Sitting before a round wooden table and under the shade of a well-engineered shed. Ryan watched as speckled silver fish floated up a pool of water, shaking off little droplets that glistened as they fell into the stream before the fish descended back into the pool.
Beyond the view of the pool and walls lay the tall mountain peaks pointed against the sun's beams.
"My King!" Rictor suddenly called. The King turned to respond, "What is—"
Beside Rictor was a tall, burly man with a well-groomed beard, clad in armor from neck to toe with a red cape that heralded a shiny, golden sun.
"General Grutwick, at his majesty's service." The Man said, slapping his fists together before bowing. On the other hand, Ryan was struggling to pronounce the General's name.
'Grootwig?'
He shook his head, annoyed at the failure of an attempt, and looked. "General, please have a seat."
He watched as Grutwick pulled out a chair from under the table and sat on it. Rictor then excused himself, leaving the two alone.
Ryan faced the man, and for a while, he noticed the strange feeling of ease despite the latter's hulking frame.
On those arms, he could see the marks and scars of battle that roughened the man's skin. Such was to be expected from someone who was constantly leading men on the frontlines, even though he didn't need to.
To him, it made sense to reduce pointless casualties when someone stronger can wield it.
Of course, it was all dependent on whether the leader in question saw it fit to do so. This was only one out of the two or three expert-ranked people standing before him.
'That's enough thinking.'
"I heard that his majesty and his guard were found quite deep in Thorns forest." Grutwick opened the conversation with a smile.
'What an odd name to give a forest,' Ryan instinctively creased his brows as Grutwick continued, "The Caravan you were supposed to arrive with was attacked. Does his majesty remember how it occurred in the first place?"
"Not a clue," Ryan answered. Now that he thought about it, how come he didn't remember anything, especially with how they got in with that snake in the first place?
There was no sign of dead bodies around or anything, just two people in a forest. In addition, no memories seemed to have been gained about what had happened before the time he reached the forest.
No memory of childhood, memory of where he was before he arrived, none.
It was strange but also peculiar. Since he didn't have any leads, he might as well pry some information since he couldn't think of anything else to do.
He was about to open his mouth to speak, but the General beat him to it.
"Hmm," Grutwick said with a grunt, "The forest is not a befitting place for those with small numbers. Whenever his majesty goes there, please take a larger force with ."
'As if I'll ever!'
"Your words are well received."
Grutwick then added, "Killing an Abnormal beast by oneself is quite worthy, especially when his Majesty's hands look a bit…soft."
"Ahh, so you don't think I've ever held a sword before? Desperate times call for desperate measures, don't you agree?"
Maybe it all happened because of the adrenaline rush.
"Besides, to a General such as yourself, killing an Abnormal beast is nothing extraordinary."
A female servant, dressed in a pleated white dress, walked into the shed carrying a tray with dark brown, square-shaped biscuits.
Grrrh!
Ryan's stomach gurgled a bit as he looked, and he chuckled internally.
"Your majesty," The Maid paid homage and served the bowl upon the table before leaving.
Once her presence was no more, the Burly man threw out another question, "In the Future, will his Majesty visit the frontlines or rather, stay within the confines of his palace?"
Ryan smiled in turn, wondering what this man's questions were trying to tug at from his mouth, "Visiting the frontlines to witness a battle occur would incite a blood-rushing moment, but the logic in my head forbids me from dying cause of a foolish decision."
The truth was that he had no intention to spend time on any of this; right now, he had to search for any means available to escape this 'reality'.
The position of a King contained quite a lot of dangers, including this one man in front of him. History gave too many possibilities of what could go wrong in this case, even if the people here were less than almost half a million.
In one scenario, he could become too distrustful and could be constantly unsettled around the court; anyone conniving enough would notice and take the chance to usurp him.
Coming from a land that he had no recollection of didn't help him that much; he barely knew anyone here.
Of course, there was also the chance of an enemy nation coming with a much larger force to squash them like bugs and execute him even if he pleaded for surrender.
The loyalty placement also didn't help with these matters, since he couldn't even tell who was loyal or not.
Caught up in his internal monologue, he was unaware of how long he had taken to answer, prompting the General to rephrase the question.
This rephrasal puzzled him even more.
"If I may be blunt, I'm curious, does his majesty find his stay at the palace a little too.. trivial?"
A wary feeling arose in Ryan as he tried to figure out the latter's intentions, "What do you mean by trivial?" He said, trying to act relaxed and aloof by leisurely taking out a biscuit from the bowl at the center.
"I mean, does the King not find seeing officials daily a mundane task?"
"Ah," He mused. Thinking of why he might need to sleep more these days.
Unsure of the intent, he carefully chose his words, "One's duty to their nation has no need for importance if it would be called 'trivial',"
"I see."
"If it would please his highness. Fort Barton would like to invite you to a little entertainment of ours."
'Entertainment? Is your Fort a small colony? Does it have mimes?'
"Fort Barton ehh? I will visit when fate graces me with the chance."
He heard a terse chuckle from the General who pushed back away his chair and rose to his feet, "I pray that fate will grant you the chance to, Sire."
"You are the King after all."
As he watched the man exit the courtyard, Ryan let out a sigh of relief before chomping on another biscuit.
Then he looked at the tab.
[You cannot gather any information from this character as you are still weak.]
'What?!' Ryan felt incredibly mortified by that result.
'So in other words, he is at least on the Second Realm? And has a high mastery at that?'
The conclusion sent chills running down his spine.
'It seems that if any of these Generals can choose when to discard me, I wonder why? Or could it be that they are waiting until I settle before they act?'
"Is it even right to ask a King how he feels about ruling his nation?" He shook his head with that thought.
While trying to restrain the paranoid thoughts from seeping into his mind, he chose to focus his attention on something other than some conspiracy.
Regardless, the question still lingered: why had no one taken the throne but left it vacant for him to get it?
Completely unaware of the conspiracies brewing inside the King's mind, Grutwick was also reviewing his own reading of the man.
"It seems he recently awakened his core and has quite a bit of potential. If he keeps it up, only time will tell if it will blossom or die prematurely."
He stared fixedly as he crossed two open doors that allowed him to exit the courtyard and felt the surrounding temperature drop.
A man clad in armor stepped from the side of the wall and inched closer to the Major, "General. How did it go?"
"Nothing much, the least we can do is observe. Later, we will decide."
To Ryan, this seemed like a drama, one which he would have preferred to watch. If he was going to survive in the world and not die prematurely, he needed to act like a King.
To explain it better, he had to act long enough to be a King, and at the first chance he got, he would willingly use it and leave this darned…Tum?
If he was going to survive long enough to find a solution, he needed to at least find something that would help him maintain that illusion.
[New Quest - The Nation's Store
Your ascension to the throne is a historic event in Ridlockia's history. However, you know what would make it better? Access to a store with powerful items, tools and even figures.
Objective - Reach 25 points for each and every one of your stats and a pool of 125 mana to unlock this feature.
Strength - 12/25
Agility - 14/25
Speed - 13/25
Luck - 14/25
Charisma - 14/25
Mana - 40/125]
A small grin crept up the King's face as he glanced at the requirements.
'Seems the opportunity has presented itself.'