Chapter 91 Royal City Banquet: Your wife ran off with someone else!
Shi Yu glanced at the task window.
Since he entered the instance, the system has issued several side quests, which he has completed, but without any reward or penalty. So he is wondering what would happen if he didn't do these side quests.
Shi Yu clicked the red cross in the upper right corner of the taskbar.
Suddenly, another task window popped up, superimposed on the previous one, with the exact same content.
[Side quest unlocked.]
Side Quest: Ride in Lucius's carriage back to the palace.
[Completion time limit: within one hour.]
Shi Yu: "?"
Shi Yu clicked the red cross on the newly popped-up task window, and this time three popped up at once.
He clicked again, and another window popped up.
He tapped, and the window popped open with a bang...
In the end, the entire game panel was occupied by this task window, and the layout was quite well-organized, so it wouldn't trigger trypophobia at all.
Shi Yu: "..."
This was the first time Shi Yu had encountered such a domineering side quest.
It seems there's no other way but to do it.
The long, slender hand with a broad palm was still in front of him. Shi Yu looked up at those eyes that were devoid of joy or sorrow, and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness Su Ye, but Your Highness Lucis is right. I will travel with Your Highness Lucis."
After he finished speaking, the screen full of task windows, as if infected by a virus, disappeared until only one remained.
From the moment the system released the side quest until now, Shi Yu's live stream was silent for a while, then filled with a frenzy of chat messages—
[Can it really be like this? It's unbelievable! It's fucking possible!!!]
This is the first time I've ever seen... I never knew it could be done like this...
[This is my first time seeing a high-level dungeon, and I don't think this part of the story is anything special. Why are you all so shocked?]
[That's right, the side quests in high-level dungeons are mandatory; not doing them means certain death. In other words, for other players, the live stream would end the moment they clicked the "X".]
So, the system gave Yu Yu a cheat code?
[Not only that, there's also wallpaper love.]
[It doesn't seem to be a system problem, but rather something is wrong with this Lucius; his privileges seem to be quite extensive?]
...
The live stream was discussing Lucius, and Shi Yu, sitting in Lucius's carriage, was also thinking about Lucius.
He recalled every interaction with Lucius since entering the instance. First, on the way to the banquet hall by carriage, the road ahead was suddenly blocked, forcing him to witness Lucius being chased by a group of young girls. Then, the maidservant introduced Lucius to him incessantly, emphasizing the special place the "princess" held in Lucius's heart.
Upon arriving at the side hall of the banquet hall, he overheard the maids gossiping about Lucis while he was resting. Not wanting to listen, he changed rooms. However, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the maids came to the outside of that room and continued to feed him information, subtly and overtly praising Lucis while belittling Suye.
Then at the banquet, after Lucius invited him to dance and he refused, the system issued a very strange side quest, asking him to take the initiative to talk to His Highness Lucius, with a minimum of 500 words... This doesn't seem like a quest issued in a proper dungeon, but more like a quest in a dating sim.
Finally, just when he didn't want to ride in Lucius's carriage, the system issued a side quest that forced him to ride in Lucius's carriage. He tried to close the quest window, but it was like he had a virus and couldn't close it until he accepted the quest.
Shi Yu is currently unsure whether Lucis is a player favored by the system, or an NPC favored by the system.
But one thing is certain—
Lucius is definitely a special character in the dungeon.
While Shi Yu was pondering this, Lucius's backstage feed was flooded with messages—
The princess has become curious about you.
Princess's Curiosity +1
Princess's Curiosity +1
Princess's Curiosity +1
...
The carriage was spacious, with a small table in front of the two seats, on which tea and desserts were placed. Lucius poured Shi Yu a cup of tea and placed two stacks of desserts in front of him. The two then chatted while drinking tea, mostly about their childhood.
We chatted casually and soon arrived at our destination.
"Your Highness, please come pick me up tomorrow morning. I'd like to have breakfast with you."
Before getting out of the carriage, Shi Yu suddenly uttered these words, and a few seconds later added, "Just the two of us, Your Highness."
Lucius froze, the hot tea he had just poured suddenly soaking half of his sleeve. He snapped back to reality, only to find the princess gone. The carriage curtain trembled a few times before stopping.
.
Shi Yu sat in front of the mirror, letting the maid fuss over her.
He closed his eyes, his mind racing. Just now, he discovered that the crumpled paper that had appeared in his inventory could be unfolded, revealing only one word written on it—"Road."
Only Lin Fengbai can put things in his inventory, so there is no doubt that this crumpled paper was given to him by Lin Fengbai, and the words on it are the message that Lin Fengbai wanted to convey to him.
road?
Lucius?
Shi Yu's eyelids twitched.
.
At the same time, in the palace where Lucius was temporarily staying.
"Hmm..."
Lin Fengbai was being choked and pinned to the wall with his feet dangling in the air. He struggled desperately with both hands, trying to pull the other hand away, but the hand was like an iron clamp, preventing him from breaking free even a little.
"I thought you would obey." Despite his violent actions, Lucius maintained an elegant demeanor, his voice calm and unhurried. "Or was the mission not clear enough?"
A line of text automatically popped into Lin Feng's mind—
Character Setting 2: You are only loyal to Prince Lucis.
The mission was clearly stated, but...
As the hand tightened its grip, Lin Fengbai's throat made a gurgling sound. His face turned bright red, and he could no longer speak. He could only shake his head slightly before letting his hands fall to his sides, as if he had given up struggling.
At this moment, the grip on his neck gradually loosened, but it didn't completely let go. Lucius moved closer to him and whispered in his ear, "I know you're not afraid of death, but aren't you afraid of Lin Qinghe coming back?"
Lin Fengbai suddenly opened his eyes wide and his body trembled.
Lucius was pleased with his reaction and continued gently, "I can kill you, and naturally, I can also let him live."
Lucius released him, and Lin Fengbai collapsed to the ground as if he had lost his support, his face pale.
“However,” Lucius squatted down, a kind expression on his face, and helped Lin Fengbai up.
"If you obediently do things for me, I will naturally fulfill your requests."
.
The theme of tonight's dinner is "competition".
However, this competition is different from traditional competitions. The twenty participating princes must perform a talent they are good at in front of the princess and the king. There are no restrictions on the talent they can perform. The princess will give flowers to the princes based on their performance. She can give one or two flowers or a whole bouquet. The more flowers she gives, the more the princess likes the prince's performance.
After the princes' performance, the prince who receives the most flowers will have the princess's right to be at the banquet that night.
A stage was set up in the center of the banquet hall for the performance, with the audience seats arranged in a circle around it. The king, dressed in his finest attire, sat with his subjects in the audience, chatting and laughing without any airs. The princess sat with a group of noblewomen, still with her face veiled.
After the king said a few words, the competition officially began.
Some of the princes came from families of civil officials, while others came from families of military generals. Therefore, the talents they performed were either in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, or horseback riding and archery. However, two of them were quite different.
One of them was Moses, who performed "ten minutes of continuous talking," making the audience laugh out loud. Even the king couldn't help but applaud. The other was Ron, who performed "ten minutes without blinking." For those ten minutes, the audience was completely silent, everyone staring intently into his eyes. Ron did indeed manage not to blink once for ten minutes.
Shi Yu usually gives flowers to the other princes in the twenties or thirties. Although these two princes took a different approach and received a lot of applause, compared to the other princes who honestly put in hard work and sweat to perform, they were a bit too clever. Therefore, Shi Yu only gave each of them ten roses.
On stage, the princes were performing, while offstage, Lady Rhine whispered in Shi Yu's ear, analyzing men for him: "Moses is good. He's the eldest son of the family and the future heir. Moses himself is also quite witty and humorous, so you won't feel bored with him. He'll also spend a lot of time with you. The downside is..." Lady Rhine thought for a few seconds before stroking her chin with her brightly painted nails and said, "It's hard for someone like that to fall in love."
Shi Yu nodded slightly in agreement. Mrs. Rhine continued, "Girls all like heroes, and Sue can indeed spark a romance, but heroes have their ambitions beyond their families. Choosing such a person means being prepared for a long period of loneliness."
"As for Ron, he can either continue to make a name for himself on the battlefield or return to inherit the family business. However, Ron is indeed not as charming as Sue, and he is not a good match for you."
"As for Lucis..."
Madame Rhein paused here, her fingers stroking the ruby ring on her index finger as if deep in thought, but she remained silent for a long time.
Royal City Banquet Official Livestream Room——
[Hahaha, Mo Dashen is hilarious! Is it because he hasn't met his speaking quota for today, so he's doing a stand-up comedy routine on the spot?]
[Mo Dashen: If you already know, why say it out loud?]
[As an internet user, to be able to talk non-stop for ten minutes and still make people laugh, Mo Dashen is truly amazing!]
[Has no one accused Qin Ke of using props? Mo Dashen earned those ten flowers through his own hard work, while Qin Ke's ten flowers are cheating, ugh!]
[Stop talking! Stop talking! Look, even emotionless NPCs get twenty or thirty flowers, while these two, as players with thoughts and brains, only got ten? It's an embarrassment for us players!]
[HHHH Actually, I'm a little curious now about what kind of performance Shen Su will put on?]
I'm more curious about how many flowers Yuyu will give her husband.
[Now that you have a husband, shouldn't you go for 52 or 99?]
...
The God of War's talent was archery.
Shen Su usually shoots arrows and is quite skilled. With the added bonus of being a war god, he fired three arrows at once and hit all three bullseyes.
Nevertheless, because there are so many people performing archery, this talent has become commonplace.
The God of War ultimately received 60 roses from the princess.
Although it's neither 52 nor 99, it's the prince who has received the most roses so far.
The live stream rooms of Shi Yu and Shen Su were filled with jubilation.
Until the last prince went on stage.
Lucius performed a martial arts routine and even brought up a "tool" to accompany him. The whole process was smooth and natural. Lucius was charismatic just standing there, let alone performing such a wonderful martial arts routine. The screams from the girls in the audience never stopped.
However, Madame Rhein, who had been analyzing men with Shi Yu, did not analyze Lucius with him.
After Lucius finished his performance, he bowed slightly to the audience and waited for the princess to present him with flowers.
Shi Yu glanced at the four remaining baskets of roses behind her, pointed to four with her finger, and instructed the maid, "Carry them all up."
It took the maid quite a while to count the roses, and ten minutes later she announced: "The princess has presented a total of 357 roses to His Highness Lucius. Congratulations to His Highness Lucius on your victory tonight and that you have won the princess's right to the banquet tonight!"
Shi Yu glanced at the favorability statistics card.
Lucius has surged to first place.
The live stream room was filled with question marks, followed by neatly formatted ones—
【Shen Su, your wife ran off with someone else!】
【Shen Su, your wife ran off with someone else!】
【Shen Su, your wife ran off with someone else!】
...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com