Chapter 2204: Confronting The King And Queen Of Vanagate

-----

"There’s lots to do, young lady... and just apologizing is not going to solve any of these problems!" the Queen said. "You’ll go through strict re-education!"

"What?! I didn’t come here to resume my life as a princess, it was Drake who brought me here...! Honestly, if it was up to me, I would have never returned!" Charlotte said angrily.

"W-What?!"

"Drake? Who is this Drake?!"

"Me."

Drake stepped forward, facing the King and the Queen with sharp eyes.

"My apologies for her lack of manners, but you have to understand that your daughter had her reasons for leaving your side," Drake explained. "Rest assured, she’s a wonderful person, an incredible ally, and someone we all care for."

"Hah?! And who are you supposed to be?!" the King asked.

"I am the Dragon King, Drake, and also one of the Venerables of this world," said Drake, his eyes glowing.

R U M B L E!

His powerful Venerable Aura surged, erupting with immense force. Both the King and the Queen were left flabbergasted, gasping in disbelief and awe!

"W-Wha...! WHAT?!"

"Eeeeh?! S-Such power! Divine Power of this caliber?!"

Drake knew that solving this the mortal way would take too long, and he wasn’t here to argue with these people for hours.

He was going to use his strength and title to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and move on.

"Yes, as you can see, I am not just a God or a Divine Dragon, I am a Venerable!" Drake’s Ascendancy Law Rings manifested behind him. "So please, listen to my words."

"A A h h h!"

"S-Such power..."

The two dwarven sovereigns nearly passed out from pure fear and shock, but Drake kept them from doing so, using his healing magic to restore their clarity of mind.

"Calm down, it’s okay," Drake said. "I mean no harm. If anything, I have come here to help you. I wanted Charlotte to meet her parents, but I can also see she has unresolved problems. Can we speak for a moment about how you treat your daughter?"

"W-Wha..." the King muttered. "O-Our daughter?"

"C-Charlotte? What’s going on?!" the Queen asked in disbelief.

"Haaa... Drake, was this necessary? They’re super scared now...!" Charlotte tried to stay serious, but she ended up laughing a little. "Pfff... Haha... I’ve never seen my dad trembling like that before."

"I am Charlotte’s friend," Drake said. "Now, let’s talk."

"I..." the King muttered, trying to make sense of what was happening. "Charlotte is my daughter, she’s the princess... your esteemed Venerable... I, uh, well... it is her duty to work for the Kingdom... that’s what she was born to do. Eventually, we plan to marry her to someone, a prince from another Kingdom... this way our allies can grow..."

"And there is where you’re wrong," Drake said. "Every person in the world is born free to do whatever they want with their lives! Nobody has the right to force someone else to do what they don’t want to do. However, there are exceptions, such as with criminals, but let’s not go too deep into that."

"Drake..." Charlotte blushed a little.

"Charlotte here may be your daughter, and she is indeed the princess, but she’s also a living, breathing person, a dwarf woman," Drake said. "She’s free to do with her life what she wants. As long as she doesn’t harm anyone, as long as she does not make others suffer or violate any laws, I believe with all my heart that she is free to choose whatever path she may take in her life. And quite honestly, she is a great Captain."

"Charlotte..." the King muttered. "I..."

"He’s not wrong..." Charlotte nodded. "I’ve already made my life what I wanted, and even if you try, you cannot stop that or force me to do your bidding. I am not your possession just because I am your daughter. I love you both, I really do... and I’ll help whenever I can too, but... this is not my path, it never was."

"To think things would get to this point..." her mother sighed, wiping the sweat off her forehead with a handkerchief. "Very well... what else can we do anyway?"

"I guess so... we’re powerless," the King nodded. "You can do whatever you want, Charlotte... but why are you even here then?"

"I told you that it’s because of Drake...!" Charlotte sighed. "Drake, now tell them what you want."

"Right," Drake nodded. "The cracks in the sky and those buildings blocking your bridge, I’ll fix them for you."

"What?!"

"You will?!"

"Yeah, that’s why I came here in the first place," Drake said. "What’s been happening around the world is a phenomenon I call the Dimensional Convergence. It happens because our World and its Spatial Foundations suffered great damage in a battle between beings of immense power, capable of distorting space, time, and reality. Yggdrasil started to absorb other worlds to stabilize itself, worlds that had been very close to it and even connected dimensionally."

"H u h?"

"W h a t?"

The King and the Queen were confused, looking at Drake with eyes filled with disbelief... However, Drake continued explaining.

"I have the ability to close those cracks and mend the world back to normal, although it will never be the same, as these other worlds will slowly continue to merge with our own," Drake said. "Nonetheless, I am here to make the process as less catastrophic as possible."

"I see..." the King nodded. "Uh, okay."

"So you’ll solve the issue? Thank you," the Queen said. "There’s another problem though..."

They decided to brush off all the technicalities they didn’t understand and just nodded, accepting Drake’s help anyway, even if they didn’t fully grasp what he was talking about.

"Another problem?" Drake asked.

"Yes, there’s... people coming from those places..." the Queen said. "They look exactly like humans, and they were running away from other people like them but... undead."

"..." Drake remained silent, confused. "Undead? Did they turn Undead here?"

-----