The Royal Selection!
"Subaru, wake up you can't be late today" said Noelle in her usual 'I am not interested' tone and appeared near his face.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh... 5 more minutes, mom" groaned Subaru sleepily as he rolled in his bed and pulled the blanket over him.
"I'm not your mom Subaru ,wake up now and you will be spared from the rough treatment" replied Noelle almost as if she was pouting but Subaru just dozed off again.
"Ruby, your turn." said Noelle telepathically while circling around his head.
"Okay, heheheheh" giggled Ruby in a mischievous manner as she appeared beside Noelle and moved towards his hand, as Ruby reached his hand she started decreasing the temperature near his hand which formed icy cold ice which completely covered his hand.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" screamed Subaru at the top of his lungs when he felt the sudden coldness and sat straight up flailing his hand around trying to shake the ice off but to no avail..
"R-remove it, Ruby" begged Subaru joining his hands and promptly separating them when he felt the coldness transferring to his other hand.
"You forgot to say something~" replied Ruby in a sing-song voice, enjoying herself to her hearts content.
"Remove it p-please, Ruby-sama" Subaru pleaded again adding sama to her name.
"Better, your request shall be granted" replied Ruby trying to mimic a kingly voice but sounded too adorable and heated the ice which melted it.
"You should find a less pain-full way to wake him up Ruby" said Jean appearing in front of Ruby and circling all of them at incredible speeds.
"Yeah, at-least Jean understands me, I love you" said Subaru playfully as he catched Jean in his hand and and hugged her while she would have turned from green to red if she had a physical body while Vega and Lumi appeared and watched them from the sidelines.
"Good morning, Subaru" Vega and Lumi greeted him at the same time as they finally decided to speak.
"Good morning, Lumi, Vega" replied Subaru energetically.
"Where'a Aqua?" asked Subaru curiously.
"On your hand" replied the spirits together.
"What do you mean on my hand?" asked Subaru as he looked at his hand to see Aqua inspecting it for any injuries.
"Good morning Subaru" said Aqua shyly as she noticed Subaru was looking towards her.
"Good morning Aqua, you should let me know you are here." replied Subaru.
"It's your fault or not noticing her even through our contract!" said Ruby trying to bully him.
"Please forgive me for being a stupid contractor" said Subaru in a over-dramatic voice.
"We forgive you though you have to give us lots of sweets when we get a physical form!" replied the spirits, dreaming of the day when they could eat sweets and taste mayonaise.
"You should probably start dressing up or you will be late" said Noelle nonchalantly as she stopped day-dreaming and floated above his head.
"Yes, yes Noelle" said Subaru as moved towards the foot of the bed and stood up to freshen up and get ready to go the the castle.
It had been a month since Subaru made a contract with his lovely buds, at first they only followed his commands and didn't have anything much to say to him as they had little to no interactions with humans as a result they didn't have their own personalities but after a month of their contract they developed personalities and started showing emotions, they had grown close to Subaru and Beatrice, seeing Beatrice they felt a sense of familiarity as they saw how she was waiting for someone to make a contract with her, which was how they were before Subaru made a contract with them.
TimeSkip~
Subaru was waiting in-front of the Inn for Emilia and Rem so that they can head to the castle. Subaru turned around towards the inn to see Emilia walking towards him. She was wearing her identity obstruction cloak with Subaru despised with all his heart as he wanted her walk freely without have to hide her identity.
"Are you okay, Subaru I heard a scream from your room earlier" asked Emilia with a worried look on her face.
"I am totally fine, Emilia-tan I just felt a little too cold" replied Subaru directing the last part towards Ruby and he could have sworn that he felt Ruby giggling.
"If you are feeling cold you should wear more clothes" scolded Emilia in a motherly tone but before Subaru could reply a dragon-drawn carriage appeared rolled (walked? rolled? drawn?, I'll just go with rolled) in-front of them and came to a abrupt stop.
"Emilia-sama, Subaru-kun let us wait for Roswall-sama before heading for the castle" said Rem's head that popped out of the window of the carriage
"He can fly there himself and his clownish face will make Emilia-tan more nervous" replied Subaru urging Emilia to enter the carriage.
"I~ am quite saaaaaaaaad that yooooooooooouuuuuuuu dislike my face, Subaru-kuuuuuunnnnnn" said a voice descending from the sky.
"Nobody likes clowns Ros-chi" replied Subaru mockingly staring Roswall in the eye and him doing the same.
"Subaru you shouldn't be so rude to Roswall" scolded Emilia while pulling at his ear and interrupting their staring contest.
"OWW OWWWW, sorry I am sorry Emilia-tan" apologized Subaru trying to remover her hand but her elven strength proved to be superior. After a few seconds of Subaru pleading Emilia to let his ear go she finally let him go with a "hmph".
"Now let us head to the castle, Emilia-sama" announced Roswall as he entered the carriage and Emilia and Subaru followed suit. Subaru felling Emilia's nervousness held he hand the whole trip and gave her encouraging words which eased her mind a little.
Timeskip~
"We are here, Roswall-sama" said Rem looking back at them from the drivers sit.
"Head back to the inn, Rem we will take another carriage for our return" ordered Roswall as he took a step outside the carriage
"Hai" replied Rem as Emilia and Subaru stepped outside the carriage. After following Roswall through lots and lots of halls that made the Roswall mansion feel like dirt they reached a over sized door with guards standing in-front of it.
"Is this the candidate, Roswall" asked the old man with armor who was standing in front of the door.
"Yes Marcos" replied Roswall who seemed to know him.
"And him?" asked Marcos pointing at Subaru.
"He is Natsuki Subaru, Emilia-sama's knight." replied Roswall widening his smile. Marcos took a good look at Subaru then proceeded to open the over sized door without saying a thing. The door opened to reveal a magnificent room with a throne at the end of the room and knights and nobles conversing with each other. As soon as they entered they heard Marcos's voice-
"The council of wise men is about to enter" announced Marcos with a very loud voice.
"Emilia-sama, to the center, Subaru-kun line up with the knights" whispered Roswall as he walked towards the nobles while Emilia and Subaru walked to their respective positions but not before Subaru wished he good luck.
"So you came after all, Subaru" said Reinhardt who was coincidentally standing in-front of him "When I heard Emilia-sama would be coming, I suspected you would be here as well"
"Oh, Reinhardt how have you been doing?" asked Subaru with a smile.
"Hiya, Subaru-kun" interrupted Felix making cat-like figures.
"Hi, Felix" replied Subaru who was still a little uncomfortable with him.
"Oh, you already know each other?" asked Reinhardt curiously.
"Yeah, he visited the mansion a few days ago" replied Subaru turning towards him while Felix walked into the line behind Subaru and a man with purple hair walked infront of Reinhardt.
"Now if I am be so forward, I Marcos, leader of the Imperial knights will direct today's proceedings" began Marcos as he saw that the council of wise men had settled down on their respective seats.
'Just as I thought, just a bunch of noble old hags who got too much power' thought Subaru looking at the so called "wise men".
"It all happened about half a year ago when members of the Royal family starting with the king went into hiding one by one, causing-" continued Marcos but-
"Listen.. I get that you wanna talk up a good show here, but I'm busy, y'know. As we say in Kararagi 'Time is money'" was interrupted by one of the candidates Anastasia Hoshin.
'The Kansai dialect, Kararagi really is similar to Japan' thought Subaru as he heard what Anastasia had to say.
"I agree" agreed the candidate with dark green hair, Crusch Karsten.
"Crusch-sama, should the head of the Karsten family say such a thing?" said Marcos looking towards her.
"It is important to observe formality, but it is also true that our time is limited, It would be wise to immediately inform us why we are here" replied Crusch full of confidence.
'Full of confidence, a natural leader' thought Subaru as he observed the conversation.
"Naturally, I do have a general idea" continued Crusch.
"You already know the purpose of this meeting?" asked Miklotov opening his eyes.
"Yes, Lord Miklotov, for a drinking party correct, one day we will face each other as rivals, but by sharing drinks at the same table, we will learn more about one another."
"No, that is not correct" replied Miklotov with a blank face while Subaru had to bite his lip so that he doesn't laugh and Anastasia just sighed.
"Felis, this isn't what you told me" said Crusch with narrowed eyes turning towards Felix.
"Oh, come on all I said was 'Maybe it will be a drinking party'" said Felix moving his hands and Ears live a cat does.
"Oh, I see I jumped to conclusions" murmured Crusch under her breath.
"Forgive me , Allow me to retract everything I just said" said Crusch looking back towards the so called wise men.
"Hey now, even if she backs down my opinion isn't going to change, no need to explain the royal selection, we already know about it right?" still wanting to save time by arguing Anastasia asked the last part looking towards the other candidates.
"I think we should hear the-" Emilia tried to say but was in-te-rr-up-te-d again by Anastasia. (Her hood his down)
"Sorry, but I wasn't askin' for your opinion" said Anastasia closing her eyes for a moment. Subaru was about to explode at that but-
'Deep breaths, Subaru, deep breaths' said Lumi telepathically.
'Your right if I explode now, Emilia would be sad' replied Subaru as he tooke deep breaths.
"Hey, I don't know whats up with the royal selection, so I'd kinda like to hear the rest" interrupted a man who was wearing a helmet and was standing behind Felix
"Priscilla-sama, I have been told that this man is your knight, have you explained the selection to him." asked Miklotov looking towatds Priscilla.
"Whether I have or not, you men are going to ramble about it yes? Continue Marcos." replied Priscilla in her 'Oh so mighty' tone.
'Haughty as always' thought Subaru
"Then... The reason we have gathered you who are qualified to be the dragon's priestess is because a new prophecy has been engraved in the dragon stone,It states 'From the five capable of becoming the nation's new leader, choose one priestess to enter into a covenant with the dragon'"
"Five? I might know who it is" muttered Subaru but Reinhardt was able to hear him anyway.
"Yes five, currently there are only 4 candidates, the royal selection hadn't even begun yet. But today history is set into motion" said Reinhardt with his usual smile which never leaves his face.
"Knight Reinhardt Van Astrea, come forward." commanded Marcos in a loud voice.
"Yes!" replied Reinhardt as he walked out of the line and bowed in-front of the wise men. "Honored members of the council of wise men, I Reinhardt Van Astrea of the Imperial knights, would like to announce the completion of my mission. The dragon' priestess, the fifth and the final candidate for the throne, has been located." declared Reinhardt and the door of the throne room opened to reveal Felt in a beautiful yellow dress.
"The one I myself revere as the queen, Her name is Felt-sama" declared Reinhardt.
'Yeah, I knew it!' thought Subaru as he saw felt enter the room.
"Felt-sama thank you for gracing us with your presence" bowed Reinhardt as Felt walked towards the center.
"Reinhardt" smiled Felt as she walked towards him.
'Wat, wait wait I expected her to throw a temper tantrum right now, did Reinhardt really manage to turn her into a graceful lady?' questioned Subaru to himself.
Felt pulled her skirt up a little and threw a kick towards him which Reinhardt caught easily. "You bastard, you dragged me here without an explanation and what do call all of this?!" shouted Felt completely going back to her normal state.
"You surprised me. What brought on such behavior?" asked Reinhardt as he set her foot down.
"Don't just stop my kick and ask that like nothing happened" replied Felt who was still angry.
"I guess its not easy to change someone from their roots" said Subaru looking at the drama.
"What the heck are you doing here?" asked Felt as she noticed him and walked towards him.
"Hey, its been a while. How have you be-" started Subaru but Felt aimed a kick towards which was easily blocked by and she pouted at that.
"Felt-sama, if you have finished re-kindling old friendships, please step over here" said Marcos interrupting their banter.
"So what do you want me to do?" asked Felt as she stepped beside Emilia.
"I would say act more ladylike but this comes first" said Reinhardt as he grabbed her palm and put the royal insignia which started to glow the moment it touched her hand.
"As you can see, the dragon gem recognizes Felt-sama as a priestess, now that her participation has been approved, I believe it is time to begin the royal selection in earnest." proclaimed Reinhardt looking at the wise men
"Even if the dragon stone recognizes her, do you not thing her selection is a bit problematic?" said one of the nobles.
"You believe we, the Imperial knights have made an error?" asked Marcos looking towards the particular noble at that all Royal knights except 5 turned their heads towards the nobles at the same time while the nobles looked back at them.
"The air's kinda getting heavy here..." said Subaru as he looked towards the nobles.
"Yeah, but it doesn't bother me though" replied the helmeted man from yesterday who was apparently Priscilla's knight and named Al.
"It's no big deal to me either, after all I have pledged my loyalty exclusively to one lady" said Felix looking at Crusch in his playful tone.
"I feel the same, my sword already belongs to Anastasia-sama" said Julius without turning towards them.
"It goes same for me, after all I belong to Emilia-sama" said Subaru smiling.
'She doesn't have the self awareness', 'She is uneducated as well' the nobles whispered to each other.
"Silence" shouted Miklotov "Knight Reinhardt, would you began explaining to us what led you to her discovery?" asked Miklotov.
"I took custody of Felt-sama about 1 month ago, in the slums" replied Reinhardt as he kneeled down and resting the legendary sword on the ground.
"She is a gutter rat from the slums!" exclaimed the noble who started this.
"Well, then sorry for being a gutter rat, you are the ones who dragged me here against my will" replied Felt turning towards him furiously.
"All of this long-winded blather could not be more tedious. Of course, I suppose you lived as a gutter rat in the slums because you could only manage tedious conversations." said Priscilla fanning herself.
"If you wanna fight you got one" replied Felt scowling at her.
"What insolence. Who do you think I am?" said Priscilla as he aimed her fan towards Felt preparing to cast some magic but Reinhardt appeared in front of her.
"My apologizes Priscilla-sama" said Reinhardt kneeling down.
"What are you thinking? In a hollowed place like this!" said Emilia raising a hand in front of felt in a protective manner.
"I was only trying to teach a undisciplined brat her place" replied Priscilla haughtily fanning herself again.
"You wont even apologize?!" asked Emilia widening her eyes.
"Then will you also apologize for being born, you silver haired half-elf?" asked Priscilla hiding half of her face with her fan.
'Subaru calm down!' said his spirits panicking that he would blow up now.
'I can't now, they went too far!' replied Subaru trying to say something but couldn't as all of his spirits were sending calming emotions towards him at the same time which fortunately worked.
'Breathe Subaru breathe' said his spirits making him lose his anger.
"I don't have any connection to the witch..." said Emilia who visibly flinched at Priscilla's comment
"Are you all quite finished?" asked Marcos as their conversation came to a halt.
"Then royal selection candidates please come forth!" ordered Marcos.
3000 words
Sorry for the delay, I was thinking about finishing the speeches in this chapter but felt like it was too big so I stopped writing. I am tired I am gonna stop now, please leave a review and if you like the story fav and fol the story. I will recheck this chapter tomorrow, I am too tired to do that now.
