An Audience with the King

King Hinata Oninomiya’s impassive eyes hardened when I mentioned Gina. But maybe he was just wincing from how loud the moans of his harem were. I was too far away to really tell. 

“Your traveling companion Ms. Chest? She is in the dungeon,” he said. His voice, still steady and hard to hear, was now colored by annoyance. But again, was that from the thought of Gina or from the horde of women surrounding him and begging for his attention?

His answer relieved me more than I expected. The terrified look on Gina’s face was still seared into my mind, and I had spent the past few hours separated from her thinking of the very worst possible situations. But Gina, at the very least, was still alive and now I knew for sure where she was. But the question remained…

“Why?” I asked.

The king jerked his head toward me. I had interrupted him patting most of the heads of his female entourage. 

“Because she’s a thief,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, I already know what class she is. How does that give you any right to detain her?”

The king shooed his girls away as he leaned forward with exasperated eyes.

“I mean that she is legally classified as a thief,” he said. His voice was only barely more audible.

I took a step forward. “I get that I’m rather new here,” I said, “but even I have a basic awareness of how classes work. Is class racism a good enough excuse to throw her in the dungeon?”

Somehow his voice grew more disdainful. “I threw her in the dungeon because she has been tried as guilty for theft of personal property. And before you try saying ‘But that’s what thieves do,’ realize that the class of thief is different from the criminal label of thief.”

“But that’s… so confusing.”

“That’s simply how things are, Mr. Mizuhara. Thieves as an in-game class are meant to steal from dungeons. They can sneak in and sneak out without alerting the monsters inside and pilfer the loot without direct confrontation. Ms. Chest on the other hand steals from other people. Rich people. Poor people. NPCs. Players. It does not matter to her. She will do whatever it takes to reach her end goal.”

His words gave me pause. Calling Gina a criminal was a hefty accusation. She had done so much to help me this far. But I barely knew her. We had spent a few days adventuring, but that was it. That’s no way to truly judge her character. And if I was being completely honest with myself, there was always something rubbing me the wrong way about Gina. It was a small, nagging feeling in the back of my mind, small enough that I ignored it to focus on the quest.

But there was something a little… off about it all. Because she did do so much for me. Why? Just because it was in her programming as an NPC?

And though I had the smallest of doubts, that was no grounds for this royal asshole’s behavior. So I said as much.

“True as that may be, a petty thief getting thrown into the royal dungeon is overkill.”

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards. I get that it was supposed to be a smug grin but it contorted his face in nauseating ways.

“What’s ‘petty’ about two hundred thousand gold pieces?” he asked. “Or five whole dragon scales? Or a bottle of wine from Ten-Toed Ulrich’s personal collection?”

With each item he named my eyebrows creeped higher and higher up my forehead. He was rattling off things I had never known, words I had never heard. He spent half a minute outlining all of Gina’s exploits. It looks like her parents’ superstitious practice paid off; Gina plundered many a ginormous chest. 

By the time he finished his tirade, the grin had grown three sizes into the dumbest full-face smirk I had ever seen. It was horrific.

“Is that reason enough?” His harem ooh’d and giggled, eager to see their king be an absolute sigma male. His smugness only made my blood boil even more. The worst part was that he was technically in the right. If Gina really did do all those things, then there’s nothing I could argue against that. 

Even still, I couldn’t let her rot away in a cell.

“Look, she’s helping me. I need her help and guidance—”

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk with you about,” King Hinata said. He dialed down his bitterness just a smidge, enough to get my attention. “I hear that you are trying to rescue someone, yes?”

The girls focused on whatever Oninomiya focused on. And in this case, that was me. Having all those pairs of eyes on me was uncomfortable. They gazed at me without malice, but with a strange clinical air. Like I was an animal under a microscope. I did my best to not squirm.

“Yeah. My brother Chouji,” I said. I didn’t completely trust this guy, but at the same time I had no reason to lie to him about my motive. And that was assuming that he didn’t know this already. “I have to kill the Demon King to save him.”

Peter pulled back a fist.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” I cried out.

King Hinata nodded and for a lone moment embodied the royal aura expected of a king.

“A noble goal,” he said. “Saving both the world and a loved one. But you don’t need Gina anymore.” He spread his hands out as he looked around. “You have all the resources you would ever need to become a fine warrior. You only have a few days to accomplish this task, after all.”

I counted the days in my head to double-check, but it was the same amount as in the carriage.

“Three.”

Again, King Hinata nodded. “It won’t be easy, but the resources available here, it will be possible. You’ve out grown the need for a…” He tapped his chin in a manner that struck me as facetious. “What was the term? ‘Tutorial NPC’?”

“I don’t know Your Majesty, there’s still a whole lot I don’t know about this world. I need some guidance.”

“And you can get plenty of guidance from the best advisors in the kingdom. It would probably serve you better than the teachings of some wanton pilferer. Who might be using you.” King Hinata’s eyes were daggers.

I stomped two paces towards the throne. Peter leaped in between me and the king, and the groupies clustered together around him. Hinata Oninomiya, that insufferable prick, did not react.

“You don’t know that!” I screamed, jabbing a finger at him. “You couldn’t possibly know that!”

My bellows echoed against the barren walls. I could only hear the roar of blood rushing through my ears and my own ragged breathing. Once the echo died, King Hinata stood up. 

“You’re right,” he said, his voice filling the hall. “I don’t know. But it is a possibility. You’ve never wondered why Gina has been helping you?”

“Shut up! You said it yourself, it’s because she’s a tutorial NPC!” I had no idea where this anger was coming from. But I couldn’t stop it, and this asshole couldn’t either. I was even losing the ability to control my manners, not like he deserved any.

Oninomiya shook his head. “You truly do not know her, Mr. Mizuhara. There is no need to be defending her so brazenly. Be honest with yourself; has your journey been going smoothly with her? Are you confident that she will be able to defeat the Demon King with you? I am simply trying to help you.”

That got my eyebrow raised.

“And why’s that? At least I know Gina to some degree. I’d much rather accept her help than yours,” I said.

And now Hinata was back to being bored and meek. His voice lost all temerity and my ears strained to catch the words.

“It is the duty of a king to assist his people. The people of this world are too timid and afraid to fight the Demon King head on. We’ve been in a cold war with the demonic powers for many years now, and you are the exact kind of spunky upstart we need to change things.”

He sat back down. His harem went back to curling around him. Peter lowered his fist just a tad.
“So what will it be? I can let you talk to Gina, silver-tongued as she may be. Let her manipulate her if it would make you happier. Or you can be assisted by all the might of the royal power.”

I wrung my hands like I was trying to get the sweat out of them. It’s a warmup I do whenever I’m nervous, helps me prepare for a big game. And for whenever I make a big decision. This smug asshole was right and he knew it. Right now, I didn’t need Gina. Who was allegedly a criminal. And might be using me to gain access to the Demon King’s cabal coffers, the most ginormous chest of all.