After Queen Niah whispered something in Kaizen's right ear, the guards realized, even through the mask, that the Psyker was looking blankly and almost laughed at this scene, but kept their vile thoughts to themselves only.
'Haha! He came in here, in the throne room, with such a relaxed posture that my legs shook for a minute, but in the end even he wasn't able to stand it.'
'I am impressed that he is still standing even with his consciousness hanging by a thread.'
'Poor guy...'
'The Queen is really powerful. She managed to tame Kaizen with a few words, as if she were training a puppy.'
The guards already understood the Queen's strength first hand before that day, however, it was impossible not to be surprised once again when they realized that Kaizen was under her total control. They didn't know how she did it, and that was what made some of them so afraid that they didn't allow themselves to act, or tell anyone about it.
The white haired woman ran her left hand all over the Psyker's back as she walked to stand face to face with him again. A closed smile of pride was clear on her face, and she looked at Kaizen with attention and pleasure, as if savoring a great victory. Niah didn't take her left hand away from Kaizen at any time, and when she finally stood facing him, her hand stopped over his throat.
All the guards were surprised by this attitude of hers, but they didn't move a muscle to stop her. It didn't matter to them if the Queen killed Kaizen, a peasant or even any of her subordinates in front of them in the throne room, because they had no orders from her to stop her, so they didn't do it.
Niah looked into Kaizen's empty eyes, squeezed her neck tightly and asked:
"What do you really want by coming here, to my palace?"
"Money." replied the Psyker. His voice didn't even get weak from the Queen's squeeze, which only showed how physically strong he was.
Niah let go of Kaizen's throat and took a step back. Intimidated and, in a way, surprised by the response. However, that still wasn't enough to end her suspicions.
"So, am I right in assuming that you came here to my palace with the intent to steal?" She questioned.
"No." Kaizen replied, with no change in mood. "I am here to offer you my services, just as Taznaar does. I may not be as influential as he is yet, except that if you use my recent fame to your advantage, you can regain the trust of your people. The recent events involving the princesses and the lack of attendance at the King's public events are probably making the citizens insecure. In addition, there was an attack all over the city a short while ago, which has caused enormous public insecurity. The economy has been stable all this time and the nobles seem to be happy with you in power, but other terrorist attacks or a war could change that."
"Oh! You have a much looser tongue than I expected. Seeing you talking like that might even make me think that you are someone who is really concerned about the welfare of the people. However, your answer to my previous question proves your true selfish nature." Niah said and straightened her posture, putting both hands forward. "Well, if your intentions with this unexpected meeting are not wicked, there is no reason to keep you in that state."
Without needing to make any gesture, sign, or say anything, the Queen released Kaizen from the momentary trance in which she had put him.
The return of Kaizen's eye movement and the movement of his body were accompanied by a sudden breath, as if he were returning to the surface of the water after being immersed for a long time.
"W-what was that? What have you done to me?" Kaizen immediately asked with a frightened countenance, which despite his efforts could not be seen because of the Guardian's Elm.
Niah smiled at the Psyker and placed a hand on her own chin as she saw him so shaken. For her, the more she saw Kaizen suffer, the more she thought that this was the payoff for rejecting her at the first moment.
"It was no big deal. Now pull yourself together, let's start the negotiations." She said and turned to go back to her golden throne.
Watching the Queen return to her throne, Kaizen kept his countenance confused, but inside he was laughing proudly.
'Hello? Is this the president of Netflix? All right, you can come get me. I promise I can perform better than at least 50% of your movie cast!' He thought to himself. Luckily, he had enough points of the Intelligence attribute to resist the Queen's magic.
As Niah sat down on his throne and looked at Kaizen, he said to her:
"I am here to..."
Before he could continue, she interrupted him.
"There's no reason for us to do that again. This may sound confusing to you now, but when you sleep everything that happened 1 minute ago will be remembered. Now, I have to admit, Kaizen, I was hoping to see you in that glorious armor of yours. It's strange to see you wearing such... simple clothes." She judged him from head to toe.
Psyker wasn't dressing any differently than normal everyday wear. He wore a black cape and his Light Armor made by Zahir. Since he had not made an armor that was completely to his liking like this one, he had not abandoned it despite its various flaws and marks from countless repairs.
"Besides, why do you wear that mask? Wouldn't you rather take it off so we can get to know each other?" She asked him.
Kaizen had no problem showing his face especially to NPCs, so he put his right hand on the mask to take it off, but at that moment he hesitated. Normally, yes, he would have no problem taking that mask off for NPCs, only now the situation was different, he had a store in town that could be affected, so he backed off.
"No, I can't do that. There are things I need to protect, more even than you can imagine."
Niah smiled with narrowed eyes. "It's okay. I will respect your decision and I will not insist on it. The truth is, I expected that you wouldn't want to do that. It's normal, wearing that mask was also something that brought you here, besides your strength, it's obvious. If this thing makes you feel safe for now, it's fine with me that you wear it."
Psyker nodded, thanking him.
"Now, answer for me...what are you capable of? My former subordinate, Taznaar, was powerful and very influential. In exchange for some leniency, a blind eye, and money, he and his guild kept all these adventurers in order. As you said yourself, you don't have that ability."
"What is the order to you, Queen? People not approach the Royal Palace or not cause a ruckus? If it is that, the army of this kingdom itself could control the adventurers. In my conception, punishment breeds order, and lack of punishment breeds disorder."
The Queen thought about that for a few seconds. "You see, I don't disagree with that view. However, most of the Tretidian army is distributed along the borders with other Kingdoms and Duchies. The smaller part protects the city streets and the other nobles of the kingdom."
"Yes, that's the part I get into. I believe that with my experience as a citizen I can better organize your troops." Kaizen spoke the first thing that came to his mind.
At that moment, Niah raised his eyebrows and then smiled as if what Kaizen said was funny.
"Um! Did you hear that, Captain Thenomor?" she asked someone and a tall man with pale skin who was wearing all-black clothes stepped out of the shadows of the throne.
*
At the same time Kaizen was talking to Queen Niah, two floors above the throne room Lydia and Petril hurried to get to King Spelloyal's chambers. Although there were very few guards patrolling, compared to a few minutes earlier, there were still some parts where caution was needed, especially near the main corridor.
Petril was the one who was guiding the king's firstborn, but he knew that he would not be able to accompany her all the way, and this became clear when they finally reached the corridor to the door of the room the king was in. At the end of this corridor was a reddish wooden double door, protected by a single guard in red armor.
The butler went through his own pocket, picked up a bunch of keys and handed this to Lydia as he said:
"Take this and squeeze it tight so it doesn't make noise. I am sure that the key to your father's room is among all these keys, I just can't tell which one it is. I will distract the guard at the door for ten minutes. That is the time you will have to go in, check on your father, and come out. All right?"
Lidia took the keys and held them tightly as requested. "All right, I'll do that as quickly as I can. Thank you, Petril."
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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