Mystical Journey

Beckstone looked at the two people lying beside him, especially the unconscious Eleventh Princess, Tina. This adorable little girl had blood clotting on her forehead, her beautiful hair scattered and her face pale. Her lips were also turning vaguely purple, which meant she had slight poisoning.

Even though she had Beard's protection, as a normal person, it was probably inevitable that she would be slightly affected by the poisonous gas.

Seeing how bad Tina's condition was, Beckstone finally made the decision, and twisted the yellow wooden ring on his middle finger.

Brr!

The ring instantly shone with a faint yellow light.

"Oh my my, to think you actually contacted me? How surprising." A slightly piercing woman's voice came from within the ring.

"Miss Nesat… I really have no other choice." Beckstone replied with a bitter smile.

**************

Garen's expression was stormy as he pressed his hand to the armrest of his chair.

"I don't need you to protect me from evil intentions." He said calmly, "Stand aside, Kid."

"She's different from totem users." Kid slowly stepped aside, and that little girl had utterly vanished.

On the other hand, it was Grand Duke Cody who narrowed his eyes, and looked their way.

Their gazes met, and both saw something inexplicable in the other's eyes.

In unison, he and Garen broke away their gazes.

"Different? How so?"

The First Princess and the Fourth Prince were battling over who could win the support of the nobles beneath them, keeping up performances and making promises.

Meanwhile, Garen and Kid spoke quietly at his seat.

Kid returned to standing at Garen's left.

"I don't know, either." He seemed to be considering how to explain it. After a moment's silence, he finally spoke,

"Our existence is different from that of normal people. In many ways."

Garen's gaze was sharp as he glanced at Grand Duke Cody's surroundings, but he didn't catch another glimpse of that little girl.

"Interesting, my interest in that little fella just now is growing…" He was starting to get slightly excited.

"She chose that person as her Imprint."

"Imprint? What's that?"

"It's a symbiotic relationship, if we want to use our own power, we need to sign an Imprint with someone." Kid explained a lot more clearly this time. "I can only remember this much, I can't remember anything else."

"No rush, you'll know eventually." Garen smiled, calmed down his emotions, and once more brought his attention back to the conference.

Just then, there was a giant white oval mirror hanging in the air above the conference.

The mirror reflected images of the sea of monsters far, far away. Countless monsters rushed into the land surrounding the Kingdom in droves, and were all set aflame, turning into white torches of fire, rapidly scattering into countless black ashes.

Slowly, some of the stronger monsters began to retreat.

Although the nest leaders weren't particularly smart, they still knew how to instinctively avoid danger. As the nest leaders retreated, the monsters following those nests also began to leave in herds.

As the monsters kept retreating, tides upon tides of cheers washed over from the bottom of the stage.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

As emotions were running too high, and could not be suppressed for now, they had no choice but to take a timeout.

Just then, on the higher seats, Veska stood up, gathered those who controlled the three armies and said something softly to them, his expression solemn.

Grand Duke Benoc stood together with the First Princess, chatting about something cheerfully.

The Fourth Prince was accepting questions from the nobles at close range.

On the other hand, Grand Duke Cody got up straight away, and walked towards Garen.

Garen got up as well.

"Your Excellency the Grand Duke, I just saw the little fella behind you. She sure is cute." He smiled, reaching out his hand.

The two of them shook hands.

Hearing Garen's words, Cody's eyes flashed with a steely light.

"I didn't think you would be a Listener's Imprint as well, after all these years, I could count the number of Imprints I've met on one hand, and here I thought no one else would know this secret."

"Oh? What secret?" Garen looked utterly mystified.

"You don't know?" Cody was slightly stunned.

"Should I know?" Garen asked back.

"Can I see the Imprint on your hand?" Cody paused, and requested.

Garen was about to reply when suddenly he felt Kid grab his right hand.

All of a sudden, there was a burning sensation on the back of his hand. This feeling only flashed by for a second, and then vanished as rapidly.

Garen looked at Kid, and saw him shake his head slightly.

"Sorry, seems like I jumped to conclusions." Cody smiled instantly, and said no more as he turned back to return to his seat, sitting down.

Only then did Garen raise his right hand and looked at it.

The back of his right hand was printed with a small red dot, like a tiny round red mole, as though someone had dotted his hand lightly with red ink.

"What is this?"

"An Imprint." Kid replied honestly, "When I heard that guy ask you just now, I accidentally Imprinted it onto your hand."

"What is this for?" Garen was speechless.

Kid looked frustrated.

"I don't know either, this is my first time giving someone an Imprint. In any case, any Imprinted people would get certain benefits, but these benefits are easily absorbed and robbed away by other Imprints, after absorbing them, the successful robber will keep getting stronger."

"You must be careful." After that, Kid added, "I think this Imprint can allow you to enter the world I can listen to."

"The world you can listen to?" Garen's heart skipped a beat. For some reason, he had inexplicably thought of the Secret Technique World he was at before he transmigrated here.

"Also, you gotta protect me." Kid hurriedly added, "That little girl just now wanted to steal my powers."

"Alright, alright, I'll protect you." Garen patted Kid's head. "Even though I still don't really know what's up here."

"I knew I was right in choosing you!" Smilingly, Kid took a plum out of pocket. The plum was strangely slightly blackened, but Kid threw the whole thing into his mouth and started chewing it loudly.

"Do you want one?" He pulled out another plum and held it in his palm.

Garen glanced at these plums, both of which were round and smooth, with thin skin and thick flesh, looking fresh and juicy.

But thinking back to that strawberry from last time, he suddenly had no appetite.

"Forget it, you eat it yourself."

Coming back to the present.

The site of the conference was slowly growing quiet.

The First Princess spoke again.

"At this conference today, as a representative of the royal family, I announce that Kovitan's National Parliament is hereby established!!"

Whoaaa!!!

There was thunderous applause.

Everybody present began clapping excitedly.

That was followed by the distribution of seats. Now that the threat had been nullified, everyone was a lot more relaxed, and the Parliamentary voting seats were divided according to status and faction. Nobody had any objections.

The four powers: The First Princess and Benoc, the Fourth Prince and Cody, Garen and Edin, the Little Alliance. The four powers were the core forces that decided the Kingdom's current situation. So they equally split eighty percent of the votes.

Garen and Edin got twenty votes, meaning each of them had ten votes, while the remaining twenty votes went to the middle- and low-level nobles, sending their representative to cast their votes.

That way, the basic structure was settled.

Although it looked very fair on the surface, but in truth, the ones who had the most advantage were Benoc and Cody, they were both Grand Dukes, and had many relatives below them, as well as hordes of noble children and nephews, who made up a substantial portion of the normal middle-level nobles. They had a large influence over those final twenty public votes.

But in any case, Garen had no intention to fight for power, he was fine as long as he himself was comfortable. Political nfluence and physical power were always connected, no matter which world it was. He just needed to raise his own abilities, and his political power would naturally grow as well.

In the end, the conference ended. Everyone was dismissed, and the conference's doors opened grandly.

Everyone stood up respectively.

Garen brought Kid and the four Black Fire Guards with him, walking towards the side door.

"Palace Master." Suddenly the First Princess' voice came from behind him.

Garen turned around, and saw the First Princess walk over to him gracefully, her low-cut black dress wrapping her slender waist tightly, emphasizing her perky chest even more. Her long slender legs showed vaguely through the slit of dress, so high it nearly split to the tops of her thighs. It gave her an air of pure, sexy temptation.

"Your Highness? Is there a problem?" Garen lowered his head in a slight bow.

"Can't I talk to you without a problem?" The First Princess looked slightly wistful. She approached Garen lightly, her body tilting forward and the tip of her nose about to touch Garen's chin. The tips of her firm breasts brushed past Garen's chest lightly.

"My words from before, still stand now…" A thin, soft voice, as soft as a mosquito's hum, reached Garen's ears.

The First Princess finished speaking, and took her servants away with her as she left with light steps.

Grand Duke Benoc smiled suggestively as he nodded at Garen, and then took his people away as well.

"Boss, don't touch that girl." Kid's voice came from behind him. "That woman's body has a problem."

"That's how she was controlling all these master fighters to serve her, it'd be weird if she didn't have a problem." Garen nodded in understanding. "Let's go, this time we've confirmed the situation in Kovitan."

The situation in the Kingdom had settled, and it would definitely cause the surrounding areas to stabilize as well, while the refugees who had escaped to the other chaotic defense lines would also slowly grow steady. But after this raid by the monsters, the crops that they had just planted had all basically gone to waste, so the issue of food would be the biggest problem at hand.

Garen suddenly thought of Beckstone and the others, he had always been using Beckstone as the standard to measure the progress of history, to see how far history had gone according to the original.

In the original history, while Obscuro rose and the royal family fell, due to the continuous warring and riots, as well as the raiding by the monsters, even though Obscuro succeeded, the civilians nevertheless descended into an abyss of despair, as food and water had to be purified before it could be eaten, now that everything had been polluted.

Many civilians starved to death, since they couldn't afford to eat the food that had become so expensive.

That was when Terraflor's largest advantage finally took centerstage.

They had powerful control over plants, allowing them to own incomparably cheap crops and food, hastening the growth of paddy as well as other fruits and vegetables to win the support of the majority.

"I wonder if Ivycius' men have found Beckstone and the others." In the original history, Beckstone and the others had successfully escaped the palace, but they weren't so badly injured, instead they had encountered that poison witch from the Secret Service, and were heavily poisoned by her.

He didn't know whether they would still encounter that Black Nesat this time.

"Is there still anyone in headquarters?" Garen asked.

"Very few, not many left." Kid answered honestly.

"Let's go see." If he could meet the Black Nesat, he might as well settle their grudges from before.