Chapter 72 – Visiting a King

Flying at a tremendous speed, Hinotsume and Mizukonta arrived at the ‘Kingdom of Garam’ in almost two hours.
The two sisters had a blast the entire time, enjoying the scenery and the sensations. As for Robert Keskula, he was thinking about the meeting with the Kings, and he only occasionally answered the excited questions from the two young girls.
For the last twenty minutes, they were at a great altitude, flying over the ‘Kingdom of Garam’ towards the Capital, as Robert had pointed out the moment they crossed the border. The Castle was on top of a hill, standing tall above the big Capital below.
As the Dragons were getting near, they started their descent towards the Castle, and that alerted the guards that were on the top of the walls. The alarm sounded, guards were rushing to the walls, and Mizukonta landed in front of the main gate outside the Castle while Hinotsume was flying in circles above.
She explained the purpose of their visit to the scared gate guards, and one guard went inside to turn off the alarm. After receiving her mental message, Hinotsume landed on the large patio, doing his best not to hit the outside walls or the Castle’s windows with his massive wings. He leaned down his body for his passengers to jump to the ground, with Robert going first to help the two young sisters.

While they were fixing their clothes and hair, a servant approached nervously to greet them. “W-Welcome. The King was informed, and he is expecting you in the Throne Room. Please follow me.”

Hinotsume asked, making the poor servant turn pale. “Which is it, the window or the balcony of the Throne Room? I want to watch over them, just to be sure your King doesn’t do anything stupid that forces me to torch this Castle and this Kingdom.”

“I-It is that one… right in front of you… on the first floor… that balcony leads to the Throne Room. You can see the King seated at his throne if you put your head there. Please, don’t break it, or I will be the one to blame!”

“If it breaks, it breaks! It won’t be my fault if that balcony was poorly built!”

The scared servant guided Robert and the two sisters, with the guards around them staring with a nervous look.
Hinotsume carefully adjusted his tail and sat on his bottom with his head right in front of the balcony.
As Robert and the two girls were walking inside the main corridor that led to the Throne Room, Hinotsume was staring at the room in front of the balcony in silence, waiting for the Nobles inside to notice that he was there. The King was distracted, reading some papers, and he didn’t look to his left, where Hinotsume was.
When the servant opened the doors, he walked towards the Throne with the visitors, who gathered many whispers and inquisitive looks from the court and the King.

After the servant introduced them, Robert made a deep bow and introduced the two nervous sisters, with Asadate taking one deep, slow breath before saying, “Greetings. Princess Mere asked us to come for a visit, to be sure her message was fully understood and there were no doubts about the presence of the Dragons in the Principality.”

“I received her message, yes, and despite my trust in the Princess, I am still apprehensive. Why did she send three youngsters instead of coming herself? She has so little consideration for me that she didn’t think it would be best if she was the one here?”

“Your Majesty, she wasn’t offered a choice. As you are surely aware, Dragons do what they want, when they want, and they don’t ask anyone what we think about it. Hinotsume is the King of the Dragons, and to him, we are like ‘Ergy’ that doesn’t deserve much consideration.”

The Nobles of the court became restless, and one older Noble said, “My King, it is an outrage to hear such things! Are humans merely a nuisance to Dragons? Preposterous!”

The King waved at the angry-looking Noble that was shooting daggers at Asadate with his eyes to be silent, and he said, “I understand that your young age might be the cause of your lack of experience, but it is not polite to go to another Kingdom and say such things to the King of that said country.”

Asadate made a slight nod with her face all red and spoke, “My age has nothing to do with it, your Majesty. Things are like they are. Humans and Beastkind are born, and they die, but Dragons live on. Nothing we do affects them, and they don’t get angry with us that often because we will be gone from this World in a moment. Neither of us lives long enough to annoy a Dragon to the point where they intervene in our affairs. Despite the way it sounds, we are in fact like ‘Ergy’ to Dragons.”

She then faced the still angry old Noble and continued, “It would be better for the continuation of this conversation if everyone realised that. Although Hinotsume and Mizukonta like to hear the Princess do her usual speech at the Academy of Adventurers every year, she has no power over them. She had to ask one of our friends and my younger sister to convince Hinotsume to bring us here.”

Asadate turned to the King again and explained. “Your Majesty, our visit is merely to reassure you that the Princess is your friend, and the Principality is still an ally. Nothing has changed.”

The King leaned back on his Throne and was slowly tapping the arm of the chair as he said, “I beg to differ. Having two Dragons staying at the Academy of Adventurers permanently changed things. It is a clear sign that the Principality is under their protection.”

From the balcony, the voice of Hinotsume made everyone in the Throne Room jolt, because that was when they noticed he was there, looking at them. “I beg to differ as well! My daughter lives in the mountains up north of this Kingdom, and she is making sure the population of Goblins, Orcs, and Drakes doesn’t get too dangerous for the people living here! Does that mean this Kingdom is under her protection as well? Or does it mean you are benefiting from her presence because she chose this Kingdom to live in? Meat sacs are always too full of themselves. Dragons don’t care what you do or how you live, but we take great pride in our duty, which is to make sure you prosper without fearing Monsters. We couldn’t care less if you die in some war against another country, because we don’t take part in meat sac wars. We would probably miss one or two meat sacs for a couple of years, but then new ones are born to take their place.”

The King gulped and said, “But… great King Hinotsume, you can’t blame us for worrying about your presence in the Principality!”

“Of course I can blame your stupidity! What do you think, that Princess Mere will ask me to torch this country if one day she disagrees with you and my daughter will come to your aid to fight me? Dragons don’t fight other Dragons! We have never done it, and we will never do it! It is against our nature! That is also why Dragons don’t meddle in meat sac business! Because if we did, we would fight among ourselves to protect the country where we chose to live and the people living in it! We don’t care about your pitiful bickering! Is that so difficult to understand? You argue for land, for money, for influence! That doesn’t concern us and never will! You will die from a fight, an accident, or old age, and we will live on! You and everyone in this room will turn to dust, and I won’t even remember your name two centuries from now! That is the importance Dragons give to meat sacs! Your kind thinks too much of yourselves, but you are barely important or worth remembering to us!”

The King slowly nodded and scratched his head before answering. “Hearing you say that is kind of depressing. I know that Humans and Beast-kind don’t live as long as Dragons, but having you here saying that we are not important… I try to be worthy of my position, and I do my very best to make sure my subjects have a good life… I… kind of hoped to be remembered, like everyone out there, I suppose…”

Hinotsume tilted his head a little and retorted, “You will probably be remembered by other meat sacs many centuries from now, but not by the Dragons. Your actions don’t influence our lives. You are not a threat to us or a friend. You are just one of many. The only thing different about you and every other meat sac living in this country is that crown above your head. You die like they do, and you live the average number of years every meat sac lives. You may have a better life than your subjects, but to a Dragon, you are a passing breeze. So that you know, every country in this World has a few Dragons living there. The only country that doesn’t have Dragons, is the Empire, because I don’t like Emperors. Every generation of them keeps on thinking they are far more powerful than they really are, and occasionally, they annoy a Dragon and face the consequences of such a foolish act. I prefer to see them inside their borders than have them marching everywhere.”

“That means that, if by chance, the Empire invaded the Principality, would you or any other Dragon stop them?”

“You forgot what I said. We don’t care about meat sac bickering.”

The King disguised a smile and asked, “And what if, during an invasion, the Academy of Adventurers was attacked?”

“With us there? Who would be a fool to do such a thing? But I get what you are going for with that question. Still, I won’t answer it, mostly because you seem to know my answer. Let’s just say that lately, I have been finding some interesting meat sacs and have been having some amusing conversations. Maybe I don’t want to lose that so soon, and that might cause a problem for the Empire if they get too near the Academy.”

“Your words, and what you said before, can also mean that if any other country attacked the Principality, as long as the Academy was not messed with, you would not care?”

Hinotsume slowly nodded with a serious look. “That is about right, mostly because if I went to that invading country to take revenge, it could make me fight my daughter or my son. And I won’t ever do that. Still, considering the peace of mind that grants you and your country our presence in the Principality because of the continuous threat that the Empire represents, you would be a major fool if you used a moment of distraction of the Princess to betray her. We wouldn’t intervene in that case, nor when the Empire invaded the Principality and marched to this country. And because my daughter would not intervene as well, you would cause the destruction of two countries. I know that meat sacs are not that smart, but you can’t be that stupid, or you wouldn’t be a King until now. Some of your Nobles would have already poisoned you.”

“Well, we are just talking, and I was not saying I would ever break our long-lasting treaty with the Principality or my friendship with the Princess. Still, one thing is worrying me. She doesn’t have an heir yet, and if she dies without one, that could cause turmoil in the Principality, with civil war caused by the Nobles that would want to rule, and the Empire could take that chance for an invasion.”

“She is aware of that, and according to what I heard today during one conversation when she thought no one was listening, she already has that covered. No need to worry. But it is not up to me or you to discuss her private matters.”

Robert Keskula interrupted, by asking, “Your Majesty, can I assume you understood all the implications of Hinotsume and Mizukonta staying more often in the Principality, and being almost every day at the Academy of Adventurers? Nothing has changed in the treaties between our countries, and Princess Mere was counting on your friendship, even with these recent changes.”

The King glanced at his Nobles and saw some smiles and nods. “You can tell her we still respect our treaties and that we value her friendship as well. And that I will send messages to other countries reassuring them. It would be better if you visited some Kings with Hinotsume, but maybe that is asking too much.”

“We were already counting on going to the ‘Kingdom of Gulvanbo’ today, after leaving here. I am not sure if we will have time to visit another country. That will depend on how things go there. If we have everything cleared here, and we are allowed to leave, of course.”

“I believe we have. It is a pity that you don’t have more time, because you and the two young Viscountesses are more than welcome to stay here and have dinner with us.”

Viscount Robert made a deep bow, and the two young girls did the same, as he said, “I humbly apologize, but maybe on another occasion. We must leave because we want to arrive at the Academy before nightfall.”

The King smiled and wished them a safe voyage. As they were leaving, and Hinotsume lowered his body to wait for them, one Noble approached and asked in a low voice, “My King, do you think they were telling the truth? I mean…”

“If you still have doubts about the words of the King of the Dragons, feel free to go outside and tell him that. To me, everything is clear. Hinotsume’s words didn’t give room for doubt. The Principality and the Academy of Adventurers are safe from the Empire while he is there, and with it, so is our Kingdom. To me, that is enough. Having the King of Dragons himself saying that he doesn’t like the Empire and prefers to see them contained is enough reason to ease all my doubts and concerns, even if he didn’t say that directly, but no one here has any doubts that it was what his words implied. What about if we discussed what I should put in my message to the other countries? Because that would be a more useful way of spending my time.”