Return of the first prince (2)

"This should be the last layer of the orb, ICI what's the temperature?"

[SURFACE TEMPERATURE REGISTERED AS ABOVE 10000 KELVIN, PRECISE MEASUREMENT NOT POSSIBLE.]

Outside the outer wall of Kingsted behind multiple layers of walls and guards Dax was currently completing his objective for going to Kingsted in the first place, to retrieve the crashed and overheating landing craft before it had a not so friendly meltdown right next to the capital of a nation he had allied himself with.

"The heat is intense."

Standing next to him while shielding her face form the heat with her hand was Tia, the royal knight in charge of understanding the strange sphere that had landed out of nowhere and started floating.

"Warm enough to boil any non-alloyed metals yeah, ICI do we have connection?"

[NEGATIVE. SYSTEM IN OVERLOAD FORMATION, PRIMARY SYSTEM CORE EXPOSED AND OFFLINE.]

"Shit."

Having melted a meter wide hole in the last layer of protective heat shielding, Dax had expected to have connection with the craft inside.

"Is there a problem?"

"No, not really, the craft itself is designed to survive passing close to a star so it'll be alright."

"Amazing."

"Survive is the key word, not function. I've poked a hole in the shielding so it shouldn't overheat and blow up now, but it'll popperly be a few weeks before it's cooled down enough for the onboard AI to restart."

"It can blow up?"

"Yeah, if it remained closed for a few more weeks it would properly wipe out this city and the surrounding area."

With that sentence the colour drained from Tia's face.

"So if we had kept stopping you from accessing it like when you first came here…"

"Y'all would be dead, and I would be down a landing craft. Isn't it lovely to get along?~"

"I'M SO SOR-"

"Yeah yeah, let's just try and get along."

Leaving Tia with those words Dax went to exit the compound, but was quickly stopped by a gathering of some 10 royal knights.

"Is there a problem? I've received permission from the king to be here."

(Haven't seen these guys before… ICI close in my escort slightly.)

(ICI CONFIRMED, MOVING ESCORT FROM PATTERN BLUE TO PATTERN YELLOW, STANDBY..)

While Dax slowly reached for his pistol with a wide smile on his face the group suddenly parted to reveal the 3 most rear knights.

"Oh it's you guys. Here for a rematch, or do I just need to knock you out cold again Marcus?"

As Dax addressed the royal knight captain Marcus, the drones responsible for escorting him arrived and spread out in a half circle behind him, ready to assume a firing position. Marcus, along with the demonkin Sophie and beastkin Marie flinched and all eyes ghattered on Marcus that slowly stepped forward.

"I'm so sorr-"

"Again?... Look when you turn 500 years old 'sorry' turns into some annoying sound that makes one want to punch someone in the face, and that feeling only turns worse with age."

"I'm so-"

"Did you hear what I just said? Buy me a beer and we're good."

"O-okay…"

"Are we good? I have other things to do today, then bye."

"Please let us assist you however we can!"

"Really?.... You know what there is one thing you can help me with….. Go grab Tia, then Marie, you and Sophie can help me with some tests~"

"Eh?"

---

["Come on, I'm not even trying~"]

"Fuck! Marie flank it! Tia!"

"Still chanting!"

"Sophia!"

"On. IT!"

As her red adamantium amor lighted up with mana, Sophie charged forward and bashed their opponent with her shield. The drone they currently were fighting flew almost to the other side of the colosseum, where it landed effortlessly before getting back on its feet as it started bouncing around on its toes like a boxer.

["Are you perhaps still mad I knocked you out the other day?"]

"What makes you think that!?"

Dropping her shield she drew a longsword from it and charged the lone drone as she was joined by the beastkin knight Marie and her massive two handed sword.

["Can I help you with that?"]

The second before Marie got within range the drone moved, first it kicked up dust from the arena floor that blocked Marie and Sophia's vision, then it charged out and hit Marie in the chest with a open palm strike and relieved her of her sword in the same movement.

"GUA!"

["Here's a present so you don't feel left out Tia~"]

Spinning to a stop with the heavy sword, the drone flinged it across the arena at Tia, who was forced to stop gathering mana and hit the ground as Marie's sword flew right over her head and buried itself in the colosseum wall.

["Good doge~"]

"Don't forget about me now!"

["How could I? you have such lovely eyes that tell me exactly what you're gonna do!"]

Predicting Sophie's sword swing the drone parried it with its arm and countered with a punch it the stomach.

"KU!"

"DIE!"

["Hey this is just a light spar, remember?"]

"Light spar my ass!"

["This kitty sure has a temper huh?~"]

Having dealt with Sophie the drone was assaulted by the now swordless Marie that quickly proved she didn't need it to kill.

"Got you now!"

["Naive."]

Having caught the drones leg as it sent a kick after her, Marie was sure of her victorry, but as she went to twist it to feel her oppnet the drone simply twisted its leg with her movement and used the momentum to kick her in the face.

["You're not fighting a flesh and blood opponent."]

Having twisted its leg at an impossible angle to kick Marie, the drone once more impressed the spectators.

"What is that golem!? It is simply amazing!"

"I believe the proper term is 'drone'. I've read it is one of the Galactic Empire's prefered way to wage war, according to the documents we received from Dax they can even be commanded remotely."

"Speaking of that, where is Dax?"

"No idea. He said he would propose a new law to the council later today."

"Let's look forward to that then, we are truly in the golden age of the Kingdom."

"We truly are, but I have to wonder how much of it all were planned by Dax…"

After the merchants guild withdrew from the Kingdom the future looked grim, and they would normally be looking forward to imminent economic ruin, but then a miracle happened. In a single day all basic functions the guild had abandoned, like banks and distribution of consumer goods were taken over by smaller merchants, and immediately operational once more. Normally that would not have been enough, but the new merchants were extremely well organized and funded, moreover they offered new luxury goods never seen before.

The trade embargo against the Kingdom that had been put into effect after multiple members had been killed lasted only a single week, and with newly imposed export taxes raked in the gold from it's new luxury goods that sold like they were essential for life, and spread like wildfire.The new goods that seemingly had appeared out of nowhere along with founding for the new merchants were luxurious and extremely durable jewelry, elaborate and seemingly indestructible pocket watches that did not need to be recharged with mana or spun up, and a whole slew of extremely durable worker tools that were banned from export out of the country. All of those goods were traced back to a single merchant named Gary Pederson, president of the Pederson trading company that had operated in Kingsted for a few years without much success, but suddenly secured a exclusive monopoly to all the new goods flooding into Kingsted after the merchants guild left.

"I hear that all the Pederson stores are surrounded around the clock by drones like that one."

"He really did plan it all huh…. Oh the fight is over."

As the nobles looked down on the colosseum arena the last standing royal knight, Marcus, surrendered with the drone holding Sophie's sword pressed to his neck.

["Thanks for the spar~"]

"Y-you're welcome Dax.."

["Oh well that'll be it for now, ICI disconnect direct interfacing please~"]

[AFFIRMATIVE, MIND MELT TERMINATED, STARTING POST DOMINATION CLEANUP AND EVALUATION, MODEL 165-A25S RETURNING TO STATION. HAVE A NICE DAY.]

"Y-yeah, a nice day to you too…"

With a slight stiff smile Marcus said goodbye to the drone as it left the colosseum and went on with its day.

"So strong.. Even though it held back.."

"Are you okay Tia?"

"Mmm, I'm fine… He's invincible."

"That might not be the case. From what I've seen Dax doesn't respect magic and there's a good chance we can catch him off guard with it. But there's no need to feel down Tia, this was just a spar, if you were allowed to use magic to the fullest extent things might have gone different."

"Mmm, maybe that's tru-"

"AAAAA!!"

As Marcus was doing his best to cheer up, Marie suddenly screamed, coursing Marcus' smile to turn ever stiffer.

"What's wrong Marie?"

"MY SWORD!"

With Marie freaking out Marcus remembered that the drone had tossed it, and turned around to see it buried over a meter into the arena wall.

"That might be an issue…"

---

"What the hell is happening father!?"

Inside the castle at the center of Kingsted a man in elaborate adamantite armor was currently complaining loudly to the king.

"I got news that some strange sphere had landed outside the city, and when I rush back you've allied yourself with a demonkin!?"

The man was Henrik Vi Gruffydd VIII, heir to the throne and the first prince of the Kingdom. Having recently returned from the northern border were he commanded a legion against the northern republics endless aggression he is said to be a man at the peak of humanity. Standing almost two meters tall the 25 year old prince would at first glace be confused with a high ranked soldier or commanding general with his solid frame and sharp intellect hiding behind his golden eyes. He had been hailed as a genius of the sword and magic since a young age, but never really motivated until his sister was attacked in front of him by a demonkin. His sister survived, but ever since that day the young prince had found his motivation. In a few years he surpassed even the royal knights in combat and leadership, and with pride and honor he formed the first prince's faction at the royal council, a xenophobic ghatting of nobles that had similar interests, to keep the princess safe, by banning demon and beastkin from the nation.

"We have judged Dax and the nation he represents as people with interest in seeing the Kingdom flourish, he even removed the elements that tried to kill Teresa originally."

"What!? Didn't we wipe them out already?"

"Apparently not no, they hid behind the merchants guild and evaded our detection with bribes and murders all these years. After Dax arrived here in Kingsted they tried to assassinate him, so we cooperated to have them cleansed from our nation."

"While that may or may not be true we still can't trust a-"

"Announcing Dax of the Alpha-4 clan, repersentetive of the Galactic Empire!"

With the unfortunate timing of the announcer all eyes turned to the entrance of the throne room, where the one armed, one eyed qiton appeared followed by Alice, who were currently having a nervous breakdown as she mumbled to herself.

"That's the king right? stay calm Alice, you can do it me."

"Did I arrive at a bad time, or is this just some family issue?"