Mid Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

Seeing Father and Sarah arguing about something, I turned to go and explore the rest of the room but was stopped by Oliver.

His forced smile looked a bit uncomfortable. "So how about I give you a little tour while they're.. doing that."

-He sure has good timing, huh..- "Sure, that'd be nice."

"Alright, well, let's start with the house and storage then." Seeing me casually agree, he finally started to ease up.

As we walked, I decided to ask a question weighing on my mind. "Isn't this place a bit too secure to just be a shelter? Is the vault or treasury here as well?"

The question caught Oliver a bit off guard but he still answered without much hesitation. "Yes, although this place was mostly built to give our family a place to come if something major happens above ground, it also contains our vault. It's in that building over there along with a few years worth of food supply." He casually motioned towards a crude stone building not far from the cottage.

-Isn't that a bit crudely built compared to the house?-

The storage was crudely cut out of stone, compared to the gorgeous 2 story wooden cabin. -They're both sturdy but man is that storage ugly..-

"Out front we have a small grass area, and in the back we have a basic garden. The 'real' garden is in the stone building over there though."

-Im sorry, what?-

As I was thinking, Oliver turned around and looked at me like he was waiting on me. "Do you want to take a look inside?"

-Oh whoops..- Quickly turning back into my humanoid form, we made our way inside.

The layout of the house was simple, with a large open area by the entrance, an office, full size kitchen, and 4 bedrooms with 2 baths. It was far beyond what I was expecting considering the era this world was in. Everything even had running water, albeit using artifacts.

Next was the storage building, although it was simply stone on the outside, the inside was rather intricate.

The building was divided into 3 sections, with the largest being a solid farm, easily enough to sustain a family.

It used artifacts to regulate everything from temperature and humidity to light cycles to simulate time of day.

-Wow..- "This is quite the feat of engineering.."

"Engineering?"

"N..nothing."

As we walked back into the main hall, we peeked our heads into the next area. Simply put, it was a massive produce freezer, using artifacts to keep everything frozen.

It was filled with everything from quality meats, to various sauces, vegetables and even juices and alcohols.

But although it was interesting, I was more curious about something else.

"Is there a reason why it's just made of this stone?" -Or was it just you guys being lazy..-

"Of course! This stone has extremely good properties for regulating things like temperature, humidity and light cycles, allowing us to simulate any conditions we want on the inside of individual rooms without it escaping."

-So.. It's just rock with good insulation?- It took a minute for my mind to realize this language didn't have a word for insulation. -I guess that's why his wording sounded so.. unusual..-

As I finished thinking, we arrived at the end of the hall where the vault was.

"And this is the vault, but we should save the inside for another day. It seems I'm running out of time." Oliver was trying to be formal, but I felt as if he was just making an excuse.

"Do you have another meeting?"

"Yes, I have to promote a new Nation rank adventurer."

-Oh, that could be interesting!- "How about I go with you? You never know when something might happen."

As we walked outside, he looked towards the other sections of the shelter. "Are you sure you don't want to check out the other rooms?"

"I can always explore them later, it's not something that only comes once in a while like seeing a Nation rank." I was dying to see what the 'peak' of adventurers looked like.

"I mean, you could just… Nevermind, feel free to come along if you want to. Just please don't make a scene.." As he turned around, he motioned at Helen and headed to the lift. She seemed a bit disoriented but mostly normal.

"Father, I'll be back shortly." I wore an excited smile as I followed Oliver and Helen.

He glanced over nonchalantly. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see the new Nation Rank that's being promoted."

"Oh okay, just don't scare them too much." He was quick to turn his attention back to Sarah and continued to let Lucy closely examine his scales.

"Lucy.. do you want to come with Vasilias?" Helen lethargically extended the offer even though Lucy was thoroughly enjoying herself.

"Huh? Oh…" She sounded reluctant before giving it some thought and sliding off of Father's leg. "Okay, I guess I should probably see who it is…" She looked fairly disappointed.

Helen was quick to give her some reassurance though. "We won't be long, you can sit on Osto more when we get back."

Lucy's face was quick to light back up. "Then let's get going!"

Lucy was quick to dash up to us as we stepped onto the lift.

-I wonder what kind of person he will be… Or maybe it'll be a she..-

- Michael Cotorel ~

Finally making it to the palace, I was stopped by the guards at the gate. "Sir please show your ID and reason for being here."

Already having them out, I handed the knight the meeting notice from the guild and my ID. "I have a meeting with his highness to actuate my promotion."

"Hm. Sir Cotorel, please wait a moment while I confirm this information." He showed forced formality as he walked inside the gate and called over his superior.

The man he handed the papers to gave a harsh glare before handing the ID back to the knight.

"You're free to pass, congratulations on your promotion sir Cotorel." The knight handed me back my ID as he opened up the gate.

"Thank you." Putting it back in my pocket, I quickly made my way inside. -I wonder what kind of person the king is..-

For the citizens of Kaelallan like me, the king was not seen very often and had even earned the name 'Hidden King', but that didn't mean people didn't like him.

It was actually quite the opposite, the citizens absolutely loved him. Not only was he a king who was a strong leader, but he was also someone who loved his people, and went as far as to give policies and opportunities for peasants to climb into the middle class. It was something almost never seen elsewhere.

He was a king I could take pride in serving so I wanted to make the most of this opportunity. -I need to make a good impression at all costs..-

"Sir Cotorel, his highness is getting ready. Please wait here for a moment." The maid I followed inside motioned me into a room just inside the main door.

As I sat down, I reached onto the table and grabbed myself a bit of buttered white bread. -Wow.. That's really good..-

Truly fluffy white bread was a rarity even for royalty in other kingdoms so to be able to have any at all was bliss.

But my enjoyment quickly came to an end. "Sir Cotorel, his Highness will see you now, please follow me."

Quickly wiping my mouth, I set down my plate and cup of tea to follow the maid. -Alright! I need to look good, feel good, and sound good. I got this!-

It didn't take long to arrive at the room.

"This is the meeting room, his highness will be with you shortly." She gave a polite bow as she opened the door for me.

Behind the door was a simple room with two couches facing each other and a table between them. The table also had a small basket of sweet pastries on them but I dared not touch them. -They're probably for the royal family and not me..-

As my nervousness started to build up, there was a long and eerie silence that filled the room.

It made my gut feel like something bad was going to happen but I was quick to suppress it. -Now isn't the time for doubt.-

*Click*

Hearing the door open, I quickly fixed my posture and calmed my nerves. -There's no reason to be worried..-