Banquet getting more interesting

Glitch was back in the carriage, dressed in a silver suit, and Vince was beside him.

He was still in shock from his time near the castle. Heck, he didn't even enter the castle. Vince had taken him to the bathhouse beside it. There, two maids just dumped him in an enormous bathtub twice, then they helped him change into the silver suit, and that was it.

Before he could make sense of it, he was back in the carriage.

Vince smiled at him. "Hehe, I hope Sir Glitch understands this. We are already late for the banquet."

Glitch frowned at this but said nothing. It aligned with his intentions, and he didn't want to see some empty castle anyway.

He asked Vince, "Where are we going now?"

Vince said with stars in his eyes, "To the master's castle. Sir Glitch, aren't you excited to see the master for the first time? You know the master was super excited to meet you."

Glitch raised an eyebrow. Now he didn't know if this was another lie or if the mayor wanted something from him.

All of this was super weird to him—the way these guys were treating him was kind of the same when he was at his peak in his last life as the Kingdom ruler.

Though he understood the planet's situation was different, this was getting out of hand. Now that he knew a general in the town, another possibility emerged in his mind. Maybe it wasn't the mayor, but somebody else who arranged all of this.

At that moment, Vince slapped his forehead. "How could I forget about that?"

Glitch stared at the guy, irritated, but played along and asked in a soft voice, "What happened, Sir Vince? What did you forget?"

Vince covered his mouth and said in a regretful tone, "Sir Glitch, I forgot to tell you... Three of your colleagues will also join us at the banquet."

'Colleagues...' It took him a second, but once he realized the meaning, Glitch's eyes went wide. He stared at Vince, who was hiding a smile behind his hand.

Glitch grabbed his forehead. Now the banquet made sense to him. So he wasn't alone in this city. Well, there were 1,000 new rulers on the planet. He had expected to encounter some of them in a few days, but he never thought that day would come so soon.

Glitch stopped caring about Vince and took out the Rown Kingdom map in front of Vince.

Vince went on alert when he saw a big thing appear in Glitch's hand. He got into a stance and even drew his sword, but paused halfway when he realized it was a paper roll.

Glitch didn't care about Vince, as he knew NPCs' limitations. He checked the map and saw a lot of small dots around Ckiukuji town, all representing nearby villages. Then, more to the east, there was a mesh of villages that he circled.

Now that he looked at the map, most people in nearby eastern villages who wanted to move to the border would choose Ckiukuji town.

It was normal to have three rulers here. He was sure that in the upcoming days, a few more might come to the city; after all, his first village was less than a day's travel away, and not everyone could afford a carriage.

Glitch closed the map and placed it back in his inventory.

He saw Vince on his tiptoes, trying to look at his hand where the map had been.

Vince scratched his head, but Glitch wasn't in the mood to entertain him.

Dealing with NPCs and players was a completely distinct thing.

Glitch leaned back and closed his eyes. So, there were three guys, and assuming that at least one of them started in Ckiuji town.

It should be rare, but not impossible. Since luck was also important in the game, some of the lucky rulers could start in big cities. Still, no two rulers could start in the same area.

In the best case, two other random rulers were smart enough to come to the city this soon. In the worst case, those guys belonged to the same organization.

Glitch tapped on the carriage floor in anxiety. After playing the game for so long, he knew one thing: it was impossible to guess the intentions of other rulers in the game.

He knew that, with the current situation, if any of them started a fight, only death awaited them. It was a lose-lose situation for them, but would they act according to logic?

Glitch sighed, as he knew he needed to change his plan. Just two hours ago, he was planning to start his group on the monster farm, but now, with so many rulers around, he needed to alert those guys.

NPCs would still think before taking any action against them, and even then, they wouldn't dare kill his creatures unless he became a kingdom traitor or something, but it was the opposite for rulers.

A ruler would always try to kill another ruler's creatures.

Glitch looked at Vince and said in a cold tone, "Sir Vince, you'd better have a healer examine your head. Forgetting something like that may land you in trouble in the future."

Thick-skinned Vince nodded. "Sir Glitch, I'm happy to see you care about me. I don't want to forget my master's valor. I will definitely see a healer after the banquet."

He could see Vince was trying hard not to laugh at the situation.

Well, whatever. He would decide when he meets those guys and see how it goes. He didn't think the mayor would call them just to watch them fight... Well, he couldn't be sure about that.

Glitch looked at Vince and asked in a simple tone, "Sir Vince, did the others arrive on the same day as me?"

Vince shrugged his shoulders. "They are your colleagues. How could I know about that?"

Glitch stared at Vince, saying nothing.

After some time, Vince just shook his head. "I really don't know, Sir Glitch."

Glitch nodded in understanding. He knew these NPCs would either use him or stay neutral.

They wouldn't want to offend an unknown ruler for no reason. Now, this brought up another question of if he should reveal his organization.

He was sure that no one from his group was in this kingdom. As for other groups from the Eagle, he didn't know them, nor should they know him.

After some thought, he decided to hold back this information if possible. If things got messy, he could try throwing out the name, but he doubted it would help him here.

From the detailed map the vice leader had shown him, most of the kingdom's rulers were around the central continent.

Well, this information also gave him some hope about the meeting as he said his thoughts aloud. "A meeting with three rulers wouldn't be a simple gathering."

He looked in Vince's direction, only to see the same poker smile plastered on Vince's face.

Glitch shook his head and took a breath. There was no point in overthinking the situation. If things went bad, then he did not mind killing a bunch of rulers before his death.

There was also a possibility he might gain a ruler partner. So many possibilities now make him more excited about this party.

But before that, he smiled at Vince and asked, "Sir Vince, can't you tell me more about the valor of the great city master?"

For the first time on this journey, he saw the smile disappear from Vince's face, but within a moment, the guy pulled back a wider smile and started yapping another story of valor with enthusiasm.

…

After an hour-long trip, the carriage once again stopped.

Glitch sighed. What was the point of rushing so much when the carriage had been moving in circles for more than half an hour? Did they take him for an idiot to notice that?

The driver once again knocked, this time three times.

He looked in Vince's direction, who was a little pale at the moment. This guy loved to talk nonsense, so Glitch forced him to yap the entire time.

Glitch asked with a smile, "Sir Vince, do you want to tell me some more stories?"

Vince got up in horror and ran out of the carriage.

"Haha," Glitch laughed without restraint in the carriage.

He heard an inaudible sound from outside. "Sir Glitch, we've reached the castle of Eastern Pride."

When Glitch stepped out, his mouth dropped to the ground when he saw the massive gray stone castle. It was so large that he had to tilt his head up to see the top part of it. 'Fck, is this really a mayor's castle?'

Glitch's eyes went wide when he noticed the massive number of colorful magic lamps all over the castle walls. In the night's darkness, it gave the castle a surreal feeling.

This had to be the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his current life. Glitch soon composed himself and looked around. He saw Vince bowing next to the carriage. This guy was back in his usual condition.

He also saw two more similar carriages beside his carriage.

Two of the rulers had already arrived before him. He tried to look around, but nothing made sense in the darkness.

He focused on the castle gate. There was a group of four guards in silver armor on both sides of the gate. He tried to look toward the banquet but only saw a long corridor and nothing else.

Vince walked in front of him. "Sir Glitch, this way, please."

He checked his silver suit, making sure everything was perfect. He even stared at his shoes for an extra long time to give the impression that he was super nervous inside.

After this minor act, he followed Vince inside the castle. They walked through the long corridor, and at the end, he saw two more guards in front of a red curtain.

Vince said something in the guard's ear, and to Glitch's shock, the guard shouted, "Sir Ruler Glitch is entering the banquet," and removed the large curtain from the doorway.