Chapter 101 The royal banquet still carried a hint of sourness.
"Which possibility would you choose, Lucius?"
The king reverted to his usual loving fatherly demeanor, his eyes filled with concern for his daughter.
"If I choose Prince Lucius, can the other princes leave?" The princess, with her almond-shaped eyes filled with innocence, spoke clearly, "Prince Lucius won't do anything to them, will he? And no one will do anything to them. They can return to where they came from, safe and sound, right?"
The king seemed to be stuck in his head; his lips moved, then closed again.
After saying her last words, Shi Yu said, "If this is the only possibility, I will choose Prince Lucius."
The king favored Lucius.
There is no doubt about that.
The question remains: is the king's favoritism towards Lucius due to Lucius's influence, or is Lucius actually manipulating the king, just as he manipulates other NPCs in the instance?
Regardless of the situation, one thing is certain: Lucius knew everything about the king's actions and behavior, which means that Lucius agreed with what the king agreed with.
Lucius's privileges in this instance are almost equal to those of the system.
Shi Yu hadn't forgotten his promise to help Qin Ke and Mo Rugui clear the dungeon. The main quest told them that besides the "princess," only the person chosen by the princess could clear the dungeon, so he had to think of other ways.
Shi Yu's Live Stream Room —
[Waaaaah, Yu Yu wasn't just saying it; he really meant to take everyone out!]
[His word choice is very precise! If he had simply said "left safely," he might have been treated as an NPC and permanently trapped in the instance. But by adding "the place he came from," it had to be reality!]
[And I have no doubt that Lucius will agree! Although I don't know where this confidence comes from, if I had to say, it might be a kind of intuition.]
[But if I choose Lucius, won't Shen Su be jealous?]
[Ah, actually I really wanted to see Chen Su get jealous, sneakily.jpg]
...
After an unknown amount of time, the king's dazed mind returned to normal.
“Yes.” The king’s gaze lingered on Shi Yu’s face. “If you choose Lucis, the others can leave safely and return to where they came from.”
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Shi Yu didn't completely relax. He continued, "But I want the right to choose. I can't let any prince find me before dawn. Where should I hide?"
The king calmly said, "The most dangerous place is the safest place. You can hide here, and no one will be able to find you..."
Before they could finish speaking, they heard footsteps outside and the familiar voices of two people talking.
"We're back?"
It was Qin Ke and Mo Rugui.
The one who asked the question was Qin Ke, and Mo Rugui replied, "There have been no changes, it should be."
Qin Ke added, "I didn't expect the rules to be the same as last time. So the princess should be here..."
king:"……"
Shi Yu: "..."
Just before the two figures were about to enter, Shi Yu's vision went dark, accompanied by a dizzying feeling of weightlessness. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in a pitch-black corridor.
The corridor wasn't entirely dark; every so often, an oil lamp was lit in a hole in the wall. However, the lamps weren't lit in a particularly regular pattern; some sections were densely lit, while others were sparsely lit, but they were enough to illuminate the corridor.
The walls on both sides were a cold, dark gray, and the floor was the same color as the walls. Apart from oil lamps, there was nothing else on the walls, and the end of the corridor was completely dark.
The air was filled with a cold and damp atmosphere.
Shi Yu realized that this place did not belong to any building in the royal palace, or even any building above ground, but was more like an underground... tomb?
Shi Yu: "..."
very good.
The king can teleport people.
Sending someone off means sending them to their grave.
On the bright side, though, players will never find this kind of place.
Standing on a seemingly endless passageway inside the mausoleum, Shi Yu still felt a chill on the back of his neck. He walked along the passageway, intending to find a tomb chamber that looked safe to stay in and wait for dawn.
However, why are the oil lamps in the corridor lit in this way? Is there any pattern to it?
Three lamps, one lamp, four lamps... Shi Yu walked and noted. Since he was already here, what if the number of lamps lit was some important code to the tomb?
What Shi Yu didn't know was...
Half an hour ago, Chen Su also entered the tomb.
After Shi Yu was teleported to the tomb, both Shi Yu's and Shen Su's live stream chats went wild—
[I'm so excited! I'm so excited I can't even describe how I feel!!!]
[The king had no intention of doing good deeds! Thumbs up for the king!]
[Is Yuyu seriously studying the patterns of oil lamp lighting? Little does she know that her husband lit it first, haha!]
[Can you believe it, Shen Su? Can you believe your wife is right here in the same space as you?!]
[Aaaaaaah! They're only a wall apart! Just a wall apart!]
Wait, what if Shen Su finds him first? How can the princess choose Lucius then?
[Didn't you guys notice that after Yu Yu teleported here, he reverted to his original appearance?]
[This means that Shi Yu is no longer a princess, and the only true princess here is the one in the tomb. Therefore, according to the rules, finding Shi Yu is useless; he has to open the coffin!]
[Hahaha, this coffin-lifting scene is hilarious!]
...
Shen Su found the princess's main tomb chamber without any trouble, but he didn't lift up the coffin; he was still quite moral.
He sat quietly beside the coffin for a while.
If the princess is indeed buried in the coffin, and if the princess is valid, then the system should declare him to have completed his mission after they have been in this space for a period of time.
Unfortunately, Shen Su's legs went numb from sitting for so long, but the system didn't react at all. This meant that either the princess wasn't buried inside, or finding her wouldn't count. Therefore, even if he went to lift the coffin, it would be pointless and impolite.
Chen Su stood up and stretched his limbs. He grabbed an oil lamp from in front of the coffin and headed towards the tomb door. He had wasted too much time here; there were less than two hours until dawn.
He had to leave.
Just as Shen Su pushed the tomb door, he wondered if it was just his imagination, but the stone door felt a little lighter than when he had entered.
Shi Yu was also pushing the stone door. He had pushed several stone doors along the walkway, and they were all quite heavy. The stone door in front of him seemed to be lighter than the others.
The tomb door opened, and Shen Su met a pair of dark, cold eyes.
He was stunned.
Under the light of the oil lamp, the man's face was fair and clean, with soft and beautiful features, and his clear, dark almond-shaped eyes held the same astonishment as his.
"you……"
"you……"
Shi Yu only realized his voice was his natural voice when he opened his mouth.
And now that he was so close to Chen Su, he didn't have to strain his neck to look up anymore. He looked down at himself and saw that his body had returned to normal, his clothes were back to what they were, and he was no longer wearing a veil.
He became himself again.
This has one advantage: he doesn't have to worry about his out-of-character (OOC) speech and actions. But it also has one disadvantage: if Shen Su sees him, the system might not recognize it as "finding the princess."
Both of them still had their hands on the stone door, one standing inside and the other outside. They looked at each other for a moment, and as if sensing something, they both spoke a word at the same time, and then stopped speaking at the same time.
"Ahem." Shen Su cleared his throat and looked away from Shi Yu's face. "You go first."
"Did the system notify you that the mission is complete?" Shi Yu looked at Shen Su without any hesitation. He had returned to himself, but Shen Su was still in the form of the God of War. Although the God of War's face was also handsome, it was ultimately not as good-looking as Shen Su's original face.
Shen Su looked up at Shi Yu again and shook his head. "No."
Shi Yu nodded.
He thought to himself, "So that's how it is."
Once he reverts to his original form, the system will no longer recognize him as a "princess," meaning that no player who encounters him at this point will be able to complete the quest.
"Oh, right." After a moment of contemplation, Shi Yu raised her eyes, her almond-shaped eyes reflecting a glistening light that made Shen Su's heart skip a beat. "Were you also teleported here?"
"No, I came here by myself. This is the princess's tomb." Shen Su felt his throat was a little dry. Although the gender-swapped Shi Yu was very beautiful, Shi Yu's original face was still more attractive to him. Shi Yu's question also told him that Shi Yu had been directly teleported here.
Upon hearing the words "This is the princess's tomb," Shi Yu understood why Shen Su had done this.
In the current timeline, the princess of the Scar dynasty is already dead, so "finding the princess" can also be understood as "finding the princess's tomb." However, it seems that Shen Su's substitution of concepts is not recognized by the system.
“But it’s no use.” Shen Su let out a soft breath, released the stone door, turned around and walked inside, arriving at the princess’s coffin in the center of the tomb chamber. “I found this place according to the map of the tomb chamber. This is indeed the princess’s main tomb chamber, but I have been here for a while and have not received any system notifications.”
Now that both the real and fake princesses are here, the real princess cannot be activated, and the fake princess has temporarily lost her princess status. Shen Su is not in a hurry to leave, and the two of them sit side by side on the steps in the tomb.
Shi Yu shared his idea that "the copy of [Royal City Banquet] was imagined by the king," which coincided with Shen Su's thoughts.
“I have also seen many records in the history books describing the king’s love for the princess. The king and queen were very loving. After the queen passed away, the king did not remarry. He only had one child, the princess. The princess was sickly when she was young. The king searched all over the world for the best doctors to cure her, but unfortunately the princess did not live to adulthood.”
"The king was devastated by the princess's death. He hoped that his daughter could live a healthy and peaceful life to adulthood, get married, have children, and inherit the Ska dynasty."
"Perhaps because the king's obsession was too deep, the system created an illusion for him. In the illusion, his daughter lived to be 18 years old, and he held a marriage selection for his daughter in the year she turned 18."
"The princess is getting married tomorrow, and the king's wish will be fulfilled in just one last step."
Just now, Shi Yu told Shen Su about his test of the king today. At the time, Shen Su didn't react much. Now, Shen Su spoke slowly and casually, his tone relaxed and seemingly unintentional, but it gave Shi Yu a sense of deliberation. "It seems that the king already has the best son-in-law in mind."
Shi Yu: "..."
Yes.
It also has a slightly sour taste.
Shen Su turned his head to look at Shi Yu, his expression still relaxed and carefree, but his eyes were fixed on him.
So who would you choose?
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