Chapter 8 - Disaster in the Reneruth Kingdom
The mouth-watering smell of spices assaulted Karna’s nose. He could feel his stomach screaming in anticipation of the food in front of him.
Aika was sitting on the other side of the table and poking her sausage with a fork.
The siblings were still inside the tavern. They had ordered food with the coins they had gotten from Rayrich.
Karna picked up the sausage and put it in his mouth. He bit down on it. A torrent of meat juices gushed into his throat.
“Mhm… This is delicious!” he exclaimed after he swallowed the first bite.
“Are you sure? It looks disgusting to me.” Aika seemed dubious because of the sausage’s unappetizing appearance.
“I’m not joking. Just try it.” Karna assured her.
Aika cut a small piece of the sausage and put it in her mouth. Her eyes opened wide.
She grabbed another piece and stuffed it into her mouth.
“Do you want more?” Karna asked.
Aika nodded.
Karna stood up from his seat and walked to the waitress of the tavern.
“Hey. Can we get more sausages?”
“How many?”
Karna thought for a moment. “Ten.”
“Ten pork sausages!” the waitress shouted.
“Got it!” a man’s voice replied to her from the kitchen. It was probably the cook of the tavern.
“Ten pork sausages will be five bronze coins.” the waitress turned back to Karna with a smile.
He rummaged through the pouch that he had gotten from Rayrich and found a silver coin. “Sorry. Looks like I’m out of bronze coins. Will silver coins do?”
“Yes. That’s alright.” said the waitress as she took one silver coin from Karna’s hand.
After receiving his change of eight bronze coins, Karna returned to the table.
“Hey sis, I figured out the currency system in this world.”
“Mmm.. mm…” Aika replied with her mouth full.
There were gold, silver, and bronze coins inside the pouch so he had used one silver coin as a test. Now he knew that 10 bronze coins were equivalent to one silver coin. And it was likely that one gold coin was equivalent to 10 silver coins.
“By the way, why did you want to go to Tryst City?” Karna had been wondering about that for a while.
Aika stopped stuffing food into her mouth and replied.
“We need to learn about this world if we want to stay. And the best place to start is a library.”
“Huh? Stay?”
“Mhm…” Aika nodded. “I thought you might want to stay here brother. Don’t you hate the real world?”
Karna paused. He had only been thinking about what would be best for Aika and hadn’t been considering his own preferences. To think that his little sister would care for him so much.
Just like Aika said, Karna hated the real world. More specifically, he hated the fact that there was no clear goal in his life. Love? Money? Grades? He had no interest in any of that.
If there was a world with clear goals, Karna would choose that world over Earth any day.
“But don’t you want to go back?” Karna asked. That was the only doubt left in his mind. He did not want to sacrifice Aika’s happiness for his sake.
“No. I like it here.”
“Really?”
“Mhm…”
Karna didn’t know what to say. If he could live in this game-like world with levels and skills, it would be a paradise for him.
“Here are the pork sausages!!” The waitress came up to the siblings’ table and left the new batch of sausages on a silver plate.
“Aika…”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.”
⧫
In Reneruth City— the capital of Reneruth Kingdom.
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The royal palace was extremely busy that day. Various officials were running along the grand corridors in a hurry to get to the meeting with the king and nobles of the Kingdom.
Among the people hurrying along the corridors was Princess Cecilia Ayla Von Zylerin.
She had straight silver hair that came down to her waist and wore a simple white dress. Normally, the ministers around her would stop to greet her— she was the princess after all— but that was not what happened today. Everyone was in a panic after receiving the news from the other major cities in the Kingdom.
Cecilia got to her destination— a large meeting room with one rectangular table in the center.
Seated at the head of the table was Severin III; he was the king of Reneruth Kingdom and Cecilia’s father. Even though he was in his seventies, he had barely any wrinkles and looked a lot younger than his actual age. The shape of his muscles could be seen beneath his linen clothing. The rest of the seats had been filled by the Kingdom’s courtiers and ministers.
Cecilia grabbed a chair from one corner of the room and seated herself around the table. After confirming that everybody had arrived, Severin began the meeting.
“Let’s start the court meeting then. As everyone probably already knows, the topic of this meeting is the dire situation that our Kingdom is in.” Just from that statement, a person could tell what sort of king Severin III was. He had skipped all the formalities and had gotten straight to the point.
Almost everyone in the room had grave expressions. They were all deeply anxious about the emergency.
The problem this time was unprecedented. Large armies of demihumans had occupied a few major cities of the Kingdom.
Demihumans were indeed stronger than humans in terms of physical abilities. But their low intelligence meant that the demihumans had no strategy and raided human civilization with little to no coordination among themselves.
But this time was different. Without any warning, demihumans such as orcs, goblins, mermen, and Centaurs had formed armies overnight and had attacked the major cities of the Kingdom.
These armies were nothing like the ragtag groups of demihumans that would usually only attack small towns and villages.
There were also reports that demihumans were found with steel armor and weapons. Those were not the equipment that mere demihumans could produce on their own. It was only natural to think that someone or something was the reason behind the demihuman’s sudden improvement.
The reason had already been made clear that morning. A strange beast no one had seen before had flown over the royal palace. Everyone had woken up in a panic but to their surprise, the beast had only dropped a letter and had flown away afterward.
The letter was from a demon named Enosis. It stated that the demon had captured three major cities of Reneruth Kingdom and had taken the citizens of the cities hostage. King Severin would have to meet him if the Kingdom wanted the cities back.
Demons— creatures that were at the top of the world’s hierarchy. Possessing vast amounts of magical power from birth, they were existences that humans had no chance against.
The only reason humans had not gone extinct was because demons were few in number. Or rather, demons were almost nonexistent on the continent. That was why human nations like the Reneruth Kingdom could thrive in the first place.
Cecilia glanced at her father’s face. What she was worried most about was how her father would deal with this situation. It wasn’t a stretch to say that the future of the Kingdom depended on her father’s decision.
{He probably hates demons to the core. There is no way he will try to settle things by negotiation.}
She knew that her father despised demons. Her father had encountered a demon when he was much younger (before Cecilia was born). Cecilia didn’t know the details but just that it was a traumatic experience for him.
Even on previous occasions when the topic of demons was brought up, her father would always get angry. Would her father be able to make a calm judgment against the creatures he loathed so much?
Cecilia took a peek at the ministers around the room. If her father made a hasty judgment, it would be her job to stop him. And her job would be much easier if the ministers supported her.
“A vile demon has taken over our cities. Altean, Sunhelm, and Swandale have fallen already. It won’t be long before more cities fall under the grasp of that demon. We need to take back our people and cities with great haste.”
Cecilia groaned inwardly at that statement from her father. He was missing the point that the demon wanted to negotiate.
“We must levy an army as soon as possible and march north to the three cities. Let’s show the demon not to mess with our Kingdom!”
The one who had spoken up was the minister of military affairs. He was a hotblooded muscular man in his forties; the same type of person as the king.
The other ministers had unsightly expressions. Cecilia realized that it would be too late if she did not speak up and let the conversation go towards fighting with the demon.
“We should meet with the demon. We can at least listen to what he has to say before we start fighting.” Cecilia interjected before her father could decide on mobilizing troops.
Murmurs of agreement could be heard throughout the room.
“Your Majesty. What princess Cecilia said makes sense. We need to be prudent before we start a conflict with a demon. It would be disastrous if more demons are working with Enosis.” The one who had backed up Cecilia was the minister of foreign affairs.
Out of all the ministers, he had the most chances to meet with foreign officials and probably knew the fearsomeness of demons.
Cecilia checked her father’s face again. He seemed to be thinking about her suggestion.
“That is a good idea. But the demon may have already slaughtered all our citizens in those three cities. There is also the chance that the demon may extend his reach to more cities.”
The minister of military affairs argued.
It made sense. Cecilia was not planning to let the demon do whatever it wanted either.
“About that, my men were in Altean city right after the disaster happened. They saw the bodies of the city guards but all the citizens were missing.”
“Do you mean the Orthus squad?’ King Severin asked.
“Yes,” Cecilia nodded. The Orthus squad was a group of experienced former adventurers and soldiers that she had recruited to work directly under her. The Orthus squad was quite famous in the Kingdom for their abilities.
“We should form an army and tighten the security in the northern cities near Altean, Sunhelm, and Swandale. We can decide whether we attack or not after seeing how the meeting with the demon goes.”
The interior minister added. Cecilia smiled inwardly now that the conversation was heading where she wanted.
Many ministers nodded. Even the minister of military affairs didn’t seem against the idea.
“That’s certainly reasonable,” Cecilia spoke up. “Is there a chance that this is a ploy by the Empire or the City-State?”
The Elfararic Empire and the Alt City State were human nations bordering the Kingdom. The Kingdom had friendly relations with them at least on the surface. There was no guarantee that these nations wouldn’t make a deal with demons to undermine the Kingdom.
“I have a proposal. Why don’t we send envoys to other human nations on the continent? If our Kingdom falls to demons, it won’t be long before other nations also follow us.”
“Okay. Then we will prepare an army and send an envoy to the neighboring nations. If negotiations fail, we will attack the demon and his army. Does anyone have any objections?” King Severin asked.
No one said anything.
After the meeting, Cecilia went back to her room. She sighed and picked up a sheet of paper. It was the report she had gotten from Rayrich.
There was something she hadn’t mentioned in the meeting. The existence of the absurdly strong adventurer that Rayrich had encountered in Altean city; Karna.
“We need to get his help no matter what.”