Audience

After a cumbersome three days of sitting in an enclosed space with Clauffer and Requa, I was finally able to see hope coming into view. From one of the windows I could see the Capital approaching. We hadn’t stopped along the way so my legs were feeling so sore. Not to mention we all had to sleep sitting up, except for Clauffer who had Requa move to my side so that he could lay down.

Seeing him lying down so comfortably every night made me want to light his hair on fire as he slept soundly. That way at least all of us would be suffering instead of just the two of us. However, it seemed sleeping sitting up didn’t really bother Requa. She would fall asleep seconds after moving to my side.

I guess only one of us was really suffering, but still. It wasn’t fair. If I knew it would have felt this stuffy I would have opted to go into one of the open carriages. I had been able to see some of the guards taking shifts lying down in the comfort of their cart. It would have been way better to just do that, or even just fly to the Capital and meet the King and Queen there.

Well whatever, we were already reaching the destination anyways. As soon as we reach the Capital I would be able to stretch my legs and finally have some fresh air. Oh, I see the gate coming up right now. Perfect.

As the cart approached the gate, a guardsman opened the door of the carriage.

“Oi, what do we have he--- LORD CLAUFFER!” He abruptly changed his tune.

“What does a degenerate like you think he’s doing using my name?” Clauffer questioned.

“Uh, sorry Sir!”

“So, why did you stop us?”

“Well I’ve been ordered to check every carriage for rebel activity.”

“And you think we’re rebels?”

“No Sir! I hadn’t realized it was you.”

“Oh, so a mere commoner thinks he can get away without recognizing nobility?”

“I’m truly sorry Sir! Please forgive me!”

“Well whatever, we’re in a hurry. Let us pass already.”

“Yes Sir!” The guard exclaimed.

Immediately after he answered he shut the door, blocking off my hopes of being able to go outside. The once fresh air that was making its way inside for mere moments had now been replaced with the suffocating air that had been in here before. I could only lightly and slowly laugh at the predicament in front of me. There was only one thing to do!

“Hey Clauffer.” I spoke, breaking the forming silence.

“Uh, what is it?” He responded.

“Well, don’t you think this is a good time to go outside for a little bit?”

“What? Of course not.”

“But why not?”

“Well we were going to stop for a bit, but after that guard screamed my name so loudly, surely the rebels know that I’m here.” He explained.

I couldn’t argue with that. After all, he was a pretty high profile noble, not to mention there was enough activity from the rebels to even cause the guards to stop carriages as fancy as this. This must mean that the rebels are about to do something. If we were to get off now, Clauffer would end up being an immediate target thanks to that.

But even while I understood that, my legs were also so sore. I knew that no rebels could even attempt to keep up with me, I was far too powerful for their kind. I could easily protect Clauffer, but he still was pretty hesitant. Hopefully I’ll at least get a chance to walk around the palace before I have to show off in front of the King and Queen.

It really felt like this carriage would take forever to reach the castle, though. Even though I could see it from the windows of the carriage, it didn’t make the city much smaller. The worst part was that we were going way slower than when we were on our way here. I guess it made sense since we were in such a crowded area, but couldn’t Clauffer use his noble privileges to get the crowd out of the way?

Thinking about it, that was a stupid idea actually. Those damn rebels were probably everywhere. Seriously, this was all the rebels' fault. I should just exterminate them and get it over with. It would be far simpler than going through all this trouble. But if the guards haven’t found where they are hiding, then it would be just as annoying to sniff them out.

I mean there was always a much simpler method. If Clauffer would just go outside and announce himself, I could simply destroy anyone who came for his head. It was a very simple solution that would essentially have no risk thanks to me. But I guess Clauffer wouldn’t be quite on board with that idea.

I guess I’ll just have to sit in here and be bored. My legs really were killing me now, though. Looking outside the window once again, it seemed finally the crowd had cleared out of the way. Hopefully it will be nice and quick from here. I couldn’t wait to properly see the ocean behind the castle.

As I had that thought, I noticed a small shining object heading towards us. It seemed familiar, maybe something like a fireball. However, if it was coming towards us, that meant it was bound to be trouble. But this may also be my chance to finally taste some fresh air. Anyways, I better prepare to block it.

As the object made contact with great speed, the carriage got launched slightly into the air by an explosion and was engulfed in flames. It began causing a commotion between everyone in the area.

“Sir Clauffer!” Some of the men tasked to protect him cried out.

With a gust of wind riding the carriage of its exterior, a ball of ice could be seen floating in the sky. As the ice melted around us, it became visible that we were slowly descending. Before the water could make contact with me and the other two who were holding on to me for dear life, the water evaporated due to the use of fire magic.

“That was quite some power, huh? Seriously, if I was caught off guard, that could have been bad.” I spoke aloud mostly to myself.

“Thank you Celestia.” Requa spoke calmly, still not changing her tone after almost dying.

“AAAAAAAA!” Clauffer screamed, seeing as he was flying above the ground.

We were slowly floating down, but I guess for the first time being this high up it would be scary. He also almost died if not for me. To be honest I kind of hoped Requa would have the same reaction Clauffer was having, but I guess even this was not enough for that.

Another one of the objects came flying into our direction. While I appreciated the effort, this was still far below my level. Freezing it over with a glance, the small object simply began falling downwards. Thanks to the second shot, I could identify where it had come from.

I’d like to take care of them myself, but for now, freezing their legs to the ground and letting the guards handle them was probably for the best. After all, it seemed like I was going to be the only one who could take these two to the castle safely.

“The person who carried out the attack is over there.” I explained while pointing in the direction.

Following my words, a portion of Clauffer’s guards went in the direction along with some of the Capital’s guards.

“The rest of you can meet us in the castle. I’ll personally escort these two there.” I spoke, taking off towards the castle as I finished.

Going fairly fast thanks to my wind magic, we arrived at the gates in no time. I chose to land in front of the gates so we could get proper access instead of looking like intruders. I slowly landed in front of the five guards at the gate. As I touched down, my legs faltered and I fell to the ground, dropping both Requa and Clauffer.

It seemed my legs were still asleep and sore from all the waiting we had to do. While I felt kind of bad for dropping those two with me, it should at least show Clauffer the issue of not stopping anywhere in between. We all got up, me a little slower than the other two since apparently I was the only sore one.

“Sir Clauffer and….who are you?” A bearded and burly man asked.

“Guard captain, we have been attacked! Let us in!” Clauffer yelled in haste.

“Attacked?”

“Hurry up and let us in! We can talk about it inside.”

“Right!”

The man who I suppose was captain of the guards opened the gates, staring at me the entire time. It seemed this man did not quite trust me yet, but maybe that made sense since I was essentially a stranger accompanying a noble into the palace. I wonder what he’ll think after learning I actually saved Clauffer’s life.

“So who are you?” The captain directed his question to me.

“My name is Celestia and I saved Clauffer’s life.” I chose to bring that up instead of other things.

“Is this true?” This time directing his question to Clauffer.

“Yes, she protected me from an attack. She is also the mage I spoke of who could cure wounds in a way far superior to others.” Clauffer begrudgingly agreed to my statement.

It would seem that Clauffer had set the meeting up beforehand then. The captain looked at me in disbelief. Maybe he was expecting an old man who had trained his whole life for the day he would be able to solve the mystery. While I did dedicate a decent part of my life to learning magic, I was not any random old hag. It seemed I kind of disappointed him a little, realizing it.

“We were attacked by something pretty strange.” I tried to strike up a conversation with the captain.

“Strange?” He replied.

“Well it was a small, but shimmering object going towards us at a decent speed. If the shooter had been closer, it may have been even harder to react to.”

“You’re saying there’s a shooter? Not some beast?”

“Well most likely. It seemed their attacks were pretty targeted towards us in particular, even though they were at a distance. I could also see the shots originating from a certain point.”

“Did you get to see the shooter?”

“Not quite. I’m pretty sure I froze their legs to the ground, but I left collecting them to the guards. After all, I thought it was better to prioritize their safety.”

“Good thinking. It was probably a rebel attack targeting Clauffer in specific. It would seem you and the maid were just collateral.”

“There were quite a few civilians in the area. I think some may have also gotten hurt. Do you really think the rebels would be behind it?”

“Yes. They don’t care who they hurt as long as they win.” The captain explained.

I felt heat building up in my body again, my fingers tensing a little. Their methods only seemed to increase my anger towards them more than it had been before. They would go as far as to attack innocent lives just to destroy a kingdom which had different ideals then theirs. It was quite disgusting to see.

“It would seem it has become time for you to meet the king and queen.” The captain remarked.

“What? Already? But I haven’t even had a chance to stop by the beach yet.” I complained.

“Celestia, you can go after.” Clauffer tried to hush my complaints.

“Did we really not have extra time booked?”

“Well we would have, but with the whole rebel incident, it seems most of our time has been drained.”

“Hahah!” The captain laughed at this.

I wasn’t sure what was so funny to him about this whole situation. Curse those stupid rebels. Thanks to them, my poor beach time was taken up. I swear I just wanted to tear each of them apart limb by limb at this point.

“I’ll take you to the throne room. After that, I’ll be more than happy to escort you to the beach.” The captain let out a smile.

“I guess I have no choice then. Let’s hurry and be done with this.” I responded.

Following behind the man, it finally dawned on me just how large this palace really was from this angle. It looked like it went so high up it would pierce the heavens and bring down a god from his slumber. Not to mention how wide it seemed as well. It was like the castle alone encapsulated the entire world, leaving nothing behind it.

The architecture of the castle made it seem like it was made of snow, but from the feeling of my shoes against the ground at the front of the castle, I could tell it was a well polished stone instead. It was possibly marble.

As we dawned closer to the entrance, a violet carpet which had covered the marble floor guided us into the place. The inside used a more grayish coloured stone for the floor and ceiling while maintaining the while marble for the walls. It seemed there were three different directions to go, each fitted with a different carpet colour. Thankfully the armour clad man gestured for us to follow him.

The path we were taking was a smooth path spiraling upwards. The carpet had changed from the violet colour it once was to a baby blue. The way up seemed like it would take forever to reach even if I used wind magic to fly my way up. As we kept following the carpet, I noticed as we went up there were rooms built into the sides we passed along.

Another interesting feature about this path was that while there was a wall and rooms to our right, our left side was completely open. I could see the entire Capital for one moment, but as we wrapped around a bit further, I could make out the glowing ocean. It’s crystal cerulean colour shimmered beautifully as though it was making itself out to be the only thing that would ever be behind this castle.

“This place sure is bigger than yours, eh Clauffer?” I joked with Clauffer a bit and poked his ribs with my elbow. This was perfectly acceptable to do for me as now he owed me a pretty big debt.

“Of course it is, you fool.” He responded with the only thing he could think of saying.

We climbed our way up for quite a long time. Each time I thought the end was near, I was only met with more pathing. As we made our way up, the carpet was only getting darker as we went along. At some point the carpet had finally become navy blue.

There wasn’t much I could see outside of the opening by our side now. However, while the ocean wasn’t in view anymore, there was something equally breathtaking. A cloud had been beside us, just waiting there. The sight caused me to slowly move closer to the opening so I could feel it.

As I went to touch it, my hand simply went through it with little resistance. It seemed that sleeping on clouds would not be something I would be able to do then. Maybe if I paired it with wind magic to keep me afloat it could still work.

“Alright. We’re finally here.” The captain broke his long silence, breathing heavily.

“Finally.” I complained.

“May I introduce His Majesty, King Superious Eleguaff and Her Majesty, Queen Magnifis Eleguaff.” He announced as he opened the door which quintupled my height.

The throne room which I could see was massive. Not only was it decorated in the royal colours of dark amethyst and cobalt, it also had enormous thrones for the King and Queen. The back of their thrones reached to the roof which seemed to tower above me so high I could barely make it out.

The King and Queen seemed equal in height, but I realized The Queen had been much, much taller than The King. The illusion of equal height had been caused by The King's seat of his throne being raised so that his head would align with The Queen.

“My, what a lovely young lady.” The King spoke.

“My, I think she is quite dull dear.” The Queen responded to his statement.

“Why, quite right you are honey.”

While their comments made me want to burn them all to ash at that moment, I decided to hold back. It wouldn’t give me a good reputation if I killed them after all. These were the same people Fae swore to protect.

“Your Majesties, I have come to bring you a new technique for healing magic I have found.” Clauffer spoke, trying to make his presence known.

“Ah yes, Clauffer. We had heard you found a way to push healing magic further.” The Queen replied.

“Yes, go ahead and show us.” The King continued.

“Very well! Celestia, go ahead.” Clauffer spoke to me this time.

“On who? No one is injured.” I replied to his rushing.

“Just cut off Requa’s leg or something.”

I looked towards Requa at the words Clauffer had just said nonchalantly. She nodded with approval. Well it seems I’ll be healing Requa then. Couldn’t they just have brought someone with a missing arm or leg? I guess it would take quite a while to get them up here. Oh well.

I swiftly cut off Requa’s leg by turning my wind magic into a wind blade. It had been sliced off before she could even realize that it was missing. Even when she looked down to see the blood she remained silent, but it was obvious to see her holding back the pain on her face. The blood that was spraying out all of the floor caused a puddle to start forming and was staining the carpet. Requa fell into her own blood.

Working quickly, I used electric magic to lightly shock the area where her leg had been cut and also shock the cut limb. After being able to find the nerves, I reconnected the severed limb to where it had belonged and began healing. After a mere thirty seconds, her leg had been completely restored, but the puddle of blood was still on the ground and had slightly stained the bottom of my dress.

Requa got up from the floor and showed off her newly healed leg. She was able to move it around completely and even show herself sprinting and jumping. It seemed the blood loss did not quite affect Requa as it had me when I first cut one of my limbs. Still, it seemed she was slightly more wobbly than she normally had been.

“Incredible.” The King showed his amazement.

“Quite the discovery.” The Queen joined in his amazement.

“Even though it’s only in the early stages, you can still see it’s quite effective.” Clauffer responded to their praise.

“Why yes, once it’s perfect it shoul---.” The king was abruptly cut off by a rumbling.

“What was that?” The Queen asked the captain.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we were under attack. We should get everyone to safety. Quickly, follow me!” The captain expressed as he made his way towards an out-of-place small wooden door in the corner.

Everyone began following the captain, but I chose not to move from where I was.

“What are you doing? We have to go Celestia!” Requa told me as Clauffer was leaving.

“Go on without me. I’ll take care of things here.” I responded.

“What? But what if it’s the rebels?”

“I’m counting on that actually. We need to kill them anyways, right? This makes it quite a lot simpler to do if they all come to me.”

“But…”

“Go. Protect Clauffer and the royals. You know how strong I am after all.”

“F-fine, but you better come back to us!”

“Oh don’t worry. I have absolutely no intention of dying.” I answered her concerns, prompting her to take off behind Clauffer.

While no one was here, I took the opportunity to hide the satchel which held the cumulative findings of my research in the corner of the room. This should at least help protect it from any possible dangers. I would need this after everything was done.

You’ll be coming here won’t you ‘demon’? I’ll still make sure you fall alongside your pitiful revolution.