Chapter 246

Amazingly, shockingly, unbelievably!

Both boxes dropped complete equipment.

'I knew I could trust you! RNG gods!'

Indeed, the RNG gods and I have a great relationship! Later, I should set up an offering table and perhaps even perform a ritual.

From the SSR-tier box, an SSR-tier equipment emerged, and from the SR-tier box, an SR-tier equipment. So refreshingly honest.

[Rewards]

- Blink Knife (SSR)

- Armed Assault (SR)

Firstly, I held the Blink Knife and whistled.

'My goodness, a teleporting dagger!'

As a weapon, it wasn't anything special. But the true value of this dagger was its special ability.

After throwing the dagger, the user can teleport to its location.

The cooldown was 5 turns (15 minutes), which was quite long, but giving a character a teleport skill revealed its overpowered nature.

The drawback was that its primary focus was on the teleporting function, hence its base performance was rather weak.

Even an average R-tier dagger could deal more damage, and its durability was also low. But still, its teleportation ability alone made it worth equipping.

'But who should I give this to... No one uses a dagger...'

Should I give it to Elize, Serenade's escort? She always carries that Sword Coffin on her back and stashes all kinds of weapons in it. Plus, she seems to use daggers...

'Ah! Or maybe Verdandi?'

Verdandi, being an assassin class, would find it extremely useful and fitting.

The problem was she's not under my command; she's a temporarily incorporated guest character.

'...Maybe I need to think about this a little more.'

For now, I threw the dagger into my inventory, and next up:

SR-tier Gauntlet, Armed Assault!

It was usually abbreviated to AA in the game.

AA stands for Armed Assault, but it's also an acronym for a regular basic attack (Auto-Attack).

Its name was fitting as a basic attack enhancement equipment.

In terms of performance, it's straightforwardly powerful, adding fixed extra damage to regular attacks.

The figure wasn't that high, but as you accumulated regular attacks, the fixed damage also accumulated. And since fighters inherently rely heavily on basic attacks...

Furthermore, being SR-tier, it's relatively easy to farm, and you can acquire multiple pieces. Most would equip their fighters with this.

It's like a standard uniform equipment.

Despite my lengthy explanation, there was only one person I had in mind for it.

'Kuilan, you! Just how many high-grade equipment pieces are you going to gobble up?'

Right hand equipped with Lucky Strike (SSR), legs adorned with the Vampire Lord's Boots (SSR), auxiliary gear being the Vampire Lord's Muffler (SSR), and now, the left hand with Armed Assault (SR)?

He was decked out in gear more expensive than most main characters. And he still felt fragile. What a piece of work.

'I wonder if my investment is right...'

It felt like continually buying a stock plummeting down, thinking, 'It's going to skyrocket someday!'

Anyway, most of my main party members are adequately equipped. Kuilan is the only character to invest resources in at the moment.

'Please soar high, you little bandit king...'

Kuilan is almost level 50.

I can only hope he unlocks his ultimate skill and becomes super powerful soon. Please!

***

After taking a short nap and waking up, it was just a little before noon.

After taking a sip of cold water, he headed straight to the barracks. The reason was to hand over the newly acquired equipment to Kuilan.

When he mentioned meeting Kuilan, Lucas, who had been appointed his escort, had an odd expression. "What's the matter?"

"No, it's just that we had a bit of training among ourselves last night."

"Huh? Last night? After the free exploration, you trained again?"

"Yes. It was me, Evangeline, Damien, and Kuilan. The four of us."

"Why does it feel like you all keep excluding me and sticking together?"

If this keeps up, I'll be hurt. Of course, I had no intention of joining them for late-night training. I hate sweating!

"It seemed that something was troubling Kuilan's mind, so we gave him a good workout."

Lucas murmured with a faint smirk on his face, "He might not be able to get up today."

"What did you do to the kid, you devil..."

Upon arriving at the barracks, specifically the Penal Squad's quarters, it was indeed as Lucas had described.

"Ugh... gah..."

The giant fighter was sprawled out on his bed, groaning in pain. Unbelievable.

"What have you done to the poor, muscular kid!"

"When the body is tired, mental troubles fly away. We made sure his body was too tired for any worries. Kuilan should be grateful to us."

Lucas blurted out with audacity. You always sound so macho in these situations, don't you?

"Ah, Your Highness."

Then, a slender man with a limp in his walk emerged from the quarters.

He had the same reddish hair and ponytail style as Kuilan. Was he Kuilan's older brother?

"Oh, and your name was..."

"It's Kureha, Your Highness."

Kureha, smiling, gestured towards Kuilan.

"My younger brother trained all night at the practice field and has been groaning ever since. I'm sorry, but he might be like this all day..."

"Hmm, it can't be helped. Can you deliver this for me?"

I handed the newly acquired gauntlet to Kureha.

"It's a new gauntlet. Tell him to wear the Lucky Strike on his right hand, and this on his left."

"Understood, Your Highness. And the other piece?"

Naturally, gauntlets come in pairs, but since Kuilan wears different equipment on each side, one side was always left over.

"Tell him to keep it as a spare, like the Lucky Strike. He might need to replace it sometime."

"Understood."

Carefully placing the equipment on the table, Kureha asked with a smile, "How about it, after such a long journey, would you like to have a meal?"

Looking inside the quarters, I saw a mountain of food being prepared...

The smell reminded me of visiting my grandmother's house during holidays.

Why are they preparing so much food for lunch? They must be generous.

"You have to eat well to take care of the city, right? My, you're so thin."

"I'm... I'm thin?"

"Yes. You're all skin and bones..."

I was a little touched by Kureha's words!

Just a few days ago at the hot spring, I was told I had the most body fat! Even during my broadcasting days, whenever I turned the camera on while eating, viewers always told me to diet! And now, someone's calling me thin!

Seeing my reaction, Kureha suddenly looked surprised and waved his hands in dismay.

"I'm, I'm sorry. If someone's younger than me, they feel like my brother... I tend to look out for them without realizing."

I was treated like a son by Damien, but here I was, being treated like a younger brother by this person.

Having no brothers on Earth, I didn't really mind.

Giving a reassuring wave of my hand, I turned to Lucas and nodded. 

"How about I treat you to lunch then?"

Lucas energetically nodded in agreement. Was he just hungry?

***

Kuilan was resting, and I didn't want to disturb him. So, I moved to the public kitchen right next to the lodging.

"Huh?!"

"Your Highness?!"

The passing soldiers were taken aback when they saw me, but I just waved at them. Go eat and get back to work, guys.

"Please, eat a lot. This is our tribe's traditional dish."

Kureha served dish after dish. It was an exotic nomadic style of cuisine, reminiscent of Mongolian food on Earth.

Given the lavish spread, one might think it was a feast, but surprisingly, he said that he normally feeds his brother this much.

"My brother is a bit small and thin, isn't he? I made sure he ate well."

"Small and thin...? Kuilan...?"

It sounded nonsensical, but I let it slide. People on the frontlines always seemed to have a screw loose somewhere. Heh.

Lucas ate heartily. He seemed very hungry after the training he had done yesterday.

As we continued our meal and chatted about various things, the events from yesterday's exploration also came up.

"I see, so that happened..."

Upon hearing about the encounter with the Wolf King Lunared, Kureha's expression grew stern.

There was a rumor that the werewolf monster might be an ancestor to the brothers Kuilan and Kureha.

I thought about keeping it a secret, but since Kureha was almost directly involved, I decided to tell him.

"Kuilan... knows now."

It seemed Kureha already knew.

"You knew?"

"...Yes."

Kureha gave a bitter smile and glanced at his right arm.

"That blood is a curse that's been passed down in our tribe."

"A curse...?"

"I had kept it hidden from my brother. I wasn't sure when or how to tell him. But now, he knows this way."

Kureha, pausing his meal, looked up and started to speak, "Your Highness, after the fall of the mixed-race nations, do you know how the mixed-race people have been living?"

I put down my utensils uneasily.

A hundred years ago, there was a war between the mixed-race and the humans. The humans won.

And then, the mixed-race became slaves to humans. That's all I knew.

The four major mixed-races: Dwarves, Elves, Mermaids, and Werebeasts.

Kureha explained what happened to each of them.

"The Dwarves chose to integrate into human society. Their skills were incredibly useful. Thanks to their active interaction and sharing of their technology, even after the fall of their nation, the Dwarves are still well-respected."

Now I understood why, the moment Kellibey stepped into the blacksmith's, all the blacksmiths were so excited. That was the reason.

"The Elves still have their nation, but they are trapped in an autonomous region, slowly withering away."

The faces of the Shadow Squad, who had been conscripted from the Elf Autonomous Region and used as expendable soldiers, flashed in my mind.

They must be having a hard time as well.

"Mermaids... they fled. Beyond the eastern sea. Searching for a new habitat where they could live."

Mermaids, who could live in the sea rather than on land, abandoned this continent.

All that remained were the hybrid descendants of them and humans.

The blue locks of Serenade, mixed with mermaid blood, briefly came to mind. I miss her a bit.

"Last but not least, our tribe of beastmen originally lived divided by tribes. Even though we were lumped together as one species, the god each tribe worshipped was different, and the inherited blood varied."

It was the same in the game. Lions, bears, tigers; it was very diverse.

Back then, I thought maybe the game developers had some weird furry preferences. But this world was originally designed this way.

"After our defeat in the war, some tribes were either completely suppressed or annihilated. However, our Leaf Tribe did not suffer significant damage in the war and was able to retain our full strength."

Kureha spoke calmly.

"Our tribe's homeland was on the outskirts of the Empire, so other human nations did not particularly try to infringe upon us. Thus, our tribe could live in relative peace."

"But how did you end up becoming... bandits roaming around?"

It might have been a painful question, but it felt necessary to ask. At this, a bitter smile deepened on Kureha's lips.

"Over the past 100 years, the Everblack Empire continually expanded its territory. And finally, the border reached our tribe's land."

I swallowed hard.

Damn empire! This damn emperor father! The root of all evil!

"So, our nation was the one to annihilate your tribe?"

"... My younger brother and the survivors of our tribe believe so. That's why they've despised the empire, living as bandits and relentlessly fighting against the imperial army."

Kureha looked up at me directly.

"But it wasn't."

"Then?"

"I was the one who destroyed our tribe."

...?

Huh?

Caught off guard by the sudden confession, I blinked in disbelief. What did he just say?

Kureha looked down at his right hand and reaffirmed slowly, "It was I who brought about our tribe's destruction."

"..."

"I will tell you everything honestly. I believe you will trust my brother regardless of our bloodline."

Kureha, reminiscing for the sake of sharing his story, offered me a bright smile.

"Your Highness. If you had to kill someone to save another..."

I suddenly felt chills.

"How many would you be willing to kill?"

In that instant, his face, overlapped with that of a werewolf's.