Valdel who was still sleeping heard Zwei's voice in his head. "Master Sir Matthew is back." Valdel woke up and got ready. A moment later Matthew knocked on his door.
"Valdel ready yourself we are about to head to the castle. Make sure to wear that mask and hooded cloak I gave you." Valdel almost forgot about that and wore the two items. Once he was done Valdel left the room.
"So how are we going to the castle?"
"From the front of course. We'll be heading to the castle in the carriage we rode in."
"I thought that me meeting the King was supposed to be a secret?" Valdel was really confused since he was expecting that they would use an underground passageway or something similar.
"Valdel the young sword master will not be meeting the king. The one meeting the king is the light warrior Zephyr that disappeared three years ago. Well, that's the rumor we'll be spreading. If we hide and do things in secret, those fools will try harder to figure out who you are, but if we do it out in the open and give out a bit of information, it will be easier for them to be convinced."
Valdel hearing Matthew's explanation was somehow convinced, but he still felt that all this hiding and secrets aren't really something he approves of. He wanted to meet the King in a more open manner, not like some war criminal that's in hiding.
...
When the people surrounding the inn saw Matthew come out with the mysterious person wearing the mask, they all tried to see if they could somehow identify who it was, but were unable to because of the mask and hooded cloak that covered every part of his body. The only thing that was visible was the hilt of the mysterious person's sword.
Some of the men that came to observe the mysterious person that came with Matthew had the ability to see mana flow, and what they saw from the mysterious person was something amazing. His mana was intense and pure, it was large same as some of the captain level knights, but what was most surprising was the look of his mana flow.
Normally people's mana flow looks grey some have distinct colors added in depending in which elemental affinity they're best at. The mysterious person's mana was a brilliant white, that almost looked a bit silver. Usually this was the same with any person that has a great affinity with the light element. Yet the mysterious person's looks even more majestic, it practically looks holy.
The others who were watching the mysterious person noticed something else. The way mysterious person walked was very peculiar. The ones who noticed this had a high level in the martial way. So they immediately noticed that the way the mysterious person walked was that of a person always ready for battle.
Usually these people observing would know which school of fighting another person was from depending on how he walks, but for some reason they couldn't guess what kind of practitioner the mysterious person was.
The group of people followed Matthew and his companion until they entered the palace. No matter how long they observed the mysterious person they couldn't figure out who it was. Still they understood that this person was dangerous. Not only does his mana flow look formidable, indicating that he might be a strong mage, but his martial arts looked to be as formidable or even more so than his magic. This person was most probably a very high level magic swordsman.
With only this piece of information at hand some of the men who were observing retreated back to report to their masters. Some of them stayed waiting to see if they could get any more information once the mysterious person leaves the palace.
...
Valdel who was now inside the palace asked Zwei if the people observing them were still following. Zwei told Valdel that most of them were gone and only some stayed behind but were not daring enough to get near the palace's walls.
Hearing this Valdel felt a bit more relieved as he was now able to fully appreciate his surroundings. As he expected the inside of the palace was beautiful. Walls filled with the finest paintings. The floor had an expensive-looking carpet. Due to his upbringing, Valdel couldn't really fully appreciate the things he was seeing since he didn't know how valuable they were. The only thing Valdel could understand as he looked around, was that the items inside the palace were things that he couldn't even imagine owning.
Still, it was not only the fine tapestries that caught Valdel's interest. What caught most of Valdel's interest were the knights protecting the palace. They all wore the same armor as Matthew and had the basic sword and shield as equipment. On average each individual knight's fighting strength seem to be only a bit lower than Matthew. Valdel wasn't entirely sure about that assessment since he wasn't sure how strong Matthew truly was. Like him Matthew seems adept in controlling the flow of his mana. It was entirely possible that Matthew had a much larger mana capacity than Valdel, and not only that he might actually be stronger than Valdel in actual combat.
While Valdel was thinking about how strong Matthew truly was, the two finally reached the door to the throne room.
"No matter what happens, I hope you don't show any signs of disrespecting the king. If you do so, then you won't be able to live for another second to regret what you have done."
Valdel nodded his head in response, as he did so he heard Zwei's voice in his head speaking to him.
'Master I sense several presences in there that are extremely strong. Even with me and Nika, if they attack we wont be able to do anything.'
'Between them and Ren who is stronger?' For Valdel Ren was the standard for one to be a strong person. So asking Zwei to compare them to Ren was so that he could have a better understanding of how strong the people in the throne room were.
'If you talk about mana capacity alone, then your friend Ren wouldn't stand a chance. But when it comes to battle, mana capacity doesn't decide everything. I am confident in saying that your friend Ren's martial arts is at the top of this continent. Also his use of magic is very different from how other people in this continent uses magic. So overall to answer your question master. In a fight I believe that your friend would win but only in a one on one situation.'
'I see...'
Matthew who was looking at Valdel saw that his faced tensed up a bit, and waited him to calm down a little before he spoke.
"Are you ready?" Valdel hearing Matthew's question looked at him eye to eye and nodded. Matthew nodded in response and opened the two large doors to the throne room.