Dragon-chan meets the King, again

AN: You should have read through chapter 74 of the main story before reading this chapter. I changed the number of his mooks so that Nene could have something to do, but... whatever, it doesn't really change anything in the story. Maybe I shouldn't have written this chapter at all, but I did, so... *shrug*

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A few days later, Yuna came back to the Bear House with two somewhat panicked strangers who looked like a mother-daughter pair. From the conversation that I could hear, they were bakers that had been tricked by a loan shark named Jorz, and now Yuna was going to bring them to Crimonia to work in her shop once the birthday celebration was over. A few hours later, it became noisy outside the Bear House, and so I went to see what was going on with Yuna. When we came out, there were fifty or so men standing in front of the house, with a very fat man with a disturbing smile in the front of the group

"You came out, Miss Bear!" (Fat man)

"Who the hell are you?" (Yuna)

"I am the great merchant, Jorz!" (Jorz)

"Then I will recommend you to change your name to Jorz The Toad" (Yuna)

"Bitch!" (Mook A)

"Stop! More importantly, I heard that you've hurt my subordinates!" (Jorz)

"He started it by trying to attack me with his sword. Would you prefer that he cut me in half with it?" (Yuna)

"You think you can just simply oppose the great Jorz here in the capital? You want to end up like the baker girl, and sold somewhere? But if you give me the baker mother and daughter, I will forgive you for what you've done this time…" (Jorz)

"Excuse me, but aren't you misunderstanding the situation if you think that it'll all go as you'd planned?" (Yuna)

"I know that missy is an adventurer. It's impressive that you are a D rank while being a woman at this age, but these men here are former C and D rankers you know! Over a dozen are B or A ranks! They aren't the sort of people you can win against! And lastly, look at their numbers! It's fifty on one, or even fifty on two if that other girl with you is a fighter, but she's too young to be an adventurer, so she can't be stronger than D rank. That is a severe power imbalance no matter how you look at it" (Jorz)

"I'll say that there's a massive power imbalance, but it's not favoring you the way you think it is. Try forty C and D ranks and a dozen B and A ranks versus four much, much stronger foes, one a D rank with the power of an S rank... no, ten S ranks, one D rank with the power of about fifty or a hundred S ranks, and two summoned beasts, each almost as strong as the first D rank. Lapis? Rubel? Can you come here?" (Nene)

Lapis and Rubel flew out from an open window on the second floor, and landed on the ground a few meters behind me

"Could you change your size to when you were about a century old, please?" (Nene)

The two of them both grew until they were about the size of a Wolf, and sat the way a housecat might sit, wings folded

"Red and Blue Dragons? And summoned beasts too... Whatever, everyone knows that summoned beasts are a rank or two weaker than their wild counterparts, so they can be dealt with by my A and B ranks" (Jorz)

"No more…It stinks, so please don't open your mouth anymore" (Yuna)

"You bitch!" (Mook B)

The mooks started to move towards us, readying their weapons, and so Yuna made half of them fall down a brand new pit made with Earth magic, and I had Lapis and Rubel use a very, VERY light burst of Dragon's Breath on the rest of the mooks, which I added the Dark magic spell {Sleep} to, leaving Jorz standing alone among unconscious mooks and mooks in deep pits they couldn't climb out of

"You bitch…You were a magic user?" (Jorz)

"Didn't you say you investigated me?" (Yuna)

"When I investigated at the guild, your occupation was that of a Bear, you know..." (Jorz)

"Wait, really? That's... that... I didn't know you could list it as something like that..." (Nene)

"There is no way an occupation like that exists, you know? Now, what will you do? Will you dive into a pit too? Or will you overlook me? Which is better?" (Yuna)

"Is it okay for you two to do this to me? I am a man that can influence the guildmaster of the adventurer's guild you know! I could pinch and crush adventurers of your caliber easily!" (Jorz)

"Ah, was I so intimate with you?" (Sanya)

Sanya, who had been standing behind Jorz since about the time Yuna dropped the mooks into a pit, walked around to stand between Yuna and me as she said that.

"San–ya? Why are you here?" (Jorz)

"There was a guild staff member that was attending you, and when he spilled out what he knew, he said that the infamous merchant Jorz ordered him, and so I came after you" (Sanya)

"And you said that you can affect the guild master Sanya-san…What are you going to do now?" (Yuna)

"Don't joke with me! What is a guild master? I am intimate with the king you know? If I told the king, what could you do?" (Jorz)

I got some serious Déjà vu when he said that... I also remembered the saying that goes "What happened once can happen twice, and what happens twice will happen thrice" ... or something like that, anyways.

"Who are you, you bastard. I don't know someone like you!" (King)

"W–why is the king in a place like this?!?!" (Jorz)

"Ah, I'm just taking a stroll and I have a request for my best friend, the adventurer Yuna, and I also have some business with my best friend Nene here. That's why I slipped out of the castle, but now... I heard this" (King)

I didn't know we were best friends, but... that doesn't really matter, does it?

"The king? That's a lie!" (Jorz)

"It's your problem if you think it's a lie, but using the king's name is a criminal act. Don't think it will end smoothly. Sanya, cuff this nasty man. I will let you contact the castle" (King)

"I don't have a choice, huh…I'm the only one here who can do this..." (Sanya)

"Let me go! Who do you think I am?" (Jorz)

"Shut up!" (Sanya)

"So, what does his Highness want?" (Yuna)

Shouldn't it be 'His Majesty'? That's not that important, but still...

"What? Are you not going to let me enter?" (King)

"You want to come inside?" (Yuna)

"When you see a house like this, you would want to see the inside too, right?" (King)

"Why do you know where my house is?" (Yuna)

"Of course, it's because I heard it from Eleanora" (King)

"Eleanora... of course, I can see her doing that despite only knowing her for half an hour or so" (Nene)

"Same here... Fine, I will hear your story inside" (Yuna)

"Big Sis Yuna, who is this uncle?" (Fina)

"It's the king. He wanted to request something of Nene and me, so don't worry about it" (Yuna)

"Ummm, the king?" (Fina)

"Yes, the king" (Yuna)

"The most eminent person in this country?" (Fina)

"Yep" (Yuna)

"W–Why is someone like him here?!?!" (Fina)

"No idea. Why not try asking him directly?" (Yuna)

Meanwhile, Morin and Karin were looking at us with faces so pale, you could call them chalk-white. When the king was asked why he was here, Yuna was asked to make a few hundred cups of pudding for his birthday party, and I was asked to make some miso soup. We agreed, and would deliver them to the castle the morning before the party after making them with nobody the wiser, save for a few people working at the castle... Though I'd just pull it out of my Hoard. After he left, there was still an awkward feeling in the room, and Morin, Karin, and Fina were all looking at us strangely, still somewhat pale.

"What's the matter?" (Yuna)

"Excuse me, Yuna? Nene? Who are you, really? Are you nobles?" (Morin)

"You are wrong. I am a normal adventurer" (Yuna)

"But, you seemed really close to the king…" (Morin)

"It was just misfortune that led me to meeting him" (Yuna)

"But for the King to come meet you in person…" (Morin)

"That's just because he wanted to eat pudding, right?" (Yuna)

"But…" (Morin)

"Argh! I am not a noble, nor someone with links to the royal family, so treat me normally!" (Yuna)

"Nene... you've been awfully quiet... are you a noble?" (Karin)

"[Should I tell them?]" (Nene)

"Probably. There's no reason not to, they'll find out at some point or another" (Yuna)

"Does that mean that you are a noble?" (Karin)

"Not quite... My name is Nene Drachen, Empress of the - oh, they're out cold" (Nene)

After a while, I managed to explain and get them to stop bowing to me, but we gave up on trying to get them to help us make the pudding for the banquet, and I contributed enough eggs to make another hundred cups of pudding... though I didn't help make it, as I had never done so before. When we delivered the pudding and the soup, we realized that there wasn't a way to keep it hot available, so I offered to keep it in my Hoard until just before the banquet, and pull it out as the carts with it and other appetizers would be going to the banquet hall, which I did. After I finished with that, I used magic to hide myself as I watched the hall and the reactions to the soup and the pudding... the pudding got better responses, but that was to be expected, after all. Later, it was decided that, while Yuna and Fina would head back immediately without Noa, I would, a week or so later, escort Noa and Cliff back to Crimonia in Yuna's place, as well as making sure Morin and Karin got there safely by having them travel with us. As they are friends, I was not going to charge them for the protection, but they said that they couldn't rest easy not having us get paid for protecting them as well. Therefore, I had them pay me (as an official request through the guild) what they'd pay for a group of five E ranks, which is about two thirds of the cost for a single D rank.