The Night of Truce and the Protectors

Kai let out a breath after going through the letter.

'So they are sending out letters this time,' he thought, nodding to himself. Kai knew this would happen, but he hadn't expected it to come as a letter.

Item-M had told him about this thing, he recalled.

The Night of Truce wasn't something sanctioned by the Systems, despite the letter being signed under the name of the Primordial Tower. It was a traditional event that had been carried out by Contestants from both Chaos and Order since millions of millions of years ago.

Dukes had attended it, Kings had attended it, and even Emperors had attended it; such was its prestige.

At its core, the Night of Truce was the time just before a storyline entered the major showdown in a Random World. Like the coming of Jack Sparrow at the Port Royal, beginning a major series of events in the Pirates of the Caribbean Random World, or Harry Potter boarding the Hogwarts Express.

There were many such Nights in a Random World, scattered throughout the timeline from past to future.

Nonetheless, their nature remained the same, and so did their purpose.

A Break!

A break from endless fights, conflicts, schemes, and struggles. This was a Night when all Contestants, regardless of the System they belonged to, gathered at a place and took a direly needed breather from the life that had been forced upon them.

Not all were like Kai, who preferred being a Contestant because it gave him the means to tread the path to the peak of absolute power. There were people among the Contestants who just feared death, making it the only reason they took part in the bloodshed and slaughter that the missions represented.

The ancient Contestants of both Chaos and Order from a forgotten era had come together, agreeing on this tradition that was still growing strong.

As the letter said, any fight or acting against the interest of other Contestants was absolutely forbidden during this time, whether one attended it or not.

If someone was foolish enough to do the opposite, then he would face the combined wrath of Contestants from both sides. Even leaving the Random World, or hiding in another world, wouldn't be enough to keep one's life, then.

No matter how strong or magnificent one was to be, to survive under the gaze of the two Empires was just nigh impossible.

In the beginning, Kai had been exactly aiming at the end of this event. He had planned to attack Mullroy and Murtogg's Protector just after the event ended, catching the Contestant off-guard.

But things had changed, and Kai had some interest in it as well.

'Item-M told me that all Contestants from the Island would gather at the event,' Kai thought, putting the letter back into the MRB. 'Items will be bartered, information will be exchanged, and the events change according to the mood. Moreover, I must learn more about Moraine, and how many other Protectors are on the Island.'

Kai didn't show it, but there was a deep apprehension in his heart toward those rainbow-colored butterfly wings. He even believed that Moraine's true power wasn't the Iron Man Armor or the Claymore and her Ability, but those giant wings that had even made Selene feel a touch of fear.

If it weren't for Moraine putting up the terms of the fight, Kai wasn't sure he could defeat her without adding Little War Horn and Titan's Buff's effects on his Stats over Selfless Breathing. Much less needed to be said about killing her.

'The Night of Truce…' Kai worded inwardly, grinning like a maniac. 'Just another way for Top Contestants to put a veil on Reality. Heh! Murderers will remain murderers, and the weak will be slaughtered as usual. Hmm… No harm in checking it out, I guess.'

Kai looked out through the open window, feeling the salt in the breeze, and sneered.

*

*

3 miles southeast of the HMS Interceptor's anchorage, the lonely cliffs birthed a lonelier patch of meadow and rocks, stretching far and wide.

As the clock struck 9 in the Port Royal, one could see many shadows vanishing into the darkening night, heading toward those distant patches. Some people who were drinking, whoring, fighting, and scheming just dropped everything, got up, and crawled their way out silently. It was as if a spell had been cast on a vast scale, calling these individuals to a certain place.

When 2 hours had gone by, Kai walked toward the venue in the most casual manner.

He was still wearing the same pirate-like attire. His hair was tied, but disheveled, and the smell of liquor clung to him like an old friend. By the time he reached the destination, not a hint of any Contestant could be seen anymore.

In front of Kai, a bone hand was protruding out of the ground, its fingers curled open in an inviting gesture.

Selene's mist form left the earth, who obviously had come ahead to scour the grounds, and entered Kai's body through his soles. When she said nothing, only then he took out the letter and placed it on the bone palm.

The skeletal fingers curled into a fist, crushing the letter, and then shot back into the earth.

Suddenly, the space in front of Kai, and beyond the disappeared bone hand, rippled.

A door-sized opening materialized there, but nothing could be seen through that opening as a chilled fog obscured the vision.

Kai's eyes narrowed, and he stepped in.

The entire world changed, then.

It was a world-within-a-world, separated by a thin boundary using the Mirror Dimension. A gigantic bonfire roared in the middle, and several Contestants were dancing around it, singing merrily. Some were seated on chairs, some were sprawled on the grass, and some were just standing, enjoying the relief gifted by solitude.

On one side, there were rows of tables, full of the most extravagant dishes.

On the other, there were barrels of wine, beer, and ale.

A few people noticed Kai entering, but most of them ignored his late appearance. This Night was just too important for them to indulge in who was coming and going.

Kai leisurely walked and noticed that there were at least a hundred Contestants within the Mirror Dimension. Given the size of Port Royal, this number was neither small nor big. But it was certainly going to double tomorrow, Kai knew.

Some dozens of feet away from the bonfire, four high-back chairs were placed side-by-side. They were empty. Four more high-back chairs, smaller than the empty ones, could be seen too, with two on each side of the middle fours.

The latter four were occupied, though.

On the left side of the four empty chairs, two Contestants were seated, eying everyone with indifferent gazes. One of them was wearing a standard Karate gi and was eating a rather large piece of barbecued meat.

The other was a woman in her early twenties.

When Kai looked at her, he felt like he was looking at the edge of a blade; so sharp that he felt an ethereal pain in his eyes. Kai instinctively raised the danger posed by this woman in his heart to an unprecedented degree.

This woman was beautiful in the most ordinary way, with no hint of any makeup whatsoever. She was wearing a red and white loose silk overcoat, with sleeves longer than her hands. Around her neck, there was a white scarf. Her hair was light brown, and her eyes were black. At this time, there was a bowl in her hand, from which she was taking light sips of green tea.

Suddenly, she turned her head and looked at Kai.

Just as their eyes met, the woman raised her eyebrows, looking quite shaken. But Kai didn't give her a chance to see more into his gaze, and he faced the right side of the empty chairs.

One of the two Contestants sitting there was not unknown to Kai.

Moraine the Elegant was wearing a light white T-shirt, her large breasts sticking out of them like two giant mounds. Under the t-shirt, she had put on jeans, and with her long legs, she looked like a famous model. There was a wineglass in her hand, held with the most elegance a person could muster.

She too sensed Kai's gaze, and the smile on her lips vanished for the briefest time before returning to an even wider scale. She nodded at him and then tore her gaze off.

To her left, there was a middle-aged man, with a rather lost look planted on his face. He had short orange-colored hair, and there were whiskers on his face for a beard. The most striking thing about him was the cut across his upper bald lip, branding the left corner of his mouth with a hideous scar.

The Protectors!

This wasn't the 4th-floor, where Kai had met the Viscount Lucas Arbuthnot, assassinating him later. Nor was this place the venue of the 1st stage of Tournament of Worth which had restricted all Contestants' Stats.

It could even be said that this was the first time when Kai saw and met a genuinely strong Contestant from the 6th floor. It was more so when one considered the fact that the Protectors already represented the true height of power a Contestant could achieve in the Primordial Tower.

Kai took a deep breath, sensing the heart-palpating danger his instincts were catching off these four individuals, and finally looked at the empty chairs.

'Haha!' He couldn't help but sneer inwardly.

If Kai wasn't wrong, then these four high-back chairs were meant for the Protectors of the major Characters at the Port Royal, i.e. Elizabeth Swann, William Turner, Governor Swann, and Captain Norrington.

Kai's Side Mission in this Switched World had taken care of their presence already, though. If it hadn't, then these Protectors could very well have turned out to be top-level 6th-floor Contestants. Such individuals didn't give a reason for their absence. Nor could anyone demand it from them.

If they arrived, they would naturally assume a seat for themselves on the four chairs. If they didn't, then these seats would remain empty.

Only Kai here knew that these seats were already fated to never feel the warmth of an ass tonight.