As we all headed to the next destination, I walked alongside Lillia. There was something I was meaning to ask her.

“I know that we’ll draw some attention, if everyone finds out that it was our party that all this fuss is about. But I Thought we just had to go and see the guild. How will everyone know it’s us?” I asked.

“Oh, because afterwards we’ve been summoned to stand before the high king. It seems he wants to award us something…” She explained.

So that’s what she had meant by awarded earlier, but us, in front of the king…

“You mean we’re going to the palace, we’re going before the high king, your father?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, that’s a big deal, isn’t it?”

“It is, but don’t worry you’ll be fine. Just act normal and well, remember to be respectful…” Lillia paused for a moment. “Serin will teach you what to say and how to hold yourself.” She said after giving it some thought.

Serin was the one I would have asked to help anyway. Altria was a catkin and a princess as well. She half didn’t care how she acted, and it half didn’t matter that much, because she was a princess. With Lillia, I doubt she knew either, how to act around royalty other than from her own perspective, again she only had to act like a princess. I wasn’t sure how much time Siofra had spent in those situations, but Serin definitely knew how to hold herself well. I was glad that was her suggestion.

“That’s okay, isn’t it Serin?” Asked Lillia.

“What is?” Asked Serin, suddenly drawn into our conversation.

“You’ll show Theo how to behave in the palace.” Replied Lillia.

“Yes of course, we wouldn’t want him getting himself into trouble there. It isn’t much to learn, just how to address and when to bow or kneel. You’ll pick it up in no time don’t worry.”

“Thanks, Serin. The last thing I’d want is to land myself in hot water there.” I replied.

“Yes… I hope this goes without saying, but make sure you don’t mention anything about the relic. We’d all land in hot water just for you knowing about it, but you would, well you know.” Lillia said.

“I know. I won’t mention it. I think that’s going to be in the back of my mind the entire time we’re there.”

“It’s probably best if you don’t mention anything at all about what the demon woman said either. As far as you’re concerned, we went there and cleared the dungeon. You can explain how we got there and how she died, but I wouldn’t mention any more than that.” Serin added.

“I won’t, don’t worry… I think it’s best if I try to talk as little as possible.”

“That’s probably your safest bet.” Said Lillia.

“Yeah, I think I’ll go with that.”

I was understandably more than a little nervous about going to the palace and meeting the king. I doubted that I would spend any time alone with him. This was most likely an entirely formal thing, something to boost the kingdoms moral and reward the heroes facing down their mortal enemies. Despite that, I couldn’t let my guard down. A moment’s lapse of judgment would be my undoing here. The mention of the wrong thing there would spell my doom.

I knew more than I was supposed to as one of the summoned heroes. I was hoping to set a plan in motion to claim the relic my soul was bound to at the first opportunity. I was looking into the truth behind the relics and the emergence of the demon lord. Something that Liz was concerned about anyone finding out that she was looking into herself. On top of that, I was sleeping with his daughter, the heir to his throne and on an entirely casual basis. I had more than enough reason to be concerned about meeting him. If he found out about any of those matters, I would be in a whole lot of trouble. It didn’t even bear thinking about what could happen.

Despite all those worries, a large part of me was excited about meeting him. He was the king of the elves, the high king of the alliance. Sure, from my perspective, he was overseeing a regime that allowed the abduction and murder of people from other worlds. To be used as disposable pawns, to fight his battle against the demon lord. To do so he let a cruel process of implanting the shards into the daughters of the royal bloodlines from each of the races. Something that was basically irreversible without severe consequences. He even let this happen to two of his own daughters. This didn’t sound one bit like someone you would want to meet if you had the choice, but still I was excited at the opportunity.

When I was reading through the histories in Serin’s library, I was struck by the one figure. The world’s history was one of violence and war. The many humanoid races fighting amongst themselves, in bloody wars that lasted for generations. It was seemingly without end, until the alliance was formed. Lillia’s father defeated all the other races and ended the longest war. Afterwards he brought each of the races together forming the alliance and bringing them all together here in the capital. If it wasn’t for the appearance of the demon lord, this would be a time of unparalleled peace for this world, and he was the person that brought it all about.

Who wouldn’t want to meet someone like that? It was like getting the chance to meet a legendary figure from the history books, someone that would have died hundreds of years ago and you would have only read about. Someone that shaped the world to be what it is today. I wondered if he really were a bad person, or just someone that did everything they could to ensure the survival of his people and ensure his vision. There hadn’t been a single war between the thinking races since, I wondered how many lives that had saved. I still didn’t think it justified what was going on here, but I was definitely curious to see the man behind it all.

Before meeting the king, we were due to meet with the guild. I wasn’t sure what this was going to entail. I assumed the guild here had a guild master just like back in Dunshelm. I didn’t know if we would be reporting to them, or the guild masters that the girls had mentioned ominously before. Come to think of it, were the guild masters the masters of each of the guild branches or a separate shady sounding group that oversaw it all? I didn’t know. After speaking with Lisa, I had a hard time thinking that she would be involved with anything like that. Each of the guild branch masters had worked their way to their positions through their own merit, that was what she told me at least. She herself was of low birth.

The idea I had in my head when Liz and Lillia spoke of the guild masters looking after the relics and disposing of any unwanted heroes, was a group of rich and powerful nobles carrying out this work from the shadows. But I had never checked that out. I would have to find that out before our visit to the guild. I really hoped that Liz wasn’t a part of that. If she was, she had really taken me in with her talk. I decided to ask while we walked.

“What’s going to happen when we go to see the guild?” I asked Lillia.

“We’re reporting to the capital branches guild master.” She replied.

“We aren’t going to see the guild masters?”

“No of course not!”

She sounded as if I had asked her a stupid question.

“They aren’t the same thing, or part of the same group?”

“The guild masters are the group that runs everything. Even I don’t know who is a part of it, except for father that is.”

So, they were just as shady as I had assumed.

“I see.”

“There’s more than just the adventurer’s guild, they control all of them.”

“That makes sense. Why all the secrecy surrounding them?”

“I don’t know. Probably for their own protection.”

As we were talking, we approached the place Lillia had led us to. It was another pub, similar to the one that Siofra had taken us earlier. It looked nice enough from the outside. Just the location wasn’t quite as good as the last place. This was more of a town pub and wasn’t overlooking the forested section of the city. The five of us stepped inside and went for the nearest free table.

It was just as Lillia had said, this place was quiet. It wasn’t entirely empty, there were people dotted about the place having a quiet pint here and there or eating lunch. Just enough people that it didn’t feel like we were there alone.