We arrived back in the capital to a madhouse. Soldiers were lining up in the street, orders were being shouted, and citizens were trying to go about their business while staying out of the way of assembled units as they moved in large groups through the capital roads. We had no idea what was going on, of course, but decided to head towards the castle to find out, every commander and soldier seeming to brighten as we passed them by.
At the castle, we found Motoyasu already there, having arrived an hour or so ago, ignorant of what was going on, as the inner gate to the castle was sealed, and no one was manning it, too busy with the hustle and bustle. We could have gotten in regardless, with my (Blink), or him transferring his stats into attack and blowing out a wall, but instead we decided to wait for someone to acknowledge us.
Luckily, as Naofumi and Ren's parties both arrived, about ten minutes later, we were a big enough gaggle to finally attract some attention from inside the keep, and so a raised voice ordered the gates to be opened. It still took a while for that opening to happen, showing just how much was going on, and making me wonder if this was how it was when they assembled troops for Cal Mira, and if they had information on another 'Bonus' Wave striking, as we still had a week or two for the next event.
We wandered to the throne room, expecting to find the Royal Family of Melromarc there, but to our surprise, the chamber was empty, and so we went deeper, eventually to the chamber deep within, and found that the doors, which were kept closed save when people exited or entered, were currently wide open, as runners, carrying a dozen or more scrolls and letters each passed us by on their way to the commanders.
Within we found organized chaos. All about the room men in robes were discussing things, pointing at maps, or otherwise making their voices heard. One, Lord Reichnott, was the only one I recognized, and he was deep into a debate with an older woman and a young boy, barely a man even by this world's standards, as they pointed emphatically at a map, obviously discussing troop deployments, if the symbols I glimpsed on it were any indication.
We didn't want to interrupt anyone, so we tried to shuffle our way to the side of the room, Ren pointing out this was what a real war council looked like, as they had to prepare everything. It also behooved a question of us, in that we really were only here to fight the Waves. Were this a conflict of a political nature, like Siltvelt rising up to crush Melromarc in its injured state from the past few events, we might have to consider stepping aside.
It was Naofumi who pointed out that all the maps in the room were focused on the opposite side of the country, and Motoyasu, acknowledging him, added that obviously, something had gone wrong with the envoy sent by the Queen to the King of Faubrey. Something VERY wrong if that was leading to this sort of deployment. I actually asked if we should, perhaps, offer to retrieve the forces sent to Cal Mira if possible, so they might help with this engagement.
We stood there for about another ten minutes before someone finally noticed us, and shouted about the Heroes, causing all the chaos to halt in mid step. I even saw a piece of paper flutter off the top of a stack, only to be snatched by one of the runners before it could cause anything else to stir. With it all still, every eye turned to us, and we found, at last, the Queen and King, though not the Princess, standing at one side of the table, having been surrounded by their guards and advisors.
The people parted, a few last orders given to some runners as we approached the table, finding that Motoyasu and Naofumi had been right, as it was easy to see by the lines drawn that forces were being sent to the border, while, interestingly, there were circles inside Faubrey's border, showing various names and something about 'believes' 'refuses' and the final mark beside more names that I liked '?', which had been crossed out for a few of the others.
"Heroes, it is…not a pleasure to see you, given the circumstances, I'll admit, but I'm grateful you're here," said the Queen at last, and it was easy to hear a twinge to her voice. She had been crying, I realized by looking at her eyes. A lot, but she was holding them back now.
"Something happened in Faubrey," said Ren, not a question, simply a statement of fact, and the Queen nodded.
"It did. One of my Shadows, an elite force at the Queen's command, an old tradition in this nation, was sent bearing my words to the King of Faubrey. I had thought, given who she was, she would be safe, that even my husband's fool of a brother wouldn't act out against her, for all that he had refused to meet me during my latest visit," she said, as the King beside her straightened a bit, like he was going to say something, but an official came up to him with a map, distracting him from our conversation with more planning to do.
"I was…terribly wrong. The man is a monster, but what's been going on, the refusal to meet with me, which delayed your coming by weeks, was not what I had anticipated," she explained, looking around the table, but the King, finishing up with whatever had been brought to him simply turned and placed his hand on hers, causing her to freeze up for a moment, before they turned to face each other, the man giving his wife strength as he turned to us.
"My brother is dead. He has been for some time. Her majesty would have revealed as such had she been allowed in his presence. I knew my brother wouldn't be willing to endanger the world for some petty reason," he said, as if assuring himself. It sounded like, from what we'd been told, that he was right about that, though only because the world was where Aultcray's brother kept all his stuff.
"So, he was sick and died or…" Naofumi let the thought trail off, and the Queen shook her head.
"No, my Shadow she…she fought with his Seneschal, the man who was apparently puppeting his corpse, and far, far more," she said, turning back to the table, and finally spotting the thing, or rather person, she'd been searching for. A woman in fine clothing, ones I immediately recognized as the Pope's robes that Balmus had once worn.
It was not a shock that a woman could be the head of the church, given that this was a nation with a matriarchal Royal family. What was shocking was that woman herself who was many years my own junior, and at most, a year or two older than Motoyasu, her hair cut short on her head to wear the habit making it hard to guess just how old she was in that range, but she was obviously far younger than what one would expect of her position.
"Your Majesty?" she questioned, deference in her voice, but I noticed a calculation in her gaze, like she was sizing us up as she came towards us, slipping something out of her robes that I recognized as the same sort of crystal ball that Naofumi had been recorded on back during the whole 'kidnapping' incident.
"Show them, if you would, Your Holiness. They need to see what we're up against," she said, not quite an order, but given the orb was in the woman's hands, she had obviously been anticipating it. A bit of back and forth then. The woman needed to be asked to do it, probably to make it clear she was doing it at the 'request' of the royal family…a request she might seek a reward for granting later.
Regardless, she placed her hand gently on the orb, which began to glow as she muttered an incantation. Slowly, the thing began to fill with shapes, shadows really, that began to resolve into things we could see were people, and a place. Then with a sudden burst, the scene on the orb lept into a projected 'screen' in the air above the table, all movement stopping as what was being shown played out before us.
It took place in a throne room, but not like Melromarc's. In this nation, the throne room was opulence personified, where the royals would sit at the end of a long hall to hear the people's problems, with guards lining the walls and people in balconies looking down. This was a more…ostentatious setup, with the throne being on a dais, raised not by merely a few steps, but by almost three meters, so the one sitting on the throne towered over those below, looking down at them, as they passed judgement.
In the throne was a man, bulky and large, wearing armor that made him larger still. The image was possibly not doing justice to the scale of the man, whom I saw might have a good decimeter or three on me, which was kind of galling as I was getting used to being the tallest person in the room. The fact that he was also probably several kilos heavier, with shoulders broad enough he could likely have lifted a cow even without stats boosting his physical abilities was also somewhat intimidating.
Interestingly, though, it was obvious he wasn't speaking, as the woman, the Queen's Shadow, which Naofumi pointed out was the one we'd met in the woods, though I didn't recognize her personally, was instead conversing with the man before the dais. He looked…well not quite right for the role he was obviously playing, the voice of the King. Instead he looked like someone trying to play the part of an adventurer.
Mind, 'playing' was certainly not what happened next, as the woman and the man went at it, and we all, not just the Heroes and our parties, but everyone in the room, held their breaths as the pair clashed, in the middle of that, the armor on the dais was revealed to contain only a skeleton, not even a full corpse, but just the bones of one, showing either sadism in cleaning it, or that it had been some time since the death had happened.
The man wielded at first a whip, but then began to throw out odd weapons to compliment it, ones that seemed a bit stronger than they should. At least the question of why was answered quickly, as he pulled out a weapon that I'd seen in a few art pieces in the castle. The Seven Star Claw, the symbol of the Tyrant of Siltvelt, enemy of Melromarc, and supposedly sealed in a vault somewhere in Faubrey as no one could wield it.
"He was able to link with the Vassal Claw?" asked, of all people, Raphtalia, who sounded horrified at the revelation. Worse when the woman was knocked into a wall after having her power drained, and then killed with an ornate axe, one that was easily identified as it also graced the coat of arms fluttering on some of the flags in the throne room, the Seven Star Axe of Faubrey, the weapon of the King.
"That…no one can wield two of the Seven Star Weapons at once. It is written in the scriptures that they choose their wielders," declared Lucia beside me, and the others in the room nodded, but the Queen looked dejected as the images ended, but she took a deep breath, and turned to face us.
"We don't know how he's managed this, but this man, Takt as he is apparently known, was the one who won the right to test himself against the Seven Star Whip some months ago in Shieldfreeden. He vanished after that, but given that was only a few weeks before the time Faubrey's King got even more belligerent in his communications, we can guess what happened," she said.
"My brother was a man of excess and wantonness. But he had earned respect as a warrior and a leader from his people. This man? He is, by all accounts, and by what has been going on in Faubrey since he took over, a monster almost as evil as the Tyrant King was. He sees the people under him as tools at best, toys at worst, and tosses their lives away without a care," he began.
"This is the man the Vassal Whip has chosen. One Vassal Weapon is enough to make the Wielder into something on the level of the Heroes. Two in a nation turn it into a threat to the world. Somehow, someway, this man now wields five of those Weapons. May the Spirits protect us all," said the Queen, her words hanging in the air ominously, as the woman with the orb tapped it, showing us the five Vassal Weapons Takt had access to.