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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 327 Part 1

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 327: Wolf Licking Its Wounds in the Night’s Shadows Part 1

「Now then…… Shall we get to work?」

Putting on the slightly grayish in color bird mask on my head and making sure that it sits comfortably on my face, I started to follow the knights who secretly entered the forest in the dead of night.

After overcoming the bloody battlefield that was the Dullahan versus True Quiet, I went to the Crystal Cliffs and farmed some ore, and then the Crystal Scorpions played baseball with my body for a while before I died. After all of the recent events it was surprisingly refreshing experience.

Then I went to pay the “Golden Scale Company” a visit in order to get ready, and I have made it just in the nick of time to start secretly tailing the group of knights that exited the castle. It was then that it hit me…… Just what kind of game am I playing here, again?

「Oh well, like that even matters here…… Alright, then.」

The condition for clearing this quest are as follows: I am to rescue the former King Toravante and the First Princess Aria from being assassinated, as well as obtain the evidence pointing towards the involvement of the First Prince and his knights into the conspiracy meant to kill the former king.

As for the stealth and tailing the knights…… I can do that fine on my won, but I wonder just how far I am going to be able to take it without having to rely on the system’s assistance? Because I don’t think that I will be able to do this all on my from the beginning until the end.

According to the intel that I received from Ruthia-paisen, the leader of the knights, the Third Knight is not all that strong to begin with, but…… Judging from the way in which the knights were dealing with the monsters around the forest, it is not that he is weak, either. So I wonder what it is the extent of his power?

「…………」

At first I thought about climbing on top of the trees and following the knights that way, however, as soon as I tried that I was forced to abandon this idea. It turned out that this way I was making a whole lot more noise than I would initially expect. Plus, the knights were walking on the ground, so tailing them like that…… It would just be way too slow.

I may have said that before, but there is a clear correlation between the players/NPCs vision and the darkness coming from the environment. The players can see well in darkness to some extent, but the NPCs are more like regular humans in that respect. Also, because of the nature of their excursion just now, no one was trying to light any torches, even though they would be of help here. That is why they were proceeding under the cover of darkness.

Well, I normally play this game at night so you might say that this works best for me, but I must be sure to maintain the right level of caution at all times here. However, since the time advances in this game in accordance to the real world’s time, I would like you guys to speed it up and get a move on. I do not have all day to follow you! …… But for now I must suppress that urge to hasten anyone.

「…… Plus, the Crowned Papa and Daughter are nowhere to be seen.」

That fact is hardly even surprising here, since I am tracking the absolute end of the column. I’d wager that if the king and the princess were here, they would be somewhere right in the middle of it, or maybe a little bit more to the front.

In other words, I cannot see what the king and the princess are doing without getting closer to the column, or waiting for the knights from the front and the back to switch places. Not only that, but at this distance, I can barely make sense of the conversations between the knights of the lower rank that were walking at the very end of the column.

「Hmm…… Time for some interception.」

What do you do when you can’t hear someone clearly because they are too far away from you? That’s where my trust wiretapping device, Emul-san, comes into play.

All of a sudde, the muffler tied around my neck started to move slightly! Normally hidden in this mode, Emul’s ears start to move. They were moving around for a bit, but eventually they stopped. I guess they managed to pick up some conversations between some of the knights of the lower rank. Then, after a while, I could listen in to what they were saying.

「…… Why the hell do we need to wait until going so deep in-land in order to get rid of the former king and the princess?」

「That’s because the new king wants the proof that the demi-humans of this continent are hostile towards humans.」

「I heard that the reason why our Boss undertook this job is so that he can get on the King’s good side, maybe even replace his favorite Paladin……」

The way at which Emul was relaying the contents of the conversations was kind of annoying if I am to be honest, but thanks to that I at least start to understand the bigger picture thanks to all of that eavesdropped small talk.

The new king wants to be in full control of the “who killed” aspect of assassination rather than get rid of the nuisances outright in the open. And the targets that are supposed to take the blame here are the demi-humans living in this continent…… does that include the Elves as well?

「In short, does the new king wish to cause something between this here continent and the old one?」

From all that I know, his ascension to the throne was done way sooner than expected, so depending on how you would like to look at it, you could say that the current king actually usurped the right to the throne. That, and there are sure those who are going to ask the important question in here: why would the first prince want to usurp the throne if he was going to succeed it anyway? Why to be in such a hurry?

Plus, I can imagine that the current king does not have enough of the people’s support to pass some of the more unreasonable bills and laws that he is sure to have up his sleeve. So in order to gain popularity, he wanted a successful military campaign. But to send troops somewhere, you first need a good reason to do so.

But here is the next question? Why the new continent? Surely there are other races back at the old continent that you could frame and persecute. So why go all the way out here?

「Sanraku-san? What are you doing?」

「I’m going to record some of their conversations. If we can get enough of a solid proof of the First Prince’s involvement, maybe we won’t have to stick with them for so long. We might as well massacre them all and be done with it.

「…… I don’t think I have enough of a Vorpal Soul to do something as suicidal as that.」

「I think so, too, but if it to save some innocent lives down the road……」

But with that in mind, Vorpal Soul parameter sure is quite a hassle to be mindful of all the time. After all, it constantly forces you to engage monsters and opponents that are way stronger than you are. Oh well, maybe the numbers will work in my favor here? They seem like small fries, but there is so many of them, so who knows? Maybe the Vorpal Soul gauge will even go up a little bit?

「Emul, is there a possibility that they are going to detect us if you use magic here?」

「If I cast it on me, then no problem. But anything other than self-centered spells always has that risk involved.」

「I see…… Could you use Active Sonar? I want to know if there are monsters around here.」

「Roget that.」

After a while, Emul tells me that there are no monster in the vicinity. Could it be because of the event?

「There is also going to be an open area really soon.」

「Hmm…… I’m starting to get the hang of the general flow of this quest here……」

This is definitely suspicious here. Why do I think that this is going to become quite a hassle soon……? Maybe not as much of a hassle as making sure that one shitty brat does not die to an oversized octopus purely by accident, but if there is going to be someone else who will want to fight the knights here, this is going to be a hassle for sure. The kind of which only a player will be able to solve.

As for the other players that came her with me, themembers of the Sacred Shield’s Territory…… I had little time to get to know them, but I get that Joset is similar to Rei. She’s not the “Maximum Firepower”, though, but rather a “Maximum Defense”.

In other words, Joset is the ultimate tank, someone who is way better suited for a job like this one than someone like me.

However, I was not the one to undertake that quest. It was outsourced to me by someone outside of the Sacred Shield’s Territory. I would not think that it would be anything special since it was not a Unique Scenario, but I still had way too few information about it…… No, quest like that are good to have from time to time. Little variety never killed anyone.

「No reaction from the monsters thus far…… No, there is a high possibility that some of them are going to spawn down the line, when the event progresses accordingly. Should I wait for that moment and deal with the knights at that exact same time?」