CH 187

Two hours later, Julianne offered the music sheet of the Aria of the Sun King.

“Please take this, Your Majesty,”

[Alert: You have cleared the Quest – Requiem!]

[Alert: Go find Daode Tianzun to collect your quest rewards!]

Siegfried finally obtained the key component to open the Ark of the Ancient God.

“Thank you, Julianne. This will be a huge help,” Siegfried said.

“You are welcome, Your Majesty,” Julianne replied.

“I have already instructed my people at the kingdom to prepare a house and a job for you as you have requested, so you can move anytime you think is—”

“I will go there right now.”

“Huh? You’re going right now? Don’t you have to pack first…?”

“Well… Hehe…” Julianne muttered with an awkward smile.

Bam!

The door was suddenly flung open by an old gentleman.

“You ungrateful bitch!” shouted the old gentleman.

Siegfried, Hamchi, and Gringore—yes, he was here as well—turned pale.

Who could have known that she had stolen it…?

“You stole from our family’s fortune to give to some Adventurer, and you got pregnant out of wedlock! Now what? You dare steal our family’s heirloom and try to run off with it?!”

“F-Father!”

“That’s enough! I’m going to shave your head off and send you to a monastery in the mountains!”

The gentleman seemed to be Julianne’s father, and he was understandably furious.

‘I mean… I’d be furious as well if my daughter did something similar to what she had done…’ Siegfried thought.

He was surprisingly on the side of Julianne’s father. Which father would look favorably upon his daughter if she caused problem after problem and even ended up stealing the family’s heirloom?

“E-Excuse me… please calm down for a second. We just need to look at the music sheet once, and we will return it, so…” Siegfried tried his best to appease the worked-up gentleman.

There was no need for them to take the music sheet because of Gringore’s photographic memory. Actually, it was probably the best course of action that they could take at the moment.

However, Julianne’s father didn’t listen to even a single word that came out of Siegfried’s mouth. It wasn’t really strange because he was beyond enraged.

“Shut up, you thieves! You put her up to this!” Julianne’s father shouted and instructed the high-leveled knights that he had brought with him. “Capture those thieves this instant!”

“What?!”

“Yes, Count-nim!”

The eight knights ran toward them.

“Hey, Hamchi.”

“Kyu?”

“Let’s run,” Siegfried said. He grabbed Julianne and ran through the nearest window.

Crack… Crash!

Glass fragments scattered all over the place.

Thud…!

Siegfried landed on the ground quite lightly despite jumping from the fourth floor of the house. He used his mana to make a perfect landing to prevent hurting the child inside Julianne.

What happened next?

Run!

Siegfried ran for his life with Julianne in his arms.

“Hey! Wait for me, owner punk!”

“Your Majesty! Help me!”

Hamchi and Gringore chased after Siegfried—no, they ran away as fast as they could away from the knights.

***

Siegfried headed for the Twin Sprout Village as soon as possible after completing the long arduous quest. Of course, he did not forget to assign a few knights to protect Julianne.

“Oh! You managed to find it?” Daode Tianzun exclaimed.

“Yes,” Siegfried replied with a smile.

“All right, I was about done preparing the magic circle to unseal the ark,” said Daode Tianzun while pointing at the blackboard on the wall.

The entire blackboard was filled with all sorts of complicated drawings and magic formulas. It resembled the blackboard of a math professor at Stanford University.

“I think it will take me half a day to complete it. Why don’t you go and hunt somewhere? Maybe go hunt somewhere nearby and reduce the number of monsters to make the village a safer place?”

Another quest message popped up in front of Siegfried.

Ding!

[Protector of the Twin Sprout Village]

[Subjugate the monsters around Twin Sprout Village.]

[Progress: 0% (0/100)]

[Reward: +50 Affinity with Daode Tianzun]

Siegfried did not really have anything to do in the meantime, so he decided to accept Daode Tianzun’s quest.

‘I guess I can go level up while waiting.’

Daode Tianzun looked at Gringore and said, “You have to start practicing because your singing will have to be near perfect to unseal the chest.”

“I will do that,” Gringore replied.

“This song seems quite difficult and complex. Can you perfect it within half a day…?” Daode Tianzun asked as he scanned the music sheet. “It seems that you will require a huge range of F1 to C6 judging by the variations in this sheet… Do you think you can practice that in half a day? I think you will require at least a month to practice this.”

Daode Tianzun was referring to ‘-1 octave’ for F1 and ‘3 octave’ for C6. In short, the Aria of the Sun King required the singer to possess a very wide vocal range. On top of that, the song had to be sung with near perfection, so it was not only about belting out the notes but also making sure that the harmonization was right.

In other words, only a talented genius could sing the Aria of the Sun King.

“It is more than enough. I have practiced a few songs similar to this one during my days at the academy, and I have even sung a few in concerts,” Gringore replied confidently.

“Hoho! You sound confident of your singing skills!” Daode Tianzun exclaimed.

“A little bit, sir,” Gringore replied humbly.

Siegfried glared at the scribe and grumbled inwardly, ‘That little prick…’

It was often said that if one were too humble, people would shun them.

This was the perfect example of that saying.

“Anyway, I will go hunt some monsters in the meantime. Let’s go, Hamchi.”

“Kyu! Let’s go!”

Siegfried went out to uphold the security of the Twin Sprout Village.

***

There were not that many dangerous monsters around the Twin Sprout Village. The only monsters that could be found here were goblins or other low-ranking monsters like slimes.

[Alert: You have cleared the Quest – ‘Protector of the Twin Sprout Village’!]

It only took Siegfried an hour to clear the quest Protector of the Twin Sprout Village.

‘What if I cause the extinction of the monsters around here…?’ 

Siegfried was suddenly concerned.

He was concerned because Daode Tianzun would definitely give him another useless quest like Protector of the Twin Sprout Village 2.

‘Hmm… Should I go hunt at a high-level dungeon for now?’ he wondered.

In the end, he decided to hunt at a high-level dungeon, so he headed for the closest Warp Gate with Hamchi.

“Where are we going, owner punk?” Hamchi asked.

“The same place as last time. I figured we should just hunt there while waiting,” Siegfried replied.

“All right! Kyu!”

Their destination was the Ruin of Madness, but…

“Huh?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion. He noticed something off upon arriving at the Ruin of Madness.

“Has this place always been like this…?” he muttered.

“Kyu?”

“What’s up with the devastation? Was there a war here or something?”

The Ruin of Madness was devastated, and there were many corpses strewn across the ground. In addition, there were hundreds of thousands of hoof prints on the ground.

Something huge had definitely happened here…

‘Well… It’s not really my concern.’ Siegfried shrugged. He proceeded to enter the Ruin of Madness.

However, the entire ruin was empty.

“What the…?”

“Kyu? Where did all the bad guys go?”

“Beats me…”

A thought suddenly popped up in Siegfried’s mind.

‘Don’t tell me that all of those monsters went out…?’

He ran out of the ruin and checked the hoof prints. He followed the hoof prints, and they eventually led him to a village thirty minutes away from the ruin.

The village was completely devastated, but Siegfried managed to find an NPC survivor who provided him with a vital piece of information.

“The mad emperor has awakened… and his army in the Ruin of Madness has awakened with him as well…”

“Damn it…” Siegfried grumbled.

“He claimed to be on his way to reclaim his woman, and he was going to chase her down to the ends of the continent…”

“…!”

“He smiled sinisterly and said that she would be stuck with him forever. Then, he laid waste to our village and left with his army…”

Ding!

A message suddenly popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Protect the Twin Sprout Village!]

[The Mad Emperor, Gran Cabrio, is looking for the Ark of the Ancient God! Protect the Twin Sprout Village from him and his army!]

The resurrected Mad Emperor, Gran Cabrio, was currently headed toward where the Ark of the Ancient God was located, which was the Twin Sprout Village.

The quest was asking Siegfried to fight and protect the village against his army.

“Ah… What is this…?” Siegfried muttered. However, he looked calm for some reason.

“Tsk Tsk… Poor guy, how unlucky can he be? Does he even know where he’s heading right now?” he felt sincerely sorry for the Mad Emperor.

Who was currently residing in the Twin Sprout Village?

It was none other than the most powerful magician on the continent and one of the Three Jewels—the Archmage—Daode Tianzun.

Siegfried had no idea how powerful Gran Cabrio and his army were, but he knew for a fact that they couldn’t possibly be a match for Daode Tianzun. In short, there was no reason for Siegfried to step up and clear this quest.

“Shall we go and watch how powerful Elder Daode Tianzun is?” Siegfried asked.

“Then, are we just going to watch from the sidelines?” Hamchi asked in response.

“Yeah.”

“Kyu! Watching is always the best! Let’s go, owner punk! Don’t forget to prepare popcorn!”

“Shall we? Let’s grab some popcorn and head toward the Twin Sprout Village.”

“Kyu!”

Siegfried and Hamchi merrily took their time toward the Twin Sprout Village.

***

Siegfried came in contact with the Mad Emperor, Gran Cabrio and his army at a place around five kilometers away from the Twin Sprout Village.

Of course, he didn’t directly run into them.

He emerged from a Warp Gate that was a short distance away from the army.

‘It’s a relief that I knew about it beforehand. The village would have been razed if it got ambushed,’ he thought. Then, he shifted his attention toward Gran Cabrio’s army in the distance and flashed his Rune of Insight.

[The Mad Emperor, Gran Cabrio]

[An infamous tyrant that ruled the entire continent two thousand five hundred years ago.]

[Type: NPC (Monster)]

[Level: 310]

[Class: Knight]

[Rank: Sword Master]

[Titles: Insane Emperor, Mad Emperor, Master of Slaughter, Master of Execution]

Gran Cabrio turned out to be a vicious monster at the level of a Master, and Siegfried couldn’t possibly fight him at his current level.

‘It’s a Master. How dare a Master pick a fight against a Grandmaster? Tsk Tsk… You’ve got quite the rotten luck, my friend…’ Siegfried sincerely pitied the Mad Emperor one more time before he headed toward Daode Tianzun’s house.

“I think you have to come outside and take a look, Elder-nim,” Siegfried said.

“Hmm? What’s going on?” Daode Tianzun tilted his head in confusion.

“I think Gran Cabrio or whatever has resurrected and left the ruin. He is currently headed here.”

“Really? He’s probably looking for that chest. How far away is he?”

“Around three or four kilometers, I believe.”

“Hmm… I guess we have plenty of time. I’ve just finished the preparations for the ritual, so we can open the chest first and go take care of them. I’m sure four or five meteors will take care of them.”

“Haha…”

Siegfried chuckled in disbelief when Daode Tianzun nonchalantly mentioned casting one of the ultimate magic spells—Meteor Strike—a few times.

“Hmm… Shall we start the ritual? Are you ready?” Daode Tianzun asked Gringore.

“Yes, elder-nim,” Gringore confidently replied.

“Then, we shall begin.”

The ritual started.

***

The Aria of the Sun King was a song that had no lyrics and was hummed for its entire duration.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

In short, it was mainly composed of inarticulate sounds such as ‘ah,’ ‘oh,’ and ‘woo’.

“Woo~ Wooooo~ Woo~ Woo~ Woo~ Woooo~ Ah~ Ah ah!”

Gringore’s Aria of the Sun King echoed throughout the cabin.

Sseuuu…!

Daode Tianzun cast his high-ranked spell to unseal the chest. The ritual continued for five more minutes before a bright white light started seeping out from the seams of the chest. The chest soon burst open, and the cabin was pervaded by the blinding light.

A woman’s face appeared.

A glance was enough to deduce that she was definitely an empress.

The Ark of the Ancient God was opened, and a class change scroll could be seen in it.

[Alert: The item Class Change Scroll: Hidden Class 009 has appeared from the Ark of the Ancient God!]

Siegfried quickly read through the system message before immediately flashing his Rune of Insight to check what kind of class Hidden Class 009 was.