Kyli POV: 3 years after the tournament
“Miss Kyli, these are the last questions for today,” my aid said and handed a stack of papers over and took one for herself.
Each paper had numerous questions on it, mathematics, history, politics, economy, strategic all of them and more were questioned. I had to constantly learn for three years, non-stop.
I shudder at the thought how it came to this. It was three years ago, Clair, our saviour, visited our village.
It grew in size since we were saved by her. We already numbered more than 3.000, with me as their leader. They said that I'm the most suitable, to be their leader. They said it's thanks to me that Clair saved them.
That's false, Clair didn't save us because I asked her, she did it because she wanted to. I was just the only one who had the strength and enough hope to ask for our rescue.
Clair did a lot for us, she saved us from our life as slaves and healed our physical wounds, but, more importantly, she gave us a new home, safety and a family, simply a new life.
We got all this and she never asked for anything in return. I often asked myself how I could repay her kindness and one day, three years ago I got my chance.
As I said, Clair visited us and said that she will build a kingdom. We all were happy to hear that, what else than a kingdom would be enough for our saviour? Some already began to congratulate her and named her as their queen, but Clair smiled, pointed at me and said.
“Kyli will be your queen, she's your representative. I'm only a visitor, I'm not qualified as a queen. A queen or king has to know the desires and needs of her or his subjects, they have to help them with their problems and bring them prosperity.”
I was stunned, me a queen? Why? How? I'm not qualified!
Clair asked me to follow her, she said she'll explain what I need to learn. I followed her in daze.
We went to her mansion, a large building directly build inside the mountain.
A man was waiting at the entrance, he looked at me and then began to laugh.
I didn't know why he laughed.
He then said that it's funny, why my ears aren't regrown when Clair's able to heal them.
I looked at Clair and she hit her face with her hand, the next moment a warm feeling rushed through my whole body and my stumps of ears began to tingle. This feeling held for a minute and then stopped. I slowly raised my hand to my ears and could feel them, they are back. My ears are back.
I was so delighted that I began to cry, Clairs butler just grinned, while Clair looked apologetic.
Why does she look like that? She healed my ears, maybe she can also heal the others, I thought and asked,
“Clair can you also heal the other villagers?”
She just said,
“I already did, sorry that I forgot.”
I shook my head and said,
“No, I have to thank you for healing me.”
Clair then began to tell me, what she has planned, that she's building a wall around the dragon forest with guards, that she already announced the kingdom to the world, that she'll build a magic academy and that she will teach me the necessary skills for being the queen of the new country named Aeron.
She also introduced me to four women, she said they'll be my bodyguards. Since then two of them are constantly following me, they switch after 12 hours. And only leave the room when I'm sleeping. But they don't go, one guards the door while the other is outside and guards the window.
Clair also made something with my body, she said that it will quicken the time I need to train and learn. She placed a hand on my body and a warm feeling came over me, it filled my whole body and lasted for four minutes. Then it started to hurt and Clair immediately stopped.
From then on I had to train, she taught me a lot of skills I never thought I'll have in my life.
[Deceiving], [Poker Face], [Actor], [Liar], [Persuade], [Orating], [Identification] and [Poison Resistance] are the main skills I had to learn. I learned all of them up to LV 3 in four months, this was astonishing, normally it would take a person around a year to learn one skill up to the third LV. And I learned eight in four months, but I did nothing than eat, sleep and train. The [Poison Resistance] skill was the hardest, I had to eat poison and then got healed, but it also levelled quicker than the other skills.
Four months later Clair said she has to go, at first I was delighted to hear that the training will stop, but then a second Clair came inside and the first Clair said that a clone, the second Clair, will continue to train me. So my Training continued until now, it was way slower than before, but I managed to raise my LV in all of my skills up to the fifth.
I also got the possibility to get runes, that can enhance me but I declined, they're not mine and I wouldn't have earned them.
So my life for the last three years consisted of training. My adviser Rilo, a woman who was once a secretary before she got kidnapped and then rescued by Clair, got also some training and is now one of my best friends.
Other people who volunteered to work in the government are also trained by clones of Clair but they look different. These volunteers don't get as much training and don't have as many skills as me.
They basically manage the country from economics to the new inhabitants who are streaming inside our country. These people who come to us want to live here in a country without slavery, discrimination and equal rights for everyone. All of us are under the same laws, even the queen.
They get the possibility to live in a town or village, we will give them a house and a starting capital. And protection, in return they have to pledge loyalty to the queen and country and pay taxes. But our taxes are not really high, as of now. Clair said that the people first have to settle down before they are able to pay real taxes.
They can pay for a better house with runes or a larger one but even the normal houses are of high quality in comparison to the houses of other countries.
Tomorrow we, my aid and the guards, will start to travel to the annual meeting of the countries who are in Silga. It's the official start of our country. And can decide how we will be seen by them. I'm really nervous.
There are some main points we will discuss.
The school tournament, Aeron and the support for Raska, which is fighting against the demons, are the main points but there are a lot more things that will be discussed.
We finished the questions and gave them the Clair clone that sat in a chair. The clone quickly looked over them and then said that we are allowed to go and that the training will be shifted tomorrow.
We have to get ready for the travel, even when we're flying though the clone.
So Rilo and I stepped out of the mansion and began to walk to our houses, followed by my guards. I'm almost able to ignore them, they're always silent and follow me with enough distance to not feel uncomfortable.
We both stopped in our way as we came across a bench with the view over the valley.
“It's beautiful isn't it?” Rilo asked and sat down on the bench.
“Yeah,” I answered and did the same.
The valley turned into a giant city which we named Nahar. Clair said it kinda sounds cool. I think it's a little too random but it sounds good enough for me.
The city has parks, administrative buildings, inns, an adventurer guild, a palace and a lot of houses. All this surrounded by high mountains, who now have mansions and other buildings build on it.
Four large tunnels pass through the mountains, each tunnel points to a cardinal point. One leads to the sea, one to the beastkin lands, one to Solo and one to Kirk. They all have paved roads and are guarded by stone soldiers. They are wide enough for three carriages and even have lanterns.
But this is only over the ground, Clair built an underground city with equal grandeur.
A mechanism which is called elevator and footpaths can bring you underground to a city under the city.
This underground city has runes inside the ceiling. Those look like the starry sky at night and like the sun at daytime, mimicking the world above.
It is used as our market place and for the races that want to live underground like dwarves, mole beastkin, hamster beastkin and other people who don't like the sun.
All all of the crafting shops and our storage rooms are also underground.
“Would you believe that all this would be build in just three years? And that we, ex-slaves whom nobody would have wanted, are managing all this?” Rilo said after looking at the bustling city. Our 3.000 people large village turned into a near 200.000 people large city. In mere 3 years.
“Never, all this still feels like a dream,” I said.
“Indeed, especially for some of us. I had more luck than you, I got only hit sometimes and had to sleep in the barn but some of us were used for heavy labour work until we drop dead or were tortured just for fun. All of us were saved by one person, Clair” she said.
“Yeah,” I whispered in agreement.
“We have to work hard for her, for all of us. So that our children will live in a better world than we did,” I then added.
“Yes, but the training could be a little less hard,” Rilo said jokingly.
“Shut up, your training is easy in comparison to mine, I had to eat poison,” I said back, but also with a laugh.
“All of us know how hard you work, and all of us are thankful for that,” she said and continued after a short pause, “come we have to sleep early.”
“Yeah, you don't know how much I look forward to my bed,” I said and also stood up.
We both went to our housings and instantly fell asleep.
The next morning I packed my things and went outside, were three coaches, some servants and Rilo awaited me.
The coach is highly enchanted. It has buffers for the bumpy roads and is pulled by stone horses, who doesn't need to rest. It's also a lot faster than normal coaches, we only need three weeks to get to Mardor. A normal coach would need at least two months.
My four guards are right behind me as I walked to my coach.
“Morning Kyli,” Rilo said as she greeted me.
“Morning,” I said and we both stepped into the coach, followed by two guards, the other two will be in the other coaches.
The coaches began to move at a rapid speed and not even an hour later we left Nahar.
And three weeks later we arrived at Mardor.
We were guided to the noble district and got a mansion for our personal use.
My bodyguards quickly found the spying devises in our mansion and got disposed of them.
We had to wait for a few more days until the meeting will start, so we looked through the merchandise of the city and went on a sight seeing tour.
The city is old and not as organised as Nahar, it's also not as clean, big or rich. All in all, it's an old city with some charm but I wouldn't want to live here, Nahar is way better. The people are also friendlier, there isn't as much poverty as here. All of the citizens of Aeron get food at special houses. Clair said it's called welfare, the people will get free food there. It's nothing fancy but no one has to starve.
And those who want to work can work, we train and encourage artisans and crafter to settle down in Nahar. Those who settle down will get supported if they take apprentices. We're also operating some mines and lumberjacks. Clair said we have to have some easier jobs so that everybody can work.
But some of the better mines are kept secret and are only operated by golems.
What we lack are merchants who bring our goods out of Aeron and my task is to change that.
Anyway, the days passed and the last group arrived, it's the empress of Raska, they had the longest way.
Currently we, me, Rilo and two of my bodyguards, are inside a coach that goes to the welcome ball.
Rilo put me inside a fancy dark blue dress, that I got from Clair, it's ankle long and leaves my shoulders bare while emphasising my breasts. Earrings and a necklace are supporting my looks.
I think it's overly fancy and way too expensive. I mean this dress must have cost more than 20 gold, and I don't want to speak about the jewellery, they mostly consist out of diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies.
“We've reached the ball,” one of the bodyguards said and opened the door for me.
I stepped out, followed by Rilo and then by my guards. Some servants led us inside of the palace and we stepped into a large hall with a lot of people.
“The Queen Kyli of Aeron and her consultant,” a man at the side of the door announced us as we came in and everyone turned around. Some of the looked with disdain at me because I'm a beastkin, other with envy for my exquisite dress but all of them were interested in me. Watching for the slightest mistake, I can make so that they can exploit it.
My guards went to the walls so that they can oversee the whole room and waited, while Rilo followed me. She has to remember everything that is said today and will try to listen to some conversations.
While I walked up to the king, who's speaking with a black haired woman and two old men.
My job is to look good and don't embarrass my country.
“Good evening Ludwig Braling the Third, I'm pleased to be here and look forward to the meeting tomorrow,” I said with a small curtsey.
“Good evening Miss Kyli, may I introduce the empress or Raska Miss Yukina and the representatives of Solo and Tragon, Mister Humbolt and Mister Gregory,” the King said in a polite tone and made room for the other three.
“It's nice to meet you Miss Kyli,” said the Empress.
“I've heard a lot about you and you're quickly rising country,” said the representative of Solo.
“Indeed, I'm looking forward to tomorrow,” said the last one, the representative of Tragon.
“We were talking about the rising religion called Church of Carring. If I'm not wrong, it's your countries main religion,” said the King.
“We tried to understand the reason for the quick rise in popularity and the origin of the goddess named Clair. I've seen her myself at the school tournament and must say that she's quiet extraordinary, she fought almost all of the other teams by herself and won easily. Could you tell us something about her?” The King added and I could see some disdain in his eyes, he clearly doesn't like Clair and me.
“I also want to hear about Clair, I'll meet her next year after the school tournament,” The Empress said.
“I'll gladly speak about our benefactor,” I said.
“Then, is it true that she has godly abilities?” The representative of Solo asked.
“Indeed, I've never seen someone as strong and knowledgeable as her,” I said proudly but the King seems not so impressed
“Could it be because you've never seen someone truly strong?”
I ignored his disdain and said,
“I might not have seen a lot of mages but I sure do have a good common knowledge and know that it's uncommon to kill all of the dragons in the dragon valley.”
“So your capital really is inside the dragon valley?” The representative of Tragon asked.
“It is as you've said, our capital Nahar is in the dragon valley. Our goddess built it in a mere week,” I said proudly but again the King tried to devalue my statement.
“Can't be such a good city if it's build in a mere week,” he said but the adviser of Solo said,
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Some of our merchants heard of the mountain passage and the streets which suddenly emerged.
They went to see what happened and told us about a giant city completely made out of stone, with beautiful parks and even underground markets. They spoke as if they've seen the holy land and even spoke about a free food disruption for everyone. Is that true?”
“It is, we think that no one should starve in our city so we hand out food for everyone who has not enough,” I said.
“That sounds too good to be true, isn't that expensive?” The Empress asked.
“It is expensive but like our guards on the walls we have golems that can plough our fields, that and new methods of cultivating crops made food fairly cheap for the government,” I said and the representative of Tragon made wide eyes as he heard about the golems.
“I've also heard about your guards. They look like enchanted metal, is that true?” He asked.
“It is,” I said.
“How are they made?” He then asked.
I smiled and said, “I'm sorry but only the goddess knows how they are made.”
“Is that so,” he just said and it got quiet.
“If you'll excuse me, I have to speak with some of the new guests,” the King said after a moment and left.
“Miss Kyli, would you like to come with me to the buffet?” The Empress asked after the King left.
I agreed and we walked to the buffet, where she took a plate and put some food on it.
“You're doing fairly well for an ex-slave,” she then said.
“How do you know?” I asked, a little for her next actions, slaves aren't really looked upon in the society.
“You can't underestimate the information network of the other countries, all of us know of it. Some it's just that some care more than other,” she said with a small smile.
“The King must have expected that you'll screw up and that you'll say too much about your guards. He left as he realized that you won't tell us anything too important. This country doesn't like beaskins and I'm sad to say that my citizens are mostly the same,” she said a little sad.
“But at the same time, I'm glad to hear of a new country that doesn't discriminate against other races. I hope you'll be able to establish your country. We'll see us again in the conference,” she continued and then walked away, leaving me behind.
Why do I have to do this? Isn't Clair way more suited for this? I mean she knows everything.
The ball continued for a few more hours and I had a few more conversations with some nobles of Solo and Tragon. Only they showed interest in me. I was able to establish a few meetings for the next week, where we're going to discuss trade agreements.
Finally, late at night, I was allowed to leave the ball and we travelled back to our mansion.
“You've done well, the nobles and rich merchants of Solo and Tragon have a good opinion about you,” Rilo said as we stepped inside our mansion.
“And the nobles of Kirk and Raska?” I asked tiredly.
“Well their racism is stronger, most of the nobles are believers of the Church of Silga and dislike beastkin, so it's normal that they don't like you. But some will try to get in touch with us, our country is rich in natural resources and they want to trade with us. I think we've done the most we could. Now let's sleep, tomorrow will begin the conference and I think the King will try to get you into a position where you have to speak about the country, more than we'd like to,” she said and I tiredly nodded.
I walked to my room, got out of the dress and plopped down on my bed, falling almost instantly asleep.
The next day, we went to the conference and I had to wear again something way too expensive. A long black dress with flower patterns of golden silk.
Only the adviser and one guard is allowed to go inside the conference room, so three guards waited outside.
The conference room was a circular room with a circular desk in the middle, five chairs around it.
The representatives of Tragon and Solo were already sitting, with their adviser standing behind them.
I greeted them and also sat down, Rilo stood behind me, with my guard was at the wall.
Shortly after the King and the Empress came and as everybody was seated the King spoke.
“It's nice to have all of you here in our annual country meeting. This time with a newcomer, the Queen of Aeron. Our main topics are the school tournament, the new kingdom of Aeron and the support for the war against the demons. Any disagreements?”
No one objected and he continued.
“Good, then let's come to the first topic, the school tournament. Many teams died in this years tournament, with only the student council teams and the Raska teams as survivors. Our investigations showed that a lot more fights between monster and students were happening.
This is unfortunate but can't be changed. It's an unspoken rule for the teams to fight each other inside the forest.
But more importantly, the team of Turon won. This allows Solo to have the smallest part in supporting the demon war, any disagreements?” He said, again no one objected.
“Okay, then the next thin would be the kingdom of Aeron,” he began but I raised my hand.
“Yes, Queen Kyli?” He asked.
“I'd like to inform you all that we're planning to build a magic academy in Aeron, it will be finished at the end of this year and we would be able to participate in the tournament in four years from now on,” I said.
“Queen Kyli you surely must know that a magic academy needs to have a reconstruction field to be called a magic academy, do you want to say that you found a reconstruction field in the Dragon Forest?” The king asked mockingly.
“We haven't found one, we've built one,” I simply said and the eyes of all of them grew wide.
“You've built one?” The representative of Solo asked in disbelieve.
“Yes, our goddess was able to analyse the reconstruction field in Turon and is able to reproduce the effect. We've currently built six arenas in our new school,” I said.
“You have to share the knowledge of building reconstruction fields with us, we'll give you 10.000 gold coins!” said the representative of Tragon.
“No with us, we'll pay you 20.000 gold coins for the information!” The representative of Solo held against him.
“Please calm down,” the empress said. And both calmed down a little.
“We won't share the information about creating the reconstruction fields. It's not like you can reproduce them anyway,” I said.
“What do you mean?” The King asked, clearly not amused by my unwillingness of sharing the information.
“I'm just allowed to say that you have to be an LV 10 enchanter and you must know an ancient language if you want to create the reconstruction fields,” said.
“A LV 10 enchanter? And an ancient language?” The empress muttered quietly.
“Who in your country is able to do that?” The representative of Solo asked doubtingly.
“The goddess of course,” I said with a smile and the king frowned.
“Okay, let's drop the case of the recreation fields. You've said that your country wants to take part in the school tournaments starting after the next four years?” The king asked.
“Yes I do,” I said.
“Good, any disagreements?” He asked.
No one objected and he said,
“Then from now on in four years the magic academy?....”
“Areon,” I said.
“The magic academy Areon will take part in the yearly school tournaments. They will be under the same rules as the other schools. And Aeron will be allowed to pay a smaller part in the demon war if its magic academy wins the school tournament,” he said and everyone nodded.
“Then let's come to the next topic, the newly founded kingdom of Aeron. Queen Kyli, please elaborate us in your political goals and what your intentions are. We'd also like to hear about the guards and the giant wall that suddenly came into existence in the time of four months,” He continued.
“Gladly. My countries political goals are simple, we want to live in peace with our neighbors, while establishing a society without any discrimination against races, gender or other differences. Slavery is forbidden in our country and corruption has the highest punishment in our laws. Everyone has the same rights and the same opportunities from birth on. Every citizen can rise in power and could even become the king or queen. My position is only an elected position and can be changed every 20 years. Of course, they have to have full fill the requirements.
About our guards, they are magic golems, made by our goddess and have the sole purpose of guarding our country,” I said.
“What about nobles? Or foreign nobles?” The representative of Tragon asked.
“Nobility is not inheritable, but it gives you some benefits. This does not apply to foreign nobles, they won't get any benefits and have to apply to our laws. Those who break them will be punished in the same way as our citizen,” I answered him.
“What about slave servants that travel with their master?” The King asked.
“Every person gets checked when they want to pass our border. When we see a slave, we'll free them and then integrate them into our society, if they want to,” I said.
“But these slaves are the property of their masters,” the King disagreed.
“Then they have to stay home, every slave that is detected by our guards will be freed and integrated into our society,” I said sternly.
“You can't just take their slaves away. That's like stealing,” the King said, loudly.
“If THEY want to come into our country then they have to apply to OUR laws!” I hold against him.
“But,” he began but the Empress interrupted him.
“It is as she said, we aren't allowed to meddle with the laws of other countries. I want much more to know more about your guards, how many of them does your country have and how strong is their average stat?” She said and the King got quiet, alas still looking angry.
“I can't say anything about the stats, just that they are strong enough. About their number, hmm... I think our goddess said something about 38 million,” I said and the eyes of everyone grew wide.
“Th...thirty...thirty-eight million?” The representative of Solo asked while stuttering.
“That are way too much, this is almost more than half of our population. This is a major threat for any of us,” the representative of Tragon said.
“It is, you have to reduce them in a smaller number,” the King agreed.
“You don't have to worry about a war. These guards aren't able to leave the forest for a larger distance than 50 kilometres. They would crumble into pieces if they try. There is a special rune that uses the magic of the forest as fuel,” I lied. The representatives and the King seemed like believing me but the Empress didn't look like she does.
“Even then, what if you find some way of using the mana of the normal land?” The Empress said with a smile, testing my determination.
“Then you just have to trust us that we won't attack with the guards,” I simply said.
“Trust? How could we trust a land of beastkin lovers?” The King asked furiously.
“That or you try to attack us and our goddess, who've built them in a mere four month will retaliate,” I simply said and gave him a savage grin. To which he grew a little pale.
“As I said before, my country wants to be in a friendly relationship with our neighbors but we won't be unguarded. If someone tries to attack us we will retaliate, and I can assure you that we won't let any attacker alive,” I said and leaned back, watching the pale faces of the King and the representatives. Only the Empress looked normal, I think she knows that we have no intention of starting a war. All of them know that they can't win against someone that was able to kill the dragons in the dragon valley.
“I think we should stop this argument here. I'd like to come to the next topic, the support of our front line against the demons,” the Empress said and I gave her a nod in agreement.
“”Y...yes, “” both the representatives said at the same time and the King just looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
“As you all know, my country is having a long war against the demons and that we're the only defense against them. This is the reason why everyone agreed to send either troops, supplies, technology or money so that we can hold them at bay.
Like stated before, Solo doesn't have to send as much as the others, they only have to send 50% of the normal support,” The Empress continued.
“How much do we have to send?” I asked.
“As I said there are many ways to support us, normally Solo sends supplies, Kirk sends troops and Tragon gives us either money or new technology. The troops would be around 10.000, the supplies are either 2000 tons of metal and food or just 4000 tons of food. The amount of money would be 10.000 gold coins while the technology would have to be good enough to either support our troops or kill demons,” she said.
“Kirk will send 10.000 food soldiers,” the King said.
“We're going to send 10.000 gold coins,” said the representative of Tragon.
“We'd also like to send 5.000 gold coins this year, a drought destroyed a lot of our crops,” the representative of Solo said.
“Then we'll send 1.000 tons of steel and 3.000 tons of food,” I said.
“Thank you,” the Empress said.
“The next topic would be the establishing and renewal of trade agreements,” the representative of Solo said and we continued to discuss for some hours.
Four hours later we finished the main points of the conference, there will be more meetings over the week but none of them will be like this one and will only be about some minor things.
“Miss Kyli,” the Empress said, as we were in the hall, her bodyguard behind her. Her adviser, an old man with a funny hat were not with her.
“Yes, Miss Yukina?” I asked and waited for her to catch up to me.
“Your performance was splendid, but you have to try harder in lying. Your guards are able to leave the forest aren't they?” She said with a smirk.
“I don't know what you mean but thank you anyway,” I said with a smile.
“Hahaha, good good, first rule in politics, never agree to something the other party said,” she said with a laugh.
“But could you send a message to your goddess?” She then asked with a serious expression.
“Of course,” I replied.
“Warn her of assassins, these countries will surely try to kill her. She's too much of a threat to them. And please tell her that I'll look forward to our meeting next year,” she said and then left, again without letting me saying anything against her.
“°Sigh° Rilo?” I asked.
“Yes?” She replied.
“I need a bath and my bed,” I said tiredly.
“Yes,” she said and we left. Why again am I doing all this? Oh right because Clair asked me....
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And again, any suggestions or major mistakes? And only one chapter left before I'll continue with Clair. The next one will be about some immigrants that will immigrate into Aeron, maybe I'll post it midweek because it will not be as long as normally.