Their former kingdom had six knight orders, each with their own unique duties. Deas’s First Order were the royal guards, while Sieg’s Third Order, as well as the Fourth through Sixth Orders, all served as pure military strength. That being the case, the knights of the Third Order were each far less skilled than those of the First Order, but far more numerous as well. However, the entire Third Order had not been dispatched in the expedition to this forest, only its first company was; in other words, they wouldn’t actually find a full quarter of the kingdom’s knights resting here.
“While I do want to know how Sieg’s company ended up here, why were the royal guards, Deas’s men, sent to the Great Liebe Forest?”
<Princess, there is only one reason that the royal guards would sortie…>
“Don’t tell me… because the royal family went to that forest…?!”
<It was as you surmise…>
Rare had heard that they were caught up in a plot hatched by leading officials in the kingdom, but she didn’t know that it was a conspiracy to depose the entire royal family. It made sense now why the captain of the royal guard would have nurtured such a strong grudge. Even though the victims were now all long gone, she could sympathize with the feeling of wanting to destroy the kingdoms that rose to power as a result of those machinations. For Rare, it served as an impetus to commit to in-game goals.
VRMMOs nowadays trended toward the fun of developing your own character; games’ storylines had long since stopped receiving much care or attention. In exchange, the games were studded with AI auto-generated short quests like stars in the sky. To put it another way, there were countless games that lacked a concrete plot-driven player objective. This game fit that mold as well since it set absolutely no goals. However, while there were indeed many players who had fun just minding their own improvement, there were still players who wanted to aim for some kind of objective within the game. Some liked finding long consecutive quest chains to clear, while others liked hunting world-threatening monsters, which were usually raid bosses designed by the development team.
Rare also wanted to see content like that. Having thought that, she could always issue a quest to her NPCs-turned-followers, something like “Destroy all the human countries!” Their final task would be to defeat a “raid boss” that was the country itself. Rare felt excitement permeating her body.
“So Sieg, do you also resent the six kingdoms that currently rule the continent?”
<I… was not forced to watch my charges murdered before me as Sir Deas was, so I do not know if I hold the same feelings that he does… But, at the very least, I did pledge my loyalty to my kingdom, and I am responsible for my men, who ended up dying here. If the only way to address those feelings is to eliminate those six kingdoms, then, together with Sir Deas, I shall pledge my sword to you, Master Rare.>This was indeed where the conversation was heading, but Rare hadn’t exactly declared in front of Sieg that she wanted to bring down those kingdoms. However, she wouldn’t say that he was mistaken, either. Either way, when faced with a grand quest such as this, she wasn’t opposed to doing everything in her power to clear it.
“I see. Then we are agreed. But still, I’ve been holed up in the forest for all this time. The only information I actually have on these kingdoms has come from rumors and hearsay. It’s important for us to determine how exactly we can topple them…”
Right, this desire to bring ruin belonged to these two undead. In other words, monsters. In which case, if they kept taking over monster territory like they did this time, over time their territory would expand. If they just swallowed up all the territory where humanoid races lived, then that would essentially be the downfall of those kingdoms, wouldn’t it?
“What do you think of that strategy?”
<It sounds wonderful, Princess.>
<And it will be the dawn of a new kingdom of Master Rare’s, of Princess Rare’s, creation, one established to unify all the oppressed monsters! The blood of the royal family to which we had pledged our loyalty has long since died out, so it is only fitting for Princess Rare, who has earned our loyalty anew, to be the new ruler!>
It appeared that Sieg had a much more annoying personality than Rare would have expected. However, right now she was technically the leader of the ant colony, so even if she did end up making a new country, it should be fine to just throw the responsibility of leadership onto one of her followers. The thought made her feel better.
“All right, so our first step is to take control of this forest. Sieg, take your subordinates… Ohh, you’ve got quite a lot of them. They’re spread all throughout the woods… All right, Sieg, I gift you this location—it shall be a haunted forest that swallows up humanity whole.”
According to Sieg, since he had awoken, no human who had entered the forest left alive, so it became known as the “Forest of No Return” and no one dared enter it anymore. Even during the day, the treants would kill anyone on sight, so the humans didn’t even know what monsters lived here.
But if there were any players among the people that Sieg and his forces killed, then that was a different story. Even supposing that the treants could kill them without being detected, at night it would be undead, and players would recognize them. And when players died, they’d revive in town.
It was possible that no one wanted any materials dropped from undead, but it should have been different for treants. Which meant…
“During the day, I shall have my subordinate treants entertain the guests. If they come at night, then Sieg, have your weaker followers fight them as appropriate, allowing a suitable number of them to win. That should hopefully attract more humans here, which in turn means a lot more killing will occur here as well.”
<I shall do exactly as you have described. Ever since becoming Princess Rare’s follower, I feels as though my head has become much clearer; it is as though those centuries spent idly wandering this forest were all a lie.>
Speaking simply of stats, it could be due to Rare’s [Enhance Follower] increasing his INT and MND, but that probably wasn’t enough to explain a dramatic change like this. After being subjected to [Subordinate], it was possible that something in his AI had also become unlocked.
“I’m glad that your mind is sharp now. Next, let’s see, you should learn how to access your inventory from Deas. He has been at my side observing things for some time now, so he should also be able to advise you on the administration of this forest. Deas, once things here have settled somewhat, contact me and I shall [Summon] you back…”
<Hm. You leave me with no choice. I shall do as you wish, Your Highness, but please try not to be reckless while I am away from your side…>
“Yes, I know. Ah, that’s right.” Rare then looked over at where Sieg had been sitting, up at the giant tree behind him. “Is that just a tree? Or is it a treant? Since they don’t move at night, I can’t tell…”
<As far as I know, this tree is unable to move,> Sieg responded.
“I see. However, maybe it was just lazy, or it was afraid of taking a lot of damage if it messed with you, so it’s possible it’s just pretending to be asleep… maybe. Okay, let’s see if I’m right.”
Even if it wasn’t doing anything right now, if it was a monster then it had to be conscious to a point. If she cast [Subordinate] or something then it should react in some fashion.
“[Charm].”
The tree’s branches rustled. From what Rare could tell, it was resisting quite a bit. However, Rare had more MND and was able to brush aside that resistance; [Charm] seemed to be working.
“Hah hah! So you’re the treant boss! [Subordinate]!”
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