The pair settled down in what had once been the throne room at now sat in the center of the rubble that the castle had become. Baslin gestured to the debris surrounding them. “You really tore this place apart. Was that intentional or were you emotionally reacting?”
“Oh, so we’re back to casual speech now?” Duke responded.
“Yes, we are out of the public eye and can speak normally, now answer the question.” Baslin redirected.
Duke shuddered. “When I saw what was left of Aurelia’s body, I lost it. The castle was the biggest symbol of Chopie left so it got the brunt of my anger. And there was a lot of anger and frustration. I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?” Duke asked sudden concern flooding his system.
“No, by then everyone had taken more than a few steps back. But that’s not the important part. You are a system-recognized monarch now. Things are going to be different, especially when you are granted the monarch class. It comes with a Characteristic that not many know about and fewer still understand. As Estros’ Court Magician and friend, he told me all about it so we could work on advancing it together. It is the ‘Honor’ Characteristic.”
“Honor? Really? That’s a stat?” Duke asked.
“We’ll get to that but please let me continue. This is a measurement of how beneficial you are to your people, how well you uphold your Royal word, how you interact with your neighbors, and a host of other things. This is the important thing to remember. If your Honor stat falls low enough, the system will actually assist someone in trying to remove you from power. This is what I think happened here today. You were able to blast through Chopie’s defenses easily. I believe that was system-assisted. As your first advisor it falls to me to help you never be in that situation.”
“That’s…that’s wild. I did expect the fight with Chopie to be harder, much harder, in fact.” Duke responded.
“You also had many other things going for you. He thought himself immortal and he could simply let you kill his body to get his shot off. He was ill-prepared for not being able to reach his phylactery. You also attacked him in a way that few could have predicted or even have prepared for. I might have been able to prepare myself because I know about your capabilities but no one outside the dungeon had ever seen you do that. He was prepared for your LIGHTNING and TELEPORTATION. He even had savage defenses implanted in the city walls to counter the Legion.” Baslin continued.
Duke interrupted. “I am thankful that it was the ants that took that hit. The blast would have erased the entire Legion. I have to strengthen them all. They need to be prepared for any foe the kingdom may face as they are our primary defense.”
Baslin smiled. “Good. I am heartened to see that you don’t consider yourself the primary defense of the kingdom. That is not the role for a king.”
“That doesn’t mean that I’m going to sit back and let everyone else do everything. I may be a king, but I am not fucking sitting on a throne and holding court all the damned time. I need to grow my power and capabilities even more than ever.”
Baslin nodded. “I understand. We’ll work that all out later. For now, what is your Honor stat currently? Let’s see what we have to work with.”
Duke pulled up his character sheet and saw that his Class was still listed as N/A and no new Characteristic had appeared. “Let’s look at that tomorrow. Today, the priority is helping the survivors of the disaster that was Chopie’s final days. The people need to know that they can count on me from the outset. Very few actually have any clue who I am so that first impression is vital.”
“Very well, but we will revisit the Honor stat tomorrow.” Baslin confirmed before continuing. “You have some unique Abilities that you can rely upon when interacting with your people. Your CLEANSE and RESTORE Abilities should be used whenever you formally meet with the people of your kingdom. It can be the first tradition you set up. Whenever someone comes before the king, they are refreshed and made to look anew. They leave your presence better off than when they arrived.”
“The Royal dry-cleaning service. That’s a riot.” Duke chuckled.
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Baslin ignored the idiom. “I am serious about this, Duke. It will set your reputation well among your people. As you said, you are not really known by your people, so you have to find a way to make a positive impression. Just being ‘Not an asshole like the past king’ is a shaky foundation. You need to be better than that.”
“I am not spending my time sitting on a fucking throne waiting for people to bring me their grievances so I can make a damned proclamation about field what farmer Bob’s sheep can use. No fucking way. Not for me. I was not brought to this world for political bullshit. I need to get stronger, grow my power, push my Abilities, discover new ones, and prepare for when I leave this world!” Duke’s tone escalated throughout his statements until he was speaking so forcefully, he might as well have been shouting.
“What do you mean “leave this world, Duke?” Baslin asked, completely sidetracked by the statement.
“Baslin, you know how the system here works, right?”
“More than most, I would say.” Baslin acknowledged.
“Well, I am not really governed by this system. I operate mostly in it but not completely. My system notifications? Yeah, I get those from someone else, not from the system like the rest of you. I don’t gain experience automatically, it has to be granted to me by those that put me on this world. Do I know why I’m here? No, not entirely. But I do know that I am being constantly told that I need to get stronger to be prepared for something. There has been some mention of a contest of some sort, so I think that has something to do with it. Whatever the case, I can’t be complacent. I can’t sit back and rest for long. I am not cut out to be a ruler of any kind. For all I know I could be snatched away from here next week. Or it could be 100 years from now. I have no sense of timeline, but I do have a sense that I am behind the curve, and I need to get stronger even faster than I have so far.” Duke dumped everything into Baslin’s lap, not even noticing that Aurelia had come up behind him.
She spoke, breaking Duke’s outpouring. “You’re leaving this world?” Her voice was tight with emotion.
Oh fuck. This is not going to go well for me. Duke responded. “My love, I will never leave you but, yes, I believe that someday I am going to have to leave this world behind, but my fervent hope is that I can take you with me. Wouldn’t you like to travel among the stars and see all the wonders that this universe holds.”
She stared at him, tears brimming in her eyes. “If you are leaving, why did you even bring me back?”
“My love. It’s not like that.” Duke scrambled. “I want you, I need you with me. I am not leaving this world without you. If you can’t come with me, then I am not going. That is another reason that I am constantly fighting to grow my Abilities. I don’t know why, but I just know that if I can get my Abilities, specifically TELEPORTATION, high enough, I can bring you, maybe everyone with me. But most importantly, you. Always you.” He concluded his words standing to face her, holding her hands, and gazing into her eyes, his expression serious and loving.
She broke his grasp to wipe the tears in her eyes. She did not notice the sadness and fear in Duke’s eyes as she pulled her hand away. She did, however, notice the relief and joy when she returned her hand to his. “Duke, you are an idiot at times. I love you enough to come back from the dead for you. Remember that I had a choice to stay or come back to you. I came back to you. Let that sink in. I’m not letting you go without me.”
Duke’s smile returned and then Baslin interrupted. “So, you had better schedule your adventures or find a way to bring your adventures to you without hurting your kingdom.”
“Sure, I’ll just go adventuring on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Real easy to schedule things like that.” Duke responded not hiding his sarcasm in the least.
“Not exactly what I had in mind but there are decisions you are going to have to make in short order. First among them is whether to rebuild this city and the castle you so violently dismantled.” Baslin retorted.
“I rather like staying at the Inn and I’m sure you all do as well.” Duke responded. “But, having a capitol is probably important to a kingdom and its people. So, I have a few ideas. When the Legion has found and assisted all the survivors, contact me. For now, I need to actually go back to the Inn for a little bit. I have a few things to discuss with Sam. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“Just like that, you’re taking off?” Aurelia responded, her eyes showing a welling of annoyance and perhaps hurt and anger.
“I would rather take you with me, but don’t you have to be here for the Legion to report in to you?” Duke countered. “I’m not even taking Baslin back with me. His experiments can wait without him for a bit longer.”
Baslin interrupted. “Your Majesty, I would humbly suggest that we have more things to discuss and doing so over a fine cup of tea in the in Inn would be beneficial.”
Duke ignored the interruption to keep his focus on Aurelia and her response.
Aurelia sighed. “Yes. Blast it. Yes, I need to stay here for now. But you had better be back in time to take me for dinner. I have no plans for eating field rations this evening.”
“This shouldn’t take long at all.” Duke responded, vanishing with a flex of his TELEPORTATION Ability.
When Duke stepped into the Inn, he called out, “Sam, we need to talk!”
Sam appeared smiling. “Yes, Duke. What is on your mind?”
“So many things. Oh, so many things. Let’s go have a seat somewhere and talk.”