Chapter 284: Arcadia Palace

Tristan had finally arrived at the Arcadian Palace. Seeing the familiar place, he looked around before walking out of the ship with Tobias in front of him. 

To him, the experience felt very unique. After all, the last time he came here, he was humiliated by Callan, but now, only a few months after that, he returned as the king of Arcadia. To him, this difference felt satisfying.

His presence, along with his companions', caused every pair of eyes around to stare at them. This was especially the case for the large orc, as the attention of the people present could not help but be drawn to the orc's conspicuous appearance. Not to mention, it was very unusual for an orc to appear in Arcadia.

When he entered this place last time, he only went to see the throne room, but this time, he was brought through a series of stairs into a private quarter. It was one of the smaller rooms in one of the highest places in the palace.

Tristan walked around the room and enjoyed the scenery of the city through the glass. Meanwhile, he could see Hererra was much more excited to see the place than he was as she started to skip around to the other room.

"I'm going ahead to check if the room is safe," the girl cheekily said to justify her actions.

Serene, however, still found the situation surreal. 

"I reckon that this is not the King's quarter?" asked Tristan. Although this place was amazing, he did not believe that this was the King's quarter.

"Indeed this isn't. This is the King's private area for his special guests. As for the King's quarters... No one in the palace knows that you have become the new king, so preparations still need to be made."

Tristan nodded in understanding.

Even Tobias, the great wizard, also seemed to find the situation confusing. He briefly looked around the room before asking, "What do you wish to do first, my King?"

Tristan thought for a short while before replying, "Same as Caerleon, I guess. Introduce me to the team and then tell me about the problems we are currently having. Also, please arrange for me to meet my sister. I want to see her." While speaking, he made sure to slightly lower his volume to avoid getting the attention of the others.

"Understood, I shall see to it as soon as possible." Tobias respectfully responded before going out, leaving him as he had to prepare for the grand assembly. Meanwhile, Tristan directly went to check the data about the kingdom. In the process, he was helped by Uriel, who seemed to understand the way around the place. 

Uriel gave him some kind of electronic tablet, and when he activated it, a panel appeared in front of him.

[Arcadia Kingdom]

[Number of cities: 28]

[Number of villages: 214]

[Total Population: 521,390]

"This is the quick summary of last year's census data." Uriel, the fat elf, briefly explained.

Looking at the massive number of people he had to manage, Tristan did not worry. While it was true that that number of over 500,000 was a hundred times more than Caerleon, when he thought of how Earth had over seven billion people and even the state of Florida itself had more than 20 million people, Arcadia felt much more manageable.

Tristan browsed around the information that was prepared for him. He paid attention to the geography of Arcadia, the city location, and much more. Looking at the data, he noticed that the whole planet seemed to only be about a fraction of the size of Earth.

Next, he checked the list of people in charge under him.

He had 5 ministers; the Minister of Coins, Minister of Development, Minister of Health, Minister of Education, and Minister of Defense. Seeing the data of these people, it seemed that these ministers were more like the king's assistants, where each department had its own staff to help them with their respective duties.

Besides the ministers, there were also 28 mayors who ran the cities and five diplomats whose job was to run around managing communication for the King. This reminded him of Agoon, who was killed while he was with him in Forlorn. Which meant that there were only four of them left.

Just as he was about to read about the defense forces, Tobias returned to inform him that all the elites of Arcadia had gathered. Tobias also warned him that, unlike orcs and elves, humans are far harder to deal with. They would not easily fall in line for him.

"Don't worry, Tobias, I know." Tristan simply replied.

He was then guided into the grand assembly room. From the size of it, he could see that this room was made with the intention to fit at least a thousand people. There were a few hundred people gathered, and most of them were in uniforms identical to the group they were in.

He could see the ministers standing in the front line and three groups of uninformed people; the Arcadian Knights, the Arcadian Mages, and the Kingsblade.

Even though this was just an assembly room and not the throne room, to have a stranger like him being shown to the seat on the center stage caused all the people gathered to be filled with surprise. From there, he could see that some people also had confusion on their faces, while some others had a hint of displeasure on them.

To clear up the situation, Tobias directly announced his identity.

"You are now in the presence of Tristan, the new King of Arcadia!"

As soon as the words came out of Tobias' mouth, the hundred people could be seen to fall into even deeper confusion. The few in the front line even found the situation to be outrageous, while some within the Arcadian Knights and the Arcadian Mages were filled with disbelief.

"Tobias, what is the meaning of this!?" one of the older-looking men in knight armor questioningly shouted.