The Idle System (A LitRPG series Book 7): Family

by Pegaz

  The man had short, light-brown hair that was parted on the left. His clean-shaven, triangular chin, round lips, and snub nose made him seem more arrogant than one would expect of a prince.

  The woman, however, had a softer look. Her golden hair was braided into two large pigtails, framing her round face. Despite having nearly-perfect bone structure, she had a hooked nose which sat atop her oddly-thin lips.

  Neither said a word, but by the look of disgust on their faces, it was clear that they couldn’t stand the sight of each other.

  “Trouble in paradise?” Sarah asked, turning to John who now had a smirk on his face.

  “More than likely. I don’t feel like getting in the middle of it.”

  Sarah softly touched John’s arm and shrugged. “Me neither.”

  John turned to look at Kelly who was training behind them.

  “Kelly!” John waited for her to turn around before shouting again. “Come here!”

  She promptly put her equipment down and walked towards John and Sarah.

  “The royal entourage is here. If any trouble comes up, we’re leaving it to you. We’re too old and can’t be bothered anymore.

  “Remember to wear the golden eagle badge since it was given by the king, but if anyone asks about it, tell them the truth— you got it from me,” John cautioned.

  “What about if they want to meet the training master, thank the miraculous doctor, or the real owner of the golden eagle?” Kelly shouted after her parents as the two walked off into the jungle.

  “Not interested!” the duo shouted as they disappeared into the thicket.

  When they were out of sight, the couple teleported a few miles away.

  Deciding upon a large tree, they climbed up to a branch that could hold them both before getting comfortable to watch the show.

  “There’s only five months until Kelly’s twenty-first birthday, the royals might reveal some of the truth to her,” Sarah said with concern as she glanced at her husband.

  John sighed. “After all this time, we still haven’t seen her use any system skills. We’ve found out what kind of person she is, but that’s about it. If she finds out, then so be it. If she doesn’t, we should make it a surprise gift for her birthday. Let’s see how she deals with these royals first.”

  Sarah sighed, too, before leaning into John’s chest, getting as comfortable as possible for the show unfolding before them.

  * * *

  Kelly watched her parents disappear into the jungle. She knew John had dealt with royalty before, but she didn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to meet a prince and a princess.

  Turning around, she walked towards the entrance to the town to wait with the other villagers.

  More than ten minutes passed before the first knight passed through the town gate. The entire crowd cheered and welcomed the royal members as they watched the cavalry surround the carriage before dismounting.

  Facing the caravan, the knight situated a wooden step beneath the passenger doors. Almost immediately, the crowd grew silent as the prince stepped out, his gloved hand waving to onlookers.

  “Welcome, Prince of Gralux!”

  The prince turned around and held his hand out towards the carriage. A few seconds later, a smaller hand appeared from the doorway and gently grasped his hand.

  When the princess set her first step onto the ground, the crowd erupted into cheers, throwing flowers at the feet of their future leaders.

  Both of them gave a short speech about how it was nice to be there and explained how touched they felt because of the warm welcoming they had received. They spent a few minutes mingling with the town’s new elder and a few locals, too.

  As they were about to leave to tour the town, one of the prince’s knights whispered something into his ear. The young man nodded and turned to his wife-to-be.

  “My uncle has heard about an instructor that has trained more knights than any other town with only the combined efforts of the knights in the capital beating his record. He wants to know if he can have the honour of meeting the instructor of this town.”

  Since the crowd was silent as the prince spoke, everybody had heard it.

  With pride, Kelly smiled at the fact that her father was second only to the capital in training students, but then a thought struck her.

  Only I know that my father isn’t currently in town, should I tell them? I should tell them… I’ll get to talk to the prince!

  She did a little jig before regaining her composure. Walking out of the crowd, she stood up straight and spoke with conviction. “Your Highness, the instructor has left town and we don’t know when he’ll return.”

  The prince’s eyes widened as he saw Kelly, but he hid his interest in her. “That’s quite unfortunate.”

  He was about to turn and walk away when he heard his uncle laugh. “So one of the best instructors in the kingdom ran away when the royal entourage showed up? What a coward!”

  The princess knitted her brows and spoke up. “How can you call one of our people a coward? He probably didn’t want people like you challenging him.”

  Laughing even harder, the prince’s uncle shouted, “Then that means I’m right and he is a coward! If I’m wrong then may I be struck by lightning where I stand!”

  Katcha!

  Bang!

  All the people around the knight screamed in panic as they backed away several feet.

  Kelly saw everything as she was about to slap that knight for his words, but before she could even get close, he had been hit by lightning.

  * * *

  Sitting on a tree in the jungle, lightning crackled around John’s finger as it pointed towards the sky.

  Sarah sat up and glared at him. “Why did you do that?”

  “Well”—John put his hand down—“he said I was a coward and that if he’s wrong he should get struck by lightning. I know he’s lying and can control lightning, so if that wasn’t asking me to hit him with it, then I don’t know what was.”

  Chapter 16: Refuse

  Inside the town, the people had stopped panicking, but they were now confused.

  Nobody knew why a bolt of lightning would strike somebody, even if they begged for it to happen.

  Lightning doesn’t just strike the target. It travels through it, into the ground, and spreads out. Nobody else is hurt, though, despite being so close to him. That means the lightning only struck the man who asked to be hit by lightning, then it somehow stopped in its tracks. How’s that possible?

  Kelly ignored the questions inside her head after nothing even resembling an answer came to her. She walked towards the knight that got struck by lightning and began to check his pulse.

  Luckily, he had taken his helmet off prior to the incident, otherwise it might have melted onto his head, killing him instantly.

  It didn’t take long before she came to the conclusion that the lightning bolt had accelerated the knight’s heart rate. Kelly retrieved some herbs from a small bag she always carried with her and tried to give them to another knight who was still shocked by what had happened.

  “If you don’t help your friend, he’ll die!” She shook him as she yelled. “Crush this herb and feed it to him, it’ll slow his heart rate. It’s only a temporary fix, but I don’t have anything that can cure a lightning strike, so now he has to have the will to live.”

  The prince, though confused at first, had seen everything. A wide grin appeared on his face as he walked towards Kelly. “It’s unexpected that someone so beautiful would be skilled in the art of medicine. Thank you for helping my uncle. Even if he doesn’t make it, he’d be happy to have been treated by you.”

  Kelly blushed but then knitted her brows as she turned her head to his fiancée who was less than amused but certainly not shocked by her husband-to-be’s behaviour. Her arms were crossed and her mouth was pursed into a sour scowl.

  Noticing Kelly’s reaction, the prince moved his head closer and whispered, “We’re engaged, but it’s a political marriage betw
een the two kingdoms. We don’t love each other. The truth is, we can’t even stand each other’s company at all.

  “We came to an understanding while touring the kingdoms. She’ll hold the title of queen when I become king, and we’ll both have concubines who we truly love.

  “The only problem with this is that we’ll need to produce an heir.”

  When Kelly heard those words, she subconsciously thought about what her dad had told her.

  “Fantasy is always much nicer than reality, so don’t be too disappointed when reality hits you.”

  I guess dad was right. Kings and princes will always have multiple women to pass along their bloodline and to make sure heirs are born. This is definitely nothing like fairy tales.

  Strangely, she wasn’t too disappointed.

  She flashed the prince a modest smile and took leave.

  I refuse to be one of many! If I’m going to find someone, I want to find someone who would give anything and everything to me, like my parents.

  The prince raised his brow and his face turned beet red. Before he could think properly, one of his closest knights shouted at Kelly in anger. “Girl, the prince is talking to you! Do you know how lucky you are to be even considered as a concubine by his highness? Yet, you’ve shown disrespect to His Majesty which is cause for punishment!”

  The shout from the guard, which revealed what was going on to the rest of the crowd, caused them to have different reactions. Some were worried the royalty would blame the people of the town and started sweating. Others were disgusted by the prince picking up women in front of the wife-to-be but didn’t say anything, while some young women wondered what they needed to do to be considered a royal concubine.

  The knight advanced towards Kelly who had her back to him. By the time he had finished speaking, his right hand was hovering over her right shoulder, ready to spin her around.

  Before he could make contact, Kelly turned to her right and grabbed his arm, locking it between her own. Immediately after, she twisted his fingers and pushed his forearm down, forcing his elbow to bend opposite its natural direction.

  Even though the knight was wearing metal armour, Kelly was easily able to twist his joints with little effort.

  He let out a horrific scream as he fell to his knees.

  This left the knight’s entire left side wide open, which Kelly wasn’t going to ignore. She let go of the man’s arm, took half-a-step back before spinning to her left while lifting her foot up.

  Bang!

  Kelly’s foot struck his rib cage, knocking him back. She wasn’t worried about doing any real damage because the man was wearing full plate armour.

  The other six knights of the Gralux Kingdom saw what happened and they were taken aback by what had transpired. A moment later, they silently shifted into their formations.

  Three knights stood around the prince for his protection, while the other three knights marched towards the woman they were going to subdue so she could be punished for her actions. They had to take this seriously and couldn’t belittle the small girl who was able to take down one of their own.

  Off to the side, the princess stood frozen in place. Her lips were no longer scrunched together in disgust, but instead, her mouth had fallen agape.

  She wasn’t taken aback by Kelly’s medical expertise nor her snubbing the prince’s advances; the hook-nosed woman was taken aback by the item hanging from Kelly’s hip—it was the golden eagle badge!

  Sixteen years ago, her father had warned her that if she were to ever cross paths with the wielder of the one-of-a-kind badge, she should run away. If escaping wasn’t possible, she was instructed to butter them up or do anything except turn against the badge’s owner.

  These sayings were hammered into her since she was six years old, and at twenty-two, she didn’t dare risk her own life.

  “STOP!” the princess demanded.

  Luckily, the prince’s knights stopped and turned to stare at her, awaiting orders.

  Taking a deep breath and regaining her composure, she pointed at the knight on the floor and screeched, “Behead that knight!”

  All of her knights were standing there, staring at the princess, not moving at all as it was a request that could turn the Gralux Kingdom from an ally to an enemy.

  “What is the meaning of this? Have you gone mad?” the prince questioned as he angrily joined his fiancée’s side. “Why should my knight be beheaded for doing his job?”

  The princess stared him down, unwavering in her decision. “You don’t get a say in this!”

  “What do you mean? He’s my most loyal knight!”

  Ignoring the prince, she looked at her knights again. “This is an order and the last time I’m going to say it! Behead that knight or be marked as traitors to the kingdom!”

  Her eight knights regained their wits as they ran towards the Gralux Kingdom’s six knights. All fourteen of these knights had grown increasingly harmonious with one another over the course of this royal tour, but that didn’t stop them from obeying orders.

  It didn’t take long for the Bahan knights to keep their opponents busy as one knight grabbed the person Kelly had knocked down and dragged him away.

  As the man was being dragged off, he found himself winded because of Kelly’s attack to his ribs, but he had just enough energy and air in his lungs to scream for mercy.

  When he reached a good distance away from the knights fighting, the Bahan Kingdom’s knight ignored the man’s pleas as he took out a long sword and swung without hesitation.

  A head rolled on the floor not long after.

  Ignoring the stunned townspeople and royal guards, the princess walked up to Kelly and stopped a few feet in front of her, performing a full curtsy towards Kelly as she apologised. “Please forgive our behaviour. We will leave and not bother you again.”

  After a brief hesitation, the princess straightened herself and grabbed hold of the prince’s arm, pulling him away, knights in tow.

  Kelly stood there, dazed. When she saw the princess leaving, she yelled, “Wait!”

  The princess turned around and looked at Kelly who was jogging towards her.

  “Why did you behead that knight? There was no reason for you to bow and apologise to me. I’m a nobody and you’re royalty!”

  A look of bewilderment struck the princess. “You don’t know?”

  Kelly shook her head.

  “Then, I think it’s best I not answer.” The princess pointed towards the golden eagle badge. “If the person who gave you that badge hasn’t told you, then it’s not my place to do so.”

  Kelly looked down at the golden eagle badge dangling from her waist.

  Dad always said the king gave him this badge and I can use it to see the king whenever I want. Did the princess recognise it which led to the knight being beheaded, just so we wouldn’t have any bad blood between us?

  Before she could question the princess further, the royal entourage had packed up and left the town as quickly as they could under the princess’ command.

  I’ve got to ask mom and dad what the hell happened all those years ago! They’re definitely hiding something if the princess risked going to war to smooth things over!

  Kelly headed to the jungle to find Sarah and John, but no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find a single trace of her parents.

  * * *

  Inside the carriage, the prince and princess were arguing.

  The prince was furious that his uncle was on his deathbed while one of his most loyal knights was beheaded by his future wife.

  “Shut up!” the princess shouted.

  “Tell me the truth!” the prince roared. “I saw the look on your face after seeing that thing on the woman’s waist. What was it?”

  With a deep sigh, the future queen cleared her throat. “It was a badge my father made for someone. The only one of its kind, and whoever wears it is protected by this kingdom no matter the consequences.”

  Leaving the prince in his shocked sta
te, the princess opened the window to talk to the leader of her knights. “Send a message to my father telling him we’ve found the golden badge. He’ll know what it means.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.” The knight slightly bowed as his horse galloped alongside the carriage. He slowed the horse down a little to get to the back of the carriage where he took out a bird cage. Inside was a homing pigeon that was trained to fly straight to the capital.

  The princess closed the window and looked at the prince.

  “So, that badge saved that woman’s life and I can’t ask for justice for my knight?” the prince said in a half-whine.

  “You misunderstood,” the princess answered. “That badge didn’t save her life—it saved all of ours.”

  Chapter 17: Wanting to Trade

  During the early hours of the morning, a short-bearded old man was sleeping alone in a giant bed. His hair was mostly grey, but there were quite a few brown hairs sprinkled throughout what hair he had left.

  Though it was spring, there were extra blankets piled atop him to provide extra warmth due to the fact that he kept getting chills at night.

  Knock! Knock!

  A heavy pounding on the door caused the old man to open his eyes just in time to see his son walk into the room.

  Silently making his way to his father’s bedside, the boy lit a lamp and sat at the edge of the bed.

  “Father, sorry to wake you in the middle of the night, but Carola has sent a message by pigeon.” The son presented the letter while speaking.

  After clearing his throat, his father groaned, “What is it this time? Your sister has already found numerous faults about her fiancé since getting engaged. Has she found out that he eats children this time? Send her a letter that she’s going to marry him even if he turns out to be a goblin in disguise.”

  “Just read it.”

  The boy was firm with his statement, leaving worry in his father’s eyes. The old man carefully took the letter with a steady hand and moved it in and out of focus in an attempt to read it.

  I’ve found the golden badge.

  The sleepiness in the old man disappeared instantly.