Chapter 6:
Mark’s POV:
‘Frick…’
After breakfast, the other three informed me that we would have to meet the queen before anything else, not just for money to do shopping, but so that she could check up on me. This brought many questions to my mind but mainly
“Why the heck do I need to be checked up on by the Queen personally and can’t I get a job to make money?”
This was the faith time I asked this and I got the same exasperated response from the three of them
“The queen wants to make sure you didn’t die, and the money is out of allowance to ensure you can get everything you need.”
“We got 50 gold coins, no?”
I asked in irritation
“A lot of money, yes, but we bought a lot of stuff, but also magic items can cost 10-15 gold per item, higher-end items ending around 10,000 gold.”
The costs simultaneously seemed broad and narrow. But I spoke once more
“So you plan on me being a money pit?”
“Yep.”
Lance spoke
“Either medical supplies or artifacts.”
I nodded at his words
“Exactly what is the side option on this? I’m not someone very political but I can only imagine that my existence is a throne to many greedy people, no?”
The three chuckled nervously, but before any could speak I cut them off,
“That’s all I needed to know, thank you.”
I sighed, I knew enough about monarchies and such to know how this kingdom was with their reaction alone, a noble and royal faction most likely. It was far too early for me to worry about politics, there was a war with a demon king, monsters I knew mother about, powers that I had a vague understanding of, and a group of people who were in charge of babysitting me through all this. I took a few, long, deep breaths to calm down as I began to focus on my main task as now
‘How do I deal with the queen?’
It was a few days ago but I could still remember a few things about her, but the most problematic was that she most likely wore a smile as a mask. I had no clue what she was thinking or how to deal with her, she just observed me, rarely asking questions, more like she was appraising an item than a person. I shook my head from those thoughts as I saw the castle gates in front of me. I hadn’t seen them before but as soon as I walked in, it was a long corridor with a red carpet in gold trim. Stone pillars supported the ceiling as a platinum and blue throne sat atop a staircase. Several doors lined between the stone pillars, likely to other rooms as the throne room being right after the entrance from outside seemed off to me. As we approached I saw the familiar face of the queen, she looked between us and spoke
“Gosh, dot bow or anything, I’m too tired for that right now.”
Her voice wasn’t that of a queen but a tired teen. The other three didn’t react to her attitude but I was confused about how royalty of this world worked. As I continued to stare at her to try to grasp a bit more information here smirk appeared on her face once more as she spoke
“What wrong Mark? See something you like?”
She spoke in a teasing tone, I realized my stare could have been seen as rude, and shook my head
“No your majesty, just confused about the best way to deal with royalty is all.”
I spoke with a respectful tone but she clicked her tongue
“You three said he had a sense of humor, was I lied to?”
I heard the three of them sigh as Rose spoke
“I mean… in Mark’s defense… I would also be confused about how to deal with you at this point.”
I thanked Rose in my heart as the queen looked me over once more before she spoke
“So, how’s your arm?”
She spoke in that same joking tone as before and I realized from her prior comment that she wanted some form of humorous response, I narrowed my eyes as I spoke
“My arm is fine, but if you wanna test my personality, there are better ways. After all, I would rather not engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.”
Her smile grew wider as she spoke
“Oh, you will fit right in with those three, sorry, sorry. I just didn’t know if you guys would truly get along.”
She nodded her head at me in a form of apology as she then continued
“Now then, might I ask how you plan to deal with the obvious power gap you suffer?”
The queen spoke, her eyes now as sharp as a knife, ready to dissect my answer and actions. I sighed
“If I’m going, to be honest, imma struggle.”
I spoke before smiling
“But even if everything I know can’t be used, then I’ll still find a new way to solve my problems, and if that fails, I will try again.”
The queen sat back on her throne as she held her chin and closed her eyes for a moment. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking so waited for her words
“What if I were to have you be a weapons expert? You seem to know how to make stuff, but you have no power, I can-“
I held my hand up, as both a request to ask for input or to silence her. Either way, it worked as she stopped speaking and leaned back in, I smirked as I spoke
“For various reasons, I wanna keep what I make to myself. If information about what I make leaks, the war situation could devolve fast… especially since bio-agents would be much more effective on the living than the dead. Like sarin nerve gas.”
She was silent for a moment before signing
“I understand, then please, do your best.”
I was confused by how easily she was convinced but as if she read my mind she spoke
“Your face, it speaks more than your mouth. You truly deem that your knowledge would better serve you alone than the war at large. I understand that… better than anyone most likely…”
The queen smiled bitterly as I nodded to her
“I wish we could talk more about this, but the grey hairs want me in a meeting…”
She sighed
“Rose, how much do you think his antics will cost?”
Rose leaned forward to look at me, and I looked at her. We stared for a moment before I sighed and handed her the blueprint for the weapon I wanted to commission. She looked at the scrolled-up piece of paper, looked at me, looked at this then asked
“This costs about 1 gold to make, enchantments and such…”
She looked back at me and I sighed
“I would say 1,000 gold… I will return what I don’t use.”
The queen nodded benevolently as she sighed
“A money pit you will be…”
I laughed as I spoke
“Better than a lazy bastard, no?”
She laughed as she waved her hand as if to shoo us
“Wait outside the front, I will have someone bring you the coins.”
I bowed forward before turning around and following the other three. I could still feel her gaze following us as we soon left the castle’s front door. Following their lead, we waited just outside the front as Rose soon sighed
“Well… at least you know how to take her sense of humor…”
The other two also signed this response
“Do keep in mind the queen should be treated like that in public but… she is quite mischievous in private.”
I raised an eyebrow at this, Tetra picked up on my confusion and continued her conversation
“She would rather act like an older sister to our group than a queen… mainly because we were supposed to be her guards, she would rather be friends with the people who should protect her.”
As I thought about it, it was sound logic, you were more likely to protect a friend than a regular boss. As I nodded my head in acknowledgment Lance chuckled
“Still, that was a nice jab at her.”
I shrugged
“Winston Churchill, a man with some of the best comebacks and wit. If I’m going, to be honest, I deemed that was the best way to diffuse the situation without anything going wrong.”
The three of them had different responses, Lance raised a brow, Tetra shrugged and Rose sighed once more. As the still silence slowly fell into play once more I asked
“She said she understood that knowledge is better to serve one than the many, what did she mean?”
I looked mainly at Rose to gauge her response but all three of them held the same grim expression
“We can… measure someone’s strength in tiers you see… from 1 to 10…”
Rose started, I had several questions but held my tongue to let her speak but Tetra continued
“The queen is the highest tier 8, almost tier 9… tiers are determined by how much someone can destroy in 10 minutes and then averaged out… tier 8 is domain level, she could destroy multiple cities within 10 minutes.”
The silence set in again as the wheels in my brain spun, trying to comprehend what she meant by those words but Rose continued
“However, despite being so powerful…”
“One wrong step against our opponents and she could be the greatest weapon against us.”
I was confused as Lance cut Rose off
“Who or what are the demon king’s abilities?”
The three were silent but Lance spoke
“A necromancer of some sort, powerful. We can’t risk the chance of the queen going to the front lines because if she is killed, we would essentially lose the content in a cascading effect…”
I took a moment to digest his words and their meanings, I took a deep breath as I added this new information to the ever-growing list of information I need to know about my new world as I looked into the sky and sighed
“Jeez I drew a short straw… is there no form of magic or aura you can learn? Or is it just kinda… you get it or you don’t?”
The three looked at each other before speaking
“It’s not uncommon to bend or learn a method to adjust aura or magic in such a way that it goes against its common tactics, but these cases are rare, people who are tier 5 or higher normally can manage to manipulate the way they use their abilities to make their weapons stronger if they are a body augmentor and such… but that’s rare, and there are no cases of someone learning a completely different attribute.”
Rose spoke and I chuckled
“Thanks for the in-depth explanation, but I’m asking, are there any abilities I can learn? Like ki or breathing techniques?”
The three tilted their heads in confusion and that’s all I needed to know for their knowledge as I sighed regretfully. I began to map out the design for a gun but I still needed to test many things before I could start developing anything. I closed my eyes, ignoring the gazes aimed at me by the other three as I began to map out how I would be able to make a difference.
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