Chapter 137 - Arc 9 - Let's Play a Game: Studying, Dark Knights, and a glitch.

Some much needed expo is given in the form of Sakura studying and then some drop in.
It's what she does best, it'd be weird if she was presented with this much context and didn't open a book.

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So, the cardinal directions aren’t marked and she lacks a compass with her so the actual direction to where to find the book was completely worthless, which the librarian likely knew when she gave the instruction in the first place. She’s not sure what she did to piss her off but clearly she did, woe is her. After around an hour of searching she did find the book she was looking for which almost immediately removed a lot of her annoyance and replaced it with excited glee. It’s like she found a rare item, only the stats are words and the- well it’s a book.

It has a bone cover and looked rather out of place so it was easy to pin down once she stopped trying to follow directions and just started wandering around scanning random books from afar. The info from the book is good enough to bring a smile to her lips, it’s good to have a situation to pick apart. Up to this point all she’s had is the overwhelming nature of a new world thrown on her while being told to blend in. She’s pretty sure even a normal person would struggle right now.. First there’s what a Dark Lord and Dark Knight even is, because she’s been working on video game logic and while she’s not as far off as she’d think there’s enough wrong that she’s glad to have clarification.

Much like the Hero, the Dark Lord position isn’t hereditary. Unlike the Hero, the Dark Lord position is almost always passed down to the previous lord’s child. This is because strength is heavily genetic in this world and a lord raises their children into the role. The Dark Lord is chosen based on who has the highest understanding of the duty along with an incredible strength - if not the strongest strength - so it’s nepotism but not directly hereditary. Technically someone else could obtain the position if they were a once in a billion talent or something else equally strange. A Dark Lord rules until they’re killed and can live for thousands of years so a lot of talent actually gets overlooked completely for being born at the wrong time. The one directly before Saruka died twenty two years ago and was Saruka’s father. She’s dealing with a little lord, a young master of sorts.

The position is not to wage war with humans or protect monster kind, it’s to keep Elementals in check. In a lot of fantasy Elementals are a - pun intended - force of nature that needs to be worked around or exploited. In this world they’re Biju level threats that just wander around and cause problems whenever they get bored. A Dark Lord and Dark Knight’s official job is to track down any that are being strange, pacify them, and slaughter absolutely anyone that might be bothering them to lower the risk of a cataclysmic act. The greatest battles in this world’s history involved the Hero, Dark Lord, and Dark Knights working together to put a pissed off Elemental back to sleep.

She thought that might be important, so she found another book on the Elementals and it turns out the reason water is so valuable here is that almost all of it comes from one creature, the water Elemental which lives firmly in the lands of light. Every lake, every river, every single stream is all filled and controlled by a temperamental beast that doesn’t respect the baby lordling.

Next are the Dark Knights themselves who are much older than Saruka and likely don’t give her a lot of respect. But then, why would they? It turns out respecting her isn’t a part of their job at all, that’s just some weird thing Reaver does. All they need to do to keep the position is continue to be the three strongest warriors besides the Dark Lord in the Darklands - there’s way too much use of the word dark in this world - and show up when volcanoes start erupting.

Reaver’s a lich, an ancient being known for high magical capacity and brittle constitution. They’re hard to kill without also finding what item or thing keeps them on the mortal plane. Reaver is of course a fist mage and has spent his entire undeath learning how to punch things in the face really, really hard. Records don’t indicate when Reaver was created, but it’s likely he spawned into existence within the last few hundred years as there’s no record of him before that. Reaver serves the active Dark Lord without question, he swore fealty once upon a time and Sakura’s half convinced the Dark Lord line itself might be his phylactery. With that info she can safely conclude that whatever Reaver reports to Saruka will be accurate and she might have more bargaining power soon assuming the skeleton man gets back quickly and doesn’t dawdle in Sakura Country. He might play in a pool or something, they have those now.

Next is Samael, the second Dark Knight, she is a spider woman of holy flame. She’s the youngest of the three, and that’s all the info that’s really gotten on her because she’s just that young and people in this world wait like a hundred years before chronicling someone’s legacy. She’s apparently a dragon slayer, which is an interesting way to learn that this world has dragons.

Next is, “oh I wouldn’t read anything about Akari, it’s bound to be false.” One wouldn’t think a massive soul could sneak up on her, but in this tower there’s a lot of power. It’s basically like having permanently blocked sinuses.

Her gaze leaves the book to take in the person looking over her shoulder and she finds the illustration is very accurate. Samael is very shameless with clothes that Anko would probably appreciate. They show off a lot of skin, and they’re black so they show off just how pale her stomach and legs are. They’re very tight on her body and practically made of straps. The only part about her that could be called covering is the mantle that turns into more of a cloak. It’s big, dark, and stops around her knees. It’s buttoned up top at the front and nowhere else, Sakura gets the impression it’s probably enchanted.

She’s played a lot of games with worse combat outfits so what is she to judge? At least this woman got a mantle. “So what they say about speaking of the devil is true…” Sakura mumbles, and gets a nod from the woman. It makes heat flood to her face, she didn’t realize she’d be heard so easily, it seems she’s not the only one with ninja senses here.

“I don’t know how it is in your world, but in ours you won’t find any information on the living unless they are very old. Parchment is extremely rare and valuable and is used almost exclusively for record keeping.” She informs her with a little bit of boredom to her tone, plopping down in a seat beside Sakura without a care in the world. The seat creaks, implying she is a lot heavier than her thin and frail looking body might imply. Then again she’s apparently part spider despite it not being visible so anything is possible.

“That can’t be entirely true, there are thousands of books here and I read a children’s book earlier.” Sakura points out.

“There are thousands of books here because the richest nobles in the entire world are competing on how much to contribute to the neutral zone in an attempt to show each-other up. You can thank a man’s desire to measure himself down there for this place’s existence… I imagine that children’s book was also historic?”

“Well… yeah, but it was funny.” Sakura pouts a bit, looking around and seeing nothing colorful. They really live in a world without fantasy stories don’t they? Forget the water issue, that alone makes this a hellhole. “Okay then, tell me about yourself?” She looks into sharp eyes. Every monster in this world looks like they want to eat her at all times, it’s awkward. It’s not even intimidating, it's just hard to have a conversation like that. What do you say when you’re supposedly on the menu?

Luckily for her, Samael doesn’t seem bothered by her discomfort and answers quickly. “I am the leader of an anti-slavery faction, most of my time not spent on official duties is spent hunting down and putting a blade through slavers.” Samael gives her what she probably thinks is a kind smile, but those sharp teeth don’t play well with kindness.

“And Saruka won’t pay you for that? She paid me for getting rid of Fierro and I didn’t even know she existed.” Sakura points out, finally closing the apparently useless book.

“She does, but it’s not official business, it’s what I want to do with my day,” Samael manages to sound very proud of herself, “Fierro was a little different, necromantic slavers and normal slavers are different. Most slavers go around stealing monster children before booking it to the light lands to sell them to humans with exotic tastes. It’s uh… look they need to die, alright? And I love killing them, sooo… you get me?”

“Sure…” She does but that’s an odd way of putting it, so Sakura pauses a little and thinks through her statement? Monsters have children? Wouldn’t they be almost exclusively incompatible due to their different genus? She kind of assumed some mystical force spawned them into existence and the closest monster of their type was just like ‘this is my son!’ The whole hereditary strength thing just seemed like it based it off who was nearby, kind of like an area modifier in a game? She spent a long time not gamifying her life enough, now it turns out she’s doing it too much. She’s dehumanizing people… though they’re not human so does that term function? “That is terrible, but this whole three month contract thing is kind of slavery isn’t it? I didn’t hear anything about fair pay and negotiations. Even if it’s just three months…”

“Stipulating that was completely unnecessary,” Samael waves her hand in the air, “no one is going to abuse the contracts because we’re not going to abuse the contracts, so the lesser monster nobles won’t do it out of fear we might get angry, and the humans don’t want to be worse than us.”

“That seems… a little naive.” Sakura risks the insult, and is happy to see Samael at least doesn’t show disapproval.

In fact, she reaches over and rubs Sakura’s shoulder with a slightly longer than normal hand, “there might be a little foul play, I’ll admit, but it will need to be small enough that if it gets out it won’t shame them. Making a rule that you can’t do anything bad would insinuate we think they will, which might have started a fight instead of getting the magical crystals we needed to save more of your people. I wouldn’t worry too much, the King’ll play to our tune and so on. Though, if you’re still worried, why not work with me?”

“Work with you?” Sakura’s eyes narrow, so this is what she’s getting at. Now if only she knew what that means. She’s about to be told though so, she pays attention instead of doing what Gaara warned her about and thinking through their response.

“I am going to train, field, and use my contracts to help infiltrate the lands of light and hunt down slavers. They won’t be too noticeable because they’re human, so they’ll be able to move freely where I can’t and take down targets I’d never be able to touch. I’ll make sure they’re fed, clean, clothed and comfortable while they do the right thing by my side. I won’t try anything funny and when the three months is up I’ll even let them keep any equipment they’ve looted along the way.” Samael explains, finally letting go of Sakura’s shoulder to spin her chair around and lean back against the table. “You’re worried about some human playing with your friends, doing something irredeemable maybe? Give them to me. Write me a list of people who’ll definitely survive who you like, and I’ll take the lot of them. Assuming no one else takes them first…”

“What’s the catch?” Sakura finds herself sighing at that, of course it’s a game. It doesn’t sound too bad though, if she’s not a lying jerk attempting to figure out who she cares about so she can ruin them somehow. But what would be the motive for that? Her head hurts.

“You’ll also sign up with my guild,” The spider woman grins, “you’ll spend the three months by their side helping them do the job. You’ll kill slavers, get lots of experience, eat some human bastards…”

“I don’t um, eat people.” Sakura’s cheeks flood themselves with a little bit of green, “is that really how you get stronger here?” The nod she gets back isn’t a great sign, at least the hungry gazes on her have a context now, “so your offer is that you’ll help me if I help you. Three months of my life trekking across this world in exchange for the chance that you’re a good tactician or whatever the game requires and won’t let them die.”

“I will also let you consult me on how to help and work with them, what’s there to lose? Besides, if I have all your friends, you could use your turn to pick people you dislike and lead them to their deaths intentionally.” The woman’s finger twirls in the air as she speaks, Sakura chooses not to point out that she’s picking last which means she doesn’t get to pick at all she just has ten people assigned to her who weren’t picked before, “just think about it, alright? You have till tomorrow to decide, but I’m going third since Reaver gave me his spot so you better make a decision quickly.”

“I will think about it.” Sakura gulps at that, that’s a good offer but how does she know when people are lying with this shitty charm stat!?

Maybe the speculation portion will help?

[Name: Samael

Danger: Will gladly wrap you in web and suck out your nutrients

Title: 2nd Dark Lord, of Cleansing Flame

Brief Bio: Born to a relatively unimportant noble family, Samael killed and ate a dragon at a young age and leveled up to thirty overnight. She then used her power for her own means and her own whims, cutting her way through organizations she finds bad. She has her own form of justice and her own strange sense of right and wrong which makes her commonly argue with the Dark Lord. She is considered the most aggressively unloyal of the three Dark Knights, though they’ve been known to share a drink and rumor has it a bedroom.

Speculation: Samael is unlikely to be lying, but that doesn’t mean she’s being completely honest. Political figures, especially ones with little to gain and much to lose, thrive in environments where technically not lying is the same as telling the truth.]

She gets the feeling that level thirty in this world and level thirty in her world mean different things… She hella couldn’t kill a dragon below level thirty and by very nature to level up to thirty Samael had to be below.

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“Heheee, you’re cute.” It’s midway through a book about previous games held here a long time ago - nothing useful so far the tech wasn’t even remotely similar and the descriptions are bad - when a melodic voice catches her attention. Bare feet, short legs, and one giant white nighty with a big white cap on her head as if she snuck out of bed.

“A monster child is here?” She’ll admit she didn’t pay much attention to who was at the table at the time, it was all so overwhelming and there were so many people. Sharp red eyes - not that that’s uncommon here - and white hair brighter than snow all spiky and messy like Naruto’s are on display in front of her. She can’t help but try to take her in and come to a conclusion about what’s going on here. “Did you sneak out of your room?”

“I couldn’t just be here on my own?” The girl asks with an almost malicious looking tilt of her head. Her grin splits her face too much, it’s creepy. It sends shivers down Sakura’s spine and shoulders and little shocks through her entire body. Smiles aren’t supposed to be that long, the term ‘ear to ear’ isn’t meant to be literal! And in that mouth, all she sees is the void.

Despite the sudden sweat on her brow as she breaks out of her stupor, she manages to form her words. “Well I mean, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t get dressed if you weren’t sneaking around your parents, um, miss?”

“Akari.” The girl chimes like a bell, and Sakura finally takes a moment with her wide eyes to scan

[Name: Akari

Danger: Unreadable

Title: Unreadable, suspected 3rd Dark Lord

Brief Bio: The system cannot read this individual, it is unsure she exists

Speculation: It is likely the 3rd Dark Lord possesses some ability which distances her from reality, you should treat her as a dangerous and formidable foe until told otherwise]

“Ah, I’m Sakura of Bone-”

“I know that title’s fake, everyone knows that title is fake.” The girl gives her a flat and pouty look, “I’m two hundred years old by the way, you’re lucky you didn’t call me a child in front of people, I’d have to punish you.”

‘Well it’s your fault for walking around in that form’, is what she’d like to say. But she also likes living, and who knows maybe that just really is her true form and not some kind of monster henge. That’d suck, Sakura doesn’t even like being twelve, being like eight for eternity would be terrible. She really hopes she grows up and the system doesn’t keep her like this. That’d make the Ino thing really awkward as the years go on wouldn’t it…

“We should talk.” The small girl with the small head and the small body and - well really Sakura would like to call her smol and squeeze her tight - the small hands claps them together in front of her chest and wears a grin some would call shit eating. The issue is that the phrase never made any sense to Sakura.

“Alright…” What is her luck today? This can’t be a coincidence.