the royal family’s race, it was probably to hide the fact that they were a superior race like ‘Noble Human’. Rare and Lyra had mentioned this.

The fighting knights were divided into two groups: those heading towards the royal castle and those trying to stop them. Needless to say, the knights attacking the royal castle were Rare’s subordinates.

The city that Lyra ruled was Hugelcup, located north of Aural, but it was one of Aural’s cities. In other words, this was a coup.

“It’s good that they’ve reconciled, but… it’s a bit of a mess now.”

Originally, the two were probably close sisters. From Lyra’s attitude, it seemed like she couldn’t help but find Rare adorable, and Rare wouldn’t talk in such a manner if she really hated Lyra. So, reconciling would naturally lead to wanting to cooperate in the gameplay.

Originally, Rare only had Blanc as a friend, and Lyra in particular was a friend only through Rare. According to them, Lyra’s unique playstyle made others think she was an NPC, although it seemed she wasn’t intentionally trying to deceive them.

According to Lyra, the reason she initially sought powerful forces like the “Calamity” was to incite a coup. The motives were nothing significant—she just wanted artifacts, or perhaps she had some grudge against the royal family and wanted to pay them back 100 times.

But practically speaking, overturning a nation by playing normally was not easy. Assassinating the king might be possible by using business or positions to get close, but eliminating all members of the royal family in this way was extremely difficult.

Then the event boss, the ‘Calamity’ that destroyed Hiers’ royal capital, appeared. Thanks to Lyra’s information, the royal family escaped, but if Lyra and the so-called prime minister weren’t there, they would have been eradicated along with Hiers.

So, Lyra thought about it. If she could somehow control the ‘Calamity’ she might be able to overthrow Aural as well. The recent incident was triggered by such an idea.

However, now that she thought about it, there was no need to forcibly control the power of the calamity if she wanted to use it. If the calamity’ was just a monster, it would be difficult, but if it was a player with whom she could communicate, especially a few friends like Rare and Blanc, now in a resolved relationship, negotiation for cooperation could be attempted.

Moreover, as a player, Lyra knew that revealing the calamity’s power unnecessarily was not desirable. If she could use it without exposing it as a monster, it would be better. While controlling calamity as a monster would have required overwhelming numbers and power, if it was a player, especially a few friends, and the long-standing resentment between them was resolved, the cooperation would be smoother.

“But the result of reconciling is this chaos.”

The knights’ objective was the chaos in the city, and the knights invading the royal castle were only doing so to apply pressure. There was a considerable numerical difference between the knights of the royal capital and Lyra’s knights. They couldn’t win in a head-on confrontation, and the geographical advantage was probably on the royal capital’s side.

The fact that they could maintain the chaos was because the knights of the royal capital were also dispatched to the border areas during the event period. Lyra’s city was also located in the inner part, and they had considered such a situation, but it was canceled due to the turmoil in Hiers.

Currently, Lyra, as a player, knew that the chaos in the border area would last only until tomorrow. However, this wasn’t known to the leaders of the royal capital. They were likely still preparing to send reinforcements based on the situation, considering the ongoing battle.

Lyra, who was a player, could go deep into the castle. Once she got as close to the king as possible, she would summon the attacking force of Rare’s adopted tiger cubs. If that happened, all that remained was for Rare and Lyra to secretly cooperate and deal with the royal family inside the castle.

“… No one is coming out of the castle. Did they manage to hunt them all down? I wanted to do some work too.”

“Master.”

Azalea appeared.

“I have taken care of those presumed to be princes.”

“Eh, when did that happen?”

“On the north side of the castle, likely the passage for transporting goods, a shabby carriage and knights escorting it emerged. It seemed that there were two young men in luxurious clothing and what seemed to be attendants. I took care of them all for the time being.”

Blanc sympathized with the princes who were killed without ceremony, but considering the nature of the plan, there was no choice.

“Well, I wanted to make a contribution too. Well, if that’s the case, it can’t be helped. Okay, understood. Good job.”

“Lyra-sama mentioned that there might be a princess left, right? The king and queen should meet with Lyra-sama soon.”

“That’s right. Let’s continue searching for the princess and remain on guard. Since there’s only the princess left, if you find her, don’t kill her immediately; inform me. Lyra told me to kill her if she tries to escape, but in the plan, it was mentioned that one of the children should be used for something.”

“Understood.”