Chapter 7:
A PRINCESS AND HALF A KINGDOM - THE STANDARD REWARD FOR A HERO
My adoptive father loved Japan very much. He wasn't Japanese himself, though he had lived most of his life in a suburb of Tokyo after moving there from Canada. He said the reason for his move was a certain spiritual balance that this country gave him. Another significant factor was that in his youth, my father had been a complete "otaku." "Of course, I knew that Japan wasn't the country depicted in old anime films. Only a naive idiot would mix reality with fiction from artistic works!" he would say. Nevertheless, he was fascinated by the idea of living where these worlds were conceived. These delightful masterpieces of animation. Where Miyazaki created his works at his famous Studio Ghibli. Where the manga "Berserk" was written, or where his favorite computer game was created. This is how he explained his strange, for a European, fascination with Japan. A nostalgic haze would cloud his eyes, and he could talk for hours about old anime from two hundred years ago or more. I was partly infected by this as well. And considering that my father had two rooms filled from top to bottom with rare editions of light novels and manga from the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (the rarest and most valuable in our time), I was simply bound to fall in love with it all. Still, I didn't become an otaku. And I wasn't particularly fond of Japan either. I didn't move here like my father, following my heart and passion, but was brought from an orphanage in Germany. In general, they didn't really ask me where I wanted to live. I didn't have a negative attitude toward my second homeland, but I didn't feel any special attachment to this country either. And I certainly didn't worship Japan like my father did. What am I trying to say with all this? It's very simple: I also know a little about Japanese manga and anime culture. Both how it's created and what its essence is. And now, sitting at the great war council table of Queen Aramia Rosalinda the Elder, I understood why there were almost naked female warriors present. You couldn't say they were completely naked. But believe me, there was very little clothing on them. Armor bras, greaves, pieces of fabric covering their private parts like a bikini, long blonde hair. Expressive blue eyes with dark, thick eyelashes. One could gaze at their perfect features for hours. Especially their captain. I identified her immediately. And not because she was even more beautiful than her companions, but by the simple logic of Japanese manga-anime: the less clothing a female warrior wears, the stronger the character is. And in general, if you see an almost naked warrior or sorceress, beware! Remember this simple rule: the less clothing on an anime character, the stronger she is! Considering that Kunisada was an ordinary Japanese novelist, whose books were illustrated by ordinary Japanese artists just like the author himself, this rule could not possibly be broken here. The captain of the Knights of Aramia was a really strong warrior. A very strong one, judging by the amount of exposed skin. There was no one else in the room where the meeting was taking place except for us. The Queen, the mage Tibius, myself, the captain, and her five lieutenants. Each of them commanded twelve female knights. All sixty of the elite magic knights of the royal court of Aramia. There were also male knights, numbering over a hundred. But this meeting was exclusively with the female part of the Aramian Guard.
The meeting began with an awkward moment. And of course, it was I who was embarrassed.
"Your Majesty, forgive me for interrupting, I don't know who this man is, but could he please stop staring at me with such a lustful gaze? A little more, and I'm afraid his burning stare will take my virginity," the Captain remarked in a stern, not at all sarcastic tone.
The Queen stopped mid-sentence, and silence hung in the room. Then one of the female lieutenants snorted into her fist, unable to hold it in, which broke the awkward tension. The Queen smiled. The others laughed too. I blushed. Really, for a second, I felt more embarrassed than I had on that table when I appeared naked in the middle of the dining aristocracy. What the hell! These aren't real people, why am I so embarrassed? They're just like... like... androids! Robots of flesh copying humans!
"I believe our new emergency advisor meant no such thing, my dear Leinaria. Forgive him this impoliteness. He is a guest, and in his lands, perhaps such behavior is not a matter for condemnation, as it is among the virgins of the holy warrior Dianona."
The Queen stood up for me, making it immensely easier for me to think of something to say in response. Especially since I couldn't think of anything. I had really forgotten myself and was staring at her beautiful figure and face. And the fact that, in my understanding, they were no more than intelligent game dolls created for entertainment two hundred years ago, was probably what provoked such subconscious behavior. No one would think anything bad if you were to look at a beautiful woman on the cover of a glossy magazine in a bookstore. You don't consider her real. So what the hell, why would you hold back?
I turned away and, muttering an apology, finally restored my inner status quo. Now I looked only at the Queen, who continued her speech. Which, all in all, wasn't so bad. The Queen was no less beautiful than Leinaria, though her figure was hidden by clothes, not an armor bra. After the Queen, the captain took the floor and began to detail the military state of the Aramian Knightly Guard. And according to her, the situation was not the best. Poorly trained, the spells and magical mana reserves of many were very weak. Not everyone could wield a spear. And as for shooting accurately from a bow at full gallop, only the lieutenants could, and not all of them. She ended her complaints with a question to the Queen:
"If the rumors of an imminent attack by these giants are true, Your Majesty, how strong are these monsters?"
Rosalinda the First turned to me, and almost everyone followed their monarch's example.
I shrugged phlegmatically. I couldn't know for sure. Or rather, Kunisada's book mentioned it, but to assess their difference in strength, I needed some kind of reference. Some unit for measuring their power relative to each other. To put it simply, how strong was the captain herself? I only had one more or less reliable reference. That was Beastlandia's Lightning. In the book, he kills one giant with the help of Kitsundina's blessing, barely escaping death himself, with his last ounce of strength, after all his comrades fell in that battle.
"How strong is Beastlandia's Lightning?"
The captain snorted. "That oaf of a beastman? I could face him in a tournament to assess that. Unfortunately, I can't do so, due to my gender and status."
"If you are equal in strength to Beastlandia's Lightning, then you have a small chance of killing one red giant with your entire retinue. In doing so, most of the squad will perish. Perhaps eight or nine out of every dozen."
With that, it was as if I had dropped a cast-iron weight on the floor. Everyone gasped. The captain drilled me with incredulous eyes. The Queen covered her mouth with the back of her gloved hand, as if she had just learned she had been sentenced to death. The girls were flustered, frowning...
"One!? That can't be, Your Majesty!" Leinaria finally said, her voice betraying her with a tremor, revealing both doubt and a lack of self-confidence.
I didn't want to get back at her for her outburst at the beginning of the meeting, but it seemed as if I had said it on purpose to sting her for her impertinent remark...
The day was spent in continuous meetings and inspections of the guards. During the breaks, I read Kunisada's book in snatches. Unlike the manga, there was a lot of new information in it. The Queen dragged me along with her, and of course, the only thing that interested her was a comparison of strengths. She showed me her most skilled warriors, horsemen who could pierce armor on a scarecrow at full gallop by wrapping their spears with mana to enhance the effect. In general, the use of magic was streamlined under her rule. All soldiers and guardsmen could, at a basic level, enhance their physical abilities with magic. And the most elite—from the ranks of the magic knights—could hurl fireballs the size of a soccer ball or ice arrows if they had a gift for water magic. The system of magic in Aramia was complex and convoluted, as far as I could tell from Kunisada's book. It seemed the author himself didn't have a firm grasp of the system of magical laws he had invented. The creators of the divine game had simply refined it themselves at some point. And now, on this remote planet, the all-powerful aliens had recreated all these laws in reality. Somewhere on this planet, there was a hidden system that allowed its inhabitants to perform magic, as long as the game's scenario indicated you had a magical aptitude. As for me, as a citizen of the Galactic Union, I was, of course, not accounted for by this system. I was completely "non-magical," if you can call it that. My "non-magical" nature also meant that, as a foreign element in this system, I was also inaccessible to the magic of the locals. That is, even the most magical wizard here could do nothing to me. This status of mine also created a certain invisible alienation. As soon as they learned of this ability, they kept me at a distance. What's more, they never even asked my name! They called me exclusively Mr. Emissary, despite the fact that I occasionally corrected them and gave my real name. "Mr. Emissary, are you sure this blow won't pierce the armor of a red giant?" the captain would ask, demonstrating her lieutenants piercing thick double armor nailed to a wooden post at full gallop.
"If you nail the giant to the post, then it probably will," I would answer with unconcealed skepticism.
They didn't laugh at such jokes. My behavior irritated Leinaria. To be clear, I only criticized, but offered nothing in return. I was frantically thinking, weighing the options—how to defeat the Giants. Formulating and discarding the most exotic plans. In Kunisada's book, Aramia, like the neighboring kingdom of Maramia, was doomed. The author had made the Red Giants such terrifyingly powerful creatures precisely to strip everyone of all hope. Aramia is the land of fallen heroes. This is not a random name. The heroes were meant to fall. And the players, if we're talking about the two-hundred-year-old virtual game, were supposed to find a solution and prevent it. My father, as the creator of the game, claimed that a salvation scenario existed, and even that there were many of them. And that it was simply because of the arrival of the aliens that no one ever played any of them to the end. Some had partially succeeded. But no one had managed to save even the majority. True, right now I was not in a game, but in a real world recreated from this almost hopeless story. Did that change anything? Most likely, it made the situation more desperate. Reality is always harder than a fictional world. Or is it?
"This is a battle mage and a fourth-degree knight—Illiria. He can create a fireball the size of a wine barrel and hurl it a distance of over ninety stags!"
The Queen proudly showed me a stately warrior dressed in silver armor of very fine workmanship, with ornate flourishes and protective runes etched on the chest and back.
"The Red Giants are not afraid of fire. They actually live in the crater of an extinct volcano on their island, in case you didn't know."
The captain stamped her foot in irritation. I prudently refrained from sharing the info from the novel, which said that the giants would tear Illiria apart at the city wall. They would rip off his arms, legs, and head. Despite their more than three-meter height, the giants run very fast. Just like antelopes. Hurling fireballs twenty-three meters is no obstacle for them. At best, it would serve as an irritant, and the thrower would simply be killed more brutally. Which is what happened in the book.
Thus the day passed. I was tired of this inspection. They lodged me in luxurious chambers. With a huge bed. I even suspected they were the chambers of the deceased king. Strange, I thought, as I lay down on the meter-high, large mattress and the bed with a red canopy. The transparent curtains were drawn aside. It seemed as if they wanted to bribe me. As if their fate depended on my goodwill toward them. Although, to some extent, it did. I caught myself thinking that if I agreed to stay here. That is, if I renounced my status as a citizen of the Galactic Union, I would immediately become a real inhabitant of this world. Possibly with the ability for magic and leveling up. This picture immediately played out in my head. I go to the adventurers' guild, register, and start completing quests: hunting monsters, acquiring some magical items. All these anime clichés exist here. It's just that they're not the main focus. I remembered my father's words when he talked about this project: "You can't even imagine by an iota how diverse and rich the world in this game is, Tim! Yes, you know that Divine Games are self-developing worlds and that their self-aware NPCs are capable of amazing things. But did you know that after a couple of years, such a game acquires a completely unique, inimitable charm? And after two decades—it's as priceless as a hundred-year-old aged wine. It evokes an incredible 'taste' of emotions in the player. Humanity has never had more interesting entertainment! And it never will!"
Thus I drifted off to sleep without even undressing. And I woke up in the middle of the night from a light touch. I didn't move for the first few seconds, so as not to let on that I was no longer asleep. Apparently, I had been sleeping internally prepared for this. Finally, I opened my eyes and met the gaze of turquoise, unnaturally beautiful and large eyes. The royal bedroom was semi-dark, but the moonlight filtering through the transparent curtains provided enough light to see her silhouette. As soon as the queen realized I was awake, she instantly recoiled and sank to the floor. Not understanding what she was doing—after all, as a teenager, middle-aged women in nightgowns had never come to my bedroom—I sat up and stared at her in bewilderment. The queen, for it was she, had sunk to the floor in some sort of self-deprecating bow, her silvery-white hair cascading like a waterfall, touching the floor and completely hiding her face.
"What do you want, Your Majesty?"
She was silent for a while, then answered without raising her head:
"Salvation, emissary from the heavens. Salvation for my people!"
"And what? For that, you need to sneak into my bedroom in the middle of the night?"
"If I must," she replied and raised her gaze.
I couldn't help but flinch at the determination in her eyes, and I unconsciously began to admire her character. This character was truly devoted to her country to the very end. And she was ready to do anything to save her people. My skepticism and curt answers throughout the inspection of her army, coupled with my predictions about the Red Giants, had apparently convinced her that there was very little hope for salvation. She was offering herself as payment. Not her maids, not her subjects, but herself.
I wonder why she is sacrificing herself?
Apparently, this thought was reflected on my face, because she commented on what was left unsaid:
"I am a just queen and cannot offer my subjects what I do not do myself."
"Why did you decide that such a payment would interest me?" I asked and immediately regretted it.
She blinked in confusion, as if I had said something not entirely clear.
"I noticed how you looked at Leinaria. It is the look of a man's desire, I know it all too well."
You don't know anything! You were created last Thursday! All your words are the result of a regenerative transformer combined with some abstruse algorithms of an incredibly complex AI model. And that's it!
And yet, I was caught again! It was foolish to deny it. Dishonest.
"I am fifteen and a half years old, Your Majesty."
This was a way out of the situation that my father had taught me. "Nothing embarrasses a woman over twenty more than pointing out her age!" my father once said.
This really did embarrass her. She had trapped herself in her own display of virtue. If she now ordered a maid or even the captain herself to spend the night with me, she would be shattering the image she had just created for me—that of a supposedly just monarch. She was thinking hard, trying to solve this problem. To do two things at once: look like a super-virtuous monarch and at the same time bribe me with beautiful houris.
"Perhaps then you will marry Rosalinda the Younger? She is almost 14 years old already."
And there it was! The standard reward for a hero—a princess and half a kingdom to boot! A cliché from a fairy tale. How could we do without it, Kunisada-san?
Since I didn't answer out loud, she continued in a torrent, averting her gaze and wringing her hands:
"I understand that she is capricious, and she has bad manners sometimes. And I know what they say about her in the city. I am a terrible mother, and I didn't have time to control her. All these wars, state affairs..."
She kept speeding up the pace of her excuses until I stopped her with a gesture of raised hands.
I too have a duty to my planet. And there are real people there, not creations for a game. Even if they supposedly have pseudo-consciousness. I will try to help. For the sake of my Planet. Not for them.
"There is no need for such a payment, Your Majesty."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid I won't be able to repay it. I have no guarantees that I can save you. I am not a public enemy of your world. Unless, of course, you make me one."
"What does 'public enemy' mean?"
I hesitated with my answer. I had heard this phrase from my father. I didn't quite understand what it meant myself and had inserted it, thinking to say something clever. To impress her.
Fool! I mentally cursed myself.
"An enemy of the people," I mumbled, trying to come up with something. "Someone whom everyone rejects, a pariah."
"But you are invulnerable!" She almost pleaded with this phrase.
And then I understood why she considered me a messiah capable of saving them. And why she was so afraid of me and was ready for anything. An incomprehensible creature that had appeared from nowhere, capable of saving them without any problems if it so desired.
So that's it! She knows that I am invulnerable. And that I can simply go against the Red Giants and kill them all if I wish. I can't be killed, pierced, burned, drowned, or strangled... She must have tested all of this herself! There's no doubt about it. The only thing she doesn't know is that they are just as invulnerable to me!
At that moment, I made another mistake. Had I been twenty-five or thirty, perhaps I could have been hypocritical for the greater good. My father used to say that the older some people get, the easier it is for them to lie. For the good of the cause. Especially since they were not people in the true sense of the word. But her, seemingly, sincere behavior and desire for the good of her people misled me. I deceived myself.
I briefly explained my status to the Queen. I cannot be harmed, but I also cannot harm them.
She thought for a few seconds. Then she stood up, walked to the door, and shocked me with a sharp, completely changed voice:
"Guards! THROW THIS USELESS CREATURE OUT OF HERE! Immediately! And do not be afraid. It is incapable of harming us!..."
Literally five minutes later, I was roughly (very roughly!) pushed out of the palace gates onto the stone pavement. In the middle of the moonlit night, I had once again landed in the wrong place. And again, not where I wanted to be.