The last page of Lady Ansoon's epic, where it described how she was given her ability as a blessing by the river spirit, read:

"If only my brother had this, he would not have perished so!" Lady Ansoon lamented as the spirit imbued her with this power.

"And yet, with this, you will ensure that many will be spared your brother's fate," the spirit answered. "And each person whom this ability saves is precious to someone - someone's brother, uncle, father, sister, mother, or friend."

There was a short paragraph describing how the waterfall then began to flow backwards, and a few lines about Lady Ansoon's later life before the grimoire ended, and the paper turned to dust as each and every single word in it was inscribed into my memory. Unfortunately, as it had been written in the lizardmen language, though I could memorize it, I would be unable to create a replica in my own language.

That didn't matter to me though, because this was an invaluable skill.

Being able to be completely invulnerable for an entire minute - though that didn't sound like much, to someone like a Liberomancer who would otherwise be extremely weak when it came to physical attacks' to whom most battles boiled down to 'if I don't kill my enemy in a single hit they'll kill me,' the extra minute greatly expanded one's longevity in a fight.

Knowing that you could charge with reckless abandon for a full minute opened up so many possibilities not only for attacking, but also retreating.

Of course, it had its drawbacks. You couldn't cancel it in the middle, say fifteen seconds in, and then spend the rest of the forty-five seconds later on in the day, because it was always used up at once - due to this reason you had to be very careful when you activated it to not use it too early. On top of that it did nothing if you were already somehow taken by surprise and hit already, which compounded the first issue as there was no point in using it too late either. It also couldn't be cast on an ally, only on yourself, though you could potentially make yourself invulnerable and stand as a wall to shield them, but you would have to be next to them to do that and it wouldn't shield them from area-of-effect attacks like [Grand Fireball].

I had managed to finish it the evening before my meeting with the king. There were other useful grimoires I had purchased but still needed time to read. I had managed to find grimoires that gave [Twin Summons] and [Shared Souls] easily enough, but one that would give [Recall Summon] was still elusive - that was somewhat to be expected though as it was a Rank Three skill unlike the other two which were Rank Two.

No signs of a grimoire that would let me fly were found either, but I was not disappointed as I had been expecting that.

There were also no lightning elementalists in the city - I had wanted to see if I could speak to one to possibly charge my smartphone; as unlikely as a possibility that was, the rewards if it were to succeed would be enormous. But, forget this city, on further inquiry it didn't look like there was someone like that in the entire country. It was not a popular specialty to branch into in these regions.

So that, much like a grimoire that would help me fly, would be something that would have to wait till Hitutsa.

The day had come for me to meet with the king, and wanting to make a good impression, I arrived a whole hour early.

I had left my fancy set of robes back in Arconia, but I had bought a new set for this specific occasion. I would have preferred to rent them instead because it would be a pain carrying something else around like this, but there was no such service that I could find.

Drake had tried to school me on proper etiquette back in Arconia, but he always gave up in the middle of our lessons because even he seemed to find the whole topic boring.

Now though, as I was standing before the castle gates, I couldn't help but wonder why I hadn't asked him to teach me a bit more - or even went to Zeke for help!

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This was a king for goodness sake, and I had heard that in ancient times, people could be executed just for saying the wrong thing to a monarch! Granted, those were stories and I didn't know how accurate they were, but even if he didn't kill or imprison me, ruining my reputation would be enough to make things extremely difficult for me going forward.

"Uh, the king isn't going to guillotine me for speaking out of line, is he?" I had asked once Drake.

"Nah, you'd probably have to get up onto the table and urinate all over it in front of him to get that kind of reaction from him," Drake had answered lazily. "Relax, you're young and a foreigner to boot, not to mention you're a human. Lizardmen expect less of you. And remember that His Majesty is the one who invited you in the first place, he wouldn't want to do something that would make him seem like an ungrateful host. Also, you're not a normal person anymore - you're a Master Liberomancer and a hero to boot, so relax."

I really hoped what he had said that time would hold up in reality.

"Ah, Master Liberomancer," the guards said, upon seeing my invitation. "You are a bit early - but why don't you come sit in the reception area while you wait? Someone will call upon you when His Majesty is ready."

They searched me for weapons, which I could somewhat understand - but given that Liberomancers in this world had built-in weapons that could be more destructive than a sword or spear, I sort of thought it was pointless. One of the guards did detect my demonic spell, though they had known about this already and led me inside.

The inside of the castle, much like the outside, clearly had been built for business rather than pleasure. It wasn't as flashy as Lance's palace, though there was still the odd statue or painting here and there depicting a member of the royal family.

Overall though, it still gave off a claustrophobic and gloomy sort of feel much like the capital itself did. The number of windows was somewhat limited, likely because they would be a liability in the event of a siege, so the air also felt somewhat stale. No doubt about it, I would have preferred staying in Lance's palace.

I was offered refreshments, but I felt too queasy to eat anything, not to mention we were going to be having dinner later on so I didn't want to fill my stomach prematurely. It felt like only a few minutes, but the hour was up almost immediately and I was led into the banquet hall.

It was as spacious as the castle would allow for but once again there was a gloomy presence that seemed to hang over it. The lighting was not as good as it otherwise should have been - possibly because the heat from so many torches might cook the guests waiting for dinner like they were in an oven. As for windows; they had to be careful with those also as those were potential vulnerable points that could be exploited.

A long table that could've seated forty people was piled up with food. At one end there were two lizardmen sitting who were also wearing purple sashes like I was, and at the head of the table was the king himself.

Naturally my eyes went to him first.

What struck me the most was how thin he was - most lizardmen, particularly those like Zeke or Drake who were trained warriors, had large, prominent muscles. He, however, looked slightly shriveled up, though his golden scales still had a vibrant vitality to them. He was wearing a small golden band on top of his head - of course, an actual crown would be too cumbersome and heavy to wear all the time. His robes were a rich scarlet and had depictions of dragons prancing across them. He had a strange sort of wrinkle under his nose which almost made it seem like he had a thin mustache, but I knew the lizardmen didn't have facial hair so that was just a trick of a light. Overall, he certainly did fit the moniker of 'dragonman' rather than 'lizardman.'

Other than the three sitting at the end of the table, there were the guards in the room, who eyed me warily, but didn't do anything as I slowly approached the head of the table.

"Your Majesty," I said, bowing, folding my hand across my chest just like Drake had taught me.

"Please lift your head, Master Liberomancer," came his voice. It was a lot like Jiah Pei's, a bit old and weary, but still one that carried significant authority. "This is not an official state dinner, more of an informal one I threw around - ah, not to say that I didn't quite look forward to meeting the Spider King of Arconia in person!"

I grit my teeth - why did they have to give me that stupid title again? That said, I guess maybe it sounded cooler in the human or lizardman language used in Chipker, because it sounded kind of lame in English.

"Ah, I didn't know that Your Majesty had heard of that little nickname," I said.

"He's not the only one," one of the other lizardmen said. "We were all wondering whether the daring feats they said you had done were true or not."

"I see that one thing was true," another one said. "You do in fact have a demonic spell."

He must have had [Demonic Detection] as an ability- come to think of it, it occurred to me that I should probably get it. I was planning on heading towards areas which were less heavily populated in the future, and though the likelihood of running into a demonic Liberomancer was close to none - there could be another incident like with that Liberomancer who was also a thief where I needed to be sure of that.

I would ask the guild about that tomorrow.

"Now, now," the king said. "I think introductions are in order, though we all know who Master Stefan Dawson is, I wonder if it is the same likewise."

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