The Unwanted Tamer

The next day started early, as everyone had expected. A messenger had arrived long before dawn relaying their summons to the Palace. Their appointment, for lack of a better term, was set to happen midway through the morning, around nine AM. This left them far too little time to get ready. It was a Royal summons after all, they needed to get dressed and prepared like they had for the ball.

Thus, the morning passed far too quickly as Gaia, alongside Stephanie, were handed off between people helping them get ready. The outfits they would be wearing were similar to their ones from the ball, but had slight changes so they didn't make a fashion faux pas. The dress was obnoxious to put on since it required people to help her, but it was put on. Luckily for Gaia, Stephanie had the same issue so she wasn't alone in this. They were both dressed after far too long a time and they were both sat down.

This was when Gaia heard the cursing coming from beside her, and she felt something being applied to her lips. She guessed it was some kind of lipstick, based off what she remembered from the ball. She also felt a brush going over her face, so there was likely makeup as well. This explained the cursing from Stephanie, she hated makeup as she'd complained to Gaia about it before. Gaia only needed part of her face done, thanks to the blindfold, but Stephanie was" tortured" for a longer period of time.

After they escaped the grueling experience of having makeup applied, they had to put on their footwear. Stephanie put on her flats while Gaia ignored the pleas for her to at least wear sandals. When they exited the room they met the other women, who were also just leaving their rooms, and went down together. When they reached the bottom, they found the rest of their group waiting for them.

They left the estate and hopped on Malachite like they had the day before. The trip to the palace would have been uneventful, if not for a shimmer of Glimmerlisks that attacked them. This was obviously odd since they had no food in the mobile building. None of the pests got inside the building thanks to the mesh covering the windows and the poisonous quality of the webbing. The things dropped pretty quickly from the poison allowing the group to relax. The only one that didn't was Gaia, who was on edge just from the sound of the creatures.

The ordeal was over quickly and they arrived at the palace's front gates where they were swiftly let in. They weren't even stopped there and just told to immediately enter. When they reached the front entrance, they climbed down from Malachite via the webevator, and entered the palace. Gaia was the only one to remain on Malachite's shell as he shrunk down so her throne was once again in place. They were led to a waiting room where they sat for a few minutes while the servant went to relay their arrival. It was during this time the Baron spoke.

"Alright everyone. We'll likely be going to the Throne-room. When we arrive, just do as I do. The main thing to remember is that you shouldn't raise your head before the King or another Royal family member says to do so. There will be other nobles in the room, so we must follow this. Do you all understand?"

Everyone either nodded or replied with some form of affirmation. The only one who didn't was Gaia who spoke up. "Um. What about me? I can't really see what you'll be doing, so what should I do?"

"Mainly just keep your head lowered and if you don't mind walking in with us. If you have any issues, you can ride Malachite then. It would look disrespectful for someone to be sitting in front of the King as they enter, but if it looks like Malachite did so to help you then no one can complain." The Baron explained.

"I can try, but are there any steps we'll need to walk down or up? Also, what's the flooring in the room?"

"A few, yes and carpet. At least for where we'll be walking." The Baron replied.

"Then, I'll likely be riding Malachite as soon as we'd get to them. Carpet makes it harder for me to feel where things are. Are you sure I can't just ride Malachite in and save us all the trouble?"

"I personally don't care and neither will the King or his family. It's the other nobles we need to worry about. Especially since we interrupted the Dukes' meeting yesterday. So I do apologize, but please do so."

"Fine, but it's fine for him to pick me up if I stumble or something, right?" She asked.

"Yes."

With that, the conversation died down. There were a few hushed conversations as they waited. Gaia was nervous due to the fact they'd be in front of a group of nobles in addition to the royal family. She wasn't sure how it would go and the fact that she'll need to try to walk on carpet was annoying alone, without including the fact there'd be stairs. They were both annoying and somewhat difficult things to walk on when you couldn't see where you're going.

Carpet was nice to step on, as it was usually soft. This, however, also made it dampen what she could feel and hear when stepping. She couldn't tell when something was close by like she could when stepping on stone or wood. It also dampened the sound of footsteps so she couldn't hear when someone was approaching. This had caused her to jump when she focused on something and not paying attention to her aura. She'd gotten so used to people being in her aura that she tended to ignore it when she sensed someone. This only happened when within the estate though.

She just hoped there wouldn't be a large group of people in the room. She was going to be nervous enough trying to follow what the Baron asked, without including any noise they would make. She didn't know how it was going to be so worrying about it wouldn't help, and there wasn't anything she could do about it anyway. She decided to just accept her fate and clumsily do whatever she could.

Around a half hour after the servant left, they returned to lead the group to the throne room. The walk took about ten minutes and wasn't much of an issue as there weren't any stairs. This was a welcome occurrence as she was already dreading the upcoming event. They arrived at the throne room's doors and were stopped for a few moments. The Baron quickly checked to make sure everyone was ready and with everyone's nods, had the servant let them in.

As the doors opened, the servant announced them. He went through every single person's names as he did so. The only one with just one name was Gaia, and she could feel the stares on her as she awkwardly walked her way into the room. Fergus was beside her escorting her, but the carpet still made it very difficult to tell where to step. She thankfully didn't have any problems until the stairs, but that was only about a few seconds after entering the room.

"The stairs are just in front of us." Fergus stated.

She nodded, thanking him, but she still missed the first step and proceeded to stumble. This caused Malachite to immediately jump down from her shoulder and grow so she could just ride on his back. As this happened, she couldn't miss the unmistakable snickers that were coming from the nobles around them. Her face went red with embarrassment and anger as they continued on. There were also a few gasps at the sight, as Malachite was big, and she was sitting on what was essentially a throne herself.

Fergus was still beside her, but instead of escorting her he was just holding her hand. She was thankful for the gesture and held his hand tightly. After a few more moments, they arrived at the point where they were supposed to bow. They all did so, Gaia awkwardly doing so from her own throne-like seat. The King chuckled at the sight, he'd seen all of it before. This led to silence overtaking the room. It stretched for a short period before being broken as the King spoke.

"Baron Carrelion, and your companions. Thank you for answering my summons this morning. The information you brought me yesterday was of great importance and necessitated immediate attention. I thank you for the quick thinking." He directed this towards their group before speaking to the entire room. "They have brought me vital information regarding the being known as the Eternal Lord."

At this announcement there were gasps and murmurs throughout the gathered nobles. The King once again waited for the noise to lessen before speaking again.

"The people behind him were the parties, guild leader and League associate that cleared the ruins and discovered the artifact that was brought back. In their exploration of the ruins they had also discovered a journal that they subsequently deciphered that had detailed information about the Eternal Lord's journey. It had information that covered from the start of his journey up until the ceremony that we know of from the myth." There were a few moments of silence after this before he spoke again. "Thus, I believed it necessary to reward them for their service. For their work, they will be awarded the Medal of Merit and allowed to choose one item from my personal treasury."

There was silence as the King's words sunk in. Then the gathered nobles exploded into shouts of outrage and disbelief. They were loud, and the noise was only increasing as they all tried to be heard over one another. Gaia was already covering her ears as they started ringing. The King was trying to peacefully restore order to the room, but no one could hear him. Gaia was desperately trying to do anything to dampen the noise as Shadow was whimpering beside her. The King, realizing nothing was going to change anytime soon, released his aura.

The aura pulsed out from the King like an explosion. It covered the entire room, severely dampening Gaia's senses if not blocking it completely. It felt like a physical weight to Gaia, and was not comforting in the slightest. It felt like he could squash her at any time if had wanted to do so. She was forced to the back of Malachite's shell like gravity had increased multiple times. The worst part was that even though the noise had been replaced with silence, the aura actually caused her pain, due to the pressure.

After a minute of his aura being released, it disappeared as quickly as it appeared. As soon as it was gone, Gaia was gasping for air and coughing slightly as she tried and failed to push herself up. She hadn't even noticed the few tears that had streamed down her face from the pain. No one else seemed to have noticed or been forced down nearly as hard, they'd all been forced to their knees though. She eventually gave up as even Malachite was having trouble trying to stand again. Realizing this, she guessed the reason she'd been so effected was because of the whole Fractured Spirit situation and it effecting her bonds as well.

Either way, there wasn't anything she could do about it. The King, after recalling his aura, looked at the gathered nobles before returning his attention to the group in front of him. This was when he focused on Gaia and realized something had happened. This also caused her companions to look themselves, a few rushed towards her and her bonds with Fergus being the first there. He helped her to sit while Francois and John helped Malachite stand, her other bonds had been on her when it occurred so they were still where they'd been. She quickly transferred most of them into their tattoos to let them rest.

Once it appeared Gaia would be alright, the King spoke again. "We will award the medals today, but the treasury access will have to be arranged for a later date. I have much to do in the coming days, and will likely need you to be close by in case we have any questions about the information. I ask that you stay close to the capital for a while longer. I know many of you are hunters, so I will not hinder your ability to take requests."

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"Very well, my King." The Baron replied for the group.

The next thing to happen was the group rising and retreating from the room. She guessed the King had gestured for their departure, from the haste in her companions movements. After they left the room and the doors closed, everyone took a deep breath. Gaia was still coughing as she tried to catch her breath. The Baron quickly made sure everyone else was alright before moving to Gaia himself.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

It took a minute for her to be able to speak without coughing every other word. "Aura was crushing. Forced to the ground. Painful and couldn't breathe." She managed to get out between breaths.

Everyone was around her after that seeming to be worried. She was thankful for their presence but there wasn't anything any of them could do about it. They waited there for a few minutes while Gaia recovered. By the time they started moving, she'd returned to normal, but was deep in thought.

The King's aura hadn't lasted for but a minute, but it was an aura from an adamantine rank hunter. Gaia being a stone rank, was powerless under it and with her situation, it hadn't just effected her body. This was just another consequence of the title and showed her another weakness she needed to worry about. She was thankful that she'd discovered it now with someone who didn't mean her any harm, instead of during a battle or similarly dangerous situation.

They'd just turned the corner from the throne room when they heard its doors open and footsteps head in their direction. They continued towards the palace's entrance but heard the King's voice just as they were about to turn into the entrance hall.

"Jack!" They heard.

The Baron turned to see the King jogging towards them, the Queen walking behind him by only a dozen feet. They arrived in front of the group at nearly the same time.

"Sorry about what happened in there. Especially you Gaia. I didn't think my aura would effect you that much. It's usually the quickest way to quiet the annoying nobles down." He stated.

"It's alright. I'm fine now and at least I know now." Gaia replied.

"What'd you come after us for Harald?" The Baron asked.

"Ah, right. Victoria, do you mind handing me a few of the medals?" King Harald asked his wife.

She obliged and they moved around handing out their medals. Once all of them were handed out the King spoke again. "There are your medals. Now, I don't want to keep you any longer today so I'll send you a letter when we have a time for all of you to come to the treasury. Once again, all of you are free to take requests from the League, all I ask is that you stay somewhat close to the Capital when you do so. We might need you at some point soon."

"Thanks, Harald. We'll head out now then." The Baroness replied.

"Oh, also the tournaments will be happening in a little over a month if you're all interested. We hoped you'd be willing to enter since we wanted to see you all in action ourselves." The Queen called after them.

The group left the palace a few moments later and climbed on Malachite after he'd grown to his mobile building size. He took off a minute later after everyone had gotten situated. As they traveled Gaia asked them about the medals they'd gotten.

"I sometimes forget your not from here, Gaia." Francois stated.

"The Medal of Merit is exactly how it sounds. It's a medal awarded to someone who has done something meritorious for the Kingdom. In this case it was for retrieving and returning the artifact, keeping it from being taken by an enemy, and uncovering information about an extremely dangerous person. They aren't awarded often since one needs to do quite a lot for the Kingdom for it to even be considered. No one had been awarded this medal for nearly two hundred years. The fact we were given them is honestly almost unbelievable. It just shows how much they believe that what we did was important." Griff explained.

"Oh. Sounds cool." Gaia replied.

She immediately felt a bunch of stares and shrugged. "What?" She asked.

"Just sounds cool?" Stephanie asked incredulous.

"Yeah?"

"I really don't understand you sometimes." Griff replied.

"Well, it's just a piece of metal that signifies someone did something important, right? I can't even see it, so I don't really get the point." Gaia stated.

There was a beat of silence before Fergus shook his head and spoke. "Fair enough."

"Now enough about these medals. What are the tournaments the Queen was talking about? They sound interesting. Are they something we could enter, and are there prizes?" She asked.

"Slow down. There are nine major tournaments. Not all of them we can enter and some we shouldn't enter. The combat ones are divided up between ranks. The tournaments include a swordsmanship competition, a magic competition, an archery competition, a martial arts competition, a one on one hunter competition, a party versus party hunter competition, a monster hunting competition, a dungeon crawl, and what everyone calls the treasure hunt. There are also numerous crafting competitions, but the major ones are combat as they tend to gather the most spectators." The Baron replied.

"Really! What do they entail then?" Gaia asked excitedly.

Tournaments were something she only knew from books or movies, so she was excited to hear about them. She was honestly more excited to go to one herself, though. Even if she wouldn't be able to actually see it. They'd always seemed so entertaining and fun. Now, she might be able to experience one. She would just try to get a seat by the arena, if she could, so she could sense the action.

The Baron and his family explained all of the tournaments to her during their trip back to the mansion. It took almost the entire trip to finish covering it.

The tournaments would take place over a week's time. There would be roughly one major tournament a day with a few having two where they were more like sub tournaments. The first four competitions were pretty straightforward in their descriptions. Each was a competition in which the participants would demonstrate their overall skills and abilities in each field. Most actual skills would be unusable, so they would only be showing their talent in each field. Abilities would not be hampered since they were almost always a passive boost to something or gave a constant effect, like Gaia's aura. This was partially to make it a bit safer, since they didn't want any deaths from the matches.

The next two were also somewhat straightforward. The one in one and party versus party hunter tournaments were strictly for hunters. If one wasn't a hunter they wouldn't be able to take part in it. The one on one tournament was usually full of people who were searching for a party and were trying to show off their skills and abilities, hoping to catch a group's attention. The party versus party tournament was different though. There were two separate versions one was just a party versus party fight in which it was the two groups fighting each other. The other version was round robin style match, in which each group would put forth a single member. The member would fight the one from the other side and the victor would stay in the ring until defeated or the other party didn't have any other members. This tournament usually passed rather quickly so they tended to host both on the same day, while allowing the participating parties to rest between them.

The next tournament was a monster hunting competition. This one was different in that the participants would be in an arena, like a coliseum, and would have waves of monsters being released. They would need to try to kill as many monsters as they could. This was also a team tournament and usually only had hunters as its participant. The monsters that would be released were designated with numbers based on their strength. Each wave would show an increase in the strength and number of the monsters, so most didn't last more than about five to ten waves. The team with the most points by the time they dropped out of the fight would be declared the winner.

The last two were different from the others for a couple reasons. The dungeon crawl would have the participating teams enter a dungeon and try to clear as much of it as possible. While the treasure hunt was actually part of the dungeon crawl tournament. The dungeon that was used for this was one that was under the control of the royal family. It was a dungeon that had a few odd rules for one. The main rule was that no one could die within it. If someone inside were to take an attack that was considered fatal, they would be teleported outside and healed just enough that they wouldn't die. The other rule was that it was constantly changing so no one knew its layout.

The constantly changing dungeon was massive and mostly unexplored. It was also believed that magical items were somehow made within it, since the number of magical items being discovered hadn't dropped in the couple of centuries the tournament had been occurring. The weirdest part was that the items were all different so one would never know what could come out from it. This was why the last two tournaments were mixed together. They also lasted for the entire day, which was much longer for the participants. The time within the dungeon was sped up quite a bit causing the single day outside to be around a week within. The dungeon also allowed for the spectators to view the participants while within, meaning it was even more of a spectacle. This wasn't something that was usually possible for dungeons or portals so it was something that interested everyone.

The way for the last two mixed tournaments to be judged was on how far and many floors in the dungeon a team got to and the strength, along with number, of magical items they returned with. The dungeon was not fully explored as far as anyone knew, since it constantly changed, but there were common environments within. This meant any information could be used to further explore the dungeon. The week limit was to ensure no one delved too deeply into it that they encountered any higher ranked monsters, or worse. No one knew if the rules changed if one got deeper into it, so no one wanted to find out during a tournament.

With all of this information explained, and their arrival at the mansion, Gaia was even more excited for the tournaments. She could participate in quite a few and her friends could as well. She looked forward to the new experiences they'd bring. The only issue for her was that they were around a month away. Meaning she had to wait and be patient, which she wasn't looking forward to.

She came back from her thoughts as she entered her room. She went to her bed and laid down on it, after hopping off Malachite's shell and let her bonds all relax in the bed. The summons had turned into quite an event for them all. She wanted to let them get comfortable and rest after the ordeal. She needed rest herself and she hadn't even had to carry multiple people on her back. She was worried about Malachite since he'd been hit just as hard as she had. She was about to check on him and make sure he was okay but found him asleep on her stomach. He seemed fine so she let him sleep while she brought her other bonds from their tattoos. She checked on all of them as she did so, but all of them seemed to better off than Gaia and Malachite, due to being in the subspace that was their tattoos.

She relaxed after this knowing her bonds would be fine and fell asleep herself a short while later from her own exhaustion. She was woken up by a knock on her door. She called out that they could enter before realizing she wasn't under any blankets. She quickly rectified this as Fergus entered.

"You alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, exhausted and tired still but I should be alright. Same for my bonds. Just woke up from a nap." She replied with a yawn.

"Ah. Sorry for waking you. I was coming to check on you since you were sleeping the first time I did. Do you want something to eat? Dinner's just about ready."

"It's dinner time? How long did we sleep?" She asked incredulously.

"Around six hours or so, I think? Not entirely sure. I was asleep for a bit myself earlier." He replied honestly.

"Um, yeah. Just give me a minute to get dressed and wake my bonds."

"I'll be outside." He replied as he left the room.

She quickly tossed off the covers and formed her living silk armor around herself. She then woke up her bonds who were asleep. Malachite was the last to wake up, as he was the most tired, but quickly did so when he heard about food. They all took their usual positions and Gaia left the room, her menagerie of creatures beside or on her. Fergus quickly escorted her to the dining room, where they met everyone else. They all asked Gaia how she was, knowing the earlier ordeal had been tiring. She reassured everyone that she was alright.

The rest of dinner passed uneventfully with some small talk or private conversations occurring. After dinner, Fauna convened in Griff's room to discuss their plans. They now had to stay near the capital for a while longer, they guessed until at least the tournaments but weren't entirely sure. What they did know was that even if they didn't have to stay for them, they wanted to. That meant they needed to make some cores while they were staying here. While the Baron could and would happily pay for everything, they wanted to at least take some requests.

If they didn't, they felt they would get rusty. They'd already been on what was essentially a vacation for a few months now, it was time to get back to work. Thus, they decided to check out the Hunter's League building the next day to see what requests were available. The idea actually excited them since they were somewhere new. That meant new monsters, new environments, and new experiences in general. They would be able to hone their skills against different monsters and prepare them for whatever came next.

With this decision, they split up and returned to their rooms. All except Gaia and Fergus who were both awake, having only woken up within the last few hours. They instead went out to the garden and sat on their usual bench. Fergus gazed up at the stars while Gaia just enjoyed the company and the moment. They stayed there for a while before deciding to go inside. They went to Fergus' room and Fergus read her a few short stories from the books they had. She had fallen asleep at some point during them, so he just laid down and tried to fall asleep beside her. This time he fell asleep within moments.