Chapter 201 - To The Beach!

Millie glared at Mary as she scrambled to sit up, "You idiot! I told you to be quiet!"

Mary sniffed and rubbed her head, "You didn't have to hit me..."

We watched as Millie continued to insult and scream at Mary who started crying from being yelled at. We all stood around them speechless. A knight drew his sword, "Shall I kill the stowaways your Highness?"

"Yes." Dante answered for him in a cold voice.

William shook his head in exasperation, "No. Let them be. I know these two, they are harmless." He paused and looked at the irritated Millie, "Well one of them is at least."

I put my sword away with a frown, "What are you two doing here?"

Millie stopped arguing with Mary and looked up with a smile, "I was worried when I heard you were going to another Kingdom. I had to come with you to protect you."

Mary wiped her tears and nodded quickly, "Yes! I was worried as well! Seri. You were going there with two dirty men. Who knew if they would take advantage of you and touch your body?!"

William frowned, "Dirty men?"

I frowned, "Take advantage of me?"

In their dreams!!!

Mary spoke in a dream-like state, "I also want to hold you tight and touch your body. I can't let those two touch you first!"

Everyone, "..."

Mary gasped and covered her mouth, "I-I mean..." She switched to a pitiful expression, "I mean that I have never gone on a vacation before... I was so jealous... I wanted to travel too!"

William slapped his forehead, "For the last time. This is not a vacation!!!"

Mary blinked at him, "But the Western Kingdom's capital is on the beach. Isn't that a vacation?"

William glared at her in silence making her fidget. Then he looked at the knights calmly, "Someone escort these two home."

"NOO!" The two shouted in unison.

Mary got on her knees, "Please! Prince William... Let me come!"

Millie nodded, "If you don't let me come as well, I will get very angry." William hesitated when he heard this. Millie smiled knowing her threat worked, "Maybe once the Prince get's back, we can spend time together just like when we were kids... Do you remember? Do you remember what we used to do when Dante and Seri were off training?"

I raised an eyebrow at this. What were they doing while Dante and I were training? Why did this seem so suggestive?

William turned pale, "Do not threaten your Prince!"

Millie smiled at him calmly, "Who said it was a threat?"

Judging by William's frightened and speechless appearance, I figured that whatever happened probably was not good. I nudged him, "Just let them stay."

"No way!" His voice squeaked.

A Knight spoke quickly, "Your Highness, if we send them back on their own they may be attacked by bandits. We are far from the Imperial City and very close to the border. We don't have a carriage to spare them. It would be too dangerous to send them back."

The two girls nodded hastily in agreement. William crossed his arms, "Then we can just turn around and come back."

The Knight shook his head, "Your Highness. The King and Queen of the Western Kingdom are expecting us. If we turn around now we won't make it in time. I fear they may be insulted by our lack of respect."

William chewed on his lip. He knew that they were right, but he didn't want to bring them along either. I nudged him once more, "William. If we take them with us, we can make them go under cover as our servants."

Williams lips twitched upwards as he thought about the two pretending to be his servants. He chuckled lightly, "That's not so bad..."

I nodded then looked at the two, "You two can come. But you must pretend to be our servants. That means you can never NEVER break character. Do you understand?"

Mary nodded quickly with a sparkle in her eyes, "Yes! That would be wonderful!"

Millie crossed her arms, "Fine. I guess I could pretend for a few days."

I looked back at William, "So, my liege. What do you say?"

He rolled his eyes at me, "Whatever. Let them come. But you two absolutely have to obey my orders or else I will throw you in the ocean."

Mary's face froze, "B-But I can't swim..."

We all rolled our eyes and walked away. Now our company gained two more members. We arrived at the Capital a few days later. As we rolled up, an incredible welcoming party was waiting for us. Mary and I were sticking our faces to the window in awe as we watched the lively scene outside. Dante, William, and Millie sat inside the carriage looking indifferent to the celebration.

There was the sound of animated music, tons of confetti, and bright flags waving. It was the most colorful and exhilarating thing I had ever seen. I closed my eyes and listened to the upbeat music. I haven't heard such beautiful music that made you want to dance. In our Kingdom, while there was music it was only slow classical music. It was also only for the higher nobility and as such, musical instruments were very rare to find. So this is a much welcomed change.

In fact, a lot of the Kingdoms in this world were very different from each other. Our Kingdom was the largest and right in the middle. It was more conservative and put high value on intellect. It was a very high-brow Kingdom where everyone seemed to act like they were "holier than thou". The Sanki Kingdom, which was in the South, was even more conservative. Women had even less rights and everyone valued strength over intellect. There were seen as cruel brutal dictators.

The Kingdom in the North kept to themselves. Although our Kingdom occupied them, they didn't seem to mind. They lived in the snow more than 10 months a year. They didn't care about war. They were passive and just thankful to our Kingdom for it's financial help. Now, the Western Kingdom... Well I'm afraid I don't remember much about them. I never paid enough attention in class. I only know about the North Kingdom and the Sanki Kingdom because of my personal self interests.

I spoke to the others while watching the lively scene outside, "Can you tell me about the culture here?"

Millie giggled, "You don't know? We learned about this in class."

"Yeah... But I never listened during class."

William crossed his arms and spoke spitefully, "They are an immoral Kingdom."

"Immoral?"

"Yes! Look at how they dress and act!"

I carefully observed the peoples clothes. It was certainly warmer here much like a tropical paradise, so people wore short dresses and clothes. Their legs, shoulders, and arms were showing. Even the colorful fabric itself looked lightweight and nearly see through. Some had tattoo's and scars, while other's wore gold bangles on their arms. They all had bronze complexions and long curly dark brown hair. Although this seemed similar to the Sanki Kingdom, you could see differences if you looked closely.

I frowned, "They seem to dress normal to me."

William covered his face in embarrassment, "Normal?! Look how much skin is showing!!!"

I knew better than to argue with him on that. To me, who grew up in another world, this much skin was quite common. However, to those who get flustered when they even see someone's toes, it could be a bit too much.

"But what about how they act? They seem pretty happy and friendly to me. What's so bad about that?"

Millie giggled, "William did not mean that they were not friendly, Seri. He meant something else. You see, unlike our Kingdom who only has one god, the Western Kingdom has many gods and deities that they pray to. They also believe that one should live their life..." She paused trying to think of the correct word, "Freely."

"That doesn't seem too bad to me." I muttered as I watched the happy faces outside. Why couldn't I have been transmigrated here instead of that stuffy Kingdom next door?!

We pulled up to a large Castle in front of us. There were many trumpets and horns blowing. When we stepped out, the crowd was shouting and screaming at us in excitement. I went out first and looked around in awe. The seemed thrilled to see us as they cheered us on and waved. I beamed when I received their adoring screams.

A gal could get used to something like this.

Dante stepped out and William followed after. I led the way as Dante stood by William's side scanning the surroundings for danger. Millie and Mary stumbled after us wearing servants uniform. We were escorted inside to the audience chamber to meet the King and Queen. This castle, while still extraordinary, wasn't as showy as the Imperial Palace. However, there were tons of plants and natural looking decorations that made it seem very remarkable.

The servant announced, "Your Majesty's... The Imperial Kingdom's Ambassadors have arrived. May I introduce Prince William, Lady Seri, and Lord Dante."

The King nodded, "I trust you got in safely without any issues."

We all bowed and I snuck a look to see the King and Queen. When I saw their behaviors and appearance, I froze. Although they looked unfamiliar, the two in front of me had striking similarities in their behaviors to two people I had known in my previous world. The friend whose college I had paid for, and the bartender whose bar I would always drink at.

The King had the bartenders attitude. He was friendly, but looked rough around the edges. He wouldn't speak much, but he also would never take any sh*t from anyone. He had a good sense of humor and was really easy to get along with. As long as you weren't an a**hole.

The Queen sat lounging lazily on her throne. She didn't seem to care much about the people in front of her. She was someone who was harder to get along with. She had a short intention span and a short fuse. She would rather get into a fight than befriend anyone. As such, she was incredibly hard to approach.

Just like my friend had been.

However, the King and Queen didn't look like them at all. The King had a very regal appearance with bronze skin and several tribal like tattoo's. The bartender always wore muscle shirts and baggy pants. While the King had long curly black hair pulled back in dreads, the bartender had short buzzed hair with a stylish fade.

The Queen was even more shocking. She had beautiful olive skin which showed her curves through her nearly transparent outfit. The dress was light and flowed like a gentle river, revealing her bare arms and legs. Her long dark brown hair hung loosely with various shells and beads braided in it. The friend I had known never wore such apparel. She had always been the one to wear baggy shirts and pants. Plus, she wore glasses and looked more nerdy than sexy.

Even though they looked different, I was still stunned to see how similar the two acted. The Queen noticed me gaping at her and turned with a frown, "What is it? Why do you keep staring?"

William looked at me with a stern expression. Right. I am an ambassador here. I need to act with respect. I cleared my throat, "I apologize your Majesty. I just found that you reminded me of someone."

This made her frown more, "How could I, a Queen, remind you of someone?"

Oh dear god. This is exactly what my other friend would say if she was a Queen. Could it be that this was her?

I spoke with a charming smile, "Of course not, the Queen is very much unique and much more splendid than that other person. If anything, the other person is just trying to imitate your beauty and grace."

She didn't seem too impressed, "A glib tongue means nothing. I already know I am beautiful and graceful."

I continued unperturbed, "You are correct. Of course you must already know this so I shouldn't waste my breath. However, I must say. I really am impressed by how you run your Kingdom so efficiently. I am a huge fan of your work. Anyone could learn a thing or two by observing you."

This made her sit up in interest, "Oh really? You are a fan of my work?"

Actually, I have no idea what her work was. I just spoke vaguely so that she would fill in the blanks for me. If she really was similar to my other friend, then she probably had a strange hobby that everyone else judged her for.

"I am. If her Majesty is ever free, I would love for her to enlighten me."

The Queen stood up quickly with a bright smile, "Then let's not waste another second! Quick! Follow me!" She turned to the King, "You take Prince William and Lord Dante to discuss business. I will take Lady Seri and her handmaidens with me to show them around."

Handmaidens?

The King nodded nonchalantly, "Of course. Gentlemen, if you could follow me."

Dante glanced at me. I whispered to him, "It's alright. You protect William. I will be fine by myself."

Dante reluctantly agreed and followed after William and the King. The Queen grabbed my hand gently and led me away. Millie and Mary quickly shuffled after us. Just like that, we were led away from each other.