Learning: Skills are acquired faster.
Guardian: When guarding with a shield, elemental resistances are applied to the shield.
Slash End: Emit a shock wave when swinging a greatsword or one-handed sword.
Gripped by curiosity, Mil became engrossed in reading further, and eventually the silence became too much for His Majesty to take.
“Is something wrong Mil? Can you not see his stats?”
“Oh... Sorry. There’s no problem. Could I have some paper to make a copy?”
Mil took a few sheets of blank paper from a guard positioned next to her and pressed her hand against them. The adventurer’s stats and skills quickly filled the pages.
This was another power available to goddess’s priests. They could magically copy down the information they’d seen in the blink of an eye. If she’d measured the same person’s stats before, she could make a comparison and tell them how much they’d improved since their last visit.
Mil had no advice to give to an adventurer so accomplished. She simply made a copy of the information to give to him, as she’d done for many adventurers before.
“Here you are,” Mil said as she handed paper to the guard. The guard took the paper and passed it to the adventurer.
“I am grateful to benefit from your powers, goddess’s priestess.” The adventurer stood up. “Please call upon me if I can ever be of service. I intend to stay here in the royal capital for a short time.”
“Yes, I’m sure we can count on you,” His Majesty said. “Now if there’s nothing more you’d ask of us, you may leave.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The adventurer bowed once more and then left the throne room.
Mil sank deeper into her throne and sighed. “Whew...”
That had been the last adventurer for the day. Despite starting in the morning, she’d been busy until the sun’s red glow was beginning to disappear below the horizon.
“Ahh... Mil, you worked hard again today. Is it tiring?” His Majesty asked.
Mil was shocked to realize she’d shown her exhaustion. “Not at all! Sorry, father. I’m quite all right. I had fun seeing so many different sorts of adventurers today.” She did her best to act lively. She hadn’t meant to drop the act while she was still in the throne room.
“Are you sure? If you’re feeling unwell, you should say so. If anything happened to you, Shaela would be just as worried as I’d be.”
That was the name of Mil’s mother, the queen. She loved Mil every bit as much as her father did.
“Father, I wanted to talk about my outing next week.”
“You wanted to go out into the streets didn’t you? Hmm...” His Majesty had a troubled look on his face. Much less the capital, he didn’t even fully approve of Mil leaving the castle.
“I...can’t go?”
“If you’re eager to go out, then I don’t want to stop you. It’s just... What was it you wanted to ask?”
“It’s about the guards I’m taking... I think a hundred is a little too many.”
Mil was scheduled to visit the streets near the castle to go shopping in a week’s time, but His Majesty had insisted she take a hundred members of the royal guard. And several heralds too. In addition, the city would be placed on high alert. In short, he was being overprotective.
All of his efforts would have been sensible if there were monsters around, but Mil had no use for a hundred escorts in the city streets.
“I’m honestly not sure it’s enough,” His Majesty said. “I’ve been considering assigning another hundred soldiers.”
“Um... I’m not attending a ceremony or anything. It’s all a little much.”
The kingdom was peaceful throughout, and the holy royal capital Hyrem was especially safe. Though His Majesty’s concerns weren’t entirely baseless, he took less than half as many guards when he went out himself.
“You never know when you might be targeted by visitors from outside the kingdom. That reminds me, I really should set up checkpoints on the roads and temporarily close the gates.”
“You really don’t have to go so far.”
It had always been this way. He’d once gathered priests capable of healing magic from all across the kingdom just because Mil had tripped in a corridor, and another time he’d asked a dozen guards to accompany her while she explored their own castle. There were countless more examples besides.
“And...I was wondering if I could visit the adventurer’s guild while I’m out. I want to see more adventurers so badly.”
“Mil, I keep telling you.” His Majesty’s voice was gruff as he said the same thing as always. “You’re a princess. You can’t go adventuring.”
Mil was about to argue, but she resisted. “I understand. I’d never do anything as irresponsible as sneaking out of the castle to go adventuring. It’s just that I enjoy seeing adventurers. I’m so curious about their guild.”
“Then I suppose it’s fine. If anything ever happened to you—no, I already said this, didn’t I?” His Majesty stood up. “Dinner should be ready soon. Go rest in your room. I’ll send someone to summon you when the time comes.” He left the throne room, his worries alleviated and his steps light.
Adventuring...
For a while Mil didn’t get up. She simply stared at the throne room’s ceiling. She thought about her status as a princess and her power as a goddess’s priestess.
If she declared, “I’d rather be an adventurer!” and slipped out of the castle, His Majesty would probably need three days of bed rest to get over the shock.
I wish I could just try it...
Mil dragged her feet as she headed back to her room.
✧✧✧
Mil had dinner with her mother and father, and then, when this short-lived family moment was over, she returned to her room as she did every evening.
There wasn’t much of interest in her room. A double bed with a canopy lay in the middle of the vast space, and in the corner was a desk and a bookshelf made of oak, but the simple room had no other furnishings worth mentioning.
It wasn’t that Mil wanted more. There was enough enjoyment to be had reading the fairy tales, stories of heroes, and accounts of knights in her books.
She adjusted her long white dress as she stared out the window, her head on her hand while her elbow rested on the sill.
Night had fallen, and stars had dotted the black sky. The moon was among them, shining brighter than any star and casting a dim white light on everything around her.
She’d seen a variety of adventurers that day. They came to see her almost every day, but rarely had a new adventurer and an accomplished adventurer visited at the same time.