A typical scenario for when a player reaches some place important is for the sun to rise while the player is walking over a hill revealing the location in all it's glory. Reality disappoints but then again it's not like I can get a panorama of the place in reality anyways. Still walking down a flat paved road surrounded by people during the middle of the day kind of sucks, especially since twice now I've had to break the arm of someone who was trying to kidnap the still sleeping Lily.
"Welcome to the Capital City," Gwyn stated while we went through the gates leaving the line of people going in and out of the city behind.
"There's no name?" I thought she would say something right after that but we just continued moving forward.
"There isn't really one, despite being located in the very center of the country it was made after the treaties with the dwarves and the elves. Basically they just chose this place to build the city because it was in the middle and on the border of several human countries." Tarbalt spoke up enthusiastically, was he really into history? "At the time the city was originally built as just the palace where the Royal Heart was set up, it provides the mana that is used to run the entire city." Now that he mentioned it there were something akin to lamp posts in abundance, although the lights were currently turned off. I wonder how Yuki is doing, I hope that me disappearing didn't make that big of a commotion.
"Over time as people started gathering around the palace and a city was erected, eventually it became the three walled city you see today. The inner circle contains the palace and it's extensions and is guarded by the Royal Guards and the Princess's own troops. The middle circle contains the servants quarters for people who serve in the palace, it is also where the majority of the mounts are. The outer circle, the one we're in now are guarded by the Royal Army, although they are spread quite thin right now due to various problems across the country as well as the war in the west. Patrolling of the city itself however is handled by the City Guards and not the Army."
That would explain the different armor and symbols between the guards I've seen patrolling and the guards near the gate. "Unlike most cities where the nobles and high class residential areas are closer to the central point the ones here are concentrated in the south where there is a sectioned off path to the palace as the nobles didn't like walking by the servants area. The mages council is placed in the south as well mostly due to the fact that the majority of mages are nobles while the two temples are situated here in the northern area." I looked towards Gwyn as Tarbalt continued spouting out knowledge about the history and achievements of the temples and mages council, I appreciate the information but this is a bit... Gwyn noticed my look and grinned before continuing on, Fergul just gave me a sympathetic look.
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Well... the situation certainly got a little awkward. Looking around I'm currently surrounded by Princess Shea's troops which are mixed bunch including a large amount of demi humans and the fairies royal guards. The second we walked in Princess Shea walked up and hugged Gwyn which would have been a touching reunion if the girl who killed me two years ago in Kane didn't show up right behind the Princess and pointed at me screaming that I'm an intruder. Of course the fairies also arrived probably because they sense Lily heading towards them but decided that for the sake of respect they would wait till she got here; her being unconscious and the fact that she wouldn't wake up didn't help at all.
"Hmm so he's the undead you were talking about?" A creepy old man was also staring at me, I think it's rude but seriously his face is that of a villains with a bald head and sunken eyes he's about as evil as an old man can look.
"So Human, what have you done to my daughter?" Someone who I can pretty say for certain is the Queen of the fairies floated forth while motioning for the guards to lower their weapons; at least one group of guards stopped threatening me actively. Actually they are splitting images of each other except Lily's mother definitely was more mature in mind and body, she's also wearing a fancy dress made of shiny white fabric; I wonder what it's made of.
"She ate too much and fell asleep?" Well not sure if eating too much is supposed to put you to sleep for almost a week but that is the literal truth.
The queen narrowed her eyes, "You are either making a very stupid excuse or it's the actual truth, considering Lily's personality I wouldn't be surprised if that was actually what happened." She floated closer to me ignoring the objections of her guards and raised her hand to Lily's face. Blissfully unaware of what was happening Lily was still curled up in my arms with a happy look on her sleeping face which suddenly woke up in pain. Forehead flicks exist in this world!?!?
"It hurts!!!!" Lily was rolling around in the air while holding her forehead which was red where the queen flicked her.
"Finally awake my air headed daughter?" The cold glare from a beauty actually really hurts in real life and Lily who realized who was there flew behind me and peeked out over my shoulder fearfully.
"Mo-Mother, what are you doing here?" Well I guess waking up to a forehead flick from her mother is surprising but this was our goal in the first place Lily.
"You went out during that ridiculous storm to steal honey from the bees and disappeared, half a year later and you still haven't changed." The queen was rubbing her head, seems like Lily was a huge pain for them too.
"Bu-but but Shin's food is so good!" As she said that Lily started drooling on my shoulder, damn need a new shirt again; that was one of the reasons why I stopped wearing shirts.
"Don't throw me under the bus here Lily!" As Lily looked down apologetically and muttered sorry the other fairies were looking at me in shock.
"You can speak their language?" That remark was from Gwyn who had been looking at my situation in amusement until now. Wait what? The fairies language?
They've been speaking in their language every since Lily waked up you know.
Tell me that earlier Karen!!!
"Yup, Shin can speak any language!" Why are you looking so proud Lily?!?!
"No more food for you." In shock of what I said Lily froze in midair with her mouth wide open, even with the existence of magic I can't help but think that she is completely breaking the laws of physics.
"Iummm Sworries!!!" Completely bawling her eyes out Lily clung on to me, wait why's everyone looking at me like I'm the bad guy, she's the one that kept giving out my secrets I even warned her earlier.
Gwyn held onto Shea's shoulder as she laughed barely able to stand, "Well, let's leave it at that and Shin's not undead as far as I could tell."
"But he was dead! Caroline was sure of it." Oh that was her name, Caroline.
"Here's your proof," There was a little sting on my back as a familiar voice came from behind me, looking behind me I saw Carey holding a sword that was surrounded in golden light; the blade of said sword was stabbed into my back.
"Carey? Wait what the hell are you doing?" Reaching back I felt the area where the sword was stabbed in but while there was blood the wound was not there.
"Holy sword, it's extremely effective against undead but only heals others." A sword that heals? Isn't that kind of pointless? Well except maybe as a torture tool but unexpectedly Carey helped me? "Tch, thought you would scream in pain though." Or not...
"Hey Shin! Long time no see right?" Waving from on top of the wall with a carefree attitude was Ben.
"Eh? You know him?" Shea was looking between the three of us, oh right now that I think about it wasn't Carey the chosen of the goddess from this world?
"Unfortunately," Carey sheathed the sword into a white scabbard that had golden etchings on it, now that I look at her properly she was dressed in a set of armor that was decorated with the same scheme as the sword. "Now that it's solved lets continue talking inside, away from prying ears." The last part was said in a whisper.
"Shin can make food for us while we talk," Ben jumped down and winked at me, "Carey really missed your cooking you know."
"I did not!!!" Her face was red as she refused and briskly walked away, I kinda thought of it with Lily but... Is my cooking secretly a dangerous weapon?
"Uuuuu I want some too, please? I'll be good." Lily had finished crying and was now using the power of puppy dog eyes combined with tears.
"Fi-"
"Sure you can, Shin can make a feast appear out of thin air and everyone can enjoy!" Before I could answer (give in to) Lily Ben shouted that out. Gwyn was looking at me with interest while the others were just ignoring Ben, I thought he was just being friendly but was this his way of taking revenge? These people... while I don't think they'll say I'm the chosen the of the Reaper they know a lot of my other secrets.
"Yay!" Recovering instantly Lily once again sat on my shoulder resulting in various glares of hostility coming from the people around us, surprisingly the queen just sighed while the most deadly glare was coming from Carey.
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"I know we needed a place to talk..." Shea was standing there grumbling at the doorway, "But why did it have to be MY room!?!?" Currently we are in Shea's spacious room, well I call it spacious but it really was mostly empty. There was a modest bed by the window, a pretty large but otherwise unremarkable closet, wooden desk and chair with a mirror just big enough to reflect a person's upper body when they were sitting down. Taking up the majority of the room a large wooden table with wooden chairs placed around it was set up, several of them were higher chairs and were obviously for nobles.
"Can't be helped though Shea," Gwen shrugged as she passed Shea and sat down on one of the plain chairs, "This side building is for your use and only your people move around in it."
"It's fine isn't it? I doubt any of us really mind." Carey the main perpetrator in this sat down along with Ben two seats down from Gwyn, seems like that's Shea's spot. Tarbalt instead of sitting took up a position behind Gwyn, now the fancy seats were obviously for the fairies but where do I sit?
"Over here Shin!" Gwyn patted the seat on her right and Lily instead of following her mother and kin to the fancy seats stayed on my shoulder.
I looked at her and opened my mouth, "I'm staying right here Shin!" she guessed what I was going to say? Looking over to the queen she acts like nothing happened so I guess we can just leave it, right?
"Fine," Shea walked over to her chair then bowed towards the queen, "I apologize for the insufficiency of our furniture to be befitting of a ruler like you."
"There's no problem at all, in fact you have been very thoughtful towards us and our sudden intrusion upon your territory." Likewise the queen bowed her head, as both the leaders returned to their original postures Carey cleared her throat.
"Hehem, so to start the meeting I would like to confirm with you, your Majesty Naerlel Faen that the incident has been successfully resolved?"
"We have no complaints now that we have found my daughter, we thank you for your cooperation during this time period." The queen gracefully bowed, "As we have agreed we will agree to negotiate a trade agreement and other diplomatic agreements." She signaled the two guards that were directly behind her among the other eight that was there, well hovering would be more accurate.
The guard on her right had bright green hair and flew forward presenting a ring to Princess Shea, "This is a ring that would allow you to directly communicate with me," The queen raised her hand which had a similar ring on it, the only difference being the sizes. "And this is our payment for all the troubles we have caused you over the past half year."
The other fairy who had yellow hair, not blond but yellow yellow hair brought forth a pair of silver paper thin swords that had an iridescent shine to them, "These were made with a special metal that we fairies produce and is stronger than the steel you have as well as being capable of storing up to a thousand units of mana." In terms of human use however they were smaller than a sword but larger than a dagger. I'm interested in the metal they used as well as any other materials, also the way they produced that sword. Oh wait, Weapon Appraisal (No Restraint)
Glistening Fairy Sword (1-Handed Sword): Made from the magical fairy metal it is sharp and resilient allowing it to cut through steel with ease while also simultaneously being tough enough to block most attacks unscathed. Special Ability - Up to 1000 MP may be stored at once in the sword without any decay.
Atk: 100
Def: 50
Durability: 1000/1000
+ 10 Agi
+ 10 Dex
Those are some really impressive swords, almost as strong as the claws I got a while back; they can't even be compared to normal swords. A typical steel sword has 10 Atk, 5 Def, and 100 Durability with no stat boosts meaning that the fairy swords are vastly superior and even if you exclude the special ability the sword is worth a lot.
"This! We can't accept something of this much value."
"We haven't actually done much, at most we just found Lily with Shin and pointed them towards here." Shea backed up by Gwyn was refusing the swords while maintaining respect, it wouldn't be strange at all for these swords to be worth nearly as much if not more than the country's annual income.
"We insist." With those two flat words the Queen rejected their refusal, the air around certainly fit for a ruler. "Now," she turned towards me, "What would you like for a reward?"
Of course I have thought about that, the materials they had access to, crafting techniques, magic, etc. but it would feel like I was using Lily so it was kind of uncomfortable to be asked directly. "Hmm..." Well there were some things that weren't exactly rewards that I wanted, "I didn't do much, it was similar to taking care of the kids from where I came from. However if possible I would like to be permitted to visit your country and purchase goods from there as well as exploration in and around the area." Since there weren't any glares from my left I assume it was a relatively reasonable request.
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"You're an interesting one," The Queen said while laughing, "Most of your kind would ask for fame, fortune or power gains but what you chose was basically something you could have done by simply crossing the ocean."
"That may be true but it would be impolite, there's also no guarantee that I would be let inside to browse even if we ignore the fact that the currency would surely be different."
"Well that is true," The Queen gave me one last smile before turning back to face Carey a poker face already back in play, "Now what is it that you had wanted to discuss that you would go to such lengths for secrecy?" It would seem, that the queen had reached the same conclusion I had. According to Carey the king was currently in an audience with the nobles but even if we exclude the throne room there were other rooms that would have been suitable for our talks, yet Princess Shea even went as far as to personally request the elder from the magic council to leave in addition to our talks being located in an area where loyalty is 100% ensured.
"That..." Carey looked nervously around before she continued, "We would like to request the assistance of the fairies in regards to what we expect would be a civil war. The agreements we had in place with the dwarves and the elves had kept the nobles in line but late last year one of the five lords of the dwarves died and was replaced by his son who had an unfavorable position with us; the elves as a result also decided to take a neutral stance on our internal affairs." So that meant that they didn't have a strong amount of support within either of the factions, well considering this worlds background it wasn't that surprising that the two other races that lived longer than humans would still hold grudges.
"If you are asking for me to assign my men or bring my army over then I would have to decline," There was no hesitation in the Queens reply. "We will however state that our negotiations will be with and only with the royal family and place a diplomatic group here."
"We appreciate any help that you can give!" Shea was the one who spoke this time and bowed deeply... now that I think about it isn't the major reason why the nobles are rebelling her? I mean certainly by no means is she acting wrong morals wise but to the nobles she has been doing nothing but antagonizing them.
"I would also like to ask for your help as well Shin." Gwyn lacking her usually atmosphere had a serious face on and bowed towards me. While I do want to help there's also the problem with my goals in this world and rather than being known across the continent I'd rather stay unknown and be able to explore unhindered.
"Shin will help! Shin is the strongest after all!" Leaving aside Lily who was once again unleashing the gates of annoyance both princess's were looking towards me with hope while the queen for some reason seemed to be glaring at me.
"If Lily says so then you must truly be strong." So she says, is she another battle maniac?
"Yup Shin is strong, even stronger than you mothe-" Before she could finish her sentence I splashed a cup of water on her leaving the entire audience staring in shock except for the queen who was looking at me with approval with a tint of hostility.
"I would like to see who is stronger but now is not the time," The queen got up from the chair, "Mera and Mara will stay here as part of the diplomatic group along with four other fairies that will arrive later, as this discussion no longer seems to require our input we will begin preparations to head back." The two fairies mentioned were the ones earlier that had come forward to present the items to the table.
"What about Lily?" I don't particularly mind if she goes back with them although it would be kind of sad to see her go since she's kind of like a younger sibling? No maybe a pet? Considering the way she was hanging onto me and hiding from her mother I would say the latter, actually her entire behavior is very similar to a pets.
"She doesn't seem to want to leave so she can stay with you, even though I question that you are as strong as me she wouldn't make the mistake of saying you were strong if you weren't," Stating so she and the other fairies left. Wait so why did she come all the way over here if it wasn't to take Lily back?
Once the fairies had left aside from Lily who was asking for treats everything was silent. "Well I agree with Lily, let's have something to eat!" The first one to break the silence was Ben who grinned and winked at me as he said that.
"I would also like to try some of the food that Lily had been enjoying earlier while we were traveling, especially that honey." At the sound of the word honey Lily started darting around the place asking me for some.
"I thought you were going to hunt for your food Gwyn."
"That was when we were traveling and this is now, some of that water would be nice as well."
"I reject to asking such a suspicious person for help." The one who said that in the midst of all the requests for food was none other than Caroline who seemed to hate me for some reason.
"Bu-"
"I respect your opinion Miss Flaron but we have little information on him and the circumstances around him are dubious at best." Did she perform an investigation on me or something? I mean that's pretty standard for a suspect but I've never done them any real harm, not that they could get much on me in the first place.
"If I am correct aside from looking for Lily, calling Gwyn back from the front lines was because of the upcoming conflict?" If it was simply looking for Lily there wouldn't be a need to call Gwyn back, having someone that's strong at fighting doesn't help when it comes to searching.
"Yes, our situation is currently pretty desperate to say the least. In addition to the major of the nobles being on the opposing side and the majority of our own army fighting a war across the ocean a large number of the remaining soldiers of our army are likely to join them as well. Most of our loyal troops have been out looking for Lily and searching for the demons that had previously wrecked havoc in the southern part of the country." Unexpectedly it was Princess Shea who spoke up, "Neither the dwarves or elves are sending reinforcements and despite the fact that both of the temples are cooperating they themselves have a divide within their group." Wait... did she say something about demons? I remember Fafnoth saying that Kage said he had summoned some demons and told them to do reconnaissance.
Carey looked downwards angrily, "Corruption and temptation are hard to get rid of or resist but to think so many of our members were tempted by fortune and power." Well that's typical human nature isn't it? Rather I would say that the people who are selfless are in the minority. That would also explain why Carey was armored, well the sword is to say pretty damn useless though.
"Even with the aid of the fairies presence at most the nobles would delay their assault by a few days to attempt to reach an agreement with them. If Gwyn and Carey believe you can help I humbly request it." Shea bowed deeply, following her so did Carey and Gwyn, even Ben and Caroline did so after a pause.
"In the first place... Isn't this a problem created by you yourself?" Shea flinched when I said that, while it is true that she accelerated it there was no doubt that this would have eventually happened considering the royal families position on things. If not the nobles some other group would have revolted wanting a better life or more profit, our own world's history was basically built upon that.
"I believe however..." Carey was looking at me, the way Ben was grinning a bit gave me a bad feeling, "That you may have had something to do with those demons that had appeared." Considering the timing and location it shouldn't have been hard for Carey to figure it out. "I don't know what happened in the forest but from what Ben says, you aren't likely to have ordered the attacks."
"Actually I never said that, all I said was-buh!" Ben was mercilessly smacked in the face with the sheathed holy sword, well I guess the scabbard doesn't heal since it was just the blade that was holy. I don't really want to look at Princess Shea or Caroline though because I feel like they hold a new hostility towards me.
"Ok fine, I don't actually control them but I am technically responsible for them." There was no real point in denying it, not that they could do much to me other than make me wanted criminal... that was a lot and completely counter to my goals. "I still owe Gwyn a sword so I'll make the best one I can, as for reinforcements I don't want to be revealed to the public so I'll refrain."
"But!" I interrupted as Shea and Carey were both going to object, "I'll leave a group of reinforcements just in case." Well even without Carey bringing that up I was going to strengthen Gwyn's sword but I guess I'll put my all into it now.
"Wha-What kind of reinforcements?" Carey is being really cautious isn't she? Well then again all they know about me right now is that I am somehow related to demons and undead, neither were looked upon with positive opinions.
"Minor demons and the like," I raised a hand to stop their objections, "Regardless of how you feel about them they will not attack you and will help out properly. I really prefer not to but I would like the stuff about me to remain a secret without me having to resort to violence and yes that is a threat." Carey would be cautious of me and Gwyn knows I'm strong so that should be fine but Shea and Caroline may object.
"It is shocking but I'll judge someone from their actions, and I did say I trusted you so taking that back now is kind of..." Gwyn scratched her head a bit while saying so, despite trying to hide it I did see some fear in her eyes; damn it'll be better if I wasn't hated or feared but that's not possible is it?
"I still won't forgive you for before but... I'm depending on you for your help." Carey bowed deeply towards me but her hands were grasping her sword hard, even if it was an act being thanked feels kind of nice.
"Objecting now... Would be kind of terrible of me since both my elder sister and Carey have accepted but that doesn't mean I trust you." The end part of her words and her face kind of made Shea seem like a tsundere to me but she was obviously just speaking the truth.
"We can just sign a contract, since it binds the souls neither party would be able to break it." Carey looked at me with narrowed eyes as she heard the word contract. I smiled in reply to her look, "You didn't expect me to do this for free though did you? It's not anything hard however, I would like to have complete access to your information, past, present and future as well as accepting the fact that the Stone Claw Mountains are a part of my territory."
"The Stone Claw Mountains?!?!" Well from the limited information I had access to while holed up in those mountains it would seem that several nobles had a share of mountains, although none of them ever actually did anything with it aside from the villages doting the fringes of the forests.
"Naturally it doesn't really matter whether or not you do accept as we will have no trouble delivering punishments upon ANY trespassers, it's just that it's preferable this way." I don't know about the other races but the humans themselves don't pose much of a threat, chosen on the other hand might.
"The mountains themselves are claimed but undeveloped, considering the fact that the nobles around are all apart of the rebelling faction there wouldn't be too much trouble with that, but I thought you wanted to stay unknown?" Does that mean she agreed to my demands already?
"Of course it wouldn't be me who is the figure head, in the first place there really is no need for a leader to show his face even if you did declare the area as my property but I will have a proper replacement." Actually said replacement, Joker who was a Jester Mid-tier Demon, was currently helping with managing the base.
Carey was looking towards Shea who was whispering with Caroline, I added Restraint to my hearing and lip reading just to offer them privacy. Lily was currently talking with Gwyn who apparently left the decision to Shea. Despite having used Restraint I still heard the worlds demon and undead several times so I guess they would be most concerned about that, well who wouldn't though.
"Okay," After they finished discussing Shea took a deep breath then turned towards me, "While... our information network being open to an outsider is concerning it probably wouldn't take you long to interrogate someone even if we left you out but would it be fine if we kept personal things secret?" Well I'm not really interested in knowing their body sizes or anything, no really I'm not so I nodded. "Then we accept... but just to make sure the contract is for sure right?"
"Yes it is."
"Okay the in that case... we will sign the contract." Her anguished eyes kind of leaked what she didn't say. Considering their conversation before and her personality along with my vast knowledge of characters it is highly likely that she wants to but can't hold me responsible for the demons rampage because of her sense of justice. It would also seem highly that she had reached the conclusion that the terms I presented could be easily fulfilled by the nobles thus leaving them rather hopeless if demons joined their enemies side.
"Good, I'll even cook tonight's dinner as an extra," Create Soul Contract as the Shea stared in front of her in shock at what was probably a window popping up I saw Carey suppressing the urge to smile at my announcement while Gwyn, Ben and Lily were openly celebrating. "You are only getting a small amount Lily."
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Note* I think this is longer? Well either way the next chapter will be a lot less heavy (even though I don't know the length I at least know the contents). And yes, that is a reference to Batman.
Edit: I haven't edited the chapter too much so sorry if there are spelling or grammatical errors, will do some editing tomorrow when my mind isn't seeing the words that should go there instead of what is actually there.