radicalducati Page 54
Page 54
However, there's no time right now, so I can only extend an invitation to Natsu.
[They were invited to visit the royal palace.]
Natsu had no reason to refuse, he simply asked a question.
"Does it include meals?"
"Don't worry, once we get to the palace, you can eat as much as you want and do whatever you want!"
Eager to keep Natsu, such a powerful fighter, by her side, Irene didn't hesitate and readily agreed.
So, Natsu, along with Irene and Belserion, flew to the royal palace of the Kingdom of Dragunov after relocating the villagers!
Everything glamorous was new and exciting to Natsu at that moment.
He had never seen such magnificent architecture.
I have never seen so many humans before.
I've never seen such diverse lighting displays before.
[So much so that Natsu completely transformed into a bewildered monster on the way here.]
[He would occasionally point at someone and let out a series of exclamations.]
Sitting behind Natsu, Irene, like an older sister, looked at him, who now seemed like a country bumpkin visiting the city, and couldn't help but smile.
In her view, Natsu was like a child who had been locked inside a room since childhood, holding a naive view of everything outside.
[Or rather... it was pure curiosity, curiosity without any ulterior motives, that made Eileen, a queen who had witnessed the complexities of human nature, feel very comfortable around her.]
Even the fatigue from the previous series of battles had disappeared.
She looked at Natsu with a smile in her eyes, occasionally answering his questions and enthusiastically explaining the significance and historical anecdotes behind various buildings...
Eileen: "I have a feeling... something's off about me in this canopy!"
August: "Something's not right? Hahaha, I think it's starting to feel like Eileen's fate in the underworld is starting to diverge from yours!"
August's aged eyes were fixed on the scene of Irene and Natsu interacting in the sky.
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
An ambiguous murmur:
"The gears of fate... have begun to turn!"
Chapter Sixty-Three: Using the Queen as a Bargaining Chip?! (Please Subscribe!)
"Delicious! Delicious! This is delicious, that is delicious too!! Wow, there are so many delicious foods in the human world!"
[Inside the royal palace in the heart of the Doragunov Kingdom.]
Natsu sat alone at the dining table, before him laid out rare delicacies he had never seen before.
[The various finest ingredients, after being cooked by renowned chefs in the Kingdom of Dolagunov, all possessed an exquisite flavor, allowing the worldly-wise Natsu to devour dozens of kilograms of them!]
[As it stands, Natsu now has a pile of empty plates taller than himself.]
Even so, food continued to be cooked in the kitchen.
[There's no way around it, Natsu is really starving right now.]
[After promising Irene he would provide her with a good meal, Natsu had been looking forward to it ever since.]
And as it turned out, the long-awaited feast did not disappoint.
[At the dining table, the maid who had been assigned to dress Natsu looked at him with a smirk.]
Fish bones, grease, meat scraps, and other debris flew everywhere.
To be honest, they had almost never seen anyone eat so much.
"I find it hard to imagine how such a small body can hold so much food."
A maid dressed in bunny ears blinked, then whispered to her companion with some disbelief.
"Actually, if you look closely, she's not exactly young, more like a minor. She looks to be around 1.5 meters tall, which is understandable since she's still developing."
Another maid responded.
Indeed, although Natsu is only about ten years old, his height has already reached about 1.5 meters due to years of training, making him look much taller than a ten-year-old.
More than anything, he resembles a fourteen or fifteen-year-old teenager, not yet an adult.
[Moreover, he's a very strong young man, so it's understandable that he eats a lot during his growth spurt.]
But only Lucy, outside the celestial canopy, truly knows all of this.
What do you mean by growing? Natsu can eat that much to begin with, okay?
Even today, Lucy can still recall the first time she met Natsu and Happy.
At that time, those two guys looked like they were starving ghosts reincarnated.
He ate like crazy, and in one meal he spent almost half of his savings at that time.
It broke Lucy's heart for days.
Natsu: "Hehe, eating more gives you more energy!"
Lucy: "That's way too much! You should just shut up, just looking at you makes me angry!"
【"correct!"】
Suddenly, Natsu stopped eating and asked the maid beside him a question.
"Where is your queen? We haven't seen her since we entered the city!"
The maids naturally knew that Natsu was asking about Queen Irene.
A maid then approached and bowed slightly.
[She said, "Due to the pressing affairs of the nation, Queen Irene and the guardian beast, Lord Belserion, summoned the kingdom's high-ranking officials upon their return to discuss how to combat the evil dragon race."]
"As she spoke," the maid said, glancing at the enormous pendulum clock behind her.
"Judging by the time, this meeting must have been going on for more than three hours already."
"More than three hours?"
Natsu, with a whole ham in his mouth, nodded slightly, then, as if remembering something, immediately asked.
"By the way, you should be quite familiar with this kingdom, right?"
After all, he was new here, and although everyone had been friendly so far, it wasn't Natsu's style to let his guard down.
He remained highly vigilant towards these strangers and intended to thoroughly understand the kingdom.
If all goes as expected, Natsu will need to stay here for a while longer.
[This is to solidify the new insights gained from the previous battle with the dragon.]
Therefore, for his safety, Natsu must thoroughly understand this kingdom, including the crisis it currently faces, and so on...
To get the most honest feedback, ask the locals.
Of course, Natsu wouldn't be foolish enough to believe everything the other person said; he has the ability to judge right from wrong.
"I'm new here and not entirely sure, so could you please explain?"
"No, no, since Lord Natsu wants to know, I will naturally tell you everything I know," the maid quickly waved her hand.
He paused, gathered his thoughts, and then slowly began to speak.
"If we're talking about our kingdom, the most noteworthy person is our Queen."
"Eileen?" Natsu nodded slightly.
"Yes, Queen Irene." A hint of pride flashed across the maid's face.
"She was... a perfect queen who combined beauty, wisdom, talent, and kindness!"
August: "Wow, Eileen, it seems you were quite popular with your people back then!"
Agil: "Indeed, the pride in the maid's eyes was unmistakable; they have always adored you."
Brandish: "After all, she is Lady Irene. I don't think it's surprising that she could do this."
Eileen: "Maybe... but unfortunately, they betrayed me later."
"With that man at the head, the entire kingdom regards me as an omen of doom..."
Eileen's tone was low and somber.
This also made everyone in the world channel vaguely feel that something unspeakable must have happened at that time.
But, despite the fact that countless people want to know exactly what happened.
However, Eileen did not mention the matter again, as if she did not want to recall it.
Therefore, everyone had no choice but to suppress their curiosity.
He then looked up at the sky, hoping to find the answer there.
At this moment, just as the maid was enthusiastically recounting the kingdom's history to Natsu...