Hello Followers of Justice and Scrolls, Mr. Bones bringing chapter 12.

Sebas will have his first contact with Queen Draudellion, will they get along?

Again I apologize for the translation errors, without a beta reader I blame Google Translate.

Comments and corrections are welcome, thank you.

With you

The One Who Came Back

Chapter 12: Double Dragon

All dragons emit a characteristic aura that is only felt by their own race, varying in intensity according to the dragon's strength: the stronger the aura, the stronger the creature that emits it. Unlike mages and magic casters, who relied on mana, the dragons' aura came from their raw power.

Sebas emitted overwhelming power compared to other dragons, but ironically, he didn't know that. Only dragons that lived with each other possessed this inherent knowledge, but Sebas rarely encountered another dragon in the New World - Frost Dragons, being subjugated, didn't give off this feeling, Hejinmal was too soft for something like that, and the dragons summoned in Nazarick didn't possess such an aura, leaving Sebas completely inexperienced in this area.

As she stared at Sebas, the Queen dug her fingers into the throne, which would have crumbled had it not been made of metal. She didn't know why, but her mind told her he was much stronger than she was, and a primal instinct to leap at the butler and bite off his neck emerged. With decades of life, it was the first time she felt attracted to someone.

Finally, the Queen in child form broke the rising uproar.

"Welcome, Lord Sebas! It is an immense pleasure to receive an envoy from the Sorcerer Kingdom. As a dignitary, you will be treated with all the pomp and circumstance that such a title accompanies", exclaimed the Queen, emphasizing the necessary points to silence the crowd.

"I am honored, Your Majesty. My entourage and I thank you for your hospitality".

"We thank you for your visit, Lord Sebas. And to express this feeling, we have prepared a small reception for you, or maybe you prefer to rest after the long journey".

"By no means, Your Majesty, we will very much appreciate such a reception".

"Please, then, let's get to it".

The nobles soon made their way to the palace's ballroom, where music, food and drinks were available to the guests. What followed then was an endless series of introductions.

After the initial shock, it was all too easy for the nobles to see the possibility of attracting the ambassador's attention. Many had already thought about taking the chance to win the Sorcerer Kingdom's grace, and despite their fears that the ambassador was some kind of undead creature, most took their more gifted daughters to the reception, after all, you never know what the female presence could awaken.

Between introductions, light flattery and embarrassing innuendo from the nobles' daughters, Tuare and the imp kept their distance, as the two members of the entourage were supposedly there only to attend to the ambassador. If it weren't for his red skin, the imp would easily have passed for a young noble, for he was dressed in a full tuxedo and top hat, while Tuare, in her maid's dress, could not be distinguished from the other servants in the palace.

As the party progressed, Sebas ended up surrounded by nobles who tried to exalt their importance, telling him why they were indispensable and how they could contribute to the improvement of relations between the kingdoms. At one point, a nobleman approached Tuare, who had ended up walking away.

"You, the one standing still, go get more wine!", ordered the noble, visibly intoxicated.

Realizing the mistake, Tuare was about to inform the noble that she was not part of the palace maids' group, and the imp prepared to intervene, but it was not necessary.

The nobleman began to tremble and sweat when he felt the presence at his back, a presence that was also felt throughout the hall. Then a diplomatic but firm voice could be heard.

"Tuare, please stay close to me. And as for you, I believe one of the palace's maids can serve you, if you'll excuse me", stated Sebas.

A ghost of a smile passed over Tuare's face.

After what happened, the noble had to be removed from the room, as his legs stopped working and the smell that came from his pants could start to bother the other guests.

No one else dared approach the ambassador's assistants until, a few hours later, a page addressed Sebas.

"Sorry to bother you, Lord Sebas, but Her Majesty the Queen wishes to speak with you".

"Please show the way".

All this was part of the protocol for receiving influential people, an extremely complicated system of self-adulation and exhibitionism on the part of the nobles so that they could demonstrate what they considered their power, without having the slightest idea that none of this impressed Sebas, since everything in Nazarick was bigger and better.

When they reached the door of the secluded hall, Tuare and the imp stood to one side while Sebas entered.

"Good evening, Mr. Ambassador, I hope you are enjoying the reception. In the coming days, you will likely be invited to several others, from what I have heard of the nobles".

"Good evening, Your Majesty. Yes, the reception has been pleasant".

"I'm glad to hear that, Lord Sebas. Would you like to sit down? That way we can talk more comfortably", suggested the Queen.

"It would be extremely rude of me, Your Majesty", remarked Sebas, maintaining a stoic tone of voice.

"Please, don't worry about that, sir. I insist!", giggled the Queen in a childlike voice.

"If you wish, Your Majesty".

"Please tell me about the Sorcerer Kingdom. As you know, we received little news from beyond our borders", the Queen seemed like a genuinely curious child.

"Some merchants come to us with news, although our messengers apparently have not reached their destinations," continued Draudillon, lowering her eyes, as if regretting that all the messengers had been eaten.

"Yes, we regret not being able to introduce ourselves earlier. The Sorcerer Kingdom, as Your Majesty imagines, has been structuring itself in the last year and creating relationships with the other kingdoms as our interests are manifested", Sebas explained, "since the Sorcerer Kingdom was founded, our obligations have proved numerous: restructure the capital, accommodate the new races, forge strong bonds with neighbors, appease the Katze Plains... but the challenges are being easily addressed".

"We particularly thank you for this last part! Without the imminent danger coming from the Plains, we were able to concentrate on a single front, maybe that's why we're still here", remarked the queen, bowing her head slightly.

"We only act in the best interest of our people, Your Majesty, but we are glad that our actions have helped someone, even if indirectly, and we hope to help even more, as we have done with our neighbors. You see, with the increase in trade coming from the Dwarf Kingdom, our infrastructure base has increased considerably, which is why we are here in the Dragon Kingdom, so that we can establish a new link of trade and cultural exchange", the butler made a small pause to make sure the Queen understood his intentions, and added:

"As Your Majesty may know, the Sorcerer King recently needed to assist the Holy Kingdom due to the demonic invasion, and even today they suffer from a civil war, so again we apologize for the delay in introducing ourselves properly".

"Oh! No way, Mr. Ambassador! Your arrival came at the best possible time! And about this war in the Holy Kingdom, I hope it ends soon for the good of its citizens! But as far as I know, they're still under attack by the Abelion Hills demi-humans".

"No, not at all, today the Abelion Hills is under the command of the Sorcerer Kingdom and has already established several cities of demi-human conviviality. It's so interesting to see how much a society can progress with good management".

"But I also heard about what happened at Re-Estize, Mr. Ambassador. Is all that true?", hesitated the Queen.

"I'm sorry to say, but the Re-Estize Kingdom no longer exists. An act of aggression led to a decision to end the kingdom, corruption ran rampant, nobles exploited their subjects and the Crown was no longer able to solve its own problems. When such a situation threatened the sovereignty of our realm, the Sorcerer King was forced to demonstrate the limit to which one could abuse his complacency".

"It is very sad to know that so many lives have been lost due to the incompetence of their rulers. We hope to prove ourselves more worthy of your attention, Lord Sebas, but due to the late hour, you must want to rest, tomorrow we can talk again".

"A good night to Your Majesty and I look forward to our next meeting", Sebas said, bowing his head before leaving.

After Sebas left, the Prime Minister turned to the Queen.

"So, it seems we're in a tricky situation".

"To the point, as always. Yes, many questions arise, that's why I called the ambassador here before some noble faction monopolized him", Draudillon immediately changed her posture, now speaking in a more mature tone.

What had once seemed like a child in an important position trying her best to behave like an adult, now was a woman speaking with all the authority and experience of decades of government.

Her childish form only served to disarm the nobles and to be slighted by her opponents, few of whom knew that this was not her true appearance. They imagined that she, being a descendant of dragons, only aged very slowly, which was partly true, but not as much as they thought.

With the use of dragon magic, Draudillon Oriculus could alter her appearance at will, and although she hasn't grown older, her speech has become that of an adult.

"I would like to know in advance what the Sorcerer King actually thinks about us", said the queen as the Prime Minister made a strange sound looking at her.

"As Your Majesty wishes. I believe that the Ambassador is here to get to know the kingdom, its people, its culture and also to assess our economy and military capacity in the face of the current situation with the invasion of the beastmen".

"In other words, he's here to find out if we are worth saving", bemoaned Draudillon.

"As Your Majesty knows, there is a limit to how far a kingdom can sustain itself. If the aggressions we suffer are so much as to weaken our economic infrastructure, it doesn't matter if the beastmen army disappeared tomorrow, the kingdom would collapse and it just wouldn't make sense for the Sorcerer Kingdom to continue investing resources there. It would be simpler to wait for the total takeover of the realm and after that drive out the beastmen and start repopulating from scratch".

"What every good ruler seeks is the greatest possible advantage to develop his kingdom and in return raise his allies, Prime Minister. In the Baharuth empire, vassalage proved efficient and now the two share the benefits that one of them achieves. In the Dwarf Kingdom, however, a nearly collapsing society could be brought back together with the right intervention, and the profit from this is incalculable, considering that the Sorcerer Kingdom now has rune technologies never before seen due to dwarven art", the Queen explained.

"Yes, from what the ambassador told us, we can see what happened in the two other kingdoms differently. In the Holy Kingdom, the Sorcerer King established a unique diplomatic situation with specific interests, and after the defeat of Jaldabaoth there were no further interventions. But the Sorcerer Kingdom's support of the northern government is imminent, the strategic advantage with the taking of Abelion Hills is obvious, and even a new religion has emerged, claiming the Sorcerer King's divinity".

"On the other hand," added the Prime Minister, "the opposite happened in Re-Estize. They were also on the verge of civil war, but there was no point in maintaining that government, so with a simple act of aggression on their part the Sorcerer Kingdom was justified in clearing the land and beginning its new expansion".

"Exactly, Mr. Prime Minister, the Sorcerer King demonstrated how he can be generous and terrible at the same time. We need to show our worth, or we will be the next Re-Estize", concluded the Queen.

...

AUTHOR'S NOTE

What a difficult chapter to write, keeping the characters polite and with the appropriate severity was a nightmare, at one point I got into a spiral of "please" and endless education that almost drove me crazy.