Polymath Redux – Chapter 33

Polymath Redux – I have a dream that one day…
Chapter XXXIII

Three days after Morgana had received the royal summons from King Lionel Crom, the streets leading up to and around the Royal Palace of the Sun was filled by a sea of people. Not only humans but also demons were in attendance to see their beloved ‘Saintly Merchant’ and ‘Mysterious Flaming Hero’. Even though their names had only been a new addition to the city of Solaris they had already achieved beyond celebrity status and had captured the hearts and minds of millions.

Clad in a nice looking leather/plate armor was the ‘Flaming Hero’ Irina who walked past the masses with a dignified look. Just from her sheer walking figure her charisma was exuded all about the area and the people reacted as though a god had just walked past them. Following slightly behind was Morgana Daltress’ form, who eluded a greatly feminine and gentle aura about her. She waved to the onlookers with a friendly demeanor as she walked past them.

A single child with horns, a demon kind, came rushing out with a bouquet of flowers ready to give it to Morgana. However as she ran too quickly she fell down face flat onto the pavement and was about to cry. Morgana elegantly walked up towards the child and held her up and wiped the dust off her face before gently kissing the small wound.

“Are you alright now?”

She asked in a gentle voice. The small child stared blankly for a few seconds before smiling back nodding.

“Yes! Thank you!”

The child spoke as she handed the bouquet of flowers. Seeing this scene the crowd became silent with awe at just how magnanimous she was to the demon kind. Treating them as though they were equals the onlookers couldn’t help but feel that this woman was perfection and gentleness incarnate. Soon after the mother of the demon child came rushing forward to retrieve her daughter. She bowed and thanked Morgana before returning.

“It’s no problem. Thank you for these flowers.”

Morgana replied as she continued walking. Leaving the scene the crowd was left breathless at her kindness and far-reaching heart that extended to the often discriminated against demon kind. However unbeknownst to the populace the demon mother and child was none other than Mordred and his doppelganger with an altered appearance; yes, this was all just a ruse to up her popularity even more by manipulating the hearts of the populace with minimal effort.

Morgana and Irina walked past the entrance to the Royal Palace and were directed straight into the throne room. There more sea of people was gathered up but they had a slightly different expression compared to that of the onlookers outside. These people were the nobility of Xagontetia.

Sitting upon the throne that was elevated above the rest of the ground by stairs was a man appearing to be into his mid 40s, with some grey hair in sight and adorned with royal clothing. A golden crown upon his head, this man was the King of the Xagontetia Sun Country. Standing closely besides him were three other men that were his aides; Pierre Granate, Lucian Zandora and Mikhail Anton.

Standing guard just under the stairs were two people who had already been acquainted with Morgana and Irina, they were the Heads of the Royal Alchemy and Royal Knight Commissions, Del Granate and Vladimir Zandora. Also standing next to them was the face of a man who Morgana knew but not vice versa, the Grand Cardinal Lazzaro Zeder. It wasn’t particularly that Morgana had met him directly but she had received information about Morialia confronting him.

The members of the Hywel Knights were also in attendance for their efforts however the main event for today was about Morgana Daltress and Irina.

Irina and Morgana walked up to the center of the throne room and graciously bowed before the king. An action so elegant that even the other nobles were starting to be affected by their charisma just from appearances. The king acknowledged their presence and spoke up.

“I offer my thanks for having attendance before my court as well as your miraculous aid during the ‘Catastrophe of Fire’ that befell our great nation. Before we start I think it is in everyone’s curiosity as to your identities so if you don’t mind I would like to hear them.”

Morgana first stood up to introduce herself.

“With pleasure your majesty. I am known as Morgana Daltress, a simple merchant that accompanied her father throughout various lands. I am alone now but I have received much education from my father and have learnt a great deal of things through my travels to foreign and exotic lands. Miss Irina and I are actually acquaintances that met during my travels and have ever since become great friends.”

As Morgana finished Irina stood up to take over the introduction.

“It is an honor to be here in your court your majesty. My name is Irina and since everyone is curious as to how I was powerful enough to defeat those monsters, my true lineage is half Draconian. The blood of the dragon race flows through my veins and even now allows me to achieve great feats.”

Having gained insight into the relative power scaling of this world’s inhabitants Mordred had surmised that it would be even more suspicious if Irina introduced herself as human. She is too powerful, thus it would ease the curiosity of her strength in people’s mind, so while it may lower the intended ‘awe’ it was still within acceptable range. In the first place Irina and Morgana had to play different roles, with Irina being a symbol of power and Morgana being a symbol of perfection.

“Half Draconian you say. Hmm~ I see that explains your immense strength. Then does that mean you are affiliated with our ally the Dragon King, Aurendra Sinclair’s country?”

The leaned forward with curiosity and asked, however Irina shook her head in denial.

“I am not affiliated with any country and am simply a traveling partner to Morgana Daltress.”

“Hoh~ I see.”

The king replied almost with a sense of relief. Indeed the situation would be a lot more complicated if Irina had replied that she was related to the Dragon King as it would turn into a diplomatic situation instead of a contained one. With this new revelation there was also the chance for the country to make a powerful being like Irina into their ally.

“Your Majesty before we continue I’d like to bring up and answer one more thing that may be on everyone’s mind. That is the issue in regards to the nature of this attack.”

Morgana started off, quickly grabbing everyone’s attention. The problem that needed to be discussed and answered was to the reason why Morgana was in possession of all those weapons to begin with. She needed to answer this question in a satisfactory manner to separate herself from being potentially labeled as a Baliazoural Empire’s spy.

It was also important that Morgana herself bring up the topic so as to not be on the defense when answering questions. She needed everyone else on her pace to control the flow of conversation so as to avoid suspicions of her involvement in the incident.

“Hoh~ that is to say you know who it was that was behind this attack?”

“Unfortunately I cannot say definitively but I think it is fairly obvious by now that this was the ploy of the Baliazoural Empire. In actuality I knew about this attack a few days ahead of time when I noticed suspicious movements in regards to the Xagontetian Weapon shipments and even witness attacks on the weapons. Of course I’m aware that Minister Pierre Granate did everything in his power to disguise those weapon shipments so as to not catch the eyes of the enemy but as a merchant I was able to see through them.”

A tense silence had surrounded the room with some accusatory eyes being pointed towards Pierre Granate.

“If you had known about this attack then how come you did not come to warn us?”

The king asked.

“I am truly sorry but it was simply a matter of distance. After having investigated the attacks I was lead to large storage facility in which all of the compromised weapon shipments were being kept. With my own powers I was able to raid the storage and tried to return as fast as I could when I learnt of the attack but I was simply too late. I can only apologize to the people who had died due to my own ineptitude.”

Morgana responded as tears started to fall from her eyes giving the illusion that she was truly heartbroken that she couldn’t make it in time. Of course this too was all an act but because of this the other nobles and not even the king could rebuke what she had said as she seemed too sincere.

Irina moved closer to Morgana and placed her hands on her back to ease her. This too was an act to make the people believe that Irina and Morgana were true friends.

“Please raise your head. You have done nothing wrong and if not for you the capital would have ended up in a worse state. Even through this erratic movement of the empire the fact that you were able to achieve what you have is more than enough.”

The king responded.

“Thank… thank you very much your majesty.”

“It seems with your information we have a new lead and we will proceed with investigations from that angle. A bit more time will be needed before we get the full picture of this incident. For now let’s move onto a much lighter matter, that is the topic of your rewards for your tremendous aid in this endeavor.”

It wasn’t that the king didn’t want to try milk more information about Morgana and Irina but he felt it hard to press on. With almost all of the nobles having been caught up in Morgana’s pace they were now sympathizing for her, inadvertently giving her a sort of political shield. The king himself was starting to get dragged into her pace and found it easy to sympathize with her, believing her to be genuine.

“Please your Majesty, I cannot possibly receive any kind of reward for work done at the expense of the lives of hundreds of thousands. If anything the dead who had given their lives to defend such a righteous land are more deserving of a reward.”

By Mordred’s own words, Morgana would be classified as an ‘insane’ person. That was his vision of a perfect being, a person who does things not for gain or ambition but from the goodness of their own hearts; a crazy person. Of course this was all just for theatrics and in truth Morgana wasn’t a crazy person but there was merit in acting like one.

Such a conveniently selfless being with mysterious powers, it would be hard to find a country that didn’t want such a talented individual.

“I too feel the same, your majesty.”

Irina replied with a sincere tone of voice.

“Hoh… I understand your feelings well but I cannot have you decline; please accept it as a formality if nothing else. At the very least a title of nobility and the promotion to OMEGA rank for Irina.”

“If that is the case, then as a reward please allow me to atone for my ineptitude. The defense and rebuilding of this city, please allow me to take charge.”

Morgana pressed, this was Mordred’s main plan from the beginning; to turn this city into his own fortress and be in a convenient position to shift the internal politics of this country.

“To take charge in the defense and rebuilding of this city? It seems you have already some idea on how to go about doing this, so I’d like to hear your plan.”

Only very few people in the room understood the significance of being left in charge of the defense and rebuilding of the city. It meant that the entirety of the city was exposed to that person, for this reason they needed to be an extremely trustworthy person. As an ‘outsider’ to the city, if she was given the supreme trust of the king with that position then her place in the country was more than secured, it would mean that she would become one of the upper echelons.

“Of course, in truth I have seen the rebuilding process going on throughout the city and excuse my criticism but couldn’t help feel that it was too slow. Especially during this time when the empire could strike at any moment to follow up with that attack we are far too vulnerable. To remedy this I would like to propose two things.”

Morgana raised two slender and elegant fingers. Her every motion captured elegance and charisma. The king nodded to signal her to continue explaining.

“Currently the city’s defense is left up to soldiers, but frankly speaking if there ever was a follow up invasion by the empire then I fear that those soldiers wouldn’t last too long. To remedy this, my first proposal is to have the soldiers replaced with numerous siege golems and have the soldiers aid with the rebuilding effort.”

As Morgana spoke the crowd started to get a little talkative. It wasn’t that the proposal was a particularly bad one but it was simply unrealistic. Having enough siege golems to defend the entire city required an absurd amount of gold to operate.

The king had a complicated expression as he answered.

“While I do not think that it is a terribly bad idea it is simply unrealistic. We do not have that many siege golems under our command.”

To which Morgana answered immediately.

“Yes, of course I am aware which is why I’d like to be in charge of the city’s defenses. Throughout my travels I had come across a large cache of high quality siege golems, thus I pledge their services to the defense of this city.”

Once again this was an extremely sharp double edge sword for the country. If defense was left in charge with Morgana and her siege golems then that would mean that the country could divert most of its resources into rebuilding but that also meant that Morgana herself would be at direct position to attack should she be an empire spy. This was a decision that could only be left to the most trustworthy.

“Mmm. I’d like to hear your other proposal before I make my decision.”

The king spoke.

“Understood. My second proposal may come as a slightly controversial one. I couldn’t help but notice the distinct lack of demons aiding with the rebuilding efforts within the city. Of course that is not to say I do not understand why but I would like permission for them to aid with the rebuilding of the interior of the city.”

‘Fufu~ don’t tell me he’s done all this for Rena’s sake?’ Morgana silently thought about Mordred’s actions until now. Indeed the start of all this was because Rena was hurt. If the demons were allowed to help with the reconstruction then it would raise their status as citizens of Solaris thus lessening the discrimination.

As she proposed that idea the crowd started to get rowdy once more. As she had said, this was indeed a controversial proposal; to let demons into the city and have them handle with the rebuilding effort ultimately means to raise their status within the country. Even if it was for the sake of keeping up appearances, should the demons help they also needed to be rewarded in some manner.

This was an unprecedented proposal in the history of Xagontetia. The pressure built up for the king to make the final decision. Rejecting Morgana’s proposal now could mean losing her as a potential ally and after all the ‘miracles’ she’s performed it would almost be at a detriment if they lost her support.

On the other hand accepting her proposal meant to disrupt the careful balance of power and anger the nobility. It wasn’t a secret and everyone knew that the nobles weren’t fond of demons thus anything that gave the demons more power would mean that the king could lose support from them.

Almost as though saving the king from making such a decision a shadowy figure revealed itself to violently object to this proposal.

“There can be no such thing! Those malignant bastards must not be given more power!”

Who was that figure?

It was the Grand Cardinal of the Church of Xagon: Lazzaro Zeder.

He had taken the bait.