Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Inside the Royal Palace, there was a large hall, about a hundred meters long and twenty-five meters wide.

The hall was covered from floor to wall in a noble type of white marble, and the entire space was lit by dozens of gold lamps. In the center of the hall was a huge fountain with violet petals floating in the water. The interior architecture of the palace was even more luxurious than that of its walls.

The typical white marble floor ran through all the corridors of the building, which were adorned with carpets, armor, and plants that brought the environment to life. The walls of the nearly one hundred corridors were also decorated with tapestries and works of late.

When the group of soldiers from the New Royal Guard entered the hall, escorting Kaizen. All the other guards protecting the doors and the entrances to other halls slammed their spears into the ground at the same time.

'It seems that these nobility people have a special taste for spears...' Kaizen thought, since he didn't see any of the guards in black armor with swords or other types of weapons.

The sounds of the metal boots of the guards escorting Kaizen seemed to echo throughout the very large entrance hall as they advanced.

The many doors and corridor entrances were not unfamiliar to Kaizen, because he had been there once before, there was just no doubt that the security was much tighter than last time. This gave the impression to Psyker that the caution with the Queen's security was extremely greater than with Princess Ravastine, which was to be expected.

At the end of the entrance hall was a wide white staircase, at its threshold was a gigantic double metal door. There was no doubt, these doors were from the throne room.

Some of the soldiers accompanying Kaizen walked only as far as the foot of the staircase and half of them took up position there, while the other half began to climb the staircase.

Kaizen followed them without complaining or causing trouble. He knew that he had to follow the rules to the letter for the time being, for he was not on just any mission.

Should Kaizen die through carelessness or fail to distract the palace defense force so that Petril and Lídia could reach the King's quarters, he knew that he would lose many rewards, some of which were mysterious rewards that he could not even predict what they were. Furthermore, this was a History Mission, and that meant that if he failed, possibly great consequences would afflict not only him, but all the players in the Capital and the Tretidian Kingdom.

Kaizen was not concerned about the other players, however, it would be bad if the city was affected and the growth of his equipment store was impacted.

As such, Kaizen followed the Royal Guard to the doors of the throne room, where the remaining soldiers separated into two rows, forming a corridor through which Kaizen had to pass.

A single Kingsguard accompanied Kaizen to open the large doors to the throne room.

As soon as this guard pushed open the metal doors, the sound of the doors opening was like thunder, and behind them Kaizen could see a large room with columns and mosaics on the wall. Beside the columns, long red banners were displayed, exposing the design of a single golden sword.

The room was even larger than the entrance hall, and even more luxurious. At the back of the room was Queen Niah, seated on her golden throne. She was a beautiful woman, with white hair and a piercing gaze. She was dressed solemnly, with a gold crown on her head and a green velvet dress that highlighted the curves of her body.

[A Ruler character stands before you...]

In the room, there was a guard in black armor positioned in front of each of the ten columns.

The soldier who accompanied Kaizen allowed his entry and did not close the doors on his way out to facilitate the arrival of reinforcements should the Psyker attempt any attack. And as the Psyker entered the throne room, the soldiers of the New Royal Guard who formed a corridor on the outside of the room stood at attention.

Kaizen approached Queen Niah with a nonchalant look on his face. He was completely unarmed, only his stare was more challenging than any sword or spear he might have been wielding.

Queen Niah looked at Kaizen with her piercing gaze for a few seconds and instead of saying any kind of greeting, she commanded:

"Kneel."

Everyone should kneel before the highest authority figure of the Tretidian nation, it was a rule, and although she was a Queen Consort, she was substituting momentarily for her husband, the King, in other words, she was the one who dictated everything.

Kaizen nodded, put his right hand on his chest and knelt with his head down, respecting the authority of the ruler.

Niah smiled as she watched him obey her orders without complaint.

"You may rise, Mister Kaizen. From this day forward, you will not need to kneel when standing in my presence. We will be better than mere business partners." She said as she rose from her throne.

Kaizen raised his head and then returned to his position as before. When he looked forward again and saw that the Queen was descending the small steps preceding her throne, he smiled.

Niah approached him calmly, walking with her high heels and staring Kaizen eye to eye.

Even when the two finally stood in front of each other, less than a meter apart, neither looked away.

This exchange of gazes emanated a tension, it was different from a physical battle, only the grandeur passed on to those around them was similar.

Both were trying to find out what the other's true intentions were without saying a word. Like a mental and rational battle.

The guards present in the room watched this scene with surprise and even looked at each other. It was definitely not common for someone to hold their posture so well in front of the Queen, as Kaizen was doing. People always ended up looking away or taking a step back.

However, they saw that this time it was Niah who had had enough. She blinked, smiled calmly, moved closer to the Psyker and ran her left hand affectionately over his left shoulder as she passed very close. After that, she went around his back, put her hands on both his shoulders and whispered in his right ear:

"Now you are mine too."

At that moment, the soldiers finally realized that Kaizen's fixed, and seemingly unperturbed, gaze was actually a blank stare, which to them was not an unusual look to see, because it meant that Queen Niah's charm had worked.

'The Queen really is second to none. She managed to bewitch even the very famous Kaizen...' One of the New Kingsguard guards thought, confidently.

Meanwhile, two floors above the throne room, Petril Wyvernjack and Lídia Spelloyal listened from behind a doorway to the sound of moving soldiers, who were running in droves through the corridors.

After the metallic sounds of armor became distant, Petril slowly opened the door, poked his head out, looked both ways down the long corridor, and saw no one.

"Everything is clear... Let's go! We have to enjoy this moment!" Petril said to the princess.

When Lídia stepped out into the corridor, right after Petril, and they started walking in a hurry, she still couldn't believe that this was finally happening. The corridors indeed were empty of security.

"They really were very worried about Kaizen's visit. Everyone acted even faster than when there was that earthquake wave..." She said, looking back anxiously.

"Kaizen is definitely someone amazing and he seems to have become much stronger than when I first met him.... You said he rejected the Queen when she tried the first contact, didn't you? So maybe all this caution is not only because Kaizen is strong, but also because Niah is not an idiot, she must suspect that he is up to something or at least has something in mind."

Lídia wouldn't even like to imagine what her stepmother would do to Kaizen if she found out what he was up to with the help of the two princesses and a former Kingsguard soldier. Just thinking about Niah's rage, Lídia was amazed, because she knew what this woman was capable of when she was angry. After all, when Lídia constantly insisted that she wanted to see her father, Niah sold her eldest goddaughter's hand to Taznaar without hesitation.

"However, princess, don't worry too much. Remember that your sister will be there to help Kaizen if needed, just as he helped her when they first met. We have to focus on what we must do." whispered Petril as he checked to make sure there was no one at the next crossroads of corridors they needed to cross.

Lídia nodded and smiled. In a way, she knew that her current duty was not to worry about what was happening on the lower floors, but to focus on her own mission, as Petril said.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa /NandoFalske

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