Chapter 146

The portal opened and Nilfgaard guards began to emerge from it, fully equipped. But they were immediately caught in the crosshairs of machine guns, because the portal was opened outside the fortress. And our guests will not be left unattended inside. We've made sure of that.

We couldn't leave the guests without a delegation, though, so I, Triss, and Panam met them. The rest of my girls were reluctant to be part of the performance, though they were rather reluctant to be labeled with additional duties. I would have been tempted to label them as treasurers, guardians of knowledge, and the like...

In the meantime, the guardsmen had already jumped out of the portal and stood at attention in two lines. Three minutes later, Emgyr calmly emerged from the portal. And here I immediately threw a couple of pluses in his attitude, because the man understood the situation and did not send a herald to read out all his titles.

No, he stepped out of the portal and quickly looked around and walked in our direction.

"Can we get inside the fortress? As far as I know it's not safe outside right now..."

"Sure..."

I nodded at such a request from the emperor, as well as confirming that it was indeed unsafe outside.

"...please follow us..."

I turned around and walked through the open gate, and a couple minutes later we reached the main building of the fortress, where the father-daughter meeting was supposed to take place. And to be honest, I didn't expect the meeting to be very joyful or family-oriented.

"So, please, have a seat..."

"That's not why I'm here."

Emgyr shook his head.

"...I'm here to pick up my daughter, with whom I plan to travel to the capital."

"That's if she wants to."

"That's not for you or her to decide."

A note of steel could be heard in the emperor's voice.

"Not me..."

I didn't want to argue with that part of his statement. But the smirk on the richly dressed emperor's face came too soon.

"...but you are mistaken if you think you can take Cyrille against her will. My order will stand in her defense."

The smirk disappeared from Emgyr's face, and he looked at me glumly.

"Do you know who you're talking to?"

"Yeah..."

I didn't go into details. And the details would be rather unpleasant for him, because I think he was a negligent father who couldn't save his wife, and maybe even contributed to her death, I don't know the canon. But I do know that he was the one who sold his daughter to a witch on some ancient ritual promise.

"...but I am not your subject to think that your opinion in this matter means anything. I am only interested in the opinion of Cyrille, to whom my order reports."

"Cirilla is my daughter and princess of the Nilfgaard Empire, which means that as long as I am Emperor, you are subject to me."

"You'd be right if we swore her in as a princess, but to us she's just Ciri, a girl who got into a difficult situation and whom we decided to help."

Emgyr frowned, his hand reaching for his belt, where an experienced warrior should have a blade, but he was no longer a warrior, but an emperor, and carrying a sharp iron was not his status. At least not in this situation. So his hand just grabbed the air.

"You're overreaching yourself. I could bring an army here and--

"And your entire army will be destroyed. You can't help but realize, walking through the courtyard of the fortress, that we are not natives of this world, we came into it following Ciri and did so with weapons that were common among us. I must admit that our swords have been out of fashion for over three centuries..."

I grinned not about to clarify that that wasn't quite true...

"Triss Merigold..."

Emgyr had lost all interest in me, and from his tone, he'd decided to try his hand with Triss. I watched him with interest. The fact that the girl he'd approached wasn't in any way involved in the conversation was something he decided not to take into account. She was showing me that I was the decision-maker in our group.

"...as far as I know you were Foltest's court sorceress? Then you're quite fond of the upper classes."

"Let's say, Your Imperial Majesty."

Triss nodded her head, but her voice was completely flat, nothing telling those around her how she felt about Emgyr's words. I would have even gotten worried if I hadn't had time to study my girl. And she had a very telling way of fixing her hair, which told me that she didn't like what Daddy Tsiri had said. Except that although she was born in this world and had an emperor, in our case Emgyr, she was also a sorceress, and they're kind of a separate caste.

In short. plus to minus gives you zero.

So while Triss didn't have much piety for Emgyr, she was in no hurry to be rude to him, deciding to listen first.

"There is no position in the empire for a court wizard, or as you call it an advisor, but wizards are in the service of the state and I may well place you in a position that will be high enough to enter the high society..."

Emgyr smiled anticipatively.

"...you must keep your subordinate in line. He's interfering in the conversations between the Emperor and the Enchantress..."

"I'd be happy to harass David if we were in a sorcerer-subordinate relationship. But I'm the one who's in his order as a subordinate. And by the way, you can't pull a stunt like that with Ian, because she's not in charge either, and she doesn't want to be, to be honest. It's David who's in charge, who's decided to help your daughter-- It's his decision to make. More precisely, it is Ciri who makes the decision, and we will support her, no matter what decision she makes.

Emgyr frowned.

"It's, uh. unexpected."

They gave me a scrutinizing glance, then turned to Panam, who stood looking at Emgyr with a slight sneer. She was trying to hold it back, though, so the emperor pretended not to notice the sneer.

"And where's my daughter?"

"I'm here. father."

Ciri entered the Hall.

"...and frankly, I'm disappointed in you. We haven't even met yet, and you're already treating those who saved my life and helped me return to my homeworld as if they were your subjects, as if they were obligated to indulge your desires."

"This is not the time or place for this kind of conversation..."

Though the emperor tried to steel his voice so that there was no desire to disobey him at all, Ciri grinned and shook her head. It was clear that she was unimpressed by the man's actions.

"And when is the time and place? In an empire? With only YOUR people around? Okay, I'm not comfortable with this approach. I don't want to be a pawn that you can move into the pieces as you wish and be played by the courtiers."

"Daughter..."

"No, now you're going to listen to me..."

Ciri shook her head, adding steel to her voice.

"...I've grown up without a father long enough to have no respect for you as my parent. And not just respect, but if the truth be told, I don't think of you as a father. We may share the same blood, but, uh."

She covered her eyes.

"...You know, in the world where I brought these brave men from, who chose to stand by my side and protect me from the Wild Hunt, there's a good expression... A father isn't someone who put his pod in before he could get it out, a father is someone who raised you."

Emgyr flinched at those words.

"Heralt became my father. or rather, I'd like to call him that, even if he does occasionally behave extremely..."

She wrinkled her nose.

"My sisters are Ian and Triss... I wish I could call one of them mom..."

"I'll give you a mom..."

Triss threatened Ciri with her finger and the latter grinned and showed her her tongue.

"Ciri... Manners..."

"Manners... manners."

Ciri wrinkled her nose.

"Emgyr, I will not weave verbal lace and tell it like it is. I already have a fiancé, and you can't marry me off to some Nilfgaard nobleman."

"This is..."

Ciri's pops looked at me.

"No, it wasn't David, though I admit I had some interest in him, but I was possessive and couldn't share my man with anyone else, and he wouldn't break up with his girlfriends. Yes and I have met another man who is quite reliable and also experienced in managing groups of people, so after a little training he will be a decent husband for me."

"And who's that?"

"It's none of your business. not yet."

"Ciri..."

"Uh-huh?

"You must go with me, in Nilfgaard I can provide..."

It was at that moment that the alarm sounded, signaling the opening of more portals. But it didn't cause us any fuss, because it wasn't our turn to repel the enemy's attack. But the courtyard became much more lively, and a couple dozen seconds later the first shot was fired.

"What's that?"

"That's what you just wanted to protect me from..."

Ciri grinned.

"...or didn't your messenger tell you that the Wild Hunt still hasn't gotten over the fact that I didn't fall into their hands, and now every day they open portals from other worlds, through which various creatures come? Had he forgotten such an important detail?"

"No, uh. but I didn't think he was telling the truth. or rather, I thought you were putting on a show for him..."

"Ostentatious, huh?"

Ciri shook her head

"David, we can climb the wall, can't we?"

"We should go to one of the towers. It's a better view and safer."

"Okay..."

Ciri nodded and waved at her father.

"Follow me, I'll show you what this show looks like. And I hope you can see that we don't need this in the capital. And I don't need your help here either."

Emgyr shuddered slightly and walked after Ciri. I followed, shielding her from any action from her father and his guards, who followed them. It wasn't long before we reached the tower where we stood still.

Emgyr was shocked to see so many creatures running out of the portals, and there were shots, after which the creatures fell to the ground and did not move. Well, most of them did not move, because sometimes the shots were not the most successful and the creatures falling to the ground tried to get up... but they didn't make it because they were killed in time.

"This is..."

Emgyr stood there unable to find the words.

He stood there while the monsters were being shot. He stood until Ian and Vesemir and Eskel came through the wicket in the gate. He stood silent while they reached the first portal and closed it. I stood silent while they closed the other portals.

"So?"

Ciri, who had also been silent all this time, turned to her father.

"What do you think of the show? You want one in the center of the capital?"

"No... But I can help."

"Need a hand?"

Ciri wanted to say something, but I put my hand on her shoulder.

"We won't refuse help."

Emgyr turned his attention to me with a chuckle at the corner of his lips.

"We have enough forces to withstand a siege like this for a few more years, but with food..."

I shook my head.

"...no, there are long shelf life products, but sometimes they get boring and you want something fresh. We're willing to buy them, but as you realize, we need to make sure they're of the highest quality. And it would be easiest for you to buy the food and resell it to us."

"Resell it?"

Emgyr hummed.

"I'm not that petty... do these invasions happen every day?"

"Sometimes several times a day..."

Ciri gave a clarification to her father.

"Okay, uh. I'll get you groceries, anything else you need?"

I covered my eyes.

"I'll make a list of what I need. mostly metals, maybe not even the highest quality, but more on that later. For now, I suggest you return to the hall and share a meal with us."

"Hmm... will you tell me about this strange weapon?"

I cast a glance at Emgyr and nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll tell you."

Still you can not repeat them, and if you can, which will be a miracle because I'm not going to tell the full technological chain of their production, then for later production of such weapons you certainly can not put the production of such weapons. And as a topic of conversation. it's no worse or better than any other.