Chapter 30: The Most Important and Most Urgent Issue

"Enough! Stand back, you insolent wretches! What do you think you’re doing?! Have you forgotten that I am your queen?!"

A childish voice rang out in a solemn space where white marble walls, adorned with golden decorations, rose above a polished floor covered by a deep crimson carpet.

In the grand hall of the royal palace in the capital, Larentinia, of the Kingdom of Larentia, Queen Tilda was on the verge of being restrained by soldiers—soldiers who were, themselves, her own retainers.

"Please forgive our discourtesy, Your Majesty. However, this is in accordance with the regent’s orders, and with the law that you yourself approved."

"Preposterous! You would treat me the same as those common street brats?!"

Intimidated by a pressure utterly unfitting for her youthful appearance, the soldiers faltered.

Since when had it become the norm that the queens of this nation all possessed appearances far younger than their actual ages?

In truth, she had lived longer than every soldier present, ruling this country since before they were children.

Now veterans entrusted with the crucial duty of guarding the queen herself, they still found themselves overawed by the unchanging figure to whom they had sworn loyalty back when they were young recruits, unable to step any closer.

Parting the hesitant soldiers, a single woman stepped forward and stood before the queen.

"There can be no exceptions, Your Majesty. We are not saying that we intend to strip you of your authority and cast you into the streets. We simply wish to prevent children from being influenced in strange ways by seeing you, with your childish appearance, being waited upon by adults as their queen."

"So it was you who put these soldiers up to this! After I acknowledged your so-called ideals as worthy and even adopted them, this is how you repay me?! It seems my eyes had grown clouded indeed!"

As the queen raged, the woman spoke while gazing at her with eyes full of gentle affection.

"You may resent me now. But when you study properly and grow into an adult, you will surely come to understand what I’ve done—and be grateful for it."

"I have lived far longer than you ever have! Do not speak as though you know better, you mere adventurer!"

"An adult, Your Majesty, is someone who can watch over children so that they may grow up healthy and sound, and guide them along the proper path."

At the woman’s signal, the soldiers regained their resolve, restrained the queen, and led her out of the grand hall.

"I will never forget this outrage! You remember it too, Yuta-mama!"

In the hall from which the queen had been taken, one of the remaining soldiers spoke to the woman with an anxious expression.

"...I did say that I wouldn’t hesitate to cooperate for the sake of the children’s future you spoke of... but was it really necessary to go this far, Lady Yuta-mama?"

"You’re a parent too, so you understand, don’t you? This country—no, this world—is filled with far too many things that have a bad influence on children. Ensuring their pure, righteous, and healthy development is the hope for the future, the most important and most urgent issue of all."

In the now-empty hall, the woman looked up at the ceiling and murmured softly.

"Children should be children... still, I’m worried. To think Yuu-kun was playing a game like this—what if he turns into a creepy otaku and ends up a loser in life?"

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"Huh, so you can bring ships all the way into the city."

"It’s the water city, Larentinia, nya. Back when it was a game, it was a pretty popular spot, nya."

"It really does look more impressive than it did in the game. It’s magnificent."

After leaving the city of Godart and traveling for another two days or so, we finally arrived at the capital of the Kingdom of Larentia—confusingly named Larentinia. Still aboard our barge, we passed through a tunnel beneath the city gate and marveled at the beautiful cityscape, unified in white and blue.

However, once we disembarked at the docks and stepped out onto the streets, we saw something that clashed with the picturesque, overseas-tourist-destination-like scenery of the real world. Much like in Godart, the residents wore plain, modest clothing with little skin exposed, and they passed by with expressions that somehow lacked vitality.

"Ugh, even the people in this city are totally pent-up... If Shogo-san hadn’t been giving me tons of Hadoukens, I wouldn’t have been able to stand it."

"It seems stricter than when I left. What on earth happened?"

Scarlet and Shogo also seemed confused, sensing something unnatural in the city’s atmosphere.

The state of the city concerned us, but first things first—we decided to finally have the key we found in the goblin cave appraised before we forgot again, and headed to a tool shop.

Despite its impressive storefront, the shop was empty of customers. When we showed the key, the shopkeeper, wearing a gloomy expression, eyed us suspiciously and spoke.

"You want an appraisal of something like this? You adventurers? You got registration papers?"

"Registration papers, nya? There’s something like that, nya?"

"Within Larentia, the Adventurer Registration Act’s been put into force. I can’t do business with adventurers who aren’t registered with the royal government."

"Ririka and the others came from Granshir, nya! We never heard anything about that, nya!"

"Those are the rules here. Anyway, if you want an appraisal, go to the palace, get registered, and then come back."

Left with no choice, we exited the shop and headed toward the palace. Along the way, every single place we tried—from weapon shops and magic stores to inns and even food stalls—told us the same thing: they couldn’t do business with unregistered adventurers.

"This is bad. We can’t do anything unless we register."

"To be honest, I really don’t want to register. It gives me a bad feeling."

"Yeah, nya. This is abnormal, nya. I think we should go to the adventurers’ guild first and hear what the other players have to say, nya."

Following Ririka’s suggestion, we went to the building where the adventurers’ guild should have been, but the guild was already gone. The doors were tightly shut, and a sign stood out front stating that the building was now under the control of the royal government, written both in what appeared to be the local script—patterns like squares connected by diagonal lines at the corners—and, very thoughtfully, in Japanese as well.

"What the heck, nya!? Even the guild is gone, nya!?"

"This is definitely an emergency. What happened to the other players?"

"I hate to think it, but... could this place be run by some self-styled administrator type like Masato, trying to control all the other players too...?"

Thinking back to the self-styled “autonomy freak” player in Granshir who had tried to restrict other players’ actions by acting as the guild master left me feeling deeply depressed.

As we stood at a loss in front of a deserted building that looked like it had once been an adventurers’ guild but was now little more than a ruin, a voice called out to us from an alleyway.

"Shogo! Shogo, isn’t that you?! Are those players with you?!"

"Dias?! Why are you hiding somewhere like that?!"

"You’ll stand out if you stay there! I’ll explain later—come over here!"

Drawn by the voice, Shogo broke into a run. We followed him into the alley, then went deeper along a narrow, sloping path, passed through a corridor where an old iron grate hung loose, and descended underground.

"Shogo! You’re already back from Granshir?! That was fast!"

"There were… circumstances. We didn’t actually make it to Granshir. More importantly, Dias—what happened here? The city feels wrong."

Waiting for us there was a huge, muscular, bald man with dark skin.

Apparently, this was Dias—the younger brother of Rick and Dom.

Despite supposedly being brothers, he looked like he belonged to a completely different ethnicity from his older siblings. Whether that was sloppiness in the setting or someone’s personal taste was anyone’s guess.

In the dim underground space, his dark skin made his expression hard to read, but the flash of white teeth told me he was smiling.

"Yeah… things suddenly got real strict on adventurers in the kingdom. At first it was just about clothing. Then they started saying it’d be bad if kids admired adventurers who make a living off dangerous work, or that everyone should get a proper job and pay taxes. Now adventurers have to register with the government and report every little thing they do. These days, Larentinia’s like modern Japan—or worse—with how controlled it is. Ending up in a game world only to deal with this kind of crap… what a letdown."

Dias spoke casually, still smiling, but what he was saying was anything but trivial.

"So that’s what’s been going on… Sorry we couldn’t make it to Granshir like we promised. But Ririka and the others here seem to have come from there. They said they had a message from your brothers."

"Seriously?! Rick and Dom are doing okay?!"

"Nya. Rick and Dom are fine, nya. They said they’ll wait for you no matter how long it takes, nya."

"Hell yeah! That makes my day!—Oh, right! I can’t leave benefactors like you standing around in a place like this! Come on, this way!"

With Dias now in even higher spirits, he led us through the underground waterways and into a room sealed off by a wooden door.

"I’ve gotta get back to my brothers someday, so I can’t register. That’s why I holed up here with other folks who refused registration too, just trying to survive!"

"Nya? But I don’t see anyone else here, nya. Did they go somewhere, nya?"

"They’re out gathering supplies or dealing with nearby monsters. My level’s pretty low, so I can’t roam far. I was on lookout duty when I spotted you guys."

Judging by the layout, the room had probably once been a storage space or some kind of control room.

Lit by a magical lantern that Dias said his companions had left behind, the room was decently sized but still felt cramped once all of us were inside. We sat down on roughly arranged wooden crates and crude chairs, exchanged brief introductions, and listened as Dias continued his explanation.

Combining his account with Shogo’s—who had already been in Larentia before the transfer—it seemed that, at first, things hadn’t been much different from our early days in Granshir. Everyone had been confused, grumbling about inconveniences and struggling to adapt.

Then, right after Dias had come to Larentinia via the temple warp gate to inspect the waterways as reference material for the Granshir sewer project he’d been working on with Rick and Dom, Masato’s scheme led to the Granshir-side temple being sealed off. As a result, Dias was unable to return.

From that point on, the city gradually began to change.

First came an edict issued in the queen’s name, cracking down on adventurers wearing flashy outfits that ignored the fantasy world’s supposed historical setting. The NPC citizens of the city welcomed it enthusiastically. However, since the game had originally relied on half-baked erotic appeal to attract players, plenty of NPCs themselves wore revealing outfits. Before long, restrictions were placed on NPC clothing as well, and even the temples—once packed with provocatively dressed priestesses—were brought under direct control of the royal government.

Then came the Adventurer Registration Act.

Adventurers who refused to comply were completely cut off, unable to use any shops or facilities within the city.

Most adventurers opposed the policy at first. However, being unable to use city facilities—especially temples for resurrection and inns for rest—was a matter of life and death. In the end, they reluctantly obeyed the law, registered at the palace, and were reduced to doing only the work assigned to them by the royal government.

Those confident in their abilities left the city early on, heading south on foot toward Granshir or west toward the Aste Empire.

"So that’s what’s been happening…"

I watched as Shogo clenched his fist in frustration after hearing the story.

"We had a self-appointed control freak in Granshir too—someone who became guild master and tried to stop players from leaving the city. But this place has turned into something even worse."

"To think Masato was planning something like this… He talked about working together with my brothers to make the city better. Guess we were completely played."

When Natsumi mentioned Masato—whom she had met in Granshir—even Dias, who had been recounting events so cheerfully, let out a troubled, wry smile.

Recalling what Masato had done, I spoke aloud, as if trying to confirm the differences between then and now for myself.

"But Masato didn’t want to go back to the real world. He was trying to stop players from going to defeat the Demon King, because that might have made it possible. So what’s this queen here trying to do? Is it just censorship? Everything she’s doing feels like nothing but restrictions—she’s like some kind of professional activist."

"The queen here was originally set up as a doting, motherly ruler who sees all her subjects as her children—a loli-baba queen with a ‘noja’ speech pattern, right? Just like that control freak cozying up to the prince of Granshir, I wouldn’t be surprised if some player was feeding her ideas behind the scenes."

Dias nodded at Natsumi’s words and continued.

"I don’t know who that person is, but there are players who quickly took the government’s side and started helping crack down on adventurers. On the other hand, there are also registered adventurers who still cooperate with us."

"So even in another world, the loudmouths and smooth operators are the ones who benefit in the end… That’s pretty disappointing."

"Seriously. Being summoned to another world is supposed to mean freedom, no interference, and, well… being able to lord it over the locals a bit. Quiet, solitary, and prosperous…"

"Haha. I’d rather not get dumped into a world like this all alone. If my brothers hadn’t been here, I’d probably have lost it."

After listening quietly, Ririka let out a sigh and asked Dias,

"Still, isn’t it inconvenient living hidden away like this, nya? Food might be manageable with helpers on the surface and item boxes, but what about baths and toilets, nya?"

"That’s not a problem. The waterway outside this room is part of the city’s water supply, and if you go further down, there’s a sewer where slimes are breeding like crazy. If you take care of things down there, everything’s gone—clean as a whistle—within an hour."

"U-nyah… you’re feeding that to slimes, nya…?"

"Yeah. For wiping and washing, you just grab a slime… though you gotta be careful not to let it crawl up your ass. Still, they’re pretty handy once you get used to them. Even a low-level adventurer like me can handle one on his own."

"I-I don’t even want to imagine it, nya… There’s no way Ririka could live like this, nya…"

As Dias cheerfully explained slime-based sanitation, everyone except Scarlet—whose eyes were sparkling with interest—grimaced and forced awkward smiles.

"S-So anyway, those companions of yours still haven’t come back?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, they’re late. They should’ve been back by now…"

As Shogo tried to change the subject, Dias glanced toward the door—and almost simultaneously, a knock echoed through the room.

"Oh, looks like they’re back just in time."

Dias stood up and opened the door, only for a man who looked like a fellow player to stumble inside and collapse onto the floor.

"Dias! Run! The regulation faction is raiding us! They don’t care if it’s player versus player anymore! Frey and Ryune—everyone—got taken out! This place is done for too…!"

With those final words, the man dissolved into sparkling particles of light and vanished.

Sensing the emergency, all of us sprang to our feet and readied ourselves.

Moments later, several soldiers and adventurers poured into the cramped underground room. A knightly-looking man who appeared to be their leader drew his sword, leveled it at us, and spoke.

"Oh my, oh my. So this is where you gutter rats were hiding. Under the Adventurer Prohibition Act, you’re all under arrest. You’re free to resist, but it’s pointless—you’ll just get restrained the moment you resurrect at the temple anyway."