Cain walked toward the garden to meet his guests. He had an idea of what they might do and was ready to deny them.
“Is the white mage here?” Before he could get out, he heard a woman’s voice outside.
‘I believe someone should have told her that we have a sick dragon in here, what does that Buffon thinks yelling like this?’ Cain sighed; Zaleria was still asleep in her room. It doesn’t seem like she will be in top shape anytime soon but she could still blow the entire place up.
Cain slowly opened the door with Selena standing behind him, “Would you mind staying quite a bit? We have a sick person inside.” Cain said as he stared at the tanned princess. She was wearing full plate armor with only her head showing. Her golden hair perfectly matched her honey-colored eyes.
“What is this insolence…”
“Shut up. I just told you lots to stay quiet.” Cain cut the night before he could finish speaking. “You heard of the dragon who stopped a meteor? She is sleeping inside, wake her up, and your kingdom is puff puff.” Cain hushed the knight with an annoyed expression.
“Fine, fine. We understand.” The princess intervened before the argument could escalate, “All of you keep quiet. We want no problem with such a dragon.”
“Good, I like when people are reasonable. Now, shall we get inside?” Cain said satisfied. He knew that without a warning, the knights are going to be noisy.
“First, I would like to have a duel with you.” The princess said behind Cain as she pulled her sword.
Cain slowly turned his head toward her with a disappointed expression, what did he even expect from this meathead? “Do you know how noisy a duel is? Do you want me to silence you forever?”
“We can always go to the guild for…” The princess stopped talking when she saw Selena grab her sword barehanded.
TIII! Cling! The blade snapped sending the tip flying and stabbing a tree in the garden. Selena slowly moved her hand toward the handle and snapped the blade repeatedly into small pieces.
“Yeah, she is my wife. You have to get past her before hoping I will accept a duel from you!” Cain said barely holding his laughter. Selena who now has 20 strength has ascended beyond steel, to her, their weapons and armor are that easily broken.
The princess stared silently at her now 4 inches long blade; she couldn’t believe what she saw. She quickly broke into a smile, “Then by all means let’s have…” She fell right on her face.
[Sleep]
“After a second thought, I will take you on myself, and you already lost.” Cain stared at her, “Bring her inside, she is just asleep.”
As two knights carried the princess inside, Cain stared at the knights and looked for the oldest one. “You, I want to ask you a question,” Cain called him out.
The knight seemed to be a bit over forty years old and had a well-defined jawline.
“Is there anything I could help you with?” The knight replied, a bit reluctant to speak as he remembered the fact that Cain could throw a meteor at any time.
“Why, did the king send her? I think it would have been a wiser decision to send the second prince.” Cain said.
The knight shrugged a bit as if called out. “He actually did, but the lady managed to convince her brother to go instead of him.”
“And let me guess, the prince just didn’t want to bother arguing with her so he just gave her his place?”
“Pretty much, he is…” The knight didn’t continue.
“Tame is the word, I heard he is more of a scholar than anything else.”
The knight smiled, “You seem to know the royal family well.”
“Well they are the royal family, knowing them is something to be expected,” Cain replied. In his eyes, this old knight was the most reasonable of the bunch.
After a while, the princess woke up to find herself surrounded by Cain’s wives and a maid. “How do you feel your highness? I heard you tried to start a fight with Cain.” Alice made an evil smile.
“Let her rest a bit. Lexi brings us tea and some light snacks.” Cain asked Lexi even though Gracie was standing just by his side. That was because he wanted to do a trick later.
“Ahem, let me introduce myself. My name is Noel Skyler Ruris, The kingdom’s eldest princess. I came here to handle the matter of my father the king.”
“Nice to meet you. I am Cain Lisworth; I heard the people have been calling me the white mage. And no I’m not going with you to the capital and I’m not handing Ourals over to you…” Cain quickly said what was in his mind.
“The king is offering you a residence in the…” She stopped for a moment and looked at Cain, finally realizing what he just said. “What did you say?”
“I’m not coming with you to the capital and I’m not handing Ourals over.” He smiled at her.
“How did you know?” She was confused at the possibility of someone leaking the information. She had just lost the element of surprise in her offer.
“It’s easy to guess. Ourals is a great mining city with an abundance of Iron, gold, and silver. And with me being able to use ninth-tier magic, I bet the king wants me to settle in the capital to scare any potential invaders.”
The princess stared at him in silence, he wasn’t stupid to not know his worth. He also didn’t seem to be that thrilled with power or wealth. Most people usually get crazy over being called to live in the capital by the king; such a thing meant a title of nobility and great wealth.
“The king is offering you the title of a baron and a massive plot of land. He will also offer you half of the Ourals income without you needing to go through the trouble of governing it.” The princess with a series face, her father was offering him more wealth than she had. At least in her eyes, this was a lifetime offer.
“Listen because I wouldn’t explain this a second time. The problem with your first offer is tying me to the capital, I do intend on wondering a lot so I won’t take that. As for your second offer, I already have someone to govern Ourals in my stead so I don’t need the second offer.”
The princess’s face tensed up, she took on a more serious expression and tried to speak up. “Even if you won Ourals in battle, that city is still the kingdom property; you can’t just take it like this.”
Cain looked at her and then looked at the knights, “No, I can. You know why?” He asked her and she stared at him with a stern face.
“Because you can’t take it back, the king’s power lay in the nobles that swore loyalty to him. With how much strength I have, I am already past the noble status by now. Tell me, do you remember how the three great barons go their titles?”
The princess shook her head.
“Yeah, because they didn’t get them. They already had land and a strong army before they swore loyalty to the king, for me, I have my magic and Ourals. At this point, you may call me Ruris’s white Archmage.” Cain created a ball of flames on top of his hand and quickly put it out.
The only difference between him and the other nobles was that he had his power inside him instead in the form of an army. This was a reason to fear him instead of belittling him.
“You are allowed to deny me the ownership of Ourals if you want, but remember that there are always other kingdoms who will gladly take my power,” Cain stated that he was willing to side with other kingdoms if Ruris kingdom refused to cooperate. He also had the elvish kingdom, which was far stronger, than the Ruris kingdom, and had Sylph who will gladly give him the throne.
After thinking about it a bit, Noel gave up. “Fine, now I understand why father said to accept your conditions even if they seemed to be ridiculous.” The king seemed to have already predicted this. He was just trying to see if he could get a better deal.
“You can have what you want, but we have another request.” The princess was about to speak again.
“If it’s about your sister then I already heard about it from the Guildmaster. I will pass by the capital after I deal with some urgent business.”
The princess’s face twisted again at him knowing what she was about to say, for a moment she remember her younger brother calling her a bit dense. ‘Could it be that I’m the slow one here?’ She started to think it was a problem with her being stupid rather than Cain being overly smart.
“If you excuse me, I will come back quickly.” Cain suddenly excused himself with the girls, only leaving Gracie standing at the side of the room silently.