The Umbrellas

Yuna and her father climb into the carriage with ease as the doors opened and are closed by themselves. The two sit on opposite ends of the carriage and Yuna relaxes her shoulders due to how comfortable the material the seats were made of.

Outside the carriage, the Golden Lions surrounded the carriage. Both the knights and the carriage slowly floated up into the air as the griffons flapped their wings.

The carriage and the knights then sped off towards the imperial palace. The speeds of the individual knights were all in sync with the speed of the carriage.

"Can you tell me what's going on father? Yoru would have been able to handle it himself. You did not need to com yourself." said Yuna. She was kind of mad at her father for interrupting her work but she did not mind as she would not have been able to handle Bartholomew herself.

"There are two reasons. First of all, I wanted to be there at the moment in which we sparked a war. The other reason is that I wanted to have dinner with all of your siblings." said the emperor.

"So the gifts from Igrit are just an excuse," said Yuna.

"Well yes but also no. The gift that my friend sent is something I have never seen before. I have heard rumors about it recently but I did not expect to receive them so suddenly." The emperor had heard that a new product was introduced in Igrit and causing massive waves in the business world.

The letter he received had a detailed explanation of the product and after he had read it, the emperor saw that this product had practically unlimited potential to make unprecedented amounts of money. He was not expecting his close friend Andrew to send him it so soon.

"Hmmm. What kind of product makes you so excited?" asked Yuna. There was too much excitement on the face of her father.

"Huahahaha!! You will see once we arrive." said the emperor while laughing like a giddy child.

The doors of the carriage opened a minute later as the knights made a pathway for the two members of the royal family to get off the carriage.

The Gigantus Empire's Imperial Palace. This is the most heavily guarded estate in the nation with tens of thousands of soldiers patrolling its perimeters. The deeper you went into this massive estate, the more and stronger the cultivators were present.

The imperial palace only had 3 castles. One grand castle was made entirely out of gold that never stopped glimmering. It had tall spires and wide archways made from white gold.

The gold and the rest of the material used were magically enchanted and maintained to make sure it never got dirty or rusted.

Yuna and the emperor floated out of the carriage and walked up the stairs. They went past the large archways before arriving before a metal door made from mahogany wood and laced with silver etchings of a white dragon.

The doors opened by themselves due to detecting the presence of royals. The two walked into a long hallway that was adorned with paintings of notable royals from the past and depictions of powerful creatures like dragons.

They enter a grand hall with an egregiously large ceiling that was adorned with multiple large chandeliers that are made from crystals of all colors.

There was a long dining table that stretched a distance of 60 meters. Currently, all the plates and silverware were already put in place by the maids. It was now time to wait for the members of the family to arrive before they could be served dinner.

"Hehe. You get to sit right next to your father today. What are you feeling?" asked the emperor.

"Heh. I don't feel sh*t. My brothers and sisters are going to give me jealous stares during the whole meal. That really makes it hard to eat." said Yuna while avoiding her father's gaze.

"They should be jealous. After all, you are the strongest of your siblings and have the most talent in the cultivation that the royal family has had for the last 1000 years." claimed the emperor. He knew his precious daughter was the one that had the best talent in the family but also was the most free-willed.

The 2nd Princess is actually more free-spirited than her but the emperor has not seen her for 8 years so he was not sure if his daughter had changed much.

The emperor takes a seat at the head of the table and Yuna sits beside him on the right. As soon as the two sat down, the large doors that lead them into the hall opened.

Out came a lady with dark blue hair and azure eyes. Her figure was stunning. her curves were all profound and her assets did not lack either. Her face had a majestic look to it. She sat on the left of the emperor, gave him a slight nod, and then glanced over to Yuna.

"Good evening, mother empress," said Yuna politely while also giving a small no from her head. The empress was not Yuna's biological mother but she still deserved the respect as she handled matters related to all the emperor's wives and their children.

The empress had practically spent the same amount of time with Yuna as her biological mother did so she would not be rude to her in any way and would always give her formal greetings upon sight.

"It has been a long time since you have had a meal within the palace. You should eat with us more often." said the empress in a motherly tone.

"I will try harder to make more time for my dear mother. The balance between the Silver Lion's daily activity really gets in my way." Yuna was also regretful that she could not eat with her father and motherly figure more often.

"If you can not come to eat with us, I will sometimes visit you for snacks. Is that an issue for you?" asked the empress.

"No problems mother. You can come over anytime as long as you avoid walking past the training field. There is always dust in the air there." Yuna was concerned that her mother would be breathing in dust. Even if the empress was a cultivator, no harm should ever come to her.

As the pair conversed, the emperor read some paper and signed some documents. They were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive before they ate. On most days, only the children of the emperor and the empress herself could dine at the main hall but today was different

The emperor had ordered all of his 14 other wives to attend as well. His reason was simple, he had a gift to show them.

It did not take long for the long table's seats to be filled up with men and women of various ages. There were 14 other wives of the emperor, his 29 offspring, 11 daughters-in-law, and 1 grandchild.

The dining table was filled with conversations between everyone as they discussed mundane things and ate. They talked mostly about what they had done during the day, seen in shops, or gossip they heard from other nobles.

On the dinner table, there was to be no scheming or politics to be brought up. This has been Gigantus tradition since the early days of its founding.

After everyone had finished eating and the conversation was settling down in volume, the emperor spoke.

"As you all may have heard, I have received a gift from my son-in-law, Marquess Andrew Hendrix. He has sent over a product that I believe many of you would enjoy. " the emperor clapped his hands twice.

This signaled in tens of maids who each carried a large platter made from gold. On each of these platters was a dark red umbrella with golden-colored dragons that limned its hems. There was the royal family's logo of the blue eyes, white dragon, and the griffons that surrounded it.

"These are umbrellas made from a material that is resistant to the rain but light at the same time. A friend of my beloved Margret has created this tool and has been selling it in Igrit for about a month now." The emperor said this with a huge smile across his face. He was the type of person that would try to compliment his children whenever he could.

The maids then proceeded to hand an umbrella to each of the occupants of the chair except for the emperor's grandson. The grandchild is only a 4-year boy and could not easily hold an umbrella of large size.

The members of the royal family were admiring the designs on the closed umbrella and wondered how magnificent they would look when opened. Unfortunately, they could not utilize them now as it was not a good idea to open them at the dinner table.

"Father, this creation would allow our patrols to be able to roam the city more frequently and it will allow our soldiers to travel with more ease during rainy days. Can this be mass-produced?" asked a curious prince with dark blue hair. This was the second child of the empress.

"As of now, only about ten thousand a week can be produced. This is not enough to cover our military needs. I will also remind you to not bring up stuff like the military at the diner table." said the emperor sternly.

This prince was only 7 years old and had amazing insight and a high level of intelligence. He might have broken a couple of family traditions here and there but he was still learning.

"I will mind myself better next time father." said the boy.

"Dear, can we invite the creator over to talk about making some more custom designs. I want some other umbrellas and I want custom designs on them." said a blonde-haired lady with a blue dress. This is the emperor's third wife.

"Me too."

"I agree."

"Let's bring this person over for tea."

"Is the person a male or female?"

"Can we get more designs?"

"I want a pink rose."

"I want a prairie scenery on mine."

Many demands like this were hurled at the emperor's face. He could not help but twitch his right eye slightly in annoyance as a small vein showed up on his forehead. There was nothing for him to do but to answer all the questions in one go. If he didn't do so, his beloved wives would make him an early grace with their queries.

"Calm down everybody. I knew that everyone was going to be excited upon seeing something like this for it makes so many things easier to do in the rain. I was not expecting the reaction to be this severe though.

I had misjudged how much everyone likes to be outdoors. Do not fret though as I will return now and right a summons for this great individual and hopefully you will be able to meet them soon.

I will even send one of our flying carriages so they are not delayed and held back by the dangerous roads. You may all direct your questions to the individual when they arrive."

Like all great emperors, when he could not solve an issue, he would dump it into the laps of others. Just like that, he made his children and wives hold back their words.

They would store them up and then pour them like a flood upon the unlucky individual that created such an amazing product.

The emperor then stands and walks away from the hall. The dinner table continues to be chaotic even after he leaves as everyone was fascinated by the umbrellas.

Yuna did not want to take part in these useless conversations so she got up and also left the room. She needed to get some rest before going back to her knights in the morning.

...

Gigantus Empire is known to be the most peaceful nation in the human realm. They do not engage in constant wars, they have friendly diplomacy with their neighboring nations. Gigantus only engages in the trade and builds its military at a slow pace.

There was only about a month left in the rainy season when the capitols of their neighboring nations receive an alarming piece of information.

"They are hunting down the Manupus family!! Are they not afraid of retaliation from the family high-rank mages.?" yelled Conrad Milvis, the king of the Milvis Kingdom. He was sitting on his throne while listening to his Foreign Affairs Minister.

"I believe they have something to defeat them. Our spies have found that the Aura Formation Rank Mage, Bartholomew Manupus was killed by them." said the minister, his tone filled with dread.

The Kingdom of Milvis is one of the bordering nations at the west of the Gigantus Empire. If the empire had gotten an Aura Formation Rank being, they could only wonder in fear as they themselves only had one.

"Have you figured out how he was killed?" asked the king.

"No. None of the spies could get close to the fight as both the golden and silver lions were present at the scene." responded the minister while shaking his head.

"Try to see if you can find out. All Aura Formation experts have a multitude of ways to escape even if they are surrounded by many other Aura Formation experts. If they really figured out a way to stop one from escaping, we cannot sit still" The king then rises from his seat.

"Doran, Call for a secret meeting. I want all of Gigantus' border nations to convene as soon as possible. We must ready up counter solutions just in case a war is started."

The minister quickly bowed and went off to do the task his lord had ordered.

Scenes similar to this were happening all over the countless kingdoms and dukedoms around Gigantus. There was something massive arising from the dark.

...

2 weeks had passed since the spectacular firework show and hanging in the town square happened.

Closing time had arrived for the store so Daren called out Celina and they went out to eat dinner. After they finished a boring dinner by themselves, the two laid on the bed and just closed their eyes while facing the ceiling.

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Congratulations to the user for inserting 50,000 Gold into your Inventory!

You have no unlocked the system shop.

Do take a look at what is available.

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Daren had a wide grin on his face while opened the section titled [ SHOP ].