Chapter 25 – To The Other Capital and The G.o.d’s Anguish
Renya party agrees to accept the prince request unanimously. They use the last of their time in the capital preparing for their long trip to the neighborhood kingdom capital.
Especially so for Therese as this will going to be her first long trip. But because she had experience in doing fieldwork all three years in the academy, she should be fine with it and preparation gets done without much trouble.
In between the long trip preparations, Therese and her friends finally had their graduation ceremony and successfully graduate. The season is now spring. It was a perfectly fit season for sending out the young chicks out from their nest.
After the graduation, Doris and Rudy went to the warrior guild to become an apprentice there while Russel went to the alchemist guild. Of course, he would become an apprentice too.
By using the guild network, the three friends promise to each other to keep in contact and to come flying by immediately if Therese had troubles in the future.
With a bit tears welling up her eyes, Therese can only says thank you to her friend kindness. Her smile that blossomed happily made Renya feel all warm inside.
And then after a few days pa.s.sed, at last the time to go to Rugartis together with the prince group has come. Renya party joined them disguised as one of the escorting party.
They pa.s.sed the castle near the border, climb up and down the gentle slope on the mountain road, and then pa.s.sed the castle that is belonged to Rugartis side.
The weather is good, and there are no obstacles that disturb them along the way. Their trip went too well that make it seems to be too easy.
Of course they don’t slack around with that fact and keep on watching in case any attacks would come but they don’t meet even one attack along the way.
Renya can’t help but to think it was weird but then Gerard explained it to him.
“It simple you know? The one who wants me dead surely wants to start a war. Well, killing me now on the way like this then spread bulls.h.i.t might calls for animosity but right now there are no one in Sirkaberia that highly support war so it might end differently from the way those warmonger wants. If they going to do it then they will do it in a way that will 100% cause a war. Of course if it was failed then it would be meaningless so they also want it to have a high possibility to success too. Thinking about it that way, having me inside Rugartis Capital is like a G.o.d send to them. They even can fabricate truth into something like: because the princess decided to cut the engagement, the stupid prince then went crazy and killed the princess. See? It was easy right? That’s why they would not attack now”
They talk about such sinister things when having lunch like it was just a laughable idle talk. But Renya understand the main point of it now so he can’t rebuke him too much.
The travel to Rugartia, the capital of Rugartis Kingdom, is said to take 1 week time normally with a cart.
If they use the road along the mountain, that traveling time can be shorten a bit but to keep in the safe side, they use the road that have un.o.bstructed view so they can scout their surrounding easily. They will also stop by the cities on their way to stay the night and restock if necessary for it was safer to stay in a city rather than camping out in the wild.
Within that time they travel, Renya party get to deepen their relationship with Gerard.
Of course everyone in Renya party tells Gerard about their origins.
Renya and Floria will keep their origins a secret for now thought.
Surprisingly Gerard didn’t even get disturbed when he heard about Elvira’s origin whom is a dragon and just accept it like that.
“Renya, you really have a well-diversified harem line up there. What kind of thing did you do to enable you to get them all to accept you? I really find it amazing you know? My opinion about you just keeps getting higher and higher!”
Far from disturbed, Gerard laughs heartily, enjoying his talks with Renya party. It was Renya party side instead who get disturbed by him. They think that Gerard is even more amazing for being able to laugh casually at things like this.
“How about you prince? Don’t you also need concubines to solve the matter regarding to your heir to the throne? But why I never hear about one?”
Floria suddenly strikes back with a deep topic! But in the face of this, Gerard only, again, laughs heartily.
“Well then if it was about my heir then I only need to do my best until they born. That is all there is for me. This is private but the girl that I fallen for is totally cute but is also a bit complex you know. If I were to start taking in concubines she might logically understand that it was one of our duty as a royalty. But even if she understands that with her head, she will definitely be angry and pout all the time from jealousy for at least half a year. In which of course, will make me as her main target to vent her anger so I have to be prepared for that. If I can have one wish, I definitely would ask for my 1st child to be a boy so my troubles regarding my heir can be cleared soon”
And Gerard replies Floria question again with a grand manner like usual. This prince really is easy to get along with.
Successor sure is a big problem that will eternally follows around those who have n.o.ble bloodline. Even most marriage basically ignores the feeling of the party related. Just in the effort to continuing their ‘n.o.ble blood’.
“Don’t you worry about me. When things get wrapped up nicely and peace comes at last, I can at last focus all my mind and work hard so I can have my successor quickly. By the way, Renya, what about your proficiency related to the ‘sword’ that is used at night?”
“Oioi, in this kind of situation where danger might come anytime what kind of topic did you bring up”
“You stupid! Being able to see the girls’ blushing face from this kind of indecent talk is like a reward to keep us spirited in this kind of dangerous situation. Am I wrong!?”
“I can only agree to that!”
Renya and Gerard, this two stupid people are again exchange strong handshake with each other. With this pathetic side of Renya which 100% agrees with what Gerard says just earlier, Floria keep smiling brightly, Elvira keep her gentle smile, Therese tilted her head because she don’t understand, and Brenda can only heaves a sigh. It is too bad but in Renya party, there aren’t any innocent hearted girls who will blush her face out with such indecent talk.
With that kind of calm atmosphere keep on enveloping their caravan, their travel continues smoothly without meeting any attacks.
But even if they don’t get any attacks from human, there are still monster that block their path from time to time. The reason is unclear but the monster in Rugartis Kingdom is more ferocious that those that in Sirkaberia Kingdom. Rugartis Kingdom also has wide mountainous area which make beast type monster appears often. Their caravan which consists of several human is only seen as a heap of food in those monsters eye.
A pack of giant wolf type monster attacks the caravan several times but all of those monster attacks were splendidly countered back. Renya party also takes a big role in countering the monster.
Renya with his sword.
Floria with her martial arts.
Brenda with her magic.
Elvira with her halberd.
and Therese… with her gun.
In this world, gun is not yet something that is recognized commonly as a weapon. If asked why it was because the gun here is not something like in Renya previous world where it uses bullet filled with gunpowder to shoot out the metallic head as a projectile. In this world, a gun is widely known as a magic tool to condense and shot out the magic power owned by its user. Most people know gun as a simple weapon to protect oneself. Of course it was one of the products of magic technology. It was designed so that even a weak person, who of course at least can lift a gun, can use it to protect themselves. It was also small in size so it has a high mobility. But because with the currect level of technology, creating one is costly and ma.s.s producing is still a far-fetched dream so the price is not something an ordinary people could casually buy.
What about the opinion from the wanderer or those who work mainly consist of fighting? Their answer is also not that positive either.
Gun is, in the end, meant for self-protection. Meaning that it firepower isn’t that high. Even if its mana cost are more efficient than other projectile based weapons because it was simply just converting mana into bullet, it still need maintenance from time to time. And that maintenance is also quite troublesome without the necessary knowledge. For wanderer and fighting oriented work that doesn’t know when danger would befall them, gun is a little bit unreliable because of such reasons.
But then again, that kind of trouble in the end only happens to the ma.s.ses.
The gun that Therese uses is something that she got in her school days. It was given to her when she finishes a job given to her by the guild. And Therese was able to understand the structure of the gun that she was able to imagine how she could improve her gun with ease.
As a product of magic technology, that gun can be used by everyone unlike a magic item. But in case of Therese’s gun, it has pa.s.sed many times of remodeling that it has become a gun that is exclusively can be used by Therese only.
It has a function to adjust the firepower by regulating the amount of mana it condenses.
It has a function to enchant the bullet with elemental power by means of magic.
It has an improved rate of fire so the rapid fire speed is faster compared to the common guns.
Etc, etc.
Renya was surprised when he first hear about Therese gun. It was already something that no normal mere student could achieve. In fact, the sight of the small bodied Therese with that silver gun in one hand is already weird, the sight of her repulsing monsters with that gun from a safe distance is too surreal. Witnessing such surreal sight made Renya realize that the fact of Therese and Doris fight the Ordought sect raid together until their last is not a made up story at all.
And above it all,
“Thank you for finding my gun nanodesu!”
Therese happily expressed her thankfulness while rubbing her cheeks to her gun. That sigh made some people shrink back due to its weirdness but to Renya, he found that Therese’s mecha-fetish as cute and just let it slide like that. Renya that can feel such thing really is ‘as to be expected’.
Their travel until the capital only had that kind of troubles so they somehow felt disappointed. Under that feeling they easily pa.s.s the gate and set foot in Rugartis Kingdom’s capital, Rugartia.
=*=
Rugartis Kingdom capital city, Rugartia.
Compared to Sirkaberia’s capital city Beriand, Rugartia have more blacksmith and armory stores lined up in the area that seems to be their business district. Another difference is that while Beriand was built by making the royal castle as it center and spread out evenly in a circular form, Rugartia was built in a fan shaped form with royal castle as the base. Behind the royal castle is a mountain range that serves as a natural fortress for the city. Because of the shape of the city, Rugartia only have two city gates to manage the influx of people coming and going from the capital city. Those two gates is the front gate and the west gate.
The west gate was built because it leads to an important port city. Thanks to that port city, Rugartis Kingdom can actively export their mineral product and armaments that their industries yield off. Because of that, the amount of goods flowing from other country is not something to be compared with Sirkaberia. It might also be the reason why the business district was made to be that wide and fully packed with different kinds of stores.
Looking at such scenery, Renya suddenly have the urges to go on an adventure to look around the capital city. But he held back that urge because he is now the prince’s hidden ace. He can’t just move around as he pleases. From today, the conference that will discuss about the future of both kingdoms will be held for a few days. Everyone in the party knows that something that try to foils that conference would definitely happen.
Then again, only a.s.suming the wait and see tactic and get the first move taken by the enemy could mean fatal. Antic.i.p.ating that, before entering the capital city, Renya had made some few secret arrangements with Gerard.
“This magic tool will let you talk telepathically to me even if we separate”
While saying that, Renya gives a simple purple rock pendant to Gerard.
In truth, that pendant real function is [those who wear this pendant, when that people wish to, can have their thought be heard by the G.o.ds (in this case Renya)] if one have to write instruction manual for it. It was a divine armament created with haste on the spot by Renya but, that was a fact that Gerard will never know.
If he receives ‘contact’ from Gerard, Renya can just reply it with his own ability to do telepathy.
There is a magic item that let you talk with a far away person using magic principle. But they aren’t that effective and their range is very limited making them hard to use. This kind of magic still need a lot of improvement before it can be applied commonly.
Making a kind of telephone with the magic technology is an interesting idea but there are not really any needs for creating one so it would be wasted in the end.
Of course, Gerard who receives that over technology item is shocked when Renya casually handed it over to him but he seems to understand Renya’s intention and silently accept that.
“Hoo… I never heard of such magic item being found neither magic technology had advanced far enough to create something like this…… Would it help if I don’t ask for its origin?”
“Yeah, please do so”
“To not make you my enemy is probably the greatest luck I had in my life ever”
“Haha then I accept is as a compliment. Oh and is there any other detailed instruction prince Gerard? ”
“Just in case I already prepares ways to protect me and Angelica, and also the king of Rugartis and the rest of his family but…… in the worst case even a coup d’etat is possible. So can you try to get familiar with the city geography? Honestly I already tried to guess where the war would erupt but there still no positive result”
“The possibility of war not erupting is?”
“You can think of it as almost impossible at this state. There are already around two digit people that I suspect would try to make a move to obstruct the conference. I even have detected those with suspicious movement. But they still lacking in manpower to actually deal any damage. Only, there is one person that will definitely be a treat for us”
“And that person is?”
“The king younger brother. He is adult enough and also has the peerage of a duke. He is the top of the radical faction that shouting claim around in large voice that in short is about how this kingdom don’t need a weak king and how about he wants to recreate this kingdom from the ashes of the old one and that old one mean this current Rugartis Kingdom. He dared to try usurping the current king with such illogical just cause is because he is also a successor to the throne that is close to the top. The one who still have the mettle to come up front in the rebellion would be only that guy”
The prince who wished for a bloodless revolution to put war into a full stop and the opposing faction who wished for a revolution full of bloodshed that will drag all the population into misery.
It was really a war plot that overflows with royal road fantasy taste in it.
Renya unintentionally psyched himself. He doesn’t have any intention to keep helping him forever but he is more than willing to help Gerard bring his scheme out successfully now that Renya already pokes his nose inside this case this deep.
“I know it might be late already for that but, take care”
“Humph, I know that I challenged a den of thieves that filled with enraged vengeful spirit. But I have the girl with whom I vow to spend the rest of my life in my side. So I will try my best not to show my pathetic side ever! The only thing that I will get is victory only! And for that sake I don’t sit cross-legged and wait for a miracle to come only. I have do many things and endure many hardship to prepare for this so I won’t let anybody come out suddenly and steal it from me without any fight. But I know I am just a mere mortal so when I’m in danger, I expect you to give me a hand at that time. I expect a lot from you you know?”
And that was Renya secret arrangement that he prepares with Gerard before going in the capital. Gerard att.i.tude is as arrogant as usual but because he also expecting help from Renya, he can’t help but try to give his best to this prince.
After they part from Gerard group, Renya party goes to the inn that has been prepared for them first.
The inn room where they stay now has a higher quality than the room where they stayed when they are in Beriand.
The bedding, blanket, and pillow are all first rated cla.s.s. It can be felt from how soft it texture is when touching it. The furniture also created from a high quality wood. On top of it, there is also, eventhough small, a bathtub installed in this room. It is really room created for luxury purpose.
As expected from a job received from the royalty, they don’t mind splurging a little bit like this. Being able to stay in a place like this for a few days is already a great reward for them. Everyone in Renya party quietly say their thanks to the prince.
After they finish checking their room, they start walking around the capital with the city map in one hand… is what a normal people would do. Renya and Floria hide their appearance using their divine power, strengthening their legs and manage to sightseeing the majority of the capital city. If done normally, the capital city is just too big for one to be able to finish walking all around the city in just one day but Renya was able to finish it within just a few hours.
Not stopping at that, Renya also uses his divine power to check for hidden path and shortcut within the city.
He also checks whether there any pa.s.sage that will lead to the castle from outside.
He also checks the opposite, whether there any pa.s.sage to escape from the castle secretly to the outside.
Not forgetting a way to get in and out from the city without pa.s.sing through the city gate.
He searched until every nook and cranny diligently but he still unable to find any place that seems befitting to freely do secret plot or the likes.
“What a disappointment”
“What did you expect from that anyway”
Renya comes back to his room with a frank dejected look with a dropped shoulder. Brenda rebukes back at him with a tired expression.
“Well you know, a castle should have at least one secret pa.s.sage to escape out shouldn’t it?”
“In the past history, there is a king that reversely get a.s.sa.s.sinated because of that kind of secret pa.s.sage. Those a.s.sa.s.sins use that secret pa.s.sage to get close to the king and escapes without anyone noticed. So because of that, it was a common sense nowadays to not create that kind of secret pa.s.sage”
“Is there any magic to transfer a person without regarding distance and s.p.a.ce?”
“If it was a high ranked magician then making a magic item to transfer one person is possible but it can only be used to teleport form one similar magic item to another. To transfer oneself to a specific place is still an impossible feat for now”
If there are such magic or tools to make that possible then it will be a disadvantage for the defensive side so Renya exhales a relief sigh. If there is one then he already thought of covering the whole capital with his divine power. But Renya is not picky with his way of doing things. If there is a need for it, he had already prepares many cheat cla.s.s measure in his sleeve.
Renya is not the kind of G.o.d that will hold himself back.
And because he needs to wait for the enemy to move first, there is already nothing he could do for the moment.
Luckily his inn located quite close with the royal castle and on top of it, his room window shows a perfect view of the castle.
And the day is getting darker. The people coming and going outside is also getting spa.r.s.e.
Even in this kind of time, Gerard still endeavor in preparing for the war that will shouldered his home kingdom’s and this kingdom’s people’s fate in the future.
Bedding for six people have been prepared in one large room. Seeing that, what Renya think in his mind are only one thing.
(…… a large room eh, I have to hold myself back for a while if things continue like this……)
For a man, this situation is indeed a grave anguish.
Author note: even for a G.o.d, painful thing is still painful.
Eros note: that pain of unable to have a private time for oneself... IYKWIM