Chapter Text
Arcturus Grimsarde slammed his fist into the polished darkwood table, crumpling the report he had finished reading half an hour ago. “Your Majesty, forgive my impudence, but I cannot condone putting half of our country’s leadership in the same room as an emotionally unstable living weapon.”
They were in the palace once again, the immediate concerns of annihilation eased by reports from the academy. The sparse and open military conference room echoed with Grimsarde’s declaration, the rest of the chamber’s occupants still mulling over the plan Winfrey had outlined. She folded her hands in her lap, not allowing the mask of impassive dignity to slip from her face as she coldly dismantled the cabinet minister’s objection. “I think you will find having the majority of her family’s political allies in the room will ensure a level head.”
Lady Bridget, the (public) head of the Kingdom’s intelligence network, scoffed. “You are well aware her relationship with her parents is tenuous at best. The only reason they didn’t immediately cut her off after the stunt at the academy is pressure from the Anti-King faction.”
“Even if we are talking about a bunch of useless centralites, I would sooner fill the room with the Kingdom’s strongest. Make a show of force!” Rictus Ares declared, standing up as he did so. “Just because Dolkness is a Level 99 doesn’t mean we should let her walk all over us.”
Winfrey resisted the urge to grit her teeth. “Do you seek to antagonize her further? And tell me, general, do you really think the handful of Level 50’s that we can muster will intimidate someone capable of effortlessly wiping our capital from the map?”
“She’s a mage! Put any spellcaster in a melee and see how long they last. Tell me, Arthur, have you stopped fearing steel yet?”
The wizened court mage gave Rictus a withering glare, but nodded. “While it’s true that raising your Level improves your reflexes and vitality, I still need time and space to cast. The power offered by the arcane is unrivaled, but a solitary mage can fall far too easily. As thoroughly demonstrated by the Hestic Wars in the east and by our Kingdom’s own founding, combined arms tactics are necessary for the effectiveness of both spellcasters and martial fighters on the battlefield.”
Adolf nodded in agreement. “I would hesitate to enter a dungeon without a mage at my back. Even at my Level, being swarmed by a horde of weak monsters is too much of a risk.”
“Always dungeons with you,” Rictus muttered, shaking his head. Louder, he continued. “The point stands. Even if she is Level 99, she is not invincible, and she will not act with impunity. She is a subject of this Kingdom, and a noble no less, so she will recognize and perform her duties.”
“Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to you, general, that there are more ways than force to control people.” Winfrey said coolly. “I’m sure you recall the disaster that was you predecessor’s dragon training program.” Rictus flinched at that, and Winfrey stood and raised her voice. “Controlling a living weapon with fear and violence may work, for a time. But can you live with a guillotine held over the Kingdom’s throat?”
Lady Bridget sighed and cast her eyes to the heavens, looking annoyed at what she had to say. “We’ve all been polite enough not to mention it, Your Majesty, but the guillotine is held over your son’s throat. By all accounts, Yumiella Dolkness is a mild-mannered girl who only lashed out after being unfairly maligned by Prince Edwin.”
Winfrey’s blood ran cold. “What exactly are you suggesting, Elizabeth?”
“I am suggesting that your son, in front of several reliable witnesses, swore to take responsibility for this disaster we find ourselves in, and he has already been quietly evacuated from the capital. You can’t protect him from his own idiocy forever.”
“You would sacrifice a child to save yourself?” Winfrey hissed, barely maintaining her composure. Over the years that they had worked together, Lady Bridget had never worked particularly hard to hide her animosity with the Winfrey and her husband, but that was hardly enough to dismiss a competent retainer. She never would have thought the woman would suggest something like this. It was unthinkable. How dare she even suggest bringing harm to her Edwin.
“I would sacrifice one to save many,” Lady Bridget ground out. “Because someone, at least, has to put the Kingdom’s interests first.”
“And how commendable that is,” a clear and annoyingly familiar voice rang out from near the conference room’s entrance. Winfrey briefly met Lord Hillrose’s eyes as he seemingly appeared from nowhere (the door hadn’t even opened), and he flashed her a smile before continuing. Irritating as usual. “However, it is ultimately unnecessary in this case.”
Lord Rictus jumped to his feet, practically snarling. “Who let you in?”
Lord Hillrose gave him a flat look before moving on. “To be frank, you’re all overreacting. The little show of force earlier was hardly a threat. It was simply the most efficient method to communicate the new… status quo.”
Winfrey felt her brows knit together as she narrowed her gaze. Just what was Hillrose playing at? Obviously the implication that he was behind young Dolkness’s magical supernova earlier was a lie for the rest of the rooms occupants – Winfrey knew that even though he cooperated with her and Reid, Hillrose had no qualms about holding back information for his own benefit, but in this case he had already indicated that he had no connection to Dolkness. This particular lie benefited him because…? Winfrey’s impassive features fell into an involuntary frown as she considered. If he could claim the human superweapon that had suddenly appeared in his faction had been acting on his behalf, the Anti-King faction would gain significant strength. But military strength was not the same as political sway without the actual use of force – at least, not internally. However flippantly Hillrose would threaten to start a civil war, it simply wasn’t to his benefit with the position that he was in. He helped keep the Anti-King faction in check because it essentially allowed him to tip the scale to his liking on contentious issues. Though she wouldn’t admit it out loud, playing both sides had made Hillrose most politically influential figure in the country. So, shifting the balance of power so heavily in favour of either party, especially with military strength, simply wasn’t to his benefit.
Not that anyone else in the room was aware of this fact. As Winfrey’s mind raced, the more hotheaded cabinet members reacted furiously. Lord Rictus barely restrained himself from drawing his sword as he spoke. “So you’re behind this. I should have known. How many people are dead because of this, Silus?”
Grimsarde looked like he was about to unleash some sort of curse on the man. “Are you here to make demands, Hillrose? If you think you can bully your way to power, you are sorely mistaken.”
Infuriatingly, Lord Hillrose just gave a careless shrug. “Not at all. Like I said, you’re overreacting. As for the riots, Sir Rictus, I’m sure you will agree that our Lord King has dealt a lethal blow to the demon cults festering in the underbelly of our capital. A display like the one Miss Yumiella provided was exactly what they needed to carelessly expose themselves, yes?” He clapped his hands together with a smile. “Consider this introduction to Lady Yumiella a… gift. And Arcturus, please. How could I threaten my way to power when my supposed weapon is a studious young lady who loves flowers? Honestly, I’m offending you think I would be so crass.”
The entire council stared at Hillrose for a minute, no one really sure what to say. Winfrey resisted the temptation to rub her forehead. Just once, could this man not make things unreasonably complicated for her? She breathed out a painfully silent sigh. “We will hold a reception for the young Lady Dolkness tomorrow, as discussed. Rictus, the security will be befitting a gathering of our Kingdom’s leadership,” but nothing more, she let slip into the tone of her voice.
Regardless of what Hillrose wanted, Winfrey would be meeting this Level 99 individual herself. If he was confident enough to claim indirect responsibility over this cataclysm, he must have secured some modicum of control over the situation, which was quite honestly a relief, even if… well, she could deal with the political fallout of a living superweapon later. Just so long as Edwin’s life wasn’t hanging in the balance.
Arcturus began to mutter some ill-formed objection, but Winfrey cut him off with a glare. “Clear the room. Lord Hillrose, since you are so eager to implicate yourself for the little disturbance earlier, I’m sure you have no objections to discussing reparations.”
Hillrose rolled his eyes as the Royal Cabinet members hesitantly stood and left, flashing a toothy smile. “Stingy as usual. But didn’t I hear something about Prince Edwin taking financial responsibility for the damages?”
Winfrey let out a huff. Unable to contain a little feeling of relief that came with hearing financial responsibility. But still, she should have seen that coming. “Oh, and here I was under the impression that having you tried for inciting riots was a generous enough burden to shoulder.”
“Really, how could I possibly control what the esteemed denizens of the capital choose to do with their free time?” Hillrose asked easily as the doors closed, Lady Bridget casting a furtive glance over her shoulder before stepping out.
Winfrey tapped her fingers on the table, ignoring the Duke’s insincere question. “Dolkness isn’t a threat, then?”
Hillrose sat down in one of the recently vacated seats across from Winfrey and folded his hands together, a smile touching at his lips. “Like I said earlier, you’re overreacting. Miss Yumiella is a lovely young lady. My daughter has already grown quite fond of her.”
Winfrey stared at him blankly. His so-called control over Yumiella was through a friendship with Eleanora? Winfrey frowned. Relationships among teenagers were fickle at best. It was a tacit admission that he didn’t have the enough power over the girl to wield her as a weapon, which was a relief in some sense. But it was terrifying to consider what an emotional outburst from Yumiella could look like. If Eleanora somehow upset or estranged Dolkness, was Hillrose left with nothing? He had already made it clear that Yumiella had no relationship with her parents.
“You really have no sway over her.” As much as her stomach churned with anxiety at the thought, she couldn’t come to any conclusions about the safety of the entire kingdom before meeting Yumiella for herself.
Hillrose gave another of his infuriating little shrugs, and his smile went toothy. “I have the young lady’s ear, which is enough to bargain with… publicly,” he said, an implication clear on his voice. Winfrey leveled a cold glare at him. “If you’d like me to be… quiet… about the things the Anti-King faction might enjoy as placative gifts for Miss Yumiella, I will require your… cooperation.”
Winfrey couldn’t help but roll her eyes, this unerringly frustrating man somehow undermining years of etiquette training and decades of experience controlling her features. “If you have demands, Silus, just spit them out. But you’re really not in a position to make threats.” She wouldn’t bend the knee when his control was admittedly superficial, but she would at least placate him enough to prevent any radical moves. The kingdom was in a precarious situation enough as it was with the constant border raids in the north coupled with the imminent threat of the demon lord’s return, and of course, Hillrose was more than happy to see the kingdom burn so long as he came out of it unscathed.
Sometimes Winfrey wondered why she worked with this walking ball of chaos that claimed to be a politician.
Hillrose just smiled infuriatingly. “Well then. It has come to my attention that our kingdom’s bylaws are in desperate need of reform. Our most prominent religious scholars and priests agree that Samon blesses marriage wherever love is found. So imagine my shock when I learned that same-sex marriage has none of the same legal protections properly codified as does its counterpart, despite the tacit acceptance. This simply isn’t good enough for a modern nation, wouldn’t you agree.”
What was he talking about, all of a sudden? What did this have to do with… wait… his daughter… Winfrey just held her head in her hands as the implications behind Hillrose’s seeming non sequiter clicked into place.
“Samon save us all,” she muttered. One day, she was going to kill this insufferable idiot.
<><><>
Yumiella cast a curious glance around the sitting room as she waited. She supposed the palace was rather fancy with all the tapestries and clean marble, though she hardly had an eye for such things.
She had been politely escorted out of the academy right after waking up this morning, an entirely unnecessary number of royal guards traveling with her. Well, a lot of them were probably supposed to be secret guards? They weren’t wearing uniforms, but Yumiella thought it would be rather hard to miss the semicircle of fifty-some serious-but-pretending-to-be-casual-looking people following trailing the handful of nervous uniformed guards around the carriage that had been sent for Yumiella (she really preferred traveling on foot – it was way faster and much more comfortable – but the bureaucrat-looking man that had talked to Yumiella had insisted.
Anyway, she had been trying to figure out why the King and Queen suddenly wanted to talk to her, but she really wasn’t sure what to think. There was the whole black hole cast over the city, which had been a bit excessive, but she didn’t really think that was worth getting a Royal summons? Reflecting, she had thought that the headmaster might admonish her for reckless use of her magic, but that seemed like the most extreme response that would make sense for that. So the only thing she could think of was that she had made Prince Edwin upset. Unfortunately, the only excuse Yumiella had for that was that Gold had made her upset first, but she wasn’t going to argue that point to his parents (who also happened to be the rulers of the country). So, yeah, as usual, Yumiella had no idea what she was going to say. Why did people have to be so hard, again?
She had only been waiting a couple minutes when a maid in a spotless white uniform entered the room and indicated that Yumiella should follow her, the King and Queen were ready to see her now. It was a short walk to the throne room, outside which the maid silently indicated that Yumiella should enter herself (the guards outside the door eyed Yumiella warily). For some reason, the room was absolutely full of nobles whispering about… well, her. Mostly wondering if the magic yesterday was her or who she was or what they were even doing here. The whispers stopped for a moment as Yumiella entered the room, only to resume in a more furious cadence as the gathered politicians noticed her black hair. Great. This wasn’t going to end up being a public execution, was it? She really didn’t think she had offended Prince Edwin that badly, but she was the hidden boss, and the people in the room really didn’t like her all of a sudden. Whispers calling her a demon, a witch, or even just a liar reached her ears in a jumbled mess. Apparently people thought she was too young to be level 99, too?
Yumiella made an effort ignore the whispers as she approached the throne. She hadn’t really expected it to ever be useful, but her etiquette lesson at the Dolkness manor did cover the appropriate way to greet royalty. She wondered if her stern (and utterly disinterested) tutor had expected it to ever be useful, either. It was crystal clear that her “parents” really didn’t expect her to amount to anything, and would honestly rather her disappear than to interact with royalty in any way. Dimly, she wondered if her parents were in the room. It wasn’t like she would recognize them if they were.
Anyway, she gave a proper curtsy after stopping before the throne. One of the guards had announced her arrival as she entered, so it was proper form to remain bowed until addressed.
“Yumiella Dolkness, raise your head,” the king said after a moment. The room went respectfully silent as soon as he spoke, and Yumiella could almost feel a tactile sensation as the attention in the room shifted from her to the king.
Yumiella matched the king’s gaze for a moment. It was clear he was scrutinizing her, though there seemed to be an odd tension in his expression. Yumiella was hardly the right person to figure out what it meant, though.
“I understand my son was quite rude to you at the academy. I apologize on his behalf.” A wave of shocked whispers flowed through the room as the king bowed his head, and Yumiella was struck with a distinct feeling of discomfort. Should the ruler of a nation show deference so easily?
“Erm, not at all, your majesty. It was really just a misunderstanding.”
A couple people in the back of the room started whispering about some social faux pas Yumiella had committed – something about not directly accepting the king’s apology? But the king himself just gave a slight smile.
“You are a truly forgiving person, Miss Dolkness. It fills me with relief that someone wielding such great power is as kind as you are.”
He paused for a moment, long enough that Yumiella wondered if she was supposed to say something. The way the king was looking at her, she thought he might expect her to, but she couldn’t really think of anything. She wasn’t really that kind – she was still upset at Prince Edwin, but she didn’t really think that saying that in front of his parents, who also happened to be the rulers of the country was politic. And it was a misunderstanding, she just thought that Prince Edwin was a total idiot to have misunderstood as badly as he did.
After a half beat, the king continued. “That said, I must admit that I find it difficult to believe such a delicate young lady such as yourself has reached heights unattainable to even the kingdom’s most dedicated warriors. To dispel any doubts that you are, in fact, Level 99, I would have Knight Captain Adolf here test the veracity of your claim. No one will doubt his assessment.”
Yumiella blinked her eyes to the man the king had gestured to, who was already approaching her. She had a moment to wonder how exactly he would be assessing her level before his easy walk towards her suddenly changed to an absurdly quick dash, his hand flying to his sword to draw and strike her in one fluid movement. Er, what? She was pretty sure he had something, but it was hard to listen and process his movement at the same time with how different the speeds were. But, was this an execution after all, then? Well, it wasn’t like she couldn’t avoid the strike, but the king hadn’t really said anything about what she was meant to do. And she did have to come up with an idea somewhat soon. This wasn’t like with Red, where she had basically as much time as she needed to think about things as she wanted. Captain Adolf was much faster. She only had, like, twenty seconds of mental time to figure something out (whatever the heck a second was supposed to be in terms of accelerated thinking, anyway. But she was distracting herself here…).
By how the Knight Captain’s eyes were moving, Yumiella could tell that he was tracking at least some of the processing that she was doing at the moment (she had glanced around a moment ago, looking for inspiration). Reaction time was probably a good measure of what her level was – it scaled linearly with leveling up, so a big gap would indicate a correspondingly large level difference – as opposed to something like her magical abilities, which scaled more so according to her mana pool and skill with using them. So the best thing to do was to show that her reaction time was significantly better than Captain Adolfs. The problem was, she moved way faster than everyone else in the room could even see…
Oh, wait a minute. The strike was aimed for her neck (again, was this just a disguised execution attempt?), so she could easily avoid it just by ducking her head a little bit. And she had made a bit of a social blunder earlier (big surprise) by not properly accepting the king’s apology, so…
As the blade was about to strike true (Adolf looked like he had no intention of stopping or pulling back even though Yumiella had yet to defend herself… if they were trying to kill her, they could at least have the decency to say that, rather than pretending it was some sort of test. Honestly…), Yumiella stepped back into a deep curtsy that was appropriate for apologizing to somebody of a higher position in the social hierarchy. She did glance up to check that there wasn’t going to be a follow-up strike, which technically defeated the point of the curtsy’s form, but she wasn’t really apologetic to begin with. But there wasn’t a second strike. Captain Adolf just fluidly sheathed his sword and turned toward the dual thrones, immediately pronouncing that Yumiella was level 99 for sure – having the time to think of such a clever way to avoid his strike was proof enough of that.
Before he returned to his place off to the side of the throne, he turned to Yumiella and whispered quiet enough that she was sure it was only her level 99 ears that allowed her to hear it. “I apologize, Miss Yumiella. I argued against His Majesty about this underhanded method of testing, but he insisted. He’s lucky you’re as levelheaded as you are.”
Yumiella just nodded halfheartedly. It was mildly upsetting to learn that the king would have been fine with her head being lopped off, but it wasn’t like she was in any real danger. Did such a thing exist for her, anymore?
She would have to mull that one over later.
Adolf half-turned away from her before hesitating and glancing back. “I heard about what happened at the academy yesterday. Don’t tell Their Majesties that I said this, but the flowers should have been more than enough to prove your Level. Just don’t think of Edwin too harshly… he can be too stubborn for his own good.”
Yumiella nodded again, this time feeling a slight smile tug at her lips before flitting away. “I won’t,” she replied in a whisper to match his volume. “Thank you, Sir Adolf.”
He gave her a firm nod before returning to his post. The king almost certainly noticed their whispered exchange, though he didn’t make a note of it at all. Neither did the queen, though she hadn’t even spoken yet, and her face had been blank as a stone through the previous attempted murder.
After a moment, the king asked Yumiella to show them her magic, which… Yumiella supposed they were just going to brush over the fact that they had just tried to kill her. Right. What was the point of apologizing for Edwin’s behaviour when they were just going to turn around and do something worse? Or maybe they were confident that Yumiella was actually level 99, and therefore certain that she would survive? This situation was just too confusing…
Yumiella just summoned a shadow lance at her feet, not really in the mood to do anything fancy. This prompted the gathered crowd to start furiously whispering again, demon this, witch that… it was getting old.
As though they were caught in a staccato pattern, the room abruptly quieted again when the king commented about her dark magic. Something about how it looked sinister? She couldn’t really be bothered to pay attention. Well, a court mage started talking about dark magic, and that was kind of interesting. Contrary to what everyone else in this world seemed to think, and in congruence with what Yumiella knew to be true, dark magic didn’t have any inherent moral predisposition – it was just an exceptionally powerful element, which led people to be wary of it. A lot of powerful warlords and evil wizards in the past had used the dark attribute to pillage and conquer. But he noted that the same could be said for the light attribute, if with less examples of dangerous wizards, but that could be explained by how much of an emphasis light magic had on healing, rather than destruction. He almost went onto a tangent about the fundamental nature of each element, but stopped himself with a glance at the king and instead finished by saying that the nature of the one wielding the power was far more important than the nature of the power itself.
Which was neat. Yumiella wasn’t sure why they were talking about philosophy and history right now, but at least the whispering about how she was an evil dark witch had stopped.
“How lucky we are that the wielder of such great power is one so kind, then,” the king picked up as the court mage finished. He turned to look Yumiella dead in the eyes, which was decidedly uncomfortable, but she did her best to not look away. “Miss Dolkness, you have reached the pinnacle of humanity. It is my obligation and pleasure as ruler of this land to offer you any reward for this achievement you desire, be it wealth, titles, land, or anything else we have the means to provide.”
Yumiella tilted her head. If they were offer her a boon, shouldn’t they have opened with that, rather than trying to assassinate her? She didn’t really have any particular desire to be indebted to the royals after they had just attempted murder on her. Oh, but they were pretending that they hadn’t just done that, so Yumiella was supposed to as well… maybe this was just another one of the social things that she always missed.
Right, well, what to say here? Maybe just that she’d prefer to live in a first-world country again, thank you very much? Honestly, she wasn’t really bothered by the lack of amenities or entertainment or such – leveling up was much more fun than video games, but the constant threat of monsters she had dealt with when traveling through the Dolkness county was a stark reminder that they were in a pseudo-medieval setting. Which was kind of strange, when Yumiella thought about it. Magic stones could be used to create and power a whole array of different devices and potions – they might not have a clear understanding of modern medicine, but there were plenty of potions that could heal minor injuries and illnesses. Not to mention people were just tougher and healthier in general when they leveled up. So, there wasn’t really any obvious reason that people should live in constant danger – if people would just level up a bit, there was no reason they couldn’t have security comparable to modern Japan…
And have less assassination attempts.
“Thank you, your majesty. My only wish is to have a peaceful life. If the people of the kingdom have their basic needs for food and shelter met and live without fear of violence, I will be happy.”
The king gave a thin smile. “I see. I pledge myself to your ideals of peace, Miss Dolkness.” The king paused as though for dramatic effect. “I hope that you will aid me in ensuring this peace that you wish for, Miss Dolkness. Having attained the pinnacle of human strength, I humbly ask that you serve as the Valschein kingdom’s sword.”
Wait a minute, wasn’t this a scene from the game? The king had asked the heroine essentially the same thing after the threat of the demon lord was revealed. What had she said in response again…?
“Yes your majesty. As one of your majesty’s subjects, I intend to serve as the Valschein Kingdom’s shield.”
Plagiarism? Yes. But if the heroine had said it, it almost certainly the best response in this situation – and how could anybody prove that it was stealing when Yumiella had said it ‘first’? It would be nice if reincarnation lent itself to cheating more often…
“I understand. I hope that you will lend us your power should danger strike the nation.” The king replied, sounding somehow disappointed and relieved at the same time. Yumiella also noticed that the queen let out a little breath it didn’t even look like she had been holding in the first place. Weird.
There were a couple more pleasantries and protocols observed, but the audience ended soon after, and Yumiella was again being led through the palace by an impassive maid in white. Was that it, then? Somehow she expected that there would have been more. If they had gone through the trouble of summoning and escorting her to the palace, trying to have her killed (but pretending they didn’t), and then offering all sorts of rewards, Yumiella figured they would have more to say to her than just… well, they had wanted her to be a weapon? But they hadn’t even mentioned that the demon lord was going to be revived…
Er, they were aware of that, right? Did she need to tell somebody about that?
Well, it should be fine… the heroine handled it in the original storyline, so it should just be easier with Yumiella here.
Anyway, meeting with royalty was oddly anticlimactic, was all. Well, assassination attempts aside, at least…