Ball of Nothing 355 Meeting Queen Rosalind

Queen Rosalind wasn't anything like Zero had expected her to be. Not all ladies were feminine and Queen Rosalind was one of those minorities. Zero liked her the moment he saw her. The queen was like Zenobia, a warrior through and through. However, unlike the chieftess, queen Rosalind was a swordswoman instead of an archer.

The giantess was intimidating with her sharp stare and pierced bottom lip. Zero noted how Rosalind resembled Freya a little with her green eyes and red hair that was messily braided. The queen wore fur and leather armour instead of fine silk gowns and carried a two-handed sword at her hip. Instead of a gold crown, queen Rosalind wore a steel crown instead. Zero thought that it was rather strange that royalty wore steel crowns instead of gold crowns. Gold represented wealth after all and to replace that symbol with steel, Zero couldn't understand the reason behind it. He was very curious but held his tongue in front of the queen.

The queen was fifteen meters tall and Zero was tiny in her presence. Bowing only made him appear smaller and his voice was terribly quiet in such a big room that Zero had to shout to be heard. Fortunately, nobody treated that as a sign of disrespect. If anything, Zero's desperation only elicited laughs and kind smiles hidden behind masks from the throne room.

Joseph took pity on the healer and decided to help Zero out by conveying his words to the queen and her ministers.

"This is Zero, a travelling healer with her brother. Zero has a gift and she claims to be able to listen to the voices of wandering gods. The lass claims to be able to cure the plague," Joseph summarised.

At that, Queen Rosalind became serious. The relaxed laughter from before was nowhere to be heard and she eyed the tiny healer who wore a cloak over her light blue healer robes.

"I cannot see you from where I am," Queen Rosalind spoke and looked at Joseph. "Why don't you bring her closer? Is she afraid of standing on the palms of giants?"

Joseph shook her head. "She has stood on my shoulders before when I gave her a house tour. She brought my daughter home and even took care of her for a while. We went out inspecting coma patients and mushrooms together a few days ago. She is well accustomed to the way of life in Magnus Hilda now."

Queen Rosalind nodded and Zero became nervous when she crossed over from Joseph to the queen's hand. If the giants truly wanted, they could easily close their fist around him and squeeze his insides out. The thought was rather gruesome and the threat was rather real but Zero wasn't worried. Truen listened to the conversation with his heart in his mouth. Zero really knew how to make people feel worried about him.

Zero tried to remember all the manners that Freya taught him about when dealing with royalty. He humbled himself and bowed before smiling politely as he introduced his name. Queen Rosalind nodded.

"Many renowned doctors have tried and failed before. What makes you so confident that you can cure this plague that has been going on for almost five years now? Also, how do I know if the voices of gods that you hear are real?"

As expected of a wise queen, Rosalind didn't give her trust easily. Yet, she didn't turn away what most people would have labelled as a religious hoax. She was impartial in judgement and patient as Zero told his story.

"Queen Rosalind, the voice of the goddess I hear coming from this land tells me that she can cure the people but her power is limited. In order to prove that I am not lying, I can perform a ritual to offer my prayers to this wandering goddess. However, there will be a few things I would like to request as part of the offering to this goddess. Would your majesty be willing to assist me in procuring these items?"

Queen Rosalind's expression gave nothing away but she replied Zero calmly like she would with everything else. "Magnus Hilda isn't a particularly wealthy country. Ever since the plague, our economy has started to weaken considerably. I'm afraid we cannot offer your goddess anything expensive or imported because traders stopped visiting the country. However, if the things your goddess desires are within acceptable reasons that the people of Magnus Hilda can afford, I will do my best to obtain them for you."

Zero smiled and thanked the queen with another bow. "Your majesty, my goddess is not a greedy or whimsical god. She is benevolent and genuinely cares about her people. Unfortunately, disaster had befallen the Heavens many years back and my goddess still hasn't recovered from the disaster. She is very weak at the moment and is lucky to have survived the disaster when all her brethren have perished. To help my goddess produce the cure and increase her power of blessing to this falling land, she desires food of the best quality to nourish her vessel."

Queen Rosalind was surprised when all Zero requested for the offering was food. Normally, offerings demanded from the United nation of the Uncanny would consist of live sacrifices, gold, ancient artefacts or even dead bodies. Perhaps the offerings for magicians and gods differed. No, it couldn't be. The missionaries also usually requested money as payment for their services. Some even went as far as to call them offerings to their faith. Could Zero truly hear the voice of wandering gods?.

"I understand. If it is food, the royal palace can prepare even a banquet for your goddess. Is there anything in particular that your goddess demands?"

Zero thought about it for a bit and pretended to communicate with the wandering goddess in the presence of everyone. The room was silent even when Zero dragged the act on for three minutes. When he finally opened his eyes, he smiled and pretended to be slightly tired from the communication.

"The goddess said that other than alcohol, she would accept all kinds of food. The goddess has also made a request for her shrine to be built in her name if she can cure the plague. Magnus Hilda will only worship her name after this and she will appear to all when she has recovered her divine powers to bless this land once more. For now, the goddess has a task for everyone. She says that the cause of the plague is from those mushrooms invading the land. This is a sign that Goddess Hyndla's powers have weakened and her blessing over the land is fading. I tried to ask for a reason why the blessing would weaken but the goddess would say no more. Instead, with the remaining time of our communication, she taught me how to draw a talisman that can be used to eradicate the mushrooms."

Zero then sneakily withdrew a pre-made dehydrating talisman from his inventory in his sleeves and presented it to the queen.

"This talisman is a prolonged heat spell used to dehydrate the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms have fallen off their original spots, the place should be dusted with cinnamon powder. In addition, these dehydrated mushrooms should be offered to the goddess so that she can safely dispose of them and prevent the spores from spreading elsewhere."

Queen Rosalind didn't have any objections and after listening to Zero's explanation, she asked where they could procure more of those talismans or create them.

"We giants are only known for our size and strength. Magic is not one of our talents," the queen admitted and Zero thought for a while.

"I can prepare the talismans but it will take time just like getting the cure potions from the goddess. Every offering ritual will take about half an hour from start to finish. I'm afraid it will not progress as quickly..."

With a fond look at Zero's meek expression, Queen Rosalind reassured the healer that time and resources didn't matter. As long as a cure can be found and a solution can be made, the giants were more than happy to provide assistance.

"When can you start the ritual for the first offering? How much should we prepare? Do you need a private room to prepare for the ritual?"

Zero nodded. "Just a small room will suffice. However, all windows must be barred. I have to draw the array first to make it a temporary shrine for the goddess until the actual shrine is built. When I am performing the offering ritual, nobody should enter the room because it could disrupt my concentration. As for the size of the offering.. It depends on how much can be prepared before every ritual. The larger the size of the offering the more potions the goddess can prepare, I think. The goddess didn't say anything about it."

Hearing Zero's uncertainty made the giants believe that Zero was actually telling the truth. He didn't pretend to interpret things on behalf of the goddess and was honest about such things. In their eyes, Zero had become the hope that they long lost after almost five long years of suffering from the plague. Still, Queen Rosalind had her reservations. Even if Zero was telling the truth, as a queen, she had responsibilities towards her people. She couldn't allow an unknown goddess to be their saviour and neglect Zero who was the interpreter. With her mind made up, the giantess sent Zero away to prepare for the first offering ritual in an hour while she gave orders to the kitchen. To make things easier for everyone, the dining hall was converted into the temporary shrine for Zero to use.

Zero was led away to the study while the maids prepared the huge dining hall for the ritual. Many high-grade talisman papers were prepared for Zero and the doctor was stumped.

"These are...?"

Lawrence the queen's butler smiled. "We would like to trouble you to prepare the dehydrating spell talismans, these are the materials. As we do not have magicians, we can only rely on the healer to help us draw them. If there are any issues, please let us know, we will do our best to assist you. Also, the queen didn't say this publically but Ms Zheng will be compensated accordingly for everything from the cure to the talisman drawings and shrine sculpture building."

Zero blinked. "I have to build the shrine sculpture?"

Lawrence blinked. "Ms Zheng, only you know how the goddess is like. None of us knows how she looks like enough to create a sculpture."

Zero looked helpless. He was a doctor, he wasn't a sculptor!

"I haven't seen the goddess either, I'm also not very acquainted with her. If I didn't meet Camie on my travels I wouldn't have heard her voice at all... Also, I don't have any sculpting skills, how can I help?"

Lawrence smiled like a fox who had caught a hen in his trap. "Do not worry, her majesty will pay for everything and compensate you for the time and effort. You merely have to make a trip to Rocket Mountains to find a skilled dwarven sculptor to help you create that sculpture for the shrine while we build it."

Zero wanted to cry. This wasn't what he signed up for. He felt as if these adults were milking him for everything that he was worth. Helping them with the plague was one thing. Helping them with their internal matters was another thing and Zero truly didn't want to be involved in it. Unfortunately, he had no say in the matter as Lawrence left it in his capable hands. Doing business was really difficult and Zero found his respect for Coux and Schaf increasing more.

Now that he was alone again, Zero looked at the stack of talisman paper. He took out his hundred pre-drawn talismans and exchanged it with a hundred empty talisman papers before staring at the remaining nine hundred blank pieces. This was going to take a while.

Chapter end