Chapter 784: Towards the competition ofkingdoms

"Invocation?" Bai Zemin looked at King Philip before looking at the second princess Serpahina with surprise.

His surprise didn't come from the word itself but from what it represented to have such a skill. Furthermore, after thinking about it a little better, Bai Zemin realized that many things might be more complicated than it seemed to be.

For the first few seconds, Bai Zemin was laughing internally thinking that just as the princess with the ponytails had just said it was a coincidence. He assumed to himself that Seraphina probably had some skill similar to the bear and wolf summons that soul evolvers could get if they were lucky after killing some enemy; especially mutant beasts.

However, Bai Zemin was not that confident anymore after remembering that the person who had taken him out of the Forest of the Ancients had been none other than the second princess of the Gales Kingdom.

He didn't know how big that forest was, however, it was definitely huge considering that King Philip said that the power of the nuclear missile had cleared "only" 1/20th of the Forest of the Ancients.

Was it really a coincidence that Seraphina Di Gales, a princess, was casually near where Bai Zemin was teleported?

"Ah, you don't know. Let me explain." King Philip said with a very happy smile.

Besides, for some reason unknown to Bai Zemin, the way the king was looking at him now was a little different, but maybe it was just an illusion on his part.

"Dad!" Seraphina slammed the table with both hands, clearly not intending any harm or with her strength she would have smashed it to pieces.

"It's all right, child. What's wrong with letting him know? Wouldn't you like to show him how cool and awesome you are?" King Philip chuckled and pointed.

Hearing this, Seraphina gave Bai Zemin a sidelong glance and muttered under her breath, "What's so great about impressing this orc..."

'Tsundere.' Bai Zemin snorted in his heart.

The king shook his head for a moment before explaining with enthuciasm in his voice, "Zemin, let me explain. Actually, Seraphina has a special class and even though it is not a unique class she is the only one in all Gales and probably even in the whole world to possess this class."

"Oh?" Bai Zemin looked at the ponytailed princess with a little more respect.

He had thought that she had reached her current level with the help of others, but apparently he had judged her too soon.

"Hmph." Seraphina snorted and abruptly turned her head away, smacking Bai Zemin's face with one of her ponytails in the process.

"Cough... So," King Philip coughed upon seeing Bai Zemin's uncomfortable expression and quickly continued, "Seraphina's class, World Priestess, not only boosts all of her stats passively anywhere in these lands that she is but allowed her to have twice as many active skills as a normal soul evolver."

"What?" Bai Zemin's eyes widened in shock upon hearing this and the shock in his heart fully showed on his face, "Twice as many active skills? That's crazy!"

Whoever had more would not necessarily win, however, whoever had more definitely had a higher chance of beating whoever had less; that was how the world worked not only with skills but with everything.

Even Bai Zemin himself could not possess more than 5 actives were it not for the fact that all the other actives he either learned by himself or in some unknown way "unlocked them."

"Unfortunately or not, half of those skills must mandatorily be skills that grant some benefit to Seraphina's allies, which means she will only receive benefits if she is in a party so to speak. Otherwise, she wouldn't be much different from the others as far as number of active skills concerned." King Philip explained as he saw Bai Zemin's shock.

"Oh..." Bai Zemin sighed in relief in his heart. Only with such restraint was he willing to accept the existence of such a broken class like that even though it wasn't even a unique one.

"Still, that's pretty amazing." He said, looking at Seraphina with a bit more respect. "Not bad, ponytailed princess."

"You... You... You..." Seraphina gnashed her teeth, glaring at Bai Zemin as if he were her natural enemy.

Bai Zemin ignored her and instead focused on the king's explanation.

"When Seraphina broke into the Second Order about 1 year ago, she received a strange skill called 'Invocation'.... I think it will be best if Seraphina herself explains the rest." Said King Philip after a better consideration.

Seraphina released all the air from her lungs, and with an obviously feigned expression of defeat began to slowly explain, "The description of my Invocation skill is not at all clear.... It only says that given the right circumstances I will be allowed to invoke a powerful existence that in the not-so-distant future could help me to get out of difficulty."

That was... a pretty vague description, indeed. To begin with, what were the right circumstances? One might as well wander eternally in the face of the unknown without ever being able to activate the skill.

"However, no matter how many times I used Invocation in the past, the skill never did actually activate, or at least nothing changed so I eventually stopped trying." Seraphina said before looking at Bai Zemin and saying quietly, "But.... Seven days ago for some reason, I wanted to try again."

Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes and taking advantage of Seraphina's pause asked, "... How long have I been unconscious?"

"If you had not awakened today it would have been seven days since you fell unconscious." Queen Helena replied with a small smile that suggested she understood the reason why he was asking that question.

"That sounds like too much of a coincidence." Lilith's voice sounded next to Bai Zemin.

In fact, she was currently sitting on his lap with her small back resting on his firm chest.

'Indeed, too much of a coincidence.' Bai Zemin nodded silently.

Seraphina Di Gales for some reason began to get a little nervous as she continued her narration of events, 'At the time I had gone out to hunt some orcs as I needed their blood to take to Aunt Aurora to help me concoct a Stamina potion. It was then when for some reason I decided to activate Invocation... and to my surprise, I actually felt the Mana in my body being consumed. This was something that had never happened before! I actually felt like I invoked something or someone into this world at that moment and that's when I saw a huge black portal appearing in the distant sky!"

"Okay, I understand what you want to point out." Bai Zemin gestured with his hand to ask Seraphina to be silent for a moment and then continued, "However, I'm afraid it really is just as Seraphina said before. This can only be a coincidence."

"A coincidence?"

The king and queen looked at each other puzzled before the latter looked at Bai Zemin with a slight frown.

"Zemin, even after everything you heard you say it was all a coincidence... It means you must have your logical reasons, doesn't it?"

"That's right." Bai Zemin nodded before proceeding to explain the fact that he had a title that allowed him to travel to a random world.

He didn't fully reveal the existence of his Irregular title let alone the reason why he obtained it. He only revealed enough for the people in front of him to know and understand that the reason why he came to Eventide World had nothing to do with the second princess's Invocation skill.

"I guess... That changes a few things." King Philip muttered in confusion.

In fact, after hearing Bai Zemin's words, Queen Helen and even Seraphina herself was confused. Despite her earlier words, it was obvious that this proud but gentle second princess somehow or other expected to be the person who had summoned Bai Zemin to this world.

...

Approximately 1 hour later, Bai Zemin under the guidance of a maid returned to his room. Apparently, the person who helped him change into something more comfortable, cleaned the blood from his body, and helped heal his wounds, had left all of Bai Zemin's equipment in the room itself.

The reason he didn't see it was because he never looked for it to begin with.

"Lilith, what do you think regarding the conversation before?" Bai Zemin asked after the maid retreated.

"Mmmm.... It's really strange." Lilith said as she observed Bai Zemin putting on his combat equipment. "To be honest, I'm not particularly good with space magic despite having some knowledge and mastery of it."

Bai Zemin began to put on his boots after the leg protectors and said in a somewhat perplexed voice, "Although I said at that moment that it was all a coincidence, coincidences of that magnitude are probably as unlikely as winning the lottery twenty times in a row."

After a moment of silence, Lilith's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Hey, Zemin..."

"Mm?"

"Could it be that at least one of the so-called 'right circumstances' that states that Seraphina girl's Invocation skill has to do with the existence to be summoned must possess a way to move between worlds?"

"That... Sounds quite plausible." Bai Zemin muttered. However, after a moment he shook his head and pointed with a frown, "However, if I was invoked into this world by Seraphina then what changed? I don't see or feel any kind of change in my records that would somehow or other bind me to her."

"Well, if I remember correctly, that little princess said something like 'invoke a powerful existence that in the not-so-distant future could help me to get out of difficulty'.... The word 'could' is the key here. Perhaps, whether or not the existence summoned by her decides to help will depend on whether or not the two of them form some close relationship." Lilith pointed out, leaving Bai Zemin with no way to counter at all.

Bai Zemin sighed heavily as he finished putting on the top of his armor. He walked to the large balcony, and as he looked at the huge city littered with buildings beneath the mountain, he said not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "If this really is like that then somehow I feel like those heroes summoned from faraway lands to save the world."

"You and your light novels." Lilith rolled her eyes.

"Forget it, forget it." Bai Zemin turned around and clapped his cheeks. His expression became firm as he said in a deep voice, "Be that as it may, what I have to do hasn't changed. Get what I can get and then return to Earth, simple as that. Everything else has nothing to do with me."

Lilith's eyes twinkled with a hint of amusement as she looked at his back.

"Oh? I see, that's good... By the way, something I forgot to mention to you is that that little golden-haired princess used her skills to heal you so many times that she fainted 5 times in a row due to the loss of Mana. She even went to the trouble of cleaning your body without letting anyone come near you fearing you would get hurt despite her embarrassment and awkwardness. Probably the first time she did something like that for another person considering how beginner-like her moves were."

Bai Zemin's footsteps stopped and his hand froze as he was about to open the door. He knew that Lilith was telling him this only now to mock him, however, Bai Zemin could not deny that her words were effective.

... That girl who was even younger than his younger sister had helped him so much despite not having the responsibility to do it. Even with her background, she took the trouble and time to do it all by herself despite having no experience at all.

She even hid it and didn't say anything to anyone. Seraphina didn't even remark it to Bai Zemin despite the fact that she always seemed annoyed with him.

"... Let's go, let's go to see how that kingdom competition goes." He said quietly, opening the door.

A maid received him with a polite smile and after bowing slightly guided him somewhere.

'We'll see what fate has in store for us.'

Seraphina Di Gales had been very good to Bai Zemin despite knowing nothing about him.

Regardless of whether her skill Invocation had anything to do with his Irregular title bringing him to this world, Bai Zemin might as well give that ponytailed princess a hand if he was on the way.