Chapter 212: To the Castle

When they had passed through the smaller training courtyard of the castle a butler had greeted them and asked them why they had come to the palace. "We have business to report to the king. As you can see this party bears the proper identification to request a meeting." Ibis unexpectedly drew attention not only to the travel medals the parry wore but also the marking of the king of Ordist and their silver plaques.

"Of course, we shall notify the king sir Ibis. Please follow me to a room for you all to rest." The butler led the, down a hall and to a larger room with lavished furniture. The couches were softer than any the party had ever sat on before. The coffee table was made from an intricately carved wood that they could not identify. Ibis motioned for an attendant in the corner who rushed off at his signal. The attendant showed up with tea and a tray of small finger sandwiches in just a moment. This was the life of royalty, being waited on hand and foot. 

"Now I hope you all remember the basics from the last time we met with the king? I do not expect you to go using a dragon's roar to intimidate those nobles again." Ibis laughing to himself added some sugar to his tea and drinking with a smug expression. He was making fun of Walker so casually!

"Of course we will not be, we have very important business to take care of." Before anyone else could reply Su was already there with a response, her cool demeanor making Walker feel that everything was in their right. She had already started to set herself up some tea and even poured cups for everyone else. They had no idea how long they would need to wait, they had come in without prior notice so they could be interrupting any matter of activities. 

Onyx seemed to be enjoying the view of the well decorated room, Walker forgot that he had not been here to see it all the last time they visited the castle. This was indeed a very large feast for the eyes since there were so many handcrafted items in great detail. Midnight seemed much too comfortable finding a spot by a window where the sun was coming in and laying by it, She really had no sense of shame sometimes.

They enjoyed their peace and tea for a fair bit of time before the butler had returned with another attendant, "Honorable guests this attendant shall escort you to the king for your meeting." Ibis placed his cup down and motioned for the party to do the same. With some encouragement, Midnight left the warmth of the sun and headed along with them.

The slight stress at seeing the king and queen again was a bit strong to them but over their past experiences the party was able to steel themselves before reaching the larger doors that lead in to the kings court. The two large doors were opened for them by guards revealing the familiar sight. The king and queen sat upon their thrones showing no emotion, the king's gaze studied the party and seemed to pick apart any differences. His eyes rested on Onyx for a second making note of a new member to their party. 

The queen may have been cool faced but Walker had a foreboding feeling that she wanted to see new skills and even examine Midnight's smaller wings. Her eyes had not left Midnight since the doors had opened. Scanning the room Walker realized that there were far less attendants this time around. A few of the nobles seemed familiar but others they had never seen before. Their sudden visitation had definitely changed the king's plans making less nobles and attendants show up than last time. Walker was fairly glad to see this, he had worries that the more in attendance the harder it would be to tell the king the goings on in the demi-human kingdom. 

The familiar face of one noble in particular was watching them very carefully. Markus Raven was frozen as he stared down Walker at the front of the party. His eyes had seen the snake wrapped around his shoulders. The worst part was that he knew Walker had learned of his fear of such creatures. This was the worst possible thing to happen, how could he counter the authority of children if they used such dastardly tricks against him. 

"Welcome Ibis, how does the quest to exterminate horned rabbits proceed? Will I need to dispatch troops to assist?" The king was all business, he had also seen the guild wide quest and gathered his own information on the dangers of the outbreak. The famine had been the largest stain on his entire time as king and he did not wish to relive the loss of so many lives. 

"I greet you, my king. The adventurers guild has sent one of our strongest members, the vice guild master to the plains to clean things up. Along with the efforts of our other groups a total of one thousand two hundred and seventy eight horned rabbits have been reported as defeated. I currently believe that we will not face any such attacks on the seedlings in the fields again. However we would greatly appreciate having some scouts sent out to assist in finding large groups to send out parties too." Ibis gave his report firmly and efficiently. This was the exact kind of response Walker would have to improve on to get to. The information was easy to follow and understand leaving no confusion to what was happening or needed.

"Then it shall be so, I will have sixty scouts send to assist. They will report to your guild hall under my orders within the hour." One guard by the door promptly left the room to relay this order. " I see you have brought the young hero party with you again." The king made this general statement to see what the response would be. 

"Yes, they were the ones who wished for this audience. They recently traveled to the demi-human kingdom and wish to speak to you now that they had returned." 

The king raised a hand to his chin, "I see, from the looks of things I believe things went well." The king looked directly at the symbol of king Rorick they now wore.

Walker stepped equal to Ibis and gave a short bow before pulling the documents from his storage. "Since we bore the mark of an emissary from out kingdom the king of Ordist gave us a task for our journey back. We have these documents from King Rorick. We also should share our encounter with a demon who was intentionally poisoning and selling cursed items there." Walkers's words caused a stir through those present. The talk of a demon doing such terrible things to the citizens of Ordist was very shocking. On top of this the party had acted as emissaries for their kingdom and shared knowledge with the king? Why would they so young be trusted with such tasks?

"So you found out the secondary meaning behind those medals. I do apologize for not sharing that with you but I thought it useful to give you something that showed you were protected by our kingdom." An attendant came and took the documents from Walker. The king did not look through them immediately and instead told the attendant to bring them to his study for later. This was a trick the king had learned after some time. He could look upon these documents in peace and make more sound decisions alone than when influenced by his court.

Walker waited for the attention to focus on them, again and began telling their story from the second they entered the gates of Ordist. Many of the attendants and nobles wore their hearts on their sleeves as Walker spoke. They could not imagine that the king of Ordist had made a tournament to test them in just a day, not only this but had actually rewarded them for their actions. 

The news of how they came across and helped apprehend the demon with general Scylla made some of the commanders of their kingdom's army gain very serious faces. The generals of the demi-human kingdom had often sparred with some of their kingdoms knights when visiting for yearly meetings. Naturally the demi-human's general;s had show fierce strength that warranted great respect. It was big news for even the most elite warriors to have been watched by a general leg alone a young adventurer which was in theory nowhere near the ranking of an elite in the army. 

The king and queen listed quietly absorbing the story and waiting for any additional information. Each word Walker had spoken was weighed for truth and exaggeration by them, however they both felt that every word was genuine. "It would seem much has happened for your Omnipotent party in this journey. We are glad you have returned to the kingdom safe and sound." The queen spoke up before the king, she obviously could not contain herself much more.