Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 168: Echoes

Rikuto walks through the castle of Mornistae on one of the upper levels of the main palace. He is departing for Castle Northwall soon, and he needs to check in one last time with his long-term guest.

The Imperial Guards look at Rikuto as he approaches, and he asks politely, "Is the Grand prince in?"

"Yes, your Majesty," replies the senior of the two guards.

"Please allow me in to see him."

Rikuto remains polite, but as the sovereign of Mornistae, he has the authority to simply walk in without even addressing the guards. Grand Prince Yaulander is visiting from the Empire, and after what happened, it's unlikely he wants word to reach Empress Sundenelle.

The guard cracks the door and informs those inside, "King Rikuto is here."

Whatever the specific response is, the guard opens the door and says, "As you may, your Majesty."

The Japanese man nods, walking into the room with one of his most trusted guards, Larravu, a female gatonine. She is quiet and presents a discreet presence that is often easy enough to forget she is even present. She's not the strongest, but she is agile and deceptively unintimidating, meaning she is among the closest things to a ninja in this world.

Plus, Rikuto will never admit it out loud, but he is partial to cat-eared kemonomimi girls, and being in this fantasy world was like a dream come true.

Inside his guest room, there are a handful of servants on standby, including Yaulander's usual lightly-dressed eye-candy maids, a butler, and ladies in waiting scowling lightly towards the balcony.

There, seated in one of the chairs as a young maid continues to treat his face is Yaulander. He has an eye patch now, and the scabs for his cheeks are mostly healed. The maid is applying ointment carefully.

During this, or rather, seemingly ignoring her work in his own ponderings, the blond man is brooding with his gaze aimed blankly at the horizon over the balcony of his room.

Before Rikuto can announce himself or get Yaulander's attention, the Grand Prince remarks randomly, "Do you think the gods have some sort of... unique sense of humor? Two of three so-called Divine Summons have the mannerisms of beasts and failed to know their place." He waves his hand dismissively, and the maid who was tending to his cheek bows and quickly cleans up her tray and scurries away.

The Grand Prince looks over his shoulder partially to make eye contact with Rikuto. The deep reddish-black scabs forming claw-marks across his face and around his eyes look worse than they actually are, though the eyepatch now hides the milky-grey eye that was destroyed by the canister's pressurized spray.

The mages with healing magic strong enough to recover his eye were also among those that partook in the summoning. The small handful of survivors are still unconscious, and all of the more known healers didn't make it.

Rikuto thought of refusing the peace conference that's about to be held. Daniel likely has no interest in yielding any of the ground he has captured, and with his weapons, he could launch a devastating attack at any time. It'll be difficult to defend Mornistae, but he somehow escaped with his closest allies from the void artillery. Trying the same thing again would undoubtedly fail, and Rikuto doesn't have any mages or magic artisans to recharge the magic crystals of the void artillery. He can't afford to be sloppy with engaging Daniel directly.

"I can't speak about the woman, but from what he told me, Daniel was rather minimally educated by Earth standards. He also comes from a country of different cultural standards from mine."

Yaulander scoffs. "That's an understatement."

He finally stands up, fixing his cuffs as he approaches Mornistae's king. "Now then, what can I do for you, King Rikuto?"