Chap 23

ver ran through me from head to toe the moment my gaze met the frown on Elena's brows.

"Looks like your walk took longer than expected," said Keith, somewhat annoyed. -I thought you weren't coming today."

The indifference remained in my eyes as I advanced toward the chair predestined for me. "I'm sorry, I hope you haven't started yet."

"No, not yet," Keith replied, as he watched me settle into my seat. -But we'll start now."

I nodded visibly as I positioned myself in a correct and straight-backed manner, a position that Tasha and Elena adopted as they followed my lead.

"As you know and being common knowledge, this Sunday will be the 53rd birthday of our Lord, the King."

"Uhm;" nodded Elena with a worried face. - It's in just two days and we still haven't chosen a gift."

"That's true, but that's not why we're meeting today," said Keith, as he paused to let out a sigh, "you should know about the current battle for the throne, which fell on the feet today."

A stony silence filled the room in which we were present - by expression to Terry and Everly, who seemed not to have been invited to the conversation - until Keith broke the silence.

"As has not happened for three generations, more than one prince is competing in a relatively close contest for power; - Of course, it is not that there was not more than one prince competing for the throne before, but that the balance of power was notoriously tilted to one side - that is why the time has come for the king to choose the next crown prince."

"Since more than five generations we were appointed as the highest title that can be obtained as a nobleman, that of 'Duke', from that moment on we have guaranteed an exclusive loyalty to the king and only until he is recognized as king, following that promise we will remain neutral."

Keith said as he looked at us with calm resolve, but unfortunately, one that he did not share, neither the resolve nor the neutrality.

Now that I had covenanted to agree to a deal with the second king I couldn't remain neutral, though I wasn't too worried, as Adad and Tasha did the same thing when they vowed to help Emilia become queen.

"But still, that doesn't mean we shouldn't worry about the state of our country, that's why at this party where the next king will be elected, we should try to get to know him as well as possible," Keith exclaimed.

"But even being in the chasm, no rather being in it, a simple false step can take you to the deepest and just as we swear allegiance to the king, we swear it to the kingdom of Aren and in case it is necessary, we will even murder to preserve this country of ours."

*******

Thud.

I threw myself straight back on my bed, which greeted me with a feeling of quality and comfort that flooded my entire body.

My mind expertly blanked by Keith's last words.

Those words only served to make this world even more complex, I repeated from scratch several times this game, I managed to learn by heart the arc of Emilia's coronation, but I could no longer see it in the same way, for the simple fact that I was no longer a spectator.

In the game, the Hall family was simply shown as neutrals because it was simply convenient for Emilia's future as a queen, but now I had learned the reason behind this resolution.

But I am not Adad, there is no reason to keep that promise - which in the end I ended up breaking - but after all, I bear that name and my actions may affect the future in some way.

Although I didn't know if any more than it already was.

By this point in the story, Emilia has not yet revealed herself to be part of the royal family, that is, she still doesn't have the support of Adad and Tasha, both of whom have gathered more friends to support her on her path to the crown.

And if Emilia did not become queen, this kingdom, not to say this world would go to shit.

Not that the two princes were garbage, well... they were, but even the best king couldn't hold a country together, from what little I knew of history going forward.

And of course, how could I forget the visions the goddess had taught me in her world.

'The visions of the purple-haired woman' I pondered within myself, as I recalled the illusions, or rather videos of different scenes from her life, which flashed through my mind.

The image of the woman was always blurred in each of the visions, but still, the fact that she was beautiful, for some reason stayed inside me, stuck as if she was something special.

And I didn't need to be a genius detective or have seen a thousand episodes of Detective Conan to know who the woman with the purple hair was.

Emilia Zeijrn is the heroine of the game.

Since I had sheltered Adad's body, I had realized that she was different from what I expected, not only her way of acting was different from the friendly and always cheerful that she showed in the game.

The feeling she emanated was not that of a girl, who according to the game, spent her whole life in a village until her mother fell ill in bed and revealed that she was the bastard daughter of the current king of Aren, causing her to undertake a journey to the capital.

That feeling was like that of a warrior, not just any warrior, one who would have learned to kill with indifference, with coldness, and above all, deep down, with joy.

He felt it in his eyes, in that pair of eyes that resembled the color of orchids on a battlefield, beautiful and resplendent, but with bloodstains.

Like the woman in the visions, there was no doubt that they were the same person, but she could not make hasty decisions, nor did she know what happened to the heroine while she was being controlled in the video game, or if she even knew she was being controlled.

Once again, I was full of doubts, even though the goddess said she promised to answer my questions, it only generated even more.

Although there was no going back on my decisions, such as supporting the second prince and staying away from the story for a while, the only thing I had to do was, of course, to become stronger.

In these two days, I had to research as much as I could about the heroine and try to find things that would help me understand the visions better.

And of course, the meeting with the second crown prince, which, without a doubt, would be extremely annoying.

**********

-Tok-Tok.

The door to my room rattled as it was knocked on, bringing me back from my sleep.

"Young master, let us go in," said the voice outside the door, which was opened by a woman, who I speculated was the one speaking, followed by three others, "we are sorry for the interruption of your rest, but it is time to get ready for the party, young master."

-Thud.

Without even waiting for a response from me, the five women approached me as they closed the door and took me by the hands, positioning me in front of the mirror and taking their tools - which they had brought from a cart similar to the food cart - to get me ready for the party.

I watched as the five women moved around the room, choosing hairstyles, clothes, and accessories.

"By the way, young master," said a maid next to me as she looked at my ears, "what kind of earrings do you plan to wear or don't you plan to wear some, I never knew you had a hole arranged for earrings."

I had never worn earrings since I bought them - but I had kept the hole from closing - I had never had a reason to wear them, so I guess this was a good reason.

"These," I said as I stretched my hands toward a drawer which I opened, from which I pulled out a pair of long, black earrings, "are called Dark Waterfall."

The maids seemed surprised to see the gears, as they said they were pretty and looked for things to match them.

The process of getting dressed and making myself look presentable took about another half hour in which I tried on a few outfits until one was chosen by Terry, who was walking around the mansion.

More than a suit, it was a long-sleeved black shirt with protruding lace and folds in the fabric with fine details of something, which I guess were flowers on the collar and the chest some bags were the same, finely decorated in an embroidered pattern the rest except for the platinum white buttons and the cuff which had the same shape as the collar.

I looked down until I reached the pants, which were white with black decorations and gold decorations in the form of rays and some flowers.

I shifted my gaze from the pants to the front, where the full-length mirror was positioned.

I had to say that I looked pretty good.

My platinum blue hair that now fell to the tip of my chin was combed to the side, exposing my left ear.

Where a black art hung down to my neck, giving me a slightly unruly look, but at the same time refined thanks to my clothes.

"Looks like we did a good job - said a servant girl while looking at my reflection, the others nodded while trying to hide their slightly red faces - What do you think, young master?"

"Mmm, pretty good, I guess," I said as I invited the servants to leave - pushing him out - of the room.

-Thud.

I closed the door like a bang and walked over to the drawers beside the bed.

I opened the first one from top to bottom on the left side and pulled out a small object.

It was a small silver-colored bracelet, which had a translucent stone embedded in it.

[Name: Space storage bracelet].

[Type: Item.]

[Rank: F.]

[Ability: Allows the user to store things within a cubic meter of space].

This bracelet was spatial storage,

as its name says, it served to store things, this thanks to the small stone embedded in it.

I had bought it yesterday at the market with the money I had left after buying the earrings.

I had made this decision after reflecting on the fight I had with the priestess Mellia.

Back then I could have done better if I had had my sword, Rose with me, and of course, storage space was always convenient.

Although I had to say that it was quite expensive, after all, and according to what a book said, these spaces could only be created by those above S rank.

Without wasting any more time I walked over to my Dead Rose sword that was positioned next to my bed and reached my hand towards it as I thought about storing it inside the bracelet.

Almost at the same time as I imagined it, Rose disappeared from my sight and reappeared with a thought.

I watched her place it into storage and repeat the process with the belt and other things.

"Young Master, your family is waiting for you at the entrance to the mansion." Said a voice behind the door.

Taking a last look around the room, I opened the door and head towards the entrance.

Just like when we traveled to the capital two carriages were waiting for us at the entrance.

Keith and Elena got into the first one and then we - Tasha, Terry, Everly, and I - got into our respective carriages.

-Shaa!

The driver gave an audible knock, causing the carriage to move forward.

My gaze was fixed on the sky blue wall in the distance, the one that guarded the castle of Aren's kingdom.

It didn't take long for us to reach it...

●●●●●●●●●●●

Hey guys.

I just wanted to let you know that I'm publishing this novel in Spanish.

Give support if you read this with an automatic translator or know the language.

If you are interesting, you can find it in my profile.

Thanks for reading it.