Chương 185: Chapter 168. Royal Recounting

" Now I understand why you all might be thinking something along the lines of, "how is that a secret worth even keeping? Let alone telling anyone?", right?" Delcan and Charlotte nodded their heads as the King kept staring at me. Obviously, he was trying to find the worth of my secret. Only the Queen's face hadn't changed much. I assume she thinks I'll lead them through why this secret matters." To begin with, let me explain that before arriving here, I was in the same place as the Hero and the Hero Party.""

What!?" Charlotte was shocked to hear that part." How could you be here then?"" Your Father asked for me to come here."" You know that's not what I meant!" Charlotte angrily replied to me as I teased her. Now she's staring at me with a grumpy look on her face. Her reactions are kind of funny to me. I guess I should continue on with the explanation now." Alright, alright. Continuing on. I was in an argument with the Hero at the time. It was at the point where we were probably going to start throwing punches.

However, before it came to that, a white light surrounded myself, the Hero and the Hero Party. I felt a pair of eyes on me and then I blinked and ended up in the Royal Palace of Blackstone City." I took a minute to allow them to work through the information I told them." So, you've been at odds with the Hero and his Party even before you arrived in Diablos?" Delcan asked a question after everyone was thinking for a few moments." More or less. The Hero...

Now that I think about it, I should also apologize to you first, Prince Delcan, I fabricated some of my past, as you can tell from what I've said so far."" It's fine, we all have secrets, Marquess Drak... Marquess Ericsso... What do you want me to call you exactly?"" In this room? Whatever you want, out there? Marquess Drake. I have reasons to keep my name and origin a secret after all."" Well then, John. Did you and the Hero and his Party have problems before you all came to Gaia?"" As I was saying... Yes, I did.

If I had to explain it in a word, I'd say I was bullied by him while I was in school."" Yet you were unfazed when my Father threatened you with killing intent and mana? Why didn't you cower like a bullying victim then?" Charlotte seemed to be confused about what I said and how I've acted during the day and even now, while under pressure. I looked at her and answered her." Who said anything about me cowering? I never cowered. It was more like I just didn't want to cause any trouble at the time.

So, I would do my best to hold back and then I reached my breaking point. Though, granted, I was stopped before it could reach a conclusion."" Why was that?" Charlotte asked a follow up question. It seems her and Delcan are interested in my past. STARE... STARE... Seems their parents are interested in this as well. I guess it might have something to do with the fact I'm avoiding answering the question... Since it would mean I needed to explain about My Parents. Press... Press...

I felt Sarah and Anna's hands on my own as they seemed to notice that I wasn't particularly happy about talking about My Parents' deaths. Their hands pressed a little harder than when they were holding my hands a few moments ago. The Royal Family looked at us and seemed to realize this part was hard for me. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story." If you don't want to tell us, we can skip that part."" No, it's okay. It's just something that I don't like to talk about."

The Queen offered me a way out, but I turned her down. I took a deep breath and focused on Sarah and Anna's hands as I spoke about the car crash." In my world, we have carriages that don't require horses or some other animal to make them move. One night, My Parents took me to eat at a restaurant in one of those carriages back when I was a child. On our way back, another carriage smashed into our carriage from the front. I don't really remember the crash as I think it knocked me out.... When I woke up....

I was still in the carriage. and so were My Parents' bloody corpses. It took a few hours to be rescued. In that time, it was just My Parents' bodies and me...."" It's okay, Darling."" Relax, My Love, we're here." Anna, and then Sarah, spoke to me. I think I was squeezing their hands a bit too hard? But it was okay. The hard part was over." I'm sorry for your loss, Marquess Ericsson." The Queen offered condolences.

Delcan and Charlotte seemed to feel awkward about asking me to explain myself and even the King seemed to be a little shaken. Well, I guess we shared that in common, as I was a little shaken as well... I continued on." After that, there was a lot of wondering where I would end up. I had relatives, but none really had the space to take me in, nor the desire to. That's where Laura comes in."" Laura?" Delcan repeated her name since it came out of nowhere."

Yes, Laura, you'll know her as the Cleric of the Hero Party now, before that, she was my childhood friend. She begged her Parents to take me in, and they ended up doing that."" And that's why you didn't want to cause a fuss? For the Cleric and her family?" Charlotte got to the answer, but I felt the need to stress the reason for that answer." Yes, but you need to understand. Her Parents... To say that they were "kind" to me, would be a gross understatement.

Being woken up in the middle of the night because the kid you took in had a nightmare about being stuck in that carriage with his dead Parents for the 4th time that week. Not being angry at him being unable to eat the food you cooked for him that day. Taking him to Doctor's appointments and being nothing but patient with him during all of this stress he caused you. These are things that just scratch the surface. But till the day I die, I refuse to ever do anything that would go against them.""

What if you had to kill their daughter?" The King interrupted me with a question." I couldn't do that. If she would do something that was worthy of death here, I'd end up probably trying to find a way to send her back to my old world rather than kill her."" What if someone from Gaia were to kill her?"" I'd probably kill that person."" If that's the case, why aren't you by her side so you can protect her?" The King continued asking me questions and I answered them honestly.

I had already explained my views on Laura to Sarah and Anna, they weren't exactly fans, but they understood why I felt the way I did. This last question from the King was hardly a puzzle to me because of my working through some of the ways I still feel about Laura. I began to answer the King's question after taking a slow, deep breath." Simply put, I wasn't just arguing with the Hero. The Hero and the Party were a circle of friends back in my world. Laura...

Tried to involve me in their activities, but it became clear that if I showed up, it would just be hours of the Hero trying to tease me and the others defending him. When I eventually would reach my limit of hearing him speak. I stopped going to these activities because of this. When I explained why I did that, she took their side. This repeated until we were Summoned here.

I had enough of it that day and I decided to stop trying, the Friend I had, stopped being my Friend some time ago, but that doesn't wash out how kind her Parents were to me. So, I'm fine with her living her life, Gods know I've been living mine, I met my Wives and honestly, despite the problems I've had with different things, I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. And that's because Sarah and Anna are by my side." TIGHTEN... TIGHTEN... The squeezing of my hand was now too tight.

However, with my Wives cutely trying to hide their smiles from my words, I think the slight pain is worth it. If the need arises, I can just heal my crushed hands anyways. Really, the physical strength of Demons is not to be underestimated." So, you've chosen to walk away from her and allow her to be happy. That's a nice way to honor your benefactors." The Queen summed up what I've said so far. She was pretty much correct as well, so I just nodded to her words."

So, you ended up in Diablos and the Hero and his Party ended up in Promethia. Why is that worthy of being called a secret? It sounds like you were meant to be a part of the Hero Party, but the Humans messed up their Summoning Magic." Charlotte began to speak and seemed to misunderstand something." The Summoning Magic didn't mess up though. Every member of the Hero Party made it to Promethia. I was a Paladin at the time.

From what I understand, Paladins and Heroes don't really have too much of a history of working together unless their goals aligned at certain times." I corrected Charlotte's misconception. She seemed to be stuck on my mentioning that Paladins and Heroes didn't work together much." So, what I'm saying is, there was another Summoning Magic used that day. It took advantage of the Summoning Magic that Promethia used."" It was "her", wasn't it? Demon Queen Aqua Dreadnaught." I smiled at the Queen's question."

You'd be correct, Queen Crystal. Aqua Dreadnaught Summoned me that day." Each of the Royal Family, besides the Queen, were shocked at my answer. The Queen seemed to realize where all of this was leading to. I took a breath while I thought about how to explain a few things while not sharing too much information on Warrick and Aqua.