ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 327 Part 2
ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 327: Wolf Licking Its Wounds in the Night’s Shadows Part 2
In that case, it would have been relatively safe and easy, but…… There was no sense in making predictions this early during the quest.
Was it intuition? Or maybe just a coincidence? One of the knights broke off from the formation and approached my location to investigate, so I backed away a little bit and used Gravity Zero to hand upside down from a tree branch in order to avoid detection.
Oh brave or stupid knight, if this was a horror game, you would be my very first victim here. This was a perfect opportunity for the attack from above, but I had to refrain from doing that. If he does not return to the formation, someone is going to raise the alarm for sure.
Stare…… I was staring at the knight from above like a bat, wondering if he even realizes just how reckless of a behavior that was. However, after a moment or two he just shook his whole body and returned to the formation as if was the most natural thing for him to do.
「…… Sanraku-san…… Falling…… we are going to fall……」
「Suck it up…… For crying out loud.」
The effect of Zero Gravity soon expires, and I land on the ground after slightly twisting my body. Ahead of me there is an open clearing, a place where the event is most probably going to proceed. Now then, let me show you my ultimate stealth techniques, which I used to assassinate various communist tyrants all over the globe as a contract killer in that one particular game.
「You people….. Do you intend to kill me? No, to kill us?」
「Yes, that is correct. You see, Your Former Majesty, your death shall become the cornerstone for the King Alex’s new and bright future.」
This person was not overweight, but it was easy to tell that he rarely seen the sight of battle throughout his life. Anyways, that middle-aged man was talking to one of the flashier-looking knights amongst the whole group, and he was visibly getting angrier by the minute. Could this knight actually be…… the rumored Sword of Desperation? It must be. He looked like an NPC that had a difficult time throughout his life.
「Julian…… I beg you to reconsider this. Think about the lives of all those who live on this continent. They have nothing to do with us, with royalty, with our superiority or inferiority.」
「What are you saying, old man? They are nothing more but vulgar and inferior barbarians…… They could never be called our equals.」
Ohh, great, just great. So he’s a racist character. I mean, every time a game features more than one race, there are people like that who is going to play some part in the story. It’s a set, like crying of cicadas in the summer…… you cannot have one without the other, or else you feel really uncomfortable. After all, for someone to flourish, someone else needs to suffer. That is the karma of good and evil.
「…… That being said, I bare no ill feeling towards demi-humans, Your Majesty. Or at least not as intense ill feeling as His Majesty the New King.」
「So then……!」
「But you see, what I want is the new type of battle. A stage upon which I could raise my battle skills and arts even higher than anyone else at the Royal Palace…… That is all. So in the end, it’s just that my own ambitions and the one of the new king simply happened to overlap to some extent.」
「Those are living beings here! Not some kind of fodder for your own martial arts or bloated ego!」
Ohh…… Nicely said, Your Majesty. Good to know, if the one in need of an escort is a good person, this will mean that the defenders are going to feel extra motivated to save them. If it was someone like Pencilgton, a tyrant giving out unreasonable orders left and right, she would have been killed long ago or her tyrannical was exposed to the general public and herself being dethroned.
What I’m worried here for is the First Princess. She was collapsed on the ground, either from exhaustion or fear, so I was unable to see her face all that well. But seeing all those knights and the King getting into fouler and fouler mood by the second…… What is this? Am I afraid here as well?
But with that, I have the background that I wanted. The new king wants to genocide or enslave the demi-humans, and the Third Knight wants to improve his swordmanship in order to be better than anyone else. The idea of battling more and leveling up, growing stronger is something I can get behind, but…… isn’t that a little bit inefficient in my opinion? If you want your skills as a person, then go and train with Pioneers, they should be more than willing to help out. As for level increasing, wouldn’t monster hunting be a better solution here? Why get the demi-humans involved? I personally recommend the Crystal Cliffs, since they are the ideal place for all that…… materials, levels, hard opponents, it has it all! And best thing yet, almost no one ever visits that place!
Sometimes I happen to see other players attacking the Crystal Cliffs out of recklessness or ignorance, but they do so from the main path, which is equal to suicide. The more efficient path here is through rock climbing, because you start with a certain safe distance from the enemies. And that’s a lot in terms of advantage. Also, Tanks are no good here when the scorpions are so many. But they can still serve for a nice meat shield from time to time.
「Julian…… At the very least, could you spare Aphilia’s life?」
「Father!」
「I am most terribly sorry, but the scale of the tragedy here is only going to increase if both the former king and the first princess are going to lose their lives. However, as knights we can guarantee you that your deaths shall be quick and painless.」
「Guh……」
What’s this, this strange buzzer inside of my heart won’t stop ringing for some reason. The recording was all done, so now all that was left was to make a dashing entrance and save both of them…… So why!? Why do I feel like taking that step is going to be like stepping right down the steep cliff overseeing a bottomless abyss!?
「Emul…… We have always kept our hearts strong, even knowing that what lies ahead of us is the certain death, right?」
「…… Eh? Yes, that’s right.」
I put away the recording device and take out my “weapon”…… And then I take a deep breath.
The Third Knight draws his sword and prepares to strike it. Perhaps for his it was just another job, yet another order to be fulfilled, since his face was devoid of all emotion, even though he was about to strike the king down…… That was when I stepped in.
「STOP RIGHT THERE!!!」
「……!? Who goes there!?」
Eh……? In this kind of situation, what is it that I should be saying? I wait for about two seconds, thinking about something…… Yes, that line should be good here.
「The malicious intent spreading over to the uncharted lands! Even the most hidden deception in the darkness cannot hope to escape my gaze! Yes! This is what the people call “Justice”!」
「Show yourself!」
「As you wish! Here!!!」
The former king and the first princess…… Following the flow of their conversation with the knights, I jumped above the tall tree right in the middle of the clearing, magic torch shining above my head. I twist my body, and I throw my big sword to the ground, letting it pierce it deeply. Then I manage to land right on top of the sword’s handle in a gesture that was taken straight out of a comic books.
「Demi-human…… No, is that a mask!? And what’s with that gaze? Is that how Justice is supposed to look like?」
「This is the look that pierces the heart and unveils evil hidden in the souls of the evil-doers……!」
Nice one, me! Nothing beat adding the flavor text of the things that you wear into your own backstory! I smile just a little bit under my nose while giving myself a virtual pat on the back. Perfect. The success rate of intimidating someone with words like that is always fifty-fifty, but this time around it looks like I managed to get the result I wanted. The only downside of this position here is that my crotch is literally going to explode the moment I happen to slip here.
Even with ShangriLa Frontier’s system in place, I have suffered some damage during practicing of that maneuver earlier today and I must say: the pain was nothing like the real deal, but the psychological trauma was still overly extensive.
「What is your name!? Let’s hear it!」
Um, let me think about it…… After five seconds have passed, I finally managed to come up with something that would be quite suiting here.
「I am the wondering sword, a sword that is swung to protect the king and the princess in accordance with the wish of the Holy Maiden!」
“Dullahan’s Decapitating Sword” and “Noble Silence”. Two weapons connected with a common background history.
And then there is also the item that I received after clearing the Unique Quest “Sorrow out of Love, True Death and True Hate”, “’Till Death Do Us Part”…… It’s ability is to combine the two weapons into one, just like their respective owners who could finally be together.
The weapon that was created as a result of combining the decapitating sword of the Black Knight and the tears of the woman who became the Grim Reaper was called “Memento Mori: Remembering Death Without Separation”. Not only its stats were great, but it also had a backstory that made it really cool.
「Wondering sword…… Protect the king, could it be that……」
「Please rest assured, Your Majesty. This wondering sword is wielded by the Three Gods themselves…… You should thank Saint Iristella later for this.」
I crack a smile here, but since I’m wearing my bird mask no one is able to see that smile beside me. However, once I start looking around the knights, my smile freezes instantly.
「…………?」
「No way, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me……」
Why? No way! Is this…… Is this ShanFro’s……!?
The First Princess, Aphilia. I thought that her eyes would be clouded with despair, but even though full of tears, her eyes did not lose their focus. It feels as though the impression was different, or maybe the graphics itself was different here, but…… I know that face. In fact, I have gazed upon it many times.
And I just continued to stare at her so intensely that I thought I might actually burn a hole through her.
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