บท 13: Prank
Finishing my tour of the castle, we were left wondering what to do now.
We have yet to encounter anyone who knows where to take me or what to do, and I addressed that to Jacques.
"Shall we go to the servant's area or anywhere with some authority who might know what to do?" I asked.
"Hmm… I haven't a clue. The servants have no proper area, the closest thing to an authority figure in the castle besides the king is the few aristocrats staying here temporarily, the head servant, and people like the Grand Master of the Knight's Order. The head servant is your best chance, the rest of them don't have any 'official' authority over the castle. So then, let us go."
"We can only hope. And I appreciate your help, Jacques."
"It is a pleasure."
Apparently, Jacques knew his way around the castle very well. Not surprising, considering he's a doctor deemed professional enough to have an apprentice. A doctor knowing his way around the castle is imperative, how would they be able to reach patients otherwise?
And how irresponsible is this king? He hasn't done anything for his supposed guest so far at least; I've just been wandering around with little clue as to what's going on.
We arrived at the kitchen, and this is where the head servant was, most of the time. At least, according to Jacques.
Rather than encountering him inside the kitchen, like he should've been at this time, he was walking outside.
"Ah! Jacques," he said, rushing towards us. "How have you been? And who is this?"
"I have been well, Archibald. This is Sir Nero, he is a recent guest in the castle. I came here to bring him to you. The knights that brought him to me went to execute my orders, and I haven't a clue on what to do now."
"You found the guest!? Perfect! I've been trying to find him, we've given him a room near his daughter's to stay in, can I take him off your hands and deliver him there?"
"I didn't know you had a daughter, Sir Nero? And yes, do whatever you like, Archibald. I am not one to object."
"...Yes, I do have a daughter."
That I want to curb stomp.
"Then she must be a cute little child. It was nice meeting you, Sir Nero, I would have enjoyed conversing with you more, though we should see each other again."
"Good day."
Jacques began walking away, presumably back to his post or to explain why he was gone.
On second thought, he probably already did that before we left.
I should steal one of those plague doctor suits, they're menacing. Menacing to the point where, while wearing one, I could probably terrify an enemy.
Imagine a maniac dressed in the clothes of a disease doctor walking towards you with a weaponized cane, ready to spray miasma in your face and beat you black and blue.
It will make the average Japanese person soil their trousers; they shall be shaking in their boots.
Beginning to follow the head servant, Archibald, he began apologizing profusely to me.
"I am terribly sorry about leaving you alone all day," he said while guiding me around. "Treating a guest of the king like this is shameful."
I want to respond with something like; "Just don't let it happen again," but I can't.
"It is not a problem. Now, my room is near my… daughter's?"
"Yes, in fact, we are nearly there. How have you been spending your time? I hope it wasn't too dull."
"Not at all. Jacques showed me around the castle, and it's quite amazing. It wasn't dull."
"That is a relief to hear. I'll have to thank Jacques for doing this, though, knowing him, he most likely did it out of both kindness and a desire to skip work."
Archibald stopped and turned towards a room near him, pointing to it. "That is your room. That is your daughter's room," he said, pointing to a room right across from mine. "Contact someone if you need help with anything."
"Very well. Thank you."
Walking into my room, I closed the door behind me and checked it out. Even though it was a castle's room, it wasn't very special. It's not like I expected anything, considering that it's the medieval era. Medieval castles were a show of prestige and luxury, however, so it's not like it was some peasants room; it had some decor and style in it, especially considering it's a guest room, and kings generally like to impress their guests. Although it was mostly a plain, wooden room, without much sign of furniture outside of a bed and desk, it was kept in good condition and the furniture was carved from somewhat expensive red-brown rosewood with thick, dark-brown veins.
Checking around the room in case there was anything harmful, I found nothing. I don't know if someone wants to assassinate me or something, so it's better to check.
It's just paranoia and I know that, but what else am I supposed to do? Stay in a room that has been prepared by people I don't trust without being suspicious whatsoever?
Alright. Time to do what I've been dreading.
{Silica? Are you the-}
{NERO! A-ahem, what is it?}
…
That little whore just interrupted me and pretended it didn't happen.
{...Nothing. Where are you?}
{In my room. The king and I finished talking a little while ago, and he had a servant bring me here. Where have you been? I tried not to talk in the mental link, like you asked by the way.}
{I've been, to be frank, lost in the castle. I got a tour of it though, so it fixes the problem. And nice job on that mental link restraint Silica, I'm proud of you.}
No wonder I was more relaxed during that tour, it's because Silica wasn't talking.
And she only mentioned that mental link thing because she wanted praise, so I gave her that. I dislike doing anything of this sort, but I'll do so if I have to.
{Thanks! So where are you now?}
{In my room.}
{Where is that?}
{I have no clue.]
{Oh…}
I'll take this chance to establish some sort of "camaraderie" or "friendship" among us.
Well, that's a lie. I can't get my revenge against her for annoying me by fighting her, so I have to look for alternatives that will achieve the same effect of inconveniencing her at the very least, making her suffer at most.
I am a petty man, and it is my moral obligation to inconvenience everyone who is different from me. Especially little devils.
Opening my room door and closing it behind me, I walked into the hallway and stood in front of her door.
{Say, what did you and the king talk about?}
Saying that to distract her, I waited until she began talking.
{He talked about all his ancestors, the history of the castle, his bloodline, the meanings behind each artefact he held in the throne room, just some stuff I wasn't interested in. He also gave me some drink, he said it would help me calm down. Don't worry though! I tried to look interested!}
By the time she said "about", I had begun opening the door slowly. The hallway wasn't that bright and the room was brighter with the candles in there, so there wasn't any indication of light displacement or shadows to show I was entering. The door was squeaky, as an old-fashioned and brutish door from medieval Europe would've been, but not overly squeaky. It was manageable. If I was trying to rob this place while she was sleeping, I'd bash open the door as quickly as possible and make as little noise in the shortest time frame, but she is awake.
The door slid open, inch by inch, making relatively little noise if I was slow with it.
{Good job with that. So, any more news?}
{Not really, the knight that led me here left as soon as we came, and I haven't spoken with anyone but the king since you left. Oh yeah! So what will we do for the dinner situation, since you won't be there?}
The door had opened far enough for me to squeeze myself through by now, and I had a peek inside. Silica was sitting on a chair that seemed too large for her, facing opposite to me, and swinging her legs around like an energetic child.
Apparently, she was focused enough on our conversation that she didn't notice anything.
{We don't know enough about it to come to a decision. We don't even know when it'll happen- oh nevermind, did he tell you when the dinner is?}
Squeezing myself through the gap slowly, my muscles opened up the door a little bit, but there wasn't much of a creak. Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly.
I should become an assassin if this is so easy.
{He told me that the dinner will start "when the sun is at its zenith" and that it will end "when the sun goes down", whatever that means.}
What? She doesn't know what that means? Are you joking with me?
Is my teammate really that much of an idiot?
I was now over halfway through the gap, and it would only take one more step to go all the way.
Taking that final step was simple, and all I needed to do now was pull the rest of my body through.
Good thing that no one has passed through the hallway, otherwise I'd be gutted for "trespassing into a maiden's room when she's unaware" or something like that.
Though, now that I say that out loud, I should really go faster.
{The "sun at its zenith" part means that it'll start when the sun is directly over us, around noon, and when it goes down is when it will end when the sun sets and nightfall begins. At least, that's what I'm assuming because he phrased it weirdly. The "when it goes down" part I mean.}
I'm all the way through the gap.
Now, should I close the door behind me slowly, having to take it slowly and take more time to close it, or should I leave it open?
Close it. If Silica decides to be loud, then I'd really rather not have the door open. Better be safe than sorry.
Turning around and starting to close the door, extremely slowly, I hoped she would stay like this. If not, I'll have to try and entertain her more through the mental link.
{What!? I have to stay at dinner with the king for basically the whole day?!}
Has she become entitled after a day of being treated like a noblewoman?
I've finished closing the door behind me, the only thing to do now is to make sure the floorboards aren't squeaky. If a floorboard squeaks and she sees me, I'm done for.
Well, not done for. This isn't that serious, but at least the 'prank' would be done for.
Thinking about my actions right now, I began to hate this girl even more.
Why couldn't I have been stuck with someone who's at least an adult? I'm literally babysitting at this point; I have to cater to her every need, comfort her, praise her for doing the smallest things, and now I have to act like a child myself, pulling pranks on her to strengthen our relationship.
I reached the area right behind her.
Hmm… standing here, I realize how easily I could strangle her right now.
Breaking her neck is another fairly simple option, just wrapping my hands around her neck and twisting.
Knocking her out is even easier, all I have to do is hit her hard enough to send her into darkness, then throw her to the ground and continue the barrage.
It would be easy, with my enhanced body. The only difference any of these options will make is how loud, painful or long the death will be; the outcome would always be the same.
I stopped the hands that were reaching for her nape of their own volition, and continued the conversation.
I can't kill her yet.
Then I would die too. The Japs would have won. That can't happen.
{You can do it for me, can't you? Not going or looking sad over it would hurt the king, having a good relationship with him is important.}
{...Yeah, I guess you're ri-}
Clapping my hands right next to her ear in the middle of her response, she didn't respond very positively to the situation.
After all, my enhanced strength loudened the noise quite a bit. It sounded like a balloon just popped next to her ear.
"EEEEEEK!" And then jumping up from her spot on her bed, falling over, and then face planting on the carpet.
From there, she began breaking down into sobs, and began saying things like, "NOO BOGEYMAN PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"
Looking at her sobs and pitiful screaming, I had a realization about my actions.
Her screaming will lead people here, and saying "please don't kill me" doesn't help the situation.
…
Do I strangle her temporarily to keep her quiet? No, that would ruin our future relation-
No. Stop thinking and take action.
Stifling her words and sobs by putting my hands over her mouth, I quickly picked her up and put her on the bed, and began comforting her in case what I suspected happened.
And it did. What I thought would happen, did happen.
Two knights burst into the room, looking around for an enemy and finding none. One of them lowered his visor and began speaking to us, or more accurately, me.
"What happened here?! We heard a girl screaming, pleading for mercy!"
"Please, stop yelling! My daughter is still trying to calm down…"
Every time I call her my daughter, I lose brain cells. If she starts seriously considering me as her surrogate father in this new world or something, I will gut her. Painfully.
Turning towards Silica with a "concerned" expression, I began comforting her, as much as it disgusted me. "Are you alright?"
I only got a bunch of crying in response.
"So? What happened?" he said, lowering his voice and calming down too, as everything seems under control.
"My daughter had a nightmare, she suffers from these every once in a while. Everything is under control, you can go."
Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it…
"...I see. My condolences. Men, false alarm. Let us go."
They began to walk out of the room, closing the door behind them.
…I hate kids, especially her. She nearly got me executed with that reaction.
Some may say, 'Oh but she's just a kid, you can't expect anything from her! How dare you do that!' but in China, if a kid got scared of something like this, they'd get disowned.
If Guoanbu break into your house and turn up behind you, then you'd better stand to attention and not show any signs of nerves, or they'll take you for execution as a traitor to the motherland.
What the hell was so scary about this to her?! It was just a fucking loud noise, how is she SCREAMING for mercy from it?!
Sigh… the more time I spend with this girl, the more I despise her.
How can someone be so easy to hate when they're not even trying?
And how can someone be so cowardly?
Turning to Silica, I remembered one crucial fact.
She's Japanese, she'd cry over seeing her own shadow. She probably cried over seeing her clone.
An entitled brat.
Though, I acknowledge that it was also a major miscalculation on my part. Japanese culture doesn't encompass things like 'non-hysterical social interaction,' so pulling something like this was rash on my part.
But it was her fault more than it was mine, plus she is a devil.
Therefore, I am innocent.
"So? Are you alright?"
She was still sniffling over the experience, but she responded. "Wh-why d-did you d-d-do that?"
…
Such a baby.
"...I thought I should see you before the dinner, but I was talking over the mental link and didn't say 'hello.' I'm sorry if I scared you."
A complete lie. She should be glad that this quest's conditions include "if she dies, I die", otherwise I would've strangled her by now.
I was this close to snapping her neck.
"I-it's okay…"
She tried to be "strong" and show that she was fine, but her sniffling and teary eyes didn't help with that act.
Luckily, something came up to distract us from this stupid topic.
[THE SCENARIO HAS BEEN KICKSTARTED. THE HIDER AND SEEKER WILL BE CHOSEN FOR EACH TEAM.
For your team:
Hegemaniac: Seeker
Silica: Hider
For the opposing team:
(SPIN THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE; IF IT LANDS ON A WINNING SPACE, YOU ARE TOLD THE HIDER AND SEEKER OF THIS MATCH; IF IT LANDS ON A LOSING SPACE, THEN YOU ARE LEFT IGNORANT.)
Choose who will spin the wheel.
|Hegemaniac/Silica|]
Do I use it as a peace offering?
Nope. I don't trust her luck, meanwhile, I am the Child of Fortune.
At least, that is what I choose to believe.
"Do you want me to do it?" I asked her.
She's nervous right now, I doubt she'd feel up to it.
"S-sure, it doesn't m-matter anyways."
Ignoring her never-ending sniffling, I clicked on the "Hegemaniac" button, and a wheel of slots appeared in the display screen, hiding where the information about the opposing team would show.
Alright luck, don't fail me now.
I clicked the button that I assumed would spin the wheel, and it spun.
The wheel, a thing of white and gray, spun wildly, not slowing down.
The wheel had many spaces where the pointer could land when it finished its rotations, and they were color-coordinated.
Rather than notches slowing down the wheel by hitting the pointer, this one just had colored spaces.
Each spot colored red was a losing space, and each spot colored green was a winning space.
And even after a minute, it wasn't slowing down.
"...Is it broken?" I asked no one in particular.
It can't be broken, even this Japanese-made game can't be that imbecilic.
It began slowing down, and it landed on…
…Nothing. It landed on the edge in between a red and green space.
Exactly in between a red and green space, the pointer stood still.
What?
POV Switch - 1st (Darthy)
I just became an overseer to these players' trials, and my job is to sabotage Hegemaniac wherever I can.
The first chance I had to sabotage him was by rigging the wheel, so they don't get the information on the other "team".
Naturally, I'd rather not do any work, so I did the least amount of work possible.
I rigged the wheel to be unable to land on the winning, green space.
I didn't rig it to fall on the red, losing space, because that would've required extra work.
I mean, that's all I'd need to do. There's only two colors, if it's kept from landing on one, it has to land on the other.
It's much easier than rigging an election.
So, the wheel landed on the space in between a red and green space.
In other words, while he didn't win, he didn't lose, either.
…HAHAHA! That's hilarious!
How much more entertainment will this guy show me?
Oh, and what should I do now? Making him redo it and rigging it properly would be incredibly boring, so I need to come up with a compromise.
While he didn't win, he didn't lose either. You could say that it was a half-loss, or a half-win. Like the glass of milk thing; is it half full or half empty?
In his perspective, it's a half-win, because he didn't lose, despite the odds being stacked against him, and in my perspective, it's a half-loss, because I didn't win, despite having every advantage.
So, since it's a halfway kind of thing, I'll give half the rewards.
Beginning to type out the system message, I finished it, and read over it once before submitting.
[Due to not winning, but not losing, either, you have been declared a half-winner. Therefore, you get half of the rewards.
Enemy Hider: Edward III
Enemy Seeker: (Not Available)
Congratulations.]
I chose to give away the hider rather than the seeker… by "choosing to give away the hider", I mean flipping a coin and it landed on the side I had designated to the hider, so I gave that.
The less work, the better.
When there's no work, it's best.
But I can't rest for now, sadly. Xing had arranged to meet me, so I should probably hightail it over there. He probably has more to offer than Yui, so I'm sure I can get something out of this.
(A/N: I'm sorry for the fewer amount of updates these two weeks, but I've been busy setting up a local Christmas event, plus I'm tired, so… I can't do much about it. Sorry not sorry I guess?
The thing I am actually sorry for though is putting you all through the Silica Arc while releasing slower than usual; if you couldn't tell, I hate writing this character and regret adding her. But it's alright, there's no way she lasts for long. If she stays, then I'd no longer be able to keep writing, and there's no way that some pathetic Japanese female will force me out of my own novel. Anyways, I'll just take this chance to address what probably most of you are thinking: no, Silica will not stay with MC throughout the story. In terms of plot time, she's only with him for a couple of days, it'll just feel like more when reading (or writing) since Silica is insufferable and annoying and Japanese.
Hopefully that alleviates some concerns and excuses me for being a little slower with the updates lately. Have a nice day and I hope you're all doing well.)
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