Debuff Master-Chapter 889

“The Adventurers... established their own kingdom?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“What...?”

This was truly shocking news.

A group of Adventurers establishing their own kingdom was directly against the laws set by the World Peace Council.

The NPCs were extremely wary of the Adventurers, as they were immortal beings capable of growing stronger at an astonishing rate. As a result, they passed a law to limit the growth of their influence over the continent.

In fact, it was illegal for Adventurers to buy land on the continent; they had to lease them instead. This was the reason only a few Adventurers actually had their own land, through special consideration, and the only Adventurer crowned king was Siegfried.

However, the Adventurers suddenly established their own kingdom? This was something unprecedented in the history of the continent.

It was truly something bizarre.

‘The continent’s order is crumbling...’

Siegfried immediately realized that the rule that the NPCs had been enforcing on the continent had already crumbled away.

This was something nobody would have imagined if the continent had been peaceful, and the fact that this happened during the current turmoil meant that order had completely collapsed.

“According to our reports, the Adventurers took advantage of the current chaos in the southern region and conquered three small kingdoms.”

“And what else?”

“They combined those three kingdoms and established a kingdom called Arkasas.”

Siegfried grimaced for a second but urged her to continue, “Hmm... Keep going.”

“Pardon me?”

“There must be a force behind that new kingdom called Arkasas, right? Tell me about the group that formed it.”

“Ah, it is called the Seraphim Guild.” Ninetail took out a document and passed it to him.

“Oh...” Siegfried muttered, recognizing the guild name.

Well, there was no way he would not recognize them. The Seraphim Guild was one of the top ten Adventurer guilds on the continent—no, they were actually one of the top three guilds on the continent.

The Guild Master of the Seraphim Guild was an Adventurer called Cain, a very elusive figure that never once made a public appearance. Cain had never joined any live guild wars, and neither were they using social media.

As a matter of fact, Cain was wearing a helmet that they had never taken off, making even their character’s face a mystery.

“So Cain must be the ruler?”

“That is what is stated in our reports. But frankly speaking, we do not have much data on them, so I cannot say much as of now.”

“Hmm...”

“But one thing I can say is that—”

“They blitzed through a bunch of small kingdoms, conquered them, and unified them to create a new kingdom? As if they had already planned it beforehand?”

“As expected, you are as sharp as ever.”

“This is nothing. Anyway, I guess we can suspect that this is no mere coincidence, but rather, something they had meticulously planned.”

“Perhaps? I believe that is the only explanation as to how they were able to establish a new kingdom in such a short period of time.”

“Hmm... I guess they’ve been wanting to establish their own kingdom and have been planning to do it for quite a while now.”

Siegfried was not that concerned that Cain and the Seraphim Guild had established their own kingdom. However, there was one thing bothering him.

‘How will the NPCs react to this? That’s the most important thing...’

The NPCs in BNW were created by artificial intelligence, so they had the ability to think for themselves. This was the precise reason why they were so wary of the Adventurers to begin with.

Siegfried knew about this, so he actively tried his best to avoid putting Adventurers in administrative roles of the Proatine Kingdom as much as he could, which led to his kingdom being run by NPCs except for a select few close confidants like Seung-Gu.

But why were the NPCs so wary of the Adventurers? The reason was quite simple.

Adventurers were immortal beings with the ability to grow infinitely stronger through their Rune of Transcendence.

In other words, they were far superior to the NPCs.

But what if these immortal beings suddenly became nobles and ruled at the top of the social ladder?

The NPCs would feel as if they were being ruled by superior races. Or worse, a kingdom ruled by Adventurers would be born, forcing the NPCs into servitude.

With the birth of the very thing that the NPCs feared, there was a chance that the NPCs would be even warier of the Adventurers. If worse comes to worst, the balance between the NPCs and the Adventurers would collapse.

“Make sure to keep an eye on them and report back to me immediately if anything happens,” Siegfried commanded.

“Yes, Your Majesty. I will promptly report if anything happens in the Arkasas Kingdom,” Ninetail replied with a nod.

“Ah, is there any update from the Marchioni Empire?” Siegfried asked.

The reason he was asking this was that the empire would probably be very sensitive to the news of an Adventurer kingdom being born. To begin with, the Marchioni Empire basically controlled the World Peace Council, so it was highly likely that they would be wary of this newfound kingdom.

“Oh, about that. Things in the empire are a bit strange these days,” Ninetail said, suddenly remembering another issue she was supposed to report.

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”

“The rebels are overpowering the empire’s forces.”

“...!”

“The empire is on a losing streak against the rebels in their recent battles, and most experts believe that the empire might suffer a huge blow, one that would greatly diminish their authority over the continent, after this civil war.”

“I-Is that even possible?”

Siegfried could not help but doubt his ears. He had personally witnessed the sheer might of the Immortal Armada not long ago, which made it even harder for him to imagine that the rebels were winning against the empire.

“I will submit a report with the full details,” Ninetail said.

“How long will it take?” Siegfried asked.

“It is quite a lengthy report that we will have to compile it all night long, so it will only be ready in the morning.”

“Please have it ready as quickly as possible. The whole world order will change if something changes in the empire, and I have to know if there’s anything I have to do before that happens.”

“Certainly. We will have it ready as soon as possible.”

“Thanks. See you later.”

With those words, Siegfried left Ninetail’s office.

***

After Siegfried left the intelligence department, he went to see how Hamchi was doing.

Hamchi was in the royal infirmary, enjoying the luxury of having one whole room all to himself.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Don’t talk to me, owner punk. Hamchi is really tired. Kyuuu...”

It might sound like Hamchi was simply sulking, but he looked exhausted even in Siegfried’s eyes.

His fur, which he always kept silky smooth, was completely disheveled; he grew an unkempt beard, and his eyes looked soulless; even his chubby cheeks were hallowed as if he had been starving for weeks.

“Whoa... Does transforming take that much of a toll on you? Why do you look on the verge of dying, man?” Siegfried asked.

“You know nothing, owner punk. Do you think it’s easy for a spirit to summon its real body to this world? It’s really exhausting. It just drains you completely. Kyuu...”

“Really?”

“Yeah. This isn’t something I’d wanna do ever again.”

“If you say so. Rest up, buddy,” Siegfried said, covering Hamchi with a blanket. Then, he asked, “But since when were you able to transform? You never transformed once before, right? I mean, we faced numerous life-or-death situations together, too.”

“Owner punk became a Master, so Hamchi became stronger, too. That’s why Hamchi can now transform. Kyuuu...”

“Oh?”

“Anyway, stop bugging me and get lost. Hamchi doesn’t even have the energy to talk right now.”

“Fine. Rest well, and see you later.”

“Okay. Kyuuu...”

“Bye.”

With those words, Siegfried left the ward Hamchi was resting in.

“Hmm?”

Just then, he stumbled upon Mochi, who was walking toward the ward with a large tray in her hands. On the tray were various kinds of nuts and mana stones stacked up like a miniature mountain.

“Where are you going? Are you here to visit Hamchi?” Siegfried asked.

“Can’t you tell?! Kyuuuu!” Mochi exclaimed in response. Then, she continued, “That asshole used up too much energy[1] after transforming! Kyu! He has to replenish his nutrients at least!”

“I thought you wanted to cut it off?”[2]

“Kyu?”

“Are you worried about him?”

“K-Kyuuu! T-That is—!” Mochi could not find the words to respond to what Siegfried said.

“Sigh...” Siegfried shook his head.

To be honest, he found it difficult to understand why she would go out of her way to take care of her fiance, who abandoned her just so he could fool around with other women.

However, there was only one plausible explanation when it came to these kinds of situations.

‘You must go for looks too, eh?’ Siegfried concluded that Mochi valued looks far more than anything else. Otherwise, why would she go out of her way to be nice to a playboy like Hamchi?

‘Oh well, I guess he was quite handsome.’

Even Siegfried admitted that Hamchi’s true form was handsome enough to make Mochi desperately cling to him. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

“Have a nice day~” he said and walked away.

Love, at its core, belonged to the realm of emotions and personal preference. It is something that defies logic, and attempting to understand it from an objective point of view was near-impossible.

With that in mind, Siegfried decided not to get involved in the affairs of the two lovebirds—no, love hamsters.

***

Siegfried decided to spend his time efficiently and productively while waiting for the report.

However, he did not head to the Northern Great Rift.

Why?

It was all because three out of the four rifts were closed, which meant that there was definitely a massive crowd before the Northern Great Rift. Thus, it was better for him to help Michael find his wings or find a way to deal with the Blue Knight of Death.

Besides, Cheon Woo-Jin and Beowulf were keeping tabs on the Northern Great Rift, so there was no reason for Siegfried to go there.

Siegfried decided to come up with a solution against the Blue Knight of Death, but unfortunately, he could not think of one no matter how much he racked his brains.

‘I guess I’ll have to ask Michael for help.’

In the end, he decided it would be best to ask Michael for advice on how to defeat the Blue Knight of Death.

As powerful as the Blue Knight of Death might be, it was true that all four apocalypses were once imprisoned in the celestial realm. Also, Michael, being the Chief Archangel at that time, was probably the one who imprisoned them, so it was highly likely that he would know best how to deal with them.

‘I can get his advice and come back just in time to read the report.’

With that thought in mind, he asked the intelligence agents to provide him with Michael’s exact current location.

Around thirty minutes later, Siegfried received a report of Michael’s current whereabouts.

‘Oh? It’s not that far from here?’ he noticed that Michael and his party were located within the Proatine Kingdom, so he decided to use Descent to warp to their destination.

He had amassed quite a lot of Divine Power by now, so it was possible for him to warp to one of his statues even without the help of any artifact.

Flash!

Siegfried warped to the Hero Statue: Siegfried van Proa located the nearest to Michael’s current location.

“Kyah!”

“Y-Your Majesty!”

“Oh!”

The people praying in front of Siegfried’s statue jumped up in fright after he suddenly appeared right in front of them.

“Hahaha...”

Siegfried, too, was flustered. He had warped without much thought, only to end up appearing in front of his people and followers.

“Ah! Your Majesty’s grace is as far and wide as the ocean! I am not worthy to be in Your Majesty’s royal presence!”

“Your Majesty!”

The people bowed and worshiped their king and living deity, Siegfried van Proa, while being completely oblivious to the fact that he was feeling awkward as hell right now.

Without even giving Siegfried any time to react, they suddenly lined up in front of him as if they had drawn queue tickets or something.

‘W-What the hell is going on...?’ Siegfried wondered.

Unfortunately, this was just the start.

The man at the front of the line bowed low to the ground and introduced himself, “Greetings, Your Majesty! I raise livestock in this rural village of ours.”

“Ah, hello. Thank you for your hard work for our kingdom, as always. But how may I help you?” Siegfried asked.

“The cows in our ranch have contracted an infectious disease. At this rate, all of them are going to die!” the rancher exclaimed.

But this was only the tip of the iceberg...

“Sniff! Sniff! Those evil loan sharks started charging interest on interest! Your humble subject has to declare bankruptcy now! What should I do, Your Majesty? How should I live on?”

“My mother is very ill, sire...”

The people seized the moment and started flooding Siegfried with petitions, both civil and religious in nature. Some of them were quite serious problems, but there were quite a lot that made him wonder whether it was really a problem or just random grumblings.

Especially when it came to religious petitions, or rather, prayer requests, Siegfried wondered if people actually prayed for things like these.

“Your Majesty’s humble subject is suffering from low libido these days! Please bless me, sire! If I get my potency back, I will proudly raise my flagpole in Your Majesty’s honor!”

“H-Hey! Don’t tell me these kinds of things!”

Siegfried ended up lashing out at the young man who was suffering from impotence.

Why in the world would Siegfried have the ability to make a man potent again? Even if he had the ability to do so, he refused to do anything of that sort for obvious reasons.

However, this did not mean that all of the problems were as simple as someone’s manhood refusing to stand tall.

“Ugh...” Siegfried grabbed his throbbing head and groaned.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he decided to listen to the petitions submitted by his people first.

There were not that many petitions left, so he figured it would not hurt to help the people out since he was already here. Besides, given that he needed an immense amount of Divine Power to take on the angels, he thought it was not a bad idea to earn some favor with people.

‘Yeah, I’ve been swamped with big stuff these past few days, so I guess I’ll just consider this as a break and help these people—’

Ding!

A quest message popped up before his eyes before he could even finish his thoughts.

[Alert: You have triggered the Quest — 12 Tasks!]

1. The author used a wordplay here. Mochi was talking about stamina/energy, but the same word in Korean could be used for sexual stamina, too. ☜

2. Which is why Siegfried is talking about cutting it off here. ☜