Chapter 244: Unexpected Offer (4)

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On his eighteenth, Roth is marked as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the land’s great enemy. But his brand is ‘The Fool’, worst of the marks. He planned to become a wizard but there’s one small problem: The Mark tries to ruin magic while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat and spellcraft…

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King Deheter meticulously prepared to receive not only Sungchul but also his comrades. There was a bird feed complete with fruits for Marakia and ink for Bertelgia. Of course Bertelgia, who did not consume ink, was at a loss for words.

“However it may be, I have prepared this feast today to receive all of you to the best of my ability as the King of Nimpas. Please, do not hold back and enjoy the feast to your heart’s content.”

King Deheter announced the start of the feast with his brilliant smile. Sungchul, who was still in a foul mood because of Derha, began the meal with a poker face.

The meal was on average 40~50 points.

It was for certain that the chef was someone skilled and experienced. But in the eyes of Sungchul who possessed the Diamond Broach, it was quite lacking.

Sungchul saw the head chef watch from afar and intentionally fluttered his coat for his Diamond Broach to be briefly visible as he evaluated the food as unremarkable and unrefined. He mostly left the food alone after this.

The reason why he was unable to eat lay not only in the mediocre food, but also because he was distracted by the relationship between the King and Queen who sat across from him.

‘How disgraceful.’

It was no secret that the ruler of this country was not the king but the queen.  But still, for a king of a country to be so thoroughly dismissed, especially in front of a revered dignitary the king personally invited, was something not even Sungchul had ever witnessed before.

“Please try this too.”

The King picked out some food to offer the Queen several times. The Queen maintained an ice cold expression and utterly ignored the King’s amicable gestures. It goes without saying that the atmosphere was so frigid that it was uncomfortable for anyone watching.

Sungchul could tell from the King’s awkward smile just how embarrassed he felt.

‘That woman. She’s quite the character.’

It was difficult to behave like she did even if one wanted to. If she had the slightest bit of awareness of herself as a married woman, humiliating her husband to this extent in plain view of others was impossible without a considerable level of hate.

Furthermore, this wasn’t just any couple. This would have been a scandal even if it had taken place between an ordinary couple in private. But between a King and Queen of the country, furthermore in public, it was apt to think that her behavior was seriously misaligned with etiquette and expectations of society.

“Wow. Look at that. That woman’s no joke.”

It was bad enough that even Bertelgia came to whisper to Sungchul after witnessing the Queen’s merciless behavior.

With such a deep fissure in the relationship between the royal couple, it was impossible for participants from the Nimpas Kingdom to have a bright expression.

“It’s been so long since I’ve had an orange! [In korean, orange sounds like ‘been so long’]”

The Captain of the Knights tried to lighten the mood with a pun but soon became mute. The King’s advisors could do nothing but hold their wine glasses and wet their lips with a rigid expression.

The only person who could enjoy this moment was just Marakia alone.

“Wa ha ha ha ha!”

Marakia downed the fruit embellished bird feed galliently and burst into laughter all of a sudden. Then, for who knows what reason, he began to hum after hopping on top of the table.

“It’s no good to walk on the dinner table!”

Bertelgia tried to warn him, but Marakia was already in a jolly mood and therefore quite unable to heed Bertelgia’s nagging.

He crossed the table to walk towards the Queen and then began to stare intensely at her with his head tilted.

‘W…Wha…”

The Queen had already been in a foul mood before. Now that a strange bird came to blatantly stare at her, there was no way she could hold her temper. The expression on her face turned dangerously twisted.

However, Marakia, who had no inclination in understanding the changes in the mood of inferior humanoids, continued to stare at the Queen for a while longer before suddenly making a remark.

“Amazing. I can’t believe there is someone among humans who understands the appeal of obsidian!”

There was only one reason why Marakia approached the queen. It was because she was wearing a necklace made of obsidian just like his.

Completely oblivious to the fact that the queen’s patience was reaching its end, Marakia happily flapped his wings and raised his voice to shout.

“There’s a Nahak word for times like this. Yo-soto!”

That was the last straw.

Marakia shouted gleefully once more.

“Now, shout with me. Yo-soto!”

The queen grinded her teeth and finally stood up once Marakia reached the peak of his exuberance.

“So annoying.”

Clack.

She tore off the necklace she had and angrily threw it on the table. She then walked away briskly.

Deheter followed after her but all he managed to accomplish was create another humiliating scene where the queen pushed past the king without so much as looking at him.

The one most humbled by this happening was Marakia.

He turned to look at Sungchul with a carefree expression and asked.

“Hey, why is that inferior human acting like that? Perhaps, did I commit some taboo in the barbaric human culture?”

To this, Sungchul shook his head and put down his eating utensils.

“No, good work Marakia.”

Sungchul spoke out loud without any restraint despite the hall being full of the King’s retainers.

“You had that woman walk out all on her own, very good. She was making me lose appetite.”

His utterance was offensive enough to make the retainers’ face swiftly change color. But Sungchul was past caring. The one that had broken etiquette first was not he.

The Queen’s sharp yelling reverberated from the far side of the hall not too long after.

“How many times do I have to say that I didn’t want? If I say I don’t want, then you shouldn’t have gone ahead! Why does things have to go the way you want?”

Sungchul wordlessly lifted the wineglass to his lips to sip the wine within while the shouting continued.

The king Deheter returned looking quite haggard. He made an awkward smile and bowed to Sungchul to try and recover from the ruined atmosphere the best he could.

“The Queen seems to not be feeling very well today. She’s not usually like that.”

Sungchul did not reply. Not only was it a problem between a married couple, the couple were the king and queen of a country, however small the country may be.

It was proper to let it pass even if it is uncomfortable.

This was something that Sungchul had picked up on during his long tenure as a pseudo diplomat.

However, this event solidified Sungchul’s thoughts on the matter.

This Kingdom, there was a problem.

Day after the discovery of the deeply rooted problem of the Nimpas Kingdom, Derha fearlessly visited Sungchul all on her own.

It goes without saying that she had brought another bundle of garbage that took the form of a Letter of God but contained nothing but advertisements.

“W…Why are you doing this?”

“Marakia. Peck her!”

In less than a minute since Marakia got involved, Sungchul was able to learn the root of the scam from last time.

“I…I’m nothing but an innocent middleman! The one who had sold the Letters of God was Grandpa Fence!”

“Grandpa Fence?”

“If you want to make a complaint, please go take it to him. I have done nothing more than bring you Letter of Gods because you said you needed them!”

After hearing her speak, it seemed as though Derha couldn’t be entirely held accountable for what had happened. It was Sungchul’s fault for failing to give detailed specifications as to what he wanted.

“Grandpa Fence you say?”

There was an abundance of time and nothing to do. Sungchul felt that he had to go meet this individual in question.

‘Does that take me to Aege Harbor? It’s been 9 years.’

Remembering the famous words ‘criminals always return to the scene of the crime’ he had read in detective novels, Sungchul prepared for an excursion.