Infinitum Crystals - Conquest of Virtue [4]

Chapter 5.15 - White - The Empress of Violet Empire

Blanc and Shiro decided to follow me and so, we created a party of some sort. Our next plan was to go and meet the empress of the city that we were in at the time, Violet Empire. I asked Blanc and Shiro to cause some chaos as a distraction for the guards guarding the main gate.

In a few minutes after we've discussed our plans, Shiro can be seen walking toward the main gate.

"Halt. Commoners are not allowed to enter this area." A guard told him so.

Shiro raised both of his arm and said, "Oh don't worry Mr.Guard. I'm not trying to get inside. I'm just wondering how are you doing today. It must be boring having to stand guard over here all day."

The guard doesn't respond. Shiro however continues to talk to the guard. The guard was getting annoyed until his friends interrupted Shiro saying that he should leave.

"Oh come on. I'm just trying to brighten up your boring day."

Then suddenly, "There you are! I've been looking for you, maniac!"

"Oh no..." Shiro acted as if he was surprised.

Blanc was furious as she was then seen together with a huge sword on her hand.

"No escaping now, you ungrateful guy." Blanc acted as if she was angry over some misunderstanding.

"Hey, can you two settle this somewhere else?" said one of the guards.

"This is our business and you don't get yourself into this unless you want to be in a world of pain!" Blanc roared at the guard.

"How dare you raise your voice to a guard." warned the guard.

Blanc then replied, "Like I care!" She then swung her sword toward Shiro.

Shiro successfully jumped away from it and landed on a fruit stall nearby. Blanc then rushed to him and accidentally destroyed the fruit stall. This keeps on going until the guards decided to intervene.

As the chaos began to rustles around the main gate. I took the opportunity to scale the walls and enter the castle. There was a problem though. The entrance was guarded. I ended up deciding to climb the whole castle itself. It was a tough order to be asking but I had no other choice but to climb to the highest window I could reach.

Several minutes have passed and I believed that Blanc and Shiro was already being chased away by the guards. Which means that there's no turning back for me now as I kept on climbing the castle walls. Window by window, scaffold to another scaffold. I took a short rest on one of the roof before continuing to another level. It was then I reached a balcony of some sort.

I heard a voice coming nearby. I decided to hang below the balcony hanging and chimed in.

"It's been a couple of months already and this game is not over yet. What is taking them so long...If I were to be motivated then I might just win this easily to be honest."

There she was, the empress of Violet Empire. She was talking to herself.

"But still..." the empress stops and said, "You shouldn't eavesdrop a lady like that, assassin."

Having heard that, I revealed myself as I climbed up and jumped into the balcony.

"I'm no assassin." I told her. "What's up, Yumiko?"

The Empress of Violet is of course, Yumiko Ileana Pavlova. Who else would make an empire as profitable as Violet. Plus, her empire was called Violet. That's her familiar's name. There was no doubt that my guess would not be wrong especially when all of the clue was right in my face all this time.

"It's nice to see you having a change in scenery, White. Usually I'm the one who sneaks around."

"Glad to meet you..." I undesirably greeted her.

"What brings you here?" she asked.

Then I told her about the chaotic purple cloud the other day.

"I see what's going on now. In fact, I've been waiting for you to come. You are...3 days late." she told me.

"You're expecting me?"

Yumiko then sat on a luxurious chair as she said, "Of course. Only the two of us are able to remember what is going on here. Let me tell you, apparently something is going on outside the game."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"I was pulled out of the game momentarily by Violet. Just in time before I got caught by that cloud."

"I see." I laid my back on a wall.

She continued, "From what I'm able to gather, this cloud clearly blocks off specific parts of our memory. I've met a couple of other lords recently and they only know me as 'Your Excellency' here. They don't seem to remember anything about Infinite Academy."

"That's my assumption as well. So then...this is where we are now..."

"Indeed." She nodded. "I also notice that I can't manually log out of the game. I feel like this isn't just a single person sabotaging this game."

"You think so?"

She theorized, "My guess would be that one of them is somewhere out there in Virtue while the other sits behind a monitor as they manipulated the Virtual Dive systems. I've been recently noticed that some of the AIs I have had an unsatisfied regards. That's unusual for an AI unless true real emotion has already implemented in the Virtual Dive."

"But that's not the case, right?" I told her.

"Yes. I've read a couple of the tutorials and they never mentioned to take care of my AIs properly. But then again, I took care of them as if they are my plaything that I need to use. So I'm still a good empress."

"I guess so..."

"So why are you here, White?"

I looked at her and told, "I need your help, your excellency..." I reluctantly kneel in front of her.

It was unnerving as it was because I had to bow down in front of this bitch. But I don't hate her. I'm just annoyed by her actions most of the time. Where will this conversation go? Yumiko has the answers for that...

TO BE CONTINUED