Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan
After exploring the garden some and catching a glimpse of the princess, I returned to the front of the palace where Father and Sarah were waiting for me.
"Welcome back!" Sarah gave an innocent smile and a small wave.
Ignoring her, I quickly turned to Father. "So how long till the meeting?"
"30 minutes or so, but we can wait for them inside now, there were some security issues before.."
Following Father after he got up, we walked up to the entrance to the palace, it was a very extravagant door but wasn't anything crazy.
Walking inside, we came into a long main hallway with a fairly tall ceiling.
"It's quite well built.." I couldn't help but voice my admiration towards the architect.
"Yes this palace is quite beautiful, not enough gold though." Father held his head high in confidence.
-Of course you want more gold, you're a dragon..- But, although I retorted in my mind, I couldn't help but agree with him.
After following a young maid down a few hallways, we came out onto a low second story porch with a very fancy round table.
"This is where the meeting will be held, the Lord and the missus will be out shortly. Please feel free to make yourselves comfortable." The maid that guided us gave an elegant bow before quickly leaving the area.
-Why is she in such a rush, did something happen?-
Turning back towards the table and finding a place to sit, I decided to try one of the cookies that were placed in a basket on the table. Although I was never a fan of sweets, I figured it couldn't hurt to try one.
-Hey.. it's pretty good..- The cookie had a very home made taste to it, something that was hard to find on earth, but even though it was quite good, I only had one.
On the other hand, Father was munching them like he had been starved for a month and Sarah.. well she was eating a slice of cake so fast I couldn't tell if she was even chewing.
"Ahh I miss Helens sweets so much.." Father looked like he was gonna cry.
"She's gonna make me gain weight again.." Sarah pouted as she looked down at her flat stomach.
As time passed, the sweets steadily disappeared, but before Father and Sarah could totally finish them, someone gently opened the door.
It was a tall avian man with blond hair and a short but thick beard wearing a very shiny crown.
He was dressed incredibly well, but I could help but wonder how much he was sweating. -That can't be breathable..- Although he wasn't exactly wearing a ton of clothing, it was more than one layer and it was fairly warm outside.
"Oh how great it is to see you again Osto!" The man's voice wasn't too deep but was smooth, and very nice to listen to.
Fathers face immediately lit up once he saw the man. "Haha, you've grown a beard since the last time I saw you!"
"Well it's been nearly 10 years! How could I possibly hold my youth like you do?"
"Haha, right, right. So how's Helen doing?"
"Oh she is doing fine, she should be joining us soon.. apparently something happened to Lucy…" A look of worry quickly flashed on his face before he turned to me. "So who is this young one?"
He looked directly into my eyes as if to try and test me but I could really tell. "My name is Vasilias Whyte, I am Ostos son." I gave a polite bow before sitting back down.
He gave a short look of surprise. "Ah, I should also introduce myself. My name is Oliver Kaelallan, the current ruling king of this beautiful nation. My wifes name is Helen and my daughter's name is Lucy. Lucy is the heir to the throne but she is very doted on by her mother so please forgive her if she does something you find rude when she comes out later." He gave a deep bow, unfitting of a king.
"It's fine, don't stress about it. I don't think a king should bow so easily though." I gave a slightly judgmental look as I tried to figure out what kind of person he was.
"Well, how could I not show respect to a mighty dragon." He gave me a proud smile.
-How does he know.. and he even said that in front of Sarah..- I looked towards Father to try and get an explanation since he was totally calm. "Father?"
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you. Everyone in my old adventuring party knows my real identity. They are some of the very few humans that know about true dragons." He said it so nonchalantly that it didn't make sense.
Even Sarah spoke as if it was normal. "He hasn't told you that story?"
"N..no? We have only been together for a little while so we haven't talked about too much.."
Oliver walked over and sat down at the other side of the table as we talked. "Oh that's a shame. Well, after this meeting we should tell it to you.. it'll be Lucy's first time seeing dragons too, so we should tell a few stories."
Father was quick to change the subject though. "So how is Lucy's personality as the heir?"
"She is more mature than her age.. at least when it comes to her political duties. She is also quite smart, learns very quickly and is easy to manage. She's practically a complete copy of Helen.. You can probably imagine what she's like." He gave a warm smile similar to Mothers. "She also has a very helpful innate ability."
-Does she have an attribute node?- "What can she do?"
"She has the ability to see some people's aura."
Father and I froze the instant we realized what that meant. -What… If it was seeing denser mana I could understand, but aura?!-
The reason this was so shocking was because humanoid beings couldn't see dense mana even if it was so dense it could kill them, but she could see a low enough density that I found it hard to believe. [1]
Father slowly turned to me with a look of worry. "Uh… That's a problem.."
Oliver didn't seem to understand. "What do you mean? What's the problem?"
Fathers aura wasn't an issue because he was using his temporary form and his reserve and aura were greatly limited, but I on the other hand had a full, unrestricted reserve.
To add to that, my reserve was massive even for dragons, so my aura was far beyond the realm humans could reach.
"Uhm.. Vasilias's aura is uh.. a lot.."
Fathers worry went unwarranted though. "She has already met our Nation rank adventurers, so I don't think there will be any problems."
Although he gave a confident smile, Father and I knew better.
"Well I guess we will find out shortly.." Father's voice was filled with worry and pity.
It was only a second later that things finally started to make more sense. -Sh*t.. was that why she looked so scared earlier?-
- Lucy Kaelallan ~
After hastily getting dressed and calming down, I finally came out of the wardrobe. "Mother, how long until the meeting?"
She gave a look as if she didn't know how to respond. "Um.. they should be waiting for us at the eastern patio.. Oliver went down there a few minutes ago."
-Crap.. Already?!- I felt an indescribable mix of fear and anxiety. "We need to hurry.."
As I turned to the hallway, Mother looked at me with a deep concern. "Why are you in such a rush?"
I quickly glanced back at Mother with a completely serious face. "We need to do everything to please them, we can't make those 'beings' wait.."
Mother and Martha followed me with a look of worry as I walked down the hall, but I didn't expect them to understand what I was talking about.
-If they saw what I did.. they'd understand..-
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[1] - Seeing aura is not sensing, Lucy can see aura with the naked eye where as Vasilias and other dragons sense it with their own auras.