Chapter 17

I breathed a sigh of relief as we were finally cleared through the last portal security checkpoint. Since I had priority, going through all that security hadn’t been that bad. I had just been stressed that something would go wrong and I’d miss the meeting with the queen.

I’d still have to pass through a bit more security. It was palace security though and they were expecting me. Considering I could see the set of carriages the queen’s servants had sent to pick us up I was confident there wouldn’t be any issues. Getting inside one of the carriages with Faye I realized they were far more luxurious than anything I had seen before.

I had seen pictures of the inside of a few luxury cars and mansions. The inside of the carriages made them all look like run down shacks. For one thing the inside of the carriages were far larger than the outside. Plus we couldn’t feel anything as the carriage moved. It was like we were sitting in a magnificently furnished room inside a mansion instead of a moving vehicle.

“How did they pull this off?” I asked Faye as I looked around the room.

“Portals. When we stepped into the carriage we actually went through a portal. Right now we aren’t in the carriage at all. We are in a secure building somewhere else on the planet.” Faye answered.

If she hadn’t been so serious I would have thought she was joking. “If they can do that, why not just have a portal going straight to the palace? Why use carriages at all?” I asked.

“It’s due to security concerns. Portals going directly to the palace aren’t allowed.” Faye explained.

I frowned. “Once the carriage arrives at the palace wouldn’t that count as a portal that is near the palace though?”

“As with all things there are exceptions. In this case the room we are in can only be accessed by a portal. Even so it is guarded by a team of swarm knights and barons under the command of a swarm count. It’s as secure as the palace itself. The reason it even exists is also for security reasons. A carriage could be a potential target, but if the carriage is destroyed we aren’t in the carriage.” Faye explained.

“Is being a swarm lord really that dangerous?” The security precautions I had seen were starting to seem overly paranoid. And we weren’t even at the palace yet.

Faye shrugged. “Remember swarm lords and knights are immortal. That gives them lots of time to think up paranoid security measures. Plus if you are immortal eventually something is bound to happen. Better to be prepared when it does.”

“By the way how is your swarm progressing?” Faye asked. The nano core factory had been packed away in my luggage. Which meant she couldn’t just look at the screen. Due to the mental connection I no longer needed to be holding the cube to manage my swarm. Although I still wasn’t letting it out of my sight. One of the servants that had silently followed us into the carriage was carrying the luggage bag the cube had been packed in. Pulling up the screen I relayed the relevant information about the number of drones, fabricators, and factories I currently had.

Time: 13,010

Resource points: 4,057,301,760,185

Nano Cores: 0

Nano Drones: 7,900,935,539

Nano Fabricators: 12,396,588

Nano Factories: 11,910

Purchase Micro Drone - Cost - 1,000 Nano Factories and 1 Micro Core required to purchase Micro Drone.

Purchase Internal Nano Swarm Upgrade - Cost - 100,000,000,000 Nano Drones

Purchase External Nano Swarm Upgrade - Cost - 100,000,000,000 Nano Drones

Use Revitalization - Cost - 100,000,000,000,000 Nano Resource Points

Give Mana Access - Cost - 100,000,000,000,000 Nano Resource Points

In the past day and a half I had made massive progressive. I still had a long way to go but I had built up a huge number of nano factories and fabricators. Sometime in the next couple days I should have enough to purchase both the internal and external nano swarm upgrades.

“You should buy the internal nano swarm upgrade as soon as possible.” Faye said.

I nodded in agreement, without that upgrade I was painfully vulnerable. Most swarm knights and barons would be able to kill me with just a thought. And that wasn’t even counting the possibility of a regular person attacking and killing me. Of course even with it a swarm count, duke, or the queen could kill me anyway. Still that limited the possible attackers significantly.

“Any final advice before I meet the queen?” I asked. It was a silly question since we had been over everything before. I was just nervous now that we were getting close to the palace.

Faye looked even more nervous than I felt. Of course she was a regular human stepping into the domain of what many people would call gods. “The best possible outcome for you from this meeting is to be as boring as possible. Be respectful and try not to stand out. If you want to be famous or powerful that’s fine but it’s better if you have had some time to establish yourself first.”

That was actually pretty good advice. And not something that Faye had mentioned before. Before the focus had just been on trying to make a good impression. Now it sounded like she thought I should try not to make too good an impression.

“Why the change? I thought before we talked about me trying to stand out. In a good way that is.” I asked.

Faye pointed out one of the windows of the carriage. We were coming around a bend so I could see our destination through the window. There was a massive gate in an even more massive wall that surrounded the palace. Pulled up in front of that gate was a large inordinately decorated carriage. In front and behind it were dozens of smaller carriages, each was still larger than the carriage we rode in.

I turned back to Faye. Before I could ask who was in the carriage she answered my question. “The symbol on the side of that carriage is the symbol of swarm king Josh.”

I shrugged. “Okay so the queen is married?”

“No. As in the Grand Swarm King that is above the Swarm Queen Andrea. He is the ruler of a hundred and nineteen swarm kings or queens. In terms of the milky way he is considered to be the thirty seventh most powerful swarm lord.” Faye said.

“How do you know so much about someone you have never met?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Faye looked out the window again. “It’s not classified information. I studied up on a number of the more powerful swarm lords in our galaxy.”

I couldn’t help but frown. She was deflecting and not truly answering the question. Perhaps it was just the warning from the assembly master but a part of me didn’t fully trust Faye. Over the past few days there had been a number of times that she knew information that she probably shouldn't have known. A week ago she had been a maid being trained to serve a swarm knight. Why would she have spent time studying information about the highest echelons of the galaxy that she was never going to meet?

This time, just like the previous times, I decided not to call her out about her knowledge. I was afraid it would turn into an argument. An argument I’d almost certainly lose. She could easily just say she had pulled up the information yesterday before the trip. I’d have to wait until she said something there was no way for her to know, and then call her on that. I’d still probably lose something in the argument but hopefully I’d also gain the truth.

“Why does the swarm king being here change things so much though? I mean the queen is already three ranks higher than me, does one rank make that much of a difference?” I couldn’t help but ask. I couldn’t imagine that a single rank higher made that much of a difference.

“Them being a grand swarm king isn’t what’s important. What is important is they are overly ambitious and have a tendency to gamble on the most outrageous things. Anyone that knows him will tell you that he has a gambling addiction. And something like the life and well being of a lowly swarm baron isn’t going to get in the way of their ambition, or the fun they have gambling. It will be much better for you if they just ignore you.” Faye said.

I cocked my head and looked at Faye. Detailed information like that may not be classified, but I couldn’t imagine that it was something that would be written down. At least not information that was so unflattering.

“That’s what I’ve heard at least. Like I said he’s the thirty seventh most powerful person in the galaxy. People gossip.” Faye said.

“Okay.” I simply said. She was far too eager for me to believe her about it being gossip. Then again I couldn’t prove it wasn’t. Back home if a famous actor or politician had a severe gambling problem that may also become gossip. It stretched credibility that Faye knew such detailed gossip about the man. Unfortunately not enough for me to prove anything.

I was tempted to push things further but at that point we arrived at the gate. Apparently the guards ahead of us had already finished processing the full swarm king’s procession. Which meant we were at the front of the line in less than a minute.