"You truly are stubborn," An envoy dressed in priest robes scoffed, "A King should want the best of his people, yet you want to remain in savagery and unfulfillment as you halt the progress of humankind."
This was not the first time Pantheon envoys had come over to persuade or rather harass the King. Believe it or not, the Moonshine Kingdom has military might which rivals that of The Pantheon itself, meaning that they cannot easily exert their influence over the Moonshine Kingdom. However, if the two were to war and it became a battle of attrition, the Moonshine Kingdom would undoubtedly lose. The Pantheon just had too much land and resources at their disposal, but the costs to start such a war outweighed the benefits, forcing The Pantheon to take the 'peaceful' approach.
"I've made my stance, and I'm not intent on changing it," Edgar Astar spoke forcefully, "We, the Moonshine Kingdom, will not adopt the theocracy of The Pantheon,"
Edgar really wanted to strangle these bastards, but the repercussions of such an action would be severe, he was a man who could keep his patience.
"Oh my, you can deny us all you want, but think about your future generations, I believe this is a matter for them to decide," the envoy smirked, he definitely had something up his sleeve, "After all, you never know how long you'll remain at the top for,"
Edgar's expression darkened, "Are you threatening me?"
"Oh, I would never dare!" he feigned sincerity, but it was easy to spot the mockery in his eyes.
After a small conversation between the two, the King bade farewell to the envoy as he had some affairs to attend to. As the envoy left the reception room, the King sagged his shoulders as he leaned into the pink couch.
It looks like The Pantheon had some back dealings.
This raised numerous problems if members of the royal family were bought off by The Pantheon. Who knows what kind of information those bastards have. Those star smitten fanatics. It looks like he would have to counterspy, within his own family no less.
…
Standing on the tall stone walls, Jeffrey looked over at an interesting weapon. It was quite large, six feet wide and about eight feet tall, a ballista they called it. It looked like a big crossbow, which was a rather common weapon used in Joost. It had runes inscribed around it and other magical contraptions on it, most likely boosting its raw power and essence collection.
It was kind of like a gun if one thought about it.
Looking at the sky, it was already late noon, his shift was just about over. Because the garrison in Joost offered the convoy accommodation, they would fulfil normal guard duties to keep their stay until winter was over.
"Tsk, to think anyone can be a guard over in Tanz, eh?" a Joost city guard walked up to Jeffrey as he scoffed.
Ignoring him, Jeffrey walked past, his shift was over anyway.
"Are you ignoring me?" He reached out to grab Jeffrey's shoulder, but that wasn't going to happen so easily.
No cliché encounter today! Sidestepping the hand, Jeffrey quickly walked out of sight.
Now, time to explore the city! Jeffrey had failed to do this yesterday, due to a rather confusing encounter.
And yet again, Jeffrey instantly found himself shifting along dark alleyways. He thought he might be able to handle large crowds, but history tends to repeat itself. Strolling through the back alleys, he noticed it was much dirtier and unclean than in Tanz City, maybe it was because there were more people here? Well, it made sense.
"Hey! Who're you?" Being too preoccupied in his thoughts, Jeffrey failed to notice the roguish looking men in front of him.
"Hey, hey, y'know I heard rumours of dark arts cultists around think he could be one of them?"
"Heh, well, no one's gonna miss him," the thugs started to spout their hostile intentions, or perhaps more accurately their death flags.
Whipping out a knife, one of the three thugs moved to shank Jeffrey.
Why do people always get angry all the time? Jeffrey was crying internally, people just always seemed to be pissed off in his presence.
Maybe that ANts Man guy was right about me not being human. I mean, it only makes sense that a species would have a dislike to other species encroaching onto their territory, like wolves in a sense.
Backhanding the knife away, Jeffrey pulled out a machete, and slit the guy's throat.
*Thump!*
Blood pooled at his feet as the thugs paled at the sight.
"Hiie! M-m-muderer!" He fell and tried to crawl away and well, Jeffrey was going to leave them be. It wasn't like the guy who attacked him represented the three of them, so it was unfair to attack when they themselves had done nothing to him, directly.
However, it was truly unfortunate that someone else had to appear at this time…
…
"Say, Alais, if there's anything you want you can just tell me, y'know?"
Yamada was met with a cold, condescending glare of disgust, it seemed she still hadn't forgiven him for what happened yesterday.
As a precaution set by the authorities, she was required to be under strict observation by Yamada. As well as having to wear numerous essence usage restraints, which did as they were called. They restrained the usage of essence.
Very straightforward, to the point that Yamada believed there was some hidden use for the restraints. There was not. As yet another layer of precaution, they artificially bound her to Yamada so that she would be compelled to obey his orders and stay loyal to Yamada.
Walking the streets of Joost, Yamada was trying to get her to warm up to him, even though there was no associated mission with it. For the sake of convenience, Alais wore a hood to hide her features and was unarmed. As they wandered through the city streets, Alais seemed to have caught something in her eye. Looking in the direction she was looking, Yamada found a black cloaked figure retreat into the dark alleyways.
"Who is he?"
The incredulity of that question actually made Alais force out a statement.
"Tch, don't even remember the guy who kicked your arse,"
Looking back to his untimely defeat, he boiled with anger, the humiliation to be beaten on the ground like that left his self esteem in tatters. And it only made Yamada thirst for more power.
"To think that bastard got out of jail already. Looks like there's a corrupt city lord,"
Yamada was still unaware of the fact that Jeffrey was part of the law enforcement, mostly because he was too engrossed with appraisal to listen to the Night Knight's explanation.
Hurrying into the alleyway, they immediately petrified shrieks.
"Hiie! M-m-muderer!"
Hardening his gaze Yamada muttered,
"Alais, we need to hurry, before that scum does something else," without waiting for Alais' approval he rushed toward the source of the noise.