All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 318: Helicopter Brother

Bee was exhausted. It had been a very long day, to say the least. Not only that, but the amount of people she had to talk to doubled, if not tripled, compared to the usual. That in itself was impressive. Normally, she was in charge of operating the country, so her whole day was spent talking to nobles, diplomats, and church leaders galore. But today, everyone wanted to wish her a happy birthday. Everyone.

She tried to be grateful. Most of these people were genuinely wishing her well. The sycophants trying to kiss up to her had been mostly weeded out, after all. But it was hard to remember that after the hundredth time.

She also felt a little bad about the gifts situation. She tried to insist that no one get her anything, but that went about as well as expected. And so, she got a lot of presents she didn't really need. One of the downsides of having pretty much everything was that no one could get you anything for your birthday.

People tried, and Bee appreciated the effort. In fact, there were a couple that she genuinely liked, such as the drawings of the Nighty Knights recruits and an incredibly tasty apple tart that looked like a basket of roses. Everyone else tried to figure out what they could get her with money.

Her father's gift had been surprisingly thoughtful, though. He had sent a model of the newest ship that he had helped Void design, a massive freighter that could carry almost 1 million pounds of cargo. It had been shipped to her in a waist-high glass bottle. With it was a simple note that just said: Happy birthday, daughter.

The ship was one thing. But the note made Bee tear up slightly. Over the years, she'd made some efforts to reconnect with her father and mend their relationship. She'd also tried to understand him better, an effort that led her to talk with Aunt Beatrix more than a few times. Apparently, her father had good reason to act the way he did. His merchant class endowed him with heaps of charisma-enhancing skills that allowed him to be far more persuasive and agreeable to others. He had serious moral problems using these skills with his family.

Quashing those skills seemed to lead him to overcorrect his behavior. Bee's dad ended up coming off as pretty cold and finding it hard to spend time around. But now that she knew that, she couldn't help but be grateful to him.

She appreciated not being magically manipulated into being the perfect daughter. And so, gifts like this were one of the ways her father knew how to show real affection.

But other than that, it was an absolutely exhausting day. She was glad that dinner was coming. The feasting and partying wouldn't end there, of course, but she could at least have a break as she ate for the most part.

The last thing before the meal, though, was the Nighty Knights' tournament. It was a tradition that had started on her birthday several years ago. But rather than limiting themselves to annual events, the Nighty Knights became restless and needed more ways to practice and burn off some energy.

Because of that, they started doing them every couple of months with their massively increased and mostly unofficial membership. They had different divisions and mostly held regional tournaments. Today, though, entrants had gathered from all four of the cities they had branches in. They'd come all the way here, with their parent's permission, to enter one massive tournament.

The end results were never much in question, but the finals were quite interesting to watch. The challenger actually was not one of the original Nighty Knights. It was a young girl with a pair of daggers who had joined from the capital after the siege of the castle. Because of that, she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder, as the original Nighty Knights were a bit exclusive about those who had actually fought in the life-and-death battle. But now that they were all old enough, everyone had gained some experience, and those divisions had lessened somewhat. In fact, this young girl reminded Bee of herself in many ways, especially in her determination to prove herself over and over.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Perhaps Bee was reading too much into it and remembering herself as a particularly stubborn 12-year-old. But still, she felt sympathy for her situation as the current reigning champion was none other than Bradley Chadwick.

The boy entered the ring after his opponent walked in with his younger sister, Irene. Bradley had grown up a lot. The now 13-year-old had gained so many levels that his body didn't seem to match his real age. Despite being 13, he stood at a whopping six foot five with at least 220 pounds of muscle. Despite that, he moved like he was half of his weight.

His long, flowing hair rested behind his shoulders, held back by a black circlet that Void had given him a couple of years back. Across his shoulders hung the flaming sword he had won in his first championship. It went with him everywhere. His gleaming armor shone with pinpricks of silver like many stars across a matte black finish.

The amount of young teenage girls screaming in the crowd and throwing roses in his path was not lost on Bee nor any of the other spectators. The only person who seemed to be unaware of the attention was Bradley, who was too busy watching his sister. Well, not his sister, exactly. He was actually glaring daggers at a young boy staring at his sister. Beatrice was well aware that he couldn't shoot lasers out of his eyes, but if he could…

Bee shook her head. As far as she could tell, he was just extremely protective. He insisted that anyone who wanted to date his little sister would have to beat him in a duel. It was honestly quite adorable. And a little unfair to the poor grade schoolers he trounced along the way.

Irene herself had stopped competing in the tournaments as her power was deemed too dangerous. The emulation of Void's many different abilities in her summoned avatar had only grown in power. Usually, any conflict with her ended with a single decisive blow. But at this point, she could have trouble avoiding permanent harm to her opponents, so she stuck to fighting monsters. Bradley was more than happy to duel on her behalf whenever necessary. Not that it was really necessary. Though she did act as essentially the spiritual core of the Nighty Knights.

The chants for Bradley Chadwick filled the arena in a chorus of shouts. He drew his massive flaming sword and wielded it in one hand before bowing to his opponent. The girl returned his bow with a slight smile. Bee settled back to watch the display of the two skilled warriors as they began to clash. At least the kingdom's future was in good hands.

***

Much later that night, well past midnight, Bee finally managed to make an escape. She used the excuse that it was no longer her birthday to escape the festivities, though that did earn some protests. Still, her insistence that she wanted to sleep helped her retreat eventually, so she hurried back home. Void joined her within a few minutes of her getting the door open.

Bee flopped onto a couch with a loud groan. She was exhausted but not quite ready to go to sleep. Not yet. There was still work to be done.

"Any word from the delegation?" Bee asked Void hopefully. Maybe they would have some sort of news already. The expectation was impractical, of course, but she couldn't help her curiosity.

Void replied with a negative beep but continued on with a more complex message afterward. Bee nodded her head. "I agree we do need to increase our readiness. The Nighty Knights are already here, so that helps. Maybe we can see if their parents will let them stay a little bit longer? We might have demons to hunt soon. We need to be ready for a more involved extraction, and they're honestly our quickest-moving forces."

Void beeped its agreement. A moment later, a rectangular strip of paper emerged from its back, a message already printed on it. Bee pulled it free and passed it to a servant at the door, who nodded and ran to handle the matter.

Bee settled back on the couch. "Other than that, how was your time at the festival?"

Immediately, Void jumped into an ecstatic retelling of the many events that it had judged. Bee settled back and allowed Void's soothing tones to wash over her as her master regaled her with tales. There had been many successes and amusing failures as the populace competed in the celebratory events. In particular, Void seemed to enjoy the pie-eating competition.

It was one of Void's favorites after all these years. At first, she thought her master wouldn't like it because of the mess being made. There were usually a lot of crumbs left behind, after all. But apparently, something about humans attempting to clean up and consume as much food as possible in a short time was rather amusing. It almost made her a bit disappointed that she'd been banned from the competition. Apparently, her using Void's Breath wasn't in the spirit of the competition. Even if it was great practice for her.

As Bee leaned back and closed her eyes, she smiled. Despite everything, she did have some fun.

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