Chapter 236: Audience With The Queen (1)

(Aika POV) 

"*sigh*... when is Arpious going get back. I miss her so much," I mutter to myself as I sat on the vacant throne. 

Suddenly, a maid came walking into the throne room with an envelope made from thin white stuff that was different from our leather. 

"Your highness, I have brought a letter from an unknown country. They didn't reveal anything to me, and I don't dare to open it, so I would like your highness to open it," The elven maid says as she walks up to me and hands me the envelope. 

"Very well… there's no point in waiting for Arpious," I mutter before opening the envelope and reading the thin piece of white stuff that neatly unfolded. 

"Hmmm… It's in a language I can't read… maybe Kumo can read it," 

"Huh? You called," Kumo says, appearing directly next to the throne and leaning over me to read the contents of the envelope. 

It took only a few minutes before she spoke up again. 

"Uhhhhh… I guess I get the gist of it as I'm not perfect, but this is definitely human language… it says something about requesting a meeting today, and they'll be coming to our palace themselves… we don't have a palace, though," Kumo says. 

"Interesting… well, let's see what they can offer," I mutter with a sadistic smile growing on my face. 

… 

(Arpious POV)

Soon, we make our way out of the underground kingdom, which I still don't know the name of, and make our way out of Reyna's bedroom wall. 

Everything still looked the same, with maids running around and nobles trying to gain Reyna's favor which we all quickly shut down. 

"Okay, we'll be taking a shortcut," Reyna says before jumping off one of the various balconies on the palace walls.

We all nod our heads before following her down, where we then maneuvered our way through the kingdom like bandits trying to find their next victim. 

Or rats, trying to scavenge for anything that looks edible.

After only a few minutes of weaving through alleyways, we made our way to the wall, where a slight opening was seen with what seemed to be Mud Unicorns ready for us to ride. 

Maids were tending to them, and as soon as we approached them, the maids left instantly while we sat on the unicorns before tapping our shoes against their sides.

"Uh, I don't know how to ride one of these things," I say out loud, slightly embarrassed. 

Maybe I should try horseback- er, unicornback riding with my summon some time. I've never even used it… I think. 

I have so many skills that I sometimes forget some of them, so I regularly check my status whenever I wake up. 

"Don't worry; it should come naturally, and try to copy our movements. It should take only a few tries, so take your time," Reyna says with a warm smile. 

Ah, I can't even react to that smile anymore after coming to terms with reality… I need alcohol again so I can laugh with this group again. 

Following Reyna's words, I then began to copy their movements, such as tugging on the reins and signaling to the unicorn with different taps of my foot. 

And after about 20 minutes of learning, I was finally able to do it decently without being thrown off by my very own unicorn. 

"Good, good! Now, let's go. We don't have much time… maybe a few more hours!" Reyna says while signaling for her unicorn to go at full speed. 

We proceed to do the same as we dash through the walls and out to the grassy plain where a calm breeze swept over us. 

My hair fluttered in the wind as I could only feel my eyes grow colder by the second.

I needed to prepare myself if I wanted to cut ties with my newly acquired friends, but at the same time, this was harder than I thought as I had taken a liking to them. 

I would definitely have married Reyna if she wasn't a human. Still, at the very least, we were close friends or possibly even sisters… in fact, I might not feel any loving affection to Reyna, which I tried to convince myself I had. But, instead, I feel a familial love towards her and maybe everybody in the group. 

Though it was only a couple of days, I feel like I had spent my entire life with them… 

"Shit… this is harder than I thought," I mutter. 

… 

A few hours had passed, and we finally arrived at the [Blood Swamp], which was surprising as I thought it would take much longer, but the Mud Unicorns we had were truly built different. 

They were probably as fast as me when I fly with my feathered wings at max speed. 

"Now, everybody prepares yourselves," Reyna says despite this being her first time here. 

I should probably deactivate my godly senses; otherwise, I'm going to faint. The stench is already this strong, and I haven't even hit the bloody mist… so deactivating this skill is necessary. 

As soon as I deactivated the skill, we made our way into the [Blood Swamp], which immediately assaulted our senses with different gut-wrenching sensations.

"Are there any other bases from the Uxtan Kingdom?" I ask Reyna while just barely suppressing a gag. 

"Nah, we already went around them, and the bases that are here will probably not even notice us, but just in case, let's go around," Reyna says, with everybody nodding their head in complete agreement. 

… 

After a few more hours, we finally arrived at my kingdom, which I had noticed expanded even farther, almost doubling in size from the last time I saw it. 

"That should be their palace- wait, it's a castle… well, whatever, let's make our way over there without going through the kingdom; otherwise, we'll immediately be detected," Reyna says. 

We would've already been detected even if I didn't alert the entire kingdom and my wives of the current situation just a few minutes before with [Grand Mind Magic].

"Geez… I can already feel the hairs on my body standing up just from the few presences residing within that castle," Sun says as we make our way around my kingdom's wall. 

"Yeah, I think I can take most of them, but there are 3 presences that are definitely above me," Reyna responds as we set our mud unicorns slightly deeper within the [Forest of Poison]. 

"You do know that monsters are naturally stronger than humans, right? It's just that we get more skills, and our population is overwhelming compared to them," Moon says. 

"But doesn't this kingdom seem to have a bit too many monsters? Like it feels unnatural," Dorna says. 

"I don't know… Just stay ready in case a surprise attack comes," Elisa says as she seemed to be the wariest of the group. 

We all nod our heads before picking up the pace a bit as we circle to my castle. 

… 

"What the hell is this?" Reyna mutters as soon as she sees my venom jar, which I filled to the brim with water and my Water Corps still training within it. 

Judging from how natural they seem in the water now, it just looks like they're at a water park, splashing and playing about… even though they are doing clearly hard exercises that anybody would probably drown from. 

"Just move around it," I say, causing everyone to nod their head in agreement. 

"Oh, you feel that?" Elisa says as soon as I sense Yin watch us from the shadows. 

"Yep," Reyna replies but continues to walk forward as I heard she sent a letter in advance that notified my wives of this meeting. 

How did she send a letter? Plus, how does she know my kingdom will even accept it? 

As soon as we reach the top entrance of my castle, a few maids come to greet us, surprising everyone in the group as they came out of nowhere with barely any time to sense them. 

"Welcome, we have received your letter in advance. Please follow us for an audience with her highness," One of the fire harpy maids say. 

Everybody but myself nods our head while still having their guard up just in case they were to be ambushed and used as a bargaining material for the present war. 

Ah, it's nice to be back home, and thankfully my maids aren't making any suspicious glances at me… I really want to see my wives and children… 

Soon, we arrived at the throne room, where Aika sat on the first few steps to my throne intimidatingly.

Her glowing turquoise and black eyes didn't even blink as we entered the room, and her wings had already been activated, creating another sense of eeriness as black mist began to emit from her body. 

And, my lovely son, Hades, was sitting right next to her while looking carefree. It seems he's already noticed that he could take most of the people in the group while Aika can take care of Reyna. 

But, it seems he couldn't hide his slight glances at me. 

"May we meet with your main ruler, or are you the main ruler?" Reyna asks politely while stepping forward, solidifying herself as the leader of our group. 

"You already have met her," Aika responds. 

"Huh?" Everybody in the room reacts. 

Tup Tup Tup Tup