Chapter 137

“To think this is how I’d end up here…,” Shining Saber grumbled. “Quit it! I can see your eyes glazing over!” Cayna chided. “This couldn’t get any worse. The tourney was a grade-A disaster, so rumors are spreading like wildfire,” Cohral added. “I’ve heard a few whispers, too. Let’s see…,” Cayna began. “Stop! Don’t you dare say it!” he cried. “Oh, you mean the Black Silver Knight and the Supreme Swordsman?” ““GWAAAAAAAAGH?!”” These figures at the center of fresh rumors in the capital were the monikers Shining Saber and Cohral had earned after going berserk (?) in the tourney. Those names made the duo grip their heads and writhe in paralyzed agony. “Now you’ve gotten a taste of my pain, right?” said Cayna. “Y-yeah…” “So much it hurts…” The Silver Ring Witch moniker had reached far and wide back in the day. It was Cayna’s alias of sorts, and it was even added to her stats as a title once her reputation spread among the player community. Shining Saber and Cohral were similarly the talk of the town, although Felskeilo’s current population didn’t hold a candle to the number of players during the Game Era. The system within Cayna’s soul failed to update the men’s profiles with their new monikers. She checked just to be sure, but there was no mistake. That said, it would’ve worked only if the system counted normal citizens as players. Cayna had no deliberate control over this, so alas, she could do nothing more than stand by and observe these developments. “Where’s the Supreme part come from anyway…?” Cohral muttered as his shoulders slumped. “Hmm…,” Cayna mused with crossed arms. “If I had to guess, it has something to do with your sword.” Cohral wielded the Holy Warrior Soul Valhalla. The blade shone silver, but apparently it had appeared pure white to spectators during the tourney. And thus, the Supreme Swordsman was born. The weapon was already a hot topic in the Adventurers Guild, and rumors claimed it had produced a powerful gale. Plus, Cayna had given the Sycophant Sword Runberserk to Shining Saber. This blade, an inky black color, contrasted against Shining Saber’s silver scales, earning him the moniker the Black Silver Knight. His knights happened to take a liking to it; Shining Saber, on the other hand, did not appreciate the shift from “Captain” to “O Great Black Silver Knight.” “You two sure had a fun little swordfight,” said Cayna. “Y-you’ve got it all wrong. It was more like everyone was invisible except Cohral.” “S-same for me. I felt like I had to fight Shining Saber no matter what… I guess you could call it a sense of duty?” Cohral fumbled as he recalled the chaos. “Actually, yeah. That sounds about right, huh?” Shining Saber agreed. “Umm, I don’t get it. You mean your subconscious forced you or something?” “Not sure,” Cohral admitted. “It’s like my naked sword was in my hand, then suddenly I was fightin’ Cohral. Everything was nuts, and I had no idea what was going on. Now that I think about it, no real knight would attack without checking his surroundings first.” “Uh-huh.” “I also shouldn’t have rushed into the heat of battle without any thought for my comrades,” said Cohral. “Later on, everyone said I went crazy as soon as our fight began…” “You both congratulated each other, though.” “What else were we supposed to say?!” Shining Saber exclaimed. “It was a desperate attempt to break the tension…” Cohral and Shining Saber had fallen to pieces once the match finally ended, and Opus had knocked them down a peg. Unable to simply brush off the incident, Cohral had groveled before his comrades, while Shining Saber had been visibly uncomfortable without his trusted subordinates by his side. Not that his fellow knights could have stayed there with him, as they’d been tasked with evacuating everyone—in no small part because of Shining Saber himself. “At any rate, I’m not sure how one swordfight could’ve created such a massive storm,” Cayna mused. “What do you mean?” “C’mon, Shining Saber. I think you already know this, but I’m the one who caught that bandit leader a little while ago…” “Oh yeah, I heard a few details. You handed him over to the Helshper knights, right?” “That guy was a player,” Cayna revealed. “What?!” Cohral cried in abject shock. Shining Saber face-palmed. “Seriously…?” “Let’s ignore the fact he was a player for a second,” Cayna went on. “He and I had a pretty intense battle, but even we didn’t kick up a whirlwind like that. I doubt that happened just because you’re both players.” “The poor guy had to go against you?” said Shining Saber. “Tough break.” “He hadn’t yet realized that I’m a Limit Breaker,” she replied wryly. “Yeah, no one would know you’re a tank just by looking at you,” Cohral said with a shrug. “Think either of your weapons had anything to do with it?” Shining Saber asked. “I had my magic staff, and he used a Hungry Like the Wolf Sword. The staff is basically the same as a Valhalla, while the sword is a gag weapon, so I doubt that’s much help to us.” The trio began brainstorming other possible causes, but it turned out to be a hopeless endeavor. If even someone like Cayna, who knew Leadale inside and out, didn’t know the answer, their prospects were bleak. “Magic can create storms, right?” Shining Saber asked. “There’s Weather Manipulation, but it’s purely ceremonial,” Cayna explained. “Besides, a spell like that isn’t accurate enough to target the Battle Arena. If you used it in the capital, we’d have a disaster of epic proportions on our hands.” Ceremonial Magic could be cast by several people over a wide area. Only those who possessed the skill could invoke it, of course, and they had to stay in place when casting it. Furthermore, the effects lasted for over a day. Someone with near-infinite MP like Cayna could likely handle the spell herself, but it wouldn’t serve any purpose. “Guess we’re screwed…” “Yep. Blocked on all sides…” Shining Saber’s ale had gone tepid, but he chugged it before tossing back a handful of nuts and collapsing on the table in despair. Cohral smiled awkwardly and then polished off his own drink in a single gulp. “So, what’s the plan? Should we keep looking for the cause?” Cayna proposed. Shining Saber squinted at her and shook his head miserably. “If an all-powerful Skill Master can’t figure it out, there’s no point in the rest of us trying.” “I agree. I’ll just sadly think of my new name…as penance for this mishap…,” Cohral muttered. His distant gaze stared at nothing in particular. It was as if he’d already accepted his fate and had shelved his feelings away in the back of his mind. Cayna hoped he wasn’t going to explode. She then stood. “Opus was watching you nearby during the match, so I’ll see if he has any ideas.” “Yeah… Thanks…” “Greaaaat…” The mood was turning downright grim. “Later!” Cayna called as she left the tavern. “What do you plan to do?” asked Kee, who had remained silent thus far, as she wove aimlessly through the crowd. Before the conversation in the tavern, she had instructed him to speak up if anything caught his attention. Since he hadn’t made a peep the entire time, Cayna had assumed he was equally clueless. “My only real option is to look for Opus again and pick his brain about what happened.” Opus randomly disappeared right after the tourney ended on a sour note. Cayna also had questions about the Abandoned Capital, so she sent a telepathic message to the Double Rs to capture him immediately if they spotted him. Yet even after the festival had ended, Opus was nowhere to be found. The very real chance he had two hundred years’ worth of safe houses scattered across the continent was a terrifying thought. That moron was always so damn hard to locate. According to Kee, Opus would most likely be a terrible servant who ignored Cayna’s summons. “Where in the world is he puttering around?” All Cayna could manage in response to Kee’s grumbling was a hollow laugh. “Letter for youuuu!” “Kuu?” Out of nowhere, Kuu appeared in front of Cayna with a scrap of paper the size of a business card. Kuu wasn’t one to reveal herself in a crowd, but at some point she had discovered a way to make herself visible only to Cayna. She still typically hid in Cayna’s hair whenever they were out in public unless she had a good reason to pop out. Kuu then handed the scrap of paper to Cayna. It read: “The target has been apprehended.—Roxine” “Huh? ‘Apprehended’? Who?” Cayna froze, visibly confused. “The person you were just talking about!” Kuu answered merrily. “What? Roxine caught Opus? How?” His depravity aside, Opus was still a limit-breaking Skill Master. Cayna didn’t expect a level-550 maid would be able to capture him with such ease. She thought maybe Roxine could put up a good fight and slow him down, but the werecat had apparently pulled it off. “You instructed her to capture him, did you not?” “I didn’t think it was even a possibility, considering the level difference, but it looks like she proved me wrong.” Cayna didn’t know whether to feel shocked or proud. She entered a back alley, checked for prying eyes, then ran up the wall to the roof. After finding an unseen nook in the shadows, Cayna teleported to the remote village. “Did you really capture Opus?!” Cayna returned from Felskeilo in ten seconds flat and burst through the living room door. She gaped at the sight before her. “Mommy Cayna?” ““Lady Cayna!”” “Welcome back, Lady Cayna.” Four people—Luka, Roxine, Roxilius, and Siren—sat around something tied to a chair. Covered in rope, it looked like a caterpillar and groaned “Mmph! Mmph!” as it wriggled in vain. The horns peeking out of its head indicated this was most likely Opus. “Ah yes, that is indeed Master Opus,” Siren said, confirming the caterpillar’s identity. “Uh, mind filling me in?” Cayna asked. “I thought it best to wrap him up for now,” Roxine confessed brazenly. She was treating her creator like an inanimate object. The atmosphere was tense. A stern-faced Roxilius raised his hand, and Cayna bade him to speak. “Right,” he began. “First, Lady Luka distracted Sir Opus, then we took him down in an ambush.” “Uh, that’s not what I meant by ‘filling me in.’” Their cold-blooded tactics gave Cayna a headache. I bet Opus is, like, super pissed right now. “Most likely. But you asked them to capture him, so this is your problem as well, correct?” Yeah… Guess you’re right. Steeling herself against his inevitable wrath, Cayna was about to have Siren free Opus when the captured caterpillar deflated like a balloon. Strands of rope scattered around the chair. “Oh,” Cayna said, surprised. ““Ah!”” Roxine and Roxilius assumed battle positions. “My pitiful master has withered away.” Siren dabbed her tears with her usual handkerchief, and Luka clung to Cayna.