To the Imperial Palace – 2
‘I’ll have to take care of this for now.’
I checked the ring I had put in my pouch. It was a ring with the pattern of the Platroid family obtained from the Arachnainera Boss Room.
I don’t know if I’ll have time to deliver this, but it didn’t hurt to keep it just in case. It’s good to solve it together, and even if you can’t, it’s not a loss to take it once.
‘I wonder if I’ll have some time after going to and from the imperial palace.’
It is true that the results went well, but none of the goals that I originally intended to achieve were achieved.
I still haven’t gotten a rune that cancels the battle fatigue debuff, and I haven’t defeated all the essential bosses of the early story yet. Still, there were still things that needed to be done.
Now that the stats have risen, you have to find a new weapon to use instead of the bloody sword, and you have to find a black magic to use with that newly found weapon, and you have to find a rune to use with that black magic.
I already had a lot of things to do, but with a compulsory event, it was a mountain beyond a mountain.
It was fortunate that there was room for the main story to proceed with this call. The other two essential bosses will get a chance somehow.
I checked my outfit in the mirror, made sure there were no corners, and left the room.
‘Does this originally tighten the neck like this?’
It was very awkward to suddenly wear a full set of uniforms after always wearing plain cloth tops and plain cloth or leather pants. In particular, it felt like the neck area was constantly tightening.
When I arrived at the main gate of the castle where the captains of the knights were waiting, tying the clothes around my neck, I saw four figures still wearing white sleeveless shirts and dolphin pants.
I knew that it was the conquest of the Knights, but I didn’t know that I would be dressed like that until the moment I had an audience with His Majesty the Emperor. The clothes worn when meeting His Majesty are casual clothes. It was terrible.
Unlike when they went to see the Pope, all four were not wearing armor. According to the people themselves, the purpose of the audience itself is not the purpose of security, so the act of wearing armor is rather rude.
When I went to meet the Pope, I wanted to dress well and do something, but I decided to just assume that there must be etiquette that I don’t know about.
“I’m here.”
When I waved at the knight commanders huddled together at the main gate of the castle and wandered around, the four heads turned this way at the same time.
And as soon as they saw me, their eyes widened.
Rize looked at me with a face that seemed completely stunned, and Erika did the same. Not only was Claudia no different, even Iris looked half-hardened.
Confused by the reaction of the knight commanders, I opened my mouth.
“what? Why are you suddenly doing this as a group?”
“Oh, no… … That, the clothes fit so well… … ?”
“yes?”
I lowered my head and scanned my body at Rize’s stuttering words. Overall, the uniform was black with golden embroidery embroidered here and there.
It looked much more glamorous than the uniform Caicilia wore, so when I implicitly asked if it was okay to wear more fancy clothes than the emperor, Aurora really laughed out of breath.
He said that while he appreciates the clothes he chose and praised them highly, he said that there should be a level of verbal abuse. All of a sudden, I ended up flattering Aurora about her fashion sense.
But what do you really mean?
While my overall uniform was richly decorated and extremely ornate, the only ornament on Caicilia’s uniform was the golden insignia on her shoulders. The rest was just black.
Considering the fact that he was the emperor of the empire, it must have been quite plain clothing, but in the eyes of others, it did not seem that way.
“Hey, Rize. Then I’ll drop my chin It doesn’t matter if you watch Delta, but what happens if you keep your mouth shut?”
“… … .”
Claudia, who was the first among the four to recover to her original state, closed Lize’s gaping mouth with her hand. But as soon as I closed it, I saw it open again and sighed.
“Why is Erica like this again? Did you lose your mind as a pair with your sister?”
And Erica, similar to Rise, had an almost stunned expression. Seeing them both open-mouthed and blank-eyed, I thought they were sisters after all.
It took a few more minutes for the two to come to their senses.
As soon as she came to her senses, Rize clung to my arm much more violently than usual, and Erika was busy glancing at me sideways.
‘If you’re going to see it, you can just watch it openly.’
It’s not like it wears out or anything.
Suddenly, I remembered what Rize had mentioned before. He said that even though he and Erica don’t look alike on the outside, they have the same taste in men in case someone isn’t a sister.
A thought popped into my head for a moment, but I quickly erased it. It is excessive self-consciousness to go further here. No matter how much Rize and her body crossed the line, she was not Erika.
This reaction was the same even after arriving at the mansion.
“Wow, I picked this one, but it’s really terrifying. Is it because you like hangers? I don’t think it was like this when I lived in the store.”
“Why are you fussing again after seeing the lord the other day?”
“I’ve seen it once, so it’s more like this. Isn’t that obvious?”
As soon as Aurora saw me, she nodded her head and started observing me, and Aurora’s actions continued until Iris, who couldn’t stand the current situation, interrupted in the middle.
“Younglord. You must start soon.”
“Oh. It did. look at my mind I almost got in trouble because of Delta.”
“… … Is that my fault?”
Aurora, lightly ignoring my bewildered murmur, took out the teleportation scroll that had been tucked away between the emperor’s decrees. Iris took it over and spread it out.
The maids of the mansion, including Lana, and the knights who normally guarded the mansion came out to see us off. Aurora looked at Lana and said calmly.
“I’ll leave the mansion to you while I’m gone, Lana.”
“Yes, master. We will definitely live up to your expectations.”
There was no rhetoric, but it was a conversation that showed strong trust in each other.
Lana bowed her head at Aurora, then raised her head slightly and looked at me. Then he flinched at the thought and lowered his head again.
It seemed that the shame of the last joke incident was still less. Well, even if it’s like me, I joked with someone I wasn’t close to, and if the reaction was sh*t, I would have suffered for a week.
Holding the teleportation scroll in her hand, Iris placed her palm on the scroll’s magic circle. It moved as if mana was absorbed into his hand. The hand that received the mana glowed blue.
It was an item sold as a consumable in the game. It is used to teleport the player to a location pre-stored on the scroll, but it was filthy expensive for a one-time consumable.
Of course, it was to the point where it was possible to keep hundreds of cards in the inventory in high rounds where the experience and money dropped in the field increased considerably.
Iris drew a blue circle enclosing the six of us, including herself, and removed her hand from the rim of the circle. Immediately, a pillar of light soared into the sky. It was a signal that teleportation had begun.
“Please go.”
As I listened to Lana’s final farewell, a familiar sensation that I had experienced a while ago ran through my body. His vision flickered, and a blue flash covered his eyelids. The fact that his eyes automatically closed because of that was also the same.
The flash soon subsided. I opened my eyes. The vision was restored, and the surrounding scenery came into view. It was more luxuriously decorated than Aurora’s parlor, no, more than any other space I had ever seen.
It seemed that enough gold was used to decorate this one room alone. It was so bright that it made my eyes hurt.
In addition, it did not simply end with gold, but each piece of furniture was decorated with all kinds of jewels, showing the end of luxury.
“… … .”
While I was tired of the splendor, the knight commanders looked around with slightly moved expressions. It would have been a new feeling since he had returned to the imperial palace after a few years.
“How do you feel?”
As I was looking around the interior, someone approached me. It was Aurora.
“It is great in many ways. Is the entire imperial palace like this?”
“Well… … Since this is our mansion, it is used as a drawing room, so there are some that are specially decorated more luxuriously, but you can just say that all other places are similar. It’s not that different from here. And the central hall and bedroom where my aunt lives are several times more gorgeous than this one.”
“A more luxurious bedroom than this one, can I sleep there?”
“Well, I don’t know. Ask him directly when you have an audience with His Majesty.”
When I looked at her asking if I was sane, Aurora laughed. Leaving Aurora behind, I glanced at the antique yet huge grandfather clock that occupied one corner of the room.
There were still about 15 minutes left until the time the emperor said. As soon as I confirmed that, I was about to lie down on the sofa when I heard someone knocking on the parlor door.
The knight commanders reflexively froze in place. Everyone seemed to think that something had finally arrived.
On the other hand, I approached the door, wondering if there was still a little bit left until the time the emperor said. No matter how much I thought about it, Caicilia wasn’t the type to call ahead of the appointed time.
And before I could even open the door, someone slammed it open from the outside.