Grizzled
#S2 Episode 9
“We're going to have a conference?When the popular rallies still craze out there?!” ask Luska.
“Conference that's what they want as a follow-up to the presence of the legitimate heir you've picked up. Also, don't dramatize the atmosphere! The protest is still orderly so far,” Ladra replied. The two spoke as if I were not among them.
“Yes, Head of Board. Everything is still orderly until they know this conference is closed from the media. People will think we are turning our backs on them,” Luska denied.
“The result of the open conference a few hours ago was that they finally knew the attitude of His Majesty, who indirectly seemed to deny his destiny as the rightful heir. The people are worried that the rightful heir is now as cowardly as ever,” Ladra replied then dropped his gaze on me.
“Sorry, Your Grace. I do not mean to offend Your Majesty, but the partisanship of the Internal Council Body is to the people of many,” Ladra said again.
“I understand your responsibility, Head of Board. The conference a few hours ago is not finished and I have not had much understanding of the country's problems, but Luska has explained everything,”.
“Good! Good then. We can shorten the time and get straight to the point later. Your Majesty take it easy, the public relations team is trying to calm the masses. The course of tonight's conference will certainly be conducive.”
I nodded, following the two towards the same conference room as earlier this afternoon.
***
This time my mind is more focused because it does not feel wrong costume. Everyone in the conference room is still in the same sitting position, looking more serious with the atmosphere of tension out there.
“Alright, thanks to everyone present. Especially Your Majesty, we apologize for the conditions you should not have faced on the first day of setting foot in Alba, but well,” said Ladra on the very end seat of the table. The young man next to him who was handling the hologram screen device seemed busy operating the same thing.
“No problem, Head of Board. I began to understand the anxiety of many people. Luska has explained the outline of the problem,” I replied.
Ladra as the Head of the Board began to lead the conference, “Let's equate perception. What does Your Majesty get from our problem?”
“Hm, Grey World expansion dominates the surface. The civilization of the White Country cannot stay above the clouds forever. We must set up a scheme to win the resistance to the evil sorcery of the Grey World and save civilization . So ‘kan?” my many.
Ladra nodded, “True, Your Majesty. Less is more like that. Before we need to know how bad our current condition is. Regarding the incident that interrupted the conference last afternoon, please report, field team.”
Someone opposite me took over the hologram screen beam, “Grey World Extension a few hours ago, occurring near the mainland coast of the former East Alba region. The area is almost 20 kilo meters in diameter. There are only forest expanses and low hills within that area coverage.”
“The area is close to Tower Gate Dimension ‘kan?” ask Luska. When he mentioned the tower, my mind was reminded of the tower where I first got here. What else from its name, the Dimensional Gate Tower?
“True, the magic antidote and a number of security components could not resist the negative energy that suddenly appeared in the surroundings, blowing up the tower, taking a toll covering an elderly and a young man was found seriously injured.”
“Aquila and her grandmother?!” my question is extraordinarily anxious. Sure was! Of course, those two people must be Aquila and her grandmother! Oh my, how is Aquila now? He injured? He must have been more hurt knowing his grandmother was dead.
The presenter of the report had a glance at Ladra before answering my question, “The old man can not be denied is indeed the grandmother of Aquila, but the young man ..”.
“We focus on the impact of expansion,” cut Ladra, “how much now land surface taken over Grey World?”
“Hm, eighty-seven percent .. more. Only the small islands in the southeast of the main continent could still be safely trampled. The oceans are still free, but there is no guarantee that the bottom poses no danger of expansion.”
“If the seabed were harmless, we would not have had time to create a pure civilization in our own strength with time left. The power of the moon's energy crystals will be exhausted in the near future while the continuity of civilization above this cloud depends on it,“ Ladra replied in a frown, scowling her forehead, “how long will it take for that crystal power to last until it is completely depleted?”
“By the way, Your Majesty did not know about the energy crystal of the month,” said Luska. Ah, thank you for representing my thoughts, but somehow she was a bit neglected.
“We've used half the power of that crystal energy in the last year and a half. Means we have fifty percent,” replied the whistleblower, “but we can't stay on top until the power is absolutely zero percent. When the power is left ten percent, this cloud land is no longer solid .. and yes, just imagine there are many loads, buildings, and people on top of that soft land.”
“Alright, fifty percent for one and a half years, suppose now we only have forty percent of power, meaning that we have time left .. fourteen more months,” Ladra concluded, saying, “analysis team, how is the possibility of saving our civilization?”
A woman on the other side of the table seemed nervous, typing something, “I don't really like the very small possibilities, but we will still depend on her,” said the woman.
“Entertainment or even eradication of the power of the Grey World is absolutely difficult with our makeshift artillery forces. The amount of land is too much. When there are still a few troops we suffer a crushing defeat against the terrible magic. If the policy switches on the construction of civilization in the sea –either on the bottom or surface– we need something as magical as moon energy crystals.”
“Conclusion?”
“In conclusion, we can only wish for those fourteen months on His Majesty, as the only legitimate heir ever to win against the Grey World. If one Grey World dome alone is defeated, we can have one more moon crystal to rebuild the new residence.”
Other than about the moon crystal that I don't understand, the woman's words turned out to be just as strange. What say? Who has ever won against the Grey World?
“So, that's our situation now. It seems to be forcing His Majesty to fend for himself, but we will arrange everything regarding His Majesty's life in Nigra as long as you are fighting here,” Ladra said looking at me solemnly, also everyone in the room, “by therefore, since His Majesty has experienced defeating a patch of Grey World, we hope His Majesty can win conquering the rest, returning the White Country territory completely.”
I was stunned for a long time, a long time after their words sounded so foreign. My concern about those who mistakenly thought that the rightful heir was me coming back. Why do they think I've won against the Grey World? I even found out there were various parallel worlds after the explanation I heard earlier this afternoon. Gawat, lest they really wrong people!
“If Your Majesty needs planning, we will help from tonight as well. What can we help? How did His Majesty manage to get in there? What's in it? What did you do to destroy that evil magic?”
The young man next to Ladra was waiting for my answer, preparing to type it. My throat suddenly felt dry. Where can I make up the answers they want?
“Ma .. sorry,” I said nervously, “I don't understand what you mean,” I replied.
I know, I know the whole room is looking at me disappointed, but what else?
“Question by question I cannot answer because I have no experience fighting against the Grey World. Luska picked me up as a teenage girl who had never ventured to any other side of the world. So ... so I really don't know,” I replied as is, forgetting that the answer would be completely unwelcome.
“Yang Mulia ... You told me not to run away from responsibility,” said Luska next to me.
When the conference room was silent, dissolved in disappointment, out there the protests began to turn into riots. Shouts for the sake of the residents this time sounded right outside the conference room, forcing their way in. Putting in for the sake of light at the door creates a thin, shield-like light that holds the break from the outside. No one has managed to break through here.
“Head of the Board, there are cameras from outside infiltrate in and cover everything we discussed since earlier,” reports the young man next to Ladra.
“What?!”
“True, secrets about the remaining time of civilization above this cloud and His Majesty's response about the Grey World spread out to all corners of the country, making the masses more and more chaotic.”
“That's because contrary to what we said that we can still stay up here for another five years. His lies are outrageous!” comment Luska.
“The reality is people are angry after knowing the truth! Though the lie is deliberately we polish to avoid this kind of commotion!” ladra's grunts looked dizzy.
“The fact that our nation was driven from the surface has been the source of our heartache, we are used to it!” said a voice somewhere in this room, “then the leader all keep things secret about the rest of the time of the survival of our true civilization? Tell me, what are you guys planning behind us?!”
“What we planned was to save you all, damn it!” reply Luska upset.
“Where is that camera position?!”
Things are getting messy. Either the guts from where I was sitting on my back, I took my seat to the door, not listening to Luska who was preventing me. The thin light of this door shield vanished after the contact of my hand with the doorknob. The beaver faces greeted me as soon as the door opened.
The ten-second pause of silence felt so long that all I did was stare at these people one by one. I have never faced a situation like this and have not had time to prepare many words, but there is still something in my heart that demands to be conveyed. It's about my regret that I wasn't the rightful heir they expected.
My lips were just about to open, but everyone suddenly fell down on their heads before me, making me even more misbehaved.
“Sorry, Your Majesty, I am in charge of all this,” said a man of Ladra's age who was at the forefront of the mob. I went along to put the position in line with him, really feeling strange because it had made the fathers and all the people older than me humble.
“Ti ... it's okay, wake up! I mean, we can talk about everything all right,” I said nervously. The guy was even more nervous when I sat down, right in front of him.
“Your Highness, ka .. we do not mean ...”
“Wah, you made His Majesty have to be so humble!” luska said, “You don't need to do it, Your Majesty!”
“Ampun, Young Knight Luska! Sorry for our very inappropriate actions, but our wish is only to meet His Majesty the rightful heir, speak directly to him that we want to stay alive and be saved,” said the person yet to lift his gaze. I'm getting bad. The many people in front of me were low on a boy like me, thinking I could save them? Give me an idea to tell the truth without hurting them.
“When you expect me too much while I don't even know about the Grey World, I hope there's one or two things I can do for you. I hope so,” I said softly.
“We understand, Your Majesty. His Majesty grew up in Nigra and was only picked up this morning. There must be a lot of things you can't accept. Imagining fighting the Grey World was indeed very terrifying. If Your Majesty doesn't have enough courage yet, we will face it together. We are really worried His Majesty left us like the previous legitimate heir.”
“We'll deal with it together, huh? When you guys don't trust the Internal Board Body?” ask Luska upset, “what bad things have you all thought of us board members? Let's discuss it as well while His Majesty is in our midst!”
“Don't you be a supporter of the opposition faction? Well, I don't think it out! All four thought about political chess when our situation was getting worse,” Ladra said.
Opposition factions, hm? I think I've heard that term. From who? Wait, oh ... Aquilais! Poor Aquila, I heard from him once that he was a former opposition. So it is likely that these people are moving because Aquila was affected by the expansion of the Grey World some time ago.
“Then we can arrest this man for the outbreak of unrest under his control ...”
“No, wait, a minute ... Please everyone calm down. I didn't really understand the political temperature in this country before, but like you said, we're going to face this problem together. All that is impossible if there is still such a thing as this faction and that faction. Why don't we melt into one power?” I said stand back.
“Head of the Council, we will not give prison space to this father or anyone involved in the protest. Their only wish is to see me and finally everything is clear after we talk to each other,”.
“Alright, what His Majesty said is indeed true. Actually, the Internal Council Body itself has long tried to embrace all parties, but it turns out there are still those who want to bring up the political competition at that time. Ah, there-there-is!” ladra.
“Sorry, Head of Board, I'm just straightening. The mass movement tonight has absolutely nothing to do with the political element, we move because we purely want to meet His Majesty and complain our fate directly,” replied the man earlier.
“Oh, good then. As it has spread, we are indeed on the verge of doomsday. We kept it a secret so as not to cause the panic of the people, but you all already know. So, as His Majesty said, we ask for the support of the entire population to resolve this issue,” Ladra said.
“Stay do activities as usual and do not add to the unrest that troubles us. That was the easiest support we expected,” continued Luska next to me.
“We understand, Young Knight, Head of the Council, also His Majesty ... Sorry for the commotion tonight!” said the mass representative.
“It's okay, I'm glad everything ended peacefully,” I replied.
“You don't have to worry about His Majesty leaving us. Your Majesty only needs adjustments, but we will try not to take too long, so that our territorial recovery steps can be done immediately,” said Luska.
After that the crowd dispersed. I wanted to come to the gate like a host who drove guests home to the front door and waved, but no, this was not a pleasant meeting and this time I was no ordinary host. My ears caught a glimpse of faintly audible words.
“Happy it all ended peacefully, heh? Our queen is as gentle as the antiwar opposition. Would such a person really be able to conquer the Grey World?”
My attention immediately went around, looking for someone who said that, but there were too many people around me and I couldn't find them. Someone patted me on the shoulder while I was still confused looking.
“Conference not yet completed, Your Honor. We just arrived at the most confusing part.”
.Seriate.
