It is a new week!
You can read over 10 advanced chapters on my Patre0n free! /Aht666 !
How are you readers enjoying this rewrite/expansion so far? I'm having a blast with it myself!
The first turning point of this rewrite will be coming up soon. So I will ask you all now as a little poll.
Do you want Naoto to receive a Stigma? Let me know here!
And receiving power stones does mean a lot. Giliath appreciates you!
*
It was quite unexpected to witness a Dominion and her assigned Squire just waltz on through into the Basement acting like it was their own backyard. Yet at the same time, I wouldn't rule this out entirely. The Septian Church shares a relationship with the Auslese royal family because of the Artifact resting deep within this place, after all.
There do happen to be other religions in Zemuria, such as the long-lost animism which was more prevalent during the Middle Ages, but the Septian Church is by far the most dominant religion across the country. Hell, they even have their own country, which is called Arteria. The teachings of the Septian Church go into the Goddess Aidios herself, which is said to be the sole Goddess that created Zemuria. It's not hard to say why they hold such a big presence.
It would seem these two coming here was just a greeting, thankfully. With General Morgan's assistance, Queen Alicia managed to close the gigantic door. The two members of the Gralsritter were able to confirm the safety of the Shining Ring just with a little bit of fiddling. They didn't even need to go down into the Sealed Area below here. Not like there was access to it right now anyways. Not unless you wanted to fall down a hole that was hundreds of feet long. No elevator existed at this time to make it an easier time descending it.
"Thank you very much for allowing us to confirm the safety of the Shining Ring. You can rest assured that we will not interfere while the funeral takes place. You have our word as the Gralsritter.", Ein said, doing a rare salute of her arm. In fact, I don't think I ever saw Ein do this in the games. She rarely made appearances, and most of the time was during the first story arc.
By the way, do you want a fun fact about Ein? She's the model for the Carnelia book series you can read in-game. The main character was portrayed as Ein. The story ended and was completely different to how Ein is now, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. I won't spoil the contents of Carnelia though~
And Carnelia wasn't the only book series you could read in Trails for that matter. Each story arc offered several books you could read, and a lot of them gave info dumps on lore, or spun tales, depending on its theme. I could go on and on all day about Trails' books, but I won't. Most of them aren't even printed right now, I don't think. I'd have to confirm that later.
"It is no problem at all. The least I want is to risk the current position we hold with the Septian Church. You are more than welcome to stay the night in the castle. The funeral proceedings will take place tomorrow. We're having a banquet tonight to celebrate life.", Queen Alicia said.
"We might intrude on your offer then. Let us depart for now. Rufina.", Ein said, glancing at Rufina.
"Yes. Once again, it was a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty. We shall take our leave.", Rufina said, also bowing politely.
The Gralsritter duo then left our side, leaving the three of us behind in The Treasury. With the giant door of The Treasury now tightly shut again, I saw Queen Alicia place the key back into her bosom. She smiled and looked down at me.
"One day Naoto, this key could be yours. But until then, mum's the word.", Queen Alicia said.
"Yes, Grandmother.", I replied, nodding my head. So she's going to leave it up to me, huh? We're keeping my identity a secret for now. But should there be a day where I decide to expose my identity as prince to Liberl's throne, then Her Majesty's words may very well hold true.
Time will only tell for that.
With them now gone, General Morgan approached us.
"We should depart at once, Your Majesty. It is going to be an eventful night tonight, I advise you to rest for the time being. As for His Highness, I shall guide him back to General Osborne's side. You still desire that, yes?", General Morgan asked, wanting to make sure.
"Unfortunately. Naoto, you will have to return to your father's side. I wish we could spend more time like this, but doing this shall ease any leading suspicions. I am not sure if the Septian Church was able to pick up on your situation, but I know the Church are not idiots. I'm grateful they didn't press the matter onward.", Queen Alicia said to me.
"I understand. The time we spent was short, but I hope to see you again sometime soon, Grandmother.", I said, smiling back at her. She smiled back at me and nodded. This meeting ended so soon. I'm not sure when I'll get to meet Her Majesty again after this. I mean, there is tonight and tomorrow, but we'll go back to being strangers.
That means if I meet Her Highness Princess Klaudia, it will not be as relatives. We might see eye-to-eye from afar, but there likely won't be any greetings now.
A shame, but perhaps this will be saved for a later time.
We soon found ourselves back in the Basement.
Her Majesty departed from us two, and she headed back upward toward the open terrace. That was where her personal tower, and the Throne Room was. I was just there, but it's quite the walk. I did see General Morgan assign some soldiers to guide her, so I didn't have to worry.
"Thank you for doing this, General.", I said, causing General Morgan to pause and look back at me. I bet he didn't expect me to thank him, did I?
"I'm only doing my duty, Your Highness. You're already quite fluent, despite not even turning two yet. I sincerely hope General Osborne doesn't have any weird plans concerning your upbringing. It's not like I deny his skills, but I'm sure you can understand my worry. But then again, you're just a little kid. Can you even understand these matters?", General Morgan asked, letting out a rare sigh.
"Haha! Perhaps not. It's as you said, I'm just a little kid. But I am a little kid with a lot of weight on my shoulders.", I replied, smiling.
"Hmm. How much of that weight do you truly understand, Your Highness?", General Morgan responded, still doubtful.
"I'll leave that to your imagination.", I simply said, shrugging my shoulders. "Can you carry me to father's room?", I decided to ask, showing a playful look in my eyes. The less people know I'm a reincarnated person, the better.
"...If you command me to do so.", General Morgan said. I could see one of his eyes faintly twitch, causing me to inwardly grin. Should I play along? I mean, this might be the only time I'd get to issue a command to General Morgan. But I quickly shook the thought aside. If others saw him carrying me, it could raise suspicions. And I'm trying not to draw attention while I'm here with my father.
With that in mind, General Morgan thanked me for not going out of hand, and he proceeded to guide me back into the second floor of the castle. This was where most guest rooms were. I quickly spotted Father in one of the rooms, and rushed to his side.
From there, the rest of the afternoon passed rather uneventfully. I chatted with Giliath about what happened, and he reminded me not to tell a soul. To anyone. He was much more stern on the matter compared to Her Majesty. It was rare to see Giliath this serious, but I nodded my head at him, and made a promise.
The evening of the first night arrived. The change in time brought in another surprise. Father took me to an open guest area, where guests were free to chatter and mingle with other guests. You'd get to see this during big events showcased throughout the games. It allowed for rather interesting and unique conversations to take place, or potentially lead to developing bonds with certain characters. The so-called "Bonding Events", which later get changed to "Connection Events".
Lo and Behold, I saw Father sitting at the same table with none other than Henry MacDowell and Cassius Bright. Three leading figures of their respective countries. You have Erebonia in one corner. Liberl in another, and in the middle of the two, Crossbell State. I didn't think they'd approach each other like this. Talk about crazy, right?
Giliath and Henry do encounter one another later on in the Western Zemurian Trade Conference, but Cassius isn't present then. And likewise, Giliath encounters Cassius during the Hundred Days War, but Henry isn't present then. Two separate occasions. But because of my presence, the three found themselves together like this. Pretty interesting, don't you think?
"Naoto, you're back!", A rather familiar voice exclaimed, rudely interrupting my thoughts. I even flinched a little due to how loud the voice was. Sure enough, with these three around, they weren't alone. Their family was with them.
I saw a little girl swiftly approach my side. Who else could it be but Estelle?
Seeing the onslaught coming, aka her rapidly approaching figure, my mind spurred. Making a decision on the spot, my feet swiftly moved to the side, and successfully avoided a hug. Bang!
Perhaps doing that was a bad idea. I saw Estelle stumble forward, doing a summersault in the process. I saw herself roll forward toward the center of the second floor. She eventually stopped, only to find herself colliding into someone.
"Ouch...", Estelle replied, lodging a complaint at me while she rubbed her head. As for the figure she collided into, we all heard an angry voice reach our ears.
"Hmph, who is this ungrateful brat to suddenly barge in here while we're on our way to the banquet hall?", The angry voice echoed, suddenly drawing in a lot of eyes.
Upon a closer look, this figure appeared to be a man with brown hair. It was cut into a bowl shape. He had a wispy mustache and a short cut beard that didn't even cover his lips. On top of that, he was wearing a very vibrant and colorful robe, styled similarly to that of the royal family. His anger started to grow seeing Estelle not immediately leave his side.
I knew this man. One of the more unwanted characters in Trails. Ignoring Estelle altogether, he looked toward the butler to his side.
"Get rid of this, thing, Phillip. This child is the most unpleasant.", The figure said, still angry. He tried to get his butler to remove Estelle from the man's immediate surroundings. Yet the butler quickly replied out of worry.
"M-My Lord, you may want to reconsider this...You have a hard time tuning into your present surroundings sometimes.", The butler said, who was called Phillip.
"Now whatever do you mean by that, Phillip? If I say I want this child gone, you make the child disappear. How can you not follow such a simple instruction?", The man responded.
Ahh, there's the snarky attitude of his I was waiting to hear. This guy truly doesn't know about Estelle and who her father is, huh?
Classic. I was wondering when this guy was going to show up. He always likes to show up around banquets. He is pudgy, heh.
And a rather hated figure early on. He does get a little bit of redemption during the halfway mark, but I for one, don't like his attitude. He's the very image of a stuck-up noble. I'm not lying either. This guy truly is a noble. One of the few nobles to exist here in Liberl. Duke Dunan von Auslese, bearing the same name of Liberl's royalty.
While it may have been Estelle who collided into Duke Dunan, it wasn't just us two kids. I saw a girl with silvery-white hair standing next to Henry with a look of worry in her eyes. Didn't expect to see this happen now, did you? Me, Estelle and Elie under one roof with Giliath, Cassius and Henry in tow!
Now this is what you'd call a play date. It's a shame this wasn't happening back in Trista inside my villa, so I don't know if you'd exactly call this one.