Chapter 60: Going to the meeting.
Devilia was sitting on her bed when Ryder walked in.
"Do you need anything?" Ryder inquired as he stood in front of her.
"Yeah. I just wanted to tell you that we'll be leaving today. Everything Is decided, and the meeting of the Dukes will take place tonight. I want to introduce you to them, so let's get you prepared," Devilia smilingly said.
"Prepared? For what?" Ryder inquired with a frown.
"Well, of course, you can't go like that. We need to get you some good clothes. You need to look like a Prince, not like a random person," She replied.
"It won't take much time, though. I had already told my personal dressmaker to make some clothes for you. He sent them as well. You just need to get changed," Devilia said as she made a small gesture with her hand.
A small spatial portal opened in front of her. This was something akin to her own personal storage.
She brought the clothes outside and placed them on the bed near her.
"Alright. I'll be right back after getting changed," Ryder said as he picked up the clothes.
"What are you talking about? You can change right here. You don't need to leave. Brave men shouldn't be shy of anything. Don't worry about me. Just think that I'm not here if you still feel uncomfortable," Devilia chuckled as she told Ryder.
"Ah, Are you serious?" Ryder asked in surprise.
"Yeah. Do it here. You leaving and coming back will waste a lot of our precious time," She replied.
"That's stupid. I can't change in front of you!" Ryder insisted.
"Why? Do you have something that's making you ashamed? It's fine, I won't judge you," She said in full seriousness.
"I have nothing to be ashamed about! But still, I can't do it in front of you," Ryder repeated the same thing.
"Sigh, Alright. You can go to that room. Get changed fast," She finally gave up. She pointed towards the attached room.
"That's better," Ryder said as he left and entered the room. He closed the door just to be sure and started taking his clothes off.
What he didn't know was that Devilia was able to see everything. She had the skill that helped her see through a single wall.
"Hmm, I guess he wasn't lying. There is indeed nothing to be ashamed about," She chuckled as she looked towards the room.
Ryder didn't take long and got ready in a hurry before he left the room.
"You look better now," Duke Devilia praised him.
He was wearing beautiful white clothes. His white shirt had some charming design that made it seem like he was wearing beautiful silver armor. His short silver hair matched the clothes quite well.
The only thing that had a different color was his robe. He was wearing a different robe. The robe was a dark grey in color and had long-standing collars as well.
He also covered his hands with slim warrior-like gauntlets.
"Do I really need to wear gauntlets? Although they do look cool, I don't think I'm going for a war, am I?" Ryder asked with a wry smile on his face.
"Who knows, there might be a war after all," She said as she chuckled.
"I'm kidding. Don't worry; I'll protect you even if something does happen," She further explained as she saw the frown on Ryder's face.
"As for the gauntlets? This is something that His Majesty used to wear when he was ruling. So I thought it would be a good thing if you wear one as well. Anyways, Since you don't know about it, I guess His Majesty doesn't wear a gauntlet outside?" She explained before she asked another question.
"I haven't seen Master wearing one, so that should be true," Ryder let out without any change in his expression.
"Yeah. Anyways, now that you're ready let's leave. We can't be late," She said with a smile as she stood up.
"Yeah, If I'm not wrong, we should be in the capital city of the Demonic Empire. The meeting should be somewhere nearby, right?" He asked.
"Not really. The Dark City is much bigger than you can imagine. It should be way bigger than an average kingdom, so it would take quite a lot of time," She explained.
"That's why we should hurry," She walked closer to Ryder and held his hands.
She brought him towards her balcony and jumped right outside with him. She began flying with Ryder.
Ryder noticed that she was flying in the opposite direction of the forest that Ryder visited last night.
"I guess that's why I didn't see any palaces of other dukes or anything last night," He muttered.
They flew for a few hours, and Ryder did manage to see a few palaces that looked just as luxurious as the palace of Duke Devilia, but apparently, these were not their destination as Devilia didn't stop there and continued ahead.
It was evening, and the sun was starting to set when Ryder noticed another palace in the distant horizon, but it was different from all other palaces.
The palace was pitch black in color, and it was many times larger than the palace of Devilia. Even the door of the palace itself was as tall as the whole palace of Devilia.
There were no houses or buildings near the palace. There was nothing within the kilometer range of the palace.
He could see 6 other smaller Palaces that were surrounding the bigger palace like the guards, outside the kilometer range of it. Even though the 6 palaces were smaller than the big palace, they were still larger than the palace of someone like Devilia.
"You see those 6 places? Those are the Palaces of the 6 Great Dukes. And the palace in the center is the Palace that belongs to your Master. That place has been empty since His Majesty left us, but today, the Royal Hall will be opened once more," She said with a smile on her face.
"I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of those guys when they find out. It's going to be fun," She let out.
Soon, they landed in front of the Royal Palace.