Ice recognized his laboured breathing as a sign of having overdrawn your mana – considering the stairs they had just gone down, he guessed it might be related.
Next to Ice, Bloody stood stiffly.
He knew Ice had said that the king looked like his true self but… It wasn’t completely wrong, it was just that this was a Jian Lin who carried himself like a leader. One who was confident and calm, not nervous.
Or maybe it was apathetic?
If you only had their appearances to compare, he could have been Jian Lin’s father in a fantasy world.
The king had a servant at his side. He looked like a demon, with horns curled around his head, but a very gentle and worried expression. Considering that Haven didn’t have demons so far… this was a surprise.
Had other servants looked like demons? Was this going to be a new race that’d appear in Haven? After all, demons were also quite a classic for fantasy settings.
“You’re here for Tiamat”, the king said with the voice of someone having a tremendous headache. The mage’s gaze twitched back to the man.
“Yes”, Ice replied. He still felt complicated at seeing himself in the game. Like someone had stolen his appearance and used it without consent… which was actually what had happened, after all.
The king exhaled slowly. He looked at the butler beside him, who immediately perked to attention. “Bring them to my room.”
“Your Majesty-”
“It’s alright”, the king said in a gentle, soothing voice.
The servant hesitated, then bowed deeply. He looked at Ice and Bloody with a mixture of annoyance and resignation. In the end, his loyalty had won, and the servant took the steps down towards them.
“Follow me”, he said, glancing back to his liege, who had closed his eyes at some point, sunken deep into his throne.
The butler did not go any further than the entrance of the room. He looked like he genuinely wanted to keep them out of it, but with his king’s orders, he was forced to open the door and step aside.
Ice saw his expression and couldn’t help but speak up. “We will not touch anything, we promise. We will talk to Tiamat and leave.”
The servant flinched. Pain appeared in his eyes, flickering for a moment before going back into hiding. He bowed wordlessly. It was as he was thanking the mage for his heartfelt promise.
Both players were people who took their word seriously, so they hurried through the room without looking around.
Ice stepped directly on the see-through path on the other side of the next door, but Bloody cursed and jumped back.
“It’s safe”, Ice called out for him. He raised an arm, holding his hand out to his friend.
Bloodless Sunset swallowed down more curses, took the hand in his own, and unsteadily stepped out onto the path.
Compared to the last time, Tiamat was quiet. There was no sobbing, but a slow and low breathing – the kind of a creature watching something, lowering their own sense of presence. If Ice wasn’t watching out for it, he might even have mistaken the breathing for wind.
It was oddly reminiscent of something big trying not to scare away something small.
“Tiamat”, he called. “I’m back.”
“So you are”, Tiamat responded. This time, her voice was almost calm. He thought it was weird, especially when Ice remembered how she had reacted the last time.
“I’ve brought someone else along. Do you mind?”
The mage gripped the wolfman’s hand tighter. This was a troublesome situation. They knew nothing about dragons or their temperaments, let alone about this particular one. Anything they could say might be offensive.
A low growl came from deep within the abyss. It ebbed down quickly though, only enough to leave a lingering tremble in the players’ bodies.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Bloodless Sunset exhaled audibly. He wiped his left hand on his clothes – the other was still in Ice’s hand, cold wet palms against each other.
Rfnfg yfobgf tjv tf wfa j wbcrafg ktb mbeiv lcralii remt j offilcu lc tlw klat j rlwqif rfcafcmf jcv rbecv.
“Kljwja, kf kfgf kbcvfglcu tbk kf mjc tfiq sbe. P… P mjc’a rajs klat sbe, yea wjsyf atfgf lr jcbatfg kjs ab wjxf sbe offi yfaafg?”
“Qtja lr sbeg reuufralbc?” Ktf nblmf mjwf bea ribkis.
Ice looked down into the abyss, wondering if he was imagining two lights that appeared almost like a pair of eyes. Maybe he was.
“I could come visit often. Or-” Ice glanced back at the castle. “The king. Would you like to talk to the king?”
“He is not right”, Tiamat breathed out. The sentence echoed everywhere, weirdly airy and soft. “He’s not right like this. Not at all…”
Not right?
Ice went through all kinds of connections the words could have, and came to a rather simple conclusion on when you might use them in regard to another person.
Not right in their mind.
The king looked like he was quite out of it thanks to his sickness. Was this what Tiamat meant?
“If he becomes healthy again, would it be fine for him to talk to you? Would that help you?”, Ice probed carefully.
Tiamat hummed.
If they hadn’t heard a growl moments ago, they might have interpreted her hum as one, but in comparison to the previous sound, this was indeed much softer and more thoughtful.
Bloody tapped a finger against Ice’s hand. The mage looked over, seeing his friend mouth the word “quest”. Right, this was still something that had to be done – ask for Tiamat’s intentions.
But intentions for what?
“Tiamat, may I ask a question?” Ice considered his words for a while.
Only silence was his reply. Ice swallowed heavily before continuing carefully.
“Do you… Do you want to leave the abyss?”
A deep, threatening growl rolled up from the darkness. It caused the whole castle to vibrate, along with the platform they were on. Ice stumbled, but Bloody steadied him without a sound.
Tiamat’s anger was audible. “What is it to you? What if I leave? What if I don’t? What will you do?”
Ice gasped for breath.
What was he supposed to-
Bloody took a step forward. He peered over the edge, taking over the conversation with a forced smile on his face. “We apologize if we offended you by asking. We… would simply like to prepare. If you leave, we have to welcome you, right?”
The growl died down abruptly.
“I have not yet decided”, Tiamat answered, much calmer than before. The frantic change in mood was abnormal, at least for a human, and it gave Bloody a hard time guessing whether this was a normal state for a dragon. If Tiamat herself wasn’t right in her mind, things would get beyond complicated.
“I see”, he said, dragging the word out. “J-Just in case… If we do prepare a welcome for you when you leave, is there anyone you would not like to see? For example, should we not invite elves? Or humans? Or would you like only for us to come?”
“Let them come.” The voice turned sweet and warm.
Bloody’s face twitched. There was no goddamn way to judge how this dragon would react!
“So there’s no one you dislike?”
“No.”
Which meant she wasn’t a threat right from the start. That was something. Now if only they could find out whether she planned on leaving or not.
“May we ask when you are going to decide whether you’ll leave or not?” Forced in a corner, Bloody had no other way than to ask directly.
An uncomfortable, high-pitched sound came from the depth of the abyss. The two players flinched at it.
Between the two, Ice recognized the sound from his practices. It was the same sound especially hardened ice would make if he scratched over it with a knife. The kind that was closer to being a crystal than ice, hardened and condensed with magic.
The same type of crystal that covered these walls.
“Leave.”
The word was said slow, but with an unexplainable fury bubbling underneath it.
The mage took a step back.
“Leave.”
“Run”, Ice whispered, not waiting for Bloody to react but dashing off to the other side of the path, back to the castle.
The growl vanished the moment they left the platform, but the scratching continued audibly, as if an irritated beast was sharpening its claws.
The two rushed back into the king’s room and right out of it, only stopping to breathe when they had slammed the door shut behind them. Bloodless Sunset raised his arm in defense at noticing someone nearby, but relaxed immediately.
The servant watched them from a couple of steps away, arms folded behind his back. Pretty red eyes were focusing on them, a number of emotions swirling within.
“Are you done?”, the servant asked monotonously. “Then I’d like to ask for you to leave. His Majesty will have to conjure stairs just for you – don’t drag this out any longer than needed. We would all like for him to rest.”
A sudden feeling of guilt washed over Ice. He glanced back at the door – the scratching had stopped – before giving a small bow to the servant. “It’s alright. We might not have a way to enter without the stairs, but we have a way to leave without them. We won’t bother your liege.”
The servant continued to stare at them. His lips pursed, then opened once more. “…More people are coming. We know it. Yet they come separately from you… What do you all want?”
“Peace”, Ice whispered.
The thought of a war destroying this world… He could not stand it.
“In that case, what you want is no different from us”, the servant mumbled to himself. “Leave now.”
“Wait!” Bloody interrupted the conversation quickly. “Your king… We want to help him. Is there anything we can do?”
The servant frowned.
“I would not know what ails him. His Majesty is not like us – he is an elf. We don’t know what is wrong with him. But… I heard him say that he suffers from Internal Fragmentation.”
That did not sound like a sickness at all, more like a technical term.
Impatience was beginning to form on the demon’s face. Ice shook his head at Bloody, who gave in with a sigh. They bowed courteously to the servant, who returned the gesture, then used teleportation to return back to the city.
Having returned to the warm area, Ice lowered his gaze.
“System”, he whispered, then pressed the quest log. Next to him, Bloody did the same.
Where the text had changes, it was written in italic. A mere adjustment to an already running quest.
【Dragons are neither hostile nor friendly. Dragons never take a side.
Tiamat will not feel lonely with the Ice Emperor by her side. Find out what ails him and fix it, so he can keep her company.
Leading quest (Can be shared. Any positive or negative results by other members will be shouldered by the original quest taker)
Duration: Unknown
Reward: Tiamat will not leave the chasm, information about Tiamat
Failure: Tiamat will leave the chasm】
“Cool”, Bloody said dryly. “So I’m guessing we’re gonna visit some elves.”
Ice sighed, going through the lore of the game that he knew. If it was dragons… Dwarves were the most likely to know. “Might as well visit the dwarves while we are travelling.”
***
“Demons?!” Blackstone almost jumped out of her seat. “Did you say demons?! That is so mean! What if they’ll get unlocked for character creation? I also want to be a demon!”
She and Little Droplet had met White Light coincidentally as he was on the way to meet up with the two other players, taking a break from his quest. Since they weren’t hiding anything from Blackstone or Little Droplet, the two came along.
“That would be quite unfair for the current players… But it’s not rare for games to create new content that is more accessible for those who are starting a new game compared to the ones that are already playing it”, White Light considered.
The tavern was lit by lamps, the warm shine softly illuminating everything. A number of NPCs were chatting and enjoying their evening.
“But Haven doesn’t allow you to create a second character”, Blackstone complained.
“Well, not like we know whether they’ll be available”, Bloody calmed her down. “Like, you can’t select a mermaid as your beast race either. Just because there’s a new race doesn’t mean we can play it.”
“Anyway, won’t it be bad when people notice that there are demons inside the castle? Demons are usually hostile, evil races in games. They’d immediately conclude that the castle owner is dangerous and prepare for a war.” White Light tapped a finger on the table. It made a small sound on the wood, rhythmical like a metronome.
“The butler was the first one we saw who was clearly identifiable as a demon. If the delegation is greeted by those without visible signs, nothing should happen. I guess?”
“I’ll keep an eye out for you”, White Light promised.
“As for me… Honestly, would you mind me coming along? You know I won’t cause issues with the elves, and I can help you out with the dwarves. Most of all, I just want to observe the quest whenever possible. I’m not interested in following the delegation.” Blackstone nervously fidgeted in her seat.
“We can follow some paths that are less likely to get us into monster encounters… There shouldn’t be a problem protecting Blackstone with our level difference”, Bloody mused, handing the decision over to Ice.
As a first instinct, Ice wanted to refuse. He wasn’t used to travelling with more people. However, he quickly remembered the past weeks – Blackstone was easy to be around. She was a woman who knew when to give you space, which made her a comfortable travel companion.
Not to mention she could cook.
Author’s Note
*continues to worry about pacing
Little Theater
Bloody: “……..He really looks like you…….”
Ice: “?”
Ice: “What are you thinking about?”
Blackstone: “Oh, I know what he’s thinking about.”
Blackstone: “Don’t ask, Ice. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”
Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️
»“Let them come.” The voice turned sweet and warm.« My brain was just like: She wants to eat you all :3
Why does it sounds like Ice Emperor 2.0 is missing a part of his soul or smth like that? And like Ice is that missing part? Haha, whatever xD I look forward to what they’ll find out. (I’d want to play a demon too~ >3)
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Suspicious dragon is and stays suspicious… xD
welll, convenient hand-holding, I see!
and OMG, the dice throws you used!! hahaha
You and me both, Blackstone ;P
Luckily it wasn’t my dice luck…… they would be all dead, Tiamat would just come out roaring loud and destroy the world lololol
All of the throws were incredibly lucky considering every single one had a realistic chance of Tiamat just getting very angry ^^’ (I never have that luck during actual pen and paper games…)
That reminds me of a round of John Sinclair. I had 7-8 dice, w6 (do you call them d6 in English? Dunno lol), and 4-6 were a success…. I had none… and most of the time it ends like that haha. They hate me or smth like that xD Good for our guys that your dice like them x3
Thank you for the chapter 💜