Chapter 116: Parcours

Another slapping surprise climbed up the merchant's face, and as he kept calling out to me that it was all too much, louder and louder, but I took off at once. Whoever ever had such a thing as "too much money" in the world? My business here was done: I had eaten my fill and had asked about what I needed to know.

Because I asked questions to the merchant noodle-maker. I first asked what a kingdom was, what size it was, and whether it could be eaten or not before I got my answer. Asking then what a princess was, or more specifically, how important was a prince or princess, one of the direct descendants of the king, I got my answer. Finally, I asked about a prince or princess' home, and how I could get there at once. It was the palace, and if I wanted to head to it, well, I just had to know that the big roads led to it.

All these questions had already been asked, and the kind merchant kindly provided me with an answer for each. Or maybe not, because then again, there was one last question I didn't let be voiced.

❮ "What lies behind the story…?" Main Quest— That question.

What lies behind the story? The System asked, and it was a very good question. What did I think hid behind the story, eh? Behind the story told by a certain storyteller. The same storyteller who ate, chatted, and jested with his little family at a certain family restaurant. The same guy I killed on my first day and from whom I obtained the 'Consciousness' passive skill. The same guy who recounted the story to his nephews, and thanks to whom I obtained so many other unique abilities of sorts.

So… what did I think hid behind the monster's story? A "fantastical" legendary forest full of wonders? A "place where everything began"? An ancient legendary tribe of people who had been blessed by the Divine Spirits? Or could it be… a game? The Game? The System's Game? Isekai Production's Game? Did I know? Or did the noodle-maker know? Should I have asked him?

It was question of THE story. The very story was what placed me in this world, it was the very reason why I was alive in the first place. The story which created me. A certain monster's story. My story. Or perhaps one should rather say it that way: that girl's—Mana's story?

Of course I didn't ask the stout merchant! He didn't know. Not even the old man, my faithful and useful advisor, knew. But more importantly, I didn't know. Well. Not for now, at least. Not for now.

All I had for now was this: ❮ "What lies behind the story…?" Main Quest — Accompanied by the Player's host, Princess Elina, let the Player head inside of the Capital and get all comfortable with her. Then hear the story! 0/1 ❯

I didn't tag along with the noblewoman when I could because I had important matters to discuss with an old sage, but now I would. Now, I could be devout to the System again and follow the guiding fragrance.

I heard the System, then. It was time to go. According to the noodle-maker, as he could very well answer some of my questions, getting to this palace place he mentioned was an impossible thing for me, who was most likely a commoner from the way I dressed, to do.

According to his info, the royalties, who were the fellows of Princess Elina, weren't welcoming anyone inside their territory just because, so venturing to get in without their permission was a fool's work. A fearless fool, you could even say. The merchant was wrong. I wasn't a fool. I still needed to get to my royalty, too. If I didn't follow the System, after all, what was I following? When I actually put my back into it, the quests, upon being completed, always brought forth new events and storylines to follow after.

So long as it was that way, I'd go about completing the game. Thus, after I had parted with my stool, I faced the many streets and roads of the capital still bustling with people and navigated endlessly through the city.

The voyage was a long one, but I liked to always be discovering more things about the outside world. Out there, scattered all around the thousands of streets, pathways, and alleys, there were so many people going about so many different activities. I loved it here, the heart of the city was just how the third princess described it: the heart of a thriving medieval civilization full of an awful lot of mysteries. New bright colors, shapes, gadgets, and people were presented to me, as if on a golden tray.

And after six or seven hours of walking, believe it or not, I stumbled upon a most gigantic forest, oh so full of greenery, right at the middle of the capital. That was weird, now. A forest? I wouldn't have imagined that sort of thing would be here, right at the center of so populated a capital. But sure, why not.

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I later learned that this "forest" was in fact the royal gardens. It was true that the forest was mostly trimmed and cut anyhow, and that the whole structure was more decorative than wild.

Massive white walls stood up surrounding the whole of the tamed forest. Circling the walls, I found many portals here and there that dived right into the heart of the broad gardens, but the guard misters stationed at each side of the entrance did just as the noodle-maker said: they shooed the country bumpkin away each time he approached.

Countless white beautiful arc-shaped structures and domes were found right in the middle of the luxurious, green gardens. Spread harmoniously around the palace were even and graceful white terraces upon which the settling sun still reflected, giving the world a spectacular glimpse of a fiery red-pink gloss all around the castle. Such was the royalties' domain. Hidden behind all of this were a lonely king, his children, and his noble friends. And as it sure felt fun to do so, I promised myself that one day, I'd be crushing them all under my might, and make this whole territory the monster's territory.

But that wasn't so important, and for the time being, I managed to slip in after I climbed the massive wall which obstructed me, canceled my Character, and turned into a shapeless body of water. When I was like this, shapeless, I more or less looked like a slime, though I wasn't a perfect ball either.

Shapeless though I might have been, after I spent so long either using human Receptacles or my own human form, the Character, I could easily assume a human-shaped silhouette, now, even while being a plain undisguised monster. If people saw me like this, they wouldn't cry out "Whoa— Unclassified watery slime!" but more something like "Whoa, is that the legendary Undine? Too bad it ain't got the boobs an' feminine appearance of the popular illustration!"

There were guards patrolling the walls, so, while shapeless, I snuck past the walls, made sure nobody would be seeing me among the many gardens and called forth my human form again. As usual, the System gave me the usual "Character: registered. The Player may progress through the Game" notification, and I navigated through the green land right to the castle.

Past some point, I felt some sort of invisible barrier preventing me from going further onward, but when I forced my way in anyway, a thin veil of glass shattered.

Whoa there, I hadn't accidentally stepped through some sort of protective device meant to prevent intruders from attacking or something, had I?

I had no idea to know, at the time, but I did break something important. Some important protective spell whose purpose was to protect the palace against assailants. That Haruto guy would say "This is a fantasy world, after all."

As usual anyway, when following a quest from the System, whenever unwarranted trouble stood in my path—just like the dryad, back in the forest, who refused to help the Player with the quest, or the third princess of the Roerden Kingdom who ordered her soldiers to kill me, the monster, when she found me out—pure white clouds of mana appeared around me, and before the master mages in charge of guarding the Castle could understand that the Palace's barrier had been broken, the pure mana fixed whatever needed fixing, and no trouble arose.

The game's storyline made the world bent to its will, and I safely passed through many more invisible barriers further down the road. Each time a barrier broke, the System's AR display read "'Mana's Benediction' Positive Effect — Confirmed: Encryption Magic has registered 'Player: Skill' as a Privileged Entity." Days after, when I would secretly pass through the tamed forest again, the array of protective barriers wouldn't offer me resistance at all.

An arched gate was presented to me, and I thanked the fact that it was now mostly nighttime since I couldn't exactly be seen here. I was an intruder, after all. If, let's say, right now, I got found out, arrested, then put to death in accordance with the State's laws, my noblewoman could only turn her head the other way and do as if she had no ties with the foolish intruder. For sure, the noblewoman's monster servant should always be kept a secret. I knew. With the night as my coat, I couldn't be seen so easily, thankfully.

The same way I worked all my way up to here, within the royal domain, I slipped into the castle. Sliding in was an easy thing to do if I canceled the Character. If I needed to, as a body of living water, I could be so that I didn't stand out. I wasn't so shapeless a body of water that I could pass through walls or sink into the ground—I had the [Resistant Body] and [Jelly-like Shapelessness] skills to thank for that—but as you can imagine, I could slip in and out fairly easily if I buckled down to it.

I was in. There was a big hall. So giant and royal. My eyes couldn't number all the chandeliers, paintings, or other decorations of this site. People were present here. Maids stood on duty. Royal guards patrolled the hallways. Noblemen moved around and ruled as kings under the bigger king.

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