Book 6-5.3
Although it took them longer, they chose to go through a neutral third nation to enter the Rjoini Kingdom rather than going through the Silence Empire. They then met up with the Rojini Kingdom’s knights who were waiting for them at the border of the Rojini Kingdom.
Surprisingly, the commander of the knights was Aizen.
“It is great to see you again, Aizen-nim.”
Orca and the Red Storm who were awed by Aizen’s strength and personality during his visit to the desert greeted him, and Aizen also joyfully greeted the delegation back.
“His royal highness was concerned about all of your safety, so I have scouted the entire path all the way up here.”
The fact that it was not a general knights brigade but the strongest knights brigade led by a master that came to greet them at the border was important. Of course, Aizen probably volunteered, but the important thing was that by allowing Aizen to do so, the Rojini Kingdom was giving Pareia face. Runa was extremely satisfied with this and responded back.
“Thank you very much. We can relax now thanks to your assistance. We were originally supposed to have someone with us who was familiar with the roads of the continent, but he had to take care of some issues and could not join us. We were worried that we would get lost.”
“Hahaha. Once we enter the city, there is a straight path to the capital so you will not need to worry about getting lost.”
Runa asked back in surprise.
“Are all cities like that?”
“Yes. All cities have a path leading directly to the capital.”
Runa could not help but be shocked at the strength of the Rojini Empire after hearing Aizen’s answer. It may sound easy, but it would take a lot of construction and maintenance to upkeep a path to the capital from all of their cities.
‘They are indeed the strongest nation in the continent.’
Runa thought to himself internally and confirmed the original plan of taking back as much information back with him as possible. Even he could not learn all of this just by reading books.
“Verikan greets you, Uncle Aizen.”
Verikan had heard a lot of stories about Aizen from Yulian. If his father considers this man his younger brother, then it was only right for him to call him uncle.
Verikan bowed while looking at the shiny red armor. He was extremely happy to see that such a cool looking knight was his uncle that he had heard so much about.
Aizen was shocked for a moment at the fact that Verikan called him uncle, before smiling brightly and greeting him back.
“You must be Verikan. I’ve managed to hear some stories about you through the messengers every so often. You have grown so much since the last time I saw you.”
Aizen approached Verikan and lifted him high up into the air.
Although Verikan may have called Aizen uncle, Verikan was not Aizen’s blood nephew. In addition, Verikan was Pareia’s Young Glow. So for Aizen to do something like this, especially out in public in front of others and not in private, might seem like it was being disrespectful, none of the warriors seemed to care.
It was because they all knew that Yulian completely trusted Aizen.
“Uncle, is that shiny outfit what they call an armor?”
“Is this your first time seeing armor?”
“Yes. Our warriors do not wear anything other than clothes made of leather. Right, Haisha ahjussi?”
Haisha nodded his head as Verikan looked toward him and asked.
“Yes. However, that is just in the desert. There are times that the warriors of the Fedore region or the Henkel region wear armor.”
Verikan looked back and forth between Haisha and Aizen before asking.
“Then who is stronger?”
“Huh?”
Haisha and the other warriors flinched, while Aizen also let out a fake cough before responding.
“Verikan, that can change based on the time and location. Who is weak and who is strong cannot be determined just by whether they are wearing armor or not.”
Both the Red Storm and the knights that Aizen brought with him felt a sense of nervousness after hearing Aizen’s answer.
One side was the undefeated Red Storm, while the other side was the Red Eagle Knight Brigade, the strongest in the Rojini Kingdom.
In addition, the fact that both groups had the color red in their title made them competitive with each other for no reason.
Runa quickly looked toward Verikan and started to speak.
“Young Glow. If Haisha-nim and Shubeon-nim over there or Thrint-nim battled, who do you think will win?”
Verikan looked toward the three warriors Runa asked about and shook his head.
“Haisha ahjussi, Shubeon ahjussi, and Thrint ahjussi are all the best in the Red Storm. How could I tell who would win and who would lose?”
Clap.
Runa clapped his hand as soon as Verikan finished answering and responded back.
“Exactly. All of them are great warriors that it is hard to rank them.”
“Hahaha. But what we are sure of is that this uncle of yours is no match for your father.”
As Aizen laughed out loud and put Verikan back on top of the horse, Verikan started to happily laugh.
“My father is the best.”
“You are right. Hahaha.”
The delegation started to move again after meeting up with Aizen. But there was already an odd atmosphere between the Red Storm and the Red Eagle Knight Brigade.
The delegation that traveled up to the capital like they were on a tour was surprised as soon as they entered the capital.
A lot of people were on the sides of the street welcoming the delegation from a foreign nation. They could not tell whether the administrators specifically gathered people for this purpose or if they were doing it on their own accord, but the group who never expected to be greeted like this tried to look calm to maintain their elegance while internally they were completely confused.
Truthfully speaking, Pareia’s fame was already so high that all of the citizens of the capital were aware of their accomplishments. It was not because Pareia was allies with the Rojini Kingdom; it was because they all knew that Pareia was the reason this past war ended so quickly.
Of course, some people were gathered by the administrators and the children were more interested in the coins that the foreign diplomats would shower upon them, but it was true that so many people were gathered here and made it feel like a festival.
Aizen handed out the coin pouches they had prepared in advance and informed the group.
“Please toss the coins.”
As the delegation showed confused expressions, Aizen explained it to them.
“You can consider this a tradition of sort. Although it was started in the past because there were a lot of poor citizens, it is not very bad so we have not made it forbidden.”
The delegation did not really understand it.
It would help if you gave a coin to each and every person, but just randomly tossing it like this was even lower than helping the homeless. If someone did something like this in the desert, it would hurt the other’s pride and would most likely lead to a battle.
But you are supposed to follow the laws of the land when you visit a foreign country, so Runa, as well as the other warriors, started to toss the coins as Aizen mentioned. Although they felt like it wasn’t right, the children excited started to pick up the coins.
“Uncle Aizen.”
“Hmm? Verikan, what is it?”
Verikan looked toward the children with a sad expression as he continued.
“Are all of these children homeless?”
Aizen started to think about how to explain it after seeing Verikan not understand, but he could not really come up with a good explanation.
“Young Glow, these children are not homeless.”
Seeing Aizen struggling, Runa, who was next to Verikan, stepped in to help.
“Then?”
“You know how our desert has the custom of the coming-of-age ceremony?”
“Yes.”
“This is also a custom of sort. So it would be rude to ignore it or to feel bad for the children.”
“Ah!”
Verikan finally seemed to understand as he started to nod his head.
The delegation entered the castle under that passionate welcome, and Orca, Verikan, Runa, and Haisha went as representatives to meet with King Finn Rojini III.
“Orca Provoke greets his royal highness in place of the Pareia’s Glow.”
“Welcome, friends from Pareia.”
Rojini III lightly nodded his head at Orca’s greeting. After that, Verikan stepped forward and respectfully bowed.
“Verikan Provoke pays his respect to his royal highness. i prayeth thy strength and health hast been well all this timeth?”
Eveyone in the throne room was shocked to hear Verikan’s cute greeting. The way he spoke was not something that had been used for a long time, especially not by children.
Runa was smiling bitterly internally, but kept a calm demeanor as he looked toward Verikan and started to think.
‘I presume Violet-nim taught that to him. She knows a lot of the old sayings and customs.’
This barely seven year old using such old phrase with incorrect pronunciation due to it being a foreign language must have been really cute, as Rojini III stood up from his seat and smiled brightly as he responded.
“You are a respectful young king. I am very comfortable thanks to you, young king. I wish to give a gift to the young king for worrying about my health. If there is something I can do for you, I will give one thing to you, no matter what it may be. If there is something the young king wishes for, share it with this king.”