CH 233

“My name is Arsha van Sekhmet, and I am the King of the Macallan Kingdom.”

The King of the Macallan Kingdom was a colorful woman of great beauty. Blonde hair, blue eyes, sharp yet subtle jawline, milky white skin, and beautiful curves. Arsha’s beauty seemed to be screaming that it was the definition of beauty itself.

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[Arsha van Sekhmet]

[King of the Macallan Kingdom]

[A beauty above all beauties. She captivates men who have laid eyes on her.]

[Type: Named NPC]

[Level: 77]

[Sex: Female]

[Age: 22]

[Affiliation: Macallan Kingdom]

[Position: King]

[Class: Lord of the Macallan]

[Titles: Macallan’s Star, Beauty, Top-Tier Beauty, Distressed Young Lord, Flower in Danger]

She was so beautiful that Siegfried discreetly flashed his Rune of Insight at her to check her details.

“It is an honor to meet you as well. My name is Siegfried van Proa, King Arsha,” Siegfried greeted.

Then, they went straight to the point.

“I have heard of your exploits from General Overlock. I heard that Your Majesty has racked up quite the accomplishments during your time at the Arachnid Temporary Outpost?”

“He was just flattering me…”

“The report I received states that… Your Majesty is the hero who saved the Macallan Kingdom from peril.”

“Not at all; it was just a coincidence. Please do not overestimate me.”

Siegfried acted humbly when his achievements were mentioned, impressing the Macallan Kingdom officials with his humbleness.

‘He is truly an amazing hero!’

‘Oh!’

‘Hoo! How can such a young hero be so humble as well?!’

‘It looks like the Proatine Kingdom will be flourishing from now on!’

The officials didn’t suspect that Siegfried was faking his humbleness.

They thoroughly believed that Siegfried was a humble man of honor, and it was all thanks to the effect of Siegfried’s passive skill from the Great Hunter title—Great Honor.

[Great Honor]

[Effects: +500 First Impression, +500 Affinity with NPCs, +500 Presence, +500 Charisma]

He had obtained the Great Hunter title by becoming the Dragon Slayer, Vampire Lord Slayer, and Lycanthrope Lord Slayer. The title’s passive skill was amazing. It seemed like the NPCs were hallucinating while they were looking at Siegfried.

A good example of the effect was if Siegfried was sitting on the bench staring blankly into the space in front of him. Ten out of ten Adventurers would think, ‘What’s that dumbass doing?’ without a sliver of doubt, but NPCs were different.

There was an extremely high chance that the NPCs would marvel at Siegfried’s dumb look. The NPCs were probably going to say something along the lines of ‘Wow! He must be deep in thought about something important!’ or ‘He looks like a man of wisdom…’

This was the exact reaction of the Macallan Kingdom’s officials.

‘His confident strides! He is a man of all men! His stride alone makes me certain that he is indeed a hero!’

‘I thought he was nothing special when I heard he was the king of a small kingdom, but who could have known that he would be such a dashing young man?!’

‘Hmm… Those deep eyes filled with wisdom… That handsome face on top of those broad shoulders… He’s not a normal person, that’s for sure…’

‘I want to make him my son-in-law!’

The officials of the Macallan Kingdom got extremely infatuated with Siegfried the moment they laid their eyes on him.

[Alert: The Officials of the Macallan Kingdom likes you!]

[Alert: The Macallan Kingdom’s Officials’ Affinity with you has increased by +100!]

[Alert: You have completely captivated the Officials of the Macallan Kingdom!]

In addition, a message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes, informing him that even the king—Arsha—was interested in him.

[Alert: The King of the Macallan Kingdom, Arsha, is curious about you!]

[Alert: The King wishes to speak with you in private.]

‘Huh? Why are they so quick? Is it because of my title….?’ Siegfried was able to pinpoint the reason behind the messages with ease. After all, there had to be a strong enough reason for these messages to appear.

“King Siegfried,” Arsha said.

“Yes, King Arsha?”

“I wish to discuss something with you in private as a king to another king. Would you be willing to speak with me over a cup of tea?”

“It is my pleasure,” Siegfried replied with a smile.

He wasn’t dumb enough to refuse the invitation of a beauty.

***

Most of the conversation flowed with Arsha asking questions and Siegfried answering them.

‘Just hurry up and give me my reward… I’m starting to get bored…’ Siegfried’s head was filled with such thoughts while talking to Arsha.

The only reason he came all the way to the Macallan Kingdom was to get his reward rather than drink tea and chat with a beauty. Of course, he answered as courteously and politely as he could whenever Arsha asked him something because he was worried that offending her in any way would affect the reward he was due to receive.

“So… our Macallan Kingdom wishes to…” Arsha said, but she bit her lips and stopped talking.

Ding!

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: You have cleared the Quest – ‘An Innocent Invitation’!]

[Alert: You will now receive your reward!]

The message informed him that he had successfully cleared the quest and was about to receive his reward.

“…declare the Proatine Kingdom as our sister kingdom.”

“Sister… Kingdom…?”

“Yes. We will support the Proatine Kingdom financially from now on, and goods from the Proatine Kingdom will also be excluded from taxes.”

Financial support and tax exemption. These two would surely bring great profits to the Proatine Kingdom, and these two rewards were better than any other reward Siegfried could have received from the Macallan Kingdom.

Some people would scoff and say that those rewards were bad because they weren’t tangible rewards. However, the economic and financial profit that the Proatine Kingdom would reap in the long run would definitely be massive.

However, it seemed that there were still more rewards.

“And we wish to support the Proatine Kingdom’s ability to sharpen their local talents into knights. Therefore, we will open the doors of our kingdom’s Knight Academy to the people of Proatine, and they will be admitted under a fully sponsored scholarship program at the expense of our kingdom.”

The Macallan Kingdom was renowned for producing excellent knights, and the secret behind their success was their Royal Knight Academy, which possessed excellent educational and training infrastructures.

Therefore, many kingdoms wanted to send their talented prospects to the Macallan Kingdom’s Royal Knight Academy to study.

However, it was extremely difficult and complex for a foreigner to be admitted to the Royal Knight Academy, and the tuition fees were another problem even if they managed to get admitted. The tuition fees were just too expensive.

If it was going to be compared with reality, the Royal Knight Academy was probably something like the Harvard University of the Nürburg Continent.

The privilege to be admitted to such an outstanding educational facility for absolutely free meant that the Proatine Kingdom would be able to bolster its military strength without the financial burden.

Why?

A kingdom’s military might was directly related to the number of powerful knights and skilled commanders under their banner.

[Alert: You have obtained Financial Support from the Macallan Kingdom!]

[Alert: You have obtained Tax Exemption from the Macallan Kingdom!]

[Alert: You have obtained Scholarship Fund’ from the Macallan Kingdom!]

One message after another popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

‘Isn’t this a jackpot…? So is this what it meant by I’m definitely going to benefit from this quest?’ he thought. He was trying his best to stop his lips from curling all the way up to his ears with near superhuman self-control.

This was a huge profit!

Siegfried would have received a few gold coins and an honorary title if he were just another Adventurer, but his rewards reflected his status as a king regardless of whether his kingdom was big or the size of a rat’s shit.

‘I think I need to buy that guy Cheon Woo-Jin a proper meal…’ he thought.

He recalled that it was Cheon Woo-Jin who had pushed him to win the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament, so he was extremely grateful to him. However, he recently developed a nasty habit of stabbing Cheon Woo-Jin in the back after every meal…

Siegfried thanked Arsha for her generosity, “Thank you very much, King Arsha.”

“Not at all; we’re the grateful ones, our hero and savior.”

“Haha…”

“But… By any chance…” Arsha muttered, seemingly hesitant.

“…?”

“Are you not curious about me…?”

“Pardon me…?” Siegfried tilted his head with a confused dumb look.

He looked extremely dumb as he stared blankly at Arsha.

‘What’s with that question…? Am I supposed to be curious about something?’ he wondered. He racked his brain to try and decipher the meaning behind Arsha’s question.

“Your Majesty?” Siegfried said.

“Y-Yes…?” Arsha responded, looking slightly flustered.

“Is there something I have to ask…?”

“Huh?! What do you mean by that…?”

“That’s…” Siegfried muttered before he decided to come clean, “This is my first time meeting Your Majesty, and we are meeting as one ruler to another… so how can I commit such discourtesy of asking you all sorts of personal things…?”

“B-But… I have already asked you all sorts of things!” Arsha exclaimed. Her face turned bright red.

“Ah! Please do not misunderstand! I am not saying that Your Majesty was rude or anything! Not at all!” Siegfried exclaimed in response after realizing that what he said could have been misunderstood.

He tried his best to explain what he meant, as what he said could be offensive regardless of whether he meant it or not.

Well, it was true that what he said could have sounded quite offensive since he basically stated, ‘I didn’t ask you anything since it’s discourteous of me to do so, but you asked me hundreds of questions despite this being our first meeting, right? I’m not as uncultured as you!’ or something like that…

‘What if she takes back all of my rewards…!’ Siegfried started panicking.

Hamchi was quietly watching the entire thing unfold before his eyes, and he shook his head out of frustration. ‘Kyu… it seems that there truly is a reason why owner punk has been single since birth… Yes, there’s a reason behind it…’ 

Hamchi realized that there was indeed a reason for everything, and it was impossible for there to be smoke without fire.

***

Fortunately, Arsha didn’t seem to be offended by what Siegfried said.

“Then… You are not curious about anything about me…?” she asked.

“Not really…” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion. He didn’t try to curry up to her and simply replied as honestly as he possibly could.

“Is there something I should be curious about? But I am not really curious about anything…” he said.

“I-I see…” she muttered in response. Then, a strange feeling started to well up from inside her heart.

‘This is my first time meeting someone like him… How can it be possible that there isn’t anything he wants to know about me when everyone else tries to ask at least one more question to me…?’ Arsha was baffled.

Siegfried’s actions felt quite foreign to her, and she—who was a beauty among all beauties—could not understand what was going on in his head.

‘I want to know more about you!’ she exclaimed inwardly.

Something seemed to have been triggered deep inside her heart.

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: The King of the Macallan Kingdom, Arsha, is extremely curious about you!]

It was a very straightforward message that plunged Siegfried into confusion.

He couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation, so he decided to ask for help.

“Hey, Hamchi,” he whispered.

“Kyu?”

“Why does it keep saying that this woman is curious about me?”

“Owner punk…”

“Yeah?”

“Hamchi will get cancer because of you…”

“Why…?”

“Just cut that thing off, will you?” Hamchi said while pointing at Siegfried’s dingdong.