Chapter 3: Fulfiling the quest
While claiming that I appeared before the King of this place in person in one instant after I learned that I would get the honour of visiting him by myself would be a lie, it wouldn"t be all that far from the truth.
After the first hint about how the situation would develop back when the guide warned me about the manners, I had no other choice but to follow right after the man when he started moving in a strange manner. Looking at him, the officer seemed to just be taking a relaxed stroll through the corridors of the palace, yet as it turned out, I actually had some troubles keeping up with his pace without actually outright running after him!
And then, just like that, I was pulled inside the throne chamber, led through its relatively empty middle part, all the way to a huge throne occupied by a man wearing the crown. Just from a single look at his robes alone, I could deduce that just like I noticed when moving around his place, this country was as far from being poor as it could be.
Not only were the king"s robes made of the highest quality of silk or a material that resembled it, but even the sceptre that he held in his right hand also seemed to be made out of gold mixed with some kind of completely white metal.
"We heard that you have come to bring us a message."
This simple sentence that the King spoke already gave me quite a lot of insight into how the social rules worked within the palace. Given how my ident.i.ty as summon, or rather someone coming from an unfamiliar place could be seen through with just a single glance of your common officer, I didn"t dare to have any doubts that the King would fail to notice the same things that alerted the guards" superior.
That"s why I didn"t really bother all that much with the possibility that my way of interpreting the bows and social pleasantries would be taken wrongly. Lowering my head while leaning my body forward a bit, I slowly reached with my left hand towards my left pocket. As annoying and uncomfortable as it was to reach to where the letters were in this way, I didn"t dare to do anything that could even closely resemble an attempt to pull out a weapon.
"Your majesty, allow me to apologise in advance if any of my actions will appear to be harsh, uncultured or disrespectful. Doing so will never be my intention but just a result of the lack of knowledge about your culture and customs. As for the important part…"
Pushing the letter out on top of the open palms of both of my hands, I reached my hands towards the nearby royal guard. Even being a messenger directly responding to the king, I didn"t dare to have any hopes at pa.s.sing this letter to his hands personally. After all, there was no way that in a world labelled as "easy" some kind of spy could destroy the content right here and now?
Thankfully, those weird and kinda panicky words of mine didn"t come to the fruition that I could expect from the harder kinds of worlds. With the guard pa.s.sing the letter to the king himself, the middle-aged man on the throne quickly scanned through its content, before looking at me with an amiable look on his face.
"Dear messenger. Judging from what"s written inside and the way it is written… I don"t think any of my soldiers as wide as this kingdom might be, would be capable of covering such a long distance so quickly."
That made sense. Not only I was already quite fast before the entire cultivation thingy appeared in the world, but I could also delete all the time necessary for rest from the scheduled time of my run. With the time freeze still not completely exhausted, whenever I was in one world, the time flow relative to me in the other one would completely stall, awaiting my return. Only when this time limit would run off would I have to decide whether I wanted to spend the next few moments in other world or maybe back in my homeworld!
But if I were to think about it… Didn"t I just fakely introduced the idea of a marathon to this entire d.a.m.ned world?!
"As such, we can"t let you go without a proper reward. Tell me, what kind of remuneration are you looking for, in lieu of your services?"
Leaning back on his throne, the king stared directly at my face. From how calm his eyes were, I could tell that instead of being worried that I would ask for too much, he was simply curious about the nature of my request instead.
Yet, before I could answer, there was one thing that I absolutely had to do. Taking a look around, I scanned the behaviour, faces and the outfits of the people within the throne hall. And soon enough, I managed to locate a young man whose clothes gave him the perfect "sorcerer" vibes.
"Your majesty, I will once again for forgiveness in advance of uttering my request as I don"t know not only whether or not does it exist, but if it does, then how much could this one item I desire to be valued at. What I need… Is a potion or a herb that could help a person who is unable to absorb the mana, the energy of the world, while being exposed to huge amounts of it and unable to find a place where she would be safer."
With the tired face of my mum appearing in front of my eyes, I couldn"t stop myself from tightening my fists. While I still hoped that this King, the very first person of importance that I met in all the three worlds I travelled through so far, would be able to provide me with what I desired, even if this part of my expectations were to fail, I still could have some hopes that at least my system would reward me with something that would work for my mom"s sickness instead.
"Ah, mana oversaturation… Sadly, I do not personally own any item that could solve this problem, nor should that be the case for any of my subjects."
Shattering the first part of my hopes without even the slightest bit of effort, the King quickly pushed the bottom tip of his spear against the stone tiles of the floor to calm down the commotion that erupted in his chambers as soon as he gave the verdict.
"While I can"t give you what you hoped for, I can at least provide you with some herbs that can be used to decrease the symptoms. If you are lucky now while being unlucky prior to today with the state of the person you are trying to save deteriorating recently, then you still might be able to spend some days with them, saving them completely from the pain of this sickness."
With just a swipe of his hand, the man in a pointy hat that I noticed before disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear in the throne room just as suddenly and unexpectedly. In his hand, a bunch of fresh herbs was slowly starting to whittle down, making me realise that right now, literally, every second counted.
[Congratulations!]
[Host has fulfilled the world"s mission!]
[This world is now added to the list of leisure spots that host will be able to visit at will.]
[Pending reward - in order to collect, return to the bas.e.m.e.nt!]