No Throwing Chairs (2)
“Ian, you truly are a great blessing to the Empire.”
Around the time the fighting games I'd made were spreading throughout the Empire, the emperor summoned me.
He spoke with an even more solemn expression than usual.
He was praising me, but I had no choice but to bow my head.
“…I am undeserving of such praise, Your Majesty.”
“Undeserving? Thanks to you, the Empire is gaining more and more talented people.”
That much was true.
A new Swordmaster had emerged from the Knight Order, mages had begun training battle mages who specialized in practical combat magic, and martial artists practicing all kinds of martial arts had begun appearing among the common people.
All of it had happened after I made fighting games.
“I, too, am pleased to see such talented people increasing in number. But the problem is that they are meaningless if the imperial household cannot bring them under its authority.”
“They are all Your Majesty's loyal subjects.”
“Indeed. But loyalty comes from authority backed by power. That is why rulers do not carelessly permit those beneath them to possess ‘power.’ Yet you have given them exactly that.”
The emperor was right.
Knights and mages, who had always been permitted to possess a certain degree of military power, were one thing……
But the ‘martial artists’ emerging through fighting games were somewhat problematic.
Most of them were commoners.
And commoners in this era weren't permitted to possess armed power.
In truth, regardless of time or place, it was normal for ordinary citizens not to be permitted to carry weapons freely.
Just like how you rarely saw people walking around with swords or guns in Korea.
What? America is different?
That's because it's America.
Anyway, this was a fairly serious problem.
Something I'd thought couldn't possibly happen had happened anyway.
People had actually started reproducing the martial arts from fighting games.
No, seriously, how does that make any sense……?
On Earth, copying a character firing an energy blast in a game wasn't going to make an actual energy blast shoot out of your hands.
But this was a world where magic truly existed.
Apparently, just as with ‘Witch Hunter,’ the ‘magical possibility’ contained within my games had manifested again.
I'd already anticipated and worried about something like this, but I hadn't expected it to go this far.
Honestly, as someone who merely made games, I wouldn't have cared much if it hadn't caused any problems.
One fortunate thing was that there weren't many masters capable of actually firing energy blasts from their hands.
Still, from the emperor's perspective, perhaps there was now a reason to regulate these ‘fighting games.’
Or possibly games themselves.
“Do not worry. I have no intention of banning your games. If anything, I intend to encourage them. I do not particularly dislike the emergence of excellent human resources.”
Fortunately, the emperor didn't seem to have any such intentions.
“However, the fact remains that they are only meaningful if we can bring them into the fold. Would you not agree?”
“That is correct, Your Majesty.”
“Then propose a method yourself. This situation arose because of you, so you should take responsibility for it.”
The emperor spoke with an amused expression.
It felt as though he was testing whether I could come up with a proper solution.
Considering how capable the emperor was, he'd probably already thought of one himself and was simply testing me.
If I gave him the ‘wrong answer,’ he'd probably be disappointed in me, and nothing good would come of that.
Fortunately, I had an idea.
“How about holding a tournament?”
“A tournament?”
“Yes. We gather the best fighting-game players representing various regions and organizations, have them compete to determine the strongest, and grant prizes in the name of the imperial household.”
What I had in mind was the World's Greatest Martial Arts Tournament.
Except instead of actual martial arts, they'd compete through fighting games.
By doing this, we could give those masters the identity of being ‘representatives of the Empire's various regions and organizations,’ binding them together under an Imperial identity.
Naturally, the authority of the imperial household that guaranteed and sponsored the competition would rise along with it.
It was similar to sports competitions where representative teams were formed around regions or organizations.
The intended effect was similar too.
“If the tournament continues to be held regularly while rotating the host location among different regions, they will continue competing with one another in order to win. Their loyalty toward the imperial household hosting the tournament should increase as well.”
“Not bad. We would not merely gain their loyalty. The provincial regions could naturally develop alongside the tournament.”
Apparently pleased with my answer, the emperor readily accepted the proposal.
And so, the first gaming tournament in another world came to be.
***
“Here is proof that the monster has been slain.”
Quite some time had passed since Ian released his new game.
As usual, Paul, a traditionalist knight, had slain a monster and was showing the villagers proof of its death.
It had been a cunning monster that had devoured five villagers.
He'd tracked it for three whole months before finally killing it.
When he presented proof that the monster was dead, the village chief visibly brightened.
“Thank you very much, Sir Knight. Here is the modest reward our village has prepared.”
“This is too much. I shall accept only half. Use the rest to care for the families of those who died.”
The village chief repeatedly tried to give him the entire reward, but Paul firmly refused.
Paul and the other traditionalist knights had sworn to practice noble chivalry.
Each time they fulfilled that oath, they felt their souls growing stronger.
Thanks to that, they did not shy away even from the hardships of hunting monsters.
“But the soul needs rest from time to time as well.”
Even the monster hunters in ‘Witch Hunter’ always rested after a difficult hunt.
They ate good food, drank alcohol, listened to the songs of bards, and met beautiful women.
A soul that remained hard at all times would eventually break, so one had to know how to let it rest.
Paul particularly enjoyed playing cards with the drinkers at his favorite tavern.
The card game's name was Gwen-
“…The tavern has changed considerably since I was last here.”
…But the tavern he visited after such a long absence looked completely different.
There were no bards singing beautiful songs.
No local drinkers loudly chatting over their alcohol.
No idle men flirting with barmaids while the embarrassed women made no effort to avoid them.
Everyone was sitting in front of ‘arcade cabinets,’ completely absorbed in playing games.
“Ah, we also operate as an ‘arcade’ now. Most taverns do these days.”
“My… The world has changed greatly in such a short time. Are all of these games made by Lord Ian?”
“By Lord Ian, do you mean the Sage of Games? Most of them are, but quite a few are not. Those are ‘arcade games’ made in Valentia.”
“Arcade?”
“I do not really know what the word means either, but I heard Lord Ian calls them that. Ah, come to think of it, Lord Ian has also released some new games.”
Lord Ian's new games!
Naturally, Paul's interest was immediately drawn to Ian's latest work.
It was unfortunate that he could no longer play the card game he liked, but he had no intention of missing a new game from Lord Ian.
What kind of game had he created after ‘Witch Hunter,’ which had practically become the bible of the traditionalist knights?
And so Paul began watching the tavern patrons play a fighting game.
“Oh? So one can either fight an imaginary opponent alone or battle the person beside them? I have never seen a game built around an idea like this.”
‘Honorlord’ also had elements where players could compete against other people, but unlike Honorlord, this game focused entirely on 1:1 combat.
Casual yet varied characters.
Extremely fast pacing.
It was quite impressive.
“Aaargh! You coward! You keep using nothing but cheap tricks!”
“Cheap tricks? This is skill! Blame your own lack of ability!”
“You bastard! Eat this!”
“Aaagh! Do not throw the chair!”
…And considering it could draw blood in real life too, perhaps it possessed a certain degree of practicality.
Paul quickly became curious about the game.
“I would like to try as well.”
“Hey, can't you see the coin I put down? It's my tur- Gasp! Sir Knight!”
“Ah, was it your turn? My apologies. I shall wait.”
“N-No! Please, you can go ahead!”
Paul was a well-known knight, so people quickly yielded their place to him and allowed him to try the game.
Among the many fighter characters with distinctive traits, one man immediately caught Paul's eye.
He wore red clothing and had hair standing stiffly upward like a spear.
“His name is Paul? The same as mine.”
The fact that they happened to share a name made Paul even more interested.
He immediately selected the character and began playing.
HAAH!
WHAM!
“Ohhh! Sir Knight won again!”
“As expected, this is a Deathfist trash game… No, of course, Sir Knight is simply very skilled.”
“Any more challengers? One more win and Sir Knight reaches ten victories in a row!”
Paul quickly became absorbed in the game.
He already possessed basic combat instincts, so despite playing for the first time, he adapted quickly and learned the game.
Before long, he was good enough to defeat several people in versus matches.
‘This is entertaining. I never knew fighting could be this much fun.’
Paul felt genuine excitement from simply competing against someone and winning.
Even though he'd lived his entire life as a knight, such exhilaration wasn't something he could experience easily.
Standing on a battlefield and participating in an honorable duel were both rare events, after all.
In particular, the attacks of this character named ‘Paul’ felt incredibly satisfying.
His attack patterns were somewhat simple, but whenever an attack connected, it dealt tremendous damage.
That suited the tastes of a knight like Paul perfectly, since knights aimed to end real fights with a single decisive blow.
Here Comes A New Challengers!
“Ohhh! A challenger!”
“Who is it? Gasp! That's Lady Lina!”
“Lina of House Williams! She's known around here as Undefeated Lina!”
Then a challenger appeared.
She was a beautiful young noblewoman.
When she saw Paul, she smiled brightly before taking hold of the arcade cabinet's joystick.
Paul thought he couldn't possibly fight a lady seriously.
He intended to take it easy and deliberately lose after putting up a reasonable fight.
WHAM! THUD! PERFECT!
…and was utterly demolished.
Paul was stunned.
He, a knight, had lost?
And by a perfect round?
“You're still inexperienced, Sir Knight. Well then, I'll see you again sometime.”
He challenged her several more times afterward, but every match ended in the same one-sided defeat.
Eventually, she left as though fighting him was no longer entertaining.
Rather than fuming because his pride had been wounded, Paul reviewed the reasons for his defeat.
And he realized that he still hadn't properly understood the game.
‘This isn't a game where you can win just by landing powerful techniques. Just like in real combat, you need to read your opponent's move and know how to counter it.’
Until then, like most ordinary gamers, Paul had only thought about successfully landing powerful moves on his opponent.
His combat instincts had allowed him to defeat most people with that alone.
But against a true master, it was useless.
What amazed him was that the level of those masters was impressive even from a knight's perspective.
Their attacks seemed to pose questions to their opponents, and if the opponent answered incorrectly, a merciless combo followed.
Conversely, they read their opponent's moves with uncanny accuracy and countered them.
That was equally important in real combat.
It was simply that, in actual battles, weapons were preferred over bare hands and everyone tried to kill their opponent in one blow, leaving few opportunities to repeatedly exchange offense and defense and hone that ability.
‘Reading my opponent's move and forcing my own move upon them… This is almost like a Dialogue of Swords……!’
The Dialogue of Swords.
The realm in which one could hear the language of the sword, said to be attainable only by Swordmasters.
The principles of that realm were hidden within this game.
The moment Paul realized that, chills ran across his body.
He had found an enlightenment that had eluded him for years.
“I must master this ‘Dialogue of Swords.’”
Strictly speaking, there weren't actually any swords involved in the conversation.
Even so, Paul began challenging masters from the very next day in order to reach the realm of enlightenment he'd discovered.
HAAH! WHAM!
PERFECT!
“Ghk, impressive. You defeated me already. But there are many masters stronger than I am.”
“Then I shall simply continue training until I defeat them as well.”
Before long, Paul defeated the noblewoman who had once crushed him.
After that, he traveled from arcade to arcade, defeating their masters.
“I, Julie of the Hundred Rending Kicks, will face you!”
“You cannot defeat my ‘Demon Scorcher,’ knight!”
“Take this—my Wind God!”
He met masters of all ages, sexes, social standings, and occupations.
People called them ‘martial artists.’
They truly were strong.
But Paul defeated those martial artists one after another and eventually became the champion of the local arcades.
Before he'd realized it, Paul himself had become stronger too.
“Paul! Your realm has advanced tremendously! At this level, you would not be unworthy of being called a Swordmaster!”
The deeper his ‘enlightenment’ became, the more astonishing Paul's actual skill grew with each passing day.
The traditionalist knights of the Knight Order rejoiced at the birth of a new Swordmaster.
But Paul still wasn't satisfied.
“It is still not enough.”
“Hmm? Not enough? What do you mean?”
“I still need to meet more strong opponents.”
Paul had yet to reach the ultimate essence of fighting games.
He wanted to meet more masters and attain that ultimate realm.
He wanted to have more ‘conversations.’
But meeting true masters was more difficult than expected.
Arcades had appeared throughout the Empire, but there was no guarantee that every arcade would contain someone at his level.
And even if such a master existed, there was no guarantee they would always be present at the arcade.
Paul had heard vague rumors that others had experienced enlightenment similar to his own, but arranging for such people to encounter one another was no easy task.
Then one day, news reached his ears.
“Paul, in that case, why not enter that competition being held in the capital?”
“A competition? Do you mean a jousting tournament?”
“No. From what I hear, it is a gaming competition. They intend to determine the strongest through fighting games.”
“Then will other masters gather there as well?”
“Most likely. They say representatives from every region and organization will attend. We would like you to participate as our representative.”
“Then I shall enter.”
It was an opportunity to face masters from throughout the Empire.
Naturally, Paul decided to participate.
And so, the hardcore veterans from all across the Empire… no, the masters began gathering.