Chapter 138: The Bloody Emperor Wants to Curse
As the saying goes, as long as... wait no, that meme's overused.
As the saying goes, the noob counters the master! Even if you're a grandmaster, a supreme overlord, or even the strongest king, you may outskill me, but you'll never predict my moves!
Because even I don't know which way I'll run—it all depends on where my mouse clicks in panic! How can you predict that? Go on, try predicting that for me!
By the same logic, as long as Hayashi stays on the first layer, Gazef—who predicted Hayashi would be on the fifth layer—has predicted nothing at all! And that's still a victory!
"Great! Since the Warrior Captain is willing to believe I'm from the Theocracy, things will be easier." Hayashi grinned cheerfully, squatting Asian-style in front of the cell as he said cheerfully, "Warrior Captain, how about working with us?"
"?"
Gazef looked bewildered. Rubbing his head, he said, "You sent people to invade the kingdom, defeated me in battle, dragged me to prison, and now you're asking if I want to cooperate with you?"
What kind of person does that?
"Ah, never mind the process—as long as the outcome is good, that's all that matters." Hayashi blinked and smiled. "As the Warrior Captain, you're from the kingdom yourself, so I don't need to explain how rotten the nobility is, right?"
"..."
Gazef fell silent.
As the Warrior Captain of the kingdom, even though his sole loyalty to the king had earned him the disdain of many nobles, he had still heard countless rumors about the kingdom's aristocracy—the shocking extent of their crimes was enough to make any morally upright person wish for their demise.
To be honest, if this were modern society, the moment any of these nobles got into trouble, the internet would undoubtedly be flooded with comments like "Good riddance, time to pop the champagne!"—though in modern society, these nobles would have been executed centuries ago, with no chance of surviving to the present day.
"You see, you're well aware of what kind of scum those nobles are. So why not cooperate with us?" Hayashi coaxed persuasively. "If your king can't bring himself to make the decision, I'll make it for him. Isn't that better?"
Unfortunately, the man before him was Gazef.
"I will never betray His Majesty," Gazef said expressionlessly, his tone resolute. "No matter how corrupt the kingdom's nobles may be, it remains the kingdom's own affair. We don't need the Theocracy interfering!"
Faced with the Warrior Captain's refusal, Hayashi wasn't the least bit disappointed. Before coming here to persuade Gazef, Hisako had already told him that given Gazef's personality, if he could be swayed, he wouldn't have willingly faced death at the end of Season 3.
Pushing himself up from his knees, Hayashi sighed helplessly. "If the Warrior Captain refuses to cooperate, then I'll have to ask you to stay here quietly for a while, sharing a cell with Clementine and Khajiit. Don't worry—you won't be here for too long."
Hearing Hayashi's words, Gazef felt no joy at the promise of an early release. Instead, he was filled with dread—he could easily guess that the day he would be freed would be the day Hayashi had finished dealing with the kingdom.
...
...
"You've done well," Hayashi said, looking at the Second and Fourth Seats behind him. After a moment's thought, he mused, "Hmm, let me think... What reward should I give you?"
"No need, no need!"
The Second Seat hurriedly waved his hands.
"Exactly! Serving His Majesty is an honor in itself!"
The Fourth Seat also waved his hands.
Both thought the same thing: 'After hearing your earlier mutterings, I'm just grateful to still be alive—how could I dare ask for a reward? As long as you don't say something like "I grant you an honorable death," I'll thank my lucky stars!'
"Ah, that won't do!" Hayashi frowned and shook his head. "Mistakes deserve punishment, and achievements deserve rewards—isn't that just common sense? If you don't reward achievements, who would be willing to work for you?"
You can't expect the horse to run without letting it graze... Wait, that phrasing sounds off—this isn't that kind of world!
The Second and Fourth Seats exchanged a glance. This master... working under him might not be so bad after all?
"What kind of reward would you like?"
"High-quality equipment?"
"Rare potions?"
"Or perhaps incredibly powerful items?"
The second seat pondered for a few seconds before saying, "Your Majesty, I need equipment that can defend against negative magic—preferably curse-type magic."
It wasn't that he was wary of the fourth seat, but after witnessing firsthand how Gazef's combat ability had plummeted due to the fourth seat's curse magic, he had developed a deep unease toward curse-type spells—he wasn't targeting the fourth seat specifically, but rather all curse magic in general.
The fourth seat clearly understood this reasoning, so she merely pouted in displeasure before saying, "Supreme One, I need some items capable of storing and releasing control magic—preferably ones that can autonomously counter and release spells to protect me from assassin-type enemies."
"One wants protection against debuff magic, and the other wants self-activating defensive and control magic, huh?" Hayashi thought for a moment before beckoning toward the shadows. "Fetch a Mercury Bracelet and a Frost Ring."
"Yes—"
Accompanied by an echoey, electronically distorted reply, a member of the hidden demon guard briefly materialized before vanishing from sight.
"Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty!"
The second and fourth seats couldn't help but exclaim in delight—truly, if you wanted a horse to run fast, you had to feed it well and keep it satisfied!
Ah, but feeding it too much wouldn't do either, or else it'd become too sluggish to run.
Don't look around—I'm talking about you, the one with the bottomless stomach!
...
...
With the Theocracy's actions, the situation across the continent underwent subtle changes.
First, in the Kingdom, the defeat of the noble forces—and even the Warrior Captain's defeat—had plunged the entire nation into an atmosphere of unease. Many nobles were privately discussing whether the Kingdom was on the verge of collapse and what they should do if that happened.
Compared to the turbulent Kingdom, the atmosphere in the Empire was far more tense. After the Bloody Emperor realized he'd been tricked by the Theocracy, he immediately prepared to teach their army a lesson.
With the Empire practically under his sole command, it took less than three days for the imperial forces to mobilize and begin advancing toward the Theocracy's border. It seemed inevitable that they would soon clash with the mixed forces Hayashi had deployed—comprising the Black Scripture, Sunlight Scripture, and the knight orders.
Just as the Emperor was eagerly anticipating the confrontation, news arrived that the Theocracy had stationed over twenty Dominion Authority summoning creatures along the border. The Bloody Emperor nearly lost it on the spot.
In the game's lore, Dominion Authorities were level 43–49 entities, a full ten levels above this world's realm of heroes (level 30+). This meant a single Dominion Authority could take on at least three Gazefs at once!
In other words, the Theocracy had effectively stationed sixty Gazefs along their border!? And they were summoning creatures!? What kind of deranged lunacy was this!?
No wonder the Emperor was cursing up a storm!
In this world, Dominion Authorities were nearly impossible for magic casters to summon on their own—they could only be summoned through rare, consumable magic items. Yet the Theocracy was wasting such precious resources on something as meaningless as border defense!?
No, if you summoned the Radiant Principalities on the battlefield, you could completely catch the Empire off guard and wipe out nearly ten thousand of their troops in a brilliant victory. But what did you use it for instead?
Guarding the border!?
The Bloody Emperor was left questioning his life.
...
...
"Kekeke, as expected of Hisako! This move is truly brilliant!"
Hayashi looked at the battle report sent back by the third seat of the Black Scripture and couldn't help but give Hisako a thumbs-up, saying, "Indeed, just having the Radiant Archangel stand at the border was enough to make the Bloody Emperor freeze in his tracks."
Hisako pushed her non-prescription glasses up her nose with a hint of pride and said, "Hmph, as long as Fluder from the Empire doesn't make a move, the border should remain largely secure with the Radiant Archangel standing guard."
Erina, sprawled lazily across Hayashi's lap, reached for a strawberry on the table and popped it into her mouth before mumbling, "Even if he does act, it doesn't matter, right? Just have the Star Spirit Sisters walk past him once, and he'll be bowing his head in submission."
"True enough—" Hayashi couldn't help but laugh at the thought of how quickly the Old Man would back down. Stroking his chin, he turned to Hisako and asked, "Hisako, what's next on the agenda?"
"Given the situation in the Kingdom, it'll take at least another week for the nobles and royalty to finish their squabbling," Hisako said with a slight sneer. "But if I had to guess, their final solution will probably be to commission the Adamantite-ranked adventurer team, Blue Roses."
Hayashi quipped, "With how this plot's unfolding, I wouldn't be surprised if Leona, Diana, and Ahri also get roped into this mission and end up invading Sky City alongside Blue Roses."
Erina, resting her feet on Pinocchio's back, burst out laughing. "What is this, the Kingdom's version of the Empire arc from Bone King's story?"
Hayashi chuckled too. "Yeah, it really does feel like that."
Hisako suppressed a smile and said, "So, for the time being, the Kingdom won't be making any moves. That means we should focus our attention on either the Empire or the Dragonkin."
"Hmm—"
Hayashi thought for a moment. "Didn't we already discuss the Empire? If we just show the Bloody Emperor our strength, he'll probably kneel on his own—we can just follow Bone King's playbook! So let's focus on the Dragonkin instead."
Hisako nodded, adjusting the files in front of her. "There are two Dragonkin we need to keep an eye on right now: the Platinum Dragon Lord and the Deep Darkness Dragon Lord. The former is one of the Thirteen Heroes and knows about Players, while the latter possesses immense strength, enough to defeat most of the Floor Guardians."