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Early Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

Sarah and I talked for quite a while before she finally had to leave. Although mostly idle chatter, it was quite refreshing to casually talk with someone outside of the family even if they were human.

Once she left, I was once again left alone with Ilios and decided to play with him in the spring before drying myself off and moving over to the cushions in the other area.

As I walked up to the cushions, I couldn't help but feel like they would be too soft for my weight, but as I stepped onto them, my worries were washed away. -Ahh.. that's the stuff..-

For the first time since I reincarnated, I could lay on something that wasn't either rock or ground.

"Come lay down Ilios, it's nice."

Ilios, who had laid himself next to the cushion, quickly hopped up and instead of climbing onto the cushion next to me, climbed up onto mine.

A warm smile quickly appeared on my face as he positioned himself so I was curled around him. “Hehe..” I truly felt at peace seeing him slowly drift to sleep, and followed him shortly after. -He’s so cute..-

- Ellen (the guild receptionist) ~

"Did you feel that shockwave last night?"

"Yeah does anyone know what that was from?"

"Oh, I thought it came from somewhere near the palace. Did something major happen?"

Questions were being raised about the situation everywhere throughout the city and the guild was no exception.

“Haah..” -This.. is gonna be a long day..- My face fell into my palms as I thought back to last night.

Since then, I had been busy filling out a massive amount of paperwork and crunching numbers for new quests with no time for rest. Before I knew it, the morning light was already shining through the doors.

Each and every morning, I, along with the other receptionists, would pin a few dozen quests to the quest board within the guild that adventurers would come and pick up.

These quests could be anything from helping clean someone's street and helping in bars or restaurants to exterminating monsters or guarding towns.

The issue was that there had been a huge influx of more dangerous quests recently, leaving too few strong adventurers to handle the other quests.

In a way, it felt like Kaelallan was running out of stronger adventurers even if we had more than ever before.

-We already sent people out yesterday to check on that explosion the other night, but they haven't come back yet... Don't tell me something happened again?- A deep anxiety filled my heart the more I thought about it. -I haven't heard from Michael yet either..-

Just as I thought about that though, a very well-dressed man walked into the guild.

Wearing a clean black suit with a golden emblem on his chest and collar, I knew exactly who it was. -A royal messenger! It must be about Michael!-

Feeling a wave of refreshment wash over me, I ran up to the counter. "What can I help you with, sir?"

Gently pulling a letter out of his pouch, he held it delicately in front of him. "I need to give this to the guild master."

"Sure thing, I will giv-" As I reached for it, the man pulled the letter away.

"He must receive it in person. This is a very important matter, Miss, please don't make things difficult."

Quickly pulling my hand away and giving a nervous nod, I gave a reluctant reply. "Y..yes sir."

Immediately running into the back, I quickly got the guild master who was an extremely strong and muscular dwarven man.

As he walked to the front, he only showed the necessary formalities to the messenger. "I'm Voddog Orebane, the guild master of Kaelallan’s Capital."

The man didn't seem to mind though. "Pleased to meet you, sir Orebane. This is a letter directly from the royal family. Please understand that it is of utmost importance that you read this in private."

"Sure thing." Before walking away again the guild master tossed the man a gold coin, "here’s a little bonus. You are much nicer than the last asshole they sent over."

A smile appeared on the messenger's face as he caught the coin and gave a polite bow before leaving the guild.

"Guildmaster! Read out the letter to us!" The adventurers within the guild were all curious beyond belief.

"Sorry but I'd rather not lose my position." He looked down at the letter and thought to himself for a moment before getting serious. “If it's anything interesting, there will be an announcement about it later.”

Seeing the guild master's unusually serious expression as he walked into his office and closed the door made me feel oddly uneasy, but I decided not to think about it too much. -If it has to do with Michael, he’ll let me know..-

- Voddog Orebane ~

Walking back into my office I closed the door behind me and hopped in my chair. “Haah..”

Feeling like it was going to be something troublesome, I reluctantly broke the wax seal and read through the letter.

It only took a second for my face to lose a bit of its color. -This could be used as a declaration of war.. what country would dare try to assassinate our King?!-

I quickly tried to think of who it could be before continuing to read the letter.

But things only got worse as I read about Sir Cotorel’s involvement and the incident that occurred in the prison. -Good lord..-

After thoroughly reading the letter several times to make sure I had remembered every detail, I casually burnt the letter with fire magic and got up from my desk.

-I should probably let her know..- Walking up to the door, I opened it and looked towards Ellen. "Ellen, I need to speak with you for a moment."

Almost immediately, she sprang up with a pep in her step like she was expecting good news, but her face quickly darkened when she saw my expression.

Following me back into my office, she quickly sat down with a nervous look on her face.

As I sat down at my desk, I casually turned on the silencing artifact and got to business. "You can not leak any of this information to anyone yet. If you leak something it's the same as going against the royal family."

Ellen's face was filled with anxiety.

"Yesterday morning, there was an attempted assassination of the king."

Her face lost all color as she immediately assumed the worst.

It only took a second for me to assume what she was thinking. "Relax, Michael wasn't the one who tried to kill the king, he was just present. According to this letter, he is not directly involved with the attempt but 'his qualifications for the promotion may be reconsidered'."

Some color slowly started returning to her face but she still looked anxious. "So.. he won't be executed?"

"No."

"Phew.."

Seeing that she was finally calming down, I continued. "Although the letter didn’t go into much detail, it was a failed attempt and the king is, thankfully, unharmed."

"Did the letter contain information about that shaking we felt last night?"

"Haah.. yeah, it did. According to the letter, it was because of a fight between two nation ranks, with one of them being a part of the assassin group."

Ellen immediately fell into thought. "So is that what the wave of construction labor requirements was for?"

"Yeah, the royal prison is going to be completely rebuilt."

"What about the prisoners? Will they be moved to the slum prison?"

"No, all of the prisoners from the second floor to the sixth were killed in the crossfire and the stronger ones on the bottom floors will probably be 'cleaned'."

"Haah..” There was a moment of silence as she leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. “So what about other things? Are we changing any policies?"

"Actually yeah, we are going to send all of Kaelallan into lockdown, even backwater towns will be searched for the assassins' accomplices."

"So a full border lockdown as well?” Her face turned grim seeing me nod. “So.. what do I need to write for the announcement?"

"I'll do that today, you haven't slept since the day before yesterday.” The bags under her eyes were clearly visible. “Just go get some rest. I'll lend you the loft."

Thankfully, she started cheering up once I gave her some rest time. "Yes sir. Thank you very much!" She gave a somewhat lethargic bow as she stood up.

Tapping my desk and deactivating the silencing barrier, I casually motioned her out of the room and got to working on the announcement. -This is gonna be a real pain in my ass..-

- ~~~ - [1]

As the day continued, adventurers continued to flow into the guild waiting for the early morning quests and announcements to be posted, but there were far more than normal.

After the receptionists pushed through the crowd of people and posted the quests, the idle chatter only got louder.

"Damn, just what happened? '300 D rank or above needed for rebuilding royal prison.'"

"Did you not feel that weird shaking last night? That might've been the prison collapsing."

"I doubt it.. my father was sent there for work once and he said that even a Nation rank couldn't destroy it."

"Haha, who knows, it doesn't matter to me though, look at that pay!"

'50-100 Silver per person per day depending on the amount of work done.'

Before long, word of the unusual quest along with an announcement about border control spread like wildfire.

Adventurers quickly lined the streets in an attempt to join the ‘build quest’ with most not thinking much about the announcement at all.

Although they all read the announcement, they didn't think much of it. Immigration and border control mattered to very few of them.

Most had lived in Kaelallan all their lives and had no plans of changing that, but news of it still spread quickly and gathered the attention of the regular citizens and merchants.

Rumors quickly started to spread as people started coming up with explanations for everything, but not a single one was correct.

To be fair though, who could have guessed the prison collapsed because of a fight between a kid and a Nation Rank?