Chapter 125: Chapter 196 – International Alliances

After standing on the side for a short while, Silvia returned to the group and glanced at Asterios with a faint smile.

“He’s almost done with an audience and should be able to spare some time for us in about half an hour or less,” the princess informed him. “We can wait at one of the lounge chambers in the inner castle since I don’t think we need to use the audience hall, right?”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that but sure.” Suanori chuckled a little anxiously. “I’ve never been further than one of the strategy rooms and the throne chamber.”

“It’s a good time to sightsee a bit more!” Miria giggled at the guildmaster as she bounced around. “Silvia’s home is soooo beautiful! Our castle is pretty too, of course, but it just can’t compare to the royal one! Sorry, Master, ehehe~”

Asterios pulled her into him as she spun near his spot and scratched under Miria’s chin. “You are completely right. It doesn’t even compare.”

“It’s not that much fancier,” Silvia commented as her small smile grew a little. “Yours has just a slightly different style. I think it has its own charm with all that dark gray brick and general stone design and fashion. I admit that the royal modeling is much more flashy.”

Grea stepped closer and put her hands on her hips, capturing everyone’s attention.

“Great. You guys go and have fun with the king and I’ll get back to where I belong to see what I can find out about this thing. It will be hard to focus with a certain book craving my undivided focus but this is now our top priority.”

“There’s no need for you to rush it that much,” Asterios replied. “This will take a few days, no doubt. You sure don’t want to come with us?”

She waved her hand at him and snorted. “Nah, man, that’s not my jam. And I’d rather not accidentally curse the man. You know well how hard it is for me to control my words. I’d rather shut myself in my new sex dungeon and have a date with some old books. Though, I guess the sex part isn’t a thing without you present.”

Asterios shook his head with a wry smile as Grea shot him a wink. “You do you. Should we get you home first?”

“Ehhhh, let me try something out first.”

They watched as the red-skinned woman closed her eyes and made quite unnecessary hand movements before throwing her right arm forward with a grunt. A crimson portal rose from the floor and swirled in front of her.

Grea opened her eyes and nodded to herself. She confidently stepped into the swirling mist and disappeared from the underground chamber.

~Sweet. Just as planned.~ Her voice soon reverberated in the heads of everyone connected to her.

~You got back?~ Asterios asked mentally.

~Yep. I tried to force my brain into thinking that this is what I consider my home but it looks like I didn’t really have to do that thanks to someone’s invaluable help in creating unforgettable memories with me in this workshop. In short, thanks for giving me the fuck of my life here.~

He chuckled lightly. ~You are welcome. Enjoy your research, and the book on the Dragon’s Coupling Bond.~

Returning his attention to the cave, Asterios glanced at Silvia.

“She got back to the lab through the gate. I should have figured out that it won’t be that hard for Grea to change what she considers home this fast. We can go now.”

Tina giggled quietly behind her petite hand. “True. Professor Grea’s brain just works differently.”

All the girls except for Suanori and Silvia returned to Selene’s mansion for now and the remaining trio huddled up together. The guildmaster was a tiny bit conscious of their quite close hug in the beginning but was unspeakably glad she said nothing the instant they entered the neverending darkness.

“I really don’t know what it is about this place but I really can’t stand it,” she said with a low, shaky voice while closing her eyes tightly shut. “This is going to take a moment, huh?”

~A moment is the correct expression,~ Umbra commented in their minds. ~We will be there shortly, way sooner than ever before. I’m still not able to jump such a distance in a blink.~

“You are progressing at a fast pace, though. Do you think you will be able to manifest yourself at full power someday?” Asterios asked while reassuringly rubbing the guildmaster’s back.

~With how much you’ve been growing recently, Master, I can’t deny that possibility. In the past, I didn’t think it could be achieved ever, but if we assume that being ‘half-dead’ means that your power is halved too, it doesn't seem that impossible now. I do wonder if we would be able to do anything about the curse at some point.~

“The immense seal that locks your dimension?” Silvia glanced at Asterios as the embodiment of his summon at this moment. “I really don’t mean to sound rude, but would that definitely be a good idea?”

A deep chuckle echoed around them. ~Some might certainly say that it’s better off remaining sealed, or perhaps the rest of the universe is better off with it sealed. Rest assured though, Princess, it is not my life goal to release my ‘brethren’ from their prison. I would gladly find out more about the truth behind our fate and perhaps the real identity of the entity that has put us in that situation. Like many beings stuck in that void, I do feel the slight urge to take revenge for my experiences.~

“I can’t imagine going against someone or something like that.” Asterios smirked wryly. “But well, I didn’t exactly imagine going against a True Dragon before and we did, even if part of the confrontation was handled by someone else.”

“And that someone else was your father. I think it’s very likely that you are able to reach that level too, Asterios.” The princess looked him deep into his crimson irises. “Perhaps going even further than that. Your parents did seem to think that you are something else, going as far as to put all those safety measures in place to assure that you grow up fine.”

“More like to assure that they are fine, I think.” Asterios shrugged his shoulders. “But yes, I can’t refute that possibility and I certainly hope our journey to the Spire will shine some more answers on the situation, considering that Red was so adamant about me going there before anything.”

“I’m sure about that. You guys are doing amazing. I’m not certain if I would be able to live like that, in constant doubt and lack of any concrete information about myself.” Silvia smiled at him kindly. “I think it’s something worth admiring.”

Just after she finished, the darkness receded and they found themselves in one of the castle’s corridors. The princess recognized the location after taking a few glances around and they first waited for a moment so that the guildmaster could properly regather her wits after the transfer.

Then, she led them through the hallways, taking a more scenic route. Back to her full strength, more or less, Suanori enjoyed the chance to witness more of the royal castle from the inside. They took a peek at the training arenas where Asterios and Silvia had first met, the royal library, a few public facilities that weren’t a tightly guarded secret, the beautiful, lush garden which felt like an entire estate on its own, and ended up in the lounge where they were supposed to wait for the king.

As they made themselves comfortable on the cozy furniture around the two low tables, Silvia invited the others through Asterios and the trio of his companions joined them. As Miria, Selene, and Tina seated themselves down, she called for her personal maid to attend to them.

Asterios could swear that the woman which he had already met not that long ago kept sending him squinting glares and quite intense gazes whenever he wasn’t looking her way. It was quickly confirmed by his girls who shared their vision with him. He barely kept himself from laughing so as not to alert the unusual maid.

Around the time that the princess had promised, the doors to the lounge opened and the king walked inside. Suanori immediately jumped to her feet and straightened up, making the other women chuckle at her reaction.

Welrond spread his arms to the sides and showed an equivalently wide smile.

“Asterios! Good to see you and your beautiful companions again!” The man laughed as he walked closer to the table.

Asterios slowly stood up too and reached out to shake hands with him. “It's a pleasure, as usual, Your Majesty.”

“Your Majesty this, Your Majesty that, we are long past this phase.” Welrond chuckled at him and glanced at the elf lady standing next to them. “Ah yes, we do have a guest today! Guildmaster Suanori, I presume?”

“Uhhh, yes, it’s an honor.” Suanori bowed respectfully while still slightly dumbfounded by the quite casual atmosphere.

“Now, now, let’s not do that here. Asterios’ friends are my friends. Also, I’m pretty sure we are acquainted too, to some extent, if I’m not mistaken,” Welrond said as he brought her shoulders back up.

“Just a small, joint operation with the adventurers in the past, yes.” She nodded with an anxious smile. “We haven’t spoken this directly back then, though.”

“Have a seat and don’t worry too much about it.” He smiled at her brilliantly and they both sat down. “I’ve heard very interesting rumors about a certain ritual that took place in Glimmervale recently.” Welrond turned to Asterios almost immediately.

“You’ve heard more than just rumors, Father.” Silvia sighed softly. “Asterios and everyone else really went out of their way to make it much safer.”

“I’d argue that he made it safer than even the capital.” The king laughed openly.

“With all due respect, Venuzathor is not omnipotent.” Asterios chuckled lightly. “It is true that there should be less worry about the defenses. It will be even better after we raise proper walls around the entire place. They could have been quite useful in the current predicament.”

Welrond joined his hands under his chin. “If I’m not wrong, we did offer our aid in their construction but I think the town’s leadership at that time didn’t want to be indebted to us so we backed off. Our subjects feeling comfortable is in our best interest.”

“It certainly shows. Glimmervale is a nice and friendly community. People feel like a big family there. Naturally, it doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, but I know well how tough it is to achieve such status amongst the residents,” Selene joined in while taking a sip of her fragrant tea.

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“And it will certainly get even better with a well-established Adventurer’s Guild,” Welrond added, turning to Suanori. “I was elated to hear that it would be developed by someone of your caliber, Guildmaster.”

“You flatter me too much, Your Majesty.” She lowered her head politely. “I certainly appreciate this chance to take over. We will do everything in our power to help Glimmervale prosper. I think it won’t take long before the guild becomes highly active considering the town’s location. The second closest one to the border is located a few days of travel away from it, towards the Elf Kingdom.”

“Great! I’m always glad to interact more with our neighbors! An Adventurer’s Guild benefits everyone and is a good way to maintain and even develop our friendly relations!”

“Regarding that, Father, we might be bringing news that could possibly create some unnecessary tension between our nations, but unfortunately can’t be overlooked,” Silvia said calmly but Asterios could notice a tinge of anxiousness in her expression after spending enough time around the composed princess.

“Hmmm.” The king stroked his beard as he glanced her way. “Things never just remain nice and steady, do they? What’s the issue, then? I assume it has to be related to Glimmervale.”

“There’s a small occurrence of weird, almost rabid beasts appearing southwest to the settlement every now and then, and rushing straight into the town with no regard for almost anything. It’s nothing too dangerous since their numbers are low and they aren’t particularly strong, but it’s quite constant even if irregular,” Asterios began.

“I hope the people watching over Glimmervale aren’t stupidly hiding things from us while thinking that there’s no need to involve the kingdom. That never ends well.” Welrond frowned.

“I can see them doing that if it was just the monsters, but now that we’ve discovered some more details regarding the unusual situation, there’s no way they wouldn’t want to at least let the kingdom know about it. This is a very delicate matter.”

“Asterios is right, Father. We found an old, underground cavern, clearly manmade, with an unstable summoning circle which we believe to be the source of the beasts,” Silvia continued. “Our friend is already looking into it but there’s one major element of this mystery that is even more concerning.”

As the princess looked at the guildmaster, Suanori nodded at her and turned to the king.

“There are remnants of High Elves in that stone chamber, including their belongings and some documents. Those are written in a somewhat crude cipher to hide the real contents. The array in the center of the cave is also clearly an elven design. Everything points out my race’s involvement in this incident, although I can’t say for sure who, why, and with what objective in mind,” she explained.

“We just discovered it so we definitely need some more time to see if we can figure out if Glimmervale being the target was always a thing or if it somehow became one when the formation was influenced by contaminated spiritual energy,” Asterios added.

“That is certainly concerning.” The king sighed softly. “It doesn’t look good from an outsider’s perspective and what you have relayed to me so far. I agree that we need to tread carefully around this matter.”

“That’s why we thought that we could perhaps issue a notice from our side straight to the queen or her close aides and politely ask for an explanation or help in investigating the issue.” Silvia glanced at her father. “Do you think this could have been something deliberate, aimed at our kingdom?”

Welrond instantly shook his head. “No, that's impossible. The Elf Queen is cold and strict but she isn’t the person to lower herself to such underhanded tactics. She’s too proud and noble. If she found any qualms with us, she would have let us know in the most official way possible. She would literally demand me to see her in the royal castle just so that she could declare war on us with all the decorum.” He chuckled to himself.

“I think so too.” Suanori nodded. “Your description is quite accurate, Your Majesty. There’s a high chance that she isn’t aware of anything if those dead people were actually involved with the officials in any way. We can’t deny any possibility but I’m sure Your Majesty knows that there are countless groups and organizations that think they are better than the ruling party.”

“That is true,” Asterios said and exchanged a look with the king to which they both nodded in understanding. “Nevertheless, this is an incredibly sensitive topic, not something that some random, newly-appointed lord and his band of adventurers can confidently pursue. I hope we can count on the kingdom with this one.”

“Obviously.” The king huffed to the side. “I’m glad you decided to come here instead of trying to solve everything on your own. We’ll get busy with this matter immediately. As much as I usually avoid speaking with the Elf Queen, this is not a situation where I can be picky. I’ll request a direct audience through the Mirror Cube right away.”

“Mirror Cube?” Miria perked up at the sound of a curious name.

Silvia chuckled quietly and glanced her way. “It’s a special chamber fitted with highly secure communication magic developed by the elves. The Elf Queen ordered the construction of one in our castle in case of an emergency. You step into a room full of mirrors which then change when activated and create an illusion that the two people stand in two halves of the same room, usually stylized after elven architecture. Naturally, you need one in both locations for it to work properly.”

“Booooo. I thought we might get to travel to the elves and let Umbra connect everyone like the last time.” The panthergirl whined playfully as her ears flopped down.

Welrond exploded into a laugh and shot her a wink. “There is no chance in hell she would agree to let anyone come anywhere near her, not to mention do anything to her mind. She’s paranoid even about her own Mirror Cube.”

“That sounds a little bit excessive.” Tina giggled softly.

“That’s just how she is.” The king shrugged and turned his gaze to the guildmaster. “May I receive permission to use your name in my conversation with the queen? I think revealing that someone of your renown is working to resolve the issue will give us more credibility.”

Suanori hastily bowed her head. “You may do as you please, Your Majesty. I might be an elf but I’m a guildmaster in service of your nation. As your loyal subject, I will be of use to you with great honor. If there is anything I can help with in regard to the elven side, please let me know. I’m sure that the queen should be aware that I always operate with the best interest of both our races in mind.”

“Good. I just wanted to give you an option not to get involved. As far as I remember, you prefer to stay on the side, more or less.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. It’s definitely not something I can just sit out while watching from the sidelines. I’m really glad we can do things this way. It would surely be much more troublesome and risky if we were to attempt to inform the queen about this, or worse, try to request information, no matter how politely. Thankfully, Asterios making the connection with Princess Silvia allowed for this opportunity.”

The man laughed heartily again. “Ah, yes, I’m very happy that they share a good, friendly connection. It was truly a blessing getting to know Asterios. Our lives have changed a lot since that fateful day.”

Silvia rolled her eyes as he shot her a wide grin, making the other girls and Asterios chuckle. Everyone knew that the biggest change was definitely related to him and not his daughter as the king was trying to imply. One of the two clearly pursued something with much more passion than the other. A woman, to be precise.

“Alright. This should be a good time to try to get in touch with the queen.” Welrond stood up and smacked his thighs a few times. “I have no idea how long I’ll have to wait or how long the discussion will take so you are free to stay or go back as you wish. I’ll let you know about the results immediately if it’s something extremely important, but expect the news in the morning at the latest.”

“I’ll stay with you, Father. If you manage to connect with the queen before it gets too late, I’ll be able to relay the information to Asterios myself when I return.” Silvia followed suit.

“You are not going to stay for the night again?” He raised a curious brow at her. “Camille is getting really worried about you. Especially since the day you decided to stay at Asterios’ place, for some reason.”

Asterios smiled wryly, having an idea or two why. The woman had been at least a little bit shocked when Silvia took him into her private chambers back then. It sounded like Silvia was quite close with her personal maid so he could see how the woman could be very concerned about the princess.

“I’ll talk to her again. She just isn’t used to me being away so much. You know how compassionate and thoughtful she is, Father. She wouldn’t let me leave her behind during any of the expeditions you sent me on in the past.”

He let out an amused chuckle. “Right. She can be frighteningly stubborn. Perhaps I should delegate her to Glimmervale's castle with you?”

“I’ll… think about it.” 

Silvia paused for a moment as she was answering and Asterios was sure that he noticed a trace of hesitation in her voice while the princess glanced his way. He wondered if she thought twice about the idea because she could see inconvenience for him or herself in that development.

The father and daughter duo bid farewell to the others and left the lounge together. The very moment they were left alone, Suanori visibly relaxed and sank into the sofa with a deep sigh. Selene chuckled at her with an impish smile.

“Certainly, it wasn’t that bad?”

She shook her head with her gaze still directed down. “Your perception of things is completely skewed because of how illogical the very existence of Asterios is. And well, I guess you are a person of high standing in your realm too. Normal people like me don’t get to get all buddy-buddy with the king. Gods help me…”

Miria giggled as she snuggled more into Asterios as they were all amongst themselves. “But you are pretty famous and well-known yourself, and a high-ranked adventurer too! You even got familiar with the king in the past.”

“Not to the level of being able to leisurely stroll through the royal castle like I own the place.” Suanori raised her head and showed an anxious expression. “The next thing I know, you will get the Elf Queen to smile at you.”

“You should be careful with your words, Guildmaster.” Tina smirked at the elf woman. “He has a tendency to achieve what people deem impossible.”

She snorted and shook her head again. “He might as well marry her at that point and it won’t be any less unbelievable.”

Everyone chuckled together and Asterios stood up next.

“We have things we can do on our end too. Let’s jump back. Perhaps we can catch a slightly suspicious individual and question them for more useful information.”

 

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