First Meeting With King Azziros (End Of Volume One)

First Meeting With King Azziros

-

The morning of our meeting with King Azziros didn't exactly go very well. Vasati completely slept in and by the time I had begun to get dressed, she was finally waking up.

Since the Sun had not completely risen yet I knew we still had some time to spare.

"Vasati. I set the bath for you, just hurry up." I pushed her off the mattress and she landed with a loud thud.

"Eira, how could you..." I slowly watched Vasati rise to her feet with one of my pillows firmly in her grasp.

"Vasati, we don't have time for this..." I sighed.

"Why is the King summoning us so early?" Vasati asked me as I dragged her by the arm to our bathroom.

"Probably cause we are not getting a reward Vasati, so hurry up and get in the bath." I lightly giggled.

"Alright~," Vasati said giddily as she closed the bathroom.

-

As we shared a very quick breakfast Freya did my hair at the table.

"Eira, why do you think we are in trouble?" Vasati asked as she ate a spoonful of cereal.

"It's most likely the Council who are mad at us and not your Dad." I shrugged my shoulders and started to dig into my cereal.

"I figured as much." Vasati sighed and stood up from the table.

"I'll meet you outside Eira." Vasati waved as she walked out of the dorm.

"I wonder what is making her so enthusiastic?" I thought to myself.

"I'm done, Lady Eira," Freya said as she put the mirror in my face.

The reflection showed my silver twin tails with a pink ribbon on each side.

"Ahh, this is so cute Freya!" I praised my maid's dress-up skills.

"Miss, Eira I only put a ribbon in your usual hairstyle you don't have to praise me so much." Freya slightly chuckled.

"Well, it is nice to have maids that can help you with medieval fashion." I thought to myself.

"Miss, Eira I think it is about time. The carriage should be arriving any moment now." 

As I walked out of the dorm I met Vasati standing against the wall near the stairway.

"Eira, your hair is beautiful today!" As I walked to the stairways Vasati started fiddling with my hair.

"Vasati stop it!" I laughed and tried to push her off me. While we were play fighting Freya walked past us and alerted us that our carriage was here.

As Vasati and I sat across from each other on the carriage ride the atmosphere was pretty awkward.

"Hey, Vasati," I called out to Vasati in a whisper.

"What's up" Vasati responded with that usual look on her face. That giddy look of mischief.

"Wanna play rock paper scissors ?" I asked getting into form.

"Uhhh, sure."

On the way to the Castle, we played about 18 games. I won the first 2 and lost every single round after that. I mean she had to be cheating right?

As we stepped out of the carriage Vasati and I were greeted by a red carpet leading into the Palace. As we followed it in we passed multiple demon nobles who seemed to be talking about us under their breath.

I sighed "This is not gonna go well." I said to myself as we finally were inside the palace.

As Vasati and I walked into the throne room we were greeted by the sight of a pair of people I know very well.

"Mom, Dad what are you guys doing here?" I asked in genuine shock.

"Hi, honey." My mom smiled and my dad waved from next to her.

While I did wave back I was now was little bit more worried.

"Why exactly has the King brought my parents to this audience?"

As Vasati and I walked farther up the middle aisle the guards stopped us.

Suddenly I watched King Azziros and a group of men walk in from one of the side doors. While Azziros took his place on the throne, the group of men lined up on each side of the red carpet.

"Must be the council." I thought to myself.

Interrupting me from my thoughts a group of musicians played a fanfare.

"All bow before King, Azziros!" As Vasati and I bowed the fanfare stopped after about 10 seconds.

"Princess Eira, my dear daughter, I don't like to waste time so will explain why I summoned you two here." He said with a grin.

"I am aware that you two are part of the party "Phantom Gloom"." He said solemnly.

The words didn't really surprise me, but it looks like the council was unaware.

"I want to personally thank you two for the brave and amazing acts you have done for our people. Without the two of you, there would've been more suffering of my people in Warminster and Obril." Azziros's words seemed to shock everyone in the room.

The King of huge empires would rarely ever thank anyone. I still can only imagine how he knew what we were doing. His knowing about the first incident makes sense since It had to do with another figure of royalty. On the second mission, we rescued some captive children and released them to the orphanage.

"I wonder who told him?" I thought to myself.

"Unfortunately there is a split decision with the rest of the nobles on what to do with your situation, Princess Eira." He said while slightly dipping his head.

"Is he feeling bad for me? Do the other regional Nobles want me dead?" I thought to myself as I started to grow worried about his next sentence.

"The Second Prince of Demonshire, Dukedom of Osha and so many others fight me for an engagement to you almost every other day." Azziros sighed.

"If he is saying what I think he's saying then, Vasati's brother wants to marry me?! I guess it would be hard for King Azziros to help my parents keep me away from any engagements for any longer." I thought as I watched him speak once more.

"However, I want to respect your wishes. Your parents have made have made me abundantly clear that you're not willing to marry a man." As his words reached every corner of the room whispers from a lot of the council began.

"Silence!" Azziros's declaration forced everyone in the room to crouch.

His insane magical power was unlike anything I had ever seen. While it felt similar to Vasati's power, the power that emitted from it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Finally after what had felt like hours the Mana he was emitting lessened and everyone in the room was able to look up again.

"Eira, would you be willing to accept an engagement from my daughter in 5 years?" The King's question turned everyone in the room with shock. The council began again with their murmuring and when I looked back at my parents they both gave me a huge smile.

"They worked something like that out with the King for my sake?" My mom back in my past life was always worried about Haruka, but in this life, my parents care this much for me.

"Vasati is part of the reason I have agreed to this settlement of course. She has been begging me for years for your hand in marriage and now it seems that the two of you have grown very close... I'm sure you have no problems with this ruling." He looked at Vasati who agreed giddily.

"Of course Father, I would love to!" Vasati's excitement could be easily seen on her face.

"Great, now let's talk about how we can approach this. I don't have the power to legalize same-sex marriage without the agreement of the council and the regional nobles. Many in this Kingdom are against it, however, there is one thing in this world that no one can deny... Results." His words echoed through the room.

"That is why there is one thing I want to ask of you two... Help Demonshire, win a war against the humans." As his words reached everyone in the room whispers of doubt came from all corners.

"Two women are gonna win a war for us?"

"What a corny joke."

"What is the King thinking?"

"Eira, since a lot of people in this room seem to doubt your power, how about you demonstrate it for me? Release your full pool of Mana." King Azziros ordered.

"Your Highness, are you sure?" I had to ask the question because I was very sure the full pool of my Mana at this stage might kill some of the weaker beings in this room.

"Yes, I will take responsibility for anything that happens." He nodded his head and covered the room with a barrier.

As I slowly released the strength of my Mana I began to channel it into a circular force. Mana is released in waves and the more disruption you can cause within those waves the stronger the force will be. I don't even know how powerful my Mana is at full strength.

For a moment no one felt anything, and suddenly a pillar of blue light appeared in front of me which destroyed the ceiling of the throne room. A figure of blue light appeared in the room, and while their face couldn't be seen well, the gasps of shock from everyone in the room told me that they must be important. As the mana continued the pour out of me I started to lessen the power until it stopped completely.

While I was happy that the King put a barrier around us I started to wish that I could have seen who that figure was, it looked very familiar.

"As all of you can see, Eira is the reincarnation of Okami." Azziros's statement rang in the room.

"Huh"

Okami is one of the 7 founders. Her legend as the Goddess of Ice has been told for centuries. As the room exploded in shock I almost couldn't believe what the King was saying.

"I'm the reincarnation of one of the 7 founders?" 

"Your Highness, while we understand that she believes that she is attracted to women... I urge you to understand that we could marry her to the Kingdom of Thabia and-"

Before he could finish Azziros interrupted him and made sure everyone could feel his sinister bloodlust spilling throughout the room.

"You want to pawn away my daughter's future wife just because of your cowardice?!" His snarl silenced everyone in the room and shocked even me.

"Did he just call me Vasati's future wife!?" I thought to myself.

At first, when I came to this world I had no idea what I wanted to do, but at this moment I knew one thing was certain. I have to repay the trust of Vasati and her family for fighting for me.

"King Azziros. I accept your request, I will help this Kingdom retake the continent of Vertus." I said bowing my head shortly after.

"I will help her with that." Vasati's smile cleared any essence of doubt that I had.

"That smile, I will make it my motivation." I thought to myself as I continued to face King Azziros.

"I'm happy the two of you have agreed, however, to ensure that both of you progress to the needed power level for us to win against the humans... I want both of you to reach the level of the Gods in 5 years." He ordered.

Immediately everyone began to murmur between themself in doubt. In this situation, I can't blame them. Reaching the Level of the Gods in magic power is no easy feat, after all, there were only 24 people in the entire Kingdom of Demonshire that reached the level of the Gods.

"I understand, that two of you may doubt the possibility of reaching it in such a short time, but humans have 30 people who reached the level of God's. If we want to hope to have a chance of winning a war against them we need to have the 2 greatest prodigies to ever be born in this country. I believe that we do and in 5 years if they reach the level of the Gods I want us to take a vote to wage war against the Humans once more." His statement was agreed with by the council in the room.

"Your Highness, If that is your wish then we agree."

"If they can do it I will vote on your side."

"There will be no disagreement here."

Somehow Azziros got all of the council members to agree with his plan. I guess having a common enemy does help.

"Princess, Eira, and First Princess Vasati do you agree with this King's request?" He asked and turned his attention back on Vasati and me.

""We agree"" Vasati and I both bowed as we answered.

"Great, there is one last thing I want from the two of you. The two of you will have secluded training away from the academy." He announced which shocked both of us.

"Father, what do you mean by that?" Vasati questioned as she rose from her position.

"The two of you will not see each other for 5 years and will spend 5 years with two of my best warriors from the Demonshire army." His announcement was followed by the entrance of a young dark-skinned male. His messy black hair was full of obvious bed-head and his pink eyes looked like they would flutter the heart of any woman or man. He was about 177cm in height and what felt like infinite magic power radiated from him.

"Hello, Princess Eira." He greeted me with a slight bow.

"This is, Farru. He is the leader of the 40th Battalion, my magic-based unit with a specialty in airborne combat."

Azziros then looked at me and continued to speak.

"In five years when the two of you return from your training, if the two of you have reached that level of power... we will announce the engagement." He announced and began to wave off the council and the Royal Guards.

"This hearing is adjourned."

I would have to go without seeing my family, friends, and Vasati for 5 years. The idea of it sounded lame to me already, but if I want to marry someone I love it looks like this is the only option.

On the way out of the room, my mom hugged me with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Eira... this was the best that we could do." As she sobbed I hugged her back tightly.

"No Mom, if it wasn't for the two of you they would've shipped me off to some random Nobel from who knows where. I'm so thankful that both of you are my parents."

After about 2 minutes of my Mom crying my father balled his fist and stared at the ground in an angered state.

"You shouldn't have to go through this, Eira. I'm sorry that we couldn't protect you well enough." He gritted his teeth.

"Both of you did all you could. Don't worry about me, I'll handle the rest." I smugly chuckled.

Both of them began to relax and smile with my reassurance.

"You two are worrying too much. Your daughter is pretty strong on her own after all." I laughed.

"Also, how long have you two known that I was a reincarnation of a Goddess?" I asked in slight disbelief.

"We have known for about 5 years now. Ice magic is a rare element that no vampire is usually born with. Alongside your extraordinary talent for magic, we figured that was the reason you were born with the Ice Element." My father explained.

"We wanted to tell you once you got older, but with how that situation went... I guess it's good that you know now." He finished.

"You can accomplish anything you put your mind to, so go make us proud Eira." My mom stated as she hugged me once again.

"Happy Birthday, Eira." My father handed me a small white box.

"When times get tough for you, open this box. I assure you it will help." He promised me.

The preparations for my departure had already been made by my parents as they figured I would agree with King Azziros's terms. Before I left I wanted to talk to Vasati first. We had made plans for the day beforehand.

As I sat by the steps leading to the Demonshire Palace, I felt a familiar figure embrace me from behind.

"Eira... I'm sorry..." She said grimly.

"When my father agreed to my request I never imagined these would be his demands." She said grimly.

"Don't apologize, Vasati," I said As I stood up and pulled her up with me.

"You saved me, Vasati. Before I met you, I was debating running away from the Demonshire empire to stop an engagement." I said and warmly smiled at her.

"Happy Birthday, Eira..." Vasati leaned in and kissed me on the forehead. She then grabbed my hand and smiled.

"Vasati! Why d-d-did you do that!" I frantically squealed as I pulled away from her in embarrassment.

"Just a magic spell to keep you away from others while I'm away from you." She giggled.

As I sat in a carriage with Farru he was staring intently at me. He was pretty surprised when I said I wanted to leave tonight.

We were initially supposed to leave the next morning, but I wanted to leave tonight. I didn't want to say goodbye to anyone. I'm sure Rina will be acting as if it's goodbye for good when it's just gonna be a few years. Plus I want to get the jump on Vasati, who I'm sure can complete her training in less than 5 years.

"Princess, Eira are you sure about this." He asked me.

"I'm sure," I responded confidently.

Just wait for me, Vasati... I'll be back before you even know it.