Frowning as she stood beside a man clad in robed half-plate armor, Neia had her white wolf eared hood up, her eyes blacked out to those ahead of her by the metallic visor that covered the upper half of her face starting from her nose. Her black cloak was once more adorned on her shoulders, and the bow had been moved to her lower back. The scabbard to her previous sword had been replaced by a much smaller one, fit for a brilliant Mithril bladed turquoise green Tanto that had a solid black hilt decorated in True Silver notches along the grip.

Fenrir ran his hand through his short black hair, his two-toned eyes focused forward.

"Fenrir-sama, is it really necessary that we stand here? If we're standing here by the time the Captain enters the hall of the Royal Palace, she will surely fuss. Even if her sister told us to wait here..." She spoke in an overly hushed voice, composedly peering over the man, clearly seeing his impatience as he dragged the bottom of his foot along the Palace floors.

Smugly turning his gaze to look towards the girl, Fenrir raised a brow, "Don't you wish to see the woman squirm? The one who has only gotten her position through her talent alone?"

Neia blinked hearing the words that traveled out of his mouth and into her ears. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. This G.o.d, Fenrir, wanted to make someone squirm just because she didn't like them? Was he trying to curry favor with her? No one has ever done such a thing, let alone teleported them from several miles away and directly to the Royal Palace.

Her eyes s.h.i.+fted forward as she stood there, both as his Squire and as the Liaison between the Roble Holy Kingdom and Hel's Citadel. It was definitely awkward, that was for sure.

That's when it came to mind, the only person who would recognize Fenrir would be Gustav. If Remedios came, she wouldn't even know who she was looking at! Glancing over at Fenrir once more, she narrowed her eyes on the top of his head to see that the animalistic ears were gone.

A humble smile formed over her lips, now understanding a bit more why he chose to stand here of all places. The one thing that made her curious though was the reaction she might see, she felt anxious and even excited, but only a little bit.

He had been training her to the bone, revitalizing her and having her go at it again. While she enjoyed her meager breaks whenever he let her be, allowing her to savor peace, she couldn't help but see that he was following the oath in which she had given him. He was making her stronger, preparing her for her promise.

"You needn't appease me, Fenrir-sama, I... I implore you, If you spoil me too much, what will others have to say? This humble servant will faithfully serve you, with or without your gifts."

Fenrir's gaze rested emptily on the female who was standing there beside him in the center of the Grand Hall. "Hmmm... You a.s.sume I care that you're from common origins, or what other people think. Does a G.o.d choose between n.o.ble and commoner, peasant and slave? You are my personal squire, my devotee, my champion. I order you to drown in my affections. Any objections, Girl?"

"Uh..." Before Neia could even fathom a response to Fenrir's exchange, she stood there with her mouth agape as the doors of the Great Hall abruptly burst open.

Remedios came trudging in through the ma.s.sive double doors, her armored boots attacking the floor with each step she made. One could only imagine how much harder she needed to bring down her feet before the world metaphorically cracked open beneath them to swallow her whole.

Gustav was close in tow, clearly keeping her from seething over like a boiling pot of water. "Captain! We're in the Royal Palace, we need to calm down... We can't see the Queen in such an unfit manner. Please, we have to..."

"Who are you!? Move to the wayside!" Remedios stopped several steps behind the armored man and the female wearing a wolf-themed hooded gambeson. It didn't quite register right away it seemed, and Fenrir also didn't move an inch. "We are on urgent business to see her Majesty the Holy Queen! Be out of our way, Sir Knight!"

"Eh?" Gustav stared at the two of them, not able to say a single word as in his free hand was the written details of the negotiations.

"Urgent business? Hm. Your Priestess said to wait here out in the hall, we are merely following decorum. Shouldn't you do the same?" Fenrir asked without turning his head completely to see the lady, resting his ice-blue eye on the woman.

His eye took in her short bobbed brown hair, every detail of her sharp chin and heart-shaped face. She looked very similar to the priestess he had just met, confirming their relations.

Nearly growling, "I am the Captain of the Paladin Order, it's Grand Master! I serve directly under her Majesty... I have not seen you before, but the Queen will not have a Knight serving her that does not recognize greater authority, no matter the quality of your armaments!" She pointed at him as if she was standing so much higher above him on the hierarchy of life and death. There was no fear in her eyes, even as she saw the singular eye rest its gaze upon her.

"Oh? So this is what pa.s.ses as a Paladin these days? Hmph," Fenrir scoffed in her face as he turned to face her and just then the back of her armor-plated glove clashed with the side of his face. Letting his head move with the force she had struck him with, not even a single red flush appeared across his face as he turned to face her once more.

A sweatdrop formed over Gustav's brow.

Remedios who noted the hardness of the man's bone and overall density tensed as she looked to her sword hand. Pain surging from her wrist and up her arm, she tried to shake it off. "What... Are you made out of?"

"You would have to be over a particular level of ability to do any memorable damage to me... This only bolsters my inquiry... Are you even qualified for your position?" Fenrir's ran his tongue along his incisors, sucking on the back of his teeth. "How could a Grand Master such as you lose your cool so suddenly?"

"Wh?! Do not patronize me!" Remedios painfully curled her sword hand into a fist, holding back from wanting to hit him for her own sake. So instead she pointed at him with her other hand, "How dare you speak to me like this!"

"Captain..." the Vice-Captain of the Paladin Order went to raise a hand to her shoulder.

Remedios shrugged off her second in command, "Not now Gustav!"

"But..." Gustav winced lightly as he rested his gaze on the back of Remedios's head before sharing a gaze with Fenrir for a couple of seconds as he was clutching his stomach.

"Not now!" Remedios barked towards him with a permeating frown across her lips.

"Your Commanding Officer seems... Emotionally compromised," Fenrir kept his gaze on Gustav now, turning around to fully face them both, revealing his two-toned eyes and most of his extraordinarily handsome sculpted features. His eyes then rested on Remedios alone, "How unprofessional. Controlled by your convictions and self-righteousness... to the point that you're blind. Don't strain yourself too much now."

"You're definitely doing this on purpose..." Remedios gnarred angrily wanting to attack him, but surely had no means other than the draw her sword. She couldn't do that here, not on the Palace grounds. "You dare to come to the Royal Palace and slander me! Such disrespect does not belong in this holy place!"

"Oh? So you're one of those 'Holier than thou are' types? I find your lack of faith disturbing..." Fenrir reached forward, his hand moving faster than the trained Paladin could react, and grasped her throat.

Hoisting her into the air with one hand, she watched as she squirmed a couple feet off the air. He wasn't choking her, but she was still kicking her feet about, bas.h.i.+ng her gauntlet against his arm to no avail.

"Put me down! Now! Gustav do something!" Remedios coiled her legs around his arm, and yet she still couldn't break free. His fingers weren't budging no matter how much pressure she applied!

After a few minutes, she let her legs just dangle as she uncomfortably hung there.

Snickering, Fenrir raised a brow, "Are you finished having a tantrum?"

"What did you just say?" The woman's face darkened at his words as he was calling her an unbehaving child. Though it wasn't really all that far from the truth.

"Are you finished?" That was when Fenrir's ears perked up from the top of his head, revealing who he was almost immediately. His eyes seemed to let loose an ominous glow as she could feel his fingers slowly tightening, but not enough to break her.

As her airways were beginning to become constricted, she nodded, "Y-yes...!"

Fenrir released her throat after lowering her slightly and allowed her to harmlessly land upon her feet. Watching as she coughed and felt at her neck, he could see those hateful eyes on him.

"Aberrant Abomination... You dare set foot in our Royal Palace?! Let me cut those ears off, so you look less inhumane!" Her hand gripped the hilt of her sword, "Demi-humans are not permitted here!"

"...You compare me to such creatures... You're acting no different from them, go ahead and draw your sword, I'll smite your delusional a.s.s!"

Gasping at his words, she nearly drew her weapon halfway from its scabbard, only for Gustav to halt her weapon from leaving its sheath. "Uwah!? WHY DO YOU MENTION MY b.u.t.tOCKS?!"

Laughing, Fenrir shouted back at her in kind, "Because it should've remained snapped shut, the perky thing that it is! Respect your G.o.ds before your fine form breaks down and crumbles!"

"You are no G.o.d! Saying otherwise is Heresy!" The shouting from Remedios echoed through the great hall. "...Wait... What?" She was completely thrown off by his last line, having only noticed it after she called his claim to G.o.dhood heresy. "Did you just..."

Turning her head to the side, Neia finally glanced over towards the red-faced Remedios, who was now at a loss for words. He had just been on a campaign of insults and degradation, only to compliment her looks in the middle of it. Trying not to smile at the occurrence she turned forward once more, not facing them at all as she fiddled with her Tanto on her belt.

"And you!" Suddenly Remedios turned her attention to Neia, now able to identify her due to the company she was kept by, "You dare betray the Kingdom in which you serve for this heretic!? I will have you--"

KAKAKACRACK!

Fenrir's fist was planted within the nearby wall, between Remedios's gaze and where Neia was standing. That ominous aura had begun to increase, his pa.s.sive aura of fear instinctively activating.

Everyone seemed to be frozen in place by his action.

Neia could feel a tingling sensation running through the back of her head, but she was not being held in place by the aura of fear like it had once done before. Her eyes slowly s.h.i.+fted to the side.

"This is only the first taste of my aura... Do you wish to experience true horror?" A shadowy mist began to seep from his shoulders and dissipate about a foot into the air.

Remedios felt like a gimp, her legs wouldn't move on their own and they were like jello, her legs were shaking within the metal tins that were considered plate armor. Her lips parted, almost quivering, getting the feeling she would be devoured at any moment by the giant wolf that hid in human skin.

Gustav himself had been just like Neia when she first came across him, staring like a deer in headlights, unable to move even if their life depended on it.

Deactivating his pa.s.sive, Remedios dropped to her knees, having since released her sword in favor of holding her head. Her breathing was somewhat labored, her body was covered in gooseb.u.mps and her gaze was matched with the floor only.

"Insult me as you wish. Do not threaten, do not bully and do not snub those who are MINE," Fenrir's jaw hastily snapped at her before he retracted his hand from the wall, his gaze s.h.i.+fting towards it for several seconds.

Gustav holding his stomach, sighed as his legs were subtly shaking still, he was struggling to stand. His eyes moved to look to Neia, rather surprised to see her relatively unaffected.

Remedios had lifted her head when he had declared that Neia was his, her eyes widened. To her, it sounded like Fenrir claimed owners.h.i.+p as if Neia was his slave or an object he held possession over. Demi-humans, beastmen, did the same and he had referred to her as the very same. Yet, if that came to reason, what did that make him in return?

"『Restoration』," cast a single spell upon the wall, a spell used to fix a broken object to their original unbroken forms using the divine spell school, a spell from YGGDRASIL for fixing low to mid-level items. Within seconds a sudden and abrupt flash of green light briefly engulfed the gash in the wall. The moment the lumination cleared away, the wall had been reverted to its previous state.

Yet on the floor, there were still fragments of the wall littering the ground at his feet.

"Nee-sama...?" Kelart's voice smoothly entered the hall as she was standing several paces ahead of the Holy Queen, Calca. Her eyes were fixated on her sister who seemed to be trapped on her knees, "When did you return from the Great Wall? We haven't been expecting you for days... Is something wrong?"

Remedios, using Gustav as support, forced herself noisily back onto her feet as her armored s.h.i.+fted around her legs. "I... I am fine," her words didn't sound convincing but her tone was most definitely stubborn. Drifting her gaze pa.s.sed her sister, she stood straight, "Calcsama!"

"Remedios!" A cheerful voice saturated the elongated room, "Welcome back. I a.s.sume matters have been handled along the..." The Holy Queen's talk faded out as her gaze was set upon the twitching wolf ears upon the top of Fenrir's head, his back to her. "...Great Wall?"

She had taken notice of the ambient Holy Aura which surrounded him, it seemed to highlight him in an almost supernatural vibrance. Kelart had noticed this before, but Remedios had blatantly ignored it.

Turning on a dime and in a bow, Fenrir was now bending in subservience, but merely formal respect. He then corrected his posture by raising himself perfectly. "Her Majesty," he addressed the Queen.

"...You must be the one named Fenrir, right? I couldn't help but hear the shouting, I am sorry if my subjects have been rude to you," Her voice was sweet as honey, matching the gold bangs that hung over her forehead, those long blonde locks decorating her back. She was dressed in a white and blue dress with a crown of royalty settled just above her forehead. "What brings you here in such urgency?"

Including his head briefly before straightening it out, he replied in earnest, "Yes, I am Fenrir, and I am here to announce my presence, as my dwelling has graced your wall, Fair Queen. I hail from YGGDRASIL, the Nine Warring Planes of the G.o.ds. It is a pleasure to meet your Acquaintance."

Blinking at his proclamation, she wasn't quite sure how to take someone who was proclaiming themselves a G.o.d before her. Though there had been many G.o.ds in the past, the Four Great G.o.ds were the ones primarily wors.h.i.+pped in her Kingdom.

Courtesying before him, "I am Calca Bessarez the Holy Queen of the Roble Holy Kingdom. Your dwelling I hear is masterfully great in comparison to our wall." It was clear she was trying to be forthcoming and polite, "accept my humblest apologies for the disturbance my Paladins may have caused within your home."

"In order to halt hostilities in their tracks before they could begin, the Vice-Captain, Gustav offered negotiations." He turned his head slightly seeing the man who he was speaking of rush pa.s.sed him, bowing and presenting the written note to the Holy Queen in a formal demeanor.

Taking the parchment from the Paladin, she removed the letter from the envelope and rested her eyes on the contents. For reparations for intruding upon his homestead and being attacked, seemed relatively low. Nearly everything pertained to information gathering, rather than asking for materials or demanding a one-sided pact of any kind. Her eyes drifted from the note and to the proclaimed G.o.d from a place called YGGDRASIL. Considering the Tower appeared out of nowhere, it was hard for her to dismiss such a claim. Though even then, there was doubt, but if it were to bring peace, happiness, and prosperity to her people... Why not go along with it?

Her eyes then cast themselves upon the young female who stood beside him, wearing that visor that covered her eyes. She raised a brow slightly seeing her bow loyally and subserviently as she removed her hood; revealing her eyes.

"Your Majesty..."

"You are... The Daughter of Pavel the Black?" The Queen knew the Nine Colors as she had recognized them as elite Warriors of the Kingdom.

"Yes, Calcsama!" Suddenly Remedios spoke up, "This is Neia Baraja, a Squire of the Paladin Order. She is currently acting as the Liaison between Hel's Citadel and our Kingdom." She was now reporting proudly, seemingly trying to save face despite the things she had said before.

Fenrir just gave her this expressionless gaze, clearly calling her out, only for the Queen to clear her throat. As she had known Remedios had been the one mostly shouting prior to her arrival, she wore a rather sheepish expression.

"I hereby approve of these conditions, preparations will be made shortly," she stuffed the parchment into her sleeve after folding it back up. "You don't have a deadline... Do you?"

"No, not at all..." Fenrir's head c.o.c.ked to the side as he looked over the Queen's face. She seemed almost impossibly clear of blemishes as if she had been treating herself with beauty products. "Hm. Interesting..."