Berl… King Augustus Alastine's body froze from Frey's words as some sweat formed on his forehead. Alicia did not see any of these actions because she was quickly kneeling on the ground saying: "Your Majesty I am sorry if my daughter has made any kind of offense! If you need to punish someone please punish me in her stead!" Alicia had her forehead firmly pressed against the floor. Frey seeing that she had caused her Mother trouble had a few tears roll down her cheek as she copied Alicia's actions and flew down to the floor and pressed her forehead on to the ground as well.
And the King? Well, he was staring in disbelief at his daughter and granddaughter. 'Do I look like the kind of man to punish people for saying a few words!?' The answer to the question was no. It was just that Alicia was pulling her assumptions of Kings and other rulers from earth's rulers and manga she had read.
"What are you two doing quickly get up! I have no reason to punish anyone!" King Augustus felt a headache coming on. If he knew this would happen he would have said more good things about himself while he was Berlin. But he did not expect that Frey had such a keen nose that she would be able to almost expose him due to his scent alone! 'I need to change my soap...'
Alicia slowly stood up and dusted herself off. She then dusted Frey's dress off before placing Frey on her shoulder again. "Your Majesty..." Alicia was afraid to look King Augustus in the eye.
"Alicia you can relax… You are a disciple of Master Berlin. From now on you can just think of me as your father… So just act normal around me. " King Augustus said while letting out a sigh. This first meeting in his original appearance was not going as he had planned. He wanted to give Alicia a good first impression but that went down the drain fast.
Alicia was confused. 'Why did he say for me to treat him as my father?' Seeing Alicia's puzzled expression, King Augustus realized he made a slip of tongue and quickly said: "It's because Master Berlin is like my father in a way, So as his disciple I will look after you as if you were my family." He could not actually tell Alicia that she was already a princess of this Kingdom. He had to wait until her coming of age ceremony when she was strong enough to defend herself from the other powers.
Her path in life was one where she would be out of the castle a lot and it would be hard to protect her. Although she would need to go to the battlefield from time to time when she got older. With her talent, she would be able to survive with no issues. He would even still send a few guards to protect her and pull her out if she was ever facing death. But until then just in case anything happened he had to keep it all a secret. Because he had a feeling that in the future with Alicia's abilities she will draw unwanted attention from the other countries. If she was announced as a princess now someone with bad intentions would try to take her life right away since she would be connected to the royal family.
Hearing King Augustus's explanation Alicia finally understood and nodded her head. "Thank you, your Majesty." Alicia finally breathed out a sigh of relief. She was very scared that she might have had her head removed from her shoulders. But she would rather take any punishment Frey might receive. Alicia's motherly bond with Frey had deepened since she took her in and would give her life to keep Frey safe.
King Augustus felt sad that Alicia still could not call him father yet. He looked at the young girl and then thought of his own flesh and blood brats and wondered where he went wrong in bringing them up. Alicia was diligent and hard working, while his blood related brats all spent their time goofing off. Not a single one of them had any dreams. This was one of the reasons why he never appointed a crown prince. Sighing, King Augustus gave Alicia a deep meaningful look.
"Alicia Master Berlin has explained everything to me. I have already notified the Adventurer's Guild that you will be showing up in a few day's time. I would suggest taking on some local missions first to get used to the area. Squires normally do not travel far their first year so it will be fine for you to travel as far as the closest town. Normally adventurers will only be able to get collection missions at the start until they raise their guild rank. These ranks are graded as F,E,D,C,B,A,S,SS,and SSS. You can start taking missions farther out once you hit the D rank." King Augustus explained. Just going from F rank to E rank would require a year or two. As a squire, Alicia will be mainly doing missions from the Adventurer's Guild for the first few years. Sometimes she will also be going out to do missions assigned to the squad she was assigned to. In each case, she could still acquire some merits from both once she became a squire.
Hearing about the Adventurer's Guild caused Alicia's eyes to shine brightly. Anything that had to do with her path to knighthood would always catch her attention. This was also one of the reasons why King Augustus brought it up. He knew this was a good way to ease the atmosphere.
"Your Majesty, can you go into more detail for me!?" Alicia asked excitedly.
Getting the reaction he wanted and seeing Alicia relax a bit, King Augustus was very happy as he responded: "Sure!"
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