บท 58: Gathering
"I am not complaining or anything, it is a great thing that you went ahead and made this offer, however, where could we find seven champions willing to take on impossible odds?" the room was packed with all of the advisors right after Jareld came back and explained how the negotiations had went down.
The tone quickly went from relief after seeing the army vanish from anxiety, it was clear that this 'Obisidan Queen' wanted them to truly do their best as if they truly stood a chance, she wanted to send a message and it would either be her nice way or her rough way from the looks of it.
"Still, let's look on the bright side, if we do our best, we might secure a good position in her monster empire..." one of the ministers laughed dryly, definitely not seeing the bright side in being part of such a thing.
"Let us not bring the mood down, what you personally think does not matter here, only see this, we either agree to their demands and send seven proud fighters of this country to fight and the country will be spared or we do not and we are erased entirely, possibly literally" the king spoke up, silencing everyone.
He looked around at everyone's faces for a few seconds before resuming the conversation.
"So, does anyone have any idea?" he then asked, the silence kept ringing unlike before.
One of the ministers raised his hand.
"It would seem like only Jareld is willing to be useful this days" commented the king, hoping that this would spark the others to share their ideas but they just acted as if he didn't just insult their worth.
He moved his hand, indicating for the strategist to speak his mind.
"I'll participate" he simply proclaimed without a single hint of apprehension.
"I am at the top of the silver knights in both rank and strength, it wouldn't do if I just sat out of it, the monsters would probably think so" he added before anyone could rebuke him, even if not everyone appreciated him, he was an essential part of this kingdom's administration and as he himself stated, one of the strongest.
"What about the adorned silver knights?" said another, not clearly telling him to send one of his subordinates but definitely having it in mind.
"No, there is no need, they are stretched thin and one has even gone missing, as I speak of this particular case, our situation may be dire but something has happened with the sealed zealot" he swiftly denied and changed subject, nobody noticing the king's forlorn expression upon hearing about the sealed zealot.
"The man that was infected with that draconic flesh of some sort? It would have been a case for a great emergency before but now, it is more likely that he was either drafted by the monsters or that he was taken care of by them..." responded one of the advisors, more chaos and destruction would go unnoticed for sure.
The very fact that the sealed zealot had become such a non-problem only further clarified how deep Roderst had fallen.
"What about the hero?" suddenly spoke up someone, everyone turning to look at them.
"Absolutely not, she isn't ready to face such foes yet and it would be foolish to risk her anyways" the king shook his head at this stupid proposition.
Seeing the advisors downcast expressions made him realise that they had had all the same idea but had just been waiting for each other to go out with it.
Frowning deeply, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and decided to move onto the next best talking point.
Turning toward his advisors in charge of information gathering and espionage, he simply said:
"Did you find out anything?"
"Hum... Yes, although he have no clue what either of the other ministers could even look like, he were able to find a few things about one the two that had appeared with the army" spoke one of them.
"The orc... Undying Prophet and Second Minister remains a mystery since this was his first appearance as far as we could find... However, it seems like the other, the featureless one was present at Rova" spoke another one right after.
"Although we don't know his title or what his number is, it seems obvious that he is a minister seeing his abilities and involvement in the negotiations..." the first one clarified since Faceless Lord hadn't introduced himself like Undying Prophet had.
"As such, it would appear that he has access to a teleportation ability, capable of transporting himself back and forth without much delay and also transport an entire army of monsters... The domain ability deployed around Rova is most likely his as well, the hero had encountered him within it appears, where he seemed to have the ability to mess with the mind of people..."
"...Indeed, he was also seen well before and it appeared like vegetation was instantly killed by his mere presence, so we have to owe the risks of famine to him"
It was quite meagre and still disheartening, a foe capable of teleporting around was already beyond a handful, but he also had a domain ability, one that was powerful for no one had managed to go in and out of it.
"Teleportation, do you think he is attuned with space magic or something similar?" the king questioned.
"Actually, it seems like it is not the case, it is just a theory for now but he doesn't seem to disturb or bend space to his will, we had some mages check, including Blouvier, the spot where the army and stood and..."
"It appears like he messes with reality everytime he teleports, whether it is through reality that he teleports or if reality just warps everytime he teleports is unclear"
"The best case would be that it is just a side effect of his ability, an enemy capable of controlling reality even to a small extent is truly frightening..."
"That's just one of them too"
"This one must be amongst the most powerful, it has to be..."
"Surely he is at least physically weak-"
"Silence!" the king calmed down the chatter and sighed.
"Anything else to add?" he then asked.
"All we have is that he doesn't seem to be from a monster species we know of, that is all your majesty"
"If no one has anything else to say, this will conclude this meeting, work hard"
After everyone had scattered and left, the king was left by himself, he looked down at his palms in deep thoughts.
'Should I..?'
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