Chapter 99. A New Offer

“What I wish to discuss is about what you plan to do going forward but… it has nothing to do with Duke Garlford, however…” Duchess Flameheart said with a glance at the man in question.

“Oh, well I just wish to share a proposal with you,” he said, giving me a wide smile. “But I can wait for a moment.”

“What a surprise, I also have a proposal. How about we share it together? We might just be able to aid each other,” she said, gesturing to another place, away from the entrance of the throne room.

Asteora, Nicole, and Oliver followed after us, but they weren’t saying anything. Asteora seemed to be uninterested and after a moment, she disappeared; off to do whatever she wanted. Nicole looked rather lost on what we were doing, and Oliver was just there to support Asteora and what she wanted, but since she was no longer here, I suppose that he’s either going to make sure I don’t make any blunders or just watch, while not really having reason to give me any advice.

After walking for a while, we reached the same waiting room we used before meeting the Emperor. Duke Garlford’s family wasn’t here anymore, and only a few maids and butlers remained as they just stood to the side, waiting for someone to use the room.

With a glance at one of the maids, Duchess Flameheart ordered her, “Please bring something to drink, one of this world’s sodas would be perfect for me.”

“Bring me tequila,” Duke Garlford followed up, turning to give me a grin while nodding. “This world has some amazing drinks. Common wine just doesn’t cut it anymore.”

“But to have tequila this early in the day, in the middle of the week…?” I heard Nicole whisper to herself, giving the man a narrow-eyed look.

I couldn’t help but do the same to her, since she also liked to do these sorts of things from time to time, but she just returned a confused smile, so I looked away from her and to the maid that was waiting for me to order something.

“Just water, or lemonade if you have,” I said, and proceeded to sit by one of the couches.

Duchess Flameheart sat in the couch that was perpendicular and next to this one, close to where I was, while Duke Garlford chose to sit next to the Duchess, an arm’s length away from her. Oliver sat somewhere else in the room, acting as if he was giving us space while simultaneously being close enough to listen to what we had to say. And Nicole sat next to me, since she was expected to be with me on this trip.

“Shall I begin?” Duchess Flameheart asked with a soft smile as she glanced at Garlford.

“Go ahead,” he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Very well,” she said, and accommodated herself to be facing me. “First, I’d like to express the pride that I felt in you, for coming out of the lands that I was in charge of and giving it a high name to the world. It truly revitalized the territory’s economy with people hoping to know more about the Holy Gods and others trying to get that power for themselves.”

“That was never my intention. As a peasant girl that grew up in a small town while tending to chickens, I had never any particular connection to the intricacies of the land besides whatever was said by a few people,” I dismissively replied. “As a matter of fact, I carried some resentment for a while to the Lord of the land for taking my father and big brother and getting them killed in a far away place.”

The expression on Duchess Flameheart faltered slightly, as the soft smile she carried turned a bit wry. “Yes… I can understand your feelings if that was the case. I never really wanted to send my knights and people to die—after all, the land is better off if there’s people living and working on it, than people dying or just fighting.”

Duke Garlford chuckled while nodding his head. “We just heeded the needs of the Faith and the Emperor. If they needed soldiers to fight the darkness, then we sent soldiers to fight the darkness”—he gave me a creepy smile—“Especially so when it was you who asked for it. So try not to hold it against us too much. After all, that’s what you wanted.”

He was right. As the Hero of the Holy Gods, I expected all the help that I could get to achieve the mission that They had given me, so it wasn’t really fair for me to chastise them for doing their jobs… just like me.

I shook my head once I took notice of that. “You’re right. We were all doing what we needed to do. My intentions weren’t to be hostile, it’s just that after that meeting we had just now with all the nobles, I couldn’t help but keep my defenses up.”

With a chuckle, Duchess Flameheart dismissed what I said. “It’s understandable. Not every young noble knows what’s best, while some think they know too well what’s best.” She paused to take a sip from the soda. “But I think I should go straight to what I wanted to talk about.”

With a pause to give me a thoughtful look, I waited for her to answer, but she just took another sip from the soda, so I urged her. “Go on.”

“I wish to once more aid you in your quest,” she replied with the same soft smile as before. “Last time, I did what I could because that was the duty of the Emperor’s officials under the Faith’s request, but this time, I wish to do it out of my own free will.”

I was surprised to hear a noble that wasn’t vying for me like Duke Garlford by saying such a thing, so I raised my eyebrows. “And what do you expect to gain in exchange?”

She didn’t immediately answer as she looked at the drink in her hand; a couple of bubbles surging on it as she shook it slightly. After doing that, she paused to give Nicole a look, and then at Oliver sitting some distance away, who was currently fiddling with his phone. I couldn’t understand what she was thinking, but when she took out a phone from the side of her dress, I more or less knew.

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“I like this world,” she said, turning the phone’s screen on. “It’s got many more interesting things in it; like this phone, or the drink in my hand… But most importantly, it has a different way of living—of thinking—where people can thrive without the interference of a higher power.” She turned the phone off and gave me a determined look. “I wish to sustain—no, to help develop a world that can keep these things going, and I think that the old ways of the Empire and the Faith cannot stay with us.”

It was quite surprising to hear her say that—such a high standing noble of the Empire—since, besides the Emperor, I didn’t expect anyone to make use of these things. Once I wiped out some of my surprise, I asked, “If that was the case… then how do you intend to do that?”

She chuckled. “You wish to know what kind of resources I have at my disposal.”

It was quite a blunt way to put it, but she was right. “Sure, you can say that.”

“I might not have the same territories and resources from the land like I did in Arretia, but I still hold the same authority over the people that came with us to this world—of the ones that remained. A lot of them are great knights and fighters, while others I’ve been sending over in exchanges with the ‘Federal Republic of Germany’ to learn both the ways of this world and to get an education.” She leaned slightly to look me directly in the eyes. “I can put that… ‘human talent’ to use.”

I seem to have underestimated the Duchess. She might not own land anymore, but she still carried the same power she did in the past. While looking down and away, I thought about what I could do with her offer.

“Althea,” Duke Garlford called me, causing me to glance at him, “I also wish to extend the same offer as Duchess Flameheart.”

I was yet again surprised, and judging by the way the Duchess turned to look at him, she wasn’t expecting him to say that. He chuckled before he continued, “Although, my reasons are much different than Duchess Flameheart—they’re much more sacred.”

He paused for a moment, and we all looked at him, waiting for him to give us said reason, and while doing so, his face turned from serious to a wide grin.

“I do it for…” again, he paused… the man was being far too dramatic for my taste.

With a sigh, I shook my head. “If you’re here just to waste time—”

“I do it out of love! For you!” he exclaimed, quickly standing up from where he was and dropping to one knee in front of me. “My loyalty remains unchanged! I shall do everything in my power for you! Even going to the deepest depths of darkness!”

He leaned forward and that gave me the feeling that he was going to get on top of me, so with a swift kick to the chin, I sent the man flying a handful of steps away from me, dismissing what he said with a deep frown. “Do not waste my time!”

The Duke landed softly on his feet, just as nimbly as a cat, holding his chin while chuckling. I had almost forgotten that he was also quite a strong and resilient man…

“Dear… this is not the place for foreplay,” he said with a grin and not a single scratch on his face. “But we can always find a private place if you want to continue.”

Nicole was looking wide-eyed at what just happened; Oliver was frozen with the phone in his hand; the servants all around us appeared to be as stoic as always, though they refused to turn their eyes this way; and Duchess Flameheart was just looking at the Duke in stunned disbelief.

With that same stunned expression she opened her mouth. “I… I’ve heard of something like that… but I didn’t think that the rumors were real… Duke Garlford, you always struck me as a rather principled man…”

He nodded with the same grin still on his face. “I am, I am. Only that everything I do is out of love… for Althea.”

“Don’t just call my name like that,” I said with a frown.

“But how couldn’t I? It is a dear name, after all,” he followed up, not a shred of shame in his face.

“If you came here just to mock me, then you can leave already—unless you’d prefer I force you out,” I said with my disgust hardly hiding.

“As much as I’d love to take you up on that offer, I must say that I didn’t come here to mock you. I am offering my resources and power to you, just as I’d done in the past, and just as I’ll do until I drop dead,” he replied with a serious expression.

There was a strong desire to force him to drop dead right now, but I couldn’t just dismiss his resources, especially now that I was thinking about the Emperor’s offer… And also, it wouldn’t be good to kill someone just because they were annoying.

“R-regardless of the reason…” Duchess Flameheart said with a wry smile as she turned to look at me. “What do you say about the offer?”

I turned my attention to her while trying not to look at the Duke’s grin. If I were to take them on their offer, then doing what the Emperor wants me to do wouldn’t be too much of an issue… if it wasn’t because Lodrick himself said that they couldn’t use their own power to attack on the other bases, which is why he wanted to use me for that… But when it came to other parts of the request, the one where I had to talk to the Faith and the Holy Knight Order, then perhaps I could do something about it through them.

“I might be able to take you on your offer,” I said, giving her a serious look. “The Emperor has a request for me; however, I’m still thinking about it, so if I do accept it, then I think I would be more than happy to take your offer.”

With a smile, Duchess Flameheart nodded. “I’m happy to hear that my offer is so enticing that you’re not even going to look into details of it.”

It’s not that I wouldn’t want to know the details, but that at this point, with both of these nobles, and after the aid that was placed during the Final War, I didn’t see the reason to doubt their abilities, so I shook my head with a half-smile.

“I trust that what you said today was said in good faith, and…” I turned a disgusted look at Duke Garlford. “I also trust that his fanaticism for me will make what I ask for to happen.”

“Absolutely, anything for my Hero of the Holy Gods,” the man said with a slight bow of the head.

I turned away from him and to the softly smiling Duchess, who by now seemed to be ignoring the man. She sipped from the soda. “Then, until then, I shall wait for your reply. Hopefully, we can work for a better world without war, but… I’ve heard of all the issues that there are in this world, so even if we don’t work together, there’s still hard work ahead of us.”

“That there is,” I replied with a nod.

Regardless of the Emperor’s offer, I still had to prepare myself for the Holy Gods whenever they arrived. I had accumulated some power from going deeper and deeper into the Tainted Land, but it still wasn’t enough to do what I did in the past. More power from other Tainted Lands had to be gathered, although… if I could gather power from powerful Followers of Leyfall—No, that shouldn’t be the path I should go down.

“Well then,” the Duchess said, “I believe you’ll need space and time to think about what we said, so I’ll be taking my leave.”

She finished her drink in one go and stood back up. Duke Garlford, on the other hand, sat back down where he used to be, and took sips from his own drink. With a glare directed at him, I said, “Shouldn’t you be leaving as well?”

“Huh? You want me to leave?” he asked, dumbfounded about what I just said.

“Of course, I don’t like seeing you.”

He looked at me for a moment, seemingly considering something that shouldn’t be considered. “How about you force me out by—”

Without letting the man finish whatever he wanted to suggest, I stood up. “Let’s go, Nicole.”

“R-Right,” she said, and quickly followed after me.

I caught up with Duchess Flameheart, and with Oliver scrambling to come with us, we left the room. We hardly shared any words on the way out, and since Duchess Flameheart was going elsewhere, she parted ways with me soon after, leaving me and Nicole to go with a servant leading us out of the palace, from where we returned soon after to our rooms.