The Book Of Flowers

Meaning of a King

*DWOOOSH!!*

The light finally managed to get us to our destination safely. A place that immediately greeted us with a picture of a beautifully carved white marbel castle and several statues carved like a beautiful woman with wings like an angel

There are many people surrounding us. But, regarding the identities of all of them, my guess is only one

They were all Orion's royal magic-vessels, sent straight to pick us up and deliver us to Julius

It seems like they were also the ones who had made the other end of the teleportation circle that we were using. These royal soldiers belonging to Julius turned out to be competent as well

That's why I was a bit hesitant if I had to fight a group of her magic army at once...

"The Mediterranean star welcomes all of you" one of them then politely saluted. "Welcome to Orion" he added later

Yep. That's a sign for all of us to move immediately to follow him. No need for further explanation

"Are we late?" I asked

"No, your Highness Oberon. You arrived very early, where the black knight Edwin was still not seen"

Ah so

I hope Veskal and Verdea can understand Orion. These people do not even try to use Hortensian language in communication

Zaphir and Luna on the other hand, I don't need to worry. They have lived long enough to understand many languages. They don't have to talk if they're not invited right now

And we also arrived in front of a room— which was not too far from where we appeared after teleporting earlier

It seems we did appear on the front page. But I'm not used to finding a meeting room this close to the entrance. The reason is, because Rose castle in Hortensia— where in front of the entrance first is the throne room

"Tell the whole room that guests from Miralius and Hortensia have arrived" the man who ushered us whispered to a palace maid waiting in front of the room

The servant nodded in understanding as he began to move in haste. With a deep breath, a loud voice I put— out of his small body

"Egypt! The invited guest from Miralius' side and the invited guest from Hortensia's side, have arrived!!"

The ship that delivered us also gave us respect while inviting us in. And with an authoritative posture, we all came in, with Verdea walking first while everything followed behind her

Seen in the room, there are only 5 chairs there, surrounding a round table made of ceramic and coated with soft cloth

On one of the chairs, facing directly towards the entrance, there was someone standing spread his hands out kindly as if he was welcoming us

That person could not be blamed anymore, was Julius Orion. The king who gave us an invitation as one of the guests of honor was entitled to sit on 2 empty seats left

"Welcome! You guys really come in a row!" Julius commented, where I only laughed lightly in response while sitting where it was still available

All right let's see

It seems like only the two of us—aku and Verdea were the representatives who came last. King Louis and Eloy had also arrived, giving us gazes as if examining every move

And when I gave my gaze back at Eloy, she straightened her eyes as if to stab me

Funnier. He tried to threaten someone who had kidnapped him

"If you think kidnapping me is funny, I don't really appreciate the thought" Eloy said, rolling her eyeballs together

Oh, he knows my mind apparently~

That's why I said he was funny. He's smart, I have to admit. But he has chosen us wrongly as opponents

The two of us also exchanged a busy existence threatening each other, where Julius immediately understood that the situation would be troublesome if he did not interrupt between us

"Would have... Let's just start" He said, in general, telling us that we should put our ears on immediately, while our guards would stand still without a sound

"Before that, I was a little surprised why you only have one bodyguard, prince Verdea?" Julius then asked a question, looking at Verdea and Veskal

"Edwin might be here. But you better not open that door for him. After all, this meeting's open, isn't it?" Verdea retaliated

Julius seemed half agree and no. But how else. He had just proposed that this meeting should be opened

He whispered it to one of his guards to give the order to the doorkeeper. His guard immediately saluted his king, before leaving to carry out the order unhindered

"Then everything is safe" Without pause Julius continued. "You all know why we gathered here, don't you?"

"I hope his Majesty Julius himself wants to re-explain it" Louis, king of Cassiopeia turned back toward Julius

Inconveniencing. I even understood from behind Julius' fake smile that we were thinking right now

"We are all here because of the problems that arose about 5 years ago, and now it still affects us because of their unexpected movements" Julius also summarized his explanation

"And the matter is now residing in the western part of Goeitias" I continued. "On the island across the continent of Sto Astra, more precisely" I added

"That's why I wonder why this is our problem, while the rightful guard of the continent of Goeitias is still there" Aloy interjected, drawing all eyes on him

"If those people attack your kingdom later on, your Highness Eloy, don't blame me at all" I avenge him

"Oof~ Someone is angry apparently"

"Yes, because I came here to offer help too. Understand that we all need help right now

If you want to get your head off the ground and bang it against the wall so there's common sense coming in, things will be easy"

Hmph, now look who's angry?

Want to hit me, Eloy? That furious expression was engraved clearly on your face

"Can we not bully each other? I feel uncomfortable right now" Louis said again, to which Julius immediately granted his request by gesturing to me

'Please be patient', his eyes say that

Then we go straight to the core

So, I raised my hand before Julius spoke again or intended to, until all eyes looked well at me

"If you like, I have 2 important pieces of information that you all need to hear"

"And what is that information, Oberon?" Julius asked

Luna slowly moved forward as my hand looked to the side. He put something on it—a small tube filled by the filthy Mana of a black witch

The specifics, they belong to Natasha

And as Luna took a step back into position, I asked the guard Julius to come closer and take the thing after everyone sitting down saw it

"We have arrested 2 people who are members of a group of devil worshipers. And we also have one former member who happens to be Verdea's servant right now"

Attention was also turned to Verdea whom I called her name, where she nodded in agreement as she said, "His name is Frit, a Dwarven girl. He was one of the seven people we saved from Xiang prison that day"

Julius nodded in understanding, while the other 2 looked worried

"May I be more frank?" Louis began to look interested, advancing his chest more to the table

Verdea nodded in agreement to his request

"Natasha Epsilon is the one we caught. His name must have sounded familiar to the noble ear of Eloy"

Eloy put on a sour face recognizing the name, as Verdea continued her sentence. "He's the one we're holding hostage right now. It is now in Miralius and unconscious"

Veskal put on a sad face when he heard Verdea say the name, but he tried to cover it with all his might

"You didn't have time to interrogate him or...?" Louis continued

"We briefly. But it keeps us from being alarmed so there are 7 dead" I added Verdea's testimony. "Everyone from the Elf side, and the culprit was a friend of Natasha Epsilon whom only 1 in 3 people managed to get caught by us"

It also still makes me angry

"Even you can't catch 3 people at once?" Eloy was visibly riled up and worried, not knowing what to say

It seemed that he had also started to get late in the discussion

"We didn't know they were dangerous. That's also the same reason we're asking you for help getting rid of those dangerous people"

"The unknown danger. The most dangerous danger" Julius interrupted, bowing very resignedly. "We may suffer fatalities, but Oberon acted rightly by deciding to uproot the pestle as quickly as possible"

That's a great philosophy for our summaries of designs

"But we can't be as fast either. There are still many things that we and all of you have to prepare for" Verdea continued on the topic

"What do you mean, young prince?"

...

"We won't be joining for a while for this expedition"

That certainly sounds very inappropriate to say in situations like this, but we all know it has to be done

"Why??" Louis was the first to protest, looking frantic to the tip of his foot

Louis' protest proved to me that these three kings had planned an expedition before delivering it to us

But forget it first

"Just like that, the second information we have is, our royal gatekeeper has just been killed recently"

"May he rest in peace..." Julius sontak delivered a sentence of sorrow

"The Elves still had to adapt to that condition. There is someone who deserves to be a leader first. And Black Hunt, the main reason we want the western island to be clear of threats, has not at all gotten a good connection with the general public" I explained at length

"Father if I say, we're the ones with the most problems right now. Either for Miralius' side, or Verdea's side"

The three kings were silent. They wanted to convince me to follow their will, but in the end, my thinking was more logical

None of them tried to confront that argument. Mainly because they understand very well the difficulty of a king in handling a country

Julius closed his eyes.— faintly sighed so that no one noticed

"I get. It seems like we're all going backwards" he said

"But we're not really just going to do that, are we?" Eloy interrupted, this time pulling all eyes towards her

"I suggest we ask the east for help as well. If it's true that these people were the perpetrators of Blood Sabbath 5 years ago, more help would be helpful"

Oh?

He had logical thinking too. I didn't misjudge that Eloy was smart

"But sending a message to the east will only disturb their calm" Verdea interrupted this time. "Many of those countries don't appreciate such actions at all, do they?"

Hm...

He's right

Gong has been actively assisting us in dealing with Walter Herb. Bestia hasn't done anything yet, but they aren't the type of country that would just follow the rules of our plan. Sahra is a very passive country so we don't even know how they are doing right now

We don't need to talk about Xiang. And for Borneus, we have absolutely no good connections to persuasion them, even though there have been many opportunities to do so

Verdea's right. We cannot take advantage of the eastern hemisphere of Vitario in this matter

And that leaves only one country

"Hortensia will not necessarily send help. I came to negotiate here as an ambassador, not an experienced war commander" Verdea added

Yep. He scooped up and showed all the points that all of us need to know. And the sentence just meant to the three kings, that Hortensia would not carelessly participate in this battle

Despite having the status of ambassador and Count, Verdea still had no power due to her rarely seen social status before the Hortensian nobility

Coupled with his past which was the son of an ordinary citizen, they would not take this friend of mine with open arms

It doesn't discuss us playing more on the international board than in Hortensia itself...

"Eastern country's door is closed huh...?" Julius gave a heavy sigh

"I don't understand your condition, but I'm at least getting a little idea of why Hortensia won't be too helpful" Louis followed

Eloy on the other hand, looks plunged into her own mind—without caring about anything that's around us

He lost the argument, and he couldn't come up with a better solution to support his opponent's argument. Everyone there was as proud as Eloy, even Verdea who conveyed her thoughts just now

"It seems only the state of the kings sitting here will join this delayed expedition" Julius concluded

"Then we all have to prepare ourselves" Eloy continued. "Sto Astra is in danger, and I don't like it when someone attacks my country" he added

You don't have to look at me when you say that last sentence

"Ah, and one more thing" I drew their attention back

It's been bothering me since, so...

"What was Yuriel doing behind that window?"

My four friends were immediately shocked to hear that, spontaneously drawing their eyes towards the wooden window that showed someone in between

But he didn't have to speak up to prove he was Yuriel. We have met him too often to recognize the person well

I knew it was him in the second I smelled the scent of dirty Mana surrounding his body. What I wonder is why Julius allowed that person to be here, despite being able to clearly sense the presence of black magic around Yuriel

He had more than enough power to detect it. Even when I was around Yuriel

"Don't mind me" Yuriel spoke to us. "I am here solely to witness the development of the prince of Verdea"

"And now that you've seen it, please go"

"I'm not polite" Eloy interrupted me. "While he does not have a good reputation in your camp, he is still an honorable judge in the eyes of the world"

I couldn't be more unconcerned about it

"I appreciate you standing up for me, Your Highness Eloy"

His footsteps could be heard galloping down, with slow steps along with the one person who was coming with him

A while later, we could see Yuriel's figure very clearly. Together with his son Phillip, the father of Veskal

The figure of that person certainly made Veskal narrow his eyes in annoyance

"For a long time no see, son" Phillip said

"It's not nice to meet you, dad" Veskal replied

"... It's unfortunate"

Yuriel then glanced at Phillip to make him quiet. He then continued his sentence to us, because now he has shown his form better

"I can say, I'm quite satisfied with every argument of the Verdean prince today. The reason is also quite reasonable, and I'm sure all of you kings agree with him as well"

No one responded too much to Yuriel. We just kept quiet so he could talk, whether he wanted to or not

"But it's a pity that you're not a king now" he said. "If you were a king of Hortensia, I'm sure it would be much better than your father and brother combined"

That's a very sassy sentence. But since she was not in Hortensia now, and only Verdea was listening to her now, Yuriel could freely say anything without risking being beheaded

"... I won't thank you for that compliment" Verdea replied gracefully. "And I hope none of us will ever open our ears or mouth about it again" he added

"But will you refuse if you want to be king—just because of the expectations of your friends?"

Veskal immediately looked like he wanted to come forward to deal with Yuriel, but was immediately caught by his arm by Verdea very quickly before he could step up

He then silently lowered his head, but a smile was engraved on his face as if he knew very well what he should use as a reply to the grand judge

"I had no interest in becoming king when that position was not properly handed over to me. I can name one more person who is better off on the throne than myself, should his majesty Damien abdicate one day"

And Yuriel knew very well who Verdea meant

So Yuriel gave up, with her eyeballs rolled back while looking down

"I won't argue with you again about this. Not a single satisfactory word can come out of your mouth" He said as he locked their eyes again. "So I have one question. It doesn't matter, but I beg you to answer"

He began to get closer, right to Verdea which made Veskal immediately protective. But he had to step aside a little, until he and his father stood side by side as their two masters faced each other

The question that Verdea was waiting to answer, began to be uttered by Yuriel

"... Tell me, what is the meaning of a king?"

...

He was still concerned within the topic, but with different intentions

The question is entirely just a question. Without the intention of dropping or dropping. Like a puzzle made to sharpen the mind

The atmosphere became tense, as the four kings there waited for an answer from a young prince

...

"... A king is a leader" He said. "And a leader should know what he's doing"

...!

Our eyes were all widened, especially Eloy and Yuriel. The answer was very simple, but somehow it was able to be accepted and understood well by all of us. Even I was surprised to hear that

The answer that greatly explains the basis of a king— is appropriate to complete Yuriel's question

"In a chess game, what do you think is the most important piece?"

Verdea's backlash drew Yuriel back to reality, as she began to position herself more firmly

"I'm sure you want me to answer 'king', don't you?"

But it's wrong. Verdea immediately shook her head

"I don't play chess often, but when my grandfather taught me the game, I could say one thing" he said and paused for a moment. "Every piece on the chessboard is paramount, excluding the king himself"

"... Even pawns?" Yuriel who was a little surprised asked

"Even the pawns"

Verdea's hands began to act as if he was holding a chess piece, then moving it with a bouncing motion

"You can use the fort as the main protector of your attacking piece

You can use a horse as an unexpected killer that can change the flow of the game

You can use an elephant to be an attacker remotely

You can use the minister to take a favorable position

And pawns you can use to lock up your opponent's position until they can't break through your area, also become the deadliest weapon when he reaches the finish line"

He summarized each function of all the pieces in sufficient detail

"Every piece is very important. Kings on the other hand, are only useful when there is a precarious situation or the game is in the final stages

You should know very well how to use each piece well. And if you fail, all that burden will fall on the king, won't it?" he added

"But chess is a picture of a war"

"And a royal life is a battlefield as far as I know"

Yuriel began to fall silent, not knowing what to answer

He knew very well what Verdea meant. In fact, he already knew very well the experience of going through hell called the royal life was—persis just like Verdea himself

Hell is worse than hell itself, so some people wish they would rather die than go through the disgusting jokes of life

So he fell silent, as every sweat he had shed over the years came back to his mind

"I can now see why my two grandchildren expect so much of you..." Yuriel also said

I didn't even expect the answer would come from Verdea. There is no need to discuss all the kings who did not even know Verdea too well, nor my other friends

Whether our eyes widened or our mouths fell down, we were all amazed to hear that answer, coming from a prince who did not even have much experience in leadership

A young prince, so one would immediately doubt that he had enough knowledge in this life

"Have you thought about that answer long enough?"

"I just thought about the old thing that came up, and made it the answer to the question just now"

"... It's amazing"

Even Yuriel began to praise him wholeheartedly now...

"... Give my regards to your brother Rosalia. Say, I hope he doesn't have to worry about anything too much anymore" He said and turned around

"Want to leave immediately, chief justice?" Verdea asked that question

"There's nothing more I need to hear today. My ears and heart are satisfied" Yuriel replied without looking back

"Then, see you, prince Verdea" he paused for a moment when he came before the entrance. "May our next meeting end in a great blessing"

"... I accept"

That way, Yuriel went out without a word again— left everyone in silence where Verdea smiled

...

So then...

He just challenged Verdea hah—that last sentence...?

He challenged us to take him as an opponent after the deaths of Walter and Darwin. Yuriel understood very well, that he would also not be spared the destruction like his two allies

But he dared to challenge Verdea in this, as well as myself indirectly

...

I hope he doesn't fight, really. But if he wants to, it's our job to serve him

We will not give up after we are so far ahead now

The three kings are still silent together, as are I. And the one who had to make us open our mouths was Verdea himself

"Is there still something to discuss...?"

...

...

...

"alright. It seems we are too late in our thoughts" Julius said

I meani...

Verdea's words earlier, made me think a little about my stance as a king

He got an answer quickly which I had to try to find along with my identity for years

We all doubtless question that. Even Eloy who didn't even generally think of someone's sentence other than her

"... But I was astonished" Eloy suddenly said. "You gave a very good answer to someone who is not very understanding in the world of kings. I'm sure you got an answer from someone, don't you?" he then asked

"That's disrespectful, Your Eloy" Louis interrupted with a slightly agitated look

But that didn't stop Eloy's curiosity. His gaze pierced towards Verdea from a height, while Verdea looked back at him from below

"Experience, your Eloy. I've met and seen kings rule their country. You could say, I got my own answer from the conclusion of that experience"

That answer made Eloy snort. He felt a little dissatisfied, but did not know also what sentence he should use to lure out Verdea's voice any more

"alright. Just close this meeting, your Excellency Julius" he asked

"certain"

And as Julius signaled, we all stood together. His hand was stretched out to the front— floating on the table along with the other two kings

The two of us followed their movements and began to extend out their right hand

"You swear, anything heard here will only be heard by the people who are here?" Julius asked a question

Ah, it's some kind of promise ritual

"We are ready" the four who reached out with him answered

"You swear that blood will not spill on each other, as long as we travel to glory against the dissidents?"

"We're ready"

"... You swear that all mankind will always be in the right hands?—in our hands as their guide?"

"We're ready"

That way, the ritual ends

There was nothing we needed to do like a blood oath that would bind tightly. Just a sentence of conviction, if none of us would break the treaty

...

It's over

Now, there's still one thing I need to do with Julius before we get back to Miralius

...

Yep. It's all for the future of us all

To all the people I promised happiness, to all the people I loved and cherished