My Memory wasn't quite at the level where I could accurately recall every word I'd ever spoken, but some conversations were weightier than others, and had stuck more vividly. I clearly recalled one such session, which had taken place at the border of the royal canton. I'd been questioned by an agent about my loyalty to kingdom and king, and I'd replied, 'I've never met the king, will never meet the king, and don't really think about the king in my day-to-day life.'

  An important part of that statement had since been proven inaccurate.

  "So, you are the boy we have heard so much about," said King Robeld, seated on his throne, which was a comfortable construction of mahogany and red cushioning, rather than the gaudy golden thing I'd half expected. He was flanked by Sir Quix—back in the armour of a royal knight—and one other royal knight I didn't recognise.

  I didn't respond. More accurately, I couldn't. It wasn't just the fear that I'd say the wrong thing and end up sans a head. The king exuded a pressure very similar to that of the earlier assassin, and I was struggling to stand in it. It was all I could do to not once again fall to my knees.

  Maybe kneeling was what I was supposed to do? If I didn't know how to deal with a tea trolley, how the hell was I supposed to know how to deal with a king? I'd tried to subtly ask the knights on the way over, but they'd just smirked and told me not to worry about it.

  I was sure Sir Quix was grinning at me, darn it.

  Nope, didn't help. I still had no idea what to do.

  "First from Baron Cargellen," continued the king. "Then from Earl Alexander, may the gods bring his soul to rest. From the kingdom's adventurers' guild master, and even from our own head of covert operations. You managed to impress them all. And the fact that you impressed our head spy in turn means that you have impressed us."

  That was nice, but I had no idea who this head spy was. I was pretty sure I didn't want to know, either. And the kingdom's adventurers' guild master? Was that different from the guild master of the sapphire city's guild? Did the adventurers' guild as an organisation reach beyond the borders of our kingdom?

  Also, why did he keep referring to himself in plural? It was annoying...

  "Level thirty-two already," continued the king, casually mentioning private details of my Status. Could he see it himself? He obviously had up-to-date information from somewhere, given that I'd only recently levelled. "Your mental Stats mark you as an intelligent chap, even if your age leaves you somewhat lacking in experience. We are sure you've worked out for yourself what we want from you?"

  I nodded mutely.

  "Hmm... So you can remain standing, but you can't quite speak," said the king, and I could have sworn I saw him smile faintly. "Very well. Please answer out loud. I permit you."

  The pressure didn't cease, but it did shift. I found I could open my mouth.

  "You want me to clear the Deep," I answered.

  "And from that fact, what can you extrapolate?"

  "That you don't have anyone else capable of clearing it, or that clearing it would be more costly than letting the dungeon break occur," I answered, and then blinked. I hadn't intended to be quite so... frank.

  "Your first guess was the correct one. There is literally no individual or team in this kingdom that could clear the Deep. And yet, there are those who believe you can do so in only three years. Perhaps you can, or perhaps you cannot, but let us assume that you can. What happens after?"

  "I want to tour the world. See everything there is to see," I answered without hesitation.

  That was wrong. I should have hesitated. I should have thought my answer through. Was he using some sort of Skill to compel truthful answers? That was far worse than a simple truth sense!

  "Oh? You do not desire to settle down here? With your power and the damage to our army, you would stand a reasonable chance of usurping the throne. Does that not tempt you?"

  "Hell no," I answered, before clamping my hand over my mouth. This was definitely some sort of compulsion, damn it.

  "Oh? And why not?"

  "Because I want to be free, and I can think of few positions less free than the monarch of a kingdom," I answered clearly and succinctly through my useless hand.

  The king raised a surprised eyebrow, then burst into great guffaws of laughter. The knights flanking him looked more shocked than anything.

  I just hoped he'd stop asking questions soon, before I really put my foot in it.

  "A very perceptive answer," he sighed, once he was done laughing. "I see why my spies have refrained from questioning your loyalty. But let me ask this one more thing: if I have known of you since the moment you set foot in the royal canton, why have I chosen now to talk to you?"

  This time I didn't answer immediately, not because he was no longer forcing me to do so, but because I didn't have an answer immediately available. I couldn't help myself thinking about the question, though, which meant I soon had a guess to provide.

  "Given I was raised to be distrustful of nobles and mindful of social position, and fled from Baron Cargellen despite justice being on my side, you might have thought I'd respond better without overt interference, but the act of sending royal knights to rescue me from an assassin has spoilt it, so there's no longer any point in hiding. Or maybe, since that Julie woman hinted that she worked for 'the Empire', which I've never heard of before but assume is hostile to our kingdom, you didn't want the Empire spies to find out about me, and now they've been dealt with."

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  "Good guesses, and both contain elements of truth, but we regret that neither is the entire story. Still, we are finding ourself enjoying this distraction. Let us continue. If we wish to raise you to clear the Deep, why do you think we have not opened our treasury to you? Loaded you with masterwork weapons, rare skill crystals, and artefacts to increase your Stats?"

  Seriously? He was enjoying making me spill my guts? If he had concerns about my loyalty, this wasn't the way to go about ensuring that he kept it.

  ... Not that I was under any delusions about the potential response if he did doubt my loyalty. My attempts to hide had been an even worse failure than I'd assumed, and there was a good chance I'd survived simply due to wanderlust.

  How would my life have differed had I fled north from the Fluffy Meadow, instead of west? Probably the team who'd killed Leo would have successfully retrieved me, and I'd be in the employ of Baron Cargellen right now. At least until whatever was happening in Harvent Canton wrecked the kingdom.

  "Either because that would be difficult to do covertly, or because it would make it harder for me to earn Paths," I answered, my meandering thoughts doing nothing to prevent my mouth from spilling out whatever the king asked of me.

  "Mostly the second," nodded the king. "Using equipment or crystals you haven't earned counts against you quite heavily, in terms of Paths offered and the Marks earned at growth milestones. In truth, we have concerns that [Ancient Soul] alone will prevent you from being offered any Paths."

  "No, it won't," I unwillingly corrected him. "I've already been offered the Path of [Assassin]."

  The king chuckled, part in surprise and part in amusement, albeit with less mirth than his previous outburst.

  "Good. Very good. A reasonable choice, and we have seen with our own eyes where that Path can lead."

  Thankfully, the Skill of the king had some limits, and this time I managed to prevent myself correcting him and pointing out that I didn't intend to take that Path.

  The king remained silent for a few seconds, watching me quietly. "Very well," he said eventually. "It is time to turn to more serious matters, and the true reason we have summoned you here. The Krullian Empire has declared war upon our kingdom."

  I blinked. As serious matters went, that went pretty damn far. On the other hand, I didn't see what I could do about it. Nor why our king was so blasé about it. How could he spare the time to question me? Shouldn't he have more important things to do?

  "From early on, we suspected outside forces were involved in the events of Harvent Canton, and recent information has confirmed the responsibility of the Empire. Now they are marching upon us from their lands to our west, to take advantage of the main force of our army being occupied in the east. However, they have erred, for they did not foresee the creation of an Unbound."

  But from the way the guild master and Sir Quix had been talking, wasn't an Unbound some hugely scary thing? Something which, if not defeated quickly, the gods themselves would step in to destroy, eliminating the country responsible in the process?

  ... Which, in this case, would be the Krullian Empire, not us? If that was the case, 'erred' may be something of an understatement.

  But in that case, the king would have had no reason to summon me... What was I missing?

  "Tell me, what are your thoughts?" asked the king, forcing me to repeat everything that had just run through my head.

  "Alas not," he responded. "After all, while the Empire encouraged matters, it was still the greed of Count Harvent that sealed his fate. The gods have thus deemed us equally responsible. However, they have offered us a chance of salvation."

  "The gods?" I couldn't help but respond. I really couldn't imagine them negotiating...

  "Yes. The gods. It turns out that when the fate of the world is at stake, they can grow surprisingly vocal. In this case, they have made it clear that should we take responsibility and deal with the Unbound ourselves, they will visit their displeasure only upon the Empire. However, we see from your expression that you're still unsure why we are telling you this. Let us clear that up for you: it's because on a certain occasion, you were overheard to use the term 'casus belli'."

  "Did I?" I asked. "I mean, I've heard it before. It means a justified reason for war, right? But what has some random phrase got to do with anything?"

  "Mainly, the fact that it is old dwarfish, and, after a number of employees of the Society of Exploration and History perished recently, the number of people in this kingdom who could tell you what it meant could be counted on your fingers. Where did you hear it?"

  "... I didn't," I admitted, despite trying my hardest to resist. This wasn't a topic I wanted to get into.

  "So, despite the wording of [Ancient Soul] implying your past memories would be difficult to recover, you have already begun the process?" asked the king, casually dropping another bombshell in that he hadn't merely seen my full Status, but had seen the full descriptions of things in there.

  "Yes," I admitted, again utterly failing to resist his Skill. "I often find myself using words or phrases that I have never previously encountered. However, I don't remember where they come from. I just... know them."

  "Hmm... Then maybe I have summoned you for nothing. Tell me, do you know the meaning of 'quinque'?"

  "Five," I answered instantly.

  "Tantum fortes transibunt?"

  "Only the strong shall pass? I think? Maybe brave, rather than strong? Something like that, anyway."

  "And you have no idea how you know that?"

  "No," I confirmed.

  "And if I asked you what 'four' is in old dwarfish?"

  "I have no idea."

  "Quattuor?"

  "Yes," I confirmed.

  "Interesting. So you can understand it, but not speak it. That is good enough for our purposes."

  I was starting to guess at what he was about to ask of me, and I didn't like it one little bit... Not that I could say that out loud.

  "While the army of our kingdom could defeat the Unbound, the cost would be too high. The upcoming dungeon break is an obvious concern. So are our neighbours. Even ignoring the Empire, we're also trading insults and threats with the Klendian Kingdom, thanks to a certain event."

  Klendian? Had I heard that name somewhere before recently?

  Oh. As in King Klendy. And, more specifically, one of the king's bastard children. Oops.

  "The Holy Theocracy of Troke would not invade us directly, but the north-eastern regions of our territory, where the temple holds more sway, may decide to break away should they sense our weakness," continued the king, not explaining that 'event' at all.

  Frankly, I was a little lost. Until today, I'd barely considered the existence of lands beyond the border of our kingdom, and now I was having them thrown at me one after another, with no idea as to the geography or politics involved.

  "To sum everything up, there is a limit as to the losses we can incur in this fight and still remain viable as an independent kingdom. A direct conflict between our army and an Unbound would exceed that limit. Thus, we must deal with the Unbound in a less direct manner."

  "You're sending me into the dwarven ruins, aren't you," I stated flatly. Thankfully, it was sufficiently relevant to the conversation that the Skill of the king didn't prevent me voicing it, even if voicing it wasn't going to achieve anything. I hadn't even enunciated it as a question, just a dry, forgone conclusion.

  "Yes," he confirmed. "You have an understanding of their language that my other subjects do not possess, and you are young enough that—as long as your mana is masked—their defences will mistake you for a dwarf. Your abilities are perfect for this task. You visited the sapphire city for healing. That will be provided for you. It will take a day to make the other arrangements. I suggest you spend tomorrow conquering the Slime Pit and the Black Burrow. One of my men will be awaiting your exit from the Black Burrow, and will explain your task in greater detail as you travel."

  I didn't ask 'what if I say no?' because there was no point. Either it ended poorly for me, or else he let me decline and sent me away, and I enjoyed myself adventuring while the kingdom fell apart. I wasn't a fan of either outcome.

  And hey, given the amount of quest experience I got for a fairly normal B-rank quest, what would I get for this?

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