A twisted grin spread on Noah’s countenance.
“Off to the circus.”
“Huh? Why?”
Evan was understandably confused, to which Noah was more than willing to answer with mimicry. Green skin, a small frame, and beady eyes that radiated malice. Noah, now in goblin form, jumped up onto the table, then simply did nothing and stared at Evan, who had frozen up. Noah spoke in the gravelly, high-pitched voice of the goblin.
“See, Evan, I didn't even attack you. I'm literally just standing still. Your reaction doesn't exactly inspire confidence as to how you’ll confront the threat that seems to be coming.”
Evan, to Noah’s surprise, responded slightly shakily.
“N-no, I’ll be fine. It's just a momentary shock.”
“Oh damn, you've made progress. Proud of you. Still, it's not good enough.”
Noah transformed into a red-skinned giant twice the height of the average woman as he leaped off the table and landed heavily, then made slow, deliberate steps toward Evan while radiating killing intent. This time, he did more than just freeze, and began to breathe heavily while the iris of his eyes rapidly expanded and trembled. Noah eventually came to a stop right behind Evan, who had his head craned backwards.
“Case in point. Evan, this will be good for you. The circus in this world uses monsters for their funny tricks, and the monster training is even more brutal than it was for circus animals on earth before animal abuse legislation. What better way to get used to beating the shit out of monsters again? Right, Cedric, please help arrange that.”
“...one would think I was a secretary instead of the retired lord.”
“...uh. sorry. I'll have a proper secretary soon. Wait, why can't these archmages help? Two of them are veteran ranked and another is an apprentice, I believe. Their warrior cultivation allows their brains to work faster than normal people, perfect for administrative work. The three of you’ll do all the admin work from now on. Of course, you’ll still have to do your old job. Your total work day would be, what, 12 hours long, aside from Saturdays and Sundays? That's manageable. Cedric, if you would teach them the ropes.”
“So it still ends with more work. Sure, I’ll have it done.”
“Great. Back to the circus thing. Elara, I can rely on you to continue to support his mental health and stuff, right?”
“Maybe check in every once in a while; seeing some friends once in a while that's not just his significant other would be nice.”
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“Sure, was planning to do that anyway. I suppose that's everything. Oh, wait. Elara, are you aware of Mia’s location?”
“Mia? Are you planning to look for her? I think she's just been jumping from bar to bar, actually. I’m not sure which kingdom, though.”
“Hmm. Just another thing I need to gather information on, then. Alright, we have 9 more months until we meet the king, and a demonic invasion, if one really is happening, will most likely happen before then. Repelling the invasion will be a major source of merit and will go a long way toward convincing the king to throw duke status at us for the sake of meeting the Spirit Queen to cure Emma. From this point on, aside from Cedric, everyone here needs to work on getting stronger in their spare time. Evan obviously needs to aim for SSS rank, and the others should try for SS. All of you will be the core of the repulsion force. That being said, meeting terminated. Go do your thing.”
“Noah, I remember you telling me that the major countries wouldn't just stand by and watch if you tried to rise to prominence. What of that?”
“Ah, that? Well, we have a temporary economic deterrent that will last a few years, so we don't have to worry about that for a while.”
“Economic deterrent? Hmm, if you say so.”
Noah smiled at Cedric’s response, then walked to a dark corner of the room, where his figure flickered and vanished. Seven pairs of eyes blinked for a moment, after which chairs began to shuffle, and everyone filtered out one by one.
-
Far away, in the center of the capital of the Holy Runa Kingdom, chairs were pushed into an extravagant roundtable of pure white marble, furnished with accents of darbean wood. Once all eleven seats were occupied, the servants and escorts that stood behind seven seats slowly pilfered out, one by one, until the last to leave gently and firmly shut the door behind them. Some time passed before any one of the gathered eleven made any noise to allow the several archmages outside to cast all manner of security and soundproofing spells on the room from outside. The gentle morning light streaming in from the clerestory windows on the side of the room opposite the large door illuminated the grandeur and size of the white marble and darbean wood accented room, befitting the luminary figures in attendance at this moment.
“I assume that we’ll be skipping the formalities?’
“Not this time. We have new participa-”
“No. Get to the point.”
Being the host of the conference this time, convention dictated that the Saintess and Queen Valeria were to introduce the participants and object of the major monarch conference this time, though such formalities were usually skipped. The Saintess, who attempted to do so, was shot down by Queen Valeria, who believed that they could not do so this time. Contrary to her belief, the one commonly acknowledged as the de facto leader of the four new participants, did not agree. Much like the other monarchs in the room, the Heroes did not wish to waste their own time. The Saintess was happy to oblige.
“First, the Leviathan. Despite the half-hearted attempt to cover it up, I’m sure most in this room have already been made aware of the leviathan that has been circulating in the market. The person who did this seems to have been Noah, one of the former heroes, now Lord of the Odir Barony in Haldor. As we had implied to them before they left, letting this go public could diminish the image of the current Heroes, and cannot be allowed. To have struck down a leviathan, his power must have grown, and investigation confirms this to be the truth. Assassination is certainly more of a hassle now. How shall these actions of his be punished?”
If one listened carefully, they might hear the crunching of teeth from a particularly frustrated monarch who had prematurely sent out an expensive assassination squad that he realized would only end in failure too late.