A Successful Fan

It was only after a long time had passed that I finally managed to find something resembling a map.

As it was a commonly available item, it was not a detailed map, but I could understand the general layout.

My map automatically updated as it recognized that I had acquired knowledge of this region.

I felt like I could finally breathe once the blank map was updated with some actual information.

Fortunately, the place where I was currently located was within Azrael’s country.

Ah, no.

Since it was currently being invaded by strange enemies, maybe it was no longer the territory of Azrael’s country?

I was not sure, but regardless, it was good news that I was not far from the nation where Azrael resided.

If I was lucky, I might even get to meet him.

Azrael is the Fourth Prince, one of the princes who set out for war.

Royal NPCs whom you can meet without having to enter the royal palace are truly uncommon.

The biggest reason he held the number one spot in the NPC popularity rankings of Knights of Dark Ages was likely the fact that he was an NPC who frequently met with users.

Of course, I had never met Azrael within Knights of Dark Ages myself….

Once my mood stabilized a bit, I left that spot and summoned the unicorn once more.

The unicorn glared at me, dissatisfied with being called back as a mount so soon, but when I held out a carrot, it offered its back while staring as if it wanted to bite my head off.

After checking the map, heading east turned out to be a truly wise choice.

If I had gone west, I would have ended up on a route falling right into the middle of a nation in direct conflict with Azrael’s country.

Maybe even my instincts love Azrael.

I hummed a tune while fiddling with the map.

According to the map, the next village was about an hour and forty minutes away even while riding the unicorn.

Calculating the approximate time made me desperate for a teleport.

Going to a place I have never been to before really takes up too much time.

Just as I was starting to get tired of simply sitting atop the unicorn, I encountered a pack of monsters.

I sent the unicorn back and quickly took out my wand.

“This is strange.”

This pack of monsters looked a bit different from the graphics of Knights of Dark Ages no matter how I looked at them.

They looked somewhat similar to the graphics of The Hunters.

Rather than a form close to humans, they were closer to monsters… like that….

Frowning, I peeked at the status windows of the monsters.

On the status windows of the pack of twenty to thirty monsters, a mix of Kobolds and Orcs, the phrase [Affected by Demonization] was written in red on every single one.

Did they get stronger?

However, their health and mana values were absurdly low.

Health 570, mana 350.

They were monsters of a level that seemed to be barely in the teens.

They might even be monsters below level ten.

Was the first pack of monsters I encountered weaker than this?

I flicked a mental middle finger at my past self who had not opened the status windows and cast a wide-range fire magic with low power but a broad area.

Even at max level, my attack power is not that high, so it is not a skill I use often, but it was the best skill for catching trash mobs.

The monsters disappeared from the field all at once with a scream.

This is too simple.

It is beyond boring; it is practically trivial.

To think all I have seen for hours are trash mobs with poor rewards, is the difficulty of this collaboration aimed at newbies?

I gathered the items dropped by the monsters, but as expected, they were just junk items.

This is annoying.

Just wait and see, as soon as the logout function is restored, I am going to terrorize the collaboration event rating with a zero-point score.

If the field is wide, they should either provide a guide for recommended fields by level or let users share information by allowing them to log out!

This is why dead games are no good.

How can they design a collaboration event to be this boring.

I let out such blasphemy without hesitation, describing The Hunters—which always ranks in the top five of this genre—as a dead game, and changed my profession back to a Summoner.

I need to move diligently.

I feel like I can only do something properly once I meet a user who started the event quest before me and gain some information.

But at a point only about five minutes after I started running again, I found myself in a situation where I could no longer move.

“Who goes there! Stop!”

I looked down in bewilderment from atop my unicorn at dozens of knights pointing their swords at me.

I opened the status window and saw they were NPCs with health in the eight thousand range.

They had the highest health among those I had encountered in this event so far.

I could move past them if I just ignored them.

I calculated whether it would be better to fight these NPCs or just ignore them and run to shake them off.

Since they looked like humans, I felt a sense of reluctance about fighting them.

It would be okay to change my class to one that could inflict sleep or paralysis, but combat had already begun.

In other words, a class change was impossible.

It seemed better to just run away.

Since their health was around eight thousand, the damage they could deal would not be that great.

A Summoner was a specialized class for boss raids and did not have skills for fighting multiple enemies.

Okay, let’s run.

I was measuring the angle to escape.

Until I heard someone’s voice.

“Andrealphus?”

I was so startled by my nickname being called that I almost rolled off the unicorn.

I really almost fell, and the knights pointing their swords at me even pulled them back in surprise.

The person who called my nickname was wearing full-body armor similar to the other knights.

He wore black armor, but unlike the others, gold patterns were engraved on his helmet.

It was easy to tell he was the one leading this order of knights.

“Wh-who are you?”

The words that escaped my mouth were shaky enough for anyone to tell I was flustered.

Who is it?

It was rare for a first-time NPC to know a user’s name, so I was even more flustered.

The man let out a laugh from inside his helmet.

I felt a bit annoyed because it felt like I was being treated as an idiot.

The man soon took off his helmet.

The face revealed beneath that helmet was one I knew very well.

Blue eyes, bright blond hair, and a kind smile.

“Friend, I have been waiting for you.”

And even the words I had wanted to hear most in this world.

Regardless of any judgment about this situation, I had no choice but to smile and answer him.

“I missed you, Prince.”

Simultaneous with my answer, he reached out his hand to me.

I jumped down from the unicorn without hesitation and ran toward him.

The knights stood in an awkward posture, neither able to withdraw the swords they had pointed at a stranger who seemed to be an acquaintance of their lord, nor able to keep them pointed.

As soon as I ran to him, I heard a notification sound as if a quest had been created, but I quickly dismissed the quest window and reached out with both hands to examine his face here and there.

The handsome jawline was indeed Azrael’s, the bridge of the nose was indeed Azrael’s, and the eyes, nose, and mouth were all indeed Azrael’s….

“You are really the Prince?”

“I am truly Azrael.”

He replied solemnly without stopping my frivolous behavior.

“Prince, do you remember me?”

“How could I forget you. When I fell into the crack of dimensions last time and landed in your world, you helped me. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have even been able to return here.”

“You really remember!”

“I am not one who forgets a friend.”

This is crazy.

I have truly hit the jackpot.

I am a successful otaku.

I… the emotion was so overwhelming that I almost, truly, fainted while standing.

If I were even a slightly less rational person, I would have definitely run around here screaming cheers that sounded like shrieks.

In fact, if this were a slightly less cutting-edge game, I might have actually done that.

Unfortunately, recent games recognize the actions of users even when they are not in a conversation and reflect them in the affinity level, so I exerted truly superhuman self-control to try and avoid acting like a crazy person.

At Azrael’s ‘friend’ remark, the surrounding knights were almost in a state of panic.

They fumbled to put their swords back into their scabbards.

And they seemed to be gauging what our relationship was by looking back and forth between Azrael and me without making it obvious.

“Where were you going?”

“…I heard that the army of the neighboring country was seen near the village in this vicinity, so I was on my way to assess the situation. Where were you heading?”

“The village near here… if so, in which direction?”

“It is to the west.”

“Hmm.”

I looked back at the road I had come from.

High probability, it would be that village I passed through.

Should I tell him?

I became a little troubled.

Azrael tilted his head at my reaction as if asking if there was any problem.

At that, his blond hair swayed and sparkled like a rainbow.

The Prince’s beauty is the best…….

…Now is not the time for this.

“Prince, it seems like that place is where I just came from…….”