My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 260: Heavy Is The Crown (2)

As the palace began to creep into view, Kace4 found it to be underwhelming compared to the scale of the vampire's one. It was not much larger than the other buildings around it, which would make it easy to mistake it for just any other building. It had a distinct lack of gold painted on it like the other buildings in its vicinity. In its place, there was plenty of purple patterns painted on it instead.

'They say that purple used to be a royal colour back on Earth. Is it the same here? Or is it just personal preference?' Kace had seen enough of the city to know that purple was not used anywhere else. So he felt like his guess was most likely on point. The closer they came to the palace, the quieter the streets became. It was almost disconcerting with the lack of activity in the area.

Kace glanced from side to side and realised that there were no signs to indicate any of these buildings as being stores. Which meant that this was a large residential area. 'It's probably where the richest citizens live. There's probably more security the closer to the palace you get. It makes sense for those that can afford it to live here.' He also had a sneaking suspicion that the lack of noise was due to the area's prestige.

After all, who would want to live in a boisterous area of the city if they could afford to live in peace and luxury? There was one thing bugging him though. Even here, there was a complete lack of guards or soldiers. It was to the point that Kace had actually not spotted a single one yet. 'It's too strange to dismiss it. I feel like something else is going on here, but I don't know what it could be.'

It would have to be pretty severe for the soldiers to be allocated elsewhere. Of course, he could just be overthinking it. He was so used to being in places that required a lot of security that he instantly applied this logic to this city. It could just be that such a level of protection was not needed here. However, there had been plenty of guards around the market areas so that should not be the case.

Kace put himself mentally on guard as they turned onto the street that led to the palace. He had a feeling that his invitation to this place may be connected with whatever was going on around here. He had to be prepared for whatever would be thrown at him. He was confident that once he displayed a need for her troops, the ruler would make a few demands for him in return. 

'Why didn't Sophia pick up on this? As royalty herself, she should be perceptible to the obvious strangeness of hesitation.' To be fair, Kace had failed to really notice until just now. He had just taken the lack of guards and soldiers at face value. 

The palace was surrounded by large sandstone walls. They were not large enough to really call them defensive structures, they were more like large garden walls that were just meant to deter anyone from thinking of trespassing easily. However, even that image was spoiled because there were no gates preventing people from entering. 

Instead, there was just a gap large enough for two people to walk side by side between the walls on either side. This only added to his concerns when he noticed that therefore not even any guards placed there. What kind of madness was this anyway! No matter what else might be going on, why would you not have guards present to defend what was meant to be the palace?

'Sylvan, are you detecting anything strange?' Kace tentatively asked the parasitic weapon that had taken up residence in his mind. 

'Hm No. Well. Actually, I should say that I'm not detecting anything at all. Which is actually strange in itself if you think about it.' Sylvan had taken a short while to reply. Kace always felt like he was trying to wake a beast from his slumber whenever he reached out to him these days. Sylvan had even refrained from interjecting random comments whenever he felt like it. 

Kace continued to ponder over Sylvan's behaviour as they approached the gates. However, he could not come up with a reason for Sylvan's almost lethargic state. 'I'll have to properly question him about it as soon as possible.' Kace was worried about what may be going on with his weapon. Sure, he did not explicitly need Sylvan's conciseness to manipulate his form, but it felt good to have a constant partner by his side.

'I'll need to pay more attention to him. Who knows what kind of side effects this might bring?' Kace paused in his advance when they were only ten steps away from the entrance to the palace grounds. The rest of the group also drew to a stop with confused looks on their faces beside him.

"Shadow. Is this where you found everyone earlier?" Kace had not even thought about consulting his tribe on the strange situation until just now. If they had already been inside the palace grounds, they would surely be able to tell him if something was amiss. 

"Yeah, the barracks are around the side there." Shadow pointed off to the right of the palace with a confused look. He wondered what prompted his Lord to halt so suddenly and ask such a question.

"Tell me. Did you come across any guards or anyone from the palace for that matter?" Kace was developing a bad premonition. There was just too much that did not add up. When he reached this distance from the gates, his phantom hydra-head also began to pick up a sense of danger. Kace was not inclined to disregard something when his own mind and these senses were telling him that something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Now that you mention it No."