The Legendary Game (1)
“What? His Majesty sent you?”
Not long after Witch Hunter was released, someone from the Imperial Palace came looking for me.
At first glance, she was a beautiful woman, but she radiated an unmistakably cold air.
Just looking at her, I could tell she probably worked in some unusual line of business.
“My name is Selen of the Imperial Intelligence Department. As of today, I have been assigned as your bodyguard.”
“My bodyguard…?”
“Yes. His Majesty ordered me to protect you.”
“But I don't need a bodyguard.”
I was somewhat bewildered that they had suddenly sent someone over claiming to be my bodyguard.
A bodyguard……
Was I really that important?
“With all due respect, Baron, you are an irreplaceably important person to the Empire.”
“Me? I'm just a mage and game developer.”
“Because of that one mage, the Empire is developing at a dazzling pace. Were you truly unaware of that?”
“Well… it's not like I didn't know.”
To be honest, I was aware of it.
It was just that I hadn't made my games with any of that in mind, and I didn't particularly care what effect they had on the Empire.
I simply wanted to make games and make this world a little more entertaining.
Of course, it was true that the games I'd made were affecting the Empire, so it was also true that I needed to be careful about how I conducted myself.
Still, I wondered whether someone who was only a ‘baron’ really needed protection from the imperial household.
“You may not be aware of this… but hostile individuals have already attempted to approach you.”
“What? Seriously? Who?”
“Agents from other nations. I cannot give you the details, but some of them were attempting to abduct you.”
The word abduction sent a chill through me.
Of course, I couldn't tell whether she was telling the truth or simply trying to scare me, but it was more than enough to put me on alert.
Whether the kidnapping attempts had actually happened or not, it meant the imperial household had a reason to strengthen my security.
Having foreign royal families or comparable powers take an interest in me wasn't exactly a good thing.
They might merely have intended to offer me business proposals or try to win me over.
But if they concluded that the Empire's rapid growth was because of me, there was also a very real possibility that they might try to eliminate or abduct me.
“…Thank you for preventing such things.”
“We merely did our duty. From now on, please treat me as your subordinate. And externally, please keep my true identity confidential.”
So officially, she was going to be my subordinate……
Apparently, she'd been given a cover identity as a new recruit in the Development Department.
“A subordinate… Then you'll actually have to work under me. Are you all right with that?”
“Of course. I will refuse no task. If necessary, I will even stake my life-”
“Th-There won't be anything like that, so please don't worry.”
I answered with a serious expression.
I didn't know whether she'd been joking, but something told me she genuinely would put her life on the line.
Was this really going to be all right?
Anyway……
I had somehow ended up with a beautiful bodyguard I'd never expected to have in my life.
Was this what you called moving up in the world?
“In any case, many people have their eyes on you. The most unforgivable among them are the Kingdom of Valentia.”
“Valentia… They've been the Empire's longtime rival.”
The Kingdom of Valentia wasn't exactly an enemy nation of the Empire at present……
But the two countries regarded each other as rivals.
Valentia in particular considered itself culturally superior to the Empire.
It was somewhat surprising that even a country like that was after me.
“Those bastards are truly shameless. Even destroying their entire kingdom would not satisfy me.”
“Did they try to abduct me too?”
“No. They did not attempt to abduct you. However…….”
“However…?”
She continued, looking genuinely furious.
“They are copying your magnificent games.”
Even I stared at her in shock.
My games were being plagiarized.
Technically, it was plagiarism of plagiarism.
***
This story went back some time.
While the otherworld hero(not) Ian was enthusiastically copying masterpiece games from Earth, the other kingdoms began wondering about something.
“Has the Empire not been developing far too quickly lately?”
“Just what in the world is happening there?”
Until recently, the Empire had been in a fairly unremarkable state both internally and externally.
Then, all of a sudden, it began developing rapidly in both military and economic terms.
The Empire had constantly suffered invasions from northern barbarians, who periodically pillaged its territory and weakened its national strength.
Then suddenly, it organized modernized forces armed with weapons called guns and defeated them with ease.
That wasn't all.
It built enormous ships loaded with naval cannons, expanded across the seas, and began generating tremendous wealth through trade(with a side of piracy).
Wondering what had caused the Empire to develop so rapidly, the various kingdoms used their own intelligence networks to investigate.
The Kingdom of Valentia was one of them.
“A game? Do you mean something played with dice or cards?”
“Your Majesty, it is not such a thing. It is said to be a form of entertainment enjoyed through artifacts created with illusion magic.”
Eventually, they received intelligence that the reason behind the Empire's rapid development was something called games that had become popular there.
The King of Valentia found that difficult to understand.
All this because of mere magical toys?
“Hmph. At best, it must be some vulgar amusement made by Imperials. The reports must be mistaken somehow. Still, since the intelligence has reached us, I suppose we should investigate.”
As the king of a culturally advanced nation, the King of Valentia possessed tremendous cultural pride.
He assumed that these games popular in the Empire couldn't possibly amount to much.
And so, he tried ‘Civilization Development.’
That was where everything began.
“Damn it! Why are they declaring a surprise war on me?! I was only peacefully selling blue jeans!”
Unfortunately, just as the Empire's emperor had before him, the King of Valentia boarded the time machine.
“Gasp! Is it already this late?! What a terrifying thing…….”
Having fallen under the game's spell, the King of Valentia immediately went to great lengths to obtain Ian's other games as well.
Honorlord.
Age of Great Voyages.
And recently, even Witch Hunter.
Every one of those games stirred him deeply.
And eventually, he lamented.
“To think the Empire has created such magnificent works while we cannot. How deplorable…….”
Having become obsessed with games, the King of Valentia immediately ordered the kingdom's mages to make games of their own.
But the mages shook their heads.
“The magic used to create these games cannot be imitated easily.”
“They must have been created by someone who has mastered illusion magic. Even the production process is kept secret, making it difficult to uncover.”
“And it is not merely the magic. The ideas, concepts, and designs contained in these games are not things we can easily imitate either.”
“Even if we managed to copy them, whether we could produce games of comparable quality…….”
The mages couldn't match the standard of Ian's games.
His level of illusion magic was one problem, but people who knew absolutely nothing about games had no chance of easily matching the standard of modern games Ian was copying from Earth.
The only things they managed to create through great difficulty were crude imitation games, and none of them satisfied the king.
If anything, they merely gave him an inferiority complex over the fact that Valentia had fallen behind the Empire ‘culturally.’
“Urgh! Then bring me the man they call the ‘Sage of Games’! Spend whatever fortune is necessary to bring him here and persuade him to become a subject of our kingdom!”
In the end, the king attempted to solve the problem by winning over the ‘Sage of Games’ who had supposedly created them.
The Kingdom of Valentia was a cultural powerhouse and possessed considerable wealth, so he believed they could surely lure Ian over.
Yet strangely enough, neither spies nor diplomats could even approach him.
The Empire's Intelligence Department intervened and blocked them from the outset.
“Damn it! That old emperor bastard anticipated us and acted first!”
That sly old fox of an emperor had already recognized the value of games.
In truth, other nations had attempted similar things, and some had even tried kidnapping Ian.
But Valentia had earned particular hostility.
The reason was that, so far, it was the only nation obsessed enough with ‘games’ to actually produce copies.
In truth, the other nations were more interested in the Empire's technological development than the games themselves.
Guns, for example.
Or the technologies used to build ships.
But those technologies were also guarded under strict secrecy, leaving them with no way to steal them.
So they targeted Ian, the man who had presented the concepts behind those technologies through his games.
In any case, the Kingdom of Valentia had been the most enthusiastic nation in trying to recruit Ian, and as a result, it was being watched more closely than any other.
The King of Valentia, unaware of that fact, could only grow increasingly frustrated.
“There is no helping it. Then we shall formally import their games instead. We will use the imported games to encourage the development of our own.”
Driven to desperation, the King of Valentia decided to swallow his pride and officially import games from the Empire.
For a king as culturally proud as him, the idea that Valentia lagged behind the Empire in any aspect of culture was intolerable.
Naturally, because of Valentia's previous attempts to obtain Ian, the emperor initially intended to refuse the exports.
But before long, he reversed that decision.
“You want us to export games to those Valentia bastards?”
“That is correct, Your Majesty.”
The reason was simple.
Ian had asked him to.
“Why?”
“If we look at it objectively, wouldn't exporting them actually benefit the imperial finances?”
“Hmm. That is true. But those bastards are attempting to copy your games. Do you not find that offensive?”
“Not particularly.”
“Hmm? You do not?”
The emperor looked surprised, while Ian merely gave a bitter smile.
For one thing, Ian himself had been copying games from Earth from the very beginning, so he wasn't exactly in a position to complain about piracy or plagiarism.
Of course, the imperial household also held a stake in the games Ian created, so it would protest Valentia's actions on that basis.
But that wasn't really something Ian cared about.
The real problem lay elsewhere.
“It would be difficult for me to feel offended… because the games they made were far too crude.”
“…Were they? Well, I tried several myself, and they were all pathetic imitations compared to yours.”
“Yes. That's why I simply want to teach them a thing or two. My successors… or rather, I'd like to give some hints to people who want to make games themselves.”
All Ian wanted was to create more games and spread them throughout this world.
So if copying his games helped establish a gaming culture, he actually welcomed it.
The problem was that the quality was simply too poor.
No, to be fair, some of them weren't bad.
The problem was that they were nothing more than imitation.
The defining trait of copycat games was that they merely copied the original gameplay, showing neither originality nor room for growth.
As a result, their creators kept producing copies and becoming trapped by them.
Several games in particular seemed to have been influenced by Witch Hunter's graphics and had become excessively obsessed with visual presentation.
That was exactly what disappointed Ian.
They had become far too focused on creating flashy appearances.
‘You can make a good game without doing that.’
That was precisely what Ian wanted to show them.
He wanted to demonstrate that a game didn't need to obsess over graphics to be good.
“Hmm… I understand your intentions, but would that not simply create more competitors?”
“Your Majesty, monopolies are not always a good thing. There is a limit to how much the game market can grow if I'm the only person making games. The more widespread gaming culture becomes, the greater the demand for my own games will become as well.”
“Market demand… That must be another economic concept from ‘Civilization Development.’”
The emperor nodded and soon accepted Ian's decision.
From his perspective, it wasn't exactly a bad arrangement for either the Empire or the imperial household.
“Then what game do you intend to show them?”
“I plan to show them something simple but entertaining. A game anyone can enjoy.”
There was a game that fit those conditions perfectly.
Simple.
Intuitive.
Entertaining.
“Tetrix.”
A game regarded as legendary in the history of gaming on Earth.