ã€ŠGuardianã€‹


 Prologue

    The fields were red. Blood red. Bodies of monsters, men, demi-humans, elves, demons, and much more littered the grasslands. However, the bodies were not alone for there was a city that stood in the middle of the grasslands that were also filled with bodies that still were fresh with the color red. It was quite obvious that the city used to be a place filled with life, riches, and power with beautiful architecture and stalls filled with marvelous goods. In the middle of the city, a majestic white castle used to stand high and mighty. The mere sight of the castle was enough to fill people with shock and awe into the hearts of whoever laid their eyes on its structure for its spires reached into the skies with gems embedded into the walls that seemed to glow with magic power. Now, the city was simply devoid of life, and half of the castle was reduced to rubble with explosions that continued to shake its foundations.

    Within the castle laid even more bodies or what were left of them. A giant pile of dust was right next to a monstrous carcass that was so deformed with bones the stuck out at queer angles that it was simply impossible to identify the carcass. At the roof of the room, a pair of black eyes was glued to the ceiling laying witness to the figure of a Dullahan impaled on one of the gold chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. On the red carpet, a female elf lay dead her clothes and her surrounding slowly being stained with her blood while the torso of what seemed to be a vampire was impaled straight into the grounds and legs that suck out almost comically from the ground. The hallway was not devoid of movement despite the stillness of the bodies within the throne room. Two figures were trading furious blows into each other. One was a human male dressed in what was once glorious obsidian colored armor holding a sword that once shone with a brilliant violet aura but reduced to half of a sword and glowed with a dying red light. His light brown hair was singed at numerous places, and one of his eyes were missing with blood slowly seeping out of its hole. The other eye shown with defiance as his brown eyes stared intently into the opponent watching its every move. On the opposite side stood a dark oppressive shadow that seemed to absorb all light that touched its form and was constantly morphing its shape. The only thing constant about the form was the two glowing red eyes that hovered in the top of the form as it stared down harshly at the human. Suddenly, the form shifted, and a blade devoid of light flew at the human forcing him to jump back.

    ¡°Why do you keep fighting human? You can never defeat me. I am a being that was born from the culmination of darkness and lost souls, fueled by despair, fear, and sadness. You never had a chance. So why are you so persistent? Did you truly think the power of hope and friendship would be enough to defeat me?¡± (Dark Shadow)

    ¡°To be honest, Emperor of Despair, I too never thought that I could defeat you nor your army. However, I fight because it is the right thing to do. You have no right to take innocent lives and no right to take away the freedom that makes life precious.¡± (Human)

    ¡°Don¡¯t delude yourself. Life is filled with despair and hatred. It is filled with struggle as all species compete with each other simply to survive. The survival of the fittest which leaves the weak to die as the strong continues to feed off the weak. Life is unnecessary. It needs to be trimmed and controlled.¡± (Emperor of Despair)

    ¡°You¡¯re wrong. That isn¡¯t all to life. Yeah, life is filled with struggles, and yeah, life has its dull points. But life is also about enjoying those struggles, sympathizing with others, having fun, making bonds of family and friendship, feeling sad, working hard for your dreams, and growing from your failures. Like my father used to say, ¡®when life gives you lemons, make lemonade¡¯. It is a weird saying, but it makes sense. Just because life is filled with struggles does not mean that it deserves to be snuffed out and controlled like some dangerous poison. Life is filled with emotions, and it gives it an amazing color.¡± (Human)Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    ¡°How na?ve! Emotions you say! Emotions are useless! It merely impedes with rationale thinking! Those bonds you so cherish are so easily broken! Hard work does NOT guarantee your dreams. Even if you achieve those dreams, it can all come crashing down, leaving you in nothing but a pit of despair. The risks regarding life is too much. THAT is why I have gathered under my banner monsters to control life.¡±

    ¡°You mean the illusion of control. No matter what you do life will continue to struggle. You can¡¯t control life. Besides, what do you know about life in the first place? You never felt emotions, you never had friends, and you DON¡¯T KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR FRIENDS DIE IN FRONT OF YOU!¡±

    ¡°It seems that you are starting to break human. Say no more. I shall grant you a quick death before I begin to collect the darkness that have settled on this land to take control of the flow of life. Consider it as a congratulations for lasting so long against me.¡±

    A dark mass began to form over the Emperor of Despair, sucking in the shadows and light. The room seemed to darken as the mass began to grow. Once it has reached a certain size, it began to form into a spear, pointed at the human who has collapsed onto his knees and began coughing blood. Suddenly, the human muttered a single word and began to chuckle.

    Suddenly, the body of the elf, the eyes, and the pile of dust burst into a cloud of white particles and surrounded the Emperor and immediately absorbed the spear and began to feed of the body of the Emperor himself.

    ¡°Did you know that my father who you so brutally murdered 10 years ago was actually from another world? When he first saw you, he immediately believed that this world was doomed and began working on a spell that could send him and his loved ones back. He managed to complete the spell, but he could not gather enough energy to power the spell and gave it to me before he rode off to battle.¡±

    ¡°So? What of it? If you truly think this pitiful seal can trap me, do reconsider. I can break any seal in a small amount of time. You¡¯re father died in vain when he thought that by delaying me, he could buy enough time for the mages to use a spell that was supposed to seal me for a millennia. It only held me down for 30 seconds.¡±

    ¡°No. This time. I made some tweaks to the spell; I am going to banish you from this world.¡±

    ¡°Ahhhhh. Interesting. Sadly, there are holes in your plan, and you are just bluffing. You said a couple seconds ago that the spell did not have enough power. I have also investigated about interdimensional travel after I learned your father was not of this world. Your father simply fell through cracks when the fabric of space and time intersected and folded. The spell you are speaking of is trying to send me away from the fabric and into another point. Even if you did succeed, I have lived on this world for a very long time. So even if I was banished and sent to another point in the fabric, the gravity of this world has a stronger pull on me so it will be easy to simply return with a simple manipulation of magic. Enough of this foolishness. I have wasted too much time¡­¡­ Why will this seal not break?¡±

    ¡°Hehehehe. My father said that he was a college student working on a degree in chemistry in his old world. Once, he told me that it costs energy to break bonds between atoms. This seal is special. I applied what he said to this seal. It is actually taking your energy to fuel the real breaking of our bonds, this time with bonds of friendship and family. That¡¯s right. When a friend dies, the bond still remains. We still retain memories and emotions for that person. That is why people grieve over separation and death. The price for this seal is that we are forsaking our bonds with each other, our families, and our friends, and we are using your energy to fuel the breaking of the bonds. In other words, we have decided to disappear from the lives of everyone we knew and simply become strangers.¡±

    ¡°You are nothing but a fool. That means that this seal will only trap me for a couple minutes at most then. You have underestimated my power, child. Also, even now you still have the issue of obtaining enough energy to banish me from this world.¡±

    ¡°Nope. A couple minutes is enough to banish you from this world. Also, my father told me that energy is released when we make bonds. Guess what? Have you wondered what it is like to live in a human body?¡±

    ¡°You would not dare¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh. I. Do. Dare. Have fun living in a human body beyondthis world asshole.¡±

    A flare of light flashed, and the shadow disappeared. The human lied down and closed his eyes as his body began to fossilize.

    ¡°Sorry Elsie. I couldn''t keep my promise. Sorry I couldn''t be there to see that world you always dreamed about."

 Chapter 1: the return

    Within the ruins of a once majestic castle lay a fossilized body. For generations, it has remained there collecting dust and began to show the signs of time. The fossil looked as if it was waiting for something. And wait it did until one day, a magical ring formed underneath the fossil, and the fossil exploded, and in its place a sleeping youth that looked to be about 18 years of age was napping on the ground.

    ¡°Damn. Is it morning already¡­.. Where the hell am I?¡± (Youth)

    The teenager slowly stood up and straightened his black hair and rubbed his eyes. When he opened them once more, piercing brown eyes carefully surveyed the surroundings.

    ¡°Well shit¡­. Either my friend is playing a massive prank on me or I have been kidnapped¡­ Alright guys. Real funny. Your lovely friend Cal finds this real funny. Now come on out and let¡¯s get out of here¡­.¡±

    Cal suddenly paused when he saw the throne. Or what was left of it. The passage of time was not kind to its form; however, it was clear that it used to be a throne where a king once sat and ruled over his realm. Cal scrutinized the throne room once more and looked over the room much more carefully. It was extremely familiar to him. No. He had been here before.

    ¡°This land is Terr. Isn¡¯t it. I never thought I would come back¡­. Okay calm down. If this really was Terr, I should be able to use magic.¡±

    Immediately, he began to concentrate and began to sense his inner life force or the mana that resided within him. He clicked his fingers, and a ball of flame appeared, floating on top of his hand. He quickly accelerated his brain with magic.

    ¡°Damn. I really am back................................. FFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK. God damn it, I really liked life on the other side. It was just so peaceful. I didn¡¯t have to worry about getting assaulted. I had family and friends, and I didn¡¯t have to worry every day about losing them. Why the hell did I come back so soon? I knew that I would come back eventually, but¡­ It is not like as if anyone here cares for me¡­ that spell¡­ I don¡¯t get it. All the bonds should have been broken, and a new bond should have formed. What the hell¡­ Obviously the second part of the spell worked. I can¡¯t sense any malicious energy around this area nor on me. I can''t sense it. I can rest easy with that, but the first part of the spell... I reincarnated? Is that¡­ Gah. Worrying about this won¡¯t get me anywhere. Okay. Let¡¯s get my mind straight. Let¡¯s see.¡±

    He immediately stood up and dusted himself off. He took a deep breath and walked out of the throne room. The sun began to shine through the windows lighting up the corridors. When Cal looked out the window, he saw two suns.

    ¡°Yup. I am back. Okay let me think. Alright. Calm down, Cal. You can control yourself. Okay. I highly doubt that I would be able to return to Earth. The amount of energy required for to do that was astronomical previously, and it will cost even more to do it this time. Which means that I am now officially stuck here. Now the next question is how did I come back so quickly? It should have taken me a lot more life cycles for the gravity to bring me back, much less simply 18 years. I didn¡¯t feel any damn ruptures nor folds so the only way for me to have come back was if something manipulated the multidimensional gravity pull to bring me back. But who? There should be no one that would do that for me¡­ Worrying about it here would do me no good. Let¡¯s get out of this hell-hole. It gives me the damn creeps. Now if I remember correctly¡­¡±

    After walking through the twists and turns of the ruined castle and getting lost occasionally, he finally found the exit of the castle and was met with the sight of a run-down city.

    ¡°Damn¡­. This place officially turned into a ghost town. Just how long was I gone?¡±

    Cal looked around and began walking through the blood red town. Thankfully, many of the bodies have decomposed so he did not have to worry too much of the smell; however, it seemed that the remnants of the magic of the ghost town absorbed and preserved the blood. Cal took extreme care as he skirted around the rusted metal swords, armor, and shards.

    ¡°Okay¡­ Considering the state of all these weapons, I can safely say that I have been gone for an extremely long time. I know that the imperial guards were equipped with some of the finest metals, and it takes an absurdly long time for this type of alloy to rust. Whoooop. That was close. Thank God for tetanus vaccines just in case.¡±

    As Cal picked through the streets, he grew depressed at what happened to the once glorious city, feeling great shame for what has befallen it. He wondered why the princess did not rebuild the capital of the Requiem Empire. Wasn¡¯t there a promise to rebuild the empire? After the banishment, it should have been safe to come back. He knew that an evacuation order was given, and the princess was within the evacuation group, and he saw the princess leave himself when he was on his way back from scouting the enemy base. He considered walking over to her but decided against it. It was not the time and place to reveal himself to her amid all the fleeing people. As he continued his way to the southern gate of the city, he saw a sword stabbed into the side of the building with the scabbard in the shadow of the sword. He immediately walked over to the sword and pulled it out of the wall and marveled at how the sword was still in tip top condition.

    ¡°Wait a minute. This was the enchanted sword of one of the top mercenaries at that time. I heard that the royal family paid that guy thousands of gold coins to help with defending the capital. Humph. He must have died in the first wave. What an idiot. Well, he was known to be a lone wolf so I guess it makes sense that he did not really listen to the defensive strategy laid out by the princess. Well, he isn¡¯t using it anymore, and this sword is good quality. I do need a weapon too. This isn¡¯t Earth. Oh well. I feel kinda bad looting like this¡­ Wait a minute¡­ Shouldn¡¯t the castle have a treasury? It would be a real pity if there was all that gold just lying there¡­ But I am already so far away¡­ Ah. Duh. I¡¯ll just use magic to teleport there. It has been some time, but my skill should not have rusted that much. Sigh. The fact that I am talking to myself right now does not bode well for my mental state.¡±

    He quickly walked to the nearest shadow and concentrated as he stepped into it. Instead of smacking right into the building, he reappeared in front of the locked treasury room. Time has resulted in the weakening of magical defenses of the door so it was easily picked with a small manipulation of magic. When he stepped through into the treasury room, he was both shocked and disappointed.

    ¡°Damn. I guess the royal family really went on a splurge when they got those reports. Hmm I guess that this one mound is about 1000 gold coins. Sigh. I was really looking forward to hitting it rich from the start. I can¡¯t even find any of those powerful weapons¡­ Ah wait. They gave it away to the defense team. Boohoo. Well I¡¯ll take this small mound at least.¡±

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    When he was reborn in a place that was called Earth, he learned a lot about cool ideas for magic and developed interesting theories. He even was able to gain a new perspective on the natural foundations and laws that govern the worlds to. The only bad part was that the bond really altered his emotional state, and it took most of his childhood to sort out his emotion. However, emotions really do make the world colorful, and he did not regret what occurred even one bit. The experience caused him to truly understand those words that was said in that day.

    One cool idea that he could now put to practice was the item storage spell that he learned from most of the RPG games. It existed when he was still at Terr, but it was pretty small and limited. At most, it could hold something about one cubic meter. Also, it was mentally straining for many people so nobody really used it. Now that he has learned a bit more about space and the theories regarding special relativity and the so-called fabric, he found ways to improve the storage spell, its functions, and the costs too. With his improved knowledge, he could easily obtain items from his storage with almost no cost and manipulate the storage spell by warping the fabric into itself causing a much larger opening and storage. He quickly stored the mound of gold into his storage and used his shadow walking spell to return to his previous place. Once he arrived, he immediately knelt and began breathing and coughing severely.

    ¡°The hell? This body can¡¯t take the effects of that spell? Just how weak¡­ even though I am in top condition¡­ Damn. Ugh. *cough* So god damn weak. I almost miss my previous body now. I guess this *cough* just means that I can¡¯t use those kind of spells in this state. A real shame too.¡±

    After clearing his throat and steadying himself, he walked to the southern gates and readied himself.

    ¡°This is it. I am back now. I have come back world. Don¡¯t be afraid.¡±

    He opened the gates that showed fields of blood red grass and vegetation. There a thick miasma of energy that settled the lands. Immediately, Cal readied himself noticing the heavy atmosphere that the grasslands were giving off and took a step forward in what could be called the start of his true introduction back to the land of Terr. What immediately ¡°welcomed¡± Cal when he took that first step was five blood-red vines covered with sharp thorns that immediately shot out at Cal.

    <u>Pov: Cal</u>

    Well, I have to say. This was a crappy day. First, I got wrenched out of a peaceful world and dumped back into my shithole home where it is essentially a free-for-all. People (I consider elves and sentient beings people too) and monsters continuously struggling against each other to live or to simply be a dick. And that was why I¡­ The second reason was that as soon as I step out of this god damn ghost town I get attacked by a bunch of thorns. Plants. Fuckin plants attacked me. Now I really wanted to say that I did this cool movie dodging skills and counterattacked. I could, no, I would have done that if I had my previous body. However, the body I am in currently has not been battle tested, have not been strengthened nor accustomed to this world that now has magic, and the mental state has not been completely prepared.

    So what ended up happening was that I made this god awful gurgling sound and fell backwards. Right after the thorns shot past my head and took a couple pieces of my hair, I quickly scuttled back like a freaking mutated crab with four legs along with a nice healthy push of a wind spell. Before the vines could rewind to attack me again, I quickly shut the door and ran into one of the empty house. And I did not even go through the door in case it would not open. No. I instead jumped through the fuckin window. Now, I am just laying down here in a sort of daze covered with sharp pieces of glass. But no. The worst part did not even arrive yet.

    The worst part was the intense pain from the jumble of emotions that suddenly attacked me. You see ever since that bond was created, I began to have all these jumbled emotions. Normally living beings are supposed to instinctually order their emotions, know when they should appear, and usually control them; however, I can¡¯t do that. At Earth, it only made me extremely confused and really weird. In fact, my mom at Earth even brought me to a psychiatrist to see what the hell was wrong with me.

    The psychiatrist has never seen a case like mine, of course. However, she deduced a couple of things. The jumble of emotions occur when I go through an intense emotional stage. In my case after the near miss, normal living beings would go through the intense emotion of fear, surprise, and relief. Not me. My body doesn¡¯t have that natural ability.

    Two, this is no longer Earth. This world is Terr which is a world with magic, and my soul is originally from Terr. In Terr, emotions can be tied with mana. Consider it a defense mechanism in which a living being in a highly emotional stage can exhibit stronger control and output of mana or energy in case of emergencies. (Really I just use these terms interchangeably. Yeah, there are some differences but they are all just technicalities. Like mana is a type of energy and etc. Do we have to go through this now?) For a better example, it is like when bosses in video games go into ¡°rage mode¡± when you bring them into a certain health range. It can be a double edged sword since the emotional stage can also impair judgement, but it can bring the impacted out of really tight spots. Again, normal living beings have natural control over this too. In fact, many sentient living beings have to train in order to properly connect their emotions to mana or else they will simply get emotional with no changes in their ability with mana.

    Again, I am NOT normal. When I went into that jumbled emotional stage while I was unprepared, the mana within me just started rampaging throughout my flesh. Immediately, I put into practice a trick that my psychiatrist gave me. Quickly choose the easiest to choose emotion from that jumble at that moment and show it. In the case right now, the easiest to choose emotion right now was humor. (at least that is what I call it. There are so many god damn emotions and ways to call them so I don¡¯t really care if humor is not really an emotion. Cut me some slack right now will ya?)

    So now, I am rolling around on the ground that is by the way covered in broken pieces of glass laughing like a maniac with cuts, scrapes, and blood all over my body while tears of pain ran down my eyes. Yeah. Not a pretty picture. But don¡¯t lose hope for me just yet! I still have hope. It turns out that my body can learn to sort these emotions. I can essentially learn/ teach my body which emotions to display in situations that causes the intense emotional state. For example, one emotional situations that I learned really quickly was when I was really happy. When I first experienced extreme happiness (my first birthday party), I went through something like a seizure. After that embarrassing incident, I did not go through that anymore (for birthday parties only. Not with other cases that could cause happiness.) Now, the rate at which I learn can differ per emotions or if I even want to learn certain emotions with certain situations like the emotions that come with the death of loved ones. There are also certain emotional situations that may be even impossible for me to learn because the situation may actually cause me to end up temporarily emotionless as the jumble cancel each other out. Those circumstances can end in real nasty situations especially in this world¡­

    So the psychiatrist recommended my parents to let me experience as much of life as possible so I can learn these emotional states and deal with them quickly. Since my parents traveled all over the world due to their work, it was easier for them to let me experience all sorts of cultures and emotional states. However, two problems exist right now. First, I still did not properly go through all the emotional states, integrate them into my body, and live life to its fullest at Earth. (How can I even do that in 18 years?) Also, this is Terr so the experience of life can differ. For one, there AREN¡±T ANY GOD DAMN PLANTS THAT TRY TO KILL ME IN EARTH.

    Okay. I calmed down a bit; I stopped laughing like a freakin maniac. After I stood up and carefully walked out of the glassy bloody mess, I sighed.

    ¡°That was so stupid of me. This isn¡¯t Earth. There are a lot of things here that would love to kill me. Jeez, how na?ve can I get?¡±

    Immediately, I sat down and straightened out my mana and started to investigate the parameters of my capabilities regarding the body by running mana through my body. The physical aspect right now wasn¡¯t really worrying. I would heal from these wounds quite quickly if I used my energy to support my cells in the healing process. Also, I exercised quite frequently in Earth and did some martial arts. (6 packs are so cool. Movie 300 inspired me. Not a good inspiration but sadly it happened during those emotional stages again, and 300 was on at that time. Enough said.) So the only modifications I did to the physical part of my body was strengthening my nerves for much faster reaction and thinking time, kind of like thought acceleration.

    The mana aspect of my body was the worrying part. It could only hold and utilize a ridiculously small amount of energy that I had in the past. Now that doesn¡¯t mean it is really bad. I still have a larger than average mana storage and manipulation. Also, I still have some of the perks from the bond like I can see dispersed mana outside of my body and manipulate it (normal humans don¡¯t have this ability). But¡­ it was still a bit uncomfortable. Also, I couldn¡¯t use some of my old spells because my physical body wouldn¡¯t be able to handle the stress.

    Other than that, I should be all set. I also set something like a cushion on my emotional states so if I went through something like that again at least it would lessen it or at least delay it somewhat. With this, I was ready to take on those damn plants.

    I walked to the gate that was riddled with holes and stood there for a bit. Drawing my sword, I cut down the gate and started running (or jumping?) through the grassland with mana strengthened legs. Did you really think I was going to fight those things? I don¡¯t even know how to properly fight them for they did not even exist when I lived in Terr and fuck fighting those freaking vines. It reminded me of tentacles¡­ enough said. When the vines tried to go after me, it was already too late. I was already far far away heading off into the second setting sun.

 Chapter 2: I did a gamble

    <u>Pov: Cal</u>

    So I am now just jumping through the grasslands with the winds fluttering through my hair. I decided that I was no longer running when I had to periodically jump about 5 stories every time I touched the ground in order to avoid some nasty plant monsters. The blood red grasslands stretched out for all the way to the horizon. I couldn¡¯t see the end to be honest. It was pretty depressing after seeing that because it only showed the true magnitude of that battle. The amount of death, destruction, and blood was enough to taint the entire grasslands and curse it into a hell-hole for carnivorous plants.

    Afterwards, I got tired of jumping around continuously. My leg muscles were pretty strained, and I was at my limit. I bet you guys were thinking that I could just continue jumping just by supplying my legs with magic and healing any discomforts. Well¡­ SORRY. Just having magic doesn¡¯t make you freakin superman. There IS a limit on how much your physical body can get saturated with energy.

    When I found a spot that seemed more or less safer judging by how there was less vegetation there, I readied a spell to burn down that area. I began to gather the magic power within me and laid out a path for the flame to follow and burn. Once that path was laid out, I slid my hands against each other to trigger the spell. I converted the mana into heat energy and essentially blowtorched that entire area. When I landed in the ashes, I felt a little woozy.

    ¡°Damn. I guess I am not used to using magic yet. Whew. It feels nice to have a break.¡±

    Of course, I flipping jinxed it. As soon as I said that I felt the ground rumble.

    ¡°FFFFFuuuuu¡±

    Immediately I jumped into the air when a whole forest of roots shot out of the ground. Well shit. I seemed to have forgotten that plants had roots. Sue me. I was tired. Sheesh. The roots were flailing wildly as it searched for the perpetrator. Thankfully, there seemed to be a limit on how far it could reach. I could have used some magic to manipulate the air so I could get out of here, but I was really tired. I REALLY wanted to take a small nap, and I was sick of these plants. I blowtorched the entire area again, and when I landed on the ground, I converted the latent left over mana from the spell to cause a chemical reaction in the soil causing it to harden and increased its salinity. It seemed that the plant lost it motivation to keep tracing its prey after that so I felt the ground rumbling as the remaining roots began retracting away from my area. I face planted into the soil since I used a crap ton of magic on my first day back in Terr, covered my surrounding with a small detection aura of magic, and fell asleep.

    I wake up when I felt a disturbance in my mana field. It was around noon when that happened. Guess what disturbed my mana field? If you guessed plants, Ding Ding Ding, you get a point! If you guessed vines of a plant, Ding Ding Ding, two points! If you guessed ¡°I don¡¯t give a shit. I am running away while half awake¡±, you¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. don¡¯t get anything even though you guessed what I am thinking right now. I am not in the mood of giving away anything for guessing my thoughts regarding a crappy awakening.

    Off I go on my jumping adventure again. Tears man. Tears. Dodging plants that want to eat me as my hunger started to gnaw at me. I haven¡¯t eaten for a whole god damn day. I was also pretty thirsty too. I landed on the ground and tried to take a few minutes to catch my breath. Immediately, the plants starts attacking me with vines and roots so I had to jump once more. I couldn¡¯t continue like this so I decided to gamble on something really stupid. I had to get out of this grassland fast. I highly doubted that there was anything edible in this place and probably no water as well. The plants probably made sure of that. So, I decided to¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.try my shadow walk again. I am not making much progress trekking through this grassland. I can¡¯t even see the end in sight.

    The backlash from the shadow spell is going to hurt a lot more than before because of the distance, but it is better than dying here. A cave formation that has a healing spring is my destination. It is the closest place that I can think of when I take into consideration my estimated (very rough) location, and I could use the healing spring to help treat my wounds that are bound to appear for traveling through a large amount of space by converting my body into a mana form and sliding through a manual bend of the space fabric facilitated by magic. The biggest gamble is that the cave formation still exists or else I am gonna be in some deep shit.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    I prepared the spell and dived into the shadow that I cast onto the ground as I fell. When I reappeared on the other side, I started to cough out some blood, and my vision was clouded with the color red. My muscles were pretty messed up, and I am pretty sure that my leg isn¡¯t supposed to point that way. So the good news is that I am still alive, out of the grasslands, and the cave formation still exists. The bad news is that the healing spring nearest to me is almost gone. The pool is pretty weak for I can¡¯t sense that strong mana that a high quality pool gives off. At most, it would only heal part of my wounds.

    I dragged myself over to the pool and submerged myself. At least, it was better than nothing. I breathed a sigh of relief as the depleted healing magic numbed my sense of pain and began to infuse magic into my body in order to speed up the healing process. But no amount of magic is going to set that leg back in place. I wedged myself on the walls. I got myself nice and comfortable so that even if I fell asleep I would not fall into the water. I prepped up my leg, braced it, and snapped it back in place. The last thing I remember thinking was ¡°FUCK THAT HURTS¡± before I lost consciousness.

    <u>POV Third Person:</u>

    <u></u>

    ¡°Come on. I want to get this job over with. Let¡¯s gather up that healing water and go back.¡± (Les)

    ¡°Jeez calm down. It isn¡¯t like anyone is going to buy that stupidly expensive dagger. There isn¡¯t any foolish reason to hurry.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Adal is right. If we hurry, then we could might miss something and leave us vulnerable to ambushes. We are in the wilderness. You have to be careful.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°There you go again Trevor. Preaching about constantly being on your damn guard. You know that this place isn¡¯t known for having any dangerous or intelligent monster. I am confident that we can handle any ambushes from the dumbass monsters that live here. The only monsters we really have to worry about is the ones deep in the cave system. And speaking about the cave system we¡¯re here.¡± (Blythe)

    A group of four armed figures were approaching the entrance of a cave system. One was dressed like a ninja while another had a crossbow with a dagger hanging at her side. The man leading the front was equipped with a sword and a shield. The one leading up the back was equipped with what looked to be a staff and light leather armor.

    ¡°Hey Les. Can you scout out the position? See if there is any monsters.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°If you get into any trouble, just rip that scroll that Adal gave. I¡¯ll be sure to come running in with my crossbow.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°You mean after Trevor marches in first. Right?¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Okay. I don¡¯t want to hear that from a backline fighter like you.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Snort. I don¡¯t always stick to fighting in the back. Sometimes I do fight in the front lines with Trevor.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°You mean after you waste some time to put layer upon layer of preparation spells. Right?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Guys. I¡¯m back. You¡¯re going to want to see what I found.¡± (Les)

    The group slowly entered the cavern while Adal used [Illuminate] in order to light up the caverns. Water was continuously dripping down from the stalactite, and little streams were flowing throughout the narrow corridors. Suddenly, the cavern opened up into a large underground pond that had a soft atmosphere of mana.

    ¡°So what was it you wanted to show us our mysterious little Lulu.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Call me little Lulu again, and you are going to have a couple of dart sticking out of that head of yours and give you another pair of long ears.¡± (Les)

    ¡°Pfff. Are you still angry about what that drunk man said to you when he was trying to hit on me? Maybe you should try taking off that hood. Then he wouldn¡¯t confuse you as a man.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°No. And that guy was drunk. I don¡¯t need to get angry at a drunk guy.¡± (Les)

    ¡°So. Les. What was that thing you wanted to show us?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Oh. It¡¯s not a thing, but a he. I found a guy knocked out while half submerged in the pool.¡± (Les)

    ¡°Say what? Could you repeat that?¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Sigh. I¡¯ll just show him to you guys.¡± (Les)

    They walked around the pond until they found a guy wedged in between two rocks near the shore. He had black hair and was fairly well built. The only problem was that it looked like he had been through hell. His clothes were all ripped, and although his skin looked fine, the water surrounding him was completely dark red.

    ¡°Wow. I can¡¯t imagine what this guy must have looked like before he was in the pool.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Shush. Hey Trevor. What should we do? Should we just leave him here?¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Hey. That¡¯s kinda cruel you know.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Look. This guy is a complete stranger, and we don¡¯t even know who the hell he is. Are you telling me that we should help him? Even though we don¡¯t know a single thing about him?¡± (Adal)

    ¡°But obviously this guy needs help. Look, the pool here is pretty weak. If he lost that much blood, he must have been pretty heavily wounded. Also, I am pretty sure he has also sustained some internal injuries as well, especially with the way he is breathing right now. Look. We should help him.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Jeez. Why are you so adamant about helping him? Who cares about this guy?¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Cause I am curious about him! I have never seen those types of clothes anywhere in this region! I really want to learn more about this guy! Besides wouldn¡¯t you say that it would be nice if this guy owed us a favor?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I highly doubt that him owing us a favor would do neither of us any good. Blythe.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Guys. He is waking up.¡± (Les)

 Chapter 3: I meet new people

    <u>POV: Cal</u>

    When my detection system went off again, I woke up. Despite my injuries and fatigue, it¡¯s impossible for me to sleep once that detection system is triggered because it automatically activates the reticular formation. When I open my eyes, I see quite an interesting group.

    A ninja who is probably a descendant or student of that other world guy. Truth be told, I am surprised that he even had children or started a whatchamacallit¡­ dojo. My intelligence networks told me that he did not like being near people and would always stay secluded which was why I did not really bother or go after him. A dark skinned desert nomad that is currently holding onto his sheathed sword, but I know that he could probably unsheathe his sword and decapitate me before I can say shit in my current state. A fair skinned mage (quite hostile too) with his staff pointed at me. And the real clincher. An elf with a crossbow strapped to her back. I was quite surprised when I saw the elf. Not because she was with the humans. After all the hero party included an elf, but because she had a crossbow. And elves are very stringent with tradition so it was surprising to see her with a crossbow instead of a longbow. Whatever. Things can change I¡¯ll ask about it later. But first things first.

    ¡°Hi. Can I have some food?¡± (Cal)

    They all just looked at me blankly. Crap. This ain¡¯t Earth. Let¡¯s see if the language from Terr has changed.

    ¡°Hi. Can I have some food?¡± (Cal)

    Again. They looked at me blankly except the mage. The mage gave a real funny expression, and his expression turned inquisitive and started to look at me real suspiciously. I sighed once more. Alright last gamble. I looked over at the elf. I am pretty sure that the elven language would not have changed too much. But¡­ to be frank my elvish is quite shit. I studied the language, but I could never get the damn grammar right. Like I can understand it, but I just can¡¯t speak it. So here goes.

    ¡°Hi. Food?¡± (Cal)

    The elvish girl immediately gave a start and started to talk to me in elvish.

    ¡°You can speak elven? Who are you? Where did you come fr¡± (Elvish girl)

    ¡°Food¡± (Cal)

    ¡°Oh Okay.¡± (Elvish girl)

    She took out her bag and pulled out some of her rations and gave them to me. Then, she turned around and started to speak to her companions. From what I am hearing, it seems that the language they are speaking seems to be the extremely simplified version of the old Terrian language. For a better (but still slightly inaccurate) picture, it would be like comparing Latin to English. Great. Gotta relearn the damn language. At least, magic exists here so I can strengthen my Wernicke and Broca¡¯s area, but it will still be a pain in the ass.

    As I was eating the dried biscuits and jerky, I began to scan my inner body with my mana. Ooof. My insides are a mess. At least my digestive tract is okay, but I have some internal bleeding. I began to use my mana to seal the bleeds. Truth be told, I should be dead. But I am quite hard to kill. Especially because this body of mine really isn¡¯t¡­ Let¡¯s not go there right now. It kinda scares me to think about it too much because I don¡¯t know how long it would hold up now that I am back on Terr.

    ¡°My name is Blythe. The one in all black is Les. The one with the sword is Trevor. And finally the guys with the staff is Adal. We are a mercenary group. What¡¯s your name?¡± (Blythe)

    Just when I was going to say Cal, I closed my mouth again. Because it wasn¡¯t my real name. Not in this world. If I had said Cal as my name, my mana would go insane due to the nature of my mana structure. Unlike other lifeforms, my mana structure is closely tied with my name so if I say a name that does not correspond to who I am then it can go a bit wacko as it tries to reconfigure itself. But at the same time, I really did not want to say who I really was. I don¡¯t know how much time passed, but I am pretty sure that if they heard my real name, they might freak out especially with the deeds I have done in this world. Also, my previous name no longer represented who I was. It is no longer who I am. So I decided to make a play on words. A name that my energy could accept.

    ¡°Descal Binus. But Descal better¡± (Descal)

    She turned to her companions and repeated to them my name. I quickly finished my food and stood up.

    ¡°Thank you¡± (Descal)

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. But my companions and I are curious. Who are you? Where did you come from? What happened? How do you know elvish¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Common Human. From that way. Very far away. Red plants. Eat Me. Escape.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Red plant? Eat you? No. Don¡¯t tell me you came from the blood plains! How did you escape from that place and arrive here! Why did you even go there in the first place! So what country on the other side of the blood plains? Is that where you come from? Did you meet elves on the other side? Is that why you can speak elven?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Please. Slow. No. No knowledge. Sleep. Wake. Broken Castle. Now here. Spell? Elven. Books.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait. Okay. Let¡¯s chop this up. First where are you from?¡±

    ¡°No¡±

    ¡°Uhhh¡­. Okay¡­ So¡­ You have no idea how you got to the blood plains¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°yes¡±

    ¡°And you just woke up at a broken castle¡­. A castle¡­. No. the old capital of the fallen Primus Empire? Is that where you woke up?¡±

    ¡°Primus Empire! Yes!¡±

    ¡°So you woke up at that ruin. But how did you get there and how did you get here from there?¡±

    ¡°Spell?¡±

    ¡°Hmmm. Well I know that the old empire would have some lost knowledge and items. Could it be a rogue teleport magic? But for it to get you and zap you around without burying you in some weird ass place. Damn. I can¡¯t tell if you have great or crappy luck. Am I right so far?¡±

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°No knowledge. Possible.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Just a guess¡­ So you learned elven from books? Did someone teach you?¡±

    ¡°¡­¡­.. Yes. No. Both¡±

    ¡°Uhh. What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°More self.¡±

    ¡°Ahh. That explains why your elvish is so shitty. Well it is good that you are still alive and in the upper levels of the cavern at least. Can you stand? Good.¡±

    ¡°Why you here¡±

    ¡°Oh. We have accepted a request to collect extremely pure mana infused water, but to get the purity that is requested we have to go extremely deep into the cavern to collect that water.¡±

    ¡°You strong?¡±

    ¡°Pfff. Are you kidding me? We are probably one of the strongest mercenary groups in the whole town of Medio. It¡¯ll be difficult, but we¡¯ll manage with our trusty little ninja, tanky warrior, and skilled mage. And my amazing crossbow skills!¡±

    ¡°Why? *point to crossbow* Why not *makes gesture of pulling a longbow*¡±

    ¡°Ahhh. Yeah. Elves are famous for using the longbows. But...You see I am an elf, but I was raised by humans. My parents were elves, but¡­ my father got killed in the war 150 years ago. Our village got raided and....yeah. met some humans who took me in¡­.¡±

    ¡°War?¡±

    ¡°Have you been living under a rock or something? You know the 3rd calamity war!¡±

    ¡°No know Calamity Wars? Rock. Yes. Very far away. Live. Little news.¡±

    ¡°Jeez. What type of back hole farming area did you come from that managed to escape AND not even hear of the calamity wars? You are sure one mysterious fellow. Alright. The calamity wars are the wars that threatened the entire world. The most recent one was ¡­err¡­ is the Warped Ones invasion.¡±

    ¡°Warped Ones?¡±

    ¡°Oh my Physis. You don¡¯t even know what a Warped One is? You know goblins, orcs, trolls, giants¡­. those guys? Those stupid monsters that kinda act like sentient being and like to eat sentient beings? Normally, they are dispersed and easy to take care of, but recently someone has been able to take control and united them and conquered the eastern mountains. Then, they invaded other countries, running them over until the current major powers, Astria and Wang, were able to finally halt their invasion and push them back until the Tenebris forest. We lost a lot of land and a lot of countries collapsed, but right now there is an uneasy ceasefire as the invasion suddenly stopped once they were pushed back to the forest. But because of the invasion, we are cut off from the southern countries so we are in a kind of precarious and tense situation.¡±

    ¡°Other two?¡±

    ¡°Sigh. I really question what type of hick boy you are. Okay. The second calamity war was the necro wars about 500 years ago. A really powerful necromancer appeared and went on a rampage. It was a disaster. The elves even lost their homeland and was forced to retreat to other forests. By the time, the countries finally managed to subdue the undead army and the necromancer, all of the few surviving countries were so weakened that they all fell due to reckless infighting over the precious remains. Now, we have essentially lost almost all of the technology and knowledge of the past that existed before the second calamity. But the countries that rose from the ashes of that war are doing pretty well in relearning the lost arts and tech. Any artifacts or ruins are highly sought out these days. Can make a fortune if you can loot some¡­..¡±

    ¡°The first?¡±

    ¡°Ah yeah. Since the second calamity also wiped out most of the historical records we know little about the first. All we know is from legends and the tidbits we recover from the ruins. Historians still argue about how long ago it was. But the elves believe it was about a thousand years ago. What we know is that the first was even more devastating than the second. Essentially, an army of monsters including the undead, warped ones, demons, and all sorts of monsters rose out of nowhere and went on a killing spree. It brought the extinction of thousands of species including the unicorns, fairies, mushroom people¡­. It brought the end of all the countries. In fact, even the dragons were almost wiped out. The most terrifying part about that calamity was the leader of that army. We elves called him the Shadow. The beastmen called him the Dark One. The humans called him the Emperor of Despair. But he is now commonly known as the Dark Reaper. We don¡¯t know what happened to that guy. All we know is the aftereffects of the battle with the hero which essentially turned the entire plains into the Blood Plains, causing the loss of the only known mana pool in the world. It was a disaster since the loss of the mana pool also meant that powerful magic tools were even harder to make and all sorts of backlash. In fact, humans now thinks that the hero is some sort of demi god for being able to beat that hellish monster. Although the elves argue that he was just a regular human from an outer world. But no one really knows what happened. In fact, there is still a fear that the Dark Reaper will return because many believe that the hero merely sealed the Reaper into the mana pool causing the plains to change. But it is merely speculation regarding that. And yeah, that is about it.¡±

    I sweat dropped when I heard the part about the sealed part since it was kinda true. I think it would be a good idea if I stayed quiet that I was present at that fateful battle. Yeah... that would be a big bombshell. So now what to do¡­ I can¡¯t completely rely on much of my knowledge from the past. I can¡¯t even speak the common language, and I don¡¯t know just how much changed over the past thousand years.

    Also, the mana pool that existed at the Blood Plains. A mana pool is essentially a small area that is connected to the mana stream that exists beneath the earth. For a better comparison, you know how Earth has tectonic plates, and there is moving molten rock that circulates beneath in a pattern called a convection cell. Well, the energy of this world functions in a similar way where there are mana convection under the Earth that purifies it as it gradually leaks back out into the surface. A mana pool can be considered a volcano of that convection. Anyway, the binding spell must have affected the mana pool, causing it to rupture, and transform the plains by saturating it with mana. That would explain why I felt that the atmosphere of the ruins of the capital was different. It was missing that mana rich atmosphere that powered much of the city¡¯s defenses and structures. Well, at least the mana pool can¡¯t be used as a weapon anymore. Hmm¡­ I think the best course for me now would be to tag along with this mercenary group. They seem nice enough. After all, they saved me, and the elf is probably the only one I can communicate with, and I need a guide to this world.

    ¡±Thanks. Information. Come along *point to elf*. Lost. No home.¡±

    ¡°Uhhh¡­ Well we are a mercenary group, and we are going to get into really dangerous situations. In fact, the deeper areas of this cave is filled with all sorts of monsters. We are going to be fighting a lot. I don¡¯t think it would be a good idea to tag al¡­¡±

    ¡°Can fight.¡±

    I pull out my sword from dimensional pocket to prove my point, stood up, and bowed to the elf. I then pulverized the rock behind me by stabbing downward at it with the scabbard. I sat down again after my little demonstration.

    ¡°¡­.. Are you sure you are a farm boy¡­ and how did you pull out that sword and a nice one at that? You can even use magic??? ¡­. Whatever. You are a real mystery. But I need to discuss with my team first about if you can join or not.¡±

    She stood up and walked over to her team. I then began to organize that shit load of information that got dumped on me.

    <u>POV: Blythe</u>

    After the quite interesting conversation with Descal, I turned to my friends and relayed the conversation I had with him.

    ¡°So¡­ to sum it up. This is one mysterious guy. Right?¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Yes. He won¡¯t answer which country he is from, he asked some pretty weird questions, and he claims that some teleportation spell wrenched him from where he came from and sent him on some goose chase in the most dangerous place in the continent. I don¡¯t think he is lying, right Les?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°¡­ Hard to say. I don¡¯t feel like he is lying either; he doesn¡¯t exhibit the signs of one too. But I can¡¯t help but feel that he isn¡¯t telling the whole truth.¡± (Les)

    ¡°You¡¯re right. Do you think he might be a noble? I mean that sword isn¡¯t something that a common farmer can get. Also, the elvish language isn¡¯t something a commoner would take his time to learn as well.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I do too. He spoke in the ancient language of the Primus Empire. I recognized a couple of those words from what my friend has taught me when we were excavating one of the ruins 2 years ago. I think that he is one of the remnants of the old nobility. But too think that he doesn¡¯t speak the modern common tongue¡­ uggh¡­ this guy is a mystery alright.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Either way, he doesn¡¯t want to answer questions about his past and where he is from right?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Yeah. When I asked him where he was from, he answered with a pretty aggressive no.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Do you think he is dangerous?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°From my conversation with him, I don¡¯t think he is dangerous.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I don¡¯t think he is dangerous either. I don¡¯t get that feeling from him.¡± (Les)

    ¡°Well, if even Les, one of the most cautious person I have ever met, says so as well, then I guess we don¡¯t need to interrogate him more. Even so, I want to make sure so be sure to stay vigilant around him, and never be with him alone without nearby back up. Okay?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Yeah. Oh yeah. He says that he doesn¡¯t have anywhere to go so he asked if he could tag along with us. He says that he can fight. Is that alright?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Well¡­ what do you guys think? From what you girls have said, he isn¡¯t dangerous. Neither do I, my instincts aren¡¯t going off. Also, we could use another front liner instead of only me. As long as he puts in his fair share while he is with us, I think it should be alright.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°No complaints.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°None¡± (Les)

    ¡°Sigh. If you guys say so, but his weirdness factor is still sky high. But yeah. It would be a good idea to have another front liner to take some pressure off of you Trevor. I guess it would be okay.¡± (Adal)

    I came back with the news, and Descal seemed pretty happy. He immediately stood up and walked over. I told him that he would be fighting in the front lines with Trevor, and he enthusiastically nodded. Once I finished telling him all the necessary information of who does what and the types of enemies to expect, we began our downward trek deeper into the caverns. Les took off first to scout out our route, and we followed up. After a while, we began to hear clicking noises, and Les came running back.

    ¡°Hold on. Acid Centipedes are passing by in the intersection ahead of us. And there are a ton of them.¡± (Les)

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait them out to pass by. Just to be sure, everybody prepare yourself.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°I¡¯ll go on ahead and double check that they aren¡¯t changing directions.¡± (Les)

    I notched the crossbow bolt and pull back the drawstring. The first crossbow bolt would be a shockbolt. It would send a shockwave upon impact and stun nearby insects. Trevor drew his sword and readied his shield while I saw Adal taking this time to prepare enchantments to himself just in case that he has to enter close combat. When I took a peek at our new temporary teammate Descal, I got worried. He was looking really pale, and he suddenly crouched down and started to mumble something while clutching his head. Just as I was going to check up on him, I heard a scream down the cavern. Shit.

 Chapter 4: Meeting someone from the past

    POV: Blythe:

    Oh, this is not good. That was the first thought that ran through my head when that scream came. If Les got attacked, then it means that there was a creature with enough stealth and detection to catch her, and only one creature comes into mind: the shadow walker. This monster is a spider that can essentially camouflage itself very well with the darkness and appears in caves with a high mana concentration¡­ like this one. But the problem is that the shadow walker should not be up in these upper levels because the upper levels are too diluted for those spiders. If a shadow walker is found up here, it means that this is a mutated shadow walker which is also not good since they would be even stronger than a normal shadow walker.

    With this in my mind, I ran with all my might in the direction of the scream only to see Les being dragged into a hole in the cavern wall.

    ¡°Les! I¡¯m coming!¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°No! Watch out!¡± (Les)

    I turned around to see an acid centipede looming over me. Oh shit. I got careless. I fell backward and awaited the sharp pain from the acid, but it never came. When I looked up, I saw Trevor with his shield raised. He quickly bashed the shield onto the centipede¡¯s head and chopped it off with a swing. Immediately, his sword began to melt. Muttering, Trevor threw the melting sword at the approaching centipedes.

    ¡°Are you an idiot for just running ahead like that? Get back into formation. Adal!¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Got it. [Flame Wall]¡± (Adal)

    A giant wall of flame suddenly appeared between the centipedes and us.

    ¡°We need to *cough* retreat. Les¡¯s scream probably attracted all sorts of monsters here, especially considering we are near an *cough* intersection, who knows what will¡­¡± (Trevor)

    Trevor ducked as a giant bat swooped down on him. Before the bat could attack once more, I shot it down.

    ¡°We need to go.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Not without Les.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Be reasonable Blythe. Les is probably dead by now. You know that shadow walkers don¡¯t save their food. Let¡¯s go. It¡¯s too late.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°NO! I am not leaving Les here. I don¡¯t care if she is dead. I won¡¯t forgive myself if I abandoned her like this. Let go damn it!¡± (Blythe)

    Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I saw Descal.

    ¡°I. Les. You. Run.¡± (Descal)

    Before I could say anything, he smiled and threw his sword to Trevor. Afterwards, he ran through the dying flame, used a centipede¡¯s head as a launch board and flew into the hole that Les disappeared into.

    ¡°Whoa. What is that dumbass doing?¡± (Adal)

    ¡°He said run and leave Les to him.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Then, I will take him up on that offer.¡± (Trevor)

    Before I could do anything, I was picked up like a sack of potatoes and carried off by Trevor while Adal provided cover for us by blasting the caves with fire to slow down our pursuers. I began to cry and pray for Descal¡¯s return with Les.

    POV: Descal

    I am gonna say that my time in this world just gets shittier. First, it is the blood plains with the stupid plants, and now this bullshit. Why the hell am I doing this for her when my condition is already starting to deteriorate? I started to run down the dark cavern that was gradually getting colder as time passed. It was also extremely dark so I strengthened my eyes and manipulated it so that it could detect and convert wavelengths of light outside the visible spectrum into colors that my eyes could understand. I also started to read my surrounding with an improvised mana sonar in which I periodically send out pulses of mana and read the reflected mana that comes back to me. It is similar to the echolocation of bats.

    Soon I arrived at a gigantic cavern with spider webbing everywhere. The cavern had some fluorescent crystals here and there which gave off this really eerie lighting. I noticed the drag marks, and I followed them until they suddenly stopped. I looked up, but it was hard to determine if Les was up there especially with the dense webbing all over the ceiling. I am going to need to have to climb the webbing, but I am not risking it when there is a spider that is loose around here. So the question is how I am going to find that spider. No. I am going to lure that spider to me.

    Since this is a spider web, the spider should be sensitive to disturbances in the web. Since that is the case, I pulled out a bunch of plant material from my storage. What? I thought it would be useful. I then proceeded to make something like a hastily made scarecrow out of it. I then went to an ideal spot, threw it on a nearby web, and started to shake the bait.

    ¡°C¡¯mon you fuckin spider. Come out.¡±

    My sonar immediately picked up something behind me, and I roll to my left. Two legs whiz right by me barely missing my head. Oh crap. That is a big spider. I immediately stand up and reach for my sword. Errrr. Where the hell is it? Oh fuck. Oh my balls. I gave it to Trevor, didn¡¯t I. Oh shit. What type of nooby mistake is that? I am so damn rusty. Oh shit. And my magic repertoire is severely limited. First, I can¡¯t use a lot of spells in this stupid area. Earth spells could threaten the integrity of the cave, fire is a real bad idea when I am surrounded by flammable spider silk, and the cave is too damn dry to mooch off the water vapor. (What, you think magic is omnipotent so that I can just make water? Well, I am so sorry that hydrogen usually escapes the freaking atmosphere, and I don¡¯t have time to properly protect myself from radiation if I do cause the air to decay into hydrogen using magic.)

    I once again roll out of the way when the spider pounces on me. Wait. When did shadow spiders jump like that? I manipulate the wind and blast the left legs of the spider causing it to trip and fall. The downside is that the air kicked up a lot of dust that got everywhere and limited my visibility again. I immediately dive at the spider¡¯s head and smash a rock at one of its eyes before jumping away. It immediately started shrieking. Wait. This cry sounds very familiar¡­ Before I could finish my thought, I was smacked away, and I crashed into a wall.

    ¡°Ugggh. My back. Damn it. This stupid graphite wall.¡±

    Suddenly, an idea ran through my head. I was reminded of my AP Chemistry class. Alright, let¡¯s go over question six which almost the entire class got wrong. It is true that graphite and diamond are both completely made out of carbon. No other elements. Jimmy, I swear to God. If you say the chemical formula for mercury fulminate one more time, I will make you write me a ten-page essay about it and a presentation to the class¡­ that¡¯s it. You have one week to do it. Now, the main difference between them is that the carbon structure is made of diamond with extremely strong covalent bond in a tetrahedral structure. Graphite, on the other hand, is made up of flat layers of carbon hexagonal planes with the layers being connected by weak Van der Waal forces¡­.

    This is graphite. I should be able to morph graphite into a diamond knife at the very least. I just have to alter the chemical structure. Immediately, I picked up a chunk of graphite that broke off from the impact and transformed it into a 30 cm knife while I was on the run. Just when I finished, I got hit by something and tumbled over. It turns out that spider can also shoot globs of sticky silk, and the spider looks to be holding a string. Oh crap.

    The spider gives a yank, and I get flung right into a spider web. The spider immediately followed it up with a pounce and crashed into me. Luckily, both of my arms were free so I could grab the spider¡¯s fang before it could sink right into me. I quickly condensed the air in front of me and released it causing a shockwave that blew away the spider. While the spider was still stunned, I quickly cut myself loose and readied myself. But either way, I think I know this spider. It is too much of a coincidence.

    ¡°What the hell are you doing here, Arachne?¡± (Descal)

    Immediately, the spider freezes and starts to ¡­ err ¡­ eye me with its remaining eye. It seemed unsure of how to proceed so I decided to egg it on.

    ¡°What? Lizard got your tongue? Spit it out. What are you doing here, Arachne?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I thought the common tongue of the old was lost among the humans. No, you aren¡¯t human. No human should be able to use chant less magic and have such precise control over it.¡± (Arachne)Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°To me, it isn¡¯t old, and you still haven¡¯t answered my question. It doesn¡¯t really matter who I am. What are you doing here, Arachne?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I believe it is common courtesy for the person asking to introduce themselves first. Who are you?¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°Oh that is rich coming from a treacherous spider. How far have you fallen, Queen of the Spiders? It seems that you have completely lost that beautiful figure of yours and completely reverted into your spider form. Am I wrong?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Watch your tongue human. Do NOT provoke me. I will not answer any questions until you answer my question of who you are.¡±

    ¡°My name is Descal. A simple human that wants to rescue a ninja that you have taken from us.¡±

    ¡°Do not lie to me. You are no simple human. No human can use chant less magic so efficiently. Also, there is a certain atmosphere around you¡­ It is small and suppressed, but it exists. Tell me the truth: who are you?¡± (Arachne)

    I immediately froze up when I heard this. To think that it was still leaking out. I guess this body really is struggling to hold up. Arachne is one of the most sensitive monsters I have ever met so I guess it means that my old self still exists. So my body really is a shell.

    ¡°So you wish to know who I really am. Perhaps this will awaken your memories.¡± (Descal)

    I unleashed a little bit of my soul energy which immediately began to fill up the room dimming the light crystals. The spider began to shake.

    ¡°It cannot be¡­¡± (Arachne)

    POV: Third Person

    ¡°I thought you were dead. It seems not.¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°I am really hard to kill. You know that first hand anyway.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Exactly what happened that day Dybbuk? 1,239 years have passed since that day.¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°Do not call me by that name. I don¡¯t go by that name anymore. It is no longer who I am. I am now Descal Binus.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Hehehe. You know that is not completely true either. Your old self still exists. I can sense it. I thought it felt familiar but for it to be you.¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°But I am also changed.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°But for how long?¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°As long as necessary.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°How amusing. Well, then now that you have returned, what exactly are your plans? Will you pursue your old agenda once more?¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°¡­ I was na?ve and foolish back then. My thinking was too narrow. I was too optimistic. I understand what he was trying to say to me back then. But either way, I think I owe a duty to this world to see it in a new light. My time in another world has shown me possibilities I never dreamed of. At the moment, I don¡¯t really have a goal, but to live life.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You¡­ really have changed. In the past, you were always so impulsive. To think that even you could change.¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°Stop flattering me. You didn¡¯t answer my question. Why are you here? What happened after that day?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Sigh. I was hoping you would forget that. After the battle, I did collect my reward of the forest that was promised to me. The humans did not interfere too deeply with my domain. I even helped out at times, protecting their crops from pests. However, that all changed with the recent war.¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°The warped ones invasion?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Hahahaha. That is what it looks like on the surface. In truth, it is much more sinister. The leader of the army is an extremely powerful sorceress. She has already pulled in the demons into her army during the current stalemate. She promised them land and souls in the upper world once she conquers this continent. At the moment, she is trying to recruit the undead as well. She has even tried to recruit me as one of her generals, but I declined. My current state right now is the result. I am now residing in this cave to utilize the healing waters in an attempt to break the curses she has laid upon me.¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°Hmmm. This sounds awfully familiar, doesn¡¯t it?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Humph. In a way, it is. However, the sorceress¡¯ goal is definitely not controlling life. She claims that she merely wishes to rule the world, but I can¡¯t help but feel that there is more to it. Her facial expression was extremely suspicious. Either way, does this change your plans in any way? To simply ¡°live life¡±? This continent is on the brink of a world war once more. Are you sure that you will not participate in any way?¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°Not really. I can still hope that the invasion won¡¯t happen until sometime later. Also, since she is not seeking to chain this world, then I don¡¯t think I need to really intervene too much. Yeah, I will most likely participate, but probably not extensively. Besides, I can always escape to an island and wait out the war, too. If the residents of this world were able to hold out and raise an individual that can defeat the Emperor of Despair, then they can surely defeat this small fry.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­.. I have no words to describe how much you have changed. Just which world did you go to that fundamentally changed you so much?¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t really much. I just had real parents.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Surely you jest. YOU had parents?¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°Okay. Now that is insulting. Anything is possible, especially in the multiverse. Anyway, I think this conversation has gone on long enough. Give me back the ninja you have taken from us. Also, could you lead me to the spring with the purest content? That would be great.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°When did I become a pet?¡± (Arachne)

    ¡°Look, I may look weak right now, and I am weaker than I used to be. However, I still have enough strength to tear you apart if need be. Do you understand? I am in a really bad mood right now. Don¡¯t push it.¡±

    ¡°It seems that you still retain some of your old self. Fine, I shall. In return, you will leave and never speak to anyone what has occurred in this cave nor my whereabouts. Promise this with the magic tongue, and I shall grant your request.¡±

    ¡°Easy enough, but I will also expect the same from you. Is that clear?¡±

    ¡°This is hardly fair, but I guess I don¡¯t have a choice. So be it.¡±

    POV: Descal

    This is only like the third day, and already so much has happened. UGGGGHHH. My head is going to split; it can¡¯t hold it back for much longer. I need to hurry this up. I walked over to the mummified cocoon that held Les and started to cut him open. Good. Looks like he is still breathing. I walk over to the pool of water that held the precious healing water and took a drink. My headache abated a little bit, but not by much. Crap, I forgot that I don¡¯t have a container. I walk over to Les and grabbed his canteen and filled it. Then, I grabbed him, and ¡­. Wait¡­ does this guy have boobs? Uhhh. Les is a girl? Oh my head. I can¡¯t take this anymore. Let¡¯s just go.

    I used the shortcut that Arachne taught me to immediately get near the entrance of the cave. I saw the group sitting there in a circle with Blythe intently staring at the entrance. Once I emerged, Blythe immediately took off running toward us.

    ¡°Oh my Physis. You¡¯re alive! Thank you so much. And Les. She¡¯s alive, too! Thank you so much.¡± (Blythe)

    She knelt down and started to cry as she hugged Les¡¯ unconscious form. The swordsman walked up to me and shook my hand. Just as I was going to hand the canteen over to Trevor, my mind just exploded. I suppressed my emotional confusion before the fight began in case it got triggered. It was slowly building up throughout the day, and the emotions just burst forth like a volcano as it spread and ripped at my conscious. Suddenly, the emotion sadness and fear emerged from the confusion, and I knelt and started to bawl and scream. The last thing that I remembered before I lost conscious was Adal casting a spell on me. Then, I began to dream.

    ¡°My Baby! Are you okay? Don¡¯t. Look at me. Don¡¯t look behind you.¡±

    ¡°The woman is dead. Isn¡¯t she?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t talk about it. Look it isn¡¯t your fault. It¡¯s alright.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t get it. Why did this person save me from that car? What benefit is there to saving me even though we are not related by blood?¡±

    ¡°Ooof. Sometimes, it is hard to even believe you are five years old. Normally, children your age would be freaking out over this situation. Even an adult would.¡±

    ¡°Well, mom, like you always say, kids can grow up fast.¡±

    ¡°*chuckle* that may be true for you. But I think you should still act like your age. It¡¯s okay to feel confused, scared, and sad in these situations. Just don¡¯t think too deeply into this at your age.¡±

    ¡°You know what the psychologist said. My emotions are a mess so¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care about that. Look. I am your mother; it is written all over your face. It¡¯s okay.¡±

    ¡°But why? Why did this completely unrelated woman go out of her way to save me? It goes against all instincts of survival.¡±

    ¡°Sigh. In these situations, you can¡¯t look at this like that. You¡¯re right when you said that humans can be one of the most selfish, ungrateful species in the world. But, here¡¯s the thing. Humans may have the potential to commit acts that rival or surpass the devil, but you should never underestimate humanity¡¯s infinite capacity for kindness. Kindness is one of the necessities for proper progress. Anything built on hatred later collapses. Humans have made it this far, not from selfish behavior, but an accumulation of helping each other. Now come here. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay to cry in these situations, and this is why your mother is right here.¡±

    ¡°If you were in that woman¡¯s situation, would you do the same thing?¡±

    ¡°Sigh. I don¡¯t know. You can¡¯t predict the future.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t. I don¡¯t want you to die.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I won¡¯t die until I at least get to see your grandchildren.¡±

    ¡°Sniff. I¡­ sniff¡­ Do you love me even though I am like this?¡±

    ¡°Shush. You¡¯re my son. It doesn¡¯t matter what you are like. I love you just the way you are. Now, let¡¯s go home.¡±

    ¡°Home¡­sniff¡­ okay¡­ Can we go to the zoo with Dad tomorrow?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha. Finally, you are acting a little like a kid. Okay. We¡¯ll go. Now let¡¯s get up, and let the police officers do their work.¡±

 Chapter 5: a journey back to civilization

    <u>POV: Blythe:</u>

    What the¡­ Just when Descal was going to give Trevor the canteen, he immediately broke down, started screaming, and just lost conscious. Now I am just standing there looking really dumb just looking at his unconscious form.

    ¡°Say¡­ was he poisoned or something?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Let me check. Help me draw some blood. Nope, the magic stone isn¡¯t changing color. He isn¡¯t poisoned.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°First, let¡¯s carry him to the camp. Adal, you take Les. Blythe. Help me with this guy. Blythe. Blythe! Blythe!¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Ah sorry. Hold on.¡± (Blythe)

    Adal went over and carefully slung Les over his shoulder. Trevor went over to Descal and with my help, I put him over Trevor¡¯s shoulder. Surprisingly, he was pretty light. We went over to our camp, and we put them into the tent. Adal went to put up detection/ warning spells and traps around our camp while Trevor and I prepared dinner. We dug a hole and started a small fire to try and limit the amount of light that leaked from the fire. We started to roast some roots that Trevor has dug up.

    ¡°Well. Today was a really crappy day.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Surprising would be more like it. I thought we would have to prepare for the worst when Les was taken like that. In the end, Les is still alive, including her rescuer. Then, he just screams and collapses like that. Just who is that guy?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I can try asking him more when he wakes up.¡± (Blythe)

    Trevor took out his canteen and found it to be empty. When he reached for Les¡¯ canteen that Descal handed to him, he froze when he took a sip of the water. Immediately, he took the canteen out of his mouth and ran over to Adal who was just coming back from his routine trip. Adal looked at the contents, gave a surprised loom and came rushing back.

    ¡°Blythe! The water in this canteen is a really pure mana water. This is Grade A mana water. This has to have been taken from an extremely deep area of that cave!¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Are you telling me that Descal got his hands on that water while he was rescuing Les?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but with this we should have completed the task. We¡¯re gonna get a big bonus for this! Just who is this guy?¡± (Adal)

    We looked over at the tent where Trevor was sleeping in. Suddenly, a burning smell came from the fire pit.

    ¡°Crap! The roots!¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Adal. Disperse the smell. I don¡¯t want to attract any monsters or bandits right now.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°[Soft Wind]. Great. Burnt roots for dinner. I¡¯d rather have Les¡¯ poisonous signature dish.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Hey. I thought we agreed to not talk about that time.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Relax. Les is asleep right now. She won¡¯t hear me talk about her shitty cooking.¡± (Adal)

    Just then, I noticed Les crawling out of the tent. Immediately, I started to focus on the roots and tried to salvage what I could. Trevor tried to save Adal¡¯s ass by trying to take back what he said.

    ¡°C¡¯mon. You don¡¯t really mean that. I found it quite unique in flavor. Right?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°What are you talking about? Did you forget how long I was stuck near that tree all night? I thought I was gonna die! Seriously, I thought that Les was trying to kill¡­.. She¡¯s right behind me, and she¡¯s holding a dagger, isn¡¯t she?¡± (Adal)

    Trevor and I immediately started to nod our head. Adal immediately began to sweat, and he paled.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to die if you keep spouting your mouth like that.¡± (Les)

    ¡°Now. Les. Let¡¯s calm down here. You can¡¯t refute the truth here¡­¡± (Adal)

    ¡°But you can ¡°suppress¡± the truth. Right?¡± (Les)

    Les leapt on Adal and put him into a stranglehold while tangling his arms with her legs. Adal started to scream, choke, and turn blue as he started flailing around.

    ¡°TAKE IT BACK. I DON¡±T COOK LIKE A GOBLIN. TAKE IT BACK¡± (Les)

    Just then, Descal came out of the tent and just stared at the two that were tussling on the ground. They immediately froze up, and Adal just lost consciousness. Descal cocked his head and said something in a strange language. Then, he went over to me, took a root, and started to munch on it as he stared at Les. He looked over to me and asked:

    ¡°No stop? He die if no stop.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Ah yes.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Hey Les. Stop choking Adal. He is going to die if you continue choking him.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°¡­. Uhh yeah. Don¡¯t worry. I know when to stop. He isn¡¯t going to die. Not that I care.¡± *clears throat* So uhhh what happened? I remember being pulled by a spider, but I can¡¯t remember much after that. How am I alive?¡± (Les)

    ¡°You have this guy right here to thank for that. After you got dragged away, this suicidal maniac jumped in after you came back. Not only that, he even somehow got his hands on some Grade A mana water.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°You¡¯re joking, right?¡± (Les)

    ¡°Every single thing I said is true.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Okay, just¡± (Les)

    ¡°who is this guy? Yeah, we are all wondering that right now.¡± (Blythe)

    I looked over at Descal who was still nonchalantly munching on his burnt root with a faraway look in his eyes. This guy was probably the most mysterious person I have ever met. Ever since he has come back from that cave I noticed a growing ¡­atmosphere that was radiating from him. Before I could think more about it, Trevor walked over to Descal and asked me if I could translate some stuff for him.

    ¡°Blythe. Can you ask him how he came upon this sword?¡± (Trevor)Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    I relayed the question to Descal, and he replied that he found it in the ruins. When I informed Trevor of this, he merely nodded and asked if he had any skills with the sword. Surprisingly, it turned out that Descal didn¡¯t have any training with the sword. I got curious of why Trevor was asking this, and Trevor replied that Descal threw away his sword too casually, and the way he threw his sword was that of a complete amateur and almost cut off his hand. Trevor then walked over to Descal, handed the sword to Descal, and gripped his shoulder to look him straight in the eye. He said to take extremely good care of this sword and not to treat it like some toy. He then offered sword lessons to Descal which Descal looked pretty enthusiastic about. But this new information made me extremely curious, how does Descal fight?

    ¡°Descal, exactly what is your fighting style? Do you use a knife or what?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Use sword. Kinda. No specific style. Use magic.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait, are you a mage?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I use magic.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wow. Umm. I don¡¯t know how to reply to that¡­¡± (Blythe)

    Even Trevor was surprised about this. First, a mage by himself was able to survive close quarter fights in the cave, and young mages are pretty rare to begin with. A human becomes a mage only after years of hard work and study, or the person had a natural affinity for magic like Adal. To think, we would also meet another young mage. Huh. I can¡¯t tell what is wrong with our luck today.

    ¡°So. Descal¡­ Trevor and I have some questions for you. We were all wondering what happened down there? Also how did you get such purified mana water while you were rescuing Les? Did you really go down to the deepest level?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Fought spider. Got Les. Found secret passage. Got the water. Came back up.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You make it sound like it wasn¡¯t a big deal.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Eh.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Why did you go down screaming like that when you came out of the cave? Are you sick?¡± (Blythe)

    He got really quiet. He then whispered that it was complicated. Maybe he got cursed. That would explain some of the weird stuff that was surrounding him. Well, it doesn¡¯t look like he is going to talk much anymore, and the whole gang is up so let¡¯s finish up our dinner and set up watch for the night. Adal woke up after Les slapped him awake, and we drew straws for the watch. Since Descal was new, we decided to pair him up with the first watch who was Les. I went into the tent to quickly catch some shut eye before it was my turn to keep watch.

    <u>POV: Descal</u>

    Sigh. The night sky is really beautiful. Yeah, Earth had a real nice view, but pollution ruined most of the view. It¡¯s really nice being able to actually see the stars while breathing fresh air. I look over, and I see Les on top of the tree fiddling with her knife. I wonder why I was paired with Les since we can¡¯t really speak to each other. Perhaps Blythe really needed a break.

    I then looked at my sword once more. Trevor looked real disappointed that I threw the sword at him. First, I felt horrible for giving him that scare. I shouldn¡¯t have thrown that sword. I suck at throwing things to begin with. Yeah, I can shoot arrows or guns quite accurately, but I could never throw anything with much accuracy for some reason. Yeah, I sucked at dodge ball. Second, I probably insulted his way of life by treating my sword like that. Well, not much I can do about spilled milk. On the bright side, Trevor offered some sword lessons so that should prove to be really useful. Hopefully.

    But right now, I am worried about the future. This world hasn¡¯t changed one bit from when I was gone. If anything, it looks like it has regressed instead of progressed. I guess all those destructive wars whittled down civilization and technological advancements. Two, I can feel my body coming under intense strain. Now that I am in a world with abundant mana, my soul is starting to recharge itself to its former glory. The healing water only made this worse. You may think that this is a good thing, but it¡¯s wrong. My body won¡¯t be able to keep up with the increase in the mana levels of my soul; my body will morph and undergo extreme change in order to accommodate the higher mana levels, and I want to keep my present body at the present. At the moment, I am trying to delay the inevitable by continuously using my mana to bind my body. Once I have time and materials, I should be able to cast a sealing spell to seal off my level of mana so it doesn¡¯t reach dangerous levels. Until then, I have to be careful of avoiding reckless use of magic.

    SO many things to do. I just can¡¯t catch a break, but it¡¯s good to be back in a way. The peaceful life of Earth didn¡¯t really sit well with me. It felt like a dream, and I would always spend every morning worrying about everything crashing down on me. I wonder how Mom and Dad are doing. If I had one regret, it would be suddenly disappearing like this. I wish I had the chance to say goodbye at least. I heard a noise from the tree, and I saw Les approaching me.

    She knelt down and said something that I had no idea about. I think she was thanking me for saving her since she gave me a wooden carving of a knife. I hope there wasn¡¯t any extra meaning for the carving to be a knife. Wait. She wasn¡¯t awake when I grabbed her chest right? Nah. She was knocked out cold. I¡¯m just overthinking this. Anyway, she sat down next to me and watched the night sky with me.

    Not long after, Trevor came to take over the watch. Since I had no tent nor had the time to build one, I decided to climb up a tree and sleep on one of the branches. Trevor offered me his, but I didn¡¯t really feel comfortable sleeping in Trevor¡¯s tent. There is some weird shit in his tent like shrunken heads that makes me real jittery looking at them too long in the dark. I made sure to borrow some rope so that I wouldn¡¯t fall to my death. I found a nice sturdy branch and fell asleep.

    I woke up bright and early without needing someone to wake me up, something that rarely happened in my teenage years. We had some jerky and more roots for breakfast before setting off. It turned out our destination was the town of Shiville which was where the nearest mercenary guild was. It turns out that the mercenary guild was created soon after the first calamity war. The mercenaries were completely scattered and disorganized. As a result, many of the new nations thought it would be a good idea to group them under a guild similar to the merchant¡¯s guild. As a result, the mercenary guild was born where people could come and post requests for odd jobs. This was a win-win situation because people had a place to post requests, and mercenaries now had a steady place to obtain work. I was curious if Terr had changed to a fantasy RPG so I jokingly asked Blythe if the mercenary guild had a ranking system. The mercenaries did have a ranking system, but it was never really taken very seriously. In fact, it was discontinued a couple decades ago when brawls started to break out, and some lower ranked mercenaries were embarrassing the upper ranked mercenaries. In the end, it never really worked out. Now, mercenaries were judged by the average difficulty level of the jobs that the mercenaries take and succeed in. The difficulty ranking went like this: (lowest difficulty to highest difficulty) Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The mana water was a Blue level difficulty request from the alchemist guild.

    We stopped near a creek in an area that was heavily surrounded by trees so that it was hard to find our camp area. We also lit a fire because it was still bright outside, and Adal started to cook some meat from the deer that Blythe shot on our way. I started sword practice with Trevor, and the results were¡­.. Horrific. I had absolutely no talent with the sword whatsoever. I just could not keep the balance with the sword. In addition, I just couldn¡¯t get the feeling right. No matter how many times Trevor told me to think of the sword as an extension of myself I couldn¡¯t do it. I kept treating the sword as a freaking club or a poking stick. In the end, Trevor found out that I had a LOT more skills in hand to hand combat by accident, and he just gave me a couple pointers on that instead, but he couldn¡¯t help much with it since he wasn¡¯t an expert on it. In the end, I was just stuck with a useless sword that I think I will just hang onto as a club until I can get a better weapon. Hand to hand combat won¡¯t get me far in this world. This world isn¡¯t Kung Fu Panda.

    Well, the day ended pretty quickly, and we were near the road that led to the city. Once we get on the road, we should be able to get to the city by sundown. All along the way, I had Blythe teach me the common language, and with the help of magic (strengthening neural connections and memory formations as well as extra energy supply/ electrical stimulation to Broca and Wernicke¡¯s area), I could now speak nouns and telegraphic speech. If Blythe continues to teach me at this rate, I should be able to speak in a really broken and heavily accented manner, but it¡¯s a major improvement at least.

    As the sun went down, Blythe sat down next to me on top of the tree and asked how the training went with Trevor. I merely replied that I had no skills with the sword, and she nodded her head.

    ¡°On the bright side, you could probably sell that sword for a lot of money at the weapon shop. That way you will at least start out with something to get you started.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I guess. Real Pity. Guess didn¡¯t inherit skillz.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Although I don¡¯t understand why you would want to use a sword when you can use magic. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to focus more on your skills in the manipulation of mana?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Less attraction. Avoid draft if war.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Pfff. And you tell me that you want to become a mercenary.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Now easy way to get job while travel¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yeah. You don¡¯t look like the farmer type. Sorry for calling you a hick in the caves.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°No need. Asked easy questions.¡±

    ¡°So exactly what was your past life like? I can¡¯t believe that you never heard of the calamity wars.¡±

    ¡°Far far away. Had parents. One little brother. Traveled. Came here. Very peaceful.¡±

    ¡°And yet you have that monstrous strength.¡±

    I shrugged my shoulders and looked at the setting sun once more. It was quite beautiful as it went down the canopy of the forest with a soft glowing orange light that wrapped around the trees. As I let my mind wander, I began to think of all the supplies that I would need to buy at the town: clothes, furs for bedding, flint and steel¡­. And weapons. I had no idea what weapon to get for myself. I could use ranged weaponry, but bows and crossbows tend to be very limiting in what I could do in a fight. A sword is a no go. A dagger just doesn¡¯t fit for me. I have absolutely no idea how to fight with a spear or an ax. But what should I get? The answer will come eventually. Maybe browsing the weapons shop will give¡­

    My eyes caught Adal rummaging through Les¡¯s stuff and putting something into it. I swear this guy had the worst timing ever because he did it just when Les returned from scouting. Immediately, she crouched and started to sneak up on Adal ready to assassinate him. Suddenly, an idea hit me. I remembered a famous game that existed on Earth which featured assassins, and their favorite weapon was the hidden blade. Now obviously, that weapon won¡¯t work very well here since it was exclusively built for killing other humans, but it is a good idea to build upon. First, I would put the blade on top of the arm, not underneath it. In addition, I would probably put metal lining around the armband so that it could also function as a shield. Then, I would customize the blade so that it would be detachable, and with a rope attached, to the end of the blade I can essentially make a very dangerous ¡°whip¡±. With this weapon, I would also have the element of surprise, and it would be extremely adaptable too. Now the only problem is how to make it. I can make a custom order for the blade. Hmm. This would require more thought. First, let¡¯s see how developed metalworking is right now, and I can go from there.

    When Blythe heard Adal¡¯s scream, she rolled her eyes and went down the tree to calm down Les before she would ¡°passive aggressively¡± beat Adal. Les is quite scary surprisingly. Well, I have the third watch this time so I should catch some shut eye as fast as possible.

 Chapter 6: the first town in Terr

    <u>POV: Descal:</u>

    I wake up a couple hours before daybreak (I took a guess based on the placement of the moon) when my sensors go off as my field noticed an intruder at the bottom of the tree I was sleeping in. Once I strengthened the rod cells in my eye, I noticed that it was Blythe who came to wake me up. Before she started climbing, I jumped down and landed right next to her. She immediately jumped back and tried to kick me. Sadly, she was successful so I got sent flying and landed on a bush.

    ¡°Oh for fuck¡¯s sake! You scared the living shit out of me!¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Why you yell fuck? I yell fuck.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You scared me first!¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Fucking elves and their stubborn bullshit.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Did you say something?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°My ass hurts.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°*Sigh.* Whatever. It¡¯s our watch now. Do you want to continue with your language lessons or sit there rubbing your ass?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Please¡± (Descal)

    Les had an item that interfered with the travel of sound, so we could talk without fear of attracting something with our discussions. However, we would still be able to hear any sounds from outside the barrier. It turned out that the common language really wasn¡¯t that hard. It seemed to put extreme emphasis on simplicity and efficiency. At this speed, I should be able to master the language in about a month.

    ¡°Wow. Descal. You are a really fast learner, aren¡¯t you.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I super smart.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yeah. I can tell. By the way, how many languages do you know?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Too many.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Did someone teach you the language?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°¡­No? Kinda?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°So did someone teach you or not?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Both¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Whatever.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°You good teacher.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Well, I had some practice. When I found an elven city, I stayed as a language tutor to teach the common language to elves who want to leave their home and explore. Your speed at picking up the language is just astounding.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Thanks¡­. Blythe? Why become mercenary and join group?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Why do you want to know?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Curious. Also learn more of this world and relations between people.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Hahaha. Well, I guess you could say that my story is one way to learn about this world. Well, where should we start? I was born in a former elven village in the elven country of Umfalone. It was located in the northern forest near the former Trenem Kingdom. I say former because the lands have been conquered by the warped ones. The attack was horrifying. I still have nightmares about it.... My father was ripped to shreds by a troll, and my mother was shot with a poisoned arrow from a Kobold. I still see her choking on her... Sorry.. Hold on... I try not to think about it too much... But I... I... managed to get away through jumping through the rooftops of the trees. I managed to escape somehow. I ran and ran, and I collapsed near a hunter¡¯s hut, Hanes. Hanes knew my family because he made negotiations through my father with the elvish village so that he could hunt in the forests for free. Hanes immediately understood what happened so he quickly rushed down to the human frontier village near the forests and woke everybody up. With the advanced warning, the villagers managed to get away with no casualties. We escaped to the Trinum Fortress City and tipped off the guards before heading to a certain noble¡¯s land. It turned out that Hanes used to be a mercenary and had a good relationship with this noble so we managed to get some work in his fields. I lived with the villagers for¡­ no I didn¡¯t get bullied. In fact, the villagers were really nice to me. The villagers already had a relationship with the elves because the elves helped the villagers set up their homes in the past, and Hanes made up an elaborate lie that the elves sacrificed themselves to delay the warped ones and in return, the elves asked the human villagers to take care of me. They believed it and treated me quite nicely. Hanes brought me up just like I was his own daughter and taught me how to hunt and use the crossbow. But disaster struck once more. The Trenem Kingdom lost the war of attrition with the warped ones, and the kingdom collapsed due to political infighting, extreme inflation, and massive losses of troops. In the end, I was on the run again. I wandered around for a couple decades until I met Trevor and Adal. Turns out that Adal was exploring the world in order to reestablish the former technology and knowledge through exploring the ruins. In fact, Adal has a really good relationship with the alchemist guild because he discovered a really key paper from a ruin that described¡­ Uhhh¡­. the periodic table of something¡­ Anyway, it was a revelation within the entire field and resulted in the creation of all kinds of new theories and helped organize the mess of the information that the alchemist guild had trouble classifying. As for Trevor, Adal hired him to be his bodyguard after Trevor saved his ass from a bandit attack. Quite literally his ass cause the bandit leader was hell-bent on making him pay for the chase. And yeah. That¡¯s my story. So uhh can you tell me more about¡­ Hey, are you okay?¡±

    Oh shit. My body reached the limit again. I coughed out something, and it was not blood. It was an indicator of something far worse. It was the second step of the transformation of my body so that my soul would be resynchronized with my body and return me to my previous physical form. I immediately dashed into the forest in the direction of the river while trying to think up something. Damn it! I didn¡¯t even use magic, and it became like this. What the hell! I severely underestimated my soul¡¯s ability to absorb mana. I have no choice, but to modify my body so that it consumes mana, trick my soul into believing that it has resynchronized. In other words, I will force my physical body to absorb the mana from my soul causing it to reach superhuman levels. As a result, I will be much stronger in any physical activity; heck, I could probably challenge a dragon to an arm-wrestle with the amount of mana I am forcing my body to consume and integrate. But I have to be careful or my body could literally combust from the amount of energy that it is forced to utilize. Damn it. I feel like I am melting. Holy shit! The river! I jumped into the river and let the water cool me down as my physical body strained to absorb the amount of mana that I was forcing it to consume.

    <u>POV: Blythe</u>

    ¡°¡­¡­..¡± (Les)

    ¡°Les! Are you okay? What¡¯s wrong?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°My senses went crazy. I felt a malicious atmosphere set over the entire forest! The last time I felt that was¡­ Anyway, that¡¯s not important! Something really bad is happening! Trevor and Adal are already up and setting up defensive positions. C¡¯mon.¡± (Les)

    ¡°Wait. Descal just ran that way when he started to cough really badly. We need to warn him.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Not happening. I feel that the negative pressure is MUCH stronger that way. Please listen to me. I don¡¯t want to lose you. We have to move! This is real bad! Besides, I am sure that Descal can handle himself. He¡¯s very strong, and he ain¡¯t stupid. Now let¡¯s move!¡± (Les)

    Les and I immediately run over to the rest of our group. Adal was already pouring spell after spell into our surroundings. Les told him to focus on stealth spells and speed.

    ¡°[Swift foot]. Alright, that should be the last of it. Man. Even I am starting to feel that intense mana pressure. Holy shit it¡¯s strong. Where¡¯s Descal? Damn Les. You aren¡¯t looking too good. Here. Drink.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Thanks. Anyway, stay on high alert guys. Look even the birds are flying away as fast as possible. As for Descal¡­¡± (Les)

    ¡°He started to cough violently and ran off into the direction of the river.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Oh, you got to be kidding me. Anyway, I think he could survive. If he can rescue Les and get that high grade of mana water, he is not your average guy.¡± (Adal)

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡°We should get moving right?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Yes. As far away as possible.¡± (Les)

    We immediately started moving away from the source of the radiating pressure staying close to cover as much as possible due to Les¡¯ insistence. In fact, even I felt a foreboding sense after a while. It was really creepy. My heart felt like it was being crushed, and my mind was getting extremely heavy. I began to feel empty and hopeless. I have only felt this feeling once, and it was when the elven village burned down. The feeling of despair. I began to feel tears run down the sides of my cheeks. No. I promised I wouldn¡¯t cry anymore. Death is natural. It¡¯s just the cycle of life. No. Stop it. Stop it. Stop crying. Stop. I don¡¯t want to feel that again¡­ Just focus on crawling.

    As we started continued to crawl away, we nearly got trampled by a couple of deer that were also fleeing the scene. But something really strange happened. After some time, the pressure suddenly disappeared. It was as if it never existed. After drying my tears, I whispered to Les if the pressure really was gone. I didn¡¯t hear a reply, and I found Les in a fetal position crying. I rushed over to Les; I heard her whispering ¡°Why?¡± over and over again. Adal and Trevor weren¡¯t in much better condition. Adal also looked as if he cried, and he was clenching one of his rings. They were clearly rattled by what happened. We took a while to collect ourselves while staying hidden because we weren¡¯t sure that the thing that was emitting that awful atmosphere was truly gone. Once dawn broke, we moved back to our camp to retrieve our stuff. If it was still there¡­.

    Then, we received the second surprise of the day. Once we returned to the camp, we saw Descal nonchalantly cooking eggs near the camp as if nothing happened. But Descal looked different... I can''t pinpoint it, but... He looked over and asked if we wanted some eggs. Turns out that he raided some nests that the birds abandoned. But the interesting thing was that there was a pile of broken eggs covered with yolk near him. What a waste of food, but I don¡¯t care right now. We wordlessly accepted the food as we watched the forest breathe a sigh of relief as the animals started to return. Once we finished eating the eggs, Les came over to Descal grasped his cheeks and looked him straight into the eye. She then looked away and muttered something about not feeling it from him.

    But what happened with Descal? Did he feel it? Did he SEE the thing that was releasing that pressure? How could he just nonchalantly cook eggs right now? Why is he just becoming more mysterious as time goes by?I cannot stand this anymore. I am going to confront this guy and demand some answers.

    ¡°Alright. Enough of this bullshit Descal. Who are you really?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I am just¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°As if I will believe that nonsense after everything that has happened so far. First, you appeared out of nowhere and claimed to have teleported. Second, you rescue Les like it was nothing. Third, you look as if you have some type of curse on you. Finally, it does not look like the pressure affected you at all. Hell, it looks like you didn¡¯t even feel the pressure! Spill the beans. Who ARE you?¡±

    ¡°¡­. Ok¡­. Traveled from different world.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°What?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°True. Different world.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Snort as if I will bel¡­i...e¡­v¡­e¡­ You aren¡¯t lying are you¡­.¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°I recall that in some of the old elven legends that it claimed that the hero was a descendant of another worlder. Did you come from the same world?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t know. Maybe.¡±

    ¡°Who summoned you? Someone had to have summoned you.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t know. Woke up in the capital of Primus Empire. Empty.¡±

    ¡°¡­ Of course¡­ the legend has stated that the Primus Empire was at the forefront of researching the magic and technology of space and dimensions¡­maybe the remnants of an old artifact?... Look. IF you are telling the truth, it would make sense.¡±

    ¡°Please tell no one. Very dangerous to me.¡±

    ¡°Hold on. My head hurts right now. SO was it you that sent out the pressure?¡±

    ¡°¡­ Don¡¯t know... Didn¡¯t really have things like magic in the previous world so¡­¡±

    ¡°*narrow eyes* Fine. Les didn¡¯t feel any malicious energy from you a few minutes ago so¡­¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t thank me just yet. You are a massive pain in my ass right now.¡±

    ¡°Still. Thank you. Relief.¡±

    ¡°But I will still have to tell this to my team.¡±

    ¡°Only team please.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see.¡±

    I turned toward my team members who eagerly leaned forward to learn what we just talked about. I sighed and dropped the bombshell on them. They all looked stunned and just stared at Descal. It was Adal who first broke the silence.

    ¡°Hey Trevor. Remember the very first ruins we explored together.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t think what the tablet said was a riddle nor a mistranslation.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°It literally meant that the following message could be read by someone who knew Eennglesh, a language spoken from another world.¡± (Adal)

    Immediately, Adal stood up and ran over to me and grasped me by the shoulders and begged me to translate for him. His scholarly composure was completely broken, and he even started to shake me as I tried to get him to calm down.

    ¡°Alright. Alright! Jeez! I¡¯ll do it. Adal. Please calm down. This isn¡¯t like you.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Oh¡­ Sorry. But this is SUCH a HUGE discovery if what he says is true! If he did come from the same world, then he might be able to read this language! It might even bring me one step closer to my goal. SO PLEASE.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°I SAID I would do it. Jeez. What do you want me to tell him?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Ask him if he could translate this message.¡± (Adal)

    He handed me a drawing with some strange symbols written on it. It definitely looked like some writing. I turned toward Descal with the paper in my hand.

    ¡°Give me. I¡¯ll see if read.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You could understand what we were talking about??!!¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°A quarter. Rest guess¡­¡­. Yes. Can Read.¡± (Descal)

    <u>POV: Descal</u>

    I took the paper from Blythe¡¯s hand and gave it a quick look. Yup, this was English. What was more interesting was what was written on it.

    My name is John, and I was born in America on July 9<sup>th</sup>, 1990 C.E. I was working on my chemistry degree before I got summoned to this world of magic. You may have already figured this out, but this is a world where magic exists. I don¡¯t know how the physics apply, but the laws of chemistry seem to have stayed constant from my experiments. Either way, the reason why I have carved this message in stone is that I am probably going to die tomorrow, and I want to impart a couple words of wisdom to a fellow person who came from the same world as me¡­.

    Then, John started to write about all of his experiences in this world and how he has adapted to it. He even gave some pointers on how to learn magic and some survival tips. Most of it was garbage to me because they were probably all outdated or I already knew about it, but I froze when it came to the last part of the message.

    Now you are probably wondering why I said I will die tomorrow. I have been ordered to fight and seal the Emperor of Despair. The mages tell me that they can seal that monster, but I highly doubt it. Anyway, I don¡¯t know what it is like in the future, but if you ever meet that monster, just run and hide. You¡¯ll know the monster purely based on the pressure it emits. The pressure causes you to remember your worst moments of your life and tries to crush you with them. I am sure that the pressure gets worse as you get closer, but I have only seen this monster from 500 meters away so I don¡¯t know what it would be like until tomorrow. Either way, don¡¯t challenge this monster. I hope my message has helped you out. You aren¡¯t the only one that has come to this world. Also, I have a child; his name is Finny Rin. If you ever meet him or his descendants, please give him or them my regards no matter how ridiculous this may sound.

    It took me a minute for it to completely sink in, but I stopped myself from getting too sentimental about it. I turned toward Blythe and told her that the only way I would translate this was if Adal agreed to keep my existence a secret. Adal excitedly agreed, and I translated as best as I could into elvish except for the very last part. Blythe was surprised at much of the contents of the message because of how old the contents were. Many of the herbs that the writer recommended were extinct; many went extinct during the first calamity war. Adal was excited to learn about the contents of the message because it gave really deep insights into the past world and confirmed the existences of many extinct species and herbs. In the end, the group made up a story that I was a traveler who they found on their journey with all of his possessions robbed and suffering amnesia due to a nasty head wound. With that, we set off to the town of Shiville.

    When we reached the gates, it was reaching sundown. It turns out that I didn¡¯t really have to worry about my lack of any identification on me. The guards just let me through after talking with me a little bit about where I came from and my purpose as well as double checking all the wanted posters to make sure I wasn¡¯t a wanted criminal. Blythe noticed my confusion so she stated that security was much higher in the cities when you tried to enter the noble¡¯s area in the city because there were shops and property with much more valuable things. Also, the government of this land doesn¡¯t want to deal with any potential forgeries nor the organization of all the information that would be needed to issue all its citizens identification papers. Once I went through, I was going to go straight to the branch building of the mercenary guild of this town, but Blythe put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me.

    ¡°Descal. Before you go, put this cloak on.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Why?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You barely have any clothes left. It¡¯s a pity cause those clothes looked really comfortable and pretty, but there is like nothing left. Have you looked at yourself?¡± (Blythe)

    Oh yeah. I guess I don¡¯t want to be labeled as a pervert by strutting around with these completely shredded pajamas. So the first order of business should be buying some clothes. I accepted the cloak, and Blythe told me that she would go with me to the marketplace to act as a translator. Trevor and Les were going to find book a room at the inn while Adal was going to the alchemist guild to report the translation of the tablet and turn in the mana water.

    As we walked into the town center, I found a traveling peddler who was selling some clothes. Since bargaining still existed in this world, I had Blythe negotiate the prices. However, I paid for the clothes. Blythe was surprised that I even had money, but I reassured her that I found a lot in the abandoned capital. She didn¡¯t really push me any further than that although I could tell she was curious of how much money I found in the ruin. Anyway, the clothing was not very comfortable. It felt very stiff, and since elastic bands weren¡¯t invented yet, I didn¡¯t have any proper comfortable socks. The boots were also pretty hard as well. The first thing I am going to do when I get to the city is buying going to a tailor and buying some quality clothing that is much more comfortable. I also have some nice spider silk from the cave as well so it should be good.

    After putting on some decent clothes, I went around shopping for some other necessities such as a backpack (to put up an appearance that I don¡¯t have space magic), food, rope, tents, and blankets. The grand total of my shopping spree ended up to be 4 gold coins. Blythe was simply astonished by the amount of money I was just pumping out and the extent of my spatial magic and started to mutter something about lucky bastards. By the way, I don¡¯t have to worry about the food rotting in the spatial magic because I manipulated the space and velocity within my spatial storage so that time will run much slower in the dimension utilizing Einstein¡¯s theory of special relativity. So 100 years in the outside world will barely constitute 1 millisecond in the storage which is awesome because I can store hot foods within my storage as well. All hail the awesome power of science combined with magic!

    I made sure to buy Blythe some dinner from one of the food stalls as thanks for bargaining for me as we headed to the mercenary guild to meet up with the rest of our group. While the group was discussing their next course of action, I talked with the receptionist to see if I needed to sign up or anything like that. Since I already got a recommendation from Adal, a senior and experienced mercenary, I could skip the test and automatically received a magical card (it changed colors to reflect the average difficulty of requests I successfully completed) that simply had my name and my success rate on it. Since I didn¡¯t do any requests yet, the card was a dull gray. Other than that, there really wasn¡¯t anything else. I didn¡¯t even need to sign any papers or anything like that. With that done, I went back to rejoin the group.

    ¡°So Descal. We decided to stay in the town for four weeks before we go to the city of Duran. Adal has received a report from the Duran¡¯s branch that asks for his help in analyzing some artifacts that they received from some nearby ruins. The reason why we are leaving in four weeks is that we accepted an escort request from a caravan that is headed there to make some extra money while we are journeying there. However, there has been some issues with some bandits recently in this route so the caravan is going to wait a month for the local baron¡¯s troops to clear them out before setting off.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Got it. Where weapon shop?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Oh. Let¡¯s wait till tomorrow. By the time, we get there he should be closing shop. He is quite the skilled blacksmith. I am surprised he isn¡¯t working in one of the great cities.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Keep teaching at the inn?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Sure. I also bought some paper to help with teaching you the common language. I am pretty good at drawing so I can teach you better.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Blythe! Descal! Hurry up! I¡¯m hungry so let¡¯s go!¡± (Adal)

    With those words, we sped off toward Adal and Trevor who were making a mad dash to the inn that had a nice delicious smell wafting out of its doors.

 Chapter 7: the first escort mission

    <u>POV: Descal</u>

    Well, it is finally the day of the escort mission. Since this world has problemswith monsters and bandits, trade between villages, cities, and countries occur through caravans, a group of traveling merchants. Because the merchants group up, they can pool their money towards buying some mercenaries, and there is safety in numbers as well. Anyway, Adal told us to get ready, and the meeting spot would be at the front gates around noon. Before I go to the meeting spot, I need to pick up my final weapon from the blacksmith.

    I was quite busy while I was waiting for this day. First, I continuously worked on my language skills with Blythe almost every day. As a result, I was able to gain mastery of the common language. I can speak it as well as English minus my accent. Second, I went to the weapon smith to see if there were any weapons that may fit me. The results were unsatisfactory. I sucked at swords, I swing axes like a complete amateur, and I cannot throw anything for the life of me. The bows and arrows may have been possible, but it did not really fit with my fighting style as I was someone who preferred to enter close combat should I encounter an enemy that was really good at dodging.

    So I decided to go with my idea with the arm blades. When I presented the idea to the blacksmith, he was surprised, but he accepted the challenge. It turns out that the blacksmith actually was trained at the capital; however, he moved to this village because his daughter was extremely sick. The medicine required to treat his daughter''s disease was the cheapest in this village because of the close proximity to the mana water caves so he decided to open a shop here.

    The arm blades are extremely cool. The blade is slightly longer than my arm so the scabbard juts out a little bit from my arm. I can also manipulate the blade''s length, similar to how you can vary the lengths in a box cutter. The main part of the weapon used to be a gauntlet so it does have some blocking capability. The gauntlet also has a whip feature made from the magical spider skill added to it. I also added in some soft leather to increase the fit and comfort. Sadly, these two things cost me 16 gold coins. Oh, my poor gold. I know I have a lot, but it is still unnerving to see that stack of gold go away. To make matters worse, I also had to spend 24 gold coins for the two new weapons I asked him to make. When I arrived at the blacksmith''s store, I saw Rulf standing outside of the shop.

    "Thanks for making me these two beauties." (Descal)

    "My pleasure. It felt really nice trying to make some new things. Previously, the idea to weaponize arm guards like that was simply astounding. However, I don''t understand the concept behindthesetwo requests. Why do you need this pipe with curved grooves running down the inside? Once I finished it last night, I just couldn''t understand the concept behind this thing. Oh, and here is the cast that you wanted. The cast is supposed to make these spherical cones, right? I made thirty of them and put them into this sack for you. I hope you remember my basics on melting lead and cooling it down. Remember. Temperature is key¡­¡­ It was fun working with you. Are you sure you won''t stay to help me out with the store?You have a talent in forging." (Rulf)

    "Nah. Nah, thanks for the offer, but my place isn''t here. Here is the payment, and thank you for making these." (Descal)

    "Haha. It was my pleasure. It is nice trying out building new things." (Rulf)

    With that, I took the new things, put them into my pack (my dimensional storage), and walked to the front gates.

    "Descal. You came a bit early." (Adal)

    "Well, I didn''t have anything else to do. By the way, did the alchemist association agree to sell me some of their equipment?" (Descal)

    "Yup. Here are the flasks, glass tubes, and the periodic table of elements. The orders finally came. It must have been really expensive." (Adal)

    "You have no idea." (Descal)

    "Exactly, why did you buy such a large amount of random mixtures and elements? Is it a new formula from the other world? Tell me. Tell me. Tell me." (Adal)

    "Adal. Please return to your composed self. Every time these subjects come up you turn really creepy." (Descal)

    "Funny. Les told me that yesterday too." (Adal)

    ¡°You should probably listen to her. Anyway, tell me when the others arrive. I¡¯ll be sitting on top of that tree.¡± (Descal)

    Adal became convinced that the other worlders were responsible for many of the advancements from the past. He realized this when I visited the alchemy association of the town and helped out an apprentice with a problem he was struggling with. I was kinda slightly depressed and happy at the state of the alchemist association. They have completely degenerated into a researcher of medicines, and they prepared ingredients for magic rituals. In fact, they are still pursuing the knowledge of the Philosopher''s stone. Hell, they don¡¯t even completely understand the profound impact of the periodic table. They even misunderstood the damn thing by misinterpreting the numbers and such. In addition, the Alchemist association is underfunded compared to their Mage Association. Not only that, they blacklisted the creations of explosive substances due to bad accidents in the past. Why research dangerous things like that when magic can simply artificially create one? This has resulted in the alchemist association turning into more of a pharmacy for the people. Well, after Adal realized of my extensive knowledge of the alchemic field, he has been pressuring me to tell him some of the knowledge from my world. Like hell, I would. Knowledge is power, and I am not gonna spew knowledge to everyone around me anyway.

    Now, I bought a wide variety of chemicals from the association. I had a couple reasons for this. I wanted to make some compounds myself. In addition, it would prevent people from learning how to make specific compounds from looking over what I have bought. The reason why I am so careful is because I am making gunpowder. Primitive gunpowder AKA black powder is really easy to make. I learned it from my chemistry class. Yeah... my chemistry teacher was fun... exploding sodium and liquid nitrogen... until the firemen told him that he couldn¡¯t do it anymore¡­ Anyway, I digress. I have already prepared a ton of gun powder and stored it in my dimensional storage. The reason for buying nitric acids and sulfuric acids is because I want to make pressure explosives as well like mercury fulminate and nitroglycerin. However, I am still trying to remember how to make them so I ended up having to resort to trial and error. I can''t go too far with the tests because I am GOING to blow up something by accident so I need somewhere private to test out my ideas. The inn would be a no go.

    So the two "pipes" are actually rifled flintlock pistols. The rifling was rather hard to make, but it was necessary to increase the accuracy. Also, I modeled the two pistols after the Harper¡¯s Ferry Pistol. My dad was a real big gun enthusiast so I know the layout of many guns. It¡¯s hard not to when my dad loved to show them off to me constantly. I also had Rulf make some Minnie balls for me as well as the cast for them. I learned some smithing techniques from him so I should be able to melt lead and mold them into Minnie balls if I ever run out.

    I loaded the two pistols and holstered them. Heh. Now I can fight from a distance without using any magic. I am still very hesitant to use any magic right now. Until I can get a leaf from the Bodhi Tree, fairie powder, a unicorn horn, and the golden pearl. These materials are necessary if I am to create a seal and container (other than my flesh) for my mana so it would not go rogue on me like last time. The only problem is that half of the necessary ingredients are extinct. The unicorns and fairies are long extinct. Not only that, the only place in which I can get a golden pearl is heavily guarded by a bunch of mermaids. It will take me forever... if I did not know of a place that had all four of the ingredients. If I remember correctly, I believe that one of the generals from the Dark Squadron loved collecting things. His vault should still be around in his underground fortress. He is dead so he shouldn¡¯t mind me taking those four items. Also, I highly doubt any thieves would have been able to have gotten past his castle¡¯s defense.

    ¡°Descal. The others are here. Get down here.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Yeah. Yeah. I am coming.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°We are assigned to guard the western flank of the caravan. We will be guarding this flank with 4 other teams. For the wagon that we will ride on, we are going to be with the fur trader. That sums it up. Questions?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Is the fur trader a nice guy?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I am unable to answer that right now. If that is all, we should be going.¡± (Trevor)

    We walked to the gate and met up with the caravan. The fur trader that we would be riding with was named Jodok. He was quite chatty and really easy going. Thank god we are riding with someone like him. During one of the chats we had during the journey, t turned out that he used to own a store in a small town to the north, but it was burned down during a war that broke out between the neighboring countries.

    It was an uneventful ride throughout the day. I brought some cards so I played with Les, Adal, and Trevor while Blythe was enthusiastically talking about fabrics and clothes with Jodok. Once sundown came, the caravan came to a stop and camped out by the road. Then, dinner was handed out, and while we were eating, Adal would go and pick straws with the other groups that would determine the times that we would have to keep watch. Adal had fantastic luck so we usually got the first or the last watch. This repeated for the next three days until I saw what was for dinner on the fourth day.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    ¡°What in the fuck is this shit?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Pickled food.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°If I eat this, I think that I will die from food poisoning.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I thought that too when I first saw pickled foods. But you¡¯ll get used to it.¡± (Les)

    ¡°What the hell happened to the dinner that we were eating for the past two days?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°We ate them all. Besides, food like that rarely lasts for a long time so the merchants did not really buy a lot. Now shut up and eat.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Okay. In my opinion, food is not supposed to smell like this¡­ this is not food. You know what. I am going to eat something else.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Good luck finding anything else. Do you mind if I take your portion then?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Go ahead.¡± (Descal)

    With those words, I headed off into the woods to go find a nice place to hide my food. I immediately opened my secret dimensional stash of food. So far, I have stored about a month¡¯s worth of food in my dimensional storage. If I had known that travel food was going to be this disgusting, I would have made an entire storage solely for traveling. But right now, I think this counts as an emergency so I started digging into my still hot rabbit stew that I got from the innkeeper¡¯s cook a week ago.

    As I started to slowly sip on the stew, I began to think of my next steps if once I get to the city of Duran. I am thinking about splitting off from the group. I want to set off for the mountains as soon as I can and get the items as soon as possible. Right now, I am too weak since I cannot use my magic. My greatest strength was utilizing magic, and I don¡¯t feel comfortable living in this world without it. Also, I don¡¯t want to endanger my new companions. They are really kind people. People that this world has a tendency to lack. My identity puts them in danger because I have a feeling that there are a lot of people who would want me dead if anyone found out who I really was. The fact that I met Arachne is proof that the past still hast ties to the present Terr. I don¡¯t want to risk it so I think it would be best if I left the group as soon as possible. Besides, it would also grant me a lot more freedom regarding my choices because I won¡¯t be risking anyone¡¯s lives other than my own.

    Once I finished my stew, I began to walk toward my group again. It seemed that some alcohol was handed out while I was gone because the group was quite drunk when I came. I saw Blythe snuggling up with Trevor, and Les jumping all around Adal while Adal was just sitting there with a dazed look in his eyes.

    ¡°So Trevor. It seems that you are the only one that can handle your alcohol.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°That is correct. My tribe loved to do weekly alcohol competitions. My father was one of the best in my village.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°I have always been wondering but what really caused you to leave the desert?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­. It is a story that I would prefer to keep to myself Descal. It is too painful for me to retell. Forgive me.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°I understand. I won¡¯t pry¡­. Les and Adal would make a cute couple, don¡¯t you think? I can definitely tell that Les loves Adal.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°*chuckle* That is so. It is only a pity that Adal seems to be quite dense for he is clueless that he has captured the hearts of two maidens.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°*COUGH* TWO?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Why yes. Les and Blythe both love Adal.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Then why is Blythe hugging and snuggling with you?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°She does so because Les has already claimed Adal. Blythe is only snuggling up with me so that she can sulk on me. If you had been paying closer attention, right now Blythe is mumbling about Adal and how selfish Les is.¡± (Trevor)

    Sure enough, Trevor wasn¡¯t lying. Blythe really was sulking on Trevor¡¯s side. I see. Well, Adal does seem to be one of the dense guys. Which kinda pisses me off. But hey, I am going to be leaving these guys once we reach our destination so I guess I will stay quiet about it. I only hope that Adal can snap out of it before it is too late.

    ¡°Hey, Trevor. Aren¡¯t we supposed to be taking the first watch?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yes.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°How the hell are we supposed to do that with three of our members conked out like this?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°We simply ¡°go with it¡±. That is what we will do.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Sigh. Please give them an earful in the morning.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Gladly.¡± (Trevor)

    <u>POV: Blythe</u>

    Gah. My head. What type of fucking drink was that? I never drank something that strong before. Mother of Gods. This is one of the worst hangovers I have ever gotten before.

    ¡°Are you awake?¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Yeah. Just¡­ Hold on a minute.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Here is your breakfast.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Yeah. Gimme¡­. What happened to my jerky?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°I ate it. It is the least you can do for getting drunk when it was supposed to be our watch.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Oh¡­ Sorry about that. Did everything go okay?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°You were not the only one to get knocked out. Thankfully, I had Descal to help out so it was alright.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Do we have any coffee?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Les and Adal has already gotten up, and they are getting coffee from Descal right now.¡± (Trevor)

    With that, I got up and went to get some coffee. Once everyone finished breakfast, the caravan started moving again. The journey was smooth until the seventh day when the front of the caravan was attacked by a pack of stun wolves. I was on the wagon minding my own business when I saw Descal who was taking a piss in the bushes a couple meters from the road get pounced on by a yellow blur. Descal somehow managed to dodge; however, he got hit by an electric shock from the wolf and was sent flying into one of the wagons.

    ¡°Shit! It¡¯s stun wolves!¡± (Les)

    ¡°Yeah, no shit!¡± (Blythe)

    Jodok immediately jumped off the wagon and went to the center of the caravan to take shelter and warn the other members. Meanwhile, I immediately took aim at the wolf that attacked Descal and shot it through the head. Before I could finish reloading, I got hit by an electric strike from another wolf.

    ¡°Blythe!¡± (Adal)

    ¡°I¡¯m alright!¡± (Blythe)

    When I got up and took a look, it was chaos. The other mercenaries heard the commotion and came to support us. Adal was on the wagon with me, and he had used a spell that utilized his staff as a lightning rod, rendering the stun wolves¡¯ signature magic useless. As a result, it was dirty hand to hand combat as the mercenaries desperately tried to keep the pack away from Adal. I saw Les darting around the wagons, sneaking in kills before disappearing somewhere. Trevor was supporting the shield wall that was set up around the wagon Adal was on to prevent the wolves from shredding him to pieces. The other mages were taking potshots with flames and trapping wolves with ground spells. The mercenaries without shields were fighting with their backs to the shield wall to prevent getting surrounded. I began to snipe at whatever targets I could find; however, the wolves were proficient in dodging my arrows. As a result, I began to start using my enchanted arrows to speed up my arrows so that I could get some hits. The ground began to become slick with blood, causing one of the mercenaries in front of the shield wall to slip. Before the wolves could finish them off, a howl reverberated from deep in the forest, and the wolves froze and ran off back to the woods.

    With the wolves gone so mysteriously, we kept our guards up until Les gave the report that the wolves were really gone. With that, we quickly moved and got the caravan moving again before the smell of blood attracted something worse. Just when we started to move once more, I heard Descal scream ¡°wait¡± as he bounded out of the forest with his pants gone and his shirts in shreds. When the fuck did he go into the forest, and does he have no decency nor any mindfulness for his clothes. I helped him pick out those clothes, and they were a real nice piece of work. Yet, he comes back with it all in tatters. Sigh. Sometimes, I don¡¯t understand what Descal does. He sort of has this distance with us. He probably had something to do with why the wolves retreated so mysteriously. Truth be told, I can¡¯t help but feel that Descal is planning on leaving us soon. He doesn¡¯t eat with us, and he keeps too many secrets such as this incident. Although Adal is adamant on trying to include Descal into our group, I don¡¯t think it is working. I pushed these thoughts to the back of my head as Les bounded over to Adal with our share of the magic cores from the stun wolves. I immediately started to move toward those two when I saw Les starting to rub her chest on Adal¡¯s arm. Ever since Trevor made me realize my feelings a couple weeks ago, I was convinced that I would make Adal mine. However, Les was putting up a hard fight as well. Why she kept putting up such a fight, I have no idea. I mean it hasn¡¯t worked for like a couple months so I think I should give it a try. However, I have a hard time with expressing my feelings toward Adal. Every time I come close, I choke up on my words. I guess I have to be satisfied with the status quo for now.

    My doubts regarding Descal were confirmed when we were a day away from the city. We were finishing up dinner when we saw Descal come walking over to us with two bottles of wine. Descal have been skipping out on dinner every day since we started to eat from the preserved storages. I was convinced that Descal had been storing food somewhere. I don¡¯t know how or where he has been getting the food though. I know that Descal has the knowledge to use the rare Dimensional Storage spell, but it should not be able to hold too much, and it should not have the ability to keep foods fresh. Every time Les tried to follow Descal to see where he gets his food, Descal always loses her in the forest, and he comes back like nothing happened. Eventually, we gave up and started to take stabs at where he could be getting his dinner if he refuses to eat the preserved foods. Our guesses ranged from technology from another world to eating raw meat. Anyway, while we were enjoying the wine, Descal broke the news to us.

    ¡°Hey, guys. I am sorry for the short notice, but I was thinking about going my separate way once we get to our destination. I have somewhere that I want to check, and I need to get there as soon as possible.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Where are you going? I mean we don¡¯t have to separate so soon. Like we could go with you as soon as I finish up my work at the Alchemist Association.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°It is somewhere private. Some issues regarding my status in this world. You know. I want to travel to some areas to see if there are any clues regarding why I am here and such.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°But is it something you have to do by yourself. I mean will you be okay. I would hate it if you¡­¡± (Adal)

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine Adal. Thank you for your concerns. It¡¯s just I have this feeling that¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Say no more. I understand. The winds will take you where you need to go. I understand that feeling myself.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Truth be told, I too felt that this day would come. You always acted so distant toward us. So I have always assumed that you were going to leave us someday.¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Thank you for understanding. Someday, I will repay all the kindness you guys have shown me.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I guess there is no changing your mind. Well, if you ever need anything, you should know how to contact me. Just go to the nearest Alchemist Association building, and you will probably hear of my whereabouts there. Oh and if you ever want to tell me some secrets of the other world, you know who to tell first. I¡¯ll cover up for you.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Pff. Alright, Adal. Jeez. You never do change.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Since we will arrive at the city tomorrow, tell me where you have been getting your food. Don¡¯t think I haven¡¯t noticed that all this time you have been skipping out on the preserved foods. AND you have not keeled over from hunger. So¡­ what have you been eating?¡± (Les)

    ¡°That is a trade secret. But if you want¡­ I have some food. Would you guys like to have some?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Please.¡± (Trevor)

    ¡°Well, I have some fresh apples.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait! What!!! Where the hell did you get these apples??? How are they so fresh? Is there an apple tree nearby???¡± (Les)

    ¡°Trade secret.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I bet a silver coin that it is through technology from the other world.¡± (Adal)

    ¡°Is it a spell?¡± (Blythe)

    ¡°Guys. I am not saying a word. Now, enjoy your apple like what Trevor is doing.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Please do not rope me into this Descal.¡± (Trevor)

    Once again, Descal continues to surprise me and my friends. I will miss you, and I wish you the best of luck in your travels Descal. May we meet again in the future.

 Chapter 8: royalty trouble

    POV: Third

    ¡°Find her!¡±

    ¡°Get the filthy mixed blood!¡±

    ¡°My lord. Her chambers are empty.¡±

    ¡°Then, look harder! The daughter of that filthy whore could not have gotten far!¡±

    ¡°My lord. The palace guards have all been ¡°taken care of¡±. The castle is now ours.¡±

    ¡°Excellent. We have restrained all members of the royal family except her. Correct?¡±

    ¡°Yes. My Lord.¡±

    ¡°Find her. No members of the royal family can escape. I don¡¯t want that thorn on my side once I assume the throne.¡±

    ¡°Yes. My king. It shall be done.¡±

    After those words, the two men left: one briskly walked to the throne room while the other sunk back into the shadows of the castle halls. However, the room was not empty for another being stirred from the shadows. Immediately, the man snuck around to a window and began to climb down to another window. His destination was the castle¡¯s hidden escape tunnels. At the tunnels, two people were waiting, trying to keep as quiet as possible. One was obviously a Knight with his gleaming armor and elegant sword that hung at his side while the other was dressed in nothing but a nightgown and slippers. Noticing the man, the knight came forward.

    ¡°What is the situation?¡± (Lehoi)

    ¡°Not good. Lehoi. The palace guards have been wiped. All other members of the royal family have been captured, and they are searching quite desperately for the princess right now. To make matters worse, it turns out that the king¡¯s brother planned this shit.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°So father is still alive?¡± (Princess)

    ¡°Yes. That is what I have understood from the conversation I have listened to.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Then what is the plan to rescue them?¡± (Princess)

    ¡°Rescue them? No, your highness. We are escaping.¡± (Lehoi)

    ¡°No! My father needs me! We need to rescue him!¡± (Princess)

    ¡°With all due respect, we are severely outnumbered. We cannot hope to win. We must retreat and gather some allies before trying to take on your uncle.¡± (Lehoi)

    ¡°I will not abandon my father.¡± (Princess)

    ¡°Getting caught would be abandoning your father. Princess. We have no time left. We must go right now.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°He¡¯s right. I just heard one of the trapdoors open. Since the traitor is your damn uncle, he should be aware of the secret passages. Oh and here you go. I got you some dye to cover up your purple hair, and I got you your bow.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Thank you. Only 5 arrows?¡± (Princess)

    ¡°Purple head. Lay off. I tried my best. Do you think it is easy sneaking around the castle with people running around everywhere?¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Ugurtz¡­.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Yeah. Yeah. Speak to the Royals with respect. Well, Purple head doesn¡¯t mind it anyway so why don¡¯t YOU lay¡­¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Now is NOT the time. We must start moving faster. I think I heard something behind us.¡± (Princess)

    With that, the trio quickly moved through the tunnels before they exited to the warm summer air of the commoner¡¯s district. Using the moon¡¯s light, they quickly made their way through the alley way before making a stop at a tailor store. They snuck around to the back door and began to knock as quietly as they could until they heard a muffled acknowledgment from within.

    ¡°Who the fuck is knocking at this hour? We are closed damn it.¡± (Taylor)

    ¡°Taylor. It¡¯s me.¡± (Princess)

    ¡°Cecilia? What? Why are you here? Did something happen?¡± (Taylor)

    The door opened to reveal a plump middle age man. His eyes glanced over the trio before understanding dawned on his eyes as he quickly checked the alleyway before ushering them into the store.

    ¡°Were you followed? What happened?¡± (Taylor)

    ¡°There was a rebellion. Gradius betrayed us and took over the castle in the dead of night. It was a well-coordinated attack too.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Humph. That snaky bastard. Well, it makes sense. So, he finally shows his true colors. Well, at least, the crown princess managed to escape. So, what do you guys plan to do now?¡± (Taylor)

    ¡°We are going to the fortress city of Uwile. The Lord has been a close friend of the king and won¡¯t hesitate to provide support. Once we get his support, we will retake the capital.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°It won¡¯t be that easy you know. I highly doubt Gradius would act unless he had some strong backing. Anyway, what do you need from me?¡± (Taylor)

    ¡°I was wondering if you could provide some money, change of clothes, and horses as well as allow us to hide out here for a night. All the entrances should be tightly guarded right now so it would be better if we take our chances at the day time blending in with the crowd. I highly doubt that Gradius would make the takeover public news until he gets his hands on the crown princess.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Okay. I can provide you with three gold coins, and you can use the storage room tonight. As for the horses, meet me at the west gate tomorrow. I know some people who would help.¡± (Taylor)

    ¡°Thank you for your help.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°By the way, I am not doing this for your filthy politics. I am doing this for my friend. You keep her alive. Am I clear?¡± (Taylor)

    ¡°That was my intent.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Taylor. Thank you so much.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Hahaha. Anything for the tomboy princess.¡± (Taylor)

    With that, Taylor went up to his bedroom while the trio went to the storage room to rest. Cecilia began to put on her dye to cover up her purple hair that was symbolic of royalty while Ugurtz simply plopped down onto a pile of fabrics and went to sleep without even removing his leather armor. Lehai removed his armor and began packing it away in the bags provided by Taylor.

    ¡°Lehai. Will this turn into a civil war?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°There is a chance. I can think of numerous possibilities for this treachery. It could be nobles within the country who are unsatisfied with the King¡¯s policies, and the crowning of a princess with commoner blood did not settle well with the traditional nobles.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°I never asked for this. I just wanted to live my life in peace. I just wanted to live with my mother in the countryside. Was that too much to ask? Was it?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Fate can be a fickle thing, your highness. Anyway, tomorrow, Ugurtz and I will buy some supplies. You will stay here and¡­¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°No. I am going outside away from this store. By staying here, I will endanger Taylor who is harboring us.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°But princess¡­¡± (Lehai)Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°I know this place like the back of my hand. Also, I refuse to endanger a friend like Taylor with my presence. Don¡¯t worry. I will stay right next to you. Also, how do I look?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°The brown color suits you, princess.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°I wish I had this color of hair. I never asked for the purple hair.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Princess. It would be best if we get some sleep now.¡±

    ¡°Good night Lehai.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..

    It was a busy time in the marketplace with people going from peddler to peddler and store to store shopping for daily necessities, food, and goods. There was an idyllic atmosphere that pervaded the marketplace as many of the people were unaware of the events that have occurred at the castle. However, this idyllic atmosphere did not apply to this one cloaked figure who was desperately running through the dark alleyways of the city trying to escape the pursuers.

    ¡°Shit. How the fuck did they find me?¡± (Cecilia)

    Cecilia was separated from her companions when Lehai noticed that they were being followed. It was Cecilia who suggested going into the alleyways and separate in order to get a better chance at escaping. However, the pursuers seemed to have knowledge of the complex pathways of the commoner¡¯s district as well so Cecilia was unable to shake them off. Suddenly, she ran into a person who seemed lost at the intersection.

    ¡°Oh can you hellllppp¡­.¡± (Stranger)

    ¡°No time. You have to run!¡± (Cecilia)

    Suddenly, a hooded figure jumped down from the roof tops and landed between the two people, stabbed the stranger in the chest before hurling him into a stack of crates. Then, the assassin attacked the princess with a knife that gleamed with a liquid that Cecilia assumed to be poison. Cecilia dodged the first strike and retaliated with a swift knee to the assassin¡¯s stomach before trying to flee through the right passage. However, it was too late as Cecilia was quickly surrounded from all four sides. The hooded man stood back up and stared at Cecilia.

    ¡°It¡¯s futile. Come along with us. Resist and things can get quite¡­ugly.¡± (Assassin)

    ¡°In your dreams. I¡¯ll shove that knife up your asshole instead.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°A sharp tongue. Just like the rumors.¡±

    The assassin waved to the hired street rats, and they surged forward. Cecilia tried her best to fight back as she fought back with her fists, legs, and teeth; however, she was quickly overpowered and taken down. Even after being taken down, she continued to struggle violently spitting into the eyes and trying to bite at whatever flesh came near her mouth.

    ¡°Sir. Can we have some ¡­ fun with this girl? I want to pay her back for this black eye.¡± (Random guy)

    ¡°Go ahead. He never specified in what condition she had to be brought back. You thugs can go deflower her. It might break her spirit.¡± (Assassin)

    Hearing those words, Cecilia began to fight back even more violently, but it was in vain. Empowered by those words, the street rats retaliated with more effort. Cecilia closed her eyes when she felt her pants ripping and waited for the humiliation until everyone stopped fighting when the stranger who got knocked out earlier got up from the crates that were burying him and looked around. The stranger was now wearing a colorful mask that could be gotten from any of the random street vendors.

    ¡°First, you stab me and throw me into a pile of crates. Two, you guys gang up on this poor girl. Three, you guys try to rape this girl in front of me. I think that is sufficient enough reason for me to murder you all.¡± (Stranger)

    ¡°I won¡¯t ask how you are still alive, but this is not your fight. Go away. I also don¡¯t know why you are wearing that ridiculous mask, but it won¡¯t help you if you try to pick a fight with me.¡± (Assassin)

    ¡°Oh no. This mask is only supposed to protect my identity so there will be fewer people who know my face. Since you are one of the two people here that have seen my face, you are going to be the first one to¡­¡± (Stranger)

    Immediately, the masked man jumped right in front of the assassin and punched him in the chest. However, a blade was sticking out of the assassin¡¯s back, and Cecilia heard the masked man whisper into the assassin¡¯s ear: ¡°die¡±. The assassin coughed up blood and sank to his knees. When the man pushed away the assassin¡¯s body, Cecilia saw that there was a blade attached to the man¡¯s gauntlets.

    ¡°Who¡¯s next?¡± (Masked man)

    The masked man had a murderous gleam in his eyes as his left gauntlet slowly brandished its blade as well. With their employer dead, the street rats immediately ran off in all directions. After making sure the street rats were truly gone, the man leaned down and cut the ropes binding Cecilia¡¯s arms.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± (Masked man)

    ¡°Yes. Thank you for your help. But are you alright? If I recall, you were stabbed¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yes. My necklace saved me. You don¡¯t see any blood, see? So, mind telling me why those men were after you?¡± (Masked man)

    Cecilia thought she saw a glint of gold as he redid his shirt to cover up the cut. Immediately, Cecilia began to think up some lies. It would not be a good habit to spread her identity to every single person she meets.

    ¡°My father had some unpaid debts so¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Okay. I got the story now. So, in return for saving you, can you show me the way to the eastern gate? I was going there, but some kid stole something from me so I chased him to this alleyway. I caught him, but by that time, I was hopelessly lost in this damned maze. Now I have no idea where the fuck I am.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°That was my original destination, too! I would be glad to take you there.¡± (Cecilia)

    With that, the man helped Cecilia get up and began to pull out an article of clothing from his backpack. Realizing that her pants were all shredded, she quickly put on the pants with a bright red face and began to lead the man to the eastern entrance, keeping an eye out for any other potential pursuers.

    ¡°So what is your name?¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Ummm¡­ Cici. What about yours?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I am slightly hesitant to give you my name. If you have not forgotten, I just killed one of your pursuers. I would prefer to keep my identity a secret should someone seeks revenge on me. And the less you know the better it would be for me. That is the reason why I put on the mask in the first place.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Oh, I see. However, it seems wrong for me to call my rescuer ¡°the guy¡±. Is there something you want to be called? It does not have to be your real name.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Sorry. I am unable to give you one.¡± (Masked man)

    ¡°Why?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Certain rules I am bound by.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Ohh¡­ I¡­ see¡­.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Ehh. Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s not something to worry about. It¡¯s not a curse.¡± (Masked man)

    ¡°Then, if you are so worried about staying out of trouble, why did you save me?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Off the top of my head, I have two reasons. First, it was revenge for stabbing me with no warning. Second, I would feel pretty damn guilty for leaving you since it will leave a very unpleasant taste in my mouth later.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°¡­You are a foreigner, right?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yes. What gave it away?¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Your accent and you got lost.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You are a very observant girl.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°I had to learn to be very observant.¡± (Cecilia)

    With that, they made haste toward the East Gate where Cecilia was immediately approached by Lehai and Ugurtz.

    ¡°Your high¡­ My nephew. You¡¯re safe. I feared the worst.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°I was this close to going back searching for you. You saved me the trip kid.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I ran into some¡­ trouble, but I was saved by this man.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Who? This masked fool behind you?¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Ahh. Forgive me for being rude. For the sake of protecting my identity, I have put on this mask.¡± (Masked man)

    ¡°Makes you more suspicious actually.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Why do you need to protect your identity?¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°No need to be so wary, sir. I just don¡¯t want her pursuers to seek revenge on me for killing one of them. Well, it is time to part. Once I meet with that metal scrapper there, I will be on my way.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Wait. Are you a mercenary?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­.How did you know?¡± (Masked man)

    ¡°I saw that badge dangling from your neck. You are a gold rank and you are also a solo mercenary considering that single stripe on your card, aren¡¯t you?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°A solo gold rank¡­¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°How strong is he¡­¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°I was wondering if you could lend us your aid. We would be willing to pay of course.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You still have money to pay me even though your father is in debt?¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°We cannot just hire a random mercenary from the streets with this delicate situation. What if he is a spy? An assassin?¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous. If he wanted to kill or capture me, he would have already done so. Second, he is a foreigner so it is unlikely that he would have many connections with any of my enemies. They would not hire any foreigners. Third, it would be great to have someone of his caliber on our side.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°It is great that you trust me and all that, but who are you guys really? I don¡¯t think you¡¯re just a simple daughter of a man in debt.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Perhaps we can speak somewhere more private.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Yes. That place would do. Alright. Perhaps proper introductions are in order. I am the crown princess of the Ruhan Kingdom, Cecilia Tennesley the Third. I humbly ask for your assistance in a pressing issue.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Okay. That is a good joke. But all members of the royal family has purple hair and you have brown haaiir? Okay. Okay. Holy shit. Fuck my life. Uggghhh. Fuck my life indeed.¡± (Masked man)

    ¡°Watch your language. You are in the presence of the crown princess.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°At ease. So will you lend me your help?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°First, what will be my job?¡± (Masked man)

    ¡°Your first job will be to escort me to the Fortress City of Uwile. Once there, you can decide if you wish to keep working with us.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°How much are you paying me?¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Because of who I am. I would say I would hire you for about 500 gold coins.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­ That makes me real suspicious of how dangerous this escort mission will be.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°It will be very dangerous. I believe that you are aware that the route to the fortress city is dangerous not including the urgency of my mission.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yeah. I know. I was also planning on going to the Fortress City as well, but I had trouble finding a caravan that was willing to go there.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°It is up to you if you wish to accept this request or not.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Sigh. *stare* Fine. I have a feeling that something very bad would happen if you fail in this mission. Fuck you Fate. I swear to my fist that if I ever meet your embodiment, I am going to sock you in the face. However, Cecilia. I will not treat you as royalty in this escort mission. Also, I will ask one more thing from you.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Why you cretin.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°It¡¯s alright. That would be great in fact. I was never one to prefer formalities in the first place. Ask away.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°What is your mission?¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°I will tell you that once we set out.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Alright. So, let me buy something from the scrap peddler first and buy a horse.¡± (Masked Man)

    ¡°Wait. Since we will be working together, may I know your name?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Descal Binus. That is my name.¡± (Descal)

 Chapter 9: How an escort mission can go quickly wrong

    <u>POV: Descal</u>

    The one thing that went through my mind as I traveled with the Princess and her two escorts was ¡°fuck me¡±, ¡°why me¡±, and ¡°oh well¡±. Her story was a clear flag that this country was headed straight for civil war, and I am escorting one of the god damn leaders. I have heard of numerous rumors in the taverns of how the traditional nobles were not happy with the king¡¯s extremely progressive policies. The king was breaking down the class barriers such as opening universities and military academies to commoners and even going as far as naming an heir with commoner blood.

    Sigh. Now, I am hearing of how the king has been ousted in a coup d''etat, and the princess is going to the Fortress City of Uwile to request aid from the Lord. Just my god damn luck. Of all the people I could have met in the damn capital, I meet the Princess and now I have been roped into this fuckin mess. The only reason I have agreed to escort the Princess is that the Annapurna Mountain Range is nearby the Fortress City of Uwile: the mountain range where the underground ruins are located. In addition, I needed a group to travel with to Uwile as well. The road to Uwile is extremely dangerous right now because monster activity is much higher during the late summer season. As a result, many caravans don¡¯t travel there during this time period. However, Fall is a dangerous time to be exploring the Annapurna Mountain Range because that is when the mountain¡¯s stability turns wacko with landslides and earthquakes appearing out of nowhere. So if I waited till the caravans could travel to Uwile once more, I would literally have to wait till spring until I can get those four items. That is too much of a risk especially in this unstable time period. I NEED unrestricted use of my magic as soon as possible. It is also because of my lack of magic that I did not even dare to attempt to make this journey by myself. I will get attacked by bandits or monsters if I make this by myself so I need companions.

    So to sum things up, the Princess appearing before me and hiring me is both a blessing and a curse. On the bright side, I have managed to convince the Princess to allow me to wear my mask when we go to public areas, and she said that she will try to think of a fake name to call me when we are with people who don¡¯t know me. It is so annoying that I can¡¯t make a fake name for myself. I truly wish I was completely normal human. It is so annoying to be bound by certain rules that humans aren¡¯t bound by. The name Descal Binus is in a way my true name, the name that describes my very being. As a result, I cannot simply choose to go by a different name. If I am to receive a different name, someone else has to decide for me. It is kinda like when a baby receives its name from its parents. Although it is not the baby¡¯s true name, the baby can still connect to it as it has been given to the baby. That is why I asked the Princess to think of a name for me other than Descal when we are with other people. I am still keen on keeping my identity as secret as possible, and I have made that very clear to my employer. I really have no desire to embroil myself in politics. The thought makes me shudder.

    Ever since I have separated from the Adal, Les, Blythe, and Trevor about four months ago, I have been slowly reincorporating and strengthening myself to this world. First, my emotional attacks have so far stabilized through the carefully connecting it to my mana. Now, I should be able to prevent emotional attacks as long as I have some mana in reserves. Two, I have stabilized my mana using my flesh as a medium. This means that I should be able to use low tier spells without my flesh burning up to a crisp. Third, I have been slowly working on my fighting skills with my weapons. It took a while because I had no precedent to base it off of, but I think I got the rhythm of my weapons. I should now be able to pull off a couple ¡°combos¡± of my own. Last, I have been slowly expanding my knowledge of chemistry and explosives through trial and error. I have finally been able to create mercury fulminate and fuses. So I have made extremely primitive explosives. That should be the highlights of my improvements.

    Now, I was starting to think over my plans. I need to bring this girl to the Fortress City and collect my payment. Next, I have to restock and go to the ruins. Afterward, I need to set up the ritual and get my full magical powers back. Then¡­ Then what. What will I do? Once I get my magic back, I am going to be one of the strongest beings in this world. I won¡¯t be in any hurry to make use of my life since I am essentially immortal in this god damn world. So¡­ what will I do? Explore? Fool around? Experiment? Learn? ¡­. I guess I should find out how I got back to this world so quickly, but¡­ Should I get some land? Maybe I should¡­

    My thought process was interrupted by Ugurtz who came back from scouting ahead and reported a nice camping spot a little bit off road. Now is not the time to think about this. Take things one step at a time. Once we set up camp, we began to dig out our rations and plan out our next steps.

    ¡°In about two more days, we should reach this town near the Elbe River. There we should restock, rest for a day. After that, we will need to head to the Gorge City as the last stop before we enter the Misty Forests. Once we get through the Misty Forest, we should stop by a couple more towns before we reach the Fortress City. Any questions?¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Is the Lord of Gorge City a traditionalist?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I believe he is neutral in this conflict.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°You believe?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°One cannot be too sure of nobles. They can change on a whim.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Yup. You can¡¯t trust them.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Ahem. If I must remind you three, I am still here.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Oh. Forgive me, Princess. I did not mean any insult.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Eh. Purple. I know you aren¡¯t like the other nobles. No need to take offense.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Princess. Ugurtz. I have prepared today¡¯s supper. Please eat up before the sun goes down. I have also boiled some water for some tea.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Ugghgghghg. I can¡¯t stand pickled food. It has been all we have been eating for the last two days. There has to be something else!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I am sorry, but we are unable to go hunting nor can we stop to hunt because of our need for speed.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Sigh.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well, like always, I am going to eat my supper on top of a tree. If you need me, just call me.¡± (Descal)

    I went over to my stuff, pretended to rummage through it, and quickly climbed up the tallest tree. There was no way in hell that I am eating the disgusting pickled food no matter the risk of discovery. If the Princess ever found out about my ability, I will hear no end to the nagging, threatening, and bribery as she would probably push me to become the food provider of the group. Hell, she might even try to permanently hire me to make use of my space-time storage. However, the repulsiveness of the god damn pickled eggs forced me to try and keep these things a secret. Anyway, my meal should be a secret if I eat this high up in the tree. Lehai and Ugurtz would be too heavy and too busy to follow me up in the trees I have chosen to climb, and there is no way that a Princess would follow me up a tree. Hell. She probably does not know how to climb a tree.

    Once, I finished my supper, I went back down to take straws for the night watch between the three men. This time, I got the last straw so I had to wake up early. While my three employers set up their tents on the ground, I chose a sturdier tree to climb up and bundled up. Once it was my turn to keep watch, I packed up my blankets and watched over the camp site. So that was how the majority of our initial trip went. We were not attacked much because we were still close to the capital so the knights were still doing their job of eradicating monsters and bandits.

    In fact, it was so peaceful that I began to think that this would be an easy trip. And I was reminded of how dangerous the escort truly was when we stopped by the town.

    So, we managed to enter the town just fine. No problem. We even managed to find an inn without much problem since this town was a popular stop for many boats to restock and for sailors to rest. Ugurtz went off to the taverns to see if he could gain any new information. Lehai and the Princess went to buy some supplies, and I restocked at the bakery and bought some fish at the market. It was at night when things went to shit.

    When I was sleeping on the table (there is no way that I am going to sleep on the bed for obvious reasons), I woke up when the door opened. The door is supposed to be locked. Pretending to be asleep, I waited until the invader was right next to me until I immediately turned and punched the guy straight in the jaw knocking him out. I searched through the guy until my heart froze when I saw the symbol on the knife. It was the symbol of the Bloody Strings, one of the most ruthless and dangerous assassination groups in the world. The reason why they are so dangerous is that they are capable of using a blood ritual in which they use a drop of their targets blood to enchant a needle that will always point in the target¡¯s direction for an hour once every day. As a result, there is no escaping the Bloody Strings. If they managed to find us here so accurately, it means that they somehow got the blood of Cecilia, Ugurtz, or Lehai. Oh fuck.

    I sprinted out of my room and ran into Cecilia¡¯s room by smashing through the door. It was a mess. Ugurtz and Lehai were tussling with their own assassins while Cecilia was desperately trying to avoid getting stabbed by an assassin who pinned her down and was slowly pushing a knife down into her chest. Running quickly to the Princess, I ran my arm blades through the assassin¡¯s throat and threw him off Cecilia. Taking advantage of my sudden appearance, Lehai grabbed the assassin¡¯s head and broke it while Ugurtz head-butted the assassin before throwing the guy out the open window.

    ¡°Who are they?¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°The fucking Bloody Strings. They managed to get a drop of one of you guy¡¯s blood.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Oh fuck. Lehai, Cecilia if they tracked us using our blood, we need to get out of here now.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°But who are they tracking? It wouldn¡¯t matter if we run if they can just chase us down! They probably have this entire town surrounded!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Then, you three have to separate. That way if it is Ugurtz or Lehai the assassins will follow them and distract them from their true target. Besides, if it is all three of you that the assassins have gotten a trail on, then they will have to split their forces to tail all three of you. We also have a final destination anyway.¡± (Descal)This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°No. I refuse to leave the Princess alone. What if it is the Princess¡¯ blood that the Bloody Strings are following? Then, who will protect her?¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°Me. Also, I am the strongest out of all three of you. I can bring her safely to Uwile.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°And how can I trust you! You are just a random gold mercenary we hired since the princess insisted! How do I know that you won¡¯t abandon the Princess?!¡± (Lehai)

    I looked straight into Lehai¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Because I am your only choice right now.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°It¡¯s alright. This is a risk we need to take.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Guys. They are coming!¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Okay. Lehai. Ugurtz. Gather up the blankets, put a cloak over the bundle, and tie it to your back. Don¡¯t argue with me right now. Just do it. Okay. Princess. Put on the cloak and hop on my back. Now. Lehai. Ugurtz. Fight your way through the main entrance and break up once you get to the alleyway.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°What about you and the Princess?¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°I am gonna jump out the window and run through the back street. I will meet you at the Fortress City.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait. Lehai. Ugurtz. This is an order. Don¡¯t die.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I have an order for you Descal. Keep the Princess alive and bring her safely to Uwile.¡± (Lehai)

    ¡°I will hunt you down if you abandon Purple.¡± (Ugurtz)

    ¡°Understood. Good luck.¡± (Descal)

    Ugurtz and Lehai stormed down the stairs, and I heard yelling and swords clanging from downstairs. That was my cue. Once I had Cecilia secured on my back, I put my mask on while running toward the window and jumped out. As I fell, I heard Cecilia yelp in surprise as I smoothly landed and took off running.

    ¡°Descal! We¡¯re being chased.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Duly noted.¡± (Descal)

    I began to run faster, and the assassins began to have trouble keeping up with my speed. However, I noticed that the assassins have begun to split off and were trying to block me off at critical intersections preventing me from reaching the gates. Realizing this, I began to make a beeline for the harbor. Once I got to the harbor, a group of assassins was waiting for me so I was forced to stop, and we quickly got surrounded.

    ¡°Give up. You are surrounded.¡± (Hooded guy number 1)

    ¡°She hired me to bring her somewhere safe. I plan on doing just that.¡± (Descal)

    I then whispered to Cecilia to get ready to get wet. She was going to say something, but it was too late. Here we go. I put mana into my legs and did my signature super jump. As I soared through the air, Cecilia was screaming into my ear as I prepared a couple of spells to soften the impact and mentally prepared myself for the cold.

    Now, things took a turn for the worse when the Princess lost her grip as soon as we impacted the water. I miscalculated two things: the river¡¯s current and Cecilia¡¯s inability to swim. As a result, I was desperately trying to hold on to the princess while trying to fight the current and keeping her head above the water. Cecilia panicking was also not helping as she started to drag me down as well. It didn¡¯t take long for me to realize that we would both drown at this rate so I reached into my storage and pulled out a log that we could hold onto. Cecilia immediately grasped onto the log that showed up out of nowhere as she started to cough.

    ¡°Did. We. *cough* lose them?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Probably. Help me kick to that bank over there.¡± (Descal)

    Once on the bank, I gave up on trying to keep my storage abilities a secret and began to pull towels and a change of clothes from thin air. Cecilia watched everything with a wide eye as she started to open and close her mouth trying to understand what her eyes were showing her.

    ¡°You¡¯re gaping like a fish. Here. Go dry yourself and change into these clothes. You¡¯ll have to get used to wearing men undergarment for a while. Also, I will explain everything later. For now, we need to move.¡± (Descal)

    With those words, I pulled out my own towels and clothes and began to change. However, Cecilia stopped me before I could take off my pants.

    ¡°Do you have no shame undressing in front of a girl?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°No. Why should you care? Just look away.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Then, where will I change?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Uhh. Right now. Right here. I am not going to look.¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia immediately turned around once I shook her off, and I began to take off my pants. Once I was dried and changed, I saw Cecilia staring off into the stars without having changed, and she has only dried her hair. Her hair dye has wiped off from the dive into the river so her hair was shining a brilliant purple under the moonlight.

    ¡°Sigh. You can change. I am going to go scout out our area. See those rocks over there. Go over there and try not to wander.¡± (Descal)

    I moved off into the trees and began to have a quick look. From what I could tell, it seemed that we were alone. Hopefully, it was Lehai or Ugurtz that was being tailed. Anyway, I should get back. I don¡¯t want to tempt fate. As soon as I came onto the river bank, Cecilia ran over to me.

    ¡°Did you see anybody?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Nope. But that doesn¡¯t mean you are not the one they are tailing. There is a limit to how long and how often they can tail you for. We need to move.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You are pretty knowledgeable about the Bloody Strings.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Let¡¯s just say that I have my ways of getting information.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You pull these clothes and towels out of nowhere. You can run and jump better than any beast man. I have so many questions, but let¡¯s start with who are you?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°A random gold mercenary.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I find that hard to believe. Also, I find it hard to trust someone who will keep secrets like this from me.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I find it difficult to tell a complete stranger of my entire identity.¡± (Cecilia)

    Stunned, Cecilia stopped walking and simply stared at me. I began to sweat drop thinking that I have gone too far until Cecilia started to laugh.

    ¡°It¡¯s been years since someone talked back like that!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You see. I wasn¡¯t always living like royalty. I was actually born and raised like a commoner. My mother was actually one of the king¡¯s consort, and one of her requests from the king was that she raises me in a place far away from the royal palace. As a result, I was born and raised like a low-born noble instead of royalty. As a result, I sort of lived a comfortable commoner¡¯s life. Until my mother died from an illness when I was twelve years old. After that, I was taken to the royal palace where I was taught how to be a proper princess and things somehow ended up with me being the crown princess. I told you about me. Now. Tell me something about you.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I am not completely a human which should answer a little bit of your question. My physical age is 19 years. I have had a very normal human childhood. I have a wide variety of hobbies. I am intelligent.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Okay. That¡¯s a start. So where are you from?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°A place called Earth. I traveled around a lot with my parents so I never really had a single place to call home.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°How did you pull out those towels from thin air?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Cecilia. That is a trade secret.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Okay. If you don¡¯t want to talk about it, I am okay.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°That is exactly why it is a trade secret... eh? Really? That easily¡± (Descal)

    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to talk about it, then I won¡¯t pry.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Huh. You really are different. I thought you would annoy the shit out of me for the secrets.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Well. I wasn¡¯t raised like the other upper nobles nor royalty. So what is in the storage?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Food, clothes, all sorts of supplies. Don¡¯t worry. We won¡¯t starve or sleep cold. Let¡¯s be quiet now. There might be assassins after us. No more questions.¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia immediately shuts up and started to follow me in silence. It was kinda funny because her face was just busting with questions. After an hour of hiking, Cecilia began to sway for fatigue. She probably never had to skip bedtime before. Since it was too dangerous to stop, I had Cecilia grab onto my back, and I began to ¡°hike¡± through the forest while she slept. All night, I moved North East to a village that I remembered from the map that Lehai had. I should be able to arrive at the village in the morning at my current speed.

    It was sunrise when I finally broke out of the forest onto a field full of wheat. I saw the village in the distance and breathed a sigh of relief. I began to prepare myself and thought of some bullshit story. Realizing that the purple hair would be a dead giveaway, I bundled it up on top of her head before covering it with a hat. With that, I was ready to make some negotiations. The first villager to see me was a middle-aged farmer.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± (Farmer)

    ¡°We were attacked by some monsters and got separated from the caravan. Is there anywhere we can stay in this village and buy some supplies?¡± (Descal)

    He scrutinized us before simply nodding his head and pointing to one of the houses near the wells.

    ¡°Check with the elder. We might have a couple empty houses that you could use. As for supplies, you will probably have to ask around. Ask the elder as well.¡± (Farmer)

    ¡°Thank you.¡± (Descal)

    It took a while to tell my ¡°story¡± to the elder before he agreed to let us stay for a day, and I even gave the elder 11 silver coins for the trouble. I asked him if there were any dangers near this area, and he warned me about a hill a walking distance from the village. He wouldn¡¯t go into more detail except that there was a weird stone formation and that there was a strange atmosphere around the hill. As much as I wanted to go explore the hill, right now, I needed to get my head straight and a clear plan of what we are going to do, which I cannot do until Cecilia wakes up. As soon as I laid down Cecilia in the empty one-room house, I began to go around the village and began to buy more travel necessities. Sadly, the villagers refused to sell me their horse since it was their only one, which is a problem because a mount is an absolute necessity if we are going to even attempt the journey... well actually I guess I could carry Cecilia and travel by super jumping but I am not confident in the amount of mana I would have to pump into my mana saturated flesh right now. Uggggghhhh. Why are things so damn difficult??!!! Why can¡¯t things just work out like the freaking Japanese light novels???!!! First, I should get back to Cecilia.

    As soon as I was going to open the door, Cecilia opened the door and ran straight into me. Once she realized that it was me, she calmed down and proceeded to scream at me.

    ¡°Where did you go? I thought you abandoned me! Are the assassins here? Where are we?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°One question at a time.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Where are we?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°A small farming village. Don¡¯t worry. We should still be going in the general direction. We just have a small problem right now.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°What?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°We don¡¯t have a mount, and the villagers won¡¯t sell the horse to us because it is their only horse, and they don¡¯t own any donkeys. If you want, we could use your authority to force them to give the horse to us¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°No. We are not doing that.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I thought so. Now what?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°How far is the nearest village by foot?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°A week. And even then there is no guarantee that they will have a horse to sell us. I mean villages aren¡¯t really known to have a bunch of horses lying around unless they are a ranch.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Then, what do you suggest we do?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You look like you have an idea right now. Spit it out.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Damn. You can read my face that easily.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You learn after dealing with a shit ton of nobles at parties. Now spit it out.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Umm. The village elder said something about a hill that was north of this village that may be worth investigating. We might find something that might help us out.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­ And how do you think a strange hill is going to help us out?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Uhhh¡­ I don¡¯t know. It won¡¯t hurt to check it out.¡± (Descal)

    With that, we made our way to the hill. I immediately knew this atmosphere. This stone structure is the entrance to a necromancer¡¯s lair. This should be interesting.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing here. It¡¯s just a bunch of stones. This was a waste of time. C¡¯mon. Let me try negotiating with the villagers¡­ What are you doing?¡± (Cecilia)

    I inserted a bit of magical power into the out of place stone of the formation, and a stairway opened. Cecilia panicked and threw herself at me before I could go down the staircase.

    ¡°What are you doing?! You shouldn¡¯t just go down any flight of stairs that mysteriously shows up like this!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°This is a necromancer¡¯s lair. I am pretty sure I can find an undead mount that we can use if we explore this¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You are going to use an undead mount! No! This is an atrocity! We need to call in the city knights and¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Which I must remind you is very far away and is crawling with assassins. Don¡¯t worry. I have experience with dealing with undead mounts. You just need the control crystal and voila!¡± (Descal)

    ¡°That is not the point! And what does vooilaa even mean!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You whine too much. I am going down. You can try and negotiate with the villagers if you want, but they aren¡¯t going to sell the horse.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait! Descal! It¡¯s dangerous! What if¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What could possibly go wrong?¡± (Descal)

    After hearing those words, Cecilia looked around and quickly ran down the stairs to catch up with me. It took me a while to notice, but I realized that I just induced Murphy¡¯s Law. Damn it.

 Chapter 10: Necromancers lairs suck

    <u>POV: Third</u>

    Today was not going to be a good day. No indeed. As these thoughts were racing through Cecilia¡¯s head, she quickly followed Descal down the stairs. After all, she did not really have much choice. There was no way that she was going to the village by herself since she would be separated from the only person capable of protecting her. Descal was quite cruel to take advantage of this fact as he simply dived straight into the tomb.

    Of all the monsters in this world, she despised the undead the most. Perhaps this hatred stemmed from a certain necromancy incident that occurred in the capital city which scars her to this day. So it was no incident that she ended up sticking quite closely to the nearest living being near her.

    ¡°May I have some room, please? It will be quite difficult to fight undeads if you are clinging so tightly to me.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°And wh-whose fault do you think that is?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Wait? Are you afraid of ghosts?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°And what of it? Dead th-things should st-stay dead.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I see¡­¡± (Descal)

    Suddenly, he crouched down. Worried, Cecilia inched closer to Descal until he suddenly leaped up with a skull and shoved it into her face. Cecilia fell backward screaming until she realized Descal laughing like a maniac from the prank he pulled off. Cecilia glared at Descal as he continued to laugh. As she continued to glare at him, he quickly stopped, cleared his throat, and walked on as if nothing happened. Quickly, her fear began to be replaced with sheer anger.

    ¡°What was withthat prank? You knew that I would scream. Are you trying to get a horde of zombies to attack us??¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Relax. This place isn¡¯t that dangerous. Necromancers would not rig this place with monsters in the upper levels. We have to go deeper before we have to worry about anything. They do it to trick invaders into thinking that the lair is abandoned. As a result, the whole upper floor should be empty.¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia sighed at this answer. The number of mysteries surrounding Descal continued to grow deeper and deeper. When she woke up with Descal missing, she had a major panic attack thinking that he had abandoned her because of how noisy she has been. She noticed the irritation around Descal¡¯s voice whenever he replied to questions about his life and skills. As a result, she decided it would be best to hold off on direct questions and see if she could subtly get them answered. After all, it would not be the best move to lose her only bodyguard at this moment. Deep in her thoughts, Cecilia failed to notice Descal¡¯s sudden stop and ran into him, causing them both to stumble. Descal quickly turned around with an annoyed look on his face.

    ¡°Will you please focus? This is potential enemy territory you know.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°It¡¯s not my fault! I don¡¯t know what the hell I am doing.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Look. Can you fight? Can you use a sword? Anything?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°No. I never learned. I didn¡¯t really need to learn when I was living in the palace.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well. My luck is worse than I thought. I thought you would be some sort of secret princess knight or something.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°What brought up that idea??? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounded?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yup. I just realized.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You are a rude, horrible person.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°No. I just have a unique sense of humor, and I am extremely proficient in roasting people.¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia looked at Descal with a look of horror until Descal quickly explained that it was a figure of speech from his home country. With that, he quickly went into a random room and looked around. Cecilia was going to inquire what Descal was looking for until Descal pushed a pillar revealing another secret room that was filled with coffins that each had a skeleton inside of them. Without batting an eye, Descal began to rummage through the coffins. Meanwhile, Cecilia immediately dashed to a corner and began to empty the contents of her stomach. The sounds of bones crunching and the occasional ¡°oops¡± from Descal did not help her queasiness. Suddenly, one of the walls opened revealing a ladder descending deeper into the lair. When Cecilia edged closer to the ladder, the darkness prevented her from seeing what existed in the bottom.

    ¡°Descal. I don¡¯t have a good feeling about this. Are you sure you would be able to fight a whole horde of undead by yourself? If I remember properly, doesn¡¯t the subjugation of a necromancer¡¯s lair require a whole army of mercenaries? Shouldn¡¯t we just turn back? There has to be a better option.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°What? Fight? Oh¡­ Umm. We aren¡¯t going to fight the guards if we can help it. If anything, I plan on running out of here if we do get into a fight. Did you seriously think I was going to challenge a necromancer in his own home with no backup except a useless princess who can¡¯t fight?¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia could not wrap her mind on what he just retorted back to her. She could not understand what his plan was. For what other reason would someone enter a necromancer¡¯s lair unless it was to kill the necromancer and take any treasure? Her confusion prevented her from realizing that Descal just insulted her by calling her useless. Realizing that Descal was already a good distance down the ladder, she quickly followed him. She had absolutely no intention to get left behind. When she reached the bottom, Cecilia immediately gagged from the stench. The rotting smell of corpses was overpowering her nose.

    ¡°Well. It seems that the necromancer is probably a lich since I highly doubt a human necromancer would stand this sort of smell. Hmm. I may need to change my strategy a bit.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Ho-How do you know so damn much a-about necromancers? How c-can you even s-stand this g-goddamn smell?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Skillz.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°What?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Be quiet. And get ready to climb up the ladder if anything goes wrong.¡± (Descal)

    After rudely cutting her off, he immediately strode to the door and began to knock. Moans and clattering began to respond to his knocks.

    ¡°What are you doing??? Are you trying to alert the necromancer? I thought we were just going to nab something???¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°If this lair was abandoned or smaller, I would have gone with stealing something. However, after exploring the first floor and its sheer size, I realized that it would be far better to negotiate. Hello? My name is Descal. I have come to bargain with you. We have come alone. May we talk?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°What? Are you going to negotiate with a lich? Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?¡± (Cecilia)

    Despite her protests, Descal continued to pound on the door and called for the lich to appear. Cecilia slowly inched closer to the ladder ready to escape at a moment notice. As she grabbed one of the ladder¡¯s rungs, she was wrenched from the ladder and felt something bony around her neck. It was the lich.

    ¡°What is your true purpose here? If I detect a single lie, I will snap this girl¡¯s neck like a twig.¡± (Lich)

    Slowly turning around, Descal began to speak in a different language. Cecilia never heard that language before, but it felt¡­ old¡­ ancient. The lich also seemed surprised when he heard the language and began to speak back in a much less hostile tone. Once the tension diffused and the lich nodded his head in understanding, the lich released Cecilia, and she immediately hid behind Descal. After discussing for some time, the lich nodded and walked to the door gesturing to Descal to follow him. When Cecilia saw what existed behind the doors, she pissed her pants much to her later embarrassment and collapsed from fear.

    Once she woke up once more, she was in a room that was lit by a magical chandelier that hung from the ceiling. It seemed they were continuing to negotiate, and Descal did not look happy. After realizing that Cecilia woke up, Descal excused himself from the table.

    ¡°You want to good news or the bad news?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I want the good news first. I need some good news after what I¡­ *mrrph*¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Ohhh. Here. Puke here.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°*Blaaaagh* Thanks. So. What¡¯s the good news?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°She agreed to provide a mount.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°She?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°What? Oh. The lich is a woman. If you look at the pelvis, it is much more rounded. Also, I noticed how the hips swung when I saw how she walked.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­ Whatever. I feel a major ¡°but¡± coming.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Sigh. Yeah. Umm. So. This lair. I severely underestimated the size and age. Apparently, this lair is about 300 years old, and it belonged to this very powerful human necromancer. However, he died and left behind a bunch of undead commanders capable of sentience. As a result, this place is undergoing a massive civil war with the commanders vying for control. This lich rules the second floor, and she wants my help to break the stalemate at the entrance to the third floor.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait. Wait. Wait. She will give us a mount if you fight in her stupid little war. Is that what I am hearing?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Sadly. Anyway, we wasted enough time. I didn¡¯t want to head off until you woke up. Now that you are awake be a good girl and stay here. Do NOT wander out of this room. You will be attacked and torn¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°STOP RIGHT THERE. Are you telling me that you are going to leave me alone in this god damn room with an undead monster??? Are you insane??? I¡¯ll die!!! Please take me with you! Please!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Look. You can¡¯t fight. You faint from seeing gruesome stuff. I am beginning to doubt if you can handle blood and gore. You are not going to survive very long if I take you with me. I can¡¯t fight a battle while keeping you safe. Also, I will be really fast. I bet I can take care of this in a couple hours. It will be real quick.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Then, teach me how to fight. You can¡¯t leave me here. Please. Take me with you. You can¡¯t leave me here alone. I¡¯ll go crazy.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Look. Oh god. Please don¡¯t cry. It is much worse for me. I thought it was going to be just a regular old necromancer who would gladly accept a whole variety of monster blood. For crying out loud, I even offered a freaking Flamecreep corpse as well. She rejected a freaking Flamecreep corpse! My hands are bound here. Do you have any idea how annoying and dangerous this is going to be for me?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Look. I¡¯ll do anything. Please you can¡¯t leave me alone here surrounded by dead walking corpses.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Oh my god. I fucking hate you Murphy. I hate you. I fuckin jinxed it.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I will hate YOU if you abandon me like this.¡± (Cecilia)Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°If this will make her feel better, I can stay in this form while you secure the entrance.¡± (Lich)

    Through her blurry tears, Cecilia saw a beautiful woman standing in the doorway. She was extremely pale with red hair that flowed down to her waist. She had no clothes except for a black cloak.

    ¡°Who *hic* is she?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°umm. *Cough* Oh my god. THIS FEELS SO WRONG.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Descal¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You may call me Baniti. I am the lich.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°What? You are the lich?!!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I have placed a powerful illusion over my bones. This is how I looked when I was still alive. In addition, I have placed a temporary barrier over this room so that you won¡¯t be affected by the death essence and the fear aura that permeates much of the floor. I suspect that is why you were feeling so uneasy.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°*sniff* Now that you mention it. *sniff* I feel better.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°So umm can I go now?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Only if you promise me that you will answer my questions.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Only one.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Three.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°What! No. That is a¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Descal¡­ Don¡¯t push it.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Fine. *grumble*¡± (Descal)

    Mumbling away, Descal quickly went down the hallway to prepare for the upcoming battle.

    ¡°Baniti. Cecilia better be alive and in one shape with all of her bodily fluids intact when I come back. Am I clear?!¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Sigh. I already signed the contract with you.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Give me a verbal promise as well.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Fine. You have my word.¡± (Baniti)

    Baniti sauntered toward the table and gestured to Cecilia to sit.

    ¡°Come. It must be uncomfortable sitting on the floor like that. I also have some tea. It should help calm your nerves.¡± (Baniti)

    Without a word, Cecilia collapsed on the chair and began to sip on the offered tea. Baniti continued to stare at her until Cecilia could no longer stand the silence.

    ¡°Do you want something?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yes. I am curious as to why a member of the royal family of the Ruhan Kingdom is here.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°*pfff* Did Descal tell you?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°No. I was there when your country was founded, and I knew the country¡¯s first king. You carry his blood. You shouldn¡¯t be so surprised. I am a necromancer.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Oh. I am sorry. But I am unable to answer that question.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well, it must be something serious then. Well, anyway, I was wondering if you could cancel your contract with Descal and persuade him to work for me a little bit. In return, I will supply you with strong undead instead with the control crystal. The undead will be much more loyal than a random mercenary. In fact, they may even be much more useful since they won¡¯t have any qualms about fighting to the death and will require no rest. From what I¡¯ve heard and seen you two have not been together for long. It would be a great deal, don¡¯t you think?¡± (Baniti)

    Cecilia¡¯s suspicious grew by 20 notches when she heard this proposal. There was no way that this lich would make such a proposal unless there was a clear benefit to her. Right now, she lacked information so she decided against it. It would be better to stick with the elements she had more knowledge about. In addition, she could never imagine having to travel the whole distance with only undead as her company.

    ¡°No. I may not have known Descal for very long, and he may not be as loyal as your undead knights, but I believe it is much more to my advantage to keep Descal as my bodyguard and escort.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Ohhh. I see so you have also noticed Descal¡¯s strength.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Indeed. He has great physical strength, and he is able to think on the spot. In addition, he is quite resourceful.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°That is not what I meant. I am talking about his skills and knowledge of the arcane arts.¡± (Banini)

    Cecilia had no idea about what Baniti was talking about; however, she instantly saw this as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the mercenary she hired. As a result, she decided to push more on this subject.

    ¡°Oh then do enlighten me on this subject? Did you see something about Descal that I missed? It would be interesting to see your perspective on him.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°First, I couldn¡¯t see his soul. It was beautifully hidden under layers of mana. His entire body is brimming with mana as well increasing his physical attributes by an enormous magnitude. In fact, it is constantly teetering on the edge of incineration. I have a couple guesses on why he did this to himself, but I am not sure.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°¡­.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You look like a fish gasping for air.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°I had no idea.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well, he is still quite the monster. When he did release his aura, I felt like my soul was going to get crushed by the sheer amount of energy that he released. You are quite lucky to have that man as your escort. I am confident that you will reach your goal without fail. A pity that I can¡¯t have him.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Thank you for the confidence? Anyway, I have a question. What language were you guys speaking in when we first met?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yes. This was quite the shocker, but he spoke in the old Mortem language, the language of the dead.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°How does he know how to speak Mortem?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I do not know. However, you cannot lie in the Mortem language or your soul will be torn from the physical realm. That is why I could trust his words. How did you two meet?¡± (Baniti)

    Cecilia¡¯s fears slowly began to abate as she began to engage in a fruitful conversation with the lich. It was quite enjoyable to talk without caring about formalities, ranks, nor hidden agendas. It turns out that Baniti was not one of the undeads who despised the living. Instead, she was one of the few who preferred to live peacefully with as little contact as possible. This was her biggest motivator for quickly taking control of the second floor, the weakest of all the floors, to prevent the others from conducting raids and invasions on the surface. She was quite grateful for Descal¡¯s help in taking the third-floor entrance because the Wraith in charge of the third floor was beginning to get restless.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since I talked with someone like this.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Mmm. It must be hard being royalty.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°You have no idea.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Is that why you had Descal where such a ridiculous mask? To be your mysterious knight in shining armor to take you away from your troubles?¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Nonononono. NO. He did that by himself to keep his identity hidden. He doesn¡¯t want to be publicly connected to royalty for certain reason. The mask was just something he bought from the marketplace.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Oh. Then, does Descal have an alias?¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°No. He asked me to give him one. He said that he can¡¯t choose one for himself because of certain rules that he is bound by. He didn¡¯t really care about what name I chose for him, but I don¡¯t want to give him a crappy one so I told him that I would tell him later.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°When were humans bound by such rules? The only beings that are unable to pick names for themselves are the ancient ones.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°The ancient ones?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about them. I only read about them from a book that my deceased master found from a ruin. However, the chapter stated that the ancient ones were the first beings that existed in this world. Nobody knows much about them. However, their connection with mana was so intimate that their names became closely tied to who they were. As a result, they could not simply choose names for themselves.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Interesting. Anything else?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Other than the fact that they are all dead. None.¡± (Baniti)

    Without warning, a large explosion was heard, and the entire room shook. Baniti immediately stood up and had an extreme look of concentration on her illusory face. Cecilia could not help but feel that something had gone terribly wrong. Was Descal caught in the explosion?

    ¡°Sorry. However, I must go check on the third-floor entrance. I cannot pick up any connection from the undead I have assigned to Descal¡¯s command. Stay¡­¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°NO! Take me with you. I¡¯m worried about Descal.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You mean you are too scared to stay alone. Whatever. I do not have time for this. However, it is not my fault if you are to perish from this choice.¡± (Baniti)

    Dispelling her illusion, Baniti immediately ordered her zombie phalanx unit to march toward the location of the explosion. Cecilia closely followed the lich as she began to layer defensive spells around herself. Cecilia quickly equipped herself with a small dagger she has found in the hallways. When Cecilia arrived at the staircase, she once more emptied out her stomach. Decapitated bodies and intestines covered the entire floor. Every step was answered with a squelch. It took all of Cecilia¡¯s willpower to continue following Baniti as she ordered her zombie phalanx to march down the stairs in a rigid three line formation. At the bottom of the stairs, Cecilia saw a room covered with black streak marks mixed with blood. Body parts were scattered everywhere, and Cecilia almost slipped on a slick puddle of blood. Just when Cecilia steadied herself, Descal smashed through the door and slammed into her.

    ¡°Owowowow. My ribs¡­ Cecilia? What the hell? What are you doing here?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°There was this big explosion, and¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I don¡¯t care! Get the fuck out of here!¡± (Descal)

    Suddenly, a bloody blob squeezed itself through the doorway. It was completely composed of organs, skins, and muscle. There were absolutely no bones. Following close behind was an army of skeletons.

    ¡°Run!!!¡± (Descal)

    Before anybody could reach the staircase, the blob tore a piece out of its body and threw it at the escape route, crushing any zombie phalanxes that were coming down and blocking it. Realizing the situation, Baniti immediately orders her remaining zombies to set up a pike line to slow down the advancing skeletons. Then, Baniti began to engage the abomination as she tried to keep it away from her zombie lines. Cecilia was having a hard time breathing. It was simply too much. She was surrounded by things that could kill her at a moment¡¯s notice, and she had absolutely nothing to defend herself with except a tiny dagger. When she collapsed, she felt someone catch her.

    ¡°Cecilia. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. It¡¯s alright. I am here. You won¡¯t get hurt. C¡¯mon. Deep breaths. Do it with me.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Descal. I¡¯m scared. I don¡¯t know what to do.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°The first thing to do is to keep a straight mind. Let¡¯s stand up. Don¡¯t look at the battle yet. Look at me. You will survive. Fight. Think. You¡¯ll be fine. I am right here. Here, smell this. It¡¯s a nice perfume, right? Breathe. Calm yet?¡± (Descal)

    Shaking, Cecilia slowly nodded her head. She can do this. Right now, she can¡¯t panic. She can¡¯t afford to die here. Tightly clenching her dagger and the cloth that Descal gave her, she turned to look at the brutal battle that was unfolding before her very eyes. Without any regard from their physical injuries, both sides were relentlessly bashing into each other while the lich was dodging the blob¡¯s futile attempts to smash her.

    ¡°Cecilia. Give me the knife. Here. Take this weapon instead.¡± (Descal)

    Descal wrenched the dagger from her hand and placed a wooden metal stick in her hand. It looked like a miniature pipe: it had an opening on one end while the other end had a curved wooden grip. She was confused as to why this was a more suitable weapon than the dagger. Was it because she could use this as a club?

    ¡°Cecilia. This is a ranged weapon called a flintlock pistol. You see this stick that sticks out from the bottom. That is the trigger. Alright. If you want to help in this battle, follow what I do step by step. Hold it in both hands like this to increase your accuracy. Nope. That hand goes on top. Yup. Put your index finger on the trigger. Okay. If you look down the barrel like this, you¡¯ll see this nub. You see it? Good. Now aim that nub at the head of that skeleton. The one that¡¯s fighting the zombie without its lower jaw. Now. Pull the trigger.¡± (Descal)

    Following his every direction, Cecilia was shocked by the sudden flash that the pipe made, and the skeleton¡¯s skull shattering. Caught by surprise, she lost her grip on the pistol dropping. Realizing the usefulness of the weapon, she picked it up and instantly aimed at another skeleton, but nothing happened.

    ¡°No. You have to reload it again. Here. Take this paper cartridge. First, tear off the top, carefully pour in the black powder into the barrel like this. Good. Tear the next bit off and take this metal cone out. Pointy tip point out of the barrel. Drop it in. There is this metal rod connected to the bottom. Take it out. Pound that metal cone it. All the way. Make sure you feel it go all the way in. Let me check. Good. Now. Half-cock the hammer. Pour in the remaining black powder into the flash pan. Lower the frizzen. Completely cock the hammer. Now you can shoot again. Here. This pouch has about 35 shots in it. Good luck.¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia wordlessly began to shoot and reload the ¡°pistol¡± that Descal gifted her. As her familiarity with her new weapon increased, she soon realized that its accuracy decreased when she aimed for targets farther away. In addition, the pistol was nearly impossible to dodge due to how fast it reached its target. It was almost instantaneous. This weapon made fighting seem like a joke. It did not require any skill. It was simply reload, point, and shoot. She was simply standing in the backlines picking off the skeletons. With every skeleton shot down, she felt her confidence growing, and her knees began to stop shaking as she fell into the rhythm of shooting and reloading.

    She became so focused on her task that she failed to notice Descal¡¯s warning to get down. It wasn¡¯t until Descal rammed into her that she shook out of her trance. Cecilia was about to protest until a large explosion pushed her back down once more. She quickly realized that Descal was actually shielding her from the blast. Bone shrapnel, chunks of meat, organs, and blood began to rain down on all of the inhabitants, soaking them in all in the color red except for Cecilia.

    ¡°Damn it. You have got to work on your situational awareness.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I just got so focused¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°No. It¡¯s alright. So how was your first battle?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Surprisingly easier than I thought¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Heh. Guns tend to do that. Especially in a world where guns don¡¯t exist yet.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Oh my lord. Descal. You¡¯re bleeding!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Oh, this. It¡¯s nothing. Umm. Would you say that I am bony right now?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a joking matter! We need to get this treated! Should I take out the bone shrapnel? Will this get infected?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Cecilia. Calm down. It missed my vitals. I¡¯ll be fine. Don¡¯t take it out yet. It¡¯ll make the bleeding worse. First, let¡¯s remove that glob of¡­ meat while the Baniti and her zombies finish up the skeletons. She¡¯s going to want the reinforcements.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°How do you plan on removing that? It¡¯s going to take hours to dig through that mess.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°This.¡± (Descal)

    He then begins to take out these round circular balls of clay out of nowhere and lights them with a miniature flame spell. He walks to the glob and thrusts them into the meat. He then runs back and tells her to crouch down. Another explosion rocks the room as the blockage disappears from the exit, and zombie soldiers begin to pour down the stairway. Using the fresh reinforcement, Baniti quickly took over the room and began to push into the next room.

    ¡°It¡¯s finally over.¡± (Cecilia)

    Cecilia¡¯s knees suddenly gave out as she sat on the floor as the waves of zombie soldiers passed by her. Descal, covered in gore from head to toe, sat down next to her.

    ¡°This was so shitty. So many things went wrong.¡± (Descal)

    She was too tired at this point to refute this.

    ¡°Are you going to be¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    She never managed to finish her question because she lost conscience.

 Chapter 11: Job finished and into a trap

    <u>POV: Third (Cecilia)</u>

    Cecilia had absolutely no idea what time it was because she was underground at the moment with no sun. She also had no idea where Descal ran off too. It was quite¡­ unnerving to wake up in a room with nothing but undead; however, she was slowly getting used to being around walking corpses.

    Realizing that Cecilia had woken up, one of the zombies walked over and gestured for her to follow. The zombie eventually led her to Baniti who had re-applied her illusion magic. Baniti gestured to a nearby table and poured her some tea.

    ¡°Well. How was your little nap?¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°At least I woke up alive. How long was I sleeping? What happened?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You were asleep for about an entire day. We secured the entrance and right now there is a stalemate at the third room. However, I have more resources so I should be able to win the war of attrition. Anyway, it will take a day for the mount to be prepared according to Descal¡¯s conditions so wait in this room for a bit. I have some things to finish up. Thank you for your help.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Wait. Where is Descal?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I will send a zombie to lead him here. After you fainted, he¡­ lost control to say the least. He locked himself in a random room and went violent. He should have calmed himself by now judging from the lack of screaming and pounding. Any more questions?¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°No. Thank you.¡± (Cecilia)

    Once Baniti left the room, Cecilia began to sip her tea and began to read a book that she pulled from the nearby bookshelf. It was a thesis about the ancient creatures and the ways they could have shaped this world. Interestingly, she found the chapter about the ancient ones. It was mainly the author complaining about lack of data about them since they went extinct 900 years ago. While she was reading, she pondered about her next move. Since she was stuck in this tomb for another day, she might as well use it to learn more about Descal. The mysteries surrounding Descal only deepened: the weapons and his ability. If anything, Cecilia was certain that Descal was holding back. A Lot. Anyway, she had to be careful with the questions she asked in order to reduce the amount of bullshit answers she might get. Perhaps she should start with¡­ Her thoughts were interrupted when the door opened.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yes. I am alive and in one piece.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Good. And you suck at fighting. Do you have any idea how many times you gave me a freaking heart attack? What type of an idiot just stands there and shoots without any evasive maneuvers? Do you have any idea how many times I had to knock arrows out of the air? Did you even notice the skeletons that were sneaking up on you? And how could you just stand there when four skeletons charged at you at once? Did you really think that you could reload that fast? My god. I have never been that pissed in my life.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°In my defense, I have never been in a fight before. I guess I just became petrified. Please take a seat. Have you calmed down? Have some tea. Baniti has informed me that you went on a rampage after I fainted.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Ahh¡­ that¡­ Let¡¯s not discuss that. I just needed to relieve some stress? Get my emotions lined up again.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I see ¡­ Baniti has told me that it will be about a day until the mount is ready so we have some time. I would like to use the time to ask the three questions you have promised me. Please provide satisfactory answers.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°*sigh* you are just¡­ Augh. You are frustrating. Alright. Fine. Ask away.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°First, why can you not decide your own name?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­ It has to do with my strong connection with mana. A name represents who you are. My mana is so ingrained into who I am as a being that I am bound to my true name. As a result, I can¡¯t just make up names for who I am. You know of how chants can initiate spells. My case is something similar. However, I can receive names because names that are given to me become a part of who I am. It is kinda like how parents name their child.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°So you are an ancient one.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Oh hell no. Those bastards. Whatever made you think I was one of those assholes? Let me tell you. If you were near one right now, you would combust from the sheer amount of mana they ooze out. Also, they are sadists. They would sometimes destroy an entire city or just mess with your plans because they feel like it.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°So you have met an ancient one.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well duh. It is insulting that you compare me with those guys.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Interesting. The ancient ones went extinct 900 years ago, and you claim to have met them.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Ummm. You sure they are extinct?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yes. In fact, I have not heard of an ancient one until Baniti mentioned it. She says that the only beings that are unable to pick names for themselves are the ancient ones because of the exact same reason you have provided me. Also, I have never heard any reports of ancient ones, and from your descriptions of them I should have heard of one if they were still existed. Explain yourself.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Look hasn¡¯t it been three questions yet?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°No. I have only asked one. Now explain yourself.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Make that into a question.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­ Fine then. It will count as a question. However, you must give a satisfactory answer.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°My physical body is 19 years old. However, I existed in this world a thousand years ago, but I got sent to another dimension. When I came back to this world, a thousand years has passed. Happy?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Hold on. Let me just¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I have not told a single lie. I can even repeat this in the mortem language. In fact, I bet Baniti has a book about the translations of the mortem language so you can tell that I am not lying.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°So¡­ You are a thousand years old...¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Not really¡­ time passes by differently in dimensions. Also. You are off about my age by a long shot.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait. You were in this world a thousand years ago. So you¡¯ve seen it¡­ the first calamity war.¡± (Cecilia)

    Descal froze and crushed the cup he was holding, and the tea began to spread all over the table. Wordlessly, Descal took out a towel from nowhere and began to wipe up the tea.

    ¡°Sorry. I didn¡¯t know it was such a sensitive subject. Sorry. Well, this world must have been very different a thousand years ago¡­ *nervous laugh*¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Oh you have no idea. It feels like this world got blown to the Stone Age or something when I compare the present to the past.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I see.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well. What is your last question?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I have a lot more questions I want to ask, but instead of a question, I am going to make a request. Is that alright?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Is the request going to pry even deeper into my past or into who I am?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°No. It is something else.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Teach me how to fight.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Wait¡­ What? Were you even paying attention to my rant? Use the bow if you want. I recall you having a bow during our travels.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yes. However, the bow is too limited in my hands. I am unable to use magic to speed up the arrow or increase its penetrative ability. As a result, I am unable to even hit nor injure my targets usually. But now that you have told me that you have come from the past and have experience of living in a different world, you must know of some fighting skill or weapon that will suit me. The pistol you gave me was an amazing example.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I don¡¯t even know where to start refuting you. But I am the wrong person to ask. I have no qualifications to teach you. My fighting style is extremely unique and self-taught.¡± (Descal)Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ¡°I think you made an excellent teacher. You were quite clear with your instructions with the pistol.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°That is something very different. I was only teaching you to reload. It was awfully straightforward. Nothing about situational awareness, evading, or disengaging.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Then teach me those things.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Easier said than done. I learned those things through experience and almost dying a lot.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Well then, I am going to get a lot of near-death experience on this trip anyway so¡­ I don¡¯t see the problem with giving me pointers in fighting.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°It is my job to make sure that I minimize the amount of experience you get in fighting Princess.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°We are now a two-man group. We are going to be in a lot of situations in which I will need to fight.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Look. It will be much better if I can defend myself at the very least. They wouldn¡¯t be expecting a princess like me to fight back. Also, you will have someone to look after you as well.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Fine. But if one of your knights gets mad at me for teaching you, then you will defend me with all your might. Got it?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Done.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°But first, let me write a contract. Just to make sure.¡± (Descal)

    Descal pulled a piece of paper and pencil out of nowhere and began to furiously write out a list while Cecilia looked over what he was writing.

    ¡°Is this going to be a magic bound contract?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Kinda. It won¡¯t have severe consequences like the super powerful contract. This contract will simply burn into ashes if someone breaks one of the terms. Truthfully, I am only going to use this as a defense against your ever loyal retainers.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait¡­. What does it mean that I give you permission to beat me?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I have not written that anywhere.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yes. It does. There the fifth paragraph. It says ¡°I give permission to my combat instructor to use physical methods that may result in bodily harm in order to simulate real life fights.¡± Isn¡¯t that a nicer way of saying that you can hit me?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Tch... I was hoping you wouldn¡¯t notice that. Anyway, my way of teaching will involve lots of sparring. As a result, you are going to be hurt a lot when we first start. I don¡¯t want that to turn into an issue so¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­Can we specify this more?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°How much?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Like no moves that may result in fatal injuries as well as no attacks that result in permanent injuries.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Alright. Wrote that down. Anything else?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I want to look over the ¡®privacy¡¯ paragraph.¡± (Cecilia)

    Truth be told, there was a lot of problems with the contract. Cecilia was trained in a cutthroat court where a single word can result in a full out family feud that will severely hurt the reputation of the royal family. She was drilled by the harshest tutors day and night over the importance of contract wording and intent. Although Cecilia could tell that the intent was on the right track, the wording left many loopholes that could be exploited. As a result, Cecilia and Descal began to debate and wrestle over every wording of the contract until every loophole that Cecilia could see was closed.

    ¡°Oh my god. Next time we are in the market, I am going to leave buying supplies to you. Holy shit. This contract went from two pages to freaking five pages.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°What did you expect? I may be useless in a fight, but regarding politics and debate, I am one of the masters. But I am surprised Descal, you are quite good at negotiations yourself. You are also quite educated. Are you a noble?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Nope. Not even a former noble. The previous country I lived in provided basic education.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Interesting¡­. What was the country¡¯s name?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Umm¡­ I moved around a lot, but I was last in the United States. Alright. I signed it so sign here now.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Okay. So when will we start?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°First, let¡¯s test your magical abilities. So¡­ how much mana can your body handle?¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia immediately became embarrassed. Out of her entire family, she had the lowest skills in mana and could barely conjure a rank 1 fire. It turns out that she had a very small reservoir of mana, and her body could not control large amounts as well. As a result, the tutors gave up in teaching her magic and put more focus on her political and social studies.

    ¡°¡­Can¡¯t use magic very well¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°It can¡¯t be that bad. C¡¯mon. Condense a ball of mana into your hand. Make it as big as you can.¡± (Descal)

    Sadly, the largest one she could make was a ball as small as a grape. She saw Descal look surprised; however, to his credit, he quickly recovered.

    ¡°Well. You have very little future as a mage¡­ Any other talents? Usually, royal families have a couple talents up their sleeves¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Excuse me? Get that ridiculous notion out of your head. The only thing that shows I am royalty is my stupid purple hair.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°But seriously. Any special talents?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°¡­ Well I have pretty good eyes. I have a very good sense of distance, and I can see things from a distance quite clearly. It was one of the reasons why I chose to do archery. However, as I have stated, I have a hard time hitting my targets at times because they can dodge my arrows with ease since I can¡¯t use enchanted arrows or reinforce my shots with magic.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Does the public know that your magic is this abysmal?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°No¡­ My family went through great pains to hide this information. It was one of the reasons why I was not allowed to learn to fight since people would quickly find out my lack of magical skill.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You do know of ways I can deal with this weakness right?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­Yes¡­ However, the methods I know of aren¡¯t suitable for you. Too much time is needed. Time we don¡¯t have. To be honest, I want you to stay as far away from any fights as possible¡­ I¡¯ll think about it; however, the more pressing matter is what weapon will you use?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I was thinking the pistol. It is a ranged weapon, and I think it makes great use of my accuracy.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­No. The pistol is too¡­ limited. But that is a good line of thought¡­ I¡¯ll think about it later. First, I am going to teach you a few moves of unarmed combat. C¡¯mere.¡± (Descal)

    Descal walked to the middle of the room and beckoned to Cecilia. He got ready into a stance and asked her to put a hand on his shoulder. As soon as she did, she found her vision shifting and a sense of weightlessness until she felt the cold hard ground smashing into her back.

    ¡°Gah¡­ THAT HURT. YOU ASSHOLE. What was that for?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°That is a move that I am going to teach you. It might turn out to be very useful. On the bright side, I am going to give you the chance to throw me over your back.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°But couldn¡¯t you have given a warning?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Why? It¡¯s not like your enemies would give you a warning. Also, would you put your hand on my shoulder if you knew that I would throw you?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I am going to regret asking this from you.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Probably.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Let me up and teach me. Damn it.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Alright. First, get into this stance. Nope, shift your balance a little¡­.¡± (Descal)

    It took Cecilia multiple tries until she could finally throw him over her shoulder; however, she lost her balance while she was throwing Descal so she ended up falling on top of him after throwing him onto the floor. She then proceeded to face plant onto Descal¡¯s crotch.

    ¡°FFFF. GGH. *long list of expletive words*¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Ewww. Eww. Ew.¡± (Cecilia)

    She immediately got up and left Descal rolling on the ground groaning in pain. Cecilia quickly composed herself and waited for Descal to stop. At the very least, he was wearing pants, and in her opinion, he deserved it.

    ¡°You¡­ have an extremely¡­ hard head.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Let¡¯s never discuss this again.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Not one word.¡± (Descal)

    It was in that moment that Baniti poked her skull in and asked if everything was alright. Her timing was so impeccable that Descal and Cecilia began laughing to their heart''s content while Baniti looked confused as to why her two guests were acting in such a manner.

    ¡°Yes. We are all right. What¡¯s the matter?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Well, I have lunch ready if you want some. I forgot that the living requires food.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Thank you. How long until¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Ten more hours. On schedule.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Okay. Do you have something like a forge? I want to craft something.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Go ahead. After your lunch, I will send a guide for you.¡± (Baniti)

    Lunch was quite simple. It was merely a wild goose that has been cooked with a fruit salad. As Cecilia began to munch on the bland goose, Descal once again surprised Cecilia when he began to nonchalantly sprinkle what looked to be expensive spices and salt on his goose.

    ¡°Where did you get those?¡± (Cecilia)

    Descal simply froze and guiltily looked at Cecilia.

    ¡°Uhh¡­ Counter proposal¡­ I¡¯ll sprinkle some on your goose, and I don¡¯t answer that question.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°*sniff* Fair enough. Hand it over.¡± (Cecilia)

    Once lunch was over, Descal¡¯s guide came and took him to the forge. Of course, Cecilia was not going to stay behind so she decided to follow him. She was also curious about what he was planning on making. She tried asking; however, he dodged the question. Instead, Cecilia had to be content with watching him hammer away at the piece of metal watching as the sparks flew into the air before fizzing out. Eventually, she began to start tinkering with the metal pieces and practiced flipping a practice dummy over her shoulder.

    ¡°There. Done.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Jeez. Took you a while. Is that a knife?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Close but not quite. I¡¯ll tell you later. I am still trying to decide if this is a good idea or not. I don¡¯t know if I have said this or not but you don¡¯t act like a princess at times.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Because I don¡¯t need to right now. Do you have any idea how suffocating it is for me to talk like one of those stuck up princesses?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°No. I will never find out so I will never empathize with you. I can only offer my pity.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°And why would I ever want your pity?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°*Cough* Descal. You are treading on some dangerous ground right now.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°¡­.Oh¡­ You are smarter than you seem Baniti. It seems you can spot clich¨¦s very well.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what clich¨¦s are, but I do know how people fall in¡­¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Let¡¯s not give her any funny ideas. Thank you though. I guess I got caught up in the moment. What brings you here?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Your mount is ready. Here. Two skeletal horses at your disposal.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Time sure flies when you are busy. Thank you though.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°You should be able to find your own way out I presume?¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Yeah. I mean if we get lost, I am pretty sure I could just yell really loudly for some help.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Please don¡¯t.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Anyway, hated doing business with you, but I must get going. Good day.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Night actually.¡± (Baniti)

    ¡°I stand corrected.¡± (Descal)

    With a nod, Baniti walked out of the room. With that, Descal pocketed the orb, and he briskly walked toward the exit of the tomb with Cecilia following close behind. When Cecilia reached the ladder, she felt a huge weight fall off her shoulder as she breathed in air that did not smell of rotting corpses. She looked forward to the cool night winds.

    ¡°Slow down Cecilia.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°That is asking a bit too much of me.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°No¡­ I really mean it. Calm down.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Why? I really want to go out and breathe in some nice fresh¡­.¡± (Cecilia)

    Suddenly, Cecilia saw a glint of light out of the corner of her eye until she was yanked back. A knife had bedded itself into the stone right beside her. Realizing that his plan had failed, the assassin ran forward with a sword in his hand as he swung downward at Cecilia. However, the blade was deflected by Descal¡¯s gauntlet, and Descal ran his blade through the assassin¡¯s heart. Descal picked up Cecilia and prepared to run out into the room and into the open world, but the entrance was quickly blocked off by assassins. When Descal tried to run back, it was also blocked off by assassins. They were quickly surrounded.

    ¡°Well. Shit. It looks like they got your blood, Cecilia.¡± (Descal)

 Chapter 12: a promise that might be regretted

    <u>POV: Descal</u>

    Well, out of one fight and straight into another fight. That¡¯s my luck. If this was an RPG game, my luck stat would probably be zero. I quickly counted the number of enemies, I could see: about 15. There are probably more, but I need to take care of these guys first. It didn¡¯t look like these assassins were going to say anything so I did the first move.

    First, I pulled Cecilia behind me, whipped out my pistol, and shot the nearest guy to my left. That was when the assassins began to make a move at me. A guy to my right charged at me with his sword, but I blocked it with my gauntlets before gutting him with my blade. I then proceeded to do a combo move straight into the guy behind him and carved open a nice bloody line across his neck. After that, I kicked the dying asshole straight into the guy behind him, and I lunged at the assassin to my left who was aiming a throwing knife at Cecilia and plunged my blade straight into his heart. One of the assassins tried to take advantage of my situation by immediately going for Cecilia and was about to swing his sword down on Cecilia, but I quickly came up behind him, grabbed him, and slit his throat. Sadly, Cecilia got drenched in blood all over again, but I can check up on any emotional trauma after this is all over.

    Before I could move on to my next target, the assassins immediately backed away and began to watch me closely. Eight left¡­ Wait¡­ I only killed five. Damn it. Two of them must have run off to call for backup. I need to finish this quickly, but I can¡¯t be reckless or Cecilia might end up getting killed. I am not confident enough to use my magic in a fight yet. I only have one loaded pistol, three grenades, and my blades as my weapons. I only have some food, utensils, my chemistry kit, gunpowder, a half-finished gun, a tree trunk, and etc. in my inventory, but none that I could use to get me out of this fix.

    So my only way of taking out these people as fast as possible is to utilize my grenades, but if I do that, there is a chance that there might be a cave-in, and Cecilia might get killed by a random frag. Wait¡­ My tree trunk. I could use my tree trunk as something to take cover behind after throwing my grenades. I can¡¯t do much if there was a cave-in, but I don¡¯t have much choice right now since it looks like things might get real ugly real soon.

    I quickly whip out my log, dragged Cecilia behind it, lit my three grenades, and threw it. The assassins just looked at the three balls, wondering what to do with it until they got blasted to the walls with body parts and blood splattering everywhere. I took advantage of the confusion and ran straight for the exit and into the open sky.

    Now that I was outside, I immediately used one of the orbs, mounted the horse with Cecilia seated in front of me and took off as fast as possible to the East. I kept going and going until the sun began to peek out from the horizon. When the sun came out, I went into the deeper parts of the forest and stopped by a small stream.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    I just got off my skeletal horse and collapsed into the stream and just let it wash off the blood and sweat. Cecilia wordlessly began to do the same thing. And the two of us just laid in the stream listening to the sounds of birds chirping trying to calm our frayed nerves.

    ¡°So now what?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­ Keep moving. I am going to be upfront with you right now. The fact that the Bloody Strings have your blood makes my job a lot harder. We need to keep moving to keep the damn assassins on their toes. Also, we can¡¯t be predictable with our movements. So we may need to zigzag around as well. But the problem is that time is not on our side. I need to get you to the Uwile as fast as possible. The more time we waste the more likely it is that your uncle will consolidate his power, and the more danger that will come to you and me. In addition, your life is now in constant danger. The Bloody Strings do have a reputation to uphold so they will be very persistent with their attempts.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Don¡¯t you know of any methods to break that spell they have on me? Surely, you must know of some methods!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I do. But I can¡¯t do any of it because I lack the materials, and I can¡¯t use magic very well at the moment.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Can¡¯t use magic very well! Don¡¯t be absurd! That storage magic of yours must be a very difficult spell to cast!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Sorry. The storage magic doesn¡¯t consume a lot of magic, and I can¡¯t utilize it to its full potential because of the limits on my magic right now. Here let me rephrase. I am incapable of casting spells that require a lot of mana.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Fine. So I will have to live the rest of my life with the threat of assassination over me. That is what you are telling me.¡± (Cecilia)

    I was going to retort something back, but then I noticed that tears were starting to flow from Cecilia¡¯s eyes. As I looked into her teary brown eyes, as I looked at the pitiful state of her face and body, as I looked at the expression of her face and the frustration and fear she was displaying, the frustration at how powerless she was and the fear of how everything was out of control, I began to feel something well up inside of me. Before it could go out of control, it was forcefully put down, but I still felt it. I was planning on simply abandoning Cecilia as soon as I took her to the destination, but now I don¡¯t know if I can do it. Can I simply leave her?

    I took a deep breath.

    ¡°Princess. As soon as I got to Uwile, I was planning on simply dropping you off, collect my reward, and simply leave. I wasn¡¯t planning on getting myself involved anymore. However, it seems I have had a change of heart. When we reach the fortress, I am going to the Annapurna Mountain Range to regain control over my magic. Once I accomplish that, I am available for hire once more. You can hire me to remove the curse and to keep you safe until you resume the throne. Will you hire me when the time comes?¡± (Descal)

    Cecilia wordlessly hugs me and began to cry into my shoulder and choked out thank you multiple times. I simply began to awkwardly pat her on the back and said to her to ¡°let it all out¡±. As I began to do this, only one thought ran through my mind. I am going to regret this, aren¡¯t I?

 chater 13: the eye before the storm

    <u>Descal</u>

    It has been three days since that promise I made, and I am really tired. Having to go back and forth to throw off our pursuers and spending sleepless nights tends to drain a lot of your energy. Not only that, I am really starting to drain my stockpile of gunpowder trying to rig some traps to slow down any potential pursuers too. The good or bad news is that we are getting close to Gorge City and the Misty Forest.

    The Misty Forest is THE reason why I didn¡¯t want to take this trip by myself during the late summer season. During the late summer season, the fog gets really heavy making it really difficult to stay on the path. If you stray off the path in the Misty Forest, you might as well commit suicide since you are going to probably die a slow painful death as the forest slowly consumes you. To make things worse, the path changes every night so at least one person has to stay awake the whole night to watch how the path changes.

    To top it off, the Misty Forest is also known for illusions that trolls travelers to the extreme. The illusions won¡¯t be that much of a problem for me since I can focus some mana in my eyes to see ultraviolet reflections instead. Since the Misty forest tends to focus on fooling organisms that see visual light, it uses illusions made of visual light. As a result, if I see using ultraviolet light instead, I can literally see through the illusions.

    Anyway, before we even think of beginning to cross the forest, we are going to need to stock up on some supplies and that means entering the Gorge City. I am positive that there are going to be assassins there just waiting for us. It is really infuriating trying to decide what the hell I should do. While I was pondering whether I should leave Cecilia outside the city walls and go by myself, a small cracking sound broke me out of my trance. Right. I should get back to Cecilia.

    Since the assassins have Cecilia¡¯s blood, I sort of had no choice, but to teach Cecilia how to fight. I have no formal training whatsoever with swords, spears, axes, and any weapons so I was really lost on what I would train Cecilia on. Then, Cecilia reminded me of the pistol, and with a heavy heart, I decided to teach her in the ways of the gun. Surprisingly, Cecilia had really good aim. She seemed to automatically ¡°connect¡± with the pistol when I first gave it to her to practice with. However, since the pistol is only one shot, I had to think of other ways to teach her how to fight. So I decided to make her a Long Bess rifle. I already got a flintlock mechanism premade as well as the wooden frame so I really just needed to make the rifled barrel. At the moment, Cecilia is practicing with a smooth bore since I did not have time nor the skill to make a rifled one yet, but she is enthusiastically practicing with her new musket. We also have daily sparring practice in which I attach a knife to the end of her musket, and I just have her attack me. I am pretty sure that there are bayonet stances, certain ways to grip the gun, and methods of stabbing, but I never learned those things so I have her learn the hard way. Trial and error.

    It turns out that she is getting pretty good. I don¡¯t know how she will fare against experienced warriors, but she should be able to hold her own against the usual grunts or bandits. If an enemy above her level appears, hopefully she can shoot the person before she has to resort to melee. When I went back to the camp, I saw Cecilia stripping a bird of its feathers. Wow. She managed to shoot it through the head. Once Cecilia got used to the gun, she has been consistently getting headshots with it. It scares me how fast she has improved with the musket.

    After sitting across from her, I began to wonder if I should bring her into the city with me. It would be far safer to post her outside the city with the undead horse so if she got attacked, she could easily run away. I could tell her of a predetermined location to¡­

    ¡°You¡¯re thinking of leaving me outside the city walls. Aren¡¯t you.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Damn you are perspective.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Well. You might as well stop because I am going to make that decision for you. No. I am going to go with you.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Why? You know that there is an ambush.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°First, you suck at haggling. Like my gods. You spent a silver coin on a weak piece of rope. Just how? Second, how are you going to defend me if I get attacked when you aren¡¯t around? I am not confident in escaping even if I have an undead horse with me. Also, I still have problems being next to that pile of bones. It still creeps me out. Three, I want to sleep in an inn for once and check if my subordinates are there.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­but¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Shut up. I don¡¯t want to hear it. I am coming with you.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Fine. Do you want help putting on the hair dye or¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I can do it. I¡¯ll ask if I need help. Also, since this is a city, for the entrance, take of your mask. I don¡¯t want another run in with the guards.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Remember. It is the jar with three stripes. Not two stripes.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Are you still carrying around that pile of shit??? I thought you threw it away!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°No comment.¡± (Descal)

    After Cecilia went to the nearby creek to start washing her hair, I began to start sharpening my knives. After that, I unsummoned the undead horse. Starting now, we will go on foot.

    Once night came, we climbed up a tree, and Cecilia slept on the thickest branch we could find. I tied Cecilia to the trunk in case she accidently fell off. It turns out that our stalkers never expect for us to be camping up in the trees. I remember one night when they actually went by underneath us one time. Ever since that night, I made sure to be even more unpredictable with our path. Of course, I don¡¯t sleep. I can¡¯t afford to. I try to catch up on my sleep while we are riding. I tie a blindfold across my eyes and have Cecilia control the horse. It sucks. A lot. I had to use some magic on my body to alleviate the side effects of sleep deprivation.

    I look down at my arms. Due to my overuse of magic recently, the veins on my arms went black. Not only that, my pupils have begun to glow red at night. I¡¯ve managed to hide it from Cecilia because of my mask but¡­ I need to get to the mountains and do that damn ritual. My body can¡¯t handle any more of this.

    I knew that Cecilia fell asleep when I began to hear muttering from her side of the tree. I learned a lot about the ¡°commoner¡± princess over the past three days. In order to pass the time, we decided to tell stories to each other. It didn¡¯t take a genius to piece together who the ¡°main character¡± of her stories were. It turned out that her mother was the king¡¯s secret mistress. Since her mother wanted to live a life away from politics, she lived in the commoner district in secret. However, one day, the king¡¯s political opponents decided to bring Cecilia and her mother into the fray. They did so by poisoning her mother. Cecilia still cries at times during her sleep over how her mother just wasted away through delusions and paranoia and died a skeleton of her former self. At the time, Cecilia thought that her mother only got ill. It was only when she entered the royal court that it was poison.

    Yup, her sniffling has begun. The stress must be really getting to her. Maybe it is a good idea to bring her into the city. Hopefully, Cecilia can get one good night¡¯s rest at an inn before we get attacked.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    <u>Cecilia</u>

    ¡°And then the mermaid lived happily ever after.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Where in the world do you get these stories?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Ehh¡­ I guess I had access to a lot more bards than you.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Nonsense. I call bullshit on that.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°OOOOO. The princess is cussing again.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I gave up on talking clean two days ago. Shut up.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well, I gave my story. Your turn.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Hmmm. I got nothing. The rest are the really common stories that everyone should know about.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Humor me. Tell me the common stories that ¡°everyone¡± should know about.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I guess you are thinking that you are not included in that ¡°everyone¡±. Well, haven¡¯t you heard the story about The Promise?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Nope.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Where have you been living? In a cave? What type of intelligent species that is capable of understanding speech doesn¡¯t know about that story?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Is that an insult?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°YES. Like what the¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Oh look there is the city. C¡¯mon. the line is pretty short.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Don¡¯t CHANGE the subject like that! Only shitty nobles do that! It¡¯s SO obvious. HEY! Don¡¯t run away! Come back here!¡± (Cecilia)

    Of course, he doesn¡¯t listen and runs off. What type of bodyguards just runs off like that? Then again, he could probably come over to me in a blink of an eye if I was in trouble. He is simply shrouded in mystery. He is capable of using this insanely useful space magic. If that¡¯s not enough, he can also use magic without chanting. I have never seen a wizard use magic without chanting. Not even our court mage does that. I know this guy isn¡¯t human, but what type of species is he? I tried asking, but all I have gotten was that he was ¡°kinda human¡±. What? What type of answer is that? When I caught up, Descal has finished talking with the guard and began to update me on some information.

    ¡°It looks like your subordinates managed to make it to this city and has gone on ahead.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Thanks. That¡¯s good to know.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°We should shop for our stuff first, and then go find an inn. If anything, I want to be prepared for an ambush tonight.¡± (Descal)

    With those words, we went shopping with Descal once more surprising me with how much money he had. I remember when he first pulled out these gold coins that had my eyes pooping out of my head. Those coins had an extremely high gold content. They were worth three of the kingdom¡¯s gold coins. Descal seemed surprised at how valuable the gold coins he pulled out was. Then, he seemed to go into a bad mood and began muttering something about scammers. Was Descal a noble of some sort? Or did he come from a place that did not frequently use money? All he does is give me a headache at his utter cluelessness at times.

    We ended up buying more food, some clothes, and some horses. At the alchemist guild, we splurged on a bunch of chemicals and saltpeter. At the blacksmiths, we bought some knives, scrap metal as well as some charcoal. When I asked Descal why he wanted charcoal, he once more tried to avoid answering my questions. I have a sneaking suspicion that charcoal is one of the necessary materials for the powder, but I am not sure. I remember asking the alchemists to see if they knew anything about a black powder that explodes, but the alchemists merely gave me a blank look. Sigh. Well, I hope the Court alchemist will have some better answer. Currently, Descal is the only one that has access to that powder and if he goes away, I won¡¯t be able to use this gun anymore so I need to learn how to make it. Descal has been very quiet on the manufacturing process so I have to find out myself. However, it is easier said than done because I have not seen Descal make the powder yet, and I possess very little knowledge about alchemy so I am in quite the predicament regarding this issue.

    ¡°Hey, we¡¯re here. We¡¯ll stay at this inn.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Sigh. You know¡­ With the amount of money you have, can¡¯t we stay at a better in than this?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°I chose this inn because this inn will probably complain the least when it gets destroyed, and since there is like nobody going to this inn fewer people will die. Also, the location is pretty good for escaping.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Wait. Why would anybody die? We are the targets!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Well¡­ they might get killed in the crossfire. Explosions kill everybody around it so¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Oh god. I didn¡¯t consider that. Maybe we should just sleep on the streets or something. I won¡¯t be able to¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Relax. I¡¯ll think of something.¡± (Descal)

    ¡­ And think of something he did. He ended up getting us a room that was a reasonable distance away from the other customers. His reason for it was that he wanted some ¡°time¡± with his girl, and it might get loud. The innkeeper just looked me over and just gave us this room.

    ¡°Did you have to choose such a vulgar method!! He looked at me like I was some slut! Have some sense of decency. In the morning, I don¡¯t know if I¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°And we got a room in which no one will die.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I give up. I am sleeping on the bed. Can you makes sure there are no bugs?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yeah sure. Go ahead and bathe in the tub. The innkeeper even heated up the water for you to clean yourself before our ¡°fun¡± time.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Don¡¯t. Push. It.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Yes princess¡­. Aren¡¯t you going to tell me not to look?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I gave up. You saw me naked numerous times. You had multiple chances to take advantage of me. I have never seen you get sexually aroused with my body. Either I have no sex appeal or you are impotent. I think it is the latter.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°You little¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yes. HAH. How do you feel being teased! Not so fun now is it!¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Ha. Ha. You got me.¡± (Descal)

    That felt real good. Throughout the trip, Descal loved to tease me and piss me off to no end. He is extremely good at getting under my skin. SO good that it infuriates me. I really want to sick Lehai on him, but I have a feeling that Lehai is the one that gets beaten if he ends up dueling with Descal. As I sink into the bath, I let out a groan. One of the benefits of royalty was the baths. It was one of the few perks I had ever since I began living in the castle. The only bad news was that now I had the time to think and my mind to wander. I don¡¯t like it when my mind wanders. All that I think of are all the problems I have, my fears, the future, and my mom¡¯s death. It just fills my heart full of anxiety. In the past, I could cope with it, but now, with all that has happened, it has become unbearable. When I began to think of the time that my father declared me the crown princess, I ended up cutting my bath time short.

    ¡°So soon?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°I¡¯m just tired.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°Huh. Well, now might as well be the time to inform you of the forest. So if there is no ambush, we are going to leave early in the morning into the forest. When we enter the forest, we are going to loop a rope around each of us in order to makes sure we don¡¯t wander off. Now this forest is dangerous because of illusions. It will try to get you to leave the path. Don¡¯t trust anything you see. Just stay on the path. At night, the paths will change so one of us needs to stay up to watch how the path will change. The forest will actually bend the path, and the trees will begin moving to try and confuse you so be careful. Also, don¡¯t eat anything in the forest. That is why we bought so much food. The forest will even use illusionary magic to make the fruits alluring, but don¡¯t fall for it. Especially the mushrooms. Don¡¯t eat the mushrooms. You will be tripping for days with those things. Are you listening to me?¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Do you think I would make a good queen?¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°What? What type of question is that? Pay attention. Besides you have a bunch of other siblings that would get priority over you so why are you even worrying? You¡¯re chance for the throne is like¡­¡± (Descal)

    ¡°My father declared me the crown princess two days before the coup.¡± (Cecilia)

    ¡°¡­.¡± (Descal)

    ¡°Yeeah. I know. Surprising isn¡¯t it. I felt that way too. What do I have over my siblings that makes me ¡°queenly¡± material. My brothers are probably far more prepared than me. They¡¯ve been training for the throne since they were born. So why me? If it wasn¡¯t for that decision, the coup would probably not have happened, and I won¡¯t be in this stupid mess. This¡­¡± (Cecilia)

    I tried to continue, but tears began to come out from my eyes. Why can¡¯t I just live a normal life? I just wanted to live like my friends. Probably go work in a shop or even become a merchant. Why can¡¯t everything just go normally? First, I am royalty. Okay. Next, I am crown princess. Gulp. Then, a coup with war at the corner. Who knows how many people will die. Will my friends get drafted into this war? How many people will die? Can I even survive? It just feels like I am being made fun of by fate. Having responsibilities getting crammed down my throat at every turn. When I ask Urgurtz or Lehai for their opinions, they simply give me vague or generic answers. I don¡¯t KNOW what a great queen is. I don¡¯t want the stupid throne.

    I felt some warmth as Descal began to pull me into a hug. I began to unload my tears onto his shoulders. I have never had someone to cry on ever since my mother died. It''s comforting to have someone where I can simply relieve everything in front of. No tutors telling me to keep a poker face or telling me to keep up appearances. Just releasing everything on someone''s shoulders.

 Chapter 14: The forest

    Descal

    After making sure Cecilia went to sleep on the only bed, I laid down next to the door and waited. To pass the time, I decided to do one last quick check over my inventory. Some gunpowder and related weapons, scrap metal, failed attempts at rifling, camping necessities, and my trusty log. Even though the log is burnt and full of holes, I am still carrying it around with me. It has way too much sentimental value for me since it has allowed me to get away from pretty tight situations.

    The Misty Forest. I am really not looking forward to that place. The mist is not going to make things easy for sure. The fog will make it easier for the forest to trick unwary travelers. Although I do have my countermeasure by seeing in ultraviolet light, I can''t keep it up forever due to my limited mana reserves. My body won''t be able to handle continuous use, and I have no intentions of going blind.

    Hmmm. It seems that I need to make more primer. I''ll get some more alcohol later. Maybe at Uwile. Sigh. I feel sleepy. I wonder when I can get an actual good night sleep. As time continues to march on with nothing happening, I began to wonder if we were going to be attacked at all. Maybe something went wrong. Or perhaps they were going to ambush us just before we entered the forest. Would it matter if I just took a small nap? Just for a couple...

    "Descal" (Cecilia)

    "Holy shit. Don''t scare me like that please." (Descal)

    "Then stay awake. Aren''t you the one who always pressured me to always be on the alert and sometimes threw pebbles at me for watcha call it: "situational awareness training?" Hmmm?" (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Yeah. I am a hypocrite. At least, we weren''t ambushed. What do you want?" (Descal)

    "I need to take a dump." (Cecilia)

    "Seriously? The urn is right there. Do you want me to watch you take a shit?" (Descal)

    "Pervert." (Cecilia)

    "Really? I thought some time ago you thought I was impotent. I think you are the pervert, you exhibitionist." (Descal)

    "Just. Not right now. I really have to go, but the urn is full." (Cecilia)

    "What? But it was empty..." (Descal)

    "It''s not right now." (Cecilia)

    "I did not use it if that is what you are implying. " (Descal)

    "... *rubs forehead* just go empty it and be quick." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Yeah. Actually. Come down with me if it is that urgent. You can go take a dump at the public stalls." (Descal)

    "Good idea. I don''t think I can wait anymore." (Cecilia)

    After we went outside, Cecilia immediately ran into the public toilets (it is literally just a hole in the ground that leads to a water system that pumps away the waste using magic. It is a really ingenious method to be honest.) Also, I guess tonight a lot of people had to take a dump or something because Cecilia had to try like five different stalls until a door opened. Meanwhile, I dumped the urn''s contents into the toilets at a designated area for emptying urns. However, something was wrong with the contents. I went outside to get a better look at it using the moonlight. It wasn''t actually piss or poo. It was a foul-smelling paste mixed with hay and grass that was yellow and brown. Something is not adding up here. All those stalls locked at this time except for one? Not only that I was positive that the urn was empty just before I fell asleep... Oh no.

    Immediately, I dashed to the stall that Cecilia was in and smashed the door open with my shoulder. A dagger was on the ground, and a masked guy was behind Cecilia trying to choke her with a wire. I didn''t hesitate to take out my pistol and quickly shot the guy in the head. Too dangerous to try and get close to stab him. The only problem now is that I probably woke up the entire neighborhood and alerted this guy''s friends that the mission failed. I quickly grabbed Cecilia who was on her knees trying to catch her breath, hoisted onto my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and ran for it. My goal was the northern gate. Although the direct path to the Misty Forest is in the Eastern gate, I am not stupid to go for the Eastern gate since the assassins are probably lying in wait there. It doesn''t take a genius for anyone to figure out that the Princess is aiming to go to Uwile. Anyhow, I would appreciate it if Cecilia stops pounding me in the back.

    "What is your problem? Stop it!" (Descal)

    "I''ve been trying to get your attention for the last couple seconds. PUT me down!" (Cecilia)

    "Why? We will move faster if I just carry you like this." (Descal)

    "Are you daft? Are you a dumbass? Is there something wrong with your head? My pants are still at my ankles! Let me pull up my pants fi.. Don''t LOOK! For the love of everything you hold dear, put me down and let me pull up my pants. I don''t appreciate being paraded around with my bare ass out in the open air!" (Cecilia)

    "Relax! No one is looking at us right now. Here. Just be quick." (Descal)

    "*sniff* I have never been so humiliated. You did this on purpose, didn''t you? First that stupid joke about me being a harlot in front of that innkeeper. Now, this. You perverted sadist." (Cecilia)

    "NO! I swear that I did not do this on purpose. I was just so focused on running away that I just... it was only your ass that was showing anyway. At least, my shoulder covered your vagina... Wait don''t cry... Oh, gods. I am so sorry. Can you just cry later? Aren''t you supposed to be royalty? Wait. Don''t cry more. Oh my god. We need to run like right now. Look I''ll do anything you want me to do later. Just jump on my back and let''s start running as fast as we can right now." (Descal)

    "I''ll *sniff* hold you to it." (Cecilia)

    After I wiped away her tears with a handkerchief, I told her to hold on as tight as possible and began to run as fast as I could. I avoided running through the rooftops since I would be an open target so it took me longer to get to the Northern gate due to all those twists and turns that prevented me from going full speed. Once I got to the entrance, I began to climb up the stairs that would take me to the top of the wall, scaring all the sentry members who began to start yelling stop and started to chase me. Ignoring all the shouting, I jumped off the wall and landed on the ground with the help of some mana and began to start running eastward. Once I was a fair distance from the city walls, I summoned the skeletal horse and made a mad gallop for the Misty Forest. I kept riding until I reached the sea of trees with mist pouring out .If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "Cecilia. We''re here. The misty forest." (Descal)

    The Misty Forest really lived up to its name of being misty for sure. The mist was constantly swirling about the trees giving the impression that it was alive. Kinda mesmerizing to tell you the truth. Whoop. That was bad. Almost got hypnotized. Anyway... better find a starting point of a path. I began to start scouting out the edges of the forest.

    There is only one way to properly cross the Misty Forest safely, and it is by following a path of yellow trees. There are numerous trails of yellow trees, and it might seem like an easy thing to do especially when all other trees are green and brown, but the path is random with twists and turns that need to be followed in a misty setting. To make things worse, at certain random times, the path will change with no warning. One moment the yellow trees lead to the right, but then suddenly the yellow trees you were following disappear and reappear behind you leading you in a completely different direction. While you are trying to follow the damn path that constantly tries to juke you, illusions will constantly try to trick you and lead you away from the path. And the illusions don''t play fair. For example, when the path changes, the forest can create an illusory path of yellow trees in the direction that you were going which will only lead you far away from the real yellow trees. In addition, all sorts of hideous monsters love to hide in the mist and attack unwary travelers. This is why it is suicidal to enter the forest alone. First, you are less likely to be lead astray in a group. Second, a group is more likely to find out any changes in the path. Third, monsters are more hesitant to attack numerous people at the same time.

    "Descal. I found a yellow tree. It is over there." (Cecilia)

    First, to make sure that it is not an illusion right off the bat, I decided to wait a couple minutes. Illusions do have a time limit. On the boundary of the forest, illusions don''t last for very long. I can''t use my UV vision on these trees because surprise the color yellow is not in the UV spectrum but in the visible light spectrum. While we were waiting, we demounted and tied a rope between us in order to make sure we don''t separate without the other knowing.

    "You do know what you are doing, right?" (Cecilia)

    "Why do you ask that?" (Descal)

    "You''ve been insanely quiet so far. The only times you go quietly like that is when things are serious." (Cecilia)

    "I don''t know. If this is the same forest as a thousand years ago, then no biggie. If something changed... well. we got problems." (Descal)

    "How do you know what the forest was like... Right..." (Cecilia)

    Well, it looks like this tree is the real deal. After helping Cecilia up, we plunged into the mist. Soon our entire surroundings were trees and an opaque white.

    Cecilia

    "You know how you promised me that you would do anything for me when we got out of the city?" (Cecilia)

    "Yes...." (Descal)

    "Tell me more about yourself. From your lack of knowledge of the current era, I can tell that you haven''t been in this world for a long time. What dimension have you been to? What is different? What did you do in the..." (Cecilia)

    "Slow down. Jeez. Watch that branch. Well... like you know I got sent to another dimension as a result of fighting someone." (Descal)

    "Who was that someone?" (Cecilia)

    "...You won''t meet him again. He''s gone." (Descal)

    "Oh.." (Cecilia)

    "Hmmm. Before I got sent into that other dimension, I guess you could say I had a really simple childhood and a really simple family. My dad was something similar to a craftsman. The things he could make were something "out of this world" you could say. I was pretty smart academically so I ended up entering a research institute under the wing of a professor of magic." (Descal)

    "Sounds pretty similar to a normal human family." (Cecilia)

    "I was a human." (Descal)

    "Wait. What? But humans cant use chantless magic!!! It''s impossible due to our inability to fully grasp and control mana like the other species! You can''t be human. I thought you were like a subspecies of an elf!" (Cecilia)

    "First, humans ARE capable of chantless magic. The only problem is that our concept and use of magic differs from other species. We have to approach magic from a different point of view from other species. Two, I said I WAS human." (Descal)

    "Then, what species are you now? You''re not an undead, are you?" (Cecilia)

    "Now. Not an undead... Truth be told, I don''t know what I am anymore. I question that even now because I ended up giving up my humanity due to a spell." (Descal)

    "So are you something similar to an ancient one? You know the cause of your deep connection with mana?" (Cecilia)

    "Definitely not. I am nothing like the ancient ones. You''ll have to trust me with that." (Descal)

    "Okay... So how did you lose your humanity? How and what happened when you were banished?" (Cecilia)

    "Well... Here is the short version. I wanted power. Strength. So I used a spell and well... I lost my humanity. As for how I got banished.... I fought someone. A banishment spell was used, and I got sent to another world. A world where only humans existed with no magic. To survive, the humans put all their effort into technology to get stronger. I lived there for 19 years before I got pulled back here for some reason. I don''t know why I got sent back though." (Descal)

    "So... How long have you been back?" (Cecilia)

    "About a couple months. Probably about half a year. You know. You are taking this news quite well." (Descal)

    "Well. I have always been really good at picking apart lies. Well. More like see lies. It''s hard to explain, and I can definitely see that you aren''t lying. Umm. Descal. There''s no yellow tree there. Hell. There is NO tree there. It''s that way." (Cecilia)

    Descal suddenly stopped and looked at the way I was pointing. Then, he looked at the tree in front of us intently. He scratched his head and looked at me again.

    "Ummm. Are you sure about that? I am pretty sure that there IS a tree in front of us, and it is yellow. That yellow tree over there is probably the illusion." (Descal)

    "Descal. There is no tree in front of us. That tree is the real one." (Cecilia)

    ".... Are you sure? I mean the tree right here looks pretty real and yellow to me." (Descal)

    "Descal. I am positive that tree is an illusion. Why are you so confident that there is a tree in front of us?" (Cecilia)

    "You won''t understand, but I am looking at this tree with different spectrums of light. They all show a tree in front of me." (Descal)

    "Well, then your method doesn''t work anymore. Might have worked a thousand years ago, but not anymore." (Cecilia)

    "... I find that hard to believe..." (Descal)

    "Oh for the love of..." (Cecilia)

    "Wait... if that''s actually a fake path then"

    Ignoring him, I walked over to the place that Descal was staring at and started wildly moving around with large exaggerated movement. If I could show Descal that I was walking through the "tree", he should understand that it is an illusion. As soon as I tried to walk back to where Descal was, the fog immediately condensed and made it extremely hard to see in front of me. However, the rope helped me get back to where Descal was.

    "Okay. You proved your point. But don''t stray from the path again. It is EXTREMELY dangerous in a forest that is filled with illusions." (Descal)

    "You know. For a forest with a reputation of being filled with illusions, I haven''t seen one of those so-called deceiving illusions. I just see mist, mist, more mist, and can''t forget the trees!" (Cecilia)

    "What are you talking about. We are really deep in this forest. I have been seeing illusions left and right. There is absolutely no way that you have not seen ONE illusion yet." (Descal)

    "And I am telling you that I have not seen a single illusion. Maybe I am just special." (Cecilia)

    "Wait a minute." (Descal)

    WIthout any warning, he grabbed my face and looked intently at my eyes. I could feel a tingling sensation, which I presumed was some sort of mana, all over my eyes.

    "What are you doing?" (Cecilia)

    "Wow. Okay. I know why you have difficulty using magic. You must have inherited the Eyes of Truth from King Elinsgurd of the Rohania Kingdom." (Descal)

    "King who of what Kingdom?" (Cecilia)

    "The Rohania Kingdom. A country that existed and was destroyed in the first Calamity War. It seems the Ruhan Kingdom was what rose out of the ashes, and you are the descendant of King Elisgrand, the king at the time of the first Calamity War. You have also inherited his greatest power. The Magic Eyes of Truth." (Descal)

 Chapter 15: What is wrong with my luck?

    Descal

    Wow. Umm. Talk about a surprise. To think that I would meet someone with "his" power after this long. Well, he was a pretty impressive person with a high limbo so... Maybe it isn''t so surprising. Anyway, it turns out this princess right here had magic eyes the entire time and never realized it. Now that I think about it, it makes sense. She can''t use magic very well because those eyes of hersconsume all of her naturally generating mana, and she mentioned something about "seeing" the truth. Not only that, it may explain why she is so good with ranged weapons. Just like her ancestor.

    "I have magic eyes? What do you mean?" (Cecilia)

    "Well, from what I know of your ancestor, he had the ability to see the truth, see things extremely far away, see extremely tiny things, and see a little bit into the future. What was even more terrifying was that he could even dispel anymagic attacks in his line of sight.It was because of him that his country made massive advances in ballistics and medicine. Also, he was a terrifying sniper. Unparalleled in archery." (Descal)

    "Why? What exactly are magic eyes? Can you teach me how to use it? Cause right now I only have the truth part of those eyes."(Cecilia)

    "I don''t know. You are already subconsciously using it. It explains why you are so god damn good with that musket, but I don''t know how much I can teach you.For one, I don''t know what they actually are and their full potential.I couldn''t exactly study his eyes and how it affected his body. I only know what he could do with it. And I don''t even know what magic eyes really are. I just know that they exist and that there are a wide variety of them." (Descal)

    "Didn''t you say you worked in a research institute?" (Cecilia)

    "I did not specialize in that area. Hell, almost nobody wanted to study that area. Besides, magic eyes were rare cases, and only people in or will be in important positions had them so scholars couldn''t really just walk up to them and ask if they could study them. Also, this world never fully developed or allowedautopsy or dissections of the human body because the necromancers completely fucked that area over and gave it bad publicity. When they tried to study the magic eyes of monsters likecertain species of basilisk. Well, it turns out that those eyescan still paralyze even after they have been carved out of the body.So magic eyes was and probably still is a very underdeveloped area of magic research. I only know what they do." (Descal)

    "Well, then what did you study?" (Cecilia)

    "Well one of the things I studied wasrelationship between mana and humans." (Descal)

    "That sounds cool.So during your research did youdiscover how to use magic without chanting?" (Cecilia)

    "A thousand years ago chantless magic was a given.Almost everybody could do it.My field of research washow to incorporate mana within the human body withmultiple elementsin order to further increase the efficiency of mana utilization." (Descal)

    "Umm what?" (Cecilia)

    "Well, back then magic was believed to come in the form of 4 elements: fire, wind, water, earth. By changing our physicalbody to better accommodate these elemental forms, I believed we could achieve a greater mastery over magic." (Descal)

    "Did it work?" (Cecilia)

    "No, because ourunderstanding of the foundations of mana was entirely incorrect. It wasn''t until a rising star in the community completely revolutionized the magical field that I realized Ispent a large portion of my lifeon something that was pretty much doomed to fail from the very beginning." (Descal)

    "Oh... Sorry." (Cecilia)

    "Why apologize? It wasn''t your fault. Besides it wasn''t a complete waste. At least, I wish it was a complete waste at times." (Descal)

    "What?" (Cecilia)

    "Nothing. Just some mindless rambling." (Descal)

    With that final note, I began walking, pulling Cecilia with me. What I learned from that research was my greatest mistake. A long time ago, in my world, we understood the laws of conservation of mass, energy, and mana. Although, I now know that mana isessentially energy but energy that could be directed or converted with varying degrees of precision through willpower, I wondered something that has baffled many researchers. How did mana even come to existence in the first place? I began to wonder this exact same question myself when I wascleaning up my rendered "useless" research.That was when I noticed something quite interesting in many of the ancient religious texts of this world. All of them had this quote: "Out from the abyss came....". Some said life, some said the earth, some said gods, but all of them had out from the abyss.

    What exactly was the abyss? I began to delve a bit deeper into this subject and what I discovered changed me forever. I was bored one day, and I decided to have some fun with colliding matter with anti-matter in aextremelyhigh density mana orb. This was probably the stupidest idea ever because I was releasing huge amounts of energy in an orb that was already saturated with mana. It was practically begging for a massive chainexplosion. But during the collisions, I noticed something weird; every time there was an explosion,small amounts of mana in the vicinity of the collision literally disappeared. Just gone. I crunched the numbers, andthe amount of energy thatshould have been in that orbdidn''t add up. I checked the glass to see if it was the one responsible for absorbing the mana, I checked for leakage, and I checked the safety release system. None of them were the culprit. So, I began to enforce my will onto the orb while the explosions occurred with the focus all on the exact point of collision between the matter and antimatter, and then... I almost died. My will almost got deleted. I chickened out at the last minute and at the moment I was withdrawing my control, the abyss showed itself. I went into a coma for two days, but I confirmed the existence of the thing called the abyss.

    However, I still did not know what it was.In what was one of my most dangerous life-threatening experiments, I managed to isolate the abyssbyinducing an artificial vacuum thatwas not even influenced by gravityat the time of a massive collision of matter and antimatter. Its very existence was paradoxical. One day it''s there, the other day it just disappears off the radar. Nomagic tools I had could confirm it, and suddenly some time later, mytools confirm the existence of "something".It exists yet it does not exist. It hasmass, but it doesn''t. It can be influenced with other forms of energy, but at other times, it remains stubborn tothe exact same influence. But most importantly, it had the powers of creation and deletion. No joke. There were times when it just randomly spouted outstuff...I could only identify10 percent of those stuff as certain types of matter,light, and mana, but the rest I had no clue what they were. I only found out about its ability to delete when it began to "eat up" the space and light around it. Then, Ibegan to start thinking in a dangerous direction. My former research was a failure. I was unable to incorporate elemental properties into flesh because of issues with flesh breaking apart under incompatible types and levels of mana. But what about the abyss? Could the abyss be combined with the physical body for unparalleled levels of power?

    The experiment was a success, and I rue that day.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    "DESCAL. SNAP OUT OF IT. It''s that way. Jeez. Let me take the lead." (Cecilia)

    Not good. This is NOT the time for nostalgia. I am still in a forest that can kill me quite easily right now. We decided to take a break when the sun began to go down. The trees weren''t climbable so we had no choice to sleep on the ground. I brought out some food and blankets from my storage.

    "I wish you told me about your storage powers earlier. The pickled food was horrible." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. You already gave me an earful about it earlier." (Descal)

    "Selfish prick." (Cecilia)

    "I heard that." (Descal)

    As we quietly ate our dinner, the forest seemed to get even mistier than before giving it a creepier feeling. When I began to nibble on my last rabbit leg, Cecilia suddenly picked up her musket, pointed it straight at me and WHAT THE HELLWHO ARE YOU POINTING THAT AT. As I dived to the ground, Cecilia shot the musket and a dead monkey came tumbling out of the shrubs.

    "Shit. Can I not get a break? Get ready Cecilia. That monkey''s friends probably heard the shot." (Descal)

    "What are these things?" (Cecilia)

    "Invisible monkeys. Well, I guess they aren''t invisible to you though. These bastards love to attack in packs. Watch my back." (Descal)

    Damn. I really wished that I could use my magic radar. Then even if these monkeys could become invisible, I could pinpoint them using thei mana signature. Sadly, this forest is saturated with mana so it is interfering with my radar.

    Cecilia immediately moved to cover my blindspots, fixed her bayonet, and began reloading her musket while I took out my two pistols and switched to ultraviolet vision. Then, we waited... quietly.

    "Descal! Three to the right!" (Cecilia)

    I rapidly pointed my two pistols to the right, and even with my uv vision, I saw nothing. Shit. However, I noticed that the branches were moving in an unnatural way. I heard Cecilia take the first shot, and a monkey fell to the ground. I decided to take my best guess and fired at the most likely places the monkey would be by watching the branches of the trees. One of my guesses was wrong, the other was spot on.

    While I brandished my two arm blades, trying to see any abnormalities in the surroundings. Behind me, I heard a wet shink and guessed that Cecilia got a monkey with her bayonet. Suddenly, I heard a large step to my left so I made a wide slash with my arm guards. I scored a hit and a huge squirt of blood came out and a blood-red figure appeared before. Now that I had the monkeys position, I immediately stabbed at where the neck should be and felt a satisfying slice as the monkey collapsed and bled out.

    "Descal! Start running! We have more than ten coming this way!" (Cecilia)

    "You take the lead. It turns out my countermeasure doesn''t work anymore." (Descal)

    While we were running, I began taking out a couple of bombs to work as distractions. Every time I saw a tree that was tall and had a thin enough trunk, I smashed a bomb into the tree trunk and set it off causing the tree to collapse. Despite this, the monkeys were starting to catch up so I picked up Cecilia and sped up our progress by jumping from tree branch to tree branch similar to the monkeys. Cecilia told me which of the trees were illusions so we could stay on the path and picked off any monkeys that got too close. Once the monkeys lost half of their numbers, they decided to retreat since it was extremely dark with little light for the mist did not allow much moonlight to enter the forest.

    "You *pant*... Alright?" (Descal)

    "Yeah... I don''t think we can continue on Descal. It''s too dark." (Cecilia)

    "Let''s take... *deep breath* a rest over there.In the meantime, let''s use this resting timeto help you train those eyes of yours. I know for a fact that King Elisgrand''s magic eyes could see extremely well in the dark. Hmmm. Do you know the basics of mana or how to conjure a spell?" (Descal)

    "Well, I was taught that while youchant, you attach each word with a sort of order or direction for the spell. That''s why the more complicated spellsare longer. That''s as much as I know cause after the mages saw my magic reserve, they told me that I lacked the ability to even conjure a flame spell so they told me to give it up." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Your magic is really pitiful... Even King Elisgrand could use magic. But don''t be sad! It could be possible that your magic pathways are only small because your magic eyes are more powerful! That could be a possibility!" (Descal)

    "Really? My magic eyes are more powerful than my ancestor''s eyes?" (Cecilia)

    "Most likely. You see... It is awfully rare for a royal to have that pitiful magic reserve. For one, the royal family tends to have children with people with high magical abilities. Unless... was your mother a weak magician like you?" (Descal)

    "No. My mother was a strong mage. As was the king." (Cecilia)

    "There you go. So I am pretty sure that your difficulty in channeling magic is merely because of those eyes of yours.... Hmmm..." (Descal)

    "What?" (Cecilia)

    "Do you think you couldshut down your magic eyes?" (Descal)

    "What do you mean by shut down?" (Cecilia)

    "If it really is your eyes that are taking up much of your mana, then wouldn''t turning your "magic" eyes to normal eyes free up your mana usage so you can use spells?" (Descal)

    ".... Problem is that I don''t know how to do that.... Can you even turn off magic eyes?" (Cecilia)

    "Don''t know. Food for thought. Anyway,I''ll give you a quick rundwon on magic that does NOT include chanting. I am guessing that magic runs on similar principles of chantless magic. So magic is essentially a form of energy that you can apply your will onto. Now how you "will" the magic is different among everybody. The chanting that mages of this period tells you about is merely a sort of "guide" for them to force the mana to behave in a certain way. It is kinda like conditioning the mana to behave this way if this word is uttered.Truth be told, chanting is the easy way out. It''sslow andpretty easy to predict and unravel with anti magicmeasures.To truly control mana and have them behave in a way that you want them to, you must have a certain background of knowledge and imaginationto work off of. Do you understand what I am saying so far?" (Descal)

    "Not really?" (Cecillia)

    "... okay. umm.. Let''s just sum it up to this. If you know the basics of how something works and have a good enough imagination, you can make it happen with some mana." (Descal)

    "Okay. So... how does this relate to teaching me to see in the dark?" (Cecilia)

    "Well... do you know how certain animals see in the dark?" (Descal)

    "No. Aren''t they just born with it?" (Cecilia)

    "Well, yeah, but there is a basis to how they can see. Let''s start off with the easiest one. Certain species of snakes see in the dark by using heat." (Descal)

    "Heat?" (Cecilia)

    "Yup. Now you probablywill have a hard time even imagining or guessing what "heat" looks like soI''ll try tosee ifthe strategy for teachingmages to seeheat reactionsapplies to magic eyes as well." (Descal)

    Even though it was extremely dark, I had Cecilia put on arag to cover her eyes to make sure she couldn''t see the light that came from heating metals. Once I made sure that the blindfold was secure, I took out a metal rod and began to heat up the metal by forcing the molecules to vibrate using mana. Then, we played a small game where I had Cecilia guess the location of where the metal rod was. I varied distance, location, the temperature, and the amount of rods as well. Once Cecilia could guess about 75 percent accuracy, I told her to imagine "seeing" the heat and begin to apply mana to her eyes.I asked her what color would heat be, how bright a hotter object would be, and etc. Once I felt she had a good grasp on how she should apply her mana, I undid her blindfold.

    "Whoa. You''re so red like REALLY red... Is that normal? But... I don''t feel your heat?I mean... When I look at my body, it''s not as red as yours...." (Cecilia)

    "Ahh.... just forget about that. It''s just a perk of mine" (Descal)

    "Everything is really wierd though. It''s gonna take some time to get used to this..." (Cecilia)

    "Take it slow. It''s not like we are in a dangerous forest with blood thirsty monsters everywhere." (Descal)

    "Thank you for mentioning that. How could I possibly forget where we are." (Cecilia)

    "Not to fear. Your hero is here." (Descal)

    "I hate you." (Cecilia)

    "I figured. Well, Let''s just take it slow and start moving. From what I can tell, staying too long in one place in this forest is probably a bad idea. If you feel sleepy, tell me. I''ll carry you." (Descal)

    "But what about you? Don''t you need sleep?" (Cecilia)

    "Nah. I can hold it in. I''ll just strengthen mybrain with mana." (Descal)

    Hmmm... I wonder how long I can keep up that lie. I really need an extended rest. From what Cecilia tells me my body is burning up from mana overload....

    "DESCAL! WATCH OUT!" (Cecilia)

    Suddenly, I felt an extreme burning sensation on my eyes. Immediately, I shouted in pain andbegan rubbing my eyes which only made the pain much worse. I fell to the ground writhing, and I felt something on my shoulders.

    "Are you allright??? Some sort of snake shot some liquid in your face. I killed it, but what should I do?" (Cecilia)

    "Water. GIve me some water to wash this off!" (Descal)

    "Here. Move your hands... I''m gonna need more. Can you take some more out from your storage?" (Cecilia)

    I began to feel lukewarm water flowing down my face as Cecilia desperately tried to wash off the poison. After washing down my face with 8 canteens of water, she began to wipe down my face with a cloth. I opened my eyes and saw nothing. Fuck.

 Chapter 16: a glimpse into who we are

    Cecilia

    "Umm... Is there anything I can do to help?" (Cecilia)

    "I''m blind. I am fucking blind in the middle of a forest that can kill me. I should have paid more attention." (Descal)

    Descal just sat there and began to blink rapidly as if it would change his situation. Realizing it was futile, he simply sat down and did nothing. He looked empty.I truly wanted to do something for him, but I didn''t know what to do or say. Obviously, he wasn''t alright, and I had absolutely no idea what to do in this situation. The best I could do was simply sit down and hold his hand to reassure him that I was close by until he calmed down. However, I don''t think he was calming down. For one, he stopped glowing red and began to grow dark until he was a pitch black color.

    "Cecilia. Run. Right now. My emotions are overloading again." (Descal)

    "What? Emotions? What does that have to do with anything?" (Cecilia)

    "Just run!" (Descal)

    "I can''t run away! First, I am tied to you. Second, you can''t follow the path without me. Three, it is still too dark to accurately follow the path! I can''t see yellow with this night vision!" (Cecilia)

    "Gahh... This isn''t good..." (Descal)

    With those words, he pushed me down and cut his hand with one of his blades. When I tried to question him, hetold me to stop talking, and he hastily began drawing some magic circle around me and begged me to stay in the circle crouched down and toclose my eyes. I was about to retort him until I noticed the desperation in his voice as he repeated what he said a couple seconds ago. I complied. I curled up and covered my eyes and began to wait when I stopped hearing Descal grunting in pain. That was when it happened.

    It was almost impossible to describe the feeling, the atmosphere that came over thearea when I was in the circle. Even twenty years later, I had a hard time believing such a powerful presence could be emitted from anything that walked these lands. The best description I could come up with was the feeling of not belonging in this time or any time.It felt like a power that predated time itself. Something that can destroy this world''s foundations. It took all my willpower to even stay awake.It was simply suffocating. I had absolutely nohard time keeping my eyes closed since I didn''t even want to open my eyes to see what is happening. Stay small and hide. These were the only thoughts running through my mind.

    Descal... just what are you to be able to emit such a powerful aura? I don''t think anything in this world could release such power... You said you were human. What are you now? What did you do to get this strong? What did you do? Stop. I can''t take this anymore. It''s too much. With those thoughts, I lost consciousness.

    "Disgusting child. Get out of my way."

    I''ll kill you.

    "How dare she show her face in front of us purebloods."

    I''ll burn your lands and salt them.

    "Quiet, son. Although she has commoner blood, she is still royalty."

    You have no idea of how many of my "royal" siblings I have ordered an assassination on recently.

    "Bah. What can she do? She is useless. Can''t even be used in a political marriage."

    For no suitor ends up living long enough to have the satisfaction ofmarrying me.

    "The King has arrived! All Hail the King."

    Ah. Father. The one who has caused me much suffering by bringing me here. Soon, he shall die, and I will bargain for my freedom of this accursed court with the new king.

    "Today, as many of you know, will be the day that I announce my heir. Although some may question my decision to choose the crown prince or princess in this time of political instability, I believe this to be a great time to train my next successor. After all, hardship is the best teacher. What better time than now to have the crown prince experience as much political negotiations and connections than this time. Before I make my decision known...."

    Enough with this sweet talk. It sickens me to the core of how it is impossible to say what you truly want in this god damn court. I know that you just want to tell the nobles to piss off and that they will have no control over who is next in line to the throne. Even a 13-year-old can figure that out.

    What. No. That smile. What are you smiling at me for? King Tennesley the Second. What are you going to do? No. NO. NO. NONONONONO. HOW DARE YOU SELECT ME AS THE CROWN PRINCESS? I WON''T FORGIVE YOU!!! IHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOU. You are FORCING me to stay in this HELL!

    "Cecilia. Wake up. Cecilia."

    "GAAH."

    All of a sudden, I woke up from my dream. Of all the dreams I had, it was that one. Thefirst year I spent with all that corruptions, scheming, and assassinations really messed me up. SIgh. I really don''t want to think of that time again. It seems that it was daytime again. And themist is gone too. That''s not right. I have never heard of any reports of the mist disappearing from the Misty Forest.

    "Are you okay? Just what happened... Your eyes... Your arm." (Cecilia)

    Just when I was going to question Descal over what happened, I saw the state of his body. First, hewas missing his left arm. No, that wasn''t right.In the place of his arm, he had this black shadow that was in the shape of his arm.It wasn''t a normal black shadow as well. The longer I stared at it, the harder it was to focus because the shadow looked as if it was absorbing the surrounding light causing this weird halo to farm around it. To make things worse, his eyes weren''t there anymore. Instead, a red light was glowing in the hole where his eyes should be. This was really creepy.

    "You''re not freaking out?" (Descal)

    "I am freaking out. I am just hiding it." (Cecilia)

    "Oh well. I guess I have some explaining to do." (Descal)

    "Yes. Yes, you do." (Cecilia)

    "So umm. I''ll give you the short version. A long time ago, one of my experiments succeeded, and I successfully managed to transform my body. Problems occurred with controlling my emotions.I don''t know all the conditions yet but at times of extreme emotional times, my emotions go out of control resulting in my mana going out of control. My body is breaking down due to my mana surge. Because my body is already in such a complicated situation, I can''t use powerful spells. Questions?" (Descal)

    "Uhhh. I have lots of questions, but I have a feeling that you won''t properly answer a lot of them. You''re probably going to twist them up." (Cecilia)

    For once, Descal had a guilty look on his face and didn''t look me in the eye. It seems I was spot on. If anything, he probably prepared all sorts of answers to the questions I would have asked. However, right now, I wasn''t in the mood for that. Descal can tell me whatever that was when he is ready. Until then, he hasn''t been wrong so far. I''ll trust him with this secret. But first...

    "So. I am just gonna ask two questions. How long can you hold on for? What countermeasureshaveyou preparedfor your... issue? I don''t want this to happen again." (Cecilia)

    "Wait... So you still trust me to help you with your goal despite me looking this suspicious? Even though I won''t answer the questions you wantto ask me?" (Descal)

    "It''s because I trust you. I have spent nearly 2 weeks with you. Not once did you do something that made me question my trust in you? I''ll trust you with this too." (Cecilia)

    "Wow. That is a 180 degrees turn from what you said when we first started traveling. Also, isn''t two weeks to quick? Most relationships with deep trust usually take years if not decades." (Descal)

    "Well... I am under time constraints, I am a good judge of character, and I can''t ignore the time we have spent together." (Cecilia)

    "Stop right there. I have no romantic interest in you." (Descal)

    "You pig! Why do you have to ruin this." (Cecilia)

    I then proceeded to slap him once on the head as he dropped down laughing. After a few seconds, I couldn''t help laughing too. It was too much trying to keep a straight face, and it helped relieve some of my worries since Descal could joke around even with his current situation.

    "Okay. So, I can hold out for one more month probably. As for countermeasures, I have none currently. My body breaks down faster the more I use magic. It''s one of the reasons why I want to go to that mountain range because there is a dungeon there with some items that I can use to bind my mana and keep my body from breaking down like this. Thankfully, the Fortress City is only a week ride away as soon as we get out of this forest so it shouldn''t be too much of a problem. I should be able to drop you off at the front entrance, and you can make your way from there. Once I get everything settled, I''ll come back to see if you still want me." (Descal)Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    "Okay. Sounds like a plan. How long will it take you to get that item and do whatever you need to do?" (Cecilia)

    "About a month. " (Descal)

    "That should be long enough for me to solidify support. I hope it won''t turn into a civil war, but with the way things are going..." (Cecilia)

    "I know it is really late for me to ask this, but how do we know that the lord of the Fortress City will help you?" (Descal)

    "He was one of my king''s closest supporter, and he strongly supported the king''s decision. I have also met with the lord on numerous occasions. At first, he really hated me and was strongly against the King''s decision, but as time went on, he changed his mind. In addition, the eastern part of the Kingdom has less focus on blood and more emphasis on meritocracy which allowed many people to thrive under my Father''s rule. I am positive that the coup would not have much support with the Eastern Lords. Anyway, I need to get to the Fortress City first. Let''s go..." (Cecilia)

    "Stop! Don''t go out of the circle. I am still oozing out powerful mana pressures. It is weaker than before, but it is still strong enough to kill you. The only reason it hasn''t yet is because of the magic barrier." (Descal)

    "We can''t stay here for too long. How long will it take for you to stop whatever you are doing?" (Cecilia)

    "A week..." (Descal)

    "Too long. Any other ideas other than waiting things out?" (Cecilia)

    "Well... There is one way to resist the pressure, but... you need to have strong willpower and a mindset of accepting death." (Descal)

    "What? I understand the willpower, but what do you mean about accepting death?" (Cecilia)

    "You don''t fear death, but accept it." (Descal)

    "That''s easy then." (Cecilia)

    I have made peace with death ever since my mother died. I don''t fear it. I couldn''t fear it when I lived in the castle. Not only that, since I was the next in line to the throne, I had to accept that I could die at any moment due to an assassination. With these thoughts, I stepped out of the blood circle and immediately felt my whole body freeze from a feeling of fear. So this is what he meant. Anyone unprepared would probably have his or her heart stop from the intensity of the fear. The fear of death. However, I was no stranger to feeling this intense fear. I began to forcefully calm myself, taking deep breaths, and trying to slow down my heartbeat. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Descal staring at me with his mouth open.

    "Wow... Umm. I am stating the obvious, but you must have had some fucked up experience to be able to survive this pressure." (Descal)

    "What makes you say that?" (Cecilia)

    "Because in the past, the only ones who survived being near me when I am pulsating this atmosphere were people who had everything taken from them and managed to rise above their despair. Usually, it was their desire to kill me that drove them, but either way, they were willing to lose everything for their goals since they had nothing to lose." (Descal)

    "...." (Cecilia)

    "You did a phenomenal job hiding it, but if you need anyone to talk with... there''s me... I think that''s what I am supposed to say in these situations?" (Descal)

    I didn''t say anything and started following the yellow trees. I should probably tell him of my first few years living as royalty. I was already depressed about my mother''s death, and I was alone. I had no more friends. Everyone around me was trying to find out how to use me. For the first month, all I did was stay in my room. But something snapped inside me when I heard a servant gossiping about my mother and how one of the nobles were responsible for her death. It turns out it wasn''t a simple disease. The corruption and scheming of the nobles rubbed off on me, and I have done things that I wasn''t proud of. My father realized who was behind the string of tragedies that plagued the aristocrats during that time period, and I guess it really impressed him so that was why he picked me as his successor. If my father found out, so could anyone with a high intellect and enough resources. If anything, this coup is most likely led by the victims of my schemes.

    It wasn''t until I met a scapegoat in the execution chamber that I snapped out of it. I went to this guy because I knew that he was innocent, and I was planning on lying to him about canceling his execution and squeezing out any dirt he had about the nobles responsible for his imprisonment. I was then going to use that dirt to start a territorial dispute between two nobles who supported someone who made an enemy out of me, and I would later blow the dispute out of proportion resulting in a resource drain and the weakening of my enemy''s faction. Of course, a lot of commoners were going to die, but what did I care back then. He took one look at me, spat on the floor, and said your mother must be proud of what you have become: a monster.

    Shocked, I couldn''t say anything, left the chamber, and then locked myself in my room for a week. When I looked deeper into that man''s background after his execution, it turned out that he was the childhood friend of my mother. He worked at the university as a poor researcher in monster anatomy. He had a habit of spending too much of his money on obtaining the corpses of monsters since whole contact corpses are extremely expensive. Apparently, he too was an unintentional victim of one of my schemes in which I caused an accident to occur in the university where a highly talented commoner was accepted over a scum child of a high ranking noble family. This was a disgrace and caused the noble family to lose face in upper-class society just as I planned; however, the university professors involved in the admission process started dying off due to assassins. As a result, my mother''s childhood friend attempted to make a deal to stop the assassinations to save his remaining friends, but it only resulted with him getting falsely accused of the deaths he did not commit.

    It was common knowledge who my mother was. What was not common knowledge was who the mastermind behind all these incidents was. Almost all of the nobles thought these were simply unrelated incidents or simply blamed their rivals. Almost no one thought it was me behind all of them. In addition, I already knew the people who found out the truth. My father and 2 of the upper echelons of the kingdom knew or had a suspicion that I was behind all these incidents. But even with their private spies, they never could get any proof, and they kept their mouth shut about it ever since a little letter came with some really compromising information. Apparently, my father loved it for a reason that I found out much later and the day that letter was received, the servants recalled that the king had a slight bounce in his step for the entire day.

    But for a commoner who had no private spies, no information networks, and no money to just take one look at me and seeminglyrealize all of my misdeeds with one look... During my one week stay in my room, I took a good long look at my reflection in the mirror. Who am I? I looked at my hands. What have I done? Then, I glared at the reflection of my eyes. What should I do from now on? Should I just die? Why should I keep living?

    "Descal. How have you coped with doing things that you regret?" (Cecilia)

    "Regret? I don''t really have anything I truly regret. The only regret that I tend to feel is trivial regrets. What happens, happens. If I make a decision that produced unsatisfactory results, I just do something different in the future." (Descal)

    "Really? So you don''t regret giving up your humanity?" (Cecilia)

    Descal suddenly paused and stared at me. His red eyes continued to bore straight into me as if he was trying to pry into my life and history. His left arm started to become increasingly volatile.

    "Umm. Descal. Your... abnormalities are starting to creep me out." (Cecilia)

    "Ahh. Sorry about that. I can wear the mask again if you''d like. As for the arm, I''ll wrap it with some bandages." (Descal)

    "So. Do you regret it?" (Cecilia)

    "I''ve already told you that I..." (Descal)

    "Don''t lie to me Descal. It''s kinda clear that you do have some deep regret over this issue." (Cecilia)

    "Right... you have those magic eyes. It''s just... I have an extremely powerful arsenal of knowledge, strength, and power at my disposal ever since I gave up my humanity. Due to this power, I had the ability to know everything, do anything. Yet, my mental restraints as a former human prevented me from doing everything or knowing everything. My biases as a human being lead me to see this world in an awfully screwed up way. As a result, this discrepancy drove me insane. I just couldn''t understand why this world was so "screwed up" and so "beautiful" at the same time. So, I tried to mold this world into my mental image, resulting in lots of deaths and suffering until my banishment.

    To finally answer your question, I can''t regret losing my humanity because I have never really lost ALL of my humanity. I merely lost my human form and physical limitations, and some of my humanity was lost due to years of loneliness and insanity. Do I regret losing human form? Well... maybe? Umm. Cecilia. I have lived for a long time and for a good chunk of that time, I sort of went insane and became a very apathetic individual with a ridiculous amount of power. I have only recently come to terms with beginning to feel emotions once more. Right now, I haven''t really sorted out all my thoughts on this issue yet. So, any regret I am might be "feeling" right now is only superficial regret. Heck. Almost all the emotions I feel right now is superficial emotions. I am like the last person you should be asking advice for regarding your emotional and psychological state." (Descal)

    "So... You never really felt regret cause you went insane?" (Cecilia)

    "Uhhhh... Yeah?" (Descal)

    "Oh..." (Cecilia)

    I am starting to think that Descal may have had a hand with the first Calamity War. I still remember the time he shattered the cup when I mentioned it. Maybe he was one of the generals of the Emperor? He definitely would be strong enough...

    "Are you alright? Being next to me while I am releasing this much pressure is not good for your mental state. Let''s take a break. Here. Let me just make another cir..." (Descal)

    "Don''t. I''m fine. Thinking that I am gonna die the next second has allowed for some serious reflection on my life. It''s kinda eye-opening. Also, I think it''s kinda cute how you are treating me so nicely so far. I am fine Descal." (Cecilia)

    It really was reflective. The Misty Forest is actually quite peaceful without the mist. The way the sunlight beams down and the silence of the woods made me feel at peace. Not a bad place to die. To take off all the weight from your shoulders and sleep. Ahh, but I still have my obligations, don''t I? Can''t die just yet. But I wouldn''t mind if I get killed doing my job. It might even be preferable.

    "Hey. Cecilia. I''ve managed to get my powers under control. You can stop looking so depressed right now. Smile. We''re almost out of the forest! Soon, we''ll be at Uwile, and you will be able to work on reclaiming your birthright!" (Descal)

    "Yeah..." (Cecilia)

    Descal took one look at my face, and we finished our trek through the forest in silence. For the entire trip, there was an uncomfortable atmosphere. Descal continued to act strangely around me. It was understandable since he was probably worried about what questions I would ask and how he would weasel his way out of them. But I won''t ask him. We all have our secrets, don''t we? Pasts we don''t want to dig up. Descal probably already has a good idea of the things I went through, but he isn''t asking any deeper. He even mentioned that I sleep talked... Since he never pushed me on my own issues, I feel that I shouldn''t push on him. We''ll probably talk things over when we are both ready.

    Descal

    So... Cecilia never really pushed me on my personal matters. I am grateful for that. However, I also can''t help thinking about the things she said when we first met... Anyway, we are finally out of the forest, and on the road to Uwile. Our first journey is almost over.

    I''ve managed to regain control of some of my powers. My eyes are back to normal, but my arm is still made of the abyss, and I''ve stopped emitting pressure thankfully. Not a lot of monster attacks. A couple of bandit attacks, but they were quickly killed. It wasn''t until the second day on the road that something felt wrong.

    The reason being that Lehai was found standing in the middle waiting for us. He wasn''t an illusion. I knew for certain because there wasn''t high magic density to mess around with my radar. The surroundings were filled with tall grass. Perfect for hiding numerous people. I quickly stopped Cecilia from going over and hugging Lehai.Something didn''t feel right.

 Chapter 17: that explains a lot

    Descal

    "So... Lehai... Mind explaining why we are surrounded by a bunch of sweaty armed men?" (Descal)

    "I believe that you have already guessed why." (Lehai)

    Slowly, I took a glance at Cecilia to check on her mental state. She''s been through a lot this couple of months, and although I don''t know the extent of Lehai''s relationship with Cecilia, I don''t know how well she would handle a betrayal right now. Surprisingly, she actually had a small wry grin on her face. What?

    "So... It was you that betrayed me. I knew something was wrong when those assassins got my blood to track. Only those who were very close to me would have been able to obtain it. Does Ugurtz know about this, too? After all, you both have a reason to kill me." (Cecilia)

    Say what? Is she telling me that this whole time her two bodyguards had reasons to kill her? What type of bodyguards are those? As a princess, aren''t you supposed to have retainers that you can trust? Hmmm. Maybe I REALLY underestimated Cecilia''s life in the royal court. But if it is that shitty, why does she still want to be a crown princess? Shouldn''t she just give up her right to the throne?

    "No. For some reason, Ugurtz managed to forgive you. So, I killed him to make sure that he wouldn''t interfere." (Lehai)

    "I see. Well, let''s cut to the chase. I have had a couple of weeks to steel myself for this potential betrayal after all. You want to kill me, but you know that I can''t give you my life so easily. My life is not my decision to give because of that promise I made." (Cecilia)

    "Yes. I know. However, I also know that you can''t fight very well. Your life should be quite easy to take. Understand this. There is no way that I can allow a murderer and a schemer like you to take that throne. We have had too many people like that in recent times. This country is dying. Your great-grandfather was a warmonger. Your grandfather was the epitome of greed. Your father''s reign is marked by social upheaval. YOU have way too much blood on your hands to be a fitting ruler. Your uncle is the best shot at a new start for this country. For my country and my brother that died by your plans, I will end you here." (Lehai)

    What? Wait. What does it mean that Cecilia is a murderer? This puny crybaby actually killed people? What??? And Cecilia if you knew about this betrayal before why didn''t you say ANYTHING FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS? I mean yeah. It was REALLY obvious that you were a girl of many secrets, but holy shit this is a whole new meaning of "hiding behind a mask."

    "My uncle won''t be a good ruler you know. There is a reason why my father got the throne instead. If my father''s reign is marked by social upheaval, then my uncle''s reign will be marked by rampant corruption." (Descal)

    "In my view, a corrupt politician is far better than a monster. Descal. I have hesitations in fighting a mercenary who can achieve gold rank by himself. You have no stakes in this fight. I ask that you take that bag of gold over there and leave. It will be best for both parties. There is no need to continue to protect a mass murderer." (Lehai)

    "... She. This crybaby who could barely fight a couple weeks ago is a murderer? What? This girl who could barely use magic and had multiple mental breakdowns. That''s such a stupid..." (Descal)

    I look over at Cecilia, and I immediately noticed that Lehai was probably telling the truth. She refused to look me in the eye and was looking everywhere but at me.

    "How many people did you kill Cecilia?" (Descal)

    "My... scheming... caused the deaths of... about ten thousand people..." (Cecilia)

    "She was responsible for the massacre of Parasin Square four years ago." (Lehai)

    "WHAT? I thought that it was just a power struggle between two nobles??? You are telling me a freaking uhh 14 year old was responsible for that?" (Descal)

    "12 years old. She was only 12 when she hatched that plan. She pitted two nobles together using false "evidence" that she derived from kidnapping the nobles'' aides and torturing them. Then, she ordered the torture of a couple of well-respected commoners and threw their bodies into the sewage for the commoners to find and combined with a food shortage that she created herself through sabotage and subtle tariffs, a riot broke out forcing the noble to put it down violently. Of course, the noble got mad about this and started a blood feud with the other noble resulting in both houses demise. I asked her for the reason behind the destruction of those two houses. She merely replied that it was practice for taking down a different noble house that she disliked." (Lehai)

    Cecilia only continued to stare at the horizon. She refused to look at both of us.

    "That is why she cannot be queen. Her uncle knew about her deeds and that is why he committed to this coup. We cannot have a person capable of such cold-hearted murder become queen. I dread what this country will turn into should she rise to power." (Lehai)

    "But... That doesn''t make sense. In every village and city that I visited in this kingdom, every single commoner loves her. Isn''t she the one who started the famine prevention program that helped over a hundred villages survive that famine a year ago? Isn''t she the one who helped numerous commoners enter prestigious schools that were normally meant for nobles? Wasn''t she the one who helped organize the annual monster exterminations so that farmers wouldn''t face as much danger from goblins? You are saying that SHE is responsible for that?" (Descal)The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Descal. I think I mentioned this, but I was pretty messed up in my early years at court. All those "good" things I did were just... my attempts at repenting." (Cecilia)

    "So you really were responsible for that event..." (Descal)

    "That... I was actually responsible for all the bloody events like the riots, assassinations, food shortages, corruption, and other stuff that occurred in what the commoners called the Blood Year four years ago." (Cecilia)

    "Hold on. Just give me a moment." (Descal)

    "I won''t blame you if you leave Descal. I won''t be mad. You gave me the chance to be my true self. You let me cry, cuss, and scream at you. We could bicker and fool around. You made me have my first genuine laugh in five years. You even taught me to fight so that I can at least die fighting. I can''t really ask for much more, can I? Also, you''re injured aren''t you? If you decide to leave, I will never hold it against you." (Cecilia)

    "You are fine with just dying?" (Descal)

    "Yes and no. I truly do want to die, but I made a promise. A promise to repent for all that I did. But it''s really hard to keep living with all that I did hanging over my head. So, if I end up getting killed while giving it my all in pursuing the fulfillment of my promise, I would consider that a sign that it is alright for me to die." (Cecilia)

    I saw tears begin to well up within her eyes only for Cecilia to rapidly blink them away. I looked at her eyes and saw my reflection. With a sigh, I asked one last question.

    "I don''t know what happened. I don''t know what hell this country went through. I don''t know what is the truth. I don''t know anything about this country." (Descal)

    "So will you..." (Lehai)

    "Lehai, shut up. Cecilia. I don''t know what you mean by your promise and its significance, but I do understand what repenting is. So I''ll ask you this. As payment for all the things I have done for you, answer me truthfully. What was your promise, and were you faithful to that promise?" (Descal)

    "I''ve promised to make a country in which all the innocent bystanders that died by my hands could look upon with pride. A country where their surviving friends and loved ones can live with a smile. Ever since that day, I have not killed a single innocent person." (Cecilia)

    After hearing the conviction in her voice, I looked at Lehai. To see what he had to say about what she said.

    "Yes. She is telling the truth from what Ihave seen. However, I cannot accept her words as truth. That day when I saw her lie with a face of false sympathy while watching someone getting tortured in front of her only for it to change into an expression of false joy a couple seconds later when meeting with an ambassador ... I swore to never trust her words or her face. You would do well to heed my words. She is a master of lies. Second, even if she was telling the truth, humans are notorious for breaking promises. Who can guarantee that she will not regress into her former self in the future? If she does, NO ONE can stop her since she would be the highest ranking position in the kingdom." (Lehai)

    I mulled over what Lehai said. He was right. Cecilia is... an excellent actor. To be able to hide such a burden, one must be incredibly strong... or twisted. Sigh. I don''t know. There are too many factors. Who should I trust? If I get on the wrong side, I would regret it. Well, when you think about the pros and benefits, I think I know what I need to do.

    "Sorry, Cecilia. I don''t know who to believe or not. Lehai is right that I am an outsider to all this. I hold no loyalty to this kingdom at all. Lehai is right about one thing; you are really good at hiding your true intentions. If I end up helping a psycho to the throne..." (Descal)

    "Shut up Descal." (Cecilia)

    With those words, she suddenly ran up, hugged me, and looked me straight in the eye.

    "I don''t blame you one bit. Now go. I had a really fun time with you. That is not a lie, okay?" (Cecilia)

    Cecilia

    And with those words, I am alone once more. I watched Descal pick up the bag of coins, put it back down, and disappear down the road.

    "I can''t take this money." (Descal)

    When he passed by Lehai, my former subordinate nodded to him in thanks. Truth be told, I was expecting this. Anyone would be turned away by those words, and they were the truth. There was no way for Descal to know if I was lying or telling the truth.I looked toward Lehai.

    "Did you have to kill Ugurtz as well? I highly doubt that he would go out of his way to save me." (Cecilia)

    "It had to be done. He knew too much about the... What do you care about him anyway? You seriously expect me to believe that a snake like you can change itself. Don''t make me laugh." (Lehai)

    "That''s true. I highly doubt I deserve a second chance from any of my victims. But I wasn''t lying you know. I really did keep that promise of mine." (Cecilia)

    "You can tell that to Hades when you meet him. Crown Princess Cecilia Tennesley the Third. I challenge you to single combat." (Lehai)

    "And I humbly accept." (Cecilia)

    If you can''t beat someone with your skills with the bayonet, try to shoot that person before they get in close. With those words ringing in my head, I took aim at Lehai and tried to predict his next move. Ever since Descal told me about my magic eyes, I started playing around with my magic eyes. Recently, I found out that I could actually predict a little bit into the future. Once I got a decent read on how he was going to move, I shot, but he actually dodged it.

    He quickly shortened the distance and made a lunge at me. However, I already predicted that so I dodged out of the way and countered with a stab to his thigh. Lehai simply jumped above my head and tried to stomp on me.

    I quickly rolled and threw a fist full of dirt into his face. When I tried to follow it up with a stab to his stomach, he kneed me before the bayonet even got close. I collapsed trying to breathe before I felt a boot on my neck.

    "I would like nothing more than to stab you through the head right now. However, I will at least give you the honor of hearing your last words as payment for the people you have helped on your path of "atonement"." (Lehai)

    "I made a grave for your brother. It took me a while to find his body again, but I did it. I still remember when the servants freaked out over why I was covered in rotting shit in the morning. I placed it on that hill where I accepted your pledge of loyalty as my knight. Promise me that you''ll take good care of that grave. Your brother deserved better." (Cecilia)

    "Yes. He deserved more than having his murderer make his grave." (Lehai)

    "Yes. Yes, he did. I hope you find peace in killing me. I''m ready." (Cecilia)

    I closed my eyes and waited for the steel to go through my heart. It never came. When I opened my eyes, I found Descal standing over me as he grasped the blade preventing it from piercing my heart.

    "If I left you, I would be the biggest hypocrite ever. Don''t worry. You won''t have to walk this path alone. It seems that we share a lot in common when you think about it." (Descal)

    So, there really was someone who was capable of accepting me despite my past. Who would have thought it?

 Chapter 18: End of Arc 0

    Cecilia

    Lehai immediately disengaged and took a couple steps back, sword pointed at Descal.

    "Why did you come back?" (Lehai)

    "I placed a cup with a string attached to it behind the bag of gold. A little magic enchantment was added so I could hear everything. I have been told that people have a tendency to reveal who they really are when they are near death. So, after hearing the conversation, I decided to give Cecilia the benefit of the doubt." (Descal)

    "You do understand that she could be lying to you. You could be playing straight into her plans." (Lehai)

    I saw Descal look at me with doubt in his eyes. It was clear that he still doesn''t completely trust me.

    "You are right. I could be playing straight into her plans. But, I see a bit of myself in her, and if she isn''t lying... I want to see her succeed. Maybe it will give me some rest regarding some aspects of my past. However, if Cecilia is lying to me, I will swear here and now to both of you that I will kill Cecilia myself." (Descal)

    "I find that hard to believe. Even if I do believe that you will actually follow through with it if the time comes, I highly doubt you will survive to do so. She would probably think of multiple ways to take you down before you get even close to her." (Lehai)

    "Pfff. Hahahaha. Lehai. You don''t know how strong I REALLY am. Neither of you know. And Lehai, I WILL be able to follow through with it should the time comes. Maybe you are confusing my motives here. I am not helping her out of love or pity. It is for my own benefit since if she succeeds,it will give me hope that I could find peace myself. If she plays with that hope and I wasted my time, I will have sufficient enough reason to kill her." (Descal)

    "... I can''t tell if you are actually serious or if you are simply crazy. However, understand that even with those words, I do not trust you. I will not allow Cecilia to pass me. I also don''t think you can take down the numerous assassins that have surrounded us that are at least gold ranked mercenaries while protecting Cecilia at the same time." (Lehai)

    "You''re bluffing. If not, you would have used them since the beginning to try and intimidate me." (Descal)

    "I wastrying to save on the cost. I would only have to pay them at half price if I never needed their help. Money doesn''t grow on trees you know." (Lehai)

    "Wow. That phrase exists here too?" (Descal)

    "Enough." (Lehai)

    Lehai took out a whistle and blew on it. We were quickly surrounded by numerous assassins. As each of them released their mana, I shivered at the sheer amount of gold ranked humans around us. Even though I know how strong Descal is, I don''t think he can protect me in this fight. But, I won''t go down without a fight at the very least. It''s the least I can do for him coming back to me.

    "Sigh. All these people are going to die today..." (Descal)

    What? Did he seriously just say that? Is he that strong?

    "Cecilia. What you see here you will engrave it into your eyes. Because should you have lied to me today or should you falter in your path in the future, it will be ME that comes after you." (Descal)

    And with those words, the same pressure from back in the woods was released from Descal. I had a hard time trying to stay conscious just like last time. In order to stay awake, I had to pinch my hand so hard that blood came oozing out. The worst part was seeing Descal melt in front of me. No, melt wasn''t the right word. Absorbed would be better. In the place of the absorbed flesh, dark shadows came springing out. The sunlight seemed to dim as his form started to absorb the surrounding light. Even though the sun was high in the sky, it felt like dusk.

    As I watched Descal transform, I began thinking of a certain piece of writing in the castle archives. A small excerpt from a torn and worn fictional story of an elvish princess from about a thousand years ago. It was in journal form and talked of a princess'' dreams, nightmares, and hopes. Of course, due to the excessive exaggerations in the diary, many court scholars relegated this as fiction, and it got buried in our castle archives. After all, why would the journal of a real elf princess be in our possession? In addition, the writer of this "journal" contradicted or exaggerated many of the established facts obtained from other records. But... I was beginning to think that maybe it truly was a journal.

    To think I would still be haunted in my dreams about the day the Shadow came to our halls. I never thought that the day would come. No. We all knew the day would come, but we just never fully accepted it. TheShadow came to our court demanding that we surrender. It took everything to even try to stay ALIVE while near it. Its sheer presence threatened to shut down my heart through fear. I had to consciously think about my heart to keep it beating. I could only stand there in fear as it walked toward the king. It had no constant form. One moment it was a blob, the next a form of a human, the next a form of an animal. With every step it took, shadows seemed to burst out of it, trying to flee its body. The only thing constant about the Shadow was its eyes. Those horrid red eyes. Every time its piercing red eyes gazed upon my kin, they would simply freeze and shriek in fear. When its eyes fell upon me, I felt empty. Cold. Alone. To think anything in this world could have those eyes...

    The Dark One, The Shadow, The Emperor, and The Dark Reaper. They were all names for the boogeyman of all intelligent creature''s childhood. Even dragons teach this story to their younglings to remind them that the dragons are NOT the strongest creatures to have walked this world. The one who caused the first Calamity and mysteriously disappeared. To think, it was next to me this entire time. Soon the pressure burden was too much causing me to become unconscious.

    By the time I woke up again, the sun was setting over the horizon. Then, the stench hit me. The stench of blood. I looked to the side to see the torso of a man right beside me. Shocked, I stood up too fast and tripped over a skull. Looking around, I saw red. The scattered bodies and the sheer amount of red everywhere began to remind me of a certain massacre. As I looked around,I saw Descal... no... the Dark Reaper... on top of a hill staring at the setting sun.

    Knowing the futility of running, I began to walk toward him... it?

    "You know. I think you are the first person ever to approach me in this form without killing intent." (The Dark Reaper)

    "Are you really..." (Cecilia)

    "I have been given a lot of names, and I have outgrown many of them. You are probably the most familiar with these though. The Dark One, The Shadow, The Emperor of Despair, and finally the Dark Reaper. Dragons called me The Bane. During my banishment, I was gifted the name of Cal. Finally, the name Descal Binus. In an old language, Binus means pair. Descal Pair. The Cal is the basis of who I am at the moment. Ah sorry for rambling." (Descal)

    "I''m sorry. It''s just hard to wrap my head around this sudden development. I thought that you were a general in the Dark Reaper''s army. Not The Dark Reaper itself." (Cecilia)The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Get used to it. Life rarely gives you time to prepare you for whatever it throws at you. The same goes for me as well. I thought that you were simply a sheltered princess who got shoved unwillingly into a political conflict. Never did I expect that you were a mass murderer underneath. I would expect a mass murderer to be able to keep their head in a fight." (Descal)

    "I never wanted to be a princess. And I never killed someone directly. They only died by my orders..." (Cecilia)

    "That makes it worse. You didn''t even have the courage to kill someone with your own hands." (Descal)

    "Yes. That''s true. So what now? Are you going to destroy this world again?" (Cecilia)

    "No. That is in the past. I no longer desire such things." (Descal)

    "Then, Dark Reaper. What..." (Cecilia)

    "Descal, please. Also, I consider myself to be a male. I was male when I became this, and I still think like a male." (Descal)

    "Then, Descal. What are you going to do?" (Cecilia)

    "Before I met you, I was planning on exploring this world after I managed to get my powers under control again. But now, I have some promises to keep first. I''m going to help you become Queen and observe you.I am lost right now. When I fused with the abyss, I ended up getting rejected by the world. The abyss has no role in this world and such I lost my role as a human in this world. As a result, I ended up becoming unable to influence this world in any way. Imagine being unable to eat, drink, touch anything. Only allowed to observe how this world goes on without you. It made me grow mad. Insane. Until I snapped. I then tried to destroy this world in an attempt to remake this world in my image. A world in which I could live in. I tried to force the circle of life to revolve around me. I tried to place myself at the center of everything in this world. I almost succeeded." (Descal)

    "The hero right?" (Cecilia)

    "Yes. The hero. He stopped me. I got banished, had some time to reflect. At the moment, I have no wish to continue on my past path. I spilled enough blood for a long time. Am I fading away right now?" (Descal)

    "Umm. No. You''re still here. You don''t look like you are fading away." (Cecilia)

    "That''s weird. I should be disappearing... I''ve lost my human body so..." (Descal)

    "What do you mean?" (Cecilia)

    "Like I said before. The abysshas no role in this world. Since I bonded to it, I don''t have a role in this world. As a result, the will of this world should have pushed my presence to the edge... Unless..." (Descal)

    "I have no idea what you said." (Cecilia)

    "Okay. I''ll give you the really dumbed down version. The world is like a book, a story, and the abyss is nowhere in the story called the world. As far as the story is concerned, there is no character, no setting, nothing about the abyss. Since the abyss isn''t part of the story, the abyss should definitely not exist where it can influence the story. When I was in the human body, I was a character in the book. A human that got teleported into this world. But I just lost the human body so as far as the book is concerned, I no longer exist anymore. So, I should be getting banished to outside the book... Except I am not getting banished..." (Descal)

    "Maybe the world decided to accept you? Maybe you are part of the story now?" (Cecilia)

    "On what grounds?" (Descal)

    "I don''t know. How did you get back into the world last time?" (Cecilia)

    "There are some species that have the ability to escape outside the world for certain periods of time. One of those species were the fairies. I captured one, and using that fairy, I infected each of them with horrible nightmares of me. Since fairies are masters of illusions, with the number of fairies that believed in me due to how realistic the nightmares were, it created a massive illusion spell that fooled the world into thinking that I was the destroyer of worlds. I essentially made a character for myself in the story. That was how I got back last time." (Descal)

    "Wait fairies are real?" (Cecilia)

    "That''s your question?" (Descal)

    "Well. I''ve always liked the stories about fairies. My mother used to tuck me to bed with those stories." (Cecilia)

    "Fairies are bitches. Nothing like what the stories portray them to be. Be happy that they are all dead." (Descal)

    "Umm. Changing the subject, maybe things are different now?" (Cecilia)

    "Nope. Every time I used the abyss powers recently, I could feel a rejection. A strong rejection. So the world still hates me. Something has anchored me into this world." (Descal)

    "Isn''t that a good thing?" (Cecilia)

    "Depends. I don''t know enough about this so it is making me very nervous. If this anchor has conditions for it to function, I want to know the conditions..." (Descal)

    "Sigh. What a way to end the day. I am sitting on a hill, watching the sunset with the monster that almost destroyed this world a thousand years ago." (Cecilia)

    "And I can actually sit on the hill. But I am sitting next to a girl who has the blood of thousands on her hands." (Descal)

    "Of all the things in this world, that is the last thing I want to hear from YOU." (Cecilia)

    "Hey. I didn''t have a choice. Also, I was insane." (Descal)

    "Being insane doesn''t excuse you from almost destroying worlds." (Cecilia)

    "No, it doesn''t. Neither does almost destroying a world prevent me from pointing out the faults of a murderer." (Descal)

    "Well. I believe that you said that you were going to help me become queen. Baniti was kinda right about you. I am probably going to succeed now with you by my side." (Cecilia)

    "Ehh. You may want to tone down on that... Umm... I am kinda weak? I can''t exhibit my full strength anymore. I realized that while I was on that killing spree." (Descal)

    "Weak? You call yourself weak?" (Cecilia)

    "No. Look the problem is that I can''t use my power willy-nilly anymore. I could when I was destroying the world since it was my ROLE. It fits into the character that I tricked the world into making. Now... I only have this puny "string" tying me to the world. If I go overboard with my powers, I could seriously break the string and get rejected. As a result, I can''t go around one punching every single challenge you will face. It''s gonna suck, but I have to use my powers in proportion to the circumstances." (Descal)

    "I don''t get it. Can you fight or not?" (Cecilia)

    "I can fight. But depending on the strongest individual I am fighting, my mana use is restricted. For example, if I am fighting against a silver level enemy, I would be able to exhibit gold level power level. A gold level, platinum. A platinum, Mythril. Yadayadayada. You get the point. However, the amount I am fighting against doesn''t matter. If I fight against an army of gold ranks, I will still only get the power levels of a platinum. So I can get overpowered by numbers... man this sucks. I used to be able to solo an entire country before..." (Descal)

    "But you were still able to defeat all those gold level assassins." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. That was because I still had my human body. In order for me to use my full power, my body paid the price. Damn. I was finally human again only for me to lose it so damn fast." (Descal)

    "Are you sure you want to tell me all this. You know. Like Lehai said, I could be scheming to use and kill you." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Nope. I believe you." (Descal)

    "So easily?" (Cecilia)

    "See these eyes. They can read someone''s "story". You may have the stains of a murderer, but you don''t have the drive anymore. If anything, I see the desire to be kind and to achieve a sense of peace for what you have done. Although I am curious, what made for such a drastic change?" (Descal)

    "Long story short. I met someone that made me reflect on myself. Locked myself in the room for a long time. Eventually, my father dragged me out of the room and went on a vacation to a small village in the mountains. It turned out that my father hid his identity as king and was known as a traveling merchant in that village. We had a good long talk and did some stuff together. He explained why he named me his successor. He wanted someone who could stand up to the nobles and bring change to this country. When it was time to head back, I met a witch. She said if I wanted forgiveness from all the spirits that hung on to me, I was to create a country that they could be proud to leave behind. That''s the gist of it." (Cecilia)

    "Heh. At least you are trying to seek forgiveness and making reprimands. Better than me." (Descal)

    "It''s getting dark. I''m gonna ask you again. What''s your plan now? Uwile is only a day and night walk from here. I don''t think you would be able to get past the gates in that form." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Go sleep, Cecilia. As soon as morning comes, I''ll teleport you to the front gates. I have some stuff to get first. Although my initial reason for going to the dungeon is now useless since I lost my human body, I still need to get an acceptable body. Can''t walk around like this. Once I get all that out of the way, I am coming straight back. Don''t worry about the assassins anymore. I broke their spell while you were unconscious." (Descal)

    "To think I have my only friend now is the Dark Reaper of all things." (Cecilia)

    "You consider me a friend?" (Descal)

    "Yes." (Cecilia)

    "You have a twisted definition of a friend then." (Descal)

    "Yes." (Cecilia)

    "I don''t consider you a friend. Are you okay with that?" (Descal)

    "You aren''t going to betray me first though. That''s good enough for me." (Cecilia)

    "I''ll just go clean up all those bodies. Go to sleep." (Descal)

    "I know I promised to think of a nickname for you. Do you still want to get one?" (Cecilia)

    "Is there a point anymore?" (Descal)

    "No, I guess not." (Cecilia)

    End of Arc 0

 Chapter 19: Arc 1 begins

    Recently, the order of the appearance of the four great humanoid species, homo sapiensdwarvis, homo sapienelvas, homo sapienanimales, and the homo sapien sapiens, has been called into question with the discovery of a 2 ma fossil mass burial of what is presumably the common ancestor of the four great humanoids. Fossil, dwarven, and elvish records have suggested that the homo sapiendwarvishave branched out first, followed by the homo sapienelvas, homo sapienanimales, and the homo sapien sapiens. From the elvish records, we know that the dwarves existed before the appearance of the elves, and the elves were responsible for the homo sapienanimalesdue to the freak mana wave that caused a massive mutation among the elves giving rise to the beastmen. After a couple of hundreds of thousands of years, the homo sapien sapiens appeared giving the belief that the humans branched from the beastmen (explaining the reason why many of the ancient elves have a tendency of looking down on the human race). However, with the discovery of the 2 ma fossils, the entire theory has been thrown into turmoil. The skeletons of the common ancestor are EXACTLY the same as the homo sapien sapiens. At first, scientists thought that this was a hoax or a mistake, but radioactive dating combined with mana decay dating continues to show that the fossil is indeed 2ma years old. Currently, the scientific community is unsure of what to make of this finding. At first, it was hypothesized that the elves and the dwarves purposely left out the human race in their records, but the fossil records agree with what is on the elvish and dwarven records. Until this discovery, there were no human fossils older than 100,000 years ago giving credibility to the elvish and dwarven records. So why is there such a major gap between the fossils? Is it simply that the natural selection favored the same skeletal traits of the common ancestor once more? Is it simply a matter of coincidence? Convergent evolution? To obtain a better picture of this discrepancy, mages will soon be performing a DNA extraction so the fossils can be genetically sequenced. In fact, a much clearer picture would be made if we waited for the results of the genetic comparisons between the four homo sapien species. Until further research is done, it is HIGHLY recommended that the implications of these findings stay classified for it could mean a massive political and social upheaval across the world should this information leak without sufficient preparation.

    -Update on the classified finding of the mass graveyard Year: 1974 CW

    The moon shone its light across a resting army. Ready for the battle that would occur tomorrow. Many soldiers were sleeping or eating a snack, but in one of the larger tents, a high tension could be felt.

    "With all due respect, General Haig, this plan will end in failure. We do not have the numerical advantage nor do we have a fortress to utilize. If we try to hold all the flanks, we are going to lose. I say that we redistribute the numbers and put more emphasis on the centralline right here. With the hills and forests on the left and right flanks, we should be able to hold them there for longer period of time allowing us to break through the middle section and dividing the army in half. If we try to distribute the forces equally, we..." (Descal)

    "No. We are following through with the initial plan. It is too risky to try that maneuver. You just focus on guarding the queen which is your job. Let me do mine. Your majesty, if you would allow us." (Haig)

    "Go ahead, Haig. We will go through with the plans you have drafted. When the battle occurs, I expect you to oversee the central line." (Cecilia)

    "Understood. Thank you, your majesty." (Haig)

    With those words, Haig left the command tent to explain his plan to the other commanding officers. Descal looked over at Princess, no Queen Cecilia and scrutinized her. Cecilia paid no attention as she went back toward her paperwork and began reading the reports and started signing off some documents.

    "Do youwant to lose?" (Descal)

    "Of course not." (Cecilia)

    "This is important! Look at me when I am speaking to you." (Descal)

    "I can do listen and work. Just say what you wanna say." (Cecilia)

    "Are you even reading the reports? Cause it looks like you are just skimming and just signing off on it." (Descal)

    "No. I am actually reading. That has to do with the merchant supply line while that has to do with the armory budget. That is the results of the attempted peace negotiations..." (Cecilia)

    "Okay. Whatever. If we go through with this plan, we are going to lose. We can''t seriously expect to face these guys head on like this. Yeah, we have the topography advantage, but it won''t matter much if we don''t properly utilize it! If we don''t place more troops on the central line, it is us that is going to get cut in two. Not only that, the stupid general is going to the centralline as well. We are going to look so stupid if we lose the commanding general in our FIRST fucking battle. So why the hell did you order the general to the central line? Not only that our intelligence division is absolutely horrendous at the job. What is maybe 10,000 troops? What type of report is that? It''s not even remotely correct. I did some scouting a couple days ago, and I got a rough estimate of 19,000. 19,000 fuckin thousand against our seven thousand. Just fuckin fantastic. The first thing that we need to change is the scouting troops. For one, PROPERLY pay them and equip them." (Descal)

    "You have to remember Descal that you don''t have any authority regarding this army. The only thing you have control over is the royal guard. No one is going to believe that lie of yours that you studied battlefield tactics." (Cecilia)

    "Uhuh. Yeah, like I can tell people. <Oh hey! I actually commanded battles from over a thousand years ago!> As if anyone would believe me. However, I have a LOT more experience than this guy. ALL this general has is a bunch of medals that he got from his father. Heis a dimwit with tactics. Maybe he is so old that he has gone blind and senile. And, it doesn''t take a genius to realize that this is a shitty plan. Evenyou can tell that this won''t end well." (Descal)

    "Descal. What do you want me to do?" (Cecilia)

    "Appoint someone else! Anyone more competent than this guy. (Descal)

    "He is the most competent. We have a severe lack of generals because most of the generals are nobles, and you already know about my relationship with most of them. Anyone else is simply a squad commander that everyone will question and comes from commoner backgrounds. They are going to need quite the achievements if I want to promote them to generals much less commander of this army. Otherwise, it sends the wrong message. If I demote Haig for some random commoner, the northern nobles will break the neutrality, and my diplomacy work would have gone down the drain. Also, you know how the northerners prefer meritocracy so it would not go well if I promoted the squad commanders." (Cecilia)

    "Fuck my life. Well, Haig is definitely an example of a way of cheating the system with his merits. I can clearly tell from how he plans that he did not win from superior tactics, but from overrunning enemies with superior numbers. Fuck my life." (Descal)

    "You have no life. You are the abyss. Even the world says you have no life." (Cecilia)

    "Fuck you." (Descal)

    "Maybe you would like to explain to mewhy you look suspiciously like me one more time? You even gotpurple hair, the symbol of royal blood, for your body. Hmmm?" (Cecilia)

    "Are youstill angry about that? Look I am sorry. When I was making my body, I accidentally thought of you during the process, and I ended up bonding with this body shape." (Descal)

    "Uh. Huh. Do you know how much of a heart attack you gave me when I looked in the mirror, and I saw amaleme looking back? Did it ever occur to you that it may have been proper conduct to at least send me some sort of message before hijacking my mirror as a communication device? Do you know how embarrassing it was for me to check for the existence of my "assets" while you were watching the entire thing through the mirror? Do you know how much that mirror cost?" (Cecilia)

    "Uhh. But..." (Descal)

    "No buts. You deserved that log to the face. Besides, I like the rearrangement of your face." (Cecilia)

    "That is the issue I have. What type of person drags a fuckin log to their office just so that you can rig a trap? If it wasn''t me, you could have killed someone. Not only that, you dyed my hair red with my fake blood. What type of psycho does that?" (Descal)

    "I made sure it was you. I deliberately changed the schedules, and I made sure it was on a rest day so that it could have only been you." (Cecilia)

    *Cecilia completely ignores the second half of Descal''s complaint about using his fake blood to dye his hair red permanently*

    "Uggh. Ever since you came back to civilization, you have been acting so differently. Why couldn''t you show this behavior during the flight to Uwile?" (Descal)

    "I was thrown into a situation that I had absolutely no control over and had no training, talents, nor skills for survivingthat ordeal. I was not prepared. Of course, I panicked." (Cecilia)The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "And you have control over this situation?" (Descal)

    "Yes." (Cecilia)

    "Is there seriously no one else that can replace him?" (Descal)

    "... I have a plan. Don''t worry." (Cecilia)

    "May I hear what the plan is?" (Descal)

    "Not yet. After this battle. Descal. I have a request for you." (Cecilia)

    "What?" (Descal)

    "I want you and Royal Guard to be battle ready when the time comes." (Cecilia)

    "What? You know very well that the freaking royalguards are just a show. This royal guard is just a hastily put together group of soldiers to save face. The coup already wiped out all the good royal guards anyway. The only thing they have is discipline. Everything else is just useless. All they can do is swing a sword and show off their decent equipment. They will lose against a swordmaster." (Descal)

    "I know. Descal, please." (Cecilia)

    Cecilia looked at Descal with intense eyes. She wasn''t joking at all. At first, Descal wasn''t going to say anything and walk out, but he saw herhand shaking. Immediately, understanding dawned on Descal.

    "Cecilia. Are you planning on going into battle?" (Descal)

    "..." (Cecilia)

    "Look at me. You aren''t a warrior. You can''t fight. Yes, you are an excellent politician and a schemer, but you can''t fight very well. These aren''t going to be bandits we are fighting. They will be well-trained mercenaries, knights, soldiers,andmages. Don''t do it." (Descal)

    "I think I am a decent enough fighter to..." (Cecilia)

    "SPARRING is not the same as warfare Cecilia. Cecilia, your strength lies somewhere else. Don''t go to the battlefield." (Descal)

    "Descal. I have ordered the deaths of thousands of people while I sat behind a desk. I don''t want to win this war while others die for me. Not anymore. I should share the dangers of my men as well." (Cecilia)

    "You will die." (Descal)

    "Then, I will die trying to pursue my promise. *rises from her chair* If I stay behind, ordering others to kill or be killed, what type of ruler will I be? I have said that I want to build a country that every innocent person I have killed can look upon and be proud of. I can''t do that if I just stay behind. I won''t be a coward. I have to be a leader. I have to be someone that the citizens will be proud of to have as queen." (Cecilia)

    "Your words will be more convincing if your legs aren''t shaking." (Descal)

    "Damn it Descal! I am trying! You''re right. I am not suited for the battlefield. Anything can go wrong. Well-thought-out plans can burn up in a moment. Everybody killing each other. Just chaos everywhere. But, despite knowing all this, I want to be someone different from my past. Instead of staying in the shadows in safety watching everybody die, I should be at the front as well. Please." (Cecilia)

    "...I''ll speak with my men. We''ll follow you to battle. But! Talk with the dumbass general. Make sure to leave a force of 150 cavalrymen in reserve. We''re going to need them." (Descal)

    "I can do that. And thanks." (Cecilia)

    "Thank me if my strategy works, and we come out alive. *snort* My initial plan was twisting some stuff around to try to minimize casualties for a loss and organize a retreat, but with you coming to the battlefield, like hell the enemy forces is gonnaallow us to retreat. Now, I have to find a way for us towinthis god damn battle from an unfavorable position. I''ll give you the preliminary strategy before the sun rises. Get some sleep." (Descal)

    *Watches Descal leave* "As if I could sleep." (Cecilia)

    She quickly finished up her paperwork and signed off on the last supply negotiations before she plopped down on her bed. Surprisingly, sleep came quite quickly.

    ------- 11 hours later ------

    "Sir! The central formation has been pierced! General Haig has fallen in battle. Commander Finus has managed to rally the men, but he can''t stop the assault!" (Messenger 1)

    "GIve him the order to retreat to the hills right at the edge of the forest." (Descal)

    "Yes, sir!" (Messenger 1)

    Descal went out of the tent and climbed a tree and began surveying the battlefield. He could clearly see how Commander Finus was struggling against the enemy forces. They managed to pierce the shield wall and almost divided the forces in half. Since Commander Finus is a pretty charismatic guy, I can partly understand why the central line hasn''t dissolved into a complete retreat yet considering everything that is happening.

    "Descal! Why did you order the retreat that far? That will completely open up the left forest routes." (Cecilia)

    "It''s too late. I have to preserve what I have left. That means abandoning an entire flank. We can''t win by force. Once the right flank falls, they are going to try to surround us. That means one of the flanks would be farther away from the general, giving us the chance to break through and attack the head of this army. Not only that, I made sure to tell the commander of the right flank to fake a retreat and come back to hammer the overextended right flank when the time comes." (Descal)

    "You don''t seem that surprised about the General dying." (Cecilia)

    "I already planned for it. Thank god our Commanders know what they are doing. There is a reason why I sent you a letter to have Commander Finus take the central position. On the other hand, you don''t seem very worried that our freaking general died." (Descal)

    The lack of response from Cecilia made Descal suspicious that it was a part of Cecilia''s scheme. Ever since Descal came back to Uwile, Cecilia never lied to Descal. If she did not want Descal to know something, she merely stayed silent or tried to change the topic. Whenever Descal tried to push Cecilia on the matter, it always ended with Descal shooting his own foot so he eventually learned to shut up.

    Once Descal made sure that the retreat was going as smoothly as possible, he jumped down from the tree and began walking toward the Royal Guards with Cecilia close behind him. As soon as the Guards saw Descal, they rose up and saluted him.

    "What type of salute is that?" (Cecilia)

    "A salute from another world. At ease." (Descal)

    Descal looked over the ragtag group of the 30 Royal Guards. Truth be told, the army would spare no elites for Cecilia''s guard since it was believed that Cecilia would not even get close to the battlefield. As a result, Cecilia''s Royal Guard consisted of soldiers from a wide background. Three of them were actual elite Royal Guards that escaped from the coup. Once they heard that Cecilia was alive, they immediately came to Uwile with news of her father''s execution and the king''s will that states that Cecilia is to be the next queen. Of course, how many nobles actually follows what the will state was a different matter... As expected, the rest came from commoner backgrounds or small noble houses and were handpicked by Descal. When picking his team, he chose discipline, drive, and loyalty above skill and talent. In addition, to make training easier, the Guards were mainly young men. If Descal had more time, he would have been able to train the Royal Guards as an elite group, but alas he only had two months before war broke out.

    The Royal Guards were divided into 3 squads of 10. The elite Royal Guards, Felix, Dob, and Manos, were the squadleaders with their vice leaders, Donald, Pan, and Goob. There were no female Guards because there was only onefemale applicant, and she was really sexually attractive. Also, she loved making sexual jokes and had a tendency to go on large shopping sprees. She was an amazing fighter but having one sexy girl in agroup full of men... Descal grew worried about squad cohesion and any foolish love triangles that may pop up. That and he was worried about the Guard''s financial status should she join. Instead, Descal decided to place her under the command of Commander Cornelia, the current commander of the left flank. Last he heard of her, she was quickly rising through the ranks of the army and was set on being promoted to a Commander.

    "Sir. Are we really going to battle?" (Donald)

    "Yes. Chin up, soldier. You are a part of the Royal Guard. The only relationship you have with fear is the amount of fear you drive into the enemy when we make contact." (Descal)

    "Yes, sir!" (Donald)

    "I am surprised at the amount of respect they have for you." (Cecilia)

    "Me, too. When I was training them, I was really winging it." (Descal)

    "How humble. I saw you from the window. You knew exactly what you were doing." (Cecilia)

    "Then, I did a good job winging it." (Descal)

    "You think they will be fine on the battlefield?" (Cecilia)

    "I don''t know. RIght now, I would place them on the low end of silver rank. Except for the three actual Guards, they are at the high end of the silver rank." (Descal)

    Cecilia only nodded as she went back to cleaning out herChassepot. Since Descal had some time to toy around with Uwile''s forges as well as better control of his magic, he was able to replicate a breechloading,bolt action rifle for Cecilia. Since it was rifled, Cecilia was able to hit targets at a much higher range, but the gun needed lots of cleaning due to fouling from the black powder so Cecilia has gotten into the habit of cleaning her gun even if it was unnecessary as a way of calming her nerves. Descal still has not made much progress regarding explosives, so he was still stuck with using mercury fulminate and black powder.

    Descal thought that he would need to make another shorter barrel rifle for Cecilia when she was one the horse, but Cecilia somehow continued to be accurate with the longer barrel while on horseback and has significantly improved her bayonet techniques due to having access to numerous spear instructors. Cecilia was able to bullshit her way through about her peculiar weapon stating that she found it in a ruin. Anyhow, Cecilia was capable enough on the battlefield in theory.If Descal had to guess, Cecilia had the power levels of a gold rank due to her mastery of the rifle.

    "How is your progress on your magic eyes training?" (Descal)

    "It''s going well. I''ve finally managed to "see" mana now. In addition, I''ve mastered long range sight with my eyes." (Cecilia)

    "Anything else?" (Descal)

    "Is there anything else I can do with my eyes?" (Cecilia)

    "I don''t know." (Descal)

    "Then, no." (Cecilia)

    "Sir! The right flank has collapsed! Commander Derecha has ordered a complete retreat from the battlefield. Commander Finus wanted me to tell you that he won''t be able to hold his position for much longer so he wants you to, in his words, "hurry the fuck up with your plan"." (Messenger 2)

    "Tell him to retreat farther back to the ponds near the hills. Give him this map. Tell him that it pinpoints all the ditches, pitfalls, spikes, and fortifications I had the conscripts do last night. If he places his troops properly, he should be able to pull the enemy forces into chokepoints and buy more time and reduce casualties." (Descal)

    "Yes, sir!" (Messenger 2)

    "Alright! Royal Guards! Stand at attention! We will be going to battle now! Saddle up and head toward the left flank. We are going to meet up with Commander Cornelia. Remember that you are the Royal Guards. Remember why you are fighting!" (Descal)

    "Sir, Yes, Sir!" (Royal Guards)

    With those words, with Descal at the head, the Royal Guards made a beeline for the left flank which mainly consisted of a bunch of hills. As a result, much of the left flank was fought with the cavalry units. Of course, Descal laid all sorts of traps on the left flank as well. Cornelia was informed beforehand of the placements, and she was able to utilize them to their potential. She baited the enemy cavalry into the pits and then had a different cavalry unit crash into the disrupted enemy units. In addition, she utilized the hills to pull off numerous flanking measures by hiding cavalry units between large hills so that enemy cavalry could end up getting pincered. As a result, the left flank was completely won by Cornelia.

    Once the Royal Guards were a decent distance into the left flank, Descal''s group was approached by a cavalry squad with a waving flag that marked a commander. The lead knight took off her helmet and as the brown hair came tumbling down,

    "Alright. I heard that our general died. DId you come here to ask us to cover your retreat?" (Cornelia)

    "On the contrary, it''s time we flip the score. I plan on winning this engagement." (Descal)

 Chapter 20: cavalry charge

    "Cavalry wins not with sables, but with whips and spurs."

    -Prussian general Seydlitz from Earth

    Descal

    "Oh. Then enlighten me on your plan. I thought that you didn''t want us to engage the pike divisions because you wanted us to save our numbers to cover a possible retreat." (Cornelia)

    "No. I just didn''t want to lose the left flank as well." (Descal)

    "If you are insinuating that my cavalry division can''t defeat pike infantry.." (Cornelia)

    "Oh. no. I have full confidence you can do it. The only problem is that I don''t think you can defeat the pike infantry if they have a mage division with them as well." (Descal)

    "I haven''t seen any mage divisions." (Cornelia)

    "You don''t need to see it. I know that they are out there somewhere. The number of mage divisions that I have seen so far doesn''t add up to the scout reports." (Descal)

    "The scout reports could be wrong like they always are." (Cornelia)

    "I personally did the scouting after that ridiculous initial scouting report." (Descal)

    "What? When did you... you know what. We don''t have time. How are we going to win this then?" (Cornelia)

    "Gather every single cavalry division you have heavy, light, lancers and form a double arrow formation. The royal guards will form the first arrow formation and everyone else will form the second right behind us. Then, once we break through, I want you to take half of the soldiers and swing around and hit the enemy units attacking Commander Finus. The other half will go straight for the enemy general." (Descal)

    "But you just said that there is a mage division out there. Attacking a pike division when there is a mage division around is sheer suicide. Not only that the pike formation is completely formed up. Trying to bait them into moving isn''t going to work if they have a mage division constantly pouring spells onto our faces while the pikemen just have to chill in their formation. If you are thinking of just mindlessly charging a pike wall, think again because the horses are too smart to mindlessly charge into one. They''ll just stop in front of the wall making us easy prey for the damn mages." (Cecilia)

    "Don''t worry. Leave it to me. I will personally break the formation." (Descal)

    "Uh huh. And how are you going to convince the entire cavalry to follow you with those words?We barely know you. All we know is that you are a foreign mercenary that protected her Highness on her escape to Uwile. We know nothing of your fighting skills. Much less your ability to actually pierce a fully formedpike wall." (Cornelia)

    "Commander Cornelia. I believe the problem with convincing the cavalry to go with Descal''s plan can be solved when they hear that I will be leading in the front with the Royal Guards." (Cecilia)

    "Excuse me? Your Highness. Forgive me, but I do not believe I heard you properly." (Cornelia)

    "You heard right. I will be in the front arrow formation with the Royal Guards." (Cecilia)

    "If I may, that is a..." (Cornelia)

    "Oh, I know it mayseem stupid, but Descal knows what he is doing. If he says he can breach that pike wall, he can do it. Just go along with what he says. After all, you have been following his instructions quite well so far. Why not now?" (Cecilia)

    I saw Cornelia give me a glare. I tried to portray my innocence to her by holding up my hands and mouthingI didn''t say anything to her. I have been secretly giving orders... err.... "suggestions" to the commanders over the course of the battle. All of the commanders knew that our general was going senile or something so they readily went with my suggestions even if they bordered on directly contradicting the General''s orders. Of course, this would be seen as insubordination to the General who was appointed by Cecilia herself so any insubordination to the General can be considered insubordination to Cecilia.

    "Relax Commander. I understand that you only wanted what is best for your men. Besides Descal is quite the strategist is he not?" (Cecilia)

    "Ye... Yes. He is quite good." (Cornelia)

    "Then, gather the men. We will do as Descal says." (Cecilia)

    "Yes, your highness." (Cornelia)

    As I watched Cornelia ride out and rally the entire cavalry, I rode up to Cecilia.

    "You have faith in my abilities apparently." (Descal)

    "You are a thousand-year-old monster that almost destroyed this world. You have both brawn and brains. Of course, Iknow that you will succeed. It''s not faith." (Cecilia)

    "Did you have to be so blunt?" (Descal)

    "You are one of the... scratch that...You arethe only person Ican be blunt with. Forgive me for using you like this." (Cecilia)

    "Nice to know that you care about me so much." (Descal)

    "So how are you planning on breaking through that pike wall? You''re not going to use powerful magic because that will require using that limiter of yours, and I know that you would prefer to save that for the general. I hope that you are going to use some brilliant tactic or strategy instead of trying to brute force this with one of your inventions." (Cecilia)

    "More of the brute force. Going to use something of mine." (Descal)

    "F- Hmm. I was hoping for something more strategic or tactical." (Cecilia)

    "I don''t think anyone is within earshot. You can say the f-word if you want." (Descal)

    "Yeah. No. Can''t ever let my guard down. If word gets out that I cussed, well, it will be harder for me toget information about rumors and gossip since most of it will be about me cussing." (Cecilia)

    "By the way, why did you want my plan to be more strategic or tactical? You know that I am not the best at it. I just have some experience." (Descal)

    "How humble. You are seriously better at it than everyone in this army." (Cecilia)

    "Well, that is because everyone on this battlefield is kinda muscle-headed or gets too focused on one thing. Not only that, this world got blasted into the stone age so of course, your people''s idea of tactics and strategy would be behind by a lot. If this was a thousand years ago, I would be like worse than average in terms of tactical ability. No seriously. In the past, I just had my subordinates do all my tactics and strategy. My main job was harassing and killing anybody who was pivotal. If not that, then screwing around with the upper echelons and pitting races against each other. I was also a one-man army so I wasn''t too absorbed in battlefield stuff. Don''t distract me damn it. Answer the question." (Descal)Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "... You''ll find out soon enough." (Cecilia)

    "I don''t like that tone of yours." (Descal)

    "Oh look. Cornelia''s back." (Cecilia)

    "I''ve got a bad feeling about this." (Descal)

    ----- 1 hour later ------

    "Soldiers! You may have already heard of the rumors that our general has fallen in battle. I see in many of you that you think that I have only gathered you all so that we can cover her highness'' retreat. No! Despite the seemingly hopeless situation of the battlefield, it is still possible to salvage this battle! Our queen will not run from battle but lead one instead. We will charge into the pike wall like bloodthirsty demons. Crush all who stand between us and our goal underneath these hooves. Follow! Follow your queen into the blood-red field. Place your faith in her majesty!" (Descal)

    I quickly put on my helmet and yelled "charge" as loud as I could. As the trumpets began their declaration, the entire cavalry began to move out with the Royal Guard at the head of the formation. As planned, we adopted an arrow formation. I was at the tip while Cecilia was right behind me. The rest of the Royal Guards positioned themselves to look like a triangle as we began trotting toward the enemy pikemen.

    The rest of the cavalry followed behind us in a similar formation. Due to the presence of the mage unit, we adopted the evasive arrow formation. Instead of one big triangle, the cavalry was divided up into squads of small triangles. Then, the squads would form up to create one big triangle with some distance between each squad. This way, the cavalry would have some room to dodge the spells while maintaining the arrow shape to better pierce infantry formations.

    In order to conserve the horse''s energy, we started off at a slow trot as we went up the hill. Once we got to the top of the hill, the enemy immediately saw us and shouts could be heard to get into formation. The pikemen quickly formed up and the dreaded pike was pointed toward us. As we started to go down the hill, we began to gradually pick up speed. Once we were halfway down the hill, from the back of the pike formation, lights could be seen as spells came, arcing over the pikes and into our cavalry.

    The screams of men and horses rang out from behind me as some of the spells hit their mark. Some were electrocuted, some were blown into the air by explosive wind spells, others were fried from the fireballs as the relentless spell bombardment rained down on us. I saw Cecilia causing the spells to activate early by shooting at the ones that were about to land on us. Of course, she could not get all of them, and I had a few close calls myself that made me finger a black diamond that housed much of my essence and will.If I had to, I may have to release the seal a bit early. Sadly, the highest rank within eyesight is a silver rank so if I released my seal right now, the highest mana level I can exhibit would be gold rank.

    "Courage,men! Do not falter!" (Cecilia)

    With the Royal Guard echoing those words, the distance gradually shortened. Once we got within 100 meters of the pike wall, we were at full gallop. I could hear weapons being drawn behind me. I wish I could draw my own weapons as well, but I needed to do something first. I reach into my spatial inventory and took out a cluster of black powder grenades. I snapped my fingers to conjure a small flame and lit the fuse on fire. Once we were 50 meters out, I threw the grenades with all my might.

    I ended up hitting a guy in the face with it and as he looked down in confusion at what I threw, it exploded sending the pikemen within the grenade''s range flying and staggering with a small cloud of red. The pike wall shook as the men outside of the grenades'' range tried to figure out what just happened.

    Before the commanders and the men snap out of the confusion and refill the breach, I had to shove the Royal Guards into it. Without even drawing a weapon, I urged my horse to go as fast as possible. I could hear the Guards matching my speed.

    "Full speed!" (Descal)

    "For her majesty!" (Royal Guard)

    And we were upon them.

    A successful cavalry charge is quite an experience and difficult to describe. To best sum it up, the first thing to note would be the full force of the horse and armor bearing down on its victim, and people end up getting blown off the feet and then trampled on by the horse, leaving a broken body behind. The pikemen desperately tried to fend off the cavalry, but it was already too late.Once impact was made, the Royal Guards began the hacking and slashing to further open the breach for their brethren while we went in deeper into the shattered formation. The breach turned into a full-blown hole in the formation as the rest of the cavalry took advantage of the opening the Royal Guards made.

    I may have ended up laughing a couple times in the battle as I had my horse trample as many men as possible. My men followed me, using their weapons to cause even more casualties. The three elites were already slaughtering many of the infantry with their swords while Cecilia was using her bayonetted rifle as a lance. The rest tried to copy what the leaders were doing and trying their best to distinguish themselves as the Royal Guard in valor and deadliness. The infantry formation began breaking apart as the full force of Cecilia''s cavalry soon came upon them right after the initial shock of the Guards. There were a couple of pike commanders trying to issue orders to their men, but each one was quickly taken down by a sharp crack from Cecilia''s rifle.

    In a last act of desperation, the mages began to resume fire of spells on the cavalry while we were caught up in a melee with the infantry. However, this ended up being the last straw for the infantry since cavalry and spells were now upon them so they began a full retreat to the central flank. This meant that the mage division was now open for attack.

    I noticed Commander Cornelia give orders to someone to take five squads of cavalry and run down the mages. It turned out that Cornelia gave the order to the girl that I rejected in her application for the Royal Guards. She quickly started screaming vengeance and blood, and many other cavalrymen took up the battle cry as they began charging at the mages.

    Eager for revenge for their brethren that died in the spell bombardment, they began a mad dash for the mages. Cavalry and mages never had a good relationship to begin with. The cavalry viewed the mages as cowards with no respect to their fellow comrades (as evident from the fact that they opened fire on the cavalry even though it meant their fellow pikemen would be caught in the crossfire). On the other hand, mages tended to view themselves as superior to other divisions in the army and looked down on them. Mages are essentially the artillery of the fantasy world and rare. As a result, they do get treasured by the army.

    As the enraged cavalry came bearing down on the mages, few of the enemy mages held their ground slinging spell after spell at the raging cavalry while many tried to flee. Not one got away unscathed as the cavalry showed no mercy and shoved every single one of those mages under the hooves or showed them the taste of cold steel.

    Soon the smell of blood, steel, and sweat spread throughout the battlefield as the sounds of the wounded, trumpets, and screams became the dominant sound. The once beautiful luscious green hills were now dotted with corpses and red streams. Many of the cavalries began to get hot-blooded and began a mad dash after the fleeing infantrymen.

    As for me, I yelled at Cornelia to let the cavalrymen go berserk and pursue the fleeing infantry to the central area and hammer the enemy on two flanks. With a nod, she began screaming at the squad leaders to run down the routed infantry. On the other hand, I took the Royal Guards and began making a beeline for the enemy general.

    Although we could say that this battle was almost won physically, until we get the head of the enemy general, we would have lost the battle politically. Politically, the enemy has the advantage since they managed to kill our general. If used properly, Cecilia''s uncle can convince other members of the nobility to support him, further bolstering his support. However, if we take the general''s life as well, it would even the playing field.

    RIght now is the best moment to attack the general sincehe would most likely not be expecting the cavalry to have broken through the pike infantrymen and the mage division. As a result, he should have poured the majority of his forces into the right and central flanks. This means that the general should have no one protecting him except his guards. The rest are either too far away or about to get pincered by Cornelia''s cavalry.

    It seems my gamble paid off because I could now see the enemy general''s flag as he and his troops came charging at us to meet us in battle. He was probably thinking something similar. We have Cecilia right here. What better way for the General to skyrocket up the ladder by taking the head of the enemy and end the war in one battle. I could see that most of his guard was gold rank knights while he himself wasplatinum.

    He probably thought that he could take us on. Unfortunately for him, I took out my diamond and broke the seal allowing for use of Mythril level power. I grinned as the magic began coursing through my body.

 Chapter 21: Burn

    Although we dwarves are famous for our physical attributes of being small, stocky, and hairy, we were not always like this. About 2 million years ago, we dwarves actually looked like the humans. We only came to look like this afterhundreds of thousands of years living in the mountains. Living in dark cold small tunnels favored the traits of being hairy and small. In addition, with the amount of mining necessary to keep up our livelihood, it was necessary for us to be strong. Living in the mountains with nothing to do drove a desire for us to place excess energy into honing our skills in crafting and smithing. However, this information is quite unsettling to many dwarves resulting in these records never being discussed. The reason being is that our ancestors never wanted to go to the mountains out of their own free will. Some event forced the dwarves 2 million years ago to go under the mountain. What happened?

    - Dwarven King Gargan the Third

    Descal

    "To think that you would actually lead your men into battle, Cecilia. You always were someone who preferred to hide and let others do the dirty work for you. What changed?" (Farrago)

    My squad of 12 men lined up beside me while his squad of 10 soldiers lined up as well about 20 meters ahead of us. Cecilia walked up and with her head held high, she confronted Farrago. However, I could easily tell that it was really false bravado because of her foot swinging little small loops. After being with her for a couple months,I realized she only did that when she wasreallynervous.

    "Times have changed. So, it is only fitting that I change with it as well." (Cecilia)

    "That is true. Poetic even. However, I am not so naive to believe that someone can so easily change. And even if you have changed, you must answer for all those crimes you have committed. And the cumulative punishment for all of those crimes is death." (Farrago)

    While listening to the conversation, I make sure that my Royal Guards don''t have any ideas of double-crossingCecilia. Although I have made sure about the vetting procedure, I am still unsure of how they would take the news that Cecilia was responsible for a lot of people''s deaths. Of course, I still told them parts of the truth... More like Cecilia made me memorize and regurgitate a speech filled with half-lies and logical fallacies that she prepared herself... They could still change their minds if they end up learning the whole truth and believe it. Then again, they don''t know whatisthe truth.

    Of course, I did worry that Cecilia''s uncle would try to ruin Cecilia''s reputation by telling the entire country of her misdeeds, but Cecilia assured me that her uncle couldn''t do it because of Cecilia''s recent and extremely publicized actions of being the champion of the people. Cecilia is amazing at politics. I was surprised myself when she explained all the steps that she took to make sure that any attempt at spreading rumors of her past deeds and attempting to connect her with the deaths would only end up backfiring. For example, the commoners already like her as is and any rumors that try to discredit her would be immediately met with suspicion that it is a ploy by the nobles to discredit the"fair and wonderful" Queen Cecilia.

    Other nobles don''t really care since Cecilia made sure to indebt them into her service with economic benefits and assisting them with political weddings and land grabs. For example, when she ruined a noble house, she always made sure that there was someone to pick up the crumbs, and it was always someone that she had a lot of control over.Then, there are the loyalist nobles who trusted the now dead King with his decision, no matter how questionable.

    Of course, it also helped that Cecilia made sure to cover up her tracksextremelywell so that there is no evidence at all. As a result, the nobles who actually believe her uncle are nobles whowantto believe that Cecilia is the culprit. Seriously, Cecilia is a terrifying politician. Almost makes up for her being a shitty soldier. Don''t get me wrong. She did do "pretty well" in the cavalry charge, but I totally noticed how she was deliberately and ever so slightly usingmeas her meat shield. She knew how to balance how much of a show she should put on vs. her hiding behind me. Bitch. You are an excellent actor.

    While Cecilia was busy stroking that dumbass General''s ego and getting as much information she could from himtalkingtoo much, I made a signal by tapping my leg armor three times to indicate we were going with plan C. I noticed that Farrago was getting annoyed at Cecilia at the amount of information that she managed to squeeze out from him (Oh. He isn''t that dumb. He did notice at least.), and he looked ready to pounce any moment. Plan C was that I drag the General out of the fight and the Royal Guards would protect Cecilia while I was occupied. Cecilia will provide covering fire while the Guards engage the enemy squad.

    It will be 3solo golds and 9 silvers (my team) vs. 6 solo golds and 4 silvers, but the 4 silvers form one gold level group. Ah. I better explain what the difference is between a solo gold rank and a group gold rank is, shouldn''t I? Since it is very rare formanypeople to get above the gold rank level, mercenaries have implemented a group system as well. Even though the group may be completely filled with silvers, if the group has excellent teamwork that can accomplish what a solo gold rank individual can do, the group will be considered gold ranked. And this applies true for every level. I remember a thousand years ago that there was a mercenary group that had a 50 member bronze level group, but it was able to reachplatinumgroup level because of the leader''s excellent strategies. He was an extreme pain in the ass to deal with. I only managed to beat that stupid mercenary group by trapping them in an annihilation siege, and they got wiped out by a forbidden level magic spell.

    That was why I wasn''t really going for powerful individuals for Cecilia''s Royal Guard since I thought I could train them to increase their power levels to silver and have them work together to form a gold level group. Sadly, I ran out of time, and I later realized that I had no idea how to increase their teamwork.

    I am positive that my Royal Guards are going to get their ass handed to themshould we fight, but they should be able to stall for time.

    I noticed that Farrago reached his tipping point, and I intercepted him when he did a mad dash at Cecilia. I jumped off my horse, smashed into him with magic empowered legs, and skidded along the ground until we came to a stop at the next hill. He quickly threw me off and swiped at me with his sword which I promptly dodged.

    Even though I had enhanced all my physical and mental traits as far as I could with my magic, he was still keeping up with me. Actually, he still surpassed me in speed and reflexes by a little bit.

    Uggh. I really wished that I could use abyss magic right now, but I can''t use that magic very well when I am in a body. I need to be in my original form to utilize it effectively. Not only that, I don''t need to expose my strongest magic for the very first general we will see. As a result, I am stuck using regular old theoretical magic. I fired a couple of fireballs at him to test how good he is, and he managed to reflect them back at me with his sword. He really lives up to that platinum level for sure.

    However, now isn''t the time for admiration. Before he gets time to recover from the small barrage, I immediately shrink the distance and try to stab him with my blades. He quickly recovers from his shock that a mage is shortening the distance, and happily meets my charge, by deflecting my attempt and countering me with a slash. After the initial exchange, we begin a furious dance.

    "Why a mage that is capable of chantless magic is trying to fight me in close combat is something that I will never understand. Another thing is how you are able to keep up with me." (Farrago)

    With those words, he twists his sword to smack my arm upwards before making a swipe at my legs. I avoid it by jumping up and kicking him with both my legs, resulting in both of us falling down. I quickly recover and try to stab him once more, but he rolls away.

    "Just practicing. It''s always good to expand your horizons." (Descal)

    "Good! I like men like you. Whyareyou working for someone like her?" (Farrago)

    "Totest something. Now shut up." (Descal)

    Angry, he grabs my wrist after another failed stab, tosses me into the air before jumping up himself and slashes at me. I block it by crossing my blades, but I couldn''t stop the momentum as he smacks me down to the ground. I roll away from his follow up stomp and charge him again.

    I grab his sword arm and try to uppercut him with my blade, but he dodges it by pulling his head back andproceeds to headbutt me. While I was winded by the pain, he ends up stabbing me in the chest.

    "Fool. How dare you underestimate me." (Farrago)

    "Hehe." (Descal)Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    I stand up despite a sword piercing my chest. The body I am using is a homunculus. So, mere stab wounds aren''t enough to kill me. Farrago widens his eyes before I stab him through his chest with his own sword.

    "Why do I have to use my full strength against cannon fodder like you? Cecilia told me that you are the weakest general. Of course, I am not gonna use magic against you. No need to show the enemy what I am capable of at the start of the fight. Although, you taught me something. My close combat skills are nothing compared to a sword master who spent years mastering the sword even if I supplement my body with magic. Gonna have to keep that in mind. Go die now." (Descal)

    I kicked him to unsheathe his sword fromhis body, and I watched him bleed out onto the grass as I took a look at the surroundings. Holy shit. We really destroyed the environment. Apparently, every time we hit each other and crossed blades, we apparently sent out massive shockwaves. Patches of holes here and there. Two giant craters over there. Whoops. We went really far from the battlefield. After stripping the corpse of everything valuable and dumping it into my storage, I quickly start messing with the gravitational and magnetic lines around the planet so it becomes possible for me to float. Once I got the balance just right, I applied my will to create a wind blast behind me. I quickly started flying toward where Cecilia was.

    Once I got there, I realized that I really didn''t have much to fear. My guards were actually winning because of Cecilia''s support. Once more, she surprises me with her accuracy as she shoots a sword that is about to swipe down on one of her guards or she creates an opening by forcing one of the guards to dodge a bullet. The enemy silver guards were already wiped out from what seems to be bullet wounds. It makes sense. After all, only gold ranks would have the ability to dodge bullets.

    Although, I wonder if they would be able to dodge faster bullets? Black powder isn''t that good for bullet speed nor is the current gun''s metal strong enough to handle higher pressure. If I replaced it with a much better propellant and a stronger metal for the gun, the bullet could go at least the speed of sound. I doubt a gold rank can dodge that. A platinum rank might be able to dodge such a bullet, but he or she would need to be extremely high on the spectrum. Of course, all mythrils should be able to dodge it since mythrils have the ability to comprehend at extremely fast speeds that during battle they see everything in slow motion. Now whether they have the reflexes to catch up with such speeds is another matter, but most of them should be able to unless they are huge and bulky like dragons. In those cases, they have confidence in their defenses. Eh. I will experiment more with it later.

    Man. Cecilia has really grown from when I first met her. She went from pissing her pants to actually keeping her cool on the battlefield and contributes to the fight. I think I will sit this one out. It will be a good learning experience, and she may have to take to the front lines multiple times in the future.

    Oh. A gold rank managed to kill one of our silvers and is charging at Cecilia. I was going to go down and stop him, but I was curious on how Cecilia would react to this. I should be able to go down fast enough if it gets bad, but if I fail, well, it is disappointing, butit will be time to move on.

    Cecilia with no time to reload goes into her bayonet stance. Although Cecilia was able to block the first strike, she couldn''t keep up with the second and third strikes. Just when I was going to step in, Cecilia deliberately slammed her shoulder into the sword, causing the blade to go straight through her shoulder. Then, she grabbed the sword hand to keep it stuck, pulled out a pistol and shot her opponent in the head.

    As I floated down next to her, I started clapping.

    "You can fly?" (Cecilia)

    "Been practicing in secret.Turns out the secret wasn''t with simply weakening the gravity field, but also..." (Descal)

    "That''s great and all. But in case you haven''t noticed... I have a fu... I have a sword in my shoulder! Get over here and help me take it out!" (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Yeah." (Descal)

    I grabbed the hilt of the sword and asked Cecilia if she was ready. I said on the count of three I was going to remove the sword, but, of course, to be a dick, I removed the sword when I said three. I have always wanted to do that. With the sword out of her, Cecilia bent over with her hand on her shoulder with a high pitched muffled scream as she began to rock back and forth in a fetal position. I placed myself in front of her so the Royal Guards, who were surprisingly winning the fight, couldn''t see the pitiful sight of their Queen, and I knelt down.

    "Oye. Snap out of it. You''re the Queen. The battlefield isn''t the place for whatever the hell you are doing." (Descal)

    "You treated me nicer when we were journeying together. What happened to that guy?" (Cecilia)

    "That was before I knew that you were capable of mass murder without batting an eyebrow. Now get the hell up." (Descal)

    Oh, my. Cecilia was a mess. There were snot and tears all over her face. Not to mention all the blood everywhere. The blood flowing from were shoulder was dying her armor and the tips of her hair red. Then, when she tried to wipe off her tears with her bloodied hand, she ended up smothering blood all over her face. In the end, she looked like someone threw a bucket of blood and tears on her face.

    "Hmmm. I have just enough bandages to wrap your shoulder with. Now, hold still." (Descal)

    Cecilia began wincing in pain as I took off parts of her armor and began doing some shoddy first aid on her wound.

    "Ow. Have you ever done this before?" (Cecilia)

    "No. Never needed to." (Descal)

    "Way to inspire confidence. How did the fight with "Mirror" Farrago go?" (Cecilia)

    "Got stabbed in the chest. The fact that he could reflect magic meant that I needed to enter close combat with him. Of course, I could overpower him with powerful magical spells, but that would mean showing off some of my trump cards extremely early in the war." (Descal)

    "You okay?" (Cecilia)

    "Cecilia. My body isn''t really alive. It''s a homunculus. Did you forget that?" (Descal)

    "But you can still feel pain right?" (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Yeah. Who cares about pain? All I care about is not have my container die, and I can''t die from a normal wound in this body. The only way to kill me would be destroying the stabilizer in my body. Now, let''s finish this up so we can get you treated properly, and I can fix this hole in my body." (Descal)

    "Now that I think about it, how are you so big even though you are a homunculus. Aren''t they supposed to be tiny?" (Cecilia)

    "This world''s alchemists focuses too much on the magical concepts instead of physical concepts. You can only go so far with magic if your base is super weak." (Descal)

    "Yeah. Yeah. Like you always say, "Magic is only limited by imagination. Imagination starts from knowledge." So, the more you know the basics, the stronger your magic will be." (Cecilia)

    "Well, it looks like the Royal Guards finished up." (Descal)

    The Royal Guards looked beat up as hell after the fight. They were all panting, bruised, and bleeding. Or they were dead. It turns out only seven survived the fight. We really need to add in a healer and a mage to our group. I have reluctance with healers because many are under the Church of Light''s jurisdiction, and those that are not with the church aren''t common. That and the "purge" by the church a century ago of killing a bunch of village witches didnot help. Of course, good mages are hard to get in the first place cause of how rare they are and most are either mercenaries, military, or research mages. Although I could recruit a weak mage and have them undergo training, this would require time and money.

    Maybe I will find time after the war... Nah. After this war ends, I am going to leave anyway. Go explore some more. Come back five years later to see how well the country is doing. Kill Cecilia if the country suffers under her rule. I wonder where I should explore next? Maybe I should go check out the sea.

    While everyone was drinking water and dressing their wounds, Cecilia and I were discussing the aftereffects of releasing my seal.

    "So. Your mana output can''t be higher than a bronze level for how long now?" (Cecilia)

    "I have had the seal released for about two hours so the cooldown would be four hours." (Descal)

    "I see. So how long can you turn off the seal?" (Cecilia)

    "It felt like the diamond can hold up for about a week before it would explode. Anyway, I am going to be vulnerable for four hours now." (Descal)

    "Vulnerable! That''s hilarious. If it really came down to it, you will just destroy your body and return to your original form again." (Cecilia)

    "And how poorly do you think it will reflect on you when people realize you teamed up with the Emperor? The cause of the First Calamity?" (Descal)

    "Pretty badly. But, it won''t stop you from reverting anyway." (Cecilia)

    "No. Mainly because I would have no choice. Once my container dies, I am going to revert whether I want to or not." (Descal)

    "Your Highness. Captain. The Guards are ready." (Dob)

    "Good. Let''s go." (Descal)

    With that, we began our gallop to the center to see how the battle was going. Surprisingly, it turned into a stalemate since the enemy managed to regroup. The cavalry was pushed back since the enemy pikemen were using the ponds to their advantage while our infantry was desperately holding the chokepoint. The battle could turn in any direction any moment. It seems that Cecilia realized this as well cause she immediately started galloping forward screaming, "To me! Rally to me! For the Ruhan Kingdom!"

    With those words, we immediately began chasing after Cecilia screaming as loud as we could as we came down upon the pike wall. The pikemen were already exhausted and tired from the previous run, and morale was low. Combine this with a girl covered in blood charging at them while screaming like she went med, caused the line to start breaking. Cornelia immediately took advantage of the distraction that Cecilia gave and pierced an opening with her own squad.

    WIth the pikewall broken, the infantry broke, and the enemy began running for the forest so that the cavalry would have a harder time pursuing them. Knowing that it would be suicidal to continue pursuing them, I ordered a bugle to sound the halt signal. Combined with Cornelia''s screaming and Cecilia''s presence, we managed to halt the reckless charge.

    It wasn''t a moment to soon cause from within the forest multiple explosions could be heard as well as the scent of smoke. Soon screams and cries of pain began ringing out of the forest. Everyone paused to listen to the sounds and began to sniff the air.

    "Descal? What''s going on?" (Cecilia)

    Everyone who was nearby heard what Cecilia said and looked at me.

    "Traps. With how many men are retreating into the forest so quickly, they are going to trigger more traps. Some of the traps were explosives. I also used a lot of oil traps in the forest to make it harder for men to run and change direction in certain places. Explosions tend to send out sparks. I suggest we move away from the forest cause a forest fire is incoming." (Descal)

    Everyone who heard me gulped and orders were given out to get away from the forest. An hour later, a forest fire was raging across the trees. Any survivor who came running out of the flaming death trap was captured. Any survivors who resisted was quickly put to death.

    While Cecilia was busy listening to all the reports of casualties, supplies, and prisoners of war, I was standing 50 meters from the burning forest. Watching it burn down. I took a deep breath and said,

    "Ahhh. So this is the smell of victory." (Descal)

 Chapter 22: Aftermath of the Battle

    Excerpts from an exploration to the poles

    We have found a mysterious metal ship in the northern ice regions of Terra. It has remarkable similarities to that of our own ships. We have reported this finding, and we received a classification notice and a lump of money for hush money. Apparently, this was something big. I wanted to go report this to the news media, but I noticed something watching me at night. Over the years of exploring the ice caps, I have learned to trust my instincts so I decided that it would be best to keep my mouth shut. But that metal ship... What was it? Why was it classified?

    - Dave Cassowary

    Descal

    After enjoying the sight of the full fury of a forest fire, I started to make my rounds checking up on the surviving soldiers of my squad, congratulating the commanders, talking with a couple soldiers. When I was going to the medic tent to check on the injured soldiers, I met up with Cecilia who wanted me to come to her private tent to discuss the battle and our plan of action. Cecilia dismissed her maids asking them to prepare a bath for her. As soon as the maids left the tent, she collapsed onto the chair.

    "Ugggh. I don''t want to do that ever again. And I look like shit." (Cecilia)

    "You did great though. The men are already starting to call you the Blood Valkyrie with how you charged at the enemy all covered in blood. You''ve won a lot of respect from your men." (Descal)

    "So, did you. You''ve earned the title, Incinerator. One who incinerates all foes in the battlefield." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. I have conflicted feelings about that. Either way, from the preliminary reports, we managed to wipe out most of the enemy infantry. I highly doubt that your uncle will be able to recover from such a devastating loss especially in the first battle." (Descal)

    "Yeah. Congratulations Descal for such a major victory in the first battle. Many are praising your tactical abilities." (Cecilia)

    "And I wonder who is spreading such rumors." (Descal)

    "Oh please. You should be thanking me for helping you with your reputation. By the way, please refrain from using such reckless strategy in the future. Do you know how close you were in getting a negative reputation?" (Cecilia)

    "Oh, please. It wasn''t that bad. I had the villagers near the forest evacuated beforehand, and I strategically cut down branches and combustible material to limit the fire''s spread. Not only that, I made sure villages stocked up on sand and water. It wasn''t that bad." (Descal)

    "Yes. And what will the villagers do now? That forest was their livelihood." (Cecilia)

    "You can think of a solution. It is in your job description." (Descal)

    "Descal. I don''t like how you just dumped all that responsibility on to me. You should take some of the responsibility too." (Cecilia)

    "Sorry. Not in my job description." (Descal)

    "You want me to include it in your job description?" (Cecilia)

    "I am the Royal Guard Captain. Good luck trying to include that in my job description." (Descal)

    Cecilia mumbled something angry, but I simply ignored it... much to my later regret.

    "And yet, the Royal Guard Captain was able to think of such a flawless strategy that won us the battle." (Cecilia)

    "I will accept praise when I earn it. What I did was simply placing a bunch of traps in the battlefield beforehand. If you really want to praise someone, praise Cornelia or Finus for their abilities." (Descal)

    "It was you who had the foresight of using the conscripts'' understanding of the landsto find optimal places for the traps, and it was you who orchestrated the defeat of Farrago." (Cecilia)

    "Any amateur can do that." (Descal)

    "Whatever. Anyway, what did you think about the Farrago?" (Cecilia)

    "The traitor''s intelligence system is good, and they are no fools. That is for certain. We shouldn''t get let our guard down after this victory. It''s only going to get harder." (Descal)

    "That''s right. Although we are lucky that it was Farago that came after us, imagine if it was someone stronger." (Cecilia)

    "Not really. Your uncle, or whoever the enemy tactician is, didnot underestimate us. Yeah,"Mirror" Farrago may be the weakest of the Generals in strategic thinking, but he is an unparalleled anti-mage fighter. I can already tell that whoever thought of this plan is extremely good at strategy. In fact, now that I am looking at this battle in hindsight, wealmost lost this battle." (Descal)

    "What do you mean?" (Cecilia)

    "We only won because of one reason. The enemy tactician underestimated me. It most likely won''t happen again." (Descal)

    "Huh?" (Cecilia)

    "Here let me explain. The enemy tactician already knew of the incompetence of our general and the political ramifications that would occur if we tried to go against that old buffoon. That meant that we really had only one option of winning the battle. Removing the enemy general." (Descal)

    "I don''t get it. As soon as we broke the pike line with our cavalry, wasn''t it game over? We didn''t really have to go after the Farrago, right? We only went after him for political reasons." (Cecilia)

    "That''s what I thought too. But I realized that if the General had been someone more tactically competent, he or she would have had everyone retreats to the edge of the forest where there are fewer traps in order to nullify the cavalry. Of course, Farrago wouldn''t have such insight to do that. But, if we ignored him and simply went to the center to finish off the enemy troops in the center, he could have rallied the cavalry that ran offfrom the battlefield earlier due to Cornelia and caught us in a pincer. The enemy cavalry gave up way too easily in the left flank now that I think about it." (Descal)

    "Yeah. I still don''t see the problem though. It was our initial plan to go remove the enemy general." (Cecilia)

    "Exactly! Our whole plan hinged on being able to take out the General. Wehadno choice, but to take out the General. And the enemy General was Farrago! Alright, if you want to take out the enemy general, you would want the strongest member of your army to challenge him, right? " (Descal)

    "Yes?" (Cecilia)

    "Now who is the strongest member of your army?" (Descal)

    "That would be you. As you demonstrated with those spars and the fact that you can use chantless magic." (Cecilia)

    "That''s right. During those spars, I didn''t fight with my blades. I fought with magic to understand the limitations of my container. Now, if our enemy was paying attention, they would think that I was an incredibly powerful mage. Now, remind me... what type of fighter is Farrago?" (Descal)

    Cecilia''s eyes widened as the realization struck her.

    "He was an anti-mage fighter." (Cecilia)

    "That''s right. In addition, I am the captain of the Royal Guard. In other words, the only way I can go into battle is if you go to the battlefield as well. The enemy tactician was planning to end this war in the first battle." (Descal)

    Cecilia shivered as she also realized how close we came to losing this battle. I was also deeply surprised and worried. The amount of foresight the enemy managed to show was terrifying, and we don''t have anyone in our army that can match that level. We have a long road ahead of us.

    "Well, it is rather impressive that you managed to figure out the enemy''s intended plan. I don''t think anyone else figured out how close we really came to losing." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah.After the battle ended." (Descal)The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Cecilia ignored what I said and asked me to help her take off her armor. Of course, I began to whine about having her maids do it, but she said that it would be bad if the maids did it. She wouldn''t tell me the reason why. She didn''t really need to as the smell of piss hit me as Cecilia began to strip in front of me.

    "You seriously pissed your pants?" (Descal)

    "Shut. It." (Cecilia)

    "Eh. I am pretty sure that any newbie to the battlefield would piss their pants. Did you leak when the gold rank charge-" (Descal)

    I never managed to complete my sentence before Cecilia kicked me in the shin. While I was nursing my injury, Cecilia grabbed my collar and glared at me. Combined with how she was covered in dried blood, it made her look even scarier as her eyes bore straight into me.

    "What the hell were you doing when that Gold Rank charged me? Oh, wait. You were just floating up there, watching me get pummeled." (Cecilia)

    "Oh... you saw me?" (Descal)

    "Damn right I did. If I recall, you had a nice smile on your face when the guy punched me in the face after I blocked his first strike. Anything to say about that?" (Cecilia)

    "...It was good practice for you?" (Descal)

    "You could have had the decency to at least keep a neutral face." (Cecilia)

    "I don''t do anything with decency. You think burning down an entire forest to kill an army is decency?" (Descal)

    "Don''t get smart with me. You know what. Fine.Don''t apologize. Two can play at that game." (Cecilia)

    Cecilia whipped around to head for the bathing tent. She burned her piss-stained clothes so that no one would know that the "Bloody Valkyrie" pissed herself in combat. I decided to go to the mess hall, wondering if I should have apologized. Nah. What''s the worst she could do?

    --------26 hours later-------

    The fact that she made me listen to a 2-hour long speech at dawn speaks volume of how much she is punishing me right now. I was brushing my teeth with a rag when I was called by one of my subordinates to quickly get ready for a meeting that Cecilia has begun. She purposely had no one tell me of the meeting beforehand so I had to run over there with zero preparation or idea of what the meeting was going to be about. It turned out to simply be a congratulatory speech about our battle and how she was going to choose a new Commanding General for our army.

    Then, came the award ceremony. Commander Cornelia and Finus gained nobility status for their deeds while I lost my Captain status to Felix. Lot''s of confusion could be seen when this occurred. Huh. She must have hated me that much to take away my Captain status. Eh.

    I began to start daydreaming until I heard Cecilia call my name. Confused, I walked down the aisle toward Cecilia, and after a small bow, I stood in front of her. Normally, it is custom that someone kneels in front of the royalty until called upon, but everyone got used to the special case that was me. I refused to kneel down, and everyone knew that no one could force me. After all, everyone knew of our relationship in which I could freely speak my mind to her without punishment.

    "Descal. Your contributions to this battle are something that cannot be overlooked. You have managed to maximize damage to our enemy while minimizing our own casualties with your insight and cunning. In addition, you were able to meet the enemy General head on and win. Without you, we would have lost this battle. With your merits, it seemed insufficient to keep you as a Captain of the Royal Guards. As a result, I am now promoting you to the Commanding General of the Royal Army. I pray that you serve us well." (Cecilia)

    Oh. You. Bitch. This is not good. I don''t need any more responsibilities. I am planning on ditching you after this war. Stop making it harder for me to leave this country. Not only that, why me? Was this your fucking idea when you told me that you had a plan? To putme in that position? I need to think of something fast.

    "Ah. Your majesty. I do not think that I am qualified for such an important position. I highly doubt my..." (Descal)

    "Oh. Do not worry. I am not appointing by my sole decision. I have received a petition from all the commanding officers and nobility to promote you to that position. You have won the faith of this entire army." (Cecilia)

    Translation: We elected you shithead. If you tryto use that reasoning, you have called everyone in this army fools for trying to promote you. Not only that, you will have snubbed a bunch of important people.

    I quickly tried to think of another reason. Anything! I really don''t want this position! However, one look at Cecilia''s face made me feel powerless for the first time. Her smile was a smile of victory. It felt as if she wasdaring me to try to decline this offer. She probably prepared a whole list of countermeasures to any reason I give for declining the position of Commanding General. For the first time, I truly understood what Lehai was hinting at. This is how scary Cecilia was in politics. If she wanted something, she is going to get it one way or another. And the only way to stop her is by usingbrute strength or killing a shit ton of people. Woe to anybody who did not have such options in their arsenal.

    Suddenly, a heard a small cough from the audience. Ahh. I guess the tense atmosphere was too much for some of the members. With a stiff smile, I accepted the position and after listening to a bunch of people congratulating and sucking up to me, I quickly decided to go to my tent and just chill. Read up on some history or some research papers. Work on some explosives. Only to find out that my tent has been moved right next to the main tent that houses royalty.

    With a sigh, I trudged back over to Cecilia''s tent and look at my puny housing compared to Cecilia''s lavish luxury tent. Shereally knows how to piss someone off passive aggressively.

    When I went into my tent, the first thing I see is a bunch of papers. My lab equipment was stacked up in a different desk. But the paperwork was immense. I had five one meter high piles of paperwork all over my tent. I started to make a strangled gasp when I heard the tent flap open, and a hand was placed on my shoulder.

    "I believe that all of this fits under your job description now." (Cecilia)

    "You can''t make me do it." (Descal)

    "Oh really. Wanna try me?" (Cecilia)

    "Watch your fuckin mouth. I can kill you right here and now." (Descal)

    "I know you won''t."

    "What makes you so sure?"

    "Well. Let''s look over the reasons why you are even following me. Although you tried to be vague as much as possible with me, it was really easy to deduce your intentions for supporting me. First, you see a little bit of your situation in me. We both committed horrible crimes and have lost much of our "humanity". You literally lost it while I have mentally lost it. Second, if I do succeed in keeping my promise and redeem myself in a way, it will provide mental comfort to you that it would be possible for you to make peace with your past as well. Third, you have recently undergone quite a traumatic experience. You have regained your human body and regained some of your humanity, albeit with some difficulties, for a short period of time only to lose it so quickly. To cope with this experience, you are trying to fool yourself that you are still human by keeping that promise you''ve made. After all, no monster would keep a promise that would have no guarantee of tangible benefits. Do you want me to keep going?"

    Ireally wanted to kill Cecilia right now. To think she has found out everything so quickly. But if I did, then I would be no better than the monster I was a thousand years ago. I don''t want the morals, love, and lessons I learned from the other world to go to waste. This is supposed to be a new start to me. It hasn''t even been a decade since my reintroduction to this world, and I am already seriously contemplating murder. SIgh.

    "Enough. So I won''t kill you. But you can''t make me do all this paperwork."

    "Oh really. Then, I guess you won''t care if rumor went around that you are a pedophile and a rapist."

    "What? No. You wouldn''t dare. You can''t."

    "Oh. I can do it."

    "You fuckin bitch. Then, I will simply run away."

    "I will then have cause to put up wanted postures and make your life a living hell for about three centuries."

    "Do you want to cause a fourth Calamity War?"

    "Sure. If it means achieving my goal."

    "How does starting a Fourth Calamity War help your goal?"

    "Well. I always have the option of dying heroicly in the view of the public. I can profit quite nicely by ratting you out to the church. Two, I don''t really mind dying. It will save me the trouble of trying to redeem myself."

    "I can''t tell if you are actually trying to redeem yourself or just trying to commit suicide to escape."

    "Both. Either one works with me."

    "Fuck you."

    "You are a great partner Descal."

    "Okay. FIne. I''ll do it. But what is with the amount of paperwork here. I can''t remember my predecessor having this much work. At most, he only had one pile."

    "Oh, that''s because I didn''t trust that old fool as far as I could kick him. As a result, I purposely did what should have been his job myself. Now that I have someone I trust as Commanding General, I can finally give full responsibility back to you! You must be so happy that I trust you like this!"

    I walked over to one of the piles and took out a piece of paper and quickly scanned it.

    "I don''t see how calculating taxes is part of my job."

    "It''s in your job description that the Commanding General will assist the Royalty with any additional task that the Royalty deems necessary during times of war."

    "Give me the fuckin contract of my job right now."

    "Oh yeah... You wouldn''t know about it. Okay. I''ll quickly write one out for you and have one of my maids give it to you in the morning."

    "Wait. This entire stack of paperwork has to deal with marriage requests. Why the hell am I doing it?"

    "Descal. I have no time to deal with all these marriage proposals. However, leaving them unanswered will be bad. It won''t matter if the handwriting is different but send proper responses back to them. By the way,properly answer them back. If you offend them, it will be even more work, and it will bite you back in the ass in the future. It won''t bitemebecause I have a scapegoat."

    "Oh for.. Leave your love life out of my workplace! I don''t want to..."

    "Descal. I am actually being nice here. First, I will waive the requirement that you need to be present at social events. I can take care of that for you. Well, most of them. Some of them you really need to go. Second, your little fiasco with that forest has given me five two meter stacks of paperwork to fill out. I am sure as hell not going to do them all so expect more paperwork in the morning. So fu-shut up and do your work."

    "Really? You still won''t say fuck, but you can say hell and ass?"

    "Descal. I don''t know how it was in the other world or in the past, but the f-word is on a whole other level than the other cuss words I have said. Yes. They may cause some eyebrows to rise, but they are nothing compared to the f-word."

    "Okay. Fuck you. I fucking hate you. Go fuck yourself."

    "I am glad we came to a mutual understanding."

    "Fuck you. Fuck you. Get out of my fuckin tent."

    "I do hope you learned your lesson. Two can play this game Descal. Two can play this game."

    "Fuck you."

    With Cecilia gone, I collapsed at my chair and sighed. I really was looking forward to reading a couple of satirical pieces and working on explosives tonight. But, I got a bunch of paperwork to do. Thank god for my statistics class I took. It''s gonna help a lot. To think I would be spending all-nighters like this in this world too. Oh shit. I am actually crying over paperwork. Fuck this. My first cry after losing my human body is over fuckin paperwork. Cecilia, you evil evil *long list of explicit words*.

    Well, complaining won''t help. This stack isn''t going to go away by itself. With a resigned sigh, I began crunching away at the numbers and filling out the reports. Now that I think about it, I should hire a secretary.

 Chapter 23: A small break between battles

    Fate. Just what is fate? Fate most definitely exists. I can see it in people. I can tell who will bring the most change, and I can tell who is simply a water molecule in an ocean. Fate exists. The only problem is that nobody can really explain it. If we try to explain fate in the concept of time, fate could represent the flow of time. All the different flows coming together to represent one big river going somewhere. It could also be explained in the concept of cause and effect. For this to occur, this must occur. After strenuous research, I have concluded that it is impossible to describe Fate in a detailed sort of way.

    But what does it mean to be favored by Fate? Those that are favored by Fate are like cockroaches. They don''t die for some reason. It''s as if the entire world is trying to keep them alive. They can survive battles in which they are outnumbered and outmatched. It is simply mindboggling at what they can achieve. However, Fate can only protect them from powers in Fate''s control. They are not immune from me. The only problem then is that Fate is now helping them flee from me. As soon as one of my generals report the location of one, they are gone the next millisecond. I know that Fate has a hand in their escapes because the last time I came close to killing one, a flash flood came despite there being no rain for the past three months. It turns out one of the underground streams broke the surface and flooded the river at the exact moment that I came close to my targets. But no matter. Because after some trial and error, I have found it. I have found a method to kill those favored by Fate. However, I am limited in what I can do. You, my generals, are not. The following lists new sets of direction that must be followed to the word for this to work. Fail and the consequences shall be dire.

    - stolen transcript of strategy meeting of the Emperor and his generals. Last mission that was undertaken by the first Elven Hero. May he rest with the great mother.

    Surprisingly, it only took Descal only about three hours to finish all the paperwork. His bull-shittery skills were extremely high due to writing massive amounts of timed essays in the other world, and the taxes were done quite quickly since this world did not develop a sophisticated tax system yet. Well, it did, but this world has gone through a couple of events that blasted everything to the primitive level.

    With a sigh, Descal got up and stretched, feeling his body crack and groan with each pull. He decided to take a small walk into the forest to clear his mind, not that he needed to, and test something out. There were times when Descal wondered if he should have gotten a golem for his main body. No need to eat, drink and feel pain, but it reminded him too much of being in his original form so he chose a homunculus despite its weaknesses. However, the homonculus body did provide much more benefits than a human body. For one, it did not need to sleep, and it could handle abyss powers better than a human body. In addition, it can reform any parts of its body, including the brain, as long as the core remained intact.

    As for the core, it was made of the mermaid pearl that Descal initially wanted to use to seal his abyss powers. The function of the core was to provide Descal complete control over his body. He could shut down pain nerves any time he wanted, and have direct control over the hormones that can be released. It is very useful for Descal to have control over the adrenaline function of the body. The effects of adrenaline in a world of magic are on a whole different level than the adrenaline of the other world.

    The other benefit of the homonculus body was that it allowed him to change the fundamental layout of his body. For example, if he desired, he can change the DNA structure of his body so that it can encode different proteins. He has to be careful with it since he had no desire of screwing up with a mutation and getting a disease like Huntington''s disease.

    However, if he had a basis to work of off then it could significantly reduce chances of rejection and possible death. This is why he still had the corpse of Farrago in his inventory. Although there is the existence of body-enhancing magic in Terra, it is still limited if the foundations are limited. What body magic does is simply utilizing magic to decrease the backlash to the main body. For example, on Earth, Newton''s third law dictates that if someone punches the wall, the wall will "punch back" on that person''s fist with an equal amount of force. Not on Terra. In Terra, Newton''s third law can be nullified, or even warped. Instead of the wall punching back on the person''s fist, the force is instead transferred back to the wall so the wall gets hit for twice the amount of force than usual. In addition, magic can increase the impact force by artificially increasing the mass of the fist at the moment of impact.

    Now, that doesn''t mean that body strengthening doesn''t affect the caster''s own body. It does, but not in the way a person thinks. The way a human move is by essentially contracting muscles. What magic does to a body to make it stronger and faster is by affecting the molecular bonds between the protein molecules so that it can do its work more efficiently. If it sounds very ineffective, it is. Body-strengthening magic takes up a lot of mana which is why very few people can obtain a mastery of close combat and mage combat.

    Descal is possibly the only person on Terra to know the true underlying mechanics around body-strengthening magic considering the state of Terra at the moment regarding technological and magical advancements. Instead of his magic affecting every single protein in the muscle, he only has the magic act on the muscle fibers.

    However, magic can still only provide a limited enhancement of the state of the body. It cannot improve it, and anyone with a higher base stats and low amount of mana can beat the shit out someone with low base stats, but high amounts of mana.

    This is currently why Descal was dissecting Farrago''s headless body in the middle of the woods. Even though Descal was above Farrago in magic manipulation and mana levels, Farrago still had the edge in close combat. That could only mean that Farrago had a better body than Descal, which confused Descal because Descal''s homunculus body was created with extremely high physical stats as well. Its physical attributes were similar to an Olympic level athlete who was also taking steroids.

    This meant that Farrago had something in his body that was unique to him biologically. Descal planned on stealing that. After an hour of scanning Farrago''s muscle fibers, Descal found two genetic variations that increased Farrago''s attributes. The first one simply gave Farrago a better orientation of his muscles that allowed to contract more efficiently, but the second one was one that coded for a faster neuron. Once he figured that out, he quickly began implementing the DNA onto his body after an initial check for compatibility.

    Since Descal still needed to dissect Forrago''s other organs, he put the corpse back into his storage and quickly began cleaning up the mess of blood and began walking back to the camp. He didn''t want to go back to his tent because he didn''t want to wait for more paperwork to come so he decided to go to the training grounds to meet up with his former knights.

    More importantly, he wanted to check if anyone''s fates changed. Now that he can use the abyss powers more often, he can actually see people''s fates by a small amount. Descal has the ability to see if anyone is favored by the fates. In Earth terms, Descal can check if anyone has plot armor.

    When Descal was kicked out from the world due to obtaining Abyss magic, he saw some sort of direction that the world had. It was too much for him to comprehend though, but he knew enough that it was most likely fate. His eyes were able to to see the roles that Fate had assigned. Some had the potential for great power, some were destined to be cannon fodder, some were destined to be rulers, etc. etc. And Descal could see it all.

    The only problem was that if he used this ability his eyes would shine red, so he came up with an excuse that it allowed him to check someone''s courage.

    When he selected his knights, the person''s fate played asmall role in Descal''s decision. If a person''s fate was no big deal, but that person managed to get a silver rank through his own determination? Good. Soon to be a very powerful person. Good. Cannon fodder in which the person''s death will influence others to get stronger? Definitely. Wildcards, people that Fate has no plan for yet? Eh. Why not. Their other specs were good. Loyal enough.

    Of course, someone''s fate can change depending on the circumstances. Battles are one of the methods of change. So he decided to go check up on his knights. If he recalls, only seven survived which is quite a shame. Of course, the three gold knights survived while only 4 of the silvers survived. When he arrived at the Royal Guards personal training guards, he saw the four silvers working on their teamwork.

    However, when Descal saw their new fate status he inwardly smiled. It seemed that the cannon fodders plus the wildcard''s deaths helped cause they now have the fate of loyal powerful knights. Ofthe 27 silvers, only Pan, Goob, Grisch, and Fersal survived. It seems that they are on the road to greatness. Platinum might even be possible for them.

    When the four knights noticed Descal, they immediately stopped and saluted. Descal chuckled.

    "At ease. I am no longer your squad captain you know." (Descal)

    "But you are now the Commanding General of her Majesty''s army. We now must show respect equal to your promotion, sir!" (Fersal)

    "Fersal... Does Fersal have a stick up his ass again?" (Descal)The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    The other three were trying their best to hold in their laughter, as they recalled how Descal loved to make fun of Fersal''s discipline.

    "Oh, you guys. Just relax. Just show me the proper respect if there are others. You guys know that I am not big on this stuff. Besides, you earned your ability to speak casually to me since you guys managed to survive my training!" (Descal)

    With those words, all four blanched as they remembered the brutal training they were forced to go through. But then they began to chuckle when they thought of all the memories they made during the month.

    "Yeah. Those were fun times, Mr. Binus. I just wish Maphy was still here..." (Goob)

    "He was a good man. Are you guys holding up though? I am sure that losing so many of your friends will have a huge impact on you." (Descal)

    "Our captain already helped us go through it last night. His advice helped. It''s one of the reasons why we are up so early training." (Grisch)

    "So Felix already helped you guys did he?"

    The four knights nodded.

    "Just know that if you need someone to talk to that my tent is still open. I should be able to make some time for you guys. After all, you silvers managed to survive a fight against veteran gold ranked soldiers right after leading a charge. You guys are strong and lucky to survive both of them despite being a silver."

    "I still have trouble believing that. I was sure that I was gonna die." (Pan)

    "Ever with your pessimism Pan. You need to read more cheerful books."

    "Pessimism is what keeps me on the edge though." (Pan)

    "Whereare your squad leaders and Captain anyway? Er... I don''t think they would be squad leaders anymore."

    "No, sir. Due to the drastic loss of our numbers, Captain Felix deemed it necessary to reorganize the Royal Guards into one squad. We are going to be debriefed of the new structure at the noon toll. As for location, I believe Captain Felix and the other two veterans have gone to Cecilia to discuss the new budget and changes to the Royal Guards." (Fersal)

    "He isn''t drastically changing things, is he?"

    "I think I heard him say that he wanted to avoid a budget cut due to our smaller numbers. He wants the budget to stay the same so he could at least buy better equipment for us, and he wants to buy some other training equipment. Since the Royal Guards have been reduced to a mere seven, he thinks it is necessary to increase all of our power levels." (Grisch)

    "Quality over quantity."

    "Yup." (Grisch)

    "Mr. Descal. So how is your new job?" (Goob)

    "Shit. Absolute. Shit."

    With those words, Descal began pouring his complaints on to the four knights. The Royal Guards already knew about Descal''s hatred for useless paperwork, so they started laughing when Descal began complaining about the five stacks that appeared at night. The conversation eventually lead into the knights asking Descal for a spar, which he readily accepted. Descal wanted to test out his new body.

    Descal was pleasantly surprised at how much the four knights have grown. Their teamwork went up exponentially.

    "Sir. We are still astounded that you are holding us back with only bronze level mana." (Fersal)

    "Then again. Unlike you, I can do both close combat and long-range magic. It''s how you use magic that can really make or break a match." (Descal)

    Descal wanted to test their skills more, but sadly, all good times must come to an end because Descal felt Cecilia coming and quickly ended the spar.

    "Guys. Cecilia is coming. Gotta go. Tell her the truth."

    With those words, Descal immediately ran towards the dining tent, and the knights quickly lost sight of him as he began weaving through the boxes and tents.

    Cecilia soon came toward the training grounds and saw the destruction and the kneeling knights.

    "Have you knights seen your Commanding General recently?"

    "Yes, your majesty."

    "Can one of you tell me where he is now?"

    "He ran toward the dining hall after he said that he felt your majesty coming." (Fersal)

    "Did he now? Well, I better go find him. Thank you for your help last battle. All of you displayed such loyalty and courage that it makes me proud to have such knights in my Royal Guard."

    "Your majesty. Your praise is wasted on us. We would have died if it wasn''t for your assistance in battle." (Fersal)

    "Nonetheless, you all were outmatched and you still managed to protect me for a considerable amount of time. I will be sure to memorialize your fallen comrades. If you continue to display such actions throughout the war, I shall be very gracious with the promotions and rewards."

    "Thank you, your majesty." (Fersal)

    Once Cecilia left the training grounds, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

    "Gah. Holy shit. Every time I look at the queen she sends shivers down my spine. Not in a good way though. It''s like a dragon eyeing its prey. How do you even talk with her, Fersal?" (Goob)

    "When you are a slave butler for some time, you get used to being in the company of such individuals." (Fersal)

    "Nuh. Uh. My time in the slums taught me that anybody who emits that sort of pressure is a no go." (Goob)

    "Well, after getting beat to a pulp by Mr. Binus so many times, I kinda got used to such pressure anyway. I just don''t open my mouth because I still suck at etiquette. I don''t want to be executed because I said something wrong." (Grisch)

    "Huh. I don''t think the Queen cares that much though? I mean, Queen Cecilia forgives our former Captain for all the things he says." (Pan)

    "Nope. The Queen doesn''t forgive Mr. Binus for the things he says. Only in the public is she forgiving barely." (Grisch)

    "Shouldn''t that be the opposite?" (Fersal)

    "No. But the things he says in private is much worse. Once when he was trying to improve my balance for this sword style that I was ordered to learn, the Queen barged in on us when we both were balancing on a stack of pebbles. Yeah. Pebbles. He was trying to teach me better ways to use my mana more efficiently in strengthening magic. So, to motivate me, he said that he would cook some food if I could stay on the pebble longer than him." (Grisch)

    With those words, everybody groaned with jealousy. Their former captain could make amazing dishes; however, his cooking uses up a lot of rare and expensive ingredients so he doesn''t cook often. Everyone still remembers the time he made this food called baby back BBQ ribs. Everyone''s mouths began to water when they think of that time.

    "There is no way intarnation you won that." (Pan)

    "No. I won." (Grisch)

    "What you lucky bastard! You should have shared some you asshole!" (Goob)

    "Guys. Stop it. Get off me. It was two weeks ago! Besides, we were deep in the mountain!" (Grisch)

    "Alright, guys. Get off Grisch. We are supposed to be Royal Guards." (Fersal)

    "Aren''t you jealous?!" (Goob)

    "I am. But, this won''t change anything." (Fersal)

    "Uggh! You are so damn lucky! What did you eat? I have to know." (Pan)

    "Fried Chicken!" (Grisch)

    "Details!" (Pan)

    "It''s chicken with like this crunchy outer crust. He even made some sort of spicy dipping sauce for it." (Grisch)

    "Spices!!! You lucky bastard. You have any idea how hard those are to get? Especially with the trade wars going on between the mega powers over those ingredients!" (Pan)

    "How did you even win?" (Fersal)

    "Queen Cecilia helped me. Sort of." (Grisch)

    With those words, everybody fell silent.

    "The Queen helped you?" (Goob)

    "Yeah. So what happened was that the Queen came over while we were balancing on the pebbles. She asked Mr. Binus if she could talk with him in private. He said no, and that she should wait until he was done. When Cecilia asked what he needed to finish when it looked like he was trying to take a shit, he then used magic to levitate the biggest stick he could find, gave it to her, and replied with this, "Go take that stick and ram it up your ass and go away." (Grisch)

    "He... He actually said that to the Queen." (Goob)

    "Yeah. And the Queen just ignored it as if it wasn''t the first time. Now, here I am just trying to make my presence as small as possible when the Queen walked over to me and asked me if I knew what Mr. Binus was doing right now. So I told her that we made a bet, and if I could stay balanced longer than Mr. Binus, he would cook dinner for us." (Grisch)

    "Go on." (Goob)

    "I can''t tell you. She told me that if I blabbed about what happened, I will regret it." (Grisch)

    "It was that bad." (Pan)

    "Yes. It was that bad. I am not surprised with her nickname of Bloody Valkyrie. For me, she earned the Bloody part that day." (Grisch)

    "So... Whatcha guys talking about"

    "Holy Shit! Mr. Binus. Please don''t scare us like that!" (Goob)

    "Wait. I thought you went to the dining hall." (Grisch)

    "I didn''t. I went in that direction, but after a little bit, I took a little detour back here." (Descal)

    "Does that mean we lied..." (Pan)

    "Nope. You told the truth of what you knew at that time. Consider this a lesson for you guys. Sometimes the truth isn''t what it seems." (Descal)

    "Leave it to you to think of a way to teach us something while you are avoiding the Queen. Why are you avoiding her?" (Grisch)

    "Cause the bitch wants to give me more paperwork." (Descal)

    "It never fails to amaze us how you can so openly call our Queen a bitch and still get away with it." (Pan)

    "Hey, if Mr. Binus can get away with telling her to go ram a stick up her ass without getting executed, he can probably get away with this." (Goob)

    "Yeah. Wait? What? Where did you hear that?" (Descal)

    "Our friend Grisch said that one day you told our Queen to shove a stick up her ass and go away and that you got heavily punished for it." (Goob)

    "You got balls, Grisch. I don''t know what Cecilia is going to do to you." (Descal)

    "No. No! I didn''t tell them everything. I just told them the part where you told her to shove the stick up her ass." (Grisch)

    "Really? Ah. Pan. I suddenly remembered." (Descal)

    With those words, Descal seemingly pulled a book out of nowhere. He simply put his hands behind his back and out came abook.

    "I''ve been thinking recently, and I have decided. Pan. How do you feel about learning magic?"

    "Uh... I thought you didn''t want to because of how expensive and time consuming it will be." (Pan)

    "Yeah. That''s why I am not asking anyone else, but you. Out of everyone in this group, you have the best cognitive ability. I''ve seen how quickly you can pick up information while you were reading. As for price. Well, Felix should be able to pay for it now that he doesn''t have thirty members to pay equipment for."

    "If you would, then I would love to, Mr. Binus."

    "Good. Congrats Grisch. You won''t be the only one that will be having personal lessons now."

    With those words, Grisch sent a look of pity toward Pan.

    "What. Don''t look at me like that." (Pan)

    "Welp. I better go now."

    "THERE YOU ARE!"

    "Well, shit."

    "Do you have any idea how long I have tried to find you?! I told you that you were to receive a couple stacks of paperwork in the morning! But you weren''t there to receive it, and now you send me on this goose chase all over camp!" (Cecilia)

    "I don''t recall anything about making it easier for you to give me paperwork." (Descal)

    "Descal. Are you testing me?" (Cecilia)

    "I am going to enjoy beating the shit out of you during our private sparring lessons." (Descal)

    "Oh. This time, it''s going to be a bit different." (Cecilia)

    "*whisper* Guys. Let''s leave." (Goob)

    "Yeah. I think now is a good time to have some breakfast." (Grisch)

    "I hear that today is going to be Cockatrice omelets." (Pan)

    "Yes. Sounds quite filling." (Fersal)

 Chapter 24: Plans for next battle

    The second sun isn''t a fuckin sun. It''ssome sort of metal structure that is on fire! Holy shit!

    - Random Astronomer after the invention of enhanced sun specialized telescopes

    "Congratulations! You finally managed to stick a bayonet in me! Now how did you do it?" (Descal)

    "Do what?" (Cecilia)

    "Don''t joke around. For the last week of sparring, I noticed that when we were fighting, you knew every move I was going to make in advance. It was only recently that your actions caught up with your thinking and eyes. Did you gain foresight?" (Descal)

    "Let''s go to the medical tent and get you patched up first." (Cecilia)

    "No need." (Descal)

    Descal removed the bayonet from his chest, and Cecilia watched in fascination as the wound flawlessly closed. As Descal was stretching to test the effectiveness of the healing, Cecilia couldn''t help but ask.

    "Your regeneration ability is astonishing. I wish our healers could heal wounds as if they never existed." (Cecilia)

    "That''s because they don''t know anything about the human body. They simply think that stopping the bleeding and closing the wound is enough. Seriously, this world has gotten so backward I am just astounded. Alright. We''re alone now. Did you gain a new skill with those magic eyes of yours?" (Descal)

    "Yes. During the battle with the gold rank, when I thought I was gonna die, I noticed that I could see some sort of image that he followed. I soon determined that it was some sort of prediction, and it was why I decided to ram my shoulder into the sword. If I didn''t, I would have gotten a sword through my head." (Cecilia)

    "I see. Don''t trust it too much. There are ways to counter it." (Descal)

    "Really? Are you familiar with this ability?" (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. One of the hero''s companions was an Elder Dragon. She fell in love with the human hero somehow, and she shapeshifted to a more human shape as they traveled around being a pain in my ass. She had the gift of foresight." (Descal)

    "How did you defeat her?" (Cecilia)

    "When you are against an opponent who can see the future, speed is key. It doesn''t matter if they can predict it if they can''t set up countermeasures in time. The second is to set up countermeasures for the future sight itself. In other words, do an attack that is difficult to counter like explosions. That''s how one of my generals defeated her. If you want, I can help you with training that particular skill of yours. I have a decent amount of knowledge about it." (Descal)

    "I thought you said you didn''t know anything about magic eyes?" (Cecilia)

    "It''s a half-lie. I never received formal education on it. Also, I only have some knowledge about magic eyes regarding foresight. I myself have a magic eye in which I can see someone''s fate and a person''s character. Although I try not to use my magic eyes so much because it tends to have some backlash if I use it too much. Fate doesn''t like being spied on, and people with great amounts of power can change their own fate on a whim so..." (Descal)

    "Well, what can you tell me about this new feature of my magic eyes." (Cecilia)

    "Hmm. If it is anything like her eyes, you should be able to see a little bit into the future. She was able to see up to a full ten minutes, but since you are a human, I think your limit would be about three minutes. Now, it is important to set proper intervals with your foresight. For example, in a fight, depending on the speed of your opponent, you would want to change how far you can see into the future. Like, if you look two minutes into the future and you see your head go flying, it won''t be helpful to continue seeing two seconds into the future, but look one second into the future instead." (Descal)

    "Okay." (Cecilia)

    "Now here is where things get juicy. There is a secret function of the magic eyes, in which you can train your eyes to see the best countermeasures for an attack." (Descal)

    "Seriously?"

    "Yup. Your eyes can actually recommend the best plan of attack for you somehow. That''s what she told me."

    "What? The elder dragon told you? I thought you were her enemy."

    "I captured her. Then, I tortured her for information."

    Cecilia immediately came to a halt and stared at Descal. Descal didn''t have the courage to look her in the eye.

    "You''ve been very truthful and mostly open with me these past few months. I think it is also fitting that I let you know a little bit more of my own brutal past."

    "No, I am not rebuking you about the torturing. I would be a hypocrite about that. But ... You tortured an elder dragon. And you got information out of her. I thought elder dragons had insane amounts of willpower and pride. That''s what the books say. They would sooner kill themselves than give information to their enemies."

    "That''s why about a month before kidnapping her, I spiked her food with some drugs to increase the likelihood of her getting pregnant. Then, I spiked the hero with some aphrodisiac."

    "You what?!!!"

    "Yeah. Her face when I told her that she was pregnant just before I began torturing her... Now that I have regained much of my sanity and some of my humanity... It''s not easy existing with the atrocities I have committed."

    "Descal. You... at least... spared the child right? You at least allowed her to give birth to the child right?"

    "..."

    "Descal. You son of a... I know I did some really questionable things, but this is on a whole new level. You know how much dragons as a species treasure their young."

    "I did much worse Cecilia. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a reason why I was so feared. Why there were species that would rather submit to me than face me."

    "I think I know why you refuse to tell me about the past. You don''t even want to think about your past do you?"

    "No. I would rather not. I am also the reason why dragons are so rare, and why many species of dragons are extinct. I sort of showed the hero his dead wife, and I tore out the fetus to show him his lost future as well. He went mad, and he lost the protection of fate. I killed him then. The problem was that the other Elder Dragons heard about it, and the entire dragon race declared war on me. I proceeded to kill every last one of them. I have committed massacre after massacre, genocide after genocide, but it is because of these genocides that the human race is flourishing like this. There is no way in hell that the humans would even be so powerful and widespread if I hadn''t eradicated so many species."

    "Let''s stop with this depressing talk. We''re almost at the command tent."

    With a heavy silence, they trudged onwards with a couple short curt greetings to those passing by. When they reached the tent, the three commanders and Felix was waiting there, arguing over the best course of action.

    "I am telling you that it is better to take the fight to them. If we intercept them at the plains, I am confident my cavalry can corral them into tight formations so that they will be easy prey for the mages." (Cornelia)

    "As if they would leave the mages alone while you are running around. It would be far better to simply wait it out on a siege." (Derecha)

    "As tempting as that sounds, going on the defensive never wins any battles. You have to remember that the traitors still outnumber us. They could easily tie us down in the Fortress City of Punto and start attacking other cities." (Felix)

    "Then, the best place to intercept them would be this river right here. There is only one bridge, and..." (Finus)

    "Don''t bother. She''ll think of a way to cross it." (Descal)

    "General. How was the spar today?" (Felix)

    "She''s getting good." (Descal)

    "May I ask that you refrain from giving her black eyes though?" (Felix)

    Descal took a quick glance at the two black eyes that Cecilia had, shrugged and replied:

    "It suits her." (Descal)

    "If it was not for that contract, you would have been arrested long ago." (Felix)

    "Then, we wouldn''t be able to get mad drunk with the gang and wreck the taverns." (Descal)

    "Please. Don''t mention that. I don''t plan on getting drunk ever again." (Felix)

    "Alright, Fetish Felix." (Descal)

    Felix groaned and facepalmed as the other commanders including Cecilia gave Felix a weird look. Already, people had an overactive imagination as they tried to think of what Felix did that warranted such a nickname. Descal was about to clarify what really happened, but he suddenly remembered his promise so he kept his mouth shut.

    "Okay, I read the reports. Now, I see why we are all so worried. The general this time is General Sheela, also known as the Ice Siren. Famous for ice spells, excellent at tactics. Outstanding mage. She is famous for the Battle of the Dass, in which she defeated an army of 10,000 warped ones with only 1,000 trained soldiers and 3,000 conscripts." (Cecilia)Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    "Her army right now according to preliminary estimates is up to 20,000 troops: 10,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalries, and 5,000 mages." (Descal)

    "I have to say. Those scouts you hired did an excellent job. They got who the general was, a good estimate, and the path of the army." (Cecilia)

    "Well, let''s say that I knew of a mercenary group from some time ago. One of their members was able to introduce me to the guild, and I managed to hire some high-quality scouts." (Descal)

    "You''ll have to introduce me to them sometime." (Cecilia)

    "*cough* May I redirect your attention back to this issue. What are your thoughts General? Where should we engage the enemy?" (Derecha)

    "What are our numbers again?" (Descal)

    "We received reinforcements as Queen Cecilia was able to convince more nobles to invest in our cause. We will have about 15,000 in about three days. 5,000 cavalry, 9,000 infantry, and 1,000 mages." (Derecha)

    Descal''s mind raced furiously as he tried to think of some counters to this new threat. His first thought was replicating the Battle of Salsu from Earth. One of his friends was Korean, and his father was a Korean history professor. He remembered a lecture about a particular battle. In the year 620, Goguryeo (now known as Korea), and Sui (now known as China) went to war. When the Emperor of Sui failed to penetrate a defense at this city, he dispatched a force of 300,000 troops to the capital. Goguryeo General Mundeok built a dam at the Salsu River and broke the dam when Sui troops arrived at the river. Of the 300,000 troops, only 2,700 men survived.

    However, there were some weaknesses to this plan. First, any idiot would notice if the river''s water level was suddenly low. Considering General Sheela''s reputation, she would immediately notice a trap, and the whole thing could go down the drain. As for anywhere else... Descal knew that he couldn''t rely on traps anymore because Sheela was sure to have made some countermeasures for it. Second, he had no faith in his tactical abilities to help him if he faced Sheela on a fair field. Anything "tactical" he could pull out of his ass would be from his very limited experience from playingTotal W*r. He highly doubted a game''s knowledge could help him in real battle.

    That really left only one option, and people were not happy to hear it.

    "That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard." (Cornelia)

    "Seriously. Are you addicted to fire or something?" (Derecha)

    "... Your mind terrifies me." (Finus)

    "Descal. Remember what I said about refrain from stupid ideas? THIS is a stupid idea." (Cecilia)

    "It''s the best one I''ve got. How many of you are confident in outsmarting Sheela? I don''t have that confidence too. That''s why this is the best plan." (Descal)

    "Descal. We are going to be evacuating an entire city for this to work. Not only that, a single screw up and we will be the laughingstock of the entire world." (Cecilia)

    "It''s either that or risk a heavy loss. With this strategy, I can reduce our own casualty and maximize the deaths of the enemy. We have already dealt a heavy blow with the first battle. I highly doubt your uncle can handle a second heavy blow. If we can pull this off, your uncle should immediately go on the defensive, and we can march directly to the castle, and end the war in three battles. The other two generals aren''t really that dangerous regarding tactics. A quicker end to this war the better. Also, the city isn''t that big, to begin with. Just 30,000 people to evacuate. Imagine if it was the capital." (Descal)

    "Uggh. Descal. You are helping with the paperwork." (Cecilia)

    "I know. I know. On the bright side, we can end this stupid civil war really quickly!" (Descal)

    "Commander Finus, Cornelia, Finus, and Derecha. Hammer out the details of Descal''s crazy plan, and get a rough draft on my desk by tomorrow morning. If we are evacuating the entire city, we are going to need some time." (Cecilia)

    "Yes, your majesty." (Commanders)

    "You, Descal, expect a crap-ton of paperwork this afternoon." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Yeah." (Descal)

    "Dismissed." (Cecilia)

    Descal and Cecilia left the tent and began walking toward the area reserved for royalty. They didn''t speak and simply watched as people went about completing their duties. When they finally got to the tent, Descal invited Cecilia over for some tea at his tent, which Cecilia accepted quite enthusiastically because that meant it was possible for her to eat some of Descal''s cookies. As Descal was placing a silence spell around the tent as well as a detection spell, he began to rebuke Cecilia.

    "You didn''t need to accept so eagerly. People will get the wrong idea."

    "Descal. It has been far too long since I tasted some of your cooking. I want those cookies."

    "I hope you get fat."

    "Thank you, and don''t worry. I exercise plenty every day because of you."

    "Does the black eyehurt?"

    "Black eyes. And yes. They do."

    "You want me to heal them?"

    "... You son of a bitch. Your healing abilities aren''t restricted to yourself?"

    "Nope. Now hold still."

    "So all this time. All those injuries I got from sparring you. You could have healed them this entire time?"

    "Yup."

    "I am tempted to spill this tea on you."

    "You would look more threatening if your face wasn''t stuffed with cookies."

    "Itsch dericious."

    "Oh. SO Queen like. And people wonder why I don''t call you by your proper title."

    "It''s refreshing to act childish at times."

    "Anyway, you did want to meet my scout so in about a few minutes they will be coming with a message."

    "Wow. You work fast. I only brought it up today, and already you have a meeting ready for me."

    "Better get it over with. Anyway, wipe off those crumbs. She''s here."

    Cecilia stood up and began patting her clothes to wipe off the crumbs. Descal walked over to the left back corner of his tent and revealed a small flap that opened to a bush. From the bush came a humanoid figure completely dressed in camouflage with twigs and leaves attached to the green-brown patterned clothes.

    "So. Did you get the information I wanted?"

    "Yes. Here is the report." (Ninja)

    "Thanks. Do you want some tea? I think I also have some... yup... I managed to find some rice so I also made some rice cakes."

    "Really?? Thank you so much!!! Do you mind if you tell me where you found the rice? I''ve looked all over for..." (Ninja)

    "I am right here you know. If you could kindly stop hugging my subordinate, I would like for you to introduce yourself. Also, I also believe it would be the proper courtesy to show your face." (Cecilia)

    "Oh... Sorry about that. I am Descal''s friend. We met some months ago when a colleague of mine introduced him to me. You will have to forgive me for refusing to remove my hood, or revealing my name for security reasons. I have trust issues." (Ninja)

    "Well. Then, what should I call you?" (Cecilia)

    "My nickname is Yang. May I ask who you are?" (Yang)

    "I am theQueen of the Ruhan Kingdom, Cecilia Tennesley the Third." (Cecilia)

    "?. ? ?? ??. ?? ?? ??? ?? ????? ??? ? ??? ????? ????" (Yang) *What? What is this? Is your girlfriend a pretty queen? How did you get a queen as your girlfriend?*

    "??. ??! ????! ?? ??! Cecilia? ? ?? ??? ???!" (Descal) *No. No! It''s true! Believe me! Cecilia is not my girlfriend!*

    "Uhuh. You guys do know that I am still here." (Cecilia)

    "Oh. Sorry about that your majesty." (Yang)

    "You can drop your majesty part in private. She doesn''t care that much." (Descal)

    "I do care, but I can make exceptions. How exactly did you guys meet?" (Cecilia)

    "Well, you know how when I first came to this world, I teamed up with a couple mercenaries." (Descal)

    "Wait. She knows about Earth? Is she a transported like me?" (Yang)

    "Wait. What? A transported?" (Cecilia)

    "Shut it! I''ll get to it. Yes. Cecilia knows about Earth, but she hasn''t been there. She is a resident of this world. I told her everything." (Descal)

    "You sure that it is okay to tell a royalty about us?" (Yang)

    "Yeah. It''s fine. I can make sure that Cecilia doesn''t do anything stupid." (Descal)

    "Okay. If you say so." (Yang)

    "So anyway, one of the mercenaries Les asked me if I could go check on one of her friends. Apparently, Les heard about me moaning about some food that was very similar to what Yang once had cravings for. She got suspicious that Yang was also an other worlder so she sent me to tell Yang that Les was mad that Yang kept a secret from her for so long. So, I found her in one of the cities and became quick friends due to similar circumstances. Since she was trained in the art of stealth, I decided to hire her recently as my scout and spy." (Descal)

    "I see. I have seen a glimpse of your work, and I am truly impressed. I hope that you will continue providing your services to the crown." (Cecilia)

    "Sure. The pay is good. It''s better than solo mercenary work." (Yang)

    "You are a solo as well?" (Cecilia)

    "Not a high level though. The reason for not being in a team is... I have trust issues... WhenI first came to this world,I couldn''t speak any of the languages, and yeah. Bad things happened untilI was rescued by a dojo that was founded by someone who was also from Earth. It was at that dojo that I met Les, and learned the skills necessary to survive in this world." (Yang)

    "I see. Were you from this country called America as well?" (Cecilia)

    "No. That''s where Descal was from. I came from a country called Japan." (Yang)

    "So the language you were speaking wasn''t English? Then, was it a language from Japan?" (Cecilia)

    "Uhh. No. It wasn''t Japanese. It was Korean." (Yang)

    "So is Korean the common language on Earth?" (Cecilia)

    "Nope. English is the most spoken language on Earth. However, Yang here slept in her English courses so she can''t speak English very well. However, she gained an interest in other Asian languages and loved to travel so she is fluent in Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, and etc. As for me, I learned some Korean from one of my friends while English was my primary language. I also picked up some Spanish as well. So the only language we share from Earth is Korean. We sometimes speak that language for nostalgia sake." (Descal)

    "I see. Well, it is good to meet someone who is in a similar situation to Descal. I hope you will find me to be a trustworthy person, and I hope we can be good friends as well." (Cecilia)

    "Sure. It''s nice meeting a blue blood who isn''t stuck up. I''ll consider it. I mean if Descal is working for you, you can''t be that bad. Well, I have to go now. Payment is still the same place right?" (Yang)

    "Yeah. Stay safe. Tell me if you change your mind about my proposal for becoming my secretary." (Descal)

    "Well... only when it is obvious that you are winning. It is still quite shaky right now. I don''t want to place my bets on the losing sides you know." (Yang)

    "Yeah. After the coming battle, itwill be obvious." (Descal)

    "Good luck." (Yang)

    Yang slipped away into the bush, and Descal closed the flap and reapplied his wards.

    "She has no idea who you really are." (Cecilia)

    "No. She thinks that I am a simple Earthling." (Descal)

    "Although that''s surprising. I didn''t think that mysterious girls were your type." (Cecilia)

    "First her. Now you. No. I don''t love her. I am only offering that position to her cause she is not a good mercenary. Yeah, her skills are top notch, but it is not really fit for solo mercenary work. Also, I trust her. She has a good set of morals." (Descal)

    "Why didn''t you hire her before your promotion? She would have been veryuseful during the planning phases of the war. I am sure that your pay as the Captian of the Royal Guards would have been enough." (Cecilia)

    "Two reasons. One. I wouldn''t be able to use the information. People would ask where I got the scouting information so I would have to introduce Yang to everyone, which is something she would never agree to. Second, my protection would be limited. Now that I am Commanding General, I am essentially second in command of this entire army. I have the authority to protect Yang with my authority if something goes wrong. In fact, Yang actually refused to work for me until I mentioned that I could protect her from political fights that she might be dragged into because of my position." (Descal)

    "Well, if she is going to be your secretary," (Cecilia)

    Cecilia leaned in front of Descal, stared at him in his face, and demanded that she teach him Korean.

    "Why?" (Descal)

    "I don''t like listening to people talk about me in a language I don''t understand." (Cecilia)

    Descal felt a shiver run down his back when he heard this. It was obvious that Cecilia was very angry about that earlier incident.

    "Also, it is for convenience. I looked at the report that she just gave you, and it is written in what I am guessing is Korean. Which is smart since Korean isn''t a language in this world. I think it would be a good code." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah... That''s a good idea, but since there is a possibility of another transportee, no matter how small, we will still need to make a proper code with it." (Descal)

    "Well, good enough. I can think of a couple ways. It will be difficult for a transportee to crack, but impossible for anyone of this world. Hell, a transportee might not even notice that we used a language from Earth as the basis for a code." (Cecilia)

    "Yeah. Well, get me the paperwork. I made a promise to one of the Royal Knights that I would help him with some magic tonight." (Descal)

 Chapter 25: Magic lessons

    Magic is simply a clash of perspectives. You can get the same result using so many different methodologies.

    -Archmage Somebody (I don''t remember the name) from the New and Improved Magic Textbook

    "Mr. Binus!" (Pan)

    It was a fine, lovely afternoon. If the weather kept up, the army could cover a good amount of distance and even arrive at the city ahead of schedule. Descal was busy trying to read the reports on how well the evacuation was going when he heard his name being called.

    "Mmhmm. What do you want to talk about?" (Descal)

    "Should I come back at a later time?" (Pan)

    "No. I can multi-task." (Descal)

    "Well. I came to talk about the textbook you gave me. It''s... interesting to say the least. I have been talking with the other mages like you told me to, but none of them have ever seen this textbook so I can tell that it isn''t the standard issue..." (Pan)

    "Your point?" (Descal)

    "Will this actually teach me magic?" (Pan)

    "Yes. In fact, that bookshould be different from the rest considering thatIwrote the damn thing." (Descal)

    "You wrote the book?" (Pan)

    "Yes." (Descal)

    "If I may, you did a terrible job at some parts. For example, you wrote that there are three schools of magic, but you only talk about two." (Pan)

    "I purposefully left the third branch blank. First, it is the secret behind my chantless magic, and second, you wouldn''t be able to even understand half the things I talk about if I tried to explain the third branch." (Descal)

    "Well. I have another question then. How is the current magic system utilizing the instinctual branch of magic? I thought we were using the chanting branch of magic considering that we well... chant in order to activate spells." (Pan)

    "Yeah. I understand where your confusion is coming from. Hmm. How should I explain this? First, why don''t you give me a quick rundown of what you know about the current magic system." (Descal)

    "Well, from my discussion of the mages, after chanting a couple of arcane words and finishing the chant with the name of the spell, the spell will activate. Although, with enough practice, mages with goodmana compatibility with the spell will be able to forgo the chanting of the arcane words and simply activate spells with only the name of the spell. This was the established truth until you came along that is..." (Pan)

    "Yes. Now. Does anyone know what the hell the arcane words mean?" (Descal)

    "No. Nobody does, but the currently accepted belief is that us not knowing what the words mean is what gives the word power. Like how the mysteriousness adds to the magic factor." (Pan)

    "That is bullshit. The arcane words used to bereal words with real meaning. It was part of an old language that apparently nobody speaks anymore. I can assure you that it was an old language." (Descal)

    "Okay. However, I don''t see what difference it makes. If anything, it only solidifiesits placement in the chanting branch of magic." (Pan)

    "Well, you read the book. What does the chanting branch of magic require for it to work? I am positive that I wrote that chanting magic isn''t simply chanting a bunch of words."

    "Well, according to you, chanting magic is weaving a story or speaking instructions for the mana and implanting your will onto those words to make it into a reality."

    "Yup. Now, how the hell do you make a story with words that you don''t understand?"

    "...But you''re still chanting."

    "Doesn''t matter. You can''t make a story using gibberish. In fact, chanting magic doesn''t require any knowledge of old, "arcane" languages. Using the common tongue is enough. Watch.I invoke the use of my will and mana to create a small fire that flickers with the colors red, orange, and blue on my hand. It will not use a lot of mana, and it will simply be a small flame. This spell shall activate with the words [Flame], and the spell will end when I close my fists. [Flame]."

    As soon as Descal chanted the word [Flame], the spell activated, and a small fire appeared on Descal''s right hand. However, immediately after the fire started, the smell of burning flesh permeated the air, and Descal hissed with pain as he quickly shut off the spell. Descal quickly conjured up some ice from his canteen and put it on his burned hand.

    "Damn. I forgot to add in the part in which the flame won''t injure me when conjured. What a blunder. But yeah, it''s possible to do chant magic with the normal language. Of course, you can also shorten the magic by chanting it in your head, but you must still activate the spell with spoken words, and you run the risk of the spell going haywire if you mess up the chant in your head. It''s far safer to just say the chant out loud."

    "Now that I have actually seen it, this book is actually making alot more sense now... But I still don''t get why the current system is instinctual magic?"

    "Have you heard of Pavlov? Of course not... All right. If you smell food, do you start salivating?"

    "Yes? I don''t see how this is related to..."

    "Just humor me. Do you think about salivating or do you just start salivating when you smell the food."

    "I just start salivating."

    "Similar thing with the chanting. You essentially train your mana and willpower to react in a certain way that results in the activation of a spell after "chanting" certain words and the name of the spell. Really, it is nothing special. This is why there is such variation between individuals regarding the magic power. Those who have a stronger instinctual understanding of the spell subject will have a stronger spell output."

    "I think I understand now."

    "Oh. Pan. Starting from now, keep what I teach you a secret. The things I can teach you is mindblowing and can revolutionize the field. However, this country isn''t ready for a revolution, and we sure as hell won''t benefit from it. So keep your mouth shut."

    "Yes, sir."

    "Well, go along and start practicing. I bet you have a lot of ideas right now."

    "Thank you, Mr. Binus."

    Descal merely gave a nod and went back to reading the reports. It seemed that the evacuation was going smoothly. There should be enough money in the budget to pay the people for the lost property, and the Lord was promised land should Cecilia win so he was cooperating with emptying the city. The report of damming up the river was also going quite well. Everything should be finished by the time the army arrives at the city. While Descal was putting away his report, he saw a shadow approaching him from behind.

    "What do you want Cecilia?"

    "Gold. We''re running low."

    "Cecilia. I did the budget. We arenot running low on funds. Besides, we used up all of the gold I took from that dungeon in the mountains. I don''t have anymore."

    "Oh please. I know that you can make gold. I saw you do it."

    "Did you see the state of my hand after I made the gold? A hand that is radiated by alpha, beta, and gamma radiation is a nasty looking hand. Until I make the proper protective gear, I amnot making any gold."

    "You''re gonna need to cause I ran out of the bribery money."

    "Bribery money? This is something new."

    "Yeah. I can''t really write it on the budget since well you know. But that doesn''t mean it isn''t important. How do you think I keep up with the rumors and spread rumors that help my cause? How do you think I get blackmail material that keeps certain nobles neutral in this conflict? How do you think I got those reinforcements? Bribes and blackmail. Those two things aren''t cheap. Which is why I have come here to petition you for some gold."If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "I know that we agreed that I will be funding a crap ton of things for this war, but I thought we agreed that we are going to go easy on that type of money."

    "I know. I am trying my best with it. Although why the interest in keeping your morals and ethics, considering your...er...past?"

    "I know, but the morals and ethics I learned from my parents from the otherworld are some of the few things I have left that reminds me of the remnants of my humanity. It keeps me sane, reminds me that I am not who I used to be."

    "Look. I don''t want to do this, but I don''t really have a choice. I have to keep my connections with the underworld or there will be devastating consequences. I am not asking you to get involved in this nasty business with me. I have promised that I would do things in moderation, haven''t I?"

    "How much do you need?"

    "500 coins with a gold content similar to those old imperial coins you used when we went shopping during the escape."

    "Here. These two Mythril stones should fetch enough gold coins. I''ll leave the selling to you."

    "Thanks! Oh, by the way, I was listening to a little bit of your conversation."

    "Listening in? You weren''t anywhere near listening range."

    "Well... Lip reading."

    "How do you see that... Right... magic eyes."

    "Yeah. So, what is the third branch anyway?"

    "I didn''t tell Pan. Why should I tell you?"

    "I''ll take two stacks of paperwork from you tonight."

    "So, the third branch of magic is essentially looking at the world and magic from the viewpoint of the natural laws."

    "Natural laws?"

    "Scientific natural laws like the law of thermodynamics, Newton''s law, and you don''t know what I am talking about."

    "Nope."

    "Well, it''s what normally happens in this world when you don''t use magic."

    "Be a bit more specific."

    Descal took out an apple from his dimensional storage and dropped it.

    "Have you ever wondered why this apple dropped? Why doesn''t it just float up? When this apple fell, obviously I didn''t use any magic to manipulate it. So when I don''t use magic, things fall down. Why? Have you ever thought about these things?"

    "Not really..."

    "Well, according to great men from the other world, such as Isaac Newton, the apple falls down because of this force called gravity. And...algebra exists in this world right?"

    "Algebra? Could you describe what it is?"

    "It''s like a system of math equations in which you use variables. Here let me show you this. Do you understand this?"

    "Ahh. You mean al-jabr! Yup. It''s required for anyone who works in the court to have a decent understanding of this math system."

    "Yeah... I''ll just keep calling it algebra. So, I''ll just show this to you while explaining. So gravity can be described by this equation F = Gm<sub>1</sub>m<sub>2</sub>/r<sup>2</sup>with these m being mass of the planet, the mass of you, r being the radius, F being the gravity, and G being the gravitational constant. Now, with this equation as a basis, I use mana as my energy source to manipulate some numbers. For example, I can screw around with the Gravitational constant relative to this apple so that when I let go... it floats."

    "That''s amazing. Is this how you managed to fly?"

    "It was definitely one aspect of it. I also changed my density so that I can float in the air, manipulated the magnetic field of this planet, yadda, yadda. However, I also utilized a good deal of chant magic."

    "Why did you need to use chant magic?"

    "I am not all-knowing regarding the natural laws so I used chant magic to fill in the holes. I have enough experience with chant magic to be able to do it all in my head. However, since my base for the spell is the third branch, I don''t need to yell the spell name for all to hear."

    "Hmm. This is very interesting. It''s nice knowing a bit more about what type of magic you use."

    "Why did you want to learn more about the third branch anyway?"

    "To see if any of that was applicable to learning more about my magic eyes. I''ve plateaued with my training."

    Descal was thinking about telling Cecilia about what he knew about the anatomy of the eyes, but he decided to hold off on it. There really was nothing to gain from telling her the information. If anything, he was curious if Cecilia could breakthrough this barrier herself.

    "Well sucks to you that I can''t be of much more help."

    "You just had to phrase it that way didn''t you. But you know. All this talk about magic had me wondering... what really is mana? What is willpower? Any ideas?"

    "Let''s see. Mana is a form of energy. A quite peculiar form of energy. So mana has the ability to transform intoany different form of energy, and all types of energy can transform into mana. I have even seen heat turn into mana before. How mana can transform into different types of energy is something that will require some research. Willpower is the catalyst for mana to be converted. Without willpower, mana has a tendency to gather and coalesce into a higher energy state. When mana is at a higher energy state, weird shit can happen like the Annapurna Mountains or that forest. Now, willpower isn''t the only catalyst. It is the most efficient, but blood and certain metals is also a catalyst for mana. When humans use magic or spells, they use the mana that their body naturally generates. Unfortunately, humans are unable to use mana that exists outside of their body. That''s really all I know about mana and willpower."

    "Weren''t you a researcher with this stuff?"

    "Yes. However, even researchers back then had trouble defining exactly what mana and willpower was. Yeah, we know what it can do, but what it is? Lot''s of hypothesis were thrown around, but as soon as one prevalent hypothesis stood out, the next day someone found out that there were exceptions to the proposed hypothesis. In fact, mana and willpower were so hard to define that there are no theoriesthat try to explain what mana and willpower is. Due to the mysterious ways of mana, there is actually over a hundred branches of magic, but I never really bothered to learn more than three."

    "Huh. Even our ancestors struggled with this issue."

    "Yup."

    "Hmm.Are there any advantages and disadvantages between the different branches of magic?"

    "Oh, definitely. One key weakness of the Natural Law branch of magic is the need to research and have a firm understanding of the natural laws in addition to learning manipulation of magic. In other words, you have a lot of things to study and discover. The fact that I still need to use chant magic to cover up the holes is a testament to how much information you need to properly do the magic. However, the big benefit is that this branch offers a lot of control over resulting spell, and it is easier to pace ourselves. Now chanting magic is probably the easiest of the three branches because of the need to only learn andtrain manipulation of magic. The problem is that it is very difficult to control at times. The reason being the multiple definitions of words and how subjective some adjectives can be. For example, the words large and humongous may be the size of that tree for us, but to that little ant over there, we are large and humongous. You can see how this can create uncertainty over the spell. Instinctual... I don''t think I need to go into detail with that cause it''s kinda self-explanatory. You practically see it every day."

    "This was quite enlightening. I have to keep reminding myself that you are someone with extensive knowledge of this stuff. Every time you act like a dumbass it''s hard to know that you are such a person."

    "You act like a dumbass too."

    "Oh really. Please list them."

    "...Errr... What about... Hmmm... You''re a crybaby."

    "A crybaby isn''t a dumbass."

    "... I''ve got nothing."

    "That''s what I thought. It would be quite embarrassing if I did act like a dumbass because that would mean I learned nothing from the countless hours of etiquette lessons I was forced to suffer through."

    "You are a cruel manipulative bitch though."

    "I''ll take that as a compliment. By the way, Yang is quite the useful person. I have made lots of connections through her. I approve of hiring her."

    "When did you have the time to meet with her?"

    "Well, now that I have someone to take some of my load, I have some free time."

    "Well, it''s nice tohear that you girls are getting along."

    "Oh yes. I have learned a lot about Earth through our conversations."

    "Is that so."

    "I may even go as far as saying that we are friends."

    "Say what?"

    "It turns out that Yang is very happy to meet a royal who isn''t as concerned with titles."

    "Well, she did hate those things, but I know for a fact that Yang hates getting involved with politics... The number oftimes she emphasized that she would not participate in any sort of politics if she worked under me was quite overwhelming."

    "Well, it may have helped that I was queen, and I already haveyou so I have no need to involve her in any power struggles."

    "Hmm. Wait a fuckin minute. No. Absolutely not. She ismine. Don''t you dare try to steal her from me. She is going to work forme."

    "Ahh, Descal. Hasn''t your mother taught you the importance of sharing?"

    "Hahaha. No. I don''t want to hear that from you. She is going to work under me and that is final. I met her first, and I offered a position to her first."

    "I don''t know... I did offer her a position with better pay..."

    "May I remind you that most likely that pay came from my pocket?"

    "I do have more work than you..."

    "You are the queen. If you didn''t have more work, I would be worried."

    "Pretty please? It''s so hard to find good, qualified subordinates you can trust..."

    "You know... that face would have worked if I didn''t know about what you are capable of."

    "What do you want?"

    "For you to keep your hands off of her. She is working for me and that is final. I''ll give you the chance to hire her after this war is over, and I resign from my position."

    "Darn. I was so happy to finally meet someone who doesn''t try to butter up to me and speaks their mind. I need more people like you and Yang. Everyone else... as soon as they learn that I am queen, they immediately start acting differently."

    "Good luck finding those people."

    "Maybe I should try finding some otherworlders. It seems that they have the least resistance in being friends with royalty."

    "Good luck. You willreally need it to find one that isalive."

    "What do you mean?"

    "First, it is already super rare for someone to accidentally dimensional travel. I don''t know much about the circumstances that occur when someone crosses worlds, but it doesn''t occur often. However, it usually happens in areas with high mana concentrations. Second, Earth doesn''t have any magic nor any monsters. So anyone who comes here will have a hard time trying to survive. To make it even worse, since these travels occur in areas of high mana density... Can you imagine a person with no magical ability nor any weapon training trying to survive the Misty Forest? I sure don''t. Last, even if the person does miraculously survive long enough to reach civilization, there is the language barrier. In a world in which slavery, cults, scammers, deranged murderers, and cannibals run rampant, the survival rate of an otherworlder is like nil. Yang is already a lucky person. With her luck, she may even have the possibility of winning the jackpot in the lottery. But even then, she met some people that took advantage of her, and she has already met and done some very traumatizing things. The fact that she didn''t go insane is a testament to her mental strength."

    "That is quite pitiful."

    "Yes. However, who knows. Maybe luck will smile upon you."

    "Well, I have already met one otherworlder and someone who has gone to another world. There arelegends of otherworlders in the past as well. I have hopes that I will meet another one."

    "Oooh. A rare show of optimism from the Queen."

    "Your sass will get you in big trouble someday."

    "Isn''t that a given?"

 Chapter 26: The second battle part 1

    Sugar, spices, and silkworms. Many nations on Terra are warring over these precious resources. The problem with these three ingredients is that they have a tendency to attract large amounts of monsters if there is a large amount of it. As a result, mass farming of these precious resources can only be done in well-defended areas or on islands. In addition, transport of such material has to be guarded. It is no wonder that these three products are extremely expensive, and many nations have gone to war over production lands and trade routes. So... I want you to tell me how the hell you have so many of such items.

    -An excerpt of a lecture from Cecilia that Descal slept through

    One of the hardest things before and during a battle is the waiting. Waiting for the screams to start, waiting for the charge to initiate, and waiting for death. Cecilia was with her elite Royal Guards with a bunch of cavalry milling around. That''s right. EliteRoyal Guard. Because of the drastic decrease in the number of the Royal Guards, Descal could spend more time in training each individual, and Felix was able to afford the best equipment for each Royal Guard member. In literally 10 days, everybody was Gold Ranked with the three veterans on the tipping point of ranking up.

    Of course, it was difficult to know if someone truly ranked up due to the sheer variety of factors that determined one''s rank such as intelligence, strength, mana manipulation, and mana levels. As a result, the only way to truly know if one ranked up is to defeat someone or something of a higher rank or gain the recognition of someone who is higher. The four fresh gold ranked knights had difficulty settling the butterflies that rampaged in their stomach.

    "How many do you think will die this battle?" (Grisch)

    "C''mon. Don''t talk about that. It''s already hard enough waiting." (Goob)

    "Well, we aren''t going to lead the battle this time around. If anything, Mr. Binus'' plan is that Queen Cecilia stay away from the front lines. In addition, we are going to be far away from the main battle and only going to defeat a couple of reinforcement troops... with us in the back." (Pan)

    "Yeah. But we are now gold ranked soldiers. I don''t think we can stay away from the battle, especially afterthat charge in the first battle." (Grisch)

    "Uggh. My stomach hurts just thinking about going back to the field." (Goob)

    "Might as well get used to it Mr. Goob." (Cecilia)

    "Your Highness!" (Royal Guard)

    "Get up. No need to kneel when a battle is about to start. We are going to be fighting side by side should the time come." (Cecilia)

    "If I may your highness, you seem awfully calm about this. This is your first war, yes?" (Pan)

    "Well, I am the Queen, and I have to keep a dignified appearance. Although I had lots of practice with patience when I had to act out my countermeasures for rooting out assassins." (Cecilia)

    "Forgive me for bringing up bad memories." (Pan)

    "No. It''s alright. It''s kinda pitiful, to be honest. Look at me. An 18-year-old royal who has experienced so much death that she is desensitized to it." (Cecilia)

    After that, there was an uncomfortable silence among the five people. However, this was interrupted when Felix, Bob, and Manos galloped toward the Queen at top speed.

    "Your majesty! The battle has started!" (Felix)

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    When General Sheela''s army came to the Fortress City, the first thing that encountered them was nothing. There should have been troops, traps, catapults, mages, anything! But alas, there was nothing. Not even the gates were locked. It was wide open as if beckoning the troops to enter.

    The first thing that went through everyone''s mind was thatit was a trap. Descal already had an infamous reputation for traps due to how he utilized it to wipe out the first wave. Due to the massive losses incurred from thefirst battle, General Sheela knew that she couldn''t afford to lose another battle.

    The political situation was already tense on her side. Many nobles supporting the usurper were not happy with how badly the first battle went. It was literally a third of the army that went down the drain. In order to prevent any nobles thinking of defecting back to that child-devil''s side, Sheela needed a victory. As a result, she was forced to send her troops through the gate. Sheela wouldn''t be able to defend herself if the nobles had heard of how she was "too scared" to enter a seemingly abandoned city. She would become the laughing stock of the entire army and lose her position. Until she gets her vengeance, she cannot risk losing her position. She left some troops outside to keep watch on theirrear. If this city was indeed an ambush, Sheela wanted an escape route.

    The first thing that everyone noticed was that the streets were littered with gold statues and treasures. However, they were all mainly buried with only the tip peeking out. Sheela saw that some of the soldiers stopped marching and were trying to dig out the gold.

    "Give the order to have the men continue marching.Nobody touches any of the treasures."

    "Yes, my lord."

    Gold. It seems that Cecilia the devil was intent on tormenting her even in the battlefield. Every time she sees a large amount of gold spent nilly-willy, her stomach coils up in anger. Cecilia should know of what gold meant to Sheela, and yet she has the audacity to use such a plan.

    The screams and shouts began to ring around her head. Her familydestroyed due to the greed of others, caused by the Devil Princess. Sheela unconsciously started to flex her fingers, fingers that desired to wrap around a neck and snap it.

    Her guards immediately went off to bring the men back into formation. While she was looking around, Sheela couldn''t help get a bad feeling of why Descal would abandon an entire city without a fight. It was completely unheard of. She watched as her soldiers lead by her elites taking the walls with absolutely no difficulty, and the mercenaries she hired to dismantle traps continued to report that there were no traps. None of the building was rigged, and neither was the ground unless one could count the gold as traps.

    It wasn''t until the front lines got to the city center that sounds of fighting rang out.

    Sheela smiled. She heard of how Cecilia was in the front lines in the previous battle. If luck would have it, she would be in the front lines this battle as well.

    ---------------------------------------------

    "Hold the line! Don''t retreat until we buy enough time for her majesty to escape!"

    This was what was shouted by numerous soldiers that Descal paid a bit extra to shout out. Descal wanted Sheela''s soldiers to think that the five hundred men that remained in the city weren''t a diversion for another attack, but a diversion to buy time for an army to retreat.

    Of course, it was highly unlikely for Sheela herself to fall for it, but the same could not be said for her men. If Descal can occupy Sheela so that she was unable to give out orders, it would be easy for the army to fall into the trap. This was why Descal was being incredibly showy with his magic (as much as he could with thesealed state he was in) to try and lure Sheela to his position. That and he had no choice but to use some of his spells cause Sheela''s tactics were pretty damn good.

    "Fuck. These fuckin pikes are so annoying!" (Descal)

    It turns out that long pointy sticks can be very deadly in tight spaces if used correctly. Descal''s side was taking heavy damage because they had difficulty getting close to the enemy while mages calming casted spells from behind the pikemen.

    "Watch out! They let loose the dogs!"

    "Gaaah! My legs!"

    "Get them off me!"

    Also, they somehow managed to get hold of some sort of rabid dogs and were releasing them onto Descal''s men. As a result, Descal was losing far more men than he originally planned for. Suddenly, he saw a glimpse of reflective metal from one of the buildings down the street, and he quickly grabbed the arrow before it could pierce his head. Descal was positive he rigged the rooftops with traps, but it seems that Sheela found a way around it. So, this is what is like to face off against someone who knows exactly what they are doing.

    A dog leaped at Descal, only for him to lean to the side and stab the dog through the eye while it was jumping past him.

    "Move back to the fourth outer gate. We''re gonna get surrounded at this rate!" (Descal)

    Without another word, the infantry and mages quickly began running back only to encounter another group with a silver-haired beauty in shiny form-fitting leather armor. In her hands was a staff that had two crystals on each end.

    "General Sheela. It''s quite rare to see a general to lead her men so close to the front lines."If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "That is the last thing I want to hear from someone like you."

    Sheela was a platinum level individual from the reaction that Descal''s black diamond was giving. Descal quickly began wrapping his hand around the black diamond and broke the seal. Immediately, he felt the rush of power as his mana levels rose to what most Mythril rank people have. Descal put his hand on one of the buildings to his right and destabilized its molecular structure so that it came crashing down as dirt and ash.

    "Take that street over there and get out of here! I''ll distract Sheela myself!"

    "Yes, sir!"

    Descal began concentrating the numerous air molecules around him and started seven fireballs fueled with mana with more on the way. When gas molecules are suddenly and quickly compressed, it results in a jump in temperature and heat which should be enough to kickstart a fire. Of course, the next problem would be fuel, but Descal solved it by fueling the magic with mana. Of course, that meant that the fire would be weak to armor that was resistant to mana; however... Descal shot the fireballs at the group in front of him. Sheela merely stood still as the fireballs dissipated with a small flash after contacting her armor while the rest of her men fled from the oncoming barrage. Unlike what happened with Sheela''s armor, when the fireballs made contact with the ground or flesh, they exploded burning everything in its surroundings. Descal gained an important piece of information. Cecilia''s armor was warded against mana.

    When an armor is warded against mana or resistant to spells, it doesn''t mean that the armor is invincible to magic. There is always a limit to how much mana the armor can dissipate before it is overwhelmed. In addition, a magic that is not fueled by mana is effective. To clarify, the fireballs by Descal were fueled by mana. In other words, the fireball needed a constant flow of mana to keep its effectiveness.

    However, if Descal created a large ball of ice from the water vapor from the environment and shot it at Sheela not with mana fueled velocity, but a small explosion of compressed air, the mana warding would not work because, in the point of view of the armor, it was simply a big ball of ice with no mana on it hurtling towards it. That was exactly what Descal did when the initial barrage of fire was ineffective.

    Sheela, confident in her armor, did nothing and simply stood there which was completely understandable. One key weakness of chant magic was that everything was fueled by mana. In other words, Sheela probably never met an opponent who used spells like Descal.

    The ball of ice smashed into Sheela and hurled her into the building 30 meters behind her. She went through the wall with such force that the building ended up collapsing on top of her.

    "Well, that was anticlimactic. Welp, time to collect her body! I wonder if she has any special physical traits."

    Descal began to walk toward the fallen building; however, he suddenly stopped when his ears picked up some muffled words. His eyes suddenly opened in surprise as multiple ice swords came from the dusty remnants of the building and hurtled towards him. He quickly smashed apart all of them with his blades, but Sheela followed up her attack with a sudden lunge with her staff smacking Descal in his diaphragm and sending him crashing into an inn''s stables.

    "That is the last time I underestimate a subordinate of Cecilia. I should have known that you would be different in some way. No wonder you defeated Farrago."

    -----------------------------------------------

    The city was flashing with all sorts of explosions and fire. Some of the spells had sent massive beams of light and energy all the way into the sky that even a small army about a day march from the fortress city could feel and see its power. The Royal Guards were watching the light show from afar with concern as they followed their queen who was leading a detachment of mages and infantry that numbered2,000 away from the city to somewhere else.

    "I know this is kinda late, but where are we going?" (Goob)

    "If you just pay attention for once... Apparently, enemy reinforcements have been reported byour Commanding General''s informant so we are going to stop them. This was all explained a couple days ago." (Fersal)

    "What are the numbers again?" (Pan)

    "100,000." (Felix)

    Immediately, the four newer members froze up when the captain informed them of the massive army.

    "Sir, if I may, I just need to confirm that my ears weren''t going crazy recently, isn''t that the majority of the enemy army?" (Grisch)

    "Yes. I know that it is hard to believe, but it is 100,000 troops." (Felix)

    "We only have 2,000 thousand troops. How are we going to defeat such a large army?" (Grisch)

    "There is a reason why not a lot of people don''t know about the true number but don''t worry. I can''t say anything yet, but there is going to be a nasty surprise for them. Thankfully, the general of the reinforcing army isn''t familiar with this part of the country. Our job is only going to be mopping up the survivors. We are going to have the easy job. It''s those poor blokes at the city that I worry about." (Felix)

    "Oye. Felix. Queen Cecilia requests your presence." (Dob)

    "Got it. Tell Manos to stop flirting with that girl over there and get back in line."

    "You got it."

    Felix began riding up towards Queen Cecilia who was discussing something in private with this suspiciously dressed woman. At first, Felix thought she was a man, but after listening to her voice, he realized his mistake.

    "You requested my presence, your majesty?" (Felix)

    "Ahh. Commander Felix. I have come to tell you that there will be some changes to the plan. The enemy has changed course." (Cecilia)

    "Hmmm. Is that a map? If you may, could you be more specific?"

    "From what Yang here tells me, it looks like the enemy has been going farther south than previously thought. This would cause them to go behind this hill which would shield them from the worst of the effects. We need to pull them back up north a bit to this valley."

    "We would need to go ahead of schedule then. If we can pull some small skirmishes to have them chase us back north..."

    "Exactly. However, it would be too much for us to rush there with so many so I am planning on taking a smaller detachment of 30 of our fastest cavalry to do hit and run tactics on them to pull them back up. However, since we need for them to chase us, I am going to use myself as bait. Ready your men and find some people for this mission. I want to get to this position by midday. It''s going to be a close one, but I think we can pull this off. By sundown, we should be able to wipe out this army."

    "Your majesty, I would simply like to say that it is awe inspiring to fight alongside royalty who is willing to put herself in danger. I believe I can understand why the late king has named you his successor."

    "...You are dismissed."

    -----------------------------------------------------------

    The sun was halfway through the sky. If one wished to be poetic, the position of the sun could be used to describe the current stalemate between Sheela and Descal. Their fight was so furious and dangerous that Sheela''s men were being caught up in the crossfire. As a result, Sheela took the initiative to pull Descal outside the city walls, and Descal willingly went along with her plan.

    Descal did not have the luxury of playing around at all unlikethe fight with Farrago. Sheela wasn''t a platinum. Although the black diamond displayed Sheela as a platinum, Sheela was most definitely not a platinum. One of the weaknesses of the black diamond was that it used mana level as the deciding factor for deciding the opponent''s strength which made sense because the black diamond was mainly a seal for Descal''s own mana levels. However, this meant that if the opponent was strong in other methods, the diamond''s evaluation became inaccurate and an inadequate amount of Descal''s strength was unsealed. From Descal''s fight with Sheela factoring in her physical strength, mana manipulation, thinking, she was easily a Mythril rank.

    "[Chain Magic: Ice Sword Dance]" (Sheela)

    Thirty swords made of ice appeared in front of Sheela, and every single one of them pointed itself at Descal. Descal immediately dived to the ground and began erecting multiple stone walls which the swords began piercing with ease. To Sheela''s credit, she was doing an excellent job of pinning down Descal and preventing him from utilizing his flight spells very well.

    If only Descal could use a force field spell; however, such a spell would have to be entirely chant magic. One of the limitations of natural law based magic was that it had to be somewhat based on the user''s understanding of the natural laws. From what Descal knew of physics, force fields were impossible. Yes, a magnetic field could be erected and strengthened to the point of being able to deflect charged particles or iron, but this was ice. Ice can''t be affected very well with a magnetic field.If Descal was to block Sheela''s attacks, he needed to do it the old-fashioned way with no fancy magic spells... or use chant magic, but like hell if Sheela would give him time to chant.

    While Descal was busy hiding behind the multi-layered stone walls, he heard rumbling. Descal frowned before a staff caught him in the face and sent him tumbling a couple of meters. Sheela was alsovery skilled with her staff. Her staff which also were equipped with what turned out to be freakingshock crystals. Crystals that sent out shockwaves when magic was fed to it and contact was made with a physical object.

    Descal quickly tried to put his eye back into his socket before Sheela noticed, but it was too late.

    "You''re not human."

    "Maybe. Maybe not."

    "Talking in riddles. You''re definitely not human."

    "Okay. That''s just rude."

    "I''m not surprised that Cecilia would stoop down to summoning demons."

    "Umm. I''m not a demon."

    "Enough talk. [Blizzard]."

    Descal''s line of sight was obscured by a thick snow storm. Quickly understanding the dangerous situation, Descal activated one of his entropy spells. It increased the entropy of all mana in the area so that spells were nullified for a certain period of time. In other words, mana became too unstable for spells to take hold. However, one of the special traits about mana that baffles Descal (and all Earth physicists if mana existed on Earth) was that mana had a tendency to naturally decrease entropy so it was a temporary fix at best.

    Descal noticed a shadow over him so he quickly dodged out of the way before a staff smashed into the ground where he was.

    "[Ice Spikes]."

    However, nothing happened. Sheela blinked in confusion while Descal brutally smiled. Descal still had access to the voidmatter, and it wasn''t affected by unstable mana. In addition, the void could be converted into usable mana. In other words, Descal was still able to use magic.

    "What did you do?"

    Only a smile answered back.

    -------------------------------------------------

    Cecilia smiled once more as she brought down another fool yelling orders to his troops to chase after her squad. In order for commanders to be much more easily recognizable, most of them tended to sit on horses in big flashy uniforms. Of course, it made them bigger targets; however, to become a commander, one had to have a certain rank so that they wouldn''t die so easily.

    In a world of swords, magic, and arrows, this system tended to work. However, when guns were introduced, things begin to change. Even with magic, one had to understand guns in order to pace proper countermeasures. Even with countermeasures, it required a very strong individual to consistently survive shots. With most commanders being rank gold or lower and little understanding of guns, they stood no chance against Cecilia''s sniping.

    After the fifth commander kill, it would be obvious for the commanders to know something was up. However, Cecilia got hold of these harmless firecrackers that Descal made during the winter when he was training the troops. By firing in tangent with her hit and run squadrons throwing the firecrackers at the enemy, the enemy commanders got the impression that it was the firecrackers that were mysteriously taking them down.

    "Retreat! Let''s move north!" (Felix)

    "After them! A million gold coins to the man who kills the devil queen!"

    *crack*

    "Your Highness. We are trying to get them to chase us not chase them away..." (Felix)

    Cecilia shouted in a voice as loud as possible: "You call yourselves men! Not one of you has the courage to kill me!"

    "This bitch!"

    "Wait till I get my hands on you!"

    "*sigh* Your Highness. Making them mad like that was not my intent." (Felix)

    "Shut it." (Cecilia)

    Cecilia turned around and shot another round with another man dropping with his leg shattered.

    "Tell Pan to ready the signal. In a few more kilometers, we should have lured them into the optimal area."

    "Understood."

    Soon, it seems that Descal would get another nickname. After all, wiping out such a large army in one go is sure to turn heads.

 Chapter 27: Sheelas backstory

    Due to the wars of the great human superpowers, they have a dire need for resources. They obtain these resources by annexing neighboring countries, taking them from non-human territories such as the beastmen or the elves, or through, to a lesser extent, tribute. The only reason why our country was not invaded yet was simply a lack of desired resources and our geography. We are awfully close to the Forsaken One''s territory. This is why we have such a large number of fortresses on one side of the country. If one of the empires conquers us, they would be adjacent to the territory as well and shoulder the responsibility of being one of the first countries invaded if the Fourth Calamity War begins. The other reason is that we are not worth attacking. We have nothing that the empires desire enough to offset the disadvantages. This is why we have to be very careful to not attract too much attention. This is why we have forbidden mining deeper in the mountain ranges. If we are to stumble upon a vein of precious ore like, Gods forbid, adamantium, our country will be invaded in a heartbeat. That is why I cannot approve of your proposal.

    - The king to his daughter''s proposal for increasing the kingdom''s economy by utilizing the mountain''s resources

    A knee to the face followed by a backhand sent the victim 20 meters flying into the dirt. This was how badly Descal was beating the shit out of Sheela.With Sheela no longer able to use magic, Descal had free-reign in pummeling her to the ground.

    However, Sheela was still able to put up quite a fight considering that she was still able to avoid fatalattacks. Descal has already missed over 30 earth spikes as well as multiple ice and clay bullets. She was constantly dodging Descal''s ranged attacks that he gave up trying to hit her with spells and focused on beating her with close combat. Yes, Descal could have done spells that chased Sheela like a homing spell, but those required chants, and she still had magic warded armor.

    However, Sheela was still able to fight back with her staff until Descal broke her guard when she swung too far allowing Descal to grab the staff, pull her towards him, and kick her in the knee with enough force that her leg bent the wrong way.

    Sheela collapsed from the sudden loss of support from her legs, and while she was falling Descal was going to plunge a blade straight through her throat until her armor started glowing. In a fantasy world, when things glow, something was going to happen.

    Immediately, Descal disengaged and jumped back in time to avoid the worst effects of the incoming explosion. The worst he got was a couple of singes.

    "Tch. She suicided."

    Descal waited for the dust to clear; however, when he heard bones cracking and some mumbling, he immediately went back on guard sending out small mana waves to pinpoint what made that sound. It came from where Sheela blew up. Descal needed a clearer line of sight so he caused a pressure change creating a wind that blew away most of the dust.

    Sheela was still alive despite exploding. Her leg was back in position with some sort of ice splint made from magic. However, the most baffling to Descal was that her leather armor was gone, replaced with the all too famous "bikini armor".

    "If you are trying to give me a boner, it''s not working." (Descal)

    "My...eyes... are up here." (Sheela)

    With those words, she took off a ring on her finger, and the mana levels surged from her causing the mana around her to congregate. Descal felt his stomach drop as the waves of energy radiating from Sheela came crashing down on him. Descal''s entropy spell was useless against opponents of a certain power level due to those individuals having such a powerful presence that mana automatically regains its high energy state. Judging from Sheela''s mana levels alone, she was easily an adamantium.

    "Shit."

    Descal had another extremely dangerous weak point. Once he activates the diamond and unseals his mana, he is unable to unseal more of his mana unless he reapplies the seal, wait for the cooldown, and redo the process. In other words, he was stuck with Mythril rank power against an opponent who was one rank higher than him. The word shit summed up Descal''s situation quite well.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    Gold. For some reason, many sentient beings crave this metal. It is hard to get because it is usually found in mountains in which monsters infest both the surface and the inside. It is simply astonishing how much blood has been and will be spilled over gold.

    The noble house of Ariston was an old and respected family with a rich history of honor and charity. They fought nobly against the waves of Forsaken ones during the Calamity War and helped the commonersendure through the famines from the aftermath of the War. In addition, the house of Ariston regularly sent out hunting patrols to reduce bandits and monster numbers making the lands a bit safer for the farmers and merchants helping the economy. The current 40-year-old lord was a kind and powerful man who understood the balance of humility and pride. Sheela was a proud member and happy daughter of the lord of the Ariston House.

    Sheela was only 10 when her familyreceived reports of a massive gold vein in one of the mountains. It was a mountain with a tense political situation because three noble families, including her family, had a claimto it. While her family was contemplating the best way to handle this new bit of information, some began to take a more violent approach.

    "Assassins! To arms!"

    "My lady, you must flee!"

    "Do not worry about me and go!"

    With a burning mansion behind her, she fled. She continued galloping into the mountain roads until her horse collapsed from exhaustion. Dragging her bruised body, the child soon spotted a small shack in the mountainside...

    "Eat up kid."

    Standing over her was a man who looked about the same age as her father with a wild nest of black hair. He had brown eyes with the sharp look that her father had when he left with his patrols. He was dressed quite casually in a plain cotton shirt and pantsand a leather vest.

    "Who are you?"

    "The owner of this humble shack. I don''t appreciate you just falling unconscious on my porch."

    "Sorry."

    "Wanna talk about why you are all alone with a dead horse?"

    "...I want my mommy and daddy."

    "It''s alright. There, there. Everything''s gonna be alright. Here. Drink this. It''s a nice tea. One of my favorites actually. It calms nerves."A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    "I want to go home."

    "You aren''t going anywhere looking like that. *knock* Hold on. I''ll get this. You just stay in this bed and rest."

    The man stood up, and Sheela saw that the man was missing a leg. In its place was an old rickety wooden artificial one. Sheela couldn''t help, but walk over to the door and eavesdrop on the conversation.

    "Any survivors?"

    "None. Those damn assassins were very thorough with their job. If it wasn''t for you tipping me off that this was a possible murder attempt, I would have thought it was a simple freak monster attack or something. However, I found this in the ashes."

    "*Sniff.* Damn this is Veridin Ignis. A key component to massive fire spells."

    "Yeah. No way in hell that monsters would be carrying around a jar of this stuff and LordAriston doesn''t like this stuff because of well you know."

    "... How''s the political situation of this?"

    "An uproar. Everybody in our land is freaking out over the Lord''s death, and the capital has yet to make a move. However, numerous nobles have been making moves to try and take some part of our land."

    "How long do I have to take care of Illex''s daughter?"

    "Don''t know. However, we should keep her hidden for now. I''ll try to see if I can make use of some of my connections to see if anyone is willing to adopt her or something."

    "Okay. C''mon in. Want some tea before you... Kid. How much did you hear?"

    "Is everyone dead?"

    "Oh, gods. Kid. Look at me. Death isn''t easy. It is definitely something that someone your age should never deal with. Your father was a great man, one of the best men I have ever worked under. Your mother too was an amazing woman. Just know that you have the blood of two amazing people and that you arenever alone. Those memories of your family keep them close to your heart so that they never really die. Those familial bonds will always stay with you."

    "Why? Why?"

    "I can''t answer that. Nobody can."

    "You want me to just go or..."

    "No. You stay here and help me deal with this crying kid."

    Nobody moved, and all the man could do was simply hold onto the girl until she fell asleep.

    "Poor girl. She must have been very exhausted."

    "Uggh. I don''t want to deal with this shit."

    "She came and collapsed on your porch, and thank gods she did. Nobody else can take care of her."

    "You do understand that one of the reasons I refused to marry was because I didn''t want kids right?"

    "I thought it was because the girl you loved didn''t fall in love with you but that harem bastard."

    "Shut it, Jimmy. I just managed to forget about him."

    "Well, I need to collect more info. I''ll come back in about a week."

    There was no reply as the man tucked Sheela into bed.

    The next day at dawn before the sun even came up, Sheela woke up to the smell of bacon.

    "Oh good, you''re up. Eat up fast. I want to show you something."

    Sheela simply did as she was told almost like a golem. There was no bounce and no purpose in her steps. Her once bright blue eyes were now a dull blue.

    "C''mon. I want to be there on time. You know what. I''ll just carry you. Grab on."

    The forest opened up to a beautiful cliffside that had a magnificent view. The wind softly blew as the sun was slowly rising over the horizon.

    "I wanted to show you this sunrise. It''s a stunning sight, isn''t it? How the sun rises like that and how it shines it light over the land your father ruled over. Simply breathtaking."

    He looked down at Sheela and realizing that she wasn''t going to speak, he kept on going with his monologue.

    "I always liked to go up here when I felt down. When I fought with your father in those skirmishes, we lost a good amount of friends. Every time someone died, I personally went to each family to offer my condolences. I endured their tears, their outrage, and their denial. I ended up turning to alcohol to stifle the pain. Your father noticed this, and he took me to this cliff. He showed me this wonderful sight. We didn''t talk much. When it was time to go, he only told me this: No matter what happens, the sun will always come up."

    Sheela only stayed quiet. The man only knew that Sheela was listening was because tears began pooling around her eyes.

    "I guess what he wanted to tell me was that no matter how bad things get, we can still pull through and shine through whatever darkness surrounds us. Just like that sun. I know things must be very... difficult for you right now, but I am positive you can endure it. I just want you to know that."

    Sheela''s tears began streaming down like a waterfall. However, no sound came from her. It was a silent cry. The man merely took a glance at the tears and looked back at the rising sun.

    "Teach me how to fight."

    "Excuse me?"

    "You''re Belisarius Ferrone. Father loved to talk about you in his war stories when he tucked me into bed. A powerful close combat sorcerer. Teach me, please."

    "Clever."

    "I saw your staff in the cabin. I remember seeing a picture of thestaff in one of the portraits in our mansion. You look older though."

    "Why do you want to fight?"

    "I want to find the person who did this."

    "Revenge? Revenge won''t bring your family back. Revenge doesn''t bring anyone back. I say this from personal experience."

    "I know. But, it just hurts so much."

    "Why don''t we wait a week? Calm yourself before making a decision."

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It took Sheelafour years to find out the truth. The monster-riddled mountain never had any gold. It took another two years to find out that her family was bait. It took one more year before she connected the dots. However, she never could find any proof. So, she waited. Now three years later, she has her chance. However, there is an infuriating obstacle in front of her.

    Sheela finally managed to grab Descal, kicked him in the stomach, and grabbed his head when it bent forward in pain. Ruthlessly, she began kneeing him in the face.

    "Why! SMACK. Won''t! SMACK. You! CRACK.Die!"

    Finished caving his face in, she threw his body into the tree...

    [Fifty Chains: Ice Spear]

    and proceeded to nail Descal''s body to the tree with five inch thick icicles. However, Descal merely began regenerating his body back to normal and broke the icicles. Descal''s ability to regenerate was infuriating to Sheela since it resulted in a stalemate once more. Sheela was about to chant another spell; however, he quickly closed the distanced and stabbed Sheela in the stomach or tried to. It failed to penetrate the ice armor that Sheela had equipped. In truth, Sheela was not wearing bikini armor in a sense because she had three layers of water/ice magic armor around her. However, water and ice tend to be see-through giving the illusion of bikini armor.

    "This is quite infuriating."

    "It''s worse for me. Getting hit a million times is not fun."

    "You surviving those hits is infuriating. Just die."

    "Can''t."

    "Why to buy time for that bitch to escape? Too bad for you, I have reinforcements coming soon. We should be able to cut off her escape route."

    "As if. You won''t have reinforcements soon."

    "Enough. Just die!"

    Sheela once again prepared to ram her staff into Descal''s chest; however, he dodged it and tried to follow up with a wide swing. It was wide enough for Sheela to counter the attack by blowing off Descal''s arm with the staff. Descal once more tried to attack with his other arm only for it to meet the same fate. Sheela kicked Descal down and prepared to slam her staff onto Descal''s throat.

    "Would blowing off your head kill you?"

    "I don''t know. Will it?"

    "I shall have the pleasure of testing it myself."

    Sheela took a step back and stared at the body regrowing the head once more. Watching the regeneration more closely, she noticed a strong resemblance to the homunculus that existed in alchemist labs, and the homunculus in the labs had a core...

    She wasted no time in smashing the body in numerous locations turning it into a bloody mulch until her staff made a small clink, indicating the core. Tearing it out, Sheela looked at the corrupted pearl for a couple seconds before attempting to crush it. As soon as a crack appeared on the pearl, everything seemed to freeze for Sheela.

    A soft wind blew through the field. It was a warm and soft wind that was characteristic of spring. However, the wind did not have such an atmosphere. Sheela felt her heart gripped with something, and cold sweat began forming on her forehead. Fear. Why is she feeling fear now of all times?

    Wait. There were two shadows. That doesn''t make sense. Sheela was the only thing standing in the field right now, and they were quite a distance from the castle. So why is there another shadow... something was behind Sheela. It was becoming bigger.

    Did she dare look? Did she dare turn around? Should she simply run? Never. She had enough running for a lifetime. She would stand her ground no matter how foolish it was. She had reached adamantium by powering through opponent after opponent. Through sheer willpower, she managed to succeed in numerous trials. She gained this strength for the day that she could take her revenge. She was so close. SO CLOSE. A few more steps. Until that bitches head was in her hands, she will not run. Sheela whirled around ready to plunge her staff into whatever was behind her, and she felt nothing make contact with her staff.

    Sheela whirled around to come face to face with what was behind her. She screamed, and blood splattered.

 Chapter 28: Another victory and organ harvesting

    Well, what do you think this is?

    Don''t know, but it looks to be a trap, judging by how there is a skeleton there crushed into that wall.

    Hey, what''s that book over there?

    Hmm. *close shut* I''m... just gonna take this for... research purposes.

    Give me that! *opens* Seriously? Research purposes?

    Well, it''s obvious what happened now. That skeleton is definitely male, that sword definitely belonged to one of the heroes of old. To be more specific, there were records that there was a hero who was a pervert...

    So this is how he died?

    Probably.

    -archaeologists in one of the ruins

    Water. In literature, water can have multiple meanings. It is simply fascinating how much literary meaning water can have in stories and poetry. A character that almost drowned can have significant meaning that resonates with one of the themes that rests within a book such as the concept of redemption or reincarnation.

    However, outside of literature water can simply be water. Or a weapon. Water to drown entire armies while someone watches the destruction atop a hill.

    A dam that was built and broken to lay waste to Cecilia''s enemies as no man could stop the relentless flood.

    "Go run down the few survivors. No prisoners. These are simply foreign mercenaries. No need for mercy." (Cecilia)

    "Yes, your highness."

    Cecilia took another glance at the raging waters as they continued on their path of destruction. On that path of destruction was the city that Descal and Cecilia ordered evacuated. A city in which there were most likely numerous soldiers intent on digging up the gold that Descal had planted. In order to anger the general, Cecilia deliberately chose gold as the bait. Descal wanted silver, but gold would make the enemy general angrier.

    In simply two battles, Descal was able to decimate the rebel army''s finances (due to them wasting it on the foreign mercenaries which were drowning at this moment) and manpower (burned to a crisp from the fires and more will drown when the river reaches the city). There were now only remnants of her uncle''s army. It would be soon time to march to the capital to put an end to this rebellion.

    Her people and soldiers were fascinated with the man called Descal. He had won the support of the commoners due to his background as a nobody who rose to a powerful position. In addition, he always made sure to send periodical check-ups on the villagers to see if they were safe from bandits during this time of upheaval. Of course, it was Cecilia who recommended this to Descal, and it was Cecilia who made sure success stories spread far and wide throughout the kingdom.

    The nobles... with Descal''s achievements in battle and how he would probably end a war that should have lasted for at least a couple years in a couple months... it was enough to earn him the respect and support throughout the military nobles. The others... Cecilia had a plan to deal with them. Descal was doing better at the social parties, but he still had trouble gaining information through simple conversations.

    However, the important thing was that Descal was quickly rising in fame, making it easier for Cecilia to appoint him a particularly important position of power. It would also solve his issues with fate because judging from the stories and myths that surrounded this specific position, it seemed that fate was intimately tied to this position. It would also bind him to the country, and Cecilia was positive that Descal would be someone very important in creating a country that her victims could be proud of. It also helped that Descal was pretty open about what he thought and some parts of his past. Why? Cecilia had a suspicion that Descal knew that Cecilia could help him out with his problem. After all, Descal did say that his eyes could see fate to an extent.

    Anyways, the problem now was simply finishing this war. Giving Descal his position and securing it came later. Now, it was time to regroup with Descal and plan out the siege for the capital.

    It took a couple of days before Cecilia could go back to the sunken city. Workers were hard at work trying to clean up the dead bodies that were floating everywhere. The gold was given to the people so they could rebuild what was taken from them. If anything, the people were quite happy with the outcome. They were given adequate time to move out, they were paid for their losses, and the redirected river would bring them more prosperity as the river would now give them transportation access to a couple of other cities.

    Sheela had gone missing, the enemy armies were destroyed, and Cecilia should be pleased. Cecilia was pleased minus one thing.

    "Where in the world is Descal?"

    "Your Highness. We still have men out there searching; however, numerous reports state that Sheela led Descal out into the woods. Once that happened, the rest of Descal''s men moved out, and as Descal stated, most of the enemy soldiers began to try and dig out the gold until the flood hit, the potassium hidden in the walls exploded, resulting in a complete wipeout of most of the forces in the city. Neither Sheela and Descal has reappeared." (Felix)

    "Any ideas where he could be?"

    "He is an incredibly powerful man. Given time, he will surely return."

    "That is quite the statement."

    "Your Highness. He is insanely powerful. If he wasn''t on our side, I fear that we would be on the losing side instead."

    "Well, how long do you believe we should wait?"

    "3 days. Descal was always fond of the number three. He would most likely appear in 3 days. If not, we should press the advantage and keep moving."

    "Your recommendation has been noted. You are dismissed."

    Cecilia leaned back in her chair and breathed a sigh of relief to be alone for the first time since the end of the battle. After the battle, it was being surrounded by escorts, going out to perform clean-up operations, more meetings with reinforcement officers, and more meetings with the residents of the city now under a river. Now, she was finally alone with a cup of tea that she began sipping, five stacks of paperwork, a weird shadow with red eyes... wait, what?

    Cecilia spat out her tea and began coughing while glaring at the shadow.

    "Sorry. You weren''t alone until just now so I couldn''t reveal myself." (Descal)

    "What happened?" (Cecilia)

    "Bitch was adamantium level while I was stuck with Mythril level. She cracked my core so I had no choice but to reveal my true form."

    "Anybody saw?"

    "I killed every living thing in a 400-meter radius. Couldn''t risk a possibility of a dyrad seeing me. If your soldiers report this weird...desert in the middle of the forest, it was me."

    "Why aren''t you in your damn body?"

    "The core is cracked. The core''s regenerating, but until it is back to normal, my body has lost its regeneration function."

    "You can''t stay like that. Go away and come back until the core is all better. Which is when?"

    "I could go away, but I don''t feel comfortable staying away for about two days doing that... While I was in this form, I decided to test out the string that is binding me to this world... You know that promise I made to you?"

    "What promise... oh that one. Yeah?"

    "That promise is the only thing binding me to this world. You already have a pretty strong fate, and the fact that I made a promise with someone like you was enough to ground me into a "role" in the world."

    "So.. what does that have to do with you not being able to go away."

    "Since I am bound to you, well... my binds get stronger when I am near you. I used a lot of my power so the string is pretty weak right now. I don''t want to risk it."

    "Well, then hide like you have been doing so far."

    "Can''t. I was never really skillful at holding back my powers... I am sorta losing my grip... You really don''t want me to release my fear aura here."

    "No, we do not. So then what do we do?"

    "No need to panic. I can always manually repair my homonculus body and bind myself to it again. However, I need your help. Go to my tent. I am going to try to match my steps with your shadow to blend in."

    With that Descal closed his eyes as he crouched down into Cecilia''s shadow blending in quite well. Deciding not to question Descal''s choice for stealth, Cecilia left her tent and went to Descal''s tent which was right by hers. She dismissed the guards and told them to stop anyone from getting 10 meters from the tent. Nobody is to disturb her even if it is a high priority. If it is a high priority that cannot be delayed, Felix is to deal with it.

    "Alright, what now?"

    "We need to sneak out into the forest a little bit. Go through that flap right there and dive into the bushes. You see that out-of-place water trail? Follow it."You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Cecilia followed the trail into a small cave that Cecilia had to crawl into. It widened into a massive cavern lit by dancing magic lights, and the smell of blood permeated the room. She saw a crumpled pile of what looks to be a corpse and... Sheela who looked to be asleep.

    "Alright. You see that...er... meat pile right there? Yeah, that''s my body. So, I have three options right now. I can possess Sheela for a body, but there are issues that will come up. I also have the option of doing organ harvesting. It''ll be gross and disgusting, but with some magic, I can use Sheela''s organs and tissues to manually fix that body right there. Sheela herself is still alive so everything would be still fresh. However, I can''t do it by myself so I called you here. Third, I go and possess an animal or monster for a little bit, but an incompatible body would quickly start deteriorating with aura leaking everywhere so you are going to have to explain to people why there is a... let''s say bird... that is smoking, on fire, and spreading fear sitting right next to you."

    "Hmmm... Can we do a possession? I can make up a story about Sheela becoming my prisoner while you stay next to me in Sheela''s body while the core heals."

    "Err... I am not very proficient at taking over bodies of the opposite sex."

    "Excuse me?"

    "Never really like taking over a female before because complications tended to rise. For one, I have never been able to fully quash the resistance. With males, it is pretty easy with a show of force and forcing submissions, but female minds tend to be more... feisty? It''s probably a compatibility issue with sex. Not only that, Sheela is also an adamantium. It won''t be easy. So, you will need to explain why Sheela acts like she is possessed because her mind will break through occasionally resulting in minor seizures as I fight for control. Also, I don''t have lots of practice with taking over females because it feels weird being in a body that has boobs and vagina when I had a male body when I was human. Also, if I do need a female body for whatever reason, I found possessing succubuses a lot easier."

    "Then, I could keep you under some sort of sedatives for 3 days. There will be no problems with the possession then."

    "That could work... Although how are you going to feed the body and provide the bathroom times? You can''t keep Sheela under sedatives all day for 3 straight days. I don''t want Sheela to die while I am possessing her. That would result in some nasty consequences."

    "Descal... I am very proficient at keeping people alive."

    "Right... Can we just do the organ harvesting? It will be a lot easier, and you won''t have to deal with a very pissed off, unpossessed Sheela at the end."

    "Does the organ harvesting require me to cut up that body and place organs into you?"

    "Yeah. You see, I need to be inside the body when I begin integrating the muscles, organs, and tissues into my body or else I run the risk of rejection within the body. Once I am inside, I will have greater control over the repairs, but then I won''t be able to leave the body to move the organs over. It''s complicated, and I am going to need an assistant."

    "Haaa. Youreally don''t want to do the possession do you?"

    "No. I really don''t want to."

    "There will be more political benefits though..."

    "Fuck politics."

    "Fine. I owe you a lot so I won''t force you with something like this."

    "Thank you. Now, I am going to go inside the body. The first thing I am going to repair is going to be my chest cavity and my voice box so I can speak to you. Here is this list. I need you to cut these organs and bones from Sheela and put them in me in exactly this order."

    "Okay."

    "That''s it? Do you actually know what all of these tissues and organs are?"

    "Yes."

    "Seriously?"

    "Descal. I also tortured people. I was there in the torture chambers when I needed some answers."

    "Oh, yeah... So... I think you can dissect pretty well right?"

    "Yes. Can we just start now?"

    "Sure."

    Cecilia walked over to the table and began tying down Sheela with practiced hands. Once Sheela was tied down, Cecilia found the cart with all the necessary tools and moved it closer to the operative table.

    "Descal? Do you have any change of clothes? Blood is going to get everywhere."

    "Over there."

    "Ready when you are."

    "Alright. Start transferring stuff when I start twitching the body in a weird way."

    "That is very descriptive."

    "Trust me. The twitching will be weird. It won''t be that hard."

    --------------------------------------

    "Can you do it any faster?" (Descal)

    "Gah. Oh.. crap... Gods damn it. It. Is. Not. Easy doing this. Do you want me to screw this up even more?"

    "Oh wait. Get me some more blood. I''m running low."

    Cecilia picked up a bucket from the end of the table that was being slowly filled by blood that was leaking from the corpse and began slowly pouring it into Descal''s open chest cavity.

    "Ok. That should be good."

    Cecilia watched with fascination as the blood began moving by itself to the necessary destination before she went back to work at cutting out Sheela''s liver.

    "You know. Shouldn''t you be going back soon? Won''t people get worried?"

    "Felix should be able to take care of it. When I allocated my duties to Felix, it was my way of saying to Felix that I will be gone for some time. I also am carrying an alarm ward with me right now so he will know if I am in danger."

    "Oh... Some signal you worked out?"

    "Indeed. Also, the fact that I was last seen at your tent is probably a dead giveaway that I was going to look for you."

    "Clever."

    "Got it. Sorry. I screwed up with one of the cuts so the artery is a bit ugly at the end there."

    "Just put it in my body. I''ll see if I can''t deal with it."

    Once Cecilia placed the liver inside Descal''s body, the veins and artery began slithering towards the liver as they began connecting to their designated spots.

    "What the... How the fuck did you fuck it up this bad Cecilia?"

    "I tried. You also distracted me."

    "*Sigh* Just... gah... fuck it. I should have some induced pluripotent stem cells left."

    "How do you know where everything goes? Even I don''t know half the stuff you are doing."

    "I am very old. I am immortal. I get bored. Cutting up people was a phase I went through."

    "... Right. The insanity part."

    "Yeah... Also the killing heroes part. Some of the strategies for killing the hero required mutilating the companions."

    "I always sort of find it fascinating. From the surviving stories of the past, it looks as if you are the only villain that was able to consistently kill heroes. Any stories before you, they always have stories about the heroes rising above every challenge, every villain, and victorious at the end. However, as soon as it comes to you, it is all dark and gloomy with heroes dying left and right. If it wasn''t for what that last hero did like what you told me, you would have won. You practically single handily destroyed the age of heroes."

    "Yeah. I''m guessing that the countries never appointed any heroes again right?"

    "Nope. First, we lost the magic of identifying heroes. Nobody knows how to find them anymore. Not anybody can be one you know. They have to be loved by fate like you said. Second, if a hero dies, it has severe political repercussions. The heroes lost their reputations of being invincible now. Third, there is a ritual for appointing heroes. Now the rituals vary, but many of the ritual methods have been lost."

    "But some remain right?"

    Cecilia felt that if Descal had any eyes right now, he would be looking straight at her. He knew.

    "The royal family of the Ruhan Kingdom is in possession of a certain ritual. However, it is not really a hero ritual. Very similar, but not quite. It''s something else."

    "I''m surprised that some of the mega empires haven''t done any hero summoning or some shit like that."

    "Well, there are rumors that the necromancer of the second Calamity War was, in fact, a summoned "hero", but one that went rogue."

    "Oh..."

    "Yeah. The age of heroes is completely over. No country wants to risk it or even has access to appointing or summoning one. By the way, how did you kill heroes?"

    "Fate is annoying, but not invincible. I''ll tell you a story of how I killed one. You see, this one was a human hero, and he was a disgusting piece of shit. He had a harem, you see."

    "Why is having a harem disgusting?"

    "Well, I didn''t consider him a piece of shit when I killed him, but after my time on Earth, I consider people with harems pieces of shit."

    "I won''t question why."

    Cecilia guessed it was some sort of jealousy.

    "Well, on with the story, this hero was perverted, but he never had the balls to actually fuck one of the girls that loved him."

    "What? Why?"

    "I don''t know. He was a spineless bastard. But it was because he was a spineless bastard that my little trap worked. Because he never laid a hand on any of the girls, there was some sort of friction going on as the girls tried their best to get into his pants. I realized that I could put this to use, so one day, I set up a certain event where I possessed an incubus and made his entire harem think that he was gay. They all ran away heartbroken after slapping him a million times. I have no idea how he survived."

    "Okay?"

    "So, this hero became mentally distraught so I told him that if he had a certain book that he could convince everyone that he was not gay. But then he started crying about how one of the girls found his collection and burned it."

    "It was you that burned it."

    "Well, I had a hand, but it wasn''t..."

    *Splat*

    "Did you drop something?" (Descal)

    "Errr... Don''t get mad. It looks fine."

    "What did you drop?"

    "The spleen."

    "For fuck''s sake, it''s all contaminated now right?"

    "Yeah, it''s covered in dirt."

    "Do we have any extra bone marrow? I''m going to need to make some more stem cells."

    "Well, one of your femurs wasn''t broken so I could break Sheela''s femur."

    "Yeah do that. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, the book. So I told him the location of a certain book in a building somewhere. So, he went there, and there it was. Now, I made sure that this book was filled with pictures of all his fetishes and what his dream girl would look like. So, he became like completely engrossed in the book and just read it there on the spot. There were even tissues for him there."

    "So what. The book had a curse so he f*pped to death?"

    "No. Curses don''t work on heroes. Fate makes sure of that."

    "So, then what?"

    "Picking up the book activates a trap. However, this trap is so freaking easy to escape. Even a baby can escape it. However, the hero was so focused on the book that he didn''t even notice it. The hero knew that if he brought the book back, the girls would probably burn it on the spot so he read it there. None of his companions could save him because they were all in their rooms crying their eyes out, and the hero''s instincts couldn''t be activated by fate because well the trap was that easy to avoid. In fact, it was so stupid of a death that fate registered the death as a suicide. Fate can''t protect heroes from suicide if the hero is alone. So yeah, trap activates, the hero was alone, fate couldn''t stop it, the hero is now dead."

    "Wow."

    "Yeah. Heroes all have a certain way you have to kill them with. Any other way, fate can interfere. You set up an ambush. It fails because fate loves using the hero''s instincts or sixth sense to alert them to every single fuckin life-threatening attack. You overpower the hero and about to kill him or her. Some fuckin way, the hero''s companions arrive just in time and saves them or some sort of freak accidents comes up allowing the hero to escape. Thankfully, all hero''s have some weaknesses if you are patient enough to spy on them. It also helped that I could easily spot heroes as well."

    "It doesn''t sound that hard killing heroes when you put it that way..."

    "That''s because I had an unfair advantage. Villains are usually bound to fate as well so fate could always... whats the word... manipulate them in certain ways? I was outside fate''s control, and I was really strong. I was practically omnipotent in a way. Heroes couldn''t kill me. They couldn''t seal me as well. Usually, I could stop ahero''s "special" move with a hand so..."

    "Were you the strongest in your time?"

    "No. Fate was. I wanted to kill Fate, but it endured. Maybe, it''s not a bad thing. In its way, it does protect this world. It is a jerk, but it tries its best."

    "You talk as if Fate was alive."

    "It''s not alive in your definition. It is sentient if you look at it from certain perspectives. It is everything you want it to be."

    "Alright. I just have the eyes left. It''s the last organ."

    "Mmmhmm. Thank you. How does my face look now? It fits the white hair?"

    "You know. You go from purple hair to blood-red hair to now white hair. This is going to be fun to explain."

    "Well, it is better than the rumor that I am your long-lost relative or something like that."

    "Which is still circulating. If anything, people are going to get more suspicious now."

    "Lovely. Help me with the corpse. Sheela had like an unhealthy obsession with killing you. I don''t want to deal with an undead. What did you do to her anyway?"

    "Killed her entire family?"

    "I know that much. I have my eyes you know. But why?"

    "They weren''t guilty of anything. They were innocent. However, they were conveniently placed in a way that I could take down a lot of my enemies if I dragged them into the fight. It seems that the assassins missed one."

    "Yeah. You really should be glad that the hero rituals are lost. Sheela was definitely someone who could have been one."

    After placing everything in a giant pile in the center, Descal began placing explosives all over the room. With a flick of his wrist, the fuse was set aflame.

 Chapter 29: The end

    "Wow. This war has barely been going for a season, and we are already close to a victory. Look at us. Already marching on the capital. Two major battles and a couple skirmishes later. Not that I am complaining, but this seems too good to be true." (Fersal)

    "Don''t jinx this for us, and keep those thoughts to yourself. By the way, how is our only mage doing?" (Goob)

    Pan looked up from the textbook he was reading while on his horse.

    "Doing pretty well." (Pan)

    "Pretty well? Man. You got a public congratulations from the Queen, and you are just doing pretty well?" (Grisch)

    "The wall of dirt wasn''t anything special." (Pan)

    "It was a HUGE wall of dirt that managed to redirect the flood down the other hill killing even more enemy soldiers. That was a genius move." (Grisch)

    "*snort* Your sword skills were more impressive. Cutting up an entire squadron with one swing? You are on the path to Mythril already!" (Pan)

    "It was just a bull charge. I just used magic to reinforce my legs and arms to go faster. It only looked like one swing, but it was actually multiple swings in the same direction." (Grisch)

    "But to do it that fast! Man. What has Descal been teaching you?" (Goob)

    "How not to die. I''ll just keep it at that." (Grisch)

    Grisch shuddered at all the ruthless exercises that he had to go through. Never would he want to go through them again. He sent a small prayer for any possible future recruits that Descal got his hands on.

    "I''m more jealous at Pan for how his extra training is so much easier." (Grisch)

    "Not easier. I have to read this entire textbook by the end of the week and demonstrate an application ofte contents of this book to him through a magic duel..." (Pan)

    "Is that why you came to our tent with your hair all singed last week?" (Goob)

    "Yes. I more or lessmessed up with draining fire spells by chanting it wrong in my head." (Pan)

    "Yeah. A hot chick went by, and you lost your concentration." (Goob)

    "Haha. Very funny." (Pan)

    The four knights rode on in silence behind their seniors which were furiously debating over Descal''s true identity.

    "So. What do you guys think about Descal?" (Goob)

    "I don''t think it will be a good idea talking about his personal life. It is rude and possibly dangerous." (Fersal)

    "Fersal. Take that stick out of ya ass." (Grisch)

    "*snicker*. I say he is a long lost sibling of the royal family." (Pan)

    "Maybe. Fersal. You said that he used to have purple hair right?" (Grisch)

    "Yes. I was bringing tea for my Lord when I met him in the hallways." (Fersal)

    "And he switched to red hair not long after?" (Grisch)

    "Yes." (Fersal)

    "That sounds like he used hair dye to me, and he ran out of red hair dye so he is using white hair dye now." (Grisch)

    "Hair dye doesn''t last long in the water, and we have seen him swimming numerous times." (Goob)

    "Knowing Descal, he probably invented some sort of permanent hair dye. I mean how else do you explain him changing hair colors?" (Pan)

    "Magic?" (Fersal)

    Pan glared at Fersal. "No. Body manipulation magic is a lost magic. The closest thing we have is healing magic, and even then, the magic is very rudimentary. It would require a highly... You know what. You may be right. It really wouldn''t surprise me if Descal rediscovered the spell, and he is an excellent mage..."

    "But why would he choose the hair color purple? Isn''t it a crime to impersonate royalty?" (Fersal)

    "Well, judging from his accent, he probably lived in a different country before coming here." (Goob)

    "Even so, purple hair is a characteristic trait of our kingdom''s royalty. Even other countries can identify who has our kingdom''s royal blood by looking for the purple hair color. Someone or something should have at least brought it to his attention at the very least." (Fersal)

    While the four knights were bickering amongst themselves over who Descal really was, Cecilia was already on damage control trying to think of a way to either quash those rumors or use it to her advantage. Descal just had to go to a bar and get drunk with his new hair color before Cecilia could think of a way to explain this new change.

    She was currently staring daggers at the very thing that was giving her a massive headache.

    "Why? Just why?" (Cecilia)

    "Celebrations. I just survived a battle with an adamantium and more or less kept my secret safe."

    "You couldn''t wait one more day?"

    "What difference does a day make to me?"

    "It makes a whole lot of difference to me!"

    "Fine. I had this really nice wine that I had this barkeeper hang on to for me. I was supposed to drink it a month ago, but we were very busy as you know. Once I had my body back, I sort of remembered the expiration date for that wine which was yesterday so I needed to drink it yesterday or else it would go bad. It was a really high-quality wine that was aging for like 100 years. Also, I sort of underestimated the strength of the alcohol resulting..."

    "In you taking your clothes off and setting the bar on fire. How do you even get drunk anyway? I thought you had a homunculus body?"

    "Well, if I wanted to, I could slow down the detox process of my body so I could get drunk..."

    "Why did you want to get drunk?"

    "It''s been some time since I last got drunk."

    "Why was yesterday a good time to get drunk? You couldn''t just drink the wine?"

    "Like I said, I just wanted a small buzz, but I ended up underestimating the wine''s alcohol content."

    "Oh for crying out loud." Cecilia put down her head and began massaging it with her hands.

    "On the bright side, nobody is too angry except you."

    "Say what?"

    "Well, the bar owner wasn''t really mad because he himself wanted to remodel, but the city lord wouldn''t let him due to some licensing issues. Also, I was very generous with the tips last night so he has more than enough money to rebuild it. Everybody else was happy with my drunken stories, and my little magic shows as well. It turns out that the reason why I was naked was that my clothes were burned off after I spilled some sort of alcoholic drink on me."The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Any nobles saw you?"

    "Nobody you mentioned on the very important list."

    "What about the important list?"

    "Well... you know that philandering noble''s son?"

    "Oh. It''s just him. That''s fine."

    "No. Not him. His friend."

    "Friend. By any chance, are you talking about Baroness Luci''s son Morigan?"

    "Yes..."

    "Did you do anything to him?"

    "Well, he was also drunk with me, and he was the reason I got set on fire. I don''t think we left on bad terms. We were both laughing our asses off."

    "I''ll have a talk with him. If you really did leave a good impression on him, something good came out of this at the very least."

    "See! I told you it wasn''t all that bad."

    "We still have that rumor."

    "Ahh... That one."

    "Yes. So, any ideas to fix this little mess?"

    "Maybe... we could... deny it?"

    Cecilia had enough of Descal''s smartassery so she threw a crumpled piece of paper at Descal which he promptly caught, unfolded, and began reading.

    "Wow... How are there so many rumors? How did you even collect all this?"

    "I have my connections. I wouldn''t be in this tent at all if I couldn''t do this. Now, do you understand why I am so pissed off? Denial won''t work anymore."

    "So, do we have to pick a rumor and say it is true. If so, I want to go with the part about me secretly being an ass."

    "That was actually a joke; however, I included it in the list because you never know how stupid people can get with taking jokes seriously."

    "Yeah."

    "Instead of validating, I was thinking about declaring your candidacy for the guardian ritual."

    "A what ritual?"

    "In some old stories, there are mentions of some sort of guardian spirit or animal."

    "If Dravon heard that he has been reduced to an animal, he would murder you."

    "Who?"

    "I am familiar with theGuardian system. I personally fought a few myself. Dravon was the guardian dragon of a certain country that I destroyed."

    "Oh, then this should be easy. I was planning on doing the ritual to appoint you as the Guardian...err... just Guardian of the Ruhan Kingdom."

    "You do know that guardian rituals only work on non-human-like sentient beings like dragons, dryads, or griffons, right? There is a reason why there is a distinction between a hero and a guardian. I know that I myself am not a human, but nobody else knows that."

    "I am getting there. I am planning on introducing you as a homonculus. You see, my father was a man of many secrets. If I presented you as a homonculus that my father has created with his own flesh and blood, people would probably believe it. It would explain the purple hair, and it corresponds to the rumors going around. However, you would probably be hounded by alchemists desperate to know how you were made."

    "Seriously? Just like that?"

    "This is nothing compared to other stuff that my father has revealed. For example, he once revealed that he was keeping a pet zombie..."

    "Excuse me?"

    "Yes. That was a weird day. So, what do you think? It would solve a lot of your problems."

    "First, it would be pretty damn hard to pull it off. You would need to..."

    "I know about it all, and I can take care of it."

    "Okay... You do understand that you will be placing theEmperor as the guardian of your country right?"

    "Yes. However, I see more benefits than detriments to it."

    "Really?"

    "Yes. By binding you to my country, it would mean that you would have a vested interest in keeping my kingdom safe. As a result, woe to any fool who invades. In addition, you would also have a vested interest in the well-being of the kingdom. After all, you are bound to it, and I have a feeling that you aren''t satisfied with the current... lifestyle we have here. I have seen you trying to find a way to mass produce ice cream. In addition, you frequently complain about the lack of heating and electricity. The detriments are probably some social unrest and the possibility of you going rogue, but I am willing to take that chance."

    "Why?"

    "You have never lied... about something important. You have been very open with me about how you think and your history. In addition, you have a high approval among my people despite your mysterious background. Finally, I think you can do what I cannot."

    "Which is."

    "Making this country into something my victims can be proud of."

    "You sure? I could turn this country into a dystopia with me as an iron-fisted dictator. Nobody would be able to overthrow me."

    "Please. I have seen your hatred for politics and paperwork. I have observed you for a long time. You are not dictator material. Also, forgive me for invading your privacy, but I found these things."

    She pulled out a journal, a red book, and a box. Descal immediately recognized the items, and his eyes widened.

    "How?"

    "My eyes. I gained a new ability. It could see into the past. I decided to look into your tent and rewind through your activities for about a week. Although there were more, I find these to be the best examples of what I am going to say. First, the box."

    Cecilia took out a syringe.

    "A vaccine. If what the journal says is true, you could save so many of my citizens with this vaccine. No longer would children suffer from polio or even potentially miasma. You would cut down the number of children''s death. In addition, after the war, you were planning on giving me this as soon as the war ended, weren''t you?"

    Descal could only nod silently.

    "This red book. The communist manifesto. According to the journal, this seemingly innocent ideology was responsible for the suffering and death of hundreds of millions of people. It''s kinda funny how many countermeasures you have for preventing the spread of communism should it arise in this world. Or, how to use it as a weapon on enemy countries. This book tells me that you have an understanding that not every change is great and that ideas on paper may not translate very well into the real world. The fact that you were ready to combat this ideology should it arise was quite heartening because it shows that you do care."

    "Well, this is embarrassing."

    "No, it''s not. I think you can become a great help for this kingdom and become a better leader than I ever was. Which is why I need you to kill me after you become the guardian."

    "What?"

    "This country will become quite fragmented even if I do win this war. Everything I do will be met with suspicion and hatred by the defeated party. Sheela is the best example. She was a great general. She would have been such a great help to this kingdom; however, her hatred of me ran deep. Even if I win, that hatred will continue and stew in silence. Even if I resorted to executing every single noble family who was against me, it would weaken this kingdom instead of strengthening it. After all, to start off an era of peace with hangings is a bad omen. That is where you come in. I will give you proof of my... misdeeds. I will provide you the political stage for you to take power. Most of the current enemy faction will look at you with approval for taking me down while my faction will have orders to follow you. The neutral party already has a favorable view of you, and you taking down your former employer because it was the right thing to do will garner more support for you. You should be able to take control of this kingdom quite easily. I will even provide you with my butler as an advisor."

    "Okay. Yeah. That sounds great. However, the royal blood will end then. You did a really good job in making sure that you and your uncle are the only surviving members of the royal family right now. Although I might be able to keep power for the first few decades, people will grow uncomfortable with someone immortal and non-human as a king. Too much change will be met with equal amounts of backlash. In addition, I don''t think I can rule for a long time. Like you said, I am not dictator material. I am also not a ruling material. I am not politically talented, and most likely, I will default to using force to enforce my rule. I mean, that is how I enforced my rule when I was the emperor: force and fear. Unless you have another royal descendent lying arou... There is another?"

    "Do you think I am a virgin?"

    "Errr... Are you?"

    "When I was 15, I was raped. I let my guard down, and I got drugged. The father... I don''t know. Numerous men were involved. Of course, no one knows about this event. I killed everyone related to the event as well as their friends and family. I made sure that the rape was secret. I had a baby. A baby boy. I couldn''t kill him. He should be living with this family of rabbit beastmen in an isolated village in the mountains. You do have the option to abdicate and give the crown to my son."

    "I see. We both have had shitty lives, haven''t we?"

    "*Giggle* Yes. Yes, we have. Before I ask if you will accept this responsibility, I want to ask your opinion of what I am going to do."

    "*sigh*. I want to tell you something. I am going to tell you a little bit more of how I got my powers. I have always been really vague with you about it. You have never pressured me about it so thank you."

    "Yes. I can imagine that it wasn''t a pretty story."

    "Actually, it was really more of a boring story. Nothing painful, nothing mind-blowing, nothing heartwrenching. You see. I have had a really normal and boring life as a human. I was born to a pretty well-off merchant family, went to a university, and became a researcher in the field of magic development. I wasn''t anyone amazing and published a couple papers. It was a time of peace, there were no famines, and it was overall uneventful. Even when my research on elemental absorption went down the drain, I still had a couple more well-paying job offers that I could have taken. Now, the abyss and my powers... Truth be told, I wasn''t pressured at all to take this power. It was more of a stupid curiosity. I knew the consequences as well. I would be sacrificing everything, yet I still took this power. I obtained great power, not because of some great desire for power, not revenge, not through intense training, but a simple sacrifice of everything that made me up and some mild curiosity. After I became one with the abyss, well... you know what happened."

    "The point of this story?"

    "The point of this story is that I don''t think I am qualified to give you my opinion on this matter."

    "I see... Will you take the position?"

    "Before I accept, how do you want to die?"

    "I have always wanted to know what it was like to fly, and the royal chambers have an excellent view of the capital."

 Epilogue

    Here Descal stood on the borders of the now destroyed and inhospitable Ruhan Kingdom making sure the last of the refugees are keeping up with the main group. It was the least he could do for failing to protect the lands of the people he has sworn to protect. He looked over the ruined landscape of the dark miasma that permeated the ground sending wisps of polluted purple air into the sky and the sheer lack of any vegetation sent his homonculus heart into turmoil.

    Very few citizens blame Descal for the loss of the Ruhan Kingdom. It was Descal who freed the country from the grasp of the treacherous Queen Cecilia. It was Descal who gifted vaccines into the public drastically reducing children''s death from the feared polio and chicken pox. It was Descal who demolished serfdom so that more people could chase their dreams. It was Descal that introduced the ideas of capitalism and Laissez-faire with revisions to taxes that allowed both nobles and commoners to become richer. It was Descal who restored the monarchy that was thought to be lost with the deceased Cecilia. It was Descal who fought the combined invasion of the Crimean Empire and the Numean Empire with the approval of the Church of the Holy Light when they invaded after the discovery of adamantium in the mountains. It was Descal who fought the combined invasion of the Crimean Empire, the Numean Empire, and the dreaded invasion of the Forsaken One''s army which marked the beginning of the Fourth Calamity War. It was Descal who now gave the people hope of a new land that the people could escape and settle in after the Numean Empire used a massive forbidden spell in a failed attempt to halt the Forsaken One''s advance and instead reduced the once vibrant Ruhan Kingdom into a miasmic desert. At least, that was what went on the massive propaganda campaign launched by the royal family.

    And yet, Descal couldn''t help but feel that he has failed in his duty. It should have been obvious that no country would ever follow the treaty that banned the use of forbidden spells on other human countries. He had gotten complacent in hisknowledge of human nature.

    "Uncle. How is the rear group doing?"

    Finally, there was Cecilia''s grandson Phineas. A young 22-year-old King who obtained the throne after his father suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 58. Descal found himself beingcalled Uncle to Phineas. It made sense because he was present for many of Phineas'' childhood events such as his birthdays and influenced Phineas'' love for the sciences particularly chemistry.

    "Doing as best as they can." (Descal)

    "Uncle. I hope you aren''t blaming yourself over this. Nobody blames you for this. In fact, everyone is praising you as the best Guardian for this crisis. It was you who fought off three massive armies at the same time. Nobody blames you for not predicting the bastards using a Forbidden spell of this scale on us. Not only that, you have given everybody some hope in the midst of the Fourth Calamity War when you told us of a new land that we can settle in. So, you shouldn''t blame yourself. You are practically a beacon of hope for this country at the time of darkness." (Phineas)

    "*snort*. As if nobody blames me for this. It still didn''t stopalmost an entire half of our population ditching us to go to a different country, but don''t worry. I don''t blame myself. However, every time I look at this destruction, I can''t help but feel that I have failed in my duty."

    "The citizens of the Ruhan kingdom still exist, and they still love their country. As long as the people still exist, the country still exists. Also, the people leaving us isn''t because of you. Well, some of them blame you, but not all. It''s because they don''t believe you when you told us that there is an island in the Bermuda Ocean and you know how to safely guide us there."

    "Well, it will still be a dangerous journey, and it will be a one-way trip."

    "But not to fear, we have the great Guardian with us who will be able to take us to the Promised Land."

    "You''ve been reading too much of those "inspirational" speeches, haven''t you?"

    Phineas sadly glanced over at Descal. "It''s better than the alternative. I need some positive thinking right now."

    "Isn''t it hope we need right now?"

    "You are our hope."

    "As if."

    "It''s true. You are the reason why the people aren''t completely despairing right now. It''s because of you that we have gotten a deal with the elves to the southwest to shelter us and provide us with ships to embark on our migration."

    "It wasn''t that hard. Nothing praiseworthy."

    "You. It''s really you!"

    "Yes. It''s me."

    "How? You should be dead!"

    "That is of no concern of yours"

    "What do you want! You have killed my entire family. You have destroyed the Elven Empire reducing us to tiny splotches of forests."

    "Don''t exaggerate. Your current forest isn''t tiny."Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    "It''s far tinier than what it should have been!"

    "Seriously? You should be glad that I even let any of you elves survive. I am surprised that you even managed to live this long despite that disease I spread."

    The strength faded from the old elf as he collapsed back into his bed.

    "I don''t have much longer. Three years at most. To think you would be able to find a disease that managed to rob us of our youth so quickly."

    "Wasn''t that hard. It only limitedelven lifespan to 500 years except for you."

    "Have you come to simply mock me in my final years? How my last few years will not be one of peace but war and destruction. I have already received reports that the Forsaken Ones have restarted their invasion. Are you the one who STARTED THE FOURTH CALAMITY WAR???!!" The shout was too much for the weakened elf as he began violently coughing blood.

    "No. It wasn''t me. I have had no relations to any of the Calamity Wars after my banishment."

    "Banishment?"

    "Yes. I was sent to a different dimension or world. In addition,I have no intention of continuing with my past agenda. After all, I have been appointed the Guardian of the Ruhan Kingdom."

    The elf began contemplating the words of the Shadow. It has said it in the Mortem Language so it was no lie; however, the fact that the Shadow of all things would bind itself to the Guardian ritual was a shocking development.

    "Why?"

    "Let''s say that during my exile I "cooled" down a bit."

    "How insane is the royalty of your kingdom? Appointing the Shadow as their Guardian?"

    "Ehh. She was pretty insane, but it was a calculated move."

    "Does your people know?"

    "No. And I would prefer to keep it that way." Descal''s eyes gleamed red as the old elf scrunched back from the overwhelming pressure radiating from the body.

    "If it''s you, you probably can do it. So why have you come to me and asked for this private conversation?"

    "To think you literally threatened the First Primarch of the Elves. Aren''t you worried that he would go blab this to the Church?" (Phineas)

    "He saw my true powers. He knows it will be futile. However, once we move to that island, I''ll probably break the news to my citizens about 40 years later. Secrets don''t last forever, and I am positive that elf is going to tell his successor my true identity before he dies."

    "Why 40?"

    "First, it''s going to be at least 100 years before we would develop the sonar and satellite technology to be able to safely negotiate the Bermuda Ocean without my help so everyone is going to be stuck with me for 60 more years. By that time, people would be able to get used to me. The reason why I chose 40 years is that there will be people who should still remember me leading them through this time period so I should be able to score a couple sympathy points with the older folks."

    "And you tell me that politics doesn''t fit you."

    "It doesn''t." Descal deadpanned at Phineas'' comment.

    "Well, you may not like it, but you are good at it."

    "Because I had no choice but to get good at it. You should have seen me in my early years as a dictator. I was a mess."

    "You know. I am kinda surprised on why you changed your mind about technology. When we get to the island, are you seriously going to introduce the steam engine?"

    "Yup. There aren''t going to be any spies because all the empires think that we are just going to go on mass suicide, and I am going to go on a manhunt for any potential spies as well. In addition, it will be harder for the other countries to steal our tech because we are going to be on an island. In addition, we will have a 100-year head start. Possibly even more because I am going to get my revenge on that empire and the church by releasing the CommunistManifesto into the populace so the human race is going to suffer from a two-front war. The Fourth Calamity War and a communist revolution that will result in a shit ton of intellectuals and innocents dead. It''s going to be great because everyone but our country is going to regress while we progress. I am such a responsible person."

    "And as the responsible person you are, you dumped responsibility back onto my father''s back even though he explicitly told you that he would rather be a musician and not to give him the crown. He never forgave you for that."

    "And he got his revenge two-fold by making me his prime minister and dumping all his fucking paperwork on me as he ran away on his what''s the word... paid vacations. What type of asshole takes 50 paid vacations a year?"

    "My father apparently."

    "So... How are your older brothers doing? Will they be coming along or will they take refuge in some other country? I am sure they have gotten plenty of offers, especially Monty. If they choose to leave, they won''t be able to come to the mainland very often."

    "Well, both of them are going to come along. I received a letter from Monty that he rejected all of the University''s offers to be an official professor in order to come along with us. As for Jaune, he said that he is resigning from his mercenary position and coming as soon as he can. They both gave similar reasons in that they would never abandon family."

    "You know how lucky you are that you have good relations with your siblings despite being royalty?"

    "Thanks to you."

    "Which worries me a little bit because I won''t be able to raise every single royal family in the future so..."

    "Well, we should try experimenting with other forms of government then."

    "You are probably the first king in this world that would willingly give up power."

    "Let''s just go to the island and stabilize our people there before we make any revolutionary decisions."

    "Off to a new world."

    "A whole new world."

    "I regret teaching you that song."