Chapter 164: The Four – Part 3

Chapter 164: The Four – Part 3 AnnouncementAN: Another break week! This one I'll finally publish chapter 10 of the rewrite, start uploading a few chapters to Royal Road and then start the next side story

See you guys next 24th.

I'm momentarily distracted by the Queen's tight little ass and cute pussy lips, as her body is so perfectly sculpted that I suspect [Alteration Magic] shenanigans. Cucking a King is also one of Roxanne's and Yunia's fetishes, so we have a short moment of relaxation as we dive into our filthy fantasies.

But then the Hau-Hou pair comes back a couple of minutes later, so we harden our expressions again, for this is the moment of truth.

The two sit back down, then the Queen slowly and deliberately begins her speech, her expression still perfectly stoic and unreadable, "King Wolf, Queen Ciel... let's make a trade. The Sky Lands' Hallowed Cloak, the massive enchantment that hides our lands, isn't a physical barrier, and though it has great utility for our military, it's useless in the case of an invasion. Ever since you and the other Realm Travelers arrived in this Realm, an ancient Sky Fortress, called a dungeon by land-dwellers, has appeared in the path our expeditions take to enter the Broken Skies, and this Fortress has been slowly drifting towards Kini Kaina.

"We're unable to move out of its path, as this beautiful city has grown so big and complex that any movement of the floating islands would cause massive damage to its structures. We also can't deal with this militarily as this Sky Fortress, the Fortress of Calamity, is so vast that the monster swarm has grown larger than our fleet. But the Gifted Realm Travelers have been able to sneak in and out multiple times, so we hope that they'll be able to destroy the Fortress' core this way."

Then she makes a pause for effect, but her mental stress becomes so high that she clenches her jaw hard enough to make her face tremble. She is dealing with an existential threat to her kingdom while having to choose between potential catastrophe and death or the loss of independence that comes from asking for help from the infamous and opportunistic Avgi Empire.

Having to admit that you're a weak ruler after hundreds of thousands of years of tradition isn't easy.

But Queen Patika finally offers us the proposal we've been waiting for, "If you help The Four Travelers accomplish this, we'll allow you to meet with them and take them with you to achieve your divine-given purpose."

Ciel suddenly realizes something and immediately shares it through [Bind], "Now it all makes sense! They believed that the Gifted were sent to help them with this Fortress of Calamity; that's one of the reasons why the Hau-Hou are so protective of them. But now that a fifth Traveler has arrived with a different goal, they've realized that the purpose of the Travelers is more than just that."

But I'm too distracted by something else to reply to her. The fact that this cute, fuckable, little Queen Patika is daring to use the permission to see the Realm Travelers as a bargaining chip makes me unreasonably angry. I did manage to hold back my anger before because I believed the Travelers weren't being exploited, but this is borderline.

I understand very well why she's doing this, but I still hate it.

The girls promptly work to soothe me while Yunia takes over my body and stoically gives a counter-proposal, "If we save your capital, we'll require all the help you can give us towards finding the Lord of Storms, with both information and ships."

"You're asking for quite a lot," the King lets out a subtle growl, breaking his stoicism to show a bit of anger.

But the Queen is more level-headed and deems this a fair trade. "We can give you command of a whole expedition, and I'll pray that the Gods protect these men."

The King gives her a glance, likely surprised by her response, but I feel like they're both a bit desperate for a solution to their problem with the Fortress, so Yunia's request is exactly the middle ground for both sides.

"Shall we swear upon the Gods?" Ciel gently suggests with an amicable smile.

I'm back in control of my angry lizard, so I take the lead and make my carefully-worded declaration, "I, Wolf Ryder, swear to guide the four Realm Travelers towards destroying the Fortress of Calamity."

The Queen takes a couple of seconds to think, then she follows up, "I, Patika Hau-Hou, swear to give you command of a whole expedition to aid you in fulfilling your divine quest."

Once she finishes her oath, a little "knot" is tied within my heart, the sign that the Gods have listened and will judge our actions towards fulfilling it.

"Now, take us to the Travelers," I immediately demand.

The negotiations back with the Diplomat Tamapa are suspended, for this is too important a meeting for the girls to not participate. In fact, everyone is allowed to come because this is a damn historical moment. Five Realm Travelers, five Gifted people, five Threads of Fates that shall change the world.

"They have Gifted?! What in the Vol-shite is going on here?!" Urmeie exclaims as she's informed of where we're going. Even she understands the significance of this. Then she suddenly frowns and raises her lips in anger. "Wait, was this your primary purpose for coming here?"

Alissa feels a bit of smug satisfaction from making the Princess feel like a fool, and her smugness is compounded with that of the girls as their emotions mix through [Bind]. "Consider yourself honored that we allowed you to come even though this is such an important moment for Wolfy," my cute fox confidently asserts to the mama bear.

"Hmm... alright," the entitled Princess grumbles in acceptance with a glare. She can't really complain about not being told everything when she explicitly tells everyone that she doesn't care about politics.

And so, we gather inside a [Warp Space]-enhanced carriage that fits us all. We can't take all of the Companions and Celestial Horns with us, but we still take a handful for appearances' sake.

Alissa grabs my left hand, Ciel grabs my right, Lina sits on my lap, and Gify turns on her "soul massage" to help manage my rising anxiety.

"Why are you so anxious?" Aoi innocently asks through [Bind].

The question puts me in a pensive mood, temporarily allaying my stress. "I don't know... I just... really don't want Lily to have also been brought into this world."

"If she's here, you two can finally be together again," Hana points out.

But that doesn't comfort me at all. "I don't want to be together with her anymore. I abandoned my old self, and I don't want a constant reminder of what could've been. Not to mention that I did cheat on her not even a month after arriving here."

"Couldn't help it. Who could resist that cute little orange fox?" Roxanne playfully teases and rubs her cheeks against Alissa's furry ears.

And our adorable orange bundle of love tries to hide an embarrassed smile because everyone agrees, especially Ciel, that she's the cutest fox. But emphasis on fox, because Lina is the cutest loli.

Our chocolate angel ignores the jab at her crush on Alissa and soothingly preaches, "You were seeking comfort and safety when you were feeling alone and shaken, so the Goddess of Love most likely didn't judge you harshly for what you did, but the God of the Sun would appreciate that you do something to atone for breaking your vows to Lily."

I raise a questioning eyebrow. "Isn't bringing technology and progress to this world enough to atone?"

"Atone to her," she clarifies with a wry smile.

Lily is a pretty fucking vengeful person, so I'm not sure what the fuck I can do to atone...

"You look tense," Caterina quietly states as she stares at me.

Of course, I am. If Lily's here, I'm surely fucked!

"And you don't," Urmeie grunts questioningly to the Punisher captain.

Who frowns confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"Did you know that there were Gifted here?" the Princess interrogates.

"Yes..." Caterina hesitantly answers.

And mama bear looks around. "Am I the only one who didn't?" Her eyes fall upon Hukarere, who simply grins under her wolf helmet.

"I didn't..." Alcander chimes in rather shyly. He's been very quiet this whole trip, likely because the high number of women is overwhelming for him. I think he's more of a "boy's club" dude, considering how often he banters with Silvano.

"But you aren't important," Urmeie bluntly replies, then turns back to Caterina. "Why didn't the temple tell us?"

That actually makes Alcander smile wryly, so we also smile wryly at him in support.

"Because there'd be a swarm of imperial nobles trying to recruit them with varying levels of forcefulness," the Punisher captain answers matter-of-factly.

"Hmph..." the Princess grunts sourly. She knows enough to not deny that.

"I feel a bit less tense now. Thank you," I calmly state to the irreverent royal.

But wait, there's more. The girls (and, I assume, everyone else) felt a flash of godly power that awed them, so the vision was certainly the work of the Gods. But then the knowledge that "our separation was necessary for the required conditions to be met" is also sticking out to me.

I sigh and facepalm, a bit overwhelmed at what just happened. An awkward silence falls upon the room, and even Yunia doesn't know what to say since she isn't exactly used to having to deal with Divine Interventions.

U Thant is the first to break the silence as the lanky snow lion hesitantly remarks, "Well, uh, I don't think introductions are necessary?"

I shake my head and tiredly retort, "They are. Only us five got the vision from the Gods. Everyone else still doesn't know your names."

Then my eyes again fall on the extra person sitting by the Travelers, the squirrel-headed Chimera that's supposed to be a healer, so I use [Sense Soul] on him, and the girls and I all freeze in confusion.

Soul InfoNameMunZ;-er K;nQ Tycho peeweechinchin wowowowowo baaaaaasdRace???Level???HP100/100MP1,025+(997,001/998,974)Magic Power???,999Strength12+86Endurance10+89

The Chimera twitches in surprise as he hums, "Oh? Oops..." And he used an oddly earthling-like idiom.

Then I blink, and he's gone.

"Whaka?" Samkelo, the gnome, questions in confusion.

"Who the fuck was that?!" I shout as I look around. He's completely gone without any trace of mana left, just like the thing that saved Alki-Alki.

Caterina [Equip]s her armor and draws her sword as she shouts in rage, "Heretic magic!"

But nobody reacts except for our men, who also draw their weapons. The Chimera soldier guides and the Travelers all look just as dumbfounded as I am.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. WHOA! EASY! WE AREN'T HERETICS!" U Thant shouts as he raises his hands in surrender, and I grab Caterina's sword hand to stop her while the wives calm down our men.

The Gods have made it clear that the Travelers are allies, so we have some questions we need to ask our Sky Lander hosts.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

Prince Owldente.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Michale Erwin.

Lord Bakerdea.

Lord Maurice.

Lord Mattirro Draca.

Lord Tenebris Lupus.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Tmac.

Lord CopeyDunt.

Lord BlindTactic.

Lord litalmexy.

Lord Philip.

Lord d3235.

Lord William Clark.

Lord SubJef.

Lord GalacticTNT.

Lord LiuAnshan.

Lord Black Unicorn.

Lord Duncan Campbel.

Lord Empyrean.

Lord School Work.

Lord Patrick_starz.

Lord Freddie.

Lord Peter Kraushuber.

Lord David England.

Noble Salty Panda.

Noble Mild Fracas.

Noble Aclys.

Noble Carl Baxter.

Noble DND.

Noble Anon A Moose.

Noble Tony Starrk.