Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.365 Meeting the King

Finally, the day had come. The day I would meet the King, and after that I could move HomeBase out from above the capital and do whatever I really wanted. … aka. I’d probably take HomeBase towards Alewatch, at least temporarily, so we could do some dungeon diving in TinaWood, while also visiting a few of the surrounding towns like Yuva and Krame. 

But enough about future plans, I have to get through today first. And it wasn’t just me who had an important meeting to get to, because both Alice and Lua had been invited to have tea with Her Majesty the Queen. I don’t know why she decided the same day as when I was meeting her husband was a good day for that, but I’m not going to question the Royalty.

As a preparation for this day, yesterday, I met with His Highness Prince Elias. He gave me a quick rundown on what should happen and so on, but also warned me that his Father might go off the script at some point, so I should expect something that he couldn’t warn me about. Not that I’m one to say anything about that. I’m also as impulsive as anything.

Of course in preparation for the meeting, I put on a suit. And not my old one, but a new one Wilma made for me. I didn’t know she had the skills to do that, but apparently she does. Something about armor making requiring sewing skills. The new one wasn’t amazing by any means, I mean, I didn’t let her use legendary materials for it or anything, but it was higher quality than my previous one, so it is fine. I had also upgraded the color from brown, which is usually seen as the cheapest, to a nice black color. I definitely prefer black myself, and being able to produce fabrics that are pure black, not some wannabe black, made for a good looking suit. I think the gold terminal on my revealed left forearm also just goes super well with the black suit.

On my right arm, I had a bracelet made of just gold, but it had a beautiful magic stone embedded in it, made/converted by Alice and Lua, with some help from Dark Sage. I really liked having it, because it was a clear sign that I was taken.

For my ride, I was of course in my own carriage. I actually ended up making another copy of it using HomeBase, just so Alice and Lua also have a carriage for today.

But because I was heading for the castle, I wanted to have a horse pulling my carriage. Sadly, I can’t summon just a horse. I mean, I have Nightmare Horse, which is a bit too scary. I also have Chiron the Mage and Mystic Horseman, but having a centaur pull my carriage might be a bit egotistical. And The Trojan Horse really isn’t an option because of its size.

Spoiler

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I did consider using Shrink to shrink down The Trojan Horse, but even after halving its size with Shrink, The Trojan Horse was still too large to pull a regular sized carriage.

But when you can’t use your own cheats to do things, you just have to go with the old reliable. Ask for help from someone else. In this case, Cressida. She used a carriage every day to get to the castle, and hers used regular old horses. So with just a bit of help from her, I was acquainted with a coachman who owned horses. I hired both him and two horses for today, and while I could have also loaned a carriage from him, I obviously have my own, so I just used it instead. I visited him yesterday, just to make sure he can attach the carriage to the horses, and I also showed him how my magic carriage works in case he wants to lighten the load on the horses. Not that my carriage is that heavy in the first place, especially if I turn the levitation thingy on that lifts the box off of the frame. At that point, all the horses would have to pull is the base, which is mostly blood iron, except the axles that are vampiric steel. Sure it had some heft to it, but nothing much for trained carriage horses.

After arriving at the castle gates, the carriage was checked like last time, aka. they checked who was inside. I still wonder how little security they really have at the castle. Just a letter and my noble’s ID and they let me in no problem. 

I was dropped off at an entrance to the castle itself. Not the front door, but a side entrance. I left the carriage in the care of the coachman, and headed inside with a civil official who had come there to get me. 

From there, I was guided to a waiting room. It was nice enough, but nothing really special. Some snacks and drinks were also available. The official then left, after asking me for the gift I had prepared for the King. I handed him the magic fanny pack with some TinaWood products inside of it. It also had a similar dagger as the ones I gave to the Queen and Nevelle, as well as five of the resurrection bracelets. I decided to go with five because … I actually don’t really know why. I just think it was a good number.

After a bit of a wait, two guards came in and performed a basic search on me. Again, nothing super invasive, just making sure I had no weapons on me. I still question this security. I mean, I meating the King, and they don’t even use some sort of skill sealing device. And sure they checked me for weapons, but the dungeon terminal can turn into a weapon, and that should be commonly known. And you don’t need a weapon to cast magic either. Well, maybe they have something else that solves the security problem.

After the check, the guards left and I was left in the room with just a maid. I asked her for some tea while I waited, and she called out to someone else to bring me some. 

And while I waited, I got in contact with Alice and Lua. They were still preparing for their tea time with the Queen, so I didn’t bother them for too long. So instead, I pulled up my Pack Opener and decided to crack open a few more Cyberdark Impact packs.

I only had time for five packs before the civil official who brought me to this room returned and asked me to come with him. But from those five packs, I did manage to pull Cyberdark Keel, so that is nice.

Following the official, he gave me the final rundown on how the meeting is supposed to go, how I’m supposed to act and so on. Nothing I haven’t heard three to five times already, but still nice of them to remind new nobles who might be nervous as anything at this time. Honestly speaking, I was quite calm. Every interaction I’ve had with the Royal family has been mostly positive, and now that the genderbent Hero’s party is on my side, escaping this country won’t be any problem, if I somehow manage to piss off the King. Not that I’m expecting that I’d do that.

I was guided to a pair of large doors, with a total of four armed knights guarding them. Each of them had the Royal Knight emblem on their armor. They took a quick look at me before two of them began opening the doors leading to … well, I’ll see in a second I guess.

Beyond the doors was a reasonably large hall, with the throne on a raised platform at the end. And apparently the King was already waiting for me, because he was already sitting on the throne, but I didn’t dare to look at him for too long, because of the etiquette. So after just a quick glance, I looked a bit more down, focusing on where I was soon going to kneel. But because of the quick glance I took, Tahlia was able to screenshot it, and Laura brough the picture up as a hud-like element at the corner of my vision so I could check it out in more detail, as I walked forward. Behind me, the two guards who opened the door then closed it, leaving themselves on the inside of the room, while the official who guided me here also came inside the room, before quickly breaking off to the right and standing next to the wall.

Other than the King, on the raised platform there were five other people. Two of them I knew, but the three others not so much. For one of them, I can make an educated guess and assume that he is the first Prince, considering that he is sitting down on what looks to be the third largest seat on the platform. The second largest was actually empty, and it was probably for the Queen. Next to the first Prince’s seat was a seat for the Second Prince, Prince Elias, and next the the Queen’s seat, there was a seat for Princess Nevelle, though judging from her hair length, the girl sitting there was just half of her, her Vele half to be precise. I wonder if Nel is with her mother so that she can enjoy the teatime with Alice and Lua?

The fifth person on the raised platform was a Royal knight standing right behind the King’s throne. He was difficult to spot, but my vision is quite good, so he was visible. The last person was who I think is the Prime Minister. At least he matches the description I got. He was standing between the King’s and the first Prince’s seats.

Other than the people on the platform, a few nobles were also present, standing on both sides of the hall. I didn’t know basically any of them, so I can probably just ignore them. There were also more Royal Knights, but again, I’ll just ignore them, because they shouldn’t do anything.

When I reached the appropriate spot, again without daring to look up at the King before given the permission, I kneeled down and faced the ground, waiting for the permission to look up.

After kneeling for just a few seconds, I heard someone speak up. 

“You may look up.” 

I did as ordered, not knowing if the one that spoke to me was the King, or the PM. Not that it really matters.

Now that I got a good look at the King, I saw a kind looking man, but he really didn’t look to be at an age where he should have a child as old as Elias. And Elias isn’t even the firstborn. In fact, looking at the two Princes and the King, you could almost assume that all three of them are brothers. Well, I suppose the two Princes are clean shaven, while the King does have a short beard, so maybe that might give something away, but still. The King didn’t look a day over 40, when he should have been pushing towards 50. Like all of his children, the King had red hair, though his seemed just a bit darker than that of his children, the same red color also going for his beard.

As I was looking up at him, the King finally spoke up, making me realize that the person who had given me the permission to look up must have been the PM.

“Honorary Baron Brian Wood. I am thankful for the services you have given to this country. Not only did you found a new dungeon, you protected a city from dragons and assisted in defeating two SS-rank monsters, you also brought to light an illegal slave smuggling organization. For all of these services, I thank you.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” I responded as previously instructed.

“While I would have loved to give you your title myself, my son just had to go and do it before I had the chance. So in light of that, Honorary Baron Brian Wood, would you like me to upgrade your peerage from an honorary one to a permanent one?” The King asked.

Oh god. We are off the script now. Well, I suppose I must improvise then.

“If that is Your Majesty’s will, I shall accept.” I began. “However, I do believe I can do more for this country, so perhaps you would be willing to wait for me to gain a better accomplishment first.” This wouldn’t solve anything, but it might buy me some time to think about things. As well as just talking about this with Alice and Lua.

“I will accept that. I do expect great things from you.” The King agreed. 

After a bit more time of me kneeling on the ground, and the King basically just having quick questions about the items inside the magic fanny pack, our meeting was done and I left the room. From there, the same civil official that guided me in took me back to the waiting room I was in previously. He also complimented me on the quick thinking for the response I gave to the King.

I was asked to wait in the room for a bit, in case the King wanted an unofficial meeting, so I contacted Alice and Lua. They had arrived at the Queen’s villa, and as I guessed earlier, Nel half of Nevelle was there.

After a bit more of a wait, someone did come to see me. But it wasn’t His Majesty the King, but instead the second Prince.

“Hello Brian. Sorry to barge in.” He set the tone for the conversation. 

“Don’t worry about it Elias. … is that fine that we keep this casual?” I asked to confirm. I know he was casual, but we are inside the castle, so maybe I should call him with honorifics?

“We are friends, right?” Elias asked. “Just call me like you would any other friend.”

“Elias it is then. So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Nothing much really. But I did want to know. You gave both His and Her Majesties some interesting bracelets. Why didn’t I get any?” He asked.

“Because I hadn’t made any when I met with you after I arrived in the capital, and I wanted to give all the ones I had ready to His Majesty, so I couldn’t have given you one yesterday.” I answered him honestly. Well, mostly honestly. I could have made him one, I just wanted the King to obtain one before his son got one. “I can make a few and have Cressida bring them to you, if you’d like.” I then offered.

“Yes. Please do.” Elias agreed. “... and what of the knives made of Ursa Major’s claws? Would ..?”

“Nope. Not possible.” I quickly said. “I’m out of materials.” I lied. Honestly I just wanted to keep the rest of the Ursa Major claws for making star titanium.

“... I see.”

“But I might have something else, if you give me a bit of time.” I offered. “See, and I know this isn’t on official record so this is just between the two of us, just a few days ago, Alice, Lua and I happened to take down a Fenrir, so I have some interesting materials from it.”

“A … A fenrir? Like an SS-rank fenrir, and not a lesser fenrir?” Elias asked.

“Yeah. An SS-rank Fenrir.”

“... Where? When?”

“As I said a few days ago. The location was near the Ruiso and Narra border in an uninhabited area. If you have a map, I can show the exact location.”

“... I do not see the need to know the exact location, as long as you ensure everything is fine.”

“Yeah, we didn't break anything other than a few trees, and I made sure to fix the forest afterwards.”

“Good. You really go above and beyond. ... as for making something for me ... Would you?”

“Yes. I might be able to make something of it. Is there something you prefer? A staff? A sword? A dagger? Maybe armor?” I asked.

“... We are friends, right? A friend will accept any gift, so I’ll let you choose.” Elias said.

“Alright. I’ll make something amazing.” I agreed. “What do you think your brother would like?” I then asked.

“... My brother?” Elias asked.

“Yes. I don’t think giving just one of you something would be a good idea. While I understand our friendship, in the eyes of the other nobles, that might be shown as me picking sides, so I’d prefer to stay at least somewhat neutral for now. I don’t know your brother, after all.”

“Yes. Better not to judge someone you don’t know.” Elias agreed. “... My brother is quite the fan of hidden weapons like sword canes and wrist daggers. Perhaps one of those?” Elias suggested.

“Thanks. I’ll see what I can do.”

Elias and I spoke for a little longer, mainly him asking if I’d take him dragon riding again, as well as him asking questions about HomeBase. I of course told him that I’d soon be revealing HomeBase, and I was going to invite him.

After our discussion, the civil official said that the King would not be having an unofficial meeting with me, so I was guided out of the castle, and I left the castle grounds.

I think it went okay. I didn’t even piss anyone off, and now I have a new project to work on with Wilma. Though I have to say, I really wasn’t expecting to work on a sword cane. I think it will be a fun project.