The room was abuzz with talks. Toshiro looked at all the people in the party room eating, drinking and trying to make better deals for the future.
Timet, the General King of Armis was doing it’s best convince The Kingdom of Karka, a land of bird people, and the Marine Republic, a group of underwater city states, to enter in some sort of military contract with his kingdom so he would have troops in the land, sea and air. It would also make the collective army for the future war bigger as a result, something that Toshiro didn’t mind as long as it wasn't him feeding everyone.
Monk Yu and Chief Borong, a minotaur, were having a heated but polite discussion about Mia that was grabbing the attention of various sect representatives. Both men had completely opposite views on why strength was necessary, one wanting peace and the other wanting to be the strongest, but upon being able to watch Mia a little more closely, a fire inside them lit up again. The sects were eating everything they said about how what we believed to be the peak of power was all but a myth and that the future would be a bright one as long as Mia survived the current crisis to pass on her knowledge.
Toshiro himself was talking with the King of Razan and the sent representative of the dragon alliance so he could get more mounts for the troops. He also tried to buy a dragon egg for future negotiations but any dragon willing to sell its eggs to him was too weak to be considered.
Not only leaders were in the room, but nobles, merchants and allies of various people too. He couldn’t block those people from the chance of making connections or deals with those people without some very bad ramifications. Duke Furukawa was playing his game with his allies. Toshiro himself didn’t mind a faction of people keeping the King in check but at the moment, that was more of an unintended side-effect than the desired result.
As the King he has a lot of power, both personal, military and political but that doesn’t mean he can or should do anything he wished, even if he could. Rising tides raise all ships and making sure everyone had their chance of greatness was something that everyone in the Royal family was taught from a young age. A lot of nobles just wanted power and didn’t really understand who put them up in their position.
Toshiro began to snicker a little thinking about the reports he received about what duke Furukawa and his allies were doing. Someone seemed to have defected from the group and explained that his plan was to slowly become friends with the family and make Mia go to him on her own. The problem is that to most nobles, slowly means a month or two, not a few years. Mia’s family reported that a lot of nobles seemed to think they are friends for no reason in the last few weeks.
Toshiro sometimes envied republics but his country's foundations were made with royalty in mind. The reason that the royal family had absolute power over the land was because they are the most powerful and rich in it. The royal family had complete control over everything but nobles were selected to take care of the land while the royal family protected their well of power, a dungeon of all things.
The 3 big cities of the kingdom were managed by the dukes, the royal castle, even if the capital was still under control of the royal family. Then the smaller lands were divided among the other nobles until things could be easily delegated. Taxes were collected and the nobles paid for their work. There are still places that around the kingdom no noble is in charge of so occasionally a new noble family can be given land if necessary.
As for the dungeon, it was a giant labyrinth that only allowed the royal family to safely take part in its challenges. Anyone else unlucky enough to find it will be met with the full force of the place. If not for the pact that the first king made, that dungeon would be one of the great dungeons of the world that could deal with thousands of people at once. Now it focuses all its power into things that would help the royal family get stronger in exchange for peace and non-interference in whatever it does in its free time.
The dungeon is also an incredible mana rich place so cultivating there is hundreds of times better than the outside world.
After taking one last sip from his cup and looking at the clock, Toshiro began to make an announcement.
“Friends and allies from all over the world. I thank you for you presence, I hope that all of you are having a great time. Please enjoy the food, drinks and music as much as you want. I know we have been having talks for the last few days non-stop so this will be a good chance to relax before we continue. I have a small commitment to attend with my wife. If any of you need anything from me or her, please inform the servants and we will see what can be done as soon as we return.” Toshiro said, grabbing his wife and immediately leaving the room.
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Mia was a bundle of energy. It was her birthday and a lot of people came to celebrate. After everything she was going through, the party was something that she didn’t know she needed.
Her family asked what exactly she wanted to do as they had the funds to pretty much do anything. Mia told that she wished for a barbecue or a feast depending on how you looked at it. Basically put a grill or grills to work on various meats and vegetables and eat those along with anything people bring along. It might have seemed impolite to ask people she was inviting to her party to bring something to eat but the meat was all in her family. It would be fun to imagine what people would bring, especially since there wasn’t a culture of barbecues like in her old life.
The other thing Mia did was bake a cake. It took a lot of trial and error but she managed to make a few chocolate cakes after rummaging through her memories of how chocolate and cakes were made. She made chocolate truffles. Mei out of all people managed to make a deal with a few people that dealt with baked goods, candy and chocolate for the recipes. Mia was going to earn a steady amount of money from those people. Cacao prices mighty also drop since the demand will probably skyrocket in the future and it’s not like it is hard to plant stuff due to magic.
A lot of people came to the party. Mia invited just over 100 people but they could bring other people with them. Her friends from her class came with their families, the same with her club mates. She wasn’t able to really do much for the club, if not for her ability to read things really fast she would probably still be reading the first book she got, but they always welcomed her back with a smile and helped her as much as they could since she had a limited amount of time for a lot of stuff.
Mia also invited the neighbors, she couldn’t really say she was friends with the kids that lived near her but the few times they interacted were nice enough. Her mothers also seemed to be friendly with the neighbors so there was more reason to invite them.
She gave a few blank invites to her father and brother. If they had friends inside the guards, they could invite them.
She was told that was the polite thing to do to write an invite for the royal family so she personally wrote one that her master delivered.
“Aren’t you the cutest thing!? You are so lucky you can see her everyday.” Hita, her master’s wife, said to uncle Frank.
“I don’t see her everyday and it’s just a dress. She isn’t any different.” Frank said, more than a little annoyed.
“Ah, shut it! You know nothing about clothes.” Hitas said as she gave Mia a kiss on the cheek. Mia was using a pink princess dress, no two ways about it. Even she had to admit she looked cute after she saw her reflection.
“Here, your present. Don’t eat it today, I can see that there is more than enough to partake here and we can’t have any accidents happening. These are exclusively for you.” Frank said as he gave Mia a jar full of pills.
“Thanks, uncle Frank.” Mia said with a smile on her face that melted the man’s heart for a moment.
“I will be moving so your master doesn’t find something to hit me over.”
“I will be looking for my husband. He is the one with your presents.”
After that Mia left her house. There were a good number of people there but most were on the street. Her backyard was big but not big enough for everyone. They got permission to block the street and there was a big table full of food with meat coming off the grills in regular intervals. It was strange that her dad suddenly knew how to cook meat on one since they never had a grill.
Almost everyone that was supposed to arrive did and she received most of her presents. She would open all of them later.
“Hey Mia. You have to eat this. One of the guards bought this bread.” Shishen said as she gave Mia a strange meat sandwich made with green bread. Mia obviously ate the thing without thinking twice.
“This is so sour but with the meat it is so good!” Mia said, happily and surprised. The bread was sour but just enough that it gave the salty meat just a little more flavor.
“Right? Never ate anything like that.” Narissa added.
“Hello Mia, how are you doing?” A woman that Mia couldn’t quite remember asked. Besides her was a man that was sure to be her husband.
“Who…?” Mia tried to say but was interrupted.
“It’s me, Aoi, The Queen. We saw each other a few days ago in the academy. My husband and I came to congratulate you on your birthday and enjoy the party a little. Can you keep it a secret that we are here and treat us as friends?” Aoi said telepathically to Mia.
“Hello uncle Toshiro, aunty Aoi. Didn’t think you would come.” Mia said with a smile. She had met the King and the Queen but only for a few minutes. They treated her well enough and Mia saw no reason to not treat them as nicely as she could.
“Thanks Mia. I will be putting your present on the pile that I can see from here. We will probably talk a little more later.” Toshiro said after he and his wife gave Mia a hug. They then went inside to greet the rest of the family.
“Ain’t those…” Narissa was going to say something.
“Shhh! It’s a secret.” Mia said, putting a finger on her lips.