New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Morticia explained a bit more of her goals and purpose, and the council nodded in silence. Most of them knew the Abnormals would be a large part of the kingdom, going forward, and had already accepted this truth.

But it made one person curious. A person who had never had to deal with this many Abnormals getting a right to positions no one would have ever given them.

The structure did not alienate Prince Nalafein at all, but he was curious. Curious how people with no knowledge of how things functioned in this world were suddenly learning and adapting so fast.

When he raised his hand to ask a question, Phoenix almost burst out into laughter.

“Prince Nalafein, you are allowed to speak without raising your hand. You may not be a part of the council, but I’m sure the king wouldn’t allow anyone to talk you down, either.”

The prince lowered his hand, slightly embarrassed, before opening his mouth to talk.

“I would only like to know how your people are adapting so fast. You were gone for a decade and had only been present in our world for a few months. How did you learn all these skills and all this knowledge in such a short period?”

His question was legitimate, and it arose the interest of all the other Natives in the room. But Phoenix was not going to answer this before all of them.

“I think this is a question you should ask the king when he gets back. Would that be alright with you?”

Nalafein nodded his head, a bit disappointed he had to wait. But he understood her reserves, too.

But one person wanted to know something else, as they spoke up shyly.

“Speaking of the king, when do we get to meet him? Most of us here have never even seen him. To us, the king is Leon.”

This was the young teenager whose age was close to Silent Light’s. His name, if Phoenix recalled correctly, was Edmond Finnigan.

Phoenix looked at him with a warm smile.

“I would love to know as well, dear Edmond. But the king has the bad habit of not planning anything much further than his immediate future. A habit that I intend to break out of him, by any means necessary. But for now, we can only patiently await his return.”

The edge of coldness with which she uttered that threat put a bar in the kid’s throat as he swallowed nervously. He immediately found her scary.

“My apologies for overstepping, your majesty. I was simply curious.”

Phoenix shook her head, still smiling warmly. ｂ𝚍ｎｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏｍ

“Don’t worry about it. I took no offence to it.”

The kid nodded his head, feeling a bit more relaxed. But he mentally noted never to make her angry.

He could already tell she wouldn’t be as merciful, then.

“While you have everyone’s attention, Edmond. Would you care to explain to them what your duties are?”

“Ah. Yes, my queen.”

Turning his head to look at everyone in turn, Edmond could feel a tinge of nervousness. But he tided through and cleared his throat, rising from his seat.

“Ahem. Most of you already know, but for the newer members of the council, I shall explain my function. I was raised as royalty in my kingdom before monsters erased it off the map, and I received training in rank bestowal.

“This makes me a suitable candidate to find and eke out ranks for acts of valour, or valuable service to the kingdom. My function in this council will be exactly that.”

Declan and Morticia nodded their heads in understanding, while Phoenix simply kept her smile about her. Seeing he they had acknowledged him, Edmond sat back down, exhaling softly in relief.

Phoenix now only had one more person to go by, and that was Elwin. Looking at him directly on her left, she smiled at him brightly.

“This leaves you for last, Elwin. I trust the last decade has taught you many things, and your son as well, from what I was told. How was the role of ambassador?”

Elwin responded to her smile with one of his own. It looked like a genuine smile, even though she could feel the years of training in diplomatic smiling behind it.

His body and demeanour breathed of refinement, like his time away from the kingdom, fighting to make relations with other rulers and dignitaries had forged him into the noble his bloodline remembered to be.

“I have learned many things in the last decade, my queen. The experience was quite eye-opening, I must say. The world is so much larger than I knew it to be.

“I was able to travel to places I knew not even existed, one of them being the dark continent. Regardless of its name, it is a much brighter place than we credit it to be.

“The races of the dark continent are hard workers, and make for fine warriors as well, and getting them to come here, and join our forces, has been one of my biggest achievements.”

Leon nodded in approval. Getting the Orcs, various Undead, and the Demonoids to come here and train some of their warriors had been a blessing. The conditions were harsh on the dark continent, from what he heard, and it made for much hardier warriors.

Leon couldn’t praise Elwin enough for pulling that off.

Phoenix looked at Leon’s enormous grin and knew he had been very proud of that.

“By Leon’s face, I take it he also thinks it was your greatest achievement. But I disagree. It was certainly one of your greatest, no doubt about it, but I don’t consider it your greatest.”

Pulling out a scroll from a pile of documents near her, Phoenix unrolled it for all to see.

“This scroll here, your latest treaty, is what I think is the greatest. It may not have improved our military standing or trading prowess, but what it gives us far surpasses it.”

Elwin smiled cockily, looking at the document he had brought back on his last trip. He knew all too well what it was.

Phoenix held the document in a visible position for the council members to see.

“This document, which I am most proud of in your work, Elwin, is as precious as the kingdom itself. It is a treaty that acknowledges us as the sixth great city in the alliance, a spot many kingdoms have been vying for, for a long time, I was told.”

Gasps came out of the mouths of the Natives around the table. It impressed even Prince Nalafein.

This treaty was worth more than anyone could imagine. It meant your political standing was virtually incontestable anymore.

‘This Ambassador is most impressive. Given, the kingdom’s growth was his greatest leverage, this is still no minor feat. Astaroth has garnered himself such capable allies…’