How does he know?!

Did I tell him who I was? No, there’s definitely no way I did...

Did Masuyama tell him then?

No way, that guy looks just as surprised as I was about this revelation...

Was there a spy or something that was snuck into my life?

No, no, no... That’s definitely impossible. Even my classmates didn’t know my real identity so there’s absolutely no way they could have some informant that told him about me.

Then... He has some kind of skill that can bypass Mother’s enchantment that stops people from seeing my actual stats?

Nah... Definitely not possible. I would sooner believe that my girls were also transmigrators than to believe that Mother’s enchantment was bested by someone else.

The King grinned, "Hahaha! You don’t need to look so nervous Aster! Let’s just say that it’s a given that a King like myself would be aware of the people that are the biggest risk to the country!"

I blinked at him before pointing at myself, "Me? Biggest risk?"

Don’t tell me he knows about my Shadow Guards? But I had been so careful with them! I even made sure that anyone who couldn’t be trusted was silenced if they knew about my Shadow Guards! How did he know about them?!

The King gestured at me, "Of course. Do you think the Nilm Family’s influence is only limited to within the Lehcarouc Kingdom? I know that your Family has influence reaching even within this Kingdom as well."

Eh?

Oh, he was talking about my family, not my Shadow Guards.

I actually felt relieved about that fact, since that meant that I have not wasted all my effort in hiding my Shadow Guards.

I sucked in a breath, "How did you know?"

He gestured towards the couch, indicating that we should take a seat so we did so.

The King then sat down on his side of the room with the Queen beside him.

"Let’s just say that there’s people who are interested in keeping the peace around the world. So some things need to be shared to make sure the peace is maintained."

It took me a moment to realise who he was talking about.

"Did the king of Lehcarouc Kingdom tell you about me?"

"Of course. Even she doesn’t want me to accidentally piss off the heir of the Family that could take my life right now if they wanted to."

Err... I think you’re exaggerating but I guess if Mother went all out and wanted to kill him, I don’t think anyone can stop her either.

He turned towards Masuyama, "Did you know about her real identity?"

The prime minister straightened himself, "Ah... Ummm... Actually, I did..."

"Oh? That’s a surprise. How did you know?"

"I’ve err... Worked with her before and it was revealed to me... So that I could also be careful when I interact with her, your Majesty."

"Hmph... That’s a little disappointing. And here I thought I actually knew something that you didn’t for once. Oh well, hahahaha!" The King chuckled.

I scratched my cheek, "Umm... So... What do you want from me?"

The King turned to me, "Want from you? Nothing at all, Lady Aster, you don’t need to be so nervous. If anything, I should be the one that’s nervous right now considering you are the one seated across from me. I’m pretty sure if you were hurt while in my presence, I would not live to see another day."

Yeah, this guy is definitely exaggerating... I wonder why he is blowing it so out of proportion here?

"So why did you call us here then?" I asked.

"Ah, that’s right. To present you with your award of course. Here!"

He brought out a scroll from within his cloak to hand it over to me.

I received it and he gestured for me to open it so I did, glancing at the page to see that it was a letter indicating that I was to be granted a middle citizen status.

I peeked over the scroll to look at the King, "So... I’m a middle citizen now?"

Masuyama was the one who answered instead, "Not officially yet. You’ll have to bring this to the administration building to get all the paperwork sorted out and have your citizenship card issued to you. Well, normally... You would have to go down to the building and do this yourself but I’ll do it for you, Lady Aster."

Oh, that’s convenient~

I handed the letter to him and Masuyama carefully stashed it away.

The King then leaned forward to steeple his fingers in front of him, "Now we can get to the important question, Lady Aster... What are you doing here?"

I tilted my head at him, "Eh? What do you mean?"

"I mean what are you doing in this country, Lady Aster? Are you here to spy on us to make sure we aren’t doing anything that might threaten you? Or perhaps you are looking for weaknesses that you can exploit within our country?"

I... Actually can’t tell if the King is saying this seriously or not...

I shook my head, "I’m merely on a tour around the World right now while I’m making my way towards Aerialla Academy."

He straightened himself, "Oh! You’re heading to Aerialla Academy? Wait... Why are you going in this direction though? Isn’t there a ship that will take you towards the port at Shendhalla which would be faster instead?"

"Ah, that’s because I want to explore this World as much as I can while on my way to the Academy, so I’m taking the scenic route, you could say."

His demeanour changed when he heard that, "Oh! So you’re here to tour around this city then?"

"Well... Yeah. I figured that since I’m outside of my Family, I might as well take this chance to see as much of the World as possible before I have to return back home, you know? This World is so big and diverse and it’s full of interesting stuff, it would be a shame if I didn’t get to see it."

He nodded, "Hmm, hmm~ I can understand that. Hahahaha! You remind me of me when I was in my youth! I also left the Kingdom to explore the World, though it was more for getting stronger in order to better protect the country I would eventually take over than to sightsee, hahaha!!"

My gaze went to his arms that were filled with scars which the Queen immediately noticed.

She moved her hand to trace along a few of the scars while shooting me a smile, "He was quite an adventurous one... But most of these are actually caused by fighting the insurrectionists after he returned and took over the throne and not while he was outside the country."

Woah, so he got all those scars just from fighting the insurrectionists? But some of them don’t even look like sword marks but claw marks inst-- Oh... Right... They are Nekomatas after all, they do have sharper nails than Mahuns.

Seeing all those marks on him... It looks like Masuyama and the guards weren’t kidding about things being really different as compared to right now, huh?

Also... The way the Queen was holding the King’s arm... It kind of feels like she’s doing it possessively, like she was trying to show that they were together or something.

Wait, does she think that I have an interest in the King or something?

Girl, you don’t need to worry about me trying to take him. In fact, I would say that he would need to worry about me taking you instead.

Not that I’m planning to do that of course... I already know that the people here are less promiscuous than Mahuns and their relationships are mostly exclusive so I would be breaking them up if I tried to insert myself there.

The King grinned and showed off his arms, "What do you think, Lady Aster? These are better than hers, right?!"

I blinked at him, "Who are you talking about?"

"Who? Of course I’m talking about King Justinia!! I’ll have you know that I crossed swords with her before and we ended up in a draw! I would still say that the only reason why it ended as a draw was because we didn’t go all out! So I’m still curious which one of us is the better fighter!! So what do you think, Lady Aster? Do you think I can beat her now?!"

Huh... I didn’t expect to hear that kind of history between them...

Oh wait, didn’t Justinia also use to travel around before? Seems like these two have more similarities than I thought.

I shrugged, "Isn’t it a bit hard to compare since both of you have different physiques? Besides, I don’t even know what your fighting style is like so there’s no way for me to tell."

He then punched his fist into his palm, "Oh! That’s a great idea, Lady Aster! If you don’t know, then there’s only one way to know! Let’s have a spar!! Let’s go!!"

...

What...