Valerian Kingdom, King Eldric [Bonus Chapter 1/5]

'I believe this group will be the first to defeat one of those dastardly Infernal Four Demon Generals,' Rheon, the Holy Priest, mind transmitted to the other two. To which Malvus, the other Holy Priest, said, 'I agree with you up to a point, but let us not get ahead of ourselves on this matter. After all, the Demon King's most prized possession, the 'Demonic Lamp' will only be within our grasps when least we tempt fate.'

Holy Priestess Thandria sighed softly. 'You always were one to believe in the superstitious, Brother Malvus,' she transmitted to him, her tone a little exasperated.

Malvus's brows furrowed deeply as he made the first turn around a corner, eliciting everyone else to follow behind him. 'You say that, Sister Thandria, but you do not know or read the strings of fate like I do,' he scoffed. 'There are simply some things that you would never be able to understand like I do. One of those things is my connection with Karma and baseless overconfidence.'

Thandria shook her head side to side. 'Whatever you say, brother Malvus,' she reluctantly gave in.

As the Three Holy Priests continued to traverse the white corridors of the Holy Temple of Valeria, the great, extraordinarily fat King of the Kingdom sat his royal rump upon his shimmering throne of jewels. He awaited the presence of a special group of people, and just as he was getting impatient, his lard layers jiggled a little with the creaking open of the two giant golden doors to his throne room. "Finally, they are here!" He said, his dark brown eyes shining with anticipation. "My only hope is that this new batch can be more useful than those other useless things! They couldn't even defeat one of the Infernal Four," he spat in disgust before watching a large group of people enter his wide throne room. As their feet landed on his specially made red carpet, his creepy grin widened with each further passing second. Then, when they reached a sufficient distance from his racially superior-self, his gruff voice thundered out. "Welcome to my kingdom, brave heroes from another world! I am the King of this mighty kingdom, King Eldric!"

"???" "???" "???"

All the newly appointed Heroes followed the source of this kingly voice, which was where they saw a large jiggly man wearing a crown and a gaudy cape. He had on him an extremely disturbing smile, which he obviously attempted to pull off as something welcoming and friendly but failed terribly in the delivery.

"The King," Akira echoed, his voice low and weary. He immediately understood that there was some form of historical hierarchy set in place. Moreover, this hierarchy was one that held the corpulent man sitting atop his throne as one of the most authoritative figures.

Nanami's icy gaze further solidified as she readied her Unique Skill. Whereas Ryota was going through yet another cringy inner monologue, this time ranting about how his destiny would lead him to a status far above the king, where he was not only king but God! Or something like that…

A few of the other Heroes had active and personable reactions to the crowned man revealing himself as king, but for some reason, learning there was a king excited a number of them. If before, they were terrified in an unfamiliar environment, then now, there was something fantastical to look forward to. Moreover, a lot of them understood that they held a relatively high status as heroes, so their hopes were surging more and more.

Then, the King spoke once more, saying:

"I know you all must still be reeling in from your arrival in this brand new world. And you may also be on the fence when it comes to assisting my great Kingdom of Valerian, but what I can tell you is that this cause is not one without its fair share of benefits," he said smilingly, motioning to a few people standing behind his throne. Quickly, they stepped forth and brought with them multiple treasure chests. Upon opening them, a golden sight of resplendence was presented to the Heroes below, causing their irises to reflect what they were seeing.

"That much gold and jewelry," Ryota covered his face, struggling to keep himself composed. "If I were to acquire such a large sum, then my journey in this world would receive a major kickstart! This world will soon realize that I am its savior and also the one who will stand above it all!"

His mouth moved extremely quickly as a strange black and purple energy seeped out of his mouth and permeated the air. However, it wasn't magic that caused this. Rather, this was just a natural trait of his, also being one of the reasons that he was so isolated in his previous world.

Simply put, he was creepy.

Nanami, Akira, and the rest ignored the unusualness of the strange S-Rank Ryota as they honed in on the hidden meaning in the King's words. Essentially, he was buying them off, which meant the king saw their loyalty as purchasable. For the two relatively sane S-Rank Heroes, this left a bad taste in their mouths. Even though the money was presented to them as such, with the intentions as clear as day, if anyone of them accepted the treasure, then they would technically be in the kingdom's debt, which subsequently put them into King Eldric's debt.

...