I glanced back and forth between Godric, lounging idly in the seat of honour, and the rough-looking black wildcat emblem hanging on the ancient fortress wall.
'Aside from having black fur, it doesn't resemble me at all.'
As I glared at the banner, the murmuring around me grew louder. Five gold plaques—symbols of dominance over a region—were lined up in succession. There was no avoiding the attention now.
So much for difficulty adjustment… He really was wringing every possible use out of those hunted beasts.
Thinking about how these very corpses would eventually be repurposed to fill the Evil Dragon made the whole thing feel like some kind of grand cyclical economic system. Practical, in a way.
As my expression twisted slightly, Leonardo immediately picked up on the shift and moved closer.
"Isaac?"
"Uh, yeah, so… I just got promoted."
"…"
Leonardo blinked blankly, then tilted his head as if asking what on earth I was talking about.
Honestly, I had no idea what kind of mess this was either. But it was too complicated to explain right now.
Godric had deliberately placed my hastily fabricated house at the very end of the announcements, ensuring that I became the centre of attention.
Standing beneath the silver glow cascading over Leonardo's head, surrounded by hyena-like nobles with their predatory gazes, I felt a dull ringing in my skull. I had spent my whole life yearning for the spotlight, but not like this. Quietly, I took a step back, letting Leonardo take the forefront.
Now that I'd seen Godric's little surprise, couldn't I just slip away?
I subtly shifted toward the tent, searching for a way out—only for Leonardo, who had been shielding me with his bewildered expression, to suddenly fall silent. His face turned utterly still, an eerie contrast to his usual responsiveness.
Almost simultaneously, someone reached out from behind, their hand extending toward my shoulder—only for Leonardo to intercept them in a flash.
The person who had suddenly tried to grab me was dressed in formal attire for the banquet. A noble, just based on their clothing.
The moment our eyes met, I knew.
This was one of the nobles enslaved by Godric's will. Deep within their gaze, a faint red glimmer flickered like a dying candle.
Even as Leonardo's iron grip twisted the noble's wrist, nearly crushing it, the man didn't seem to feel any pain. His unfocused eyes simply blinked dully, as if he weren't even aware of what was happening.
Then, suddenly—like an actor slipping on a mask—his expression changed entirely.
A smile stretched across his lips, faint crow's feet forming at the corners of his eyes, as if he had just run into an old friend.
"Oh, Lord Isaac! What a truly remarkable achievement."
A massive loudspeaker, courtesy of Godric.
Just kill me already.
'Leo, knock him out!'
Without a second's hesitation, Leonardo's hand moved with precise efficiency, his face calm as ever.
"Ghhhk—!"
The noble, who had been approaching me so warmly just moments ago, abruptly folded in half at an alarming angle. His body went slack.
…He's not dead, right?
I hastily caught his shoulder to keep him from collapsing completely, and with my free hand, I grabbed a goblet from the banquet table, splashing its contents onto his fine clothes.
"Oh dear! Already too drunk to stand? How will you survive tomorrow at this rate? You're wobblier than a newborn goat!"
I called out in a loud, theatrical voice, exaggerating my distress.
The surrounding nobles, already loosened up from the pre-dinner drinks, burst into laughter. Their tolerance for humour was clearly low tonight.
Up on the high platform, watching this ridiculous farce unfold, was Godric—who, of course, was smiling. Are you enjoying this?
For a moment, the eyes that had briefly turned toward us due to the commotion drifted away again, leaving just the two of us—and one unconscious, inconvenient noble—isolated in the sea of chatter.
「Hand him over.」
Without hesitation, Leonardo took the noble from my grasp, handling him carelessly before—when no one was looking—shoving him out past the tent's edge.
…Just like that.
Casual, effortless. So natural that I almost went along with it without thinking. If anyone had seen him, they might have assumed he'd done this sort of thing multiple times before.
Like someone who frequently knocked out nuisances with a magic sleep club and quietly stashed them away in corners where no one would find them.
But this was Leonardo! There was no way he'd do something like that!
This guy was probably the type to get shoved around at a noble's banquet, looking dazed and confused, barely getting a proper meal. His speech might be stiff, but his actions were a dead giveaway—he was hopelessly bad at this.
I scratched my cheek as I watched the tent flap settle again after momentarily fluttering from our little act of illegal drunk disposal. Hopefully, the guy wouldn't freeze out there.
Well, Godric could deal with it.
[Sub-writer 1: Your attempts to escape are truly commendable.]
Godric, like someone indulging in an amusing game, had taken a few more glances at people before leaving—and surprisingly, I was able to get in contact with him.
Blinking, I scanned the now-vacant podium where Godric had been.
If something had influenced him to step away, did that mean the main writers had already joined the stage for Act 3? This time, the reach of Godric's power felt overwhelmingly vast, making it difficult to tell whether they could intervene at all.
More than anything, I wanted to ask if they knew everything about Godric's plan. And if they did, whether that meant they also knew about the Evil Dragon.
If so, then why?
Why didn't they destroy the
[Main Author: Listen closely to your surroundings.]
Of course, the ones writing this story wouldn't simply hand over the answer on a silver platter. Instead, they preferred to gently nudge me toward discovering it on my own.
That was the last I heard from Butier. No more messages appeared.
Following their advice, I took a look around—and it became clear that the atmosphere of the banquet had subtly shifted in the wake of the king's departure.
The nobles aligned with Godric, unmistakable in their allegiance, now sat eerily silent, like marionettes with their strings cut. Some spoke in hushed voices, but only among themselves.
And amidst the commotion, a faint voice emerged.
"Missing persons?"
Leonardo halted, seemingly having caught the same words. His ears, attuned to such things, sharpened instinctively—like a trained parrot, he repeated the lead exactly as he had heard it.
"Yeah. There weren't as many injuries as expected, but apparently, a few people have gone missing."
"Did they get separated in the mountains?"
"If that were the case, someone would have noticed. One of my porters disappeared as well—but he didn't vanish during the march. He was there when we made camp, then gone by morning. There were tracks in the snow leading outward, so I assumed a beast had dragged him off."
"Has this been happening often?"
"I'm not sure. It's hard to tell whether other hunting parties have experienced the same thing. And considering there were some casualties, a few missing people might just be an oversight…"
After quietly relaying the entire conversation through
And in that very moment, letters materialized before my eyes.
[Scenario Sub-quest Bonus Objective Achieved! – Research Assignment: 'Experiment' (1/1)]
[Clear Condition Achieved!]
['Scenario Note #027' has concluded successfully. Time remaining until the next scenario note assignment: 「0 hours 30 minutes」.]
Experiment.
It was the only research task related to the Dragonbone Sword that had yet to be completed—the effect of its poison on humans.
And now, that missing piece had been filled in.
There was no way it was just a coincidence.
'It's connected to the disappearances.'
Duke Marchez had mentioned that beasts exposed to the poison were showing a tendency to move south, toward the dragon's head—toward the corpse of the Evil Dragon, Vernis.
And now, people were vanishing?
It was too obvious.
Everything was falling into place—the reason why the nameless ones had abducted extra-level characters during the intermission, the true purpose of hunting these beasts, and the mystery of where the missing people had gone.
'Just how long has this been in the works?'
As I stood frozen in realization, Leonardo moved—sensing something.
At first, I wondered if it was yet another one of Godric's messenger puppets. But the person standing before me was a familiar face—and, more importantly, they hadn't come looking for me specifically.
"Ahem, Lord Ertinez."
Lopez.
'Ah, right. Now that I think about it, I haven't really paid any attention to what he's been up to since we arrived at the Vernis Mountains.'
Back when I was still wearing the Black Cloak, I had made it abundantly clear—through both defiance and outright threats—that I was at odds with Godric. Maybe that's why, as far as I remembered, Lopez hadn't made any attempts to cozy up to him.
Lopez stood there, stroking his beard in an ambiguous expression—somewhere between anxious and arrogant. After a quick glance around, he muttered in a low voice.
"We should call the duke as well. I've found something rather useful. Ahem! And later, make sure to tell 'him' that I handled this well. Understood? Damn it, I need to get some recognition now that I've chosen this side…"
Lopez muttered uneasily before calling over the fake Duke Marchez and leading us somewhere.
A secluded corner of the banquet hall.
The faces gathered there were unfamiliar, but with a bit of observation, I could make an educated guess.
'Most of the other nobles at the banquet were wearing Dragonbone Swords at their waists…'
Since the swords were a royal gift, bringing them to the banquet seemed like the natural thing to do.
'But these people aren't wearing one.'
Yet their attire was undeniably noble. The food and drinks in front of them were barely touched—as if they were only pretending to indulge.
A quick glance at their cloaks and crests, compared to the records on the castle wall, confirmed it—they had hunted fewer beasts than the others.
A group that showed no particular devotion to the king. Actions laced with suspicion. And a deliberate distance from the Dragonbone Swords.
'Potential allies.'