I sat in the front row where I could see all that was about to happen. The group of Witches all put a knee down while tossing the unconscious body in front of them.
The audience was bigger then usual, a part of it was because a lot of people were needed for the festival preparations and mostly to see the legendary witches.
Not too long ago they didn't even know about their existence, and those who knew thought to be legends.
Then Froggy came along, and that made quite a stir in the palace, and before they could get used to him another three came along.
While they did stay a short while, now another six new witches appeared!
Were they even that rare or are we just that blind to see them?
"I see you've come back Froggy, and this time with a gift?"
The king spoke with a deep voice and everyone went quiet in the room.
"Yes my king, we caught this criminal and stopped his rain of terror."
Froggy spoke with a respectful voice while keeping his head down.
"We hope this should be enough to satisfy your house."
This time it was Ellen the leader who spoke still with a respectful voice.
The nobles and the second prince seemed to have mixed reactions about this.
Sure they captured the rogue witch that kept killing the poor villagers, but that made the Royal house look bad.
How can a group of no-names manage to catch someone in one month when they tried to do the same in the past few years?
But it didn't matter anymore, the job was done, the kingdom was safe and maybe they could extract some information from him since he was still alive.
"Me and my kingdom greatly appreciate your work, I hope we will have a great partnership."
The king responded with a smile.
Then with a wave of his hand, two guards walked and grabbed the unconscious prisoner by his shoulders and dragged him towards the cellar.
But just as they dragged him a few blocks an enchanted iron sword appeared out of nowhere and slashed the head of the witch, decapitating him on the spot.
Everyone was shocked, the swords changed to milk and the Invisible assassin was suddenly visible for all of us to see.
It was Walter, and he just calmly walked back to his group who were all ready to leave.
"Oh sorry, you asked for the prisoner to be dead, and we don't want to burden you with our mistake, my friend decided to fix that for us. I hope this didn't scare you or change in any way our future relationship."
Ellen looked truly sorry about what just happened, he made one more deep bow and turned around and walked out of the throne room, completely ignoring the guards that kept coming in and the shocked nobels.
I was so surprised by this, that I completely forgot that I had to leave with them.
"Don't attack them, they only did as we asked!"
The king stopped the guards who were ready to go after the witches.
"But my King, this is an attempt of intimidation! How can we take it like that?"
One of the high nobles spoke back.
"Isn't this what you wanted? The witches delivered the criminal like you requested. Now we're going to keep up on our promise."
The king wasn't happy with their display either, but he also knew that they did this only because the high nobles didn't want the witches to work there. This was their form of retaliation for that.
The nobles didn't dare to say anything else and just stayed down shutting their mouth.
"They must be tired from the long journey, give them a room where they can rest."
The servants bowed down before running to catch up with the witches, and I was about to run with them when I heard the king call my name next.
"Trader! I want to talk with you if that's possible."
I froze in place and slowly turned to face the king who was looking directly at me.
What should I do?
I expected this to happen but not like this, do I even have the option of refusing with all the guards in here?
"Yes of course your majesty."
I guess I'll accept the invitation for now, and if things get ugly I'll run away.
The king seemed satisfied with my response and walked down from his throne signaling me to follow him.
Luckily only two guards were following us, and I think I was capable of fighting them back or running from them.
After a few long hallways, we arrived at an office room where the guards stopped and stayed outside.
I have a knack for getting into important people office's and I don't know how to deal with that.
Maybe I should make my own office since I have so much inspiration.
The king sat down at his desk at looked at me deeply in silence to the point that I felt uncomfortable.
"Are you immortal?"
Of all the things I thought we would talk about, I didn't expect this.
"What makes you think so?"
"Your name is Trader, you have a unique appearance similar to the hero, you're friends with Sir. Bobby, I could not find any information related to you no matter how hard I looked, and the only information I got was from the hero herself telling us that you don't like attention and have a lot of knowledge and from my daughter who saw you getting killed at the Sandstone Palace."
Oh, that was a lot of information on me, but the most important one is the fact that her daughter saw me getting killed, and for an unknown reason I'm back with the living.
"I'm not immortal."
Let's not talk too much or I'll give unnecessary information that can bite me later, I've seen what the Princess was capable of understanding once I've spoken too much.
"Is there a way for you to give me the same ability?"
"No."
"Can I ask why?"
"I don't have control over this, and it's not an item."
"I see, do you know perhaps about the undying totem?"
I decided to keep my silence.
"The Undying totem is an item from a bygone era when technology was way more advanced than what we have today. Unfortunately, my people have managed to anger the System and they were punished accordingly. Now the only thing that reminds us about those forgotten times is the unexplained empty history books."
He took some books from his inventory and laid them on his desk.
"History of the System."
"History of science."
"The Great War."
And many more similar books, I picked one up and as I expected most of the pages were empty, I looked through the other books and had the same results.
"Interesting, but what does this have to do with me?"
He looked at me with more attention and asked me something I didn't expect.
"Are you a man who lived through the great war?"
"Didn't that war happen a few hundred years ago, how could I even be alive?"
But if I had the same body as in the game theoretically I wouldn't age.
"You were supposed to die at the party as well, and here you are."
The king made a very good point, but unfortunately, I'm not that old, I'm also curious about that war and what kind of technology it had, but looks like even the king doesn't know that much.
"No, I'm not that old, it just happens that I have some interesting information from the ruins I found in the monster forest."
"Monster forest you say. Maybe I should send an expedition after we deal with the Zombie Lord for good."
He knows that the Zombie Lord is not dead for good?
My expression must've been pretty obvious since he decided to give me an explanation.
"The Hero told me about her discussion with the System. Not all of it but she told me to be on the lookout once he'll resurrect."
That makes sense, the Zombie Lord won't fall for the same trap twice, so they'll need an army to destroy him for good.
At least, this time they would be on the attack instead of defense.
"The Hero told me that you possess some great knowledge, we didn't assume too much at the time, but after the last battle I tend to belive that you know something that even we the Royal Family wouldn't know after so many generations."
And here it comes, he's going to ask me for some dangerous information, I wonder what he will want. How to open a portal, or maybe how to make Crystals?
I honestly don't want to give them any information if possible, but I don't think I'll have a peaceful life anymore if I refuse him.
"I may know some stuff, but not too groundbreaking."
He only smirked at my remark not believing me.
"Do you know how to craft Undying Totems?"
"Again, I don't know what those are."
"Oh please, it's hard for me to believe that you came back from the dead, escaped the Sand palace, and didn't know about the existence of the Undying Totems. It's in the name for System Shake!"
Looks like I can only bluff so much before the king loses his patience.
"Unfortunately I don't know the recipe otherwise I would always keep ten with me. But I do know where you can find them if you want some, maybe you'll manage to get their recipes as well."
The king looked dejected when he heard that I didn't know the recipe, but I got his attention once again when I told him I knew where to get them from.
And I can use this to my advantage since he wants to be immortal.
"And where can I find those?"
"I'll tell you their location with one exception, write in this book that you won't ever ask me about anything else or hunt me down your family included as well."
I then took out an empty book from my Inventory and placed it on his desk.
The king seemed to be shocked by my request but reluctantly chose to write inside the book.
After he was done I quickly took the book and read if everything was right.
'I, King Mending Alexander the Third and my family swear to not ask for information or send any assassins after Trader after he will tell me the location of Undying Totems.
Signed- Mending Alexander the Third'
The book was short but it had everything I wanted to have so I couldn't complain.
I put it on my inventory and probably store it later in an Ender's chest for safekeeping.
"I don't know how to make Undying Totems, I know that the Sultan had one on him before he died but I'm sure even the Sandstone kingdom doesn't know how to make them. Instead, I think they got it from the Piligers."
"Piligers? Are you saying those monsters who wear human skin are capable of creating something so powerful?"
"I don't think you can normally craft something like that, that's why it would make more sense for the Piligers to have access to them since they are the descendants of the fallen nation. More exactly the Evoker is supposed to have those totems, but be careful since he can use actual magic and summon vexes."
"What are vexes?"
"Miniature gray people with an iron sword that can fly and phase through walls. They also deal a lot of damage if you get hit by them."
"That sounds horrifying!"
"It is, but they're not in great numbers from what I know, so maybe you can send an assassin to get one of them?"
"Hmm."
The king sat back and was thinking intensively.
"If what you are saying is true then this would be very helpful. I'll have to look through the library and see historical records about the crusade and make a decision based on that. Thank you Hero Trader, it was a pleasure to talk with you."
The king gave me a polite smile which was my queue to leave since my job was done.
And I was more them happy to get out since I don't know if I would slip up some other information accidentally.
But this is good, if the Stone Kingdom is starting to look after the Piligers they would be too distracted with a whole kingdom to see one man that would sneak into their camp.
With one meeting I've managed to get the Royal Family off my back and distract my enemy.
This was a very productive day.