Arriving at the royal barracks with Max and Lemonade in tow, Parker strolled past various rooms with a hurried, yet refined gait. Nodding to some soldiers who were garbed in red gambeson, she made her way upstairs and headed directly for an ornately decorated door, approaching and violently tearing it open before ushering the two players inside.

“Aha!”

The moment Max stepped inside, a figure rose up from their chair and whizzed toward him with dizzying speed. Max followed with his eyes.

“Oho indeed, you have a quick eye, very impressive. Dahlia was right about you.”

‘Woah.’ Max was surprised by the man’s speed. Just from that movement alone, he could tell that this person’s physical attributes exceeded level 70; they were even faster than the assassin he’d fought earlier.

“Greetings hero, you must be Gun!” The man collected Max’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “I must admit, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

‘Ow.’ Max winced in pain as his hand was crushed. Ignoring the pain, he quickly looked the man up and down, gauging how to respond. “I-it’s an honour. Then, would you be the prince?”

“Oh, where are my manners?” The well-dressed man cleared his throat. “Yes, that’s correct. My name is Virtus Antonius Eleutheria, second-born and crown prince of the Kingdom of Eleutheria, where you currently stand.”

Max got to one knee and bowed slightly, “It’s an honour to meet the prince.”

“Ah, you don’t need to do that.” The prince pulled him back to his feet. “You’re not one of my subjects, so there’s no need for you to bow to me. If anything, I should be the one bowing after you rescued my cute cousin.”

Max was surprised. ‘Wow, I was expecting the prince to be quite arrog- Wait, cousin?’ He paused. “...Ah, then I presume Lady Parker is your cousin?”

“That’s correct. She didn’t tell you?” The prince glanced at Parker, who avoided eye contact in the doorway, before grinning. “Dahlia Parker – is my cousin on my mother’s side. A prodigious spearwoman, gifted both with tremendous talent and supreme beauty. Well-known for having once managed to-”

“S-stop!” Parker waved her hands, blushing. “Y-you don’t need to aggrandise! Just my name is enough!”

An exaggerated sigh emerged from the prince’s lips as his gushing was cut short. “Oh well, I guess it can’t be helped. My cousin is too humble to even-”

“Stop!!”

...Max took advantage of this moment of wholesome bullying to survey the room he’d entered. To his side, an elliptical meeting table covered most of the room, bordered by a dozen uniformed officials who watched the ongoing interaction with amusement. Aside from that, there was also a girl, seemingly in her late teens, who leant against one of the side walls. She wore an embroidered silk dress, and it did not escape Max’s notice that she shared an identical light-blonde hair colour with the prince.

“All right, I’ll stop, I’ll stop. I still need to reward my cousin’s saviour, after all.”

‘Reward?’ Max’s attention snapped back. A reward from the prince of a kingdom was unlikely to be anything pedestrian.

“Your Highness, that’s really not necessary; I’ve already received compensation from the-”

“From the Novus town guard. Yes, I’m aware. Still, I’d like to give a little something extra to show my gratitude. You won’t turn me down, will you?” He smiled with a hidden pressure.

“Ah, no, then I will gratefully accept, Your Highness.”

“Call me Virtus; I dislike all that formal stuff,” Virtus spoke as he started fishing around in one of his pockets. After a few seconds, he took out a small ring. “Ah, here it is.”

‘A ring?’ Max was intrigued. ‘Is the prince giving me an accessory item?’

The ring gave a bright flash, and an item emerged out from it. Max’s eyes widened. ‘A storage ring?! That’s certainly new. There wasn’t anything like that in- Uh? Bow?’

Max’s thoughts malfunctioned as Virtus passed him a large bow, which Max accepted with both hands as though he were receiving a precious artefact.

“It’s... beautiful.” Max’s eyes sparkled.

Entranced by the smooth texture of the wood on his fingers, he took a moment to admire the bow’s craftsmanship. Despite having the great length of a longbow, its limbs formed a delicate curvature at both ends in the decisive shape of a recurve.

In terms of appearance, the wood was a pale red, striking the perfect balance between pleasing to the eye and not overly gaudy. Dark patches presented themselves in the grains, coursing across its length in unpredictable – yet soothing undulations. But that wasn’t all. There was something else...

“Gun?” Virtus shook his shoulder.

“Ah?” Max broke out of his reverie. “Ah! Sorry, I got carried away. This bow – just what is it?”

“Ha, I’m glad you like it.” Virtus smiled. “This bow is directly from the palace treasury. Its power is lacking compared to our standard armament, but its durability and craftsmanship are excellent. I speculated it would be best in the hands of a talented, low-level archer such as yourself.”

“I’m honoured...” Max was about to continue speaking but saw movement from the light-haired girl he’d noticed earlier.

“Halt. Give me that.” The girl walked up to Max and took the bow, turning it around in her hands to inspect it. Max didn’t object, as he suspected this was probably Virtus’s sibling.

Now that he observed her properly, she definitely had the appearance of a princess. She had smooth, fair skin without any flaws, and a small blue jewel as a stud earring which matched her eyes. Her silvery-gold hair was woven into two sleek braids which crossed the sides of her head symmetrically and coalesced into a wide ponytail at the back. She was extremely pretty, and Max already guessed that she would be idolised by the male players... ‘Probably the female players too, actually.’

Unfortunately, Max’s intuition told him that she would have a prickly attitude to go with it.

“This... I recognise this bow. Isn’t this from the treasury’s upper level?” She stared at Virtus.

“Yes, that’s correct.” Virtus showed an unconcerned expression. “Is there some sort of problem?”

“Wha-? Problem?” The girl was slightly flustered. “Of course there’s a problem! You can’t just give top-level items away as you please; they’re practically national treasures!”

“I’m fully aware of that. The reason I-”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Are you truly?” She spoke incredulously.

“Yes.” Virtus’s voice became firm. “Are you going to let me explain?”

“...” The girl crossed her arms and relented, despite showing a slight frown.

“I’m sure you’re aware of the mana explosion which occurred in the treasury a few weeks ago. Due to an artefact malfunction, a mana surge caused part of the upper level’s roof to cave in, leading to widespread flood damage.”

“And exactly what part of this makes it okay to give away national treasures?”

“I was getting to that.” Virtus narrowed his eyes. “Do you think you could let me speak for more than two sentences without interrupting?”

“That depends, can you give a direct answer instead of a long, droning monologue?”

*Sigh* Virtus rubbed his forehead. “The identification records for this bow became destroyed due to water damage. As things stand, we have no indication of what the significance of this bow was, not historically, nor in a utilitarian sense. The palace appraisers can’t even get a read on it and nearly all of the experts are in consensus that its power was either weakened by water damage, faded over time, or never existed in the first places, as the bow might have only been kept for commemorative purposes. Either way, there’s not much reason to hang onto it now.” Virtus took a breath. “Satisfied?”

“As if! You think I don’t know where the explosion was? Keepsake items are kept on the opposite side of the building. You’re basically handing him a national artefact on a silver platter!”

“Tsk.” Virtus clicked his tongue.

‘...??’ Max watched them argue with silent awe. The complexity of this world and its NPCs was so extensive that it didn’t even feel like a game anymore. These two royals... seemed more intelligent than actual players? How were they so real?!

“Did you just ‘tsk’ me?!!” The girl looked appalled.

“Look, even if the bow does have special features, our incognisance of them renders it basically useless to us; Rodrick studied the thing for an entire week and came up empty. Besides, I’ve already given it out – you’re not seriously suggesting I humiliate myself by taking it back, are you?”

“Grr.” The girl gave Virtus a final condemnatory glare before turning to Max. “...”

Feeling her eyes piercing into him, Max returned his best amicable gaze and quickly switched into sweet-talking mode. “Your Highness,” Max put a hand to his chest, “I promise that I would do my utmost to uncover the bow’s potential.”

“...” She continued staring for a few more seconds, making Max feel slightly uncomfortable. “It should be ‘Your Royal Highness’ on the first address, then ma’am in subsequence.”

“My apologies, I will make sure to remember that.” Max confirmed she was indeed a princess.

“Good. Now then...” She came closer and flicked a hair out of his face, still unsmiling. “I’ve heard that you subjugated twenty orcs by yourself. Is that true?”

Max noticed an expensive perfume but ignored it to focus on his response. Taking a guess at this girl’s personality, he decided not to speak more words than necessary. “Yes, that’s true.”

“Good, then at least you’re not completely useless...” Her lips pursed slightly, as she appeared to consider. “Fine, you can have the bow. You did save my cousin after all.” She returned the red bow to Max’s hands. “I expect that you’ll use it well.”

“So rude.” Virtus joked. “You didn’t even introduce yourself.”

“Must I do so every time I meet someone?” The girl retorted with exasperation. “Though he is quite promising for a mere level eight.” She met Max’s eyes. “My name is Sophia Minerva Eleutheria, third princess of the kingdom and also strategic advisor to the king. I’ve spent the past few days listening to reports of ‘heroes’ rampantly committing crimes across my country so it’s rather refreshing to meet someone who isn’t a complete piece of... well, scat, excuse my language.”

Before Max could respond, Sophia continued, “Since we’re on the topic of introductions, who is this bald man cowering behind you?”

Max turned to find a frightened Lemonade who looked like he wanted to run away. Of course, Max would never let him do that. “This is Lemonade, a good friend of mine who supplied health potions to aid Lady Parker’s retreat when she and her subordinates were in dire need. He is a renowned figure among the heroes and is widely listened to among our people.”

Virtus perked up. “Oh? A hero ambassador? Interesting.” He massaged his chin. “Very interesting.”

Lemonade nearly choked on air at being unexpectedly thrown in the deep end.

Sophia stepped back and reached for her pocket. “It seems like you also helped my cousin. Take this as a token of our gratitude.” She tossed him a small ring.

‘Now!’ Max thought. ‘Ingratiate! Ingratiate yourself with the princess! This is your chance!’

“Th-thank you, Your Royal, uh, Greatness.”

‘Nope, fumbled it.’ Max shook his head tragically.

“Close enough.” Virtus laughed. “More importantly, if it’s really true that you have sway with the heroes then we could use your help.”

‘?...!!’ Sophia suddenly looked alarmed. “No, absolutely not!”

“What was it she said before Dahlia returned?” Virtus ignored her and instead turned to the military men who had been waiting at the meeting table. “Not enough men to spare? Ha! A trifling quandary when we can just summon five thousand immortals to the battlefield!”

“You do realise the heroes all under level ten still, right?” Sophia’s voice came from behind him. “They’re also untrained; they would be useless even by cannon fodder standards.”

“Ignore her,” Virtus continued, “you’ve heard of Sir Gun’s feats; they’re not all useless. The orc compound is still small, so this is the best time to attack. A force of five thousand men plus the heroes should be enough.”

“...” Virtus seemed to be fishing for volunteers, but the table was silent, so he picked on someone. “Lloyd, I hear your castellan has been quite bored lately.”

The grey-haired man known as ‘Lloyd’ showed a greatly unenthused expression.

“Novus happens to be closest to your territory, sooo...”

“Gah, fine, fine! I’ll send Stewart over. But you’d better not take any casualties now that you have the heroes there.”

“Thank you, Lloyd. I can assure you that your men are my top priority.”

“You’ve got to be joking,” Sophia remarked derisively.

Virtus turned his full body to face her with evident irritation. “I never joke about people’s lives, Sophia. Novus is in an economic crisis; people are losing their livelihoods and some their very lives. I won’t stand-”

“And how many more would lose their lives if this started another war?”

“...Then what? We should let our enemies push us around without resisting? Ignore our people in need and allow the enemy to expand into our territory unchecked?” He gave a sharp glare.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You certainly implied it.”

“I just think that we cannot be exposing the heroes’ existence too early. If the Demon Army were to discover the heroes right now, do you think they would stand idly by and watch them get stronger? No, they would surely attempt to annihilate our kingdom while they still have the chance.”

“So, you would ignore them.” Virtus discarded the rest of her words. “If you honestly believe that abandoning our people is the best option, you can just leave the room right now.”

“They can just move to another town!”

“Okay, leave.” Virtus pointed to the door.

“...Ugh, dense as always.” Sophia brushed past Max as she headed for the door. “Father will hear of this.”

“I do not care.”

She closed the door delicately behind her.

Virtus turned back to the lords at the table. “Apologies you all had to witness that. Sir Lloyd, I believe this is a matter of great urgence, so I would arrange for my retinue to meet Castellan Stewart at Novus in about a half-day from now. Does that sound acceptable to you? I understand it is short notice.”

“Ha, I see. Before the old man can stop you; very cheeky.” The lord thought for a moment. “That should be fine, Stewart would be ready even if I summoned him in his sleep. Though I hadn’t thought you would accompany them; do you plan to lead the attack?”

“Yes, that is my intention. I’d like to gauge the ability of the heroes with my own eyes.”

“I see. Well, I’ll make the arrangements then.”

“Splendid! Thank you, Lloyd.” Virtus turned around. “Of course, my cousin’s crush and the hero beacon will obviously accompany me.”

“Th-cr-what?! N-no!” Dahlia was caught horrifically off-guard. “I am merely grateful to Sir Gun for saving me, don’t say outrageous things!”

Virtus grinned. “Then why do you keep calling him ‘Sir’ even though he’s a commoner?”

Dahlia’s face turned tomato-red.

“Haha. I kid of course, I kid. I’m sure you were just being polite.” Virtus looked between Max and Lemonade. “On a more useful note... do you two know how to ride a horse?”