From a Talentless nobody to An SSS Class Dragon

Chapter 209: The Search For The King

The walk towards this so called castle starts with quite a bit of silence. Nobody really seems to be interested in talking with us or trying to stop us.And the girls are mostly chatting amongst themselves for the time being as we make our way there.

The buildings start to vanish as we get further and further away from everything; slowly making our way towards the castle. There doesn’t appear to be any problems so far which is good for us.

The only thing around us now is open land with a few broken down buildings scattered throughout the area.

At least the king isn’t making this difficult yet... I expected some sort of ambush after what Lust told us.

Maybe he doesn’t know we’re coming yet which is one of our biggest advantages.

I wouldn’t count on it.

What? You think he already knows Rika?

You’re not exactly hard to find nowadays, especially if they are paying close enough attention to what’s happening around the realm.

Unfortunately I have to agree with you there.

I’ve caused quite a bit of trouble and I’m sure it won’t take long for them to realize what happened to that Lord.

It would be more surprising if they didn’t know who I was.

"How much further?" Aria asks.

"Not too much longer," Eliza answers.

That gets my attention.

"Can you sense it already?" I question.

"I can." Eliza answers without hesitation.

She really is quite useful to have traveling alongside us. Her senses have saved us quite a few problems already.

Without Eliza there is a good chance we wouldn’t have known we are going the right way or not.

Not that I would ever admit that since I like to believe I know what I’m doing. Giving them a bunch of credit would also inflate their egos a bit more than I like.

A small smile appears on my face before disappearing just as quickly.

What was that?

You smiled.

Did I?

You did.

Interesting. Maybe things really have changed, but whether it is for the better or not... I don’t know.

Not too long ago I was mostly focused on surviving. Now I’ve got people traveling with me that actually make things feel a little different.

But the thought doesn’t last long.

The sovereign is still waiting and so are the monarchs.

The moment I start relaxing too much is probably the moment everything goes wrong.

"You okay?" Velia asks.

"Yeah," I respond calmly.

"You were thinking again," Velia mentions.

"I do that quite sometimes," I say as we walk.

Velia lets out a small sigh.

"You do it more than sometimes," Velia replies with the same monotone voice as always.

Fair enough.

I probably do.

There is just a lot to think about.

The path continues forward for a while longer before Eliza suddenly stops.

Everyone notices immediately.

"What is it?" I ask.

"There are people ahead," Eliza answers.

Looks like we finally found something.

"How many?" Velia asks.

Eliza remains quiet for a few moments.

"More than ten," Eliza answers.

That lines up with what Lust told us.

Good.

At least she wasn’t lying.

This time anyway.

"Strong?" Aria asks.

"A few of them. I’m uncertain who it is specifically that is the strongest out of them," Eliza answers with uncertainty obvious in her voice.

That isn’t exactly reassuring. Then again we aren’t exactly weak either, but it’ll be a challenge since the ranking of power might be a lot different here.

We continue moving forward without slowing down.

At this point there isn’t much reason to hesitate.

The king is somewhere ahead.

The sooner we deal with him the sooner we can move on.

Eventually a structure begins to appear in the distance.

A castle. It definitely matches up with what we’ve been told to look for so far.

But honestly it isn’t nearly as impressive as I expected. Then again, what did I really expect when I know nothing about this place to begin with?

It makes sense why no one would bother coming out this way. It doesn’t really catch your eye in the slightest.

The perfect hiding place is usually the one people ignore. Which is exactly why this place works for the so called king.

"I think that’s it," Aria says.

"Probably," I agree.

The castle slowly becomes clearer the closer we get.

Large walls, several towers, single entrance, and the people don’t appear to be anywhere obvious that we can see.

It isn’t really a special castle when you look at it... Kind of seems like a let down to me.

But seriously, where are the guards that we were warned about? Eliza said she could sense them but I don’t see a single one in sight.

That’s definitely going to bother me quite a bit. Wouldn’t there normally be someone protecting the entrance?

You would think so.

Even the Lord seemed to have some smart ways of going about things. I’d expect the king to be a bit more guarded.

Like a lot more guarded than whatever this whole situation is.

Instead there is nothing.

That alone makes me think we’re walking into a trap.Not that it changes anything.

We’re already here and have to handle this king regardless. It doesn’t really matter if it turns out to be a trap or not at this point.

"We should be careful," Velia says.

"Always," I reply.

The girls all seem focused now.

The casual conversations from earlier have completely disappeared.

Everyone understands what is waiting ahead.

This isn’t another random stop,This is the reason we came here... For the king.

The source of the darkness in this realm or at least the closest thing we have to a lead.

I stare at the castle for a moment.

Hopefully this isn’t another waste of time, I’m starting to get tired of dead ends.

You won’t know until you go inside.

I know.

The castle continues to loom in front of us as we approach.

One way or another we’ll get our answers today. I just need to be ready to fight whatever enemies approach us inside of the gates.

"Movement is coming from the other side of the walls," Eliza speaks up while keeping her voice low.

"What kind of movement?" I question with a serious tone.

"Feels like they are just training," Eliza answers with confidence.

Them training could be a perfect opportunity for us to make our move. It’ll be a lot easier to catch them off guard as well since they won’t be expecting an attack.

Or maybe it is best to keep quiet during this since there is no real way to tell if all of them are there or not.

"How many are training on the other side of the wall?" I ask.

"That’s the part I’m struggling with figuring out," Eliza answers.

"Why don’t I just scout ahead for us quick?" Velia suggests.

"Can you do it without getting spotted?" I question with a serious tone.

"Obviously," Velia answers with her usual tone.

I gesture for her to go ahead and she quickly rushes off before we can say anything else. We all sit back, eagerly watching as she scales up the walls quickly.

This is risky to let her go off on her own.

It’ll be alright since Velia is a lot stronger than you think. Remember she did help me in the first tower we entered.

There shouldn’t be any concerns when it comes down to her doing something as simple as scouting for us. We do have quite a few strong people with us on this journey as well.

Aria, Velia, and Eliza are quite strong. You’re right, I shouldn’t be doubting anything right now.

Exactly. Let’s just focus on waiting for her to get back.

A couple of minutes go by with no real commotion happening from the other side of the walls. Velia is at the top looking down at everything without any problems.

I don’t really see anyone else around to spot her either which means they should all be inside if I’m not mistaken.

"Are we just going to wait the whole time?" Aria asks with curiosity in her voice.

"At least until Velia returns," I answer.

"Hopefully she comes back with quite a bit of useful information then," Aria says while crossing her arms.

"The people inside are still training. Velia hasn’t alerted anyone so it should all be fine by the time she does come back to us," Eliza replies before I can.

I just give a shrug before focusing back on the walls ahead.

Sigh. After letting out a sigh I look up at the sky.

Everything here is way different than I expected. Not good or bad, but I guess it is a realm for demons at the end of the day. I wonder how different it would be if humans also had multiple realms.

Would one person rule over all of them like the demons do?