Weapon seller in the world of magic

For a moment, Philip simply stared.

Then the meaning struck him.

This was his punishment.

He swallowed hard and looked at the mountain of food before him.

His stomach was already full to bursting.

Under ordinary circumstances, this task would be impossible.

But Philip was a Spirit Warrior.

If he carefully circulated ether energy through his digestive system, he could accelerate the breakdown of food.

The thought brought little comfort.

Even with ether, there were still practical and deeply humiliating consequences to consider.

His face twitched.

After a long internal struggle, he decided on a different approach.

Instead of digesting the food naturally, he would use his ether to burn it away inside his stomach.

It was dangerous.

If he lost control, he could injure himself severely.

But at least it was better than suffering the alternative.

At fifteen minutes past four, King Caleb rose and left the chamber without another word.

Before departing, he assigned a trusted royal knight to remain behind and supervise the prime minister.

The royal knights of Celestra were a force apart.

They answered only to the Supreme General and the king himself.

Not even the Crown Prince Gideon had the authority to command them.

Philip sat back down.

With a grim expression, he resumed eating.

Each bite felt heavier than the last.

As soon as food reached his stomach, he guided his ether inward, burning it away with painstaking care.

Fifteen minutes later, he had cleared enough space to continue.

So he ate again.

An hour passed.

The room, once fragrant with appetizing aromas, now felt oppressive.

Philip’s fine robes clung to him with sweat.

His jaw ached from chewing.

And still, the platters remained distressingly full.

Inside his mind, he cursed both Kiara and King Caleb with increasing creativity.

”That cursed weapon merchant,” he thought bitterly as he shoveled another spoonful into his mouth. ”She has made a fool of me. If only I possessed greater strength, I would bury her beneath the earth. And as for Caleb Crescent...”

He swallowed, belched softly, and winced.

”My stomach has become a battlefield.”

Another hour dragged by.

At last, Philip slumped in his chair, pale and exhausted.

”I cannot continue,” he muttered under his breath.

The royal knight watching him from across the room actually felt a flicker of pity.

Unfortunately, duty was duty.

A sword may sympathize with the condemned, but it still falls when the executioner gives the signal.

Then, at that very moment, a talisman woven entirely from ether appeared before Philip’s eyes.

It flashed once.

Then dissolved into his forehead.

A voice message poured directly into his mind.

Philip’s dull eyes widened.

Life returned to them like sunlight breaking through storm clouds.

He sprang to his feet so abruptly that his chair scraped loudly against the floor.

”Howard!” he exclaimed. ”Go and inform His Majesty that the royal guest has finally entered the city. I must begin the welcoming arrangements immediately.”

The royal knight narrowed his eyes.

He clearly did not trust the prime minister’s sudden enthusiasm.

”Please remain here.”

Rather than leaving personally, Howard relayed the order to the doorkeeper outside.

The servant dashed off toward the king’s quarters.

Howard then returned to his original position, standing like an unmoving statue while keeping Philip firmly within sight.

Philip did not protest.

He was far too relieved.

Instead, he continued communicating with his spies through ether messages, obtaining updates on Kiara’s exact location.

Now that she was inside the city, tracking her was as easy as following a lantern in the dark.

*

Meanwhile, in the streets of Lunaris City, Kiara drove her armored vehicle at a leisurely pace through the broad avenues. She was driving it like 10 hours already, but she wasn’t tired at all.

The vehicle drew stares from every direction.

Merchants leaned out from their shops.

Children pointed excitedly.

Guards turned their heads in astonishment.

The strange metal carriage moved on four rubber wheels without any beast pulling it.

To the people of Celestra, it looked like some mechanical puppet. However, surprisingly, no one is unafraid of the unknown here, unlike at Phoenix Empire’s Imperial City.

Kiara rested one hand on the steering wheel and glanced out the window.

”As expected,” she murmured. ”It is almost a carbon copy of the Imperial City.”

The architecture was similar.

The market layout was similar.

Even the flow of traffic and the arrangement of districts felt familiar.

It was like stepping into a mirror that reflected a slightly smaller version of home.

Her initial curiosity faded.

With a faint shrug, she pressed down on the accelerator.

The vehicle surged forward.

Though Lunaris was smaller than the Imperial City of the Phoenix Empire, it was still an enormous capital sprawling across more than a thousand square kilometers.

Even so, after another thirty-five minutes, the royal palace finally rose before them.

Kiara slowed as she approached the main gate.

She fully expected to be stopped and questioned.

Accordingly, she lowered the window and prepared to present her invitation.

To her surprise, the gates swung open without resistance.

The soldiers stepped aside.

No one challenged her.

Kiara raised an eyebrow.

”Well,” she muttered, glancing at the guards. ”That was unexpected.”

She offered them a polite smile.

”Thank you.”

Then she drove forward into the palace grounds.

When she arrived at the foot of the palace steps, she and Zion stepped out of the vehicle.

Waiting there was a familiar figure wearing an expression so bright that it nearly rivaled the afternoon sun.

Prime Minister Philip.

The moment he saw her, relief flooded his face.

It was the expression of a drowning man who had finally spotted land.

”Welcome to Lunaris, Lady Kiara,” he said, his smile wide and genuine.

Kiara stored the vehicle back into her inventory, then returned his greeting with a slight bow.

”It has been some time, Prime Minister Philip. My apologies for arriving late. I encountered some trouble with the fuel along the way.”

”Fuel?” Philip repeated, blinking in confusion.

His mind immediately raced.

Was Fuel the name of a spirit beast?

A criminal organization?

A guild?

Some hidden force powerful enough to delay a woman like Lady Kiara?

Seeing the puzzled look on Prime Minister Philip’s face, Kiara immediately realized that she had carelessly used a term that did not belong to this world, and because she had already learned that a single unfamiliar word could sprout ten unnecessary suspicions in the minds of nobles and kings alike, she explained herself before his imagination wandered too far.

”My vehicle runs on all kinds of oil, Prime Minister Philip,” she said in a calm tone, patting the metallic body of the armored vehicle with her palm. ”In my homeland, the substance that feeds the vehicle and gives it the strength to move is called fuel. Just as a horse needs grain and water, and a Spirit Warrior needs ether, this thing also needs something to sustain it.”

Philip’s eyes brightened at once, as though he had been handed a new piece for the puzzle he had spent the entire day trying to assemble.

”Ah, I see,” he said with an eager nod, committing the foreign word to memory. ”Fuel.”

He repeated it once more in his mind, savoring the novelty of the term, and then his smile widened.

”Please, Lady Kiara, come in.”

Kiara and Zion followed him up the broad marble steps that led into the palace.

*

On the second floor, hidden behind a tall glass window draped with silver curtains, Prince Gideon stood with his two maids and watched the arrivals below with keen interest.

The prince leaned forward quite forward, his arms resting on the windowsill.

One of the maids narrowed her eyes and whispered, ”Your Highness, who might that young man beside her?”

It was an understandable question.

Zion was striking in appearance. He possessed a sharper and imposing aura, standing like a blade sheathed in human form.

Prince Gideon gave his maid a sidelong glance.

”Is it not obvious?” He said, his tone calm but faintly amused. ”He was walking behind the lady, but not a full step behind, instead half a step. He is an attendant and also a bodyguard.”

His eyes returned to Kiara.

He studied the woman carefully, as though trying to read the first lines of an unopened book.

”At the very least,” He murmured, ”the rumors did not lie about her appearance.”

There was a thoughtful pause.

”Beauty is like a jewel,” Gideon said softly, more to himself than to his maids. ”It catches the eye, but it tells us nothing of the hand that wears it. Some jewels adorn saints, and some adorn serpents. What matters is the heart beneath.”

He turned away from the window and took one final glance at himself in the mirror.

”Alright, let us see what kind of person she truly is.”