Part 32: Suddenly, A Wild Plot Appears!

Suddenly, A Wild Plot Appears!





"Here."

"Mm, alright then. Please go ahead."


To keep with the theme of the town, Meldia castle is also rather pretty. If you talk to either of the guards here, the camera will pan to his side and show the roof of the castle.


Just in case you wanna marvel at it, I guess?


I honestly like the design of this place. It's pretty colorful and has fountains and flowers everywhere.

"One weird looking guy sighted! Right in front of me!"

The guards are kinda rude though

Let's check the big gate in the middle first.

This is the main area of the castle. It's mostly a mess hall, but has a few rooms around it.


Here's the kitchen.

"I'm checking food for any poison. And I'm NOT stealing food!"


The storage.


This is the training area. The soldiers all move around to show that they're training, and all have some lines.

"Here I go! Haaaaaaaaaaah-! 123456789! All hit!"

"Hmm, I think I saw this move somewhere...with 9 hits and all..."

Dunno what this references





There is also a magic research lab here. Though, the only interesting thing here, is a short lecture about the different schools of magic.


But I quickly want to pick up on this. The Ancient attribute has been mentioned a few times so far, mostly related to really powerful attacks like Fina's or Flare's Valkyrie stuff. However, there is a bit more behind it. Aside from being a Macguffin against the demons, it's also related to the past of this world. The researcher mentions it, but later in this update we'll learn a bit more about that.

With the lower floor explored, let's head up.

The door ahead of us leads into the library. Next to it is the king's chamber, and we can't go in there. The stairs lead to the throne hall, where we'll have our chat with the king.

Let's do some reading first!

Most of the books in here don't contain anything useful, but two of them are interesting.



"...Hmm...Mm? Maybe I can use this move!"




I honestly can't recall if this attack is good.

And then there is this.

Reading this triggers an event with Hayami, so we'll dig in. I'm also going to fix the grammar a bit, because this is kinda important backstory.



"Never thought Meldia and the Empire were enemies back then."

"........."

"Maybe they were right on using scare tactics on the people for immediate results..."

"But they should have thought about the innocent lives that would be lost for the cause..."

"It's not like sessha would plead for the Emperor, but he had no other choice in sessha's opinion."

"How come?"

"Think about it, how can you warn people during a peaceful era to get ready for the Mahzoks?"

"Hmm...I guess they won't listen. As long as there's no direct threat to their own lives, they won't realize."

"Sessha think it was the best option available to the Emperor back then, just like what Lady Flare said later. And the Emperor decided to do so because he knew it would be too late for us."

"Compared to him, we are very lucky today. People still remember the terror of the Mahzoks, since it was only 20 years ago. They still listen to us and they can get prepared in time, unlike what Gaiares had to face."

"Correct."

"The incident back in Factoria cost so many innocent lives, and I won't let that happen again!"

"(Ryle Dono has so much passion for the people of his kingdom. I should do the...)"

Hayami is the embodiment of

"Hayami, I need your support more than ever! Help me!!"

"Sessha will! (For you, and for me!)"

Att 32 >>> 34

As much as I make fun of the weird writing/story, that part was honestly good. The history part, I mean. As far as I understood it, people were too secure before the first demon war. And when the Empire somehow learned about the coming war, the rest of the world was like "Lol, you crazy!". So the Emperor was between a rock and a hard place, and made the conscious decision to start a war, to force the other nations to militarize and accidentally be ready for the Mahzoks. If he actually planned to have a savior emerge from that is left to mystery though. I side with Hayami on this one. It was a shitty decision, that kinda had to be made. And the Emperor was probably aware that it would have great costs, and that he'd be punished later. As said, I dig this part. And it's also much more serious than you'd expect from this game.

Well, after the history lesson, it's time for a huge plot dump. But don't groan just yet, we'll actually learn what the hell we've been doing all this time, and what we're about to do. We can all groan together when it's over.



"It's my honor to see Your Majesty. I am Ryle Laster from Lavas Ville of Eastern Factoria."

"From the same, I am Caris Burnfist. At your service Your Highness."

"From the same. The name is Orubia Aquary. My honor Your Majesty."

"Also the same Your Highness. My name is Latyss Grynwind."

"Sessha's name is Hayami Raienji. One of White Shinobis, at your service."

"From Eastern Ernest. Fina Delstar is at your service."

"Mariel Shells from Cellen. My lord."




Just wanted to establish their names before I bring out the faces I picked for them.

"Yes, your Highness. It's been a month since I left Ernest."

"What a party you got young man~ *wink*"

Zestrum the legendary horndog

"(Oh, here we go again~)"

"Oh darling~? *sharp gaze*"

"!! *gulp* Hm, Mm.. *cough* OH YES! What brings you here this far?"

"I brought you here 2 important letters. Please accept them."

"Mm! *nod* Bring them to me."


Zestrum knows how to do it big. He even has a personal letter carrier

"....I see....the powerful magic we detected a couple days ago from Mount. Meldia, it was Mahzoks'."

"Not only that, our Factoria is already under their control Your Highness."

"We might be able to help Factoria if we could approach fast in forms of making treaties..."

"That would be very difficult Your Highness."

"Why dear Fina?"

"Because of the Mahzoks' control, Factoria is politically unstable. So they won't listen. Not only that, a high rank among the Mahzoks has infiltrated as one of Factorian royalty. Which made the situation much worse because no one would dare to go against her authority."

"Prince Dyss mentioned this in the letter."

"So Meldia is the last stronghold against their domination of the world."

"And their forces' mobility is far superior to ours, we don't have much time to prepare."

"We don't know their real objectives yet, we must be ready for all means of possible threats."

"......"

"I'm requesting your support not as the daughter of the savior but as a High Valkyrie. Your Majesty. We fought one of the Pure Mahzoks, and I realized their forces are to be reckoned with."

"You mean even with the power of the High Valkyrie, you had a hard time defeating them?"

"Yes my lord, if they continue to increase the resistance at such a rate, another CHAOS might emerge."

"...In that case, I must complete the search of Gaiares as quickly as possible."

"!? G-Gaiares!"



"Yes, indeed. We must find out the location of your father's homeland, the floating capital of Gaiares."

Now we learn that Rain, Fina's father, came from the old Empire. Oh, and also that their capital could float!

"But I heard the city has been totally ruined and it fell from the sky due to a reactor failure!"

Take note of the word "reactor" here. Yeah, aside from magic, this world also has some fancy tech stuff. But it's connected to the Ancient/Old World angle, and that's why I brought it up earlier. I mean, the last war was twenty years ago, which isn't really ancient history, but it seems like the tech stuff comes from an earlier time in this world. Like, Mariel's gun is actually kind of an artifact, and we haven't seen much other tech stuff so far.

"Correct, the city has sunk deep into the ocean; along with its inactive reactor. But we don't know where. Still, the place remains operational. It's just under the water while most of the structures are kept intact. As an ex-prince of the Empire, I'm sure of it."

"Your Highness was Gaiares Empire's..."

"Prince!?"

Surprise!

"Mm *nod*, I joined the people of Ernest after I let Zeskar succeed the throne. Zeskar is the older brother of Fina's father."

"But what's the use? The place IS a ruin now and it's been under the water for so long."

"Did all of you know that the reactor made it possible for the city to float high above the sky?."

"Yes, I red about it. It says that the reactor core generates the anti-gravity field. And because of it's repulsion to the gravity, the entire city was able to rise into the sky."

"I see! So the gravity field keeps water out of the place even though the entire city is underwater!"

Yeah, okay. Science works exactly this way

"Hey wait a second, but its reactor is inactive now and that's why the place has fallen! Right?"

Ryle's mega-brain immediately finds the hole in this story.

"Umm~.."

"Simple. There are more reactors in the city. One used for the gravity field, and the other is for other similar purposes."

"More than 1?"

"We had many reserve reactors in case the one we're currently using has stopped working. The gravity field was also used for repelling the enemies away from the castle walls. Sort of a protection system."

If you had backup generators, why did the city even crash in the first place? - Fuck you, that's why!

"Once we find the place, we can evacuate the people over there! So they can be safe!"

So what? Are we going to stuff literally everybody we've met so far into a ruined floating city that smells like fish?

"Let's say we found the city, are we capable of repairing the broken reactor? Even if we do have the materials and fuel, I'm sure the core was made by very advanced technology."

"I also expect many important devices other than the reactor need to be repaired, especially the control module is hard to fix."

"And how do we take the city out of the water?"

"The only way is sending the parts needed for the anti-gravity propulsion and let it rise by itself."

"That means we already have the parts?"

"The task was much easier than searching for the city."

"My concern is what the Mahzoks would do to Factoria while we're busy searching for the lost city..."

"......."

Still

"I suggest we let Gohu and Prince Dyss take care of Factoria for the time being."

"I agree..going back to Factoria now is too risky..."

"But how do we find the lost city? Meldia already sent all of its resources and still not a clue yet."

"Father, is there any other way to locate the floating city?"

"Its gravity field cancels out most magic, so tracing its magical energy is almost impossible."

"Oh no..."

"There's still a warp device to Gaiares left after the "Demonic War"...."

"You mean the one near the cave called Abyss?"

I bet that's a great place to be!

"You know where it is?"

"But the appearance of CHAOS has disrupted the subspace and all warp devices stopped working ever since..."

"Ah, I remember that from books...the warp devices got shut down and needed to be reactivated."

"Tsk! This means we can't use the warp devices to reach the city!"

"But if we have the device and know how to reactivate it, we can still trace back its signal to the city..."

"Correct. I already have sent my best scholars and royal mages to make new parts. We can't just rely on the old machines forever."

"Then do you suggest us to search separately for the lost city?"

"Your Majesty, I think that would be the best plan for now."

"I also had that in mind. Flare suggested not to restrict your mobility by the kingdom laws in her letter."

"(Thanks mom, good timing!)"

"And Ryle Laster."

"Y-Yes Your Highness!"

"You are the 2nd prince of Factoria. Isn't that right?"

"But..how did you?...Ah, Prince Dyss' letter..."

"People need a leader, a symbol of their hope for this war, so I'll grant you the title of prince along with the privileges for this purpose."

"!!"

"You mean Ryle will be used as a public figure?"

"For the time being. So you will have total freedom to pursue the mission. Since Prince Dyss' hands are all tied up, this is at least what he could offer to help you. Please accept his offer."

"Prince Dyss..."

"And this is from me. So you can freely move within Ernest."

"!! Your majesty!?"

"Please take it."






"And Hayami Raienji."

"Yes Sire!"

"You have been volunteered to serve Prince Ryle up to now. Correct?."

"Yes."

"It's not proper to work without any contracts; according to the mercenary's rules.."

"True indeed. Sessha's been violating the codes so far."

"Hayami!"

"Is...it!?"

"She didn't have the time to go through the proper procedures. So it's illegitimate."

I don't get this part at all. Mercenary work just seems to be very serious business, and Hayami gets in trouble for not having a contract? Does she have to pay mercenary taxes at the end of the year? Makes as much sense as anything else in this update! This contract business could also be why she seemed so troubled lately, but who knows?

"But Your Highness, according to the rules, she can choose to act out of mission plan if she's in danger!"

"That's why I forgive all her violations so far, but she must make an official contract from now on."

And now he's the king of mercenaries? I don't even know any more...seriously.

"I didn't know Sis Hayami had to..."

"But I don't want her leaving us so sudden~"

"Then how about we postpone the deadline for the registration of the new contract?"

"Ryle Dono!?"

"I know that the rules state, "the deadline varies with the current situation of the applicant"..."

"That's true..."

"The reason for the postponement, "Additional mission request from the client"..."

"You can do that...Hm Hm Hm! Like father and like son. You are very shrewd. *thumbs up*"

"Eh?"

"I know you'll set the new mission as the search for the lost city, so you can postpone the deadline pretty much indefinitely. Right son?"

"....."

"I'll assign Hayami a new mission."

"!?"

"!!"

"My request is...."Accompanying Prince Ryle in secret until the city is found."..."

"!?"

"And the deadline shall be set by me whenever I wishes it to be. Agreed?"

"Yes sire! Sessha will accept the case."

"Mm *nod*, good luck!"

Nothing about this contract thing made sense or added anything of value...WHY!?!?!


Okay, there's that

"Your Majesty..."

"Yay~"

"As a king, I can not directly get involved. Once I do, the entire kingdom will notice the dire situation. It might cause mass hysteria."

"......."

"You shall fight as an independent group and go motivate the public. You need to lead them into the movement against the Mahzoks."

"To lead the people..."

"Well it's up to the people to make the final decision for themselves."

"Which reminds me...when Flare began to fight as a Valkyrie, she was a commoner like everyone else. Maybe you are the new generation to save the world this time."

"I'm not sure if we can do that. But I just can't let the Mahzoks ruin our homeland."

"Everyone's eyes...resemble Flare's back then. When our homeland was under attack..."

"........"

"......."

"......."

"........"

"........."

"........."

"........."

"But I've never expected the Mahzoks would return so soon..."

"Please be ready for their invasion as soon as possible. We can't afford to lose Meldia now."

"I truly appreciate all of you coming here today. Now it's our turn to do our duty..."

"Then please excuse us."

Aaaaahh, so many words!

I'm not even going to try to summarize this into something that makes sense. Because it doesn't and is full of fuck. All you really need to take away from this, is that there once was an awesome floating city that crashed into the ocean. We need to find it, and also be heroes that people will look up to. There. Happy now? Urgh, I'm so glad this is behind us! Welp, let me leave you with something to chuckle at before I gtfo and pour myself a big and numbing glass of Whiskey.


Sure enough, the new titles are official. And Secret Agent is still hella funny.