(Chpt. 57) Testing the limits (2)

Alice.

“Took you long enough…” I muttered in annoyance as I tried to hide my surprise. I didn’t really notice his appearance at all. 

He smiled. “Looks like we have a special one over here, well, it’s not like the statement is wro⁠— Oh, what a cute dog…” His voice trailed off as he looked at my furry companion. Fenri stiffened and sheepishly hid behind me. “Not very friendly, eh?” 

I shrugged. “I guess… Not my cat.” 

“Grrr…” Well, I guess cat wasn’t the way to go about it.  

“Well if you say so, that’s a rather peculiar cat you got there…” Fenri growled again. “Well, moving on. I must congratulate you, you are now part of the Royal Court.” 

“And… What do I need to do?” I asked as I tilted my head, I had just remembered it was some kind of role, so he was probably going to throw responsibilities at me and such.  

“Well, nothing much really. Just come when summoned⁠—”

“Summoned?” What?! 

He scratched his cheek. “Well, you know… Summoned, like… Called? Like… “Come here,” kind of thing?” Oh… I am stupid, aren’t I? “Well, now that you understand that. It’s basically that and to protect the country in case of emergency, and that’s about it. You also get paid for it.” Well, this suddenly sounded like a me kind of job. “Don’t get too excited just yet, you must still take a meeting.” 

I tilted my head. “Meeting?” 

“Oh, you know… Meeting with other nobles and stuff so they deem you “worthy” of being a court magician, don’t worry. Since you got my recommendation I can just shove it on them, but I am not very keen on being forceful on absolutely everyone.” Eh… Well, I guess…      

There was still something that concerned me. “Are these nobles like the school kids?” 

“Eh… No… Don’t even joke about that, I would’ve gotten rid of all of them if they were like that…” He explained with a cold sweat, I guess the kids were really annoying. 

“Okay then… So, what will I need to do to “prove” myself?” 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, you will just have to use your absolute strongest spell on a target.” Well… I am screwed, aren’t I? I can either burn it which probably will be meh or try using neutral magic on it which basically won’t show any effect for the most part. Of course, I could always use the more extreme side of neutral magic, but I am sure people will be able to tell at first glance, and since it’s forbidden I don’t feel like being crucified at the moment. Well… I will see what I can do, I can always just say I am a prodigy and use neutral magic and say it’s a new kind of magic. If they can tell I will just have to insist, the king doesn’t really seem like a mage anyway. 

“Are you okay?” The king asked as he tilted his head with slight confusion. 

“... Yea…” Looks like I stood still as I thought… Well, what a problem. 

“Anyway, I am going to need you to follow me.” He turned around and started moving. 

Fenri and I followed him along the long hallway, with rooms every now and then either side, it was speckless and shiny, the rock looked really polished and worked to perfection. For some reason it still followed the same color pattern as the outside, so it was somewhat bright, but since it was mostly lit by natural light coming from crevices and windows near the ceiling, it wasn’t eye-damaging. So that was nice. 

“Why is everything so… White?” I asked out of curiosity as I followed the king. He paused. 

“Well… I like white. Besides, white is a nice color and tends to be associated with the concept of being good, so there is that.” I nodded to his bland answer. He continued walking aftewards, we followed as I got to thinking. 

‘Being good? Isn’t that like… Some dumb thing for kids? You know. Darkness is evil and light is good? Well, I think it was like that anyway, while I like white more than black as a color, it really isn’t a good reason to make it entirely white. I mean, there must have been something else, something more pleasant to the eye. Well, I don’t think I will be able to change to color, unfortunately.’ 

I sighed in defeat. We continued walking for quite a while, I noticed the hallway had a slight curvature, so I assumed it was connected with the other side of the castle. Mostly because we had walked for way too long for the castle to be endless. I think it also had some elevation, well… I didn’t really notice it, but we should’ve passed by the garden already if it was just a loop. 

“Looks like you noticed.” I tilted my head in confusion. “The castle structure is weird, I think so as well… It’s basically a big spiral with a central garden.” He nonchalantly informed me. 

I remember it having towers though… “And… the towers?” 

“Oh… That? It’s just an illusion, don’t worry about it too much. I heard it's made from a relic,” He dropped his shoulders. “Although I wish I knew where it was.” He audibly murmured. 

I didn’t bother replying, but it felt weird. Was the king like this? Well… What was the previous king like?  I wonder about that, also, if I beat this person could I be the new king? That sounds great! Although… Running a kingdom sounds like a disaster, so I think I will keep that out of my mind for now. Well, I could always just take the title and do absolutely nothing, but it probably won’t be a great idea once it starts falling apart. 

“Why must everything be so complicated…” I sighed in defeat as I continued walking. “Ou…” I bumped into something hard and solid, almost like a wall, taking a step back all I could see was something akin to a curtain made out of fur. 

“Woof.” Was it Fenri? Well, it wasn’t white. 

“We are here.” It was the king’s voice, although I had no idea where he was. “Also, please don’t bump into my back. It hurts.” Oh… So that’s how it was. I took a step back and I was no longer right behind him. There was a tall metal-framed wooden door. The metal had rusting and the wood seemed dry and old. My assessment of the door was that it was old, as obvious as it was. It seemed out of place, it was the only thing that looked remotely old after all. 

“Ah right… We still need to renovate this place, don’t let it bother you too much. It’s just that you are the first court mage to come here since I became king.” Oh. 

“How so?” 

“Well, the elf was appointed by the previous king, although he was never a nice person to begin with, so I never really understood how he got there. Anyway, this is the board room." He sighed. "Where we will be for quite some time.” Ah, so that's how it was. I looked at the door, I noticed the hallway continued but there was no more doors. I saw light coming from the end of it, I think it was the roof of the castle or whatever. 

“Are you going to the practice range or coming into the meeting room?” He asked as he lifted his brow. 

“Practice range?” 

“It’s on the rooftop, anyway, not going there right now. Just come into the room.” He waved his hand at me, I awkwardly approached and entered the room. As opposed to the all-white marble of the castle, this room had gray walls and was dimly lit by a chandelier, the bricks of the walls were worn down, I swiped my finger on them and it got full of dust. “Yeah… It does that.” He commented as he saw me clean it.

“Anyway, ignoring the dust. Just sit there.” He pointed across the room. I noticed a big wooden table, it was also dry. Following his finger, it was pointing at a single chair in the myriad of surrounding chairs next to the table, it was right next to a big and more imponent chair. It didn’t take too much thinking to guess whose chair it was. I wordlessly nodded and just sat on the chair as per instructed, didn’t really have anything to do. The chair badly creaked, the room was probably a few centuries outdated. Fenris uneasily made his way to my side and laid on the floor, the floor didn’t really look reliable either for some reason. 

I sighed and laid my head on the table, this was way more work than what I expected. The table also badly creaked, making me think twice about doing it. In the end, I ended up stiflingly sitting on the chair. The king awkwardly took the big seat next to me, it also creaked. I could see how unsure he was about the room, as he also awkwardly sat without trying to move too much. 

“Isn’t there another room?” I asked in annoyance. 

“Don’t you think we would be there instead? You got your answer.” 

“Talk about humor…” I sighed. “This seems like a waste of time.” 

“Yeah, but unfortunately I cannot skip things like these. So… you will suffer with it.” He briefly smiled at me.    

This king was pretty weird, so I didn’t really know what to do. Sometimes he was nice, sometimes he seemed to try to be in a higher standing than others .Well, I should probably do something about that. Or at least try to. 

“Hey king, I want to duel you.” 

He laughed. “Sorry, but I know you can’t beat me, even though you are impressive for your age, you are still way too inexperienced.” 

“Is that so?” I nonchalantly asked without interest. “I kind of just thought it was possible.” 

“What makes you think that?” He turned serious all of the sudden. 

“Well, we are in an enclosed room. If it was all lit in fire you would die from the burns or lack of oxygen.” I looked at him in the eyes, well… I doubted he knew what oxygen was. 

“Oxy what? Well, I won’t fall for your lies.” I saw sweat coming from his side. 

“Well, you know... “ I started drawing circles on the creaking table. “Once air runs out you can’t breathe, simple things.” 

“Youuu…” He lifted himself from his chair with tremendous force, snapping the handles in the process. “Just because I like you, it doesn’t mean you get to stand on the same ground!” 

“Eh?” I was surprised. “Is that what you thought I was doing?” I stood up. “I am sorry, but you are the kid here.” His face turned bright red, then he suddenly smiled as if nothing happened. 

“Let’s get the ceremony done and then we finish whatever you intended to do.” He sat back down. I nodded with a bit of confusion and sat down again as well. I couldn’t really think about what made him suddenly change his mind, but not like I cared. Also, I wasn’t in on the idea of seeing if I could survive in an enclosed room without air. I didn’t really know what oxygen was other than what living beings breathed, as well as fire breathed. So, following that logic, there is no fire without oxygen, or so I’d like to think, well… Something to try for the future I guess. Life is long. 

I laid my head on the table. ‘I kind of just wish I remembered more…’ I hopelessly muttered, there was plenty of things missing from my memory, things like how I knew so much, yet useless things like my interactions with some dragons were there. But they always were bland and hostile, and female dragons had weird obsessions over dragons’ scales. Like sure… My scales were pretty, but there was no need to try to remove them off me… I shivered from remembering. 

The door slammed. “To believe I was asked to come here…” A grumpy and raspy female voice grumbled.