The doors of the castle lead into a huge opening with as many staircases as possible.

All the walls led to the other floors, you can barely call them walls.

The woman leads me to a staircase and starts climbing.

I don’t fancy getting lost so I start up the stairs while observing that the passageways, completely stone brick, look weird.

They are completely flat like they were cut by magic.

That‘s probably what actually happened, but it’s not what I’m used to

It didn't take long for us to get to the top of the stairs, and then she led me to a corridor, which also seemed to rise.

Everything seems to rise up, I don’t know if that’s a strategy, but it must be exhausting to go up and down every day.

She stops at a door and opens it.

“Your highness, the S-rank monster adventurer is here.

I take my first glance into the room, instead of the throne room, which we all expected, it was, an office?

The room was filled with papers and crates, from the front to the back, the room was cluttered.

In the middle was a desk, with a normal looking guy with black hair, no older than twenty, wearing a royal robe, the crown is on a hat hanger in the back.

The king is signing papers, doesn’t even look up to see who I am.

“Name?”

“Kwehzalcoatl.”

Why did I speak, I didn’t even use telepathy, he just asked and then I talked.

“Ah sorry force of habit, I suppose a monster can’t tell me the time of day if it wanted to.”

“He has telepathy, sir.”

“Oh, that’s odd.”

He looked up, and for a second examined me, but then looked down and continued working on papers.

“That’s even odder, I can’t see you with analyze.”

(“It’s a skill.”)

“Telepathy and status hide, and if you’re S-Rank, you must have more rare skills pertaining to combat.”

(“Yes.”)

“What skills?”

“Inferno, Tidal Wave, Magic Armor, Life Steal Touch…"

“Stop.”

Why is this happening, is it a skill, or is it his king title?

“I can’t get information about you this way, you have to tell me willingly, though you have a lot of skills at a guess, very rare.”

He has a decent intuition, but why does he need information about me?

“Leave Redsi.”

“Yes sire.”

She leaves and he doesn’t react, he just keeps writing.

“Do you know why I became king?”

(“No.”)

“I proved myself to be the strongest, do you know how I did that?”

(“Why would I?”)

“I killed the previous king.”

(“Okay, why though?”)

“That’s how the king is made in these kingdoms, the strongest person in the country is king, and how do you prove you are the strongest if the king was the previous strongest.”

(“You just said you killed the king, so that’s how.”)

“And what does that make me?”

(“The strongest person in the kingdom.”)

“Yes, however strength is only decided in battle, so if someone wasn’t in the previous battle, I don’t know their strength.”

(“Okay?”)

“So, are you going to battle to see if you are the strongest?”

(“Why)

“Why, don’t you want to be King?”

(“No, why would I?”)

“Because it’s for the strongest?”

(“Being king sounds boring.”)

He sat quietly, not moving his pen.

“Let me rephrase the question, are you against me or are you with me?”

(“Neither.”)

“Will you follow my orders or will you disobey them?”

(“Depends on the orders.”)

“You would willingly disobey your king.”

(“I’m merely a chocobo, not your subject.”)

“What!?”

(“You are the ruler of the people, not the monsters, I may listen to you sometimes, but I have no master.”)

He started working again.

Where the heck did that come from, I’m not one to quote about freedom, but what I said is true.

“You seem to be confused, you not one to argue much?”

(“I don’t think I do, but I usually don’t rant about my beliefs.”)

“It’s the S-Rank, it’s agitating you already?”

S-rank, it affects me that way?

“You look confused, well, the S-Rank reacts so you try to gain more power, but your moral principle is stopping it, so the enchantment is getting agitated.”

(“Enchantment?”)

“The blood you gave them has two functions, one, it tells how much stronger your opponent was then you when you die, two, it makes you want to want to climb the rankings, making so you seek power and do harder quests until you stop being an adventurer, meaning the highest power you can get is king, but you don’t want to be king, and the enchantment doesn’t understand that, so since you are strong enough to become king, it wants you to essentially, rank up.”

(“So it wants me to kill you?”)

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

(“Excuse me?”)

“Look at my status, you should do that to everybody you meet.”

So I do…

"Target: Human LVL 153" "Titles: Memory Keeper, Hard worker, Young Mentor, Pike user, Damsel in Distress, Special Title: King."

(“Memory Keeper, just like me.”)

“Thought so, are you from Earth?”

(“Have you heard of people from other worlds?”)

“No, though I’ve always asked.”

(“You do sound older than you looked.”)

“So I’m told, what year were you born.”

(“2003.”)

“So who won, the Danes or the English.”

(“Uh, I don’t know, right now the English are more successful, so I guess they did.”)

I guess he means Danish vs England, I briefly remember hearing that they fought, but we didn’t go over them much in history class.

“Yes, foolish barbarian Vikings, of course, they would lose.”

(“What year were you born in?”)

He finished his papers and was now focusing on me.

“832 AD, the world must have prospered, it must have gone through many wars, is there one going on at the moment?”

(“Not one that affected the people where I live.”)

“That’s good, anything else?”

“Your majesty, the party is here.”

“Ah, tell them to come here.”

Seven people walked in, nobody I recognized.

“What do you want, king.”

The one who spoke was a panda beastman, but more wild-looking then lovable.

“Would you be willing to take a quest?”

“What do you want us to kill?”

He carried no weapon contrary to his teammates and wore a shirt that let his abs hang out.

“I’m afraid it’s more complicated than that.”

“Then why did you call a monster-slaying party?”

“Listen to me, please sit.”

“There's no chairs.”

“On the ground.”

“Do we need a new king?”

“You know I was joking, here you go.”

Eight chairs made out of stone appeared.

“Are you stressed out of your mind, there’s an extra chair.”

“New S-Rank monster adventurer, you sit too.”

Oh, I’m included, why though.

I sit down at the end, and they all sit down too.

They whisper, “That’s the monstrous S-Rank adventurer, he’s cute.”

It was a blue-haired girl, her weapon was an axe, which didn’t suit her looks at all, she wore floral patterned clothing.

“Be quiet, the kings about to speak.”

A, not trying to be offensive, loli with brown short hair that shows she is an elf.

“Now, I don’t need to tell you about the underground fights in Convictoni do I?”

Underground fights?

“The fights include betting on whether either monster vs. human, human vs. human, or monster vs. monster will win, it happens somewhere in Convictoni and is very illegal.”

“Yes, but do you know why it’s illegal?”

“Because they’re usually fighting to the death?”

“Yes and no, it’s because they don’t get to choose who they fight, in adventuring, you have to take quests at your rank, so it’s a fair fight, but if you fight to the death in the underground fight, let’s say you could battle a LVL ten, or a LVL one hundred, and you’re forced to sacred duel, so you can’t run.”

Okay, that answers that.

“Well we found it.”

“Okay, and you want us to destroy it?”

“No, then it would rebuild in a different part of town.”

“Then what.”

“He wants us to infiltrate it and take out the leader nitwit.”

“Who you calling nitwit pint-size.”

“If the most creative insult you can make is about my size then you are a nitwit.”

“Why you-”

“So what’s the plan?”

It’s a deer beastman, looks completely human, but has antlers, he’s a buff guy, and wears overalls like a farmer.

“Simple, all of you join the underground fights.”

They all paused.

“Why?”

“When you win a certain amount of money, obviously they will want their money back, so the leader, apparently a woman with the codename ‘Last Cameo,’ is known to appear and get her money back, willingly or not. She apparently shows you items and you get to buy it, or if you just take the money, you get attacked by multiple people under her care.”

“So this Last Cameo, she doesn’t appear unless you take too much money, how much?”

“Five hundred zoulx.”

“Five hundred, that’s, how many cinds is that?”

“Too many.”

I asked analyze, it’s 12,500, you could probably buy a house and a couple of small restaurants with that.

“Do we get to keep the money?”

“Ewsd(pronounced oozed) no that’s money gained illegally."

A human girl, blonde, has a mean-looking face, but her voice is soft, about 5’9, has a cane so I assume she’s a mage.

“Of course you get to keep the money.”

“Sire?”

“This is a very dangerous mission, I can’t take that much money out of the budget to pay all of you with this risk.”

“Five hundred zoulx here I come!”

“But, I do need something.”

“What is it?”

“An item she supposedly offers, it’s a secret, just bring me everything she offers you, I’ll take it all.”

That’s interesting, his face flashed with rage for a minute.

“That’s all good, but I have one more question.”

“Only one, we should have a lot more questions?”

“Whatever, I only have one, why is that here?”

He pointed at me.

Hey wait, why am I here?

“Because he’s going to join you, isn’t that obvious, of course that’s if he says yes.”

(“I’m down, five hundred zoulx isn’t money to turn down, but...”)

“Wait why?”

“Because there are seven of you, and four arena’s, and only non-combatants can bet.”

“Why a monster?”

And there’s the speciesism.

“Why not, adds variety”

“Look at him, why would he be strong, he must have found the S-Rank monster killed by another one and turned it in, it’s not that hard, I’ve seen it done before.”

“So you're saying that he is weak and committed fraud.”

“Yes.”

“You are saying that the guild masters judgment is bad.”

“What, no, I’m saying-”

“I don’t care for racism here, but saying he didn’t kill a specific monster when he obviously did according to someone who I trust more than you, is just plain rude, apologize.”

“What? Why should I?”

“I’ve had a long day, and I don’t want to hear a child's whining, do what I say.”

But he looks older than you.

“Just do it Ewsd, don’t make it difficult.”

“Hurry up.”

“Chocobo, I challenge you to a sacred duel.”

I smile my beaky smile.

“I accept.”

"Your opponent is Panda Beastman (LVL hidden for sacred duel)" "Demand: None No demands can be made.