Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 17

Nearby, doors opened, and a crowd shuffled in. All of them wore fine garments that matched what Frank was wearing. Most were fairly low level, but delicate features and untanned skin unused to hard outdoor labor told me this was the city’s nobility. There must have been a second way up to the palace throne room, because I doubted a single one of them could have made the climb up those steps.

We waited for the gallery around us to fill up. Frank looked increasingly awkward as he realized how much of a crowd there’d be. Public speaking had never been part of his job description, and even now that he was leader of the largest adventuring guild in Crownhill he didn’t give very many speeches.

Sadly, I hadn’t been able to dodge that aspect of leadership as well as he had. But even so, dumping lots of points into Charisma had made crowds far less intimidating than they had been in the past.

Once the chamber filled up and the nobles found room to stand, the old woman on the biggest of the sage's thrones addressed Frank again. She spoke with volume and clarity that required a lifetime of practice. She seemed warm enough, but beneath it all, I sensed a politician at work.

“My name is Balencia, Grand Sage of Camlaan. You have done us a great service, Hero Frank,” the old woman began.

“Aww, shucks. I just did what anybody would have done.” Frank shuffled his feet, looking out of place in a medieval court robed in gold-trimmed finery.

It had probably been tough enough for him to adjust himself from desk jockey to guild leader, but at least most of that was just paperwork. Addressing a royal court like this was so far out of his usual job description, it was a wonder he could stand here at all.

“You clearly have the heart of a hero. Such bravery, courage, and selflessness is deserving of great reward,” said Grand Sage Balencia.

“Well, I didn’t do it for any reward.” Frank stared at the intricate throne room floor tiles. They were quite pretty, I had to admit. Each square was made of fine stone, and perfectly even lines of gold filled the gaps instead of grout. At the corners of each tile were precious gemstones.

The walls and roof were even more greatly decorated, as was the ceiling high above. All of it seemed in stark contrast to the plain, empty throne in the middle of it all, though the sage’s smaller thrones fit in better.

“And that is why we know you have the heart of a hero.” Grand Sage Balencia smiled warmly down at Frank. She seemed quite satisfied with what she saw.

“Hero Frank, we would like to extend a grant offer to you. Thanks to your skill and martial prowess, we would like to appoint you a lord of these lands, complete with title, office, and fiefdom. Of course, we would need an oath from you promising fealty and strength of arms to help defend the weak, but for a hero such as you, that is no doubt a small thing.”

The nobles lining the walls muttered in quiet whispers. I couldn’t tell if they were pleased or displeased, but it was likely the latter. In my experience, hereditary nobility didn’t like new entrants into their court unless they came with a lot of new favors to pass around. I'd certainly had my work cut out for me marrying Myrina.

Frank rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he glanced between Grand Sage Balencia and the whispering crowd. The Grand Sage rubbed at her throne, and I sensed mana flaring in the chamber around us. The sound of whispering dimmed until it was hardly audible as mana dampened the sound everywhere except for around Balencia and Frank.

I traced the flow of mana from the Grand Sage through the floor tiles. Looking down, I realized there were enchantments embedded in the pattern of stones and tiles beneath me. It had been so artfully and subtly done that even I mistook them for simple floor patterns. I doubted anyone else besides the sages even knew they were there.

“Oh, gee... thanks guys. I really appreciate the offer...” Frank glanced in my direction.

I took that as my cue and stepped forward. I held my head high. In my time since joining the Arcadia Multiverse, I’d spoken with crowds larger than this, and to people far more powerful than this circle of sages. They might have been able to intimidate Frank with their showmanship, but not me. I cleared my throat and spoke.

“Sir Frank the honorable is already a figure of some importance in our homeland. While your offer of lordship is a kind one, ultimately, it would conflict with his duties at home and the many people counting on him.”

Frank nodded and shrugged helplessly as he looked to the sages.

“What he said. Sorry guys, I’m taken. No noble titles for me. I’m happy to help, but I just can’t commit to anything at the moment.”

Balencia’s slight smile inverted, becoming a slight frown. The whispering in the crowd redoubled in intensity, and she adjusted the enchantment on the floors to quiet them again, but it looked like her glare at the crowd was doing more work than the enchantment.

“While disappointing, your refusal is not entirely unexpected. Naturally, we will respect your decision, though the offer will remain open to you should you change your mind. We will continue with the feast and celebration we had in mind anyway. I, Grand Sage Balencia of Camlaan, declare this day a holiday. We shall celebrate Frank the Hero’s victory over the vile traitors that plague our lands. Let us celebrate, one and all!”

Grand Sage Balencia clapped her hands, and decorative colorful ribbons fell from the ceiling, trumpets immediately flared to life in the throne room, then again in the rest of the city outside the palace.

I grimaced as I saw servants hauling out wine barrels. Parties and I had a bit of a bad history.

Frank leaned in close to whisper to me. “Rescue me any time you feel like it.”

***

Much as I disliked most parties, I didn’t want to ruin Frank’s chance to make a few connections here, that way Crownhill could establish a line of communication with this faction the same way Sakura had made a few connections in New Kyoto.

It would also set Frank up to be our go-to guy for coordinating with these people, much to my delight. Though I hadn’t been an emperor long, I’d learned that the essence of good leadership lay in the delegation, and I intended to delegate an awful lot of work to Frank for this stage of the integration. After all, I planned to be busy as a new father. I couldn’t be spending my days wagging tongues with nobles when I was needed changing diapers back home.

While Frank was locked in polite conversation with the highest-ranking nobles and the grand sage, I made my way over to the weakest of the sages. She was a bespectacled woman who looked to be somewhere in her thirties, which made her much younger than her peers.

I saw her sipping a glass of wine and figured she was my best bet if I wanted to pry the secrets of the ancient Architect colony ship out of these sages lips.

Between a bit of alcohol, a friendly smile, and just about every charisma skill I had at my disposal, I soon had her sharing secrets with me that she was likely supposed to keep to herself.

“Oh yes, I had to go through the integration twice, you know. Bonding with the ark was painful, but it was worth it for the levels it could provide. The ancient records state it was a prototype used to create what we now know became the System. Our ancestors were truly talented to create such a cosmos-spanning machine. Even the prototype in the depths of the ark is more complicated than I can comprehend,” the young sage said.

I learned her name was Lydwyn, youngest and newest of the sages and uncertain of her role now that the world had changed. Out of all of them, she seemed most willing to open up to me.

“And has it started acting strangely now that you’re also connected to the System?” I asked curiously.

Lydwyn nodded. “It has! I don’t know what’s gotten into it, but the ancient cogitators are a mess, and our skill transfer system only partially works. Truthfully, some of us have taken to using the new System more. Though we fear as the common folk and the soldiers gain levels, we may not keep things under control much longer. All the sages have been fighting and leveling as fast as possible to keep our lead on the people, but a few of the soldiers are nearly C-Grade already.”

“What are you doing with these soldiers?” I asked curiously.

“The professional soldiers are being stationed further and further afield to keep these monsters at bay. The casualty rates are high, as it takes ten soldiers to kill most of the monsters we’ve encountered. But the veterans who’ve survived since the early days are a force even we must treat with some respect. Without more leverage, the balance of power will shift, and who knows what common soldiers will do with such authority.” Lydwyn shrugged her shoulders, plucked her rounded spectacles from her sleeves and polished them absentmindedly, though they looked clean already.

Lydwyn seemed less concerned with the Sorcerer faction, like the Dark Sorceress and the Black Knights, and more concerned with disunity in Camlaan’s own ranks. She seemed to think the sorcerers were a minor nuisance that would be wiped out as soon as they had their house in order, but I wasn’t so sure. It seemed to me that this city would be defeated sooner or later unless they raised more elites. Even an army of a thousand F-Grade knights would be of little use against a hundred C-Grade ones like the force Frank had fought off.

I would have liked to keep grilling her a while longer. As the party reached its apex, Grand Sage Belencia made an announcement.

“As is custom for these celebrations, we are once again opening up access to the Sword of the Warrior! Long ago, our first and only king proclaimed that we would know his return by whosoever drew his sword from where it rest embedded in the stone deep within the ark. Let Frank the Hero be the first to make the attempt.

Frank stood awkwardly by the Grand Sage’s side, but already a line was forming behind him, consisting of most of the city’s youthful nobility.

I looked around, searching for a sword until the sage I’d been chatting with pointed at a pillar toward a balcony off the throne room side that overlooked the city. When I looked closer, I realized it wasn’t a pillar at all, but an old and rusted sword as tall as a building. It was embedded in a block of adamantium alloy as large as a bus.

“Draw that? It’s massive!” I exclaimed.

Lydwyn laughed. “I know. But legend says the first king wielded it with speed and grace. Perhaps he was a giant ten stories tall.”

“Can anyone try to draw it?” I asked curiously.

“Try your luck. I’ve attempted twice before and would prefer to keep drinking. I will keep our cups safe,” Lydwyn said.

So I parted ways with her and joined the line to try the sword. We all watched Frank at the front press his palms against either side of the massive blade that was as big around as he was. He heaved and tugged with all his might.

The floor rattled, and a few people sucked in a breath. Grand Sage Balencia paused what she was doing to watch with renewed interest and a bit of sudden nervousness, but it turned out to be nothing in the end. The rattling had been nothing more than Frank’s B-Grade strength. The sword hadn’t budged.

“Looks like I’m not the one true king.” Frank chuckled, shrugged, and walked off.

Afterward, the nobles took turns. The older nobles stood off to the side, so the crowd at the sword was mostly hot-blooded and young as each of them tested themselves against the mighty weapon. None drew as large a reaction as Frank. The sword rested deep in its adamantium scabbard, not rising in the slightest no matter who pulled at it.

Eventually, my turn came, and I examined both the sword and the base more closely. What I’d previously thought to be mere adamantium turned out to be a lot more complex.

There were delicate enchantments here carefully woven through an interdimensional energy matrix. A series of six independent mana gates sealed the sword in a zone of spatial distortion. No amount of huffing, puffing, and pulling would draw this blade from its resting place.

In essence, the weapon was magically locked in place. Each of the six mana gates was a lock and could only be opened by a very specific password in the form of a mana signature. Whoever had designed this system had been quite clever, or at least well versed in deeper magical traditions than existed in the modern era.

I tried the sword anyway, and it didn’t budge. I watched mana ripple through the system, test my mana and wait for me to give the six passwords. When they received none, I was promptly rejected.

Hacking the locks wouldn’t be impossible. All locks only delay intruders. Given enough time, I could probably do the magical equivalent of picking or breaking it. To do so, I’d need to invent the magical equivalent of lockpicks first, but it could be done, given a week or two to work at it uninterrupted.

I studied the lock a moment longer, but there were people behind me in line, eager to try their hand at the sword. I doubted anybody had ever thought of studying the enchantments that held the sword in place, but it would probably look quite suspicious for me to hover around the sword for hours on end.

I set aside any thoughts of declaring myself the rightful king of these lands and seizing control over the shard that way. I had lots of things demanding my time right now, and the last thing I needed was all the problems trying to take this place over in such a way would bring.

So I stepped away from the sword and returned to the party. Lydwyn had unfortunately been drinking the whole time I was standing in line. With nobody to talk to and slow her down, she’d drunk so much that even at B-Grade her words were no longer discernible. She begged and pleaded for me to escort her to her room, and after a brief tussle at the door where she didn’t want to let go of me, I got her home safe.

When I returned to the party after my brief tour of the city, I found Frank in a somewhat similar situation.

“Alright, ladies... don’t you think this is a little fast? And a little much?” Frank asked, hands held up.

“Nonsense! You’re a hero! Everyone loves a hero,” asked one large-breasted young noblewoman.

“Say, why don’t you stay in the city with me? Do you really need to go back to wherever you come from so soon? Can’t I show you around? I can think of at least one fun thing to do if you stay here...” Another beautiful woman with plump red lips traced a finger up Frank’s cheek.

“I think every hero should have a harem, don’t you agree?” asked a third beautiful woman.

“Uh... er... uh...” Frank stuttered, senses overloaded by the sheer quantity of female presence. I’d been watching him with the Great Sage, and I was pretty sure she’d spiked his drink with an aphrodisiac halfway through the party, so I was impressed Frank had even kept his wits about him this long.

When Sakura asked me to be her prince riding into the rescue, she turned out not to need it. I tried my best to imagine Sakura in Frank’s place, surrounded by drunk and horny guys desperate to take her home. Before I knew it, I was already coming to the rescue.

“Sorry ladies, but Frank is busy,” I said to the gathered women. I doubted any of them were legitimately interested in Frank. Odds were they were all honeypots set up by Grand Sage Balencia to keep Frank in the city a few days longer and convince him to change his mind.

For such prudish people, they sure seemed perfectly willing to throw eager and beautiful women at a problem. Maybe they’d realized how powerful a tactic that could be, hence the laws against being underdressed.

While I thought, I swept Frank into the shadow realm. We made a brief trip to our room earlier to pick up Frank’s old clothes and weapons, then I took flight and took us out of the city.

By the time Balencia realized Frank hadn’t gone home with any of the women she’d sent his way, we’d already be back in Crownhill. And the next time we met with the Sages of Camlaan, it would be on our terms.

“Thanks, Carter. I didn’t like the looks in their eyes. Seemed like they were up to something. Besides, I’ve recently learned that I can barely handle one woman. I stand no chance against three,” Frank said as we flew.

I chuckled. “I have a book on the subject. It’s called ‘Interpreting the Fairer Sex.’ I’ll loan it to you some time.”

<Note>

Might change the grand sage's name. I was kinda thinking of them wearing goofy looking clothes, so maybe Balencia is wearing Balenciaga. Silly, but it helps me remember minor characters who don't come up too often.

For now it's a bit of a placeholder. Not sure yet. I haven't actually worked out a naming scheme for this faction, I want them to be arthurian-inspired. Basically, variants of Bedivere, Gawain, Tristian, Claudin, Perceval, Galahad and other names like that, though I'll likely avoid those specific examples.

I haven't really locked down what makes a name sound arthurian. Is it just ending in some vowel-consonant combo?