Chapter 99 The Capital

The capital was amazing. It wasn’t as large as the nearby cities, but it made up for its size in its beauty. The city made up for its lack of population by having the best people at everything, the only ones able to live there. People with common classes weren’t allowed to own a house, no matter how much they paid, and the uncommon classes needed to be sponsored by a higher-tier person to purchase a home; it was more expensive and came with plenty of stipulations.

It meant that while the city was smaller, it was far more luxurious than it had any right to be. Centuries of deep history and numerous tourist attractions had us spend almost all our free time busy while we waited for the king to see us. We split into separate groups as there was far too much to cover if we all stuck together, and I was on Team food attractions.

Tems, Olivia, Milly, and I all searched for the local food hotspots as we tasted the local delicacies and tried plenty of exotic foods, while I also looked for different fruits and vegetables to add to the farm. Most of what I could grow was in the realm of normal crops, but it was time to get into the rarer magified crops if I could find any with any good effects.

With everything new and exciting, we were having some of the best sex of our lives, often loud enough to get thrown out of whatever inn we were staying at, sometimes multiple times a night, until we were finally given our own home to rest in for our remaining time there. The little cottage sat on a small hill overlooking the city, felt cramped but surprisingly comfortable for all of us; the nearest neighbor wasn’t close enough to hear the sounds we made at night, and it was less than a ten-minute walk to be back inside the city.

They pushed back the date we’d meet him twice, and right before we were about to head home because our children and farm needed to be taken care of, he finally agreed to meet us. Randy had taken care of the original process, and the merchant cabal had begun talks about an exclusive partnership, but that fell through when I read the contract and saw that they were essentially just trying to scam me.

It would bite me in the ass if I agreed and they thought they could strong-arm me… If they had people strong enough to deal with a fucking dragon on their side, that is. Right now, I had a very big metaphorical stick with what I could get away with, and right now, I didn’t want to ally with the second prince because of that idiotic move; even after they tried to smooth it over, the damage was already done.

It wasn’t even the first time they tried to sabotage or undermine me, which is why I could never trust them and didn’t want to work with them. If I judged the first prince off his representative, Randy had done surprisingly well with how… Normal, he was. He was an uncommon knight, who was good, but when compared to the group of mostly rare knights that got wiped out, he got extremely lucky he managed to survive to the end.

We entered the Castle, which took us through the noble quarter of the city. You’d think it would be the best, obviously wealthy part of the city, but it really wasn’t, at least in my eyes. Beauty was really in the eye of the beholder, because someone convinced these rich idiots that yellow and purple were good colors to paint everything.

A tackily painted purple marble column right next to a yellow fountain that makes all the water inside look like piss wasn’t my idea of beauty, but to each their own, I guess. The castle had a nickname, the rainbow castle. It might have been the only thing that made sense, and why the nobles chose those colors, as some sort of way to prove who they were loyal to between the first and second Princes.

The mixture of colors looked like it was actually designed by a professional, though, as everywhere I looked, I’d notice a new design in the different colors, a new pattern that stuck out and made me or one of my wives stop, which made the entire process of making it to the waiting room take even longer. We made it inside, and Randy was covered in sweat from how nervous he was.

Sitting across from him was one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen. He looked over when we came in, and his immediate smile made my heart skip a beat, if only for a second. I wasn’t gay, but I could feel the unnatural pull of his insanely high charisma as he stood to greet us. “Hello there, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Luthor, the first Prince.”

He moved over and shook my hand before grasping my wives’ hands and kissing them. I was surprised not to see the signs of infatuation on their faces, but it was similar to me. After the initial wave of charisma passed, I quickly saw him as a normal, if not slightly more handsome, man. I got a better look at him now that I had passed his charisma glamor, and he was a better version in every way than the third prince.

My wives told me that when they met the third Prince, they felt a similar pull, but the pull was far more insidious. All of them with an intellect under ten felt the sudden urge to take their clothes off in front of him, if only for a moment. It made me fear what someone with an intellect under five would feel looking at him. If they’d have told me before he died, he’d have died much sooner than he did. No, there was a huge difference between the two.

One was from pure high charisma, the other was from the skills of his class. Taller than me, with perfect golden hair and wearing a set of knight's armor that constantly drew my eyes to it, most likely enchanted to help draw the attention of enemies, but had a similar effect on everyone. He sat back down, and so did we, as we didn’t speak for the first few minutes, just growing more comfortable in the environment, before Luthor quietly spoke.

“It’s crazy how things develop, isn’t it? At one point in time, the only thing I cared for was my father’s attention. I trained as hard as I could because I thought that was the type of man I thought my father wanted me to be… And that only got me his fear. He became afraid of his own son stealing the position of king from him.” He chuckled bitterly before continuing.

“Even with all that, I wanted his acknowledgement. I chased it for what felt like forever before it finally clicked for me. My father would never love me like he did when I was a child. I was now a rival and potential usurper; instead of preparing me for the position of king, he turned it into a competition between my brothers and me… It’s been centuries since I was that gullible, and all the times I’ve saved this kingdom from ruin, all the times I’ve chosen to be the good man I thought he wanted me to be… It just feels… I don’t know… I’m just rambling, please ignore what I just said.”

Shortly after he finished speaking, we were all ushered into the king's throneroom.