Chapter 558 – The Cursed Throne
The time when I was content and giggling inside. An alarm rings familiar to Seongil’s ears.
『Hidden mission cleared successfully.』
‘Hidden Mission…?’
An unexpected notification. Seong-il, who was surprised, was in a daze. Bruno’s voice emerges from beside him.
“Why are the paladins of alternative justice here?”
‘Ah, it would be better to finish that first.’
In my mind, I wanted to check the quest reward right away, but the work in front of me was urgent. For this reason, Seong-il puts his curiosity aside for a while and looks at Paladin.
“Ah, we have come to eliminate the demons at the request of Prince Filinore, the ruler of this place.”
“…Filinore ball?”
Random story. Their words sound out of the blue, as it has been revealed that the true identity of Prince Filinore is none other than the Red Dragon, Kasarak’Tarun, who is currently a follower of Struggle.
“Yes. Prince Filinore. The viscount family that ruled this place with legitimate authority for 100 years. The story of the castle being captured by the humanoid army and civilians being massacred, we came here at the command of Master Paladin.”
“…Don’t you know his identity?”
“What is it… You mean?”
When Bruno repeatedly inquires about Prince Filinore with an expression of incomprehension, Paladin Sir Luzan gives a puzzled expression.
“Jjiik. There’s nothing strange about not knowing.”
“…The rat said?! Do I still have the aura of the curse?!”
The Paladins were frightened when a mouse jumped out of the chest of a cute woman in leather armor and spat out human words.
In response, the hamster makes a tearful expression and opens his cute mouth wide and shouts.
“Jjiik!! What are you talking about!! Now I’m receiving divine punishment, so I’ve become like this!! I’m also a priest in my own way!!”
“…A priest? A rat?”
Crying.
The hamster must have been really angry at the half-mocking reply that came out of the paladin’s mouth.
“I… Actually…”
And, as if the appearance was quite pitiful, Ban and Bruno quickly came out and explained the situation.
“…Sorry, Apostle of Knowledge.”
“Jjiik!! Get off!!”
After hearing the whole thing from a fellow priest, Sir Luzan spat out a sincere apology to the hamster. However, the hamster spits out vicious words while looking at him with a sharp expression, probably because he has been extremely upset by the vicious language.
“Accept an apology.”
“Jjiik!! Yes!!”
However, Seong-il, not wanting the situation to be a nuisance, picked up the hamster’s scruff with two fingers and whispered in a soft voice.
“Explain what you were doing earlier.”
“Ah, yes. Then…”
Quickly reaping his anger, the hamster explains why Paladin doesn’t know the identity of Prince Filinore. And most of the party who heard the story look convinced.
“I see… Justice also found out about the identity of Lord Filinore because of this piece retrieval? Thanks to your great will.”
“Jjiik. I’m going to do something like that!!”
However, after hearing that story, Senna frowned and asked if she was not convinced.
“Then why didn’t you send them a revelation after you knew who they were?”
“It’s probably because of the Strife Relic! Jjiik! It’s very likely that the relic’s tricks severed the link between justice and the paladins.”
“Ah…”
As if Senna finally understood the hamster’s words, she nodded her head.
“It’s like an evil god… By the way, has the curse been lifted?”
Cursing the wiles of the struggle, Bruno asks the hamster about his paladin status.
“Jjiik. No. Right now, they will still be affected by the Holy Spirit! If we go out again, it will be the same as before. Even if we can’t do it, we’ll have to stay here for a day to be okay.”
“Hmm…”
When the hamster says that they have to give up a day to help Paladin, the party all look at Seong-il, who is the decision maker. Seongil shrugged his shoulders and replied.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a day or so. It’ll take about half a day to reach Filinore Goseong anyway. I’ll just go to the vicinity of Goseong today and then take a day off.”
“…In the middle of enemy lines?”
Bruno makes a slightly uncomfortable expression at Seongil’s words.
“Yes. We are going to rest in the middle of enemy lines. We have to go anyway. We have prepared enough. There are many ways to hide from the eyes of the enemy.”
“Hmm… Is that so?”
“Yes. After all, there’s a trusty guard named Edward. He doesn’t need a break.”
“If so…”
When the party agrees, Seong-il orders Edward to use a wide-area concealment field, as well as the floating magic of the ghost warhorse, to focus on concealing the carriage’s whereabouts.
‘Now… Now that we’ve sorted out all the urgent problems, let’s look at the quest rewards.’
Since he was so curious about the reward of the hidden mission he had seen before, Seong-il pretends to rest in a corner and looks at the mission in augmented reality.
『Hidden Mission, Harbinger of Corruption – Clear』
* You have successfully stopped the main character’s corruption mission. Thanks to your efforts, the uncertainty here on the continent of Solon has been greatly reduced.
『Clear Reward』
* Earn 50,000 points.
* Obtain the Star Guide’s guide.
‘Oops!! 50,000 bags!!’
Seong-il, who had been worried about not having enough points recently due to excessive use of points. In the meantime, when an unexpected windfall comes into his hands, he cheers inwardly.
‘By the way, what is the 『Guide of the Guide to the Stars』?’
At the appearance of a small piece of parchment created in his hand along with the soft light, Seong-il looks at his item, puzzled.
‘For now, the details as a response…’
Seong-il projects his emotions on the parchment with a curious expression. Then, item-related details begin to appear in his augmented reality.
『Guide of the Star Guide. (Can be used once): If the user writes a difficult question on the parchment, the guide will tell you the answer to the question you want. (The simpler the question, the clearer the answer.)』
‘Ohh…!! It was a premonition order!!!’
The appearance of a one-time item that seems to be quite useful. Seong-il was delighted with the appearance of the item because he already had a few things he was curious about.
‘What immediately comes to mind is finding a manufacturer of wooden dolls for the investigator’s alter ego.’
‘Even if it’s not that, I can use it to clear the special quest given to me by the AI of the Pocket Girls world, or to solve the task that Widgrasil asked me to do.’
The possibilities of seemingly endless items. Seong-il decides to use this item to go to another world sooner or later, and carefully puts the items in his inventory.
“Sir. Are you sure you don’t need our help?”
The Paladins of Justice, who have recovered completely from the curse the next day, are now maintaining their sanity even after coming out of the wagon.
They look at the party with worried expressions when Ban and Seong-il announce that they will attack Filinore Castle without their help.
“It’s done. This portable sanctuary is also an important thing anyway. The Lords are providing a big enough help just by protecting this wagon for the time being. Again…”
When Ban even tells him that he received an oracle from God to slay the dragon with only six, the paladin agrees with a helpless expression.
***
“Whoa… Is this the infamous old castle?”
“Huh.”
The appearance of a gloomy castle spread out in front of your eyes. The spiers are crumbling, and there are quite a few cracks in every corner of the walls, but the castle still seems sound enough to do its job.
“Huh… Unlike the outer wall, the gate and moat are well maintained, right?”
The time when Senna was muttering while looking at the deserted castle gate. On top of the castle wall, with a sudden movement, something appears all at once.
“Oak!!”
The appearance of a green-skinned monster that we are used to. Those with well-made longbows aim their bows loaded with sharp arrows at the party.
‘This is a pattern that didn’t exist.’
While Seong-il was thinking about something else for a while, a barrage of arrows flew at the party. It was quite a menacing attack, but to Seong-il, a psychic who can skillfully use telekinesis, the attack was no problem.
Took. Tuduk.
A barrage of arrows fell powerlessly, embedded in an invisible film of powerful telekinesis.
“Jjiik!! It’s time for me to go out!!”
As if it was his turn to see the orcs shooting arrows on top of the high walls, the hamster looked at them with a confident expression.
“Jjiik!! I use magic to kill them…”
“Done.”
“…”
It’s his turn to show off his skills for the first time, but when Seong-il cuts it like a knife, the hamster lowers his head and looks disappointed.
‘What this bastard does is subtly cute.’
Laughing at the actions of the apostle of knowledge, Seong-il points his hand with the ring of incomprehensibility toward the castle wall.
“The terrible death of Nazarus.”
When Seong-il uttered the magical trigger word on his ring, a brown gas sphere was created in front of him along with a strange magic wave.
The gas sphere that was completed in this way, according to Seong-il’s will, protrudes from the top of the castle wall.
“Queueek!!!”
The gas that spreads over the walls and the horrible screams of the orcs in proportion to it. As soon as they come into contact with the gas, all moisture is taken from their bodies, and they die terribly like mummies.
‘Oh. Unlike normal ‘terrible gossip’ spells, do gossips with the name of ‘Nazarus’ ignoring magic resistance to some extent? It’s fun.’
Although the power itself is similar, the ring spell seems more powerful in that it ignores a certain amount of the enemy’s magic resistance.
Seong-il is satisfied with the power of the spell he used in real life for the first time, and activates the magic imprint on his back.
Flutter.
With the sound of the cloak, Seongil floated in the air with a flying spell and ascended to the castle wall. When he reaches the top of the castle wall, he sees more than a hundred orc mummies.
“Terrible… Gosa… Without casting!?”
Ignoring the hamster muttering to himself, Seong-il cuts the chains supporting the bridge of the castle gate with the blade of a blazing Sunyang River.
Coo!!!
A solid wooden bridge that fell over the moat and a solid castle gate that opened halfway. Despite its mythical appearance, the party, who knows the true nature of Seongil, enter the interior calmly without being surprised at all.
“… Jjiik. By the way, wouldn’t 『Terrible Gossip』 Be a waste just to defeat orcs? I’d rather use the sub-spell 『Cloud of Death』 Than…”
“No. I have to use it in real combat anyway.”
“Jjiik…”
‘It looks like he wants to show off his skills.’
A hamster who shows a really sullen look at Seong-il’s calm reaction. Seong-il laughs once at that appearance and then moves to the inner sanctuary.
“It’s in the mood for a ghost to appear…”
A small muttering escaped Senna’s mouth as she was taking the lead in reconnaissance to keep track of her movements.
Certainly, there are no signs of any life in the small city within the walls, making the already gloomy atmosphere inside even more ominous.
‘It’s just like the simulation. There are no variables so far.’
Seong-il did everything to twist the story of the game, but fortunately, Goseong’s defense posture doesn’t seem to be much different from the game.
“We have arrived. Everyone prepare buffs.”
In the meantime, the scene of introspection arrived before I knew it. At Seong-il’s words, the party formed a formation and applied various buff magic to their bodies.
“The preparations are complete.”
Bruno gives a somewhat spleen answer. He knew very well what kind of enemy was waiting there because he had fully studied the battle simulation prepared by Seong-il.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
With those words, Seong-il strikes at the iron castle gate with his fist. Then, the inner door collapsed like a rotten tree.
Following Seong-il, who confidently rushes forward, his colleagues who formed a formation also enter the interior one by one.
Then, a fairly large vacant lot that can be seen from the inside.
“…The uninvited guests finally arrived.”
Another castle door in the inner castle and a creepy voice coming from above. When the group instinctively looked at the place where the voice came from, there was a frighteningly pale man looking down at them.
“…Is that a vampire from the Blood Flower Clan?”
“Okay.”
Bruno, who questions Seong-il to see if he takes on what he thinks. Just then, a loud explosion sounds from behind.
“…”
The group casually glanced at the back. Then, they confirm that a large rock has fallen on the side of the entrance they entered and is blocking it.
“It’s really the same…”
As the situation proceeded as it was in the simulation, Senna muttered quietly while holding the crossbow.
“It’s time to hunt the rats in the dock!!”
In the meantime, Orc archers reappeared from the inner wall with the vampire’s sharp cry.
In addition, the front door opens, and a large number of green-skinned giant monsters appear inside.
