Chapter 183 Presentations
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Kaizen." said Lidia sitting on the sofa, bowing her head.
After the unexpected meeting between the two princesses in the halls of the Arena, because Lidia asked Petril Wyvernjack to immediately take her to his sister, the butler also directed them to a special room so that the winners would not have to deal with the crowd coming out of the Arena, and soon after left, leaving them alone to talk.
"The pleasure is all mine, Princess Lydia... In fact, I see that Ravastine's natural beauty runs in the family."
The two sisters arched their eyebrows and blushed at the same time, but at the moment Ravastine pulled back her shoulders and averted her eyes while Lidia had a more mischievous gesture. She touched her sister with her left shoulder and said:
"You hadn't told me he was a gallant..."
"And he isn't. In fact, even if he was, how would I have told you that, every time you made up some excuse not to talk to me."
"Oh, I almost forgot! I'm sorry about that, please!" Lydia said in tears again, clutching at Ravastine's already runny nose clothes. "I thought by doing that you would forget about me, please forgive me!"
"All right, I forgive you." Ravastine said inexpressibly, stroking Lidia's head like a puppy.
'Ehh...? Who's the older sister and who's the younger one now?' Kaizen wondered, holding back his laughter. 'Khum! Ravastine, your sister.... is she always like this?"
"Emotional? Yes, a little. She has a lot of pressure on her shoulders and has to bear it most of the time, but sometimes this becomes impossible and she comes to me.... Lidia, you have been strong for enduring all these weeks..." said Ravastine fondly as he stroked Lidia's hair and heard her sobbing so hard on his lap.
"Sniff... Sniff... I'm okay now." Lidia said, wiping her nose with tissues after crying for five minutes.
"You didn't really want to marry Taznaar, did you?" stated Kaizen, a little ungracious.
"No... I didn't even know him before my... I mean, our stepmother told me that I should marry him. I don't know what she was thinking when she decided that would be a good idea." The firstborn replied. "Besides, my father made me a promise many years ago."
Kaizen was curious. "A promise?"
"He said I could choose my future husband, no matter what his social class, profession or appearance."
"That's typical of Papa. He promised that to me, too." Ravastine peered his eyes up at the ceiling. "I wonder when he will get better."
The pause of a few seconds without any speech from the two sisters that followed after Ravastine went into the subject about the King of Tretidian was suspicious to say the least, and Kaizen understood that this was a cue for him to continue on the subject.
"What about your father? Do you know why he is so ill? Isn't there a way I can help you?"
Both Ravastine and also Lydia had thoughtful features, but when the Psyker continued the subject about the King, they looked into each other's eyes.
"I wonder if..." They said simultaneously. Each of them had a huge smile of hope on their faces.
"What?" Kaizen inquired.
However, just as the sisters were about to answer the player the door to the room they were in opened, and the sound of the hollow thud of heeled shoes on the floor caused them to shut up completely while looking in surprise behind Kaizen. Without delay, footsteps of metal boots entering the room could also be heard by Kaizen.
Looking over his right shoulder, Kaizen saw a tall, young woman with very white skin and gray hair. Her hair was arranged in small braids tied back behind her ears. Her mouth was as red as a strawberry, and her haughty gaze seemed cynical. On top of her head was a golden crown with ornaments that covered part of her forehead.
[A Ruler character stands before you...]
[Be careful.]
"Niah? What are you doing here?" Ravastine questioned with a look of irritation as she stood up, while her older sister remained seated, looking at the ground now.
'That's the Queen!? That's it! I knew I'd get a subsequent event by asking about the King!' Kaizen celebrated, excited.
"Araara~ I heard you were here and decided to see how you are doing, darlings." Niah spoke, coming around behind the couch Kaizen was sitting on and approaching the couch the sisters were on. Delicately, she placed her left hand on Lydia's shoulder, which made Ravastine more irritated. "Besides, what's wrong with the Queen of Tretidian coming to congratulate the winner of the duel that shook the Capital of this nation?"
"And to congratulate someone you need to bring three fully equipped royal guards along with you?" Ravastine pointed to the men in white armor who stood guard at the only exit from the room.
"I have to look out for my own safety, I am the Queen after all." Niah placed her right hand on her chest proudly.
"You like to reassert your title. What are you? A teenager by any chance?" Kaizen said dismissively, sitting down on the couch.
"What did you just say?" The Queen felt offended and immediately turned her head in the Psyker's direction.
The guards by the door drew their thin swords out of their sheaths in the same second.
Kaizen stood up, unafraid, because he had already checked the level of the soldiers the moment they entered the room. Facing Niah Spelloyal, he repeated:
"I told you you look like a show-off teenager."
Lydia and Ravastine were completely shocked and unresponsive. No one in the world was crazy enough to insult the Queen of Tretidian being face to face with her.
Since Niah was in heels, she was at the same height as Kaizen and the two continued to stare at each other for a few seconds.
All the soldiers behind the Psyker were waiting for the Queen's order so they could attack. However, Niah was no fool, she watched Psyker's battle against Taznaar and saw with her own eyes what he was capable of, so she knew that the three soldiers behind her could not beat Kaizen.
"Um... You are as polite as I thought, Kaizen. What could I expect from a brute like you, eh?" Niah replied, walking to the door. "I'll disregard that attitude of yours for now, but, boy, just know that if you ever fail to be polite to me again or continue to meddle in MY family's affairs, I will not hesitate to send half my troops after you."
After Queen Niah left, the soldiers of the royal guard followed her out, closing the door to the room.
Ravastine breathed a sigh of relief and shouted:
"Are you crazy to confront her like that, Kaizen?"
"What are you talking about? I didn't confront her, technically."
"You didn't confront her? She could have had you arrested for insult, didn't you know? She's not usually very patient, and it wouldn't be new for her to do that to someone outside the nobility.... Right now there are more than a dozen people in the palace dungeons because they went against her orders or her word." Ravastine said with a frown of concern.
"No, sister. Kaizen did the right thing." Lidia said, sitting down on the couch, relieved too, but worried in a different way than Ravastine.
"What are you talking about?" The younger sister asked, confused.
"I can't tell if Kaizen realized the same thing I did, but this visit of hers made it clear to me that she will not rest even after this defeat. She wants something, and I can't tell if the throne or something else, but Taznaar was her big helper, and when she realized that there was a better pawn on the field, she thought that maybe she could replace her weaker pawn with the stronger one. So her visit here... She didn't want to see us, she wanted to meet Kaizen in person. Maybe she intended to offer something to you, Kaizen, but your discourteous behavior made her back off."
'What? So, does that mean I was about to receive a mission from a ruling character!?' Kaizen thought, shocked. He hadn't even imagined that he could have made an alliance with Queen Niah, and he only reacted affrontedly against her because he didn't like the smug air she emanated. 'Now I don't even want to imagine how much money I could make doing missions for a ruling NPC.... Still, if that's the route fate has reserved for me, I'm going to have to continue down that path!'
'So she wanted to have Kaizen as an ally? Humph! I bet Kaizen realized quickly and that's why she answered her like that." Ravastine said and stood up with boastfulness.
'Don't make me remember my past wrongs! You're still rich!' Kaizen exclaimed to the second princess internally, but on the outside he was inexpressive. 'Anyway, that's all behind us now. What were you two about to talk about when we were interrupted by your stepmother?"
All Kaizen wanted was to get a mission now that he had lost his chance to have a bond with a ruling character.
"Oh, that's right! We were about to tell you that..." Ravastine was speaking, but Lydia interrupted her.
"It's better that we don't talk about it here. The walls might have ears. We should meet another day to talk about this matter. Of course, we will do that only if Kaizen is interested." Lidia said.
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"That's fine with me. Where would you two prefer to meet and when?"
Lidia thought for a few seconds and answered:
"In two days, when the dust is already low, meet us in the garden that is at the west end of the Capital. We'll have a picnic there to celebrate your victory, what do you think?" She winked her right eye, and Kaizen nodded in agreement.
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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