"How come you came with your whole family?" I asked Queen as we made our way to the hall. She decided she wouldn't go to her room first, till the meeting was over at least.
"It was their idea. They all felt like they wanted to see the castle, but I just now realized that that wasn't their goal," she answered.
It was just a few minutes before we arrived at the castle, Cathy not joining me today because she still had some duties in the castle. But once there, I could see just about every monster that had qualified for the position, them too deciding that changing would be for the best after the meeting.
Looks like we did have to wait long for the king cause just as both I and Queen were about to take our seats, he appeared right in his throne but in a different suit than the one I left him with, the qualified elves in their appropriate chairs.
Mrs Kelly also made her appearance soon after, at least out of those gym clothes she had on for the past one week, always grinding that game of hers.
The three elves were each dressed in different outfits. Earl, the elf who easily defeated the wonder were girl, was in dark red suit which was quite surprising, given that he looked like the one guy who wouldn't want to wear such clothes even if it was official.
He looked just like I remembered him, the normal face of an elf, only with sharp features where they should have been soft, and that crooked smile of his which, if I looked more closely, seemed to be directed at both me and Queen.
Kanon rein, winner against Mr Ben, was at least in a casual white shirt, which I'm sure, judging by the way he kept on shifting his hands onto the collar, he didn't enjoy wearing in the slightest. He still looked good though, even for a dark elf. He nodded his greeting to the entire table.
And finally, the last elf who won by default since Harold didn't fight his match. I don't remember hearing his name, but he was the only one in a cloak, for some unknown reason. He didn't even acknowledge any of us but just stared on to the Beast king.
"Alright, I think that's everyone," the Beast king began.
"Before we have our supper, it's good to bring you all up to speed in the happenings of the war. Firstly, we monsters have chosen to fight back for once, and are slowly but surely reclaiming back our planets from the demons. I believe it's the same case to the elves?" he asked as he nodded towards Kanon.
"That's true, though the one planet that we elves have chosen not to approach would be the one holding the world tree, as it is very much protected by the demons," he answered.
The king nodded his head before he continued, "Now, I think we all have some idea of why this group was created. Max, care to remind us?"
Huh, now I'm involved in the discussion? I see why Cathy was always insistent that I question Mrs Kelly about our mission. Maybe it was because she had a feeling the king would ask me some of the questions.
"Yes. I think the main reason this group was formed was that we could take on the missions that couldn't be left for the army, tasks that don't require a lot of manpower but focuses on the skill," I said.
Everyone looked at me in surprise, all except principal Kelly, who was nodding her head in agreement.
"Didn't expect such a young kid to have an accurate rundown of the situation that quickly," Sally commented.
"Anyways, Max is right. And that brings as to the main reason I called you all here this early on, not even giving you guys a good amount of time to rest. We think that the Demon king is about to achieve what he wanted with this war, and hence need to keep up with him, even pull one over him," King Jason continued.
"You are all here for some much needed training, so that you all can learn to work as the best team as you are meant to be. Let me give you all a good idea of how we plan to train you guys up until you are ready to face your main mission, retrieving the world tree,"
"Since time is of the essence, for the next four weeks, my daughter, Kelly, will be training all of you on increasing your speed, body strength and stamina. Then, once we're through with that, we move on to making you all know each others abilities, and how you can use them as a team. Then, we will finally sent you guys on test missions, to give you all some experience in the field,"
"We are on limited time, hence the need to rush things along. By the end of three months, you will all be well prepared, or at least as prepared as you can be in that short amount of time, to go and save the elves life-force. Are their any questions regarding this topic?"
After the King was done speaking, we all went silent, still trying to capture our thoughts after been thoroughly explained our next four months. It was a lot of information to take in, but Earl was the first one to come up with a question.
"No offense, your grace. But I don't understand why we don't just take Mrs Kelly, as you have just told us she will be the one to train us. More importantly, why don't you just gather all the half-dragons you can and make them an elite group? It's possible, right?"
"That's a good question. But unfortunately, just as you can pretty much tell, to find even one demi-gon in the Beastverse is all but impossible. We may have a planet filled with a race descended from them, but to have a direct descendant from a dragon is a different story,"
"We are just lucky enough that general Zard is one of the said half-dragons you are talking about. Kelly cannot participate in this elite group for the same reason why she couldn't join one of the adamantium warriors; she's one of the last line of defense in war for the monsters. Any other questions?"
"King Jason, if I may, how much time do we have to prepare ourselves to rush this along that quickly?" Kanon asked.
"If what my sources say are true, then we have about five months until whatever the King Jack has planned for the world tree will be executed, and we can't have that happen just in case it is a threat to elven life,"
Sally was the next one to speak up, "My king, I remember that another reason this group was formed was because the elves couldn't attack the demons head on since they had some type of power to block them from attacking. Isn't making a part of this group part elf a bad idea since the would become a liability instead of an asset?"
The king smiled when he had the question. That, to me, seemed like the most sensible one yet. I mean, I'm part elf too, so wouldn't taking four beings with elven blood flowing in them to a place where they have a something to hinder us be a bad idea?
"I was waiting for one of you to ask such a question. The answer is very simple actually. Though the demons haven't taken something of great importance of the monsters to warrant us to attack them in full force, King Fenrick realized that just as they had prepared in advance for the elves, they might have done the same for us,"
"Hence, just in case they did used it against us, their would be part of the group still functioning to protect the rest. The elf King calculated and saw that they couldn't use the said power to prevent both from disrupting them, only one race at a time. I can say, unfortunately, the Chaos child would be the the only one affected by both of them. But just as this is an disadvantage to him it, might also be an advantage, as he wouldn't be affected greatly by each one of the powers, hence making him the only one who will be mobile in both cases,"
Huh, the Beast king was right. Though both things to prevent our two races would be a liability to me, I would always be mobile due to both bloods running in me. Queen nudged me with her elbow then whispered,
"You better protect me when that thing they are planning to use on us affects me badly,"
"Yeah, sure."
"What are the missions we are to undertake look like, your Majesty?" the other elf asked.
"That's for your trainers to decide. Don't look so surprised, that you'll have more than one trainer. But I'm sure some of you, like General Zard, Kanon, and the viper master, already have the basics down. So I'm sure while most of you are been trained by Mrs Kelly, who will be planning for the future of this team. I'll decide on who is to be the leader right before you go for your first mission,"
"I think I've answered all the questions, unless someone would like to add one more?"
No one said anything, meaning that they either left their questions for another time, or just don't have any.
"Good. Enough of this seriously talk. I don't think I properly welcomed my guest to my castle. Please..." the king clapped his hands and the dining door immediately opened for the many maids who entered with various dishes in their hands.
"Everyone enjoy yourselves, and welcome, to the Monster castle!"
The food here, even after staying for almost one week, never even one moment disappointed. After the very later supper, as the meeting had stayed a lot longer than it should, I escorted Queen to her room, after both of us informing our maids in attendance that we would take ourselves to our rooms.
"Hey, Nephis," I began.
"Queen. How many times do I have to tell you that it's Queen?"
"Fine then, Queen,"
"Don't say it like that!"
"Like what?"
"Like... You know what, I don't care. What do you want to ask?"
"What camp are you from?"
She slowed down her pace and turned to stare at me. It took her some time before she answered.
"I went to Mercury. And you?"
"Mars. Something keep bothering me for a while. Why didn't you and your twin sister both go to the same camp?"
"You're talkative today. And with many questions too,"
"Are you going to answer my question, or just evade it like you plan to,"
"What happened to you over the months we haven't seen each other? You've become more...how do I say... outgoing. The casual clothes are doing it for you though. Not a bad body, better than the flimsy one I left you with last time,"
"Would it kill you to give a guy a complement even once?"
"That was the complement, Randoff. Take it or leave it,"
I stared hard at her before saying, "No. That was no complement. A complement is like today that get up you have looks real cute on you,"
Queen blushed then punched my arm.
"Ow! Is that how you take to receiving complements?!"
"You want to know why my sister and I were separated? It's because we chose to do that. We were all ok with it since we both agreed that we needed some time to ourselves. You happy now?"
"Very. Now, tell me about which class won your inter-class competition?"
"Ours, North, of course. I find that that was a very obvious question,"
We continued talking about our schools, exchanging stories about our fight and what we've been up to for the past six months. All the while we had already arrived at Queen's room, already on her bed just talking.
"Well then, Max. Get out of my room. I'm tired,"
"Wow, ouch! A simple excuse would have done the job. No need to be–hey!"
She pushed me out of her room before closing the door. And what kind of strength was that?! I couldn't even resist her!
I heard the door swing open again and she poked her head out.
"See you tomorrow at training. I'm going to beat you, so you better bring you A game,"
"The one doing the beating will be me,"
She shook her head before muttering, "Delusional,"
Well see who's delusional once I'm through with her. It's not that far, just tomorrow.