Chapter 29)

Before I knew it, I was in front of the king of Modena himself.

I knew that the castle in the middle of Modena was pretty huge, but I didn't expect it to be that big. The throne room was almost entirely a dark shade of blue, as standing atop a set of pillars were two grand chairs, where the king and queen of Modena sat.

"Ah, greetings. I wasn't sure when you would arrive, but it seems you are here now." The king spoke, as Barsanti, Iris, Morant and I stood listening.

"My name is Niccolo II, the king of Modena. This is my lovely wife, Queen Aria." Niccolo gestured to Aria, who gave us a warm smile. 

"I know your group courageously fought against the nightmares during the incident at the coliseum, and for that I am eternally grateful that you were able to save my loyal people from a night of terror." The king said, his sonorous voice echoing throughout the room.

"It was a pleasure, your majesty." Barsanti said, bowing as the rest of the group bowed alongside him. I wasn't really sure what to do when you're supposed to greet a king, so I just followed whatever they did, not wanting to seem rude.

"...But there is another reason I requested your presence upon my throne. Unfortunately, this was not the only event of nightmares causing terror near this region. Soon after you had saved my people, Trieste, another city under my rule, had contacted me concerning nightmares ravaging the city during the night." The king said.

"Have the nightmares been eliminated?" Barsanti asked Niccolo, only to be met with a simple head shake, as Niccolo looked distressed after Barsanti had questioned him.

"As a city along the outer edge, incidents of nightmares near this area are very rare. These have been the first sightings of nightmares in 15 years since I had ruled Modena, and without having to worry about the danger of nightmares attacking my people, I relaxed our ability to fend against them, which has come back to bite me, as I have left my people vulnerable to the nightmares." The king spoke.

"Even as we are forever indebted to you saving our people in Modena, we desperately ask for your assistance to fight against the nightmares in Trieste." Aria said, with a concerned look on her face similar to Niccolo's.

"Of course we will!" I said, it pained me to see the distressed look of their faces, knowing that they had no ability to go against the nightmares. "We'll get rid of them for you!"

Holding my arm, Iris pulled me aside, as she began to speak quietly, but somehow in a scolding manner.

"You know we can't allow you to be put in harm, right? What are you thinking of recklessly accepting such a mission, not knowing of the consequences that you could face?!" She said, looking me straight in the eye.

"They aren't asking very much of us, and we shouldn't let nightmares terrorize innocent people! Isn't your whole rebellion focused on eliminating the nightmares?" I spoke back, which left Iris shocked for a moment, before coming to her senses.

"We can take care of them, but we can't put you, at risk. You're too important to be taking on little tasks like these, and my mission was to take you directly to the elders." She said.

"Aren't I the hero of this whole thing? Why shouldn't I be the hero and protect the people from danger? Wouldn't that just be completely ignoring the whole reason I was brought here in the first place?" I replied.

"Is there something wrong?" Niccolo said, as Iris, who had been staring at me the whole time, sighed, and turned back towards Niccolo and Aria.

"We would be honored to take on the task, your majesties. It pains me to hear that those innocent civilians are being put under stress by those nightmares as we speak, and if you don't mind, we would like to request teleportation to Trieste." Iris said, looking back at me with some sort of 'I hope you don't regret this' face, which kind of hurt me a little.

"Great, now we have to go on some bullshit side quest. Why can't I just go by myself and finish this whole damn thing in five minutes?" Morant said, right before Iris hit him with an elbow to the rib.

"Of course we will be able to." Niccolo spoke. "Even as we are regrettably unable to fight against the nightmares, I have taught myself to use essence for means such as teleportation." 

Lifting up his hand, Niccolo began to close his eyes, as yet again essence began to encircle us.

"Teleport." He said, as within moments we were transported from his throne room to the plaza of Trieste, where the screams of nightmares and humans could be heard throughout the area.

"Alrighty then! Looks like we got some work to do." Barsanti jokingly said, as our swords began to illuminate into our hands. 

"While you guys go and slack off, I'll find the main threat and kill him first." Morant said, as a second later, he dashed off into one of the alleys, disappearing from our view.

"Wait, Morant!" Iris spoke out to him, but it was already too late.

"Ugh, why does he always do that? Doesn't he know that being in a group allows us to take on more enemies at once...?" She muttered to herself, before she regained her composure.

"Alright, we need to go and protect the survivors from the nightmares, Ogata. Follow me and don't get lost." She said, before beginning to run off towards the alley. 

"Are you going with us, Barsanti?" I asked, before he shook his head.

"I would just be a hindrance. Besides, I wouldn't be able to fight as effectively as you. I'll make sure to protect any survivors that I come across." He said, as I turned towards the alley that Iris was running in, making sure not to fall behind.