Connection

"And here we welcome Prince Valen and Prince Junis to our humble kingdom of Physia. We hope you will find the accommodations as comforting as a second home to you. Now let the festivities begin!"

Cheers rose from among the large crowd that had gathered for the Cordis Ball. Parties were something Roko was not used to, having no friends and all and a royal party was something he was even less prepared for. His friends, however, seemed very used to this. Helena, Kaguya and even Momo seemed to be comfortable speaking to the nobles from two different faraway countries. Though that's to be expected. Mikado seemed quite used to simply standing around with only the occasional conversation. Roland...was wandering around in the general vicinity of Helena, busily eating whatever he could put on his plate. Corissa in particular was particularly swamped with nobles of various types, being the resident princess of the hosting country. Still she seemed more comfortable than Roko had first seen her as. Varis stood by her side, not interacting with anybody but his presence alone drew stares and murmurs from the foreign visitors. Even Lavinia had a few men go up to her but she was quick to reject them, though that didn't stop some from trying and trying again. As far as Roko could see, nobody was paying him any attention, which mean that none of them were aware of his status as a human foreign to this world. It seemed hard to believe that nobles would dismiss this fact if they knew about it so the only thing Roko could conclude was that Memoria Auspice was withholding that information. Which, given that there were rumors about him the same day that he arrived among the very influential princesses around the school who probably would have spoken to their royal parents about it...goes to show how influential Zadkiel probably was. Probably.

Roko simply wandered around the party, eating his fill and watching the festivities go on as the party went from chattering to dancing. For a while he watched his princess friends all competently dance with the many men that came to invite them and even Mikado received some invitations to dance by some female nobles. Even Lavinia accepted some dance requests though with a somewhat sour look on her face the whole time. Varis and Roland continued to stand to the side while this happened. Nobody had come up to talk to Roko or invite him to the dance floor and Roko was quite thankful of that. However, the atmosphere was starting to get to him so he left the ball, moving to one of the many balconies hanging over the outside garden. Much more used to the local silence, Roko just stood there, letting his thoughts drift around until he was finally approached by somebody.

"I'm relieved to see you all alone here." Corissa's father smiled as he walked up next to Roko with a glass of wine, "It was difficult to find time away from my host duties so I'm glad to see you haven't been encumbered by the guests and we can have this private talk. Though it is a tad disappointing to see you ignored so."

"Disappointing for me or for the guests?"

"Hmm. I'll get back to you on that."

Roko scoffed and took a sip of his drink.

"I hope that is not alcohol."

"It's cider."

"We don't have cider out."

"I stole it from the kitchen."

"Did you now?"

"No, this is alcohol."

The king stared at Roko. Roko took a sip of his drink.

"Cheeky aren't you? Not afraid to poke at an old king like me?"

"How long did it take you to find some princes to invite over to your impromptu party?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The king coughed, "Well, I simply wanted to express my thanks for helping us resolve the Red Wind incident. I had heard rumors of their activities but I wasn't sure how to proceed in locating and arresting them."

"There was no present danger to your family or your capital." Roko replied, "I hardly did you a favor."

"If the Red Winds had been able to find a way to tame those monsters, they would have become a threat to many nations, let alone their home."

"So would any numbers of like minded researchers that are doing the same thing that are not in a foreign sewer. I just stopped one. There is no guarantee they won't go somewhere else and try the same."

"Very problem oriented are you?"

"I'm just saying, I did very little in the grand scheme of things which was what you were suggesting."

"I see. Then let us appreciate what you have done. I hear you defeated a demon."

"With great difficulty."

"Still you succeeded."

"Any other knight would have fared much better."

"But not all of them would have been able to say they succeeded. Difficult or not that is a feat worth praise."

"I still couldn't stop Alec."

"Alec is a disappointment to be sure but not because of any fault of your own."

"I couldn't get him to take me seriously."

"That's just Alec. He's always like that."

"You too, your majesty?" Roko frowned, "So you've known him before all this too?"

"Of course. He was a playmate of Corissa's in the past. Before this incident, I would have said he was rated very highly on the list of potential husbands for Corissa."

Roko made a short derisive noise.

"In any case." The king continued, "I should inform you that we are taking measures to remove the monster nest below us. I would like to say we're looking into Red Wind and their movements but as they operate in a different country I'm afraid they're out of our jurisdiction."

"So long as they stay in their borders, that's probably for the best." Roko nodded.

"...Sir Roko."

"I'm not a knight."

"Then...Roko."

"Yeah?"

"Might I ask you a question?"

"You already did but you can have another one."

"Mm. Do...do you think I have been a good father for Corissa?"

…

Roko sighed, "How should I know? I don't know your entire family history together. I'm just an outsider."

"Mhm."

"That said...I can say with all likelihood that Corissa's life might be much worse had you not adopted her. Given her high charisma and how much trouble it gets her into as a princess, I dread to think of how her life would have gone if she was left all alone after her parents' death. She's very vulnerable so she could easily get used and abused. At worst she'll end up dead. Or living a life as a tool under some unscrupulous person. Maybe she could find someone who will protect her from her own naivety but she probably wouldn't be as trusting as she is now. That said, all this speculation is pointless. Corissa is here now and if she can still smile like that, I'd say her life was a good one."

"...I see." The king smiled softly, "...In the past, Corissa had a hard time making friends. She grew into a beautiful young lady which earned her plenty of unwanted attention from men and jealousy from women."

"Ah yes. The one percent problem."

"Are you taking this seriously?"

"Of course. Do continue."

"Hmm. That's not to mention the fact that she is now a princess. Her value as a political piece is only exacerbated with her innocent personality. It was hard for her to find anybody who she could genuinely call her friend. That's why I'm glad to see that despite complicating her relationships by adopting her, she can still live a fulfilling life. I'm glad she has people she can call her friends. And I'm glad she has such a perceptive and considerate one."

"..."

"Which is why you'd be perfect as a husband for her."

"I knew it would come back to this!" Roko moaned, "I knew it would come back to marriage stuff again!"

"I mean, while we're on the topic, how would you like go on a date with Corissa?"

"I'm not interested in marrying your daughter!" Roko yelled, "Could you stop?!"

"Don't be shy. You've already slept with my daughter after all."

"That was completely platonic and nothing happened!" Roko cried, taking a step back.

"Oh, I know. If it was otherwise, you wouldn't be alive right now."

Roko held his head with both his hands, "Damn royalty and their information networks."

"Father, are you causing trouble again?"

"Oh. Corissa." The two of them turned around as the princess walked up to them, "No no. Just having a conversation."

"You weren't trying to force Roko into anything were you?" Corissa asked, glaring at her father who just looked away, "I knew it! Father you need to stop doing this!"

"But this is important! For both of us!"

"Father, if you keep doing this, I'll get angry."

"That'd be something new." Roko said as he sipped his drink, "An angry Corissa."

"I'm sorry about my father Roko." Corissa sighed, "I hope he hasn't caused too much trouble for you."

"Well...sad to say but I'm almost used to it by now."

"Well at that point why don't you-"

"I'm not getting married."

Roko turned to Corissa as the king let out a heavy sigh, "At any point, how has the party been treating you?"

"Oh, no different from any other party I've been to." Corissa sighed, "A lot of dancing, a lot of conversations. Though most of those are just confessions and invites to dates or trying to get my phone number."

"I forgot phones exist in this world." Roko frowned.

"Oh yeah, you don't have a phone do you?" Corissa smiled as she brought out her magical phone, "We should get you one. That way we can talk to each other whenever we want!"

"Does it have any games?"

"Hm? No not really. It has some useful features like a clock and access to a library and it can make calls of course."

"Can it text?"

"Eh?"

"I guess not then." Roko said, "These magical phones are less advanced than I thought."

"I don't know what kind of phones you have in your world but these phones are pretty advanced here." Corissa said as she poked through her phone, "It can even take pictures."

"I could do that too." Roko replied, "Nevermind. I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"You found your way to the underground chamber on your own right?"

"Well, we had someone lead the way to the building itself but Varis and I went into the building alone, yeah."

"How'd you get past the illusion?"

"Hm?"

"There's an illusion in place to keep people from reaching the inner chamber. If you don't have the gem in the panel, you'll never make progress to the stairs. How'd you know how to solve it?"

"Ummm...there was an illusion? We just went down, found the panel, found the stairs and then walked over to it."

"You didn't take the gem with you?"

"Um...no?"

"How the hell did you get pass the illusion then?!"

"I think I can explain this." The king cut in, "Corissa, you had your phone did you not?"

"Well yeah. Of course."

"See, what you probably went through was an old royal tomb." The king nodded, "These tombs are protected with powerful ancient magic. If you don't have an enchanted royal gem, you would get stuck in the illusion, unable to make your way forward. However, just because it's ancient doesn't mean it's unique. Many phones nowadays are made using gems enchanted in a way very similar to those used on the royal gems."

"So you're telling me." Roko said, "That all that could have been avoided if I had a phone?"

"Pretty much. Yeah."

…

"Excuse me for a moment."

Roko placed his drink on the banister and began to pull himself over the railing.

"Whoa, wait!" Corissa and her father quickly grabbed onto Roko and tried to pull him back.

"No! Let me go! I'm sick of this! I'm tired of this world! Let me die!"

"Please don't kill yourself during the party!" The king cried.

"Please don't kill yourself period!" Corissa yelped.