Chapter 134: Meeting the Entourage
Chapter 134: Meeting the Entourage
All of the people present in the entourage were stunned, it was still fresh in their minds the horror on the faces of the spies who were describing the gory scene of Eleanor's slaughter, they could not believe it, yet were not willing to risk knowing why or how she who was supposedly the weakest and the most gentle child of Urduja can be capable of such a genocide, this event and the nay exaggerated report form the spy gave Eleanor a fairly good moniker: "Sand Demon Eleanor"
Of course, as the veteran negotiators that they are, they did not show any worry on their faces, the princess specifically spoke and smiled as cordially as she could.
"Lady Eleanor, congratulations on your wedding. I am the 5th princess of Mayari. I bear with me a gift personally chosen by the emperor for the mighty queens of Kamatayan."
Eleanor stared at the princess in front of her and could not help but frown in her mind at such a shameless way to hide the fear that flashed through everyone's eyes, such a stare made the entourage nervous, for them to not go off as someone wary of the person they want to befriend, everyone in their team is not a good fighter, a maid in the palace can punch one of them in the face and that person will be paralyzed for life.
Good thing for them, Eleanor is not as evil as they made her out to be.
"On behalf of my two wives, I thank you, oh, and why are you here? As stemmed guests, you should have asked for some dignity and asked to be escorted to an expensive inn at least before waiting for Queen Sophia's presence."
Eleanor's words sounded and were sincere, but the political strategists that were part of the gifting team were having serious discussions on their minds about the implications of the word and how it affect future negotiations, needless to say, Eleanor was fucking around with them without her even realizing it. The princess said.
"We wouldn't dare, after all. We were not even on time to the reception to give our gift properly, as we did not hear of such a miraculous event until later that day. The good thing is that we were able to enter the Urdujan territory with ease due to Lady Urduja giving us some observed freedom."
Eleanor dismissed such an overly long way to tell that they went to take an unauthorized shortcut and were lucky they were the emperor's personally created team, she immediately replied.
"Ah, don't worry about that, please follow me to the royal guest room."
The entourage nodded at this as they breathed a sigh of relief, surely they were tense and apprehensive when they saw in the flesh the person they were dreading the most more than the person they were supposed to gain the favor of, all of them nodded and then followed Eleanor towards the royal palace, in the way, Eleanor ordered the maid who followed her to ask the royal kitchen to make tea and some pastries for the visitors.
It took them about 5 minutes to enter the periphery of the royal district and then another 5 to transverse it and enter the royal palace and go to the guest room, however, in there, Eleanor alongside the entourage team was shocked, though the latter's eyes sparkled as they saw a silver-haired lady, according to the revelation given by the god of their emperor, the daughter of the god of the undead have shed her former immature stature and is now a full-blown beauty.
"Eleanor, dear, who are these people?"
Sophia asked Eleanor to which the latter replied.
"They seem to be from the Mayari Empire and are here bearing gifts from their emperor himself."
Upon hearing that, Sophia tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, Eleanor also looked at her wife for a full second, Sophia did not say anything, she smiled and replied.
"I see, it is an honor to receive a gift from such an illustrious nation, anyway, I and Bakunawa just ate breakfast and the maid said that you were busy, so all of your portions are left on the table, you can eat them, I can take care of this."
The bride-bride combo observed the reaction of the entourage, they saw that the people behind the princess, despite looking as calm as a lake had some glint in their eyes, Eleanor reckoned that she could do it herself, well, Sophia could handle it like she always does too, so she nodded at her wife's suggestion and then cordially left the room.
[Sophia's POV]
I looked at the princess in front of me, it seemed like she was young, yet her eyes were giving off an experienced bearing, I would be lying if I said that I was not interested in her, but that is such a bad thought, given that I just got married yesterday. Such a monologue was seemingly heard by my wife Eleanor as a voice suddenly rang out of my mind.
"Hey, even though you already know this, but don't accept the gift if it will compromise our Queendom in the slightest, there are a lot more beauties than that princess from which you can choose from, alright?"
I cannot help but smile in my mind, well, I guess Eleanor knew what the banes of a womanizing spouse are, but she need not to worry, after all, no matter what I have become, I am still Sophia Demiurge, the queen of Kamatayan, I will not just compromise my secrets for the sake of some pussy, so I said to Eleanor that she does not need to worry.
After that short conversation, I observed the people who are in front of me, I was watching this transpire in the eye of the maid I had assigned to Eleanor, it seemed like the princess was clear on her intentions of meeting me as she did not even introduce her name and only her title to my wife, well it's a good thing that Eleanor normally does not take offense on such a small gesture, it would have been disastrous for them if she do.
While I was thinking of such things, the princess in front of me stood up and said.
"Once again, greetings Queen Sophia, I am the 5th princess of Mayari, named after Lady Urduja, and I am here bearing a gift for your wedding."
_She was named Urduja? That is such a very uncreative name, someone really needs to do better._
That is what all I can say as she pulled out a black, silver, and gold silk cloth, my eyes widened as I saw how the cloth was literally glowing those three kind of lights, in terms of presentation alone, my silk spiders will be inferior, unfortunately, my silk can regenerate and then create new clothes from controlling mana alone, such utility will not be defeated by some glowing t-shirt or some shit.
Seeing my slightly surprised eyes, I saw the growing confidence in the princess's eyes (I am not comfortable calling her Urduja), she smiled and then knelt in front of me, saying.
"This silk cloth came from a silkworm called Luminescent Worms, they are known to have several chemicals that are harmless but are highly reactive to oxygen gas, making them glow in different colors, specifically, these three colors here, and it just so happens that these three colors are the main colors that you and your spouses' seem to fancy, thus my father, the emperor has reckoned that this will be a fitting gift to such mighty figures."
I touched the silk as I hear her explain that Mayari was spying on us when we were in Gjallarhorn, well it's not like they can do anything against me, according to the spiders in Mayari there are only one hero there, the emperor and the next strongest are a bunch of hero prospects, they were strong because the have a pantheon, just like me that supports them.
While I was thinking of that, I brought out a pleased smile as I looked at the princess.
"It is a fitting gift, send my gratitude to your father."
After saying that, I went and looked at the maid in my back and made her pick up the cloth and place it in my room for later, I then looked at the princess once more and then said.
"So now that it is out of the way, what is this friendship that you are talking about when you were transversing the Urdujan Territory?"
Upon hearing this, the entourage who have been confident in themselves a little while ago opened their eyes wide, in their minds they were probably thinking how did I know about their mission here, I mean, if you give a gist to someone, it is either because you want to court her (or in several occasion him) or when you want to become friends, also if you want to clown enemies, but that is beyond the point.
Surely, the one who is smartest of them all, the 5th princess was also the one who recovered the fastest, she smiled at me and then replied.
"As expected of Lady Sophia, we, from Mayari empire have been amazed by the prospect of your Queendom, in my hand is a sample weapon from my empire and if it is to your liking, we will immediately arrange an official meeting between the leaders of two countries to discuss a possible trade agreement."
On saying that, the princess brought out a longsword with a sheath that has the symbol of Mayari on it and given it to me, she seem to be confident of it, but did they really just think that I cannot notice their way of saying that I need weapons from them because I am at war with the white elves and my swords are inferior compared to them?
_Ah, it's probably that they are too confident of their weapons and thought that I have no way of rejecting it, man countries calling themselves empires are really full of themselves. I wonder what will they do if I suddenly decided to turn their whole populace into undeads._
Well, my nation's current swallowing power is not that great to integrate a full empire without repercussions, so i cannot really do that.
I received the sword and then looked at it, as expected, it was rather of high quality, it is lightweight and can be injected with mana without any damage, but the mana injected in it can just increase the durability of the sword and not its power, also it can be snapped into two easily, relative to the snapper's strength and is not flexible enough.
Weaknesses that my sword does not have, I cannot help but let out a sigh of disappointment, causing the princess to be quite shocked, I looked at the maid who just went back from heeding to my earlier order and then said.
"Please call out a soldier outside, bring me his sword along the way."
The maid nodded, causing the entourage to be stunned, well in this kind of occasions, results speak louder than confidence. Such was my thoughts as I received the soldier and then unsheathed his sword, I then placed the two sword in my lap and then said.
"I would be lying if I said that your sword is not that of high quality, however, look at this."
I held the upper tip of the blade given by the princess and then it's handle, I then bent it, immediately snapping the sword they were oh-so proud of in to two.
"As you can see, it is not flexible enough for my liking, our sword however is conforming to my standards, look."
I picked up the soldier's sword and then bent it, there eyes went wide when the saw that the blade did not snap but instead just bent into a circle when I made it so, even the soldier has that "Our sword can do that?" question on his face, but the surprise is not over yet, I injected mana on it and immediately, the sword repaired itself and became brand new.
_But if someone managed to really snap it in two or chip the edges and made them dull, this trick will not be able to it, after all, magic metals can only regenerate when in land, this is just a trick I tried when practicing my rapier off camera._
The princess who was shocked can only mutter.
"Incredible."
Really, she was in shock, in fact, her shock was too great that she forgot her main intention by kneeling and propping her cleavage up through her V-neck dress in order to make a good first impression on me. Even though I am smart enough to not fall for it, it makes me wonder if their spies really sees me as playgirl before I even really see myself as one.
Ah, well, that's not my problem anymore.
"Well, anything else?"
This question from me made the entourage snap out of their shock, they look at me in shame as they have just embarrassed themselves for thinking that their weapons is superior than mine, well, that is a normal thought process because Kamatayan is just a new country.
"No, I apologize for wasting your your time, and I hope that you enjoy our gift."
I nodded as I stood up to watch the negotiators who cannot even use their negotiation skills to me, and when they were about to exit the door, I said.
"Well, even though the negotiation failed, I am always open for new ones, I know that you want a second hero by your side, and maybe I will become one..."
I then used dark magic to cast an illusion of myself grabbing the waist of the princess and pulling her to my side, and when I dispelled it, I continued.
"If you just made a much more interesting offer."
The princess looked at me, obviously shaken as I continued smiling before they went out of the guest room, the palace and ultimately, the capital.
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Author: Yes, Urduja is so old she saw a lot fo children named after her, 300+ years of being alive is crazy.