After the tournant was over and Yuki received her rewards, the king asked her to co to the palace the following day for a al and invited the rest of our group.
That night, I took all my students and the rest of the chaperones to a restaurant in the city that I spotted with lina when we were sightseeing and had a huge feast.
Darius, lina’s brother, also joined us, and it gave so ti to speak to him more.
While the rest of the people were having fun, Darius sat beside with a small bottle of sake, which I hadn’t drunk in a long ti.
"Here, Ichiro. Drink this with !" he said, placing the bottle down with two small cups.
"They call it sake here. It’s a liquor made of rice..." he explained.
However, I already knew what sake was, but I wasn’t trying to be rude and tell him that.
After we downed the first bottle and asked for a second, Darius placed his hand around my shoulders in a friendly manner.
"I wanted to thank you, my friend..." he said, his voice sounding slightly drunk.
"Thank ? For what?" I asked curiously.
"For taking care of my family... I’ve heard all you have done for us, and I don’t even know how to repay you." he continued, giving a sowhat sad smile.
"Man, I never asked for repaynt or anything. I just do whatever I want to do. That’s how I decided to live this life..." I replied.
"Huh? What do you an?" Darius asked, raising an eyebrow with confusion.
At that mont, I realized that the sake was definitely hitting as I referred to my life as if it were my second one. Which it was, but they didn’t know that.
"Nevermind... My point is that I don’t need or want repaynt for anything." I said, trying to shift his attention away.
Darius laughed out loud and tightened his grip on my shoulder, pulling closer and saying how great of a guy I was, which was kind of embarrassing having him yell that in front of all the students and teachers.
When we left the restaurant, I was feeling pretty drunk, probably the drunkest I had been since arriving in this new world.
lina, seeing sway from side to side, held my arm and walked along with until we reached our rooms at the Ryuken Arena, where we would be staying for two more nights before going back ho.
The following morning, our group got ready to go to the palace, and as we walked there, lina noticed Yuki looking a bit nervous and held her hand.
Inside, we were received by dozens of servants who guided us to a buffet room and a long table where everyone would fit.
The four concubines and Yuki’s siblings were present, except for Takeo, making Yuki run up to her mom to give her a hug.
"I’m so proud of you, my Yuki. You worked hard..." her mother said as she patted the black-haired princess’ head.
Honestly, it was such a heartwarming mont that I didn’t want the rest of the royal family to co. Still, it only took a few minutes for the mont to be interrupted by the king’s arrival.
’Huh? Just the king? I guess the queen and her son didn’t want to show their faces...’ I thought.
After his entrance, King Hiroshi approached Yuki and her mother, making lina and I a bit wary of him since we knew he didn’t treat them well.
However, the king bowed his head slightly and apologized, saying that he hadn’t been paying attention to his children and was feeling regretful about it.
Yuki’s mother tried to play it off as if it wasn’t a big deal, and Yuki was about to agree with her, but lina and I stepped in.
It just didn’t seem right that the king was now trying to curry favor with the daughter that he neglected so much after she won the tournant.
"An apology is a good start. But, you know? Yuki isn’t the only child that you neglected, King Hiroshi..." I said, making Yuki and her mother surprised at my statent.
"Mhmm, perhaps you are right..." the king muttered, but we were interrupted once again after the queen and Takeo entered the room by forcefully slamming the doors open.
"What is the aning of this!?" Queen Ami exclaid.
"Oh? I thought you didn’t want to co, Ami..." the king said to his wife.
However, the queen angrily stomped her way toward Hiroshi, who was standing next to Yuki and her mother, and began shouting that a king should never apologize for his actions.
’Hmm, maybe my companions were right. Maybe I should have punched the queen...’ I thought.
Still, King Hiroshi glared at his wife with a severe expression.
"I’m apologizing as a father, not as the king..." he muttered with an intimidating tone that made Queen Ami take a step back.
"Father, these people humiliated on different occasions. You can’t be serious!" Takeo shouted.
"Silence! It was my fault that you beca this arrogant... I should have followed the scriptures like Sage Lang said..." the king said to his son.
’The scriptures?’ I pondered.
"From today, all of my children will have an equal opportunity for inheriting the throne!" the king shouted commandingly.
Takeo and the queen left the hall after the king’s statent, leaving us in our banquet peacefully as Hiroshi tried to make ands with his concubines.
Sage Lang arrived a few hours later, and lina and I approached him to ask about the scriptures that the king ntioned.
The sage covered his face, almost embarrassed, expressing that the scriptures were supposed to be a national secret, but said that it wouldn’t be a problem to show it to us since we were both sages.
As the rest of the banquet continued, Lang guided us through the palace into a set of stairs that seed to go underground.
However, the palace and the whole city were atop a mountain, so it made little sense to how it could go underground.
’Oh, we are inside the mountain... So, we are underground but still above water level...’ I thought, realizing the intricacies of the area we delved into.
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