Golden hair as if woven from sunlight and pointed ears, the hallmark of a race of beauty.
The princess, despite these traits, paradoxically had nothing to her na.
In a dark, unlit room where electricity was a rare luxury, there were only a creaky bed that groaned with every movent and a desk piled high with guns and their components.
That was it.
“...”
Silently, she loaded magazines and inspected her weapons.
Click! Click! Click!
The massive sniper rifle that had once terrified her was now her sole companion and lifeline.
‘I’m so tired.’
After finishing her preparations, the girl set the goggles she had been wearing aside and sat down on the edge of the bed.
She didn’t lie down. Instead, she buried her face in her hands, taking deep, asured breaths.
These monts of stillness had grown more frequent whenever she found herself alone.
She almost wished she could stay like this forever.
‘Mother... Father...’
Her life in Tigrova was nothing more than a faint mory.
The last thing she recalled was reading a picture book in a grand room, waiting for her parents to return.
Those were her childhood days, spent in a luxurious room, unaware of the tragedy about to unfold.
She had been far too young to understand or learn anything aningful, far too immature to develop a solid sense of self.
Then, one day, the elders had abruptly co to her, telling her they had to flee, pulling her into a life on the run.
Amidst the confusion of their hurried escape, she overheard fragnts of conversations: that the newly crowned ruler of Tigrova, the Great White Tiger, had murdered her parents.
The elders said the royal family had to be exterminated, and the princess had to flee to survive.
It was too cruel a tale for a child to bear.
With her mind shattered, the young princess had no ti to process her emotions before being molded into a weapon—raised in the wilderness to reclaim Tigrova.
“Princess, humans and beastfolk are tainted with vile blood, akin to demons.”
“Do not speak to races other than elves. They are liars, deceitful with every word they speak.”
“You are the last royal bloodline. You must lead and take responsibility for us.”
“Are you doubting us? Has your thirst for vengeance for the late king waned?”
“We will uphold you as our princess no matter what. Our existence itself is your proof.”
‘My head hurts.’
The sa words had been drilled into her for as long as she could rember.
So often repeated that they now echoed as phantom voices in her mind. She even heard them in her dreams.
“...”
Yet, the girl’s resolve was firm.
Though she had suffered psychological tornt for so long, her spirit remained intact, her doubts from the past never entirely erased.
The elders had no idea.
‘I need to find a way back to the city.’
The elders vehently opposed any external contact, claiming that royal blood should not mingle with commoners.
The first ti she was caught sneaking out, she was scolded so severely it left her traumatized.
But she hadn’t given up.
She needed evidence to validate her actions.
She needed to fully understand what had happened on the day Tigrova’s ruler changed.
The princess had tried to uncover the truth while avoiding the elders' watchful eyes, but publicly available information was limited.
No matter how much she searched, she could find no definitive account of her parents' fate.
The most she could uncover was that Tigrova’s leadership had shifted from elves to a white tiger beastfolk.
‘There must be information sowhere...’
Knock, knock, knock.
The knocking at the door ended her reverie.
Her brief mont of rest was over, and her face lifted from her hands to face reality.
“Princess, are you there?”
It was the voice of an elder.
Suppressing the suffocating sensation that gripped her, she answered.
“What is it?”
“Distinguished guests will be arriving shortly. Please go out to et them.”
“...”
For so reason, her body refused to respond.
She was too ntally drained to move, but she couldn’t tell the elder that.
When the silence stretched on, the elder spoke again in their familiar, authoritative tone.
“Guests of honor deserve proper reception. With the late king gone, it is only fitting for you, Princess, to fulfill this role.”
“...Understood.”
She barely managed to suppress a sigh.
Rising from the bed, the princess began to arm herself lightly.
***
Rohan stepped into the night streets, quickly adjusting the settings on his smartphone.
He ensured that no sound or vibration would alert him to incoming calls or ssages.
As he was tweaking the settings, he noticed that Ichinose's profile picture had changed to a cat.
"Cute."
The small detail sohow felt like a good on, as if things were starting to fall into place. His steps felt lighter.
"Let’s go."
He checked the route in the bustling downtown area and boarded a bus that was just about to depart.
It was past rush hour, so there were plenty of seats available.
After inserting his token, he found a seat. The faint sll of alcohol lingered in the air, likely from a reveler still enjoying the afterglow of their night out, even though no office workers were in sight.
"..."
Rohan cracked a window slightly to let in so fresh air, clearing the atmosphere. Breathing in the crisp air, he began to ntally organize his thoughts.
"The main story begins with Act One of The Broken Crown."
He reviewed the internet news and quest logs again, ticulously checking for anything he might have missed.
In the unsteady confines of the bus, his sharp eyes scanned the text.
[Thirty-sothing content creator vanishes while filming in a restricted zone.
— Tracing the last call with a friend suggests he was ambushed during filming. According to Elysium Security Departnt's disclosed data, only a severed leg was found at the scene...]
"That’s just a mistake born from chasing shock value and heading straight into their territory."
That was all there was to the event's origin—nothing more, nothing less.
Players of Abyss City neither knew the content creator’s channel nor cared about his appearance. To them, he was simply the catalyst for the main quest.
"The key point is..."
The culprits behind the incident had already fled far away.
They weren’t hired for a specific job—they committed the cri purely for entertainnt. It was rely a habit of theirs on their way to et the elderly elves who had hired them.
Rohan’s gaze shifted to his quest window. He closed it after one last glance, then tilted his head back to look at the bus ceiling.
"Those scum."
The old elves, desperate to reclaim their lost glory by using the princess as a pawn, knew they only had one chance. They also knew what failure would an.
Thus, their actions were cautious and insidious.
"..."
To confiscate those decrepit elves’ dentures, Rohan’s targets were similar to his previous foes but still different.
Though their primary task involved monitoring Noah Frozenheart’s movents and routines, that wasn’t their only purpose.
The group also sought to identify any bodyguards that her father, Emperor Tigrova, might have secretly placed to protect her.
"They’re not directly putting Noah in danger."
However, the rcenaries they employed were much more expensive and professional than the Yard-Pound brothers. Skilled in theft and surveillance, they were perfectly suited for dirty work.
Thanks to them, Rohan was replaying the Abyss City launch day in his mind. He tried to recall every tantalizing detail of the main story.
"To figure out the mastermind from the start..."
The quest began by gathering scattered pieces of information from citizens murmuring about ominous news, leading to the identification of the location of the disappearance.
The next step involved exploring several suspected accident sites and encountering patrolling guards who restricted entry.
The third step was sneaking past the Elysium Security guards into the restricted area to collect evidence.
Completing these steps would reveal a rough location marked on the map, prompting further exploration.
"If I follow the ga’s process, I’ll be slower than the actual guards. Besides, sneaking past them like in the ga isn’t even feasible."
The Elysium Security Departnt wasn’t so incompetent law enforcent group.
Tasked with protecting Academy City, they were highly skilled, with stringent entry requirents for their ranks—a detail frequently ntioned in the ga but not fully appreciated until now, in this reality.
Thus, Rohan decided to skip the interdiate steps and go straight for the conclusion.
While skipping steps might create unforeseen ripples in reality, it was the only clear solution he had at the mont.
"Next stop: ..."
Beep!
Rohan pressed the stop button and got off the bus.
***
Even though they called it Academy City, there were still areas that didn’t quite live up to that na.
Rohan retraced his mories, stepping under a dark bridge, and arrived at an industrial district left unfinished after a corporate bankruptcy halted its developnt.
He walked as quietly as possible, staying in the shadows and avoiding the dim, flickering streetlights.
"They’re here."
As he ventured deeper, he spotted three vehicles with their engines running: a dump truck loaded with containers and two sedans.
Two vehicles were running but had empty driver’s seats. The only occupied one was the front sedan, where a man was chuckling at sothing on his smartphone, illuminating his surroundings.
Tattoos covering his body marked his affiliation, excluding his face.
"The rest must be scouting around."
There was no one lying in wait or hiding nearby.
Though there were no passengers, Rohan spotted a firearm resting on the passenger seat beside the man.
"..."
Rohan closed his eyes, focusing his ears. Beyond the low rumble of the engines, he could hear the faint sounds of tal clinking and distant laughter.
"Good. It’s now or never."
The others were far enough away that if he acted, it had to be now.
Moving with purpose, Rohan crept into an ideal position.
"As fast as possible."
This wasn’t the agreed eting place between the criminals and the elves.
However, their nature as scavengers couldn’t be helped. Like sparrows drawn to grain mills, they had stopped here to scavenge for valuables and dispose of bodies.
Rustle.
Rohan crouched low, carefully avoiding any unnecessary noise. He grabbed a handful of weeds growing from cracks in the pavent and dipped them into a puddle of muddy water.
The harsh night wind worked to his advantage.
Thwack!
Rohan threw part of the damp weeds, letting them stick to the car’s side mirror like loose strands of hair.
It wasn’t enough to obstruct driving, but the fluttering movent was irritating.
The driver must have noticed.
Whirrr— The sedan’s window rolled down.
"Damn it... so filthy."
The man cursed, leaning out to brush away the weeds.
Seizing the opportunity, Rohan gripped a knife tightly and sprang forward, slamming the man’s arm down violently.
Crunch!
The arm bent in a direction it was never ant to.
The man’s eyes widened in shock, his mouth and stomach heaving as he prepared to scream.
"Shh."
Before the man could make a sound, Rohan shoved a sock into his mouth and drove his knife into his throat in one swift motion.
"Mmmph! Mmph—!"
Twisting the blade cruelly, Rohan silenced him for good.
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