Chapter 34: King's Powers
After waiting for a few minutes the king and queen came in through the double doors and into the main hall. After spotting us from across the room they walked over with big smiles and to say hello.
"Jess, you're finally old enough to leave the house. It's about time. Try to make me some money will you?"
Queen Alizah elbowed her husband in the ribs and gave me a big hug.
"Jess, I'm so happy for you. I still remember the day we officially first met. You were strong then and you'll only get stronger now,"
Is she talking about the time she smacked me across the room? I don't consider that a 'Strength' at all, I would call that 'too shocked to move.'
"You need to make sure to visit us as much as you can. Hopefully you won't be like your bratty uncle."
"I'll try."
Speaking of which, I still haven't met that guy. I wanted to meet my cousins too, but Gramps never let me travel with him anywhere.
"Come on, hot lips. Stop crowding the boy."
The old man smiled at his wife and held her by the hips.
I couldn't help but feel a little jealous every time I saw him all lovey dovey with her. Even giving her nicknames now.
"Jess, are you sure you want to go through with this? I know you're still debating on being a king, and leading people. Maybe you could just stay here, and keep the peace on the island."
I didn't know what I wanted in life but I knew what I wanted right now, "I am keeping the peace old man. I'm just doing it from far away."
The king stared at his grandson for a second until responding.
"I understand. If you're sure, I have a special task for you while you're out. Our world is a bit… special. And not in a good way. I wouldn't say it's dying. Far from it. But it's definitely not stable."
"Sometimes… Things arrive in our world through spatial tears or random wormholes. Sometimes they're machines, like the car and that record play we've got. Other times… most times. It's people."
"If you find them, let me know. They usually always have unique or special abilities and knowledge we don't have. If you find them, try to romanticize this island and its people. Can you do that?"
I knew what he was talking about, Hell I was one of them. It wasn't hard to understand the value in people like us. We had the ability to reshape the world in our image with our [ULTIMATE SKILLS.]
"I can do that… but what if I want them?"
The king chuckled a little upon hearing that, "If you can win them over, then yes. Go right ahead."
I was wondering if I had any other questions I wanted to ask, but I couldn't think of anything important. I thought for a second then asked about the one thing on my mind.
"Can I raise my noble title? I was thinking about [Grand Duke] or [Prince.]"
"Hahaha! I'm afraid that's not how it works kid."
I guess it couldn't be that easy. I was going to ask more about it but my mother stepped in for him.
"You'll have to increase your [Reputation] and [Contribution.] In order to do that you need to give the [King] his [Taxes]."
"Taxes? I haven't heard anything about this?"
The king spoke this time, "We want to keep it that way. If other nations found out about [Taxes] they wouldn't be so willing to request a title."
Now I'm really curious. They keep putting these words in brackets so it must matter.
"It's one of the methods I use to cultivate. The higher the population the better. Basically, for every person in your village, town or city, I collect a small fraction of their lifeforce. A tiny amount but enough to cultivate… also here's a tip. I collect the majority of lifeforce and you get some too. Hopefully that helps convince you to go out and save a few villages. Hahaha!"
He's starting to sound like a real supervillain, but that skill sounds super OP. No wonder he's so strong.
"Doesn't it have any weaknesses?"
"Normally yes. For example, If a city intends to rebel or leave, everyone loses a bit of their own lifeforce. Now this isn't that big of a deal for me since I'm immortal, and fortunately nobody gets physically weaker, you won't go from S rank to E rank or anything like that, but the higher the population you have rebel… the more lifeforce you and other people part of my [Kingdom] lose."
"Holy shit! That's insane!"
I sat back on my chair contemplating what I've gotten myself into. The old fart made me into a [Village Chief.] Couldn't I lose a lot if my uncle or somebody else lost a major city?! I could potentially die on the spot!
"Don't worry, I know I should've told you about this sooner but I didn't want to scare you. At the time you needed the title, and it's helped you a lot in your studies over the years."
"What do you mean?"
"Some of the titles provide physical benefits and others are mental. Only the higher ranks provide both. [Village Chief] provides you with [Small LVL Increase] and [Small Wisdom Increase.] It's helped you level quicker and it helped you with your studies. Also, I was just teasing you about the side effects. Technically you won't be punished until you make your [Population Count] reaches [1.] Right now it's a big fat [0]"
I sighed in relief. How was this supposed to convince me to become king? If anything, now I'm too scared to do that.
"I know what you're thinking, but don't worry. This is why I want Transmigrators, some of them have certain skill sets and abilities. They're perfect for the noble title, and since I can portal across the world, I can help them fend off any major threats. I can't allow my own subjects to suffer after all."
What he said made me think about something, "How many subjects do you have anyway?"
This wasn't an answer anyone here knew the answer to. Even Sir Makoto and my mother were curious. Although the only one who wasn't curious was the queen, probably on account of the fact that she probably already knew… the other was Alora. She just looked bored.
"Just 4."
That's not as much as I was expecting, but I guess that's more comforting than him saying a couple hundred. That's definitely a wise choice. If he had more than that, the odds of his subjects getting attacked would be even higher, and he's only one guy.
"Can you tell us who they are?"
The king contemplated for a second until he answered, "You, your Mother and your Uncle. Oh and some other guy."
That's right, I forgot she had the dream of conquering her own lands. I looked back at her and she had this blank look on her face. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories but this ability of his was just too interesting.
"Who's the other guy?"
The king gave me a sly smile before answering, "A guy."
"Fine. Don't answer."
Great, now I'm even more curious. I looked over at Alora and noticed she was chuckling a little. I wanted to ask her what was so funny until I noticed something.
"What about Sir Makoto?"
I looked at the man in question and waited for his answer until the king interrupted him.
"Him? He just wanted to perv away with women and sake. If it weren't for me he would just grow fat on one of his boats and be found a few days later with a plate of chips on his belly while p*rn played on one of his movie projectors."
We all looked at the king at the same time, we all knew that he wasn't a big fan of laziness. In fact he had a major distaste for it.
"He's out of line… but he's right." We all just looked at Makoto with disdain.
Alora was actually a lot like the king in that she didn't like leisure that much. So she mostly has disdain for the fact that her father had multiple wives.
"Jess. Don't follow in my father's footsteps."
I looked back at her while I was sitting down and realized that she was standing right behind me and surprisingly close. Her stomach was only a few inches away from my head.
"If only you were shorter…" I muttered under my breath without realizing I just spoke aloud.
Alora blushed a little before stepping back a little, and everyone just looked at this and gave a few chuckles before getting back on track.
"Do you have any more questions Jess? We need to head out for our honeymoon. I booked a nice vacation home in the central continent, and I want to get there on time."
I thought for a moment but I couldn't think of anything important.
"I think we're ready."
"Good, I picked up a good book on karma sutra and I'm hoping to try some new things."
I don't know what to say about that…
""Gross.""
It seems Makoto and I were the only ones who knew what that was. The women in the room didn't seem to know, but the queen will soon.
…
Hey sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm still figuring things out. I'm debating on getting a contract signed or just going to a different site. For now I'll just post a few chapters here and write a second book on a different site.
Enjoy the chapter.