Bab 19: The Baron vs The Hero
"Lord D'Arc, welcome to my castle."
"Your Highness"
"Please stand up, Lord D'Arc."
"Yes"
As Gabriel standing up, the king then sits down on his throne before saying.
"You are the adventurer that Lord Roy choose to become noble, right?"
"Yes"
"And you become noble because of your contribution to the fight against the monster wave, right?"
"... Yes"
"Then, he is right about making you a noble, Kneel."
Gabriel then quickly kneels before the King as he unsheathed his sword and place it upon his shoulder and then says.
"Gabriel D'Arc, for your noble deed against the flood that happens recently, I reward you for your contribution because your deed many merchants began to use the main road once more."
Prime Minister Archibald then walked with a Silver Box toward him and gave it to Gabriel.
"Take it as it was your reward for protecting your land from the monster."
"Thank you."
"Then you may leave, but please come back for dinner because I invite you to eat with us."
"Yes"
"Good"
Gabriel then walked away from the throne room before the Butler that coming with him walked toward him and asked.
"My Lord, Do you want to stay in the Palace or going outside?"
"I will wait for the Dinner party while exploring the Capital City."
"Very Well, one of the butlers will arrive at your Inn when the dinner party is about to start."
"Thank you."
After escorting him to the outside, the Butler then bow a little before walking toward the castle once more. Seeing that the Butler walked away, Gabriel then quickly go to the Adventurer Guild to have some Quest and fill his free time with killing a monster.
By the end of the day, Gabriel able to finish two quests about killing a pack of goblin nearby and a dozen Lizardmen in the village near the Capital City. After completed all the quests, Gabriel walked to his room and took a bath. After finished, he then got a message from the butler that coming to his Inn that informs him that the Dinner Party is about to start.
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~ Maximilian Fredrick Lothbrog ~
My Name is Maximilian Fredrick Lothbrog; I'm the King of Humanity. Right now, my Prime Minister and I sit inside my office discussing Lord D'Arc.
"Max, why you reward him? I know you did that for a reason."
"No, I'm not."
"Please, I know you for years, and we become friends from the age of 8. So, what is the reason you reward Lord D'Arc yourself?"
I sigh at Archibald's remark. Yes, I can let Arthur reward the Young man, but instead, I reward him myself. I sigh once more before answer Archibald's question.
"Before I answer your question, I must ask what level Lord D'Arc when you last meet him?"
"Err... If my memory serves right, then his level is 58."
"Yes, but when I use my Divine Eyes, he has Level 70 instead of 58."
"What really?"
"Yes, and he also a hidden skill that I can't see with my divine eyes."
"But the only person you can't see with the divine eyes is..."
"My Grandfather, The person that single handle kill a fully grown Dragon. Even though it was not an Ancient Dragon from the Legend but it was Dragon nonetheless, and don't forget it has a level of 100."
"That is..."
"You know about Divine Eyes. It was the eyes that make my family able to rule this kingdom generation after generation. With these eyes, my family able to know the information about anyone with a glance and know their weakness. So when someone appears in front of me and has something on his status that I don't know. It makes me fascinated."
"And? I know that is not only the reason."
"Yes, Another reason is that someone that able to hide their Skill from my eyes will be a powerful person like my Grandfather. I want him to at least grateful and not hate my family for an unknown reason, and also, I want him to help us with this Monster wave problem as I have a feeling that the heroes that the church summons will not be enough."
"I see, so you want to have a backup plan in case the Hero is dead."
"Yes and No, Yes, I want him to be the beacon that leads us to end the Monster Wave, and No, I don't want to depend on one person to solve humanity problem. That is the reason why I make a rule to sent a knight to help in case a Flood or Monster Wave happening. Also, thank the Goddess that we have Wave Countdown if we don't have it then humanity will perish"
"I see, then I will support your decision, but I have a bad feeling for this incoming Dinner Party."
"Why?"
"You invite Lord D'Arc to the dinner party and also invite the Hero Party as well"
"Yes, You know I can't just ignore them because if I don't invite them, the church will come after me and began to lecturing me about the proper way to dealing with the 'Hero' party."
"Yeah, I guess you are right. Let hope that they can shut their mouth in the Dining Table."
"I hope so"
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After he arrives at the palace, Gabriel walks toward the Dining Room, where he greeted by foods and drink that already been serve on top of the Table. Gabriel then snaps from his though when the Butler announces his arrival.
"Announcing Baron D'Arc of Járnland"
'Járnland? I guess that is my land name.'
Gabriel then follows the butler to the chair at the end of the table opposite of King Maximilian after he sits on the chair, King Maximilian smile before introducing the people inside the dining room.
"Greetings, Lord D'Ard. Let me introduce you to the people here."
The King then looks toward his right side, where there is a Woman, a Girl, and a Young man.
"The lovely Woman near me is My Wife, Queen Eleanor Isley Lothbrog."
The woman has Blonde hair and Green eyes. She was wearing a white dress and tied her hair into a bun.
"Greeting"
"Next to her is my Little Girl, Elizabeth Isley Lothbrog"
Elizabeth has Silver hair like her father and Green eyes like his mother. She is wearing a cute blue dress and Ribbon that tied on her hair.
"H-Hello"
"And Lastly my Son, Isaac Fredrick Lothbrog the Crown Prince of this Kingdom"
Isaac has a Silver hair but has a hint of yellow on it and Deep Blue eyes. He is wearing what looks like a Soldier uniform and has a sword beside his chair.
"Hai"
"To my left is the Hero Party"
The king then looks toward the teenager on his left side. All of them have a Japanese feature that indicates that they are not from this world.
"The first one is Kagawa Takeji, The Hero of Sword"
The hero of the sword has short black hair with brown eyes. He is wearing leather armor with red color.
"Yo"
"Next to him is Yukawa Yoshihito, The Hero Elementalist."
Yukawa has long black hair that reaches his shoulder, and he has a brown eye almost the same as Kagawa. He is wearing a black robe that almost covers his eyes and staff on his hands. Yukawa look at Gabriel for a second before muttering something.
"A quest NPC"
"Pardon me?"
Hearing nothing from Yukawa, the King then continues.
"Next to him is Aoyama Keizo. The Hero Knight"
The young man has the same hair color as the other two. He was wearing a full-body armor even though they are inside the dining room with the king and also has a sword near him.
"Damn you, Ikemen."
"The one that near him is Shimizu Saori, The Healer."
The young woman has black hair and blue eyes. She is wearing a yellow dress and holding a staff on her hand as if she wants to fight him.
"What are you looking at? you filthy pervert."
"Ehem, and lastly, the Void Mage Tsukino Yuma."
The next woman has blonde hair, which is weird if she is from Japan, but all her face is a Japanese feature. So Gabriel concludes that this young woman dyes her hair. She is wearing a black robe like the mage earlier and also covering her eyes.
"And let us eat the food..."
"Wait for second Old man"
"... What is it?"
Gabriel, able to see the guard inside the Dining room, want to draw their sword but refrain themself at the last second.
"I want to use my Challenge power to challenge him into battle."
"... Are you serious, Aoyama Keizo?!?"
The king asked the hero knight with a harsh tone showing his King Charisma that shows him that he is the ruler of humanity in this world. Even though the king raises his voice the Hero Knight ignores him and says.
"Of course, old man, I hate Ikemen Character, especially someone who has a special job like him."
"... Very Well, Then what your demand if you win?"
"His life."
"... Very well. The fight will begin tomorrow morning. The battle between the Hero Party and Baron Gabriel D'Arc. Now eat dinner."
Gabriel doesn't know what happens and looks at the king who looks back at him and shakes his head and said.
"Wait after this Dinner and I will explain"
After the Dinner party has ended, the king then asked Gabriel to follow him to his office. After arrived at his office, The king then began explaining the Hero Challenge. So basically, the Hero Challenge is the blessing of Goddess that given to the hero for their use. The challenge was only able to use once in their lifetime and on the fellow human. The trial itself is the same as Duel of Honor from his medieval time in Gabriel's previous world, where the challenger will fight the one that he challenges for something that he wants, for example, a wife and land. The difference is that in this fight, the people that participate cannot die, but when their HP becomes zero they teleported outside the Arena. The Arena also has a magic that monitors their HP from the outside.
"I'm sorry, Lord D'Arc. I can't do anything about this mess. This system is created by the goddess to support the Hero she summons and also tie them to fight for humanity and not go to the side of the monster."
"No, It's okay."
"I'm sorry once more, Lord D'Arc."
"As I said, it's okay and also calls me Gabriel."
"Then please call me Max, Good Luck Gabriel and follow the servant as they will lead you to your room as the participant can't leave the palace"
Gabriel then leads to his room where he immediately began to sleep as tomorrow he will fight for his life and against many people at once.
~ The Next Day ~
The next day Gabriel wake up and preparing himself for the battle. He is already forming a plan on how to defeat the hero party alone as he opens the door, Harris the Knight Captain already in front of his door waiting for him and leads him to the Arena. After arriver at the arena, Harris said.
"Good Luck"
Gabriel then sees that the arena is full of people and Gabriel able to see The King and his Family on what looks like a VIP stand and near them is Arthur and his Family with little Annette cheering him.
The king then stood and said.
"This is a Challenge Fight between The Hero Party and Baron Gabriel D'Arc. The one that sounds the challenge is Aoyama Keizo with Gabriel Life on the line"
The Arena then becomes silent before he was able to hear the whispering of the audience.
"To my left is Gabriel D'Arc, A Saint with Sub-Job of Guardian. Baron D'Arc is currently at Level 70."
The king then looks at the hero party before saying.
"To my right is the hero party, The sword hero, Level 71. Elementalist, Level 68. The healer Level 62. Knight, Level 70. Void Mage Level 65"
"START"
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