Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 723
Chapter 723: Terminal (2)
The King of the New World looked exactly like someone I knew.
Well, “knew” might not be the right word. I had only seen him one time when I was clearing the rift on basement floor 1, and a copy of him, at that.
“Ah, there’s a few new faces here as well. I’ll introduce myself. I am Ravigion Kommelby Rafdonia.”
The founding king of Rafdonia. Known as the Immortal King, or simply the Immortal by the people, he was a tyrant who ruled the city for thousands of years and countless generations.
I was stunned when I first met him in the rift. I couldn’t believe that I got to meet a legendary historical figure.
That, and the king always wears a mask in Rafdonia…
Even within the palace, the heart of the nation, and even on the papers made for propaganda, the king always wore a mask. There were plenty of reasons given for it, such as his safety and defend against assassins, and I had never learned the true reason.
However, I was sure of one thing.
The kings of Rafdonia always, without exception attended official meetings with a mask covering their face, as if it were tradition—
“Why? Am I younger than you expected?”
I quickly shook myself out of my thoughts and chose an answer to the King of the New World’s question, making a split-second decision. “Yes, somewhat.”
I didn’t need to tell him about the Immortal I saw within the rift. I got the feeling that mentioning it would only cause tension.
“Haha! Still, surely I didn’t sound like a wrinkly old man, yeah?”
Thankfully, the King didn’t say much else when I agreed to his words. He just laughed like a man in his forties who got told he looked young.
“Well then… Let’s get some air before we go to that place.”
“I will guide you.” The knight began to guide us as soon as he heard the King’s words, and I followed after the two of them. As we walked along, a path that led to the garden opened up, and I was able to see the sky for the first time in a while.
How long has it been?
I was stuck in a room for the last few days and hadn’t even been able to see the sky. It was still as murky as ever, but—
“How much longer do you think I have to live?”
An unexpected question at an unexpected time.
“What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.
“What’s there to be confused about? Is that a weird question to ask? Not even the Immortal was able to enjoy eternity.”
Well, if he was going to put it like that, there was nothing I could say to him. Although the Immortal had nearly achieved immortality, he was still a mortal who wasn’t able to live for eternity in the end.
“Well,” I began, “aren’t you still pretty healthy? Unlike what the rumors say.”
“What the rumors say…”
I hadn’t meant much when I said that, and that was the reaction he gave to me. Then, the King of the New World asked with a questioning tone, “Aren’t you curious? About why I stayed holed up in the palace and didn’t go outside at all.”
It would be a mistake to nod here.
“I am curious…but that’s not something I need to know.”
“Why? I’m still the king of a nation.”
“I mean, it’s none of my business.”
“What?” After a beat, the king cackled like he’d heard something unexpected, and I just stood there emotionless.
I felt a little sorry for him since he seemed to truly enjoy my answer, but my answer was, of course, a complete and utter lie. I’d never thought once that it wasn’t my business to know.
There has to be a reason he’s doing this…
I was beyond curious about what he was hiding.
It struck just as my mind began to wander.
Flash!
The entire world flickered with light.
Rumble!
Only after I heard the rumbling of thunder a few seconds later did I realize what had happened.
“Huh?”
A bolt of lightning had struck right where we had been standing.
“Your Majesty, are you unhurt?”
Of course, no one had been hurt by that lightning strike. At some point, a translucent barrier had surrounded the King of the New World.
“You don’t need to worry. Tsk, it’s not like I’ve been out for long. It’s starting again already.”
I couldn’t help but tilt my head at his grumbling. There was something off about what he just said.
A bolt of lightning fell from a clear, blue sky, and he acts like it’s nothing…?
Well, the barrier had protected all of us, ensuring no one got hurt. But still…
“Does something like this…happen often?” I asked carefully.
The king chuckled and jokingly said, “Well, it seems the heavens are desperate to kill me.” He seemed to pick up that my silence hid some choice words. “Don’t worry. It’ll be quiet for a while.”
Hmm… Now I was even more curious. Was this related to his “sleep” that he talked about before?
“It has been quite a while being here as well.”
After taking a long walk through the garden, we finally arrived at an open area with a table and chairs. I rubbed my eyes, but all I could see was a perfect place for a picnic and nothing else special.
“Is this the place you were talking about before?”
“What? Haha! Not at all. Were you thinking about that the entire way over here?”
I didn’t answer.
“But wow. Even though so much time has passed, this place is still the same. Maybe this is the place where ‘eternity’ is.”
“Do you have a lot of memories here?”
“Well… In a way. A lot has happened. Let’s rest for a moment since we’re here.”
“Alright…”
I sat down on the grass. My first reason for doing so was that I was afraid I would break the chair holding the memories of the king if I sat on it, and the second was that I needed to do this so we could match our eye lines.
However, even though we now sat together, the King of the New World was looking off into the distance, seemingly lost in his memories, and silence uninterrupted by conversation fell over us.
Five minutes of silence, at that.
“The prime minister caused this war.”
I blinked. “What?”
“He acts like he opposes the Noarkans yet works with them behind the scenes to destroy the nation. Is it that surprising?”
Okay, but how was I supposed to not be surprised by that? He just said that offhandedly without any build-up whatsoever. I wished he’d at least use a turn signal for the conversation.
“Hmm, did you truly not expect it? The Department of Intelligence thought that you suspected as much already.”
“Uh… To be honest, it’s not a total surprise, but I wouldn’t say I ‘expected’ it. It’s more that I didn’t rule out the possibility.”
“It’s pretty weird seeing you talk so logically when you look like that. What kind of person were you originally?”
I hesitated. “I was just a simple company man.”
“Oh ho, someone like you was a slave? Looks like the lords of that world have no eye for people.”
“Well… Not exactly a slave…”
“Hmm? But that was the explanation that was given to me.”
It would seem that the modern person who explained the concept of a company employee to the King of the New World was a very pessimistic person.
Well, anyway.
“So… Do you also know why the prime minister schemed all this?”
“There is nothing I do not know in this world.”
Should I bump his narcissism to +7?
The thought did cross my mind, but honestly speaking, it was more that he was annoying rather than narcissistic. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like he really did know everything there was to know.
“Well… Then why did he do it? It’s not like the prime minister suddenly lost it.”
“Do you have any guesses?”
“I really don’t know. Even after I found the Noarkans hiding in the prime minister’s home, I still didn’t think he would really be the one behind it all.”
“Why is that?”
“I couldn’t think of a motive. If I were to pick one, it would be that he wanted more power… But that was a weak theory too. From what I’ve seen, the prime minister isn’t someone to covet power like that.”
“Haha! That’s true. From my perspective as well, the prime minister is an easy-going and timid person. However…”
Very suddenly, the king’s tone shifted from joking to serious.
“Some people have just one thing. One thing that they can never give up, even if they have to abandon the world for it.”
For some reason, these words struck a cord deep within me.
The first thing that came to mind when I heard him was a mirror. I was standing there beyond the mirror, and when I looked further into it, I saw my precious allies.
It only made me more curious. What did the marquess see inside his mirror?
I gulped, suddenly and inexplicably nervous. “What is that one thing for the marquess?”
However, the answer I received drained the tension out of the situation.
“Who knows… Hehe, as I told you before, it’s better to hear the story from its creator.”
What the fuck?
I couldn’t help but swear inwardly. Still, it wasn’t as if hearing him out was a complete waste of time.
“Well then… Looks like I was right when I said the ‘fox carrying the tiger’ referred to the prime minister?”
I tried to sneak in a subtle confirmation, but the king just affirmed my suspicions without a care.
“Yeah. So? Do you think there’s another fox in this kingdom?”
“Hmm, I wouldn’t know. To be honest, he and I aren’t that close.”
“Not that close… Bahaha! You’re pretty interesting, you know that?”
Even as he spoke, the smile on his face never went away.
Honestly, what was so funny about this conversation? Was it just that it’d been so long since he’d last had a proper conversation with someone else?
Well… At least the mood is still pretty good, I guess?
I wasn’t totally sure, but I probably just needed to keep up the small talk.
“Alright, we’ll talk about the main topic when we get there.”
“Will I be able to see that ‘thing’ you mentioned before?”
“That’s right.”
As the King of the New World signaled to his knight with his eyes, the knight walked in front of us as our guide, and we continued behind him back into the Palace of the New World.
Why did we come out in the first place if we’re just going to go back?
It wasn’t as if we went somewhere else in the palace either. We went straight back to the audience hall I had been stuck in for the past few days.
We then used the elevator I had used when we came up here and headed down.
Ding!
When the elevator doors opened, I saw a huge vat that looked similar to the vats I saw in the Panthelion Research Center.
Tsk, I wondered what he was going to show me.
So it was this…
I wondered what was the point of keeping it a secret from me if he was going to show me anyway, but I didn’t say anything and just stood there. He had brought me here himself, so there was a good chance he would explain.
“So…” I began. “What is this?”
“Life Preservation Device.”
“What?”
“Even someone who is at the end of their life can avoid the eye of the world and avoid their final breath if they enter here.”
“I see…”
“Ah, by the way, this is the secret that allowed the Immortal to live a near-eternal life. I heard that in the past, it was possible to extend one’s life by using this device. But since he died without telling anyone the secret to it, we lost the ability to do so ourselves.”
At that, I stayed quiet.
“I’ll tell you this. Honestly, I never thought I’d see the day when I would use this device. I even made up my mind when I sat upon that throne that I would never let it see a new master. That I would be different from him. That I would live as a human and die as a human.”
“You’re saying that’s not the case anymore.”
“Didn’t you see me before? Lightning fell from the sky as if to punish me. My life should’ve ended a long time ago, and this world is going nuts trying to eliminate me, the one who went against the order of things.”
“So is that the reason you never came outside? Because you’re always hiding in there?”
“I guess you could say that. Why? Does that disgust you?”
“Hmm, not particularly. I just thought it was too much of a cliché.”
“Cliché?”
“Yes. Who wouldn’t want to keep living in this world? Even the people who take their own lives are people who want to live. They just make the extreme decision because they aren’t able to live as well as they imagined.”
“Interesting. Go on.”
“You say that, but there is nothing else for me to say. I just figured that someone who has everything in the world probably wants to keep living even more.”
Even on Earth, the people who had seen the height of power looked for eternal life in the end, and I didn’t think those people were foolish or disgusting. They were creatures who were born to live. Why should they be ridiculed for struggling to live longer?
Well, the inhumane acts carried out during that process should be condemned to all hell, but I digress.
“In fact, I think that desire itself makes you more human.”
The king took a moment to respond. “Interesting… Even more so the fact that you’re not saying this to flatter me.”
“Then are you going to withdraw the command to make me stay here for an entire week?”
“Well, that depends on your next answer.”
“Then speak to me as freely as you’d like. We’re both people whose precious days are currently numbered.”
The King of the New World just stared at me, appearing both amused and interested at my more casual tone. However, he thankfully didn’t take offense at my bold actions, and soon enough, his lips were curling at the corners.
“It really has been a long while,” he said. “Someone I want to talk to again has appeared, and for that person to be not just anyone but you.”
“Uh…”
That sounded like a compliment…
…But why is the look in his eyes so perverted?
I got goosebumps, but the king continued without giving it a second thought.
“You may now leave the palace and act freely. You can save someone who needs to die or kill someone who needs to live. Do whatever you wish.”
Of course, that didn’t come free.
“What do I need to do in return?”
I asked for the condition before signing the contract, and the King of the New World answered with just one sentence.
“Kill the prime minister.”
Given all the things he’d told me, the condition itself wasn’t surprising. I just nodded in grim acceptance.
He could do it himself, but he’s sending me to do it…
I didn’t know what it was, but there was something slimy going on.
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