[Ace POV]
The queen, guarded by a few men who didn't even need to be close to me for me to tell they were powerful, steadily made her way towards the location of the emperor and me.
She had a smile on her face, her attention solely focused on the emperor.
When I first saw her in the settlement, our eyes happened to meet, and she showed a huge expression of surprise on her face. She was likely wondering what I was doing in her settlement and how the encounter was so sudden. However, her focus shifted the moment she laid her eyes on the emperor, and she didn't look at me after that.
"What a weird woman," I thought as I shifted my gaze towards the emperor, who had a wide smile on his face.
The emperor had his hands spread out as if he was inviting someone in for a hug, and indeed, he was inviting someone. It didn't take a genius to know who that person was.
While the emperor and his wife were having their little moment, I ignored the men that had followed the queen and focused on the queen herself.
She emitted a certain type of pressure that only ranked species emitted. Though it was weak to the extent that I knew I could kill this woman with just a thought using my origin ability, I was curious about what job the queen would have.
For some reason, something within me wanted the queen's job to be at least of rare grade. It wasn't because I cared about her safety or anything, but because I felt that if the woman who was once my queen had a job with a grade lower than rare, the weakest job, something within me was telling me that I would feel disappointed, perhaps?
I didn't know, but I still believed my assumptions wouldn't be the case. And as if on cue, the blue words that usually appeared above ranked creatures' heads whenever they were stared at for long appeared just a few centimetres away from the queen's head.
[Rank 1 Water Mage Level 28]
Seeing this, the discomfort I was feeling suddenly vanished, as if it was never there. But why was the queen's level so low, though?
Hmmm.
I guess that shouldn't be surprising, considering there are more capable people than the queen who could fight. And since the emperor, his men, and the people wouldn't want anything to happen to their queen, they would probably shield her to the extent that she doesn't encounter humans.
Surprisingly, I didn't think it was stupid. When I thought about it for a second, I knew that I would have done a similar thing for my mother and sister.
It might sound biassed, but I believe that even if someone like me didn't see any value in overprotecting your family to the extent that they stay weak, there was no problem with what the settlement was doing to their queen.
Hmmm.
That does look like a biassed thought.
As I thought about this, the emperor and the queen finally finished their hugging, and the queen turned to look at me with a mildly surprised expression on her face.
"I never expected I'd see you in this world, Ace. At least not this soon," the queen stated.
"Same here, my queen," I replied, catching her eye glancing at the towering blue figure behind me.
The queen had a very odd expression on her face as she observed Blue, and she wasn't the only person who had shown this expression today.
Every street that we passed through in the settlement today under the emperor's lead, everyone looked at the emperor and Blue with various expressions on their faces, which was understandable. The emperor, being a man of importance, wasn't someone who could be seen so easily every day because he would surely be busy. So he was the first main point of attraction as we strolled through the streets of the settlement.
After the emperor, the next person who drew more attention was not me, but Blue. It was obvious why Blue would draw a lot of attention.
Apart from being a strange creature they had surely never seen, Blue was really huge. Seeing such a massive creature leisurely walking down the street without any restraints would bring about a range of emotions for the settlement's residents.
Then there was me, but people didn't focus on me much. I'm sure the reason most people even bothered to glance at me was that I was working close to their emperor.
In any case, the queen's reaction to Blue's appearance was understandable. I could tell by the way she even clung to her husband's body that she was wary of Blue. It was something that was also understood because even as Blue and I tried to reduce our presence as ranked creatures, someone who was not close to our prowess would still feel its brunt.
At least I was better at restricting my presence, but Blue still had a long way to go.
The queen, perhaps knowing she wouldn't get much from conversing with me, only exchanged a few words like how she was glad I was okay and healthy and spoke about how she was happy that her daughter and I were in the true world, although it became obvious that she was troubled by her daughter's safety. Well, I was concerned about my family's well-being as well, so I could totally relate.
After a few words, the queen returned her focus to the emperor and started speaking about the settlement's current state. Seeing as she did not wait until they were alone, they probably weren't concerned about my presence, so I listened.
Well, I tried to listen when a bell-like notification rang in my head. Seeing this, I knew someone had sent me a message, but who?
There were only a few people who had my contact: Anna, Celeb, the emperor, Adara, and my family.
The emperor was close to me now, and unless it was something special, I didn't think he'd send me a message. So it could only be one of the remaining ones.
It would be good if it was my family, though, but unless they somehow became rich overnight, I doubt they would be able to gather enough coins to message me, especially since they just arrived in the true world recently.
Unfortunately, it wasn't any of my family members but someone else. It was Anna, my teammate whom I hadn't heard from in a long time.
[Annabelle Dark]
Hi Ace!
I just wanted to see if you were home, but seeing as I can send a message to you right now, you're definitely not at home. I just desire to tell you that I'm home now, and I'll stay for a while. So... see you then. Well, maybe later since the time difference is quite confusing, and we might not even meet. Later!
*******
'Seems like she's doing fine,' I thought as I dismissed the panel hovering in front of me.
I did not check how much it would cost to reply to her message, but since it was not necessary in my opinion, as she was just informing me of her well-being, there was no need to reply. I saved a few coins in the process, I guess.
I wonder if Anna has evolved now. If she has, I wonder how powerful she'll be.
I wonder if Anna has evolved now. If she has, I wonder how powerful she'll be.
It's probably possible for me to know if she has evolved if I check the ranking now. She has a legendary-grade job, after all, so her rank shouldn't be too low.
Thinking of this, my curiosity was piqued, so I called out the Primordial Chronicle in my head and wanted to head to the rank section when the emperor, who was leading us somewhere, suddenly stopped with a grave expression on his face.
Seeing this, I halted what I was about to do. Something must have happened for the emperor to show such a face. And just as I was about to ask what happened, the queen beat me to it.
"What's wrong, dear?" she asked in a worried tone.
"We're being attacked," the emperor replied in a deep tone, gazing at the sky.
It was almost fully dark, but that was none of my concern when I heard the emperor's next words.
"We're being attacked by ogres."
*******
Author's Note:
Hey there, lovely readers! Just wanted to drop a quick note to say thanks for checking out today's chapter. I really appreciate you taking the time to read it. It's been awesome having you on this journey with me!
I hope you enjoyed this part of the story, and guess what? I'll be back tomorrow with another exciting chapter for you to dive into. So, keep an eye out for it!
Take care and have an miraculous day, my awesome readers!
Cheers,
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l