After getting some of his stuff ready, Gaius immediately headed towards the Royal Carriage. Although he lacked etiquette as a commoner, even he knew he shouldn’t keep them waiting.
As expected of an Imperial Carriage, it was extremely luxurious, its golden gilded frame adorned with the intricate carvings of a variety of mythical creatures, the main body of the carriage is made of the most expensive wood, with the symbol of the Imperial Family, the Golden Dragon etched into the carriage, it is also surrounded by many protection spells ensuring that no scratch came to it even if it was attacked and the knights wearing armor around seemed like they would ensure that the attack won't even reach the carriage itself.
‘I wouldn’t be able to win against any of them right now.’
Amongst them, there was one knight that seemed a lot stronger compared to the rest, he walked towards Gaius and Gaius tensed up a bit. The man looked at Gaius from top to bottom, then turned away.
‘?’
Gaius then boarded the carriage, and the carriage started to move.
He then asked the proxy who was sitting in the same carriage as him.
“Um, may I ask something?”
“Please, do speak.”
“You said that the prince also invited my sister. Does that mean that she is also invited with a carriage like this?”
“Yes, she is. Before we go to the Royal Palace, we will unite first with the carriage of your sister. As they are not that far away from one another.”
Gaius started to worry. It was because Claire had a paralyzed lower body. Although they may seem respectful to Gaius and maybe even Claire, they are still beastmans who are seen as dirty.
‘The Crown Prince is known to be indifferent to the other races so I guess we are quite lucky in that regard. If it was the second or first prince…I don't even want to imagine it.’
Gaius just hoped that they would be tolerant towards a person with a paralyzed lower body.
“You seem to be having unnecessary worries.”
“What?”
“We are officials and knights of the Imperial Family, not thugs. We will respect our royal guests no matter what race and who they are. The Crown Prince had already known of your sister’s sickness, so please do not worry, for your sister will be given treatment worthy of an Imperial guest.”
Gaius' eyes widened a bit before chuckling.
“Sir, are you a mind reader?”
“Not at all, I just have more experience than other people. I could roughly know how you feel. It's not just beastmans that get nervous to be called by a member of an imperial family.”
After roughly two days of moving, Gaius’s carriage finally met up with Claire’s.
“Big brother!”
“Claire!”
Gaius smiled upon seeing his sister, she was in a wheelchair due to a paralyzed lower body and Gaius ran to her and hugged her.
“Brother, I heard that you are going to become a knight. That’s amazing!”
“Well, nothing is certain yet. Honestly, it happened all of a sudden that I’m still taking it in.”
“Hahaha! But brother is strong, so you will do well even when you become a knight.”
“Thank you for saying that.” Gaius ruffled her hair, and they both separated from each other, because of it, Gaius could see a hint of worry in her eyes.
“Claire? What's wrong?”
“Uh, I heard Knights frequently get beaten up so…Even if you become a knight please take care of yourself, okay?”
Gaius’s breath caught in his throat before he grinned and pinched Claire in her cheeks.
“Aghh! Brother, what are you doing? Stop it!”
“Aigoo, this cute sister of mine. Don’t worry, the strong ones don’t get beaten up that much.”
“Ughh!”
Claire was flailing her arms around and Gaius laughed before he brought Claire to the carriage by carrying her while the wheelchair was stored somewhere. The journey continued for another 5 days until they arrived in Mosvol the Capital of the Heinberg Empire.
“Whoa, amazing. There are a lot of humans here!”
His sister was looking through the window with sparkling eyes, and was wagging her tail like a puppy, Gaius was also excited. The splendor of the Capital City was well known but seeing it firsthand is a different experience altogether.
There were also a lot of people looking at the carriage. Perhaps it was because of the royal symbol on it.
Soon, a majestic palace appeared, it was the Emerald Palace where the Crown Prince resided and Gaius started to get nervous. He was about to meet the Crown Prince whom he had only heard of before. He tried taking deep breaths to calm himself but it was futile.
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During the journey, he asked a ton of questions: what should I do? why is he calling for me? And many more questions. But the only response he got was that the proxy also didn't know. The prince just decided to invite him to the castle all of a sudden and wanted to make him his knight.
Fortunately, the proxy taught Gaius and Claire some minimal etiquette when meeting the Crown Prince so they wouldn’t have to worry much about offending him.
The carriage stopped. Gaius carried the wheelchair of Claire and put it down when he exited the carriage and the guards began leading them towards the Crown Prince. Gaius looked around the palace and gulped.
Floors made of marble, pillars reaching high up adorned with intricate carvings, golden chandeliers that sparkled as they lit up the palace, there were many decorations such as oil paintings covering up the walls, with pedestals displaying precious objects that Gaius didn’t recognize.
‘The paintings alone would be extremely expensive, wouldn’t it?’
For someone like Gaius, this place is extremely out of his comfort zone.
After a while, Gaius arrived in the outdoor garden of the palace. The garden holds a variety of lush beautiful plants and flowers of different colors and shapes. Claire was admiring the flowers and Gaius patted her back, even if he wanted to let her enjoy the view they were going to meet with the next ruler of the Empire.
Soon they arrived at the place where the Crown Prince was, and unlike what Gaius had expected the Crown Prince was not sitting on a throne. Rather, he was sipping tea in his seat. There was a table and two seats in the garden, and a tea set for both of those seats and another tea set with no chair with sweets adorning the table as well as an afternoon tea stand filled with desserts of various kinds in the middle.
One of the guards, the man Gaius sensed to be much stronger than the rest of the knights walked forward and bowed to the prince before standing behind the prince as if it was his original place.
The Crown Prince looked at Gaius and Claire and he smiled. Indeed Gaius thought that the rumors about the Crown Prince’s looks are not exaggerated in the slightest. He looks just like a prince from the storybooks.
“Welcome. It must have been a long journey. Come and sit down.”
Gaius, before sitting down bowed his head. It was thanks to the etiquette training that the Proxy gave to him and Claire did the same, though she bowed in a wheelchair.
““I greet The Future Sun of the Empire, Wilhelm Von Heinberg.””
Wilhelm's eyes widened a bit before he smiled again.
“You both don't have to be so stiff with etiquette. I don't expect either of you to have learned great etiquette like nobles so please be at ease.”
“I am thankful for your consideration.”
Even if the prince said to be at ease, that doesn’t mean that he should be without etiquette, it just meant that the bare minimum is fine.
Gaius thought before sitting down, while a knight moved Claire’s wheelchair towards the tea set with no seat. Claire looked at the tea set and at Wilhelm back and forth. Wilhelm smiled and said.
“Before we discuss the matter, should we eat first? There is only tea and sweets here though.”
“Is that fine?”
Claire was the one who responded, though she was trying to hold back, her eyes were already sparkling with the tea and sweets in front while her ears were bobbing up and down.
“It is fine. I hope you enjoy it.”
Claire then reached out for the tea and sipped it. Her movements were graceful despite being a commoner. Though she remained childish in some ways, she was an exceptional child who was forced to be mature due to her circumstances.
Gaius felt sad for a moment but soon regained his composure and drank his tea. What matters is now, if the Crown Prince truly wants to make him his knight, then it is his chance to give his sister a better life.
Gaius regained his determination as he sipped on the high-quality tea.
It was delicious.
***
After a while of eating sweets and drinking tea. Wilhelm looked towards Claire.
“Claire, would you like to go to the garden for a bit?”
“Is that okay?”
Wilhelm had noticed her gaze towards the garden several times during the meal. Since he needed to discuss something one-on-one with Gaius he needed to send her somewhere.
“Yes, it's fine. I would like to discuss something with your brother here so I hope you have a great time there.”
Her ears perked up at his words. She looked at Gaius and then back to Wilhelm and bowed her head.
“Thank you, Your Highness. I hope you have a great discussion with my brother.”
She said with a smile. Wilhelm smiled as well.
“Then please lead Claire to the garden.”
Wilhelm spoke to no one particularly but the servants started leading Claire into the garden. Wilhelm turned his gaze back at Gaius. Gaius stiffened and straightened his posture.
Around 190cm tall, a muscular physique, dark blue hair, and dark blue eyes like his sister, with wolf ears on top of his head. Though the current Gaius’s appearance is similar to his game counterpart his behavior is extremely different from what Wilhelm remembered from the game. The Gaius in the game was a revenge-obsessed man, filled with wrath towards the world. It was fitting for he was the Apostle Of Wrath, one of the Apostles of the Thalion Cultists.
‘His backstory was that he was a rising mercenary that tried to cure his little sister’s paralyzed body by collecting money and gaining influence with mercenary work in hopes of getting an Archbishop to be able to cure her disease.’
Wilhelm remembered that Claire's paralyzed disease is something that medicine can't cure and even ordinary priests struggled to cure her. Only the Archbishop level or higher was able to do it.
However, Archbishops tend to only go help nobles or other people of high structure. Not to mention that they cost a lot of money.
As a commoner and a scrutinized beastman, he wouldn’t be able to hire an Archbishop to cure his sister under normal circumstances. Therefore he intended to make a name for himself as a mercenary and employ an Archbishop with the money he had collected.
Gaius was on a rising trajectory so he probably would’ve succeeded even with those disadvantages if not for the fact that all of a sudden humans attacked his village Claire, and destroyed it. Even cruelly torturing his sister. Wilhelm frowned, he remembered the descriptions quite well and it was utterly unpleasant.
The action was implied to be from Human Supremacy Activists and because of it Gaius fell into rage and vowed revenge upon them. The rage invited Thalion into his heart and he was reborn as an Apostle of Wrath.
‘...I will need to get rid of those human supremacy bastards later on.
It was clear that Gaius treasured his sister a lot. Therefore, this would be easy.
“Gaius I will get straight to the point.”
Gaius stiffened even more. Perhaps he realized that this was an offer that could change the trajectory of his life, and he would be right. Time slowed down as Gaius paid full attention to Wilhelm as he continued to speak.
“Become my knight. If you do, I will cure your sister’s disease.”
It was an offer that Gaius couldn’t possibly refuse.