At the top of the stone tower, Yu Deng huddled beside the windowsill, becoming increasingly skilled at throwing stones. He could practically hit his target every single time.
Although throwing objects from such a height was a very bad thing to do, but… but this king was most likely a bad guy. So it was perfectly fine for him to help his two older sisters vent their anger, right?
Thinking this, Yu Deng became more confident in his actions. He took advantage of the old king's blind spots and continued throwing stones at him…
He had to admit, the old king's head made quite a satisfying sound when the stones hit it.
[Hahahaha, the princess is beating up the king! What kind of upside-down filial piety is this?!]
[Baby… my adorable baby…]
[Baby looks like a little cat hiding behind the curtains, waiting for the perfect moment to sneak out and scratch someone with one paw… So cute!]
[Baby, don't feel guilty! You're completing a quest, and you're punishing a bad guy!]
Yu Deng was completely immersed in teasing the old king, and his throwing skills became more and more polished. Once he no longer needed to concentrate intensely on throwing each stone, he freed up some mental energy to think about what was happening.
He still didn't understand what was going on with the king in the second phase. The old king was certainly still vicious, but he had lost the sternness and sharp intelligence he'd displayed on the first day of the instance. He couldn't even figure out who was attacking him, much less think to search for the person throwing the stones.
"Little brother… that's enough. Thank you."
Princess Fuli's golden hair floated over and gently wrapped around Yu Deng's wrist.
"If you keep throwing… he'll go crazy."
"Huh? We don't need to anymore?"
Yu Deng finally brought his satisfying stone-throwing spree to an end.
Not long after he stopped, he heard the instance system's announcement.
[Ding. Congratulations to Player Yu Deng for completing the Scene Quest.]
Hmm, this little quest could probably be considered the easiest one in the entire instance. Even the quest givers had warned him about the danger beforehand.
Yu Deng secretly looked down at the ground. The old king had probably been so stunned by the barrage of stones that he was now standing completely motionless.
After watching him for a few seconds, Yu Deng turned back and asked his two sisters curiously, "Why did you want to… throw stones at him just now?"
"Because he used to… throw stones at us like that… So many, many stones," Funa answered, her words somewhat jumbled. "We had to… survive… mutation… testing…"
Yu Deng struggled to process her words. He opened his mouth, but it took him a long moment to find his voice.
"Testing? Was he testing whether you could withstand the injuries from being hit by stones…?"
Fuli and Funa silently nodded, confirming Yu Deng's guess.
So that was the reason. How horrible of him…
Yu Deng suddenly felt that he hadn't been all that excessive just now. In fact, he probably should have thrown a few more stones.
After all, the quest had merely involved the two princesses giving the old king a taste of his own medicine. Such a simple and childish method could even be considered rather gentle.
"Don't tell… Mother Queen. She'll be… sad," Funa reminded him.
"Okay, I won't tell her."
Looking at his two sisters, Yu Deng found himself with even more questions. He wanted to ask what had happened, but seeing them in their current state made him reluctant to press them further.
He would ask the queen later.
Come to think of it, could he and his quest targets defeat the old king?
The old king clearly had a lot of secrets and clues hidden on him. Capturing him and torturing him…
Er, questioning him should be a feasible option, right?
With that thought, Yu Deng leaned out of the window again and looked around. He spotted the dragon and merfolk leaders hiding in the treetops in the distance, as well as the knight not far from the stone tower.
Yu Deng waved at them and tried his best to gesture what he wanted.
The leaders had been keeping a close eye on the princess's every move. Although they were a little confused by the little princess's gestures, they immediately hurried over.
Only after entering the area around the stone tower did they see the king.
The leaders reacted quickly and rushed toward him at once.
Song Shiyu was the first to arrive. When the old king saw him, his eyes suddenly filled with overwhelming fury.
Yu Deng: "?"
How strange. What had his knight done?
Song Shiyu said nothing. With an impassive expression, he raised his sword and attacked.
The enraged old king dodged. When he turned around, he found himself facing the vicious dragon leader and the merfolk leader from the deep sea.
The king thought he was hallucinating.
"...?"
No, seriously. Why were these leaders all appearing together in such perfect harmony?
However, the old king soon understood why.
The little princess of Sturitt was leaning out of the stone tower's window, directing these ferocious fantasy races as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Oriel, Ulysses, hurry and help me catch him! Don't let the king get away—!"
At the little princess's command, unquenchable flames and icy seawater descended simultaneously.
King Charles' expression changed. Knowing full well that he couldn't win, he actually transformed into mist and escaped right in front of everyone's eyes.
Yu Deng's eyes widened in astonishment.
"?!"
Huh? What just happened?
"Your Highness the Princess, I'll go search for that old geezer." The dragon's eyes were bloodshot as he beat his wings, preparing to take flight.
The merfolk leader frowned at the king's disappearance and added, "Little princess, there's no need to worry. I'll search for him as well."
Yu Deng gave an "Oh," then hurriedly reminded them to be careful as he watched the dragon and merfolk leader leave one after another.
He turned around and saw that his knight hadn't gone with them to search for the old king.
Noticing that Yu Deng wanted to leave, his two sisters thoughtfully wrapped their long hair around him and slowly lowered him to the bottom of the stone tower.
Yu Deng waved goodbye to them before turning to his knight.
"Did you see that? The king just disappeared!"
"Mm. He probably left the palace this way a few hours ago," Song Shiyu calmly explained. "I knocked him unconscious a few days ago. In theory, he shouldn't have been able to move."
Yu Deng: "?" Huh?
"Also, Your Highness, I tried to kill the king two days ago. Unfortunately, he couldn't be killed. There's something strange about him now. I didn't even notice him immediately just now."
What a pity. They hadn't managed to kill the old king during the first phase, and now he had become even stranger in the second phase.
Yu Deng: "...??"
Yu Deng stared blankly at Song Shiyu's perfectly calm face, once again gaining a firsthand appreciation of the courage and abilities of a top-tier player.
At that moment, the queen approached from nearby. She looked at Yu Deng and said solemnly, "I could feel that they're much happier now. Thank you, my child."
"You don't have to thank me." Yu Deng hesitated before asking, "I want to know… what happened to Sister Fuli and Sister Funa?"
The queen didn't hide anything from him.
"They fell seriously ill two years ago. They came very close to meeting the God of Death. Charles said he could cure them, but I never imagined he would use that method… If the treatment stops, Fuli and Funa will die completely."
That method… Did she mean turning his two sisters into their current mutated forms?
"King Charles is attempting to steal the power of other races," Song Shiyu said coldly. "That's what I learned from the beastman race."
The queen looked somewhat surprised, then nodded in agreement with Song Shiyu's explanation.
Yu Deng was confused. "Then what exactly is wrong with the king…?"
"I don't know what's happening to him now. As for the grudges from the past, I'm sorry, but a forbidden spell prevents me from telling you." The queen shook her head. "However, there is one thing I can tell you. My good child, you are the most special of all."
After speaking briefly with them, the queen went to attend to the kingdom's affairs.
Yu Deng felt as though his brain was about to give out. Still dizzy and confused, he followed Song Shiyu forward without noticing that the other man had stopped. He walked straight into his chest.
"Ow…" Yu Deng covered his forehead. "What are you doing?"
"I called out to you several times, Your Highness. Please be careful when you walk."
They had arrived at the garden of the castle palace. The plants here were enormous, and their drooping branches almost completely concealed the two of them.
Song Shiyu looked at Yu Deng for several seconds. A faint smile suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Your concerns seem quite different from those of everyone else in the kingdom. Your Highness the Princess, you're a player too, aren't you?"
Yu Deng's eyes instantly widened.
"!"
The smile in Song Shiyu's eyes deepened.
"That day, during the meeting at the Deathbird Guild's headquarters, the person I saw through the camera was you, wasn't it?"
Yu Deng froze.
"!?" He could figure that out, too?!
Song Shiyu softly called the little princess by name.
"Yu Deng."
Yu Deng had completely lost control of his expression. He stared blankly at the man who had somehow figured everything out. His reaction was undoubtedly confirmation enough.
"So it really is you, little Princess Yu Deng."
Yu Deng nervously took a step back.
"I have no intention of threatening you, Your Highness." Even after discovering Yu Deng's true identity, Song Shiyu continued addressing him with the same respect.
He reassured him, "I only want you to know that we aren't enemies. You can trust me. The instance has already entered its second phase, and you might encounter difficult problems on your own. I think we can clear this instance together."
Yu Deng blinked and hesitantly asked, "Th-then… will you help me sort out the plot?"
"Of course. It would be my honor."
Yu Deng eyed Song Shiyu with suspicion, then thought for a few seconds.
"Then tell me about the king first. What do you think is going on with him?"
Song Shiyu answered every question patiently.
"In the Infinite World, every instance has a person or object that gathers the power influencing the instance. That's what we usually call the boss."
"In this instance, the leaders of the dragon race and the merfolk race technically qualify as boss-level NPCs, too. However, they… aren't a threat at the moment."
Those two were clearly devoted to becoming the little princess's one and only dogs. They showed no signs of turning into bosses and attacking players, so there was no need to worry about them too much for now.
Thinking this, Song Shiyu gave a quiet, almost inaudible click of his tongue before continuing.
"The little princess was the first to piece together the instance's background. You must already know that the source of the mutation in this instance lies within every NPC. Even so, there could still be an entity capable of accelerating and spreading this power. Judging from what we've seen, that entity is most likely King Charles."
Yu Deng understood some of it and tried his best to digest Song Shiyu's explanation.
But they still had no idea how to catch King Charles or resolve the current crisis. And the trust requirements for the main quests… those were still unknown, too.
Even with a top-tier player helping him organize the clues, Yu Deng's head was still spinning. There seemed to be so many unanswered questions that he couldn't even count them all.
He followed the expert's reasoning with a blank stare, trying hard to think things through.
Then, suddenly, inspiration struck!
He still had a cheat item—the magic mirror!
Yu Deng grabbed Song Shiyu's arm.
"I have an item! I'm going to ask the magic mirror!"
...
Yu Deng hurried back to the top floor of the castle's main building.
He had barely seen any guards along the way. Their eyes looked somewhat vacant, and their emotions seemed unstable. They didn't appear to know that the king had disappeared, either.
Yu Deng shook his head a little, and the knight, who could control the wind element, carried him up to the top floor. He pushed open the bedroom door and peeked inside.
A few days ago, a huge hole had appeared in his bedroom. The magical seed the dragon had secretly planted had grown so large that it broke through the wall. However, the people of the Kingdom of Sturitt obviously wouldn't allow their princess to live in a damaged room, so they had already repaired it.
Yu Deng walked into the room and found that the layout was more or less the same as when he had left. The only difference was that, since no one had lived there for several days, dust particles floated in the air.
He wandered around the room several times, trying to find his magic mirror. After searching for ages, Yu Deng finally lifted his pillow.
A palm-sized magic mirror lay quietly tucked into the gap beneath it. Its surface was covered in cracks, and its brass frame had lost its luster.
Yu Deng had completely forgotten about the magic mirror over the past few days. Now that he saw it lying there all alone, he felt a little guilty. He gently poked its surface.
"Magic mirror, why is your surface broken…?"
The magic mirror replied gloomily, "Because I haven't seen Your Highness the Princess for six days. Yes, as you can see, Your Highness, I've cracked."
After answering in a completely hopeless tone, the magic mirror suddenly realized who it was talking to. It immediately sprang up and began spinning wildly in midair.
"Your Highness the Princess——!!"
Yu Deng had never known that a mirror could make such a loud noise. He also hadn't realized that a mirror could act so much like a little dog.
The magic mirror only wished it could wag its tail.
It stood in front of Yu Deng, having already expanded itself to the size of a full-length mirror. The cracks on its surface had completely disappeared, and the entire mirror gleamed brilliantly.
"Your Highness the Princess, you've finally come back to see me! I've been waiting here for six days. I've already counted the 320 crystals on the ceiling, the 100 gemstones on the walls, and the 25,000 down feathers stuffed inside your pillow… Your Highness, did you forget about me?"
If Yu Deng had come any later, the mirror might have grown legs and gone looking for the little princess itself.
"..."
Looking at the mirror's pitiful, aggrieved appearance, Yu Deng felt even guiltier. Somewhat embarrassed, he gave a light cough and tried to make excuses.
"No, I didn't! I've just been a little busy these past few days. I didn't forget about you, okay? Y-you're a very important magic mirror!"
The all-knowing and all-powerful magic mirror chose to blindly believe the little princess's excuse. One sentence was enough to make it float with happiness.
"I knew it! Your Highness the Princess still remembers me."
The magic mirror smoothly launched into a round of praise.
"After all, you are the most beautiful princess on the continent of Eralzea, the treasure of everyone. Unlike certain people with ulterior motives, you possess the gentlest and most compassionate heart…"
As it praised Yu Deng, the magic mirror also took the opportunity to disparage the men around the little princess.
Song Shiyu endured it for a while before walking over briskly. Pretending it was merely a coincidence, he positioned himself beside Yu Deng, blocking the mirror's view.
Song Shiyu asked, despite already knowing the answer, "Your Highness the Princess, is this an item?"
Yu Deng had no guard up around his quest target, so he nodded.
"Yes! The magic mirror is really amazing."
After saying this, he poked the mirror.
"Magic mirror, can I ask you questions now?"
"Of course you can."
The magic mirror absolutely despised this knight. Its smooth surface flickered, but it kept a perfectly straight face as it coaxed the little princess.
"However, Your Highness the Princess, please ask your knight to leave the room first. No one else is allowed to be present during the questioning process. You must complete the requirements alone."
Yu Deng tilted his head, believing what the magic mirror said. He instructed his knight, "Song Shiyu, did you hear that? You need to go outside first."
"..."
Song Shiyu narrowed his eyes and glanced at the magic mirror.
"Will this magic mirror put you in danger, Your Highness?"
Before Yu Deng could answer, the magic mirror angrily shouted in protest.
"Of course not! I would never hurt Your Highness the Princess!"
Yu Deng trusted the magic mirror reasonably well. He gave Song Shiyu a little push, urging him to wait outside the bedroom door.
Unable to persuade the little princess otherwise, Song Shiyu silently went outside to stand guard.
Only after the knight who had been getting in its way finally left did the magic mirror clear its throat.
"Your Highness the Princess, you haven't asked me a question for six days. That means you can ask me two questions now. Those two questions have accumulated over several days, and new questions have appeared as well. Therefore, you can ask me three questions all at once!"
The magic mirror was clearly eager to prove its usefulness, doing everything it could to advertise its services to the little princess.
Yu Deng: "?"
He was a little confused. Could the questions allowed by an item like this really accumulate? And could they even earn interest?
"But if I ask so many questions, won't I have to pay a huge price?" Yu Deng still remembered the magic mirror's item description. It would make demands based on the difficulty of the questions. If he asked several very difficult questions at once, wouldn't he practically be asking for his own death?
"I won't die right after asking the questions, will I…?"
"Oh, of course not, my dear little princess. How could I possibly let you descend into the abyss of death?" the magic mirror reassured him. "Just think about last time. I didn't make any particularly frightening demands, did I?"
Yu Deng thought for a few seconds and decided the mirror had a point.
"Then I'll ask you three questions! And they'll be really, really difficult ones."
Yu Deng hadn't decided which three questions to ask yet, but he knew they would definitely concern the instance's core clues.
"I haven't figured out what to ask yet," Yu Deng warned it. "The difficulty should be… about the same as the questions I asked you last time."
"No problem. I can answer them for you. However, since Your Highness is asking multiple questions this time, you must first fulfill the magic mirror's requirement before I can tell you the answers."
"Okay! Tell me what it is."
The magic mirror paused for two seconds, and ripples spread across its surface.
"Please press yourself against the magic mirror, Your Highness the Princess, and allow the mirror to feel your presence."
That didn't sound like a difficult requirement.
But how was he supposed to press himself against it? Should he hug the mirror? That didn't really count as pressing himself against it. And if he relaxed and lay on it, wouldn't he knock it over?
Yu Deng felt somewhat bewildered by the magic mirror's request. He thought about it innocently for a long time before finally figuring out what to do.
He pushed the magic mirror over, trying to lay it flat on the bed with its reflective surface facing upward.
The mirror could no longer see the little princess, and its voice immediately became a little panicked.
"Your Highness the Princess? Was my requirement too difficult? Are you going to leave me again?"
"No, I'm not." Yu Deng struggled to lay the mirror flat on the bed. "Don't worry. I'm just thinking about how to fulfill your requirement."
At last, Yu Deng managed to position the mirror properly. He then slowly climbed onto the bed himself.
He gathered up the heavy, elaborate layers of his skirt and lay down on the mirror, almost on his side.
The layers of his fluffy skirt covered nearly half the mirror's frame, but the snow-white skin beneath them was fully reflected on its surface.
In the dim light beneath the layers of fabric, the little princess's skin looked smooth, luminous, and delicate. His soft, warm thighs pressed together in this position, forming plump indentations.
The mirror's frame began to grow hot. If the magic mirror had a heartbeat, it would probably already be pounding wildly.
Yu Deng pressed himself firmly against the mirror, his skin touching its surface. Feeling rather proud of how easily he had come up with this solution, he let the corners of his lips curl up slightly.
"This should work, right?"
As he spoke, he pressed his tender palm against the mirror. However, he didn't immediately hear a response from it.
Yu Deng lazily lay against the reflective surface, completely unaware that his own image was being reflected in it.
After thinking for a moment, he turned his head and pressed his pretty little face against the mirror as well. His soft, rosy lips brushed against its surface.
This counted as pressing himself against it, too… The magic mirror should be able to feel his presence now, right?
Honestly, this requirement had been ridiculously easy to fulfill.
He really was so clever!