I stared down at my swords, the right blade was in perfect condition, except for the partially dried blood

I would need to clean off, but the left blade….Several cracks ran from the tip of the blade down through most of the sword, the sword’s structure was completely compromised, I would never be able to use it again…...It took me a whole freaking month to make each of these swords!!!

I could feel tears running down my cheeks and I let them fall. A sword was a warriors life and a smith’s pride and joy. I was both creator and wielder, so I felt double the pain at one of my blades destruction. I blindly reached into my bag until I found my small sword maintenance kit. Opening the small box, I pulled out a clean cloth and began to lovingly clean the blood of the damaged blade. I would give the last honors I could to my blade, and then…...I WOULD FIND THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EVENT THAT BROKE ONE OF MY SWORDS!!!!

The King of Serac’s point of view:

I watched Delta directly for a few moments, with apprehension clawing it’s way up my throat, but she simply started cleaning the damaged sword. I let myself relax just a tiny bit, turning my eyes back to the center of the room, but still observing Delta from the corner of my eye. It seemed she wasn’t going to do anything just yet, but I had no doubt an outburst would come eventually, it would be best to get the meeting over as soon as possible.

“Well gentlemen, let’s get this matter over with, those arguing to disqualify Delta for killing Lonan, please present your arguments….”

Old man Ebenezer immediately shot up from his seat, his shrill old voice reverberating throughout the room.

“She’s a woman! That’s should already be plenty to disMMM…..mmmmmm….Mmmmph!”

I quickly use a spell to gag and tie the old man to his chair, cautiously looking at Delta, but the woman didn’t seem to have noticed or wasn’t affected the old geezers words. I smiled sternly at Ebenezer, whose eyes were glaring furiously at me.

“Sir Ebenezer, you have made your point quite clear to all of us, there are no laws banning women from becoming Royal guards, thus your argument is pointless, now, will you be quiet and behave so the other nobles can get a word in? Or am I going have to keep you restrained for the rest of this affair?”

The geezer’s furious eyes bulged out even further and intelligible sounds of fury struggled past the man’s blowing blue gag. His chair shook as he vigorously tried to break free from the magic ropes that tied him to his chair. I struggled to keep the amused smile that threatening to break across my face hidden, and idly waved my finger, casting another small spell to glue the old man’s chair to the floor. Ebenezer was an amazing mage, but as a member of the royal family, I naturally had a larger magic reservoir, and once I had been crowned king, due to some perks that came with the throne, it had only grown larger. Thus, I could easily use raw force to beat Ebenezer despite his superior experience, but that was only because the man’s aged mana reservoir couldn’t handle as much mana as it used to, if I fought his grandson, the Archduke, who was quite talented, I would have to put some serious effort into it. I could still win, but only if it was one on one, unfortunately, Lucius has many allies, so I couldn’t just take him down whenever I wanted. I smiled politely at the Archduke.

“I’ll take that as a no. I hope you don’t mind, Archduke Lucius, but your grandfather is quite upset about this matter, I fear that if we were allow him to continue in these proceedings, we would be here long into the night, and I know none of us would like that….”

Archduke Lucius’s brow twitched, I had just used his grandfather to embarrass his family, but that was the only reaction the man gave. He smoothly slid to his feet.

“Of course you are correct, your majesty, my grandfather is rather set on keeping the traditions that made up this kingdom, so naturally this…..spectacle upsets him quite a bit, it is likely that I should have left him at home.”

Sir Ebenezer glared at his grandson, but settled down, the old man finally realizing the mistake he had made in his outrage. I narrowed my eyes at Lucius, he had just insinuated that having Delta as a guard would be breaking the traditions of the kingdom, while traditions weren’t laws, they still held a large sway in the old families of Serac, including the families that supported me.

“I’m afraid your grandfather has mistaken bias for tradition, Archduke, women were quite valued as warriors in the early years of our Kingdom, there have even been several renowned Queens that have reigned over Serac in the past, it was only in the past three centuries that we caught this strange fad from the north to treat woman like they’re useless pieces of glass, and I hope to bring our country back to the traditions we have held for thousands of years, not something we picked up from another country a few hundred years ago!”

I felt a wave of satisfaction as I saw fury flash in the Archduke’s eyes before he calmed himself. Leaning back in my throne, I let a small smile linger faintly across my lips. Lucius gave a small bow, acknowledging my point, and took a few steps forward to the open space in front of me.

“It you seems you know the history of our great kingdom far better than I, your majesty, it can only be expected from the one the past king groomed to be his successor, but we seem to have gotten off topic...”

I barely hid a grimace at that comment, it was well known that my father had hated me, and had only hired tutors and the such for my education because I was the only child he could ever have, and thus, his only available heir. Quickly plastering a pleasant smile on my face, I nodded to Lucius.

“You are quite right Archduke, I imagine that you would like to put some point forward first?”

The man had the grace to hide the swell of smugness I just knew he was feeling at the moment. He began to stroll back and forth in the front of the room, though avoiding getting too close to Delta and the corpse. I kept my eyes fixed on Lucius, but noted that Delta had finished cleaning her blade and was now lovingly oiling it, a natural thing to protect a blade from rust….but Delta was never going to be able to use the blade again, so why does it matter?

“Well, your majesty, while this woman has apparently saved your life, the fact still stands that no matter what the situation, she took another competitor's life! This is strictly against the rules of the tournament, which have been set in stone since ancient times!”

Now the man was trying to use my previous words about history against me, I really do hate him….

“Archduke Lucius, the man was using a dark artifact, something which is automatic grounds for disqualification! At the moment Lonan used it’s forbidden power, he was no longer a mere competitor!”

Lucius stayed silent for a short moment, as though he was considering my words.

“Your majesty, while everyone here, including myself, saw the man’s…..strange transformation….we have not actually received physically proof. If your majesty could be so kind, would you provide us with the said-dark artifact that the man was using? Dark artifacts in general are used to attack or take control of another person’s soul, I have never heard of a dark artifact that enhances the user….”

…..There would be a problem with this request…..only Delta’s sword had broken the artifact! Well, there were still traces of the magic on the crystal, so it might work…..Who am I kidding myself, Lucius would use this for his cause to the fullest extent, but not bringing the artifact forward would be worse….Waving my hand, I directly summoned the amulet from Lonan’s corpse, letting it hover in a protective bubble in front of Lucius. Summoning took quite a bit more energy than simply moving the amulet, or having someone retrieve it, but I didn’t dare interrupt Delta in whatever she was doing…..Lucius stepped forward to examine the artifact, then his eyes widened in surprise and he snapped his head to look at me.

“This artifact has already been destroyed! What is the meaning of this!?”

Murmurs of surprise and suspicion filled the room. They probably think I’m trying to plant a fake artifact to frame Lonan, or had it destroyed to cover something up.

“I swear upon Creation itself that the crystal was like that when I found it on the body, the sword that Miss Delta had thrown into Lonan’s throat also ended up breaking the artifact while damaging the sword upon repair as well, you can check the sword for yourself, but I would highly suggest against it at the moment…..”

The whole room turned to look at Delta, she had finished oiling her broken sword and had set it down on a piece of fine velvet, which I do believe came from the nearby curtain, and was now pulling a large number of candles out of her bag, which I have no idea how she fit in there…..Anyways, it was truly a strange scene that even Archduke Lucius hesitated to interrupt, but only for a moment. The clearly suicidal strode over to Delta.

“Woman, let me see your blade for a moment!”

…..Delta completely ignored him. Kakaka, he had sounded so confident! I fought desperately to keep the wide smile off of my face, Delta, you’ve just become one of my favorite people right now.... Lucius looked completely uncomfortable at being ignored, and he was most definitely furious at being embarrassed like that. The man, trying to regain his pride, reached down and grabbed Delta’s shoulder. Almost as soon as his hand touched her shoulder, there was a flash of blue and Lucius jerked his hand back with a strangled gasp. The smell of charred flesh filled the air, and I suddenly remembered that Delta was a kettle ready to erupt at any moment.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Ah, Archduke Lucius, I do think it would be kind of you to leave Miss Delta alone for the moment, you see, I heard that not only she is she an amazing warrior, she’s also a master smith, she made her own weapons. Right now, she must be extremely…….Upset…...”

Of course, I would love to see Delta blast all of the anger that she most definitely has right now at Lucius, but at this moment, it was all too likely that I would get caught as well, so I’d like to avoid that. Lucius turned to me, the soft green glow of a healing spell emanating from his hand.

“No matter how upset she is, she should listen of someone of higher rank than her…….but even though I am only a passing warrior in ability, I can somewhat understand her grief. I shall leave her alone for the moment, but King Edric, you cannot be trying to convince us that this woman destroyed a dark artifact in one blow!?”

I shrugged.

“It’s the plain truth, from what we could tell, Miss Delta focused all of her available mana into her blades, and when that mana hit the artifact in a single concentrated point, it broke….Hopefully when Miss Delta has, um, recovered, she’ll be able to confirm our suspicions…..”

Lucius glanced uneasily at Delta for a moment, but then resolved his face into a determined look, this incident had only made him more determined to make sure Delta did not become my new guard.

“Even if that is the truth, this leaves us unable to determine whether or not Lonan was actually using a dark artifact. It is true that I can sense traces of dark magic on the crystal, but there have been incidences in the past that show that such traces can be planted. Miss Delta herself could have planted it.”

Guh, why does this guy have to be so good at poking holes in evidence and why did Delta’s sword just Have to break the artifact…...a flash of light caught my eyes and I noted that Delta had arranged the candles around her sword and was now lighting them one by one with a flame dancing on the tip of her finger.

“Lonan was clearly using dark magic before Delta killed, the only time she could have planted it was when she killed him, by covering the point of her blade in dark magic residue. Lonan was clearly already using dark magic before that, and when I examined her swords, besides the tip of one of the blades being broken, there was no trace of dark magic on it.”

“As I said before, we have no proof that Lonan was actually using a dark artifact, the artifacts are meant to attack other people’s souls, not enhance the user! In any case, if Miss Delta’s sword really broke the artifact, it should have had dark magic residue on it anyways, the evil magic sealed inside a artifact doesn’t just disappear because it has been broken, it has to been burned away by magic!”

Tch, I forgot about that bit, but now that I think of it, it is a bit strange that there was no residue on the blade…….Could it be that Delta was actually a part of all of this? I turned to look at her, for the first time, a swell of doubt rising in my heart, I barely knew the woman afterall…..I looked at Delta. The candles had all been lite and Delta’s sword was gone, a delicate metal tree growing in it’s place. Delta, herself, was rummaging through the clothes of Lonan’s corpse, clearly looking for something. What was she doing? Another worm of doubt wriggled into my heart.

“Miss Delta, what are you doing?”

The woman ignored me as she pulled a smooth black crest out of Lonan’s left boot, I immediately recognized it as the token every member of the continent’s wide spread Assassin’s guild carried with them. So…..Lonan was definitely there to kill me, but what about Delta? The woman stared fiercely at the crest, and blue sparks appeared, attacking the black surface of the crest in a strange pattern. I was surprised to see the black slowly fade to a grey color, and then suddenly, a hologram of light shot up from the crest, with a record of names and dates on it. At the very top of the list was my name and today's date. Delta fiddled around some more with the crest and the section with my name expanded, morphing into a video.

A serious face I distantly recognized as one of the lower nobles stared nervously out from the project. The man glanced nervously at the space in front of the project, as though he was talking to someone.

“Y-you’re sure you can kill the king?”

Lonan’s sickly voice answered the man’s question, though he didn’t show up on the recording.

”Yesssss, when I win the tournament, I’ll be close enough to make a surprise attack on the king, and then I can use my dark artifact freeze the souls of his guards, who you’ve assured me don’t have soul-protecting artifacts, and easily make my escape.”

“What if you don’t win the tournament?”

“Though that is highly unlikely, in case do come across someone who can resist my dark artifacts attack, I’ll use the artifact to directly empower my own soul, this will drain almost all of the energy I have stored in it right now, but I’ll reach an incredible level of power that will make it simple for me to kill the king, and I imagine his life will do well to start restoring the energy in the artifact I would lose. Either way, he’s dead, now, do you have the payment?”

The traitor nodded nervously and grabbed something out of the bag he had slung onto his shoulder. I sucked in my breath as I saw the two white eggs etched with gold that he held out.

“Two potential level five magical beast eggs, it took most of my clans reserves to get these…...but if you kill Edric, it’ll definitely be worth it!”

The video stopped, still showing the man’s face. Haaaaaa, truly, this is what king really is like…….why do so many people have to want to kill me, I haven’t even met over half of them!? If I remember right, this noble had left last week to his country estate for some ‘important matter’, in reality, he probably just wanted a heads start if the assassin failed and his role in the assassination was discovered.

I turned to look at Delta, if the video was real, then I would need to give her an apology later. There was one sure fire way to tell though. Magical beast eggs, in order to imprint on their future master, required a drop of the master’s blood and constant contact with his skin. I opened my mouth to order Theron, who was standing near my left, to search Lonan’s body, but I got distracted as Delta conjured a bright orb of blue flame and formed it into the vague shape of a dog. she then pointed at the frozen face of the noble, directing the, errr….dog’s? attention to it. The dog shaped flamed then nodded and darted away, passing right through the nearest wall as though it wasn’t there. Delta had a weary but satisfied look on her face, she walked over to me and bowed. Then used her finger to write glowing blue words that hung suspended in the air.

-My hound will bring him back here within the week, just to let you know, I will be taking care of him!!!-

Yeah…..I don’t dare argue with her on that point.

“As you wish Miss Delta, I will grant you full right to deal the punishment, if it’s true that he tried to get me killed, he’ll get an automatic death penalty and I suppose it doesn’t really matter who kills him…….Anyways, Theron, if that video is true, the two beast eggs should be somewhere on Lonan, and they’ll have his blood on the as well.”

It took a while, but Theron finally found the eggs securely sewn inside to Lonan’s left leg, which I suppose was good for the skin contact and blood part of the contract…..but still seriously gross…….

Anyhow, since the eggs presence revealed that the video was real, any arguments fighting to disqualify Delta didn’t really have much left to stand on since Lonan clearly stated he was using a dark artifact in the video. The bit about enhancing his soul and draining most of the power of the artifact also cleared up some of the less clear spots. Delta’s sword had been able to break the artifact more easily because it was low on power, and since there was so little power remaining in the crystal, there wasn’t any surge of dark magic to cover Delta’s sword. I watched happily as the mostly grumpy nobles filed out of the room.

Hahahaha, take that you old windbags, I WON!!!!