Chapter 434: Change in the Kingdom

After Derek’s long day of catching up, weeks passed in the blink of an eye. During those few weeks, almost everything that Derek thought was going to happen happened. The royal family, along with everyone else who had chosen to stay in Indria and help them get things set up, had returned. Not only had they returned, but they had allowed access to the inter-kingdom teleporters to everyone.

Of course, this meant that the security in and around the Teleportation Buildings throughout the kingdoms had been significantly heightened. However, nobody seemed to mind any of that, as they were all more interested in exploring new places that they hadn’t before—especially many of the lifetime adventurers.

Not only were there adventurers looking forward to exploring the dungeons of other kingdoms, though. Just as Derek had suspected, the royal family had set up a sort of exchange program for students. In the few times that Thomas was able to come to Savannah for a visit, he excitedly told everyone about the new students and even the current students who had chosen to try their hands at some of the learning centers of the other kingdoms.

Also, according to the boy, after Derek’s little visit, the academy instructors had stepped up their teaching. They weren’t bad before—by any means—but now, they were much more hands on, providing even individualized lessons to the students. It very much seemed that they didn’t want their positions taken away by any foreign instructors coming in because of the alliances. That, or they wanted to make sure the academy looked as good as possible for the new recruits—probably a bit of both.

Another thing that Thomas was able to do was talk Judy into letting Shae pick up their training where it left off. Shae, who because of all the shake ups going on at the guild, and Judy’s punishments, was eternally grateful to the boy for helping to allow him some non-work-related fun. Derek even sneaked into their training session and got to see that Shae was just as, if not more, proud of Thomas that he was.

Other than all of that, Alanah and Avery had come back from Indria as well. However, they had gone completely radio silent since their return—Stella included. It was odd—Derek just couldn’t figure it out. Alanah, and even Avery, was one thing, but Stella had always been happy to drop by from time to time. But, since their return, Derek had heard nothing.

Even when he asked Thomas, the boy hadn’t seen anything. Even though he occasionally stopped by to visit his grandparents at the Crown Hotel and trained with the other children, he hadn’t seen Avery—who Derek thought would be raring to see the progress that his two wards had made during his time in the raid and then in Indria.

Derek could only chalk it up to Alanah planning something big with the Crown—he didn’t know what else to think. He also didn’t bother trying to visit or communicate via crystal because he didn’t want to disturb them if they were planning something. Their actions piqued Derek’s curiosity, and he was anxiously awaiting anything that the trio might have in store for them or the kingdom—whatever it was, if it had anything to do with the Crown, it would be major.

The royal family, on the other hand, had made another big splash in the previous weeks. Edwin wasn’t lying when he said he planned to step down as king. While the kingdom was happy and cheerful, Edwin took it as the perfect time to announce Edward as the next King of Cydaria. The announcement caused another wave of celebration to arise throughout the kingdom.

Not only that, but they held the celebration and coronation soon after. Derek had avoided many invites to certain events, but he felt it was only right to attend that one. The event wasn’t as eventful as the one in Indaria. Nobody tried to ruin the celebration or kill the new king. Edgar was giddy with excitement the whole time, though.

It wasn’t because the younger prince was happy for Edward—well, not just because he was happy for his brother. It was more so because he was happy that he no longer had to worry about Edwin and Edward changing their mind and trying to crown him king once again. He’d finally permanently dodged that bullet—at least if nothing happened to Edward in the future.

It was the perfect time for Edward to take over, though—Derek had to give it to Edwin. Taking over as king during such times of peace would allow Edward to dip his toes in the water and slowly become accustomed to it instead of diving in headfirst, so to speak. It also allowed him to focus on another thing that all kings had to worry about: finding a wife and creating heirs.

Even with all of that, the only odd thing about the coronation and proceeding celebration was the fact that Alanah, Avery, and Stella didn’t attend. Instead, Alanah sent her regards and one of the higher ups in the Crown came in their place.

Another happy—but kind of sad—thing that happened in the weeks after Derek’s return was Rayna and Jacks finding a home and moving out. That was another reason Derek was able to easily ignore Alanah and the others going silent. He had to make sure that the couple found a good home in the personal home side of the city.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Though the one that they picked out wasn’t the one Derek would have—he had found an almost mansion-like home and tried to get them to rent it—it was quaint and would be a very nice place to start and raise a family. Honestly, most of the homes on that side of Savannah would be perfect for raising families.

Overall, though, Rayna had the final say in choosing the home, and she picked it mostly because of the neighbors. That was something that Derek couldn’t find any fault in. One of the neighbors looked to be just about as far along as Rayna was, so their little boy or girl would have a neighboring child around the same age to possibly grow and become friends with. Their other next-door neighbor also had a couple of children—one which could have only been a few months old.

As for work, Jacks still wanted to stay at the Void Emporium as a guard when he wasn’t with his family or adventuring, and Derek had no problems with that. The man had big goals of growing stronger and stronger to support his family, and Derek was happy to help. He also knew that once the baby was born, and they got into a routine, Rayna wouldn’t want to be left behind in strength, either.

Also, if none of that worked out for Jacks, he had even been offered a position within the Adventurer’s Guild. Before the whole fiasco with Malcolm Torith, the man had been a well-respected adventurer, and as the guild cleaned house, his name—along with his association with Derek—had come up and the job was offered.

As for Malorie, over the weeks, she had spent way too much time in talks with Roman, and if not Roman, then Freia. The alchemist and his disciple had really taken Derek’s word to heart when he told them that they would need to ‘get with Malorie and Rudy’ to discuss details of their deal.

One of the two seemed to come by weekly, if not more, to get materials that she controlled or to drop off potions that she had them craft as per their contracts written up by Rudy. It was another thing to add to her plate, but the production of very high quality, but free, potions was too much for her to pass up and she rarely even complained about it.

Brandi, on the other hand, had finally come out of her basement and rested for a few days after completing version two of her rocket boots. They had all gone back out and helped her with the testing, and to Derek’s surprise, the boots were almost perfect. Other than the fact that they still drew a bit too much mana to work—though the mana they used was drastically down from before—everything else worked as planned.

The girl actually had a perfectly function way to ‘fly’ without relying on a skill. To make things even better, it was a way that anyone who had a decently large mana pool could use. If or when she massed produced—because now that she’d made them well once, she would be able to replicate them and the time to craft them would only get shorter and shorter as she did so—Derek knew that the market would be all over them.

With access to Savannah throughout the continent instead of just Cydaria, the market for her boots—and everything else unique that Brandi created—would soar. There really wasn’t a ceiling on what she could get away with charging for her creations—she had the market, and she would be able to set the price. Heck, she could make them and only put them up for trade if she wanted.

And speaking of Savannah, in the short time that the teleporters were open across the continent—minus Vallum—the city had become extremely busy. It was already a bustling city with it being the capital of trade in Cydaria, but it was soon realized that not only was it good enough to be the capital of trade in Cydaria, but possibly the entire continent. With all that being so, Natalie was up to her eyeballs in her lordly duties.

With the large amount of visitors to the city came extra problems. The city lord had to bolster the city’s security and enact new rules and regulations. Before, Savannah was always a city that was in a slow expansion, but now that its popularity had sky-rocketed, Natalie had pushed the expansion into high gear. It seemed that every day the city became bigger and bigger. Derek reckoned that it wouldn’t be long until Savannah was not only the most popular city in the kingdom, but the biggest as well.

This once again made Derek thankful that Malorie had taken it upon herself to rent some lots around his shop while he was gone. He was also happy and thankful to Natalie for allowing him to break conventions and actually own said property instead of renting. Because, with the growth of the city, all the surrounding properties that weren’t previously in use were yoked up extremely quickly. Hell, the Void Emporium even had visitors trying to buy the empty lots that they weren’t yet using for outrageous prices. All of which Malorie politely refused.

Derek had yet to go to Geoffrey and contract new buildings, as he’d been enjoying lazing around and catching up far too much lately, which was something he wouldn’t have even dreamed about back on Earth after the system came, and even before it. However, seeing everything being rapidly bought up and the city expanding, he knew it would be better to do so sooner rather than later.

Geoffry wasn’t exactly the most popular contractor in the city, but with all the new people coming into the city, Derek was sure that the slimy-looking contractor would be booked up before long. He was sure that the man—or probably any other contractor—would push any work that they had scheduled back for him and he’d be a priority, but the man had been quite good to Derek, so he didn’t want to put him in that situation.

With those thoughts, Derek rolled out of his bed, totally refreshed after all the rest he’d gotten over the weeks. He slowly stretched, got up, and got dressed, then walked over to his bedroom door. The moment he opened it, he saw a slightly confused, if not panicked, Malory reaching out to touch the soundproofing rune to his room—the one used to turn it off to allow noise, particularly a knock—to get through.

“Malorie? What is it? What’s wrong?” Derek asked.

“There’s…” the woman started. “There’s an old goblin downstairs asking for you.”