Chapter 40

Chapter 40 Strongest Sage, Has an Audience with the King

" . . . Is an audience with the king something that can be done so easily?"

Several days after I killed Devilis the demon .

I went to the Royal Palace with the principal .

He came out of nowhere, 『You're free today right? Come with me to the Royal Palace for a bit』, and dragged me . . . . Just what's going on here .

"Don't be foolish . There's no way you can meet the king that easy . "

"Then who is it besides the king?"

"No well, we're meeting the king alright . "

"I don't think merely beating one demon is worth . . . . "

"Killing a demon solo is a great achievement unheard of since the dawn of history . The Royal Palace's internal is even discussing about creating a new medal for your sake, though it isn't publicized yet . "

"Eeh . . . . "

"By the way, a medal was newly made solely for a party of six who killed a demon 100 years ago . "

Something like that huh . . . .

I guess this is unavoidable in an era where the demons have slipped in and thoroughly destroyed techniques to defeat them .

Apparently, the demons didn't slip in recently .

" . . . . Oops, this is the room . "

The principal stopped in front of a door inside the palace .

The door isn't that well decorated but it looks quite sturdier compared to other doors . The wall is likely thick too . I know, I can sense some difference in the mana reaction .

"It's Edward . "

The sound of a key came from the inside and the door opened .

There are maids-san and a dignified-looking man inside the room .

I feel like I've seen a man with this kind of atmosphere in my past life .

It was of my acquaintance in my past life if I'm not mistaken . . . . He has the same atmosphere as the king of Manilia Magic Kingdom .

. . . . The King!?

"It has been awhile, Edward . "

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty . "

Seeing the principal knelt down, I also did the same .

I'm not really familiar with formalities in the present era . . . . Well, I should just imitate other people .

"You and I are friends . No need to be that stiff as this isn't a formal audience . "

"I'm honored to hear that, but Your Majesty is the king of this country . . . . "

He really was the king .

And it seems principal Edward knows the king .

No wonder they let them in quite easily .

"And, is the boy over there the hero of the recent matter?"

"Yes . He is Mathias Hildesheimr, the one who killed a demon solo, and made a huge contribution to the progress of chantless magic at the Second Academy . "

"I see . . . . Indeed, he has quite a well tempered body for one so young . Ah . I will introduce myself just in case, I'm Eist Graya . I'm the king of this kingdom . "

Some kings occasionally came to visit my house in my past life, but I had never thought that I would meet one in less than 20 years after my reincarnation .

Still, he's quite friendly, is this alright? Normally a king shouldn't easily introduce himself like this . . . .

"My name is Mathias Hildesheimr, I'm a first year student of the Second Academy . "

I don't really know how to do this, but I tried to introduce myself for now .

If they demanded formal etiquette from me, they would have taught me some beforehand .

"Good work on the subjugation this time . Usually we would have done a grand announcement and give you a territory to govern . . . . . "

I don't need no territory! Nuh uh, nope!

After all the trouble of reincarnating myself for the sake of magic combats, why should I be forced to have a territory .

Well, it might not be that much of a burden if I just push the responsibility to someone who can manage a territory, but please at least wait for another 20 year first .

"However, if we were to announce that demons have slipped into humans, the whole kingdom would inevitably fall into a huge confusion . Moreover, frankly speaking, we would like to avoid having the hero who beat a demon alone be tied to a territory . Of course I promise to grant you the highest credit once this matter is settled . Would you wait until that . "

"With pleasure!"

It'd be sad if I were forced to govern a territory .

"Much obliged . . . . However, now the problem is your reward . Even with the circumstances, we ought to give you a reward . . . . Right . How about a magic sword?"

"Magic sword . . . . is it?"

"Indeed . We took hold of a powerful magic sword incomparable to other national treasure grade swords just recently . It has been augmented with two magic that have never been seen before . The owner of the shop where that sword was found said that the sword was augmented by a child who happened to pass by . . . . It sounds too unrealistic that some even hypothesize that that child is the incarnation of Magic God . "

So there's such a magic sword around . . . .

But I don't think there's any point in me getting a dual augmented sword .

I can make more powerful magic swords as many as I want once Ruli is able to augment properly and I teach her some trick to it .

" . . . . Your face looks like you're saying that you don't need it . Well, I do not mind if you take other thing . We will open the treasury later, you can take anything you fancy there . "

"I'm very grateful for your generosity . "

Picking anything I want from the royal treasury huh . That's quite grand .

Hopefully there's something interesting inside .

"However, it's still too little of a reward for Mathias's achievement . We can give you multiple treasures, but . . . . Do you have any wish yourself?"

Wish huh .

I remember this formal etiquette, 『As you wish Your Majesty』 in my past life, but this isn't necessarily true in this era .

Guess I might as well take this chance to ask for something big .

"I would like to acquire the right to use the resources of all the dungeons in this kingdom . "

"Dungeon resources . . . . Do you mean ores produced by monsters and veins?"

"Yes . Everything that can be taken inside the dungeons including those . Of course, I'm not asking to monopolize them . If my associates and I are allowed to take the resources inside dungeons . . . . "

Dungeons hold the most supreme resources inside them, surpassing even the highest quality gold vein .

This condition would have been flat out rejected, like 『Inconceivable』, in my past life, it could never even be considered as a term in a negotiation .

However, the sense of value in the current era is quite off of the past one . It would be super great if they gave me the right to even a part of it .

"I will happily comply if you are fine with that . From hence on, Mathias Hildesheimr as well as his associates will not be imposed with dungeon taxes, nor will they be restricted to enter a dungeon . "

Yay! A huge success!

Now I can easily get my hand on monster's materials and magic metal .

"Also, if you want a dungeon, I'm considering giving you one along with a territory . . . . How about it? Of course, the kingdom will cover all the administrative expense . Dungeons are money loser after all . "

The king let out this wonderful suggestion when he saw me doing a light triumphant pose .

"By all means, please!"

Resources get! They'd even cover the administrative expense for me, what heaven is this .

It's so favorable that I almost feel like I'm deceiving them here .

"You're quite unselfish, I thought you would ask for more . "

Unselfish, no way . There's nothing more avaricious than this .

I almost replied that, but I kept my silence .

"Then let's proceed to the next issue . Regarding the demon in this matter . . . . There is no mistake that Devilis the Heaven-sent Child of Magic was a demon is there?"

"Yes . It's undoubtedly true . His crest was fake, and the magic he showed were chantless magic disguised as chant ones . "

"So it's true . . . . As a matter of fact, the four Heaven-sent Children of Magic in this kingdom have all disappeared . "

Ah . So all the Heaven-sent Children of Magic really are all demons . . . .

"The Magic Division commander, Elhart is also included among them . Furthermore, it seems the existences thought to be Heaven-sent Children of Magic have existed for several hundreds years . . . . In other words, our country had been secretly under control of the demons for several hundreds years . As Magic Division plays the most important role in coming up with countermeasures against demons . "

That means, there is no organization in this structure called country that can win against the demons now .

It seems the demons purposely didn't completely crush human forces since there was a possibility that some problem might arise for them if humans were excessively driven to the wall .

"What do you think I should do?"

<Author's Note below>

Dungeons were regarded like oil fields in Mathi's past life .