"However, Wendelin is amazing. I met the king for the first time at the age of 40 after defeating the fire drake." (Artur)
"Ano, what should I pay attention to?" (Wendelin)
Using the interval of summer vacation at the adventurer prep school, I set off on private business to the royal capital traveling on a magic airship. All in order to attend the wedding of my closest brother Erich-nii-san.
For the sake of accompanying me, Erw joined the field trip to the royal capital.
Furthermore we were accompanied by Burkhart-san who declared himself to be our guardian.
Along the route we encountered an ancient dragon, who had turned undead after expiring its life span. It was composed of only bones and magic core.
Although it was only bones, it was a totally unexpected appearance of an ancient dragon and furthermore one that had turned undead after expiring its life span. Still, this was reality. Aboard the ship a gloomy mood began to spread.
That huge dragon consisting of only bones, had it really been an ancient dragon?
To begin with, what was the reason for an ancient dragon to turn undead?
Moreover, it left its own domain to invade into the human territory?
In any case, the opponent was an ancient dragon who lived for tens of thousand years.
In recent years, there weren't too many eye-witnesses being treated to the view of an half-imaginary monster. It seems that even the scholars researching ancient dragons couldn't unconditionally confirm their existence.
Seldomly being seen, ancient dragons were high ranking members within the dragon race according to Burkhart-san, who had already defeated a drake before. Therefore they were a species close to half-spirits.
Because they lived withdrawn deep in the back regions, it is said that humans wouldn't come across them.
『Despite being a half-spirit, it turned quite ferocious after changing into an undead.』
『The finer details about that opponent-san, I don't know them.』
The various questions were endless and yet, being able to escape from it forever was not possible
.
In cooperation with Burkhart-san I was able to successfully perform a memorial service for that ancient dragon. Although I called it memorial service, it didn't change the fact that it was a subjugation and extermination. Because I purified it with Holy magic and thus stopped its activity. Had a member of the church joined in, he would likely have called it memorial service.
I had to use vast amounts of mana to cast the Holy magic in accordance to suspend the activity of the undead ancient dragon. In the end, only the bones and the huge magic core remained.
Although it was the same case like a tiger leaving its splendid fur behind, the little difference in what remained was the outrageous price of the items when talking about this matter, I think?
Because of the raw materials you could obtain from a dragon's body, even the smaller version called wyvren in itself achieved a decent price in trades.
To say nothing about a large grown drake like the one Burkhart-san had defeated before, where there was no unusable body part to the degree that all of it could be called valuable.
Blood, meat, scales, bones and a magic core to the extent that it couldn't be compared to any other monster.
Raw materials with the dragon attribute itself appeared on the market once in 50 years and even that could be called fast. I heard that the trade prices for the materials were terrifying.
Artur-san explained this to me while we were riding the carriage which had come to pick us up.
I, who had expected someone to pick me up so that I could see Erich-nii-san soon, had received greetings from a Knight-sama at the harbor for exclusive use of the magic airship.
Escorted by Artur-san, we both boarded the carriage the Knight's group had prepared beforehand.
Burkhart-san had left the harbor earlier to attend to his own business.
And in order to explain the situation to Erich-nii-san Erwin had unhappily agreed to leave the harbor behind together with a group of soldiers the Knight-sama's attendant had provided.
At any rate, the lodging place for Erwin and me was Erich-nii-san's house. I have to reunite with him later at any price.
"Much more, this time it was about an ancient dragon who had no records remaining from the past" (Artur)
According to the story of Artur-san who was accompanying me, the fact that ancient dragons existed was something serious. As it usually lived within a domain of monsters humans didn't venture into, there virtually was no one who had seen its appearance.
I was told that they possess a life span of tens of thousand years. Actually dying of old age and after death turning into an undead, no one had been aware of this fact.
"Then, how were you able to confirm that the bone dragon was actually an ancient dragon?" (Wendelin)
"By the size of the skeletal frame and magic core." (Artur)
Lightly estimating the over-all-length of the bone dragon, it exceeded 50 meters.
The over-all-length of a small variety of wyvren amounted to the degree of 5 meters and the largest variety of the same attribute went up to approximately 30 meters.
Therefore, explaining this bone dragon would have been difficult and odd, if you hadn't considered it to be an ancient dragon.
"Because of that, His Majesty wants to acquire the bones and magic core from such rare ancient dragon just like me by granting you an audience, no?" (Artur)
" 'Like me', a little servility wouldn't hurt, would it?" (Wendelin)
"As the eighth son of an insignificant noble, what did you expect?" (Artur)
"Such things like expectations, there were none to begin with." (Wendelin)
This was the degree of my thoughts regarding my king.
It was the same transient feeling I harbored towards the imperial family in my previous life. Neither anti-governmental ideology, nor the will to revolt and overthrow were existent. Passionate admiration ・ fervent support were absent too.
Originating from the southern sticks, there really was no contact with royalty. Thus, I didn't really perceive the coming audience to feel like reality.
Calling it "a person passing by above the clouds" might be the most adequate answer. The idea of meeting was mentally straining if you considered that you might as well not encounter them in your entire life, too.
"If I remember correctly, our father had an audience when he inherited his peerage." (Wendelin)
The ceremony of establishing a noble as new family head in a conferring of decorations has been arranged as the personal duty of His Majesty in the royal capital for all noble families, no matter how low-ranking they are.
Though father had to meet His Majesty once, the reality was, that it was only this one time.
Certainly His Majesty shouldn't be able to memorize every single of the trifling knights neither.
An insignificant noble as our father who lived in a remote region didn't have that many opportunities to visit the royal capital either. Of course the king of a whole country himself was occupied with various issues. It wouldn't be such a simple matter to get an audience just because he came over.
"However, would someone as busy as His Majesty be okay with such an inferior subject like me?" (Wendelin)
In my mind I expected a reply like 『because he is busy, there is no need to meet after all』.
"If I were to request for an audience with His Majesty, it would take time. Even if it's me, I would need to wait at the least a week." (Artur)
Even a businessman with political ties such as Artur-san has to wait for a week to have an audience with His Majesty granted. Is it okay for me to have an audience right away?
Inside my mind anxiety began to gradually surge at this point.
"Don't worry. It will be fine because this time His Majesty himself has wished for the audience." (Artur)
The knight, who wore an extravagant armor and served as a guide for Artur-san and me up to the royal castle, began to explain the reasons concerning the audience this time.
"Wendelin-dono, you have defeated an ancient dragon of legendary class. Next, you also chose to protect the precious national property, the magic airship, as well as those having boarded it as passengers, which were many high-ranking nobles and merchants, from this situation. And lastly you obtained the bones and the huge magic core from that ancient dragon. His Majesty would like to borrow your strength on such occasion." (Knight)
Since there happens to be business from His Majesty's side, it seems to be possible to immediately have an audience.
The knight in his extremely nice attire was giving an explanation in a way that showed his considerably close position to His Majesty. (T/N: BL? Our MC seems to be quite in love with what the knight is wearing xD)
"Because of that, Warren-dono, who is employed as the Company Commander of the Chivalric Order of the Royal Guards, came to pick you up personally." (Artur)
"(The shapely posture is good, those movements leaving no gaps are excellent. I see, he was a person in a high position)" (Wendelin) (T/N: no comment~)
"Boy, Warren-dono has a similar birthplace like you. Therefore, being in his current position is only due to his confirmed true strength, such is the difference." (Artur)
Slightly exceeding a height of 180 centimeters, blond hair, blue eyes, ikemen… the very picture of a knight-sama. He seems to have been born as third son of a lower class vestment aristocratic household.
Merely hearing "third son" caused me to have a feeling of boiling affinity for some reason.
In this world, with the exception of eldest son and first-born son, there was a strict demarcation established.
"You are quite knowledgeable, Artur-san" (Wendelin)
"Well yea, Warren also is a disciple of Burkhart, more or less" (Artur)
"Is that so?" (Wendelin)
Besides being my teacher, he even has a disciple in the Royal Guards Knight Unit.
Burkhart-san has a larger, more diverse circle of acquaintances than I imagined.
"I can't use magic, therefore I am someone relying on muscle strength." (Warren)
Thanks to Burkhart-san's guidance, I became aware of the circumstance of having a larger quantity of mana than most common people such as Warren-san.
However, this amount of mana only equaled to shooting several fireballs a day at the most before resulting in exhausting it completely.
In a fight you could call it a trump card for one thing, but in order for calling it a finishing blow or similar I didn't attain the degree of magic power necessary yet.
"That's why Warren-dono can't use magic." (Artur)
To be precise, it seems to be the inability to emit the phenomenon of mana materialization externally.
Instead he used his mana to enhance his body and weapons in battle, so to speak he had the ability to be a so-called magic knight. This was the story of the serving Company Commander of the Chivalric Order of the Royal Guards told by Artur-san.
These types of swordsmen and martial artists who fought by using magic to strengthen themselves in battle had a fixed amount of mana. Compared to people who owned almost no mana, they had an overwhelming strength.
People who possessed hardly any mana, no matter how much they trained their bodies, they wouldn't be able to use a common sword to split a huge rock in half and smash it into pieces.
Well, even such ordinary people like everyone else held onto a small quantity of mana unconsciously using it to reinforce their body functions. Although in regards to actively enhancing one's body that would still be like comparing an adult with a child of the general public of my previous life.
"Burkhart-sama taught me how to control my mana and how use the amount economically. I am greatly indebted to him." (Warren)
I see, learning about having a definite amount of mana contained, caused the children of important nobles to often take a haughty attitude.
However, he interacted with a child like me in a polite manner despite being the Company Commander of the Chivalric Order of the Royal Guards. Certainly he is quite popular among the women.
No, before that, it is most likely because of the deep trust His Majesty had in him.
"And also, when I was about the same age or slightly above as Wendelin-dono, I happened to incidentally meet Alfred-sama once." (Warren)
At that time Burkhart-san while laughing took the trouble to introduce him with the words『For the time being he can be called my disciple, although he will soon be done by surpassing me』.
"Back then I couldn't sense anything from his gentle outward appearance. That is, what an outstanding magician he was." (Warren)
Apparently master's appearance was seen as nothing but an all together gentle, tall ikemen-onii-san character. Even so, as magician he was one of the best.
It was a typical example for 『Don't judge a book by its cover』.
"However, Wendelin-dono also exudes a similar sensation as the one from my memories. In appearance nothing but a boy in the middle of his growth, who is still deeply interested in matters of the world, can be seen." (Warren)
"That is only natural, as Wendelin has already exceeded the magic ability and the maximal output of mana of Alfred after all." (Artur)
Undoubtedly he heard this from Burkhart-san. Artur-san appeared to be roughly aware of my ability.
"I see, that is the reason why His Majesty firmly requested on meeting him personally." (Warren)
Leaving the harbor, the carriage passed the streets of the lower city part, the resident district, the business district and the streets housing various nobles in series.
As one would expect of a metropolis called capital city representing the entire nation, the scale and the amount of people were far above Breitburg.
"Soon we will arrive at the royal palace." (Warren)
After approximately one hour of jolting around, the carriage which gave us a ride to the royal palace was about to arrive.
"Huge … comparing it to my family's house is futile, but even the mansion of Breithilde margrave-sama is far smaller …" (Wendelin)
As I was looking up at the castle, we arrived at the front gate. Because Warren-san accompanied us, the gatekeeper let us pass without even checking our IDs.
When we entered the castle's interior, there were soldiers, knights, nobles, maids and the like walking around all over the place doing such things like their designated work. The inside of the castle looked to be full of liveliness.
However, for some reason I felt uneasy about them paying attention to us.
"The story about the ancient dragon subjugation has already spread within the royal capital. Furthermore that it was accomplished by two people of which one, which would be Wendelin-dono, merely is 12 years old." (Warren)
As Warren says, I felt uneasy because of the current situation of practically staring looks. In some way I felt like a panda in the Ueno Zoo.
We were led inside the castle for a little while by Warren-san and before long we arrived in front of a gorgeous door leading to our final destination. Beyond this point seems to be the audience hall.
"Since His Majesty is a friendly gentlemen, keeping the etiquette to a minimum is not a problem." (Warren)
"Because Burkhart entrusted me to follow-up, Wendelin has no need to worry." (Artur)
Artur declared such by the way and before my eyes the gorgeous door was opened.
In front of my view a red carpet spread across the floor, leading all the way to an elevated throne where one could confirm the shape of a man sitting upon it.
And, on both of the sides there were ten-odd guardian knights. Furthermore one could also confirm the existence of several people dressed as aristocrats in a higher position.
"Entering, the benefactor of the ancient dragon subjugation, Wendelin von Benno Baumeister-dono and Artur Maschin-dono as a proxy for Burkhart Ringstadt-dono." (Announcer-san)
Just like I have seen in old movies, while we were entering such could be heard being read out loudly in a governmental official person-like sonorous voice.
We were lead by Warren-san up to the throne getting as close as in a position 3 meters away from it.
Thereupon, Warren-san turned back and took position at the side of the guardian knights, leaving Artur-san and me behind by ourselves.
Due to the nervousness I forgot what I had to do. Artur-san immediately kneeled and bowed his head. I somehow managed to copy his behavior avoiding further problems.
"It must have been very sudden to be summoned like this. It's fine, raise your heads." (King)
Because of His Majesty allowing it, I raised my head.
I could see an approximately 40-year old splendid middle-aged man with a noble strong face floating a smile.
As expected, it was a clichéd royal family consisting of many beautiful women and handsome men, it seems.
His Majesty as well, most likely he was quite popular among the women in his early days.
Because I somehow was not popular at all, I had a feeling that I wouldn't be spellbound as much to say the least.
To put it simply, ikemen are the enemy. However, Erich-nii-san was an exception.
"Formally introducing, We are the king of this Helmut Kingdom, Helmut the 37th." (Helmut-ou)
"I am the one called Wendelin von Benno Baumeister." (Wendelin)
"Fumu, on a closer look you are really young. How old are you?" (Helmut-ou)
"Yes, I am 12 years old." (Wendelin)
Like this my audience with His Majesty began.