One of the soldiers at the side called out in a loud voice.
"ATTENTION!"
All the soldiers there immediately stamped their feet and saluted Jason, and Jason watched as the nobles began to clap for him while encouraging him forward. Jason was completely out of his depth as he watched their actions curiously, but he didn’t allow that to stop him as he walked forward while giving small smiles to those who waved at him. The king was standing at the end of the line with the nobles, and even though he was malnourished and weak, he was still managing to stand on his feet just to receive Jason. Jason got to the king, and he took the man’s hand in a handshake. The King of Radagan was a tall man whom Jason knew would’ve been very muscular at one point in time. But now, he had lost most of his muscles, and he was barely strong enough to stand on his own feet. Jason noticed that the man was about to fall over just from the handshake they had, so Jason put his hand on the man’s shoulder and discreetly helped to steady him so he wouldn’t look bad in front of his own men. The king gave Jason a grateful look, and Jason nodded to the man before speaking.
"Thank you for the reception. This means a lot to me."
Jason wasn’t really interested in the whole political game, so this was all Jason bothered to say in thanks. But apparently it was more than enough for the Radagan nobles, and they all clapped once again before the king smiled at Jason and said.
"You are the Kingslayer; we are the ones who should be thanking you. Come, let us sit. There is much we need to discuss."
Jason felt like he shouldn’t be taking all of the thanks or praise since he had help from the superhumans as well as Gina and Riyala, but Jason wasn’t going to bother bringing all that up since it would just waste time. And besides, he knew his Legion did most of the work, so pointless humility wouldn’t make any sense. The nobles waited for Jason and the king to take their seats at the heads of the long table before they finally sat along the middle. Jason watched the men and women around him calmly, and he wondered what they could possibly have called him here for. The kingdom was still rejoicing from the death of the Sovereign, so this had to be something that was so important it couldn’t even wait till the celebrations were over.
The king spoke up once he was sure everyone was seated.
"I’m sorry, but we have to wait for one more. I think the priestess is busy with a healing – oh, there she is now."
The king, as well as every other noble in the room, suddenly stood up when the door opened to reveal Riyala. Jason looked around, and he was surprised by the sheer reverence he could see on the faces of all the dragonborn in the room. They all turned to Riyala and bowed respectfully, and Riyala looked over them with a calm impassiveness that made her seem far more intimidating than the girl that Jason knew. Riyala turned towards Jason, and he saw how Riyala’s eyes softened once she saw him sitting at the head of the table. The king had prepared to give Riyala a seat close to him, but he was surprised when Riyala quickly began to move towards Jason’s side of the table, and she asked the noble sitting closest to Jason if she could have that seat. The man quickly made space for Riyala and bowed as he stepped back, and Riyala gently sat. The others only sat down after they were sure that Riyala was seated, and Jason gave Riyala a small smile when she leaned in and whispered.
"Is everything okay with you and Gina?"
Jason shook his head and he said:
"Let’s talk about this later, alright."
Riyala frowned slightly, but she eventually nodded to him, and she turned when the king spoke up.
"Now that we are all here, I’d like to once again thank you for your efforts in liberating us from that tyrant. The fault for his actions against this world lay entirely with me. Honestly, I should’ve seen things becoming so bad and done something about it. But I was trying so hard to solve things peacefully, and I was blindsided by the unexpected coup. Sigh~ I have no excuses, but I understand that our world has a lot of healing to do, and that is why I have asked you here today, Kingslayer. I have spoken with the rest of my cabinet, and we have agreed that we would be more than happy to enter into an alliance with the people of Earth."
Jason hummed curiously when he heard this, and he saw a few people nodding around the table. Jason didn’t know much about what alliances entailed, but he could tell that the people of Radagan were already used to them. Radagan had been involved with magic and inter-world travel for far longer than Earth, so Jason was sure they had already formed a few alliances with neighboring worlds. Jason spoke up calmly.
"What exactly will this alliance entail?"
The king leaned forward and spoke with a serious expression.
"In truth, we do not know enough about the economics or traditions of Earth to bring forward a proper proposition, but this alliance isn’t truly one between worlds. Instead, we would like to ally ourselves with you, Kingslayer. We have various precious metals, jewels, and produce that we believe will be attractive trade materials between our worlds. We are willing to provide these materials for anything your world can exchange them for, but we also ask that you accept an honorary title and act as the bridge between our worlds."
Jason’s eyes immediately narrowed. That was something that sounded too good to be true. Jason knew about the economy of Radagan since he had a lot of their soldiers in his Legion, and he was sure that the precious metals and gems here weren’t always given away so easily. Most of the trade deals that the Radagan government had with other worlds would sometimes have them selling even one gram of their dragonstone gem for more than ten thousand gold coins! The most precious materials on Earth that could be used for trade were diamonds and gold, and those wouldn’t be anywhere near the same value! America would have to empty Fort Knox just to buy a truckload of dragonstones!
So it was obvious that this deal wasn’t for trade between their worlds. This deal was entirely because the dragonborn wanted Jason to become a citizen. Jason folded his hands and leaned back before talking.
"I’m not going to be so free that I can watch over trades all the time. Making me an honorary citizen wouldn’t really make much difference."
The king shook his head.
"Yes, it would. You underestimate your influence, Kingslayer. Both I and everyone here believe that allying ourselves with you will be the first step in restoring our past glory. This alliance would be beneficial for us both. If you are ever in need of our help, we will not hesitate to come to your aid, no matter where in the Primordial Expanse you are, and we hope that you will extend us the same courtesy."
This made no sense at all, and Jason just couldn’t wrap his head around how one-sided this deal was going to be for them.