101 Chapter 101. The capital
News spread across the kingdom like wildfire, news of a hero, a saviour. The name of 'Killing Cloud' spread like a hungry fire in a dry field. And the source of this amazing news was actually not from the higher ups and was instead from the countless soldiers who were saved by Leo.
The name 'Killing Cloud' was famous but not no one knew who he really was. Rumours of his feats spread in different versions. Some people spoke of him as a saviour sent by the heavens, some said he was a sect leader of an extremely strong sect, some said he was a wandering expert.
The situation in the capital was also not as calm as expected as the nobles all wanted to know who 'Killing Cloud' really was but the king had given strict order to not publicize the rankings yet. And so the suspense in the city was building and it had gone to the point where the king had to announce the day of the ranking rewards was to happen in three days time.
"Wow! This is the capital?" Arsu exclaimed in shock as he walked through the city gates with Leo and Aziz's.
"Yep. It's a lot bigger than I thought," Garrick answered as he, Degan, and Theodora made their way into the gates after paying the entrance fee.
"It's a wonder how you still didn't find someone to heal Laura in here," Leo commented as he looked back.
Wenella gave him a very annoyed expression as she and Laura walked past the gates with Mars and Vanessa following behind.
Everyone was dressed very simply with the males wearing a black shirt and pants with a long black cloak that looked extremely unique and had an essence of style. The females wore a long black outfit that stretched from their shoulders to their knees. It could be called a dress but it was moderately skin tight so that they would be able to move more easily without the cloth getting in their way.
Their unique uniform outfits caught the eyes of countless people as they walked towards the castle. The females in the crew seemed to catch the gazes of countless men who were walking by as each was very beautiful in their own way.
"Wow! The castle is huge!" Arsu screamed in amazement and Azizos gazed at the castle with his mouth open.
The Lapis king's castle. It's a wall about ten meters high with four guard towers protecting the area inside. The only entrance to the castle was through the main gate which was currently being guarded by two middle-aged guards.
"Halt!" a guard shouted as he saw Leo's group make their way towards the castle.
"Are you guys also here for the reward ceremony?" the other guard asked.
"It seems like we are not the only ones here," Leo spoke to himself as he answered, "Yes."
"The ceremony doesn't start until afternoon but anyone in the top thousands of the rankings are allowed in the palace early," the guard added before bringing out a large wooden box with a hole inside it and large dull gemstone on the top. The guard then instructed, "Please place each hand inside and if the gemstone glows then you can go in."
"What can we bring in guests?" Leo asked as almost half of their crew were people who did not participate in the war.
"I'm afraid not if we allowed guests then the castle would be filled too quickly," the guard answered.
Hearing this, Leo's expression turned a bit disappointed and he then turned to Garrick, "What should we do?"
"I am 'Lord of Farming' and I rank in the top hundreds," Garrick simply spoke as he walked forwards and place his hand inside the wooden box. Immediately the box began to glow with five colours and shock appeared on the guards' faces. The shock immediately turned into fear as they apologized, "We are incredibly sorry for treating you like so, sir. Please give us a moment, a messenger will come and collect you guys."
A minute later, the heavy wooden gates opened and revealed a beautiful courtyard that had a stone path leading to another building that seemed to be the main palace and an old man walked out from it and made his way towards the gate. He was dressed in extremely fine robes and gave off a very noble air. The main thing that stood out about this old man would probably be his eyebrows, they were so thick that his eyes could literally not be seen.
"What a bushy eyebrowed man..." Arsu commented as everything seemed to amaze him. Having lived his whole life in the village, it was understandable for him to be in awe of everything around him.
"Greeting," the old man spoke as he introduced himself, "I am Oudet. May I ask who it was that just placed their hand in the box?"
"It was me," Garrick answered as he walked forward and met the man.
"I see... Then please follow me, I'll take you inside," Oudet spoke.
"Wait!" Garrick suddenly stopped him.
"What is it?" Oudet asked cluelessly.
"Am I allowed to bring in guests?" Garrick asked.
Immediately, Oudet knew what Garrick had implied and he replied after a pause, "You may come in with your family members, everyone else must place their hand in the box to enter."
"I see..." Garrick spoke understandingly and he turned his head towards Mars and Vanessa and gave them a nod.
Mars and Vanessa then walked up to the box and scanned their hands. And they both caused the gem to glow with four colours.
"My my..." Oudet spoke in a composed yet shocked expression as he saw the results of these guys. They looked like your average run-down mercenaries but they were all in the top hundreds.
"Can I bring in my dear friend as a guest?" Mars asked as he swung his arms around Leo.
"That can be allowed," Oudet spoke after a long pause. Immediately, he and the guards began to think of Leo as a leecher who was using his friends' status to get into the castle. But Leo did not pay them any mind as the group made their way through the gates.
Oudet seemed to hold an especially high status as the guards who were patrolling the palace seemed to avoid him out of respect as he led them into the palace and straight into the main hall.
Countless dishes were set up of white clothed counters and in the middle, there was a large crowd of about a thousand people. Most of them were dressed in fine noble dresses and outfits as they happily conversed and the rest were walking around flaunting their most powerful armour so that they would not be singled-out.
"Wow!" Arsu and Azizos' eyes immediately glimmered as they stared at the countless delicious looking food being served. They immediately turned towards Theodora with puppy eyes as they pleaded to be allowed to go and get some food.
Theodora smiled as she took the kids by the hand and walked towards the food counters.
"Please enjoy the banquet. We will inform you once again before the ranking rewards are finalized," Oudet spoke with an expressionless face as he bowed and then walked off again.
"Look at the food here!" Arsu loudly exclaimed in shock to Azizos as they hungrily began to take as much food as they could on their plates and began shoving the food down their mouths.
The number of eyes on these kids suddenly grew more and more as they were quite loud but not just that the clothes of these kids caused countless curious faces to appear on the crowd's faces. They did not look like they were from a sect and they did not look noble. Who are they?
"I'm hungry as well, I'm gonna go eat," Garrick spoke as he excused himself from the others and joined his wife.
"Like father like sons," Wenella spoke and the crew began to laugh silently.
"Have a drink! We are breakfast not so long ago, I'm sure other than the Guarneres, all of us are pretty full," Leo returned with five cups of wine and handed them a cup each.
"Thanks," Laura spoke as she gazed around the room. There were countless men and women wearing very stylish and noble dresses that were currently staring at them intently. The only people who seemed to be oblivious to this invisible heavy tenseness were the kids who were happily munching up their food sitting down as they place their plate on the floor.
Suddenly, the doors that Leo and the others came from opened and a familiar person appeared coming into the ballroom, it was the king's envoy that they had met at the battlefield and behind him were countless nobles from different families and houses from the Capital. They had come here to come and congratulate the mercenaries on their efforts.
"There's a lot more people here than I thought," Leo mumbled as he stared at everyone in the room.
"I know right," Mars smiled as he happily sipped the wine.
Clang!
Suddenly a plate fell to the floor with a loud crash and everyone's heads were turned towards Arsu and Azizos. It seemed like Azizos had just dropped his plate as it laid on the floor in tatters with the food on his plate staining the ground.
Immediately, an extremely large man who could only be described as 'fat' who was standing next to the kids as he began picking out dishes walked over to the kids and looked at the kids in disgust and he immediately began scolding them.
"I loathe nobles," Leo sighed in a tired tone is as he turned his head towards the kids and began walking towards them.
