The One Ring

The King opened his eyes wide in surprise and looked at Gerald, "Is this true?"

Instead of answering directly, Gerald instead looked at Razor, "You sure know how to twist reality, old man! It seems you spent all your time refining your bullshitting skills, because your punch was like that of a little girl!"

Gerald's words enraged Razor further, but the King was actually impressed! 'Amazing, Razor punched him in a rage but he can still stand and insult him? This guy has some guts! It would be a shame to lose him… But I still need to get to the bottom of this!'

"Alright, enough! Now it's not the time for bickering! Tell me what happened!"

"As Your Majesty requests," Gerald answered, but that little respect and fear he had for the king were gone. 'He is just a pushover with some power, nothing more.'

He told the story of how he followed the Lay Lines to the Spirit Pond and how he found Aster training there. He also explained in detail how the fight happened. To anyone with a brain listening it was quite clear that the story was quite different from how Razor told it.

"He's telling the truth," the King simply stated at the end and turned to Razor, "It seems it was your daughter who's at fault, that was anything but lady-like."

Razor frowned, "Even if it's my daughter's fault, he is still the one that profaned her purity!" He gave Gerald an angry side-eye. The latter took a deep breath through his nose, ready to start throwing curses back.

Luckily Tabbris jumped in just in time, "Father! Why didn't you listen to me before? I already challenged Gerald to a duel and I lost! Please stop embarrassing me!"

At the King's request, he explained what happened an hour before so that everyone present could understand. With the King's ability to discern lies, confirming the truth was not an issue. Gerald was, therefore, found not guilty, and the matter ended like that.

Only Razor remained in a bad mood, but it was not because of the King's decree. He was mad because of the looks that the King's advisors and counselors, as well as guards and a few servants, gave him.

His son already challenged the culprit to an honorable duel, and he lost. His attack on the victor could be seen as him not accepting the results and being petty and closed-minded. He cursed his daughter in his mind for not speaking clearly and it ended up resulting in this mess.

Seeing a grown-up man pout with crossed arms was quite a sight, but nobody paid him much attention anymore. The King still didn't finish what he started, there was still the question of the Stamina Potion.

"So…" The King started, looking hopefully at Gerald.

"The answer is… No," he replied and casually wiped the blood from his lips with the corner of his sleeve.

"If Your Highness doesn't even trust me enough to tell me why you need it so badly, why should I trust you? What if you try to use it against me, my friends, or my master? I don't know how things work here, but I don't feel like it's worth taking the risk. At least I still hold some value when keeping my mouth shut, don't I?" He glanced at Razor for a split second, but that was enough for many to understand his meaning.

Razor's mood soured even more and he sank into despair. 'That's just great! Now I'm going to be the sinner in the King's eyes, it's not fair! It's not my fault, okay? I was deceived!'

The King of course understood what he meant and also glanced at Razor momentarily. But the man was one of his generals as well as the Guardian of the South, he couldn't exactly punish him.

After a moment of contemplation, the King finally made a decision, "Oh well, it's going to be known soon enough anyway, what's the harm in speaking of it a bit earlier?"

He turned to Gerald and Arthur and said, "Listen, we are currently preparing for war, although we aren't sure with who just yet…"

"You aren't sure?" Gerald looked at his sideways doubtfully.

"What I mean is… We don't know who we will be fighting first," the King answered. "The Empire is threatening with war, but the beast attacks seem to have become more common, so we might have to deal with those filthy things first!"

"Anyway, there will certainly be a lot of blood spilled in the following months and the Stamina Potion could be a game-changer in battle!"

"So that's the case, huh? I figured it would be something like this..." Gerald muttered under his breath. "Still, my answer remains no!"

To say that the King was not surprised would be a lie, but he still carried himself with grace. General Razor on the other hand…

"You little punk! You are speaking with the King! Show some respect!"

Gerald ignored him, while the King simply shook his head and sighed. "I suppose you would be willing to trade it for something of equal value then? As the King of Myrtana, I have the authority to fulfill your wishes. Be it gold, silver, weapons, land, noble titles… Even women."

Although tempted, Gerald resisted the impulse to curse at the King, and instead respectfully answered, "Your Majesty must be jesting, how could I request for such things!"

A glint shone in Gerald's eyes as he said, "If Your Highness truly wants to trade, it would be enough to give me just one tiny little item." He lifted his gaze and looked the King straight in the eye, "I head that the Royal family might be in possession of a special kind of ring…"

As soon as the words left his mouth, the hall erupted in a loud disapproving whisper.

"How dare you demand a Ring from His Majesty! We should punish this insolent creature," a minister of the court said loudly. Many nodded and sided with the man.

Meanwhile, the King simply smiled and didn't comment. "I guess my offer was a bit lacking after all… Oh well, it's just a ring."

Before his advisors could stop him, the King took off one of his rings and touched it to another momentarily, before flicking it to Gerald. The latter caught it and immediately his mind sank into it, entering a vast empty space for a moment.

"Your Highness is too kind, I can only accept this shamelessly," Gerald displayed a genuine smile and bowed slightly. Then, he took out a piece of paper and a drop of ink, immediately writing the recipe and the detailed process of making the Stamina Potion.

He folded and released the paper, and let his Telekinesis bring it to the King.

The entire exchange happened so suddenly that many failed to process what actually happened. The King just gave away one of his precious ancient rings?!

"Well, if Your Highness has nothing else to say, I think it's time for us to leave," Gerald said and slowly retreated towards the door where the rest of his team was. "If you require extra help with the potion, you know where to find me."

"Mhm," the King nodded and ordered one of the servants to escort them out.

"Your Majesty!" Razor was dumbstruck, "That was one of the most precious treasures of the Kingdom! How could you give it away so casually?"

The King casually unfolded the paper and spoke as he read the recipe, "It's fine, don't worry about it! It's just that one ring, I have more anyway. To get our soldiers higher chances of survival I would sacrifice even more than that."

"Besides, now that we have this rec-" The King suddenly stopped speaking as his eyes stared at the ingredients on the piece of paper.

"My King?! What's wrong?" Razor swiftly ran closer. Only then did he notice the peculiar expression on the King's face. He had a sort of sad expression with a smile on top. It was weird.

"What-" Before Razor even had the chance to finish his question, the King handed him the note. "Seriously?!" Soon his face too turned strange and he covered his face in shame.

"Who knew that we were feeding our animals the best medicine and herbs all these years? No wonder they tasted soo good and refreshing! Haha…" The King suddenly laughed at the thought of feeding pigs mountains of gold worth of herbs every year.

Razor handed the recipe back and said quietly, "I'll immediately send a raven back and get people to stop wasting these resources! We should be able to gather enough for an army in a month or so… Probably."

While he was busy thinking of things he had to write in his order, the King stood up. "Let's go somewhere private," he quietly said.

They arrived in the war room not long after and King Robart quickly explained Gerald's background while mentioning his mysterious master in the process. Razor's jaw dropped in shock. "He's the one that introduced all these potions?!" Then he suddenly remembered something and facepalmed, "I offended a bigshot, didn't I?"

"I don't know if he's a bigshot or not," the King answered. "What I can tell you for sure is that he does not have any cultivation at all, although his Soul is unusually strong…"

"He doesn't?" Razor lifted his eyebrow in surprise. "Then how did my punch barely hurt him?! Shouldn't he be dead if that's the case?"

The King shrugged, "Beats me… I know he had a few spells active on himself at that time, so they probably protected him. Anyway, apparently, his master can fly and is quite powerful and ill-tempered… I would suggest you don't do anything stupid that could hurt us in the long run."

Razor sighed and slumped on his chair, "Should I send him something like a gift then? A peace offering?"

"I'm not going to advise you against it," the King smiled.