Book 6-5.4
The man's proclamation, especially because he was in a high position as the king of the Rojini Kingdom, was extremely important. It was the words of the person with absolute authority in the strongest nation on the continent. It was a situation where he would have to agree even if Verikan had asked for an entire region of the Rojini Kingdom.
It was definitely an once-in-lifetime opportunity for Verikan to ask for anything he wanted.
Orca quickly started to speak.
"Your highness, Verikan's words were not said with an intent to ask for anything. Please do not feel compelled to do so."
"Hahaha. Esteemed guest from Pareia, do you wish to make me a lord who goes back on his word? I too know that the young king did not say it with the desire to ask for something, so do not worry too much."
It was too big of a proclamation for them to not worry. Orca, as well as Runa, were both extremely concerned. If Verikan ended up really asking for something he should not ask for, it could cause significant issues between the two nations.
"Your highness, then I shall tell you my wish."
Silence filled the room the moment Verikan started to speak.
Rojini III, the only one with a smile still on his face, asked.
"Have you thought about it?"
"Yes."
"Go ahead, tell me."
"Based on what my father has told me, the Rojini Kingdom is the strongest nation on the continent and has a very well established culture. He told me to learn a lot on my trip here."
Finn Rojini III's face became even brighter. With the Silence Empire's strength decreased from the previous war, Pareia was probably the only nation left that could go up against the Rojini Kingdom.
And the king of that nation accepted their nation, the Rojini Kingdom, as the strongest nation in the continent. It was no wonder that he was pleased. In addition, Yulian would probably not lie to his son, and Verikan was too young to think about politics before giving his answer, so it must be what he truly believed.
"That is why I am bringing this up to your highness, but I wish to return with a lot of knowledge of the Rojini Kingdom's ways."
"And what would you like to learn?"
"I cannot give you an answer because I do not know anything yet, may I answer your question when I leave?"
Rojini III started to laugh out loud as Verikan answered while blinking his two eyes and responded.
"Hahaha. Of course. If there is ever anything the young king wishes to learn from us, this king will give you my full support."
"Thank you very much, your highness."
As Verikan bowed deeply to thank him, Rojini III could not stop smiling.
All of the other people were letting out sighs of relief at Verikan's answer. It was only Runa whose eyes were shining at this time.
He would be able to return with an unexpected gain thanks to Verikan.
Some of the skills that are considered national secrets will be worth quite a bit. The problem now was to figure out what those secret skills were.
A smile started to form on Runa's lips.
The banquet to welcome the delegation from Pareia continued for many days.
The most popular of Pareia's group was of course Verikan.
Verikan's appearance, which looked like the perfect blend of Yulian and Violet, caught everyone's attention. It might have been even more eye-catching because of the charm that only young children have, but many nobles were always surrounding Verikan.
It was true that the fact that he was the only prince of a strong nation and the fact that Aizen, the heir to the Diperu household, one of the five most influential families in the Rojini Kingdom, considered him a nephew added to his his allure, but Verikan's charm played the biggest role.
Verikan was so popular that some of the nobles who had daughters around Verikan's age could not help but think about whether they should 'appeal their daughters to this young prince starting now.'
The Red Storm warriors were popular as well, but for a very different reason. The young nobles who were interested in military science were their company.
They were like young maidens being attached to the men they liked, sticking to the warriors and asking about how they managed to take down that infamous Henkel Gate with just around thirty people.
Runa and Orca claimed they were tired and only remained in their rooms after the first banquet, but they seemed to have something to do as they were in each other's room throughout the day.
The banquet ended late at night, and everyone was grateful that this was the last banquet.
There was no way a party full of dancing and useless chatter would be fun for the warriors. They were forced to attend because with Runa and Orca already out, the warriors could not also miss these banquets personally hosted by the king, but now it was finally over.
But they were wrong. As soon as the banquet ended, many of the nobles wanted to invite the warriors to their own residences.
As the warriors stood there with complicated expressions, Aizen was the one to come to their rescue. Once Aizen invited the entire delegation to his residence, all of them agreed to his invitation as if they had all been waiting for it, and the other nobles could only click their tongues and move away.
You needed to be at least a Marquis to try to compete with the Diperu household. Furthermore, the invited guests were all extremely happy to accept the invitation.
That was how the delegation was able to escape to Aizen's residence and earn a couple days of freedom.
"Huuuuuuuuu~!"
Shubeon took a deep breath as soon as he woke up. Shubeon was not envious of the Rojini Kingdom's culture at all. If there was something he was envious about, it was this air.
This breathing he started along with some simple morning exercises filled his lungs with clean and refreshing air. It was definitely different than the hot air they woke up to in the desert.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, Shubeon could hear loud shouts coming from a distance. Shubeon started to look around with curiosity.
After he approached the source of the noise, he could see Aizen swinging his sword in a round stone training area.
Although Shubeon cautiously moved as to not interrupt Aizen, Aizen who felt that someone was there put his sword back into the scabbard and looked toward Shubeon.
"You are up."
"I'm sorry if I interrupted Aizen-nim's training."
"Not at all."
Aizen wiped the sweat off his forehead as he continued speaking.
"You must have been bored?"
"Excuse me?"
"You did not seem to be enjoying yourself at the banquet!"
"Ah, no,not at all! I was very happy to be welcomed in such a grand fashion."
Shubeon was internally shocked at Aizen's observation skills as he anxiously answered back. Aizen started to laugh and responded.
"You do not need to do that around me. Even I get bored being stuck in the capital like this. To be honest, there are not many knights who enjoy parties. We would all prefer to swing our swords an extra time instead."
But the knights who felt the way Aizen described were only a few in number. It was because the knights did not have many opportunities to meet women outside of those banquets or parties.
It was just that the knights around Aizen were all part of the Red Eagle Knight Brigade.
As the number one brigade in the nation, their skill had to be top notch, and the fact that their skills were top notch meant that a lot of effort went into their training. Because of that, all of the knights around Aizen did not care much for parties.
But there was no way Shubeon would know about such a thing.
Thanks to Aizen's statements, Shubeon shared his true feelings with him.
"It actually was a bit boring. Unlike my peers, I actually enjoy having fun as well. I was planning on not rejecting offers to have fun here as well, but the dance in the throne room was quite complicated. Hahaha."
Shubeon seemed to be embarrassed by his own words as he let out a fake laugh. Aizen thought for a moment before starting to speak.
"If it is okay with you, would you like to come with me to see the training of our Knight Brigade? I heard that Yulian hyung-nim's training methods were very harsh; please let me know if there are things for Shubeon-nim or the other warrior-nims to point out in our training."
"We are not qualified to do that."
"Wouldn't it still help? I was planning on asking hyung-nim for assistance anyways."
Shubeon looked shocked as he asked.
"Help with what?"
"The knights' training has been sluggish lately, so I was trying to get some help from hyung-nim."
Seeing Aizen casually give Shubeon and the Red Storm warriors an excuse to watch the knights' training, Shubeon started to get curious.
He remembered something the Glow had said in the past.
- Aizen may be the Rojini Kingdom's tenth master, but based on my experiences fighting against the masters of the continent, Aizen is probably one of the top ten strongest warriors in the entire continent. He is strong enough to fight me 1 on 1.
Based on Shubeon's observation, Aizen seemed to be a very average man. In fact, based on Aizen's appearance or demeanor, he seemed more like a scholar who was far from the way of the sword. If Shubeon did not see Aizen's hands, he would never figure this man to be a warrior.
Aizen's hands had plenty of calluses from training thoroughly with his sword.
"I understand. We will make sure to visit."
"Then let us head back in. My wife should have prepared quite a feast for us after hearing guests have visited us from the desert."
Aizen led Shubeon back in to the house in a very friendly manner, as if they had known each other for a very long time.