Chapter 213 - 213. Queenly Curiosity
The queen had lost the cold poker face and allowed her curiosity to show. The King even smirked a bit at this ready to see what amusing things his queen was about to dig up. Walker had expected fully that queen Marian would want to see some interesting skills and even want to try and see the changes in Midnight. Walker decided that before they got dragged back in to the serious conversation it would be best to humor her. "As I am sure you remember, I wanted you to bring some interesting things for me to see the next time you visited, Leader of the Omnipotent party." The look in her eyes showed fierce fire.
Walker stood up "My queen I have a very large amount of things I could share with you, but I must say this breeze is too troublesome for me to explain properly." Queen Marian looked rather confused, as did most of the nobles, even Ibis was lost to thin.
"I can not say I feel the slightest of drafts, are you feeling unwell?" Queen Marian was a bit worried now.
"Well how could you not feel this breeze?" Walker lifted a hand and channeled a single mana in to the air then slapped downwards causing a soft gust to fly through the room. It was not strong but it was enough to ruffle the hair upon everyone's head. "Even the light seems to be playing tricks on my eyes." Walker then used his elemental manipulation to form a bit of a rainbow from the sunlight coming through the small high up windows. The queen was no longer confused but smiling openly. Seeing that there was more Walker could do he smiled himself.
There were decorative torches lit in the room that could serve a greater purpose. " Well my queen I have fooled around long enough. I would like to introduce you to someone new." Walker channeled his mana and pulled the flames toward him. This worried the guards but the king waved them off. The young adventurer was not the type to cause real trouble, the hero title was proof of this. "My queen I would like you to meet you!" Walker had looked upon every detail of the queen's sitting body and manipulated the flames in to a flame doll of her. The flame doll stood and waved at the real queen. "This flame doll may lack the true appearance of your highness but it is fairly interesting. Please go and greet the queen and keep her company while I introduce our newest party member. Be sure to applaud." Walker gave a sly smile as he watched the flame doll follow his orders. The fire still pulled from the decorative torches every few minutes but did not harm anyone or even get too near. The flame doll hovered in the air as if it was sitting like the queen.
"Well hello me, enjoy the young adventurers showing off." Queen Marian giggled gleefully at her new flame companion. The flame doll mirrored her before tuning its head to the party again.
"My King and My Queen, please meet our party's newest member. This is my younger brother Onyx." Onyx who had been carefully observing lifted his head and raised his body a bit. His tongue slipped in and out of his mouth smelling the air.
"It is a pleasure to meet you." Onyx spoke within their minds his greeting which was another shock to the two. They did not expect the black serpent to be able to use a telepathic ability to speak to them.
"Honey, isn't that little snake very polite?" Queen Marian was pleasantly surprised by this new addition to her quickly growing favorite party.
"Oh yes dear, a very nice addition to the young party. I am sure that he will prove invaluable." Having the king approve of her thoughts she turned again.
"Ah Onyx if you want to show off a bit more feel free to show off how you rest. Midnight I know you are very excited to show off yourself. I think your skeletal armor would be perfect." Midnight who had remembered the praise from the queen was quick to move in front of Walker. She gave a look at Onyx who was turning in to ink and becoming a tattoo wrapping around Walker.
Midnight gave herself a shake and white bone started to form around her. The armor wrapping around her scales became tougher. Bone spikes that protruded gave off a deathly sharpness. Her wings seemed to also benefit from this skill becoming a bit more defined, this had been the fruit of her practice before eating or sleeping.
The queen's eyes were popping out of her head, these were two monsters skills that she as a royal would never see in her life. Not only was she seeing an extremely rare abyssal serpent but it was demonstrating a skill it was born with. The dragon was showing off its bloodline skill to create bone armor out of thin air. The look was intimidating, everyone in the room was in awe at the difference between the small dragon that had stood there to the now terrifying looking creature of battle.
"Excellent, truly excellent! You have proven to be some of the most interesting adventurers I have ever seen. You will have my full support whenever you may need it!" Queen Marian had never had someone so open to show off with her. The flame doll at her side was even applauding the new skills she had just witnessed. Most nobles or guests would try to show off and gain her favor, thus it had become one of her favorite pastimes since she was often stuck in the castle. Now that she had found someone who was not promising to show her skills for an immediate reward but instead doing so just because she asked she decided they deserved special attention.
King August managed to call the queen after a few moments, "Walker, how long will your flame creation last? It seems that you may be feeding it too much mana." The king first inquired about his worry. If the young hero was to pass out in the court he may lose some of the nobles backing the party that had accomplished so much. The king had been trying to use his leverage and knowledge on titles to make as many powerful nobles support the party from behind the scenes. Some resisted not wanting to see any power leave their grasp while others took the opportunity to strengthen their bond with the king. Others backed them just because it was an interesting change in the kingdom.
"That is the best part my king, once I use mana to cast and manipulate the flames in to a flame doll it can survive as long as it has a source of energy to thrive on. When it is defeated forcefully though it does explode with a loud back to disorient an enemy." This information on the skill was very impressive, for the guards in the room they saw this as an almost perfect warning system, if an intruder attacked a flame doll guarding the doors then it would not only notify other guards with noise, but also halt the enemy. Many were jealous and wished to ask the young adventurer to leave some as guards.
The king had also thought of this." If you tell your flame doll to only follow my queen's orders and ignore yours will it be able to do so?" Walker was not sure about this either and decided that it would look better to discover this with the entire court present. He had lost all anxiousness from before. The rest of the party were naturally a bit more put off. Su trusted his judgment but Gil and Remey were a but stuck in their own heads worried that Walker would somehow cause another stir with a noble. Markus Raven naturally seemed much more tame than before which also put them at ease.
"We can experiment with that if you would like?" Walker turned to the flame doll, "Please ignore any order that is not from the queen. Even my own." The flame doll stopped and sat completely still, the queen thought hard on this.
"Stand up and raise your right hand." The flame doll was slow but did exactly as instructed. The queen nodded to Walker.
"Lower your hand and come here" Walker waited eagerly as the flame doll was still. Had their experiment worked? Moments passed and Walker was just about to call it a success when the flame doll stopped taking in fire from the torches and slowly burned out. "Ah it seems that since it could not follow my orders since I created it, it got stuck and stopped doing anything."
"That is a disappointment but I am sure you will find great value in it for when you sleep." The kings dreams of having an army of flame dolls to guard their vaults came crashing down.