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IDWTBTHQ Chapter 137 - The Fresh Queen of Rennhafen
🕑 Added 2023-04-19 23:14:37 +0000 UTCIt took several minutes for the coaches to ascend the winding and steep road to the top of the hill, but then, after several minutes, the convoy from Brettholz finally reached the gates of Graystone Fortress. Once there, they had to make a brief stop as the guards at the doors checked their identities, but as soon as their captain saw the marquis they were allowed to pass without further inspections.
As his coach passed through the large, fortified doors, Marcus found himself a bit surprised to witness the difference between the interior and the exterior of the fortress. Whereas the outer walls of the fortress were made of rough, square blocks of dark stone and had a rather grim appearance, the interior was significantly brighter. The gate led directly into a large parade ground, covered in colored cobblestones that formed the shape of a huge, two-headed axe —which the Vex Queen knew was the national symbol of Medelan— and surrounded by elegant, four-story tall buildings with large windows and immaculate white walls with plaster and golden decorations.
All in all, this stark contrast made Marcus think of some kind of soft fruit hiding inside a tough shell.
“There it is.” Eisen said, pointing at the buildings. “The royal palace. What do you think about it, sir Marcus?”
“Well... I guess it does look nice.” The Vex Queen replied. “Honestly though, no offense but I'd have expected something a bit more grandiose.”
“That's perfectly understandable.” The nobleman reassured him. “After all, when compared to the royal palaces of other countries, Medelan's is admittedly quite modest. But that's actually a point of pride for our citizens.”
“How so?”
“Well, once upon a time Medelan used to have a much bigger and indeed more majestic Royal Palace, but it was completely destroyed during the Zaru invasion.” Eisen explained. “Then, after the war ended, the king chose to prioritize the reconstruction of the rest of the kingdom over that of his own palace, so he just took residence in Graystone Fortress for the time being. That decision won him quite a lot of popular support, so his successor chose to do the same, and so did his successor and the one after him, until it became some sort of tradition.” He smirked. “By now, the Royal Palace is basically considered the symbol of the royal family's love for their people, so the king probably wouldn't really build a new one even if he wanted to.”
“Well, that seems like a pretty good reason.” Marcus nodded. “And besides, he could do worse than this. As I said, this place does look nice enough.”
As they talked, the coaches advanced inside of the square, reaching what looked like the main entrance of the palace, where several people dressed in elegant liveries waited for them. When the convoy stopped and the passengers got out, an old man wearing slightly more elegant clothes put himself in front of the group.
“Greetings, milord and miladies.” The man saluted them, bowing his head slightly. “Welcome to Rennhafen. I am Klein, head butler of this palace. Your rooms are ready to receive you, and my staff will accompany you there, along with your luggage. I’ve also taken the liberty to prepare some light refreshments for you. But if you have anything else you need, feel free to ask me.”
“Greetings, mister Klein.” The nobleman saluted him back. “Actually, there is one thing I'd like to ask. I don't know if you've been told, but we...” He lowered his voice, to keep the conversation a bit more private, and pointed at the sealed coach at the back of the convoy. “Well, we do have an ogre with us.”
“Oh yes.” The old man nodded, his polite expression revealing nothing about what he thought about the matter. “Magister Orr told us about it, so we've prepared a suitable space for this creature. If you can take the carriage to the back, we can lead this ogre to its rooms in the dungeons.”
“The dungeons?” Eisen asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes.” Klein confirmed. “The Magister said that we needed to keep this creature safe and out of sight, and the dungeons of the palace are the best place for that purpose. Besides, the rooms we've picked for this creature should be comfortable enough. After all, they are the same rooms we use to accommodate Temnosian dignitaries who come to visit us, since they really don't care for sunlight.”
“Then it should be fine.” The nobleman turned to Marcus. “What says you, sir Marcus?”
“Eh, I guess it's fine.” The Vex Queen shrugged.
Truth be told, he'd have been fine with mostly any location, as long as it was safe and out of sight. After all, neither Tiny nor his copy drones really needed many luxuries to get by, though they were always welcome.
“Very well.” Klein nodded, and was about to give orders to his underlings when suddenly a hint of worry appeared in his face: “By the way... Pardon me for asking this, but are you sure this ogre is well behaved? Otherwise I could summon one of our sorcerers to sedate it while we carry it to its rooms, just in case.”
“It probably won't be necessary.” The marquis reassured him. “As far as I know it has been perfectly tamed.”
Though his tone was confident, the nobleman looked at Marcus for a moment, waiting for him to confirm his words.
“Yeah, there is no need to worry.” The Vex Queen said. “Besides, I have a few Copy-Dro... ehm, I mean I have a few servants in the carriage with the ogress that will look after her.”
“Very well. I'll trust your judgment on this matter.” The head butler nodded again, though for some reason he didn't seem entirely convinced. “If there isn't anything else, my staff will now take you to your rooms. And I sincerely hope they will be to your liking, m'lords and m'ladies.”
“Yeah, these rooms are very much to my liking.” Marcus thought several minutes later.
He had followed a young maid through the corridors of the left wing of the palace, where apparently most of the guest rooms were located. The halls were all clean, well lit by magical lights and tastefully decorated in a sober Victorian style, displaying a kind of luxury that Marcus had never previously seen in this world. However, the rooms that had been assigned to him were, if possible, even more impressive.
He had been given the kind of suite that he would have expected to see in one of those five star hotels visited by celebrities and vips of his old world. It was composed of several rooms, all completely fitted with all kinds of comforts, including a small icebox which contained the promised refreshments and even a huge grandfather clock decorated with golden rooster motifs. However, the best feature in Marcus's opinion was the bathroom, which had a huge marble bathtub and heated tap water to boot, so that he could have warm water without having to wait. The thought of relaxing in the hot water while eating some snacks was enough to almost make him tremble with anticipation.
Luckily, the servants didn't take long to bring him his luggage, and after that the maid that had accompanied him took her leave, though not before pointing at a small cord dangling from the wall and telling the Vex Queen that if he wanted anything else he could pull it and a servant would immediately come to take care of his needs.
As soon as the young woman closed the door behind her, Marcus immediately darted for the bathroom, where he started filling up the bathtub with hot water, throwing in some bath salts for good measure. Then he headed back for the living room, where he quickly started undressing, throwing the clothes on a chair. In less than a minute he was completely nude except for the crown on his head, and without further ado he opened the icebox to see what kind of refreshments the head butler had prepared for him.
The icebox contained a bottle of water and a silver covered tray, which for some reason had a small note attached to it, which the Vex Queen immediately grabbed.
“Dear Sir Marcus.” He read. “We’ve been informed of your peculiar tastes by Magister Orr and we’ve tried to meet them to the best of our abilities. Here is a collection of samples of exotic meats that we thought would be to your liking. However, if you prefer anything else, feel free to call for a servant and ask for what you want. Sincerely, Head Butler Klein.”
He lifted the lid, and the tray was indeed filled with thin slices of several different meats, which reminded Marcus of sashimi from his own world. There were even labels next to each different type of meat with the name of the animals it was from written on them.
“Rock Lizard, Kragbull, Armored Scorpion and Lake Reaver… uh, I’ve never heard about any of these animals before, but these names make it seem like they could be quite dangerous.” He felt his mouth starting to water. “Well, there's only one way to be sure.”
He grabbed the tray and brought it over to the bathroom, putting it on the edge of the bathtub before going in himself, laying down in the warm water.
“Aaaaaah!” He took a long sigh of relief. “I really needed this. After three days traveling on the coach, it felt as if my butt was going numb!”
He remained still for a few minutes, soaking in the pleasure of the bath, before reaching for the meat slices and taking one, lazily dropping it into his open mouth like an ancient Roman epicurean would eat grapes.
The strip of white meat was soft and easy to chew, and it did taste amazing to him. Then, as soon as he swallowed, he felt a series of new genetic information flowing into his mind.
The creature it belonged to, the one called Armored Scorpion, was an arthropod-like creature that resembled a mix between a centipede and a scorpion, which could easily grow to be two and a half meters in length. It had very quick reflexes and a couple of very strong pincers, but its most peculiar characteristic was its metallic shell, which contained a huge amount of iron in addition to chitin, resulting in something akin to carbon steel in toughness.
“Cool!” The Vex Queen thought, immediately taking another slice of Armored Scorpion meat. “That is a really good trait! Sure, a shell like that might be a bit too heavy for most drones, but maybe I could only apply it to certain specific parts, like the plates that guard the vital organs and the claws, while leaving everything else as the usual chitin. That way, my drones would have most of the benefits from the harder exoskeleton while still being light enough to move around easily!”
After that, he quickly sampled every other type of meat, absorbing their DNA in the process. The Rock Lizard was a large reptile which growed calcified formations on its back, which probably acted both as armor and as camouflage on rocky terrains. The Kragbull was a huge, eight-limbed creature similar to a mix between a buffalo, a dinosaur and a caterpillar, which was extremely strong but also quite fast for its size. And finally, the Lake Reaver was a fish similar to a barracuda with a huge, bulbous nose which contained some extremely sensible electroreceptors which allowed it to sense any potential prey in a radius of two hundred meters while underwater.
Those were all pretty good traits, though they were a bit situational compared to the scorpion’s metal exoskeleton, but Marcus was satisfied nonetheless. After all, it had been a while since he had savored some good DNA samples, something which made those refreshments all the more tasty.
After emptying the tray, Marcus let out another long, satisfied sigh, basking in the pleasant heat of the water and processing the genetic information he had just acquired. And as he did so, he let his mind wander, shifting his focus to the copy drones that were accompanying Tiny.
Just a few minutes before, the ogress had been let out of the carriage near a backdoor of the palace, where a nervous looking servant and a couple of palace guards were waiting for them. Those men were clearly on edge, and couldn’t help but to give wary looks at the ogress, but luckily Tiny was behaving extremely well for now, just sticking close to the Copy-Drones and saying nothing —likely because she had been fed enough food to make her calm and drowsy for a while. Moreover, at Eisen’s suggestion he had also dressed his copy drones in some plain working clothes rather than the usual tattered white tunics, in order to make them seem a bit more “normal”, as the nobleman had put it. And luckily, all those preparations seemed to pay off, as no accident happened while they proceeded through corridors and descended several flights of stairs. As they went deeper and deeper underground, the white walls were replaced by ones of raw dark stone and the decorations of the rest of the palace had also disappeared. After only a few minutes, the place started to look like a stereotypical dungeon, so it came as quite a surprise when the servant opened the (heavily reinforced) door to Tiny’s rooms and it turned out that they were nearly as luxuries as the ones the Vex Queen currently occupied.
Though this suite lacked windows and the walls were of the same raw stone of the rest of the dungeons, it was still very spacious and surprisingly well aired, not to mention perfectly furnished. Also, Marcus quickly noticed that the furniture in this room was unusually large, as if it was meant for someone a bit bigger than an average human —which was actually a good thing, since Tiny herself did fit that bill.
This time, the butler didn’t show him around, but rather remained still at the door, clearly eager to get away from there as soon as possible, while the guards remained still right outside the door.
“We are going to serve you all three meals per day.” The servant explained to one of the drones. “If there is anything you need, you can pull that cord over there and someone will come to see what you need. There are also going to be a couple of guards stationed right outside the door at all times, in case of an emergency.”
“Thank you.” Marcus replied through one of his drones. “But I must ask, are these guards really necessary? I mean, what kind of emergency are we talking about here?”
“Well… ehm…” The man swallowed nervously, as he stared at the copy-drone. He clearly felt that something wasn’t right about it, though he probably couldn’t tell exactly what. “No offense, but we kinda don’t want to take risks with an ogre in the palace. After all, we are going to have a lot of important guests, and… well, it would be bad if an accident happened…”
“It’s fine, no offense taken.” The Vex Queen replied. Knowing how ogres usually behaved, he really couldn’t blame the palace staff for wanting to play it safe. “Anyway, if it’s not a problem, could you give us a few more meals? At least four or five per day, and make them abundant too. The ogress has a very big appetite, and she gets restless when she’s hungry.”
“Of course.” The man nodded. “Ehm… what kind of food would you prefer, by the way?”
“Raw meat is fine. Both for me and Tiny.”
“Very well. I’ll arrange for five abundant servings of raw meat to be delivered to you five times per day. Would that be all?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Excellent.” The servant said, slowly retreating towards the exit. “I’ll have one meal served to you presently then. Have a good stay, ma’am.”
And then the man quickly jumped out of the room, closing the door behind him. Marcus could hear the sound of multiple locks clicking shut, and couldn’t help but smile at how intimidated the man looked by Tiny, especially considering that the ogress was currently completely harmless. But the man didn’t know the ogress as he did, so his caution was very understandable.
With that out of the way, he then made his drones take Tiny to bed, which she gladly did, hugging one of the clones like a teddy bear before immediately falling asleep. Then, not having anything else to do, he just focused on enjoying his bath to the fullest.
Sadly, he didn’t get to do that for too long, as a few minutes later someone knocked at the door of his apartment.
A bit annoyed at having his bath interrupted, Marcus cursed under his breath before yelling low enough to be heard from the bathroom:
“Who’s there?”
“It’s us, Marcus. Felix and Klara.” Felix’s voice replied, barely audible from that distance.
“Oh… wait a second.” The Vex Queen replied, getting up and shaking his body of the water that was dripping from it. Then he grabbed a towel, draped it around his waist and walked up to the door.
“Hi there.” He said, opening the door to let his friends in. “Sorry if I made you wait, but I was taking a bath.”
“Eh… that’s not really surprising, considering how much you love baths.” Felix commented, stepping inside the apartment along with Klara. “Anyway, I hope we’re not bothering you too much…”
His voice died down as he looked at Marcus. Then he blushed and looked away, while the girl beside him also grimaced.
“Marcus.” She asked. “Why are you dressed like that?”
“I told you, I just stepped out of the bathtub.”
“Yeah, but… why are you just covering your lower half?” Klara said, giving a pointed stare at the Vex Queen’s chest.
Marcus looked down at his breasts, or rather his lack thereof, and rolled his eyes.
“Oh, come on, it’s not as if there is anything to see down there. I don’t even have nipples, for heaven’s sake.”
“Well, even so it’s still pretty distracting to see you like this.”
Marcus sighed, but still adjusted the towel so that it covered his chest too. The result was that his legs were quite a bit exposed, but he thought that nothing would show as long as he didn’t sit or bend over.
“Better now?” He asked.
“Definitely.” Klara confirmed. “You can look now, Felix.”
The apprentice sorcerer, who had looked around the room until then with an uncomfortable expression on his face, looked rather relieved as he turned back towards the Vex Queen, though he still avoided staring at him too much.
“Yeah… good.” He said, in a rather awkward tone. “Uhm… well, nice room you have Marcus. A far cry from ours.” He smirked. “All we got was two cramped little rooms in the servants’ wing.”
“Yeah, I don’t think even the marquis’s rooms are this luxurious.” Klara added. “They are really treating you like royalty. Though maybe that’s fitting considering you are the Queen of the Vex.”
“Well, as long as they don’t start behaving like the French, I’m fine with being treated like royalty.” Marcus said sardonically.
“The what?” His friends asked in unison, both looking rather confused.
“Oh right… I forgot that in this world they have no idea about what France is.” The Vex Queen thought, and out loud he explained: “Well, they were people from my previous life that kinda rebelled against their government and ended up beheading their king and queen.”
Having explained the joke, however, had kind of taken out all the fun from it, so instead of dwelling in the awkwardness of the situation he opted for changing the subject.
“Anyway, I take it you have seen the marquis’s rooms then?” He then asked.
“Yeah… they were kinda on the way here from our rooms, and the marquis saw us as we were passing to come visit you and invited us inside.” Felix replied. “He also asked us to tell you that he’d like for you to dine with him and Trakk tonight at eight. Apparently, he has some things to discuss.”
“Oh, no problem.” The Vex Queen nodded. “Are you also going to be there?”
“Actually no.” Klara replied. “We want to visit the city this evening.”
“Oh. You’re finally going to visit the famed Red Light District?” Marcus asked in a mischievous tone.
“Not yet, actually.” The girl replied calmly, not picking up the Vex Queen’s provocation. “Rennhafen is very big, so there are a lot of things to see.”
“Also, the Red Light District is kind of on the opposite side of the city, so it might be a little late to get there right now.” Felix chimed in. “We have planned on visiting it tomorrow though, and we wanted to ask you if you wanted to come with us.”
The Vex Queen bit his tongue before he could blurt out his instinctive response, which was that he would be happy to go with them, and looked at Klara for a moment, trying to guess whether or not the girl preferred to be left alone with her friend. However, as soon as she noticed his stare, the young woman smiled and gave him a subtle thumbs up.
“Well, why not?” Marcus then said,after having received the girl’s blessing. “I’m also curious to see a bit more of Rennhafen myself.”
“Excellent.” Felix said. “We’ll meet up tomorrow morning at the front gates of the palace then!” He paused and looked outside the window, where the sun was slowly beginning to set. “But now we probably ought to go, if we don’t want to be too late. After all, it’s a bit of a trek from this palace to the city below.”
“It’s alright. I’d also better start getting ready for my dinner with the marquis.” The Vex Queen pointed at his current attire. “I mean, I don’t think this would be a good look for a formal dinner.”
“I don’t think so either.” Klara said. “Well, see you tomorrow Marcus.”
“Seeya Klara. And have fun with Felix!”
“Don’t worry. I will.”
The two then walked out of the room, leaving Marcus alone again. He looked at the grandfather clock, which was about to strike six o’ clock, and decided that he had just about time to finish his bath. So he returned to the bathroom and dove once again in the tub, determined to enjoy that pleasure for as long as he could.
As he relaxed in the warm water though, a sudden thought emerged in his mind. As Klara had noticed, the people of the Royal Palace were indeed going out of their way to treat him like royalty —something that was starting to make him a little suspicious. In his experience from his previous life, when people were overly nice they usually wanted something from him.
However, he couldn’t tell what their motive could be. After all, he was already a subject of the kingdom, technically speaking, so what reason could they have to try so hard to further ingratiate themself to him?
He thought about it for a moment, but since he couldn’t think of a plausible answer he decided that the only thing he could do was to keep his wits about him and be on guard to spot any possible attempt to exploit him. Besides, he didn’t see any harm in enjoying the luxuries that were being granted to him. After all, he had actually earned all of them and more by literally and metaphorically busting his ass off to produce enough drones to defeat the orcs —even though he wasn’t going to tell this to anyone.
So, in the end, he just took his mind off these matters and focused exclusively on enjoying his bath.
Comments
Valentino Conti Angeli
He's laying more copy-drones for now and hoping no one will think about actually counting them should some reach maturity.
My biggest question is how is Marcus going to explain the sudden increase in his drones in the palace seeing as he still has the biological need to lay eggs occasionally or is his trip short enough that that specific problem won’t come up?
ZCochraine!%
Im calling the palace sus. Plus they defiantly have some surveillance in his room.
