Ryoichi suddenly became the elites and was about to marry the princess Fiona. First thing first was naming.
The queen said: "Generally speaking, the elites get names from their parents when they were born. As for ordinary people, it will take a long time to examine while the committee will provide an option when the examination is done. But it's urgent and unexpected this time, so I'll just assign a name to you, if you have no objection."
Ryoichi brought out, "Your majesty, it's the supreme honor for me. Well, this might be a little bit rude to say, but I'm still wondering if your majesty can grant me an extra glory. I'm wondering if I can propose a name for your permission?"
Heard that, the elites started to chattering again, "how dare him?" "I wouldn't believe he'll have some good proposal." "Maybe just a fish name like salmon." "Haha.."
"You may," the queen ignored others and said.
"As I was guard R, I wouldn't want to forget where I come from, so I suppose it would be better if my name also starts with R."
"That makes sense." The queen agreed.
"Then, my fa.., I heard that from the ancient culture, there's a name starting with R and symbolizing loyalty. I would want no more in my life but beg your majesty to allow me to dedicate my loyalty to your majesty." As for blandishments, Ryoichi was very good at it in previous life of being a salesman.
"That sounds good, so what it is?"
"It's Ryoichi, or I can go by Ryoi, just for your convenience to order me."
"That would work."
Ryoichi bowed down deeply. Finally, he got back his name from being simply called as a dispensable letter.
After establishing the identity, the queen said he could move closer to the palace.
"Now you may go settling everything down. After that, you can go visit Fiona, but not necessary to wake her up."
Walking out of the palace, Ryoichi finally got some time to digest what just happened. The elites passing by would have no rights to ask him to kneel down but to nod a greeting, while all the others, guards or soldiers or ordinary people, had to kneel for him, no matter they'd like to or not. He was elite now! The letter R on his chest was replaced into a small gilded name tag on his back neck. It was shining.
Not ordinary anymore! He felt like becoming a protagonist instead of merely a NPC. So quickly did all this happen that he could never image. Outside the palace, there was one person waiting for him, his friend S.
"R! I mean, Ryoichi! Congratulations! For Poseidon's sake, I'm so worried about you!" S came over and said.
Ryoi was so happy to see him, who might be the only one that would happy for his promotion.
When S approached him, he was about to kneel.
"What're you doing, S?!" Ryoi quickly got him up.
S scratched his head and said, "well, you're elite now so I'm supposed to give a salute."
"Fool! Don't you ever do that to me! We're friends no matter who I am, and friends don't do that shit to each other. And you know what a friend would call me? Just Ryoi. You know what, only queen would ever call me that to order me."
His face turned a little bit red, "wow, feel like I'm kinda sick of having you as my friend, haha."
On this side, Ryoichi was telling what just happened to him as S requested, while on the other side, the prince Jonathan went visit Fiona after another argument with the queen Katharina.
The doctor was just doing the final check for Fiona before she could leave hospital.
She saw Jonathan came and greeted him excitedly: "Brother!" The doctor finished the examination in an appropriate time, so the princess thanked him and asked them to leave for now.
Jonathan asked: "You got all the news?"
"Yes! I know I'm pregnant. It makes me so happy! It's our child!"
Jonathan put finger on his lips: "Shush, don't you ever say that. I mean, you know Katharina's decision about that guard?"
"Sorry. Yes, sister has sent me note. Isn't that great? I don't have to marry Pulchritudinem, I can continue my research here, and more importantly, I can still be with you." Fiona flushed due to excitement.
"That's stupid! How could you just be like Katharina? What's bad with marrying Pulchritudinem, having the support of weapons? Isn't that beneficial to our realm? As for having an ordinary person as your fiancé, don't you feel a shame?"
"I don't want to give up my marriage for national affairs. If I can't marry you, please allow me to be here with you, or at least allow me to see you everyday. For the guard, why are you so mean? He's helping us out here, accepting a woman with someone else's kid, helping me to turn down the kingdom and bear the rage and complaints, and more importantly, he saved my life. Without him, I wouldn't be here. You would lose your child!"
"I never said I wanted … " Jonathan shouted, but immediately regretted. He cherished Fiona, but only as his sister, not a lover, which made him incompetent to respond Fiona's feelings. The child, as he thought, was only a mistake.
Tears filled up Fiona's eyes, "right, you never wanted the kid, never wanted me! Ever since when we were kids, you could only see Katharina in your eyes and no one else. What are you expecting me to do, huh? Having an abortion and marry the kingdom?!"
"I didn't say that …"
At this time, a head passed through the door, "sorry, am I interrupting? I'll come over later."
It was Ryoichi, who came to visit Fiona after getting things down. He was about to leave when he saw the prince, but the princess asked him to stop: "Please wait. Ryoichi, right? Please stay. My brother is going to leave now."
His body passed through the membrane and entered the room, while Jonathan was heading to the opposite. Even before the last minute he left the room, he was staring hard at Ryoichi's face, and giving him the creeps.
'Those sick black eyes,' Jonathan thought, 'I'll make them gloomy, someday!'