Chapter 43: The Queen
Guy 1 was telling me the story of his people, and as interesting as it was, I wanted to know about the most important topic.
"Why would you settle here?"
Guy 1 just sipped his tea, his emotions told me he was relieved, now that he didn't have to talk about his people.
"King Michael. That's why. Lord Diamond himself blessed us himself, and his gift from the heavens was giving us our King."
Guy 1 almost sounded a bit excited, but his emotions showed more than that. He was filled with love, respect and admiration for this Diamond person, but not his King… curious.
"Who is Lord Diamond?"
"My apologies, I forgot you come from far away. Lord Diamond is the creator of all elves. He created this world long ago. Everyone else is just an invader or guest that has out welcomed their stay."
Of course he's a nut.
"Lord diamond sounds like a great god… Is this a common belief among elves?"
"I can tell you feel the same way I do. I'm good at reading people you see."
Yeah, no. That's just the ship telling you that.
"But yes, it's very common. However, these days that belief is beginning to dwindle. Last we've heard, only the snow elves have built a temple to Lord Diamond on their mountains."
Interesting…
"So you're still in contact with them?"
Guy 1 was getting annoyed and a little angry with all the questions related to his people. At least, the ones he separated with.
"I'm sorry that was rude of me, but I'm still curious. How did you end up here? Why?"
Guy 1 just sighed and without saying anything for a few seconds until he finally fessed up.
"King Michael… He is the master of this island. When we arrived we were running out of food, and there were barely enough trees on this island to build a small village. Until he came…"
I can tell he was reluctant to explain the rest but I could already see far enough into the distance to see a big shiny castle and a small town around it. This was no village. 20 years can't do this, especially after he mentioned the lack of trees.
"I can't tell you what his ability is or if he even has one. All I can say is that, when our fleet steered off course during a bad storm we ended up here. At the time the island was just a normal island. But as more and more people began to explore the island, we found our princess Who we thought was lost forever. It was the day after the king showed up of course."
Guy 1's emotions showed excitement for a second until it shifted to disappointment when he mentioned the princess.
"I was one of the first to meet the king. He arrived riding on a Grass-mammoth right outside the village. At first we thought he was a resident of the island until he told us his story and that he was being kept as a prisoner and slave by an evil woman."
"So this evil woman was none other than the princess I'm guessing." I spoke with a bit of excitement and curiosity.
I can't help it. I love lore and storytelling.
"Unfortunately yes. She is a pure blooded tyrant but she controls the one person who can give us sanctuary."
So he's still a slave? Despite being the king? "How many people know about this?"
"Not many. Everyone knows she's rude and obnoxious but not everyone knows she's purely psychotic. She was captured by the high elves because she destroyed something that was supposed to be a gift to them. Most of our kind overlook this because they all hate high elves. The problem is that- I'm sorry I'm rambling… where were we?
{Makoto, he seems more talkative than usual…}
{It seems the psychic function is doing more than I thought.}
"Can we meet him?"
Guy 1 was a little nervous when I brought up this question. It didn't seem like he was that keen on letting us meet with the guy he didn't even care for. That or he's just scared of the queen.
He was a bit weary so I threw in an extra cookie to show my trust.
"Now that I think about it, you've only seen the Admirals' wares, but you haven't seen mine."
Guy 1 was confused at first until he saw a status window pop up in front of his face. This status window was my Demon Shop of course. He looked at it and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head.
"The thing about my shop is that you're not just trading with me, no no no. You're trading across the world with ALL of my business partners. All you have to do is pay a fee to use it."
I shrugged my shoulders in exaggeration, meanwhile our little friend here was reeling in shock, horror and most importantly. Greed.
"...You seem to get around my friend… All of these items look like sacred treasures in my eyes, and they are appearing and disappearing before my very eyes. How many people are you able to share this with?"
I chuckled for a moment before swiping my hand through the air like I was about to smack the man in the face. When he looked down he noticed the status screen was gone. He looked at me feeling a bit desperate before coming to a bit of clarity.
"Very well, I will set up a meeting."
I could tell that even now he was a bit reluctant but now that he had gotten a taste of the finer things he didn't want to let go. We were about to get up and walk away until I realized something.
"Alora…"
"Hmm? Oh the demon girl."
I asked Guy 1 where the shower was because I forgot and decided to just walk in.
As soon as I did, I saw her hunched over naked drying her bottom half… There's something about breasts that are just dangling through the air like that… It's a different feeling.
Eventually we matched eyes and she just stared for a second before I said the first thing that came to mind, "Don't stop now. I was enjoying the show."
Her face grew red… redder than usual, until she started throwing random items at me.
"Get out Jessup!"
Weird… I could read her emotions… they seemed… excited?
I definitely want this ship.
…
After we all got to our respected ships we started to set sail to the island. Alora still looked mad but thanks to the magic ship I could tell exactly what she was thinking.
I whispered in her ear, "Do you want to go another round before we get to the island?"
Alora blushed in embarrassment and hit me on the shoulder lightly.
"I'm still sore from last night… maybe later."
She whispered those last words even quieter but I could still hear her. So I cast [REGENERATION] on her just to tease her.
"Jess!"
I was going to keep flirting with her until I heard somebody cough from behind us.
"As much as I can't wait to have grandbabies, could you two keep the flirting to a bare minimum?"
I chuckled a little but even I wasn't untouchable. That was still embarrassing. Not to mention rude of me to say while her father was right over there. There's a reason why I made a joke about his mother earlier and not his daughter. Even I have respect.
"Sorry old man. I couldn't help it."
Alora just looked like she was going to jump overboard any second now.
"Why him? Why did I fall for such an asshole?"
"Because you like bad boys?"
I looked back at her and chuckled. I couldn't help but find this a bit amusing.
…
After 10 minutes of waiting and relaxing we finally arrived on the island where we were all welcomed by a group of people.
Guy 1 got there first so he had plenty of time to let everyone know about the situation.
"I hate this. I hate islands."
I looked at Alora confused until I remembered the story about her mother getting burned on some island. I always thought that story was strange considering I knew her mother so well, but I guess we all have our bad days.
I did the only thing I could and I took her hand in mine as we walked onto the pier and off the boat. Alora made sure to stick close to me while holding my hand.
"Almost feels like a date."
"Yeah, with an audience."
True, I was half expecting them to give us necklaces made of flowers but that didn't happen. There weren't any sexy women wearing coconut bras coming to greet us either. Shame.
We walked over to an old man with wrinkles and said our hellos while Guy 1 tried to introduce him as… I don't know. I wasnt really listening. I'll just call him Guy 2.
I bowed to him respectfully until this group started to walk. We followed after them for a second until I realized somebody was missing.
I looked behind me and realized that Makoto was staying on board the ship.
"I'm going to stay here, my boys are going to help them unload our stock and see if I can get my hands on some… native stock."
I gave him a thumbs up… but something about what he said sounded a bit… Suspicious.
Oh well, I'm sure he knows what he's doing. For now I just follow after the crowd of old men.
After a little bit of walking, we soon reached the castle. Unlike our palace at home, this one sits right on the sea. The place looks really clean and new, the bricks don't look stained or worn, they don't even have any barnacles.
Honestly this place seemed WAY to clean. Everything was basically sparkling. Even in the most advanced cities in my own world, nature had a way of bulldozing or at the very least corroding any long standing structures. This place being so close to the sea shouldn't be an exception.
…
Before long we were standing in front of the entrance to the castle. I had to admit, the place was gorgeous, even a little too gorgeous. There were flower beds at every corner. The roads were made from marble and in the center courtyard stood a giant fountain with naked elven statues frolicking in the water.
"So how long have your people been alone for? I assumed your people rarely went out to trade."
Guy 2 looked at me questioningly until he sent a slight glare to Guy 1.
"We trade with Rosary often."
Often enough to gain so many resources to build this castle but not often enough to gather more information on the continent?
It's obviously at this point what's happening.
"Why are you so afraid to admit that your King's abilities lie in… Well I want to say architecture, but that wouldn't explain all the foreign materials used to make this place."
The leader of this group, Guy 2 had to stop and look at me before openly glaring at Guy 1.
"There's no need to blame him. I thought it was pretty obvious actually. The flowers you use aren't native to Rosary and they definitely aren't from this island. Your castle walls are adorned with crystal lights, your roads are made from marble. That leads me to believe that your king must be a true master of enchantment if he could maintain all of this, but how did he get it all? That's the question."
Too much resources to build a place like this. They all live like kings. They must either be incredibly rich with a lot of connections or…
"Needless to say, this is all a little suspicious."
Guy 2 as well as his entourage of elderly elves all looked at me shocked and disturbed until Guy 2 decided to just keep walking.
"Nothing to say? That's alright, I guess we'll find out soon."
"How did you know the flowers weren't from Rosary?"
"You just told me."
"A guess? Ridiculous."
He said that but he didn't have anything else to say. Well the truth is I recognized them. They were roses. I know, why would a continent call itself 'Rosery' if it doesn't have roses? Simple. Because most of the plant life went extinct.
He didn't have anything else to add so we just walked inside the castle and found the throne room, and guess what? The room was adorned with silver and gold.
Red velvet drapes hung from the ceilings with not a single stain or sign of dust. The walls even depicted a beautiful masterpiece of artwork.
And at the center of it all sat a beautiful woman on her throne. A brown skinned, pointy eared woman. No doubt the queen.
I looked around briefly, yet all I could see was the single throne and a woman sitting upon it. When we met eyes, I could tell she only felt animosity towards me. I was still under the effect of the ship's psychic wave but I didn't need it to know that what this woman felt towards me was true animosity.
Guy 2 spoke up and introduced me, "Your Majesty the queen. I present to you, Prince Jessup Grove, of the Grove Kingdom."
I bowed in the traditional sense and made my greeting.
"A pleasure to meet you."
But inside of me, lay a beast waiting for the excitement to begin.