Queen’s Garden (3)

A few hours later.

[―Remaining time/time limit:

19:17:03 / 24:00:00]

Kleio and Arthur, still in a hurry, proceeded toward the interior of the garden. Even though he had taken a nap, Kleio stared at the back of Arthur’s head with a grumpy frown.

‘Ugh. Even the protagonist is dancing along to the manuscript.’

It wasn’t unexpected since he had already gathered his forces. It was, instead, highly likely that the author had used his mother’s prophecy to place a wizard into Arthur’s party. Or, perhaps, it was an urgent setting to accommodate the fact that the protagonist already knew what had happened before without damaging the internal consistency. Either way, the more he learned about Arthur’s childhood, the messier it became.

‘His mother was assassinated, and on top of that, she was a prophet. Then, his brothers have threatened him. Aslan and Melchior have also been affected by the last manuscript.’

Perhaps that was due to the author’s many revisions made without being able to handle it all. However, now, the story had already reached Chapter 2. And, ultimately, it didn’t matter if the protagonist had a twisted or radical personality. Kleio’s role was to help Arthur become king, not to improve humanity.

‘Whether it’s a black or a white cat, just focus on the crown.’

He focused his thoughts on Arthur.

.

.

.

The two left to find the greenhouse. The spacious garden was a bizarrely, beautiful space. Flowers of different seasons bloomed on both sides of the path, with the occasional broken wooden benches or iron arches.

“It’s obviously a garden, but it’s strange that all the sculptures are decayed, and there are no humans.”

Arthur seemed to sense a feeling of incongruity in the space itself.

“So, it’s called a ‘remembered’ world.”

Kleio also struggled with that sense of deception. It was a space that he couldn’t have been to, but he felt a strange familiarity with it. The night was still around them, but the fog cleared, and their vision widened. Far beyond that fog, they could see an oriental-styled wooden tower that clashed with the western-style garden. Kleio came to a stop as he looked around.

‘This…!’

Kleio looked at the tower with his Perception and soon found out what it was. It was a ten-story pagoda built with redwood, and his Memory worked to bring information from a manuscript he had seen at the end of last year to his mind. Professor Yung-hwan Kim, who had been an exchange professor, had gone crazy about English-style gardens and raved about how he wanted to publish a garden tour book. He was startled as a memory of a ten-story pagoda from that manuscript he reviewed came to mind. Once he recognized the similarities, the river that winded through the vast garden and the shape of the landscape fit into his head immediately.

‘It’s Kew Garden…!’

It was the royal botanic garden of England, Kew garden. Thus, the name of the dungeon was Queen’s Garden.

‘Who is this author?!’

-Prince of the Kingdom of Albion- was an old-fashioned fantasy story with a decent composition. Even though they had revised the manuscript nine times, he thought the author had written it with great care.

‘That guy who sent me an e-mail seemed to be writing a world masterpiece, but he keeps fusing things?’

He didn’t care much about details or proper nouns when he first reviewed the manuscript, instead opting to focus on the contents. But now that he was thinking about it, questions arose one after another.

‘Even the author’s nickname. Mousai is the original name for the muses.’

The Memory function of Promise gave Kleio a memory that surpassed that of his teenage years. Thanks to that, he could recall phrases from Greek mythology that had appeared in his textbooks.

‘The goddess’s name was Mnemosyne, whose nine daughters were the muses. Terpsichore was the muse of music, and the lira was her icon. There is also a tradition of muses in this world.’

Mnemosyne wasn’t a high-ranking god in mythology? Even if she were, it would still be odd for her to be enshrined like a god in this world mostly since this wasn’t a fantasy based on Greek mythology, as none of the major gods such as Zeus or Poseidon had been mentioned until the end of the first part of the manuscript.

‘If this was to be set up like Greece, the city should have a name like Athens, not Lundane. They’re just names with no real setting.’

It felt absurd to mix the setting like that.

‘It doesn’t need to be the Silmarillion, but shouldn’t the background be a bit more proper…?’

There were endless writers who had suffered because of their manuscripts, but you had to focus on least achieving a level of quality. Of course, Jungjin himself was not some great editor who could turn out masterpiece after masterpiece. Far from it, he was just an ordinary salaryman.

‘What is it like to devote your life to refine the story you have created? Hmm.’

Jungjin himself had only the virtue that an editor should have, and that was not falling in too much love with a manuscript.

‘I couldn’t love it, so my heart became cold.’

The leafless trees cast shadows over the road as they walked. It was then.

Flutter-

One leaf, a soft cherry blossom, rubbed past Kleio’s nose. A thin line formed where the flower had passed like he had been nicked by a razor blade. Kleio gingerly rubbed the tip of his nose and found bright red blood on his thumb. Perception could track the fluttering in the air as Arthur stopped and drew his sword.

The winter trees on both sides sprouted buds at once, the black branches blooming cherry blossoms at an unbelievable speed. The leaves began to grow, causing a wave of flowery leaves that rose above the night sky. At the same time, the dungeon’s internal message came to his mind.

[Cherry Blossoms

—Category: Evil

—Level: 5]

It was a demon. Arthur raised his blade as if he had seen the message as well.

Klang!

Rumble!

Even with his sharp sword, all the petals couldn’t be driven away.

“Ugh!”

Arthur had forgotten to strengthen his body, and Kleio missed the timing on his shield. Their exposed skin was quickly covered with shallow cuts. Kleio, activating the shield a step late, grabbed Arthur by the neck and dragged him into the circle as it spread out to a diameter of 3 meters. It wasn’t more than a few seconds after the petals fell, but their clothes were ragged and bloody.

Shaaaaaaaa-

Outside the shield, the petals had created a pinkish-white vortex. At a glance, it was a beautiful sight, but anyone walking through it would’ve been ripped apart. Fortunately, only the leaf sprout had to be destroyed.

“Arthur, do you see the tree with sprouted leaves?”

“It looks like the one on the far right.”

With Perception on, Kleio could see a tree emitting a pale yellow light, past the breathtaking razor-like petals. It seemed to be a few hundred meters away.

‘But this… it’s too big. Why is the level so high? It was originally level 3.’

Kleio, who couldn’t express the reason for his fear of Arthur, could feel a cold sweat flowing down his back.

‘In the original manuscript, they were more scattered. If it’s level 5, it’s an unbelievably dangerous foe.’

The petals had covered their field of vision in a matter of moments. If the circle were bigger, it would’ve been an easy matter, but Kleio’s 4th level circle was only 20m.

‘It’s too far away. I would need to be about 7th level to reach it now.’

You couldn’t move with the magic barrier activated, so you had to use a mana stone to create a moveable barrier. Kleio pulled a piece pocket.

‘In the previous manuscript, Zebedee engraved the magic formula [Defense][Strengthen] on this, and Isiel injected ether into it to make a temporary shield.’

There were two ways to use a mana stone outside a circle. The first was to engrave a single magic formula into one, which resulted in weak but reusable magic. The second was if the magic circle was formed around the stone itself as a medium, which allowed for a more powerful combination of formulas, but the mana stone would be destroyed.

‘Last time, I used the second method. However, it has half the efficiency of just using a magic circle. If I use it, I can achieve the same effect as the last manuscript with only one of the stones.’

He hated to waste the loot from his hard-won fight, but he couldn’t let the main character die. Even as he deliberated, gold shimmered outside the shield as the petals collided with the wall with a sound like rain. Arthur rubbed his chin as he admired the sight, looking alternatively between that and Kleio.

“Is this a joke?”

“Dungeons are dungeons; how could it be a joke?!”

“I feel like something has come out in earnest now.”

“Otherwise, Cruel’s knights wouldn’t have died.”

“Isiel and Cel are going to be okay.”

“They got the gauntlet, so they’ll be fine.”

That was thanks to Zebedee.

‘Without defensive tools, we would be ground meat.’

Kleio pledged to prepare as much as he could going forward as well. He couldn’t know how the setting might change or how the dangers might increase, after all. In response to that thought, the increasingly fierce flower storm pressed on the shield as if to break it. Even the memories of the beautiful cherry blossoms he had seen before in his life were overshadowed by the horror before him. Arthur, however, was casually glancing over it.

“[Strengthen] isn’t enough, and I can’t match it with only one sword.”

“Yes.”

“Then, as we decided on before coming in?”

“Yes. I’ll make a shield, so you take care of the head.”

“If we release the barrier, will we become bloody smears? It’s hard to head back now. How will you make it?”

“I’ll use a magic double load.”

That meant reloading a completely separate formula while one took effect.

“That can’t be done at level 4…”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Hearing Kleio’s blunt reply, a sparkle formed in Arthur’s eyes. It seemed like he was looking forward to seeing some new magic, regardless of the tension.

“Wow! I’ve only read about it!”

The magic double load was a technique that appeared at the end of the second book on magic. The principle wasn’t tricky, and in theory, it could be used from level 4. However, in practice, it was relegated to wizards of level 6 or higher. The reason was simply that the amount of ether that had to be consumed was enormous. Double loading consumed three times more ether than regular ether use. Of course, that didn’t matter much to Kleio. Kleio prepared for it while firmly preparing to recast the outer [Defense] magic formula that blocked the petals, all while palming the mana stone in his hand as he recalled the [Defense][Reinforcement] formula over it. It began to glow gold with ether.

‘This can’t be the usual casual mantra.’

With a short sigh, Kleio let out the mantra he had reluctantly thought of.

“[This is my wall, my shield, my salvation, my tower, my refuge!]”

It was a mantra that he had thought of because the only books he had brought into boot camp were ‘Good Thoughts’ and the Bible. That boot camp had been the closest place to purgatory among the places he had been to after he had volunteered for the navy at his mother’s request. That training center was particularly painful for Jungjin, who disliked water.

‘I have to remember that every time I use this mantra.’

Regardless of Kleio’s mood, the magic formula, triggered by a powerful mantra, rotated rapidly as it gave off a fierce glow. It began to expand and grow to a size that could cover a person’s body, forming a translucent shield with a pearl-like luster. Even Arthur seldom distracted, focused on the shield instead of the petals hitting the defensive walls.

“Double load… You said you could do it, and you really did it.”

“Stop talking. Take this and get rid of the boss quickly. You have five minutes, so check the clock if you’re not sure.”

“Let’s do it.”

Arthur, hefting the shield, left the circle without hesitation, charging right into the violent storm of flower petals. At the same time, brilliant gold swirled from the shield as the mana stone crumbled.

Shaaaaaaaaaa-

The petals collided with the shields, but Arthur wasn’t pushed back at all as he proceeded straight toward his target.

‘Good work, good work.’

With his arms crossed, Kleio watched as the shield withstood the force of the petals. He had succeeded in the magical double loud he had seen only in theory, but he wasn’t pleased. Kleio’s position on magic had always been consistent: if you can’t use it, don’t. Whether or not the author wanted to include a wizard in Arthur’s party, the last manuscript’s Arthur had taken the throne without one. He was thrown back and forth to correct the story, used as an airbag to protect the protagonist, but he had no intention of doing more overtime.

‘Whoo, it’s not easy to play the live-action version of King Maker. If I fall behind, the game is over.’

==

3) 『King James Bible』, 「2 Samuel」, edited.