Ch.125[Chapter 125] King of Roguelike

The area around the Executive branch was engulfed in tremendous flames.

The fire was so fierce that the sky was filled with black and red smoke, unlike its usual appearance.

Unryu Hime wondered if this massive conflagration might have been caused by Sir Dominic’s airship, but she quickly shook her head.

The fire was too large and extensive to have been caused by Sir Dominic’s airship, and there were already completely burned buildings visible in various places.

Even assuming the fire had spread from the airship, stray sparks couldn’t have reduced buildings to that state in just 30 seconds.

“Lady Hime? Is something wrong?”

Ah. Hime snapped back to reality at Sir Dominic’s call.

“No! It’s just that the world is burning…”

“The world is burning, you say?”

Sir Dominic shouted with confusion.

“Could the fire have spread from the crashed airship?”

“No! It seems to have been burning before that.”

Sir Dominic moved in the direction of Hime’s voice.

His already limited vision was further narrowed by the smoke from the fire.

Hime’s voice was the only thing Sir Dominic could use to gauge direction.

“But something’s strange.”

Hime suddenly noticed something odd while looking toward the Executive branch.

“This fire, it’s centered around the Executive branch.”

“Centered around the Executive branch?”

“Yes. Centered around the Executive branch. Yet the Executive branch itself is intact.”

Hime demonstrated her kunoichi-like insight.

Piercing through the smoke and grasping the situation to some extent, Hime quickly looked around to gather additional information.

Streets strangely devoid of people.

Flames and smoke rising only from alleys where fire suppression would be difficult.

The sky, which should have been filled with aircraft dropping magic and bombs, showed nothing but dark red clouds.

Most peculiar of all was that while buildings around the Executive branch were burning, the Executive branch building itself appeared unscathed.

A remarkably bizarre situation.

“Lady Hime?”

“Ah, yes! Sir Dominic.”

“It seems my vision is too limited down here! I think you’ll need to guide me from above!”

While Hime was assessing the situation, Sir Dominic was also analyzing their current circumstances.

However, Sir Dominic’s vision was filled with hazy smoke, making it nearly impossible to see even a step ahead.

Far from analysis, he was struggling even to breathe.

Sir Dominic drew his sword and called out to Hime.

He thought that Hime, being higher up, would have better visibility, and following her guidance would be better than relying on instinct.

“Ah.”

But Hime made a troubled sound.

Identifying both the path and Sir Dominic’s position simultaneously, then coming down to relay that information seemed simple, but there were many factors to consider.

Above all, she still hadn’t located those who had attacked Sir Dominic’s airship.

Handling one task might be manageable, but dealing with two or three tasks simultaneously in this chaos was challenging even for Hime.

“What should I do.”

“If it’s difficult for you, shall I guide him?”

At that moment, Alice interjected.

Alice thought Hime was awkward with non-stealthy tasks because she was a ninja.

Though completely incorrect, it was somewhat true in a way.

This childlike misunderstanding turned out to be a great help to Hime.

Hime looked at Alice.

Alice was wearing chain mail but was registered as Sir Dominic’s ‘equipment.’

Essentially, it was as if she weighed almost nothing.

Judging that she could move with Alice if Sir Dominic would just allow him to ‘check’ this humanoid equipment, Hime called out to Sir Dominic.

“Sir Dominic! Would you allow me to see Alice?”

“…? Very well!”

Sir Dominic was puzzled by Hime’s request, but this was a situation where trust needed to be shown before questioning why.

The smoke in the alley was growing thicker, and Sir Dominic’s vision was becoming increasingly limited.

It was natural that he was finding it hard to breathe, but he was somehow enduring with his knight-like lung capacity.

The situation was too urgent to ask questions.

As soon as Sir Dominic gave his permission, Hime picked up Alice.

And she quietly said to Alice:

“We’re going to the Executive branch now. I’ll jump high, so guide Sir Dominic along the path. Since you’re connected to Sir Dominic, he should hear you even if you speak softly. Probably.”

With Hime’s words, the three divided their roles.

Hime would forge the path and eliminate dangers.

Alice would guide along that cleared path.

And Sir Dominic would move along that path.

It was like Sir Dominic was being controlled in a top-view or quarter-view game.

However, in the current situation, it was the optimal division of labor.

“Sir Dominic! Are you ready?”

“Ready whenever you say!”

Before making her final move, Hime reminded Sir Dominic of the current situation.

“Alice will guide you! Follow her instructions!”

“Understood!”

Sir Dominic nodded unconsciously, then caught himself and shouted his acknowledgment.

Hearing his voice, Hime immediately looked up toward the Executive branch.

As she paused to look through the smoke-filled alley, Hime somehow felt this situation was familiar.

…

“Master, go straight ahead and then turn left.”

Sir Dominic followed Alice’s guidance.

Walking forward with his sword drawn, he turned left at the intersection.

So far, the movement had been extremely smooth.

But in Gachaland, smooth progress is often a precursor to chaos and confusion.

Sir Dominic suddenly realized that through the thick smoke, he sensed a presence different from Hime and Alice.

The presence, initially so faint as to be almost unnoticeable, grew stronger with each step.

“Right, left, left.”

Sir Dominic turned through the alleys according to Alice’s instructions.

That’s when it happened.

From Sir Dominic’s left, he heard a voice similar to Alice’s.

“Left, left, right.”

And from the opposite side, he heard the same voice.

“Right, right, left.”

Sir Dominic was confused by Alice’s voice coming from three directions, but he quickly regained his composure.

Unlike the real Alice’s voice, the other two voices only sounded similar but were obviously awkwardly acting.

“Who goes there!”

“Eh?”

Sir Dominic looked around and roared thunderously.

From Alice’s reaction, they might not be here, but the voices sounded too close, as if spoken directly into his ear.

“Good instincts, my lord.”

“To think you could choose the correct answer here.”

Twin women in Oriental-style dresses appeared from the fog.

No, it’s unclear if they were twins.

But the women who appeared now all had similar faces, differing only slightly in clothes and hairstyles.

“Fleeting life is like dream, and. Mind is like still water.”

“That means, your life will become fleeting like dream, and your heart will quietly bleed.”

Dozens of women surrounded Sir Dominic, giggling artificially.

Sir Dominic remembered seeing this situation somewhere before.

More precisely, he had heard that broken grammar before.

During the hearing, Senator Trom, who was the leader of the close-range dealer alliance.

The side effects that appeared when he became too intoxicated by the power of Mountain Bridge Marsh.

Thinking of that time, Sir Dominic asked those surrounding him:

“Are you people from Mountain Bridge Marsh?”

At Sir Dominic’s words, the artificial giggling stopped abruptly.

“My lord, you are truly wise.”

“Always choosing correct answer.”

“But sometimes the correct answer is wrong.”

“How did you know we are from Mountain Bridge Marsh?”

The Oriental women exuded a sinister aura as they pressured Sir Dominic.

Their broken grammar and awkward acting tone combined to create an uncanny valley effect.

Sir Dominic, observing their aura, realized that passing through here easily would be impossible.

He raised his sword and rolled his remaining eye, tensing his body to counter-attack at any moment.

“Everyone, lower your auras.”

However, this situation was resolved by the appearance of a new woman.

With the arrival of a woman dressed as an empress.

…

“Master? Master?”

Alice realized that at some point, she could no longer hear Sir Dominic’s voice.

And as soon as she noticed this fact, she immediately told Hime.

“Hime… Lady Hime? Anyway, Master has disappeared!”

Hime stopped immediately at those words.

“Sir Dominic?”

“Yes! He’s not responding!”

Alice spoke tearfully.

Hime rolled her eyes, trying to figure out what was happening.

And she immediately realized that Sir Dominic had not yet experienced death.

If Sir Dominic had died, Alice, who was treated as his equipment, would have been re-summoned along with Sir Dominic’s resurrection.

But the fact that Alice was still here meant that Sir Dominic had not died.

However, that was all she could determine; there was no further information.

“I suppose…”

Hime looked back at the path she had come from.

“I’ll have to go back and find Sir Dominic.”

Thinking that he must be lost somewhere back there.