xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mercurius Castle, 12:11 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After being magically teleported out of town by Riana, Bernard sat in a chair with Corvus and Vulp seated next to him on the floor in a hall within Mercurius, the palace of the royal family of Fiore. In front of the trio was a gigantic set of wooden doors that led into the throne room with two guards stationed in front, stoically standing as Bernard looked at the floor with nervousness.
"Breathe, Bernard... Breathe..." Bernard thought as his anxiety levels were spiking. "I wasn't expecting to suddenly be brought before the princess or the general today..." He continued to think as Corvus nudged his leg with his wing to grab his attention.
"...You feel okay...?" Corvus asked out of concern as Bernard shook his head left and right to signify a negative response.
"Hardly... Ugh." Bernard replied, followed by a groan with Vulp using his powers to stretch his tail out in Bernard's direction, stopping in front of his face. "Th-thanks..." He said as he put his face against Vulp's tail and wiped the sweat with it.
"Not gonna lie, this has me nerve wracked..." Corvus said as Bernard looked at his seated Celestial Spirits.
"You and me both..." Bernard commented as he suddenly heard a knocking from the other side of the double doors.
Prompted, the two guards in front walked over to the handles to the throne room as they pulled on the doors to open them, Bernard standing up and dusting himself off as he watched on. Stepping inside with the Celestial Spirits following him, Bernard looked on as he saw a massive throne at the end of the room with a second smaller one next to it with a familiar young woman in the main throne and a familiar man standing next to her.
"Your excellence and commander." Riana said, kneeling in front of the pair as Bernard swallowed the spit in his mouth in a showing of uneasiness. "Bernard O'Halloran." She said before standing up and walking away to exit the room, leaving behind the pacemaker needing wizard and his pets with Princess Hisui and Chief Arcadios.
Sitting on the throne was Hisui E. Fiore, a young woman with a petite frame with wavy green hair that was wearing a short strapless dress that exposed her backside and parting at the skirt with elbow length gloves, open toed shoes and jewelry consisting of a small golden tiara and large earrings. Next to her was the commander of the royal army, Arcadios, a well-built and tall man with full plate armor, black hair in a large and spiky style and sideburns forming a sharp beard at his chin with no moustache who was holding a folder in his hand.
"...He-he-hell-hel-helllllll-" Bernard mumbled, failing to speak and starting to sweat even more profusely.
"Don't get flustered!" Corvus thought in equal nervousness as he and Vulp noticed Bernard's demeanor.
"...It's customary within the throne room that subjects of the kingdom kneel before the monarchy." Chief Arcadios said plainly as they looked at the overly tense wizard.
Given permission, Bernard fell to all fours as Corvus and Vulp quickly lowered themselves to match him with the beanie sporting wizard breathing heavily.
"...Don't strain your heart, kid..." Corvus commented quietly as he overheard Bernard's breathing.
"...I'm trying not to..." Bernard said as he angled his head to look up at the royals. "I couldn't even say "hello!"' He thought while mentally panicking.
"Bernard." Princess Hisui said as Bernard quickly pulled himself to a kneeling position.
"Yes, sir- I mean, boss- I mean, your excellence- I mean, princess- I mean-" Bernard said with a scared voice as the princess raised her hand to cut him off.
"Calm yourself, there's no one here who's looking to harm you." Princess Hisui said with a wry smile on her face upon seeing Bernard's state.
"...Haaaaa..." Bernard sighed.
"Future guild master of Psycho Circus, folks." Corvus thought with slightly judgmental eyes as he and Vulp looked at their master with concern.
"Been a long time." Chief Arcadios said as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits turned their heads in his direction.
"Ye-yeah..." Bernard said, still slightly anxious. "Ho-how're things...?" He asked.
"The usual." Princess Hisui said casually as Arcadios opened the folder and started reading the contents of it in front of the trio.
"Running the entire country... Yeah, certainly a lot of work..." Bernard said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Nothing like being really cute and making every decision for the entire populace, am I right?" Corvus said with a smile on his face as Bernard and Vulp quickly jerked their heads in the crow's direction.
"Dude!" Bernard said with a worried tone. "Don't make descriptive statements about the princess in front of her!" He continued as Corvus looked at his magical benefactor.
"What!? It was a compliment!" Corvus said defensively.
"Pff..." Princess Hisui muttered as the noise she made caught the attention of Bernard and his pets. "Nice to see the bond between the Celestial Spirits and yourself has grown to such a point, even without your ability to open their gates." She said with a sincere look on her face.
"Uhm..." Bernard muttered, unsure how to answer. "Oh yeah, she's a Celestial Spirit wizard. She can summon Celestial Spirits the normal way." He thought.
"Well, I wouldn't say it's a "bond," I'd say it's more like me and Vulp are the only ones keeping him from being a total twit." Corvus said while turning his head away as Vulp looked at his fellow Celestial Spirit with half-closed eyes of annoyance and Bernard glaring at the crow.
"Way to dump on Baurs and the others, Corvus..." Bernard thought in agitation.
"I see." Chief Arcadios said as he closed the folder in his hand.
"What're you reading?" Bernard asked.
"An update from Riana on your monitoring." Chief Arcadios replied.
"Quite the update, might I add." Princess Hisui said as Bernard's eyes widened.
"Wh-what's in it?! She didn't say odder analyses of me, did she?!" Bernard thought as he looked over at the folder.
"I read that folder while you were outside the throne room. She wrote about the last twenty-four hours being rather... Different, compared to previous weeks." Princess Hisui said as Bernard looked at her.
"...She... She mention everything that happened?" Bernard questioned as Chief Arcadios opened the folder again to read a passage outloud.
'"After a period of sitting in the rain, the target went to the pastry shop he frequents a rather alarming amount and then walked down the street to a ramen shop that was suffering from an infestation of a magical nature, appearing to have aided the place whilst inside. Soon after, the target encountered a melted snowman construct and went to the crafting shop responsible for its creation and paid for the reconstruction of the golem."' Chief Arcadios said.
"...Well, at least she got the good parts." Corvus thought as Vulp raised an eyebrow.
'"Target would soon encounter a local pariah that's a part of his wizard guild, unaffiliated with the former criminals and dark wizards that are currently working for the target's guild. Target and pariah would have a conversation for several minutes until target requested to leave but the pariah prevented him from leaving until he assisted him with the magical aid of a mummified being whom left with the pariah sometime after."' Chief Arcadios continued. '"Target returned home with a rather motivated expression on his face."' He said before closing the folder.
"Certainly sounds like an interesting day." Princess Hisui commented.
"...Yeah..." Bernard said in response.
"Without reading off more of Riana's handwriting verbatim, she wrote that you had begun "guild master" related training." Chief Arcadios said as the jaws of Corvus, Bernard and Vulp dropped.
"She found out about that too?!" Corvus exclaimed.
"How skilled of a "spy" is she?!" Bernard shouted.
"Please don't scream in the throne room." Chief Arcadios said with a serious look on his face as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits cowered slightly.
"As for your question, Riana used to be the leader of her own squadron. She's certainly capable." Princess Hisui said with a smile on her face.
"I can tell..." Bernard said as he looked back towards the entryway.
"Seems to me that you are finally accepting the role of guild master of your family's guild." Princess Hisui said as Bernard and his pets looked at her.
"...It was a heck of a wait." Corvus said while rubbing his beak as Bernard winced from the comment.
"Sorry for keeping a lot of people waiting..." Bernard mentally complained.
"Guess that's something you and I have in common." Princess Hisui said as Bernard raised an eyebrow as she looked over at the smaller chair next to the one that she was currently seated in. "For a long time, that chair there was where I would sit." She said as Chief Arcadios looked at her with a slight grin on his face.
"Huh?" Bernard muttered.
"What'cha mean?" Corvus asked as Vulp raised an eyebrow.
"Later this year, I'll be inaugurated as "Queen of Fiore."' Princess Hisui said as Bernard and the Celestial Spirit's eyes widened.
"Ah!" Bernard mumbled. "Co-congratulations!" He said as he lowered his head down to the ground again. "Do it too! Do it too!" Bernard whispered towards his pets.
"Oh, right!" Corvus said as he and Vulp lowered their heads down.
"It's fine, it's fine." Princess Hisui said, motioning for the trio to raise their heads. "There's still a lot of work to be done." She continued.
"Surprised you made time for us then." Corvus said as Bernard looked at Chief Arcadios for an answer.
"It was a "spur of the moment" decision to give you some time since Riana had brought you here out of the blue." Chief Arcadios said.
"I had cancelled the next meeting I had scheduled for today by saying I was going to have a serious discussion with a "prince."' Princess Hisui said with a jovial expression on her face as Bernard's eye widened.
'"Clown Prince..." That nickname is going to be the end of me..." Bernard thought with a twitch in his eye.
"Aren't you just a lucky lad, kid?" Corvus said with a smirk towards his magical benefactor.
"Shut it..." Bernard said with a low tone.
"Well then, enough dillydallying." Chief Arcadios said as he caught everyone's attention. "What is it you wished to discuss?" He asked as the conversation got back on track.
"Oh, right..." Bernard said as he got up from the ground. "I wanted to discuss something from the last time I was physically in the same room as you both." He said whilst attempting to make a serious face that didn't show his hesitation to speak.
"And that would be?" Princess Hisui replied.
"...The loan of money you had given me as a form of "good behavior" reward." Bernard said as Chief Arcadios opened the folder in his hands once again and flipped a few pages.
"Says here, based on Riana's account, that the money was predominantly spent on a large-scale revamp of your guildhall like you wished for." Chief Arcadios said.
"And apparently allowing my mom to sell her fate changing board game in other countries." Bernard thought with a bothered expression on his face.
"A portion of it was also used in international distribution for something called "Barendkoff: Fate Makers" by "O'Halloran Family Board Games."' Chief Arcadios said as he raised an eyebrow.
"...That's... Uhhh..." Bernard said nervously.
"I've heard of that. It's a board game of some kind." Princess Hisui said as she looked at the head of the knights. "A magic based one that is said to alter people's individual futures." She said as Bernard, Corvus and Vulp all twisted their heads to the side and started to generate copious amounts of sweat all over their bodies.
"Surprised the Magic Council approved such a product to be sold in magic shops. That actually sounds rather dangerous to allow in the hands of the public." Chief Arcadios as he read through the page. "...Guh!" He muttered as he found an entry that shocked him.
"Something the matter?" Princess Hisui said as Bernard and the Celestial Spirits shifted their eyes in his direction.
"Riana provided the sales numbers... In Fiore alone, the game has sold close to eighty-thousand copies. The sales numbers in other countries are unknown but if we're comparing how developed our country is to other countries combined with the cost of the game set at thirty-thousand Jewels... My word..." Chief Arcadios said as he pulled at his goatee as Princess Hisui glanced at Bernard.
"...That's quite the profit..." Princess Hisui said with half-closed eyes. "Begs the question why we gave you such a large loan in the first place if your mother had been amassing that sizable of a "nest egg."' She said as Bernard put both of his hands on his face.
"Because I didn't know what my mom was doing!" Bernard thought in agitation.
"You mentioned the loan a moment ago. I suppose you wish to discuss the "paying back" portion of it?" Chief Arcadios asked as he and the princess grew curious.
"We gave him that money as a form of "good behavior" reward but if you add in the former criminals his guild now harbors and his allowance of such a dangerous product to be sold under his family name, surely there's a bit of an issue here." Princess Hisui thought in silence.
"...I... Would..." Bernard said as he struggled to speak. "Gaaaaahhh! I'm screwing this up bad!" He thought as he bit his lip.
"We're waiting..." Princess Hisui said with her arms folded.
"...I... Would... Like..." Bernard muttered with a troubled voice.
"...Gotta help him..." Corvus said as he waddled behind Bernard and raised his wing.
"...I... I- yeow! I would like to open up a second guildhall for Psycho Circus to franchise our guild show but in order to do that, I need to clear up that debt you gave me and beg you to help me get past the "red tape" with the Magic Council approving the creation of another guildhall!" Bernard said until Corvus smacked him in the back and caused him to finally speak what was on his mind in an extremely quick manner.
"Ah." Princess Hisui said with half-closed eyes.
"I see." Chief Arcadios said with a nod of his head.
"...Thank you..." Bernard said towards Corvus while putting his hand on his back where Corvus smacked him.
"Anytime..." Corvus said as he waddled back to where he was previously next to Vulp.
"So, you wish to have us expunge that "debt," correct?" Princess Hisui said with a judging look in her eyes.
"...Ye-yes, your highness." Bernard said as he bent forward a third time and proceeded to bow towards her again, the Celestial Spirits doing it as well to help his case.
"...General, your thoughts?" Princess Hisui said towards the head of the knights as he pulled on the hair around his chin.
"I fail to see a decent enough reason to clear such a large amount of money we had bestowed upon him for little to nothing in return." Chief Arcadios said as he looked at the soon-to-be queen.
"...I knew they would think that..." Bernard thought as he looked up at the royals.
"We appear to be at a bit of a conundrum." Princess Hisui muttered as she looked at Bernard as he lifted himself up.
"...What would I have to do?" Bernard said with a serious look on his face, catching the pairs attention.
"Hmmm?" Princess Hisui muttered.
"What would I have to do to remove that debt that you have over me?" Bernard questioned as Corvus and Vulp looked at him.
"Whatever they're going to say, it's going to be a tall order." Corvus thought as he swallowed spit.
"...You sound like you're willing to do anything." Chief Arcadios said with a serious voice as he walked away from the princess's side and stood in front of Bernard and his pets. "Are you?" He said as Bernard got to his feet, looking up at the taller man.
"I don't have much choice..." Bernard said as Corvus flapped his wings and entered the air, flying next to Bernard and locking eyes with the head of knights with Vulp moving to Bernards side, looking up at the armored man with furrowed eyebrows.
"Mr. O'Halloran." Princess Hisui said, causing Chief Arcadios to move out of the way to allow Bernard to lock eyes with her. "On more than one occasion, we offered you a position within the chivalric order of knights, particularly in the covert executioner's unit due to your prior experience with two of their members." She said.
"I worked with Kamika and Uosuke to deal with that Blood Dragon Slayer with the hard to pronounce name." Bernard thought, recalling his last major experience working with the government.
"If we were to ask you to join that unit once again, would you say "yes" or "no?"' Princess Hisui asked as Bernard made a troubled face.
"...I... Still don't feel comfortable joining the executioner unit... So, I wouldn't be willing to join that group..." Bernard said, giving his honest opinion. "I have to be truthful, I'm not feeling completely onboard with joining them..." He thought.
"...I see..." Princess Hisui said as she closed her eyes.
"Not getting good vibes from this..." Bernard thought with sweat dripping down his face.
"Don't think she liked that answer..." Corvus thought as Vulp stretched his tail forward and wiped his brow.
"...Then how would you feel about a more "specific" role within the knights?" Princess Hisui said as she opened her eyes and Chief Arcadios looked at her.
"...Huh?" Bernard muttered in response. "What does that mean?" He thought.
"I would like an answer to this question before I elaborate to guarantee your cooperation." Princess Hisui said with a serious voice.
"...I don't even get a chance to deny it if I can't do it?" Bernard said with a worried tone as the Celestial Spirits looked at each other.
"The reason I say this is because I believe you may be a bigger asset than you may realize... But I'll only tell you the full extent of what we want from you if you say "yes."' Princess Hisui said.
'"Asset?"' Bernard thought, confused by her meaning.
"...Bernard... Your answer?" Chief Arcadios said to get Bernards answer as he looked at the Celestial Spirits.
"...Guys?" Bernard muttered towards Corvus and Vulp.
"...As much as I want to say you should cut your losses and we should just leave this place..." Corvus said as Vulp looked at him.
"You have a different idea?" Bernard thought with a twitch in his eye.
"Maybe it's the "Celestial Spirit" in me and she being a Celestial Spirit wizard is making me say this... But I think whatever she is going to ask of you to do, she's asking you because she thinks you can pull it off... So... Maybe it's worth the risk?" Corvus said, giving his opinion as Bernard's eyes widened.
"...You..." Bernard said before looking at Vulp as the fox made a determined expression, implying that he was going to go along with whatever Bernard did as he turned to look at Princess Hisui again as Chief Arcadios silently watched him. "He's only assuming though..." He thought with a troubled look in his eyes.
"God, I hope I'm right..." Corvus thought with similar uneasiness.
"Your answer?" Princess Hisui said with a serious look in her eyes as Bernard bit his lip briefly.
"...What would you like for me to do?" Bernard said as Chief Arcadios looked at the princess with a thumbs up, prompting her face to soften. "This is for Psycho Circus..." He thought, reminding himself.
"First things first, I would like for you to breathe." Princess Hisui said with a smile towards the beanie sporting wizard as he and the Celestial Spirits made surprised expressions.
"...Uh, okay?" Bernard said as he put a hand over his pacemaker.
"The tension in the room was so thick, Vulp could cut it with his fur..." Corvus commented as Vulp nodded in agreement with his statement.
"I believe I owe you an apology for making you so tense. That was a test to see how badly you wanted this handled for the sake of your guild." Princess Hisui said as she stood up from her throne.
"We merely wished to see your resolve. All honesty, I think you proved to us that you'd made a fine guild master one day." Chief Arcadios said with a calm tone as Bernard blushed in embarrassment from the compliment.
"Even more people giving me a pat on the back..." Bernard thought as he looked away.
"But now, we must leave this room and enter a more private location to continue our conversation." Princess Hisui said as she and Chief Arcadios walked over to a corner of the room and pressed her hand on a wall.
As she pressed on the wall, a yellow magic circle briefly appeared as a portion of the wall opened up like a door. As the soon-to-be queen entered, Chief Arcadios looked back and locked eyes with Bernard and the Celestial Spirits.
"Come along." Chief Arcadios said as he motioned for the trio to follow.
"Uh, yeah." Bernard said as walked over with Corvus and Vulp following behind him through the doorway, the head of the knights entering as well whilst closing the door behind him.
In the pitch-black darkness, Bernard and his pets looked around, unable to see anything. With them overhearing a clicking noise, the trio closed their eyes as a light suddenly filled the room, revealing a small space that consisted of brick walls, a table in the center and a series of shelves with rolled up parchment on it.
"What's this? A panic room?" Corvus questioned as Vulp rubbed his head with his tail.
"More like a private planning area." Chief Arcadios said as the princess stood at one end of the table and the head of the knights walking over to stand near her. "This space was retrofitted with Sound Magic to prevent any noise from leaking out in case of spies." He continued.
"...Wish I knew Sound Magic while you had Riana watching me." Bernard said with a bothered look on his face as Princess Hisui looked at him.
"People spying on you won't be much of a problem now that you have agreed to assist us." Princess Hisui said, catching his attention.
'"Assist" with what, specifically?" Bernard asked out of curiosity of the job they wanted him to do.
"One of the reasons we moved the conversation to this room is so we could discuss a major issue that's plaguing the country that isn't known by the public. Only a select few know about this so we also request that you and your servants act with complete discretion upon hearing this information..." Princess Hisui said as Bernard's eyes widened.
"Ooooh, "government secrets."' Corvus said with an excited tone.
"Thank goodness my mom isn't here; she'd probably start figuring out ways to get one over on the capital..." Bernard thought.
"And we'll say it again, you must keep what we talk about in this room from getting out into the public. No one must know." Chief Arcadios said with a serious look in his eyes.
"The fact I'm in this room pretty much means I'll agree to whatever you guys want me to do so sure..." Bernard replied as the head of the knights and the soon-to-be queen smiled in response.
"Good answer." Chief Arcadios said.
"Now then... Here's the truth of the matter." Princess Hisui said as she caught Bernard and his pet's attention. "Soon, I'll become Queen of Fiore, but I'll be a queen with little to no military strength backing me." She said as Bernard made a confused expression.
"...What?" Bernard said in response.
"...Yeah, I'm not sure what you mean by that either..." Corvus said.
"We can explain..." Chief Arcadios said with his arms folded and his eyes closed.
"Between the royal family on our part and the Magic Council as a proxy representative of our nation's strength, we have lost a considerable number of "weapons" over the years." Princess Hisui said. "The war last year with the Alvarez Empire left us reliant on the strength of wizards to fight our battles and while we are grateful for the nations guilds for putting themselves out there to help... It doesn't change the fact that we don't have much other means to protect our kingdom." She continued.
"Uhhh..." Bernard muttered.
"On the part of the Magic Council, they had lost several armaments such as the "Sacred Arrow," the "Satellite Square: Etherion" and the anti-magic device known as "Face."' Princess Hisui said.
"On our part, we had lost the "Dragon Cry" and the "Eclipse Cannon."' Chief Arcadios said as the princess made a bothered expression upon hearing that last weapon.
"Jeez, how many "W.M.D's" has this country lost?" Corvus asked with surprise.
"Enough to alarm the populace if it became more widely known that we don't have much, if any, left in our possession should we go to war again or face a catastrophe that could see the destruction of the entire country..." Chief Arcadios replied with a serious tone.
"And with that in mind, the monarchy is faced with a grim situation: no "strength" internally." Princess Hisui said as Bernard continued to silently listen. "We only managed to win against Alvarez's invasion of the continent due to the support of our wizard guilds. Not because of any "powers" we have in our actual military." She said further.
"Well, that's... Definitely concerning..." Bernard said while rubbing the back of his neck.
"And that's the reaction we're trying to avoid..." Chief Arcadios commented.
"How does that involve the kid?" Corvus questioned as Vulp nodded in similar confusion.
"Mr. O'Halloran..." Princess Hisui said as she looked at him. "You have a very particular skill at your disposal that we believe might greatly benefit the country as an asset." She said with a serious look in her eyes.
"Shouting and coming up with circus acts?" Bernard thought, unsure of what she was referring to until the soon-to-be queen pointed at the Celestial Spirits.
"Us?" Corvus said in response as he and Vulp looked at each other.
"Bernard, you possess two silver key Celestial Spirits at your beck and call with no official contract. You have the ability to order a demonic slime made by a former demon from the Books of Zeref to do your bidding. You have control of an Earth Elemental, a wild white gorilla, an Exceed and multiple constructs made through magic." Chief Arcadios said towards Bernard. "You have a talent for controlling things that are very abnormal for someone with Taming Magic or Summoning Magic. In other words, you have a very high level of "potential" we're interested in." He said.
"...Well... I don't think I fully agree with that... I wouldn't even call what I do "taming " or "summoning" really..." Bernard said while looking away.
"Monster and Beast Tamers are not uncommon, neither is people with Summoning Magics like Celestial Spirit Magic." Princess Hisui said. "But the big difference there is that a standard Monster Tamer can control dozens to possibly even hundreds of creatures at once or they've had to establish contracts with the spirits after getting their individual keys." She explained.
"But tamers can only control mindless behemoths and monstrosities or what her highness said in regard to Celestial Spirit wizards." Chief Arcadios said.
"But you... You have control of spirits and beings with sentience who've managed to imprint onto you of their own accord. They've been subjugated or "tamed" by you without the need to use magic that would force them to do so. That takes a level of ability that's hard to come by." Princess Hisui said.
"Well, Tavio is a bit of an outlier but the thing I find odd about him is that he's never actually attempted to run away when I've let him out of his pin. If he gets further enough away to make the Obedience Collar stop working from him not being able to hear my voice, he's gone forever... Maybe he's just too stupid..." Bernard thought. "...Okay so, if I'm correct in assuming where this is going, what you want me to do is try to tame something for the kingdom? That it?" He asked as he scratched the back of his head.
"In a sense, yes and no..." Princess Hisui replied.
"We believe that your talent for getting sentient creatures to listen to you could potentially be beneficial with helping the kingdom with a problem relative to the issue we brought up previously." Chief Arcadios explained. "I wish we didn't have to be so reliant on the assistance of others within the nation, but this is our only option..." He thought.
"Which is?" Bernard asked.
"Our kingdom's security... And a major problem of our kingdom is Dragons..." Princess Hisui said as Bernard's eyes widened.
'"What?!"' Bernard and Corvus thought simultaneously in bewilderment.
"Our kingdom has had numerous issues with Dragons for years. And our only means currently to dealing with them has only been the Dragon Slayers and even with the strength of the ones our country has in our wizard guilds, we can't be solely reliant on guilds like Sabertooth and Fairy Tail. We need an additional method to handling Dragons that's not just going to destroy every bit of land to stop the threat." Princess Hisui said. "And with that in mind, we're going to negotiate terms of what you want versus what we want from you." She said as Bernard looked at her.
"You want me to tame a Dragon?! Do you know how much you're asking from me?! Because it's a lot more than the loan you gave me, I assure you!" Bernard thought with his hands up.
"We'll assist you in getting this plan of yours for a second guildhall through the Magic Council and overlooking the "loan" we had previously given you as well as the assumed issue with some of your newer members being ex-cons. We won't be giving you a single Jewel however with building this second guildhall, that's entirely on you and your family considering the sales numbers of this fate altering board game you're involved with." Chief Arcadios said bluntly.
"We'll be fine with that since the kid's mom can definitely front the bill..." Corvus thought as he, Vulp and Bernard listened.
"In exchange... You have to learn a specific kind of magic and agree to be knighted as an officially recognized "associate" of the kingdom. You can still be a wizard of Psycho Circus and go about your day-to-day life without fear but in case of emergency, we want you to be one of our knights we can rely on as a representative of the government." Princess Hisui said as Bernard looked at Corvus and Vulp, the two Celestial Spirits shrugging in disbelief. "We have to have some kind of "internally owned power" within the hands of the nation. Understand?" She continued.
"And like you said earlier, the fact you are in this room means you have agreed to the terms and conditions." Chief Arcadios said as Bernard lowered his head and shook it left and right.
"Damn it all, so I'm officially a "weapon" now? This is- wait a minute..." Bernard thought with a bothered look on his face until he noticed something specific about what Princess Hisui said. "You said "learn a spell." You want me to learn a specific type of magic related to Dragons?" He said as the soon-to-be queen and head of the knights nodded.
"We mentioned that you had the ability to tame creatures without magic required to gain their trust... However, what we ask will require you to learn a magic that will allow to have an ability to subjugate." Princess Hisui said as Bernard raised an eyebrow.
"A subjugation-oriented magic specific to Dragons? That exists?" Bernard thought.
"Two years ago, during the Grand Magic Games, we encountered a man who had access to a magical ability that we've never seen before. We don't have it archived in the Library of Sorcery that holds detailed knowledge of all the magics recorded in the country due to a sheer lack of information on it. This person is the only person we've ever known to have the knowledge to perform this spell." Princess Hisui said.
"This magic gave him the ability to control upwards of thousands of Dragons at a single time, all of which still had their cognition but were controlled by him. It's known as "Dragon Supremacy Magic."' Chief Arcadios said as Bernard looked at them with wide eyes. "Coupled with your talent to control sentient creatures, we believe that if you had access to this magic, you'd able to help protect the country in case of emergency which is why we are asking you to learn it... So, if the day comes, we're ever under attack from Dragons once again, we could potentially resolve the issue without the full destruction of both humanity or Dragons..." He explained. "Additionally, if you were to pass away, we would have the magic in our archives to pass on to future generations." Chief Arcadios thought.
"So... You want me to find this guy you mentioned and learn Dragon Supremacy Magic? Only then you'll help get my second guildhall approved?" Bernard questioned.
"If only it were that easy." Princess Hisui said with a headshake. "The man in question is someone who is definitely an enemy of every human being on the planet and brought a horde of Dragons to the kingdom to wipe out humanity when we encountered him." She continued.
"Well... He certainly sounds like a "polite" individual..." Corvus said sarcastically.
"What's his name?" Bernard asked as the princess looked at the head of the knights and nodded.
"His name is Rogue Cheney." Chief Arcadios said as Bernard recognized the name.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa... The guy from Sabertooth? One of the "Twin Dragons?"' Bernard said in bewilderment.
"...Not the "Rogue Cheney" you think." Princess Hisui said with a bothered expression on her face.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Shrine Village, 1:00 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Somewhere in the north-eastern part of Fiore was a small town consisting of a multitude of buildings that had small shrines in front of them, the majority of which had offerings of random snacks or objects on top of plates on them. In one area, two shrines were completely destroyed with their offerings scattered along the ground and random townsfolk looking at the destruction with worry on their faces.
"How could this have happened!? The shrines of "Amusnappa" and "Riaguraba" are completely destroyed!" A random male said in response to the damage.
"The ones these shrines were made for will not be happy about this..." A random female said.
Unbeknownst to the crowd of watchers, a familiar short man with a green sword on his back was running along the rooftops of the houses and buildings in the town, hopping from point to point as an individual was chasing him. Jumping to a building with a ton of space to move around, Warwick removed the sword from his back and pointed it in the direction of his pursuer.
"Man, you're giving me quite the workout, little lady!" Warwick said with a mischievous smirk as the person chasing him landed on the roof.
In front of Warwick was a girl in her late teens with a slender body shape that had short shoulder length green hair that parted in the center wearing a pinkish white miniskirt kimono with knee length white socks and sandals. Additionally, the young lady sported red skin, had a pair of short horns extending from her forehead and was a holding a double barrel flintlock-style pistol in her right hand but what was most peculiar was her face that seemed to be contorted into a demonic expression of pure rage and hostility with exposed teeth that had curved canines.
"Die!" The green haired girl shouted as she pointed her firearm at Warwick.
Pulling the trigger as the dual hammers on the end of her gun slammed down, a series of small bullet balls fired from the barrels as Warwick lifted up his sword, holding it like a baseball bat and swung it horizontally, swiping away the projectiles. With continued aggression on her face, the wooden parts of the gun suddenly glowed bright pink and the inside of the barrels shined briefly as the hammers near the grip of the flintlock pulled themselves back.
"A magic double barrel pistol that can reload and cock itself." Warwick thought as he looked on as the demonic faced girl readied another shot.
"Just die, you vile man!" The green haired girl screamed as she fired another shot of rounds at Warwick, who proceeded to stab his sword into the ground.
"Not today! Glass Devil Bulwark!" Warwick exclaimed, glowing briefly with a green aura as a barrier made of his green Devil Slayer Magic glass appeared with the bullets lodging themselves into the panel.
"Grrr!" The green haired girl shouted as she stomped her leg in a fit of rage.
"Awwww, that's adorable." Warwick said in a mocking tone as the green haired girl with a demonic face suddenly smirked in his direction.
Behind Warwick, another figure jumped into the air behind him, holding a tanto-style dagger in her right hand and lunged at the perverted short swordsman to stab him with it. Sensing the person's presence, Warwick proceeded to grab his sword from the ground and turned around, parrying the dagger strike as the person who attacked him quickly backflipped to make distance.
"There's the other one." Warwick thought as he locked eyes with the new attacker.
A young girl in her late teens with a petite body shape, just like the green haired girl with red skin holding the gun, but this time sporting shoulder length fuchsia hair and wearing a similar miniskirt kimono, socks and sandals combination but with a blue colored kimono over her equally blue skin. Much like the other girl, she sported a demonic expression on her face that had short horns sticking out of her forehead and an exposed mouth with curved canines while tightly gripping her tanto-style dagger in her right hand with a reverse grip.
"So close!" The fuchsia haired girl said loudly in agitation as Warwick's glass barrier disappeared.
"Keep him busy while I get a shot on him!" The green haired girl said as Warwick sheathed his sword over his back.
"Come on, girls. I only damaged those shrines of yours so you could come out and talk." Warwick said smugly as the two demonic girls continued to radiate vibes of hostility at him.
'"Damaged?!" You completely destroyed the shrines dedicated to our goddesses!" The fuchsia haired girl screamed while waving her arms in anger.
"Not to mention, we can smell the exorcist energy on you that could destroy us! Obviously, we'd want your head on a platter!" The green haired girl as she pointed her gun at Warwick yet again.
"Yeah, but that was just to make sure "something" could come out. Didn't think I'd find such fine demoness's such as yourselves but I'm merely doing this for someone else's sake." Warwick said with a shrug as the two demonic girls grew fed up with his talking.
"Enough crap!" The green haired girl said as she rushed at Warwick.
"Once we knock you out, we'll find out who sent you!" The fuchsia haired girl said as she readied another stab attempt.
As Warwick stood completely still, the two demonic girls failed to notice someone had appeared a few feet from where Warwick was on the roof, a familiar mummy-like woman who proceeded to telekinetically move the wrappings around her legs, arms and torso and stretched them out in the direction of the two demons. Grabbing the fuchsia haired girl with her bandages, completely tying her up and making her drop her weapon as she fell chest first onto the ground, the green haired girl quickly fired a round in the direction of the one who captured her fellow demon before getting ensnared and falling to the ground as well, dropping her firearm.
"Oh." Mummita said as some of the bullet rounds got struck her in the torso with a few passing through the large gaping hole in the center of her body.
"Huh?!" The green haired girl muttered as she looked up at the green skinned mummy lady who had several of her pinkish red bandages extending from her body like tentacles.
"...If I was alive, that would have seriously hurt." Mummita said with a casual tone as she started pulling the rounds from out of her chest.
"Nice work, Mummita." Warwick said as he walked over towards the mummy woman from behind and raised his hand towards her rear. "Now that's what I call "teamwork-" ow!" He continued until a few of Mummita's bandages extended from her and swatted away Warwick's hand.
"If I recall, I don't believe I gave you permission to touch me inappropriately. Nor did the one you expect me to serve giving you "free rein" either." Mummita said with her one eye glaring at the short and perverse swordsman from Psycho Circus.
"Yeah, but until you get to work for Bernie, I figured that means we're cool." Warwick said with a smirk as Mummita shook her head before noticing the two demonic girls were scrambling to escape their bindings.
"Urgh!" The fuchsia haired girl muttered.
"I can't move!" The green haired girl exclaimed as Mummita motioned for Warwick to pick up the weapons belonging to the two girls.
"I'll be taking those." Warwick said as he walked over and grabbed the dagger and double barrel.
"Don't touch our weapons!" The fuchsia haired girl shouted.
"Calm yourselves before I let you go." Mummita said as the two demon girls looked up at her. "You're not going to be able to fight back without those so don't think about doing anything, understand?" She said as the two demon girls looked at each other briefly before relenting.
"Fine..." The green haired girl said with a disgruntled tone.
"Sure..." The fuchsia haired girl said with equal annoyance as Mummita removed her magic wraps from around their bodies, allowing them to stand up.
"So, if I remember from those shrines, you're named "Praja, Worshipper of Riaguraba," am I right?" Warwick said towards the blue skinned demonic girl with fuchsia hair. "And you are "Honnari, Worshipper of Amusnappa." He continued towards the red skinned demonic girl with green hair.
"Don't say our names or the names of our revered ones, you scummy Devil Slayer." Honnari said through gritted teeth.
"The mere fact you're still alive is the work of pure luck!" Praja exclaimed angrily as Mummita put her hands up.
"Now, now." Mummita said with a calm tone. "I apologize on behalf of the one this one works for. This ball of perversion decided to be as obnoxious as possible with scouting you two." She said as the two demonic girls continued to glare at the Glass Devil Slayer as he stuck his tongue out at them.
'"Scouting?"' Praja said with confusion.
"What do you mean?" Honnari asked.
"You see, I work for a guy who is looking for some neat stuff like you both and was looking to see if you both would be on board with being some "allies" of his." Warwick said as he looked at Praja's tanto-style knife.
"You came to enslave us to someone who didn't show up themselves?!" Honnari exclaimed in disbelief.
"If you think we're just going to bow down to someone we haven't even met who is associated with someone who destroys places of worship, then you have something wedged in your frontal lobe!" Praja said with a defiant tone.
"Lucky for me, I looked up what your shrines worship the act of." Warwick thought with a smirk on his face as he looked at Mummita. "Mummita." He said.
"Sure." Mummita said as she reached into the crevice of her breasts and pulled out a folded picture. "This is the one I am going to serve in the future that we're hoping you feel interested in doing the same." She said as Praja reached up and grabbed the photo from the taller woman's hand.
"What kind of low-quality "master" is thi-" Praja said as she opened the photograph to see the image on it before stopping herself from speaking suddenly.
"As if we're going to just-" Honnari said with folded arms as she bent to the side to look at the photo, also suddenly ceasing any noise from her mouth.
"His name is Bernard. He's a bit of a "creature tamer" who is interested in some unique beings such as ourselves." Mummita said casually.
On the photo that was held in both of Praja's hands was an image of Bernard that appeared to have been taken while he was casually walking through the streets of Hemlock with his hands in his pockets, taken from a side angle. With the demonic girls' eyes widening, they looked at two specific parts of the photo of Bernard with intrigue.
"That round right..." Praja said as her monstrous face started to soften.
"The sounds that might make..." Honnari thought as her face started to soften as well.
"He's interested in collecting some entities for a project of his. Any takers?" Warwick said with a smug tone as Mummita raised an eyebrow while waiting for their answer.
'"...We're listening..."' Praja and Honnari said in unison as they looked up from viewing the photo of Bernard and looked at Warwick, their faces having changed from the sinisterly malicious expressions they had previously and now appeared to look like cute normal girls with half-closed eyes of curiosity as Honnari plucked the photo from Praja's hand and stuffed it into her kimono.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mercurius Castle, 1:47 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Stepping out of the private planning room was Bernard, his Celestial Spirit pets, the head of the knights Arcadios and the princess of the country Hisui. With a concerned look on his face, Bernard locked eyes with the soon-to-be queen as she looked at him with a serious look on hers.
"You have any more questions?" Princess Hisui asked as Bernard took off his beanie and scratched his head.
"I'm still uneasy about this..." Bernard said before putting his beanie back on.
"Not a question." Corvus said as Bernard and Vulp looked at him with annoyance.
"As we said in the room, it's unwise to have you go on this mission immediately, so we'll be giving you a weeks' time to prep yourself before you go." Chief Arcadios said.
"Grateful for that..." Bernard thought as he took a deep breath.
"We'll be putting the faith of the entirety of the Fiore kingdom in your hands, but we trust you'll succeed." Princess Hisui said as Bernard made a bothered expression.
"No pressure..." Bernard thought with sarcasm.
"Head outside the throne room and you'll find Riana. She'll send you back to Hemlock with Teleportation Magic." Chief Arcadios instructed as Bernard turned around and looked at the door.
"Th-thanks..." Bernard replied as he started walking with Corvus and Vulp following him.
"Hey, kid." Corvus said as he caught Bernard's attention.
"What is it...?" Bernard said.
"Better tell the rest of the crew about what we're doing, they're going to want to know." Corvus stated as Bernard approached the door.
"Definitely need to do that... We're going to need to do a lot of planning..." Bernard thought as he pushed on the door and exited the throne room, leaving behind the head of the knights and the princess.
"We can only hope and pray he pulls this off." Princess Hisui said as she started to walk towards the throne.
"A solo mission like this, even with an army of pets at his disposal, still means he has relatively low odds." Chief Arcadios commented as he moved to stand in front of the throne as the soon-to-be queen sat on it.
"Unfortunately, he doesn't have an "army." Just a "crew," like Corvus said." Princess Hisui said with a serious look in her eyes.
"We certainly don't want to see the young man dead so it might be beneficial on the part of the kingdom to maybe put some "resources" aside." Chief Arcadios said as Hisui raised an eyebrow.
"I believe you might be on to something..." Princess Hisui said as a small smile appeared on her face. "What did you have in mind?" She continued as Chief Arcadios smirked slightly.
"Might know some locations worth sending out a few knights to." Chief Arcadios said as he folded his arms.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hemlock, 2:00 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Appearing out of thin air, Bernard had returned to Hemlock with the assistance of Riana, standing in the center of a cobblestone street with her hand on his shoulder.
"Whooooa..." Bernard said while putting his hands on his head. "If I do that one more time, I'm going to puke." He thought while holding back the desire to vomit.
"With the knowledge that you've been given, I'd like to remind you that you must keep quiet about the finer details surrounding this mission you'll be on." Riana said with a plain tone as Bernard looked at her.
"I can't mention the stuff about weapons or the elements of the job outside of one aspect..." Bernard said with a hand on his stomach.
"Even saying that much is a bit of freedom that is surprising to me." Riana said as Bernard raised an eyebrow in response. "The princess and the general must have high hopes for you." She continued.
"Doesn't change the fact I have anxiety spikes right now because of this..." Bernard said with a tired voice.
"I'll be in town for the time being. On the day of the job, I will arrive to pick you up and take you back to Mercurius via Teleportation Magic." Riana said whilst bowing slightly at Bernard.
"Yup, am definitely going to throw up before I even go on the mission..." Bernard thought to himself as he bowed towards Riana before she disappeared into thin air using her Teleportation Magic, leaving Bernard alone in the middle of town. "Haaaaa..." He sighed before turning in the direction of Psycho Circus. "Think I'll go home and take a nap... After I tell Camilla what I'm doing, and she reams me for agreeing to it." Bernard thought as he headed home.
Projectile vomiting is considered the act of throwing up something with enough force that it could potentially harm someone. You think Slayers when they use their breath attacks are secretly just releasing a load of vomit from their stomachs since they can eat their individual elements? Never mind, that's a gross thought. After being sent to the capital of the kingdom, Bernard had a meeting with the princess, Hisui E. Fiore, and the head of the chivalric order of knights, Arcadios, to discuss his plans for a second guildhall, albeit in a rather nerve wracked manner. With the discussion moving in the favor of the royals as Bernard has reluctantly agreed to do a mission that could assist the entire kingdom of Fiore to acquire Dragon Supremacy Magic. But the only person who had access to such a magic is Rogue Cheney, but not the one Bernard is familiar with. What will happen now that Bernard has only a week to prepare before he has to go to this "top secret" mission? Find out next time on Menagerie II!