"In all honesty sire, I am not a well-educated man, so I do not really see a proper way to solve the rationing and supply problems afflicting our troops." William groaned in self dissatisfaction, causing me to smirk and chuckle. "I would just issue a law to make villages be legally required to stockpile resources required by soldiers, though that would probably not end well."

"No, it would most certainly not." Another chuckle escaped me as I took in a breath and smiled at the old man. "I think we can solve this by combining that law you just mentioned with a little something from my world called pemmican."

"Pemmican?" He blinked with uncertainty as the others continued to eagerly eavesdrop on us talking. "Its a stale, disgusting block made of dried meat, dried berries and animal fat, more often than not bound in the skin of the animal used for its creation, too."

"E-eh? So no salt is required to keep it fresh?" I shook my head in negative, much to everyone's apparent surprise. "Don't quote me on this, but I do not think it does. I'm no cook, nor a serf, so I don't truly understand what is it that makes pemmican so long-lasting, but if I had to guess, it likely stems from the fact that it is excessively dry."

"Can you show the cooks how to make it, your majesty?" With a shrug, I replied. "I wouldn't ever bother cooking it myself, but I should be able to direct them to make it or at least give the specifics on what it is to the staff and hope they can figure out the rest."

That seemed to be enough to end the conversation as I turned my head around to look at the line of ladies waiting for a minute or two of my attention and let out a massive sigh. Katrin and Aberra were both smirking heavily due to the fact that nobody other than them seemed to be even the slightest competition. Most of the girls here have arrived only due to the incessant ambitions of their parents, many of them already having lovers while being forced to beg for my approval. It makes me pity them so much that I haven't murdered any of them yet.

Granted, only seven ladies have been 'processed' so far, with one of them having been forced to come while highly sick and nearly choking from fever, as her mother gleefully and cruelly kept her standing upright as she spoke in her stead about how good her daughter is at pleasing men and how well she was trained in all forms of household chores.

Now, I did say that I like my women submissive, but that does not mean I want a statue, or a flesh robot. There's plenty of maids to go around if I ever want to satisfy that particular fetish. "I think I'm going to get some fresh air." Several curious eyes quirked their eyebrows at me as I stood up from my chair and began to descend the stairs to the lower level. Two of the guards instantly went down before I could even reach the stairs, seemingly intent on making sure the balcony's on the second floor were completely empty by the time I arrived.

With a smile, I continued walking forward without looking back at the reactions of my entourage.

Yet, as I walked down the first step, time seemed to slow down for me as a peculiar woman appeared within my vision. It was... she was... not one of the ladies. Her appearance was striking, powerful.. inexplicable.

Looking at her made me feel a great flame rising up from deep within, but as much as I would love it to be a flame of lust, I admit that it is not. Rather, this fire.. this .. rabid, terrible heat, was more akin to a tangible, liquid fear. An intense feeling of utmost discomfort and unease overtook me as my eyes met with hers, the orange orbs staring into and through me as if I was an ant being observed.

She was, I realized, one of the High Paladins left behind by Truth as the bodyguards of Archbishop Rex. She stood at around one meter and half tall and bore on her back, a massive sword that was longer than her entire body, held aloft by seemingly nothing and levitating behind her back, ready to effortlessly strike at her enemies, despite being thicker than the chest-plate of my personal guard if one was to fold the metal. It had an intricate, almost alien design and glowed with a soft, golden light. Near its handle, there seemed to be two symbols of levitating gold that spun around the sword itself, possessive of an almost crystalline form as if they grew out of the sword itself.

But that blade was not the only golden, or enchanted object this woman possessed. In fact, on her head lied a golden crown, adorned with three equally golden crystals, each of which glowed with light and radiated power. The crown was levitating atop her head, which in itself was strikingly beautiful, a fact brought about by her light blonde hair, which was tied in a ponytail and held together by a metallic band of gold, and almost preternaturally white skin, as if she was the avatar of purity itself.

The splendour of her enchanted armour continues on as two massive, plate shoulder-pads adorned her shoulders, each formed out of seemingly living gold and glowing an orange light, each having symbols etched into its heraldry. The left shoulder, a hammer. The right, a holy book. Her chest piece, leggings, boots and gauntlets were all also made of the same, golden material, with tinges of orange etching across the armour and further accentuating the suit as a whole. Another golden crystal could be found adorning her belt, though this one did not glow like the others, the colours flowing easily upwards to join with a yellow shirt made of splendourous cloth.

Likewise, this woman wore a cloak of the most wondrous silk, inlaid with gold, as may have been expected by this point. What was striking about the cloak itself, was that it possessed six crystals that glowed purple, rather that the soft light shared by everything else, offering a curious contrast to her otherwise unearthly splendour.

Finally managing to catch myself and force my sight away from her, I was allowed to realize that my heart was beating slowly.. very, very slowly. Like the thrumming of a dying man, the last vestiges of one's life, echoing through an all-consuming light.

I should hurry to the balcony and catch my breath.

Still, despite all the fear, I couldn't help but be captivated by her in more ways than one. What was it that I found so alluring?... The gold? No. I have to doubt if that think plate armour is even truly made out of gold, despite its appearance.

No, it was something else. Something that reminded me of the day I was reincarnated.

Blood.

I desired it.

Her blood.

I was salivating at the thought of it. Not specifically the thought of drinking it just... just her blood. Her possessing it was enough to cause me to have to swallow down hard.

Fear and lust, bound together in one, yet I also managed to feel revulsion, as well as longing at the same time.

This is.. unnatural.

I can only hope that nothing would come out of it or that I at least learn why I was so terrified, yet so attracted to her at the same time.

Argh!

This is infuriating!

With rage in my heart, I quickened my steps, pushing several unwary and innocent people to the side as I approached the gate of the balcony. It was there, right as my hand touched the door leading to the outside, that a chill ran down my spine. Footsteps. Heavy, plated footsteps. I could hear them.

Hear, her.

She was coming.

Following me.

I can feel her gaze piercing my back as every single hair on my neck stood up in attention and my teeth were rattling so hard it was as if they wanted to fall out and flee. Eventually, I managed to focus myself and make good use of my fury as I opened the door to the balcony, intentionally leaving it open. Whatever this was, whatever the hell SHE WAS!?; I would face it head on and without fear.

W-well, maybe not without fear, but its the thought that counts, right?

Anyway, I leaned onto the eerily cold marble stone and waited for what felt like an eternity. Each and every single step she made was implausibly infuriating as well as excruciatingly painful, with my every nerve and instinct flaring in alarm. Nothing else mattered, nobody else was even present. Just this woman, and me.

Finally, she arrived to the balcony and promptly closed the door, the lights of the inside being shut out completely, yet I found that my surroundings were still quite bright due to her presence alone. Why, if I didn't know it to be scientifically impossible, I'd say that the shadows themselves were fleeing from her presence. "Oh?" Her tone echoed, as inquisitive as it was curious, as cold as it was soft and warm.

I threw her a look without turning my body around, though I did not exactly know why. "So you chose not to run? How strange. How bold~." She mused and chuckled, covering her lips in clear amusement. Something about this act caused me to blink in surprise and light shock. You see, this method of approach.. it reminded me of my own tactics.

Highly akin to that of an overwhelming monster, surpassing even what could be called a predator, approaching and fooling around with its potential prey. "Bold? Am I to assume that you are here to bring me harm, then?"

Her smile turned into an even greater form of chuckling for a brief moment, before she exhaled and replied. "And what would you do, even if I was, your majesty?" She motioned with her right pointer finger, the plated gauntlet moving as easily as if her hand was coated in liquid rather than metal, seemingly causing the levitating great-sword to effortlessly land into the palm of her hand. She could use that enormous thing with a single hand, like it was weightless... I can only imagine what she can do with it in combat.

"I could always call for the guards." My response was heavy and lame, since I didn't believe it to amount as anything more than a joke to her, which proved itself correct as she let out a laugh, seemingly unable to help herself as I found myself enchanted by the brightness of her aura, her glowing features whisking away my attention with ease. "Indeed. You could. And I would slay them all to the last. Both your guards, as well as any of the interfering guests, that is~." Her amusement seemed to reach its peak.

On the other hand, I found myself quirking a confused eyebrow at her. "You would slaughter innocents as well? Isn't that a bit 'too much' for one of your alignment? I thought that Rhothmir was a God Of Justice."

With a nod, she took a few steps forward, not even bothering to point her massive sword at me as she approached. "Rhothmir is, indeed, the Lord of Justice. I however, serve a thing that considers Rhothmir as little more than a bright, but spoiled child, throwing a temper tantrum about all the things it considers unjust or otherwise wrong with the world."

Now this caused me to blink and finally turn around to face her, leaning against the marble fence as I felt my former terror slowly dissipate the closer she came. This was extremely strange and surprising, seemingly to us both as she had to stop and blink several times, effectively noticing that whatever magical effect she had on me was dying out. "So you serve some other god?" She blinked a couple more times, rising her left hand up to seemingly stare at it in disbelief. "W-why...?"

Shaking her head out of a stupor, the woman looked back up and at me again, meeting her beautiful orange orbs with my golden ones. "Klaus, I am going to ask that you stay very still for a few moments." She spoke my name in a way that indicated that we have known each other for a very long time, even if I couldn't recall anything about her, though quite a lot of her being seemed to be familiar to me.

She also caught herself and coughed awkwardly. "Errr, I mean, please do keep very still, your majesty." I merely quirked an eyebrow at her and shrugged, steeling myself for whatever is to come. What came however, was a hand being placed onto my chest, glowing with a soft, golden light, which in turn was infused into my body, filling me with energy and hope unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

It was a magnificent, purifying feeling that coated my entire body in a soft, golden afterglow and reminded me of the first time I got drunk off of holy water on this world. It was as if my very blood was being cleaned, perfected by the light of the heavens. "W-what did you just do?"

She adopted a rather confused expression, blinking a few more times before removing her hand from my chest and sheathing her sword with ease. Then she turned to look at me, seemingly only now realizing how close we were as her cheeks adopted an adorable crimson colouration. "I-uhm, w-wait, t-this!; this wasn't s-su-supposed to go this way!"

Her reaction caused me to tilt my head in complete confusion as I found myself increasingly winded from the experience, a breath of relief having escaped me as the golden energy stopped flowing from her palm. "Huh..?"

"Y-you were supposed to be a d-demon! I was going to kill you here and be all cool about it!" The high paladin exclaimed in a spoiled, and yet, incredibly honest tone as she continued to shake from what seemed to be embarrassment. "Uhm..." She wasn't moving away from me, though. And, for the first time in years, I didn't find having someone so close as something I would describe as uncomfortable.

"S-so, I'm n-not a d-demon?" I managed to somehow mutter out, blinking in utter disbelief as my brain tried, and failed, to properly process just what the hell was happening in front of me right now. Also, what the fuck are my guards doing?! A woman just yelled out that she planned to kill me and literally nobody came to investigate?

...

I'm going to have to do some more purging, it would seem. Hell, the fact they even allowed an armed person to come so close to their king is alarming in itself! "N-no! You're not. Your s-soul is an aberration, b-but it is human!" Then she turned her adorable head towards me again, finally allowing me to realize that the woman I'm looking at looked like a girl, barely eighteen years of age. "Uhm, aberration?"

"Y-yeah! Like something that was summoned from the void between worlds. A monster that is too alien to be described!" She exclaimed once more with pride in her tone, almost as if she was proud of herself for remembering that description. "W-well, I am not from this world, so that's probably why."

She tilted her head in confusion before beaming with practically physical excitement. "Not from this world?! You mean like a summoned hero!? That's so cool!"

...

Okay, that's it.

This woman, no, this girl, is causing my head to spin like football being kicked around by children that think their shots will be better if they put as much force behind the kick as they possibly can. "Uhm, something like that, young lady. Though, I'm not a hero, nor summoned." I swallowed down and cleared my throat as I moved slightly to the left, inching away from her since having her stand on her toes in order to lean closer to my face was rather uncomfortable, though also incredibly adorable. "I'm a reincarnated person, you see."

"A reincarnated person?" She seemed to go quiet for a moment in order to contemplate something. "Hmmm... Are you sure about that, your majesty? Reincarnated people often hide what they actually are for as long as they can for some reason, yet here you are, claiming to be one and spilling out the beans without any care whatsoever~."

Her amusement returned in full power as she leaned against the marble fence, which I swear I heard creaking softly, the stone itself groaning from the pain of having to bear the weight of her plate armour, even as she pranced around as if she was as light as a feather. "Well, sorry for not being someone with intense social anxiety, I guess? I don't really see the harm in telling this truth to anyone. I mean, you know that I'm not from this world, what can you even do with that information?"

"Create a banishment spell and use it to cast your mind, body and soul into the abyss, forever to drown in its eternal expanse of darkness, loneliness and misery~?" She answered without missing a beat and with a sugary sweet tone, which caused me to swallow in discomfort as I lamely rubbed the back of my head and offered her a light, uncertain laugh. "A-ah.. I see. Yes, that is a very good point! I'll endeavour to keep this to myself in the future."

She chuckled, covering her mouth with a hand in amusement. "You don't have to worry, your majesty! Banishment spells only work on demons and eldritch monsters, anyway! I was only joking." You say that, but didn't you basically call me an aberration from outer space just a couple minutes ago?!

Pivoting on the heel of her right boot, she carved a circle into the stone of the balcony, but more importantly, she beamed a smile towards me. "By the way, I'm Cherrie Lumina and I'm not a child! I'm actually thirty-seven years old!" Her chuckling only caused my confusion to grow as I instantly replied with a questioning tone. "Thirty-seven?! That's the same age as me and you look like you're barely eighteen!"

"Well, you don't look so bad yourself, your majesty." Cherrie continued to chuckle a lot as she approached me again, putting a hand on her chin in thought as she examined me head to toe. "Hmm... ya see, the thing is, my youthful appearance is due to the power of the being I serve and the gift of eternal youth which my service to it has provided." She tilted her head in confusion once more before continuing. "Alas, I can't really say that I'm noticing any holy power from you, Kl- I mean, your majesty!"

With a sigh, I replied. "That's because my youth is born from my own power, not as the gift of a god. And, you can call me Klaus, if you'd like, Cherrie."

Miss Lumina blinked in surprise and confusion before steadying herself and leaning backwards, allowing me to breath easier. "E-eh? So that means you've managed to become immortal through your own power, Klaus?" She leaned against the fence once more, seemingly becoming very interested in the conversation all of a sudden.

Her words though, caused me to scoff and sigh. "Cherrie, there is no such thing as immortality. Even someone with a perpetually healing body can be thrown into a volcano and incinerated completely."

"That may be true, but it does not explain how you've managed to achieve what you did, though." Then her lips curled upwards into a smirk. "Unless, you gained such knowledge and power back on your previous world." To what seemed to be her surprise, I nodded. "Y-yes. I acquired the necessary knowledge on my world and applied it here once I gained the requisite magical power."

"Eh? But your power's pretty weak, Klaus. A-ah, no offence, but I've fought immortals before and the level of mana required to feed any spell of immortality would instantly twist you into a grey, soulless husk if you attempted to cast it!" ... what?

Turn me into a grey, soulless husk?

So if I use up too much mana, my soul will be consumed?

Wait, souls can be used as fuel for magical rituals, right? Does that mean that souls are just mana contained by a body? Hmm... a thought for later. Vivian ought to have the answers I need, anyway. "I see. Well, I guess that makes my spell somewhat special, then."

Cherrie nodded enthusiastically at my response. "Yup! But since it seems to easy to cast and basically requires no effort, I have to order you to not share it around like a birthday gift or else I will have to punish you, even if you aren't a demon!"

"Actually, while we're on that peculiar note, what god do you worship, Cherrie?" She smirked with an unnatural amount of sadism and then snorted. "God? I do not serve a 'god'. Such entities are but spoiled children, mere brats toying around with forces they barely even understand." She took a strange symbol out of her pocket, a golden, glowing gem of pure white. It wasn't a diamond or anything of the sort, appearing to be more akin to a form of hard, physical and concentrated light.

Energy itself, made material. And it sure felt that way from what my arcana was telling me, too. "This gem is a symbol of Ord'os, whom is an entity of pure power and the immaterial personification of the concept of order itself." As I stared into the gem, I found myself distanced by a sudden bright light, causing me to look up and be nearly blinded as I took the offending source off of my head.

"Ouch, wha-what the heck is that thing?" Cherrie muttered out as she shielded her eyes as I realized that my crown had begun to glow the same light as that of her gem. Eventually, the light subsided and I put the jewelled crowd back onto my head with a quirked eyebrow thrown in Cherrie's direction. "Huh.. the crown reacted to the gem. I guess that means I'm supposed to follow Ord'os like you are."

"Eh? You want to be a follower of Ord'os?!" She exclaimed before slamming her mouth shut, causing me to offer her a questioning glance as she answered my unsaid question. "People don't like followers of the First Light that much! So you should keep it hidden too! Same as your reincarnation!"

I remained silent after her explanation, considering that it was easy to guess as to why this was the case. The woman before me was equal parts an uncompromising zealot as well as a child struck with absolute madness. Unhinged, insane, indecipherable and unknowable .. these words only seemed to be an understatement for one wishing to describe her.

Alien. Implausible.

Horrifying and alluring.

The champion of a being of perfect order.

Suddenly, my conflicting emotions from before began to make a whole lot more sense, for the unknown was equally alluring as it was terrifying and she was that exactly: an absolute enigma. Like a being that existed, yet the mind continued to demand the right to deny her existence. It was somewhat difficult to continuously look at her, which I originally attributed to her being clad in glistening gold, but now I have begun to wonder if that is truly all there is to it. "I understand but.. how exactly does one worship Ord'os, anyway?"

She beamed me a smile and then coughed into her fist. "Ord'os isn't something you can worship, since it does not respond to prayers, but actions! You can only have faith, both in yourself as well as your actions, so that the purity of your acts shines brightly enough for Ord'os to notice and empower you, as you continue to exalt and empower it."

"Oh." That simple response was all the answer I could give, which caused her to roll her eyes in seeming disappointment before she instantly brightened up. "I know! I'll just get you one of our books to read. The scribes can explain this stuff to people much better than I can, anyway."

Chuckling at her antics, I felt myself let out a breath of relief before replying. "That would be much appreciated, Cherrie."

Looking onward and noticing that Sebastian finally decided to come down to look for me with an exceedingly annoyed expression on his face, I heard myself give out a familiar, massive sigh as I beamed a smile of my own toward Cherrie. "Well, looks like my little break is over."

She tilted her adorable head in confusion before noticing the approaching Terreltait, seemingly regarding him as little more than a barely noticeable ant, despite the man having the strength to bend steel with his bare hands."O-oh! R-right! You're a king! I- uh, almost forgot. Y-yeah, you should return to your duties!"

Shrugging and yet, inwardly steeling myself, I walked forward and back into the building, realizing that I no longer felt any form of fear from her presence just as I opened the door, which was something that I found really pleasant, due to my earlier experience being nothing short of traumatizing. "Hey, the next time we meet, could you not scare me like you did this time?"

...

Silence followed, causing me to slowly turn my head around, half-expecting her to be staring at me with a killer smile etched into her frame, about ready to strike me down as this was all a game to her.

...

Alas, no such event came to pass as I turned around completely and noticed that, in fact, there was nobody else on the balcony, other than me. For a moment, I considered if this all could have been some sort of illusion, but a resounding crash woke me from my stupefied trance as I rushed back to the marble fence and stared downwards in utter disbelief as I watched Cherrie smiling at me and offering me a cheerful wave before leaping away into the night, her feet covered in a soft, glowing and golden light as she seemingly propelled herself by jumping on thin air.

... marvellous.

Beautiful.

Magnificent.

Now that, is a woman worth making mine!

"Err, you alright there, fatso?" I let out a chuckle at Sebastian's uncertain tone and nodded towards him as I turned back around. "Perfectly fine, Sebas. Lets go back to the show. I've left the good ladies waiting for long enough~."