Chapter 124

Chapter 124. Recruiting a Raid Party

A while ago, a new post appeared on the World Gate message board.

Yeah.

I was the one who posted it.

The contents were simple.

I was currently clearing a Demon Realm somewhere inside the Maze Forest. There was a raid boss deep inside, so anyone interested in joining the raid should gather in front of a certain entrance, where they would find someone holding a baby.

For the attached photo, I used a picture of Jayeon.

Apparently, everyone reacted with things like, “Agh, LOL! How am I supposed to resist this?!” because people had already started gathering long before the appointed time.

As expected.

Cuteness really was a weapon capable of saving the world.

“We already finished researching the heart, so we could just take the mice with us.”

Jayeon grumbled while watching the users gather one after another.

For some reason, she looked rather sulky.

“No. For a while, I’m going to keep things clean so I can stay on Aien’s good side.”

“…It’s not dirty!”

…Ah.

So that was why she was upset.

I had been paying so much attention to Aien lately that Jayeon had gotten jealous.

Yeah, this one might have been my mistake.

Jayeon really had only been born recently, and more importantly, I was practically the only person who treated her like a real person.

Of course she could get upset if I openly showed more care toward Aien in front of her.

“Of course I know that. Our Jayeon worked sooo hard, so how could Daddy ever call what you did dirty? Aww, Daddy said something wrong. I’m sorry, okay?”

“Hmph!”

This was hard.

It was even harder because I genuinely felt like I was trying to soothe a real child.

If Princess Maker, the game that practically started the whole daughter-raising genre, had been this difficult, I never would've touched it.

You're cute, you're cute. You're pretty, you're pretty. There, there.

After praising and pampering her for a while, Jayeon finally seemed to feel a little better.

She lightly smacked my cheek a few times with her tiny hand, grabbed tightly onto the front of my clothes, and buried herself against my chest.

Modak, when it comes to this sort of thing, you're a little easier to deal with.

[Modak: Of course~! Modak is an adult! Hehe!]

Says the girl who freaked out and growled when Aien tried to wash her with water.

She talks big for someone who ended up loving it because she smelled nice afterward.

“….”

“What's wrong?”

“…It feels strange.”

Aien, who had filled the entire house with a pleasant fragrance, had now officially entered the game not as an NPC, but as a user—an Outsider.

I could understand why she felt awkward.

One moment, she was living normally.

The next, lines of text suddenly started appearing in front of her eyes, along with an inventory, a status window, and all kinds of other things.

“I was really confused at first too. I don't know who's sending me those messages, but whoever it is has such a rude personality that I got used to it pretty quickly.”

That didn't really apply to Pie.

She'd been too busy having a battle of nerves with the rude text constantly insulting her to care much about things like status windows or achievements.

Aien's text apparently spoke in an unbelievably arrogant way too, and she'd already told me it annoyed her.

The two of them probably had plenty to relate over.

“You too, Unnie?”

“Un… Y-Yeah….”

Maybe because they were now in similar situations, Aien seemed to feel much closer to Pie than before.

Until just before entering the game, Aien had still been deeply shaken by the discovery that the world she'd lived in was a created world.

Fortunately, learning about Pie seemed to have eased her mind a little.

“But the class listed here… There are cases where it's written incorrectly, right?”

“Maybe. Someone like you isn't exactly common, Aien. It wouldn't be strange if some bug caused it to display incorrectly.”

“Ah, that's a relief….”

At the moment, Aien's class composition consisted of Knight of Diligence as her main class, with Sinner of Wrath and Knight of Madness as her sub-classes.

She'd spent her whole life hearing that Madness was absolute evil.

Naturally, discovering that she now possessed the power of Madness herself seemed to make her extremely uneasy.

New truths.

A new position.

A completely unexpected situation.

If someone wasn't anxious after all that, they probably didn't have emotions in the first place.

“How could you possibly be a Knight of Madness? At least make it believable.”

“Right?”

I'd told her it might be a bug to reassure her, but with Pie already existing as a precedent, it was difficult to believe there was still some simple bug involved.

But having three different powers at once also seemed problematic from a balance perspective.

“Perhaps you are something like an honorary knight. It may simply be proof that the child has now sincerely resolved to protect you. However, if that feeling becomes too extreme, she may eventually gain some of the power of Madness itself, so be careful.”

“Oh my~ My little baby is even being pitied by such a young child nowww? Grandma might be a little saaad~.”

Jin and Dorfin.

I'd brought them along so I could fill the raid with useful people.

In other words, I brought them as combat-power measuring devices.

Unlike Jin, who seemed slightly excited by the large crowd in front of us, Dorfin clearly hated being surrounded by so many people.

She kept hovering around me and sticking close.

The Chairman had looked at Dorfin like this and said the problem had been solved before paying me that ridiculous amount of money, right?

Was Dorfin like this in reality too?

Or did he simply mean the request was complete because she'd become manageable enough?

Considering the client was the Chairman…

Yeah.

That sounded possible.

“There aren't many particularly impressive people here. Ah, that blond knight over there seems decent.”

“Who are you… Oh… That's a problem….”

Someone pushed through the crowd of users and gave me a brief bow.

One of the many consequences of my past actions.

Heroson.

He looked much more reliable than the last time I'd seen him.

Apparently, he'd been grinding levels pretty seriously.

I'd informed Grandpa Alo ahead of time that I intended to clear the Demon Realm, but I never expected him to send his own son.

“It has been a while, Indomitable Hero.”

“…Ohhh! Look who it is! Son!”

The absurdly handsome man, whose memories of me were nothing but positive, looked at me with a gentle smile.

And for some reason…

My first thought was whether I could take advantage of him.

“Wow~ How long has it been? It's really been a while.”

“Father ordered me to participate in this raid and gain experience. I look forward to working with you.”

“Sure, sure. I'm counting on you too.”

This was exhausting!

Pie knew the way, so reaching the Demon Realm wouldn't take that long.

But even spending that short amount of time together felt incredibly uncomfortable!

If I'd brought the mouse soldiers along too, things would've gotten really dangerous.

If the full story about them reached Grandpa Alo's ears…

I didn't even want to imagine what might happen.

“Is the Great Hero doing well?”

“Yes, thanks to you.”

I feel like I'm the one who's going to make him sick….

Information about the mouse soldiers had probably already reached Grandpa Alo anyway.

He'd seen them once at the Hall, and I'd brought them out again during the incident involving Aien's parents.

But back then, there hadn't been very many of them.

That was probably why Grandpa Alo hadn't made a big issue out of it.

If I'd had enough mouse soldiers to form an entire raid party, though?

That would've definitely become a problem.

“How do you plan to organize the raid, Hero?”

“Hmm. I've selected around fifty people so far. I'm going to make our group the advance party, then divide the remaining fifty into five raid groups.”

I wanted to make the teams as balanced as possible.

Unfortunately, this place was relatively close to the capital, which was one of the main starting areas.

That meant a lot of newbies had gathered here.

I could occasionally see veteran players who seemed to know a little about the Maze Forest and the Demon Realm, but simply making those people raid leaders felt a bit…

Questionable.

“A raid of this size almost feels like we're preparing for war.”

“Well, you're not exactly wrong. The thing we're fighting is a castle. It'll probably be easier if you think of it as fighting a war against an army.”

“May I ask how much information you have gathered about the monster?”

Its usual location seemed to be fixed.

But who it chose to aggro onto and under what conditions?

Completely arbitrary.

Its activity range?

The entire Maze Forest.

Once the battle began, it would never stop attacking until either the raid party or the castle itself was completely destroyed.

At first, it fought like a proper siege battle.

We would face the soldiers created by the castle.

But the moment it decided it was losing, the whole thing would suddenly transform into a moving castle of the Demon Realm and charge straight at us.

It was basically a monster with the mindset of—

Even if I die, I'm taking you down with me.

All things considered, it was an incredibly annoying enemy to fight.

“That sounds troublesome. Whether it's the Demon Realm or the Maze Forest, there should be plenty of dangerous monsters besides that castle.”

“That's why I've already hired people to clear the inside of the Maze Forest. I spent sooo much money. Tell Grandpa Alo about it later, okay? Ask him to slip me a nice fat bonus.”

“Haha. I will mention it to him.”

This operation was technically the first public mission carried out by the Indomitable Hero, a direct subordinate of the Great Hero of Insight.

If we succeeded, my reputation would rise.

But Grandpa Alo's reputation would rise even more.

And in return, I wanted a little more money.

I thought that was a perfectly reasonable trade.

…Though honestly, someone who already held the title of the strongest Great Hero probably didn't need any more fame.

“Ingwang-nim.”

The Village Chief cautiously approached me and spoke in a low voice.

Was this about supplies?

The problem was…

I was effectively responsible for gathering all these people.

Which meant I also had to provide most of the consumable supplies.

I'd signed a contract with the Administrator to split the Demon Realm's loot, and they'd promised me some support.

But this expedition would take at least two days.

Providing supplies for more than fifty people for two full days?

That was an express train straight toward bankruptcy.

A safe, comfortable, nonstop trip directly into poverty and starvation.

“Well… People from Ipot have arrived.”

“…Ahhh! Why?! Did Erol send them?!”

Erol.

I hadn't seen him in quite a while.

Maybe enough time had passed that I shouldn't dislike him anymore.

And when I thought about it rationally, maybe he wasn't even that bad of a guy.

I could think that way.

And yet…

Every single time I heard his name, I disliked him all over again.

He was almost like my natural human counter.

I was suspicious and negative about everything.

Meanwhile, he was positive and cheerful about everything.

And the fact that his heart supposedly shone just as brightly as his personality made even less sense.

There's no way a human like that exists in this world.

He's definitely tricking me!

“They said they would help provide supplies for this raid. They also offered to send production-class personnel such as blacksmiths.”

“…Haah. I don't like it… but the offer is way too sweet to refuse….”

“The amount of money involved is too large for me to reject it on my own, so I came to ask you.”

“…What are their conditions?”

“A portion of the loot, and they want you to open a channel so they can trade with you, Ingwang-nim.”

“Tsk. Just how much more do they plan on bothering me?”

This area was Imperial territory, so the Alliance probably couldn't exert much influence here.

Even if they offered help, it probably wouldn't amount to something overwhelmingly huge.

But for me?

It was desperately needed.

Offering manpower was especially attractive.

I'd already spent an absurd amount of money hiring guides and mercenaries to help clear the Maze Forest.

Because of that, I didn't have enough people left to properly support the raid parties.

Their proposal fit my current situation perfectly.

…Which meant I ultimately had no real justification for refusing.

If I accept their offer and then fail the raid, I'll get criticized by both the Empire and the Alliance. That would make things twice as troublesome… but let's not think about that.

The castle's offensive strength mainly came from its ability to continuously produce soldiers.

With more people participating, it might start using a greater variety of attacks.

But there was no point worrying about every possibility.

“…Haah… Fine. Let's accept it.”

“Understood.”

If I'd created some massive guild from the beginning, I probably wouldn't have suffered from manpower shortages like this.

But I still didn't want to make a guild.

I preferred free solo play.

No point regretting it now.

If I'd done this…

If I'd done that…

Thinking that way forever was the beginning of endless depression.

“Has the Alliance become involved?”

Once the Village Chief left, Heroson spoke to me with a little wariness in his voice.

He was effectively representing the Empire here, so naturally he wouldn't feel comfortable after hearing that conversation.

“…Yeah. Don't complain about it. I might currently belong to the Empire, but I'm still an Outsider.”

“Yes. I am aware. However, I can see their ugly intentions, and I cannot say I am pleased.”

“Right? It's painfully obvious they're trying to use this opportunity to establish a foothold inside the Empire.”

The moment I agreed to accept their proposal, people suddenly started pouring in from somewhere.

Which meant they'd already prepared everything and were simply waiting.

They knew I wouldn't be able to reject the offer, so they'd finished all their preparations in advance.

Ahhh.

I really didn't like this.

Should I start planning an Alliance-destruction scenario while I'm at it?

The Alliance would be more complicated than the Empire, though.

“…Then let's do this. We'll create a separate rear support group and form the raid with everyone who remains.”

“That is not a bad idea. However, the problem is that we do not have enough people. Would we not also need to assign separate personnel to protect the rear support group?”

“Yeah. And if we send people to the rear like that, some will complain about why they're being kept away from the front. Their rewards will probably decrease too. Who would be happy if they suffer just as much but get almost nothing in return?”

“If you wish to reduce such complaints, perhaps it would be better to choose from those who could not be included in the raid to begin with. You could add a few promising individuals from outside the fifty you've already selected.”

Hmm…

I was thinking the same thing.

But what if trying to avoid a small conflict ended up causing much greater losses later?

“Oh, right. Son. Want to join the rear support group?”

“Me?”

“…I'm joking.”

If I sent this guy to the rear when he was clearly overflowing with determination to fight on the front line, I could already imagine what I'd hear afterward.

Especially from Grandpa Alo.

“Haah… This is troublesome. If I just start stuffing newbies into the group, the number of mouths to feed will explode. I can't afford that.”

“Would the Alliance not handle that much? These are people they themselves offered as support, so surely they anticipated those expenses.”

“Son, that's politically dangerous. Later, they'll say, ‘What help did the Hero ever give us for him to ask us for assistance now? Didn't he treat us like useless baggage?’”

“Ah, I see. I had not considered that far.”

…There was no other choice.

I'd have to ask Pie to take charge of the rear support group.

She was our guide, so sending her to the rear would make passing through the Maze Forest take longer.

But among our group, Pie was probably the only person who had both enough individual combat power and enough authority to control a group of newbies.

“Aaaah, this is annoying.”

Somehow, the Empire, the Alliance, and the users—

three separate factions—

had all ended up participating in the Maze Forest raid at the same time.

“What does the Empire plan to do after the Demon Realm is cleared?”

“Duke Soundie is currently preparing an expedition to explore the Demon Realm after the raid. I expect the Duke will receive priority rights over the Demon Realm.”

“Waaah! They're taking a huge prize!”

“It cannot be helped. His Majesty said that simply succeeding in this operation will further increase his own influence, so he is willing to concede that much.”

So…

Thanks to Grandpa Alo, the Emperor's authority had been maintained until now.

And if this operation succeeded, the Emperor's influence would grow enough that he could begin standing on his own.

Was that how I should interpret this?

Strengthening royal authority?

That wasn't a bad development.

For my Empire-destruction scenario, anyway.

I'd met the Emperor once before, but I still didn't know what kind of person he really was.

Still, as his own authority grew stronger, he might begin feeling uneasy about Grandpa Alo—the man whose overwhelming power had once supported that authority.

Once the Emperor squeezed everything useful out of him, he might decide to throw him away.

It was a classic story.

A hero returns after accomplishing great deeds, only to be accused of treason and executed.

And as the Emperor's authority grew, public support for Grandpa Alo—the Emperor's sword—would probably rise as well.

To someone who wanted to monopolize power, Grandpa Alo would become an incredibly annoying thorn in their side.

Of course, this is all just a big “maybe~.”

“Hero, what should I do?”

“Oh, Son. Join Raid Group One. I'll contact them beforehand.”

“Understood. Then I wish you good fortune in battle.”

“You're coming with us too, Son. Have fun.”

Heroson gave a small smile and walked away.

He also bowed to the Village Chief and Pie as they approached me before continuing onward with confident steps.

“Village Chief. And Pie.”

The raid organization was mostly finished.

And I'd called those two over for an entirely different reason.

This had nothing to do with negotiating with the Alliance or choosing a leader for the rear support group.

To me, this matter was much more important.

Yeah.

This was personal.

If I talked about it while Heroson was nearby, unnecessary information might reach Grandpa Alo's ears and cause trouble for me.

So let's handle this quietly.

It was extremely important to me.

But at the same time, nothing good would come from rushing it.

“I'm going to put that guy who tried to buy information about me into the rear support group, so make sure you keep a close eye on him.”

He was such a newbie that I hadn't had any good way to keep him close and deal with him personally.

But now I had the perfect excuse.

I could slip him into the support group without raising suspicion and handle him myself.

Seriously.

The Alliance had excellent timing.

Of all moments, they had to show up while I was struggling with this issue and give me the perfect justification for creating a newbie support squad.

I still didn't like them, though!

“The other users will probably complain, so Village Chief, please calm them down somehow. If necessary, give them some money.”

“Yes. I'll make sure no complaints arise.”

“Ahh, you're so reliable.”

Whoever that bastard was…

I was definitely going to catch him and deal with him properly.

I'd already been irritated lately because someone kept stalking me.

…If anything, this worked out perfectly.