A Cat From Another World

Chapter 14

The King and Queen

While being carried by Teros we walk behind Orfia, who has told us to follow her. I don't know where she's taking us, trying to understand what she's thinking is pointless. She always wears a blank expressionless poker face. Some say that the day she laughs is going to be the last. After some left and right here and there Orfia stopped moving. Teros and I look in front of us to see a gigantic building that looms beyond us, standing in a glorious way. "Welcome, we've been waiting for you"Before we could react a voice suddenly came from the building. A man wearing a black and white attire just like a butler walks out from the giant door in the middle of the building. He bowed his head towards us and turned around."Please follow me, your majesty has been awaiting your presence" As soon as he said those words I suddenly knew what was going on. The building that we have walked inside is the castle of the king that rules this land. The inside is as big as the outside, many doorways were lined up on the side of the main hallway that leads to other hallways that have many more doorways that leads to even more rooms that have doors to other hallways. Basically this place is huge. While following the butler I look around from right to left."For a place this big it sure doesn't have many people inside" I said in a curious tone."As soon as reports came in about the demon that appeared in the colosseum, his majesty ordered everyone here to evacuate to a safe place, except for me," The butler replied to what I just said with a smile on his face.Referring to the king and queen I asked, "Why didn't they evacuate like the others?" After reaching the end of the hallway the butler stopped moving for a few seconds and said, while still smiling,"What kind of king would abandon their own castle?"He reaches out his hand to the wall and it started to glow with a door-like shape. The glow was quite bright so Teros and I covered our eyes. Beyond the door was a stone brick room with tons of weapons hung from the wall and a table at the center of the room with a crystal ball on top. At the end of the table stood two figures a man and a woman, and on the side of the table were some familiar faces. On one side there stood the headmaster of the Cyrus academy, Shinra with Eim standing beside him. On the other side is someone with red hair in white and yellow attire, beside him are a mask-wearing young man and a not so young man, whose face is almost covered with marks. I feel like I've seen them before but I'm not sure where."You're finally here," Shinra greeted us.Orfia quietly walked towards Shinra and stood beside him.The man on the opposite side of us was walking towards Orfia and chatted quietly"How was it?" The man in a red cape and yellow attire asked her."Yes, the enemy was just like you described it," She answered when suddenly Eim tugged Orfia's right sleeve."Be more polite will ya?" Orfia looked away from Eim."Heh, of course it is, I'd expect nothing less from myself" The man replied while walking back to his original spot.While that was happening, I still can't take my eyes off of those three men. I tried to remember who they are but of little or no avail. "Aren't those three the Immortal Heroes?" While I was trying to memorize who they were, Teros who was still carrying me like a baby stated those three's identity. I looked at Teros with a confused look."Immortal Heroes?""Chrono, don't tell me you already forgotten about them" The name sounded familiar.And then, it came to me like a flash of lightning. The one with red hair and is wearing white attire is Mikael. The boy beside him that is wearing a mask is Aska. And the one with a big figure who has tattoos almost covering his whole face is Arma.The legendary heroes that defeated a calamity lord, their presence itself are making the air in the room tremble.I quickly got off Teros' back and stood straight up. Pretending it didn't happen."Ahem"I cleared my throat.Shinra smiled while looking at me.The two who are standing beside him, one of them looked at me with utter disturbance, the other one just stared at the ground, almost like saying "I do not know this person"I tilted my head while looking at Shinra who looks like he's holding in his laughter."You do know that the two-person standing on the opposite side of the table is the king and queen of this city, right?" Shinra said.... What?"Nice to meet you, Chrono"The king said with a smile.*gulp* Now I'm more terrified for my rude behavior. While Teros just stood beside me calmly with a straight face.The king of Filia, Roulant Filia. With pure white hair and yellow eyes, his appearance is worthy to be called king. Then that means the one next to him is, Isota Filia, the queen. Her magenta-colored hair is rather long but looks extremely thin and silky.I'm too nervous to reply so I just stood there awkwardly."Now, now, don't just stand there,"Shinra reached out to me."Come here!""Ah, yes, sir"I and Teros hurriedly walk toward Shinra and stood behind Orfia and Eim."Your highness, may we continue?"Mikael said to the king, whom he nodded in response."Chrono, Teros, and Orfia"Mikael said our name just like a teacher during roll calls."The three of you have confronted with one of the demons head-on, may us hear about the incident?"One of the demons? So there is more than one of those monsters that are gonna attack this city?"The demon we confronted was talking about his master, which I presume is a demon lord, who is going to come to this city"Orfia reported.Shinra holds his chin."I see, well if the enemy is only a demon lord we won't have any trouble, right? "Heroes"?"He looked at the three in front of him and smiled as if he knew something we don't.Mikael looked at him with a confused look."Hmm, yes, but we're not sure when they will attack. Perhaps the demon at the colosseum was merely a scout?" Said the king."What kind of scout would announce their attack like that?"I whispered."You don't have to worry about a thing, your highness. We have three of the great "Immortal Heroes" on our side, I'm sure just like with their battle with the calamity lord, there'd be NO CASUALTIES"Shinra glared at the three in front of him and Arma quickly walked forward and hit the table."Oi, Shinra. You got some shit to say or something?"Mikael holds his shoulder, telling him to step back."Sir, we're here to talk about our strategy to fight the demon lord's army, not to start a pointless war between ourselves"Eim said, in a respectful tone."Yeah, Shinra. You should listen to your precious student! We don't want any "Casualties" here do we?"Arma mocked Shinra, in which he responded by throwing a knife at Arma.How did this get so chaotic, can I leave now?"Enough!"The knife thrown by Shinra suddenly stopped at the center of the table."I've said this before, your highness, but putting Sir Headmaster in the same room as the heroes will only cause havoc"The queen said in a tone that indicates suppressed anger."Hmm, that seemed to be the case, let's end the meeting here"Shinra and Arma got back to their original position with Shinra smiling and Arma glaring at him. Just what happened between them?The king put his hand together and said,"Now then! Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for coming here, Shinra, please don't forget about the strategy"Strategy? We didn't discuss any strategy, we only watched as these two fight like cat and dog."Why of course, your highness"Shinra replied."And Mikael?""Yes, highness?""Can you come to my throne room after this? I need something to tell you""As you wish"With that all of us left the room through the wall we entered from.The heroes left to the throne room as ordered by the king. As for us, well, we left the castle."Shinra, are you gonna tell us about the strategy? Don't we need to know too?"I asked."Hmm? Of course not"He answered as if I just asked a pointless question."Eh?""You children won't be participating in this battle, wait here, I'm gonna get a carriage to carry you back to the academy like the rest"I looked at him with a blank face, while the other four just stood there as if their thinking, "did this guy seriously thought we're gonna battle with them?""Wait, then what's the point of Orfia taking us here?""I ordered her to go see the commotion going on at the colosseum and she just happens to meet you and Teros"Ah, is that why she suddenly disappeared from the spectator's seat?"I see, but I don't see the reason for us being here""Aah, that, well..."Shinra seemed hesitant about answering my question."The king wanted to meet you"Orfia replied for him."The king wanted to meet me? Why?""Who knows? Maybe because he's surprised by your stupidity to recklessly face a demon head-on and not run away like a sane person would?"Eim's words hurt."But, I mean, if we ran away then the demon would've killed more than one person that time"Teros seems to have defended me."What's wrong with that? Just means there are fewer scums in the world""Eim, are you a psychopath or something?"I asked her."No, not at all, why you ask?"She said in a frightening smile."But still, at the colosseum, Orfia was very unlike her""How so?"Eim asked my statement."Yeah, she was so cool when she saved your ass, Chrono""And you did nothing to help me, thanks a lot, "friend""What do you expect me to do? The enemy was very strong!""As I said, run away, idiot!""Can you three be quiet?"Orfia finally opened her mouth and joined in."Mourning Orfia was very cool too, don't you think so, Teros?""Yeah, the fact that she made a grave for the body was very noble""Speaking of which, who was the student that got killed?"Eim asked, and the four of us went silent.And then the three of us said in sync,"I don't know"