Debuff Master-Chapter 874

In the blink of an eye, he threw himself at the child and activated Embrace of Despair to stop the cavalry’s charge.

“Neiiigh!”

“Argh!”

“W-What happened?!”

The cavalry charging at full speed came to a screeching halt after their movements were reduced to a crawl by the debuff, causing their heads to jerk back.

“Are you all right?” Siegfried asked the child.

“Waaah!”

Without uttering a word of gratitude, the child bolted from Siegfried’s arms and disappeared into a nearby alley.

Meanwhile—

Thud!

The fugitive being pursued by the cavalry collapsed as blood seeped from beneath the hood and cloak they were wearing.

‘What’s going on here?’ Siegfried wondered. ƒreewebɳovel.com

It was then.

The cavalry captain screamed, “Who are you?! State your identity!”

Siegfried deactivated the Embrace of Despair and replied calmly, “Me? I’m the ruler.”

“What?!”

“I said, I am Siegfried van Proa, your king.”

“What nonsense is this?!”

To Siegfried’s bewilderment, the cavalry captain seemed to have no idea who he was.

“How dare you impersonate royalty! Do you not realize the gravity of the crime you’re committing right now?!”

“Eh?”

“Seize him immediately! He must be a member of the Resistance!”

“H-Hold on! Do you seriously not recognize me?! How can the royal cavalry not even recognize the face of the king they serve?!”

“Bah! You insolent fool! Her Majesty, Queen Verdandi, reigns over the Proatine Kingdom! How dare you claim to be the ruler when you’re the different gender?!”

“What?”

“And do you seriously expect us to believe that you’re the late King Siegfried van Proa? The king returned to his original world two decades ago and never descended again! How dare you insult his memory!”

“...?”

“Men! What are you waiting for? Arrest this man immediately and go catch that traitor, too!”

At that moment, Siegfried was utterly baffled by what was happening.

‘I returned to my world twenty years ago? Verdandi is now the ruler? And who’s this traitor? What the hell is going on?!’

While he struggled to make sense of the situation, the cavalry started making their move once again.

Meanwhile, Hamchi was inspecting the fugitive while Siegfried was busy talking to the cavalry.

“Kyu?!”

He ran over and frantically tugged on Siegfried’s pants.

“Kyuuu! It’s Oscar, owner punk!”

“What?!” Siegfried exclaimed in shock.

The confusing situation grew even more confusing after learning that the fugitive was Oscar of all people.

‘What the hell is happening?!’ he screamed inwardly.

Despite his confusion, he made a quick decision to save Oscar.

“Seize him!”

“Where do you think you’re going, lad?”

As if they were waiting, soldiers started pouring out from the alleys, surrounding Siegfried’s position.

However, capturing him was easier said than done.

Shwoong!

Siegfried ran off with Oscar in his arms and Hamchi at his side. He dodged his pursuers with ease before flying into the air, soaring out of reach.

Eventually, he sought refuge in the attic of a decrepit building far away from the main square.

“Hey, is it really Oscar?”

“Kyuu! She is!”

“Let me see.”

Siegfried carefully peeled the fugitive’s hood back.

Lo and behold, the face underneath the hood was, without a doubt, Oscar.

“Huh? It’s really Oscar. But... she looks a bit more mature?”

“Kyuu! I told you! It’s her!”

“What in the world is going on?”

Siegfried opened his inventory and took out various potions.

He then began tending to Oscar’s wound, which proved to be a mentally taxing task.

“Erm... Sorry, Oscar. Please pardon me for a moment,” Siegfried murmured awkwardly.

Oscar suffered grave injuries to her upper torso, forcing Siegfried to remove her shirt to clean and treat her wounds. Fortunately, there was no need to strip her any more than that.

After stitching the cuts and applying potions, Siegfried finally finished administering first-aid.

Perhaps it was his meticulous care or just sheer luck, but—

“W-Where... am I?”

Oscar slowly regained consciousness after thirty minutes.

“Are you all right, Oscar?” Siegfried asked.

“W-Who are you?” she muttered, struggling to focus on his face due to still being weak and disoriented.

“It’s me. Siegfried van Proa.”

“...?”

“I’m telling you. It’s me,” Siegfried said, leaning closer to let her take a closer look.

“...!”

As their gazes met, Oscar froze, her expression a mix of astonishment and disbelief.

But that lasted only for a moment.

“Y-Your Majesty...?” she weakly muttered after recognizing the man in front of her.

One second later—

Plop...!

A stream of tears rolled down her cheeks.

***

“Y-Your Majesty? Is it truly you?”

Tears as large as beads streamed down Oscar’s face as she stared intently at Siegfried’s face.

“Are you truly the lord I pledged my life to? Have you returned?”

“Yes, Oscar. It’s me.”

“Your Majesty...!”

Her trembling hands reached out and gently brushed his face as if checking to see if she was merely dreaming or not.

Under normal circumstances, she would never commit such an act of insolence toward her lord. A knight touching the face of the lord they served was nothing short of blatant disrespect, so an honorable knight like her would never do such a thing.

However, she was different today.

The Oscar of this timeline was both physically and mentally broken that she could no longer restrain her emotions upon seeing Siegfried before her.

“Your Majesty... Why have you taken so long to return? Why... Why have you forsaken me?” Oscar asked, her voice quivering as tears streamed down her face.

“Oscar...” Siegfried felt his heartstrings get tugged by the sound of her voice.

She forced herself to sit upright and began, “I, Oscar, greets—argh!”

“Oscar! Don’t push yourself! Stay down!”

“...Greets Your Majesty.”

Despite Siegfried’s urging, Oscar stubbornly got up and forced her battered body to greet her liege properly. She bowed deeply, showing reverence to her king.

After all, she was a knight who was noble to her very core. No matter what state she was in, she was not someone who would compromise her honor.

Siegfried broke the silence and asked, “What in the world happened here, Oscar?”

“Your Majesty...” Oscar hesitated, her lips trembling as if the mere thought of the events pained her.

“Speak freely. I need to understand the situation if I am to fix things, right? What happened?”

“When Your Majesty disappeared, everything changed...” Oscar proceeded to explain what happened years after Siegfried’s sudden disappearance.

Twenty years ago, Siegfried ventured out to stop the rampaging Eastern Great Rift, and it was during that mission that he suddenly vanished without a trace.

Shortly after his disappearance, a catastrophic event occurred. The Black Knight of Famine emerged from a great rift, bringing ruin to the once fertile lands.

But the disaster did not end there...

The remaining two rifts that were previously under control began spiralling out of control. From the Northern Great Rift came the Red Knight of War, and from the Western Great Rift came the Blue Knight of Death.

Their arrival heralded the collapse of the world as it was known.

The Adventurers, who were once a significant fighting force of the continent, no longer descended to aid the world for some reason, making the battle against the apocalypses far more difficult.

As if that was not difficult enough, the invasion of the Celestial Realm followed shortly after.

The angels invaded the continent and easily subjugated it. Then, they set their sights on the Demon Realm, even conscripting humans into their war.

Meanwhile, Brunhilde scoured the world searching for Siegfried, and she even resorted to using forbidden spells in hopes of finding any traces of him.

“Her Royal Highness, the Princess, slowly changed,” Oscar said, her voice faltering.

“What happened?” Siegfried asked.

“Your Majesty vanished, and Her Majesty the Queen was often absent from the palace during the most important years of the princess’ adolescent years.”

“Ah...”

“She believed that she had been abandoned, causing her to become increasingly unruly. In the end, she was unable to suppress her fury, and that rage... eventually turned into acts of tyranny.”

“N-No way...”

“Five years ago, Her Majesty the Queen returned after finally giving up on her search for Your Majesty. However, Her Highness the Princess lashed out all of her resentment toward her mother and... the two clashed.”

“What happened after that?”

“Her Highness constructed a place in the heart of the royal palace called the Tower of Eternity. There she... imprisoned Her Majesty the Queen.”

“What?!”

Siegfried was genuinely shocked at the news that his sweet and gentle daughter, Verdandi, had locked her own mother away in a tower. This was something that was far too much for him to process right now.

‘This isn’t just some teenager rebelling!’

At this point, her actions were far worse than those of a delinquent youth sent to a juvenile detention center for committing school violence.

How many daughters in history had gone so far as to lock up their own mothers in a tower?

To make matters worse, Verdandi ascended the throne and ruled with an iron fist, committing acts of tyranny and despotism without any remorse.

“Didn’t anyone try to stop her? If someone had reasoned and guided her, then she would have—”

“Her Highness was far too powerful, Your Majesty.”

“Ah, right...”

Siegfried recalled Deus' words, who once said that Verdandi’s innate talent was so overwhelming that she would naturally reach the level of a Master before she even became an adult.

“What about Master? And the Elders?”

“The esteemed elder ascended to godhood and departed from this world. The other elders went to quell the chaos spreading throughout the continent, but all of them met tragic ends...”

“...”

“Everything... It all fell apart...” Oscar said, her voice breaking as she began to sob. Then, she said in a trembling voice, “A-After Your Majesty disappeared... the world... my life... it all crumbled to ruin...”

Without saying a word, Siegfried held Oscar, allowing her to cry on his shoulder. Even though he knew that this was not reality, he could not help but feel the overwhelming emotions tugging at his heartstrings.

Siegfried found it impossible to maintain his composure.

***

An hour later...

“So, you formed a group called the Resistance to rescue the Queen from the Tower of Eternity?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. The objective of the Resistance is to dethrone Her Highness the Princess and reinstate Her Majesty the Queen as the ruler of the kingdom. That is the only way to restore the Proatine Kingdom to its former glory.”

“Hmm...”

Siegfried was lost in thought after listening to Oscar.

‘Is this the dungeon’s clear condition?’ he wondered.

Given that he had no leads regarding the dungeon’s clear conditions, it was the only plausible theory he could come up with. Perhaps rescuing Brunhilde from the Tower of Eternity and defeating Verdandi was the key to completing this dungeon.

“But Your Majesty...? Why have you not returned for the past twenty years? There must have been some unavoidable circumstances, right? Surely that was the case... I have never believed that Your Majesty would abandon us,” Oscar suddenly asked, a tinge of hesitation in her voice.

“Of course not. Why would I ever abandon everyone? And besides, this isn’t even the real—”

Just as Siegfried was about to reveal the truth, a sharp beep interrupted him.

BEEP!

“Your Majesty?” Oscar tilted her head in confusion.

“Ah, that’s, uh...” Siegfried trailed his words awkwardly, realizing what the beep meant.

The Adventurers were prohibited from revealing the truth to the NPCs in BNW, so it was impossible to tell them that this world was just an artificial creation and that they were merely AI constructs rather than real humans.

Even if he tried, the system would either censor him or distort his words entirely.

Siegfried let out a sigh and decided to improvise, “I failed to stop the rift from spiraling out of control, and I got lost after getting caught in a storm of space and time. I wandered aimlessly, trying to find my way back. I had no idea that this much time had passed outside.

"To be honest, for me, it felt like only a few hours had gone by.”

“A-Ah! I knew it! I never doubted Your Majesty, not even for a second! I never once believed that you had abandoned us!”

“Of course not. Why would I do such a thing?”

“Ah! Your Majesty!”

“Anyway, let’s go. We need to set everything right,” Siegfried said, extending a hand toward Oscar.

“Yes, Your Majesty, my one and only master,” Oscar replied, grasping his outstretched hand with a bright smile.

For the first time in twenty years, Oscar smiled.

***

Afterward, Siegfried followed Oscar to meet a member of the Resistance.

This individual was the only member of the Resistance who managed to infiltrate the royal palace successfully and was said to provide significant assistance to their cause.

‘Who could it be...?’ Siegfried wondered.

He followed behind Oscar to a quiet neighborhood in Preussen. There, in an old and weathered mansion, he finally met the Resistance member who was operating from within the palace, but...

“Y-You?! Who are you?!”

Siegfried could not help but point and shout in shock after seeing the individual.

Why? Because—

“M-Michele?! Is that you?! Why do you look so old?!”

Michele, who was supposed to be only in his late thirties, looked far older than Siegfried had expected. His face was so wrinkled that he could pass for someone in their late forties or early fifties.