Chapter. 21. Another Solo Play (14)
****
“Bellabell! “I’m Bella Belle!”
The new Mute who accompanied me (I still can’t believe he’s really a Mute) was an unusual guy in many ways.
For example, even though he was shaking his broken hand from being attacked by me, he still has such a gentle personality.
The fragile object subject has a unique name.
“Belabel Quadurbu! “I’m Bellabel of the Quadurbu family!”
“?”
In addition to the mute theme, there is even a family name in the surname.
“droughty?”
“droughty! “Lord ‘Unstoppable Quadurbu’ created Belabel, so Belabel is part of the Quadurbu family!”
“Ohh. “Is that how classes are established?”
Queen.
king.
The mute lords that can be produced are noble.
And each bunch of rods they produced.
Unlike in the past when there was only one queen, the Mute of the Western Empire not only had its own language but also a class system similar to that of humans.
‘Is it really okay to move forward?’
So far, I’m feeling hopeful. The fact that they are civilized means that there is a greater possibility of them being able to conduct transactions through conversation.
But at the same time, it also showed how much they had grown as a species. Who knows whether they would have staged such a large-scale camouflage to prey on the endless influx of human knights into this canyon?
Whiuuuu –
The wind had started blowing in one direction but was scattering wildly in all directions, making a whistling sound.
‘There’s something ahead.’
Something is blocking the wind. Although it is a wall, there are a lot of vents and the intervals between them are regular.
“It’s a building.”
“That’s right! This is ‘inside’! Your Highness, Lord, and all the brothers who are not above are here! “The brothers who look like you you mentioned!”
….gulp!
I swallowed my saliva without realizing it. So, there is a mute dungeon of an unknown scale in front of us, and there are several 3-level debris lords who can devastate a fortress city on their own. In addition, there is a ‘King’ mute so huge that he can control all of them, and there is a ‘Queen Ni’ who is likely to hate me very much. There is even a ‘gumi’.
No matter how you look at it, it’s a devil’s cave.
‘If anything happens, let’s jump out.’
There is no answer in fighting. No, even if you go deep, there will be no answer. Just to the entrance. Taaaaah, I guess I’ll spend some time near the entrance, take a look at the atmosphere, and if it seems ambiguous, I’ll just run for my life.
While I was thinking about that and calculating the presence-removing magical tools in the subspace, the smokescreen that could remove body odor, and the props that could help in escaping, I heard the sound of Bellabell, who had been humming all the time, wondering what was so exciting, running forward.
‘Did you take me away and run to the friendly formation?’
‘Was it really bait? Now that you’ve attracted enough enemies, are you going to call in a proper combat entity?’
At that time, I was slowly turning around due to the guy’s unexpected behavior.
“That-haa-! “I’ve been there, Your Highness!”
“Puhup!”
My imagination about ‘The Great Mute Dynasty’ was completely shattered along with the strength of my legs as I heard Bellabelle’s voice running like crazy, calling ‘Your Highness-’ in a voice that seemed to have lost a dozen screws.
‘What is that?’
No matter how you look at it, it is a level 8 to 9 regular mute that is not helpful in battle. It’s a place where the king and queen live, so I just said, ‘I’ve been there, Your Majesty~’? Where has the dazzling Mute Empire, with its own unique language and its own king, queen, lord, and hordes beneath them, gone?
I wondered if that guy was a member of the royal family of the Mute Kingdom, but that wasn’t the case either. I said I was born from ‘the unstoppable Quadurbu’.
While I was in shock, the sound of Bellabelle’s footsteps, who had been running around like a child, stopped.
And
[Grunt-]
Beyond the darkness, with the growl of a wild beast that seems to be echoing from inside a cave,
“You have brought a guest. “Bella.”
A rough, heavy, low-pitched voice came from inside.
“Hi-Hi. Your Majesty Bellabelle’s orders were followed! “I stopped the imperial army and guided the lost human knights!”
“okay. “You performed your role faithfully, like your sisters fighting above.”
I couldn’t follow the atmosphere of the conversation that seemed to be between a father and daughter rather than a king and a commoner.
What is this?
It turns out that King is the name of a managerial position with about a million people?
Where is the super-giant Mute dynasty?
Is it a scam?
Since that time when that fearless nigga was the queen-
“You put your hands in front of you and looked away.”
“Uh… Yes? yes?”
“I understand your anxiety. “Humans are creatures that rely heavily on their eyesight, so the environment here can be frustrating.”
“Oh uh… yes.”
Queen Nigmi and Mute When meeting the ‘King’, I came up with hundreds of things to say, such as what to do, what to do, what to talk about, the situation in the capital and what to trade, but my head went blank and I couldn’t think of anything.
“Come in. “There are things we need to talk about.”
“Uh um…”
“There will be a rope in front of it. The humans inside used it to use their eyes to find their way. “The knights considered it an insult to be supported by someone.”
“yep. thank you.”
I was only able to answer after shaking my head wildly to clear the confusion in my head.
Let’s forget everything about the Mute Dynasty, the Queen, and Nabal. You only deal with the facts in front of you.
Mute King. The king in front of you – Mute.
Is the conversation working?
As fluent as I am.
Is he a person?
I think it’s a hundred times better than those bastards who talk about our royal family.
Aggressive?
They are family-like enough to tolerate and warmly welcome Bellabelle, a weak, ordinary individual, calling out, ‘Hey haa~’.
.
.
.
.
‘….is it really a mute?’
I took a quick look, but it was hard to see it as smoke. The steps on the stairs leading to the building blocking the front were built to fit a human’s stride length. It was created by the humans who live here.
Things such as ropes attached to help blind people navigate the streets were too delicate to be seen as a play to attract enemies. I am not a member of the Knights Templar and came alone, fumbling around, so why would I go through all that trouble?
‘…He’s not a fake king, right?’
Due to the nature of their race, it is impossible for them to impersonate the king even out of necessity, but so many things that deviate from common sense have happened that even that is now questionable.
“I must go and speak to the queen. “Please follow along slowly with Bella Belle.”
After saying that, the king quietly went inside alone.
Crash!
“Hyde! How do you think your majesty is cool? Are you respectful?”
“Ha haha….”
I had no choice but to reply with an awkward smile to Bellabelle’s extremely excited words.
It was only after the king disappeared that I realized that my entire body was drenched in sweat and I couldn’t take a single step.
Just by moving my hand to the handle of the sword, I felt like I could record it and boast about it for generations to come.
“That can’t be the king.”
I let out my blocked breath and remembered it like a sigh.
If that guy isn’t the king and there’s someone stronger than him here, I can just stay here and live.
If Professor Park comes this far to conquer the world, he’ll have a fight with this monstrous Mute.
The whole time I was climbing the stairs, I was nervous and had to exhale several times.
Unlike human kings, these kings were kings even if no one called them that.
****
“When meeting Her Majesty the Queen~ Clear your cough loudly! “You have to go in loudly so you can hear it very clearly.”
“Drag your feet. “You only know where you are when you hear footsteps.”
“You should speak a little quietly.”
“You have to leave your weapons behind! Take off everything on your body without being embarrassed! The knights who came here earlier caused a lot of commotion because of this. In some cases, His Majesty even took action because of that. It’s natural, right? “You’re carrying a weapon to see Her Majesty the Queen.”
“Is your highness okay? Bella Belle I don’t understand your question. Is there a difference whether I bring a weapon or not when I see His Majesty? Does it change if you hold it?”
Bellabelle guided them inside the place they described as ‘inside’ and repeated several times the precautions they had to take when meeting the queen.
There was no special content. To sum it all up, it’s all about ‘acting like you’re popular so the Queen knows where you are and what you’re doing.’ It was very simple compared to the usual method of audience with the head of state, which asks questions about everything from his/her name, clothing, gait, speech, and even the interval between eye blinks.
My interest was focused more on the building itself than on the Queen Nigmi audience.
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
the irregularities on the wall that touch your knees and fingertips as you fumble with the rope.
‘It’s an old imperial crafting method. It’s hard to tell because it’s broken and worn out here and there, but it looks like the way it was done before Emperor Gainax?’
First of all, unlike Queen Mute’s ‘nest’ in the past, this was not a place where natural rocks were dissolved with acidic body fluids. Although it is a bit broken and tilted, it is an empire-style building that must have originally been very ornate. Perhaps the building above fell when a crack occurred in the capital.
The place they called ‘inside’ felt like the building that had fallen through the cracks had been moved and the passages connected together. Looking at this part, it feels primitive again.
Given the clumsy structure of the building, the road to the queen’s throne room was not that long.
“Hyde is here.”
There was a mixture of marble, dust, velvet, the unique scent of elven wood, and an unknown smell. My guess was that it was a high-ranking noble’s drawing room… I thought it might be the same room. The castle city above this rift was lined with mansions of high-ranking nobles.
“Do you remember everything I told you?”
“hem. Dragging feet. “Quiet voice.”
“And under no circumstances should you attack Her Majesty.”
This time, Bellabelle’s voice was also mixed with seriousness. A different look from when dealing with their king.
What can I say? When dealing with the king, there was so much respect and affection that one wanted to brag about it to everyone, but when talking about Nigmi…
‘Worship.’ That’s what the Gwangmyeong Church believers looked like when they saw Professor Park.’
A stage in which, by exalting the object too much, one lowers oneself too much, and as a result, one considers standing in front of the object itself as disrespectful. Nevertheless, it was a feeling that I wanted to face and didn’t know what to do.
‘What on earth has it transformed into and what kind of form did it take?’
Just as the Queen of the Three Worlds gained the rank of evil god, did Nigmi also gain the same power? Was it thanks to that power that he was able to change his race from ‘Coward Nigmi’ to ‘Queen Nigmi’?
Ikeik-
Bellabell didn’t wait for my thoughts to end.
Unlike the doors that had been quiet until now, the door to the throne room opened with a sound as if it had not been oiled on purpose.
“greatness. greatness.”
“Okay.”
“joy. joy.”
As Bella Belle said, mutes who regularly pretend to be popular.
The throne room was large enough to be used as a party hall, and decorated with red velvet and stylish elven wood furniture, it was filled with only five mutes, despite its size.
‘It is light.’
Only then did I remember that there was a faint light shining here, enough to allow me to see the scene inside. Even though it had only been a few hours, the light I encountered again was illuminating the world so clearly.
“joy. joy.”
Bellabelle’s snort caught my attention. As I had checked by touching him earlier, his arms were long and thin. A face that looks like a mix of a human face and the roundness of a rodent. Legs shaking from tension, wrists still trembling and red and swollen.
Following her gaze, there was a monster with long arms similar to hers. His skin was red, his nose was flat, and his long arms looked thick and strong, as if they were made of endless muscles without a single trace of fat. Judging by the seven fragments of the queen shining clearly on the mokuldae, that guy is probably the ‘Unstoppable Quadurbu’. Mute Lord, who created Bellabelle.
Next to him was Mute, who took up most of the remaining space in the throne room. Unlike those that have a slime-like shape but a translucent body, it is white with an opaque yellowish color like fat. I don’t know how many fragments of the queen it has, but seeing as the purple color of the core is clear even through the thick fat, this thing must have a considerable number of fragments.
In front of the slime that surrounded the throne room like a wall, there was a being who looked ordinary compared to the others. His height barely reaches the ceiling of the throne room, and at first glance, he looks like a lion beast trained to the limit.
But if you look closely, something was different.
Mane nose fangs bridge of nose whiskers.
A face that looks like a lion made by gathering similar parts of some other living creature.
If there was one thing that was right about the awkward lion shape, it was the eyes. The sparkling eyes that overwhelmed me just before I came here.
‘That guy was the king.’
King Quadurbu and the unknown slime had their eyes focused on one side, as if they knew they had come in.
“Ugh, Iik.”
I heard something whining.
“Don’t eat this…!”
“majesty. “It is a precious food that is one of the few left in the world.”
“Snakes don’t eat grass! “We have a lot of meat!”
“Lord Malvoirade consumed nearly half of my body to save one leaf of this world tree. Is that why it didn’t become this small?”
『Udbu- gshia ka ho ne sor ma quine burhu. Khuhuhu….』
“Look at me. “He said he was happy that he was able to come this far because he became smaller.”
“Then please eat it when you see my face.”
The king, imitating a lion, knelt down towards something hidden behind the long-armed Mute’s back. How could someone strong enough to push away living darkness in an instant fall to his knees so easily?
“Umm, uhm…”
Eventually, the voice that had been hesitant came forward little by little.
Fingers covered in snow-white scales took the leaf that the fat lump had politely held up.
Crunch crunch!
Along with the sound of something fresh chewing, I could also see the snake’s tail, with its scales peeling off here and there, trembling.
As I took a step forward, I saw that face among the mutes.
A face that I clearly remember, but somehow looks a little closer to a human.
The blue and green scales became pale white.
The appearance similar to that of the ‘Naga’ race changed into facial features that were more human-like.
The sad eyes had changed into droopy eyes that looked like they were about to cry.
But it was definitely the guy I remembered.
Named.
The Queen’s direct lineage.
A master of poison and underwater warfare.
“…Nigmi?”
Crunchy!
The sound of chewing grass stopped at the sound of my voice. The white snake man’s head moved towards this direction.
Nigmi, holding a half-eaten leaf, faced me on a chair that seemed to have been created naturally by white stalagmites.
The drooping eyes narrowed,
grew larger, and
widened.
“Saint Seo?”
Hiccup
hiccup!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“Please save me….”
Chop, clap, clap!
Crack, crack, crack!
The reaction was dramatic.
The Queen’s face suddenly turned pale and the Lords in the throne room reacted as if they were one with her.
The moment the yellow spear blade and thick forearms tightened around me, I fell flat on my face and said,
“This is my first time seeing it like this!!! See you! It’s Hyde! Not a saint, not a professor, but Hyde! no see!”
I thought as I felt the anticipation on the back of my neck.
‘Precautions in the throne room. It was all just to not [surprise] anyone!’
Mute was different from the Mute I had imagined. The King was different from the King I had imagined, and the Queen was different from the Queen I had imagined.
….Hi!
“Hi…d?”
Aside from her appearance, she hasn’t changed.
She was still a cowardly Nygmi.
His personality and behavior were the same as they were 200 years ago.
There were no fragments of the Purple Queen stuck anywhere on her scaled body.
Even though the Lords who have dozens of them worship her.
****