CH 293

The Cockatrice crashed into the ground, but it managed to escape the fate of becoming minced meat thanks to its incredibly high defense.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

A loud sound echoed whenever one of them landed on the ground.

“Why are there snakes in my wedding…?” Siegfried muttered in complete disbelief.

The whole thing was just utterly confusing to him, and the fact that it was an airship belonging to his own kingdom that was raining down these snakes made him even more perplexed.

“Hey, Michele…”

“Yes, Your Majesty…?”

“Is this an event we prepared from our side…?”

“Who in their right mind would prepare such an event, Your Majesty?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…”

“I believe this was the doing of someone harboring a grudge against you terrorizing your wedding…”

“Hiss…! Hiss…!”

The Cockatrice on the ground finally recovered from the sun and started emitting its petrification gas. It did not take that long for all hell to break loose in the wedding venue after the gas was released.

“C-Cockatrice!”

“Run!”

“Help!”

“Save yourselves!”

The guests started running away, but it was too late.

C… Crack…!

A few of the guests exposed to the gas were slowly being petrified.

“Damn it!”

Siegfried did not have time to think as he immediately rushed to kill the Cockatrice.

“I will help too! Siegfried-nim!”

Brunhilde followed after him and killed the Cockatrices.

Her beautiful wedding dress fluttered as she made her move.

“Hoho…” Deus laughed in disbelief while watching the chaos and muttered, “Who dares to let snakes loose on my beloved disciple’s wedding?”

“E-Elder-nim? Are you not going to help…?” Blockhead asked while sweating profusely.

“This matter is not related to me.”

“Pardon me…?”

“He reaps what he sows, am I right? There’s no reason for me to help him,” Deus said while observing the entire situation with interest. It seemed that he had no plans of helping.

“Then may I…”

“It’s up to you. Do whatever you want.”

“Thank you! Elder-nim!”

Betelgeuse ran toward the Cockatrices littered across the wedding venue and cut them down one by one. It did not take that long to subdue the hundreds of thousands of Cockatrices that rained from above, as there were many powerful people among the guests.

“Phyphy nex saach!”

“Mea culpa kim aed!”

Among the attending guests were Daode Tianzun and Decimato, and the protective barriers they cast successfully contained the petrification gas before it could do any more damage.

Of course, there was that issue with the visibility within the venue being quite bad, thanks to it being filled with gas.

However, the hundreds of thousands of Cockatrice failed to deal any significant damage to the wedding guests aside from the fact that a few dozen of the guests were turned into stone.

“Flying Squadron! We must stop that airship!” Brunhilde shouted at her knights while pointing at the airship flying overhead.

Meanwhile, Siegfried was busy smashing a Cockatrice’s head while racking his brains.

‘Argh… Who the hell did this? Is it Ingrid?’

Pukeok!

A powerful force struck Siegfried’s nape.

[Alert: Status Ailment!]

[Alert: Your character has been inflicted with ‘Stun’!]

[Alert: Your character is unconscious!]

[Alert: Your vision will black out for five seconds.]

[Alert: Your character will lose consciousness after five seconds!]

[Alert: You will be forcefully logged out if you lose consciousness!]

Siegfried lost total control of his body.

‘An ambush!’

Unfortunately, it was too late by the time he realized what was going on.

He could not move at all, and his vision was dimming.

[Alert: You will lose consciousness in 5 seconds.]

[Alert: You will lose consciousness in 4 seconds.]

[Alert: You will lose consciousness in 3 seconds.]

There were only three seconds remaining before he was forcefully logged out.

Kwak!

Siegfried felt his ambusher grab the back of his head. His ambusher seemed to be wearing boots and was using long briquette tongs to grab his head.

[Alert: You will lose consciousness in 2 seconds.]

[Alert: You will lose consciousness in 1 second.]

It was right before Siegfried lost consciousness that he heard his ambusher’s voice.

“You’re coming with me.”

The ambusher picked up Siegfried by his head and left.

Meanwhile, Deus continued to observe the situation with a smile.

“Hoho! How in the world does the groom get abducted instead of the bride? It seems that my disciple’s luck is still rotten! Kekeke!” Deus broke out into laughter as if finding the entire situation to be quite entertaining.

***

“Clear!”

“All clear!”

Five minutes later, the situation in the wedding venue was now under control after the Cockatrices were neutralized, but the Cockatrices still managed to deal quite a bit of damage.

“Sir Michele! There are no casualties, but seventy-four guests have been petrified!”

“Oh my god… How could such a thing happen during His Majesty’s wedding…?” Michele muttered before covering his face with both hands. It was then that Brunhilde returned after capturing the airship that had dropped the Cockatrices.

“We only found your soldiers tied up in the airship. We did not find the culprit.”

“So they already escaped…” Michele said as he gritted his teeth in anger.

“Who dares to ruin my daughter’s wedding?!” Lohengrin exclaimed with obvious rage in his voice, and then he looked around before shouting, “Who dares to ruin this sacred event?!”

A father would be enraged to see his daughter’s special day in ruins.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yes, Minister of State?”

“Did you find any clue as to who the perpetrator could be? There should have been an eye-witness…”

“The captain of the airship claims that he saw a woman with blonde hair like the color of lemon…”

“H-Hiiiik!” Lionbreath suddenly shrieked in horror.

‘D-Don’t tell me Ingrid is behind all this?!’

Anyone who knew Ingrid would know that her hair color was a dark shade of blond—similar to the color of lemon.

“Hmm… Let us catch the criminal later and continue with the wedding ceremony first. Our kingdom’s prestige will take a hit if we let something like this stop such a joyous occasion… Huh? Your Majesty?” Michele looked around and called for Siegfried, but he did not get any response.

“Your Majesty! Where are you?” Michele called out once again, but there was no way he was going to get a response as Siegfried had been abducted.

“Hey! Owner punk!”

“Han Tae-Sung!”

“Hyung-nim!”

Hamchi, Cheon Woo-Jin, and Seung-Gu called out as well, but there was no response.

They frantically searched for him. The search went on for an hour before Michele finally declared that Siegfried had gone missing.

“The wedding… will be postponed…” muttered Michele.

***

“Ah…”

Tae-Sung groaned in disbelief as he exited his capsule.

What happened was truly bizarre. He managed to convince himself to continue with the wedding, but the wedding became chaotic, and he ended up being abducted in the process.

[Alert: You will be able to log into the game in 11 hours and 59 minutes!]

He wanted to get to the bottom of things, but he couldn’t log in for another twelve hours.

“Who would’ve known that I would one day be abducted…?” Tae-Sung grumbled before he headed to the kitchen to drink a cold glass of water. “Brunhilde-nim… She must be quite worried right now. I should probably send a message to Seung-Gu at least…”

Tae-Sung went to his phone and sent a message to Seung-Gu.

***

The entire Proatine Kingdom was enraged after the wedding ceremony was canceled, and the love the citizens of the kingdom had for Siegfried made that rage burn even greater.

“Who dares to ruin His Majesty’s wedding?!”

“We need to find the perpetrators and beat them up!”

The public’s sentiment was like a volcano about to erupt, and it showed no signs of calming down anytime soon. In fact, the people themselves formed their own self-defense forces and patrolled the kingdom to conduct investigations on foreigners and Adventurers.

Bam!

“Damn it!” Michele slammed his fist on his table in anger.

He was leading the emergency council in Siegfried’s absence.

‘Don’t tell me that His Majesty escaped? It was strange that he was suddenly willing to go with the marriage… Did he plan all of this?’ Michele couldn’t help but suspect Siegfried.

However, nothing had been proven so far, and Gringore was currently drawing a composite sketch based on eyewitness testimonies, so Michele had to wait before making any accusations.

“The composite sketch of the one that abducted His Majesty has been completed, Sir Michele!” Gringore entered the emergency council and said.

“T-That is!”

“Don’t tell me…?”

“That face looks familiar…”

The officials of the kingdom narrowed their eyes and took a closer look at the composite sketch.

“The Nordic Princess… Ingrid…?” Michele muttered before turning toward Lionbreath.

All eyes were now on Lionbreath.

“N-No! It’s not what you think!” Lionbreath exclaimed.

Bam!

“You son of a—” Lohengrin shouted in anger and grabbed the Nordic King by his collar.

“Is this your doing?!”

“L-Let’s resolve this with words!”

“You barbarian! Did you really tell your daughter to stop the wedding between King Siegfried and my daughter? Why? Is it because of jealousy?!”

“No…”

“Silence!”

Lohengrin clenched his fist and seemed intent on throwing a punch to placate his anger, but a voice suddenly interrupted him.

“Sniff… Sniff… I see… Siegfried-nim already had a lover…”

It was Brunhilde. She was crying after completely misunderstanding that Siegfried had abandoned her at the altar and had run off with another woman.

‘This is a complete mess…’ Michele groaned inwardly as he could feel his stress filling every hair follicle in his body. Why did the perpetrator have to be the Nordic Princess of all people?

‘The diplomatic relation between the Nordic Tribes and Elondel will hit rock bottom at this point, and it will drag out relations with Elondel along with it. Damn it…!’ Michele cried tears of blood inside.

He wanted to bite his tongue and end his miserable and stressful life.

“Please calm down! Sir Seung-Gu has crossed over to the other world to check up on His Majesty, so let us be patient for a while longer!” Michele tried his best to bring calm and peace to the emergency council.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

Bam! Clang! Boom!

Lohengrin flipped the council table and threw a punch at Lionbreath, which started a brawl between the two kings.

***

Twelve hours later, Tae-Sung could finally log back into BNW.

“Where… am I?”

When you're just trying to make great content at pawread.com .

He opened his eyes and found himself on a ship’s deck.

Rumble!

Shwaaaaa!

He deduced that he was on an airship judging by the sound of the engine and the wind passing by.

~

[Old Tattered Junk Airship: Deck]

~

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

The engine sounded like the engine of a dilapidated old car, and it was clear that the airship was way past its prime. It sounded like it should be in a junk shop rather than flying in the skies.

“Are you awake?”

A blonde-haired woman with a voluptuous body appeared in front of him.

“Ingrid?!”

Siegfried was shocked after seeing the face of his kidnapper.

Lionbreath had warned him, but he truly hadn’t imagined that she was going to let loose snakes and abduct him from his own wedding.

“W-Why are you doing this…?”

“Because I want you.”

“Hiiik!”

“You’re coming with me.”

“T-To where?”

“Somewhere far away where nobody can find us.”

Goosebumps broke out all over Siegfried at Ingrid’s words.

‘I guess I have no choice. Let’s subdue her first before anything else…’ He decided to subdue his abductor first before listening to what she had to say, but…

It was impossible…

‘What the hell?! Level 299?!’

He was absolutely flabbergasted to see that Ingrid was on the same Level 299 as Brunhilde. In other words, there was no way he could defeat her.

He could probably escape, right?

Nope.

Why?

They were currently above the clouds on an airship.

“Hmm? Is he awake?”

An old man wearing a captain’s uniform approached them.

“Heok!” Siegfried gasped in horror after recognizing the captain.