Chapter 16 The king
“Alright see ya later Zera me and Zack are going on a quest for the king who requested to see us!”
“Alright see you later teacher”
Off Cel and Zack went back to the capital even all the way to the castle on their magic flying cycle. On their way through the castle gates they were stopped a few times and people inside the castle stared at them down with fury and confusion. Even a young child went up to them and asked “what’s a commoner like you doing in the royal palace!?!?” Cel and Zack just ignored the child continuing the walk to the king's throne room.
Although the outer parts of the palace were impressive I would say the most amazing part of this castle is the interior. Makes me regret wasting all our gold on the food that I just devoured when I could probably hunt all the food I want down but eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. But this castle speaks volumes of the king’s wealth: the fresh red carpets and curtains that looked brand new and covered practically every inch of the palace. While statues that were painted and almost looked real stood on every side of us as we walked down the three mile long hall with guards watching every move made by us and the golden crowns on top of each statue as they all stood proud. All the windows were the size of a normal door while all of them were completely covered. Golden linings for the threading of any of the carpets or curtains was used. The paintings with living ghosts inside of them that were actually really friendly waved at us as we passed. It was an odd sight to see for sure. I think even the width of the halls was at least quadruple joey’s mansion halls. Finally we arrived in the throne room after a long walk through the outstandingly amazing and long halls of the castle.
After that long walk I kinda wanted to just sit down soooo… “King Roger I hope you have some chairs around other than your throne that we can use.”
“I wish I could do that young demi Zack but because of how things are run around here I can’t offer you a chair you just have to stand.”
“That’s kinda dumb but ok what did you want from us exactly because you issued us a private request so we came in person to find out what you needed from us specifically.”
The king quickly explained that he wanted our help with multiple things because he was worried about an organization called Bringing Forth God. At first it sounded like a pretty basic cult with no power but eventually they started doing things that could end up a problem. They even got some of the highest political figures in the dragon kingdom as well as the vampire kingdom to join them which seemed dangerous. So the king of Sorl wanted us to help train his knight squadrons and especially the commander of all them.
That wasn’t it though because he wanted Cel to guard him and his family while I investigated the members of the organization. Which was slightly much for just a guild request. “So how much do you plan to pay us Roger?” I asked because I know I can’t teach and neither can Cel because he clearly didn’t teach Zera anything super valuable more so just made her stronger and I don’t want to travel a whole bunch and try to talk around subjects with some annoying politicians. “I was thinking of paying you two with titles and land. That sound good?” He asked in a tone that was nudging my buttons so I started wondering why he asked only for us and not our whole party? What did this king have planned? He better not do anything to Cel!
“So why did you only invite the two of us?” then I further questioned “what is your motives and plans”
The king paused tilting his head around with a blank face that shifted into many different expressions that would terrify a child. Before finally straightening out and answering me with a plain face “Well I didn't feel the need to hire them because vampires are involved in this case and that may cloud Alucards judgment, while I didn’t ask for Zera because she lacks certain qualities. My motive is just to protect my kingdom from harm!”
Still confusing me I just took the answer as he had some guards take us to some special quarters while we stayed here to start the training of his knights. The guards explained where to go when we woke up the next morning. I thanked them as I walked into the slightly large room jumping straight for a bed. Waking up first as per usual I yanked the blankets from Cel as his head shot up bonking me in the chin. “BAAh that hurt!”
“Sorry about that Zack the change from nice and cozy to slightly uncomfortable jolted me up.”
“I could tell anyways I think we should head down to the training grounds and warm up while those knights eat their food.”
Once we found a nice window we hopped out of it and flew to a fairly large courtyard with wooden and metal dummies all over. In the center of it all stood a silver statue of a man with a round face that still seemed sharp, smiling like a giddy child ready to go to recess with a blade placed in front of him with his hands planting it down. Landing on the floor I realized it was some kind of mixture of magic stone and metal, likely to enhance it so if the knights ever got serious the place wouldn’t break apart. The place also seemed to have walls that were layered with thick glass so that spectators could still view but not have to worry about being some rubble in the wind.
“Alright Zack how do you wanna do this”
“A thousand push ups, crunches, squats, and burpees sound good?”
The two of us very quickly started as the sun soon went from barely even cracking through the skin line once we finished it was about a ⅓ of the way visible so it was still the dawn of the day. Even though we were told they’d get here early in the morning after they had breakfast they were still yet to arrive. Causing me a stir of confusion while Cel didn’t seem to mind the wait as he played around with fire, ice, and earth golems. Then an idea popped into my head. “Hey Cel wanna spar it’s been awhile since we’ve spared.”
“Sure Zack, that'll be fun.”
Comments (2)
See all