Hio had a fair amount of experience attending banquets, though perhaps not to the same extent as the aristocrats of this world.
He had attended several imperial banquets, said to be the largest and most magnificent on the Continent, and had even been to various noble gatherings.
However, who could have guessed that a trial in the Space of Suffering would suddenly drop him into a banquet hall?
Inside the wide hall, food was laid out under a high ceiling, and people were raising their glasses with laughter.
The walls surrounding them were decorated with a Circle Inscription symbolizing a nation, one he had never seen before in his life.
Naturally, his first thought was that this was a hallucination or an illusion.
Fortunately, his equipment—including his staff and hat—was still with him, so he secretly gathered his Magic Power to cast Cancelation.
Cancelation was a spell that could interrupt and nullify the flow of any active magical effect.
However…
‘It’s not… magic.’
There was no resistance at all.
‘Had it been a spell that could be dispelled by Cancelation, Hio’s senses would have picked it up long ago.’
At the very least, it meant no Magic Power was being used to mess with his mind.
In other words, this entire environment was a phenomenon no different from reality.
Naturally, it was completely different from what was in the game.
In the game, the Space of Suffering was simply a place where the player with the best stats in the raiding party would enter.
It was a simple space where success was achieved by staying alone and slaughtering waves of monsters.
“Hahaha! Lord Pavlenko! Your performance was magnificent once again. I wonder what we would have done without you, Lord…”
There was no time to dwell on his thoughts.
Starting with this mustachioed knight who approached him with a boisterous laugh, everyone around was looking at Hio and smiling.
It seemed he was the protagonist of this banquet.
People were calling out his name as if they knew Hio well.
“It was incredible!”
“I admire you, Lord Pavlenko!”
“To the great Pavlenko!”
He agonized over how to respond, but there was no need.
They cheered among themselves and then raised their glasses, laughing together.
“Cheers!”
The atmosphere felt like a company dinner for men.
Indeed, the vast majority of those holding glasses were men.
It was obvious to a burdensome degree—from the pressure of their presence to the way their uniforms tightly gripped their muscles—that every single one of them was a knight.
This wasn’t the only strange thing.
Although the banquet was taking place in a wide hall, it was lackluster.
There was no orchestra playing soft music to set the mood, the food prepared for a so-called banquet was meager, and the number of servants and maids walking about was not very large.
“Hahaha! It is a joyful day!”
Despite that, the sincere joy and laughter were something that couldn’t be found in any other banquet hall.
“Aren’t we safe and secure since the Lord is standing firm?”
“Today’s victory will go down in history as a great triumph and a reversal of fortunes!”
“Hahaha! I’m truly envious, Lord Pavlenko!”
Beefy men approached him one after another to strike up a conversation.
Hio gave an awkward smile and sipped from the glass in his hand.
The wine tasted incredibly bad.
He figured he should at least pretend to drink it to assess the situation and buy time to think of a response.
But as if to make his efforts futile, the boisterous noise around Hio soon died down.
“His Highness Leorant Rian de Basterion is entering!”
The doors to the banquet hall opened, and the king made his entrance.
Naturally, silence descended upon the noisy hall.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable silence.
“Ahem!”
Appearing on the second-floor terrace of the hall, the king cleared his throat.
The banquet hall was perfectly quiet.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the king.
“Today is a joyous day, so please enjoy yourselves to your heart’s content.”
Quiet applause broke out shortly after.
There was no cheering.
A few people muttered words of gratitude, but… well, since it wasn’t sincere, it didn’t really resonate.
The atmosphere became strangely awkward.
It might have been even worse because there was no orchestra to play a grand and powerful piece upon the king’s arrival.
“Today’s victory belongs to our Basterion, and furthermore, to the entire Continent…”
Perhaps the king felt it too.
His voice gradually lost its strength, and his gaze flickered here and there as if he had nowhere to look.
His appearance was so pathetic that even Hio could clearly feel it—imagine how the knights gathered here felt.
He lacked the charisma to command a crowd, and his voice and expression were devoid of confidence, making him look intimidated.
“For a bright future… no, as a process toward… that…”
He spoke as if he were reading from a textbook.
Having perhaps forgotten the speech he had memorized, he barely managed to stammer through his words.
“…We commend the hard work of the knights, and also…”
The king’s voice echoed alone in the excessively silent banquet hall.
As it dragged on awkwardly, the atmosphere grew stranger, and the king’s face turned increasingly red as he realized the situation.
Finally, once the surrounding knights had dropped their heads low, he spoke again.
“Anyway… enjoy the banquet. I shall take my leave now.”
The king finished his words abruptly and fled the second-floor terrace as if escaping.
Even so, the silence that had settled over the banquet hall lingered for a while.
A moment later, only after the knights let out small sighs and raised their heads did the atmosphere slowly begin to thaw.
“Haha… the wine is quite delicious.”
“It’s so sweet it almost doesn’t suit my palate. Hoho…”
They avoided the topic of the king entirely, trying their best to shift the conversation to other subjects.
Meanwhile, Furnel’s voice, which had been silent until now, echoed in Hio’s mind.
I see… That Circle Inscription on the wall, I thought it looked familiar. It’s the royal crest of the Basterion family.
‘Basterion?’
You don’t know it? In the past, it was very famous as a kingdom of knights. In its prime, it was a powerful nation that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Empire.
‘A nation powerful enough to be compared to the Empire? This place?’
Despite the king’s personal appearance, this banquet was so poor it was worse than a party thrown by a rural noble in the Empire.
Food was scarce, the wine was cheap, and there wasn’t even any background music.
‘Could this really be the banquet of such a powerful nation?’
I’m not sure what the situation is either, but it’s certain that this is Basterion. Didn’t that clumsy king say so earlier? That it’s Basterion.
‘Basterion, Basterion…’
‘Is this your first time hearing of it?’
‘…Yeah. No matter how much I think about it, it’s a name I have no memory of.’
Hio was serious about this world, to the point where he had researched not only current nations but even past nations through history books.
Thus, he could say with certainty: The name Basterion did not exist.
There wasn’t a single mention of it in any history book.
Strange. A kingdom of knights wouldn’t be forgotten so easily.
The conversation couldn’t continue past Furnel’s words.
“Lord Pavlenko. Don’t just stand there alone; come and talk with us! It’s a good day, isn’t it? Hahaha.”
This was because the knights gathered around him again to talk.
Whatever the case, the most important thing right now was information.
He had to find out as much as possible through conversation with them.
“I’ll do that.”
When Hio approached, many men—knights—were already gathered together.
One thing that had changed after the king’s exit was that young women were now mixed in among them.
There had only been a few such women before, but once Hio joined the group, the story changed.
“The protagonist of today, Lord Pavlenko, has arrived!”
“Oh my, then is this the famous Magician?”
“Hahaha! Angeli, what are you doing? Come and greet him!”
The older knights began calling over the daughters of their families.
Because of this, it wasn’t long before the area was filled with various young women.
“Hello, Lord Magician. I am Angeli Lortel…”
“It is an honor to meet you. I am of the Valant family…”
“Here! This is the second daughter of our family. What do you think? Is she not beautiful?”
A banquet of nobles is a place where each family can show off various things.
Furthermore, was this not a banquet held directly at the royal castle?
Even if it was the banquet of a kingdom that had become shabby due to some circumstances, the principle remained the same.
“My, you’re much more handsome than I heard, Lord Pavlenko.”
Naturally, the young women’s attire was quite provocative, and the fragrance that hit his nose was rather dizzying.
Before he knew it, Hio was surrounded by such women.
“Hoho… Truly the best of times. The best of times.”
Those who had succeeded in placing their family’s daughters around Hio stepped back with satisfied smiles.
Those who hadn’t succeeded yet were busy giving signals to their daughters to find a way to wedge themselves in.
“But I heard that Lord Pavlenko is already married…”
“What does it matter? I’m just telling them to have a conversation. Just a conversation. Hohoho.”
In that situation, Hio scratched his head in embarrassment.
He couldn’t keep his wits about him.
Feeling bashful about where to look, he simply stared into empty space.
“Um… I have something to ask…”
“Oh? Would you like to tell me?”
“I’ll listen, Lord Magician.”
“If it’s too burdensome, would you like to take a walk with me for a moment? I’ll answer you comfortably.”
He had opened his mouth to try and gain some information, but they only pressed closer to him.
Because they were approaching from all sides to the point where a single wrong move could lead to a major mistake, Hio’s hands remained frozen in place with nowhere to go.
Of course, it didn’t feel bad.
If he had to describe this ambiguous situation in one word…
“Oh my. How cute.”
“Can I pinch your cheek just once?”
“How can your skin be this good?”
Sweet.
“Ha, hahaha… Well, if you really must, just a little on the left cheek…”
The banquet night, devoid of any music, ripened in such a manner.
***
「Trial – ‘Fear of Flame’ has ended.」
“Gasp… Haah, haah…”
With the message, Antipus sprawled out on the floor.
The first thing he checked was his limbs and his torso.
Fortunately, they were intact.
The pain he felt until just a moment ago—the sensation of his entire body being engulfed in flames—felt like a total lie because he was so perfectly fine now.
“…Ugh.”
Of course, the pain vividly etched into his mind still remained, making his body flinch, but regardless, he had ultimately succeeded.
He had overcome this horrific trial.
“Hehehehe.”
Something between a sob and a laugh escaped him.
That was how difficult it had been.
He had expected it to be somewhat different from the Space of Suffering in the game.
‘But wasn’t this just way too much?’
He had endured several hours inside a burning pit of fire.
It was closer to torture disguised as a trial.
It was as painful as hell, and the thought of giving up crossed his mind every second.
But he had persisted and overcome it, and now the trial was over.
Antipus was certain.
“Hehe.”
He had won.
Even a Jijoncheonma wouldn’t have expected this kind of trial, and he must have either given up while writhing in hellish pain, or failed to overcome the fear and was still suffering in the trial.
Thus, he dragged his body up from the ground and let out a laugh of victory.
With his body barely upright, he stretched both arms toward the sky and let out a cry of joy.
“I… I won! Jijoncheonma! Buhahaha!”
Then, a single message appeared before Antipus’s eyes.
「Trial – ‘Fear of Cold’ begins.」
“…Huh?”
The ‘Fear of Flame’ wasn’t the end of the trials.
Thanks to the horrific pain and difficulty, he had momentarily forgotten, but the time elapsed was too short to say he had cleared the whole thing.
That meant it was impossible to predict how many more trials remained.
“…”
His arms, which were stretched out vigorously, froze in place, and his expression, which had been soaked in joy, was replaced by bewilderment.
And before he could even lodge a protest, a cold frost began to settle on his arms, his skin, and every single pore.
As the frost flowers of the extreme cold began to bloom using Antipus’s body as fertilizer, his entire body, from his toes to his fingertips, began to freeze in the same cheering pose.
「Endure and overcome the fear of the extreme cold.」
Extreme cold began to spread thickly around Antipus’s freezing body.
It was a horrific pain that stood in complete opposition to the pain of extreme heat.
Just before his arms, legs, torso, and neck—every part of his body—were covered in ice, Antipus moved his frost-covered lips with difficulty and spat out his final words.
‘…Sh*t.’
It was a curse filled with absolute sincerity.