~ Chapter 136: One more step towards their reunion ~
[Alkelios’s point of view]
It was done, the King was dead, the Akutan Ambassador was also dead, and the Kingdom was, in theory, back in Ildeanussi’s hands. Or at the very least, that was what I wanted to do, but when I stepped up in the eyes of the people and began my speech, I was mostly guided by my own intuition and luck. Somehow, the words that came out of my mouth absolved the King of his sins and placed all the blame on Askarius, which in a way, was not completely wrong.
Once the people calmed down, I jumped down from the tribunes and joined the others. The Queen and Princess recovered their authority in front of the Knights and Soldiers of the Ten Swords Kingdom, who bowed their heads in apology. For now, they were spared. After all, according to Kalderan, they should have technically been sentenced to a swift execution because they pointed their swords at someone of royal blood. A single word from the Queen was all that it took, but she was merciful.
It was a wise choice as there was no need to make enemies with senseless bloodshed.
Instead of staying at the inn, we were welcomed to the Kor Palace, the official home of the Queen and Princess of Ten Swords Kingdom. I was given one of the bigger guest rooms and my companions also received a lavishing treatment as well.
That night, however, I met up with the Queen and the Princess and told them everything that happened in that room, outside of everyone’s gaze. They were not surprised to hear that Askarius had a mind-controlling ability, the Queen told them while I was up there, and for a moment, they were worried that I might end up under his control.
It was a close one, I had to admit, but the Golden Scale wasn’t said to represent Authority for nothing. If someone like that could easily be mind-controlled by others, then with or without that scale it did not matter. The affinity of the scale was like an overwhelming powerful passive bonus for draconians. So, just like how Seryanna could not get burned if she touched fire directly, I too wasn’t harmed by anything that in theory challenged my Authority, such as mind-controlling abilities, seduction spells, and manipulation skills. If I was an idiot who could not read the situation and didn’t make the right choice or allowed others to manipulate me through a trick of words, then that was entirely my fault and my scale color had nothing to do with it. Although, it could be said that my intuition and luck played a higher role in that situation.
In a way, my lies about the King’s final words came to light in front of the Queen and Princess, however, I had to mention that maybe they were not complete lies if they took into account his behavior and way of thinking before he was controlled by Askarius. The King was a victim in this story, but this didn’t absolve him of deeds, at least, not in the eyes of the citizens. I was also a little worried about the fact that I lied, but the Queen put me at ease with her words.
“Your lies are now the truth that all the citizens of this country believe, no matter if they are nobles or commoners. Your speech was wonderful and while it brought to light a hidden criminal, it also spared my late husband of any further shame. Those lies also had the powerful role of appeasing the nobility who had witnessed today’s events as well as the commoners in the tribunes who are going to spread word of this to the masses. It was either a stroke of genius or a stroke of luck that you said all those things so flawlessly, but I do appreciate you from the bottom of my heart for everything you did today... I sincerely cannot express my gratitude in words... You saved us, both me and my daughter and also this Kingdom from a fate that was probably much worse.” was what she told me.
Afterwards, she began to ask me a bunch of things about Coshun for some reason. Ildea managed to stop her in the end, but the Queen was probably onto something there. Either way, if the two were meant to be together, then I wished both Coshun and Ildea all the luck that they needed in order to get married and lead a happy life together with their many children.
Well, I had to admit, that I was a bit surprised that Queen Vermida was not that much against the idea of Coshun, a draconian, becoming her daughter’s husband. Either she was incredibly open minded or simply a good mother wishing to support her daughter no matter her choices in life. Or maybe it was a combination of both?
So far, I couldn’t tell if the discrimination and hate against the draconians was something that was forced upon the people by the higher classes, the surrounding nations, or some sort of religious initiative. Either way, if was doubtful that it was going to fade away any time too soon, but at least now there was a chance.
Before, nobody would have even dreamt of the possibility of a chance for an official Peace Treaty let alone an actual Alliance between draconians and humans. At most, they had an unofficial peace disguised as a standoff until both sides recovered their army strength.
Since I proclaimed myself as a temporary regent until Ildeanussi was capable of ruling on her own, or at least until she was married off to a certain draconian Prince, I had to take care of a bunch of stuff. Luckily for me, I was already sort of experienced with the life of bureaucracy thanks to my time as a Duke in Albeyater. The next day, there were a lot of documents I had to read and a lot of meetings I had to attend in order to stabilize my power as well as reassure the people that I wasn’t going to introduce any weird laws that could potentially ruin everyone’s lives.
To make things better, I reduced the excessive taxes under the pretext that Queen Vermida asked for this out of her worry for the lower classes. The person in question, however, was being spoiled by the maids as they gave her a full-on pampering treatment to recover from the time she spent as a prisoner under the order of the King.
For about a week after that, all I did was act out as a proper ruler, while making sure to have Ildeanussi join me whenever was possible, to show everyone that I wasn’t planning on forsaking my previous promise. Truth be told, the Princess in question had no such worries and believed that I was doing an incredibly good job at this.
In the meantime, she also brought me news of what everyone else was doing right now.
First of all, Risha was attending an entire spartan course to become a proper Royal Maid. It seemed that Ildea took a liking to the adventurer woman and decided to offer her a spot at her side, which apparently, she wholeheartedly accepted. She confessed that after she saw us facing the King, she sincerely didn’t know what to do or how far she would have to run away with us, but afterwards, she was quite happy that we won.
Roshelle returned to the Queen’s side and took care of her every need and desire, pampering her to no end to help the woman forget the torture. That sort of thing, however, was not easy to get rid of, and one night, when I happened to pass by her door, I heard the Queen crying in her sleep, begging for the whipping to stop. I knocked at her door to wake her up from the nightmare, and afterwards I gave her a potion that helped with calming down her nerves. I feared that she had developed a nasty case of PTSD, but in this world… everyone had one form or another.
Because of this and also because I knew the effects of my own potion, I didn’t want her to develop a placebo addiction to it, so I told the Queen to speak with Ildea about her trauma and slowly recover on her own. Sometimes, just having your own family or someone you trusted deeply listen to you was more than enough to help you get through.
Amadeus and Drumora, because of their unnecessary declaration that almost made me curse my days ended up as esteemed guests at the Palace. Once again, they were treated like royalty, but everyone knew they were running away from Akutan, so they were, in a sense, refugees. The fact that they were of imperial blood mattered more than I had initially thought. If we removed the current leaders of Akutan, we could, technically, place one of the two on the throne, but something like this... was probably in the far future.
Either way, if their fate was to become the next Emperor or Empress, I wished them luck on that account. If chance would have it that they would need my help to achieve this, I would lend my power to them. The more allies Albeyater had in the end, the better and if in the process we completely stopped the war between humans and draconians, then even better!
Speaking of politics and such, Kalderan took the surprising decision of trying to become an Ambassador of the Ten Swords Kingdom. He wanted an official position that in time would increase his status when he was in other countries. When I asked why he wanted something like this, he replied that it was for when he would visit the Albeyater Kingdom. Staying at the Palace all the time wasn’t his idea of fun, but he sincerely found the Dragon Kingdom to be quite interesting from what he was told.
As for the Prince of Albeyater Kingdom, Coshun Seyendraugher, he was currently in the middle of traumatizing... I mean ‘training’ the Knight of Ten Swords. If they survived his hellish training, those men would end up becoming some of the most powerful fighters in this nation. Maybe one of them would even end up as a Breakthrough-er or Awakened as the humans called them.
On another note, this brought to my attention that the women and men weren’t exactly on equal rights in this country. Together with the Queen and Princess, I decided to try to come up with some new laws that would not only strengthen their position in the country but also improve the nation as a whole by allowing women to do what previously was banned by law, such as becoming Knights, owning businesses, or even have the right to divorce an unlawful or abusive husband.
All in all, I had plenty of things to worry about and a lot of stuff to do before I could so much as take a step out of this place. If this was the price, I had to pay in order to bring the two species together, I didn’t mind, however, this also allowed me to do something else, which was to give out a very special order!
Indeed, what I did was to send an official invitation to Seryanna Draketerus and her company to Kor Palace under the guise of representatives of the Albeyater Kingdom. In other words, I really wanted to see her again, so I used my newfound power to summon her from across the ocean in the Ten Swords Kingdom. I was certain she would end up flying here in a matter of weeks! But, alongside this order, I also declared some laws which allowed for the trade ships of Albeyater to safely dock at Ten Swords’ ports and a bunch of other things that basically should, over time, improve the relationship between humans and draconians.
[Seryanna’s point of view]
It has been two weeks since we docked at the Mondarc Port, and we haven’t even been allowed to set foot on the pier, let alone walk through the city. Thankfully, our new allies were more than happy to help us buy any of the supplies that we needed from the port and help transport us over to our ships. The traders were also feeling better about taking their money rather than ours.
The discrimination against those with scales was a bit on the harsh side, but no idiot dared to get too close to our ship. With two Breakthrough-ers here, only a crazy man would dare to sneak up on board, especially when all of us were bored and quite eager to find a new toy to play with.
Kataryna didn’t seem to be bothered too much with the ban, she was flying around most of the day. Technically, she wasn’t stepping a single foot on the land, despite the City Lord’s complaints.
On the other hand, I was feeling more and more pressured... or should I say annoyed? Staying on board of this ship and just receiving those notices from Alkelios was driving me mad. I wanted to meet him soon! I want to hug him! I wanted to kiss him! I wanted to drag him into my room and... ahem. He was out there... so close, yet so far.
One day, as I was lamenting the right of life of these humans before me who kept me from heading deeper into this continent, the City Lord came over to the docks accompanied by his most trusted men and followers. He called over all the captains, including ours and then made some sort of declaration for all to hear.
There were a lot of people who gathered around him, but he seemed so busy that he didn’t even stop by to tell us what was happening, instead, he rushed over to another part of the city to give out that same speech again. Meanwhile, another human came over with captain Matthew. He looked like all the other pompous nobles who had too much time on their hands and wasted it taking care of their oversized wigs. A single breath was enough to burn him to a crisp but doing that would just stave off my boredom temporarily.
“Sir Seryanna, this man says that he is here to give you an order from the current regent of the country... also, there’s something else you need to hear. I’ll go call over the Princess as well.” he told me and then walk past me.
I looked back at the human who was left on the deck of the draconian vessel, but the moment all eyes turned towards him, his pride just vanished into thin air and the pathetic man was already trembling in his boots.
If our glares were too powerful, menacing, or bloodthirsty, that was only because we were all quite terribly tired and stressed from being told to stay on this ship for an undetermined period of time.
On this boat, I was not the only one at my wit’s end.
Not even ten minutes later, we all gathered on the deck to listen to the declaration of this human. Kataryna and Elleyzabelle were also here, while Tanarotte was off to the side munching on a grilled fish on a stick. She had no care for such matters.
“Ahem! Thus, I will relay to you the sad news that our King Andrakuzzi Kor had passed away and in his stead, the temporary Regent Alkelios Yatagai Draketerus has been placed in charge of the country until the esteemed Princess Ildeanussi Vermida Kor shall be able to take the reins from him. This decision was made in agreement with Queen Vermida Kor and Princess Ildeanussi Vermida Kor as well as the majority of the noble houses represented at the capital. With this change, a new set of rules and regulation has been given and more shall continue to be passed in the hopes of making our beloved country more powerful and prosperous!” he declared with a proud tone in his voice.
“Regent who now?” I asked furrowing my brow, thinking that maybe I heard wrong.
“Oh my~! While we took our sweet time traveling here, this dragon of ours took over an entire country!” Kataryna laughed.
“Well, I do not doubt that he could do something like this, but... he did mention a Princess Ildeanussi...” I said and then looked at Kataryna, who also looked back at me and then both of us looked back at Elleyzabelle.
“What? Do I have something on my face?” she asked furrowing her brow.
“It can’t be...” we both said in unison.
“Furthermore! I am to deliver a message to one Seryanna Draketerus! She and her companions are invited to the Kor Palace for an audience with the current Regent Alkelios Yatagai Draketerus! In order to facilitate their arrival, several laws have been passed to stop all discriminatory behavior towards the draconians! Her Majesty Queen Vermida Kor expressed her desire and wish for the humans of Ten Swords Kingdom to begin to form a new friendly relationship with the draconians in the hope that our past grievances and hate shall be forgotten, and we would all look towards a more prosperous and harmonious future together!” he declared.
Afterwards, he began to list several laws that were changed in accordance with the recent decrees. His words fell on deaf ears as my mind could focus on only one thing and that was the fact that I could finally get to see Alkelios again and for the sake of the skin on his back and the hair on his head, I hoped he was not in the middle of an affair with this Princess Ildeanussi!
The fact that I allowed him to get married without his prior notice to Princess Elleyzabelle and Kataryna was just a minor detail. We had yet to celebrate their wedding!