Chapter 558 King Of The Merfolk
Thanks to Sera for talking to me, the mermaids who were on the hunt for me stopped bothering me the moment they saw me with her. It seems Sera is more influential enough for her presence is enough to deter most of the mermaids that tried to vie for my affection. Of course, while I am spending time with Sera, I learned that she has explored Sandurk for a few months after we parted ways. And using the small experience and a little bit of money she earned, she decided to create her own business in Sandurk which is related to the trading business. Recently, she just expanded her business and managed to create a branch here in Aquagius which she used to contribute to repairing and restoring the Aquagius.
"Would you look at that, it seems your tactic of accompanying me worked like a charm, Bladeheart-sama. It seems you are very experienced in handling girls huh?" Sera chuckled as she sips on her wine.
"Haha, you flatter me but I just did what I think would work. I am not that experienced in girls," I scratched my head as I awkwardly admit that I am not good with women. If I did, I wouldn't even get betrayed easily in the past timeline.
"I am not joking though. You seemed to have a charm that even the two queens that rule the hot and cold areas of Sandurk have a really good opinion of you and I heard that they are very picky on adventurers in terms of who to trust. Just by you being able to get a favor easily to the two queens is a big achievement."
"It's not actually a big secret but it just really happened, nothing too fancy."
We continue to speak for a bit until Sera pointed to the middle of the hall.
"Oh, would you look at that, it seems the King is already here. You want to know who the king is, right? Then you better look who it is."
Seeing that Sera is also excited for me to learn who the king is, I focused my attention on the doorway with the red carpet as I waited for it to open. Then, the butler that has been standing behind the doors immediately opened the big doors and started to announce in a loud voice for everyone to hear.
"Everyone of our guests, please welcome the entrance of our Majesty himself, joining us for the banquet!"
The crowd started clapping and music begins to play in the surroundings as the king slowly walks outside the doorway. Then, I saw him. The King himself. I have a hunch on who is the king but I am not so sure about it before. However, now that the reveal is here, I finally understood why Sera said I know who the king really is because I do indeed know him. He was none other than Li, the brother of Sera. No wonder Sera is expecting me to know him.
"Aw, I am a bit disappointed since you are not as shocked as I thought you would be," Sera pouted after seeing me not showing any surprised reaction after the reveal.
"I mean, it's not that big of a reveal and I have a small hunch on who it was. I just didn't confirm it but now I do after seeing who it was. I was a bit surprised, but not so shocked."
"I don't know, you have a mask on. I can't really tell your facial expression with a mask on so that is a bit unfair but, I will let that slide I guess."
King Li started greeting the guests at the banquet and happily exchanged greetings from one person to another. There are many of the merfolk greeting him one after another which I presume to be nobles here in the kingdom. As much as I like to know more, I don't have any impression regarding the merfolks in the game.
After he exchanges greetings with the nobles, he went upstairs to where Sera and I are currently staying and looked at the situation below.
"Looks like your brother is coming this way."
Sera swims towards her brother. King Li hugged her as they exchanged greetings. Then, King Li looked behind her and smiled as he saw me trailing behind her.
"I am glad you managed to arrive during the banquet, Bladeheart-sama. It's been a while since the last time we meet."
"It's been a while indeed but not that long. I think it was just a few months since we parted ways but here you are, already a king and all. I never expected you to be a king though," I patted his shoulders as we lean on the edge of the railings of the second floor.
"Haha, a few months is enough for me to do what I needed to do you know? But I wouldn't be even a king if I have not gotten any help from Lifera herself."
"Oh yeah, brother. Lifera is now being called the Great One when I arrived here, what is going on?" Sera asked which made me frown.
"You didn't know the reason? I was about to ask you about it earlier."
"Well, I came back to Aquagius just a few days ago so all of the changes that happened before I arrived here is something I have no idea about which is why I wanted to ask as of why everyone is now calling Lifera the Great One now."
I turned to look at King Li and he sighed as he started to explain.
"Lifera is still the same guardian as before but because of her being the last survivor of this kingdom who existed since before we are born, she was being dubbed now by the new settlers as the "Great One" and treated her like some kind of deity that decided to join the merfolk and live together with them. It was just a very big misunderstanding on other merfolk's part."
"A big misunderstanding? That is a big deal already, big brother! How did Lifera responded to it?" Sera tried to press on further.
"She didn't care too much about it. She said she has too much on her plate so she has no care of what they call her as long as they don't add more trouble to her, she is fine with whatever they are calling her on."
I slowly understood what King Li said, in short, Lifera just didn't have the time to give a f*ck on what the other people think of her because of her job in maintaining the whole kingdom. What doI expect on her except not giving any f*cks?
And so, the banquet continued. Thanks to Sera and King Li, I am now safe from the mermaids flocking at me most of the time and I managed to enjoy the food. However, I don't really like banquets and stuff so most of the time, it was boring and if not for King Li and Sera talking to me, I would honestly exit the banquet hall and just go back to grinding.
The banquet was alright, it lacks the charm of parties with your close friends but its alright. After all of the events happening, King Li returned to his duties after the banquet. He also gave the order that I am allowed to enter the palace anytime I wanted to even without the king's permission. Of course, to do that, I neededto present the Glass Clam Necklace to make sure that it was me and not some impostor.
As soon as we exited the palace, Sera went out with me and while we are talking, she mentioned something that piqued my interest.
"Bladeheart-sama. I heard you are part of the Sandurk expedition before right?"
"Yeah, I did. I am one of the pioneers of it," I pulled out the token that is proof of my participation to that event and showed it to her.
"Alright. It seems you are very qualified then. Recently, another continent has made contact with some of our traders out there. Apparently, they are in need of a big help at the moment so they asked Queen Titania to intervene. I heard rumors but apparently, Queen Titania is about to conduct another search for the next expedition just like in Sandurk."
"A new continent?"
"Yeah. See that huge shadow up in the sky that is hidden behind the clouds and sunny sky?"
I looked up and I saw the small glimpse of it and the moment she mentioned that, I immediately knew what is gonna happen.
"Isn't that the Continent of Luminous?"
"Oh? You knew about it? Then much better. I think you needed to prepare soon, Bladeheart-sama. Sooner or later, the recruitment might drop and I think this is an opportunity for you to go here too and perhaps you might be someone who can genuinely complete and solve the problems that those people up there that are enduring."
Hearing that, makes me a bit happy. After all, that also means we will get new classes, new place to explore, and of course, the race that only existed on that realm, the Angels.