“What’s this?” Siegfried asked.
[Alert: You have obtained Top Secret File-27!]
“Top Secret File?”
“This is the latest map of the Emporio Kingdom’s western region.”
“A map of the Emporio Kingdom?”
Michele nodded and explained, “Yes, it is an extremely detailed map. It accurately depicts the terrain, military facilities, tall buildings, and even small buildings in the region. The fact that it even shows the location of street vendors makes it almost like a map hack.”
“Almost like a maphack—hold on?”
Siegfried noticed something strange in what Michele said.
“Where the hell did you learn that word?”
“I learned it from the Korean Adventurers.”
“...”
“They said that it is advanced magic that allows one to see everything in that area without stepping foot in there... Is it not?”
“I guess it’s an advanced magic...?” Siegfried replied while scratching the back of his head. He had never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that he would hear an NPC talk about map hacks in the game.
“But why do you have something like this? Aren’t maps with the location of military facilities classified as national secrets?”
Maps were readily available on Earth, but that was not the case in the Nürgberg Continent.
How did Michele get his hands on such a detailed map of the Emporio Kingdom?
“The Thieves’ Guild’s influence is quite strong in the western region of the Emporio Kingdom.”
“Oh?”
“I bought this information just in case we needed it, but I did not expect that we'd use it like this. Well, they say it is better to be safe than sorry, so...”
“Better safe than sorry...? Where did you learn that? No, more importantly, I can understand why you collected the map, but why did you bring it here as if you knew you needed it?”
“That is because I knew what Your Majesty was going to do.”
“Oh?”
“Also, my workload is going to increase by three times at least if Dame Oscar leaves. That's... a hell that even I will not be able to endure...”
Michele made perfect sense. Oscar’s workload as the commander of the Proatine Army was as heavy as Michele's, and her background as an elite academy graduate made it possible for her to do most administrative work required by the army.
It was inevitable that her absence was going to be felt, and a gaping hole was going to form in the operation of the kingdom the moment she departed.
“Please bear this in mind, Your Majesty... You will not be allowed to step a single foot outside if Dame Oscar resigns.”
“H-Hiiik!” Siegfried shrieked in horror as goosebumps rose all over his body.
A world without Oscar was practically an administrative hell!
He could not afford to lose someone as capable as Oscar. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to do what he loved, which was to dump his work onto other people.
Siegfried got up and said, “I should hurry and rescue her.”
“This is a document containing a rough explanation of Dame Oscar's situation. Please read it on the way; it will definitely come in handy,” Michele said as he passed all of the information he had collected so far to Siegfried.
“Thank you.”
“Please hurry and bring Dame Oscar back. Our kingdom’s operations have started to come to a standstill.”
“I’ll be right back,” Siegfried replied before he got moving.
***
Inside the super airship, Huracan...
“Hmm...”
Siegfried went through the files provided by Michele to get a grasp of the current situation, and it seemed surprisingly quite simple. The McQueen and Valencia territories, both territories belonging to the Emporio Kingdom, had waged war on each other over trade disputes.
Oscar’s first love, Salvatore Furt, was the lord of Valencia.
Salvatore Furrt was born a commoner in a provincial territory, and he diligently trained to become a knight. Just like Oscar, he was accepted into the prestigious Knight Academy of the Macallan Kingdom, and he even managed to become an instructor at the academy.
After his stint as an instructor, he married the daughter of the Emporio Kingdom’s Valencia Family. His marriage was a matrilineal one, and he received the surname Valencia.
Then, he received the title of marquis a couple of years after he became the feudal lord of the territory and...
“He hiked tax from forty to seventy percent, changed policies to rule with a reign of terror, and even started a money-lending business with exorbitant interest rates aimed at his own citizens as soon as he became the lord. Wow...”
Siegfried was amazed after reading the file of Oscar’s first love, Salvatore Furt. The guy immediately turned into a tyrant as soon as he became the lord as if he had been waiting for it his whole life. His actions were so tyrannical that he could probably be classified as an exemplary example of how a tyrant should act.
Siegfried was baffled by how the people had allowed him to stay as a lord. It was also written in Michele’s file that Salvatore had an elf-hunting business and was running a forced prostitution business with his own citizens as his clientele.
“This guy is the worst of all trash...”
Siegfried ended up shaking his head while reading the file.
“Oscar decided to resign to save a bastard like him? This doesn’t make sense...”
“Owner punk! That’s love! Nothing makes sense in the face of love! Kyuu!” Hamchi chimed in while enjoying the in-flight meal on the co-pilot seat.
“That’s love?”
“That guy’s dead anyway! It’s off with his head soon! Kyu!”
“I guess?”
“That’s why Oscar is doing her best trying to save him and make a new person out of him!”
“Hmm...”
“Oscar is a romanticist! She still hasn’t forgotten about him! Kyu!”
“Ah! I don’t know anymore!” Siegfried threw the file away and shook his head. “It’s not my business anyway. All I have to do is safely rescue Oscar. That’s it.”
“Yes, owner punk! Ignore the dead man!”
“I will.”
Siegfried gave up on trying to understand Oscar as his mission was to bring her back safely to the Proatine Kingdom. To be honest, he did not care what happened to the piece of trash, nor was he interested in knowing.
— Prepare for descent!
— Please fasten your seatbelts!
The announcement played as the Huracan landed at a mountain located within the McQueen Territory. The Huracan was capable of landing and taking off vertically in a straight line, so it did not require a runway.
The Huracan entered into Stealth Mode, and it landed on the mountain unnoticed.
“There are two days left before the public execution... I think we can still catch Oscar and convince her to stop.”
“We will! Kyu!”
“Let’s hurry.”
Siegfried descended the mountain and went to the center of the McQueen Territory.
Three hours later...
“Move faster!”
“Search thoroughly! Stop anyone that looks remotely suspicious!”
Siegfried entered the city and found the soldiers moving about busily, and this meant...
“Already?!”
Oscar had already rescued the piece of trash and had escaped with him.
***
Meanwhile, inside a cave located deep inside a secluded forest.
“...”
“...”
A deafening silence filled the cave as neither Oscar nor the piece of trash said anything.
Their reunion was not a pleasant one. One was a tyrant who had lost his territory, while the other was now a free knight without a lord to serve.
The two of them had lost everything.
“Are you... happy now...?” Oscar broke the silence while staring down at her former love.
The knight instructor she once respected was nowhere to be seen. His handsome face was now one full of greed, his clear, innocent eyes were now clouded by the evil deeds he had done, and his pale, smooth skin was now full of wrinkles.
“Oscar...” Salvatore muttered before he asked, “Why did you save me? Don’t tell me... Do you still—“
“It is nothing but foolish longing.”
“Foolish...”
“This is the last thing I can do for you.”
“...”
“Once we get out of here... I want you to go into hiding and never show your face out in the world ever again. If you do, then I will personally hunt you down and kill you,” Oscar said in a serious tone.
She could not bear seeing the man she once loved die such a pitiful death, and she was still mad at him—no, she loathed him. But above all, she was angry at herself for not being able to forget someone like him.
“I will warn you again. Live like you're dead, and don’t come out to the world. I threw away everything to save your pitiful life.”
“...”
“I can no longer serve the person I respect the most.”
“Is it worth it?”
“What do... you mean by that?”
“Is the Proatine Kingdom so great it’s worth dedicating your life to? That kingdom is no different from a provincial territory, but how can the king of such a place be worthy of a knight like—“
Shiiing!
Oscar drew her sword and placed it on Salvatore’s neck.
“I will not forgive those that speak ill of my lord.”
“...”
“You will never know how leaving that person’s side forever just to save a scumbag like you is going to—“
“So you like him,” Salvatore said.
Oscar froze at those words.
“Your eyes. I have seen those eyes before, and those are the same eyes that once looked at me—“
Slash!
Salvatore was unable to finish talking as Oscar’s sword slashed his neck. Blood started flowing out of the wound.
“I’m starting to regret saving someone like you.”
“As expected, the king of that tiny kingdom... you—“
“I will kill you if you dare utter another word.”
Salvatore shut his mouth at her warning as he could tell she was dead serious and would cut him down without any hesitation.
It was as if he poked her reverse scale judging from her reaction.
“It is time for us to go. Get up.”
“Okay...”
Oscar and Salvatore left the cave to continue their escape.
***
The escape route they chose was the Casca Mountains, but they were met with both big and small battles along the way.
“Why are you not using a real sword?!” Salvatore screamed at Oscar. “We could’ve escaped much sooner if you had just used a real sword!”
“Because I don’t see a reason to kill a person for someone like you.”
“Damn it!”
Salvatore would have picked up a sword and cut down the knights and soldiers from the McQueen Territory if he could. Unfortunately, his skills had gotten quite rusty after not picking up the sword in the past ten years. He also still hadn't recovered from the injuries he had sustained from getting tortured in captivity.
He was forced to rely on Oscar to escape.
“Do you want to live or die?! Do you think that toy sword of yours will get us far?!”
“It is our fate if we die whilst escaping.”
“Damn it!”
“Keep moving.”
Oscar completely ignored Salvatore’s grumbling and continued walking, but...
“Halt!”
Oscar and Salvatore were faced with fifty enemies this time. Their numbers were not a problem as Oscar easily faced two hundred soldiers with her fake sword, but there was a stark difference in quality this time.
The enemies blocking their path were all wearing lightweight leather armor; they held a small crossbow in their left hand and a short sword on their right. At the center of their leather armor was the insignia depicting a mountain goat.
“T-They are... the McQueen Rangers...!” Salvatore muttered in horror. The McQueen Ranger Squadron was an elite force of the McQueen Territory that guarded the Casca Mountains, and they were famous for their ferocity and strength.
“Oscar! Use a real sword!” Salvatore desperately shouted, but it fell on deaf ears.
Oscar was still using the blunt sword and club she had brought with her.
“Damn it! We’re really going to die here!” Salvatore screamed.
“That will be our fate then,” Oscar replied indifferently.
Then, she started walking toward the McQueen Ranger Squadron.
“What’s this?” Siegfried asked.
[Alert: You have obtained Top Secret File-27!]
“Top Secret File?”
“This is the latest map of the Emporio Kingdom’s western region.”
“A map of the Emporio Kingdom?”
Michele nodded and explained, “Yes, it is an extremely detailed map. It accurately depicts the terrain, military facilities, tall buildings, and even small buildings in the region. The fact that it even shows the location of street vendors makes it almost like a map hack.”
“Almost like a maphack—hold on?”
Siegfried noticed something strange in what Michele said.
“Where the hell did you learn that word?”
“I learned it from the Korean Adventurers.”
“...”
“They said that it is advanced magic that allows one to see everything in that area without stepping foot in there... Is it not?”
“I guess it’s an advanced magic...?” Siegfried replied while scratching the back of his head. He had never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that he would hear an NPC talk about map hacks in the game.
“But why do you have something like this? Aren’t maps with the location of military facilities classified as national secrets?”
Maps were readily available on Earth, but that was not the case in the Nürgberg Continent.
How did Michele get his hands on such a detailed map of the Emporio Kingdom?
“The Thieves’ Guild’s influence is quite strong in the western region of the Emporio Kingdom.”
“Oh?”
“I bought this information just in case we needed it, but I did not expect that we'd use it like this. Well, they say it is better to be safe than sorry, so...”
“Better safe than sorry...? Where did you learn that? No, more importantly, I can understand why you collected the map, but why did you bring it here as if you knew you needed it?”
“That is because I knew what Your Majesty was going to do.”
“Oh?”
“Also, my workload is going to increase by three times at least if Dame Oscar leaves. That's... a hell that even I will not be able to endure...”
Michele made perfect sense. Oscar’s workload as the commander of the Proatine Army was as heavy as Michele's, and her background as an elite academy graduate made it possible for her to do most administrative work required by the army.
It was inevitable that her absence was going to be felt, and a gaping hole was going to form in the operation of the kingdom the moment she departed.
“Please bear this in mind, Your Majesty... You will not be allowed to step a single foot outside if Dame Oscar resigns.”
“H-Hiiik!” Siegfried shrieked in horror as goosebumps rose all over his body.
A world without Oscar was practically an administrative hell!
He could not afford to lose someone as capable as Oscar. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to do what he loved, which was to dump his work onto other people.
Siegfried got up and said, “I should hurry and rescue her.”
“This is a document containing a rough explanation of Dame Oscar's situation. Please read it on the way; it will definitely come in handy,” Michele said as he passed all of the information he had collected so far to Siegfried.
“Thank you.”
“Please hurry and bring Dame Oscar back. Our kingdom’s operations have started to come to a standstill.”
“I’ll be right back,” Siegfried replied before he got moving.
***
Inside the super airship, Huracan...
“Hmm...”
Siegfried went through the files provided by Michele to get a grasp of the current situation, and it seemed surprisingly quite simple. The McQueen and Valencia territories, both territories belonging to the Emporio Kingdom, had waged war on each other over trade disputes.
Oscar’s first love, Salvatore Furt, was the lord of Valencia.
Salvatore Furrt was born a commoner in a provincial territory, and he diligently trained to become a knight. Just like Oscar, he was accepted into the prestigious Knight Academy of the Macallan Kingdom, and he even managed to become an instructor at the academy.
After his stint as an instructor, he married the daughter of the Emporio Kingdom’s Valencia Family. His marriage was a matrilineal one, and he received the surname Valencia.
Then, he received the title of marquis a couple of years after he became the feudal lord of the territory and...
“He hiked tax from forty to seventy percent, changed policies to rule with a reign of terror, and even started a money-lending business with exorbitant interest rates aimed at his own citizens as soon as he became the lord. Wow...”
Siegfried was amazed after reading the file of Oscar’s first love, Salvatore Furt. The guy immediately turned into a tyrant as soon as he became the lord as if he had been waiting for it his whole life. His actions were so tyrannical that he could probably be classified as an exemplary example of how a tyrant should act.
Siegfried was baffled by how the people had allowed him to stay as a lord. It was also written in Michele’s file that Salvatore had an elf-hunting business and was running a forced prostitution business with his own citizens as his clientele.
“This guy is the worst of all trash...”
Siegfried ended up shaking his head while reading the file.
“Oscar decided to resign to save a bastard like him? This doesn’t make sense...”
“Owner punk! That’s love! Nothing makes sense in the face of love! Kyuu!” Hamchi chimed in while enjoying the in-flight meal on the co-pilot seat.
“That’s love?”
“That guy’s dead anyway! It’s off with his head soon! Kyu!”
“I guess?”
“That’s why Oscar is doing her best trying to save him and make a new person out of him!”
“Hmm...”
“Oscar is a romanticist! She still hasn’t forgotten about him! Kyu!”
“Ah! I don’t know anymore!” Siegfried threw the file away and shook his head. “It’s not my business anyway. All I have to do is safely rescue Oscar. That’s it.”
“Yes, owner punk! Ignore the dead man!”
“I will.”
Siegfried gave up on trying to understand Oscar as his mission was to bring her back safely to the Proatine Kingdom. To be honest, he did not care what happened to the piece of trash, nor was he interested in knowing.
— Prepare for descent!
— Please fasten your seatbelts!
The announcement played as the Huracan landed at a mountain located within the McQueen Territory. The Huracan was capable of landing and taking off vertically in a straight line, so it did not require a runway.
The Huracan entered into Stealth Mode, and it landed on the mountain unnoticed.
“There are two days left before the public execution... I think we can still catch Oscar and convince her to stop.”
“We will! Kyu!”
“Let’s hurry.”
Siegfried descended the mountain and went to the center of the McQueen Territory.
Three hours later...
“Move faster!”
“Search thoroughly! Stop anyone that looks remotely suspicious!”
Siegfried entered the city and found the soldiers moving about busily, and this meant...
“Already?!”
Oscar had already rescued the piece of trash and had escaped with him.
***
Meanwhile, inside a cave located deep inside a secluded forest.
“...”
“...”
A deafening silence filled the cave as neither Oscar nor the piece of trash said anything.
Their reunion was not a pleasant one. One was a tyrant who had lost his territory, while the other was now a free knight without a lord to serve.
The two of them had lost everything.
“Are you... happy now...?” Oscar broke the silence while staring down at her former love.
The knight instructor she once respected was nowhere to be seen. His handsome face was now one full of greed, his clear, innocent eyes were now clouded by the evil deeds he had done, and his pale, smooth skin was now full of wrinkles.
“Oscar...” Salvatore muttered before he asked, “Why did you save me? Don’t tell me... Do you still—“
“It is nothing but foolish longing.”
“Foolish...”
“This is the last thing I can do for you.”
“...”
“Once we get out of here... I want you to go into hiding and never show your face out in the world ever again. If you do, then I will personally hunt you down and kill you,” Oscar said in a serious tone.
She could not bear seeing the man she once loved die such a pitiful death, and she was still mad at him—no, she loathed him. But above all, she was angry at herself for not being able to forget someone like him.
“I will warn you again. Live like you're dead, and don’t come out to the world. I threw away everything to save your pitiful life.”
“...”
“I can no longer serve the person I respect the most.”
“Is it worth it?”
“What do... you mean by that?”
“Is the Proatine Kingdom so great it’s worth dedicating your life to? That kingdom is no different from a provincial territory, but how can the king of such a place be worthy of a knight like—“
Shiiing!
Oscar drew her sword and placed it on Salvatore’s neck.
“I will not forgive those that speak ill of my lord.”
“...”
“You will never know how leaving that person’s side forever just to save a scumbag like you is going to—“
“So you like him,” Salvatore said.
Oscar froze at those words.
“Your eyes. I have seen those eyes before, and those are the same eyes that once looked at me—“
Slash!
Salvatore was unable to finish talking as Oscar’s sword slashed his neck. Blood started flowing out of the wound.
“I’m starting to regret saving someone like you.”
“As expected, the king of that tiny kingdom... you—“
“I will kill you if you dare utter another word.”
Salvatore shut his mouth at her warning as he could tell she was dead serious and would cut him down without any hesitation.
It was as if he poked her reverse scale judging from her reaction.
“It is time for us to go. Get up.”
“Okay...”
Oscar and Salvatore left the cave to continue their escape.
***
The escape route they chose was the Casca Mountains, but they were met with both big and small battles along the way.
“Why are you not using a real sword?!” Salvatore screamed at Oscar. “We could’ve escaped much sooner if you had just used a real sword!”
“Because I don’t see a reason to kill a person for someone like you.”
“Damn it!”
Salvatore would have picked up a sword and cut down the knights and soldiers from the McQueen Territory if he could. Unfortunately, his skills had gotten quite rusty after not picking up the sword in the past ten years. He also still hadn't recovered from the injuries he had sustained from getting tortured in captivity.
He was forced to rely on Oscar to escape.
“Do you want to live or die?! Do you think that toy sword of yours will get us far?!”
“It is our fate if we die whilst escaping.”
“Damn it!”
“Keep moving.”
Oscar completely ignored Salvatore’s grumbling and continued walking, but...
“Halt!”
Oscar and Salvatore were faced with fifty enemies this time. Their numbers were not a problem as Oscar easily faced two hundred soldiers with her fake sword, but there was a stark difference in quality this time.
The enemies blocking their path were all wearing lightweight leather armor; they held a small crossbow in their left hand and a short sword on their right. At the center of their leather armor was the insignia depicting a mountain goat.
“T-They are... the McQueen Rangers...!” Salvatore muttered in horror. The McQueen Ranger Squadron was an elite force of the McQueen Territory that guarded the Casca Mountains, and they were famous for their ferocity and strength.
“Oscar! Use a real sword!” Salvatore desperately shouted, but it fell on deaf ears.
Oscar was still using the blunt sword and club she had brought with her.
“Damn it! We’re really going to die here!” Salvatore screamed.
“That will be our fate then,” Oscar replied indifferently.
Then, she started walking toward the McQueen Ranger Squadron.
