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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 567 Part 2

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 567: The Afterglow of a Distant Regret Part 2

「Yeah, I think so, too. However, those things are hardly of any relevance to us as of now. The problems are those four new locations that were added to the sensor right after the defeat of Siegwurm.」

Wait…… four? There are four more locations added to this thing?

「Except for the lines that were there in the flavor text from the very beginning, it seems that it has been updated. Now it is something alongside the lines of…… “The Blue Arc, The Red Fowl, The White Rope, The Black Edge, all standing in the Gravekeeper’s shadow. The black clouds gather once more as the regrets start to spread once more……”」

The fuck is this? Sounds like a whole lot of gibberish, if someone was to ask me. Now, hearing all of those unfamiliar terms being spoken Rei grabbed her mobile terminal and started to search for something. Then, after a short moment she started to tap me on the shoulder.

「Umm…… I have tried to look it up really quick just now, but…… The names that were all mentioned just now seem to be just the different readings of one root word: “Kirin”……」

「Huh?」

Well, I know that it is some sort of an Oriental Fantasy Monster, but to think that the world of ShangriLa Frontier would even have different varieties of them? That’s actually kind of a stretch, if you were asking me for an opinion.

「Now, strictly speaking, the kanji for their names might all have different readings, but they are basically four different types of “Kirin”…… Does that sound somewhat familiar?」

「Wasn’t that the name of the War Beast that Wezaemon was supposed to ride……?」

The original Gravekeeper Wezaemon disappeared and is no longer in this world. There is no doubt about it. After all, we have witnessed it with our own eyes. All three of us. But if that is the case here, then what about the disappearance of Siegwurm, the Heavenly Emperor? …… And what about those four new locations that appeared after his defeat? Could it be that it is somehow connected to the World Quest?

「Now, out of the four new indicators, two of them pointed towards the New Continent. And then, the other two pointed towards the Old Continent. Now here’s the real kicker…… One of them was already found by the players. Flame Foal is the name, apparently.」

「Huh?」

「Eeh?」

According to Pencilgon’s words, the Red “Flame Foal” should be located in the innermost part of the hidden route leading towards the Shojin Tower, one of the three routes that branch away from the Ancient Ruins located near Thirdrema back at the Old Continent.

「So, does that mean that you want to fight them?」

「Huh? I thought that you would be up for this idea more, Sanraku-kun?」

「Want me to beat the everlasting shit out of you?」

Besides, don’t use me as a bad example here.

「I, for one, know that I want to check things out if I can help it…… And since the New Continent and its places might be a little bit problematic and out of reach for us at the current moment, then the Old Continent is the way to go. I highly doubt that Wezaemon has anything to do with those new colored enemies, but you never know until you actually see it for yourself……」

「……………」

With that being said, the eyes of everyone present turn towards me, brimming with unspoken expectations. At the current moment, it would only be Katsu who would be able to tell with all due certainty what those looks meant, without all of those people having to actually say a word. Although we had next to no relationship with this particular NPC, it is an NPC that was kind of special for our three, even if a reason like that was something of a stretch…… That is to say, I guess that people really want to know if the appearance of those new colored monsters is indeed connected to “Setsuna of the Distant Past” in any way or not. However, if we are indeed to do this, then we need to gather more intel first and clarify a few things as well.

「Okay, since we do not know anything about those new colored creatures, let’s just put it aside for now…… But you said that there is something that is supposed to be in the basement or straight below the royal castle on the Old Continent?」

「Such a thing was rumored to exist for some time now, but personally I have never believed that there may be something below the Royal Palace. But at the same time, I never believed that we would be able to confirm it in such a way.」

「Umm…… Can we not simply ask the king for permission to go down there and see if the rumors are true or not?」

「Huh? Look, even if something really is there, I don’t think that the King, or anyone inside of the royal palace, is going to just let us in and allow us to waltz our way all over the place. That’s not how NPC work in this game.」

「Huh? Umm, this is……」

T—This asshole! Now that is just being plain old rude just for the sake of being rude…… If she wanted to say “I just want to get the Free Pass to the Royal Castle to go in and out as I please!” she should have said so from the start!

「There’s also that one more thing. It seems that the old king was actually pro demi-human, while the new king is pushing heavily for human supremacy and subjugation of all demi and non-human races on the New Continent. Interesting how often humans turn out to be racist and pro-violence in games like that, don’t you think? Not to mention that it may become a serious issue down the road.」

「Are there even players who can help us out with this?」

「With enough money and influence there should be plenty…… Or at the very least it might be reasonable to turn to some Player Killers. Those guys couldn’t care less about whether or not their name tags are red or not, and the prospect of allowing them to fight and kill strong opponents should be a reward in its own right……」

「I feel like this is going to be Bakumatsu all over again.」

「I just guess that different fractions fighting for influence and brittle family ties are staples that you eventually learn to live with when you are born into a family like that.」

In other words, there is no way for anyone to fix it, because in reality it is nothing all that unusual, huh? However, going against the entire Kingdom like that might actually cause one’s Karma value to drop significantly, or maybe even put oneself on the PKKs’ hit list. That being said, Player Killing is not the only thing that affects one’s Karma value. The way in which you choose to do things, your methods of work, how you treat those around you and the NPC accompanying you…… Yes, this might eventually become a serious problem. I mean, there are some ways of mitigating that, like donations to the gods and confessing your sins at the Church, but those methods are only temporary and they do not really fix the main issue at hand. So no matter how you look at it, this power struggle is going to be all sorts of problematic in its own right.

At that moment we had no idea that the great realization of desires that started with Pencilgon’s ambitions alone would be directly connected to the great war and competition that would sweep all of the players into its mad vortex.