Chapter 40
Chapter 40 Strongest Sage, Has an Audience with the King
" . . . Is an audience with the king something that can be done so easily?"
Several days after I killed Devilis the demon .
I went to the Royal Palace with the princ.i.p.al .
He came out of nowhere, 『You"re free today right? Come with me to the Royal Palace for a bit』, and dragged me . . . . Just what"s going on here .
"Don"t be foolish . There"s no way you can meet the king that easy . "
"Then who is it besides the king?"
"No well, we"re meeting the king alright . "
"I don"t think merely beating one demon is worth . . . . "
"Killing a demon solo is a great achievement unheard of since the dawn of history . The Royal Palace"s internal is even discussing about creating a new medal for your sake, though it isn"t publicized yet . "
"Eeh . . . . "
"By the way, a medal was newly made solely for a party of six who killed a demon 100 years ago . "
Something like that huh . . . .
I guess this is unavoidable in an era where the demons have slipped in and thoroughly destroyed techniques to defeat them .
Apparently, the demons didn"t slip in recently .
" . . . . Oops, this is the room . "
The princ.i.p.al stopped in front of a door inside the palace .
The door isn"t that well decorated but it looks quite st.u.r.dier compared to other doors . The wall is likely thick too . I know, I can sense some difference in the mana reaction .
"It"s Edward . "
The sound of a key came from the inside and the door opened .
There are maids-san and a dignified-looking man inside the room .
I feel like I"ve seen a man with this kind of atmosphere in my past life .
It was of my acquaintance in my past life if I"m not mistaken . . . . He has the same atmosphere as the king of Manilia Magic Kingdom .
. . . . The King!?
"It has been awhile, Edward . "
"It"s a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty . "
Seeing the princ.i.p.al knelt down, I also did the same .
I"m not really familiar with formalities in the present era . . . . Well, I should just imitate other people .
"You and I are friends . No need to be that stiff as this isn"t a formal audience . "
"I"m honored to hear that, but Your Majesty is the king of this country . . . . "
He really was the king .
And it seems princ.i.p.al Edward knows the king .
No wonder they let them in quite easily .
"And, is the boy over there the hero of the recent matter?"
"Yes . He is Mathias Hildesheimr, the one who killed a demon solo, and made a huge contribution to the progress of chantless magic at the Second Academy . "
"I see . . . . Indeed, he has quite a well tempered body for one so young . Ah . I will introduce myself just in case, I"m Eist Graya . I"m the king of this kingdom . "
Some kings occasionally came to visit my house in my past life, but I had never thought that I would meet one in less than 20 years after my reincarnation .
Still, he"s quite friendly, is this alright? Normally a king shouldn"t easily introduce himself like this . . . .
"My name is Mathias Hildesheimr, I"m a first year student of the Second Academy . "
I don"t really know how to do this, but I tried to introduce myself for now .
If they demanded formal etiquette from me, they would have taught me some beforehand .
"Good work on the subjugation this time . Usually we would have done a grand announcement and give you a territory to govern . . . . . "
I don"t need no territory! Nuh uh, nope!
After all the trouble of reincarnating myself for the sake of magic combats, why should I be forced to have a territory .
Well, it might not be that much of a burden if I just push the responsibility to someone who can manage a territory, but please at least wait for another 20 year first .
"However, if we were to announce that demons have slipped into humans, the whole kingdom would inevitably fall into a huge confusion . Moreover, frankly speaking, we would like to avoid having the hero who beat a demon alone be tied to a territory . Of course I promise to grant you the highest credit once this matter is settled . Would you wait until that . "
"With pleasure!"
It"d be sad if I were forced to govern a territory .
"Much obliged . . . . However, now the problem is your reward . Even with the circ.u.mstances, we ought to give you a reward . . . . Right . How about a magic sword?"
"Magic sword . . . . is it?"
"Indeed . We took hold of a powerful magic sword incomparable to other national treasure grade swords just recently . It has been augmented with two magic that have never been seen before . The owner of the shop where that sword was found said that the sword was augmented by a child who happened to pa.s.s by . . . . It sounds too unrealistic that some even hypothesize that that child is the incarnation of Magic G.o.d . "
So there"s such a magic sword around . . . .
But I don"t think there"s any point in me getting a dual augmented sword .
I can make more powerful magic swords as many as I want once Ruli is able to augment properly and I teach her some trick to it .
" . . . . Your face looks like you"re saying that you don"t need it . Well, I do not mind if you take other thing . We will open the treasury later, you can take anything you fancy there . "
"I"m very grateful for your generosity . "
Picking anything I want from the royal treasury huh . That"s quite grand .
Hopefully there"s something interesting inside .
"However, it"s still too little of a reward for Mathias"s achievement . We can give you multiple treasures, but . . . . Do you have any wish yourself?"
Wish huh .
I remember this formal etiquette, 『As you wish Your Majesty』 in my past life, but this isn"t necessarily true in this era .
Guess I might as well take this chance to ask for something big .
"I would like to acquire the right to use the resources of all the dungeons in this kingdom . "
"Dungeon resources . . . . Do you mean ores produced by monsters and veins?"
"Yes . Everything that can be taken inside the dungeons including those . Of course, I"m not asking to monopolize them . If my a.s.sociates and I are allowed to take the resources inside dungeons . . . . "
Dungeons hold the most supreme resources inside them, surpa.s.sing even the highest quality gold vein .
This condition would have been flat out rejected, like 『Inconceivable』, in my past life, it could never even be considered as a term in a negotiation .
However, the sense of value in the current era is quite off of the past one . It would be super great if they gave me the right to even a part of it .
"I will happily comply if you are fine with that . From hence on, Mathias Hildesheimr as well as his a.s.sociates will not be imposed with dungeon taxes, nor will they be restricted to enter a dungeon . "
Yay! A huge success!
Now I can easily get my hand on monster"s materials and magic metal .
"Also, if you want a dungeon, I"m considering giving you one along with a territory . . . . How about it? Of course, the kingdom will cover all the administrative expense . Dungeons are money loser after all . "
The king let out this wonderful suggestion when he saw me doing a light triumphant pose .
"By all means, please!"
Resources get! They"d even cover the administrative expense for me, what heaven is this .
It"s so favorable that I almost feel like I"m deceiving them here .
"You"re quite unselfish, I thought you would ask for more . "
Unselfish, no way . There"s nothing more avaricious than this .
I almost replied that, but I kept my silence .
"Then let"s proceed to the next issue . Regarding the demon in this matter . . . . There is no mistake that Devilis the Heaven-sent Child of Magic was a demon is there?"
"Yes . It"s undoubtedly true . His crest was fake, and the magic he showed were chantless magic disguised as chant ones . "
"So it"s true . . . . As a matter of fact, the four Heaven-sent Children of Magic in this kingdom have all disappeared . "
Ah . So all the Heaven-sent Children of Magic really are all demons . . . .
"The Magic Division commander, Elhart is also included among them . Furthermore, it seems the existences thought to be Heaven-sent Children of Magic have existed for several hundreds years . . . . In other words, our country had been secretly under control of the demons for several hundreds years . As Magic Division plays the most important role in coming up with countermeasures against demons . "
That means, there is no organization in this structure called country that can win against the demons now .
It seems the demons purposely didn"t completely crush human forces since there was a possibility that some problem might arise for them if humans were excessively driven to the wall .
"What do you think I should do?"
Dungeons were regarded like oil fields in Mathi"s past life .