Chapter 10: CH. 10 The worst day
It had been a few weeks after the departure of the King and his party, it was said the trip would take a month or so to get to the kingdom of Gamel. So, most of the soldiers and some of the heroes that stayed behind were shocked to see Jack being carried in by some of the holy knights.
Jack was covered in blood from head to toe, his shiny bald head had turned blood red, most of his armor had been destroyed and the most shocking thing was the fact that Jack was missing an arm, the holy knights had transported Jack to the palace rather than the church to avoid the eyes of the citizens. And as for the adventures who found Jack, they were well compensated to secure their silence in the matter.
Sir Zelda the commander of the holy knights had informed the higher-ups about the situation and the head priest himself had tended to Jack's wounds, the kingdom was thrown into unrest, but Jack was still unconscious even though. It had been a couple of days now.
The king's whereabouts were unknown and the same could be said about his party the only person who had any idea was in a coma... Although Alen was concerned about the king someone else was occupying his mind.
The princess had stopped coming to the library and even on occasions when they did meet up the princess had completely ignored him.
'Can't blame her, I promised her father would be okay but now we don't even know if his okay. For the time being she looks okay, I should worry about a couple of other things The future for one because if the king is dead then Princess Sakura is next in line for the throne, and considering she isn't of age yet. This means Princess Lily, the king's second born, would take the throne due to the first one not wanting anything to do with the throne.' He thought as he gazed at the rainy weather outside.
'The nobles and the other factions won't just sit back and accept it either... Huh! I hate politics,'
"Quinn, Alice, I hope you are safe," Alen said as he closed the book at hand and made his way out of the library walking around, he could see people were anxious more than usual, made and knights alike were running around the palace.
"The great hero has awakened! inform the council."
Alen overheard one of the knights but to him, this didn't hold good news but had informed him the end of his peaceful days was near, Alen was infuriated with Jack awake then the struggles of politics would begin sooner than he expected. He had not gathered information on how to get home. And he wasn't sure if other kingdoms out there had a vast library than this.
That's when he remembered the most technologically advanced kingdom of Cantu, if magic in itself wasn't capable of sending him home perhaps he could count on the combination of both technology and magic. But he needed to prepare for the journey, and a gut feeling he needed to do it quickly.
A meeting was called around the council's office, and all the heroes and nobles were summoned, the council's office consisted of higher-ups from different factions ranging from the nobles to the high priest. the council consisted of four individuals.
The general of the army, the high priest of the holy church, a representative of the nobles, and the fourth seat was for the ruler of the kingdom. All the seats were filled except for the last seat, the general was a bulky man with scars on his face he had a stern look and was clad in platinum armor. While the noble representative was a man with a gentle expression on his face despite being a noble himself, he didn't give off the same arrogant energy the other nobles had.
The high priest was the same old man that was present in the banquette a few months ago. Jack was in the center down on one knee with his sword placed on the ground by his side. The shocking thing was his amputated hand had been regenerated and now apart from some of the scars around his face and body, were the most shocking to the people similar with magic.
By the side of the council resided the three princesses, the first and second princess holding it together but the youngest of them seemed to be devastated, the black rings around her eyes indicated she lacked sleep together with her red puffy eyes Alen had placed two and two together and come to the conclusion the king was most likely dead.
" Jack, one of the five great heroes and a member of the one hundred heroes summoned from the other world. You have been summoned by the council regarding your return back to Noel despite your leaving for Gamel. Furthermore, you are the only one who has returned and has thrown the kingdom in chaos as we have no idea of his majesty's whereabouts."
"Tell us, boy! Where is his majesty?" General Lee asked.
The room fell into silence as everyone waited for Jack's reply.
"The king is dead."
'As I thought, this is moving too fast and I'm still behind.' Alen thought to himself.
"During our escort, we encountered a man that introduced himself as Beelzebub. One of the seven generals of the demon king's army, h- he slaughtered all of us including the king." Jack said as his fists tensed up and he gritted his teeth.
"Lies, what business does one of the seven demon generals have in a place like this? And are you telling us that you were strong enough to vanquish him? We know the great heroes are strong but even Alice the strongest among you is still weak compared to a general.
"I DIDN'T!" Jack let out an outburst. "That monster let me go so I can deliver the news, he said I was weak despite me giving it my all, I was tasked with protecting the king and I failed. So why didn't you assign someone else this important task, like your precious Alice?"
Jack's outburst had calmed the room a little and during this time the sound of rain could be heard as thunder strikes.
"Sadly we asked the Hero Alice and she declined," The noble said.
"Since she was against fighting for this world in the first place, we didn't expect much either," The high priest said.
SLAM!
"This is ridiculous I will assemble a unit and I'll go retrieve His Majesty's body."
"I would like to accompany you on this mission." Princess Janet said as she stood from her position and made her way to the center of the room standing next to Jack.
"I'm afraid that isn't wise princess. Not with the position the kingdom is in right now" General Lee said.
"Regardless I still"
"No none of the princesses are to leave the kingdom during this time, if Beelzebub truly did appear this close to the kingdom, then there are things that take more priority like your safety," The head priest said.
"And if the king truly is dead then we have to address the elephant still in the room. Who's going to be the new ruler of Noel, we can't have a kingdom without a ruler" The noble representative said.
The air felt heavy and everyone in the room felt like this was not what they signed up for, Alen was gritting his teeth as he knew what was about to happen. And that Princess Sakura would be involved in it as well, he couldn't help but want to help the princess but that would get him involved in politics he never wanted to be part of.
At that moment Alen had decided to leave the kingdom but he needed to take the princess with him, but that was easier said than done as he didn't know how he was going to convince the latter about his plan.
"We will discuss that matter some other time but as for right now we need to summon the departed heroes back., Commander Zelda if you don't mind" The great priest said.
Zelda stepped in in Infront of all the holy knights and started to cast a spell. " The light of day that illuminates all call the ones in seek of Mass summon" After he completed the spell a small magic circle appeared beside his ear as he placed two fingers in front of the circle.
"Calling all the leaders of the hero's parties, you are all to return to the kingdom immediately as you have been summoned by the high council due to an emergency, I repeat you are to return to the kingdom post haste."
"With that, the meeting is concluded, General Lee you will be excluded from the next meeting on account of your leaving to retrieve the king's body and find out if the story is credible." The high priest concluded.
But just as he was about to stand up and leave, the knights around the hall all stepped forward and drew their swords so did the holy knights. Confused everyone remained silent as they watched to see what happened next and a few moments later a giant purple portal opened and from it walked a girl in mage gear.
She had a pointy purple hat and a wooden staff with a large red crystal all embedded in the center. And behind her were some of the other summoned heroes who were under her including one of Alen's best friends Quinn.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone