The girl that has now been revealed readied her daggers. Although it looked like she recognized Elizabeth, it didn't seem like she was planning on letting up.
"You know this girl, Elizabeth?"
"Back in the day, my father would host tournaments and invite everyone from all parts of the world. There was a certain noble family from the Heaven Piercer frontier that was a cut above all of the competition: the Toh family. The rulers of the Heaven Piercer frontier. They were revered as strong people. That is until the demons began to attack. Once they took over the Heaven Piercer frontier, the Toh family was forced to move frontier to frontier. They lost all of their assets...and disappeared."
"However!" Elizabeth continued with a proposal.
"I want you to join me!" Elizabeth pointed towards the assassin with a noble bravado that I've never seen before today.
What is she talking about? Join her? Is she crazy?
"Join you?! The people of Jericho sat back and watched within their walls as every other kingdom fell to the demons! Why the hell would I join you?"
"You're tired of living like this, aren't you? Don't you want to return your family to its former glory?"
"Yes... but-"
"I'm fighting to give the lands that nobles like you lost back to their rightful owners. That's why the other nobles are against me in this. The meeting that'll take place in the morning will decide the handling of every acre of land humanity takes back. You wouldn't want some noble from the upper reach taking the land your ancestors fought so hard to upkeep, right?"
"Of course not..." Sarah looked to the floor in defeat.
"Then I'll ask once more. Join me, to make sure humanity stays on the right path!" Elizabeth reached her hand out to Sarah and after a moment of thought, she reluctantly took it.
"I should probably go tell my brothers not to kill your friends."
I... can't believe...I can't believe... this girl just befriended her assassins. Is this girl the equivalent to in-game Jesus? Is she gonna turn water into wine next? Perhaps pull an infinite amount of fish and bread out of a basket?
===
"Are you sure you'll be fine? After the Toh siblings reveal that they're working for you, the other noble families will surely pine for your head with other assassins." Aegis asked Elizabeth.
After the events of last night, Elizabeth took the Toh family in and made a contract to work with them until they get their kingdom back. It's a very ambitious contract. Regardless, I believe in Elizabeth's prowess as a leader. Once everyone was rested, we all made our way to the royal courthouse.
"You say that as if we couldn't protect Elizabeth. We're the kingdom's finest assassin's. Bodyguarding can't be that far off. I mean, YOU guys did it." Sarah teased Aegis.
"Just smile, everyone. I'll do the talking." Elizabeth told all of us as we approached the doors to the royal courtroom. As she opened them and entered, the rest of us followed suit.
What greeted us was something resembling a courthouse. It had stained glass in the windows and several podiums with seats that rose way higher than where we were standing. In each of those seats, there were nobles, and in the center across from the entrance there sat the king.
He wore a purple robe with white lines of fur. He had short, gray hair and wore a face of stoic determination. It was the same look that Elizabeth gave whenever she did her signature pointing pose, but for some reason, I can't help but sense a hint of malice behind his glare.
"I'm so happy that everyone was able to see the light of today. I'll have everyone know that I slept soundly. But enough about me, let's talk about the other frontiers."
Elizabeth then explained the gist of what she went over with us. She explained how the demon's hundred year death march led to the lost of many kingdoms. Now that humanity is turning the tables, she thinks that it's only natural that the reclaimed territories are given back to the ones that owned it.
"Think about it, the people of these lands aren't going to want to follow some foreign noble. They'll want to follow someone they're familiar with." Elizabeth was about to continue, but was interrupted by a noble that was looking down on her in more ways than one.
"Noblewoman Gornwell forgive my interruption, but you're forgetting the fact that most of the citizens of these territories were killed when these locations were seized. We simply won't have to worry about the locals not liking whoever is in charge because the citizens will be former citizens of Jericho."
"Although you don't want to believe it, there are descendants of those families that lost their homes. I can confirm that not a single one of those families were able to make move anywhere in the social ladder. In fact, it's arguable that things have been worse for these people. The least we can do is ensure housing for these people in their rightful territories." Elizabeth snapped back.
Nobleman Percunia interjected as he played with his gold coins. "It's simple. If you're not strong enough to protect your own lands and need the help of a foreign kingdom, you lose it. We're not a charity, we're a kingdom using tens of thousands of gold pieces a week to turn the tables on a losing war."
"It's funny how the noble family that are just glorified accounts talk about protecting their land, but I digress. Besides, it isn't about the money, it's about helping our fellow man-"
"AAAAAAAAND THERE WE GO! What do you want us to do noblewoman? Give these people that we have to TRACK DOWN free land and then what? Bolster their economy with weapons and supplies until they could help themselves?! They'll definitely lose the land again. Let's wrap this meeting up already-"
CRASH
Everyone in the room locked their eyes at the source of the large crash and noticed my general slayer labrys in the wall next to nobleman Percunia's chair. Everyone then darted their eyes towards me, the person that threw the weapon.
"Saying things like 'What if' this and 'how about' that is really starting to piss me off. You have the greatest military might in the world: us heroes. You don't have to worry about losing land ever again to the demons." I told the nobles.
"Matthew here has a point." To my surprise, Elizabeth wasn't angry at my interjection.
"King Wayne Jericho, I have given my stance on how I believe we should operate in these new frontiers. May I please have your thoughts?"
The king then rose from his seat and made his declaration.
"I would love to give a statement, but I have important matters to attend to. Therefore I will leave the decision moving forward to the other nobles." King Jericho then turned around and began to walk off.
Wait, is he even allowed to do that?!
"This isn't how these emergency meetings are supposed to go! You're supposed to listen and give your word on what you'll be doing moving forward via a statement!." Elizabeth put her foot down and was met with immediate resistance by nobleman Percunia.
"You're forgetting about a certain rule rule to these meetings. At any moment, the king can leave the meeting and pass the statement onto the nobles. And I think I speak for everyone here that we'll continue as planned: make each frontier conquered by the kingdom of Jericho a territory of Jericho." All of the nobles then began to nod in agreement. All of them except for Galex Bellow. Although he sided with the other nobles to help find assassin's to kill Elizabeth, he has to make believe that he is on her side in front of her. Regardless of whether she knows the truth of the matter. Politics can be annoying sometimes...
"I object to such notions-" Galex said, but was interrupted.
"Overruled due to the near unanimous decision. It IS five to two, after all." Nobleboy Drow interjected.
"Two out of seven is nearly thirty percent. That's not very unanimous..." Violet chimed in.
"HA! AS EXPECTED FROM THE DESCENDANTS OF A BUNCH OF UPSTART VILLAGERS THAT TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAOS OF A WAR!" Sarah couldn't keep her anger inside any longer and bursted into a fit of cynical rage that wasn't going to stop with that one sentence.
"AS EXPECTED OF THOSE SAME DESCENDANTS THAT WOULD HIRE ASSASSINS TO MURDER ONE OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY SIMPLY WANTED TO DO THE RIGHT THING! Why don't you all stop counting your pockets AND HELP US GET OUR HOMES BACK!" Sarah panted as she finished her rant.
"Who the hell are you again?" Nobleboy Drow looked down on the former royal with distaste in his voice.
Sarah's eyes then diluted into a void of nothingness. She put her hand on the handle of one of her daggers. I'm certain that she wants to kill the nobleboy. I'll have to hold her back...
Amidst the uproar in the room, Elizabeth pointed her finger at the king's throne.
Everyone paid close attention to Elizabeth's assertion.
Nobleboy Drow was the first to speak. He slammed his fists against his desk and yelled out. "GUARDS! SEIZE HER AT ONCE!"
"Calm yourself, Drow." Nobleman Vinal interrupted the nobleboy, but he wasn't having it.
"You know exactly what she's saying when she does that stupid pose! She's saying that she wants to take the throne for herself! The audacity she has to say that after murdering another noble!"
"I haven't the slightest idea of what you're talking about, Nobleboy! There's no evidence of me killing your dad." Elizabeth smirked.
It was now nobleboy Drow's turn to show off his most murderous face. Elizabeth did a complete 180 and began walking out of the door. Sarah, Violet, Aegis, and I soon followed.
"Well then, that was an absolute bust!" Sarah threw her hands in the air in frustration.
"Well, I did my job. I hate to end this ride so short, but I need to move onto the next quest to level."
"Yes, I know how you adventures operate. Thanks again for helping me out with this. Let's hope you can assist again sometime in the future."
"Of course. I said it once and I'll say it again: If anyone can change the kingdom, it's you."
"I appreciate that..." the noblewoman gave me a sincere smile as she continued.
"We'll part ways here. Until next time." Elizabeth turned and began to walk home with Sarah.
"You really know how to make enemies of important people, don't you." Aegis shot a cold glance my way.
"Love or hate me, I say what's on everyone's mind" I gave a confident smirk as I put my hands to my hips.
"I just got a message from Lucia. She wants us to meet her in Destra. She's apparently got a mission for us." Aegis said.
"Perfect. I want to stay as far away from normal quests as possible. Let's go."
As the three of us began to walk away, someone passed right by me that I could've sworn I've seen somewhere. I just can't put my finger on it.
I highly doubt it's Polk or Gash. This person didn't have their physique.
Maybe I'm just being a bit paranoid...
===
I was maddened beyond reason by that idiot fat slob Vinal!
"Why the hell did you allow her to escape?! We could've easily voted to execute her here and now!" I told Vinal.
"You father didn't teach you a damned thing before he croaked..." He said as he opened a bottle of wine he had on his podium.
"You wanna say that one more time, tubby?!" I grabbed his wine and threw it onto the floor. As it shattered, he let out a large sigh and grabbed a spare bottle he had inside his podium.
"The Gornwell family has made their claim to fame through battle. They went from warzone to warzone fighting against the demon threat as opposed to the other members of the noble six that haven't set foot on a battlefield for... well as long as I could remember. The only fighter in nobleman Nare's family was his oldest ancestor, the hero that saved the village that became this kingdom. Look at him over there. He has no interest in the nobility."
Nobleman Vinal wasn't lying. Nobleman Nare was sleeping like a newborn child at his podium. He then continued speaking.
"The people love the Gornwells. ESPECIALLY the poor people. If word got out that the out of touch nobles killed the champion family of the people, it would be utter pandemonium. The people of the lower reach outnumber the nobility 15 to 1. That is a civil war we would surely lose."
As much as I hate it, he has a point...
"But if that's the case, why did we send assassins?"
"It's all about the PRESENTATION, nobleman Drow. If rumor spread that she mysteriously died in her palace, that mostly clears us of blame. It's not wrong that you want to kill her, what's wrong is your method of doing so. Kill her with discretion."
Kill her with discretion...
"Thank you for this lesson, nobleman Vinal! I apologize for ruining your wine!"
"No worries! You ARE new to this, after all."
Just you wait, Elizabeth. I'll avenge my father by making your death a slow and painful one!