After walking every child in their room together with their family, or at least some friends they made, I and Ryu flew toward the Jian Kingdom’s capital to meet the king and report to him what we found in his territory.
“Think you can keep up with me?” → Shen
I asked while flying around, looking down at Ryu.
“Hah! If it’s only flying then I can do that much.” → Ryu
Suddenly, from his back 2 black wings appeared and from his forehead 2 little horns sprouted.
“Oooh~? You’re focusing the primordial energy on your wings? That’s a clever idea. But for how long can you keep it up?” → Shen
“I think I’m good for one day. I feel like after transforming into a full dragon, my body became more used with this kind of energy.” → Ryu
Ryu tried to explain while feeling confused himself.
“W-what?! Your body got accustomed to energies that were used even for the creation of stars?! What beast are you now?” → Shen
“Ahahaha~ what do you mean? I can’t be left behind by my bro like this, can I?” → Ryu
Ryu laughed and flew in the Jian’s capital direction with the speed of sound.
“… Well, if I have to say it myself, I can say you’re stronger than me.” → Shen
We flew for more than 2 weeks. At night we’ll camp in the woods while in the day we’ll fly through the clouds to not be seen. It was already autumn in this world, making the sky almost all the time cloudy. After we got to the capital, we landed somewhere nearby and walked our way to the gates.
Being the capital of a kingdom, it needed some imposing walls with a huge palace in the middle and even bigger towers in the corners, looking like a typical image from a fantasy game.
“…If this is only a kingdom…how epic would look the Empire’s capital?” → Ryu
Ryu asked a little bit taken aback by the imposing walls and towers. The towers were as big as the Eiffel Tower while the walls were half of them but thick enough for 6 carriages to be able to run on top of them at the same time and still have some space for the travelers. What was even more surprising was the design used in building the capital. Everything looked as if it were straight out from the Chinese historical books. The architecture was 100% Chinese and looked gorgeous. We walked in front of the huge gates made of iron with a thickness of four and a half meter.
“Please excuse me, young masters, may we know who you might be?”
The guards were unusually polite to us. It was because they knew what kind of people they were able to offend. They saw my white and clean coat with golden embroidery over expensive light cream colored clothes. Ryu had a black coat of leather with white embroideries which looked a little bit like flames, over a dark-grey shirt with leather pants. We looked completely opposed to each other, reason the others looked at us with surprised eyes, able to tell we weren’t that simple. We used such eye-catching clothes so we won’t have too many problems with the guards.
“You don’t need to know who we are, so better step back if you don’t wish to have trouble with the king himself. What you’re allowed to know is that we’re sending a report about something which was overlooked by some incompetents.” → Ryu
Ryu said coldly to the guards. He knew they had to pay something to be able to enter, but he wanted to see if he could go in for free, there was nothing to lose if he was just trying, right?
“Y-yes! I’m sorry for not being able to see what was in front of me! Young masters, please this way!”
The guards made way and let us in for free. We saw a soldier hurrying to send a report to the castle but we didn’t care, making the king aware of us was our goal in the first place. We rushed in front of the castle where the guards were looking around with stern eyes. When they saw me getting closer, one of them shouted.
“STOP! Who you are and why have you come to the Jian Palace?”
He shouted while looking with no respect, nor with any enmity. His face being neutral.
“My name is Shen while my friend here is Ryu. We are saint level warriors and wish to report to the king about some disturbances in the Snow Village.” → Shen
I said Saints… But this monster here is already a Great Saint. → Ryu
I thought while looking at Ryu with a plain look.
“P-please wait a moment!”
The guard rushed inside. After 5 minutes he came back while sweating profoundly.
“P-please come in, I’ll walk the two young masters in the waiting room.”
We walked inside the palace and I stopped myself to be completely dazed. The place was huge and looked like an image ripped out from a fantasy book. The ceiling was so high one needed to look up with an angle of almost 90 degrees to see it and it was in the form of an arch. From up there came a huge chain which was caught to a 6-meter tall chandelier which crystals to lighten the place. On the ground there was a huge red carpet that covered almost the entire floor while the walls looked like they were made from a white jade, glistering from the crystals’ light, the high ceiling was sustained by huge white pillars embroidered with colorful stones and golden lines.
“…”
I along with Ryu walked without saying anything while analyzing the interior without moving our heads too much, not wishing to look more suspicious then we already seemed to be.
“Please wait here.”
We reached inside a room with a nice view then made to wait for the king’s invitation. Outside the huge windows, there was a green garden with beautiful flowers. Noble young misses were walking around the garden while young masters were talking on the benches, looking at the beautiful women with admiration. Of course, there were some with lewd eyes but tried to not show it, while there were even some couples holding hands and walking around in the garden with peaceful expressions.
“Hooh~? Do they keep the school inside the royal castle? Interesting way of controlling the masses.” → Ryu
Ryu laughed with discontent at this view. They all had white uniforms and one weapon was hanging on their backs or at their waist, showing their combat role.
“…Indeed… After these young masters and misses attain a certain point of power, they’ll be sent in the Empire’s Military Academy, then fight for the empire in a hopeless war which is already long for more than 4000 years…” → Shen
I said with some sadness in my eyes, knowing these young people will be sent to their death.
“For so long?! Were there ever moments of peace?” → Ryu
“Of course they had moments of peace. But they were at most 30 years, giving enough time for the younger generations to grow up and for the population to recover… That’s truly laughable. None of the 2 empires think of ending the wars, keeping on the pointless fights, like wishing to keep the population of the 2 continents on control or something…” → Shen
“Huh? You mean there might be someone behind this pointless war or the 2 emperors are in hand with each other?” → Ryu
Ryu asked, pretty surprised about such a conclusion.
“I don’t know…I can’t say for sure-” → Shen
Right when I finished talking, a maid came in.
“Master Shen, Master Ryu, The king welcomes you.”
She then walked us in front of the royal hall where the king was sitting. After that, she bowed then left, not having the rights to enter without being called.
“It was about the time.” → Ryu
Ryu said with cold eyes while opening the huge gate of more than 6 meters in height. While walking in the hall, we shot glances left and right to see in what kind of environment we just entered. In the right and left there were rows of soldiers with full shiny heavy armor with huge spears, sitting in a straight position. Deeper inside, there were different kinds of nobles sitting on huge chairs on the left and right of the king. They were old and young men, with imposing auras and of different races. Most of them had shrewd faces while few had a righteous look in their eyes. To my surprise, on the throne was a young man with a serious and noble face. From his looks one could tell that giving some more time he’ll become a good ruler. This truly surprised me. But what shocked me even more and almost made me release my combat aura was that behind him the 5 imperial guards were sitting with imposing faces.
Without even being able to introduce ourselves, a grandmaster behind the young king rose from his luxurious chair and shouted at me while stuttering.
“W-why are you here?! D-did you come here to t-take revenge on us? D-do you even know who we are?!”
The grandmaster was a middle-aged man, he was one of the ones to whom I almost broke their cultivation. At that time I thought Isa ended the cultivation of two grandmasters but he was just able to lower their cultivation to Great Warrior, which is right under the Master rank of power.
Ryu got closer to me and whispered in an amused tone.
“Not even two steps inside and you’re already hated. That’s the Shen I know!” —Ryu
“Ah shut up…” → Shen
I rolled my eyes at Ryu’s comment then waited to see what else he wanted to tell me. To my surprise, another guard opened his mouth, this time in my favor.
“Quiet! If he wished to take revenge on us, he would’ve killed us at that time completely! To change his mind like this when he has the power to kill us, does that even make sense to you?”
The middle-aged Saint shouted back at the now Great Warrior, not daring to let him talk anymore.
“You know each other?” → King
The young king looked surprised at the Saint while looking back at us, feeling even more pressure.
“Yes, he’s the one who defeated us with the help of a weird golem, new spells, and while controlling energy stones…”
The Saint explained without hiding anything.
“I see…” → King
The King looked at us through slits then asked us.
“Why have you come here, dear Saints?” → King
He asked with not much respect but not overbearing either, showing he had no fear but didn’t wish for troubles, either.
“…Before asking what connections your majesty has with these five retar-… people, let me say this first. I came here to make a report about slave trading in your kingdom. More exactly, in the Snow Village.” → Shen
After saying that everyone looked at me with surprised faces. They started to debate and whisper with quite the loud voices.
“This is ridiculous. How can there be slaves in the Jian Kingdom when slavery is prohibited on both continents?”
A surprised dragoon looked at me with big eyes. It was visible on his face that what I said was truly shocking.
“T-that’s right! There’s no way slavery happens in this kingdom! Y-you must be lying to find troubles with our King!”
Another shrewd faced noble shouted out loud. He was a human and his brown eyes were filled with panic and hate.
I found an accomplice. → Shen
I said telepathically to Ryu. I was able to read through people’s eyes in their souls, seeing in that noble’s eyes only panic, anxiety, anger, and some guilt with regret.
Good. It was expected for there to be more people. → Ryu
Ryu answered with a grave tone then…
“You all.” → Ryu
Ryu’s voice was strong and domineering, making everyone quiet down.
“We came here to report this not because we wanted to make you lot debate over what happens in your kingdom but for you to take action. We already saved more than 800 slaves and we’re prepared to send them to their homes. They are people from Vestria, Nostrung, and Eihwaz of all races. They were rescued by us and now they are looked after by our people.” → Ryu
After saying so, Ryu took out a memory crystal which showed images of the slaves before and after being rescued. It showed grotesque images of some of them having some body parts missing, some sick and the rest half dead or drugged. After that, they were shown how they recovered little by little and how they were tacked care of by our people. In the end, the video showed how I was healing them, reconstructing their horns, wings, arms, fingers, scars, etc, leaving the ones present amazed by the video.
“T-this is impossible…how can there be such strong magic to grow missing body parts?”
A wolf beast-man with a missing eye was dumbfounded by the last parts of the video.
“T-that’s a fake! How can that be real?! There is no such magic in this world! I’m sure they are the ones who are holding the slaves and just wish to blame someone else!”
An old-man shouted with fear and anxiety in his voice.
“Sir George! Please calm down!” → King
The Jian’s King shouted at the old noble, making him mute.
“Hahaha~ so you’re George Carder I presume?” → Ryu
Ryu laughed and asked the old man.
“H-how do you know…?!” → George
The old man was sweating bullets after having his full name pronounced.
“Hahaha~ your majesty, let me help you clean up some of the trash which is in your beautiful castle!” → Ryu
Ryu laughed while taking out a parchment. He opened it and started reading with a clear voice.
“[Dear Lord of Seria City, George Carder. I give you this gift in congratulating you for succeeding in getting the rank of ‘Count’ from our little and immature King, little Tian. I give you 10 s*x-slaves and 30 working slaves, all which a market-price of more than 3000 gold in total. I wish you’ll enjoy and won’t forget my good-will towards you. With sincere greetings: Marius Silvester, Lord of Snow Village.] Oh my! So he wished to send you some of the slaves we saved as a gift or bribe? How nice of him. But I wonder how many did he sent before this?” → Ryu
Ryu laughed with a happy face. This letter was stolen by Theodore when he was saving the s*x-slaves. He thought it might be helpful so he grabbed it in a hurry.
Good job little Theo~. I’ll be sure to buy you some toys after this. → Theo
Ryu felt thankful for Theo, like this he can find more bastards who participated in this slave trading.
“T-T-T-THATS FRAMED! That letter is fake! They want to frame me!” → George
Old George snapped and howled like a crazy ghost.
“QUIET!” → King
The young King shouted, silencing everyone.
Immature huh? Very well. We’ll see how immature I am! → King
King Tian looked with anger at the letter.
“Please let everyone examine the letter to see if is truly written by Lord Silvester.” → King
“But of course~.” → Ryu
Ryu threw the letter which flew at the nearest noble who examined it and was shocked to see Lord Silvester’s signature.
“I-It’s authentic, there’s no mistake, it was written by Lord Silvester…”
The wolf-man noble who got the letter passed it to the dark elemental fairy beside him. He read everything inside it, then said:
“My King, we can’t let Silvester go with such sins. He must be decapitated!”
The fairy seemed to have some feuds with Silvester.
“…If I’m not wrong, 2 days ago we got a message from Lord Silvester through a pigeon-letter, saying he found some slave traders in his village and asked for assistance.”
The old Dragoon remembered something after reading the letter.
“Indeed, after we rescued the slaves, he started searching around the village for ‘slave traders’. He truly knows how to control the information. Too bad I was a step faster.” → Shen
I said with a smile and cold eyes.
“And about my magic, if you still don’t believe I healed those slaves, then… You, come here.” → Shen
I pointed at the wolf beast-man who missed an eye. He was surprised by the sudden summon but not angered by my informal speech because I had the rank of a Saint. These kinds of people didn’t need to even bow their heads to kings, let alone a little baron like himself.
