Overlord: Grand Herald [OC-SI]

6. Madness of Fulfilment

Day After the Transfer

Narberal 1

Near the hour of noon, the palace had settled into an easy bustle, though there was still an echo of the flurry that had gripped the serfs and guards after the news of the king's edicts had been made public.

The maids still made gossip of it in the lapse moments of their duties when rotations needed to be made, lest fatigue bred errors. And the palace guards made discreet laments over their halted stations that offered little in the way of opportunities for more pecuniary excess.

It was greed given voice, an envy for the Milatur and Aigroqir who had made agreements with the guilds and merchants to sell whatever great harvests they managed on their assignments in these lands so foreign.

However if offered the opportunity to switch, none of the guards would do so as the prestige and coinage awarded by their royal positions outstripped many that existed outside its walls.

Yet what if that opportunity did not compromise their current position? Would they be so forthcoming to greed's allure if safety, false or otherwise was assured...

Narberal was a Nishikienra, born and raised. And although she had not taken after the teachings of the clan's arts— a choice not of her choosing but the mere fact that her talents lied in other disciplines— she still retained the mindset.

Thus, hearing such words from those so close to the crown and its confidence did not fill her with joy, much less optimism, regardless of the nature of their utterance.

She wondered if the mujin would also take offence to them. Her father was bound to, though his reaction would be mild if persistent.

'I wonder how Yuri would react to these worms' treasonous jesting.' The others had went to fulfill the king's orders, many of them venturing outside the palace's walls and into the wider city, thus she would have to wait until dusk to seek calmer counsel on such matters.

...though that did not stop her vicious judgment.

The elementalist spared a glance to one of the guards in question now joking about marital prospects and a migration to the countryside.

Leashed were her emotions thus little was shown on her countenance. The damned worm dared to dream of a blessed life a few moments after his treasonous contemplations.

Velena needed to reeducate its servants on secrecy and disassociation once more. This type of behaviour could not be allowed to linger.

Had it been up to her then she would have long rendered them corpses, a harsher example to all those who might have forgotten the importance of their stations.

Alas, she lacked both the authority and might to achieve such a feat— monsters were the individuals who held purely combative stations within Velena— though she would be remiss as a Pleiades if she did not share her discoveries with the queen.

Narberal eventually withdrew her eyes from the armored guards and gazed at the blue skies devoid of clouds. The sun hung at its peak, glaring, yet its heat was mild and pleasant...

She wondered if that was its true intensity, familiar with some of the barriers the city boasted.

It would not be difficult to regulate the city's weather to a point of it being an opposite of the outside's. Though today she felt Mirror was at play, if for little else than the maintenance of some level of commonality to the Milatur who ventured outside the protections of Elgroth.

She turned a corner, her gait still deliberate and the hum of the serving tray she was pushing still at an easy rhythm. Her uniform fluttered from the soft breeze blowing southward, the scent of the flower garden northeast of the castle proper filtering through her nose.