Chapter 23: The Frost Queen Makes an Appearance

  The number of people migrating to Albion was staggering. While I’d hoped that establishing a guild presence might attract some adventurers, I was stunned at the number of people who wanted to become citizens. It wasn’t just from Dabia, either.

  The stench preceded the trolls as they filed into the throne room. One in particular was much larger and smellier than the others. He stood proudly and pounded on his chest before he spoke. “Greetings, Mighty King of the North. I am Pugnagant, King of these trolls.”

  “These trolls?” I asked. “That’s a strange way of saying it.”

  “Not all of the trolls,” Pugnagant grunted, earning a round of cheers from behind him. “Just these ones. Once you accept us, we will establish a clan and choose our name.”

  “And you’re king?” I asked, amused by troll hierarchy.

  That earned me a toothy grin, complete with drool. “Of course! Can you not smell my magnificence?”

  I plugged my nose to assure him I could. “You know, we have baths if you want to get cleaned up.”

  “You blaspheme!” Pugnagant roared. “I have not bathed once in my entire life and do not intend to start doing so now.”

  I got up and took several steps toward the troll, who backed up a few steps as my knights closed in protectively. Waving them off, I approached the troll and placed a hand on his shoulder. He shuddered but never lost eye contact. The moment my hand made contact, I felt the layers of caked-on grime and soot. It was obvious that trolls spent a good deal of time underground. That was the only way I could account for half of the muck on his body.

  Pugnagant yelped when a cloud erupted from his body, leaving behind one pristine troll. “Wha-what did you do?”

  “Behold, the power of Earth magic,” I said theatrically. “Now, you don’t have to bathe.”

  “Yes!” a female troll from behind harumphed. “Now I am the smelliest. That makes me Quee…”

  She yelped as well when I repeated the process with her. The next would-be king decided not to make themselves known, so I sent in my knights. “Have them all line up single file. Once they are all clean, they can decide amongst themselves who’s going to be in charge.”

  “Does that mean you accept us?” Pugnagant asked in a subdued voice that didn’t suit him.

  “Of course,” I replied. “I’m taking all refugees who wish to be a part of Albion.”

  Every citizen unlocked more nation perks, after all. The rest of the trolls weren’t exactly thrilled about being cleaned but I had to do it to prevent a war over succession. The throne room also smelled a lot better once I was done.

  “May we find a home in the caves under the mountain?” Pugnagant asked as the rest of the trolls knelt beside him.

  “How many of you are there?” I asked.

  He looked down, refusing to meet my eyes. “I was only able to bring two hundred after the disappearance of Lord Murphy and Queen Celestea.”

  “Who?” I asked, wondering if I’d ever gotten the names of the queen and king of Dabia.

  “My appologies, My Lord,” Pugnagant said. “Queen Celestea is the queen of Celestea. Lord Murphy is her consort. They both disappeared after the battle for Dabia. I am confident many beastmen with come with time. Some still hold out hope that they will return.”

  “Are you talking about the land south of the wall?” I asked.

  The troll nodded. “The wall came down a while ago and the Queendom of Celestea rose from the ashes. Many of us found sanctuary there, but we also heard you treat our kind as equals.”

  “I do,” I nodded. “I’m friends with goblins, ogres, and orcs.”

  Several of the trolls stiffened at the mention of goblins. It made me wonder about the inner conflicts between the beastmen.

  My thoughts were cut short when Aura appeared beside me in her human form. “He is also friendly with dungeons.”

  Loud clanking echoed through the room as all the knights stood stiffly at attention.

  “Gwen, is that you?” Came the voice of Arthur. I’d forgotten he used to be married to her.

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  Aura turned and smiled at the ghost of the old king, who’d appeared at the top of the stairs. “Hello, Arthur. It has been a very long time.”

  “Why did you leave?” he asked, not moving from where he appeared.

  “Dear Arthur, my once and future king,” Aura sighed. “Your jealousy set the wheels of fate in motion. By the time you were done, not only had you driven me out, but you brought about the end of your sacred order of knights.”

  “But you and Lancelot…” Arthur couldn’t bring himself to finish the accusation.

  “He was my friend,” Aura said coldly. “He was someone from my homeland that I could confide in, you were always my king, just as Alex is now.”

  “We were more than that, M’lady,” Lancelot said from where he’d appeared at the side of the room. “You absconded with me. We were destined to be together.”

  Aura sighed. “I told you the same that night as I tell Arthur this one. While I may think of you fondly, I am bound to another. Alex is my one true king.”

  “You mean this child?” Arthur asked, his eyes narrowing when he looked at me. “Did you find him worthy?”

  “Very,” Aura replied, giving him a wicked smirk. “As you already know, Alex sired his firstborn through me.”

  I blushed as all eyes turned to me. Arthur ignored the statement. “You called me your once and future king. That means there’s still hope for us.”

  Aura shrugged. “Perhaps in another life.”

  “Then I’ll wait forever,” Arthur replied, kneeling before his ex-queen.

  Aura’s avatar vanished, leaving me standing in front of the kneeling Arthur.

  So, I cleared my throat. “Uh, next.”

  The clean trolls were herded out a side door where I assumed my knights would appoint them a mountain downwind of the castle or at least a sufficient distance away.

  The next was a group of goblins. The short green creatures brought back a wave of painful memories and their delegate didn’t waste any time bringing it up.

  “We hear you were involved in the massacre near Hellquist forest,” a withered one began. “This one is called Groktal, from Clan Grob. We heard of the calamity from a scout. Were you involved?”

  He bared his fangs and held out his arms for good measure but as he was tiny and completely unarmed, the posture didn’t have the desired effect.

  I sighed. “Unfortunately, I do have responsibility for that. While I didn’t call for it, some bad people murdered your friends because of me. I will do whatever I can to make amends.”

  Groktal bared even more fangs. Then, to my surprise, he bowed so low his long nose touched the floor. “Your words honor this humble goblin. While not all from clan Grob share Groktal’s feelings, many have followed to ask for a new home.”

  “Done!” I replied. “Anything you need. Did you send someone to the forest for the children? There were survivors.”

  “Groktal will ask,” the goblin replied, not looking up.

  Behind him, a dozen goblins also prostrated themselves to the ground. It sure was different how they acted when I was king as opposed to some fat guy stumbling around in the forest.

  “How many of you are there?” I asked, getting an idea.

  Groktal looked behind himself. “This is all of us, My Lord. Groktal couldn’t convince very many goblins to come. Many are loyal to Lord Murphy.”

  “How would you like to stay here in the castle then?” I asked, wanting to make a gesture.

  “You invite them in while the guild has to build our own structure outside?” It was the guild administrator. I hadn’t noticed that he’d hung out in the back of the room after his audience.

  “They are my guests,” I replied, glaring at the man. “Would you like to be a guest, or do you want to set up your guild?”

  He broke eye contact first. “Very well! But we will add the expenses to your dues.”

  “And I’ll add it to your taxes,” I shot back.

  He huffed for a second before turning and stomping out of the room.

  “So, who’s next?” I asked, eager to get the day over with.

  Welcoming the new citizens at court was taking a lot longer than expected. People from everywhere on Gaia showed up in Albion in every way imaginable. While humans arrived mostly by boat, beastmen utilized The Thief’s Corridor, which spidered to every corner of Albion. The remaining sources of magic on Gaia also got involved. Xanader, The Grimling, not to mention Lilith’s emissary, constantly ferried beastmen from all over Gaia through the netherworld and into Albion. Likewise, the high house of Solitair employed their airships to evacuate the many humans who wished to flee both Dabia and Celestea.

  A teen girl with icy blue hair frosted like she’d just stepped out of a snowstorm and swirling blue orbs for eyes arrived with one of the airships.

  Shiviria Celestea Celestea

  Class: Cryomancer

  Level: 22

  Affection Level: Determined

  I stood, realizing someone important stood before me. “Welcome, Miss Celestea. Are you from the kingdom south of the wall?”

  “Queendom,” she corrected me. “And yes, I am temporarily the queen as my sister is missing and my parents are dead. I’ve come here on behalf of my people in hopes of signing a treaty with you in this trying time. I must warn you, though. It has come to my attention that my enemy is raising a shadow army he wishes to use to conquer the planet.”

  “Don’t you mean she?” I asked. “I’ve met Mardella and she’s our enemy too.”

  “Mardella is dead…” Shiviria hesitated as if deciding how much she wanted to tell me. “Melvin beat her ages ago. A new enemy named Rasputin came from his planet, Earth. He defeated Melvin and Kalli before disappearing. Now there are wraiths all over the place.”

  “Did you say Earth?” I asked. “I just met another little girl from Earth who’s currently in charge of Dabia.”

  Shiviria rolled her eyes. “That’s Zofia. She’s a bit off but she’s okay, and yes, she’s also from Earth.”

  “The wraiths aren’t that bad,” I went on. “They were made by using dungeons to corrupt the souls of humans they killed, but we stopped that. We recently discovered magic weapons can kill them outright. Once I’m done here, we’re going to make a plan to return to Xanadu and put an end to this for good.”

  That, and get Isa’s friends back, but Shiviria didn’t need to know about that.

  She stood proud. “Please delay any hostile actions into that nation. We need to unify as a planet and put our best army on the field. It does nobody any good if people get killed going in alone.”

  I looked her up and down. “No offense, but you’re a little low-level for this. Is there any way you can go home and level up to fifty, first?”

  I was also concerned about her age. The poor child didn’t look like she was much older than eleven or twelve; far too young to be going to war.”

  “This planet is my home!” she said, giving me a look of determination I’d never seen on a kid before. “My whole family is either dead or missing. I am not going to let Celestea fall. Not if I can help it!”

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