Alan teleported the group into the throne room of the Jade Palace, leisurely taking his seat and allowing them to collect their breaths. Almost all of them fell on the floor.
After a while, Emma left to go search for her brother as the rest huddled around a fire fueled by his own mana. It was a bit annoying to have a fire in his own throne room, but Alan relented.
They were all cold, very. Kazikato didn’t seem to mind, and had fallen asleep in one of the corners of the throne room.
Maxwell was still staring at him with bloodshot eyes, ready to lunge at him at any moment and get his vengeance. Alan had to keep an eye out for him.
Not because he thought Maxwell could do anything, other than throwing the box with the ominous drop of ichor inside it… He was just worried that his sudden actions may trigger the two serpents resting behind his throne.
He was sure the group wouldn’t appreciate two massive serpents suddenly appearing from behind him and eating one of them. Alan had to put in some effort to keep those two at bay.
He had little to no experience in controlling them, unlike the other soldiers of his army. He used the powers of his domain to figure out what they were doing, and found them enjoying the cold weather of Lanekia. It was a pleasant and surprising sight to see.
‘So they really are like me…’
He figured he would let them enjoy as much as they liked, He could even place his domain in Lanekia and call upon it when it was necessary. It wouldn’t do much to his mana reserves anyway.
‘Then again, it really is an exact copy.’
Though he hadn’t seen much of Lanesha’s castle, Alan had to admit the entire throne room was an exact copy of his mother’s. Just on a much smaller scale. The only thing unique would be the two serpents coiled up behind him.
‘Wait, scratch that.’
Actually, he didn’t know if Lanesha had her own… he couldn’t sense anything in that throne room anyway. The halls of the castle, along with the water guiding system, was a copy too.
Whatever he had seen there, was here. He simply wondered if Lanesha had her own garden or altar. The former was likely, though he was inclined to believe the latter would be false.
It would be pure bullshit if his entire domain, down to it’s every property, was a copy of his mothers… He didn’t think he could stand that, for some reason.
“Are you all done?”
He asked, noticing the relaxed expressions of the crew. Their body temperature had stabilized, and he was doing his best to make sure the interior of the castle would have a normal temperature as well.
His knight class soldiers were the only ones present inside the castle, dutifully guarding it. The mages were present too, but he had close to no idea what they were doing in their own rooms. He didn’t bother checking.
He dismissed the knights, wanting them to enjoy the weather outside, and told the mages to do the same, they would leave if they wanted to.
“We really need to get this city’s defensive capabilities back up.”
He heard a voice in the distance, Maxwell had regained his composure and was mumbling to himself as he gazed at the city from one of the window’s present in the throne room.
Alan could hear him perfectly fine, though. He would also like that… but it was incredibly expensive. Besides the army, he only had two cannons that functioned properly, the one’s right above the gate of the castle.
Even those required special ammunition to fully realize their potential. Using his own mana as ammunition was simply inferior. The other cannons needed points to operate, and whatever else he could buy was too expensive for him right now.
!…!
He was a prince, yet he couldn’t even handle the expenses of his own castle. To be fair, he could probably ask Azmakul or Lanesha for some artifacts they didn’t have a use for and sacrifice them. Though the altar was picky, he was sure sacrificing them would give him a lot of points.
‘Points…’
It was all he could think about since Maxwell brought it up.
Alexander, Olivia, and Alice got up, their condition had stabilized, and they expressed their desire to explore the castle. Though they didn’t really ask for permission.
!…!
“The hell kind of domain is this? I wish I had one…”
The two girls dragged the complaining Alexander and left the throne room. Sabrina had already explored the castle, so she stayed behind. Maxwell was still mumbling to himself.
As he sat on the throne, he tried mimicking Lanesha and gazed upwards, but he could only see the ceiling of his throne room. By no means was his throne room small, but it was when compared to Lanesha’s.
He wondered if she actually saw something up there, beyond the ceiling of her throne room, or if she just liked staring into a blue abyss. One thing he had to agree on was that her castle needed proper lighting!
You could barely see in there! How could a supreme being not invested in some proper lighting? Or did she really just love the darkness?
He was glad his own palace didn’t have that problem.
As he was comparing his castle to hers, a voice rung in his mind.
[So, what happened?]
Sabrina used the astral bond to communicate, still enjoying the warmth of the fire. Alan remained silent, not answering.
He didn’t even know what to say, if he was being honest. But he had to say something.
[Don’t worry about it.]
[Ah, so you lost badly… Still, it’s good to see you’re okay.]
[…]
She interpreted his response as something he didn’t intend. He didn’t even lose to Azmakul! It wasn’t even a fight in the first place, if it was, he wouldn’t even be here and this ungrateful lot
would have frozen to death!
He had just received an interesting… speech.
Alan sighed, not bothering to explain. He just let her think what she wanted to think, and teleported towards the altar. Since the Arctic Titan was destroyed, he had to find a
replacement.
If it existed, of course.
