Jonathan cried the whole way to the guard station. A guard station was the main center for the guards in this section of the city.

Once he got to the guard station he was given some food. Jonathan cried the whole time he ate. It was a sad sight.

An hour later the guard captain returned. The guards that return were cut up and injured. Only out of the 8 guards that went with him, two returned. Isaac wasn't with him.

“What happened to Isaac?” Jonathan ask seeing the guard captain

“That bastard Black Hand knocked him out and took him away. We tried to fight the black tail mercenaries, but they ran away. We kill a dozen but they killed a few of ours.” the captain sighed “Let me see the key.”

Jonathan almost forgot about the key and was hesitant about showing it. However the captain had tried to help him. The key was taken out of his shirt.

“Beautiful.” the guard captain stared his hands itching to touch it when.

Bam

“Captain, there are soldiers here to escort the boy and the key to to palace.” the vice captain came in.

The guard captain regained his composure, “Aw yes. Come on I will escort you to them.” leading Jonathan to the soldiers.

The soldiers took Jonathan and placed him in a carriage. In the carriage were two knights and a man with scribes robes. The ride was easy with no trouble of any sort.

The ride ended at the palace. When Jonathan got out, the palace guards took the place of bodyguards. Most of the palace servants had just woken up and noticed the dirty and smelly boy being escorted to the king's chambers.

“My king the boy is here.” a palace guard said after knocking and opening the door.

“Bring him in” an older voice came from the room.

Jonathan was put inside. The guards saluted and then left Jonathan with the king.

The king, George Gihread, an older man at the age of 45. Standing at 2 meters call, physically his glory years were behind him, his intelligent and political mind are sharp but hampered. When he was a prince he fought the demons instead of being with the nobles in the kingdom. His own 5 sons are out fighting the demons as he did leaving him with little support amongst the nobles limiting his powers.

Jonathan stared at the king, having never seen him before, reeling in the aura his highest projected.

“Have you eaten? I will have some roasted ham be brought up with some bread and soup.” George Gihread said and rang a bell

“I already ate some bread at the guard station.” Jonathan reported

“Then you will need a bath when you are presented as the mayor of the crystal city.” George Gihread told him as the servant knock and then came into the room “Give this young man a bath please. Also leave the key here, I will protect it until you are down with your bath.” the king finished

“Alright” Jonathan took out the key and gave it to the key and the servant then escorted Jonathan to the baths.

When the door closed “Pity that a kid got the key.” George said to the empty room

No it was not empty, two figures came out of the darkness. One tall and thin, the other fat and short.

“Look at it as an investment. Use the kid as a front and when he gets old enough give him drugs, alcohol and women and he will be a plaything on your fingers.” the tall thin man told the king

“There is a young princess, use her as a tool and get the crown an ally. We are already being pressured to accept more refugees from the front lines. Give it a few years and the city could be a formidable recruitment location for domestic and foreign.” the short fat man finished after the thin tall man.

“Which path would you two choose?” George Gihread asked

“That's easy, we wait and judge when the child is older. If he is worthy as a friend or puppet.” they responded in unison.

“Creeps me out when you two do that. Then again that is why your my advisors. You don't care and just give your piece of mind.” George said shaking his head, then asking “What should I do with the previous earl whose family now owns the land.”

The short fat man spoke first “Kill them all and say it was for treason. Then take the land for yourself.”

“Or you could marry the child into the earl’s family. Potentially buying the family onto your side while you still having control over the child.” the thin tall man told the king

“Personally I believe that I will have to go with the second choice. The nobles are pushing me for lower nobility taxes. With most of the army at the front lines a month away after the use of the gates, I don't have the power to say no without some allies.” King George lamented.

King George stared at the key until Jonathan was sent back cleaner and with new clothes. King George promptly handed back the key over to Jonathan.

“Before I forget. What is your name young man?” King George asked seeing an almost completely different youth in front of him

“It is Jonathan.” Jonathan gave his name

“Well Jonathan, we will have an official welcoming ceremony in two day and in five days you will be sent your city.” King George explained

“What about my brother?” Jonathan wondered still concerned

“Your brother? Yes your brother. We will do our best to track him down and save him from the black tail mercenaries” King George gave his word

------------

Jonathan was on a speeding carriage in the woods. The massive amount of distance covered was amazing. Jonathan felt that he was seeing the world for the first time and in away he was, having never been out of the capital.

The welcoming ceremony was quick and for Jonathan painless. King George announced the new key bearer had been found, and was sending him to unlock the crystal city. There were many nobles in the city who attended, but none talked to Jonathan, just to Nathaniel, Jonathan’s regent.

Today was the day that Jonathan was going to reach the crystal gates. There was much debate about who got to go in with Jonathan. Many of the kingdom's scholars and erratic wizards wanted to explore the city and discover it's secrets. The more conservative and obedient ones were chosen, but the others were allowed to come in when the city was formally opened when the road would be done in only a year. Earth mages had been working on it for the last 9 years when the city was first discovered.

The forest now renamed from the cursed forest to the crystal forest, was still dangerous with animals mutated from the high mana density, being common. Mages and scholars were debating what came first the dungeon or the mana density, because of the strange buildings recorded by the first expedition and the fact the dungeon was a life dungeon it was favored in the dungeon being there first.

As the carriage reached the tall walls, Jonathan looked in awe. The blue crystal walls were beautiful like sapphires. Jonathan was taken out of the carriage and brought to the gate. On the side of the gate was a keyhole. Jonathan pulled out the crystal key and placed it in the keyhole.

A voice entered Jonathan’s mind

‘What happened to Martin?’

“He died two years ago from overdrinking” Jonathan said aloud

‘Come in then’

“What were you saying?” one of the king’s knights Sir Pierre

“There was a voice asking about Earl Martin” Jonathan told him

A few whispers from the mages and scholars before one asked “What did the voice sound like?”

Jonathan responded with “I-”

Clank Clank Clank

The gate rose up. Scholars had tried to break the gates before but the iron used was magical in nature and couldn’t be broken. Any small chipping done to the iron gates would in mere minutes be repaired. The same with the walls. Trying to fly over the wall was a folly that no one wanted to try. As the gates opened up, the younger of the scholars tried rushing ahead, but the knights held them back and had Jonathan go first.

5 meters of crystal from one side to the other. On the other side of the gate were fields of plants some houses and an even larger wall in the distance.

The scholars and mages followed closely and when reached the they fields they started to grab the herbs. The knights rushed to stop them.

“This is Red belly lilly worth 5 small gold. This one is larger than the ones in the market, I need this to improve my abilities!” A young mage called out

“You can have it, after you buy it from the city. We will give you a discount.” Nathaniel

That shut the mages and scholars up. Moving forward travelling the road. The inner gate needed to be opened like the outer gate but with no voices. As they past the gate they all were stunned.

Towers as tall as the wall were everywhere. Trees taller than the wall were seen in the distance. Staring looking around for some time, they noticed a map. On the map there was a you are here arrow.

The city was divided into the commoner’s district, nobleman district, military district, trades district, the red light district, gardens district, schooling district and the coliseums. In the center of the city was the mayor’s house. By each of the gates were the Dungeon halls, and by the Dungeon halls were the Adventurer’s guild halls. Nathaniel led the group to the Mayor's house.

Rather than a house it was, several meeting halls, an auction hall, housing complex and garden. It towered around the largest tree of the forest, once 1.7 km now 3km tall and still growing. There were other trees growing above 2km in the parks and gardens. In the center of the main hall of the Mayor’s house was a giant crystal, with another keyhole.

Jonathan was directed to open up the keyhole. As the key was placed in a transfer of information was passed to his brain.

“Jonathan. Jonathan! Hey what happened?” Nathaniel sounded worried

“Sorry. I was thinking” Jonathan apolgized

“Thinking about what?” Nathaniel asked

“This crystal and several others are key holders for other crystal keys for the other buildings” Jonathan explained

“Oh. Is there a key that works for me as a regent?”

“Ummm… I don’t remember a key like that. There are manager keys, military keys, and master servant keys. The manager keys for buildings which are above individual housing keys. Military keys for the military district for authority to use the magic in the walls. Servant and master keys for noble estates and guild houses.” Jonathan listed off the top of his head

“What does your key do then?” Nathaniel asked a little annoyed

“It is the city key. It can overwrite any key and lock. It can do anything that the other keys can do, plus extra stuff but the extra stuff wasn’t explained.” Jonathan honestly replied

“What is the second best key?” Nathaniel wondered

“There is the head secretary key which controls most of the functions of the Mayor’s house”

“That will have to do. Pierre, do you need a key? What about you Tim and you Kyle?”

Pierre spoke up “The king will probably need a master key for an estate and military key.”

“We scholars will need keys for everything in the city” Tim said

Kyle walked forward straightening his robes “We will need keys that allow us everything dealing with magic.

“I will see what I can get” Jonathan told them.

After a few minutes the crystal glowed and for the twenty people 21 keys came out.

“This is the head secretary key, this one is for the king and has the best estate and has a general's functions, the other 19 are keys for city servants. Don’t touch a key that isn't yours the key imprints on your mana” Jonathan explained