[Bonus chapter] The Kings Aide's Dilemma

Right after the assessors left for the Northern Province, or more precisely, right after the meeting, the king's right-hand man had noticed a change in the king's behavior lately.

"My king, what seems to be the problem?" he finally asked.

The king looked at him and with a wide smile on his face, asked "What problem?"

'That is exactly the problem, your creepy smile,' or so he would say if he had the courage to. speak such words to his king.

"Ahem, it seems that you have been spending too much time in the garden lately," he said.

The king had grown fond of admiring the flowers in the royal garden. The servants had been having a strange gossip of the king having a change of heart or something. Sooner or later, this might turn scandalous, so he told the servants that the king had taken an interest in botany in an effort to further improve the beauty of the capital.

"Hmmm? Oh, that, huh? I'm only admiring the salvias," the king replied.

"The salvias? Do you mean the shrub that has those black and blue flowers? What's so special about them?" he asked, unable to comprehend why would the king be interested in such a simple plant.

"Yeah. Somehow, those colors relax me so when I see them. I don't know why, it just happened recently," was the king's reply.

"Haa.... right...." was the servant's only response.

After giving it a thought, he can fairly remember someone having black hair and blue eyes. Still, the irregularities that he'd observed on the king is not only on his recent fondness of plants. He decided to dig further.

"Then, what about your recent seclusion at the library? I've heard that you've spent hours upon hours of reading," he asked.

"Oh, that? I've been searching for a certain book about monsters. I've heard about it and was hoping to have a chance of reading it, but our library does not have a copy of it so I ordered one to be procured right away,"

"Haa... right..." the servant said as he hides the book he was holding that the librarian asked him to give to the king.

"But I found a copy of the Academy's yearbook, so it's all good," he said.

"A yearbook?" Spending hours and hours of your time reading, or perhaps looking might be the more appropriate term, a yearbook, maybe his king had that many acquaintances at the academy. "I see, but I only hope that you are not falling behind on your official duties as a king," he reminded him.

"Of course, of course," the king replied. "Then, do you have anything else to ask?"

"None as of the moment."

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"Anything weird about the king lately? Hmm... nothing much," replied one of the gate's guards. The king's right-hand man is scouring the entirety of the castle, asking the different attendants if they have observed any strange behavior from the king. He has to make sure that he isn't the only one that had noticed the changes.

"Nothing, huh? Well, thanks for the hard work," he said, visibly disappointed at the man's answer. He was hoping to get at least a few testimonies of the king's sudden change, but so far, none of those he interviewed had seen a thing.

"Oh, wait. There is something," the man recalled as the aide is heading to another guard. Upon hearing this, he immediately went back to the guard, his face too close for comfort.

"What is it?" he asked, desperate to hear about the thing he suddenly recalled.

"No, not me! The chief maid said something about the king making requests on a couple of things," he said.

"Requests, huh? What kind of requests?"

"Don't ask me then, ask the head maid"

Finally, finally, after searching for hours, he finally found someone that might have noticed the change in the king's behavior. He immediately headed to where the head maid is.

"His requests? Oh! He started to request various things out of nowhere. The other day, he requested to have some letters made to the academy, sending them a generous amount of money in exchange for magical lessons. He also asked the treasury for a scepter or wand, basically any magical medium that he can use,"

"And?"

"So we gave him the scepter of the first king. That's the only scepter inside the treasury, so that request was easy enough,"

"But that's one of our national treasures! What were you thinking?"

"I don't know, ask the King, he ordered it,"

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"My king, what have you done!?" the man asked while barging inside the King's room. The king was busy making a letter on his table. As soon as the man entered, he quickly tucked away the paper and pen he was using, placing it in the drawer beneath his desk.

"What were you thinking, barging into the King's room unannounced?!" he exclaimed.

"Where is it?" the man asked, ignoring the king's question. "Where is the first king's scepter?"

"Wh-what scepter? I don't know of any scepter, isn't it supposed to be in the treasury? Go find it there then," the king said.

"I won't ask again, where is it?"

"I have nothing to tell you," the king said, adamant in denying his accusations despite seeing his subordinate's furious gaze.

"Did you sell it?"

"Ha! A king selling items from the treasury? Laughable!"

"Did you break it?"

"These hands are built to create, not to destroy things,"

"Used it?"

"I can hardly cast a simple spell,"

"Tossed it away?"

"Nonsense!"

"Gave it,"

"Only to the most prodigious mage I've ... met ...I mean, that is preposterous!"

"Who?"

"What?"

"To who did you give it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about,"

"Fine. You've left me no choice,"

As soon as the man said that, he disappeared before suddenly appearing behind the king. Caught in surprise, the king was unable to stop him from finding the recipient of the scepter.

"City of Ancdam ... Lunar Tear Inn ... you really did it this time! You know that that scepter is one of the symbols representing Drethia, holding immense power and authority... and you just... take it back, NOW!"

"... too late,"

"What"

"I said it's too late. It should have arrived there by now," the King responded, evading the gaze of his furious servant.

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Back at the Lunar Tear Inn.

"Oh, what seems to be the rush?" the owner asked as Fei run hurriedly down the stairs.

"Owner? I didn't see you there! I just went back to get some materials for the new gauntlet I asked Brit to make for me," she said.

"Is that why you're in such a hurry? Oh, by the way, a package arrived from Drethia for you," the owner replied after only just remembering the delivery earlier.

"For me?" Fei asked, clueless as to who sent it or what the package might be.

Fei looked at the parcel. Her name was clearly written on it, so this is definitely for her. She opened it and found a letter and an object wrapped in some piece of fabric.

"What does the letter say?" the owner asked, urging Fei to read the contents aloud. Fei opened the letter, and read the contents:

[ Dear Fei,

I know that it hasn't been a while since you left Drethia, but ever since you did, I found myself searching for ways to help you in your work. So please, accept this simple gift of mine.

I hope that you put it to good use.

Sincerely,

Lecter]

"Lecter? Who is that? A friend of yours?" the owner asked.

"Yeah, sort of," Fei replied. She took the object wrapped in fabric. She started slowly unwrapping it, revealing a golden-blue scepter ornated with several precious stones and metals. Her eyes went wide in surprise at receiving this unexpected gift from the king himself.

"This is -" Fei said in bated breath, "-the perfect material for my gauntlet!"

"Eh? You mean you're going to use that for your gauntlet?" the owner asked her.

"Of course!" she replied, before tossing the scepter into her 'Void'. She then took off in a hurry towards Brittany's workshop.

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At the workshop, Brittany was looking through the materials that Fei dropped off a few moments earlier, checking to see the quantity of the materials and their properties. As she was rummaging through them, she came to find the scepter that Fei received earlier. She held it in one hand, examining it carefully, from the decorative stones to the metal used.

"From where did Fei acquire such quality material?" she asked. She then called for her husband, who shared similar thoughts.

"Magnificent! This is comparable to the kingdom's treasures! It must have cost her a fortune!" Chris commented.

"And look at the detail of the work. A master craftsman must have worked on this for years!" Brittany shared her insight after evaluating the item further.

"Well, regardless, off to the furnace it goes," Brittany said as she tossed the scepter into the blazing forge that she uses to craft her works. "She can look forward to the greatest gauntlet the world had ever seen".

"oooOOoooohhhh!"

A faint sound can be heard when the scepter was placed into the fiery space.

"Hmm, did you hear that?" Chris asked her wife.

"Huh? Must have been air escaping from the cracks in the material. Anyway, I'm starving! What do we have for lunch?"

"Really? Okay. For lunch, I made you a whole roasted turkey,"

"Nice! You're the best!"

The two left the workshop, chatting away as they ascended to the upper floors. Left alone, the scepter slowly started glowing hot red, melting away like the other materials in her workshop.