novelz
CH.568 Castle Visit and Empire’s Letter
CH.568 Castle Visit and Empire’s Letter
CH.568 Castle Visit and Empire’s Letter
When the day came, you know, the day on which I have to meet the King, I headed for the Capital.
I had received another letter from Elias after I confirmed the meeting time. It had my castle access pass, so I wasn’t worried about getting in.
I originally planned on going solo, but Unika wanted to come with me, so I took her with me.
“You know, despite me living in the shadows of the Royal Castle, I never imagined I’d visit it. … and be disappointed when I do.” Unika said, as we approached the outer wall of the castle.
We were on foot, mainly to fuck with whomever was guarding the gates, and because Unika wanted to walk with me. And to increase the level of brain poison we’d infect on the guards, I was in my Fenrir-kin form. I’m not sure if the guards know I can change a race, so it will be fun to go to them being all like ‘Yes. I’m Brian Wood. I just happened to grow a wolf tail and ears.’
… And you know, Unika likes it when I’m Fenrir-kin, so I’m Fenrir-kin.
“Disappointed? Why?” I asked. “I think it is quite impressive.” I added.
“Maybe. But after the Castle dungeon, the Sage’s tower, the colosseum, and I don’t know, HomeBase, it just doesn’t seem that amazing.”
“... okay, I’ll give you that. I think HomeBase can remove the amazement from a lot of places.”
“And for all my childhood, it was the greatest place I’d ever seen. I could only imagine what it would look like behind the walls. … but now I kind of have an idea. That imaginary world is just as ordinary as the one outside of the walls.”
“... Yeah, it do be like that.” I agreed.
Castle life, or noble life, isn’t all parties, amazing food and fun. It is a lot of paperwork and boring stuff. Thank god I’ve managed to off-load most of that job to my monsters.
Getting through the gate was fun. Mainly because of my tail and ears. Honestly speaking, I think the guards assumed it was fake at first, until I used a mix of my Body Modification skills to transform the tail a bit, and played around with it.
Speaking of, I’ve gotten pretty good at using the three Body Modification skills in unison for better and faster results. You know the three, right? Draconic Body, Demonic Might and Vampiric Body Modification.
Sure none of them are that effective while I’m not actively the race the skills match to, but the three together work extremely well when I’m of any race.
When we got inside the gates, Cressida was waiting for us. Remember her? She is Elias’ assistant and one of Alice’s aunts.
She didn’t even flinch seeing me with a tail, as she has seen me use my Unique-Racial skill before.
As she guided us, she told us we’d first visit the second Prince, and from there, we’d head to a meeting with his Majesty.
I was expecting us to go to the same building as we did last time I visited the Prince, but apparently he had moved offices since last time, since he was in a different building.
The new building seemed to have a lot more knights walking close to it. Like it belonged to some knight order or something.
Elias’ office was basically the same as in the previous building. Except that it held his Five-Headed Dragon trophy on a pedestal, so anyone visiting would immediately spot it. And likely observe it closely. It really is a good looking trophy, if I do say so myself.
“... You’ve moved offices.” I said to Elias as I took a seat. Is what I’m doing against every etiquette ever? Probably. Does either of us care? Nope.
“Yes.” He responded. “... I decided to give up on the throne and took up a different position.”
“Really?” I was somewhat surprised by that. Coming from the person who was trying to force a to-be sage to be his wife, just giving up doesn’t sound like him.
“Yes. Your fault, really. Well, you, my sister and Mariina.” Elias said.
“What did I do?” I asked, trying to sound fake offended. Because I honestly wouldn’t have minded Elias becoming the King. He would have been good at it, I think. Sure I don’t really know his older brother that well, but I know Elias. And I know he would have been good at leading people.
“Nothing really. Just organized tournaments where my iniquities were shown to me.” Elias said.
“... Really? You gave up because you lost in a children’s card game?” I asked, this time I was actually getting a bit astounded. Like really? That is all that it took?
“Children’s card game? What do you mean by that?” Elias asked.
“Ignore that. Just me being me.”
“... but you aren’t exactly wrong. I lost because I’m not adequate to lead. At least not the entire country. I realized that.”
“... well, if that is what you decided. … So what position did you pick up instead?”
“The Grand General of the army.”
“... well, at least you didn’t give up on everything.”
“No. I would never. I just … decided to specialize. Still working on that and I will be for a few years. But hopefully I’ll be ready when it, whatever it ends up being, happens. Because we know something bad is going to happen. Let’s not fool ourselves.”
“We can both agree on that.” I agreed.
“I am one of the few people in this country holding the Card Summoner skill. And thanks to you, I can summon a powerful dragon. If the Grand General can do that, how much enthusiasm, drive and maybe even fanaticism do you think that will give to the general soldier when they fight against something they know they stand no chance at defeating?”
“I suppose that is true. Having that sort of faith in someone will hopefully give them the will to keep fighting when waiting for someone who can actually deal with the real issue.”
“Speaking about the miasma blobs?” Elias asked.
“Yeah. Admittedly it sucks that I’m the only one who can deal with them, but it is what it is.”
“Why is that? Isn’t it your monster that closes them? The golden giant? Or Exodia, if I recall its name? Can’t anyone summon it?”
“It is true that Exodia is a monster I summon with my cards. But Exodia is a part of a special set of monsters. He is a divine monster. Divine-Spellcaster to be specific. Divine monsters can only be summoned by myself, because of their power. My dungeon made duel disk can stabilize them, allowing them to be summoned without harming the summoner.”
That is not the full truth, but kind of also the truth. The truth actually is that only my duel disk can hold monster cards with Divine Sleeves around them. Technically other people can hold a Divine Sleeved monster in their hand, but it doesn’t exactly have the best results.
The card, because of the mana, miasma and creation energy mix, or basically pure Chaos God Energy, that the Divine monsters use, starts to affect the hand of the person holding it and it can quickly turn bad.
I tried to deal with the issue by linking mana stones directly to the True Core, instead of the Citadel Core like I usually do. But that didn't work out.
But my duel disk is directly linked to the Chaos God Core, aka. the True Core, so it can stabilize the Chaos God Energy use, so the cards don’t harm the summoner. Me.
“I see. … so for us, it really becomes a situation where all we can do is buy time until you can arrive.” Elias muttered.
“Yeah. Sorry.” I said. “But the good news is, if the States do something stupid, you can be prepared for that.”
“... Because of course that has to be a problem as well.” Elias sighed.
“Yeah. Speaking of problems… why did you summon me? … maybe I should say invited me? Summoning makes me sound like a monster.”
“Aren’t you one though?” Elias joked.
“... maybe?”
“... My Father will fill you in. It will be a bit until he is ready, so how about a game of cards before that? You have our decks in your Storage skill, I hope.”
“Naturally. And sure. I have all of them, except the few cards that were ‘stolen’. I should leak more of them to the market just for fun.”
“Just sell them. I’m sure you would have customers. For both the summoning cards and the play cards.”
“Been planning on doing that for a while. I just don’t want the States getting their hands on too many cards, so I’ve been holding back. On the summoning cards, I mean. The play cards … I might do that. I just need to find a good location for a store and someone to run the store.”
The meeting with the King didn’t happen in the audience chamber, but instead in a medium sized parlor room that was clearly meant for more private talks. In the room were the three of us, myself, Elias and the King, as well as the prime minister and a single knight. Sadly Unika had to wait outside.
“This is why I called you.” The King said, placing a letter on the table between us.
I asked with my eyes if I could read it and after a nod, I quickly skimmed over the letter.
It was from the Emperor of the Empire. … Really? Emperor of the Empire? There is only one Emperor, as far as I know.
… whatever. So it is from the Emperor, requesting a visit by a member of the Ruiso Royal Family. Whomever they choose is fine.
That isn’t the problem. The problem is that the Emperor requested that I accompany said member of Royalty. And they requested me by name, so I pretty much have to go.
Either that or I’d better have one heck of a reason for not going.
“So, when are we leaving and who am I going with?” I asked.
The letter didn’t seem to have a date, so I don’t know when they are expecting me. … Us.
“We are currently preparing an escort that will take you there, and you are going with Elias.” His Majesty answered.
“... and we can’t use an airship?”
“Not for trips to the Empire. We don’t want them to … unless you are offering one of yours?”
“Naturally. I mean, do you expect me to sit in a carriage for weeks while we travel when I can fly?”
“I suppose I couldn’t.” The King admitted.
“... anything I need to prepare? I’ll make a gift for … Do I call the Emperor the Emperor or something else?” I wondered.
“The Emperor or his Crystalline Majesty.” The prime minister noted.
“Alright. So I’ll make something for him. Any recommendations? And anything I shouldn’t make?”
“I would say don’t go overboard, but since he requested you by name, I believe he expects something amazing.”
“Do I ever go overboard?” I jokingly asked, only to face black stares.
Eventually, Elias was the one to answer. “Every time.”
“... okay, I’ll give you that. So no living weapons, but legendary weapons are fine.”
“Please don’t.” The King said. “Legendary weapons are a matter of national security. And living weapons? What are those?”
“I’ll write a report before we leave. I’ll need to report it to the Sage’s tower anyway. I just … may have made a new type of living organism that can possess a weapon and turn the weapon into a living weapon that can move on its own.”
“... You’ve made something like that? … Out of interest, how powerful are the weapons? And how many do you have?”
“Currently low tier legendary, but I can probably turn any weapon into a living weapon. I’ve just been using low tier legendary weapons, because why would I make weak living weapons?” I answered honestly. “But they should grow as the mabuki inside them grow stronger.” I looked at them and they looked mind blown. “Oh right. Mabuki are what I call the little metal slimes that make the weapons be alive. And we currently have thirteen of them.”
“... Why do I ask?” The King muttered. “Please do warn me before your HomeBase declares independence from Ruiso Kingdom. I’ll prepare everything for you.”
“... why would I? My taxes aren’t that bad. … though admittedly that is because I have secret sources of income. … fuck. I’m going to get checked for tax evasion and fraud now, aren’t I?”
“Why? I didn’t hear anything.” The King said. “Did either of you?” He asked as he looked at the prime minister and then Elias.
“Nope. Not a thing.” Elias said. “Besides, better to get something than to get nothing. We all know you do more for us than we ever do for you. We don’t guarantee your safety. You guarantee ours.”
“Yeah. Give and take is difficult when one side has too much power. It just becomes a parasitic relationship.” I noted. “... not like I’m not the parasite in some relationships.” I admitted. “Can’t really be that helpful to beings like the supreme dragon or the superior spirits.”
“... I will never get used to you name dropping beings like that.”
“At least I try not to advertise my relationship with the Goddess, so … except just now, but ignore that.”
“... please leave before I force you to start your own country.” The King said. “Elias will confirm the timing with you.”
“Yes, your Majesty.” I said, before I got up and left the room.
We returned to Elias’ office, had another game of Yugioh while I informed him of my airships capabilities and storage space, so he’d know how much stuff, and how many people, he can bring.
After our duel, which I won by the way, Unika and I headed out of the castle grounds. When we were outside the gates, we waved to the guards before I used Teleportation Magic to bring both of us back to HomeBase.