That Unique Monster Who Just Got the 'Consciousness' Passive Skill-Chapter 98: Royalty
…Ring! ❮ New instructions: … ❯ Oh?
" —What should this ruckus be about, my generals?" And the noble lady made her appearance, flashed by the spotlights of reverence. Her voice came from the back, opposite to one of the many offices of the Guild Bureau's trading grounds.
"Your Highness!" The stern general, the one who was just the "colleague," quickly sprang into action, reacted with joy and discipline, and bowed his head, bringing one of his knees down. The other big person who wanted to punish me reacted more slowly: More or less shocked, his eyes grew full and wide. Giving a start of his head, he turned to the arriving royalty.
As the sound of her light, graceful footsteps faintly echoed through the room, she was still briskly walking her way up to her generals and decided to speak once more. "Shall I note insubordination on your part, Generals? Or have you grown so timid of combat that you should try and shirk yourselves from your duty at the front?" Her feminine silhouette made her quick entrance onto the stage of my life.
The general who didn't bow still had his eyes on me, but he didn't actually stare at me. He stared at nothing, or maybe at his thoughts. Quickly snapping out of that, he straightened his back and lifted his hands off the counter where they rested.
All the more quickly, he turned to face the feminine silhouette, as it finally became fully visible to us, and bowed his head reverently, bringing a knee down. "Princess…!" The man was visibly tense all over. The clerk, too, was reverently greeting the princess, then, calling off all activities regarding his documents.
"Well?" did the princess interrogate further. "Will you speak for yourselves, then?" It was elegant. She was elegant. Her aura was elegant. Wearing a long royal robe, that was a rather sober adornment for a royal person, going loose from her waist to above her ankles, she walked freely in it. Her thighs and legs flapped underneath it, and her boots came to a stop. Yes, she was rather dressed soberly for a royal person of her title. Granted, since we were actually more or less still on the battlefield, it was natural.
At the palace, I was sure she shone an even brighter light of nobility. Her robe also went up from her waist to her exposed shoulders and cleavage, not shying away from revealing the lady's ample curves above her waist, with the fabric of her robe sticking to her skin, breasts, and thin arms, all of which was underneath an open white coat.
When the fair blond color of her hair shone a light in the room she just entered still, she was sternly staring down at her two subjects, then came to a stop. I was non-reactive. The System and its quest gave new instructions. My head nodded, and I was looking forward to the end of that scene.
Reiterating, the royal lady asked her soldiers again the same question. "Or have you lost your tongues?" At once, all the bowing heads and backs were called off, then.
"Y-Your Highness… to what exactly do we owe the pleasure of a person your rank in the Guild's quarters…?" It was the "colleague" person who spoke. The remark was fair, the business of a person of her rank here must have been quite the unusual one. Nervous, the other general didn't speak a word. Only a minute ago, he spoke ill of the princess he rejected, saying her affairs and occupations belonged to the royal palace, in the capital, rather than to the battlefield—what if she had heard?
Just as if neatly following some well-prepared script, the greetings of the soldiers were over. Still, none of them did lack the urge to be of strictness and reverence when addressing the royalty. Except for me, maybe, every soul was this way. My eyes were set on the royal lady, and I thought the old man must have been exaggerating when he said it was no commonality for a commoner to even meet one person of royal blood in their life. After all, I met two already, and if anything, I was below a commoner's rank.
But the old man was right and I couldn't know better. So that was my second encounter with some royal king's daughter, but it would probably be the last. Due to my condition, maybe not at all, but anyway. That royal lady had the looks to go along with her title. Riches, wealth, and men power. From up my stool, my eyes observed the lady curiously as my head was tilted. Briefly, the royal lady's eyes wandered toward me. She raised a brow but quickly ignored the quirky teenage boy who looked at her with eyes round as plates and a cocked head.
Her gaze was set back upon her two servants—every man of the State was a servant to the royalty—and slightly frowned. The question addressed to her ventured to ask the reason why she was present here, in the Guild's outpost? She herself commented that it was beside the point, but if her servants wished to know, she had just met with the Archimage, head of this particular branch of the Guild, and they discussed strategy. "But should I reiterate or will your stubborn tongues unknot themselves at last?"
"Yes, Your Highness! That is, we have been retained here from our duty on the battlefield for the sole reason of… I trust Gen. Lareneg should walk you through that reason."
"Your Highness— Ahem!" As the "colleague" person proposed, it would be the general who saw my behavior as unfit and wished to go out of his way to make an example of my failure to abide by the rules. His nervous reply began by stating the reason for which, he and his colleague, in the first place, were to be found within the Guild's quarters rather. That was for a reason similar to that of the royal lady. However, after things happened, they both had the misfortune to run into me. After a minute, garrulously, the general explained and justified himself.
After he was done, he was admonished by the royal lady who stated many a reason why the general was a disappointment. The general, still subdued and reverent, wouldn't have it, and tried to protest, all the more politely, to express his reasoning all over again, namely that I had to be sanctioned or the military would never hope to be rid of the lack of discipline and spontaneousness of the Guild's men, but he was simply admonished yet again, at last ordered to fall silent.
After that was done, the royal lady sighed, shook her head, and cursed under her breath. The affair of a noble person, who also was a female, on the battlefield wasn't so trivial that she could accept not to lay the greatest results she could muster. That's why she was annoyed by the behavior of the soldiers in front of her. She'd had enough trouble to even get permission from her father the king to be allowed as the Commander, temporarily, but if the men of the army didn't fully respect her authority due to the fact they couldn't fully accept her, that was a "fucking pain in my ass," as she would have it herself, silently cursing.
For a second, she was annoyed, but the next second, she was more or less all right. Accept it and go on anyway was what she had to do… but out of curiosity, her eyes wandered again and met with the quirky teenage boy's, who was now not so much tilting his head to the side in a childish manner, but held his shoulders back and his chin high, coldly gazing back at the royal lady in the most dignified manner hardly fitting the youthful appearance of the "boy."
If I looked at her like this, it was because I tried to imitate her. As you know, I liked to gather new information and stimuli from the Outside World, and that piece of event was greatly entertaining my curiosity. That's how I grew, and so, at present, I was growing again.
I learned to be royalty.
And maybe it worked too well.
A true royalty and ruler, from what I gathered of the present scene, was feared by his subjects… from what I just learned anyway. At any rate, now, was I the royal lady's royalty? Surely, if she feared me, maybe the girl accepted my rule. That's right, she had better accept my rule and call me her dominus… or else she'll see. And yeah, what I read on her face after her gaze was set on me, was blatant fear.
"Should such a child… but the result… of…" The royal lady trailed off. Her tired gaze had wandered around, was placed in the monster's abyss, and it stared right back into her. When I curiously observed the faint glint of shock, growing ever steadily, in the girl's eyes, I knew I overdid my acting.
In her eyes, I understood she had seen me, the monster. My old man warned me—people could find out about my true nature if they were careful enough. Crap. Aware of that, I thought it was too late and didn't tear my cold gaze off of the lady's panicked eyes. Rather, I simply scoffed when she took a step backward, so warily.
When her eyes trembled like the whole earth was shaken under my grip, her throat dryly gulped as I jumped on my feet, giving her my best grin rather than my best regards. Locking my hands behind my back, like my old man so often did, I grew more dignified and royal-like by the minute.
