Chapter 40 Strongest Sage, Has an Audience with the King

 

"...Is an audience with the king something that can be done so easily?"

Several days after I killed Devilis the demon.
I went to the Royal Palace with the principal.
He came out of nowhere, 『You're free today right? Come with me to the Royal Palace for a bit』, and dragged me.... Just what's going on here.

"Don't be foolish. There's no way you can meet the king that easy."

"Then who is it besides the king?"

"No well, we're meeting the king alright."

"I don't think merely beating one demon is worth...."

"Killing a demon solo is a great achievement unheard of since the dawn of history. The Royal Palace's internal is even discussing about creating a new medal for your sake, though it isn't publicized yet."

"Eeh...."

"By the way, a medal was newly made solely for a party of six who killed a demon 100 years ago."

Something like that huh....
I guess this is unavoidable in an era where the demons have slipped in and thoroughly destroyed techniques to defeat them.
Apparently, the demons didn't slip in recently.

"....Oops, this is the room."

The principal stopped in front of a door inside the palace.
The door isn't that well decorated but it looks quite sturdier compared to other doors. The wall is likely thick too. I know, I can sense some difference in the mana reaction.

"It's Edward."

The sound of a key came from the inside and the door opened.
There are maids-san and a dignified-looking man inside the room.
I feel like I've seen a man with this kind of atmosphere in my past life.

It was of my acquaintance in my past life if I'm not mistaken.... He has the same atmosphere as the king of Manilia Magic Kingdom.
....The King!?

"It has been awhile, Edward."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty."

Seeing the principal knelt down, I also did the same.
I'm not really familiar with formalities in the present era.... Well, I should just imitate other people.

"You and I are friends. No need to be that stiff as this isn't a formal audience."

"I'm honored to hear that, but Your Majesty is the king of this country...."

He really was the king.
And it seems principal Edward knows the king.
No wonder they let them in quite easily.

"And, is the boy over there the hero of the recent matter?"

"Yes. He is Mathias Hildesheimr, the one who killed a demon solo, and made a huge contribution to the progress of chantless magic at the Second Academy."

"I see. ...Indeed, he has quite a well tempered body for one so young. Ah. I will introduce myself just in case, I'm Eist Graya. I'm the king of this kingdom."

Some kings occasionally came to visit my house in my past life, but I had never thought that I would meet one in less than 20 years after my reincarnation.
Still, he's quite friendly, is this alright? Normally a king shouldn't easily introduce himself like this....

"My name is Mathias Hildesheimr, I'm a first year student of the Second Academy."

I don't really know how to do this, but I tried to introduce myself for now.
If they demanded formal etiquette from me, they would have taught me some beforehand.

"Good work on the subjugation this time. Usually we would have done a grand announcement and give you a territory to govern....."

I don't need no territory! Nuh uh, nope!
After all the trouble of reincarnating myself for the sake of magic combats, why should I be forced to have a territory.
Well, it might not be that much of a burden if I just push the responsibility to someone who can manage a territory, but please at least wait for another 20 year first.

"However, if we were to announce that demons have slipped into humans, the whole kingdom would inevitably fall into a huge confusion. Moreover, frankly speaking, we would like to avoid having the hero who beat a demon alone be tied to a territory. Of course I promise to grant you the highest credit once this matter is settled. Would you wait until that."

"With pleasure!"

It'd be sad if I were forced to govern a territory.

"Much obliged. ...However, now the problem is your reward. Even with the circumstances, we ought to give you a reward.... Right. How about a magic sword?"

"Magic sword.... is it?"

"Indeed. We took hold of a powerful magic sword incomparable to other national treasure grade swords just recently. It has been augmented with two magic that have never been seen before. The owner of the shop where that sword was found said that the sword was augmented by a child who happened to pass by.... It sounds too unrealistic that some even hypothesize that that child is the incarnation of Magic God."

So there's such a magic sword around....
But I don't think there's any point in me getting a dual augmented sword.
I can make more powerful magic swords as many as I want once Ruli is able to augment properly and I teach her some trick to it.

"....Your face looks like you're saying that you don't need it. Well, I do not mind if you take other thing. We will open the treasury later, you can take anything you fancy there."

"I'm very grateful for your generosity."

Picking anything I want from the royal treasury huh. That's quite grand.
Hopefully there's something interesting inside.

"However, it's still too little of a reward for Mathias's achievement. We can give you multiple treasures, but.... Do you have any wish yourself?"

Wish huh.
I remember this formal etiquette, 『As you wish Your Majesty』 in my past life, but this isn't necessarily true in this era.
Guess I might as well take this chance to ask for something big.

"I would like to acquire the right to use the resources of all the dungeons in this kingdom."

"Dungeon resources.... Do you mean ores produced by monsters and veins?"

"Yes. Everything that can be taken inside the dungeons including those. Of course, I'm not asking to monopolize them. If my associates and I are allowed to take the resources inside dungeons...."

Dungeons hold the most supreme resources inside them, surpassing even the highest quality gold vein.
This condition would have been flat out rejected, like 『Inconceivable』, in my past life, it could never even be considered as a term in a negotiation.
However, the sense of value in the current era is quite off of the past one. It would be super great if they gave me the right to even a part of it.

"I will happily comply if you are fine with that. From hence on, Mathias Hildesheimr as well as his associates will not be imposed with dungeon taxes, nor will they be restricted to enter a dungeon."

Yay! A huge success!
Now I can easily get my hand on monster's materials and magic metal.

"Also, if you want a dungeon, I'm considering giving you one along with a territory.... How about it? Of course, the kingdom will cover all the administrative expense. Dungeons are money loser after all."

The king let out this wonderful suggestion when he saw me doing a light triumphant pose.

"By all means, please!"

Resources get! They'd even cover the administrative expense for me, what heaven is this.
It's so favorable that I almost feel like I'm deceiving them here.

"You're quite unselfish, I thought you would ask for more."

Unselfish, no way. There's nothing more avaricious than this.
I almost replied that, but I kept my silence.



"Then let's proceed to the next issue. Regarding the demon in this matter.... There is no mistake that Devilis the Heaven-sent Child of Magic was a demon is there?"

"Yes. It's undoubtedly true. His crest was fake, and the magic he showed were chantless magic disguised as chant ones."

"So it's true.... As a matter of fact, the four Heaven-sent Children of Magic in this kingdom have all disappeared."

Ah. So all the Heaven-sent Children of Magic really are all demons....

"The Magic Division commander, Elhart is also included among them. Furthermore, it seems the existences thought to be Heaven-sent Children of Magic have existed for several hundreds years. ...In other words, our country had been secretly under control of the demons for several hundreds years. As Magic Division plays the most important role in coming up with countermeasures against demons."

That means, there is no organization in this structure called country that can win against the demons now.
It seems the demons purposely didn't completely crush human forces since there was a possibility that some problem might arise for them if humans were excessively driven to the wall.
"What do you think I should do?"




<Author's Note below>
Dungeons were regarded like oil fields in Mathi's past life.




















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