Chapter 182: Leaving (2) (1/2)

Even though so many events have happened recently, humans are beings who always forget things fast.

On this day, or rather this night, the festival that had been temporarily halted because of the previous events had resumed at full tempo. Wherever you looked, you could see people dancing, laughing, and playing around.

One of the causes was that the civilian casualties or property damage had been pretty low. In fact, if not for Nihil's grand entrance, a great part of the civilians would not even have known that something had happened before the next morning.

The second reason was that they knew that the prince would enter the Astral realm today.

For humans, this day marked something very important.

Since the day of the second King, Pluto the peaceful King, there was something that had been made clear. Every time the crown prince or princess came back from the Astral dimension, it would be with an incredible surge of power.

In this world where Might made Right, what the commoners needed wasn't a kind and benevolent ruler, but someone who could give them the protection they sought.

A weak ruler meant a weak country and a weak country meant that you would be bullied by everyone, while your population would be hunted and treated as slaves.

This was the harsh reality of this world.

Of course, if the King was both strong and kind, then he would be seen as the perfect ruler in the eyes of commoners.

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[Church of Castitas]

Sitting in a secret room of the church, Sol absentmindedly observed the people below.

Currently, the church was almost full as children of age were being tested openly. After the test, some would go away with dejected eyes while others with large smiles plastered on their face. The hall they were using reminded Sol of one belonging to a catholic cathedral, only, much wider.

Today was an annual event for everyone in Lustburg. A national event that was being held in all the big territories of the kingdom where the church had its branches.

It was the greatest occasion for commoner children to separate themselves from the masses and get a chance to be sponsored by rich merchants or nobles.

If they had a high enough Capacity[1] to form a contract with a B rank or at least a C rank magical being, then it wasn't impossible for their destiny to change completely.

Sadly, the reality was cruel.

The chances to awaken with at least 10 Capacity points were no more than 10%. As for the chance of getting a Capacity high enough to contract with an S rank being, which was 100 CP, the chance of it happening was 0.0001%.

Even the worst RNG would not give such a despair-inducing low rate.

What made capacity so important was because the innate difference between a Tier 3 creature and a Tier 2 or Tier 1 was insane.

Tier 3 went from rank E to C and were able to use mana from their birth thanks to having their mana veins open. But that was all. In a way, aside from being able to use mana as soon as they were born, the sole difference between Tier 3 magical beings and Humans were their physical abilities.

But Tier 2 magical beings, which went from B to A could awaken their horns and had a higher chance to awaken a special type of magic.

Sol could distinctly remember his fight against Setsuna. The moment she used her horns, it was like he was facing a completely different being.

Furthermore, she had access to three natural elements. Though it seemed that her control over water and wind was quite lacking as of yet.

What really made tier 2 magical beings important was the fact that they had high chances of entering the Duke realm and this, more than anything, was attractive.

Because he had been surrounded by a bunch of powerful beings for as long as he could remember, Sol had grown somewhat used to it, but in reality, reaching the Duke realm was already enough to become renowned in the world as a powerhouse.

Since obtaining a tier 2 being meant high chances of obtaining a Duke title, the nobles, the crown, or the church would do anything to snatch such a prize.

Though generally, such talented people were already scions of powerful noble families, like Athena.

As for S rank magical being, or Tier 1. They were at a completely different level and were assured to reach the level of Duke at their maturity, with a high chance of becoming a King.

While he did not know the capacity of his predecessors, he knew that they had never had less than two or more companions of at least A or B class. Which would mean that all the previous Kings or Queens had at least more than 100 Capacity points.

His father, Mars, had a ridiculous capacity of 350, while in his own case, he had broken that record and reached an unprecedented 500.

Once again, there was only 0.0001% to reach 100 capacity points. Every time Sol thought about how low the chances of 'simply' reaching 100 capacity points were, he couldn't even begin to phantom how low the chances were to reach beyond it and could only laugh at how much rigged the game was for the royal family.

Sol was the ninth King. This means that an almost impossible odd repeated itself nine times.

If this wasn't a rigged game, then what was it?

'Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action–though in this case, it's the goddesses' action.'

He chuckled inwardly.

Of course, he wasn't sanctimonious enough to cry injustice and ask for equal rights. This rigged game favored him, so why should he complain?

Not only was he an S class, but he could also form a contract with many beings that had a high chance of becoming Kings or Dukes.

What's more, since he was a dimensional mage, then, as long as he did not die, he was assured of becoming a Demi-god.

He was a future king, a future powerhouse, and was surrounded by a plethora of beautiful and powerful women who were crazy for him.

'Man, my life is beautiful.'

This was why, in the deepest part of his heart—Sol felt afraid.

Since he had everything from the start, it meant that he had only things to lose. He did not wish for his life to become a tragedy.

”-ness...Your highness.”

”Humm?”

He was brought out from his brooding by a voice he did not recognize at first, but then, it came back to him.

Focusing on the armored man kneeling in front of him, he asked,

”What is the matter — White Knight?”

The man standing in front of him, or rather the young man, for Sol knew that he was not that much older than him was the white knight he should have fought before fighting Setsuna back then in the coliseum.

The elite forces of the church were the paladin. Their mission was to protect the different priestesses when they went out of the capital to accomplish miracles and the like.

The title of White Knight was given to the most talented of them all and his mission was to protect the Holy Daughter of Castitas and if necessary, serve as a meat shield for the Supreme Daughter.

Of course, in this generation, the situation of this knight was quite awkward. After all, there was no Holy Daughter for him to protect and as for serving as a shield for the Supreme Daughter. He would not even last 3 seconds against a King as he was now.

When they had first met this evening, Sol had been ready for some hostility. After all, he remembered that the knight had somewhat of a crush on Camelia since she was the one who saved him when he was a kid.

But none of this happened.

This could only mean that either this man was able to hide all his negative feelings, or he was genuinely sorry. Another possibility was that Camelia used her power to brainwash him, but she had assured him that she only activated her control on people who showed signs of betrayal.

Even though Sol did not quite believe Camelia as much as he did in the past, he did not wish to reach the level where he doubted all her words. As such, he chose to believe her in this.