7 Edward Williams 2 (1/2)
As Edward entered the audience chamber, he saw two other men inside. One was a striking blond man with golden pupils sitting behind a study desk where his dagger and gun were placed. The other was a young man with piercing blue eyes and brown hair in a midnight black and silver military style jacket with a battered-looking sword hanging on his waist.
Assuming the man sitting behind the desk was the prince, Edward bowed slightly towards him, ”Greetings, your highness.”
”Is that how you greet royalty from where you are from?” The prince had a amused and curious tone as he queried.
The other two man's expressions remained blank but their mid-riffs were vibrating a little.
”To be honest, there is no longer anymore royalty from where I am from.” Edward replied.
Tarin raised an eyebrow at that and the other man scrunched his brow. However, the prince still carried that amused look.
”Allow me to introduce myself, I am Aureus Astrea of the Astrea Empire, the man who escorted you is Augustus Tarin and the man beside you now is Johan Hans. You are in Everdawn province of Astrea Empire in the outer realm.”
”I assume you must have questions, I too am curious due to the circumstances of your arrival and this unidentified artifact you have in your possession.”
”Why don't you start first?”
”Highness, what is the outer realm?” Edward asked.
This time both Tarin and Johan both had an incredulous expressions on their face. Unperturbed, Aureus replied ”One of the realms which make up our world known as the Three Realms.”
”Highness, is this Three Realms you speak of, on a planet?”
This time it was Aureus's turn to have a puzzled expression. ”Planet? What is that?”
Being prepared this time around, Edward did not choke on his breath but instead took a deep breath before answering ”An astronomical body orbiting a star.”
”I heard both the terms astronomical and star but I do not know the context in which you are using.”
”Where are you from?”
”I am from a place called Earth in the Sol system.” Edward replied while looking unsettled.
”I never heard of this Earth or Sol system,” Aureus replied. ”May I know what were you doing before being unconscious and what can you tell me about the circumstances leading you here?”
Edward then described in detail what happened prior to him falling unconscious. He claimed that he was leading a military operation on a retreat when a burst of sudden white light enveloped him. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the castle.
Aureus steepled his fingers and had a grave expression on his face while considering what Edward just told him.
No one interrupted Aureus while he was thinking. Slowly, an overbearing and pressurizing aura spread out from Aureus and bore down on all the men in the room. At the same time, Aureus's pupils began glowing. Tarin and Johan had no visible reactions but Edward was astonished.
Aureus noted Edward's expression and withdrew his aura.
”What are your plans?”asked Aureus as the glow in his eyes faded.
”To be honest, from what I gathered so far, it appears I am not in the world where I was from and there are many things I do not understand about the current world I am in. One of my motives for attending this audience was to seek employment.”
Tarin and Johan were scrutinizing Edward again after he stated his intention.
The amused expression returned to Aureus ”Well, since we established that you are a military personnel. What rank did you hold and what skills do you have?”
This time Edward had a perturbed expression as he considered ”Should I hedge my bets and answer with the partial truth or come clean completely?”
Aureus expression became even more pronounced as he seemed to decipher Edward's thoughts, ”Pencil pushing is fine too, any army needs capable administrators who can file papers and count numbers.”
This time, Tarin had a broad smile on his face while Johan's mouth curled into a corner at Aureus's remarks.
Shaking his head and smiling, Edward replied,