I knelt on the carpet of the throne room, my head lowered. They babbled about a lot of things but I was focused on detecting hidden dangers. The geas still held the mage, but I had no idea if he passed a hidden message or not. The King wasn't happy with me, as they usually aren't.
"I can't see her Status," the sovereign whispered to Baldric. "My {Regal Eyes} should pierce all sorts of falsehoods and Status forgery. Tell me, my friend. Why is this so?"
I remember that one in the Royalty Class shop. Talk about a double-edged sword. Once a ruler gets to see a person's entire Status, they can predict what the others can do but also wonder and question every little choice of the person. Or descend into micromanaging people's builds. I can imagine him wasting hours checking every single maid and servant. Not to mention the huge invasion of privacy.
Baldric whispered on the King's ear, "I can assure you it is not something she did, sire. The girl was born under a trickster's moon. She had her share of boons and also great misfortune. Her eyes for one, I'm afraid not even my magic can fix."
"What use is a blind [Mage] for me!" He rose his voice.
I had most of the Royal guards present at the throne room geased as well. Their Soul score was so pitiful my SP regeneration would take care of them. I had four people to worry about should things get ugly. Baldric insisted on a private court session "for the King and the nobles' safety". The seats where the nobility would sit during court were removed and replaced with rows of geased guards. These would either help me or fall down and writhe as they lost eighteen thousand HP per second.
The Queen and three of the royal scions were sitting next to the King. They too were listening in to the conversation between monarch and wizard. The pieces were moving in position. Baldric now had to make a show of how easy it was to know if I was around or not.
Damocles would be so proud.
"She can see the unseen, sire. Things that are hidden from even these old eyes of mine," Baldric's voice wavered a bit. "And her aura. That's a marvel. It doubles the MP recovery across a wide area. She can't turn it off either.
This would put the king in an even more precarious situation. "Darth" Baldric was poisoning his ears. In our true relationship, I was the master.
"Baldric. We'll talk more about this later. As for now," there was silence and then the sound of the knights' armor clacking as they all took a step. "[Mage] Honorcoin, I recognize you as an apprentice to archmagister Baldric but not as a court magician. You are not welcome in the palace. We shall find adequate tasks for one with a power such as yours. We extend an invitation to your parents to live here in the capital with you. You are dismissed."
"I'm grateful for your Majesty's wisdom," I said and walked backward for ten steps before turning around and walking out of the court chambers. Maybe regicide is not off the table. The reason for bringing Rosewise's parents to the capital was obvious. They would become hostages.
Nothing like a war to distract a king. Nothing like a new King to fumble a war. So much for one's peaceful life. I stood out.
I should've let Karina, Josie, and Cedric live as cripples. How could I?
I should've let the stampede destroy part of the city. Kill the adventurers and the guards. How could I?
No good deed goes unpunished.
Now the King had to die.
Maybe there was another solution to this conundrum. But the King wasn't stupid. He would soon find out that Baldric had some magical compulsion on him. {Royal Geas} didn't work on foreign royalty. No. I had to strike now.
My position became untenable because of my own shortcomings.
Time to cut the single strand of horse's hair.
----------------------------------------
I made a show of departing with a contingent of knights, all of them geased. I was going back home, to pick up my parents. All pieces were in place. Baldric had a sapling placed in the King's bed-chamber. An innocuous tiny tree. One could even call it a bonsai. We traveled for the whole day at an accelerated pace. The knight captain had a perk to make cavalry and the supply train move twice as fast.
Night fell and I withdrew into my tent with a luck sapling. After placing a series of advanced wards Baldric taught me including a force ward and an illusion of a slovenly Eleon sleeping, I shifted into the tiny bumblebee bat and entered the sapling, exiting another tree twelve kilometers away. Then another and another. I was soon back in the capital. Each teleport cost me twelve thousand MP but to someone that had ten million, it was a drop in the bucket.
My aura was turned off. Another few teleports and I was inside the palace grounds. I couldn't pick the tree. Only direction and distance. With enough information, pinpointing a solitary tree in a garden wasn't difficult. But try as I might, my perk couldn't lock on the sapling. If it was inside the King's chambers or not.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
inconsequential.
The tiny bat flew. Seriously, this critter was three centimeters tall from head to tail. There was a blank spot in my detection where the royal apartments were. I went to the King's bedroom and crossed walls and wards, courtesy of my abilities. {Grandmaster Surreptitiousness} allowed me to move slower and go past traps and magical wards without triggering them. And I could always go incorporeal to cross physical barriers.
The bedroom was empty. The King wasn't in his chambers and the sapling was destroyed, broken on the ground. Someone was being too paranoid, suspecting their own court archmagister. In this case, he was right.
I flew around, crossing walls and looking for secret tunnels. {Map Lair} gave me the location of a safe inside the King's apartment. I looted it from inside. Jewels and coins, including a bag with copper and silver coins from different countries. A rainy day stash. Currency he could use without raising suspicion to his standing.
I didn't find the secret passage but I found the wards blocking a wall. After crawling through them at a snail's pace, another maze of tunnels showed up. I flew down the dark tunnels, my perks and grandmaster stealth making me unseen and unnoticed.
Eight people were at the end of the tunnels, in a chamber. I reached it and listened. The King's voice.
"... trust Baldric anymore. Someone controlled him. He gave me the signal to come here today. Not even him can cross these wards, they were made by another magician."
A young man, "I bet it is that witch's fault, father! She used her wicked magics to seduce and corrupt Baldric."
"Trevor!" A mature woman scolded. "Don't make obscene gestures in front of your sisters!"
The whole Royal family was inside that room. One fell swoop and the Kingdom was gone. I crossed over the roof immaterial and poked my head down to put them in my soul sight range. Eight people. Two children. Though it pained me, could I afford to leave survivors? Scarred, these princelings would see nothing else but vengeance.
I hesitated. That was a line I would not cross even if it cost my life.
The youngest prince and princess, still too young to receive the System's blessings would live. Survive to seek to avenge their family or rebuild their country as they saw fit.
My first act was to withdraw and carefully place boulders at the exits. The massive stones would make the doors that kept intruders out by not swinging to the inside the lid to their tomb. Then I returned and dropped a bag of condensed sleep powder in the room. It was considered a kind of poison by the System, but a non-lethal one. I had no doubt the Royals could resist it. My goal was to make the children sleep.
"Who's there! Show yourself! {Royal Order}!" The king yelled.
I used a spell to drain the magic on the enchanted lamps. Darkness fell upon the room. The teenage princes and princesses were shouting and crying, adding to the chaos.
Dropping on the King's collar, I positioned myself next to his nape. Then I shifted and bit his neck, one arm on the head, and another on the body.
> Assassination successful. Contract fulfilled.
>
> For killing a level 89 King, you gained 19,935,810,430 Exp. ( 79,210 base x 251,683 multipliers [1] ).
The King's corpse went to storage immediately after the invisible vorpal energy severed his neck. Only a few droplets of blood fell to the ground. I flew around and landed on the Queen's dress. Another bite, another death.
> Assassination successful. Contract fulfilled.
>
> For killing a level 85 Queen, you gained 8,081,885,000 Exp. ( 72,250 base x 111,860 multipliers [2] ).
Her body also went to storage. Their souls remained to watch in horror as their children were murdered one by one, save for the two sleeping ones. Once the deed was done, I cleaned the room, removing all traces of the sleeping powder and blood. The room's cleanliness would make any [Head Maid] or [Royal Governess] proud. I also removed the boulders blocking the exit.
I happened upon a very obvious stash of wealth on their getaway luggage but left that untouched. On second thought, I could weave a narrative where the Royals fled but left the children behind. I stole all the luggage and opened the escape tunnel. I used a spell I hadn't cast in centuries.
"{Animate Broom Golem}!"
The brooms extended their arms from the dowels and danced. Putting one in each of the Royals' shoes, they walked down the escape tunnel dragging the luggage with them. Once outside, I killed and cleaned the guard post then added more shoes to the merry and macabre dance of misdirection. Off into the forest, they went. Three kilometers in I erased the tracks and retrieved my tools.
I had five or six years or six to eight Earth years before the System brought these two siblings to the great game.
A game of crowns, armies, and yes, thrones too.
----------------------------------------
Without leadership, the nobles would fight among themselves for the honor of being the steward regent in the princelings' stead. But my night wasn't over. I had another stop to make. I entered his bedroom and shifted. A second later and I was wearing clothes and shoes.
"Baldric, you disappoint me," I woke him from his sleep. "You betrayed me, going around the geas without triggering it. You are a smart one."
"Rosewise!" He gasped and pulled up the sheets to cover his modesty. "I did nothing! The geas didn't trigger!"
"Ah, archmagister. I forbid you from using magic, Skills, and Perks. Do not move, {Royal Geas}!"
"Please! Whatever happened, I'm innocent. I have Bundeus as a witness!"
I materialized the King's ghost.
"BALDRIC! YOU FAILED ME!" The vengeful Royal phantom uttered. "YOU WOKE THE SLEEPING DRAGON, NOW MY FAMILY IS NO MORE!"
"That's enough," I dismissed the materialization. "I'll make it painless, Baldric."
> Assassination successful. Contract fulfilled.
>
> For killing Baldric, level 87 [Archmagister], you gained 8,466,683,400 Exp. ( 75,690 base x 111,860 multipliers [2] ).
As I teleported back to the sapling in my tent two days' trip down the road, I cleansed and released all the ghosts. Off they went into the afterlife or the gods' spiritual meat butcher, light as a bunch of plumes in the wind.
I snuck under my bedroll and slept.
For years they would wonder if the archmagister fled with the King or murdered his liege.
----------------------------------------
[2]: 3,05 perk x 10,000 perk x 0,001 curse x 7,57 favored enemy x7,57 contract x 15 class rank x 12 racial rank x 2 size
[2]: 3,05 perk x 10,000 perk x 0,001 curse x 7,57 favored enemy x7,57 contract x 10 class rank x 8 racial rank x 2 size