Things Start to Change

(The One Still Stuck inside an Egg)

***

(An Additional 25 years pass, 50 in total since I was reincarnated)

Since the pope died, my old home kingdom has changed a great deal. As the Queen is now quite elderly and doesn’t have the ability to rule from the shadows anymore, her somewhat younger husband is now truly in charge for the first time, at least technically. You would think that there was still the council, but that quite large group of “advisers”, had only had minimal face value before this. In other words they were quite incompetent.

Basically this council was just filled with supposedly ambitious people just waiting in the wings. And you’d think that now they’d finally have their chance, as that pope guy had been giving orders through letters up till the time of his death.

You’d be wrong. Even a child could see that the puppet king actually has more experience with being a ruler then they do. All their big words was just that empty words for bragging. At least king had lived with front row seats to what was going on for most of his life even if he hadn’t ever directly participated. Strangely that wimpy guy seems to know himself very well as he immediately posted a large reward for the whereabouts of his missing son.

He was a guy that I had heard about in my past life. You see according to the rumors I had heard a few years before my death. He hadn’t wanted to become king, he had wanted to be a wandering prince, an adventurer, and admiringly he wanted to get there on his own merit.

Since almost no one knew his appearance (assassinations when young led to a very sheltered life later on, that had also killed the first queen a nice lady from all reports) when he snuck out of his luxury prison one day, they realized they had no way to find him as they couldn’t get people to search if they don’t know what he looks like. And according to rumor he has such a forgettable appearance that even if they knew what he looked like they would probably be regrettable anyway.

So the son was just missing with minimal fuss or panic, this was because back then it wasn’t that big a deal. At that time the king had been young enough to be still considered in his prime. And while the new queen was more aged then one would expect for a second wife and queens bride she could have been still considered to be in her child bearing years.

If none of that worked, there were the backups of the many royal mistresses that everyone looked the other way about and pretended didn’t exist.

But the years passed and no heirs were forthcoming, (maybe everyone involved at that time was infertile?) and so they started to panic slightly, but as they still had the pope, they figured that he would appoint a successor and the kingdom would just drop the monarchy altogether and openly become a religious kingdom.

But that fat paranoid guy refused to appoint a successor (he didn’t want to chance his successor going against him and stealing his power) I theorize that it also was partly because of his belief that he had achieved immortality from his little favor he supposedly did for the gods.

Thus when he died there was no appointed successor and what’s more there were no bishops or even priests that stood out in any way. (He tended to collect idiots do his work for him, myself back then being one of few exceptions)

And since the church’s pope required a certain amount of magic power in the holy element at the very least, (because it was needed in power to power the relics of the church (special magical artifacts supposedly given by the gods). In fact I discovered by default the existence and purpose of at least one of these items when the pope died. Because almost immediately afterward the holy power on the main churches and temples that had been blocking my dream site started to at first weaken and then vanish.

So soon after the king posted a reward for his son, most of the fearful nobles, and even most of the council members also posted rewards as well. If you combine the total amounts you get quite the sum. Even most nobles wouldn’t turn their nose down on it.

It was quite understandable as now the church had no head, and the only known direct line royals that were left were fairly feeble and almost ancient. The Queen probably must have a bit of magic in her as she was over a hundred years old.

But since no one had bothered to really search for him back when he was first missing any leads were probably dead and cold, so nobody really held out much hope for him to be found. The current de facto rulers were giving it a year, and then it was expected that the higher nobles with drops of royal blood in them would go to war and fight for the right to be crowned the kingdom’s ruler.

Then to everyone’s surprised the missing prince appeared, however he had not been found but had decided to show himself. It seems that after he had retired from being an adventurer he had opened up a bar. To my mild surprise I had seen him as an adventurer before but had thought him just an ordinary adventurer like everyone said even in old age he had a most unremarkable appearance.

The desperate nobles immediately latched on to him like he was a piece of driftwood, and he was quickly given a coronation and crowned as the new king. But the shocks were far from being over. It seems back in his adventuring days he had gotten married. To their utter and complete commoner her father had been a butler her mother a serving maid, and she herself had worked as a cleaner in the household that her parents served in.

They had met when her master had shown the hidden prince the kindness of dinner after he had helped guard him during a protection mission. For what was probably the first time in memory the kingdom had a Queen that was not of royal blood.

Then even more ground shaking for the nobles was the fact that they had discovered that they had a single son late in life, and that they would have to face the fact that their new prince heir was had commoner blood. But what made them clinch their teeth even more was the fact that this new prince also had a commoner wife. She like her husband was also an adventurer, and she was also from a certain way of looking at things, my niece. (Yes I also find it very ironic that I who had wanted to be at least a noble indirectly opened the way through coincidences for my family to become higher than a noble, royalty)

Remember when I told you about how my nieces and nephews had left to become adventurers? Well it turns out that adventuring may be in the blood for my family. Most of them actually did pretty well at it. At least as well as commoner adventurers can do, in the kingdom at that time. Most just made or got some friends together in order to do things as a team, some even managed to get one of the lesser noble family's “hero’s” to pick them as a companion.

My “niece” however had gone solo for the most part. Her weapon of choice was the staff, but she had a secret weapon of knowing a bit of instinctive healing magic. She was fairly quick on her feet so when things went wrong, she usually ran away as her main tactic. Until one day she managed by accident to get surrounded by monsters while exploring a dungeon.

A swordsman who happened to be in the same area noticed and rescued her. This swordsman was obviously was the one who is now known as the crown prince. Soon after meeting her future husband they partnered up together for their “adventuring” and were soon getting along so well together in battle, that they decided that they wanted to be together for everything else as well and  got married. Neither she nor her husband knew about his father’s royal origins so they were just as flabbergasted as everyone else when the truth came out.

The nobles at the court immediately tried to encourage him to drop his wife and get a new bride but he refused, and then went to his father who immediately made a law that stated that anyone could marry anyone else without consequences so long as that marriage was done legally and with the consent and freewill of both parties.

He also made many other laws, including ones that basically abolished many of the former laws. Like the ones, suppressing common people in various ways such as making learning for peasants illegal. Laws which he had learned through his adventuring were completely stupid and actually detrimental.

The majority of nobles were against the moves he was making, but due to the properties he had gained as the ruler of the kingdom, it was near impossible to go against him, plus they had problems of their own, without the biggest pope and snobby queen to keep the commoners of the  kingdom downtrodden, such as the peasants  (because of their influence as rulers of the kingdom).

Now that they were gone/lost their power it was like the majority of the “downtrodden” had “woken up” and many of the more harsh noble landlords were facing uprisings and rebellions.

The king took this opportunity to let the noble houses he didn’t like be destroyed, and to also appoint his buddies form his adventuring days into new nobility. As you can probably predict this meant that within a few short years, the kingdom had done a complete 180 of what it had once been like.

Embarrassingly, in order to win some of the not-so bad nobles over to his son’s and daughter in law’s side, he pointed out that while she may not be of even lesser noble blood she did have someone that could almost be considered a “hero” in the family.

With peasant learning no longer illegal while there were many “peasants” that kept to their farms and herds because it was familiar to them, there were many more that wanted to better their life or at least the lives of their children. There was a sudden booming of new warriors, potential scholars and mages.

The military force of the kingdom almost tripled overnight. And unlike some of the nobles, and their garrisons all these “new soldiers” were fiercely loyal to their new royal family. After I saw how fast everything was happening I wondered greatly at that new old man king…it seemed to me that he may have actually had planned this from the beginning…

But as the kingdom would have prevented a coup while his step mother and the pope were alive he had decided instead to just bide his time. It also made me wonder about the accuracy of the rumors that stated he had wanted to go on adventures…and whether perhaps the greedy former rulers had done something to make him leave.

It was a strong possibility, because as the owner of several popular adventurers bars he was wealthy enough to be consider middle class during his self-exiled days. And while he hadn’t told his son of his royal origins he had wasted a good percentage of his money hiring various tutors, and teachers in order to educate his son on various topics.

If his son hadn’t been blinded by his stories of being an adventurer in the future, and how “you never know what an adventure would need to use in order to survive” he probably would have been a lot more suspicious instead of really happy that his father wanted him to follow in his ‘glorious’ footsteps.

Shortly after my ‘niece’ had become his partner he had started to teach her various ways. Part of the reason they stayed afloat on their income as adventurers is because of this illegal breach caused (like what I experienced) many monsters to go after them. But as they were adventurers of above average skill they not only defeated them, but earned money because of that.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

You may be a bit confused when I speak of the kingdom in such a way, and put such emphasis on how it affects its inhabitants. I think I have already at least mentioned some things before, but let me offer a small supplementary explanation to whatever I have already said.

A “kingdom” is not exactly an ordinary section of land. While it does not exactly have a mind, it does in a sense “think”. A kingdom has influence and power over all of its inhabitants. And a kingdom is in turn influenced by whoever sometimes whatever the rulers are.

Some “kingdoms” are more intelligent than others that is the way they influence is many more times more subtle then sending a bunch of monsters after whatever it is displeased with. Its “intelligence” and power of its influence depends on several things. Its age, that is how long has it existed, (it goes by the age of its oldest part, but it is also effected by the age of any new additions it acquires), its location, and primarily its rulers.

As I have said before, a kingdom’s rulers are usually from the current sentient majority species, or the most intelligent majority un-sentient species. Besides the rules written by the ruler are the lesser rulers or those that the main ruler has shared their power with. However the species doesn’t really matter much, what does matter and has the most impact is soul of the ruler(s?).

While the kingdom obviously follows written rules. It can only follow such rules to latter, it cannot make decisions or deviations from these written rules. I is sort of like a calculating spell of efficiency (now seeing what I have seen I would even describe it as a program). While adhering strictly to the rules without any deviancy it is always trying to calculate how to execute the laws with the least amount of energy used and with as little trouble and time as possible.

However that is only for the more intelligent kingdoms, in the case of relatively unintelligent kingdoms like that one, it can do many things that in the end are actually ineffectual as well as inefficient. So how were things such as downtrodden the masses and preventing betrayal accomplished?

It was because the soul of the ruler at the time or the Pope and the queen felt that way about the common folk and they felt that way about their almost peers. And thus the kingdom ‘felt’ that way too. This is why I say the soul of the ruler is most important.

If the ruler is one who is very flamboyant and proud, the kingdom will also feel that way and thus work to guide all the citizens/subjects of the kingdom into being that way. If one acts differently than one has to work against a great force (unless one is a great force themselves) it can sort be compared to climbing a mountain while moving upstream.

Then how do I explain myself? I am not sure I can even now I am not that sure, but I do have various theories one of which I will explain to you using the same analogy.

Most people are pushed downstream in the direction the water is flowing but what of those scared of moving back? What of those scared of the water? We frightened ones grab a hold of a rock and then slowly try to push our way forward so that we might someday get out of the water.

As a peasant I briefly grasped ahold of a log floating downstream. But now as a dragon I possess claws to grip the stream bed with, and I have scales which are water proof. Which is why you could say while it dose still have some effect on most dragons, the kingdom in which a dragon lives in doesn’t have as much of an influence then as a kingdom weak races like humans live in.

That has its disadvantages but the great strength of being easily influenced that it brings to the inhabitants of a human kingdom. Is unlike a kingdom of more powerful creatures a human kingdom can easily change what kind of kingdom it is, just by having the ruler change. Which is not usually the case with many non-human kingdoms.

Thus it becomes easier and less shocking when you see a most primitive and undeveloped kingdom that was stalled in what another kingdom might call its “Dark Ages”, suddenly change into one that is growing and creating various new innovations at a very quick pace. While with a sound practicality is carefully managing its resources and looking for ways to generate or find new ones.

You had to think that soul of that old new king was quite something, when you saw the “miracles” it produced just by being accepted as the ruler. Speaking of acceptance and the relationship of ruler and kingdom. There are multiple factors for how a ruler becomes a ruler and how much the kingdom accepts it. (That is how much will the kingdom be affected by their soul).

First off and most importantly in kingdoms when the rulers have been chosen through bloodline for quite a while is bloodline. The kingdom adapts itself to a certain extent to each new ruler…and if it becomes accustomed to a certain time over a long time.

It tends to only accept that type…and it takes a long time to change this adaption and form a new and during that time where there is no ruler with adaption there is a lot of chaos as not only is there finding and anointing a new lord usually with a lot of messy politics and battles involved there is also the kingdom which refuses to accept the new ruler immediately and thus will often create effects that in turn cause uprisings and so on.

So it is generally best, if such is the case that the new ruler be of the same bloodline as the last (unless for that kingdom change of bloodline is a common occurrence). The new old king was of the same blood line of many rulers past, and his son having a common maternal line didn’t really matter as the kingdom was used to rulers being passed down the paternal line.

Another factor is the strength of the mind and the spirit. The mind interacts with the spirit and the spirit interacts with the soul. And since a ruler (unconsciously usually) communicates with the kingdom with their soul. The stronger such things are the better and quicker they will gain control over the kingdom. The old new king was a tough skilled adventurer/mercenary in his past. He was also a very sly person who learned from his mistakes. All signs pointing to a very strong fortitude and strength of soul.

One of the final factors and often considered the most important, is the current emotional and mental state of the ruler. It is kind of obvious if you look at it, even if the king (or what ever ruler It is) has strong affinity with the kingdom, and has a strong mind and soul and thus can gain control over the kingdom.

It doesn’t matter if that person is bat sh**t crazy or utterly unstable in some way. They may have control over the kingdom but how is that a good thing if they don’t have control over themselves? Things in that situation tend to end up as utter chaos, monsters frequently attack everything and each other, and more and more other people end up corrupted by their ruler and also end up also mad or even worse.

Even if the person is mentally stable, there are other ways a ruler can affect their kingdom with their emotional state. For example I knew of a king who became depressed when his family died of sickness. Soon after that many of his subjects caught a strange untreatable disease which started out with an unnatural state of depression and lead to suicide if one was lucky.

If one was unlucky I led to madness (or worse shudders). Other things were affected as well, many of the crops and plants died, and some of monsters also caught and died from the sickness after causing much chaos and sometimes real diseases. His kingdom quickly collapsed from within and then deflated as all those who could left for greener pastures.

Then there is that one king whose favorite concubine was assassinated and was quickly filled with anger and a powerful desire for vengeance. This quickly led to all his subjects also desiring vengeance and agreeing to start a most terrible and bloody war with the kingdom of the perpetrators which they did eventually win but at a great price.

The new old king however, was as stated now and many times before was quite old, and he was in a point of his life where the old age he was experiencing brought about wisdom and a great sense of peace and calmness for whatever happened.

And his son, who would obviously take over for him soon, and was already somewhat of a lesser ruler seemed unusually mature and clear thinking for his age. Plus he was currently caught up in the happy bliss of young love with his new bride.

So despite the chaos of all the new innovations and changes taking place and although the old Alfdorn was for the majority of people a miserable and hard place to live, the New Kingdom of Alfdorn (as many started to call it) was strangely calm, and  peaceful, and filled not only with large a large amount of hope but also with many romantic youths in search of love.

***

I suppose now that I have told you all about some of the current affairs in the outside world that I knew about at that time, as well as some facts about a kingdom (some of which I didn’t know until later). That you would like me to get back to what was going on for us that were inside eggs.

But what was going on for us inside eggs, was the new decision that they would not be inside eggs, for much longer.

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Some Info:

Spoiler :

Sorry, once again I got sidetracked by a subject I didn't think I would get focused on. (I had thought I was done explaining about kingdoms for now) so I planed to just mention the kingdom getting a new and better king but when I started to write about the 'niece' getting married to another adventurer things really took off and soon exceeded 3,000 words.

...well...(sigh)... I guess a bit more unimportant random info won't hurt you...

Can you believe that I was planing for this chapter to contain some hatching scenes? I can't be trusted for anything it seems.

But there will definitely be some hatching next chapter!..Yes definitely!

(what?! No, don't look at me with those 'well deserved doubtful' eyes!)

Update: Before I forget, I had better mention results of the poll that is ending very soon.

Looks like that for the majority of the time you liked the original slightly more, but recently it changed to you guys liking the new version slightly more.

(either way they were almost equal in like, according to the poll)

My first plan was that I would continue to use the original for the fanfic page, but I would use the 'new' as the cover of volume one.

However if you guys want to, I will change the fanfic page into the new cover.

BUT! Please note, that as I plan to make a new cover for every volume, that it probably won't be up for long.

(As volume one will end soon, in a few more chapters FrostyPine time 'take that as you will')

The covers are as you can probably guess for the possibility in the distant future wherein I publish this story as a e-book.

However as I still need editors. (and more importantly some courage) that won't probably happen for quite some time.