To the Imperial Palace – 2

‘For now, I should keep this as well, right?’

I carefully checked the ring I had put in my pouch. It was a ring with the crest of the Fratroid family, obtained from the Arachneinera boss room.

I didn’t know if I’d have time to deliver this, but there was no harm in keeping it just in case. It would be good if I could resolve it together while I’m at it, and even if I couldn’t, there was no loss in taking it for now.

‘Will I have some time after I go to the Imperial Palace and come back?’

It was certainly true that things had turned out well, but I hadn’t achieved a single one of the goals I had originally intended to.

I still hadn’t obtained the rune that removed the ‘battle fatigue’ debuff, and I still hadn’t defeated all the essential bosses from the early story. Yet, things I needed to do kept appearing.

Since my stats had risen, I needed to find a new weapon to use instead of the blood-stained sword, and I also needed to find dark magic to use with that new weapon, and runes to use with that dark magic.

As if there weren’t enough things to do already, with forced events even appearing, it was truly one problem after another.

At least with this summons, it was fortunate that there was an opportunity to progress the main story. As for the remaining two essential bosses, I guess I’d get a chance somehow.

I checked my attire in the mirror, and after confirming there were no flaws, I left the room.

‘Is the neck originally this tight?’

Having always worn ordinary cloth tops with ordinary cloth pants or leather pants, suddenly trying to wear a full set of uniform felt very awkward. Especially the neck part felt like it was constantly tightening.

Fiddling with the clothes around my neck, as I arrived at the main gate of the castle where the Knight Captains were waiting, I saw the four figures still dressed in white sleeveless tops and dolphin shorts.

I knew that was the Knights’ formal uniform, but I never imagined they’d truly be dressed like that even when having an audience with His Majesty the Emperor. To think that the attire for meeting His Majesty the Emperor was casual wear. It was a terrible thing.

Unlike when they went to meet the Pope, none of the four were wearing armor. According to them, since the purpose was the audience itself, not protection, wearing armor would actually be more disrespectful, they said.

Yet, they wore it perfectly fine when they went to meet the Pope, and I wondered what on earth was going on, but I decided to just assume there was some etiquette I didn’t know.

“I’m here.”

As I waved my hand towards the Knight Captains who were gathered closely and loitering at the main gate of the castle, the heads of the four simultaneously turned this way.

And as soon as they saw me, all of them had their eyes wide open.

Rije stared at me with a face that looked completely dumbfounded, and Erica was similar. Not only was Claudia no different, but even Iris looked half-frozen.

Bewildered by the Knight Captains’ reaction, I opened my mouth.

“What’s going on? Why are you all suddenly like this?”

“Ah, no… It’s just that, the clothes, they suit you so well…?”

“Huh?”

At Rije’s stammered words, I lowered my head and scanned my body. It was a uniform that was black overall, with golden embroidery stitched in places.

Since it was an outfit that looked much more splendid than the uniform Kaikilia wore, when I subtly asked if it was okay for me to wear clothes more splendid than the Emperor’s, Aurora truly laughed as if she would choke.

She said she was grateful for my high praise of the clothes she chose, but that even flattery should have its limits. I ended up having flattered Aurora’s fashion sense to my heart’s content.

But what was I supposed to do if it was really like that?

While my uniform had many decorations overall and was incredibly splendid, the only decoration on Kaikilia’s uniform was a golden emblem on the shoulder. The rest was just plain black.

Considering the fact that she was the Emperor of the Empire, it was clearly an outfit that belonged to the rather modest side, but it seemed that in other people’s eyes, it wasn’t like that.

“Hey, Rije. Your jaw will drop like that. It’s fine if you look at Delta, but would it hurt to close your mouth while looking?”

“……”

Claudia, who was the first among the four to recover to her original state, closed Rije’s gaping mouth with her hand. But as soon as she closed it, she saw it immediately open again and sighed, ‘Ugh.’

“What’s wrong with Erica now? She’s completely lost her mind, just like her sister, as a pair?”

And Erica also had an expression that was almost as dumbfounded as Rije’s. Seeing both of them with their mouths agape and vacant eyes, I thought, ‘Sisters are indeed sisters.’

It was a few more minutes after that when the two of them came to their senses.

Rije, as soon as she came to her senses, clung to my arm much more intensely than usual, and Erica was busy glancing at me sideways.

‘If you’re going to look, you can just look openly.’

It’s not like I’ll wear out if you do that.

Suddenly, I recalled what Rije had mentioned before: that even if she and Erica didn’t seem to have a single resemblance on the outside, their taste in men was identical, as if to say, ‘What else would you expect from sisters?’

For a moment, the thought ‘No way’ crossed my mind, but I quickly erased it. If I went any further, it would be overconfidence. Even though Rije and I had crossed the line, Erica was not.

This reaction was the same even after we arrived at the mansion.

“Wow, I chose this, but it’s truly stunning. Is it because the wearer is so good-looking? I don’t think it was this much when I bought it at the store.”

“Lord-nim, you saw it once last time, so why are you making such a fuss again?”

“It’s because I saw it once that I’m acting like this even more. Isn’t that obvious?”

As soon as Aurora saw me, she started nodding repeatedly and observing me from all angles, and such behavior from Aurora continued until Iris, unable to bear the current situation, suddenly interjected.

“Lord-nim. You should start departing soon.”

“Ah, right. That’s true. Look at me. I almost caused a big problem because of Delta.”

“……Is that my fault?”

Aurora, who lightly ignored my bewildered murmur, took out the teleportation scroll that was tucked between the Emperor’s edicts. Iris received it and unfurled it with a chwararak.

The maids of the mansion, led by Lana, and the knights who usually guarded the mansion, were out to see us off. Aurora looked at Lana and said calmly.

“While I’m gone, I’m entrusting the mansion to you, Lana.”

“Yes, Owner-nim. I will certainly live up to your expectations.”

There were no flowery words, but it was a conversation that strongly revealed their mutual trust.

Lana bowed her head towards Aurora, then subtly raised her head and looked at me. Then she flinched in surprise on her own and quickly bowed her head again.

It seemed the embarrassment from the last joke incident hadn’t quite faded yet. Indeed, if I had told a joke to someone I wasn’t close with and their reaction was a disaster, I would have suffered for about a week because of it.

Iris, holding the teleportation scroll in her hand, placed her palm on the magic circle of the scroll. Mana moved as if being absorbed into her hand. The hand that received the mana glowed blue.

That was an item sold as a consumable in games too. Its purpose was to teleport the player to a location pre-saved in the scroll, but for a one-time consumable, it was ridiculously expensive.

Of course, in high-difficulty playthroughs where experience and money dropped from the field significantly increased, it was possible to carry hundreds of them stacked in the inventory.

Iris, who drew a blue circle encompassing the six of us, including herself, removed her hand from the edge of the circle. As soon as that happened, a pillar of light shot up into the sky. It was a sign that the teleportation had begun.

“Please go and come back.”

Listening to Lana’s final farewell, a familiar sensation, which I had experienced recently, swept over my body. My vision flickered, and a blue flash covered my eyelids. The fact that my eyes automatically closed because of it was also the same.

The flash soon subsided. I opened my eyes. My vision recovered, and the surrounding scenery came into view. It was a room decorated more splendidly than Aurora’s reception room, no, more splendidly than any space I had ever seen until now.

Just to decorate this one room, it felt like enough gold to equal the weight of several people had been used. My eyes were starting to hurt from how much it glittered.

Moreover, it wasn’t just gold, but every single piece of furniture was adorned with all sorts of jewels, truly showing what the pinnacle of luxury was.

“……”

While I was overwhelmed by the splendor, the Knight Captains had slightly moved expressions and looked around. Since they were returning to the Imperial Palace after several years, their feelings must be fresh.

“What do you think of it?”

As I was looking around, admiring the interior, someone approached my side. It was Aurora.

“It’s amazing in many ways. Is the entire Imperial Palace like this?”

“Hmm… This place, if you compare it to our mansion, is used as a reception room, so it is specially decorated to be more splendid, but you can just assume other places are all similar. There’s not much difference from here. And the central hall and bedroom where my aunt-nim resides are several times more splendid than this.”

“A bedroom more splendid than this, you say? Can one even sleep there?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know. Ask His Majesty the Emperor directly when you have an audience with him.”

As I gave her a ‘Are you serious?’ look, Aurora burst into laughter. Leaving such an Aurora behind, I glanced at the antique yet enormous grandfather clock occupying a corner of the room.

There were still about 15 minutes left until the time the Emperor had mentioned. Just as I, having confirmed that, was about to lean back on the sofa, I heard someone knocking on the reception room door.

The Knight Captains reflexively froze in place. All of them had expressions that said, ‘Finally, what was coming has come.’

On the other hand, I approached the door, thinking, ‘Wasn’t there still a little time left until the hour the Emperor mentioned?’ No matter how I thought about it, Kaikilia wasn’t the type to summon us earlier than the appointed time.

And before I could even open the door, someone from outside flung it open with force.