Chapter 364: That Hero, a Puppet, Yet the Star of the Show

Sunraku: "Alright... the frontline base is basically right in front of us now, but before we get there, let's work out the plan for our original objective."

Tottori: "Original...? Ah—oh, yeah. I remember. I remember. Escorting the king and princess, right? Yeah."

He forgot. This guy definitely forgot.

Sunraku: "Tottori, more like birdbrain, huh? No, wait—I'm normally the one with a bird head. C'mon, laugh, Deep Throater."

Deep Throater: ".........Hahaha."

I'd thought it would take a hell of a lot of work to peel this guy's mask off, but just look at that face. You can't fake a smile like that through acting alone—the kind of pained smile a wife dependent on an abusive husband might force out even after he's hit her.

Emul: "Even so, Sunraku-san, you've been wearing quite a few different heads lately, haven't you?"

Lately I've been scheming to somehow get my hands on one of the horse heads you can get as starter gear. If I checked Firstia, one somebody sold might have made its way onto the market... but going back there again is just...

It's like I have nothing but bad memories there now. Like my body itself rejects the place. Kind of the same feeling as hesitating to use a bathroom stall again a few days after finding an unflushed number two left sitting in it.

Sunraku: "Whatever. Like you just remembered, those two... ahem, His Majesty and Her Highness are currently being targeted for assassination by the Third Knight Order, who are the usurper king's pawns."

And since their best chance to assassinate them got wrecked by me and Scarlet Scar... or rather, the former Scarred, their only options now are to wait for the royals to die somewhere in the jungle or go after them once they make it back alive.

Sunraku: "The original plan was to hide them among the elves and bring them to the Three Gods Faith's church in the New Land, which was supposed to be the goal... but if we're doing this, I figure we might as well make it more direct and thorough."

Deep Throater: "...Ooh, nice. I'm getting chills... So, what're we doing?"

Sunraku: "You're the key, Tottori."

Tottori: "Me!?"

Sunraku: "In a way, this is something only you can pull off."

Let's see. If I had to give it a name... "Operation Hero," I guess.

.........

......

...

Deep Throater: "Ah, ah... ahem. Hear ye, hear ye! His Majesty King Toravante and Her Highness First Princess Aria have returned! Make waaay!!"

His booming voice rang through the frontline base like it was cutting the air apart.

The pioneers active around the frontline base—or, put another way, the gamers playing SLF first thing in the morning—turned toward the commotion. What entered their sight was one player who seemed to be the source of the voice, with two NPCs standing behind him.

Normally, the scene might have caught a few eyes before everyone immediately lost interest. But the raid-monster defeat announcement had only just gone out, leaving the players in a kind of heightened state—sensitive, you could say, to anything that smelled like an event. So they turned their whole bodies toward the sudden little performance and watched to see what would happen.

Julian: "—Your Majesty. Your Highness as well. I am relieved to see you both safe."

And then, with timing so perfect that several players looked around wondering where they'd come from, dozens of knights appeared. Not one of them was a player; every last one was an NPC. The knight order surrounded the king, the princess, and the female mage avatar who had brought the two of them there.

Deep Throater: "Oh my, if it isn't the famous Virility Sword..."

Julian: "Killing Sword."

Deep Throater: "Lord Julian of the Virility Sword, isn't it?"

Julian's temple twitched. The knight commander wore at his hip a sword other than the famous blade synonymous with him, but he kept smiling as he approached the royal father and daughter and the female mage avatar who had escorted them.

Julian: "Give me your name. In due time, you will be rewarded for the achievement of bringing His Majesty here."

Julian held out his hand as if to say, Now hand them over. The knight order likewise directed silent pressure toward the mage avatar.

Knights protecting a king was perfectly ordinary. There should have been nothing strange about it. And yet anyone who knew the Third Knight Order's true scheme could have spotted the inconsistencies in this situation easily enough.

For one, the royals had already been targeted for assassination once, yet showed no sign of fear whatsoever under these circumstances.

For another, the bizarrely dressed pioneer who had rescued the royals was nowhere to be seen.

And then there was the mage facing the knights: Deep Throater, a player with a rather suggestive name, standing ready to begin fighting at any moment even though the knight order in front of him was supposed to be the destination of the royal escort.

The longer the strange silence continued, the more the surrounding players began to realize that something was wrong. But even so, no one jumped into the space between the knight order and the royals to find out what that wrongness meant.

Because if this situation turned out to be the "correct" one, any outsider who barged in would just look like an obnoxious busybody. Everyone had that same worry in the back of their mind.

Unidentified Player 1: "Uh... should we step in?"

Unidentified Player 2: "I dunno. Jumping into someone else's quest when we're not even in their party is kinda..."

And so a bizarre double encirclement took shape: the knight order surrounding the king, and the rubbernecking players surrounding the knights. Everyone was trying to judge how the situation would develop, and nobody could bring themselves to move.

Tottori: "Hold it right there!!"

And if that was the case, then the one who could loose a single arrow into this tension would undoubtedly be called a hero.

Julian: "Who goes there!"

As Julian slowly edged toward Deep Throater—and the king behind him—an arrow buried itself in the ground right at the very tip of his advancing right foot.

Julian drew his sword and barked sharply at the insolent attacker who had launched an ambush unworthy of the very name of chivalry. One voice answered him.

Tottori: "Uh, um... You cowardly knight! If you... do not wish to have that hand, stained by... wickedness? shot through, then stand back!"

Julian: "...Show yourself!"

Tottori: "Huh...? But my ambush advantage... What? Come out? Fine, fine... Ah, Hesh, don't run off. Right... Very well!!"

There was some indistinct muttering, but the culprit who had fired the arrow accepted Julian's demand and emerged from the jungle that concealed countless monsters.

Julian: "You... who are you? You appear to be a pioneer... You understand what it means to draw a bow against the Third Knight Order, I presume?"

Tottori: ".........Right, I remembered it... H-how absurd! What is wrong with drawing a bow against one who has become the usurper king's puppet and turns his blade on the very royal family he ought to serve... uh...!"

The sudden intruder was a young man. Aside from the unfamiliar slingshot mounted on his arm, any player who had made it to the frontline base would recognize his gear as equipment meant for archers. He stepped forward slowly, delivering a speech that kept breaking off in suspiciously unnatural places.

Tottori: "My name is Tottori—Tottori the Shimahne! E... ngh, I'll get you two for this... I am the one who takes up the bow as the hero of the elves!!"

Deep Throater: "Woo-hoo! Hero-sama, sooo coooool!!"

For one instant, Tottori glared at Deep Throater—who had heckled him—as if he meant to shoot him dead. Then he immediately turned back toward the knight order, raised the slingshot mounted on his arm, and grinned fearlessly.

And then came the final spark, exactly as the masterminds who had staged this whole situation had planted it in their puppet hero, ready to ignite the fuel.

Tottori: "Sorry, but I've got no intention of obeying a usurper king who plans to treat the demi-humans of the New Land as slaves. And I sure as hell won't obey you people when you're trying to assassinate the king and first princess for him!!"

A greater wave of unrest than ever swept through the players. Tottori had just dumped a flood of information on them. More importantly, though, NPCs were now emerging from the jungle one after another—NPCs with features clearly different from both players and the NPCs of the old continent.

Julian: "Y-you... and those people... Don't tell me...!"

Tottori: "Elf lovers across the country! I kept my promise!! Now lend me your strength to protect the elves!!"

His cheeks were slightly red with embarrassment, but his fearless grin also carried the joy of knowing that, at this very moment, he was the center of everything. Tottori the Shimahne took one more step forward to protect the king and the first princess.

Meanwhile, Mastermind A was howling with laughter behind the scenes, and Mastermind B was standing right onstage, grinning and heckling him.