It had been two weeks since they left the village. Rimuru and Jack were currently walking on grassy plains stretched all over. To the north was a city with big walls and tall towers. To the west, a mountain range. To the south was the route they came from, and to the east, a large forest.
"There it is! There's the capital of this territory, Rabianigh!" exclaimed Rimuru's student excitedly.
Rimuru chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm. When he asked the boy if there were anywhere he wanted to live, the boy instantly mentioned this place. The only other time when he'd been this excited was when he got his new skills in the dungeon.
As for how they'd found this place? Well, when Rimuru said that asking for directions from his Manas ruined any fun he'd have, he forgot to mention that getting lost could get very annoying and in turn ruin even more fun. The retired supreme ruler could practically taste the smugness in his eternal companion's words as she told him the location, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
"Slow down. The city's not going anywhere," he said as he saw the boy practically jumping and double jumping through the air.
He smiled. Ever since the boy got those new skills of his, he'd spent almost all his time using them to have fun and mess around. He remembered when he was that way.
{Correction: Master did not have much fun with his skills. You almost always try to ignore they existed before you gained responsibility over your subjects.}
He rolled his eyes. There was nothing wrong with being careful over using his skills.
They continued walking until they reached the entrance where plenty of people were entering and leaving the city. Rimuru remembered his time at Dwargon when he was challenged by a few troublemakers at the line similar to the ones they were in. He wondered if anything similar would happen here.
"Excuse me. Are you Ms. Rimuru and Mr. Jack?" asked a guard nearby, suddenly.
Jack looked giddy over being called so respectfully. Rimuru was suspicious. Where'd they heard of them?
"Our archmage wants to meet with you; he wants to thank you for your deeds at Rowlhart," he explained.
Oh. That made sense. He looked over the long line in front of him. He guessed there was nothing wrong with meeting the so-called master of magic.
"All right. Please, lead us the way," he agreed.
Rabianigh was much more populated than the port. It was very lively, from the market area, the neighborhood, the entertainment area, and even to the roofs. Jack could even see a few people flying or jumping through buildings. He really felt like he was in another world.
The guard lead them through walkways and alleyways, up to the residential area, then to the upperclassmen's living quarters, heading to the towers in the center of the city. They entered the tallest of the six towers; the one being circled by the five shorter ones.
Inside, the guard talked to an attendant of the tower who then proceeded to lead them to a circular platform. When Jack, Rimuru, and the attendant were all on the platform, it suddenly moved upwards, startling the boy. His teacher held his shoulder to prevent him from jumping off it and calmed him down by rubbing his head and telling him it was safe.
When he calmed down, he was able to hear and make a mental map of the place. All he heard were people busily moving around and doing some important looking things. He shook his head.
When they reached the topmost room, the attendant opened the door and escorted them inside before leaving. He clicked his tongue, scanning over the place. It was a high ceiling room with many items inside. A few he recognized, while most he didn't. He saw books on the shelves, potions on the racks, parchments on the tables, and many more.
Across the room was a desk where an old man sat behind it. He had a white beard and wore a velvet robe.
"Welcome, esteemed guests! I have been wanting to meet you for quite some time now. Please, sit down," the old man said with a smile as he pointed at the couches to the side of his desk.
Once everyone was sat there, he saw his teacher also smile and say, "We are grateful that you consider us worthy of meeting you."
The old man just waved it off and answered, "Come, now. None of that formal bullshit. Name's Mario Magna, good to meetcha."
Jack blinked in surprise. The geezer really said that.
And to his shock, his teacher replied as if it were natural, "All right. Well, what do you want, you old fogie? You clearly have more plans than just to thank us."
The fogie laughed before continuing, "What gave that away? Was it the owls? It's got to be the owls, hasn't it!?"
"Yep," his teacher confirmed.
The old man started to shake his hand that was curled into a fist and exclaim, "Damn them and their big mouths! One of these days, I oughta teach 'em a lesson!"
What were they even talking about right now? Jack massaged his confused head.
The geezer then got to the point, "Well, I wanted to ask you if--"
Jack heard someone walk to the door before they knocked it.
"Come in," said the bearded man.
It was another attendant.
The attendant bowed in apology and spoke, "I'm sorry to bother you, great archmage, but I came to inform you the Blade and his highness the Imperial Prince have arrived."
The old wizard's tone turned lighter, "Perfect timing! Send them in right now! I was going to offer the same thing to them! Oh, I hope you don't mind having more guests come."
His ever calm teacher replied coolly, "It's fine. Like they say, the more the merrier."
The old man laughed and replied, "I've never heard of that phrase, but I'll be keeping it in mind for sure!"
"What is even happening right now? First was with the old man going to thank us, then it was about owls, and then a prince shows up? What have I gotten myself into?" thought Jack as he sat in the middle of this chaos.
...
The Sealed Monster Sea wasn't always called that way. Studies and legends dated back to the Chaos Era referred this place as the Sea of Monsters. Nobody really knew how it was formed, but all records had shown that it was found after the final War of the Heavens. Back then, none dared approach this sea due to the deadly magicules and mutated monsters surrounding it. It was not until millenia later that it was sealed away by the mages of old and became the Sealed Monster Sea.
The seal had weakened after the Day of Cursing, but luckily a new generation of water mages were able to stop it from fully breaking. They weren't able to seal it permanently once more, requiring to renew the seal from time to time. So, they left it to their descendants to continue on their burden. The current most prominent family of these water mages were called the Dronn Household. They were responsible for keeping the seal up and running. Like all the other households, they lived in the Sealers' Isles; the islands that were formed in the middle that sea.
There was a tradition where whichever household was most powerful at the time, their leader shall be the one to lead all the households. Elsa Dronn was the current leader of the Sealers' Isles.
(Couldn't find a way to make the intermission chapter more fun to write and read, so I decided on this as a temporary solution)
(Thanks for staying, and thank you for your compliments!)
