~ Third Person POV ~
Inside a carriage, there were five people sitting on the seats. Three of them looked human, but were not, while the other two were full-fledged humans. The three who were not human were none other than the golems who were tasked to meet with the king by their master, namely, Proxy as the representative, and John and Paul as Proxy’s bodyguards.
The other two were Kelm Corn, the soldier commander of the town near the dungeon of Proxy’s master, and the other one was a representative of the King. Since they King couldn’t ignore a request for a summons from a dungeon master who was visibly giving riches to a town, the King reluctantly approved the summons.
By the way, the hero, Philip, was restrained in another carriage with the same rope, causing him to cry in agony. But for some reason, he still held a strong will and grudge against the dungeon master, keeping him sane, whereas a normal person would have gone crazy on the first hours. Of course, when they reach the capital, the rope will be unbound by John and Paul. But it is actually too late if they want to reconcile with the hero, and the King who is supporting the hero.
“Proxy--- I mean, Jake, we will be reaching the capital in a few hours. When we arrive, we are directly going towards the royal castle to greet the king.”
Kelm gave a heads up towards Proxy who was nodding off. Kelm called him Jake instead of Proxy since his name was way to obvious if it was spoken in front of the king.
“When inside, you will be given a set of clothes to reach the minimum standard of etiquette, and be accompanied by a maid to freshen up. That goes for your two bodyguards as well.”
The representative followed up on Kelm’s words and gave an anxious gaze towards Proxy and his boydguards.
‘Do they know the standard when meeting the king?’
Thinking this inside his mind gave him the chills. Almost everybody in the kingdom knew the standard when meeting the king. One must kneel in front behind a line and bow their heads, and never speak a word until the King allows it. They will also not be able to raise their head and stand until the King gives permission. Failure to follow the standard can result in imprisonment or death, depending on the person.
If it was found out that the one meeting the King was a golem, all hell would break lose at the extreme disrespect towards the crown. At least, that is what it will look like to the royals and nobles. If that happened, then that dungeon will be no doubt, the top priority in subjugation, making it a loss to the country. If the stuck-up nobles and the corrupt royals can see this, they would think about how to take use of this advantage, but the barrier called the hero is in the way. The hero, in a way, has influence greater than a king of a country. His influence is second only to the church of the Holy Faith’s pope.
The pope of Holy Faith is the head of this giant religion that takes up 60% of the world. This religion pushes for human supremacy, making all the demi-humans and beastkin their enemy. The country where the master of Proxy resided is called the Polshia Kingdon and is a follower of the Holy Faith. But for some reason, the town which is near to the master of Proxy’s dungeon, called Granc, is a self-ruling town under the command of the King. How is this possible, is what others would ask, but the reason this is possible is because of the founder of this town, who was known as a SSS-rank adventurer in the past, befriended a mythical creature living in the mountains east of Granc and made a contract to protect the town, even from the same country, to ensure the livelihood of its inhabitants, be it human, demi-human, or beastkin.
The contract applies until now because of the succesion of the seat of mayor by the same family. But because of the peace, the sharp fangs of the once strong family had degenerated into that of dull ones, making it harder for them to protect the town. Even with the help of the mythical creature, if the town was destroyed from the inside, then it will surely fall.
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This is also happening in the present, as seen by the hero present in that town. The hero has the strength of an S-rank adventurer, making it harder to try and force him out of the town, and while using the pretext of training, the hero is being used as a tool to restrict the movements of the mayor and his troops. And while the hero is present, there are currently movements in the dark to which no one knows what they are planning.
But suddenly, the hero was defeated by a dungeon, causing the higher-ups of the country to be befuddled. They neglected it at first, but when the hero lost a second time and requested the help of the King, they couldn’t keep silent anymore.
Thus, the mobilizing of the troops inside Granc, which was beneficial to their plans. The plan to destroy Granc was underway by using riots to not attract the attention of the mythical creature which was said to destroy an entire country in just a day.
But their plans met a halt when they got a report saying that the dungeon master of the dungeon wished to meet the King, which led to the current state of affairs.
This is what went through the representative’s head who, was in cahoots with the royals, causing a slight crease on his brow. This wasn’t noticed by anyone in the carriage so it was alright.
While the 5 of them were just nonchalantly waiting on the carriage filled with tension, they reached the gates of the Royal Capital.
A line was formed by merchant wagons, carriages, and people to be granted permission to enter the capital. But the carriage where the 5 were riding was given preferential treatment and was quickly let inside, disregarding the long line. If you looked closely, there was no one there that looked like a demi-human, or beastkin lining up, except for those treated as a slave.
Proxy was wondering why his master had gotten hold of a beastkin slave, but it looks like the slaves here that are not human are legalized by the country. Of course, there were beastkins and demi-humans in Granc, but they were few in number because of the chance being kidnapped by slave traders.
When they entered the capital, the hustling sound of a busy city entered their ears. Looking aroud, all you could see were humans. No other races were present here.
Passing through the main road where curious onlookers caught a sight of the gaudy carriage, they directly went towards the castle. The carriage was silent just like before, in fact, they were silent throughout the whole journey from Granc to the Royal Capital, except for the part where Kelm gave a heads-up towards Proxy.
When they arrived, what was in their view was a majestic castle, towering high towards the sky. One had to crane their neck backwards when looking up towards the castle. The 5 of them were greeted by heavily armed knights and were escorted inside. Then, they were seperated, except for Proxy, John, and Paul. They were guided by a maid working inside the castle, and if one looked closely, there were scars on her arms and legs, and collar on her neck that was well hidden by the choker for maids.
Proxy thought that this girl was a slave maid of this castle, and was given physical abuse on a daily basis. Judging by her appearance, she seems to be in the latter half of her teens, with a chestnut clored hair and bright brown eyes. But sadly, her eyes were lifeless, as if the girl had no will of her own.
If a person were to see this, they would say that what was being done to her was too much, but she was under the royals, so it was impossile to voice out complaints, lest they risk their lives as well.
The three of them were guided towards a room where they are supposed to bathe and change their clothes to meet the minimum standard hygiene when meeting the King. This was all done without a word being said by the three.
Once they were done, they got out of the room and were greeted by the same maid who guided them to the room.
“Please follow me…”
With the same mechanical voice they heard when they first met, they followed her towards the audience hall where they were supposed to meet the king.
A few minutes later of walking and still silence, they finally reached the huge, gaudily decorated double doors leading towards the audience hall. On their way here, they were met with curious gazes from the workers, and scorn from nobles, aristocrats, and some of the workers who were pro Holy Faith.
The double doors opened when they arrived as if to say, ‘Come in’ with a huge sound. When the doors opened, in front of them were a line of heavily armed Knights, lines of nobles and aristocrats, and an old man sitting on the throne. He wore majestic clothing fitting for a king with a crown at the top of his head, a scepter on his right, and on his left a young girl who can be said to still be a child. By her appearances, she seems to be about 6 years old.
She was looking at Proxy and his bodyguards with great curiosity, while the King had a tired face.
“His highness, the King of Polshia, Iquas von Polshia. And her highness, the 6th Princess of Polshia, Fii von Polshia.”
With a loud greeting, Proxy and his bodyguards stepped forward.