I don't know what it means to respect royalty, but I think it's the same with lowering your weapons in games when the game masters enter the game. We had to stop fighting because he might start a special event game. Special drops are great after all!
***
A day has passed since I've met my future daughters Cherry and Viola. Since that time, I started becoming serious of my job as an Envoy, a Firm Owner, and a Trader, especially as an enemy of the Gods.
There was quite a pile of paperwork when I started seriously. The amount was way beyond my expectation that it makes me wonder what was I doing this past few months.
And about yesterday, they thought that I was a goner after disappearing for a long time. It worried Jane, Lapis, and especially Marie that they wouldn't stop crying when they saw me come back. Lapis is the exemption though.
I really thought that they saw the Hyperion as well, but to my surprise, they actually didn't. Despite it's gigantic size, no one was able to spot it even after it uncloaked.
It must be a special magic future me was able to invent.
Also, I tried to look for the thing Viola gave me in my ring. However, it came out empty like nothing happened.
Still, she said some weird things like meeting me for the second time and Cherry for the first time. It makes me wonder what kind of father I am to my children. Not showing myself after they're born is very impossible thing for me to do. I being dead in the future also looks like a probability. But the way they talk to me seems like they know me and not at the same time.
When I think about it, she did gave me a lot of hints on what to do in the future. I don't think it changed anything in the future, but I think it's already predetermined to happen already. It might be a paradox even.
However, the fact that Viola's my daughter is very intriguing. Biologically speaking, she's my first daughter, but she doesn't look like Cherry or Matt at all. Just who is her mother?!
Currently, I'm the in bridge again with the captain. I'm doing a review of the documents Teldarg wants me to hand over to the king. It's quite confidential so none of the dwarves are getting near me while I'm reading it.
“Sir, Valeshtyre Royal Capital is now on sight! Requesting orders.”
One of the dwarves that is holding a telescope told us. It has still quite some distance. Probably around 10 km….
“Lower down the banners like usual. Also, put the Chardelier banner beside ours.”
After receiving orders from the captain, everyone in the bridge became hectic. They started yelling at the pipe that goes down to the other rooms and the ship became slower than usual.
And about that Chardelier banner, it's something Teldarg wanted me to have. Since I'm the Envoy and the current owner of Drukade, I will have my Household's crest hanging on the side of the ship whether I like it or not.
“Hmm, that's weird. There's no signal flare yet despite us getting into 8 km into the territory.”
While caressing his own beard, Akkin looks at the Royal Capital's direction with a puzzled look.
“What happens when they don't give out a signal?”
“Well, it's either they're delayed or the messenger wasn't able to arrive on time. We were flying too fast after all.”
“Is that going to be a problem?”
Before answering, Akkin takes out a telescope and looks at the Royal Capital's direction. After a moment, he nods like he came to a conclusion.
“Probably not. This isn't the first or second time Drukade has docked in the Royal Capital after all. Well, your crest hanging beside our ship might intrigue some higher nobles, but that's just a trivial thing when you get inaugurated to be an Earl.”
“You mean ‘Baron'. Being an ‘Earl' requires to have a territory, and obviously I don't have one yet. The mine in Behemoth’s Horn is not considered to be a territory because of the Dungeon in it.”
Despite being a captain and pilot of Drukade, Akkin knows things like these huh. I really can't underestimate people of great age.
“I think you still don't understand how the Nobility System works. Well, you're still young, there's a lot of things you can still learn. But if you become an Earl, I want you to give me a Mithril Axe.”
“Are we having a bet?”
While laughing, Akkin lightly punches my shoulder. I think we've gotten close this past week.
All of a sudden, a blue firework like light colored the sky in front of us. Since it didn't make any explosion noises, it's probably illusion or light magic.
“Blue?”
“Everyone! Prepare to deploy the inversed mast! HURRY!”
All of a sudden, Akkin started running to the helm while giving out commands. I don't know what he just said, but it seemed to have made everyone move quickly while controlling themselves from panicking.
When I looked at Akkin again, I can see that he's sweating buckets while quickly rotating the helm.
“What was that about? Why is everyone in a panic?”
“The Royal Capital just deployed the blue signal. It means that the Anti-Air Projectile Barrier around the Royal Capital hasn't deactivated yet! If we don't slow down, we might end up crashing!”
Really?!
“Do something about it!”
“I am already!”
Damn! We just got a dragon out of our asses yesterday! Now this? I bet the gods are to blame here!
While looking at the direction of the invisible barrier, an idea struck my head.
“I'm going out!”
Immediately, I invoked a vision type short teleportation magic to throw myself outside the ship. When I said I'm going out, it means going out of the ship.
“<
I don't need to wear the whole armor, so I equip on my back the wings from my <
“Captain, this is Key.”
“Where have you disappeared to this time?!”
It sounds like I really worried him, he's yelling at me through my telepathy.
“Leave that aside for now, I'm already outside. I don't have much time to explain, I want you to do anything in your power to turn Drukade in one direction.”
“I hate to say the obvious but, I ALREADY AM!”
The ship's turning too slow because there's not much wind hitting the sails. Blowing the wind to the ship might be a good idea, but it will also accelerate the ship's speed and it would crash into the invisible barrier.
I know that using an untested magic is dangerous, but it's the only idea I've got at the moment.
“Ah fuck it! <
After casting that, a huge magic circle appears besides me that’s also right of the ship. The next moment, it starts rotating in high speed without any wind resistance. Immediately after, a huge spherical stony grey object appears in the sky. In other words, a moon.
It's not as big as a real moon, but I think it's just around 1.5 kilometer in radius. It can still be considered big with commonsense though.
“W-what is that thi--! The ship's suddenly turning towards that thing!”
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Obviously, summoning something super big in the sky would create a commotion. I could hear the screams of the people through the telepathy, and from below?
When I look at the Royal Capital and the outskirts of it, I could see a lot of people in ant size running around for their lives like an….
…
“I should really apologize for this.”
If you're asking why I summoned a moon, the answer is simple: Gravitational Pull. I used it to pull away the ship from the barrier.
Since Gravity Magic needs catalyst to work, I combined it with some Earth magic. For this case, I also added the Material Conjuration to summon Earth from thin air. The size, well, it something I wasn't sure exactly how it ended up with that size. The only thing I took into account was the strength of the gravitational pull which I didn't expect to also become proportional to the size I needed.
“Captain, is the ship off-course with the barrier now?”
“Yes, but were heading towards the….. Where'd it go?”
I didn't bother listening to what he was saying. The moment I heard ‘Yes', I immediately remove the miniature moon from the sky by dispelling the magic.
***
“Kid, I think we need to have a serious talk about commonsense here.”
“Please, my maid was already enough.”
Before I went back to the bridge, I went to my room to check on Marie and the rest. Turns out, Jane knew it was me who summoned the moon. She told me that I couldn't just make a moon appear in the sky and make it disappear like it wasn’t there. Not only that, it would cause (which already is happening) panic to the locals.
I knew that I was in the wrong so I didn't talk back and accepted her scolding.
Right now, I'm once again standing side by side with Akkin while looking outside the bridge.
Drukade is currently flying around outside the Royal Capital's barrier while waiting for it to get disabled. After what I did, I don't thing they're doing it anytime soon.
“First, you pulled out the Immortal Sword of Giants, second, you fought a dragon in the sky in the middle of a storm, third, and you summoned a Moon, A MOON! There's even a rumor that you fought a god too! Just how absurdly powerful are you?”
“To the Infinite, I guess?”
Then, for some reason, a dwarf came into the bridge while breathing his lungs out. Even without saying anything, he hands a rolled up letter to us which looks very important.
I look at the seal that's used to tie the letter. It's gold and red ribbon with a lion with rose petal mane medallion, a sign of a Royal Message. It's cool and all, but how'd they get the letter up here?
“Hm, it says that they will be lowering the barrier, in one condition.”
As I read through the letter, I didn't expect that the king himself would want to personally see me. It's not because I'm the envoy of Berigious, but it's because he thinks I'm a threat after the moon incident. He didn't really specifically say my name, he said he wants to meet who summoned the moon.
“I guess I’ll be going down first. Please take care of my daughter.”
“Yes, sir!”
After hearing Akkin's reply, I headed out to the top deck.
Since there's no use to hide myself anymore, might as well come out really flashy.
So, I decided to stand on the ship's nose. After that, I cast <
In contrast to it's showy appearance, it's actually very fragile and can't be used on combat. That's because I expanded the magic's length and changed some useless glitter illusions on the combat functions.
“Somehow, I feel like a fairy.”
While I fly away from the ship with rainbow-like trails, I use <
As I expected, it's made to defend against different types of attacks like Drukade's shield, but in a stronger and bigger magnitude. Entering it immediately could get me hurt since the barrier has a function to repulse anything that has either weight or magical.
Well, not like it's a problem though.
“<
The former can lower my weight next to a feather's, the latter will cover me with an Anti-Magic detection magic. But since I have limitless power, it can only last momentarily so I immediately swooped into the barrier the moment I put the magic on myself.
I could feel that everyone from below is looking at me. Well, that's reasonable enough. I scared the shit out of them after all.
“I don’t know which part of the castle is the main entrance.”
I fly around the capital while looking at the castle in different angles. No matter what angle I get into, I just can't figure out which part is the real entrance. I think they made this castle with anti-infiltration and other kinds of attacks into account. It's pretty well done.
Then, while I was flying, I notice something glowing from a certain balcony on the castle. I think they understood why I was flying around.
Immediately, I flew towards there in top speed while making a shockwave.
In an instant, I arrived in front of the balcony. I didn't expect it to be so big.
There, on the center are the King, Queen, Queen again, and another Queen? Which on is the real queen and which two are the mistresses?
Well anyway, there’s also Thema who's shocked to see me to the point of dropping her jaws, an unknown princess, and a princess on a wheelchair. Leaving the other two aside, Thema looks different from before. She looks like she has become matured with sharp eyes.
Since there are dozens of royal guards nearby with their spears pointing at me and lots of magicians ready to throw magic at me, I'm guessing they're not taking me as a joke.
To show that I'm not hostile towards them, I land in front of the king while making my wings disappear. After that, I showed my respect and bowed on one knee with my head facing down.
“It's my greatest honor to finally meet you in person, your royal highness. My name is Key Godfre Chardelier, a chevalier and retainer of Duke Dalseriev, and a Fulsheri Alliance Envoy of Berigious.”
God, this is embarrassing! This is the first time I've actually said something really formal.
“Lift your head.”
When I heard the king, I raise my gaze towards him.
But somehow, when did the knights arrive in front of me? Leaving aside their spear pointed at me, I didn't hear them make a sound. They're well trained.
Just in case, I secretly put an invisible barrier above my skin and clothes while fortifying them almost to Mithril level of hardness.
“You look slightly different from how my daughter Thema described you.”
When he said that, I quickly turn my gaze towards the princess who's hiding behind the Queen. Probably her mother.
Noticing my glare, she shrieks and closes her eyes while biting her lips. I get it, she's guilty.
“It was imprudent of me to meet the princess, your royal highness. And if I may ask, how did she describe me? I'm very curious to know.”
When I ask the king that, I could see Thema sweating buckets.
“Well, I was told that you were a demon to her.”
Immediately without his command, the knights took a step closer towards me.
“I may have given her a wrong impression of me, my deepest apologies.”
I thought that he would be really angry at me, but what he said next is something I didn't expect.
“No, I actually should be thanking you.”
Every one of the knights, queens, princess, and even me, have our eyes grows in surprise. What he just said took us by surprise that he even found us funny and started laughing.
Still, none of us dared to speak out.
“Well, let's leave that aside for now.”
After coughing a bit, he makes a switch and becomes serious again.
“That moon-like object just now, was it you who summoned it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It was a necessary action I had to take in order to prevent our ship from hitting the Royal Capital's barrier. If I wasn't able to pull it off, everyone on that ship could have died and probably some people from inside the capital too.”
I know that my reasoning is beyond commonsense, but there's no use in lying after showing such feat in public. I don't know if I would be deemed as a threat by the king, but since it's highly possible to happen, I’ll be hoping that he doesn't take immediate actions.
I'll fight back after all.
“Can I guarantee that you will not lift a finger against me or the kingdom?”
The King's comes close to me while pulling out his golden sword from his scabbard. Please, don't fight me.
“I will only use my power for something that could only benefit me greatly. Fighting the Royal Family will not grant me that.”
I prepare myself and lower down my head. Even if he tries to behead me, the sword will break.
If that happens, I'll just give them a little scare. It might make me look like the enemy, but I don't want to show the people from Helius and Darkus Temple who is likely to be hiding here that I'm weak.
“Then…”
I could feel the cold steel of the sword above my skin. I can feel it near my neck so I guess he's deemed me as an enemy already. Good grief.
“Key Godfre Chardelier, raise your head.”
Huh?
As I put my gaze up to the king, I saw his sword just sitting above my left shoulder. Is this what I think it is?
“I will recognize you as Berigious' envoy and representative. I will also trust you in protecting the Fulsheri alliance with your power.”
Then while saying that, he transfers the sword from my left to right shoulder in an arch.
“And since I have seen your capabilities, I will grant you the title of [Celestial Magus].”
*cough*
“Is there a problem?”
Fuuuuuuck! That title is too unexpected that I almost burst into laughter in front of him!
Celestial Magus, he said? It sounds like something someone made out on a whim!
“I'm sorry for that rude behavior, but please enlighten me about what I can gain from having a title. This is the first for me.”
It took me a few moments to recover, but thinking about the title he gave me could get me to laugh anytime.
After sheathing his sword, the king backs away before talking.
“Chevalier, having a title with your peerage can give you power comparable to an earl. Even without peerage, you can still be recognized as someone like a noble. Though it may not pay, having one is a great feat. You will be recognized around the world with it!”
Hmm… it sounds like a good and bad thing. Good because the strong ones with the Sacred Relics will notice my presence and would greatly benefit me if they come to me, and bad because it would cause problem if they ever come to me at the same time.
It would be a big problem if the people who are wielding them are of the same group. Much more if they're from the temples.
“I understand now, thank you for bestowing me such amazing title.”
After that, I lower my head once again before standing up.
Before turning around, I looked at Princess Thema who is hiding behind one of the queens.
“I would really like to know what you said to them, Princess~”
While I turn a knee, I sent a one way telepathic message to Thema. I could her dropping on the floor so I guess I surprised her.
Everyone's attention has turned to her so I immediately used Teleportation to go back to Drukade in an instant.
After seeing me standing on the top deck from the bridge, everyone gets surprised, but then calms down after a moment.
“They will be lowering the barrier in a few moments so everyone prepare for docking.”
I send a telepathic message to everyone on board the Drukade.
After receiving my command, the crew starts moving double-time in preparing the ship to dock. I wasn't exactly sure about docking though.
After some time when the barrier has been lowered, a lot of issues came up like the miscommunication about the message about our arrival. Turns out, we came earlier than expected that they didn't get time to prepare a welcoming celebration of the Drukade's visit in the Royal Capital. Apparently there's a history about Valeshtyre kingdom and Berigious City that I haven't heard of.
Also, since I didn't really prepare a place to stay in Berigious beforehand, I'm currently staying in Drukade with Marie and the rest.
Lastly, about Phillilia’s group, I transported them in secret to the Royal Capital's 3rd gate which is in the other side of where Drukade has been docked. Our separation is only temporary, but the moment they hear about their brethren, I will go and aid them in ways I can be of help.
I guess starting tomorrow… I'll really get busy again.
Well, work is work, I can't complain.