The large door leading to the King's throne room opened, revealing a guard who stated, "The King is ready to see you." General Hunt nodded as the guard stepped aside, letting the group enter the giant room.
Ken had tried to not stare too hard at the ornate decorations lining the castle's walls while traveling throughout it, but the sheer amount of gold decorations in this particular room made his jaw drop. "You're acting like a commoner," Lina whispered. "I am one. Sorry I wasn't born rich like you," Ken shot back.
The fox girl huffed and turned her head away, choosing to ignore the young man. Soon the group arrived at the staircase which led to the throne. King Elric was currently wearing an elegant black shirt accompanied by dark trousers. Despite how late it was in the evening, it had seemed the King had not slept yet.
"Your Majesty," General Hunt bowed along with the two girls, save for Ken who was still looking in awe at the room around him. "Ahem," the general coughed, trying to signal to Ken to bow before the King. By the puzzled look on the young man's face, it was clear he did not get the message.
"It's fine Hunt," Elric waved his hand, "It's just us here. There's no need for theatrics. Going by the brief message your runner had relayed, I'm going to assume this young man here is Kenneth Lovell?"
"It is," Hunt responded, "There was an attack on him at his residence. Two assailants had infiltrated his home and tried to take his life. Ken here has told me they referred to someone called 'Captain Stone', and that he was an 'Inheritor'. Not much could be discerned about their appearance, except for the fact they had tattoos of the 'Cerastes' forming a circle on the back of their left hands."
Elric's casual demeanor from before instantly shifted the moment Hunt had said the word 'Inheritor', and again when mentioning the 'Cerastes'. Now leaning forward with a serious and slightly intrigued expression, Elric said "An Inheritor you say? And are you certain of the tattoo they had? Who was the one that had seen it?"
"It was my friend Dex," Ken said casually, catching everyone off guard since they were expecting Hunt to be the one to reply. General Hunt and Lina both had bewildered expressions painting their faces, while Giselle held one of amusement.
"Who's this Dex?" Elric eyed Ken. "He's right here," Ken gestured to the white mouse still standing atop his shoulder. "I see," the King mused, "I have been made aware of your power by my General here. Is it really true you can not only speak to the rodent, but it can use your ability as well?"
Instead of replying to the man on the throne, Ken whispered something to Dex, who was nodding along. After a moment, Dex pointed his hands towards the stone ceiling and shouted, "Fireball!"
Ken craned his head to the opposite side as a medium sized fireball formed, and then shot upwards towards the ceiling, impacting the thick stone and leaving behind a charred mark. General Hunt and a couple of guards prepared to attack, but stopped when the King's laughter reached their ears.
"Ha ha ha, how marvelous! That is truly wonderful! I can only dream of what you could accomplish with such an ability!" Elric's laughter continued to reverberate throughout the room. A minute later, his laughter finally died down and he turned his attention back to Ken with a large smile, "I like you. You walk in here, ignoring me and every custom that most people follow vehemently. You treat me casually and even tell your companion to launch a spell in the vicinity of me. Most would be too afraid to even dream of doing something similar, and yet you stand there not even breaking a sweat. You are either confident, or you are stupid. Either way, I find it amusing."
Everyone looked at the King with wide-eyes, since they were not expecting that sort of reaction from the man. It was the first time this sort of thing had happened around him, so many believed he would have had a similar reaction to the previous Kings.
"He's just stupid," Lina muttered under breath, just loud enough for Ken to shoot her a glare. "Now, on to the next subject. You said your companion 'Dex' told you about the tattoos, yes?" Elric asked, now fully calmed down and more serious.
Ken nodded, "That's exactly what he said." The King then turned towards the General, "I will need to contact Cresthelm Kingdom. While I do that, I want you to comb not only through this city, but every town within our nation. If it truly is who I suspect, then they have just made a grave mistake operating in my Kingdom under my nose. I will not tolerate any tomfoolery in my territories due to another's schemes." The King became gravely serious as he spoke, and Ken could almost feel the room drop a few degrees during his speech.
"Of course your Majesty," General Hunt bowed again, "I will send messengers to each town to alert every guard in our land."
The King seemed to calm slightly and the room's temperature began to rise again. "Good," he nodded, then gazed at the two beastkin girls that had remained mostly silent up to this point. "Would you care to explain your presence at Ken's residence? Seems a bit too much of a coincidence, doesn't it?"
The girls looked at each other for a moment, then Giselle stepped forward to answer, "Yes. We had suspicion to believe that the Inheritor of Ransein was located in your capital shortly after my friend Lina returned from her last visit here."
"Hmm, yes I can see why you would be eager to meet the Inheritor of Ransein, considering your people's history. My next question is how were you aware of his Inheritance before we were even aware?" Elric questioned.
"It was prophesied by the 'Wandering Oracle' a few generations ago. He had visited the current King at the time and told him that the Inheritor of Ransein would appear in the future. How far into it or where it would happen remained a mystery to even him. He only described a white-haired young man with strange eyes at the time. Since then we had always imagined the Inheritor would hail from our lands. Yet our friend Lina Heartstone here happened to have run into a strange young man. It wasn't until her return to our Kingdom and her recount of the strange interaction she had, we thought it could be the Inheritor we were told about. I apologize on my people's behalf that we were not forthcoming with this information."
The Princess bowed deeply, hoping that the King wouldn't be too angry. "It is fine," Elric replied casually, "I see why you might not have wanted to willingly bring this up, especially since the topics we originally planned to discuss were of peace and trade between our nations." Giselle rose at Elric's words, a bit stunned that he wasn't angry in the slightest, or at least was very good at not showing it.
"What were your plans if you truly were to find and come into contact with the Inheritor of Ransein?" the King questioned.
"We only wanted to aid him in his journey to grow stronger and truly understand his power. We had no ill will towards him, and if he so wished, we would leave him alone should that be his wish," Giselle said calmly.
She wasn't lying with her words. People in her Kingdom were free to do as they please, so why wouldn't the same be said for the Inheritor of Ransein? Shackling someone to them to do their bidding would only come back to haunt them, especially one with so much potential.
"Wonderful," Elric nodded appreciatively, "I have no ill will towards him myself." The King turned to Ken and said, "What do you wish for, Inheritor? Your standing has risen significantly at this point, and you could even be considered a national treasure. I have no qualms appointing you as a noble. Such is the bare minimum for one of your title."
Ken took a minute to seriously consider his options. Did he really want to grow strong? A month ago, all he had dreamed of was having a place to truly call home and live an easy life. Now he was presented with the opportunity to become a noble and have the support of not one but two nations, with the intent to grow stronger.
He thought back on the Jackalope, Fitz, Rex, and the rest of his friends. Not only his life, but theirs as well were put in jeopardy tonight. If he hadn't neglected his ability, and had tried his hardest to figure out its secrets, would he have been able to possibly stop those two men?
A new resolve began to fill his mind, slowly giving way to an answer. He already had someone try to take his life. At this point there was no going back to the way things were. 'The future starts now' he stated within his mind.
"I'll accept whatever help you are willing to lend to me," Ken stated confidently as he looked not only at Elric, but Giselle as well. "I do not want to feel the powerlessness I felt tonight again. I want to provide a good life for my companions. Like Dex here, I have others I look out for as well. I want to be strong enough to protect them."
Elric slightly narrowed his eyes, letting some of his freezing mana ooze from his core and into the surrounding air. "Is that so? It will not be easy, Inheritor. If I assist you, I want you to know that I will expect your aid should the need arise in the future. I cannot speak on behalf of our beast-kin friends here, but I'm putting it bluntly what I expect from you. You can still take the noble title and live a cushy life like the others."
"That is fine with me," Ken replied calmly, unwavering even under the King's gaze. After a moment, the air returned to normal and sat back in his chair with a sigh. "I'm glad," Elric stated, then turned to the beast Princess, "Tomorrow we shall talk more in depth about the Inheritor and what this means for our Kingdoms going forward. I think him being a human, yet the Inheritor of Ransein could potentially benefit the relationship between us. I have no plans to keep him to ourselves, since he is still his own man."
"I agree," Giselle nodded, "I hope you do not mind if I talk to him some more about possibly visiting our Kingdom in the future."
"Feel free to do as you wish," Elric replied, "Now, it has been a long day for all of us. I think we should return to our chambers for the night."
Everyone happily agreed and soon began to exit the chamber. Once outside, Ken let out a breath as Giselle approached him. Before she could speak, Ken stated, "I need to go find my other friends and make sure they're okay."
"I'll come with," Giselle replied, then pointed to a very tired Lina, "So will she." The fox girl in question let out a frustrated groan, only wanting to return to the comfort of a bed. "I will as well," the General stated firmly, catching the trio off guard slightly since they had forgotten he was there.
"I'm sure if I let you three wander off by yourselves, something would happen. Well, at least if he wandered off alone. The boy has terrible luck," Hunt said with narrowed eyes.
Ken wanted to throw his hands up and protest, but he found himself thinking over the day's events and quickly threw out that idea. Accepting his situation, Ken soon began to lead the small group out of the castle and headed off towards the meeting spot he had told everyone to meet at.