Episode 206: Dreams in the game become reality

47. Rondel's Sea (5)

"It's contact. There's no way he called... … "How has it been delivered?"

I heard that I received a call from Ieria Nelson, but there is no way the contact was made by phone as there are concerns about tracking.

The Minister of the Palace Ministry, who was from Blue Moon and knew that I was a talented person, handed me an envelope.

"Correspondence?"

"Yes, the former Minister of Commerce of Koralheim brought it."

Isn't this a pretty classic way to communicate?

I asked with a cold expression.

"Where is he?"

"Currently, we have placed it on standby in the reception room under Gregory's supervision."

As expected, the work is done neatly.

Satisfied, I opened the envelope of the letter.

Then, Saint Sylvester, who was across from me, got up and sat down next to me.

I read the letter without hesitation.

[I would like to meet you in person. I request to speak with Prince Lawrence.]The content of the letter was brief, without any common rhetoric.

However, I read the other person's embarrassment in that short content, and soon burst into laughter.

At the end of the letter, the coordinates of the place where they wanted to meet were written, and Saint Sylvester tilted her head when she saw the coordinates.

"I think this is my first time seeing coordinates that start with 0. What are they?"

In response to her question, I calmly said that it was easy for me not to know.

"The coordinates of the center of the world, the Sea of ​​Storms, start with 0."

"Sea of ​​Storms?"

"Yes, it is a dangerous place."

If Dragon Land is Ban, representing the land, Stormy Sea is Ban, representing the sea.

As the name suggests, it is an area where storms never cease, and the huge vortex located in the center sucks everything in like a black hole, and the mana fluctuates in the deepest part, making it difficult to properly exercise one's abilities.

The reason why such abnormal topography exists is currently unknown.

Only the Creator Goddess knows.

"Is there a place for conversation like that?"

"I heard there are several small islands in the Sea of ​​Storms. "I guess it's one of those places."

"Then the place they were hiding could also be nearby."

"It's not out of the question."

I got up from my seat.

The reason is to meet the person who brought this letter.

I asked the saint if she would go with me, and she nodded, saying of course.

That's how we came face to face with Coralheim's former managing minister, who was being watched by Gregory in the reception room.

"Nice to meet you, Your Royal Highness, Your Majesty the Saint. "My name is Kent Lotea."

I waved my hand and sat down with him as if I didn't need to know his name.

I stared in silence at the mermaid who introduced herself as Kent.

Kent broke into a cold sweat, and I lifted my chin and gave a scary greeting.

"If the 3rd Prince Ieria does not respond after a day, I was planning to reveal that the entire royal family of Koralheim is a supporter of the devil worshipers."

"Well, what is that? "What good would you gain by telling such a lie?"

"There are many engineers in our principality who make people confess to doing things they did not do. "If the King of Coralheim confesses that it is true, it becomes the truth and not a lie."

"her… … ."

"Well, if the 3rd Prince Ieria still doesn't show up, I was planning on dragging it into trouble for the entire Coralheim, but fortunately it seems to end well."

Unless you are a fool, you will know the horror of what I am saying.

"Are you saying you were trying to frame Coralheim and bring it down?"

"If things don't go your way. And where would the only downfall be? It would have encouraged the destruction of the entire mermaid race. Because of this incident, I realized how troublesome a race you are to deal with who live under the sea."

"Oh my."

It seemed like he wanted to say something like 'this is crazy', but perhaps because of my cold gaze, he didn't dare say a swear word.

It was natural.

From his perspective, I would be no different from the devil.

'I just believe it's because of the notoriety I've accumulated over the years?'

In fact, this is a threat made to scare him.

Is it really possible to eliminate an entire country and its people?

It may be possible to punish them as an example of tidying up the royal family, but the annihilation of a nation or tribe was not something any sane person could order.

"Ugh… … ."

However, the mermaid named Kent in front of me took my words literally.

I guess I thought it might really be me.

If he goes back and spreads my words, even the 3rd Prince of Ieria will not be able to do anything foolish.

In times like these, it seems that notoriety is not necessarily a bad thing.

I didn't feel the need to correct the misconception, so I frowned and smiled at Kent.

"So, can we assume that the meeting requested by Prince Ieria 3 was for a hostage exchange?"

He winced greatly at my smile.

He then swallowed dry saliva, and it looked as if he had encountered a wild beast.

Kent nodded obediently, placing his hand on his chest as if to calm his pounding heart.

"It's true that I asked to meet to discuss that issue."

"Discussions do not mean exchanging hostages on the spot."

"That's right. "I would like to have a conversation first."

It is no different from confessing that they are hostage takers.

As a result, they became criminals, not suspects.

I don't like the fact that the hostage exchange doesn't happen right away, but I decided to understand that the enemies have no choice but to be careful.

Still, I feel fortunate to have responded so quickly.

It seems that Ieria cares about her family more than expected.

"I would like to limit the number of people gathered at the coordinates to five people, including His Royal Highness Prince Lawrence. Would it be okay?"

"No problem."

As soon as the story was roughly concluded, Kent stood up as if he didn't want to stay here for too long.

Although the conversation was short, it seems the impact was very strong.

But this side of the story is not over yet.

There were important issues remaining.

"If harm is done to Saint Ivril, the King of Coralheim and his family will not be safe. "I think you know."

"… … ."

"I guess Saint Ivril is safe, right?"

"That's right."

Kent's shoulders shook slightly at my words, but perhaps to hide his expression, he ended up leaving the living room without looking back.

"Shall I kill you?"

I shook my head in response to Gregory's question.

He was an important guest who had to convey the story and atmosphere shared here today.

"Did you also raise a torture expert?"

However, Saint Sylvester, who was listening to the entire conversation, asked an unexpected question.

It seems that he was concerned about the story that there were many engineers in our principality who made people confess to doing things they did not do.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"That can't be right."

"Haha, right?"

The saintess smiled awkwardly, saying she was worried for no reason.

There is no such thing as a torture technician in the principality.

However, outside the principality, in Blue Moon, there are many such technicians.

In other words, it is not just empty words.

* * *

The five people who will attend the meeting with Ieria Nelson did not include church figures such as saints and saints.

I had a separate investigation to conduct, so I asked the saint and the saint for their understanding, and both of them obediently complied, perhaps because they trusted me.

So I headed to the Sea of ​​Storms, leading Arsia, Berg, the dark elf Blake, and an unexpected figure dressed in black robes.

"You really caught me off guard. "To be honest, I was very embarrassed."

And I was finally able to meet Ieria Nelson.

Just in case, I carefully checked the area around me with my glasses to see if there were any traps or anything like that.

As a result, I narrowed my eyes when I realized that I was just sitting with mermaids who had almost no fighting ability and that they were not hiding anything.

"It seems surprising that only people with poor combat skills were brought in."

It has to be that way.

This force includes the Roadmaster.

If we attacked, they were just dead.

Ieria simply said that it was natural.

"I can't defeat you with force anyway, so I'll have to use my head. "If I do not return at the appointed time, Saint Ivril will be put to death."

Only then did I burst out laughing, saying I understood.

The character Ieria seemed to have very realistic tendencies.

-Gooooo!

"Why did you want to meet in this place?"

The land we stood on was one of the small islands on the Sea of ​​Storms.

There were fast-moving clouds, bitter winds, rough waves and heavy rain typical of a stormy sea.

However, there was a barrier around the long table in the center of the island, creating a unique scene as if watching a typhoon from inside a glass greenhouse.

However, perhaps due to the nature of the Sea of ​​Storms, which does not allow special abilities to be used properly, although the shield that protects us from the external environment is the 7th Circle Great Shield, its power has decreased significantly and I had to reinforce it myself.

'If I wasn't an 8th circle wizard, I would have had quite a bit of trouble moving through space.'

The stormy sea I encountered for the first time felt very gloomy to me.

"There is no particular meaning to wanting to meet here. "It is simply to prevent interference under the supervision of a third party."

That's a reasonable answer.

Not only will the artifact not function properly here, but it will also be difficult to access it using normal methods.

I took a seat at the table and asked directly.

"So are you going to exchange hostages?"

Ieria nodded so calmly.

"Yes, let's exchange. "Same time and place tomorrow."

Seeing his surprisingly cool response, I looked through his information carefully.

[Ieria Nelson / Politician, Intermediate Elementalist]Race: Mermaid

Age: 122 years old

Affiliation: Blue Sea Alliance / 3 Princes of Coralheim

Talents: Political Power (High), Intellectual Power (High), Learning Power (High), Command Power (Medium), Spiritual Power (Medium)

Traits: Pioneer, agitator, sacrificial spirit

Relationship: borderline/hostile

Status: Nervous / Fearful

Very high ability.

However, other than the ability level, there are no notable characteristics.

But there was just one thing I could understand.

If you look at his tendencies alone, he doesn't seem like a villain.

I asked him.

"So what are you sending this letter to discuss?"

Ieria looked slightly nervous at my question.

"Is my family safe?"

"Yes, not yet."

"Not yet?"

"It means that your family will be released safely only if Ivril is safe."

His complexion darkened for a moment as he responded that he was going to go for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and I caught that and brought my face closer to him.

"Did you really harm Yvril?"

"They attacked right away. As if they wanted to die together. So we had to fight several battles."

Surprisingly, Ieria nodded obediently.

When I looked at Man-gyeong, I saw that there was no lie in what he said.

"Please explain your posture."

"Thanks to the saint's initiative, we fought almost thirty times. As a result, there were many near-death situations. But as a result, the damage on our side of her is worse than hers. Currently, Ivril is safe and has even become stronger. On the other hand, our organization suffered great losses."

Was Everil that kind of personality?

I massaged my temples.

"No matter what the process was, if you only look at the result, you don't seem to be in a position to ask about the safety of your family. "They caused injury even though there was a clear warning."

"sorry. But we had no choice."

"First of all, since they are safe, the hostages we have taken will also be released safely. "At least in appearance."

He swallowed dryly at the threat-filled story.

The control has completely passed to me.

But I wasn't happy at all.

"Please don't touch my family."

"Why should I do that?"

"Instead, I will give you information that may be helpful to His Majesty the King."

With Ivril's exchange confirmed, interest in him is slowly fading away.

When he said he would share information that would be helpful to me, I decided to listen to his story.

But the story he told was too obvious.

It was a story about the Earth and Rondel and the great disaster that would occur as a result.

That may be obvious as we don't know what we already know, but I had to sigh.

"Is that the only information that will help me?"

Ieria was taken aback by my blank expression.

However, perhaps because they thought my reaction was because they did not trust their story, they told an unexpected story.

"I know it's a story that doesn't make sense right away. But we have the evidence to back it up."

"evidence?"

"Yes, we are protecting many strangers from another world called Earth. "When your Majesty the King meets them, you will see that what I say is not a lie."

"… … ."

Honestly, I was a bit surprised by this.

I never thought they would be protecting the people of Earth.

This is a fact that even the devil worshiper Celine did not know.

"is it so? "How many are majority?"

"About 500 people."

And the number mentioned was much higher than expected.

Thanks to this, I couldn't maintain a poker face.

"You probably don't understand why I'm suddenly telling you this."

"Yes."

"However, I know His Royal Highness Prince Lawrence to be a realist and someone who makes sound decisions."

Then he spoke to me as if pleading.

"We hope you will consider our position. "We just wanted to protect Rondel."

I was able to guess his intentions from that look.

'This guy is trying to placate me now.'

He decided that if he met people from Earth and understood various situations together, he might be able to elicit empathy from me.

From their point of view, it is a gamble, but if successful, it will give wings to their plans and turn the crisis into an opportunity.

This means that I and Ivril were cornered by our sudden actions.

"haha."

It makes me laugh.

However, since we don't know what they will do if they get desperate, we decided to give them a little hope.

I gestured to the person in the group who was wearing a black robe.

Then the person pointed out pulled back the hood of his robe.

Soon a beautiful woman with red hair and red eyes appeared.

"Celine!?"

Her identity is the devil worshiper Celine.

Ieria looked at me in shock at the appearance of the person she thought was already dead, but then her expression filled with joy.

"You all already knew, right?"

I nodded.

"I also spoke with the Demon King of Earth through her. "We probably know more about the situation on Earth than you do."

I think I just misunderstood that I meant it.

I decided to give it a shot.

"Don't think this puts us on the same side. "You are the enemy who kidnapped someone I care about."

The complexions of the mermaids, including Ieria, quickly darkened.

Still, he must have decided that the situation wasn't that bad, so he calmed down and asked me.

"Then would you like to meet the people of Earth we are protecting?"

"Of course."

No matter what they think, they are free to be mistaken.

However, this is something that needs to be clearly pointed out.

In the first place, I had no intention of saving them.

That's why Celine was revealed.

The plan was to use Celine as a connection point to maintain contact, get Ivril back, and then secretly clean up the place.

This means that their beliefs and plans are none of your business.