"And what did he say in it?" Asked the serious looking man at the end of the table full of nobles, officials, representatives and emissaries.
"He claims to be a master of mind, elemental, blood and arcane magic, have a physic comparable to a royal knight and thousands of unspent attribute points. From his raid to the deeper vaults, we know he has extensive knowledge on rune working, necromancy, beast and child handling, yes, child handling, I didn't miss pronounce, a passable conglomerate of alchemy and history facts, what seems to be a great resistance to curses and soul attacks, mind altering and suggestive effects, any extreme temperature and pressure, has virtutual immunity to poison and corrosives and..." The headmaster read of the list he'd brought, unable to decorate everything on the reports with the little amount of time he'd left himself with, plus the restrictions on spells that couldn't be cast inside of the palace, but he was suddenly interrupted by one of the present.
"Is there anything this abomination, CAN'T do?" Asked a count with stress obvious in his eyes. Several people looked at him with reprimand in their expressions, but most present had the same question in their hearts.
"He has shown to complain in several occasions that he is terrible at blacksmith and is almost unable to appraise some objects, but he also complained about his weapon mastery only slightly surpassing a knight's, so there's that. The man also seems to have a deadly rigorous regimen or the like, because none of his status seem to be lower than two thousand according to our more anomalous sources' divination. It also appears that we have caught his attention and he has further locked any information we desire with a myriad of redundancies or developed personal resistance to divination magic." The mage provided, getting the expected response from the present people.
"Do we have any champions who can fight this... Monster? Yes, I have heard he used to be human, but this is just too far from one to still call him that. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a mutant and had chosen to change his race already." The king commented.
"Indeed, that was one of the pieces of information we were able to confirm. Finding out what he has become would be ridiculously difficult even without the interference though" Complemented the mage.
There was silence for a bit, but the next to speak, a rough but beautiful redhead in fancy leather jerkins and white pants, decided there was no need to wait any more.
"Your majesty, there is no easy way to say this, but the adventurer's guild is unable to take an official stance against this threat. If the crown wishes to pay adventurers to help with th war it won't be a problem since it can be explained, but recalling the current S-ranks without plausible explanation to the public would cause caos. Our hands are tied." The representative calmly said. It was a grim outcome, but expected considering that for some reason, it was currently impossible to shake the reputation of strict but kind ruler Aki had in the eyes of the uninformed.
One example would be the rumor that tried to spread that he was a mutant. Soon came a a rumor that said he was cursed and lived a life of injustice, so now he wanted to better the lives of others, another that said that he was simply brutal with his enemies and raised in a far away land and yet another rumor that said he was a genius mage that integrated many exotic ways of fighting together, so the sight of him fighting looked like an undiscrybable beast.
After several tries, it was practically a fact already that campaigning against him in this field was a terrible idea if they did not actually have something more to back their claims, because the bastard could somehow spread fake proof as well. Be it soldiers that came back from his raid against the advanced troops, merchants that'd simply passed around, the reports from several guilds and companies, there was somehow no way to make people focus on his bad side because something new kept happening everywhere that happened.
Soldiers complained about the trip back and forth, not about their enemy, merchants actually loved him, the guilds were not able to get a better position even with some trying, if Aki had not taken a city by force than the kingdom wouldn't even try to go against him.
"There is nothing that can be done about that. I'd instead like to ask how have the negotiations with the Holy Empire have been. With both domains attacking one city, it's ridiculous that there is no way to actually siege the place or safely get there. There are three more domains worried about this incident since they are next if we fall, but nevermind troop morale and logistics , I have received reports that say Louela's expansion has reached a new level, with a new expansion of farmland that makes them more than capable of sustaining themselves and they have raised the base of a wall around said farmland in one afternoon, with a wooden palisade and roads cleanly laid, as if their mages had infinite mana. Us there anything the builder's guild would like to comment?" Exasperatedly said the king while reinforcing the points that made him almost bang his head everyday for some time now.
"I am magically bound to only be able to tell that the project is definitely not near completion." Said the only dwarf sitten on the table while carresing his braided beard.
"So they also want to expand the city or have plans to completely change the current infrastructure plus whatever is happening on the forest and maybe underground." Confidently said the prime minister.
"I am magically bound to say go suck a dick." The same dwarf said while shrugging, causing silence on the whole room. "The waif has balls of steel and a mind sharper than any blade I've seen! I literally can't stop a compulsory action he put on the contract if I want to remenber any shite! Half tis' only some prank, but it bugs me down to no end." Explained the diminutive man while relapsing a bit into his native way of speaking.
"I can see that sir Stonebraid. We all can." Calmly said the king. "Have the churches contacted us, at all?"
"Yes, your majesty, though the results are not as expected, we will have support in a month and house the farthest champions on two months at max. The gods have decided they will not put forth a holy war, but have sent a small detachment of their elite from all around the globe"
"That is great to hear." Said Aki while holding a red stone with golden engravings in his right hand and the king's twisted neck on his left one, making all present panic in their own way.
Screams, the unsheating of weapons, the hum of magic, the lack of sound some rogues made when they disappeared... All those completely stopped about a moment before the former king's neck straightened and he drew a heavy breath while falling to his knees, no blemish in his body.
"And all hail the new king." Said Aki with a grin, the stone no longer in his hand.
"HA!" Saluted more than half the people on the room.
"Gods, an oathstone is so useful, but so hard to craft! Relax everyone, I didn't come for combat, your former king just couldn't be alive for me to extract the stone." He said with a light chuckle. "I won't die even if either of you two had cut my head off by the way." He told the assassins currently impaled by the arms against the wall.
"How did you..."
"I didn't use necromancy, it's just that humans can naturally be resuscitated if their condition is good enough and no longer than 2.5 minutes have passed. I was never formally trained though, so I likely have the timing wrong. Good thing for us that the full time wasn't necessary." Aki interrupted the stunned man and explained while nodding. "Royal guard, gather all members of the former king's family currently in the palace over at the throne room. Gently, unless they resist too strongly. Don't let them escape though." He said out loud and through the oathstone.
After the present guards left, silence reigned in the room again, none moved.
"No questions? Ok then, it seems people here are all smarter the the estimative I had. Anyways, with no more reason for a reunion, I suggest those that do not work on the government to go back to your places and tell everyone what you did and didn't see. Remember the panic and destruction that there would be if you asked proper S-ranks to come. Such powerful people can't be defeated in such harmless way. There would be a lot of casualties, so don't do it." He slowly said, as if to children.
"As you said, no one here is so stupid. With your blessing, your majesty." Said the rough looking red head from before bowing and turning to leave.
"One second." She stopped. "You should really not do it like that in front of a tyrant, miss. I don't give a flying fuck though. I can see you don't like me, but do try to not become hot-headed enough that someone can make you pass as stupid, would you?" He tiredly said, getting a nod before letting her go.
*****
Reaching his bed, Aki flopped down on it. Finding the king's bed to somehow be less confortable and sleep inducing them his, maybe because it wasn't enchanted and powered by a huge mana network, It turned out somehow hard to actually fall into sleep, but he sure was tired enough that the screams of the people trying to infiltrate his bedroom and the palace didn't have a danm effect on his consentration in fullfiling the ultimate task.
That is why the wolf boy was quite surprised to hear that there were more than a hundred captured individuals just the last night. Now, it wasn't that tons of burglars were trying to enter, just that five or so groups thought they'd send their best infiltration force and get the oathstone from the idiot who actually thought he could just do it like this and stay in the palace.
None, for some reason, actually thought he'd have a 'murder' of vampires protecting the place and capturing everyone. By the time he'd reached the breakfast table there were already tons of reports, leaving most of the servants agreeeing with him when he asked:
"And people didn't think anything when dozens of shadowy figures entered and never left, after hours?" Getting a shrug and a helpless look from the man telling him about it, Aki couldn't help but elevate the former king in his personal evaluation. Having all the smart people with him certainly must have been hard to make happen, but it seems to be the exact picture arround here. "Anyone special enough that you think i should give them back the assasins?" He asked Mark.
"Would you even listen if i told you?" Asked the man with bags under his eyes and stress clear in his eyes, his wife placing her hand on his arm to try and remenber him of their situation.
"Of course i would. You were king for more than a decade, so you must have been doing something right." The teen shrugged. "Not like it would be the only opinion i'm listening to, but you will have a position with even more power in some time, so no need to be all antsy, not like the broken neck can change who you are if you don't let it do so." He said while pointing at the man with a fork before taking a piece out of the cake slice he'd cut. His meal consisted of a ham and cheese sandwhich, a bit of cake and passion fruit juice.
The man went silent, aparently forgetting the previous question, but Aki didn't really mind. Not like it was going to change the massacre and apprehension of severeal criminal slaves in the coming hours. After a few spoonfulls, Aki stopped eating, looked at the big table holding only him and two more people, and them called for a maid.
"I don't think this whole table will be eaten, so it would be good to see if there's anyone who would like what these two don't want, because i'm not really going to eat anything else." He turned to talk with the previous king and ignored the maid who didn't seem to know what to do. "Just to be clear, after this we are going to the office so i can familiarize myself with the place and the team working there, before we go to the data base so we can properly start to implement the new constitution. Anything either of you need to do first?" He asked.
"I am to be present as well?" Asked the former queen.
"Why wouldn't you?" Aki was as confused as her. "Also, no need to talk like that, i don't care about such things. But really, didn't you already have a job? Wasn't there any place that needed your autoriation to enter, any people who would like to know you are still walking around with your husband, a important piece of the country you at least helped manage?" He elaborated, but the answer was obvius on the woman's expression. "How the fuck were you married to a king for so long then?" He crudely asked, making the couple cough, unused to such language.
"Well, i am merely a public figure, so there was never any need for getting over the hassle of finding me a job." She explained as if it were the most obvious thing, noticing the young man in front ofher didn't like the answer. Standing up, Aki was suddenly behind her.
"Ok, just stand still." He said and started scrowling through her memory, his victim merely feeling a bit of headache through the super fast process. "You really didn't do anything but look preety for the masses, ocasionally take care of your own children and help with some documents when the limp dick was too tired. Your life was shit, and i congratulate you on not suiciding, but we're gonna start fixing this, because even my wife has something to do when i'm not around, and she definetly isn't as talented as you when it comes to this kind of thing. You might want to look into my laws about marriage too, but for now i suggest you go to your room and talk to your friend, as if she were an equal, and simply cry as much as you want." He softly said, with the woman solemly nodding and excusing herself.
Mark was completly flagbergasted by the interaction. If he'd not seen the solem look on both and hear the pity in his voice, he'd think Aki was trying to make a move on his wife.