Chapter 99 System's Storyline

When her eyes trembled like the whole earth was shaken under my grip, her throat dryly gulped as I jumped off my feet, giving her my best grin rather than best regards. Locking my hands behind my back, like my old man so often did, I grew more dignified and royal-like by the minute.

When the panicked royal lady called out to her soldiers, who now also stared at me, "You… fools…! …Fools of generals…!" I belatedly reverently bowed to the princess, playfully, following the System's instructions, and waited to see what would come. She was staring at me the wrong way, but I'd forgive her this one time.

"Princess…?"

"Y-Your Highness?"

"Fools of generals!"

"Yes… Your Highness…? Please, forgive our insolence—"

"Do you not— How can you not see?!" she yelled after she mumbled more words. "W-What level is that… Why does it feel so high-level…?"

"Yes, Your Highness! We have failed to see our mistakes earlier! We shouldn't have lingered here for so trivial and unimportant an issue regarding the adventurer who—"

"Not that!"

She was still so intently staring at me, despite the heavy load of animosity I directed toward her. Only she saw my darkest of auras flowing out of the dark-haired boy.

Her eyes weren't trembling alone, by now. Her limbs were shaking with cold panic, too. Still walking backward, step after step, in the slowest manner, she kept backing away like the threat she ran away from would ever be present and hostile in front of her. I could feel the cold grip of my ever-growing shadow on her throat as she trembled under my eyes and was engulfed by my aura.

Well, she was right to tremble. Even a blind man would tremble if he "saw" the monster. So, nodding at her, I acknowledged her fear and grinned again for a second.

"Such dark ages. To think that, nowadays, even the enemy, even a monster, can be taking on such a youthful, beautiful naive appearance to fool us, the humans." I wasn't human—it was the royal lady who spoke, now gaining back her composure. After she ordered her guard to jump at me, she tripped over herself, letting out a very girly Kyah, and tumbled to the ground.

I jumped off my stool a minute ago. My heels now dug into the floor, and with a jump, I darted to the front entrance of the trading grounds, crackling my wooden tiles under my feet. I wouldn't go on the run. Simply, I put some distance between myself and the royalty's soldiers, wondering what the actors would now do.

Two pairs of the sharpest eyes were set onto my back, sending a faint shiver down my spine. The generals were strong, needless to say. With confidence, I slid my shoulders back to them and faced their threat. The warlord orc head, confined within its back, was still where I was seated, but my short sword was with me.

My hand gripped the hilt of it. The performance I just showed off made it clear enough—my high STR stats couldn't belong to the supposed human boy they confused me for. Ignoring the shame of failing to see what their ruler saw, naturally, then, the generals also were ready to deal with me at once.

But I was curious now. What did give me in? What exposed me? Was it about my outward appearance, after all? No way, right? I was perfectly human-like, if not for my so slightly pointed ears… but even then, having even the slightest portion of elvish blood in my veins wouldn't expose me as a monster, so it couldn't be it.

It wasn't about my appearance… so maybe simply about my sheer magical power? My mana? It must have been different from a human's own mana, so I guess it was that. The old man would tell me more about that anyway… and for now—

Would I have to fight? If I was so confident about everything going down, it was because, thanks to the System, the Game, or the Quest, I knew about the quest's narrative before it happened. When the princess appeared, I basically had to "talk it out" with her in order to avoid a bloodshed, since the Quest's contents let me know beforehand the royal lady was just about to identify me as her enemy. To speak in order to avoid a bloodshed, but who knows how to do that? Just speak, maybe? Well, regardless, I probably would need to fight, right now. And whatever happened, I knew that the System's words were absolute.

Remember that time with the Dryad back in the forest? She made it clear she refused to "help the Player to proceed with the quest," and the result was that, well, she didn't have much of any choice in the end. White clouds of mana appeared around her, at the time, and who knows what happened then, but the dryad had then accepted to go on with the quest's instructions without so much as a complaint, quite the contrary, with a big smile and an ample curtsey.

It's just as if there was a scripted storyline, and that the whole world had to go along with it. If the storyline required any "character," according to the System, Game, or Quest, to do something specific or act a certain way, said character would have to comply.

So where would "this" be going?

All of what was happening needed a quick resolution. When the royal lady appeared here, she qualified it a ruckus, and she was right. A ruckus it was. A ruckus was bad.

A ruckus needed to be stopped at once. If I let the two soldiers go out, the chaos wouldn't be in control anymore. If I put down the two of them, along with the clerk while I was at it, I could stop them before this whole situation became too much of a pain. Was that a plan, then?

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Promptly, the two of them formed a defensive wall. Their princess was behind their back. They had to protect their lord (alongside the young clerk, who had also taken refuge behind their wall).

"Annihilate the threat, Generals!"

The two generals sprang into action, but—

"CEASE!" I rapidly yelled, momentarily activating the "Intimidation" skill. The two soldiers were destabilized for a second. "...The ma'am in the back… don't be such a pain."

"P-Pardon me!?" Of all these people, the royal lady was the one who had seen me. She wanted to run the most, but she didn't.

"Look now. You two generals calm down, too. I, uh, well… I'm just here to do the 'quest.' To talk it out. You there, the ma'am in the back, you understand me, don't you?"

Though they were destabilized, the two generals were still ready to jump at my throat, but...

For a second, right after I mentioned the word "quest," the change in the environment was abrupt. Just like at that time with my dryad escort. Immediately, it was like time had stopped and everything became gray around me. I could still move around, but the other guys couldn't. All gray and colorless, with no time going by.

Clouds of the brightest white pure mana formed around the four people who dared go against the System's instructions, and "it" happened.

From experience, that was what happened when a "compulsory" quest was going out of hand. You just had to mention the "quest" and call forth order. I was supposed to be playing the Game, after all.

The two generals were at the same spot, ready to attack me, but their complexions were now blank. As I had not much of any commonsense, I wasn't so shocked and perplexed by the turn of events.

I already witnessed that once in the past, and "it" just happened again. Any other person would be so shocked to witness that. The royal lady and the young clerk were gray and motionless for a second, too, as the white clouds of mana, like a divine intervention, worked their magic, and everything went back to "normal."