ã€ŠDevil Princess Reincarnationã€‹


 Chapter 0: Waking up.

    Duchess Isabella was one of the Fredirin Kingdom''s six highest-ranked nobles, all siblings, and children of the current king. Duchess Isabella wasn¡¯t particularly talented in any field, nor was she particularly inept at any field. If one were being generous, she would be average, run of the mill, and if one were being harsh, she was slightly lacking.

    However, the Duchess housed a fierce stubborn streak, once she set her mind on something, she would almost never be dissuaded. And while the Duchess didn¡¯t excel in any categories, she also lacked the common flaws that nobility often had. Hubris, arrogance, ignorance, they were lacking in the Duchess.

    Her husband, Duke Leo, was the third son of a lowly baron, he had joined the Kingdom¡¯s navy, and in a short two years, had risen to the rank of captain. Despite the fact he was extremely talented, without backing from someone higher up, it was nearly impossible for him to move up in the world. That backing, however, came from the Duchess.

    The Duchess, in her mediocrity, had always surrounded herself with those who had what she lacked, skill, talent, knowledge, and power. Perhaps, due to her capable subordinates, or maybe due to her approachable demeanor, the Duchess was considered one of the top contenders for the throne when her father either retired or died.

    Her younger sister, Duchess Analise, had made a bold power grab years ago and had overreached badly, her power base was still long from recovering. Duke Zachry, the eldest brother, was a drunkard and twice divorced. He had basically no supporters.

    Of the other three dukes, Duke Patrick and Duke Henry were both older than the Duchess, and were both competent, but the strongest contender was Duke Jason, who had both military and civic accomplishments.

    Duchess Isabella might have been able to fight her brothers, but she had no real desire to do so, and even if she had, she was hindered in one major way.

    For a noble, the Duchess was a horrible parent. To a commoner, she would have been the ideal, both caring for and loving her children, but for one who aimed to reach the peak, her kindness was inexcusable.

    Her five children, two girls, and three boys, lacked the ambition, the drive, the cunning, the despicableness, to ever thrive within noble society. In fact, if not for the protection of their parents, it was debatable whether or not they¡¯d even be able to survive.

    The competition for the throne was still at least a decade away, and of the current King¡¯s many grandchildren that would play an integral part, many were still children, having not even made their official debut into society.

    That said, while the official competition hadn¡¯t begun yet, the unofficial one had. The children would strive to gain accolades for themselves, and at the same time, beat the opposition down. For commoners, bullying would maybe be a fight or placing bugs in another''s clothes, but for nobles, that was merely child¡¯s play. Even as early as it was, already one of the King¡¯s grandchildren had died under suspicious circumstances.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Even now, the children were locked in battle, with winners and losers. In the Pine Estate, the home of Duchess Isabella, one of her children, the fourth youngest, Olivia Pine Fredirin, was recovering in her bedroom. Two days prior, when the seven-year-old was riding on a carriage to school within the capital, the bridge she was crossing had randomly collapsed, sending the carriage, the driver, two guardian knights, three attendants, and the young Olivia, into the late winter river below. One of her knights had suffered a broken neck and died instantly, and one of her attendants along with the driver had both drowned. The rest has suffered from hypothermia while fishing their lady from the ice cold waters.

    Having nearly died, the timid, and now severely ill, Olivia had temporarily withdrawn from school and returned to her family¡¯s lands in the Pine Mountains. Bedridden with a fever, the girl had slept for nearly the entire time.

    Having woken up just recently, the frail Olivia was now standing in her darkened room staring at a full body length mirror.

    The girl wore a simple looking white nightgown, but despite its simplicity, it¡¯s quality was clear. Having slept in it for so long, it was rumbled and damp with sweat, and while it was tailored for her, it now hung somewhat loosely on her haggard frame.

    The clothes suited their owner, however. Olivia was pale, her face an unhealthy white, her hair, normally a dark brown that she tied into a braid, was currently a tangled mess. Her arms were thin, merely skin and bones, in fact, this was true of her entire body. But the most striking part of her, was her eyes, two dull gray orbs that stared lifelessly at her reflection.

    However, the most peculiar thing happened. As she stared, her gaze became unfocused and her eyes lost the little bit of light they had left, it was as if her life was fading as she stood there. But, that was clearly not the case. The pitter-patter of her heart slowed, but each beat was heavier, more powerful. And with each strong thud, power returned to her body. The limp muscles on her body slowly filled out, hiding the gaunt bones under a layer of lithe and powerful flesh. The blemishes that adorned the skin of any living being slowly faded away, leaving behind a porcelain white, flawless skin. Her features grew sharper, the roundness of youth shifted into the form of an almost elven adult. Whereas before she could have been called cute or adorable, now she was a flawless beauty. Her hair gained an almost imperceptible shimmer, even as its hue darkened, it was no longer brown, but a black as dark as midnight.

    As her physical transformation finally started to come to a stop, the last change was her eyes. The dull gray turned into a silver so pure it was almost white. For a moment, the girl stood there, still staring, but unmoving.

    Suddenly, the lifeless aura surrounding her changed, a palpable aura of malevolence and power flooded out from her. Her features, formerly ones of exquisite beauty, were now warped by hatred and anger. Her hair billowed out behind her, despite the lack of wind. Her eyes, once silver, were now red on black, the pupils a blazing slit down the center. The power emitted by the young girl was palpable, the curtains around her bed blew around, the paintings and tapestries on the walls shook, even the glass windows began to crack.

    With a rage-filled howl, the girl¡¯s fist shot out and punched through the mirror. Shattered glass was scattered around the room, shards lacerated her outstretched arm, dark red blood dripped from her wound, staining both the fur rug and her nightgown.

    The girl raised her head to look at the ruined mirror, and like it had never happened, the sinister atmosphere was gone, her eyes were back to normal, her evil appearance was missing, only the beauty was left behind. Even the room, was still and quiet. She retracted her arm from the mirror, the muscles twitched and convulsed, the few shards of glass that were embedded in her arm were squeezed out, falling to the floor, but even as they landed, the cuts and gashes had sealed themselves up, even the scars had faded. The blood was the only evidence of her injury, but even that began to smoke, within moments, only an acrid smell was left behind, the blood was gone. The girl¡¯s hand went to her neck as if to grab an amulet or necklace, but there was nothing there and realizing this, the girl¡¯s arms dropped back down to her sides.

    Without another word, the girl returned to the bed and fell asleep.

 Chapter 1: Stuffed Animals and Breakfast.

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 6:12

    Citadel of the Pines, Pine Domain, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    I woke up in a bed that wasn¡¯t my own. In a room that wasn¡¯t my own, in a building that wasn¡¯t my own, and in a world that wasn¡¯t my own.

    Or did I?

    I reach towards my neck to feel for the amulet that I had always worn, but the small hand, the hand of a human girl, a child, found nothing.

    This bed wasn¡¯t my own, but it was, this room wasn¡¯t my own, but it was, the building wasn¡¯t my own, but it was, and this world, this fucking world, wasn¡¯t my own, but it was.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± I said as I sat up in the bed that was apparently mine.

    This room, well, it wasn¡¯t bad. It wasn¡¯t to my taste for sure, but it wasn¡¯t bad, the quality was decent enough, fitting for the daughter of a duke and duchess, but it wasn¡¯t what I was used to. It was a good thing that I preferred a more utilitarian approach to things, because if I had reveled in the full luxury that was available to me, I doubt anything on this worthless little rock would compare.

    White curtains over large windows in stone walls, the bed was made of a dark wood, but the sheets and the curtains surrounding it were also a pure white, the floor was stone, but it was covered by big thick rugs. There were shelves with books and other odds and ends, wardrobes filled with my clothes, and also a desk. The room was far too big for simply a room to sleep in, but since it was also my primary living quarters, it could even be said to be a bit on the small side.

    I knew that the room was decorated not by myself, or my prior self, but by the estate¡¯s staff. The only thing that showed any of my personality, were the stuffed animals located in various spots, on the shelves, the desk, the floor, and the bed. Unlike the fine quality of the room itself, and the almost sterile feel it gave, the stuffed animals were worn and tattered, clearly showing how much they were used by the previous me.

    Or perhaps not exactly.

    My eyesight settled on one of the stuffed animals on the shelves, it was a fat sheep. The much younger version of myself had loved a story about a sheep that had blue wool and had no friends due to that blue fur, so Ihad begged my parents to get me a blue sheep stuffed animal.

    Within a week, a high-quality sheep with fuzzy blue fur was in my hands, and I named him Gimmy, mostly because Icouldn¡¯t pronounce his real name from the story, Jimmy.

    For two years, Gimmy, followed me as my loyal friend, until at an outing in the royal capital, one of my cousins used my stuffed animal to practice a magical spell, coating Gimmy with a small amount of acid. Most of Gimmy¡¯s fuzzy blue hair had been burnt off, and what was left had been bleached white.

    Gimmy, damaged as he was, was still precious to the previous me, and his new home was that shelf. The previous me had sat and talked to the stupid blue sheep, but had never dared touch it for fear that it would fall apart.

    ¡°Ridiculous,¡± I said to myself.

    It was a stupid, old, toy. It belonged to a child, it was trash.

    And yet, a boiling rage coursed through my very being.

    The acrid smell of my blood burning away brought me to my senses, and then Irealized that not only had Iclenched my hands tight enough to dig my nails into my palms, but Ihad done so with enough force to tear the thick blankets of my bed.

    The previous version of me, was in fact, me. It was a fake personality, designed to operate the body Ihad been born with, until my true personality, along with my soul, recovered. It also served to nurture this body, so that it could withstand the power of my real soul.

    When Iawoke last night, the old version wasn¡¯t just erased, it was absorbed into me. Every memory, every thought, every emotion, was now mine.

    I might find it absurd, but Gimmy was my old friend, a loved comrade, and while the old me, only felt sadness at her inability to protect her friend, or avenge him, all Ifelt was pure hatred.

    To be fair, hatred, rage, fury, these emotions came easily to me. I had been enraged in the past by less, but Ihad to be honest with myself. I wasn¡¯t only feeling rage due to a slight against me, or at my helplessness. I had genuine feelings for this stupid sheep.

    I got up and walked over to Gimmy, his little glass bead eyes didn¡¯t actually look at me, or at anything at all, they weren¡¯t functioning eyes after all. Slowly, carefully, Iplaced my hand upon the stuffed animal''s head and gently rubbed what remained of his fur.

    It wasn¡¯t soft, not like in my memories. What little remained, was still burnt.

    Magic that could repair Gimmy existed, but to restore something that was damaged so heavily, and with magic no less, would require very powerful magic, and even as a daughter of Duchess Isabella, as a grandchild of the current King, Icouldn¡¯t ask for that, especially for a stupid reason such as repairing a stuffed sheep.

    But that was the old me, the new me, wasn¡¯t completely without options. I did possess a soul capable of wielding incredibly powerful magic, my body would likely be destroyed if I went all out, but Istill hold that magic. But, repairing and restoration, were types of magic that were the direct opposite of what I focused on.

    Let alone restoring a magically damaged stuffed animal, Icouldn¡¯t even repair the tears in my blankets or the cut in my nightgown sleeve from when Ipunched a mirror last night.

    ¡°Well, it isn¡¯t like I can¡¯t do anything, right old friend?¡± I asked the sheep as Icycled mana through my body.

    Mana could do many things, and already my body had been reforged from my awakening, but Iwould need a bit more strength for this.

    With the mana strengthening the muscles within my face and hardening my teeth, Ibrought my hand from the sheep''s head to my mouth, and after placing my index finger into my mouth, Ibit down onto the knuckle.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    There was a wet ripping sound as my teeth cut and tore through the skin, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Crinsom blood, already beginning to burn away, dripped from my mouth as I severed the digit entirely. I spit the finger out into my left hand, and then brought my right one, gushing blood, back to the blue sheep''s head.

    My blood, a viscous, tar-like substance, oozed from the wound much slower than it would normally, and it soaked into the stuffed animal. The soggy Gimmy writhed as my blood coursed through its stuffing.

    I was in effect, binding the stuffed animal to me as a bound magical item. I could bestow an actual magical effect ifIwanted too, but Iknew no spells that would be appropriate for a stuffed animal to be capable of manifesting. Gimmy would be a magic item, but besides being bound to me, it would show no effects.

    However, merely being bound to me by my blood would make Gimmy nearly indestructible as long as my mana wasn¡¯t cut off.

    As the new and improved Gimmy continued to writhe, Iheld my severed finger to the stump, and as the deep red blood continued to burn away, eventually the bone reconnected, and then the underlying tissues, and finally the skin. It took less than five seconds, but all traces that Ihad been injured were already gone.

    ¡°Not bad,¡± I said satisfied.

    Gimmy was now somewhere between a high-grade magical item, and an artifact. He was surely the most powerful stuffed sheep in the world. Or probably, any world.

    ¡°Let''s go get breakfast,¡± I said as Ipicked up the sheep and carried him in my arms.

    <hr>

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 6:29

    Citadel of the Pines, Pine Domain, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    The Pine Family has many customs that are strange for nobility, and one of them is to have family meals. Whenever possible, the family will try to at least have one meal together a day. But, since the family is undoubtedly busy, and since they have four separate estates, meals with the entire family are rather rare.

    As Ipassed through the halls of the estate, I encountered no one. Of the family¡¯s four estates, this one, referred to as the Citadel of the Pines, was the least used. The Pine Domain was dominated by a mountain range that provided both ores from the mines, and lumber from the pine forests that covered it. To the south was the royal capital, where Iwas going to school until two days ago, one of my elder brothers and my elder sister both resided there in our mansion. To the north-east was Arnbache city, the seat of power for the Pine Family, and to the North-west was Port Good Seas, the location of the Pine Family''s navy and international trade network.

    When Ihad been injured under mysterious circumstances, my elder siblings, along with the steward and guard captain from the mansion, decided to send me out of the city to recover, and to keep me safe from anything and anyone looking to finish me off. Ideally, the estate at Arnbache City would have been best, but while a rushed carriage could reach the Citadel in twelve hours, it would take nearly three times as long to get to the city. Not to mention, a carriage couldn¡¯t rush for a day and a half without stopping.

    As for Port Good Seas, while it was seemingly a bit closer than Arnbache City, that was only the case if one crossed the mountains, a difficult task for a group of adventurers, in summer. For a carriage, in winter, it was simply impossible. And if crossing the mountain wasn¡¯t an option, all that was left, was going around it, and the only way to do that, was to go through Arnbache City.

    With the above reasons, I was sent to the Citadel of Pines, and old fort halfway up one of the mountains.

    Two of my siblings were at the royal capital, my younger brother was with my mother in Arnbache City, and my eldest brother was with my father at the Port of Good Seas, so Iwas the only one here. With this citadel being a relic of the past, and also being in an inconvenient location, it was almost abandoned. There were guards and servants for sure, since it wasn¡¯t completely unused, but it had far fewer people than a building of its size would normally have.

    While Iwas planning on going to get breakfast, there was a side stop Ineeded to make on the way. And that stop was now in front of me, behind an ornate wooden door.

    With my hands filled with the stuffed animal, there was only one way to knock, by kicking the door.

    As the thuds resounded, Iheard some movement beyond the door and then the door opened.

    The one who opened the door was Patricia Clarace, the head maid of the citadel, and the granddaughter of Ronald Clarace, a former general, and now the steward of the Citadel of Pines, the very man who was sitting at the desk in front of me.

    ¡°My lady, you¡¯ve awoken?¡± Patricia uttered surprised.

    ¡°Patricia, tea please.¡± The old man said, bringing the head maid back to the world. ¡°My Lady, please take a seat.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for bothering you this early,¡± I said as I took a seat across from the old general¡¯s desk.

    Gimmy was placed down next to me, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the people in the room, although neither brought it up.

    ¡°Nonsense my lady, I¡¯m a humble servant of the Pine Family.¡± He said with a smile. ¡°Still, Ithought you would be resting still, you were rather ill when you arrived.¡±

    Before Icould respond, Patricia had placed an ornate saucer with a matching cup down in front of me. Steam was billowing from the top of the tan liquid.

    I nodded to her and then softly blew across the cup. From the scent, it was Alfasp tea, a delicacy that I had previously enjoyed. But, when Itasted it, Ifound it too sweet.

    I put the cup back down and spotted Patricia standing by the door, unsure if she should stay or leave.

    ¡°Patricia, please sit down,¡± I said.

    ¡°No thank you, my lady, I am fine standing.¡±

    ¡°Sit.¡±

    ¡°Er, yes my lady.¡±

    I hate this civility and polite shit. Everything would be so much easier if people just said what they meant. No beating around the bush, no sly words,and hidden meanings, just direct words.

    ¡°I wish to return to the capital, today,¡± I stated after Iwatched Patricia sit down off to the side.

    ¡°Hmm, My lady, I don¡¯t think that is possible. Leaving the Citadel is easier than entering it, but it''s still a ten-hour trip. The procession would need to set out within the hour to avoid arriving after the gates close for the night.¡±

    ¡°Then we will leave within the hour,¡± I said simply.

    ¡°My lady¡­¡± Ronald Clarace made a face as he chose his words. ¡°You have just recovered, it isn¡¯t wise to set out on such a harsh journey so soon. It is best to rest for a few more days and then-¡±

    ¡°I unsealed my Mana core last night,¡± I said, interrupting what the elderly steward was saying.

    ¡°You, you did?¡± he said shocked.

    I heard Patricia gasp, but Ifocused on the man across from me. His eyes quickly glanced over my torn sleeve, my different colored eyes and hair, and my sharper, but healthy, features.

    I ignored him for a moment and took another sip of my tea. Steam still wafted off of it, and Istill didn¡¯t like the flavor. Then, after removing it from my lips, Islowly turned the teacup to its side, but the expected trickle of tea never happened.

    Instead, with a clunk, a chunk of ice fell from the cup and clattered onto the desk.

    ¡°I-Ice attribute?!¡± he stuttered out, even Patricia had stood up in surprise.

    While the granddaughter and grandfather combo looked upon the chunk of ice shocked, neither of them noticed as the last wisps of blood on my lip burnt away into smoke and the cut healed.

    Then, before they could say anything else, Ipointed with my finger, and the ice lifted off of the desk, and then hovered over the cup.

    ¡°Wind too?¡± Patricia asked. ¡°No, wait, fire?¡±

    As they watched, the ice reverted to its liquid form and slowly fell back into the cup that Iwas still holding. Steam was billowing from the top as if nothing had happened while Itook another sip, my blood Ihad superstitiously placed into the tea was drawn back into my body.

    I smiled as Iplaced the cup back upon the saucer.

    ¡°The journey will be no problem.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ I will see that a carriage is ready within the hour.¡± Ronald said as he looked over me with a discerning gaze.

    ¡°A horse is fine, time is of the essence.¡± I ignored his gaze as I rejected his proposal.

    ¡°A horse is it?¡± He said more to himself.

    ¡°What do you mean by time being of the essence?¡± asked the head maid.

    ¡°Someone dumped me into a river, the favor needs to be returned as soon as possible,¡± I replied offhandedly

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Honor demands it,¡± I added.

    ¡°That¡­¡± Patricia started.

    ¡°You are right my lady, to not respond would sully the honor of the Pine Family,¡± Ronald responded, a glint of pride in his eyes.

    Normally, I¡¯d say that the only honor that mattered was my own, but looking at Gimmy from the corner of my eye, maybe the Pine Family¡¯s honor did matter.

    A bit.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. ¡° I began. ¡°My escorts should stay with my carriage for a while. At least until the start of next week. So I¡¯ll need you to lend me some replacements.¡±

    ¡°... Yes, I will see to it. Some of my finest knights will accompany you.¡±

    ¡°No, not knights. I need some Spectres.¡± I said, a smile appearing on my face.

    ¡°... Understood¡­¡±

    <hr>

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 7:34

    Citadel of the Pines, Pine Domain, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Just under an hour later, after having breakfast, the main gate of the Citadel of Pine opened. Twelve riders, dressed in brown and tan cloaks raced out, the gate slowly shutting behind them. One of the twelve was curiously smaller than the others.

 Chapter 2 The Capital, Arvas.

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 14:18

    Outside of the walls, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    The Royal Capital of the Fredirin Kingdom, Arvas, was a sprawling city built upon the convergence point of two rivers. It had grown out of its original bounds, and now the rivers flowed through the heart of the city, canals had been built, further expanding the city¡¯s reliance on water for transportation.

    When it was merely between the two rivers, they acted as a defensive measure that was unparalleled to what humans could make, and the city was a fortress. But since it grew, that was no longer the case. And since the Kingdom itself grew, the idea of a hostile army reaching the capital had become a joke. Due to this, Arvas was pretty liberal with its gates. There were six major gates, and twice as many smaller gates situated around the city, and during the day, all of them were kept open.

    There was, of course, inspections that one needed to pass to enter, and the smaller gates were only used by people with permits to use that specific gate. Visitors and out of towners had to use one of the six major gates, and that meant a long wait until one of the overworked and underpaid inspection agents could get around to interviewing the prospective visitor.

    Of course, bribery could always expedite the process.

    However, that was only the case for commoners, those with permits or the insignia of a noble only needed to show their documents and they could pass, they even had a special area for those people, so that they didn¡¯t have a wait.

    And for an actual noble, they were able to bypass the entire process.

    So when twelve horsemen came charging up to the tail end of the waiting line, most people assumed they would stop. After all, the twelve were clearly not soldiers or knights. Under the plain cloaks that they were, glimpses of weapons could be seen, but there was no uniformity to them. Even stranger, one of the horsemen appeared to be a halfling, and while not exactly rare, halflings were not common either, and they never served in the military.They were either adventurers or mercenaries, or so the merchants and travelers had assumed.

    But the twelve horsemen nimbly detoured around the line and charged up towards the gates, only stopping when they were right in front of the inspection office.

    Several guards looked alarmed, and a few crossbows were aimed while spears were lifted, but after a few words between the guards and one of the horsemen, and after passing some items back and forth, all twelve riders were granted access to the city.

    To the people still waiting in line, this was only a matter of course, but still, some of them couldn¡¯t help but sigh with envy.

    <hr>

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 14:20

    9th Avenue, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    It would have taken ten hours by carriage, but with swift horses running almost without stopping, the trip was reduced to six. Since we had left just a bit after dawn, it was now a bit past noon. Granted, the trip was unpleasant, and it would have been taxing to a normal human, but I simply used my magic to reinforce my body, and the Spectres, they were used to this kind of thing.

    ¡°My Lady, what now?¡±

    Our formation up until now was two riders side by side, and I was in the second group in, close enough to the front that it didn¡¯t look like I was deliberately being protected, a fact that the Spectres that steward Ronald had lent me found difficult to bare. They had only relented when the three best fighters in the group were placed surrounding me, the one to my left, who just spoke, was the leader of this group, Captain Nev.

    ¡°Captain, we need to find a place to stay for a few days. An inn will do, I''ll leave the arrangements to you.¡± I replied.

    ¡°An inn is it?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Yes, we need to be low-key for now, so find something reasonable, not something nobility would stay at.¡±

    ¡°Yes, my lady.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, but not a dump either. I don¡¯t want to stay in a filthy room.¡± I added as an afterthought.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Captain Nev answered dutifully, and then went to his subordinates to discuss our future course of action.

    Meanwhile, we meandered down one of Arvas¡¯s main streets.

    Arvas was set up in a series of rings, these main roads went from each of the six major gates, and headed straight into the city¡¯s center, where the royal palace was. No shops or buildings faced these main roads, they were used solely to transport people and goods, a highway of sorts. They were decently busy, but everyone was either coming or going, people just moving slowly aimlessly like us were somewhat rare.

    ¡°My lady.¡± Nev turned back to me having finished his deliberations with the others. ¡°Down this way is an inn with good security, it¡¯s used by wealthy traveling merchants. We might stick out a bit, but it¡¯s probably the best option.¡±

    ¡°Let us go with that then, lead on Captain.¡±

    We turned off of the main thoroughfare and onto a side road, unlike the major circle roads that were bustling with shops and roadside stalls, these side roads were made up of inns, restaurants, and shops that catered to a more select clientele.

    After five minutes, a large, four-story building came into view. It was one story taller than the adjacent buildings, but what really set it apart, was that it had a balcony area in the front that covered the second through fourth floors.

    ¡°Here we are my lady, the Patio Inn.¡± Nev introduced the building.

    However, my attention was not on the inn, but the restaurant across the road. Three men had just excited, and after saying their goodbyes, they split up, two coming toward us while talking amongst themselves, and one going in the opposite direction.

    ¡°Captain, that man there,¡± I said motioning towards the single man heading away from us, ¡°I need to talk to him.¡±

    Not only Captain Nev, but the other Spectres around me all focused their gaze on the man.

    ¡°Who is he?¡± the captain asked.

    ¡°His name isn¡¯t important, but he is a servant of the Iron-Hammer Family. He is an errand boy for their third son, Thomas.¡±

    ¡°Should we¡­ invite him over?¡± Captain Nev asked uncertainly.

    ¡°No¡­¡± I glanced around to make sure no one was overhearing me, ¡°We aren¡¯t on good terms, both their family, or the third son.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Realization dawned on the Captain.

    The Pine Family¡¯s covert soldiers, the Spectres of Hemlock, were a mixture of spies, scouts, and secret police, but they were also split into sections. Captain Nev¡¯s unit that I had borrowed was focused on scouting and policing duties around the Citadel of Pine, they weren¡¯t aware of the situation in the Royal Capital.

    ¡°There are too many people around to do anything here, and we have nowhere to hide him.¡± Nev pointed out the problems with the plan.

    ¡°The Iron-Hammer estate is in the Second Circle, but it¡¯s in the other direction, so he must be running errands, have someone follow him, and grab him when you get the chance,¡± I said.

    ¡°...¡± Captain Nev looked like he wanted to say something, but was holding himself back.

    ¡°What is it, Captain?¡±

    ¡°My lady, this is the Royal Capital, abducting someone¡­ is risky. If something were to go wrong¡­¡± The Captain still hesitated.

    ¡°If there isn¡¯t an opening, then no need to make a move,¡± I said plainly.

    ¡°No, my lady, it isn¡¯t that. Us Spectres are willing to lay our lives down for the Pine Family.¡± He said resolutely.

    ¡°Then what?¡±

    ¡°I fear that if this fails, it could negatively impact the relations between the Iron-Hammers and us. You said that we aren¡¯t on good terms, so they might use this as an opportunity to make trouble for our family.¡±

    ¡°Captain Nev,¡± I said as I turned to face him fully. ¡°The Spectres are our family¡¯s elite covert force, you won''t tell me you can¡¯t escape from the local patrol forces here?¡±

    ¡°Of course not my lady. Only the Royal Guard could catch us. But, if we need to transport a¡­ prisoner, that could be different.¡±

    ¡°Then kill him.¡±

    ¡°...What?¡± The captain asked, a look of surprise on his face.

    ¡°Leave no witness, if need be. If you are discovered, kill the target, kill anyone who saw anything, and then flee.¡±

    ¡°Is¡­ Is that okay?¡±

    ¡°It is more than okay, you didn''t think I would release him after I went through all this trouble of catching him in the first place, did you? Now, get to it, and let''s get off of this road.¡± I said and then turned back towards the Patio Inn.

    ¡°Yes, my lady.¡± Captain Nev said to me before turning to his subordinates. ¡°Penk, Carl, Lin, follow that man, you know what to do.¡±

    I smiled as I dismounted and entered the inn, the task in front of me was a large one, but it was off to a good start.

    <hr>

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 14:31

    Patio Inn, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Meditation is considered a tried and true way for increasing one''s worth as a mage. It doesn''t give the fastest or greatest results, but it gives them consistently, and it also increasing everything that a mage needs. Not just mana capacity, but mental strength and understanding too. There were more effective ways of increasing an individual trait, for instance, using all of your mana until exhaustion will increase capacity far more than just meditating.

    Early on, when all three traits are low, it is really easy to get them out of balance, a huge mana capacity with no mental strength isn¡¯t really useful, it would be better than someone who didn¡¯t train at all, but someone who spent half the time simply meditating will see much better overall results.

    After having rented three room in the Patio Inn, each large enough to fit four people, we split up into our adjacent rooms. I, of course, didn¡¯t get one to myself, Captain Nev¡¯s squad had three female members, so I was sharing a room with those three for my own safety. One of them was sent to tail the servant of the Iron-Hammers, but the other two were here with me.

    Since I had nothing else to do after telling Captain Nev to gather rumors about my recent accident, I told the two women that I would be meditating.

    That was actually a lie, however.

    In all three traits, I had reached a point where further progress was so incredibly slow that I could almost not advance at all, even using the most extreme methods, let alone meditation. A normal human would require consistent meditation to not regress in their skills, but since my soul was vastly different from a normal human''s, that wasn¡¯t a concern to me.

    What I was doing now, was repeatedly cycling my mana through my body, starting with my bones, in an effort to reforge it into something stronger. Right now, not even a day after having my true personality awaken, I was already as strong as an average soldier without using any mana to further reinforce my body.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    But that was far too weak.

    A weak physical body was not only dangerous, but it was also an embarrassment for someone like me. But there was an even larger problem, this body was so frail that using some of my medium grade magic would likely destroy my limbs, high-grade magic would shred my body, leaving nothing but a bloody mist behind.

    Right now, not only was my physical strength a fraction of what it was before, but my magic was limited in a similar way.

    The most annoying part, reforging my body would be a very long process, and it needed to be done step by step, the bones needed to be strengthened before muscles, veins and arteries, along with my organs would need to go before muscles and skin. And until my muscles were reforged, there wouldn¡¯t be much noticeable effect in my power.

    Unlike meditation, which made one unaware of the world around them, what I was doing was only moderately distracting, I couldn¡¯t really do two things at once, but temporarily diverting focus from the reforging of my bones would only slow the progress for as long as I was not paying attention.

    So when, even before someone knocked on the door, my two guards I shared the room with suddenly straightened up and placed their hands on their weapon, I had already shifted my attention.

    ¡°It''s Nev. I have apples.¡± said the voice, slightly muffled by the door.

    ¡°Let him in.¡±

    The chain lock was removed, the key near the knob was turned, and the chair propped up behind it was moved, and finally, the door opened, allowing Captain Nev to enter. He was suspiciously without apples.

    ¡°No apples, Captain?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Hmm¡­?¡± He looked confused for a second before realization dawned on him. ¡°I am sorry my lady, that was a code to indicate everything was alright. If you¡¯d like, someone can go get some¡­?¡±

    ¡°No, it''s fine,¡± I said shaking my head. ¡°Besides, I guess something has happened?¡±

    ¡°I heard back from the split squad, they have accomplished their mission without a problem. The goods are being stored in a warehouse, but we''ll move them somewhere else once night falls.¡±

    ¡°Good. but there is no reason to wait, I''ll go now.¡± I said as I stood up from the bed.

    ¡°My Lady, is that¡­ a good idea?¡± Nev asked.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I did stop and think about it.

    On one hand, I didn¡¯t have anything specific I wanted to ask that man, I just wanted to gather as much information from him as I could, and it would be a lot easier to do that if I were there, at least overseeing the questioning.

    On the other hand, going myself was a risk. If anything happened and the Spectres were seen by someone, they could simply leave the Royal Capital without worries. If I were seen, that is a much bigger problem.

    Well, there was a simple solution to this.

    ¡°Captain Nev, I will go personally, but have someone go to some of the suppliers for adventures, they should have filter masks on sale, we¡¯ll wear those.¡±

    ¡°Yes, my Lady.¡± Nev responded and then turned and exited the room.

    Now then, let''s see what I could learn from my captured servant.

    <hr>

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 14:48

    Abandoned Warehouse, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Vark, Son of Dems.

    ¡°HMM...Mmmmm. HMPH¡­¡±

    I tried to demand that I be released, but all it came out as was a bunch of muffled groans, all due to the piece of cloth shoved into my throat.

    Okay, let''s go over this again.

    It was my day off, I spent the morning having tea and reading in the Iron-Hammer¡¯s garden, a bleak little area with more stone than plants, but since I had allergies, it wasn''t too bad. I had a light lunch in my room, and then I went out into town. I checked on my mother, who was getting too old to move around much. My afternoon was spent doing some chores around her house, while she complained that I did nothing right. I left at the fourth bell and went shopping, browsing I should say. I checked some bookstores, but my wallet was lacking, and there was nothing I really wanted, but I still enjoyed looking through the new publications. I then met my brother and his business partner for dinner, I was afraid they wanted me to invest, but it was just a simple meal. We left the restaurant around the sixth bell, and then I spent about two more hours doing some grocery shopping for myself. I got some extra snacks for myself, a new belt, and I dropped off some clothes for some mending. And then I was heading home, but at some point, I was knocked out, and I woke up here.

    But how long had I been out? And who did this to me? And what did they want?

    In fact, where was here?

    I was tied up and gagged, a rope was wrapped around my feet and legs, another was wrapped around my chest and arms, and even my hands, held behind my back, where also tied up. And then I was left on the floor.

    The floor was wooden, in fact, the building itself was wooden, decent construction, if not decorated. The room was almost a perfect square, about ten feet by ten feet, and besides the one wooden door, there was no other openings, doors or windows. The only light came from a lit oil lamp set in an alcove by the door. Besides myself, the door, and the lamp, the room was empty.

    ¡°Mmmmfff¡­¡± I tried calling out again, but no one responded.

    Since I had woken up, no one had appeared. No one tried to talk to me, and I heard no one moving as far as I could tell. Was I abandoned here? Were they going to starve me? Or were they going to try and ransom me to the Iron-Hammers?

    And¡­ would the Iron-Hammers pay?

    Somehow, I didn¡¯t think they would. I may have devoted my life to them, but I was a mere servant.

    I was afraid for myself, very afraid, but so far no one seemed to want to hurt me, so maybe I would be okay. But I was also afraid that I would be used to threaten, or embarrass, the Young Master who I served.

    Young Master Thomas will likely not inherit the position of Family Head, his elder brothers are both healthy and skilled, but I think he will still serve the family in some way. I know a lot of second and third sons are pushed out of the family once a new head takes over, but the Iron-Hammers don¡¯t work like that. The Young Master will likely oversee some stores, or maybe workshops for the family. And he¡¯ll be good at it too, I just know it. He has the disposition of a noble, he¡¯s a very good lord to serve, and he has my loyalty, more than the family itself.

    I would never be able to forgive myself if I were used to in some way harm him.

    So, what was important right now, was for me to escape.

    But, that would likely be impossible, so instead, I need to gather as much information as possible, and then try to come to a peaceful agreement with my kidnappers.

    And if I can¡¯t do that, then at least, I need to make sure I am not a liability.

    The question is, how will I do any of these things?

    Do I just wait? I think I do, but for how long?

    ¡°Hmmmfff?¡± I groaned out.

    Was that¡­ footsteps? I think I hear someone approaching.

    Yes, I hear the door being unlocked, now lets roll over and see who is coming in.

    ¡°It¡¯s dark in here.¡± The newcomer, a male, said before I could finish my roll, the ropes made it hard.

    ¡°I¡¯ll light a torch.¡± This time, a woman responded.

    My roll finished just in time to see someone slip out of the door and shut it behind them. But, there were two others left behind.

    One looked to be a man, but he had a simple traveler''s cloak on, which hid his body outline. And his face was covered in a mask, the kind adventurers and explorers used to block certain poisons. It was a leather sack that fitted over the head, with glass lenses over the eyes and hose like thing where the mouth would be.

    It was frankly, very eerie looking.

    The other one, also wore the mask and cloak, making the gender even harder to tell. But unlike the first, this one seemed to be a halfling, based on its small size.

    The large one looked around the room a bit but mostly kept his eyes on me, the smaller one, however, stared into my eyes, unblinking.

    The smaller one was much eerier.

    ¡°I brought another lamp.¡± The female voice spoke again, having just reopened the door and came back in.

    In her hand was another, larger oil lamp, which she brought into the center of the room and hooked up to a rope on the roof. The room still had shadows, but it was much brighter than before.

    ¡°Remove the gag.¡± The small one said, with a very feminine voice.

    ¡°What if he screams?¡± The man asked the small girl, who seemed to be the leader.

    ¡°Stay nearby, and choke him.¡± She said to him, but her gaze never left me. ¡°But he won''t scream, will you? You know that that is a bad idea.¡±

    ¡°Hmmff.¡± I did my best to show I understood, even shaking my head affirmatively.

    ¡°Good, remove the gag.¡± She said again.

    The woman slowly approached me, and before removing the gag, she wrapped a wire around my neck a few times. I had no doubt, that if I made a fuss, she would choke me into unconsciousness immediately.

    ¡°Ahem.¡± I cleared my throat now that the gag was gone, and then tried my best to sit up a bit and look presentable, but made no progress. ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t care who we are?¡± the small one asked.

    Honestly, I assumed they wouldn¡¯t tell me, and even if they were willing, I also didn¡¯t want to know. The more I knew, the greater the liability I was. That''s why, despite being so eerie looking, the masks they wore actually helped me relax.

    ¡°Who you are, that doesn¡¯t matter, what does, is why you kidnapped me,¡± I spoke calmly and clearly.

    I may have sounded calm and collected, but I was secretly terrified. These people might not kill me or hurt me if they didn¡¯t need to, but they were clearly professionals. And I had no intention of betraying the Young Master, so they might not be planning on hurting me now, they might change their minds later on.

    ¡°That may be, but as a servant of the Iron-Hammers, a prestigious noble family dating back to the founding of the Fredirin Kingdom, introductions should be made, don''t you think?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes,¡± I said slowly, the fact that they knew who I worked for was expected, but I still wasn¡¯t happy to have it confirmed. ¡°My name is Vark, son of Dems. I am a servant belonging to the third Young Master, Thomas Iron-Hammer.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± the small figure said.

    And then, she reached up and pulled back her hood, while also removing her mask. Long, midnight black hair, set into a single braid, fell down her back. She had a face like a doll, flawless, pure white skin, a perfectly formed nose, small red lips that were currently curved into a light smile, round eyes that were a silver so pure that where the iris ended and the white of the eye began could almost not be determined.

    She was most assuredly one of the most flawlessly beautiful people I had ever seen, but there was also a hint a familiarly hidden in her features.

    ¡°A pleasure to meet you Vark, son of Dems.¡± Her voice, as she made an elegant curtsy broke me out of my stupor. ¡°Olivia Pine Fredirin greets you.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡­?¡±

    No way, was this that little, timid girl who went to school with the Young Master? That small, squirrel-like child that was a disgrace to the higher nobility? The daughter of the Joke Duchess?

    ¡°Now Vark, son of Dems, I need to ask you some questions.¡± She said as she straightened back up.

    ¡°Yes... I will try and answer¡­?¡± I answered, still shocked that she was who she said she was.

    ¡°Three days ago, my carriage suffered a mishap, I was wondering if you knew anything about it?¡± She asked.

    ...Is this girl, really this much of an idiot? She kidnapped me, a member of the Iron-Hammers, to ask something like this?

    Luckily, the stupid question brought me to my senses.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I had heard about the incident, but I know nothing else, other than your carriage had overturned.¡±

    That wasn¡¯t exactly true, I knew it had crashed when the bridge it was on collapsed, which was to be fair, extremely suspicious. I also knew that she had fallen into the water of the Ivo River and almost died. The other servants and I had laughed about this for a while, it was a great joke.

    ¡°I see, you know nothing else then?¡±

    Was she¡­ insinuating that it was the Iron-Hammers that set this up? This could be bad.

    ¡°I had only heard about it later that day, I regret to say this, but many people were talking about your swift withdraw from the city to recover, many people were concerned for your wellbeing.

    This wasn¡¯t the behavior that the girl was known for at all, but I was pretty sure I understood what she was doing. Her family¡¯s honor was tarnished by that embarrassing fall, and the jokes and gossip that followed. She probably needed someone to blame, a scapegoat, so she would convince me to confess, and then blame the thing on the Iron-Hammers.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s a shame. Nothing to be done then, I was hoping to find something out, but no matter.¡± She said, dismissing the subject just like that.

    Was¡­ that it? Really? I don¡¯t get it, what was her angle here?

    ¡°I am sorry I couldn¡¯t help you more.¡± I apologized.

    I was about to ask if she could release me, but I was afraid to ask too soon.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine.¡± She said waving her hand dismissively. ¡°But I do have another question.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Thomas Iron-Hammer, your master, he spends a lot of time in the company of my cousin, Kyle Gold-Field Fredirin, I''d like you to tell me about that.¡±

    This¡­ was completely different from before. And, this was really, really, bad.

    ¡°I am sorry, but¡­¡± I tried to deny her gently.

    ¡°¡±That¡¯s right, this is an important thing for you. I understand how difficult it is, so let''s give you some motivation?¡± She said with a smile.

    A smile that did not reassure me, at all.

    ¡°Motivation?¡±

    ¡°The carrot and the stick, I''m sure you¡¯ve heard the phrase.¡± She said as she walked up to me.

    I was suddenly very aware that I was still tied up, completely unable to do anything other than roll and flop around the floor.

    ¡°I¡­ have h-heard it before.¡± I stammered.

    ¡°Good.¡± She said as she crouched down in front of me and lifted my head with her hand.

    And then, suddenly, she shoved her finger into my mouth.

    ¡°Gahg!¡±

    It was so surprising, that I started choking and coughing. I hardly noticed she had withdrawn it and was wiping away my spit with a handkerchief she had produced from somewhere.

    ¡°Vark, son of Dems, let me ask you something else.¡± She said, her smile growing on her face.

    ¡°...Y-yes?¡± I was still coughing but managed to respond.

    ¡°Was that, the carrot, or the stick? What do you think, Vark, son of Dems?¡±

    What? What kind of stupid question was that? If she had made me swallow something, or had actually made me choke, or even vomit, it might have been a punishment, but she did neither of those things. But, how could it be a reward?

    Wait, I had heard that some nobles consider letting a person lick their shoes was equal to a reward, so maybe this was¡­?¡±

    ¡°The carrot?¡± I guessed

    ¡°Oh, I''m sorry, Vark, son of Dems. You¡¯ve guessed wrong.¡± She said, mirth clearly visible in her voice. ¡°It¡¯s a shame you are all tied up, you look hot in that fur coat, I bet you¡¯d like to take it off?¡±

    ¡­ What was she saying? It was winter, and I was in a seemingly abandoned building, laying on the cold floor. My coat was hardly even keeping me warm at this point.

    ¡°...¡±

    Wait a second, I did feel sort of warm¡­ No actually, I was hot. What was this?

    It was REALLY hot all of a sudden.

    ¡°See Vark, son of Dems, you should have taken the coat off when you had the chance.¡±

    ¡°What did¡­ Its so hot, I''m burning. PLEASE STO-¡± I started yelling, but suddenly, the wires wrapped around my neck were constricted, cutting off my words, and my breath.

    I couldn¡¯t breathe, but it didn''t matter, I was so hot. I WAS BURNING.

    ¡°Gag him again.¡± The girl said, her smile gone.

    ¡°Yes.¡± The woman said, and instantly the gag was back in my mouth, and I could breathe. But nothing stopped the heat from burning me inside.

    ¡°That, Vark, son of Dems, is the stick, or part of it at least. I bet it¡¯s unpleasant, so hot, it must be burning, right?¡± She said emotionlessly, as she circled around me.

    It was so hot, I could barely tell what was happening, but her words echoed in my mind.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it will be over soon. Just about¡­¡± she was behind me now, I couldn¡¯t see her, but her words were still being whispered to me. ¡°Now¡±

    And just like that, the heat, the fire, faded.

    ¡°Better?¡± She whispered.

    It was better. So much better.

    I was exhausted, it was only minutes, if that, but it felt like so much longer.

    ¡°I bet you think this is the carrot, this break, don¡¯t you Vark, son of Dems? But it isn¡¯t. This respite is just the start of the fun. This stick, Vark, son of Dems, will be truly unpleasant for you. But, on the upside, at least you have your coat on. It might have been hellish with all that heat, but if you started to get cold¡­ well then.¡±

    Cold? Oh no, could she¡­ no, if she was a mage specializing in fire, then she couldn¡¯t also specialize in ice, they were opposites.

    ¡°I bet you are thinking something like this, ¡®she must have used some kind of fire magic on me, but fire and ice magics are opposites, so she can¡¯t also use ice to make me cold.¡¯ You think that, don¡¯t you Vark, son of Dems? But, I hate to say it, you would be wrong. It¡¯s the cold hard truth.¡±

    Impossible¡­

    ¡°And you should be feeling that truth, that COLD truth right about now.

    ¡°HMMMMFFF!¡±

    I grunted angrily, but then suddenly, a chill, like a cold winter breeze hit me. My very bones started to freeze. I felt myself start to shiver, bumps appearing on my arms, I was probably turning blue. Even the sweat that I had produced moments ago, felt like it would freeze on my skin.

    What kind of magic was this?

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Vark, son of Dems. The cold will only last for about half a minute.¡±

    Half a minute of this? Of having my body froze? No, this would be hell.

    ¡°But then, I am sorry to say, the heat will return. And then the cold, and then the heat, and then, the cold again. Do you think you can handle it, Vark, son of Dems? It will go on all night, hot, cold, burning, freezing, ice, fire. When will you break?¡±

    No¡­ that can¡¯t be, this can¡¯t be.

    ¡°Hasthe cold worn off yet?¡± She asked.

    And true to her words, it had. I could feel life spreading back into my limbs, my fingers, stiff from the cold were able to move again.

    ¡°Now, we have a short break, so let me tell you something, Vark, son of Dems. This magic, will not, can not, kill you. You will live through this cycle, over and over again, until I set you free.¡± She told me, simply.

    And I trusted her on this, trusted her fully.

    ¡°Now, I said earlier, a carrot, and a stick. That hell of ice and fire is the stick. Do you want to know what the carrot is? Do you, Vark, son of Dems¡±

    I couldn¡¯t speak, so I limply nodded my head.

    ¡°If you tell me what I want to know, then you will get the best carrot of them all, a carrot called death.¡± She said and broke out into laughter.

    She was crazy. How could she be this crazy?

    ¡°It might not seem like a reward now, but let us just wait a bit, shall we, Vark, son of Dems?¡±

    The crazy bitch¡¯s laughter rang out, and I wanted to angrily yell at her, to curse her, but the gag prevented me. And before I could even mumble at her, I felt it, the heat, coursing through my body again.

    It was hot.

    It was burning.

    ¡­

    It was cold.

    It was freezing.

    Please¡­ Please make it stop.

    Please.

 Chapter 3: Cats and Dogs.

    Sunday, February 8th, N.E. 807, 16:55

    Kolos Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    It took the servant of the Iron-Hammers, whatever his name was, Ven, son of Darks or something like that, exactly two hours to break down, offering me everything he knew while begging for death. The length of time might make him out to be rather heroic, but he only lasted two hours because I refused to accept his surrender until two hours had passed. In fact, he had caved the second I asked.

    Unfortunately, he had no valuable information. But, that was only to be expected, He was a simple servant to the third son of a lesser noble family, that third son was part of Kyle Gold-Field Fredirin¡¯s gang of friends, but I doubted he was a close confidant, so even if he had stupidly shared things with his servant, it still wouldn¡¯t have been anything important.

    That said, it didn¡¯t matter to me much. Kyle was the last of sixteen children produced from Duke Zachary¡¯s second wife before she divorced him like his first. With the father being a drunk wastrel, his children weren¡¯t much better, some of the sixteen were competent, but even if Kyle were one of the competent, the Gold-Field family was not a pressing concern.

    ¡°My lady, it¡¯s rather cold, you should close your cloak.¡± Captain Nev voice woke me up from my reverie.

    It was, in fact, rather chilly, the sun was setting, and while the Royal Capital rarely saw snow or freezing temperatures, it still got close, and the rivers left a damp chill in the air.

    That said, while I could easily use my magic to erase the effects of simple, natural, cold temperatures, I actually enjoyed the cold.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, we are almost back to the Inn. More importantly, hand me another one of those apples.¡±

    Without another word, the Captain swiftly drew out another juicy red apple and handed it to me.

    They used to belong to the servant of the Iron-Hammers, but he couldn¡¯t eat them anymore. It was convenient he seemed to like apples, since he had purchased a half dozen.

    If I had to offer a complaint, it would be that even though he seemed to have splurged on the higher quality fruit, he seemed to lean towards the sweeter ones, and I personally preferred the more tart apples.

    Still, it wasn¡¯t bad.

    ¡°Captain,¡± I started after swallowing a bite of the apple. ¡°I have a job for you.¡±

    ¡°If you order it, we will do it.¡± Was the steadfast reply.

    ¡°We have until the end of the weekend, that¡¯s three days, I need you to set up a meeting with the thieves guild. Anyone who isn¡¯t guarding me should be working on that.¡±

    ¡°...¡± Captain Nev had a sour look on his face.

    ¡°What is it, captain?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t think this is a good idea.¡±

    ¡°Captain, I will be frank. I can¡¯t rely on you for this.¡±

    ¡°...If there is something you are unsatisfied with¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not it. Your squad specializes in scouting within the mountains and the forests, you can stalk prey, lay traps, ambush things, and you are all able fighters. Right?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Exactly.¡±

    ¡°And that is exactly it, what I need right now, is information, I need people who can gather that information for me, your squad can¡¯t do that. If it comes to a fight, I will rely on you.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ understand my lady. We will make contact with the thieves guild within a day,¡± he said resolutely

    ¡°I¡¯m counting on you,¡± I replied. ¡°And, can I have another apple?¡±

    <hr>

    Monday, February 9th, N.E. 807, 11:24

    Patio Inn, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    True to his word, Captain Nev kept two men in each adjacent room, and left two of the three female Spectres with me, the other five people went out that night, searching for the thieves guild.

    The next day, before noon, he had returned with the news he had set up a meeting.

    ¡°This is the meeting spot?¡± I asked incredulously.

    I expected a warehouse, like the one that that servant died in, or a tavern or restaurant.

    ¡°Yes my lady,¡± Responded one of my escorts, Lin.

    In front of us, was a church, and not a small, dilapidated thing either, but a proper church, with members of the clergy and even worshipers. The God of the Sky¡¯s holy symbol was hanging over the door, a cloud with a moon on the left, and a sun on the right.

    ¡°Well, whatever,¡± I said and walked in.

    The church was a decent sized branch, unlike the large cathedrals that were built in the first and second circle of the Capital, a few acolytes were going about their business, and a few particularly pious citizens were in the pews, deep in prayer.

    No one paid any kind of particular attention as I went up and dropped exactly four bronze coins, one after another, into the leftmost tithe box, nor when I and my four escorts retreated without a word and sat in the pews.

    My escorts for this trip included the two best fighters of the squad, the ones who had ridden in front and behind me on the way to the city. Jeb and Ivan.. Lin, who answered me earlier, and who also helped capture that servant, was known as one of the fastest of their group, if anything went wrong, she could grab me and run. And finally, there was Wen, who was the one who made contact with the thieves guild in the first place, a friendly face so to say.

    We waited for half a minute before an old priest walked up to us.

    ¡°Oh? What a large group of believers, and at this time of the day. How devoted. Perhaps a private prayer chamber would be best?¡± he said, his voice sounding exactly like a devout follower of a god.

    ¡°No, that is fine, we can¡¯t impose upon you,¡± Wen replied.

    ¡°Do not worry child, we are all children of the sky, please, let me guide you.¡±

    ¡°Well, if you insist, but the sky looks bleak today, I think it might rain, we¡¯ll need to leave if it does.¡±

    ¡°All is the sky¡¯s blessing¡± The old priest motioned for us to follow, and we did.

    He led us down one of the side hallways, and into a room that was surprisingly roomy, mostly because it was barren, save for a single altar on the far wall, but we went in any way as the priest left with a small bow.

    ¡°That was what the informant told you to say?¡± I asked Wen.

    ¡°Yes, reject first, but then agree, if he says something about being children, respond with you think it might rain and we need to leave. If he says something about the sky being our parent, say it might rain, but we¡¯ll stay. And if he said we were one with the sky, I was supposed to say, I hope it¡¯s a sunny sky.¡± He answered dutifully.

    Before I could say anything else, the holy altar built into the wall suddenly shifted, and a man stepped out of the opening.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°It''s pretty complex, but it keeps out the undesirable, you know? Anyways, call me Dog, I hear you need our expertise?¡± the man said.

    I hadn¡¯t noticed his approach, and the movement of the altar was silent, but I had noticed my guards reaching for their weapons.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I said to the Spectres, and they released some of their tension, not all, but some.

    ¡°Oh, so you are in charge here? Interesting.¡± The man, Dog, said.

    ¡°I am,¡± I said as I removed the hood on my cloak.

    ¡°Oh, how pretty. And who could you be miss? A pretty lass such as yourself, how could I have let you go unnoticed until now.

    Four hands tensed upon weapons, but I ignored them.

    ¡°I could introduce myself, but what would be the fun in that? I find it hard to believe that you couldn¡¯t figure it out in time.¡± I joked with him.

    ¡°Still, I can''t just call you, ¡®You¡¯ all the time.¡±

    ¡°Well then, how about you call me, Cat?¡± I said with a laugh.

    ¡°Ahaha, fine, Cat it is. But I think a Kitten is more accurate?" Then he looked at my frowning guards and added, ¡°Maybe not, Cat will do. So then, Cat, what can we do for you?¡±

    ¡°I need you to gather some items for me, and I also need some information. For now, I might have something else to ask, but let us focus on those things first.¡± I said, the mirth having left my voice.

    ¡°Let''s start with the items, I''ll tell you if we can get it. Well, I say that, but for the right price, we can get anything, I guarantee it.¡± Dog boasted.

    ¡°The Royal Crown¡± I deadpanned.

    ¡°... well, except that.¡± Dog said with an awkward cough. ¡°I mean, if you really, really, had the money, we could make it work, but I doubt that enough gold exists to do that.¡±

    ¡°I jest.¡±

    ¡°Good, I almost broke out into a cold sweat there. So what do you really want?¡±

    ¡°Garten Root.¡±

    ¡°We have that, it¡¯s not popular, but we have it and sell it, how much do you need?¡±

    ¡°A pound or two, maybe more in the future.¡±

    ¡°That is a lot, but it won''t be a problem, what else?¡±

    ¡°Tesk Spores, purified ideally, but raw is fine too.¡±

    ¡°...what do you want that for? Eh, never mind, you don¡¯t need to tell me, probably better if you don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I''m not planning on poisoning anyone with it.¡±

    ¡°Of course not, even the purified spore requires a large dose, and the smell and taste are both too extreme, no one will eat that.¡±

    ¡°Really? Hmm, I enjoy the taste myself, it makes a good tea, very bitter.¡± I replied nonchalantly.

    ¡°...For real?¡± Dog asked incredulously.

    ¡°Yes, mix it with milk, sugar, and a citrus fruit, oranges will do, but I prefer limes. It makes an excellent tea.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s crazy, I guess you use detoxification magic then?¡±

    ¡°Of course, I enjoy the taste, but not enough to die for it.¡±

    ¡°Crazy. Well is that all?¡±

    ¡°No, I also need a soul extractor, at least of grade four, and I need it unmarked.¡±

    ¡°That... might be difficult. There isn¡¯t really a market for those, so we don¡¯t keep any on hand, we¡¯ll need to uh, acquire one.¡±

    ¡°I also need that quickly.¡±

    ¡°... How quickly?¡± He said with a frown.

    ¡°Within days.¡±

    ¡°That is going to cost you.¡±

    ¡°As long as it¡¯s at least grade four, and unmarked, I''ll pay.¡±

    ¡°Fine then, well, let''s see, Garten Root is 10 gold an ounce, so 160 for a pound, we always have it in stock by the way. Tesk Spores, purified, I think 25 gold for a gallon, but another 5 for the container. And I can¡¯t say for sure, but the extractor will be around 500, maybe even more. And I need a down payment of half that before we even start.¡±

    ¡°No problem.¡±

    ¡°Good, then, anything else?¡±

    ¡°No, just information then.¡±

    ¡°Okay, let''s talk about that, what do you need?¡±

    ¡°Four days ago, a carriage with a True Noble, ended up going for a swim. You¡¯ve heard?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you know, who set that up?¡±

    ¡°It was a faulty bridge support I believe.¡± Dog said coyly.

    ¡°Mmmm, well, if there was any additional information, I would buy that. And, I would like to put in a request, for someone to investigate and find the true culprit.¡±

    ¡°I imagine, you don¡¯t just want the basic information, but you want all the details?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°40 gold, and for the investigation, tentatively, it will be 100 gold, that number will almost certainly increase as the investigation starts taking time. I should also mention, if it starts getting dangerous, we charge extra too.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± I then withdrew a single coin, one made of a shimmering blue crystal, and tossed it towards Dog.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Dog exclaimed seeing the coin, ¡°A crystal coin, you don¡¯t see these every day. Cat, you must be pretty wealthy.¡±

    ¡°I am.¡± I simply said.

    ¡°Hmm, well, I do love a wealthy client, but I''ll need to get you change, unless you want to count this as a down-payment on the future costs?¡± He said while still looking at the coin in his hand.

    ¡°I did say, I had a third thing?¡± I mentioned, and then tossed over another two identical coins.

    ¡°Ah¡­ yeah.¡± Dog said, his eyes not leaving the crystal coins.

    ¡°Your guild doesn¡¯t just deal in the trade of¡­ questionable goods and information, right? I need, something a bit more extreme, but just a bit.¡± I said, smiling.

    ¡°And what would that be? I can tell with that grin on your face Cat, it¡¯s something big.¡±

    ¡°Nothing major, nothing major at all. I just need, someone to sneak something, a small package really, into someone''s house.¡±

    ¡°What might be in this package? And whose house would it need to be snuck into Cat?¡±

    ¡°The package is just a pillow, don¡¯t you trust me Dog? But, it might be best if it doesn¡¯t get scanned for magical effects, if you know what I mean?¡±

    ¡°All too well, and since getting scanned is a concern, I imagine the house it is going to, will also be a concern.¡±

    ¡°I think you will be fine, I imagine you already have someone working in the house in question, the estate of the Canyon Family is too important for you to overlook.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ you really are crazy after all. You want to smuggle, a ¡®pillow¡¯ into the estate of the Canyon Family? It¡¯s impossible.¡±

    ¡°You said everything was possible for the right price?¡± I reminded him.

    ¡°Not this. Look, let me be honest with you Cat, the Canyon Estate is a natural fortress, and it¡¯s only a fortress, nothing but. Red Rock Canyon is just that kind of place. There are so many magical wards on that place, we couldn¡¯t even smuggle in a tissue, let alone a pillow, and one that can¡¯t be scanned? It¡¯s impossible.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I have made a mistake, I don¡¯t need it in their main estate, just their villa here, in the capital.¡±

    ¡°... That¡­ might be possible. I can¡¯t make a guarantee on it, however, and it will cost you more than just these three crystal coins, that is for sure.¡± he said, resigned to his fate.

    ¡°Dog, this is important, you need to make it happen,¡± I said as I reached back into my wallet, this time withdrawing a coin made of clear crystal, which I held up so the thief could see. ¡°I need that pillow in there within a week. Make it happen.¡±

    ¡°Uh, yeah, sure.¡± Dog said, staring at the coin, his attention only coming back to me when I slipped it back into my wallet.

    ¡°The three crystal coins are a down-payment, if you need more, you should know where I am staying by now right? Find me there.¡±

    ¡°Cat, you drive a hard bargain, I will see what I can do.

    ¡°Good,¡± I said as I turned and left.

    <hr>

    Tuesday, February 17th, N.E. 807, 12:30

    Pine Family carriage, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    One week had passed since my trade with Dog of the thieves guild.

    By the time we returned to the inn, someone was already there with my Garten Root and Tesk Spores. The spores, which came purified in a magically sealed container, that prevented the smell from leaking, and the poison from leaking, were used for exactly what I said, tea.

    This lead to a minor argument with my guards, since the idea of using the foul-smelling, poisonous mold spores as an ingredient to consume was met with disbelief, but I eventually won. Tesk tea has a rich, if bitter, flavor that just brings a small tingle to the tongue, the only effect of the poison on me. Normally, low-level detoxification magic would be sufficient for simply breathing in the spores, but to deal with the purified spores, that wouldn¡¯t cut it. Let alone, directly consuming the purified spores, in that case, high-level detoxification magic would be needed. And while low-level detox magic is somewhat common, medium and high level are much rarer.

    It was a good thing then, that I didn¡¯t require detoxification magic. Organic and mineral based poisons were simply destroyed by my own blood, which itself, was the greater poison. Only magical poisons could harm me, and they would need to be either incredibly insidious or possess more magic than my own blood.

    As for the Garten Root, it was technically a narcotic. It temporarily raised mana production, with the side effect of making it leak out too easily, and it also created a minor euphoric high when consumed in any way. It¡¯s not exactly illegal, but a permit is needed to use it, and a large amount of research goes into trying to reduce the side effects.

    The narcotic effect wouldn¡¯t work on me since it¡¯s technically a poison, but the effect of raising mana production and of making it leak out, I would experience both of those. The first effect would be largely pointless for me, but the second would help me reforge my body.

    So I spent the rest of the week, and the weekend, circling my mana to reforge my body, drinking Tesk Tea, and reviewing the documents that held all of the thieves guild¡¯s information pertaining to my fall into the river.

    The conclusion about my swim was not promising. The bridge was old, it didn¡¯t see much traffic, and there was a termite infestation in the wood. I was just unlucky to have been the one on it when it collapsed. Of course, anyone could see that wasn¡¯t the case. But there was no magical interference, and as far as the thieves guild could tell, no one was pulling strings and derailing the official investigation.

    The most likely assumption was that the bridge was tampered with the old fashioned way, someone with some tools damaged the support and then left. If someone other than me was the first to cross it, they would have ended up in the river instead. Well, the tampering was probably done under the assumption the bridge would only fail when a carriage with escorts crossed, a single horseman or pedestrian wouldn¡¯t make it fall. It was simple, crude, inexact, but it left almost no evidence. The investigation was focused on anyone witnessing someone messing with the bridge, but that area doesn¡¯t have a lot of traffic, so no one saw anything.

    Conclusion, identifying the mastermind is impossible at this time.

    The guild¡¯s investigation did uncover that several parties were intentionally spreading the story, in opposition to the Pine Family¡¯s attempts to cover it up. The end result was that the Pine Family was embarrassed by the entire thing. But the rumor spreaders were most likely just taking advantage of the situation.

    Not only was the investigation a waste, but future investigating would also be a waste, so I dropped the entire thing.

    On Saturday, Dog sent one of his associates, a small balding man named, Caterpillar, who handed off the soul extractor, grade four, and unmarked. I also put in a request for the blueprints for the Canyon Family¡¯s villa within the capital. Those arrived within the hour, but cost an extra 200 gold.

    On Sunday I had Captain Nev head out and find a warehouse to rent. On Monday, I became the temporary owner of a warehouse in the Seventh Circle. It was a three-story building, somewhat small, with the third story being little more than a shed on the roof. It did, however, have a large basement, which made it perfect for my purposes. The Spectre spent the day furnishing it with tables, chairs, desks, and shelves. And when they were done, I spent an hour cutting my hand open and smearing my blood liberally over the walls. Now, the warehouse was a lot more durable, and also nearly impossible to magically spy on.

    While this was all happening, I had the Spectres randomly walk around town, sometimes individually, sometimes in groups, sometimes I sent a few out in different directions, and I even had them leave the city, sometimes they even spent a night outside. The idea was, that anyone watching us wouldn¡¯t be able to tell which trips actually meant something, and which were simply a red herring.

    On Tuesday morning, we vacated the Patio Inn and moved to the new warehouse, but during the move, I left the city myself this time. Not by myself, Jeb and Ivan both left with me, and we met up with Naya, who had left the night before. The three of us who left together had horses, Naya lacked one, but since I was so small, we shared my horse.

    We spent hours riding until we met up with our target, the carriage I had left with over a week ago, along with my servants and guardian knights.

    The Spectres would stay out for another night, they would head to the warehouse sometime tomorrow, but I, in my carriage, would enter the city around sunset tonight.

    And I would not be heading to the warehouse, but back to the Pine Family Villa.

    As the carriage slowly made its way down the road, and as my servants helped me change out of my traveler¡¯s gear, I admit, sad as it was, I felt a tad bit lonely.

    For the first time since I awoke, Gimmy, was not with me.

 Chapter 4: Family?

    Tuesday, February 17th, N.E. 807, 19:08

    Pine Family carriage, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    The Capital Arvas is split into circles, each divided by by walls. The center, where the Royal Castle is, along with the made government buildings, is called the First Circle. Only, the Royal Family and the servants live within the First Circle, and while the facilities are massive, the First Circle is the smallest circle.

    The Second Circle is about twice as big as the First Circle, and it houses many of the estates and mansions of the highest ranking nobles, in addition to holding the offices of most of the auxiliary government branches. Because so much is stuffed into it, the buildings tend to be tall and thin, taking up very little space. The Iron-Hammers, for instance, live within the Second Circle, but their mansion is only a bit larger than the Patio Inn, and in fact, the Iron-Hammers also have another estate in the Fifth Circle where most of the lower ranking members of the family live.

    The Pine Family, and the other ducal houses, then have their homes within the Third Circle, which is actually one of the largest of the circles. According to history, the Third Circle was originally the farmland that surrounded the capital, but a combination of flood walls and proper defensive walls were built around that farmland. Eventually, as the city grew, the farmland became orchards and gardens, and then changed again, into the area where the largest, sprawling estates, exist.

    Just like before, my carriage, or I should say, my convoy, bypassed the line of people waiting to enter the city. Unlike before, when it was just a group of twelve riders, this time it was a highly ornate and expensive carriage, escorted by a team of sixteen footsoldiers, eight archers, and ten knights in full plate mail.

    Not to mention, that all of the armor, from the scale mail on the archers, to the shining steel breastplates of the foot soldiers, to the mirror-like plate mail, and even the carriage itself, all had the insignia of the Pine Family plastered on them.

    The gate guards didn¡¯t even stop us to ask for a permit, they just opened the way as we approached, saluted as we went through, and then closed ranks behind us.

    Technically, while being a member of the nobility did give you extra privileges, it didn¡¯t make you exempt from the law. We should have been inspected, or at least questioned when we entered. Likewise, without a special flag indicating our errand was not only urgent, but a matter of utmost importance, we still needed to follow the basic traffic laws.

    In practice, for most things, making us follow those rules, would be an inconvenience for everyone involved. The guards let us pass without a word, the people on the road quickly vacated the area, and my carriage steadily went on its way.

    That said, even with all of the obstacles removed, it was still, a shockingly tedious trip.

    Honestly, the Capital Arvas holds close to zero interest for me.

    It''s undoubtedly a large town, by human standards. But, that is all it is. There is no unique traits, no personality, it contains simple wooden and stone buildings, a few fancier brink ones exist, and the odd temple or magic based building was made out of stronger materials could be spotted, but it was otherwise bland.

    Back, before I became Olivia, my domain contained three things I would consider cities, and the most boring of them was a massive, sprawling, haphazard metropolis that I had inherited. Not unlike Arvas, except it was many times larger, the city had bigger buildings, but that was it.

    As for the other two, one of them was built into a mountain range, with nearly three-quarters of the city being subterranean. My favorite though, was a city made of a series of massive spires, the smallest was over ten stories. They were all connected by bridges, and they sprouted out of a massive tar pit, a bridge nearly a mile long was the only access point to the city itself.

    Compared to them, Arvas was quaint at best.

    As I mused over the inadequacies of the royal capital, my group had passed through the gates that split the rings, until we finally entered the Third Circle. Already, my family¡¯s estate could be seen in the distance.

    The Pine Estate was a sprawling villa, built around gardens where the main attraction, the various types of pine trees, had been planted. A not inconsiderable amount of manpower went into transporting the fully grown pines here from the family¡¯s domain. They were, however, rather majestic, the pines, hundreds of them, each a uniform height, reaching nearly two hundred feet, surrounded the villa, the wall that actually surrounded the villa for defensive purposes, was built around the trees themselves, even the small watchtowers, were built directly onto the trunks of the largest pines.

    The gate was already opened for us and we pass through without issue, we headed straight towards the front entrance.

    My guards and servants exchanged words with the guards and servants of the villa, but as they were doing that, another servant helped me dismount.

    We had stopped several times during our trip, and my carriage was one of the finest that money could buy, but I was still stiff and sore from the trip, even if I was only onboard for a few hours.

    Inactivity like that is not something I enjoy.

    ¡°Olivia!¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    ¡°Little Sister!¡±

    As I was stretching to remove the stiffness from my neck and shoulders, two voices called out to me.

    Hurrying down the stairs in front of the main entrance, was my elder sister, Pamela. She¡­ seemed to be wearing a bathrobe, and her hair was damp. Behind her, a group of maids was scurrying around, trying to both dry her hair and place a cloak around her shoulders.

    And coming from around the side, in the direction of the stables, was my elder brother, Timothy. He was wearing a riding outfit that was caked with mud and grass, and trailing behind him were two of his attendants, whose names I¡¯ve forgotten.

    I noted that the attendants were not stained, which meant my brother was still as inept as always when it came to dealing with animals.

    ¡°Older sister, older brother,¡± I said in greeting as they came up to me.

    ¡°I¡¯m so glad you are okay.¡± My sister, Pamela, said as she wrapped me in a hug.

    My sister Pamela was six years older than me at thirteen years old. It''s said that girls mature faster than boys, and the nearly six foot tall Pamela, who dwarfed my brother Timothy, who was a year older than her, lent some credence to that assertion. Besides being tall, Pamela otherwise looked as if she was a full grown adult, any signs of childhood had faded, she was overflowing with womanly charm, and while she normally kept her silver hair in a simple ponytail that would make one thing she was somewhat of a tomboy, in actuality, she preferred reading and art to any kind of physical endeavour.

    ¡°I am glad you¡¯ve returned well.¡± She said as she released me.

    ¡°Yes¡­ You worried us.¡± Timothy said as he kneeled down to be at eye-level with me.

    Or¡­ a bit under eye level. He was a tad bit short.

    Timothy was the second oldest child of the Pine Family, he was fourteen now, but his birthday was only in two months. The eldest brother, Kyle, was seventeen and had already graduated from the Royal Academy, and the youngest child, Vincent, was only four this year, he wouldn¡¯t attend the school for another two years.

    So we three here were the only ones in school.

    ¡°Elder Sister, you should return inside and dry yourself off fully, you¡¯ll catch a cold. And Elder Brother, you should finish your horseback training before the sun sets.¡±

    ¡°Ah, you are right Olivia, it is cold out.¡± My sister said as she shivered into her cloak before turning and hurrying back up the stairs to the entrance, but once she was halfway up she turned back to me and yelled. ¡°You too, come in with me.¡±

    ¡°Yes, go on in Olivia, I will make sure my horse is safe in the stable, and then I will come in too. We will have dinner tonight as a family.¡± He said with a smile and then turned and went back towards the stables.

    ¡°Hurry Olivia, It is cold!¡± My sister called again.

    ¡°On my way,¡± I replied.

    <hr>

    Tuesday, February 17th, N.E. 807, 22:10

    Olivia''s Bedroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Dinner was a strange affair for me.

    My siblings and I ate in one of the smaller dining halls, a room that could have comfortably fit twenty to thirty people was reserved for just the three of us.

    That, however, was not what made it strange for me. Nor was it the impeccable table manners that we all ate with, but it was the simple fact that I didn¡¯t know how to handle myself with my family.

    Subordinate, I knew how to carry myself around, how to deal with them. Potential enemies, that I understood, allies on equal footing, those weaker, those stronger, I knew how to handle them.

    Family¡­ a family was something different.

    I¡­ had family¡­ a long time ago.

    Brothers and Sisters. We weren¡¯t biologically related, many of us did not even look remotely similar to each other, but Brothers and Sisters we were. Born in the same place at the same time, our bond was different, but not weaker or less authentic than the bond of the Pine Family. There were forty-seven of us that left our place of birth together. Within a day, there was only thirty-eight, within another, thirty-five, by the end of the week, twenty-nine, and by the end of the month, only fifteen remained.

    For years, we only had each other to rely on.

    As time went, more of my brothers and sisters left us, some joined other groups, others set off on their own, but most died, were killed by wild beasts and monsters, or were murdered by others who were competing with us.

    Much, much later, when I grasped power, only six of us remained. Others of my family may have still lived elsewhere, but the last six of us never heard anything about them.

    I ruled that sprawling city with my five siblings until a neighboring domain assassinated one of us. When we conquered the city of spires over tar, another died in the fighting. When another domain declared war on us, two more died in the battles that followed, trading their lives for the subterranean city in the mountains.

    Only I, and my weakest brother survived.

    He was not a warrior, not a general, not an administrator, he wasn¡¯t even a talented mage. In a way, he was useless, but his uselessness allowed him to survive, to stay with me for all those years while the others left.

    My kind, we do not give gifts out of goodwill, out of love. We give rewards, we give bribes, but not gifts.

    My brother, he spent all of his time, all of his wealth, to give me a gift. An amulet, the same one that I constantly bring my hand towards my neck to feel for. That amulet was my life-line, my last defense, the last thing to protect me should all of my other defenses fail.

    As is always the case, they did.

    I fought, but fell, I was killed.

    And that amulet did what my brother told me it would do, allow me to cheat death, sending me here, to this world, as a new life, as Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    My brother, I wondered if he survived? Was he killed before me? Or after? Or did he escape? Or maybe¡­ Betrayal¡­ for my kind, is not in anyway uncommon.

    But no, I do not think he did, otherwise, why give me the amulet?

    Well, none of that mattered any longer, I was here, I was Olivia, and I had a new family.

    But, the memories I absorbed from the fake version of me, the placeholder, were quite different from what I had known before. I did in fact, know this, from when I first woke up as my true soul. But knowing something as knowledge, and experiencing it first hand, are two different things.

    Not only was I unsure how to act, but I couldn¡¯t help but feel as if¡­ I was betraying the memory of my original forty-six brothers and sisters.

    The feelings I had for Timothy and Pamela were different, but no less powerful, than the ones I used to have. And in a way, that made me feel worse.

    When I saw Timothy, as he slowly ate the dinner, savoring each bite, his face overlapped with another from my memories. Unlike Timothy¡¯s human face, with blue eyes and brown hair, the one overlapping it was long, with black and red scales, and lacking a nose. But that face, in my memories, was also, slowly savoring his meal.

    When Pamela sighed with content as she finished her tea at the end of the meal, I saw another, a woman with a cloth over her eyes, horns coming out of her head, and long shaggy blue hair framing her face. She too would sigh with happiness as she finished a drink after a meal.

    In a way, I wished to interact with my two human siblings in the same way I had with my original siblings, but the memories I inherited from the fake me, clearly informed me that I should not.

    And¡­ it was painful, to remember my old siblings, it had been years upon years since some of them had died, and I had almost never thought about them since. Now, suddenly, I couldn¡¯t help it.

    But, as painful as it was, as strange and awkward, it helped me realize something.

    What I had before, was lost. I could never reclaim it, it simply wasn¡¯t possible, even if I had wanted too.

    When I woke up that night in Olivia¡¯s room, when the memories merged into my mind, I had decided on something.

    I didn¡¯t want to rule this world, or reclaim my own domain, or increase my power and become the strongest. I wanted to defend what was mine. My possessions, my honor, my pride, my allies, and my family.

    My Family.

    And to do that, well, a lot of things needed to be done.

 Chapter 5: Family Talk, A Talk of Magic.

    Tuesday, February 17, N.E. 807, 22:25

    Olivia¡¯s Bedroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Like my room back at the Citadel of the Pines, my room here, while being filled with the highest quality furniture and furnishings, was somewhat bland. With the exception of the stuffed animals. Actually, being a room I not only previously spent the greatest amount of time in, but also the room was located in an area that piled stress upon me, this room had far more stuffed animals.

    I never really considered myself sentimental, but the lack of my amulet that I had worn for so long was¡­ irritating.

    The stuffed animals, while not exactly a perfect replacement, were fulfilling the same role. To an extent.

    Frankly, I found the previous version of myself, with her reliance and near obsession with these stuffed animals, to be rather irritating.

    All of that being said, my annoyance at my previous self did not prevent me from grabbing one of the numerous stuffed animals as I left the room.

    In my arms, was Mr. Zlizvnikchlex, a name human mouths can never pronounce. Mr. Zliz as I shorted his name, had the body of a moth, or I guess a butterfly, the body was a dark green, and his wings were orange with pink dots. He would have been a normal butterfly by most standards, if not for the thick, foot-long tentacles that came out of his wings and body. There were ten in all.

    A bit more than half of my stuffed animals were custom works. Someone ordered them and gave directions on generally what the animal should be. Gimmy was one for instance. Mr. Zliz was not.

    Stuffed animals are similar to ragdolls, which are similar to dolls. Low-end dolls are made of wood, clay, bone, or other easily acquired materials, and they are crudely made. Higher quality ones are made out of ceramic, or at least finely carved materials. Dolls are basically toys at the low to mid-end, the high-end ones are generally considered works of art, and are not given to children to play with.

    From the same basic origins, ragdolls are simply made figures, that instead of being made as durable toys out of hard materials, are made of cloth, usually rags, and while still toys, they are soft and can be cuddled with. They are essentially the same as normal dolls, but they¡¯re softer.

    While something like dolls and rag dolls has probably existed since the first toys were given to children, stuffed animals are a relatively new thing. Unlike the first two, which can be made in an hour or so from any random person, stuffed animals require a skilled craftsman to produce.

    I can¡¯t speak of the lower quality stuffed animals that the children of merchants and lower ranked nobles might get, but each of mine cost enough money to allow a family of five to live comfortable for at least half a year. From the outer coating to the inner one that holds the stuffing, to the stuffing itself, the whole process not only requires a skilled craftsman and very specific knowledge, but magic is also used to reinforce or make certain parts.

    Mr. Zliz here, had a body made of silk, his insides were mostly cotton and wool, but his tentacles were made out of a magically generated material that was smooth and soft, but very light. All ten of his tentacles, while making up more than half of his body by volume, had less weight than a simple handkerchief.

    Clearly, a large amount of work and effort went into making this thing, but the fact that it wasn¡¯t a custom product, made me somewhat concerned about Mr. Zliz¡¯s creator¡¯s mind. Why did the creator think this¡­ would be something someone would buy?

    A better question? Why did the prior me buy it?

    Well, despite the appearance, the tentacles were actually rather pleasant to squeeze.

    As I mused about Mr. Zliz, I arrived at my destination, my brother, Timothy¡¯s room.

    Standing here, in front of the door to my new brother¡¯s room, the most unpleasant mood suddenly overwhelmed me.

    Here I was, a child, with a weak and frail human body, hugging a stuffed animal, nervous about sharing my ideas with a family member. How pathetic had I become?

    ¡°Olivia? Is that you?¡± My brother called out from within his room.

    Of course, my brother was a knight in training, and I had made no effort to conceal my steps, so he obviously heard me.

    Before I could muster a response, the heavy door, where my head only reached to around the area of the doorknob, swung open and revealed my brother in his pajamas.

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty late Olivia, you should probably be asleep. Well come in,¡± he said as waved me into the room.

    ¡°No, that is fine for now Brother. I actually wanted to speak to you and Sister together, would that be okay?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Um, yes, that is fine. Now?¡± He seemed surprised at my request.

    ¡°Yes please, could you find Sister and meet me in the¡­ third library?¡±

    ¡°Okay, then I will get dressed and go find Pamela, she should be either in her room or her studio, I figure I will be there in ten or so minutes.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Brother, I will see you then,¡± I said and turned to leave.

    ¡°Hey! Wait for a second,¡± his yell stopped me. ¡°Hold on¡±

    Timothy turned back into his room but came back to the door within a few seconds.

    ¡°That stuffed animal is¡­ unique, but I bet it doesn¡¯t keep you warm. Here, take this,¡± He wrapped a heavy overcoat around my shoulders. ¡°It is pretty cold in the villa at night.¡±

    ¡°...Thank you.¡±

    ¡°No worries Little Sister. Now get going, I need to get changed.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± I said as I snuggled into the coat.

    <hr>

    Tuesday, February 17th, N.E. 807, 22:32

    Pine Family 3rd Library, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    The Pine Villa was a sprawling compound, the highest sections, excluding the guard towers, were only three stories high, and most of those were basically balconies and observatories. The design was simple and elegant, gray marble merged seamlessly with the trees and other greenery from the gardens.

    Because the villa was so spread out, making my way straight from my brother¡¯s room to the third library in the back of the compound, took me nearly ten minutes.

    It was a scenic journey, however, and it gave me time to sort some of my thoughts.

    Since there would still be ten to fifteen more minutes until my siblings arrived, I had a servant start a fire and set up a table for us. Tea was prepared, Tesk for me, and something non-toxic for my family.

    As the heat from the hearth slowly infused the room, I sat curled up in my brother''s coat on one of the sofas.

    My old form would find the chill of winter here to be below my notice. Unless it was cold enough to instantly freeze large masses of water, it was literally under my normal detection range. I didn¡¯t particularly enjoy the cold, but it wasn¡¯t until the temperature hit around 100 below zero that I would start feeling uncomfortable. I once even encountered a situation where the air around me began to condense into a liquid. Not only did I need to use mana to prevent myself from freezing, but I couldn¡¯t breathe either, it was a very unpleasant encounter.

    So, the chilliness of the villa in late winter, a mild fifty degrees, was quaint in comparison.

    ¡°Hey Olivia, we are here.¡± My brother called out as he opened the door.

    Having confirmed I was here by sticking his head in, he held the door open for my sister. Pamela was wearing a pair of brown, baggy pants, a long-sleeved white shirt, and a gray cloak was wrapped around her shoulders. She had splotches of paint smeared on her shirt and pants, and also her face and hands. She was also wearing an eye patch.

    Timothy came in after her and shut the door, he was wearing his school uniform, black pants that were similar to the military uniform used for officers in the Kingdom¡¯s army. He had on a plain white undershirt that was visible through the school jacket he had left open. The uniform¡¯s cloak for inclement weather was also wrapped around his shoulders.

    The two of them each took seats, Timothy sat in a lounge chair, and Pamela was going to sit on the adjacent sofa, but she quickly looked over her attire, and realizing the paint was still wet in places, chose to sit down on one of the plain wooden chairs.

    The servant handed each of them a cup of tea, and then placed the pot down upon one of the end tables, and then withdrew with a bow.

    ¡°Well Olivia, what did you want to talk about?¡± Timothy asked after he put down his cup of tea.

    ¡°Yes, I was surprised when Elder Brother found me so late at night.¡± My sister added.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for bothering you when you were involved with your work.¡± I apologize earnestly to my sister.

    ¡°Oh, eh, well, it wasn¡¯t going well, to be honest. I''ve cleaned that canvas more times than I care to admit. I just can¡¯t get it right. Well, no matter, it is simply a mental block of some sort, it will clear itself up with time.¡± She responded.

    ¡°I see, I wish you luck then.¡±

    My sister just nodded and then looked over to Timothy.

    ¡°Well, little sister, I know I asked during dinner, but are you truly well now? No lasting harm?¡± My brother asked.

    ¡°That is what I wanted to talk about. Or at least, part of it. I am fine though, so don¡¯t worry.¡±

    As I reassured them of my good health, both seemed to brighten up, a look of relief washing over them.

    ¡°That is good, I was so worried when I heard what happened.¡±

    ¡°Right, I was too. If I ever figure out¡­ No, that doesn¡¯t matter now. What is important is that you are well.¡±Timothy had a flash of dark emotion flash across his face, but it was soon gone.

    ¡°Exactly as brother says, all that matters is that you are okay now Olivia. We¡¯ll figure out something to make sure this won''t happen again.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yeah, thank you,¡± I mumbled out.

    This level, of pure, open, concern was unknown to me. It was hard for me to comprehend it.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°Good.¡± My brother said with a smile. ¡°Now, it is somewhat late, so what did you want to talk about?¡±

    ¡°Well.. the first thing is, my ordeal allowed me to break the lock on my magic core.¡±

    ¡°Gah-gah.¡±

    ¡°What!? Is that true!?¡±

    My brother suddenly stood up from his chair and rushed over to me, and my sister sputtered out the tea she had just drunk.

    ¡°Mmm, Yes,¡± I responded.

    Their shock wasn¡¯t unfounded. The exact mechanism in which magic forms in people isn¡¯t known, but large portions of it are hereditary. A powerful mage for a father and mother normally produces a powerful mage for a child. A child from two wind mages will also, usually be a wind mage themselves.

    But not always. Sometimes two fire mages produce a water mage, sometimes two great mages produce an average one, sometimes two people who can¡¯t use even the simplest spells, produce a once a decade genius.

    For the wealthy, soon after birth, any children will be tested to check the strength of their magic core, while the ability to use magic requires great skill, it also requires the basic traits of a strong and robust magic core. A strong core doesn¡¯t guarantee a powerful mage, but it goes a long way towards it.

    The problem is, magical outbursts can be caused when a person¡¯s emotions run wild. Mages, learn to temper this until it''s basically unheard of. But for a child, an infant, it''s nearly impossible to prevent outbursts. It¡¯s not uncommon for children to exhaust themselves, sometimes even to the point where their lives are in danger. Worse, instead of just leaking mana all over the place, sometimes the mana can form an actual spell, and while rare, sometimes children sometimes kill themselves or their parents in this way. A small ball of flames might not normally be a real threat, but when it happens in a baby¡¯s crib, it can be a disaster.

    To prevent this, wealthy children get checked, and if they have almost any potential to be a mage, their magic core will receive a seal, that constrains their mana so it can¡¯t leak out.

    Generally speaking, the seals don¡¯t completely block the mana, they just limit the amount that can come out to a fraction of the max, this allows the child to practice using magic as they grow. Eventually, as they get older, and their mastery of their mana grows, they will force a great amount of mana through the seal, which if done right, breaks the seal. This is normally a cause for a celebration, and it indicates the child is an adult.

    Legally, one is considered a child until they reach the age of twelve, but for nobility, a person is still considered a child until they unlock their seal. Most people do this on their birthday during a party or ceremony, but a few do it a bit earlier or a bit later.

    That being said, a bit earlier means eleven, rarely ten, and never seven. To unlock a sealed mana core at the age of seven, is simply unheard of, bordering on impossible.

    ¡°Olivia, did you really?¡± My brother asked breathlessly as he grabbed my hand and slowly circulated his own mana around it.

    Timothy Pine Fredirin, was a rare genius, at the age of twelve, he had already unlocked his mana core a year ago. Now, doing that at the age of eleven, wasn¡¯t uncommon, especially for the upper nobility, in fact, eleven could be considered average for people like us. What made my brother a genius, was that he could have unlocked his core when he was just turning ten, he just chose not too. Well, it was mostly our parents who advised him against it, after all, unlocking your core at that age would draw an enormous amount of attention towards you. And it was best to not paint a target like that.

    ¡°B-brother, is it true?¡± Pamela asked while wiping her mouth with a paint covered piece of cloth that she had produced from her pocket. The tea on her lips was gone, but in its place, she had smeared some yellow paint.

    ¡°It¡­ It is true. She really has¡­¡± My brother muttered out as he stared at me in shock, the mana from his hand still flowed around my hand, mixing with my own mana, the two flows merging against each other.

    But as the two flows came in contact, my brother¡¯s shocked face slowly became a frown.

    ¡°How¡­ how can it be so dense?¡± He asked no one in particular.

    No two people have the same flavor of mana because mana directly makes up the person¡¯s soul. All living things have souls, and all living things also have mana. Even if they can¡¯t use magic, they have mana. Not only humans, but the other races, even animals, and plants, have mana and have souls. And no two souls are the same.

    A stronger soul means stronger mana, and the inverse is true, increasing your mana makes your soul stronger. A person with a strong soul will inherently have powerful mana.

    My brother Timothy is an earth mage, he can use the other elements to some degree, but he is particularly skilled in earth magic, and his mana shows that. It¡¯s smooth and durable, a steady flow with few waves or fluctuations, it appears like a gentle hill slope, even the color of his mana, currently only visible to the two of us, is a light brown color, invoking the image of loose dirt.

    ¡°Olivia, your magic¡­ it isn¡¯t elemental?¡± He asked, me, this time.

    ¡°No, it isn¡¯t,¡± I answered.

    There are five, broad categories of magic that exist.

    The most common amongst humans is Elemental Magic. There are six elements, Light, Dark, Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind. Nearly all humans have an aptitude for at least one and find themselves particularly skilled in that element. My brother has a strong aptitude for Earth, and a weak aptitude for Water and Wind. He¡¯ isn''t skilled with Fire, but average with Dark and Light.

    The world is flowing with Mana, and nearly all naturally occurring mana is elemental, people absorb the mana from the environment, store it within their cores, and then cast magic using that stored mana. My brother can technically cast a Fire spell just as well as anyone else, but because his core naturally only absorbs a small amount of Fire mana, he lacks the fuel to power the stronger spells.

    Elemental Magic is strong but simple, and while the heights of it require great skill and effort to reach, a small amount of effort will allow one to reach a decent level with it.

    The next most common type is Arcane Magic. Practitioners of Arcane Magic learn to purify the elemental mana of the world, returning it to its base form. From here, the magic can then be converted into whatever element a person needs, or, it can be used to create much more powerful and esoteric spells.

    Arcane Magic requires vastly more effort to learn, and its initial effects are inferior to Elemental Magic, but it can perform feats that Elemental Magic can¡¯t even come close to.

    Despite its difficulty, many low-level Arcane Spells are still very useful, if not powerful, and Arcane Magic is a necessary component in the manufacture of magic tools. The people who made Mr. Zliz, were practitioners of Arcane Magic.

    The next most common type of magic is Divine Magic, this is magic that doesn¡¯t use a person¡¯s individual mana to power spells. A user of Divine Magic uses their mana to call upon a higher power, which then provides the needed mana for the spell. Here, the user¡¯s mana isn¡¯t important, instead, it¡¯s their faith.

    Elemental magic is used by almost half of the population, of the remaining half, about 35-40% use Arcane and Divine, with Arcane edging out Divine by a small margin, although that varies heavily by area. Here, in the Fredirin Kingdom, Arcane wins out, but to the south is the Holy Uvalin Theocracy, where the opposite is true.

    Of the remaining 10%, about 7-8% is Spirit Magic. This magic allows the user to form a bond with various spirits, elemental, or fey beings, that jointly cast spells with the user. For some, this means they have a spiritual familiar that is physically there with them, but other times, it¡¯s a bond with a greater spirit that doesn¡¯t need to be physically there.

    And the final 2-3%, is the broad Other Magic. Other Magic is a catch-all term for anything that doesn¡¯t fit into the other categories. Shamanism, Necromancy, Diabolism, Witchcraft, Hex Magic, Alchemy, Mind Magic, and anything else fill in under Other Magic.

    For the most part, Other Magic tends to not be popular, either because training in it is hard, or because the effects are limited, or, because it¡¯s inherently awful, as is the case in Necromancy and Diabolism. Some Other Magics are rare because they have extreme requirements that almost no one can meet, or because they are inherited.

    For example, Lycanthropy comes in two forms, the well-known infection, and also an inherited form. When people with Lycanthropy have a child, the child almost always has the disease too. If only one parent has it, and it¡¯s the infected form, then the child will almost certainly have that too, but if both parents are infected, there is a chance, a small one, that the child will have the inherited form. The odds increase if either parent has the inherited form, and if both do, then it¡¯s almost guaranteed the child will have that form also.

    For the record, the inherited form is less of a weakness and more of a boon. It doesn¡¯t affect the person¡¯s mental state nearly as much, they don¡¯t spontaneously transform when angered, the moon also doesn¡¯t force a transformation, and the normal weakness to silver is reduced.

    This type of Lycanthropy falls under a type of magic called Bloodline Magic, a magic that is not only inherited from a parent but is an inherent trait of the body. The exact point where magic becomes a Bloodline Magic is a bit fuzzy, but the big difference is that magical effects remain after death. A child of two powerful fire mages might also be a powerful fire mage, and grow up and master their magic to the point where natural fires can¡¯t harm them. However, when this person dies, and the mana core and soul dissipates, that resistance to fire will disappear. On the other hand, a child that inherits the Bloodline of the Phoenix will showcase all of the same traits, a resistance to fire and a mastery over fire magic. But when this person dies, their body will still resist fire.

    Bloodline Magic¡¯s power is based on the bloodline in question, A harpy bloodline will give a slight increase in wind magic, while a Phoenix bloodline will grant a huge increase in fire magic, a massive resistance to fire, a boost to wind magic, and rapid healing, amongst other things.

    But, Bloodline Magic is very rare, one can¡¯t choose to practice it, you either have the bloodline, or you don¡¯t. With the exception of some very, unethical programs, it¡¯s almost impossible to develop a bloodline afterward. As for the Bloodlines themselves, they need to originate with a powerful magical creature, and that creature also needs to be able to produce offspring with humanoids. And such offspring rarely survive.

    ¡°If not elemental, then what is it?¡± Timothy asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s Bloodline Magic,¡± I answered my brother¡¯s question.

    That¡­ That¡¯s impossible, it is, right? That can¡¯t be?¡± My brother mumbled confusedly.

    ¡°No brother, it is possible, I think it¡¯s called¡­ what was it again?¡± Pamela broke into the conversation again.

    ¡°Atavism¡± I provided the word they were looking for.

    Atavism is the regression to a previous form, in this case, one of our distant ancestors must have had a Bloodline, but it had faded away. But, somehow, the weak traces came out in me.

    Of course, that wasn¡¯t the case at all.

    ¡°Yes, Atavism. I''ve heard of that happening before, people somehow end up with a Bloodline Magic when neither parents had one.¡± Pamela nodded as she recalled that information.

    ¡°Atavism¡­ We did learn about that I think. Or, the teacher mentioned it. But isn¡¯t that¡­ a one in a million chance?¡± Timothy turned to Pamela, even as he still held my hand.

    ¡°Hah, one in a million? Probably not even one in ten million. At least not like this, developing Bloodline Magic from scratch. It is normally a person with a weak Bloodline, that later on strengthens it back to its original form.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ maybe we all have this Bloodline? And Olivia just woke it up?¡±

    ¡°Er, maybe? I don¡¯t know, it depends I guess?¡±

    My brother and sister began discussing this in earnest, and my brother kept my hand in his while they did. For my part, I knew both of them were wrong.

    In fact, I had technically lied to them, my mana wasn¡¯t from a Bloodline, at least not technically. The Olivia of a week ago did not have a bloodline at all, it wasn¡¯t hidden within her body just waiting to wake up, no matter what tests she would go under, nothing would come up.

    But, when she grew, when her body got stronger, and her soul strengthened, and when my own soul finished mending, we two would combine. In actuality, Olivia¡¯s soul was just a small portion of mine, when I awoke, I just reabsorbed that small portion. And when I awoke, my soul began reforging Olivia¡¯s body, my body.

    A bloodline is the genetic traces of a magical being, but what my soul was doing to this body, was reforging it into a magical being.

    Well, for all intents and purposes, the effects were identical, it was just a matter of the scale. I was still weak now, in the process of reforging, but already I was stronger than all but the most powerful Bloodlines, when the process would end, I would tower over any mere Bloodline.

    That being said, I would still be far from what I was before, right now, my soul resided within a biological body, the body of the human named Olivia Pine Fredirin, and there was no way to shed that body of flesh, at least as far as I currently know. I would always be tied down by that flesh, whereas before, I was a being whose body and soul was one entity and that lead to a vastly greater level of strength.

    In fact, right now, not only was my organic body limiting my strength, it was an actual weakness, if I used too much magic, the body would be torn apart. And if I obliterated my flesh body, I would most likely die. I might be able to become a spirit, but that would be no better than death.

    ¡°Well Olivia, what kind of Bloodline is it? And what does it do?¡± My brother¡¯s question brought me out of my thoughts.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what type it is, the inherited memories are fuzzy, and only related to some of its abilities. It¡¯s¡­ Probably some kind of Outsider¡­¡± I lied to them.

    Outsiders were beings that didn¡¯t exist on natural worlds. At the low levels they were spirits, elementals, angels, demons, and devils, and at the peak, they were gods.

    The big thing that separated Outsiders from what is commonly known as Mortals, wasn¡¯t where they hailed from, or their strength, but the fact that their bodies and souls were one.

    ¡°An Outsider, I see¡­¡± Timothy said as he appeared lost in thought. My sister too, also looked lost in thought.

    Outsiders generally left the greatest amount of Bloodlines, even when compared to all mortal races combined, the Outsiders still produce more. This is because most Outsiders can shapeshift to some degree, and even if they don¡¯t, because their body is their soul, they can produce offspring with any living being. Somewhere out there, there is probably a tree, maybe even a mushroom, with an incredibly powerful Bloodline that originated from an Outsider.

    ¡°Well, if we knew what kind of Outsider, we could determine¡­ Wait! Olivia, you said you knew what your Bloodline Magic can do already? Quick, Tell us!¡± Pamela nearly shouted, as she too ran over and grabbed my other hand.

    Mr. Zliz now sat limply on my lap as both of my arms were captured by my siblings.

    ¡°It is¡­ blood manipulation.¡± I lied again.

    While this was a lie, technically, it was a small one.

    Bloodline Magic is inherent to the body, and my blood manipulation isn¡¯t an inherent ability, but simply the magic I''m most familiar with.

    Because I was one of the weakest types of my race, I was born with a body similar to a mortal¡¯s, complete with organs, bone, and blood. Manipulating my blood was useful for healing, and keeping me alive when I found myself with more holes than normal, but it also served as a decent surprise attack. On more than one occasion when I was young, I was able to use my magic to devastating effect on something that was in the process of eating me.

    And because I was one of the weakest of my race, if I had actually created a Bloodline based upon myself, all it would do is provide a more sturdy body and a resistance to magic. Granted, if that Bloodline came from me when I was at my peak, and it was a pure Bloodline, it would provide a nearly indestructible body, immune to most physical and magical attacks.

    But still, it would be a boring Bloodline.

    ¡°Err¡­ I am not exactly sure what that is.¡±

    ¡°Nor am I, could you show us, Olivia?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but I need my hands back first,¡± I replied with a smile as I pulled my hands back from my siblings.

    ¡°Ah, sorry.¡± Timothy apologized as he let go.

    ¡°Timothy, you shouldn¡¯t hold a lady¡¯s hand like that.¡± And Pamela let go while reprimanding our brother.

    ¡°Sorry.¡±

    As he apologized again, I looked around the room for a sharp object, but since it was a library, there was a lack of knives and blades. Even our tea set, the snacks that were served were cookies with some kind of nut mixed in, nothing that required a knife.

    I didn¡¯t actually need to cut myself, I could easily make blood come out of any opening, my eyes or mouth for instance. And if I really needed too, I could just make blood explode out of my body by tearing through the skin.

    But¡­ that would make for a very¡­ unpleasant scene, and I didn¡¯t want to come off as too much of a monster.

    Outsiders were a pretty diverse group, and an evenly split group. There were outsiders that were neither good nor evil, but there were also outsiders that were the paragons of good and virtue, and ones that were the embodiment of evil and wickedness. At least, that is how mortals viewed us.

    Since Bloodlines do affect the personality of the wielder, having a Bloodline from an evil Outsider could be an issue.

    And Flesh Magic, what blood manipulation falls under, itself was already something that was similar to necromancy.

    So lacking a sharp object, and not wanting to use the other options, I did the best thing I could, I downed the last of my tea, and then made a sharp object.

    With a crunch, the fine porcelain teacup was shattered between my two hands, shards of it stabbed into my palms and sliced my fingers. There was a tiny amount of tea left in the cup, but the liquid that fell onto my lap, staining the sofa and covering Mr. Zliz was almost entirely my blood.

    ¡°Olivia!¡±

    ¡°What are you doing!?¡±

    My sister dropped her own cup and it shattered upon the floor, and my brother whipped out a handkerchief from his coat pocket and rushed towards my hands.

    ¡°Pamela, go call for-¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine Brother.¡± I interrupted.

    ¡°What¡¯s fine! You! What did¡­ you¡­ do¡­?¡± He trailed off shocked.

    My sister too, who was moving towards the door in a hurry, froze when she looked back at us.

    The blood that had splashed and dripped down onto my pajamas and the sofa, along with my stuffed animal, had peeled itself away and floated up into the air. The pieces of shattered porcelain, caked with blood, also came up, drug into the air by the blood that coated it. Besides those shards, nothing else retained any trace of my blood.

    Before me sibling''s eyes, the sharp parts still stuck in my hands slowly wiggled and slipped out of the wounds, they too joined the other bits along with the blood to float in front of me. Once they were all out of my hands, the blood flow from my wounds stopped abruptly, the gashes and cuts quickly mended themselves, and the blood on my hands withdrew into the wounds right before they closed fully.

    The blood in the air condensed into one fist-sized ball, and then the shards from the cup all flew into that ball, slipping through the surface without creating a single ripple.

    It took less than five seconds from when I reassured my brother, but nothing in the room was stained any longer, and the only blood was the orb floating in front of me.

    I motioned with my finger, and the orb of blood swiftly and surely moved and hovered over the saucer that was paired with my cup, after a moment, a white powder fell from the bottom of the orb, the completely dry powder was the ground up shards from my cup. The orb then shot back towards me, and I caught it in my hand as if it was a thrown ball, and in a way, it was, since, during that trip, it had frozen solid and was now hard as a rock. I then tossed it onto the floor, where it hit with a soft clunk, and then rolled and came to a stop next to one of the bookshelves.

    Both of my siblings never took their eyes off of it.

    ¡°That, is Blood Manipulation,¡± I stated.

 Chapter 6: Family Talk, A Talk of Retaliation.

    Tuesday, February 17th, N.E. 807, 22:41

    Pine Family 3rd Library, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    I couldn¡¯t very well have a maid brew Tesk tea in front of my siblings, that would require explanations, ones that I didn¡¯t think would be conducive to the conversation I wanted to have right now, so when the maid came back in to replace my missing cup, I had to make do with normal tea.

    Frankly, I wasn¡¯t enjoying it, no amount of sugar, milk, lemon, orange, chocolate, or anything else made it palatable to me. It was warm, which counted for something, and provided the only real enjoyment I got out of it.

    After giving me a new cup and saucer, the maid had left with the old plate and the white powder that was all that remained of my former cup. She also took the ball of my blood. When I originally made it, it was simply frozen, but if I left it like that, once I stopped supplying it with mana, it would slowly reach room temperature and melt. So using my mana, I allowed it to warm naturally, but at the same time, I crystallized the blood itself. Now, it was something similar to amber, and I intentionally dulled the outer surface of it, so that it would look like a faintly brownish red stone. I also made it brittle, it would crack and break easily, but it would also disintegrate if exposed to water. It would end up in the trash, broken into dust, and then washed away.

    I didn¡¯t want to leave it as is, and I didn¡¯t want to reclaim it in front of my siblings, so this would have to do. Still, it would be best to make sure the maid knows it¡¯s poisonous, I didn¡¯t want to accidentally kill one of our family¡¯s servants.

    But, just like with the Tesk tea, right now, I didn¡¯t want to explain to my brother and sister that my blood was also highly toxic, and also corrosive come to think of it.

    Already, they were barraging me with questions in regards to my magic and bloodline, and I was giving them non-committal responses. As their questions seemed to be puttering out, I figured now was the best time to start on the real topic.

    ¡°Brother, Sister,¡± I began. ¡°Let us leave my magic aside, for now, there is something more important that I wish to speak about.¡±

    ¡°Ah, that is right, you did say there were two things,¡± Timothy exclaimed, having suddenly remembered that fact.

    ¡°But¡­ If your magic awakening, and it being a Bloodline, is not the most important thing¡­¡± Pamela said mostly to herself.

    ¡°First, I would like to confirm some things?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, go ahead.¡±

    ¡°Then, first, Momm-Mother¡­ had no intention of becoming the next queen?¡±

    ¡°Um, yes, that is correct,¡± Timothy answered, looking bewildered.

    ¡°Then, since traditionally, the losing siblings, would¡­ let us say, meet a sorry ending, our Pine Family is taking steps to avoid that.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Absolutely¡±

    Both of them spoke firmly, seemingly trying to reassure me of our fate.

    ¡°Those steps, generally speaking, are to build good relations with each of the other five contenders, along with the twenty-one electors who will pick the next ruler, and the other nobility. But the goal is to also do this without making anyone upset?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­ yes, that is right.¡±

    ¡°Furthermore, the plan is to also increase the value of the Pine Family, so that the next king sees a reason to keep us around. Specifically, our focus is expanding our naval operations in the North West, since it¡¯s only our family that has that capacity.¡±

    Both my siblings nodded in agreement without saying anything.

    ¡°Is there anything else that either of you know about?¡±

    Both then shook their heads to indicate there was nothing to add.

    ¡°Then, we could also say that this approach is, for the most part, not working?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Well¡­¡±

    ¡°It is hard to say¡­¡±

    Both of them weren¡¯t sure what to say to that.

    ¡°Maybe not our aunts and uncles, but our cousins clearly see us as a threat, my recent experience shows that. Most likely, our good relations and competent approach are viewed as a threat, because we have a very firm foundation, if we did decide to make an attempt at winning the competition, we would have a good chance. In fact, as far as the others know, we might already be doing all of that.¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Well, you are not wrong.¡± Timothy agreed begrudgingly.

    ¡°The problem is that our intentions are not being conveyed, either they do not know, or they do not trust us.¡±

    ¡°Well, if we just keep up with what we are doing¡­¡± Pamela started to rebut me, but even as she said the words, she knew they weren¡¯t true.

    ¡°This time, I almost died. I suspect you two had similar situations, our elder brother Jason has probably seen even more than us. And soon it will be Peter.¡±

    ¡°Olivia¡­ What are you trying to say?¡± Timothy¡¯s voice was stern as he asked.

    I didn¡¯t answer right away, I took my time taking another sip of my tea, a tea that had begun to go cold.

    ¡°We should¡­ begin to take part in this competition ourselves.¡± I said slowly as I put my cup down.

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Olivia¡­ what exactly does that mean?¡± Pamela asked me.

    ¡°We cannot keep ourselves limited only to defense. If we do, we will be overwhelmed.¡±

    ¡°...I do not know about this¡­¡±

    ¡°Are you joking Olivia? And you, Pamela, what are you thinking? Entertaining this nonsense? If we¡­ If we do anything, it will throw out all of the work our parents have done! What you are saying, is irreversible!¡± Timothy was flustered as he rejected my words.

    ¡°Brother¡­¡± I sighed to myself, Timothy seemed to be very against this.

    ¡°Absolutely not Olivia.¡±

    ¡°We have no choice,¡± I said with exasperation. ¡°We¡¯re being surrounded on all sides, slowly whittled down. Our grandfather, King Wilson Fredirin, is 65, but his health is good and he is still very active in the Kingdom, he will not vacate the throne anytime soon. Currently, many of us are still too young to take an active role in the competition, but in a few years, that will change, and the attacks on us will only increase.¡±

    ¡°And we will be prepared for it. Look, Olivia, I know you just went through a frightening experience, but we will make sure that does not happen again.¡±

    ¡°Little Sister, Brother is right, we will double the guards, we will not let that happen again.¡±

    Again, both of my siblings tried to reassure me, but I just shook my head.

    ¡°A perfect defense doesn¡¯t exist, you know this Brother. You can defend and wait for a chance, you can defend and wait for the enemy to tire, and you can defend and wait for an ally to strike, but you cannot just defend indefinitely. One lapse, one mistake, one unlucky occurrence, and the worst could come to pass.¡±

    Neither my brother or sister said anything, both sported thoughtful looks, but they were both clearly not happy with the turn this conversation had taken.

    ¡°And there is nothing easier than attacking a target that doesn¡¯t fight back. Brother, who has ever lost a fight with a training dummy?¡± I asked rhetorically.

    ¡°Olivia, it is not that I¡­ Look, I know we cannot defend forever, but we cannot hit back. Besides the fact that mother and father would not want us to, even if we did, it would only draw more attention to us.¡±

    ¡°Timothy is right, only a few of our cousins have turned their sight to us, and if we start making moves ourselves, then those that currently are ignoring us, will stop and take note.¡± Pamela followed up.

    ¡°You¡¯re both wrong.¡± I shook my head again. ¡°You are right, that only a few are moving against us now, but the others are not avoiding us out of good will, but because they are too busy dealing with each other.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Timothy thought to himself for a second before continuing. ¡°You are saying, that even if we step onto the stage, they would still be too busy.¡±

    ¡°Close, Brother, but not entirely. Each of our cousins have their own feuds and fights, most of our enemies are focused on those, only the dregs are currently aiming at us. As long as we do not announce our intention to fight back, they will all assume that our attacks are being carried out by their current rivals.¡±

    ¡°Ah! I get it now!¡± Pamela exclaimed. ¡°If we move fast and low key, we can make significant gains before they even realize it is us.¡±

    ¡°Correct,¡± I replied.

    ¡°But still¡­ I do not know if we should go through with this.¡± Pamela had calmed down now.

    ¡°Brother, Sister, we cannot just sit idle any longer. Attempts on our lives come from the shadows, we are isolated and bullied at school, our business within the Kingdom get extorted, suffer bandit attacks, and are crushed by their competitors. We are slowly being killed. We need to stop it.¡± I said resolutely.

    ¡°...Olivia¡­ let us¡­ let us just say, we agree with you, what do you have in mind?¡± my brother was clearly hesitating, but this was a good first step.

    ¡°To start with, we cannot allow ourselves to keep losing, without at least making the other side pay first. We make loans and invest in businesses, and they often either disappear with our gold, or they are crushed and forced into bankruptcy, we might not be able to stop this now, but we need to make the other side suffer some form of punitive action. To be honest, I do not know a lot about this topic, so you two will need to take over for that.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, well, my understanding is that we just left these things pass previously, but even if we cannot win, we could still drag it out in the courts. We could also¡­ probably bribe various officials¡­ yes, actually, there is a lot we could do, but we avoided doing so for fear of offending others,¡± Pamela began planning out some ideas as she sat there.

    ¡°We also need to consider, later on, of course, some more overt methods. Damaging goods, or spreading rumors, that sort of thing.¡± I added.

    ¡°Olivia, that we cannot do, we cannot do anything illegal.¡± My brother clearly rejected that idea.

    ¡°If the other side is not abiding by the rules, it is foolish for us to do the same. I am sure several of our stores have had stock disappear, or suffered unexplained vandalism, right?¡± I watched as Timothy grudgingly nodded in the affirmative before continuing. ¡°This is not a duel, with rules and codes of conduct, it is a fight for our lives. You understand that, right?¡±

    ¡°...¡± Timothy had a sour look his face, but he didn¡¯t disagree.

    ¡°We need to also expand our business and the like, again, I will need to rely on you two for that. In addition, we need to form a faction for ourselves, we cannot just sit alone in school any longer. The next time someone disrespects us and bullies us in school, they should be sent to the infirmary.¡±

    Timothy looked as if he were about to say something, but as he saw Pamela absentmindedly bring her hand up and rub the area around her covered eye, he stopped.

    ¡°That is all I want the both of you to handle, you are not striking back, merely defending yourselves, think of it that way.¡±

    ¡°And you Olivia, what will you be doing?¡± Timothy asked.

    Before I answered, I finished my cup of cold tea and watched my siblings.

    Pamela seemed to agree with me, even the prior version of me knew that while my sister hid it, the injury to her eye that had nearly ruined her vision had bothered her. There was no scar, but her sight was fuzzy, and it interfered when she attempted to paint, all she could do was wear an eyepatch and give up on using that eye entirely.

    As for my brother, I knew he was still hesitating. He could barely bring himself to agree with what we had already spoken about, but if I went further right now, he would blanche and resist.

    ¡°I will¡­ take care of the other things for now. Our cousins need to be kept off balance and distracted so they can¡¯t focus on us.¡± I said slowly.

    ¡°Olivia¡­¡± Timothy¡¯s face went through a myriad of expressions before settling on one of concern. Concern for what, I wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°How will you do that?¡±

    ¡°To be honest, before I left the Citadel of the Pines, I borrowed a squadron of Spectres, so I will have all the tools I need at my disposal. Don¡¯t worry brother, I will not do anything extreme¡± I assured him.

    First surprise, then resignation, showed upon my brother¡¯s face, but he didn¡¯t say anything else.

    ¡°Now then, I think we should turn in for the night, it will soon be midnight, and you two have school. I will rest tomorrow, the trip tired me, but I will go with you on Thursday.¡±

    We slowly said our good nights, and then the three of us left the library and returned to our rooms.

    I felt sorry for my siblings, they needed to wake up early for school, and even if they could get a good night¡¯s rest now, something that was unlikely after that conversation, they would still be short about two hours.

    Luckily, I needed far less sleep than a normal human, so I wouldn¡¯t suffer the exhaustion they would.

    And¡­ I suspected school tomorrow would be very exciting.

 Chapter 7: Michael Canyon Fredirin.

    Tuesday, February 17th, N.E. 807, 23:02

    Michael¡¯s carriage, 5th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Michael Canyon Fredirin.

    For the most part, during the cold winter months, there were few major balls and galas held within the Fredirin Kingdom. Major events would require travel, and considering that most the Fredirin Kingdom occupied high altitudes, the cold would already be a great deterrent for said travel, and if it snowed, even more so.

    However, there were still plenty of small events that took place, the world did not just come to a halt due to a few months of cold. In fact, if one was well connected, then there would be an invite to a party practically every night, and this Tuesday night was no different.

    The Fischer Family¡¯s youngest son had turned ten today, so they had hosted a party in celebration. The head of the Fischer Family was merely a baron, and the family was not an old one with a long history, but they still hosted a decent sized party that ran from late afternoon until nearly midnight. The guest of honor had already retired for the night and at this point, the party was only for the adults who would continue drinking and making merry, the youth who were invited had either already left, or were on their way out now.

    In fact, a carriage was in the process of leaving right this moment.

    Early, when the birthday boy was still awake, he would have seen the carriages off, but now, it was the job of his siblings. One of his older brothers would walk the guests out to where their carriage waited, wish them a safe journey, and then return.

    However, right now, both of his brothers, his sister, and his father and mother were all seeing this guest off.

    This carriage was significantly more ornate than any of the other carriages that had left tonight, and unlike the others who normally had one guard who doubled as a coachman, this one was guarded by a group of heavily armored knights, sixteen of them. Each knight sat atop a large warhorse that was also heavily armored.

    ¡°Young Master, thank you for gracing my son¡¯s birthday with your presence today.¡± The head of the Fischer family, Baron Martin Fischer, said humbly as he bowed his head towards the young man who was walking towards his carriage.

    The man was young, not even twenty, but he held himself with pride and self-confidence, so much so that he looked older than he really was. He was tall, even for an adult, reaching nearly six feet. His face still had traces of his youthful innocence, but it was a face that already would make the hearts of women beat faster, even the Fischer Family¡¯s daughter looked away shyly. He had silky soft brown hair, crystal clear blue eyes, and he wore a white outfit decorated with golden buckles inlaid with small and tasteful rubies. To protect him against the night chill, he had a black cloak wrapped around his shoulders that at a glance looked plain, but that was incomparably expensive, it was, after all, a high-grade magic item.

    ¡°No, don¡¯t worry about it Baron Fischer, Larry is my good friend, and his brother is my brother.¡± the young man, Michael Canyon Fredirin reassured the man as he patted his shoulder. ¡°Still, it is late, and I do have school tomorrow. Larry, you do too, so don¡¯t be late.¡±

    Michael Canyon Fredirin winked at his friend, smiled at their sister, who turned even redder, and then alighted into his carriage. He waved out from the window as they set off, heading down the dark streets of the Royal Capital.

    ¡°Wooo¡­ I am tired¡­¡± Michael said as he removed the cloak from his shoulders, the interior of the carriage was heated magically, so it served no purpose now.

    As the carriage steadily proceeded along, Michael took this time to relax a bit, he had woken up early, at dawn, to finish his assignments for school, he had then rushed to school to avoid being late, spent the day in various lectures, returned home only long enough to get changed, and then had headed out. As a member of the Canyon Family, there was a few business within the capital that he was nominally in charge of, that he needed to check in on occasionally. Normally he would do this on a Sunday, but he had been too busy this recent Sunday, and it was likewise the same yesterday. In fact, he was still so busy that he was only able to check in with half of the business under his care, and while there was nothing major wrong, they still voiced various complaints. If there was a silver lining, it was that he had nothing to do other than listening to them, their problems didn¡¯t require any real follow up because they weren¡¯t real problems. And then after he did his rounds, he had headed straight to this party.

    He had only slept for about four hours last night, and tonight looked like it would be the same. It would take about thirty minutes to return to the Canyon Estate, he would need to spend some time working on his school assignments before he went to bed, and he would probably need to wake up early again to finish them. Tomorrow too, would be busy, after school he had accepted an invitation from the daughter of the Silver-Bow Family to go see a play, and since he was a director at one of the major orphanages in the city, he needed to go there and take care of some work. Not to mention, he needed to finish his inspection of the businesses under his care.

    ¡°Gah¡­ I just want to rest for a day. Why do so many people need me for things?¡± He sighed in exasperation.

    ¡°Young Master is an important and powerful person.¡± Was the response he got.

    The carriage he was in was sealed well, it wasn¡¯t exactly soundproofed, but unless he yelled, his voice would only be a muffled mess, and considering that the wheels and the horses pulling it made noise too, it was impossible that anyone outside could have heard what he said.

    Thus it could be concluded, that there was another person in the carriage with him, and in fact, there was.

    In the far corner was a thin woman, appearing to be in her mid-twenties, she had black hair and gray eyes that looked, well, dull. The simple maid outfit she wore, a black top and skirt with a white apron, and a brown coat on top, made her look even more inconsequential. She was very easy to overlook, but Michael had known she was there from the beginning.

    She was called Shannon, Daughter of Jerry, as a commoner she lacked a true family name. And she held a rather unique position as Michael¡¯s executive maid.

    Servants, maids included, had various ranks. They weren¡¯t hard and fast guidelines, but at the lowest, there was the apprentices and trainees, and then above them were the full-fledged servants. After working for a few years at the same place, a servant would become a senior servant. And then all of these servants would fall under the command of a head servant, usually a head maid or a butler. For low ranking nobility and merchant families, senior servants would generally be the highest ranking servants they would have, but for the upper nobility, they would often split the servant jobs into sections, there would be chefs and other kitchen hands, gardeners and landscapers, cleaning crews, and maintenance workers and handymen. With clearly defined roles like this, there would be department heads that would then report to the main head. And for the largest families, there would often be deputy department heads that would share the responsibility with the true head.

    Shannon however, was an executive maid, a rank that didn¡¯t match up with the normal rankings. In fact, the position of executive maid was something that Michael had invented, and as far as he knew, Shannon was the only person who held it in the world. Shannon was a mix of a senior maid, responsible for assisting Michael throughout his day, and a secretary. She not only kept track of his schedule, but she also acted as his liaison to many people he dealt with.

    Her commoner background did create some hassles when he had hired her nearly two years ago, but her competence, along with his insistence, had silenced most of the naysayers. In reality, there would always be detractors, and Shannon would need to get used to that for their future.

    ¡°I wish I wasn¡¯t.¡± Was the answer he finally gave.

    ¡°Yes I know that young master, but as you know, wishes are worthless.¡±

    ¡°I wonder who said such heartless words.¡±

    ¡°As if the young master doesn¡¯t know.¡± She said dryly.

    ¡°Yes yes, it must have been some heartless bastard. Oh, that is right, it was me, wasn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°It is good that the young master remembers his words.¡±

    ¡°Haha,¡± Michael laughed, some of the stress leaving his body.

    Shannon did not laugh, but he could recognize a slight glimmer within her eyes that indicated she was enjoying herself.

    ¡°Young master.¡± Shannon waited until he had stopped laughing to speak up. ¡°I have taken the liberty to change the return route, we will be going through Toris Park.¡±

    ¡°Er? Why?¡± Michael asked surprised at the seemingly pointless detour.

    ¡°This path will take fifteen minutes longer, but it will be a smoother ride, and there will be less noise.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Since the young master can only sit and wait during the ride, I thought it would be best if the young master could rest for the duration of the trip, after all, there is still much work to do tonight.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Michael mumbled as he thought about her idea.

    It wasn¡¯t too late to change the route back to the original so he could get home faster, which would allow him to jump straight into his school assignments, the sooner those were done, the sooner he could get some proper sleep.

    That said, a difference of fifteen minutes would make little difference, and his work assignments will be easier to complete after some rest.

    If there was a problem, it was that napping on a moving carriage was not exactly easy. Even with Shannon¡¯s attention to detail with diverting to a more peaceful route, it was debatable if he¡¯d be able to fall asleep.

    Suddenly though, he had a thought, a fun thought.

    ¡°It would be nice to get some shut-eye while I can, I¡¯m not sure if I could sleep in the carriage¡­¡± Michael steeled his face as he said that, he couldn¡¯t let her pick up anything being amiss.

    ¡°I see then, I will tell the driver to take the original path.¡± She responded with no sign that she was upset that her goodwill had been rejected.

    ¡°Sorry to bother you¡­¡±

    Shannon stood from the bench she was resting on and moved towards the door to the carriage, she would need to at least open it a crack and relay the message to one of the knights, who would then pass it on to the driver. There was a window that could be opened to allow them to directly talk to the driver, but that window was large, and in the front of the carriage, opening it would allow cold air to flood in. The door would be a much better option, and while she would have to cross in front of Michael to get to it, the interior was spacious enough that she wouldn¡¯t need to bother him.

    That being said, maneuvering about on a moving carriage did require a certain amount of finesse, and it could be said that Shannon had more than enough ability to do so, but even then, when the young man, still seated, launched his arm out, the ever capable executive maid was caught off guard. Before she could even utter a surprised cry, the hand on her wrist has pulled her towards the seat. Even as she tried to regain her balance, a second arm had wrapped around her waist. Gently, she was seated down on the same bench as the young master of the Canyon Family.

    ¡°I changed my mind, a nap sounds good,¡± Michael said with a smile to his maid, who only showed a slightly annoyed look on her face. ¡°And I think you could probably use some rest too.¡±

    ¡°Haaa¡­ Young Master, I do wish you would have just asked.¡± She sighed as she spoke in a flat tone.

    ¡°Well Shannon, if I had asked, you would have said no.¡± He replied while still keeping her wrapped with one arm and grabbing his discarded coat with the other.

    ¡°If you know that, why do you still act?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ Good question?¡± He said as he made the cloak into a makeshift blanket and wrapped it around them. ¡°Comfy?¡±

    ¡°... no, there is no pillow¡­¡±

    ¡°You will have to make do with my shoulder,¡± He repositioned himself a bit to make it more comfortable. Shannon was still wrapped in his arm, but he had begun to lean into the corner and pulled her along with him so she was partially leaning on his chest since she was shorter than him, her head rested perfectly on his shoulder.

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Well? Is this better?¡± He asked when she didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Haa¡­ You know Young Master, I sigh a lot more when I am around you.¡± She said, but she still stifled a yawn.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Shannon, I know your work is exhausting.¡±

    ¡°No, I know that you work much harder than me. I wish I could do more¡­¡±

    ¡°You do plenty. Just being here, is enough.¡± He said sincerely.

    For a while, neither spoke and the only sound was the creaking of the carriage wheels and the steps of the surrounding warhorses.

    ¡°Shannon, are you still awake?¡± He asked lightly.

    ¡°Hmm¡­? What¡­ is it¡­ Young¡­ Master¡­?¡± her voice was low and drowsy, her eyes were already fluttering.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Mmm¡­¡±

    <hr>

    Tuesday, February 17th, N.E. 807, 23:51

    Canyon Estate 1st floor hallway, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Michael Canyon Fredirin.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Michael Canyon Fredirin was a young man, mature for his age, that shouldered an incredible amount of responsibility, and he lived up to those responsibilities. With his behavior and looks combined, no one would think he was only a young adult of fourteen years.

    However, in some places and some ways, he was still a boy at heart. When in private, he could be surprisingly childish, and like most boys, he had a fondness for teasing the girl he liked.

    ¡°It¡¯s cold. So very, very, very, cold.¡± He said with a deadpan tone.

    It had been less than five minutes since they had arrived at the Canyon Estate within the royal capital, a utilitarian series of buildings made of a simple gray brick. It had also been less than five minutes since the two had woken up.

    ¡°Well, it is winter, but still, it is so cold.¡±

    Michael slept surprisingly well, and his mood had improved considerably. That was, however, only to be expected, Michael had received a warrior¡¯s training, and one aspect of that included the ability to fall asleep quickly, and in inconvenient circumstances, and also to stay asleep. Michael slept like a log, he would normally sprawl out to some extent and then remain almost entirely motionless as he slept.

    ¡°Really, it is cold.¡±

    Shannon for her part, was still being trained to be a bodyguard, and a guard¡¯s sleep was different, she needed to be able to sleep efficiently, but also to be able to wake up immediately when any sounds were made. Of course, her training had only been going on for a little under two years, and all of her maid duties were also lumped into that training, so she was still far from that ideal.

    ¡°I might even come down with an illness from this chilliness.¡±

    And unlike Michael who''s sleeping posture which appeared as if he was a corpse, Shannon was the type that curled up into a ball when she slept, a fact that Michael found rather cute. Shannon had few personal possessions, and rarely splurged with her salary, but the one thing she had bought for herself, was a large bed that dominated her room, a room that was already a bit larger than what a senior servant would have. Her bed was a mass of blankets and pillows, appearing as less of a bed, and more like a nest for some animal to hibernate in. Even curled up as she slept, she often latched onto her pillows and wrapped around them.

    ¡°If only I had a cloak¡­¡±

    As they walked throughout the Canyon Estate, Michael was lacking his black cloak, it had been handed off to a servant to be laundered.

    ¡°At the very least, if only I wasn¡¯t¡­ damp¡­¡± Michael couldn¡¯t help but smirk as he said that, he knew Shannon couldn¡¯t see him, but he also knew that she could tell he was smiling from the tone of his voice.

    And as he mentioned, not only was he missing his cloak, but there was a conspicuous damp spot on his left shoulder.

    ¡°......¡±

    Shannon probably wanted to say something, but she was smart enough to know that nothing she said would convince Michael to give up his taunts.

    ¡°I do wonder how this happened though.¡±

    Shannon, true to form, had curled up in Michael¡¯s embrace as she fell asleep, she cuddled into his chest, latching onto him, and onto his cloak. In fact, while she had slept, the edge of the cloak had ended up in her mouth, where she had seemingly chewed on it.

    When the two had awoken, not only was the cloak ruffled and wet, but she had drooled onto his shoulder, leaving a decently sized wet splotch.

    ¡°So¡­ Sooooo...Cooooold!!¡± He wailed dramatically.

    ¡°Young.... Master¡­ please¡­¡± Shannon whimpered.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Michael thought to himself for a second. ¡°Shannon, you¡¯re good at math right? How about you do my math assignment, and I will never speak of this again?¡±

    Without even looking at her, Michael knew she was torn about her decision. On one hand, she adamantly refused to do his assignments or to allow others to do it for him, after all, it was his assignment. But on the other, she knew he would torment her for days for this, and worse, she couldn¡¯t even get annoyed and claim he was overreacting, even now, his shoulder was still damp.

    ¡°Shannon, it is just the math assignment, and you know I am capable of doing it myself, it will just take up my time.¡±

    This was true, Michael didn¡¯t particularly enjoy math, but because of his position in the Canyon Family, he was proficient in it despite his dislike. What the school was teaching was material he had already learned.

    And while he did feel bad about taking up Shannon¡¯s time, he knew that she was already overbooked, her maid training was days, if not weeks, behind. If she didn¡¯t do the math assignment, she would instead be completing more of that training, and frankly, she was vastly more valuable to him as a secretary than as a mere maid.

    And furthermore, he didn¡¯t like her completing any more of that training. A fundamental aspect of training as a maid was being humble and obeying anything the master said, Michael did not want Shannon as a subordinate, but as a partner. So if she skipped that, then all the better.

    ¡°Fine, I will do your math assignment. But! Just this once.¡± She finally caved in and agreed to his demands.

    ¡°Good, then we shall never speak of this again.¡± He said solemnly, but then added, ¡°At least for now¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Well, I am sure this will be a fun story when we are older.¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 1:06

    Michael''s Bedroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Michael Canyon Fredirin.

    ¡°Hooo¡­ Finally.¡± Michael let out a breath of air and leaned back in the padded chair in front of his desk.

    They had arrived back at the estate a bit before midnight, and it had been nearly two hours since then, and he was just finishing his assignments.

    However, this was actually better than what he had been planning on.

    The nap in the carriage had left him feeling refreshed, allowing him to go further tonight before turning in, and with Shannon taking care of the math, the part that would have taken him the longest, he was able to sit down and muscle through the assignments, getting them all done tonight. The original plan was to get as much done now, and then wake up early tomorrow and finish it. Now, while he did stay up a bit longer than he intended, he would still manage to get at least six hours of sleep tonight.

    ¡°Young Master, good work.¡± Shannon had left her spot, wrapped up in blankets on the sofa, and had brought him a mug of warm goat milk that she had already prepared.

    ¡°Thank you, and I should be saying the same to you too.¡±

    ¡°Mmmm¡± She nodded and then went back to her pile of blankets.

    ¡°Will you¡­ sleep here tonight?¡± He gently asked.

    ¡°No, I am still in my uniform, I need to go back and get changed.¡±

    ¡°You do know, I keep several sets of your night clothes here.¡±

    ¡°... Young Master, it isn¡¯t appropriate for me to sleep on your sofa, I don¡¯t want any more rumors to spread.¡±

    ¡°First of all, who said anything about the sofa? As long as you promise not to drool¡­¡±

    ¡°Young Master, we had a deal.¡±

    ¡°You are right. My apologies. Still, the offer stands. And as for the rumors, who cares?¡±

    ¡°I do, and you should too. I do not want to be a weakness for you.¡±

    ¡°Shannon, no matter what weakness and vulnerabilities you bring me, it will all be worth it. I can one hundred percent guarantee it¡±

    ¡°Still, it isn¡¯t appropriate for an unmarried couple to spend the night in the same room.¡±

    ¡°So if we get married?¡±

    ¡°Stop joking!¡± Shannon said harshly.

    ¡°... You know I am not joking.¡±

    ¡°The Young Master is someone who will go to great places and do great things, and you will have a splendid wife in the future.¡±

    ¡°You are right, at least about that last part, I think you overestimate me for the first half. And my splendid wife will be you.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I wish you wouldn¡¯t say that. I know I am not suitable, no matter what you might say, and what I might want, I am not suitable to be your wife.¡±

    ¡°Shannon, one day, I will either make my Father the next king, and then I will withdraw from the competition myself, or, if I don¡¯t think Father can win, I will give up at that time. Regardless, with no expectations, I will be able to marry whoever I want.¡±

    ¡°The Young Master should not speak like that.¡±

    ¡°Hahaha,¡± Michael laughed. ¡°You have no idea how much I hate this. Or, I guess you do? I do complain about it all the time after all. Nothing would make me happier to give up on this madness. The stress, the work, the distrust of my cousins, even my siblings. We may all be working together now, but if we win, and Father becomes the next king, then my brothers and sisters will need to compete, our children will go through the same thing we are going through now. Even if Father were to win, I would not wish this on my children.¡±

    Following Michael¡¯s slight outburst, there was a moment of silence.

    ¡°Young Master, I know this is hard on you, and¡­ despite what¡­ what¡­ I¡­¡± Shannon shook her head and then stood up. ¡°I will take my leave. Good night Young¡­ Good night Michael.¡±

    She sent him a slight bow, before she exited the room, leaving the young man to sit there in thought until fatigue overtook him and he headed over to his bed and fell into it. He still wore his outfit from the day, and the shoulder had long since dried, but he still drifted off to sleep with a smile as he remembered the carriage ride home.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 2:33

    Canyon Estate 8th break room, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    ????????.

    Where the Pine Estate was a sprawling compound infused with the feeling of nature, the Canyon Estate was a bland, unfeeling structure with a few annexes nearby. The main structure was little more than a three-story rectangle, the windows were old-fashioned, gated, and covered with shutters. The halls were stone with reinforced wood floors, most of which were covered with wool rugs. The Canyon Family seemingly eschewed the more common fur rugs used in the Fredirin Kingdom, opting for the wool creations that their territory is known for. And because the one building took up the majority of the estate, that building had several waiting rooms and break rooms that were almost exclusively used by the servants.

    Most visitors to the Canyon Family Estate find it difficult to get comfortable and describe the building as a modified fort, and they wouldn¡¯t be wrong.

    In one break room used by the servants, in the center of the building on the third floor, there was a large table surrounded by several cushioned chairs and couches, and upon these pieces of furniture, were various pillows.

    Since it was currently a few hours before dawn, the room was vacant, the last servants that used it had left hours ago, while Michael was still at Baron Fischer¡¯s party.

    But now, at the deepest part of the night, something stirred in this room.

    On a nondescript chair near the wall, a pillow began to wiggle, seemingly under its own power. After a few seconds of squirming, there was a sudden snap, and then suddenly, a blackened blade was thrust through the pillow from the inside. Tearing sounds followed, and after a few more seconds, silence had returned.

    But from the torn pillow, the form of a sheep, one covered with burnt and mottled fur, emerged.

    The sheep''s form didn¡¯t allow it to stand upright like a human, but it could still hunch over and walk on two of its legs. And in fact, this was necessary, since the sheep held in one of its front hooves a sharp black dagger that was about six inches long. The blade was flat, thin, and straight, but it was also incredibly sharp.

    Strangely enough, the sheep also had a belt strapped diagonally across its body, and on the belt were various pouches and an empty sheath that formerly held the knife.

    The sheep looked around a bit, taking in the room, before nimbly jumping down from the chair to the floor. While the jump itself was nimble, the landing was not, it stumbled and fell, the knife even slid out of its front hoof and clattered across the floor. Without a moment¡¯s hesitation, the sheep reclaimed the dagger and then promptly slid under another one of the chairs.

    The sheep waited for five minutes, and when no one came to investigate, it slowly crawled back out, now covered in dust. From one of the pouches, the sheep pulled out a small length of thin silken rope, it barely reached four feet long, and at one end was a hook covered in cloth.

    Like an expert, the sheep swung the hook to build up some momentum, before letting it loose, sending the hook back up onto the chair where the torn pillow was. It only took two tries to hook the pillow and pull it down to the floor towards the sheep.

    With the pillow still hooked, the sheep turned and went towards the only door in the room, all the while dragging the pillow behind it. Once at the door, the hook was extracted from the pillow, and again, the sheep expertly threw the hook, this time towards the doorknob. If the knob had been a handle or latch, the hook would have been sufficient to allow access, but since it was a knob that needed to be turned, the sheep had to perform an extra step. It placed its dagger back into the sheath, double checked that the rope was secure, and then placed its leg upon the door, and then kicked off the ground, and like a mountain climber scaled the door.

    When it reached the knob, it was able to turn it, but, the door opened inward to the room, and the knob was too far from the edge of the door for the sheep to push off of the wall. If there was a piece of furniture nearby, the sheep could throw its hook, latch onto that, and then pull the door, but sadly, nothing within four feet would work.

    Instead, the sheep withdrew from another pouch, a piece of woven reeds. It was only a square about two inches by two inches, and it was also thin, but despite being thin, it was stiff and sturdy. The sheep turned the knob, and then rammed the woven reeds into the gap between door and wall. It was just barely able to reach, but the reeds prevented the latch from moving back into position when the sheep released the knob. Finally, the sheep undid the hook, and then jumped back to the ground, it stumbled again, but, didn¡¯t fall this time.

    And finally, on the ground, the sheep replaced the hook and rope and withdrew a very small crowbar, maybe only six inches in length. It was thin enough that it slid under the door, and grabbed onto the far side. The sheep simply pulled it, and the door swung open. The woven reeds did fall out, but since they were simply reeds, they made nearly no sound as they fell.

    The sheep listened a bit to make sure no one was walking down the hallway, and when it heard nothing, I poked its head out. Seeing no one, the sheep again grabbed the torn pillow and moved with a surprisingly level of speed into the hall. Before shooting down the hall away from the room, it used the crowbar to pull the door shut, quietly.

    It took the sheep only ten seconds to traverse the twenty feet from the break room to the first intersection. It would have been faster, but it paused at each door and listened for a moment, and after hearing nothing moving, it would continue on.

    It paused at the intersection, checking for any servants or guards, and then turned right and continued on at a fast pace.

    Twenty seconds later, it came to a stair landing. It was a large space, a bit larger than the break room from before, but worryingly, it opened directly into the stairwell, allowing anyone who came up the stairs to immediately see anything and everything taking place in the landing.

    The sheep listened at the entrance to the landing, and again near the stairwell, and when it heard nothing, it scampered under the few decorate pieces of furniture here towards its current goal, the fireplace directly adjacent to the stairwell.

    Without hesitation, the sheep plowed right into the fireplace, knocking some the burning embers and coal about. It even drug the pillow in with it, which started to smolder a bit at the edges.

    Ideally, the fireplace would have had a real fire, instead of just the embers left behind, which would have ignited the pillow immediately. But, the sheep was prepared for this, and reached into another pouch, and withdrew a small flask of liquid. Popping the cap, the sheep poured the contents, a mixture of oil and alcohol, onto the pillow. Within seconds, the fuel ignited, and the flames began eating through the pillow.

    The sheep, seeing that the flames were stronger, and more importantly, brighter, than it had expected, quickly grabbed the pillow and shoved it down into the glowing embers. Partially buried, the flames consuming the pillow were now a lot less noticeable. Even then, the sheep was still concerned and covered the flames with its own body.

    It took nearly five minutes for the pillow to be reduced to something that was mostly indistinguishable to the surrounding coals, and besides wasting its time, the sheep was none the worse for wear.

    With that done, the sheep turned towards its true goal in entering the fireplace, the small shaft in the back.

    The Canyon estate had air vents built into the stone walls, they lead to several openings in halls and rooms, which allowed heat to spread through the building. They also gave a route for smoke from the fireplaces to escape to, greatly increasing the quality of life for anyone within the building.

    The vents had several access points to allow servants to clean them. This was needed because the vents were far too small for a human, even a child, to enter, they were only six inches wide and about four inches high.Not relying only on the small size, several metal grates blocked the vents, and while they did open up into some less important rooms when they connected to an important room, they did so only through an existing fireplace. So even if someone with nefarious intentions could overcome the small size and the grates, they would still exit into a fireplace. This was an effective method of stopping assassins from using snakes, bugs, or even poison gas to hunt their targets.

    However, for the sheep, the flames meant nothing, it¡¯s body was impervious to flames of this scale. And when the sheep reached the grate, it simply placed its front hooves against it, and then bent the bars until there was an opening wide enough for the sheep to slip through. It did bend them back, and while the finished product wouldn¡¯t look wrong at a glance, it wouldn¡¯t stand up to any real level of scrutiny. But none of that mattered to the sheep, it would be long gone before any investigation even began.

    The sheep didn¡¯t know where any of the access points were, nor did it know what the rooms that the vent went into were for. It didn¡¯t have a map, and as it turned out, the vents were a veritable maze. It knew where it needed to go, the southeastern corner on the first floor. And while it had no map, it would never get lost, it was just a matter of time until it found its goal.

    Some thirty minutes later, a dirty and soot-covered sheep finally found its target. It bent the bars just like it had countless times already, and then entered into another fireplace that was filled with lightly glowing embers.

    From within fireplace, the sheep surveyed the room. There were shelves on the far wall, three doors at various locations led to other rooms and the hallway, but since they were all closed, the sheep didn¡¯t know which was which. There was a desk near the shelves, a small sitting area consisting of a table and two chairs, a sofa with a bundle of blankets piled upon it. There was a suit of shiny scale mail on a mannequin, and there were several weapons, swords, spears, and bows, on the wall near it. And near the fireplace, was a large and simple canopy bed with cloth sheets, likely wool, covering it.

    And, there was a person sleeping in the bed.

    The sheep exited the fireplace, and carefully headed to the foot of the bed. Once there, it took out the hook attached to the rope, and then took out a second, identical one, and then it removed the cloth wrapped around the hooks. It threw the first one up towards the bed, specifically at the thin cloth that made up the canopy. It took one try for the hook to pierce into the canopy, and once it was sure that it was sturdy, the sheep climbed up the rope. Afraid to even lightly shake the bed, the sheep didn¡¯t use its lower legs, and only pulled itself up with its front legs, one hoof over the other. When it reached the hook, it used the second one to reach further up the canopy, and then having disconnected the first, it climbed higher.

    Eventually, the sheep reached the top, the wooden frame that the canopy was affixed to. Now here, it replaced the hooks after it put the cloth back on them, and then it pulled two longer pieces of rope. Like the ones connected to the hooks, this silk-like material was sturdy but thin, and these ropes were closer to twelve feet instead of the former¡¯s four.

    The sheep tied one end around the wood where it stood, and then it circled around the frame to the other side where it tied the other end of the rope down. Now, there was a cord of the thin rope spanning the center of the bed.

    The sheep shimmied across the rope until it was also in the center of the bed too, and then it looped one end of the second rope around the connecting first rope and then wrapped the remainder around its torso. It then slowly descended towards the bed by unwrapping the coiled second rope.

    The sheep had long since confirmed that the person within the bed was Michael Canyon Fredirin, its target, so it didn¡¯t hesitate any only stopped its descent when it was a few inches above the sleeping man.

    If the sheep were a living, breathing, human, the man would have likely detected it at this distance, but the sheep was not alive, and as long as it remained motionless, it produced zero sounds. It did, however, smell of burning coal, and that would sooner or later alert the sleeping person.

    The sheep withdrew both the black dagger and also a small think flask. It dipped the dagger into the flask, and when it came out, it was coated in a black viscous liquid that was almost darker than the blade itself.

    Finally, the sheep took one last look at the man, double checking to make sure he was, in fact, asleep, and checking to make sure he didn¡¯t have any form of hidden armor or magical items on.

    And unfortunately, while the sheep couldn¡¯t detect any magic, the target was wearing a normal set of clothing, he seemingly had fallen asleep still in his daywear, and there was no way for the sheep to tell if there was a mundane armor plate hidden within it.

    As long as the armor wasn¡¯t Mithril, Orichalcum, Adamantine, or some other legendary metal, the sheep could probably break through it with brute force, but there was both a risk that the blade would break, and that the impact would make noise.

    Giving up on a strike to the heart the sheep considered its options. The neck was an option, but it would be messy, and it might not be instantly fatal. The only other real option was through the eye and into the brain, which would be instantly fatal, assuming the small and thin knife could reach far enough and hit something important enough.

    There was actually another option, one that despite its downsides, the sheep was considering. A direct strike to the forehead to punch through the skull and go directly into the brain. Even if the stab wasn¡¯t fatal, the impact would inflict injury, and the bone fragments from the shattered skull would cause further damage.

    The only downside would be that such a method would leave a trace of the killer, punching through a skull would require quite a bit of power and strength, which would be somewhat revealing.

    But, since no one would suspect the murderer to be a stuffed animal, the sheep considered it fine.

    Finally, the sheep extracted another tool from its pouches, an eight-inch long wand decorated with silver and electrum, a grade four soul extractor.

    With both tools, the wand and dagger, the sheep aimed its strike, and once it was confident, it dropped from its rope directly into Michael Canyon Fredirin¡¯s chest.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 6:58

    Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    The first of the sun¡¯s rays were cresting the horizon, bringing daylight to the royal capital.

    From the Seventh Circle where a bloody and soot-covered stuffed sheep was slipping into a seemingly abandoned warehouse, to the northeastern side of the Third Circle where Pamela and Timothy Pine Fredirin were just waking up,to the southern edge of the Third Circle where a woman was shrieking in despair after finding her master murdered in bed, the sun illuminated all.

    Night had ended and a new day had begun.

 Chapter 8: A Scenic Carriage Ride in the Morning.

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 8:13

    Olivia¡¯s Bedroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    My brother and sister had already been prepared to go to school well before dawn, and now that it was almost half an hour past that time, they had already boarded a carriage together and departed to school. For my part, I had pretended to still be asleep and had skipped the family breakfast, I hadn¡¯t even seen them off.

    In fact, it was only a few minutes ago that I had finished bringing Gimmy back to the warehouse Captain Nev had rented for me. Controlling a puppet like that, was a very exacting type of magic, as long as I maintained the connection with my blood, I could manipulate it at will, but it required a majority of my attention. I could leave it idle, as I did when it was within the pillow, but to actually make use of it, I had to focus entirely on it, it was not a golem or other type of magical construct that could take action on its own.

    In the past, I was rather skilled in manipulating puppets like that, for a time, it had been a game of sorts between my contemporaries, to have mock fights and battles with puppets. But like all fads, it had fallen to the side, and it had been an incredibly long time since I did it last. Besides those stumbles when I was learning how to walk with the sheep¡¯s hooves, I think I did a pretty good job. Afterall, Michael never even noticed, even as the knife¡¯s tip was crashing through his skull.

    Still, while I did accomplish what I wanted, having Gimmy navigate its way through the capital to the warehouse was significantly harder than I expected, and took longer than I wanted. Now, I was behind schedule.

    ¡°Ava, come in here please,¡± I called out towards the maid who was waiting in the hallway for me to wake up.

    ¡°Pardon me, My Lady,¡± Ava spoke as she entered the door, and having closed it behind her, she dropped to a quick, but flawless, curtsy.

    Ava looked as if she was in her mid-thirties, she had the earliest hint of wrinkles around her eyes, and her rusty red colored hair was just beginning to fade. But, she had a quarter of elven blood within her, and while she had nowhere near the lifespan of even half-elves, she would still live at least another hundred years.

    ¡°Ava, have a carriage prepared, I wish to go to Varsin¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°Yes My Lady. Do you want to leave before lunch, or after?¡± She asked.

    ¡°No, I want to leave as soon as possible.¡±

    ¡°...Will My Lady take breakfast before you depart?¡±

    ¡°No, have something prepared and I will eat during the trip.¡±

    ¡°Understood My Lady, I will go see to the preparations. I will have someone come in and help you dress.¡±

    ¡°No need, I will be fine. And, use one of the basic carriages, no need for an extravagant one to be used.¡± I added.

    ¡°Yes¡­ I understand. The preparations will be complete within a quarter of an hour.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± I nodded as Ava curtsied again before she retreated from the room.

    Today would be busy.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 8:30

    Pine Family Courtyard, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Fifteen minutes later, I was wearing a heavy white and gray overcoat that wrapped around my neck and came down to below my knees, and was about to enter the carriage, but, there was a problem.

    ¡°My Lady, I can not allow this.¡± The problem stated.

    While I had told Ava to prepare a basic carriage, I had not told her I would not need an escort, as such, a team of knights had been prepared to guard me as I went. Rejecting the escort should have been easy, but, my remaining Guardian Knight had adamantly refused.

    ¡°Carla, It is just a small trip, I do not need an escort.¡±

    ¡°No. I am in charge of My Lady¡¯s safety, I can not allow you to leave like this.¡± Carla, my Guardian Knight, rebutted me.

    Guardian Knights are knights that focus entirely on protecting their liege, unlike a normal knight, a Guardian Knight will almost never act independently from their master. As a woman, my Guardian Knights would likewise, be women, all so that they could follow me anywhere I went. Originally, I had two such knights, Carla, who was an expert swordsman, and Bethany, who while not as skilled as Carla, handled the setup of my security detail. Technically speaking, the recent mishap my carriage had suffered would have been a failure on Bethany¡¯s part, the advanced party she sent should have investigated the bridge more thoroughly.

    Granted, there was no telling if they would have discovered anything, sometimes, these things are simply unavoidable, and as such, it would have been unlikely for Bethany to receive any form of reprimand, however, there would have been an unspoken mark on her record, it was even possible she would have been reassigned from my security detail for a while.

    Of course, none of that ever came to be, because when the bridge collapsed and the carriage tumbled into the waters, Bethany had been sitting alongside the driver. The driver, an experienced coachman, had suffered a head wound before he was thrown into the water where he drowned, and Bethany too, had ended up in the icy waters. Unlike the coachman who was knocked out, Bethany¡¯s neck had been twisted and snapped, she had likely died instantly.

    Carla, for her part, had been in the carriage with me and had protected me as we tumbled by wrapping my body up in her embrace. I only received a few light bruises and scrapes, mostly from being smashed into Carla¡¯s breastplate, while the Guardian Knight herself ended up with several cuts and even a fractured arm. I also had three ladies in waiting in the carriage with me, and after getting me out of the water, Carla had gone back to rescue them. Ultimately, she got two of the three out of the sinking carriage in time, but one ended up drowning, and for her efforts, Carla was bedridden for several days and almost died from hypothermia. Even now, she was a bit pale.

    And then, because Guardian Knights required a large amount of training, and because their loyalty needed to be assured, a replacement for Bethany hadn¡¯t been found, Carla was now doing the job by herself.

    ¡°Carla¡­¡± I said with a sigh.

    ¡°No, My Lady. Not after what just happened.¡±

    ¡°...haaah¡­¡± I sighed again, heavier this time.

    Carla, technically, was one of the people who could override my orders within the estate, the other being the steward, Old Man Hart. For Carla, it was limited to situations pertaining to my safety, but that was precisely what this was about. If she wanted to, she could actually bar me from leaving.

    And, she wanted to.

    ¡°Fine, Carla, you may accompany me, but I do not need an escort,¡± I said.

    ¡°My Lady, that is unacceptable.¡±

    ¡°And¡­ Sir Jop.¡± I added.

    ¡°...¡± Carla pursed her mouth and didn¡¯t say anything for a second.

    Anyone with martial skills was given a ranking within the Fredirin Kingdom, and this ranking, for the most part, coincided with the ranking that other countries gave their warriors.

    Rank 0, these are average humans with no training what so ever.

    Rank 1, people who at least knew how to use weapons fell here. Most people fall here since a simple spear isn¡¯t that hard to use, and merely a few hours of practice is sufficient to earn rank 1. Most conscripted forces consist of rank 1¡¯s.

    Rank 2, people with actual training in weapons. People of this rank are generally stronger, tougher, and faster than those of the prior two ranks. The basic soldiers of most standing armies are rank 2, along with most beginner adventurers.

    Rank 3, these are the highly skilled basic soldiers, or those with specialized skills. Novice mages and priests usually start at this rank. Most knights are also rank 3, my brother Timothy is a rank 3 even though he is only a knight in training.

    Rank 4, this is where the truly strong start showing up, people of rank 4 are equal to at least ten or twenty rank 2¡¯s.

    From there, the ranks are a little less clear, they are well beyond what normal people can really understand.

    Guardian Knights are always at least rank 4, but often times going up to rank six. Carla is rank 5, and she¡¯s in the upper levels. Bethany was at the peak of rank 4. My siblings have roughly equal setups, a slightly higher rank that is the main combatant, and a slightly lower rank that handles the planning and command aspects. Our parents use the same system, but they use rank 6 and rank 5 respectively.

    But, outside of the Guardian Knight¡¯s that act as our bodyguards, the Pine Family has many other Rankers that follow us, some are loyal members of the family, others are paid mercenaries.

    Sir Jop is the second son of a baron family under our umbrella, one that is firmly, very firmly, under our umbrella, so there is little risk of betrayal. Sir Jop technically holds the noble rank of a knight, in that our family had knighted him and given him a small territory.

    But, contrary to what one might think of when they visualize a knight, Sir Jop is actually an Elementalist. And not only that, he is an Elementalist of rank 7.

    Our estate here in the capital also has a rank 7 Arcanist, and a rank 7 Druid, these three, along with several rank 6 guards, were the estate¡¯s main military force.

    That being said, a threat that was able to overwhelm the rank 6¡¯s and force the rank 7¡¯s into play, would lead to a battle that would devastate the surroundings. If enough rank 7 existences were to join in battle, the capital might cease to be.

    So in that sense, Sir Jop would be a perfect guard.

    Not only due to his power, but Sir Jop specialized in water magic, which out of the six elements, was the second best at healing. If anything really did happen, then Sir Jop would be able to at least prevent the worst.

    ¡°My Lady, having Sir Jop escort you is¡­¡± Carla said hesitantly.

    ¡°It is fine,¡± I responded.

    Sir Jop was one of the linchpins of the estate¡¯s defenses, but unless he was gone for an extended period of time, there would be no real effect on the estate, the other two could easily hold the fort, and an attack from someone stronger than them was largely impossible.

    As for whether or not he would be willing, to start with, it was only Carla and Old Man Hart that could over-ride me, and I doubted the steward would do so. If I ordered it, Sir Jop would have no choice.

    But, that wouldn¡¯t be necessary, Sir Jop was almost an uncle to us, he even taught Pamela magic occasionally.

    ¡°...Fine,¡± Carla gave up reluctantly, before turning towards one of the servants, ¡°Go pass a message to Sir Jop, My Lady would like to ask him to be her escort.¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 8:41

    Pine Family Courtyard, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    It took another ten minutes for Sir Jop to arrive, putting my plans even further behind schedule.

    Sir Jop was somewhat taciturn when in public, so other than greeting me, he said nothing else and entered the carriage.

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    I watched as Carla finished up the last details, and I was somewhat concerned.

    Both her and Bethany had been somewhat close to the previous me, not exactly friends, but closer than bodyguards would normally be. I did, in my own way, grieve for Bethany, but rather than wallowing in sorrow, finding out who had caused her death, and making them suffer for their transgressions, was a much better way to honor her.

    I had lost Bethany, but Carla was still looking tired. She was slower than normal, pale, and she seemed a bit absentminded. I knew she was just being overwhelmed with the duties that were just pushed on her, but I was still concerned.

    ¡°Carla, With Sir Jop, perhaps you should¡­¡± I started to say.

    ¡°Hmm? What is it, My Lady?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ Nevermind.¡±

    Carla took great pride in her work and her position. I also know, she considered the mishap to be her responsibility just as much as it was Bethany¡¯s. I also knew Bethany was probably one of Carla¡¯s only friends, she had to have been taking her death hard.

    She was clearly focusing on her work to numb her pain, and suggesting that she stay behind and rest would be an insult.

    ¡°Carla, you¡¯ll sit inside of the carriage too,¡± I said and turned and headed towards the carriage.

    At least she could rest somewhat during the trip.

    ¡°My Lady, are you boarding?¡± Sir Jop¡¯s voice, his head looking out the window of the carriage, brought me out of my musings.

    ¡°Yes, Sir Jop.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± He said, and then stood up, leaned out, picked me up, and brought me into the carriage.

    ¡°Thank you, Uncle Job.¡± I smiled.

    ¡°Olivia, you really gave me a fright. You don¡¯t know how worried I was.¡±

    ¡°I am sorry.¡±

    ¡°Well, it isn¡¯t your fault. Still, we need to be careful. We can¡¯t have that happen again, my heart can¡¯t take it.¡± He said solemnly.

    ¡°Do not worry uncle, it won''t happen again.¡±

    ¡°Ha, you rascal, that isn¡¯t for you to decide, protecting you is our job,¡± Uncle Jop smiled reassuringly while he patted my head.

    ¡°...¡±

    How strange, a simple act such as rubbing my hair somehow created a warm feeling in my chest. If I didn''t know he was extremely unskilled with fire magic, I would have thought he was casting a spell on me.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± He slowly withdrew his hand and looked at me oddly for a bit.

    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked, but I had a good guess.

    ¡°Eh, I guess it is nothing,¡± he said while shaking his head.

    Before we could continue, Carla effortlessly pulled herself into the carriage and stood in the doorway.

    ¡°Well, we are all ready to go, just to confirm, we are just going to Varsin¡¯s Home of Plush?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but tell the driver to take the Old Stone Bridge Route,¡± I said without much thought.

    ¡°Uh, yes.¡± Carla then leaned back out the door and conversed with the driver.

    But, not before I spotted a dark expression cloud her face, much like the one that had appeared on Uncle Jop¡¯s. They both probably thought I was intentionally taking the path with the more durable stone bridge.

    I was, but not for the reasons they thought.

    Well, they would understand soon.

    Finally, Carla pulled herself back in, and this time shut the door, then she looked at the two open seats somewhat hesitantly.

    This carriage was a basic four-seater, two benches each faced each other, and each was large enough to allow two people to sit side by side. Me and Uncle Jop were sitting across from each other, so the two remaining open spots were next to both of us.

    Normally, both Bethany and Carla would have sat on the same bench, in fact, it would be strange for a servant, even a Guardian Knight, to share a bench with their master.

    But, Carla was a rank 5 warrior, and Uncle Jop was a rank 7 Elementalist, not only was he two ranks above her, but he was also a mage, which automatically increased his prestige. And there was his nobility ranking on top of that too. Sitting next to him would be somewhat odd, and to make matters worse, Uncle Jop wasn¡¯t that familiar with Carla, so he stoic facade was back up.

    Even if she wanted to go with whichever seat had more space, my overcoat added some extra mass to myself, and Uncle Jop was thin, short, and just generally lanky. In fact, he looked like any average person off of the streets.

    ¡°Carla, take a seat,¡± I said as I patted the bench next to me. I knew if I didn¡¯t say anything, she probably would have stood, hunched over, in the rocking carriage.

    Carla was just a bit taller than normal for a woman, but otherwise, had an average physique, at least looking from the outside. She wore a cloak, and under that was thin Mithril armor, even though you could hardly tell she was wearing it, it had defense almost comparable to full plate armor made of steel. Even the seemingly simple gloves she wore had a Mithril mesh within them.

    Under that armor, Carla had a finely honed body that was pure muscle without a speck of fat, she did, after all, spend several hours a day training with her sword.

    While her muscles didn¡¯t show, and while she wasn¡¯t that tall, standing in the carriage would have been awful, so with only a moment of hesitation, she sat down beside me.

    While we sat in silence, the carriage slowly headed towards the gate that allowed entry and exit to the estate. A few words were said between the coachman and the gate guards, and then the gate rattled open and we were truly on our way.

    We were two minutes away from the estate when I spoke up.

    ¡°Uncle, I have a favor to ask.¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Uncle Jop raised an eyebrow at me, and Carla just looked a bit confused.

    Without saying anything, I reached into my coat and withdrew a stuffed animal.

    It was a fish, a trout to be exact. Its body was covered in little, felt, patches that looked like scales, the main body was gray, but the belly was red. In almost every way, it was simply a trout, but, it had a monocle over one eye, and its lips were big, puffy, and bright pink.

    I handed it to Uncle Jop who looked even more confused that Carla had been.

    ¡°The monocle¡¯s frame has been torn,¡± I pointed out the damage to the stuffed animal as he looked over it.

    The monocle had no lensin the first place, a glass lens would be somewhat dangerous on a toy that was designed to be cuddled with. Even the frame was made of a soft material that mostly held its shape when left alone, but that could be squished and squashed as one pleased. Now, however, part of the frame had been cut, as if someone slashed it with a knife.

    ¡°This is¡­ Fish Lips¡­¡± I trailed off as I deeply regret my past naming sense. ¡°He was a present, but he came from Varsin¡¯s Home of Plush, so they should be able to repair him.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­ Okay¡­?¡±

    ¡°So when we get there, just take him in and hand him off to get fixed. And tell him I had stayed in the carriage because I had gotten a chill.¡±

    ¡°My Lady, you won''t be going in?¡± It was Carla who answered.

    ¡°No.¡±

    Varsin¡¯s Home of Plush was one of the major stores for selling stuffed animals. Varsin Himself had died before I was born, but his son had taken his name and his business and expanded it. Varsin¡¯s made both pre-made stuffed animals, and also custom orders, he had a large showroom with many of his works of art there, and unlike the person who made Mr. Zlizvnikchlex, Varsin was normal. His stuffed animals were bears, dogs, cats, fish, birds, and things like that, not butterfly tentacle abominations.

    All that being said, Varsin¡¯s Home of Plush was one of my favorite places, Carla and Bethany had accompanied me here many times, so the fact that I wasn¡¯t going in, came as a surprise to her.

    ¡°Carla, when will Bethany¡­ when will you get a new partner?¡± I asked as gently as I could.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Carla still frowned. ¡°There are no females skilled enough in the capital right now that we can use, so we will need to wait until we hear back from either the Mistress or the Master. In the meantime, however, a temporary replacement will be filling in. But, I don¡¯t know who that will be.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I see.¡±

    ¡°Beth, she handled all of the behind the scenes work, and I regret to inform you, but I am somewhat struggling to take up her duties. When last I talked with Steward Hart and Commander Tale, my understanding is they¡¯ll give me a military officer to assist with the management so I can focus more on actually guarding you like I did in the past, and they will also give me someone who is strong enough to act as a guard, even without training as a Guardian Knight.¡±

    ¡°Oh? who will that be?¡± I asked, interested in who the guard would end up as.

    ¡°Probably Abby. She¡¯s loyal, and she¡¯s a rank 6, even if on the lower end. The fact that she is so strong should make up for the fact that she is¡­ well¡­ basically a berserker. I''ll focus more on protecting you then.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡±

    I didn¡¯t know all of the important people in the estate, in fact, I hardly knew any of them. Old Man Hart was the steward, and I knew my own servants and guards, and Uncle Jop who was close to all of us, but that was it. As for Abby, I had no idea who she was.

    ¡°So Abby will be temporary then?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes, absolutely. She is strong, but not suited to be a guard. And, she is too valuable to do this kind of work,¡± Carla responded.

    ¡°In that case, I will tell you two now, but I would like you to keep this as a secret for now. Of course, Timothy and Pamela know, but I want it to just be you four.¡± I said after a pause.

    ¡°My Lady?¡± Carla asked while Uncle Jop just raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°When I was recovering at the Citadel of the Pines, I unlocked my Mana Core.¡±

    ¡°Wha?¡±

    ¡°Wha?¡±

    Two identical sounds came out, one from a female knight, and the other from a middle-aged Elementalist.

    Before, when I had shown off my magic, I had manipulated blood as a demonstration. That could be called an inherent type of magic, much like a dragon¡¯s elemental breath, or a basilisk¡¯s petrifying gaze. Just because I used that didn¡¯t mean I couldn¡¯t use other types of magic. As an outsider, unless we had a natural affinity to an element, we usually just used mana in its raw form, this was something largely different from any of the known types of magic that humans use. If anything, it comes closest to the type of magic that spirits grant to their contracted Spiritualist.

    So while I couldn¡¯t cast a spell in the way Uncle Jop could, I was able to diffuse mana into the surroundings and create a pressure aura.

    Pressure auras weren¡¯t really spells, just like arm strength wasn¡¯t really a fighting technique, but it could be used to overpower a much weaker opponent. And technically, anyone who could use mana could create a pressure aura, even Carla could probably make a weak one, it was just that mages, who are better able to control and use mana, can make stronger ones, and do it with ease.

    That being said, a pressure aura served no real purpose other than to flaunt your strength and oppress those who are weaker than you, so it was largely a useless skill. It did have some purpose, however.

    So without a word, my mana flooded out, dense, heavy, cloying, it spread around the carriage instantly. It wasn¡¯t enough to actually suppress any of the people in the carriage, although having caught them off guard, I probably could have if I had wanted too, but it was sufficient to let them know that I had immense mana at my beck and call.

    Generally speaking, mages are better able to resist pressure aura when they know to prepare, because they too can manipulate the mana around them. When caught unaware, mages tend to crumble. On the other hand, warriors and other fighters, tend to be able to resist it somewhat just based off of the durability of their bodies.

    While I didn¡¯t output enough to actually suppress them, even as I surprised them with it, it was Carla who seemed to have suffered the most, even now, after I retracted it, she was still lightly panting and trembling, whereas, Uncle Jop was just sitting there.

    Carla wasn¡¯t simply a warrior, she was a knight, specifically, a Guardian Knight, a person who devotes everything to protect another from all threats, including assassination. She is extremely sensitive to bloodthirst due to that.

    For my part, unlike humans who have trained and learned to use mana as a tool, mana has always been a part of me, just like a hand, ear, foot, or eye. Mana is not a tool to me, but a weapon, much as a beast¡¯s claws and fangs are. I have, since long ago, learned to use my mana in different ways, but at its heart, my mana is a weapon that I attack with. Even when I use it for something else, it is still, fundamentally, something I cultivated to hunt others with. At its very basic, my mana is overflowing with bloodthirst.

    A normal warrior would have been shaken since those who fight hand to hand are more sensitive to bloodthirst, it was just worse for Carla.

    And as for Uncle Jop, he probably suspected what I was going to do, after all, he had picked me up earlier and even patted my head, coming into direct contact with my body, he surely felt the stirrings of the mana that I wasn¡¯t trying to hide.

    ¡°Knight Carla! Slow breaths. Easy¡­¡± Uncle Jop¡¯s yell startled Carla, but then helped her calm down.

    It was a task I couldn¡¯t do, as the source of her agitation, anything I did would have made it worse.

    ¡°Haaaa.... I have shown you something disgraceful,¡° a now calm, but still breathing heavily, Carla said.

    ¡°No, I was wrong to do that, My apologies,¡±

    ¡°Leaving Knight Carla aside for the moment, what was that Olivia? That wasn¡¯t Elemental Magic, nor Arcane Magic.¡± Uncle Jop sat up straight as he asked me this.

    ¡°It is Bloodline Magic, I don¡¯t know the source, and the inherited memories are still unclear,¡± I answered his first question, and what would have been his second.

    ¡°I see, well, it is certainly powerful, but we will need to be on guard when all of your memories awaken.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°So Olivia, I imagine there was some greater purpose for coming out here and telling us this?¡± Uncle Jop asked with a knowing smile.

    ¡°Yes, in fact, there isn¡¯t much time,¡± I stood up as I spoke and took off the overcoat I had been wearing.

    Underneath it, I was wrapped in dark brown leather armor. Not only my chest, but my arms, sides, back, neck, legs, I even had leather boots on, and within the pockets, I had a pair of leather gloves to go with it.

    The Spectres had acquired this armor from several different stores, each piece bought by a different person. It was not only decently high quality, but it was specialized gear, well beyond a simple leather jerkin. Even though there was no metal involved at all, since several pieces came from powerful magical beasts, the protection value was on par with chain mail. And, it was shaped for a female halfling, so if it had been bought all in one go from one store, the shopkeeper would have certainly remembered who the buyer was, which would leave a trail I did not want found.

    ¡°When we enter the Old Stone Bridge, I will be departing from the carriage.¡±

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Shouted Carla, who was not only still breathing heavily, but was flabbergasted at my armor.

    ¡°...¡± Uncle Jop just frowned in thought.

    ¡°The truth is, when I returned from the Citadel of the Pines, I brought with me a squadron of Spectres. I will be meeting with them.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ That doesn¡¯t make any-¡±

    ¡°Knight Carla!¡± Uncle Jop¡¯s shout stopped her before she went on, but then he just leaned his head back and continued pondering for a few seconds. ¡°You will be fine, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± He hummed to himself, his eye glancing at the clearly agitated Guardian Knight. ¡°Perhaps a test is in order?¡±

    ¡°A test?¡± I asked, somewhat annoyed. We were only a few minutes away from the bridge.

    ¡°Yes, a test, a simple one too.¡±

    Uncle Jop then raised his hand, and at the tip of his index finger, a small shard of blue ice appeared. It was about four inches long and had a girth that was just a bit smaller than the finger it floated in front of.

    ¡°Olivia, I will shoot this past you at the wall of the carriage, and it will have some force too. Block it, destroy it, do whatever you will, but if it hits the wall, I will not allow you to leave. If you can stop it, then you may do as you wish.¡±

    ¡°Interesting.¡±

    ¡°I will not fire it too fast, since we are pretty close, but it will have enough force to stick into the wood. Now, are you ready?¡±

    ¡°Yes, on three?¡±

    ¡°On three then. Carla, you count.¡±

    ¡°Ah, oh, okay. Then on three.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°One¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Two.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°THREE!¡±

    SLURCH.

    ¡°Eh!?¡±

    ¡°Wha!?¡±

    The shard of ice never reached the wall of the carriage.

    It wasn¡¯t stopped by a magical barrier.

    It wasn¡¯t stopped by either a wall of fire, or of wind, or earth, or water.

    It wasn¡¯t deflected, nor was it redirected.

    It simply impacted into my hand, smashing through my middle finger¡¯s bones. Nearly three inches of the shard was sticking out of the back of my hand, blood was dripping out of the wound, skin and parts of bone were left hanging, but the shard had been stopped.

    As my two fellow passengers stared dumbfounded, my blood covered the ice, and then slowly drew it into my hand. After only a few seconds, the ice was gone, and after a few more, the wound had closed, the bits of bone reformed and set itself, the muscles mended themselves, and the skin repaired itself.

    Not even ten seconds since I had caught the spell, my hand showed no trace of anything having happened.

    ¡°I pass?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Um, yes. You¡¯ve passed.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± I reached into my pocket and withdrew the two gloves and then inserted my hands. ¡°We are at Old Stone Bridge, once we enter it I will slip out, no need to stop the carriage. I need to ask you two to come back out later on tonight, say, about an hour after sunset.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sure thing Olivia, I will be here.¡± Uncle Jop said.

    ¡°Thank you, then I will be off.¡±

    I slid the door open and then slipped out of the carriage. I nimbly jumped, grabbing onto the edge of the carriage¡¯s roof, and then flipped myself up onto it. I landed like a cat, barely leaving a single bump to echo within.

    Old Stone Bridge was a bridge that was both old, and made of dull marble. It cut one of the rivers at a diagonal, so it was longer than it needed to be. It was also, a covered bridge. Because the center sunk in a bit, and because there was no drainage built into it, any water from rain or snow would pool on it, become a nasty mess. Long ago, the first simple awning was built over it, and after that rotted and collapsed, another was built, until finally, someone just constructed an entire fortified structure around it out of high-quality lumber. If the bridge wasn¡¯t so thin that two carriages had a difficult time going by at once, Old Stone Bridge would have been one of the most scenic and traveled bridges in the capital.

    Of course, none of that mattered to me. What did, was that within the bridge¡¯s coverings, I was hidden from any prying eyes.

    As my carriage passed under one of the wooden beams that held the roof up, I nimbly leapt up and grabbed onto that. The interior of the bridge was dark, and up here, no one could see me.

    The odds were about even that someone was following my carriage, as unimportant as I was, spies might still keep an eye on me just in case. And while unlikely, the happenings at the Canyon Estate may have gotten out already, which would change the whole dynamic.

    So I hid up here, even going so far as to bite my tongue so that I could use that blood to make a barrier around myself. Now, my faint heartbeat would be blocked, I would release no scent, and after I cooled the blood down to the same temperature as the wood, I couldn¡¯t even be sensed through my body heat.

    Five minutes later, an uncovered wagon entered the bridge from the opposite direction. In its back was simple trade goods, dried food, rope, tools, the like. The driver, keeping the old and battered horse in check, wore a brown cloak with the hood pulled tight. There was an unlit lantern hooked to the side, and next to the driver was a small bag of apples.

    When it passed under me, I dropped down from the rafters, gracefully landing on the seat as if I was already there.

    The driver was startled, but only for a moment.

    ¡°Good Morning Captain Nev.¡± I greeted.

    ¡°Good Morning My Lady.¡±

    ¡°We have a busy day today.¡±

 Chapter 9: Dojo Raid.

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 8:58

    In front of the Raging Chimera School, 6th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Is this the place?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes My Lady, this is the Raging Chimera School.¡±

    ¡°... What a name¡­ Oh well. Oh, by the way, who is your Lady?¡±

    ¡°Ah, my apologies.¡±

    ¡°Hah, less formal.¡±

    ¡°Right, uh, I am sor-¡±

    ¡°Less. Formal.¡±

    ¡°My bad?¡±

    ¡°Better.¡±

    I didn¡¯t look at Captain Nev, he was wearing the same mask from when I had interrogated that servant from the Iron-Hammers, so even if I had looked, I wouldn¡¯t have seen anything. But, I could tell, he was struggling with the latest batch of orders I had given him.

    ¡°Now then, Larry,¡± I used the fake name I had recently given him, ¡°This school, what can I expect?¡±

    ¡°Yes My La- er, yeah¡­ Cat¡­¡± Captain Nev barely managed to get my fake name out, the same one I used when meeting with the thieves guild. ¡°The Raging Chimera School is a subsidy school belonging to the Canyon Family. Specifically, their patron is Gwyneth Canyon Fredirin, the seventh child of the Canyon Family.¡±

    We had taken our simple wagon throughout the Capital and eventually made our way here, to the Sixth Circle, where this school was.

    The next ruler of the Fredirin Kingdom would be the head of one of the six ducal houses, Zachary Gold-field, Patrick Canyon, Henry Lakeside, Isabella Pine, Analise Quarry, and Jason Steam-Burst. But, the next ruler would not be decided based off of their accomplishments, but off of their children¡¯s. Those six, when they were children, competed with their cousins to allow their father to become the next king, and now, their children will compete to see who¡¯s parent will be the next ruler.

    With the exception of our Pine Family that is taking an unorthodox route, the families send their children out to earn merits and accomplishments. They can be personal ones, such as becoming a high ranking warrior or mage, become incredibly learned and knowledgeable, or even simply accruing fame. They can also be military accomplishments, business accomplishments, civil and administrative, political, or even simply by having powerful subordinates.

    The children go out and try to better the kingdom and themselves to the best of their ability. And one way they can do that is by creating powerful warriors that serve under them. Simply the act of creating powerful warriors will earn them merits, but if those powerful warriors then go on to do great things under their flag, that would be even better.

    To do this, the children fund and support various guilds, adventurer groups, mercenary companies, and combat schools.

    The Raging Chimera School in front of us was one such combat school.

    ¡°Like a traditional chimera, this school specializes in three forms, the goat form is for fighting on unstable terrain, the lion form is for powerful frontal attacks, and the snake form focuses on defense and counter attacks.¡±

    An aspiring warrior can join a combat school to learn their particular techniques and forms. They will also receive basic training, but the main draw is their unique skills, as Captain Nev just mentioned, the Raging Chimera School has three separate forms of fighting they can teach, and within those forms, are stances, techniques, breathing methods, and probably other hidden secrets.

    ¡°Elements?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Wind and Earth, about equal as far as we can tell. They don¡¯t use true magic.¡±

    Some schools, low-quality ones, only focus on physical traits, but most schools will incorporate magic in some way. A few schools train actual Magic Warriors, people who can not only use a weapon to fight, but can also cast spells as a mage, but those are somewhat rare. The majority, just fuse the two together. A warrior of at rank 3 or so will begin to use their magic to increase their own power, making their bodies sturdier, their strikes faster and stronger, things like that. Many warriors and knights stick to this method, but not all.

    Some integrate elemental magic into their fighting style, using wind to propel their strikes faster, or encasing their weapon with fire, or making a layer of earth cover their bodies. This school was one that apparently did that.

    ¡°My- Cat, is this wise?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I looked around to make sure no one was listening before I answered. ¡°The Canyon Family is going to go on high alert soon, so we will hit at least two of their schools first, then we will play things by ear.¡±

    ¡°High alert? No, well, that wasn¡¯t what I was asking.¡±

    ¡°I know what you were asking. I chose not to answer that particular question. Larry, all you need to do is follow my orders.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    I jumped down from the wagon and once I landed, I brought my hand to the mask that was on my face. Unlike Captain Nev¡¯s, and the one I had used before, this was made of simple leather straps wrapped around my face, only my eyes were revealed.

    ¡°Sword?¡±

    ¡°This is the best we could find that fit your requests.¡± He said as he handed me the blade I had asked for.

    I removed the sheath, a plain soft leather thing, and looked at the sword. It was falchion, the blade was sharpened only on one side, and the blade itself was thinner towards the hilt and flared out towards the curved tip. The entire length was just under three feet, the blade itself was about two and a half feet long, and the whole thing weighed just over eight pounds. For a falchion, it was not exactly long, but it was pretty heavy due to its somewhat crude design. It wasn¡¯t that sharp, but it was thick and solid since despite being a weapon, it could also double as a hatchet.

    Considering that my sword was around 35 inches long, and that I was only 44 inches tall, it would probably seem as if it was way too big of a sword.

    However, it was very close to what I asked for, so I was rather happy with it.

    ¡°My L-Cat, we got that from a second-hand shop, so I don¡¯t know how durable it is. I personally tested it and it seemed fine, but maybe a better sword would be best?¡±

    I looked at it, and I could see several knicks on the edge, they were mostly sanded down, but they were still there. Even the leather wrapped around the hilt was a bit dirty and frayed.

    ¡°It will be fine.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡±

    ¡°Then, off I go,¡± I said after strapping the sword to my back.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 9:04

    The Raging Chimera School, 6th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Ben, Son of Roka.

    ¡°Haaah¡­¡± I did my best to stifle a yawn.

    When I was still in my twenties I had no problem waking up, but once I hit thirty, each year that passed, I found the mornings to be more and more disagreeable. Luckily for me, I didn¡¯t need to get up that early, nowhere near as early as our live-in apprentices.

    The Raging Chimera School had two branches, the main one here in the Capital, and one in the Canyon Family¡¯s main city, Red Rock City. The one in Red Rock City was smaller, but it had the same basic set up, there would be several live-in apprentices who would wake up well before dawn and prepare the school for the day, mostly some cleaning and meal preparation. Those poor souls have probably been awake for at least two or three hours by now.

    I used to do that back when I was still in training, but the idea of waking up that early, bah, I can¡¯t even consider it now.

    At this time, those apprentices had already finished their chores and were doing basic body strengthening and personal training. They would continue that until just before noon, then they would stop, do the preparatory work for lunch, and then when the cook comes in and finishes the meal, they¡¯ll all have lunch. In the afternoon, the part-time apprentices that do not live within the school come over, and they do joint training or listen to lectures from the trainers.

    In some ways, not all, but in some ways, I envy the apprentices. They still get to see their hard work pay off as their skills grow, but for me, who was technically a master, I rarely saw any improvements, and as old age slowly took over my body, I only saw my skills degrading.

    Since I never reached any great heights and languished as a rank 4 swordsman, I didn¡¯t teach any classes and instead worked as a receptionist, which to be honest, basically meant I sat around all day and did very little of anything.

    Well, I did offer advice and occasionally spar with the trainees, but that was it.

    Since no one would come in this early, perhaps I could go see if that old geezer Gort needs some help with the apprentices.

    ¡°...This¡­ Raging...Chimera... School¡­?¡±

    Right as I thought that, the front door slammed open and I heard a dull and halting voice call out.

    ¡°Eh, who could that be?¡± I said to myself and went to the front.

    Standing there in front of the open door, was what I assumed was a halfling. The halfling was wrapped entirely in dark leather armor, hands, feet, even the face, no skin could be seen. All I could see was a pair of eyes that seemed as if they had no color, only two small pinpricks of black that was the pupils. No, as I looked closer, the iris in each eye was silver. Despite the tightness of the leather, I couldn¡¯t really tell if it was male or female, judging by the body type, I would have guessed a male, but the voice made it sound like a girl.

    And worryingly, the halfling had a decent sized sword strapped to its back, and considering it was a halfling, the sword could be considered huge.

    ¡°Yes, this is the Raging Chimera School, can I help you?¡± I asked while trying to sound polite. The halfling was somewhat rude, and still hadn¡¯t even shut the door, but it was probably a prospecting apprentice.

    ¡°...Heard...Strong...Want...Test¡­¡± The halfling said without moving, or shutting the door.

    Well, of course, we were strong.

    ¡°Yes, well, come on in,¡± I said and motioned to the interior of the school where we had several small offices where I could to the halfling in private.

    ¡°...Yes¡­¡± The halfling said, and then walked in, without shutting the door.

    I frowned, and then after letting the rude halfling go ahead of me, I went and shut the door. Did the halfling not realize how much firewood we needed to heat this place? Eh, it probably didn¡¯t, their kind are often nomads and they don¡¯t usually spend time this far north, they prefer the more temperate grasslands.

    Come to think of it, maybe that leather wasn¡¯t armor, but was to keep the being warm? Well, no matter, I guided the halfling into one of the small meeting rooms, and without even looking around, it plopped into one of the two chairs.

    ¡°Would you like tea?¡± I asked even as I went towards the teapot.

    ¡°...No¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, let me know if you change your mind,¡± I said as I came back empty-handed, I couldn¡¯t very well drink by myself. ¡°I didn¡¯t catch your name, I am-¡±

    ¡°...Name...Cat¡­ Your¡­ Name¡­ Don¡¯t¡­ Care¡­¡±

    Eh¡­. This halfling is really rude.

    ¡°I see¡­ Cat then, why is it that you came to our illustrious school?¡± I said while keeping my annoyance off of my face.

    ¡°...Want¡­ Test¡­ Fight¡­ Strong...Spar¡­¡±

    ¡°You¡­ want to test yourself against us?¡± I said, sharper than I intended.

    Occasionally, these fools come around looking to make a name for themselves by challenging schools, and while most of them end up getting thrown out, bruised and beaten, some of them actually have some skills.

    However, that was pretty rare, and all certified combat schools have an informal agreement to not send their own students to pick fights, so this halfling is almost certainly self-taught.

    ¡°So, an exchange of pointers is it? Well, if I may ask, what is your rank.¡±

    ¡°...Don¡¯t¡­ Know¡­¡±

    Eh¡­ This halfling is an idiot. A rude idiot.

    ¡°Then, I think it is probably best that we don¡¯t go forward with this spar.¡±

    ¡°...Coward¡­?¡± The halfling¡¯s voice didn¡¯t change, but I could see the mockery in its eyes.

    ¡°I see, well if you don¡¯t mind some broken bones,¡± I said viciously.

    ¡°... Cowards¡­ and¡­ Fools¡­ Talk¡­ Strong¡­ Prove¡­ It¡­¡±

    ¡°Almost all of our apprentices that are currently here are Rank 1 and Rank 2, so if you agree to a no magic match, I can let you spar with one of them, and it will be with training swords.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°...Good¡­¡±

    ¡°Follow me,¡± I said and abruptly stood up.

    The halfling, Cat, followed me as I went into the back where we had an indoor training area. A few apprentices were here, but most were in the courtyard doing physical training. Those that were in here all stood and saluted to me.

    ¡°Good morning Assistant Master Ben.¡±

    ¡°Morning, Assistant Master Ben.

    ¡°How are you, Assistant Master?¡±

    ¡°Good day, Assistant Master Ben.¡±

    After dealing with the rude halfling, the respect from the apprentices was a nice change.

    ¡°Call over Mek and Orth, we have a challenger,¡± I said and motioned towards the halfling that had followed me without a word.

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± The apprentices shouted and then after throwing hostile looks at the halfling, went searching for their fellow trainees.

    I took this time to explain how this would work to the halfling, after all, it seemed really dumb.

    ¡°So Cat, the match will take place in one of our training rooms, I called over two apprentices because our school has different styles, so you can pick which one you want to fight. Since I see you don¡¯t have a training sword, one will be provided. The fight goes until one side surrenders, is forced out of the agreed-upon bounds, or is knocked down three times. Also, when you get knocked down, you have five seconds to get up, otherwise you lose, and you may not attack when either person is on the ground. I will observe and act as a judge.¡±

    ¡°...Talk¡­ Too¡­ Much¡­¡±

    I ground my teeth together to stop from shouting at the wretched thing. If it doesn¡¯t want to know the rules, then so be it.

    ¡°Assistant Master Ben, I heard you called for us?¡± A voice called out to me and distracted me from mentally cursing at the halfling.

    In the front was Mek, he was wearing the simple cotton garb we used as training uniforms, but it was damp with sweat. The upper part was open and his well-defined chest could be seen. Mek Specialized in the Goat Style of our school, he was thin and lanky, but still muscular. He was also a rank 3 fighter.

    Behind Mek was Orth, his top was missing completely and he was still dripping with water, he even had a towel wrapped around his neck. Unlike Mek, Orth was all muscle, he was a bit shorter, but he was wider and weighed almost twice as much as the thin Mek. Orth, like Mek, was a rank 3 fighter, but he focused on the Lion Style.

    This is Cat,¡± I said as I waved towards the halfling, ¡°Cat is looking for an exchange of pointers.

    I had told the halfling that almost all of the apprentices were rank 1 or 2, I didn¡¯t say all, and it was its fault for not asking for more information.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ I see.¡± Mek said, his eyes looking over the halfling disdainfully.

    ¡°Cat, Mek here uses the Goat Style, while Orth is a practitioner of the Lion Style. They are pretty different and-¡±

    ¡°...Don¡¯t¡­ Care¡­ Fight¡­ Both¡­¡± The halfling said without even looking at the two of them.

    ¡°Yes¡­ Well¡­¡± I started while trying to keep my anger in. ¡°The Goat Style focuses on fighting on unstable terrain, so to showcase that, Mek will need to fight in a special room, so you-¡±

    ¡°...Don¡¯t¡­ Care¡­ Noisy¡­¡±

    ¡°Hahaha, Don¡¯t worry Assistant Master Ben, I will be happy to exchange pointers with this fellow first,¡± Mek said, even while laughing, I could tell he was just as angry as I was.

    ¡°That settles it then, Mek, head to the room, I''ll get Cat a training sword and we¡¯ll be right over,¡± I said to Mek and watched as he left to follow my directions, then I turned to Orth. ¡°And Orth, if Cat still wants another match, you can have a go then too.

    ¡°Sure¡­¡± Was his response.

    Orth was an orphan, and due to his rough childhood, he didn¡¯t talk much, but I knew he was extremely devoted to the school, he was probably angrier than Mek and myself combined.

    ¡°Now Cat, come over here and try some of the practice swords.¡±

    Oh yes, we will show this brat the harshness of the world.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 9:19

    The Raging Chimera School, 6th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    This turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.

    From what Captain Nev had mentioned, challenging a school was frowned upon, and most schools wouldn¡¯t go along with a challenge. As far as we could tell, the only real way to reliably get them to go along with it, was to insult their honor. If you threatened to tell others that they refused to fight out of fear, most of them would accept the challenge.

    I had decided to do that, but also to act as rude and obnoxious as possible, if I could get them enraged, that would make things easier.

    And it had worked splendidly, I had been here for less than ten minutes, and already I was swinging this practice sword to get a feel for it.

    Now, all I had to do was crush them.

    Easy enough.

    ¡°Cat, are the swords suitable?¡± The receptionist asked, a boring look man in his fifties.

    The practice sword in question was simply a stick with cloth wrapped around the bottom. There was no hilt, which seemed questionable for a practice weapon, and the tip was rounded. In the past, it had been polished so it was smooth, but it was currently scuffed up and was clearly well used.

    Still, the balance was fine and it was certainly a serviceable weapon.

    ¡°...Fine¡­¡± I spoke in my halting voice that I adopted for this. I, after all, didn¡¯t want anyone to know that I was the one performing this challenge.

    ¡°Then follow me to the training room.¡±

    I followed the old man into a room that was rather unique. It was smaller than the other one, twenty feet by twenty feet, but the center was not wooden flooring or stone tile, but loose dirt. There were pebbles mixed in, even a few sections that looked like it was sand, and there were two pools of water, one surrounded by mud, and the other in the sandy part. There were stumps positioned around, larger stones were individually placed while there were also piles in a few areas. Some sections of both the dirt and the sand were pits, and others made little mounds.

    ¡°How is it?¡± A voice asked.

    This was not the receptionist, but a much older man who was already in the room. My opponent, Mek I think it was, was doing some light stretches in the center while this elderly man watched. He didn¡¯t turn and face me, but he still spoke.

    ¡°The Goat Style is all about moving around on rough terrain, here, indoors, we limit it to some stones and stumps, but we have other training grounds outside that are-¡±

    ¡°... Don¡¯t¡­ Care¡­¡± I cut him off.

    ¡°HAHA, it¡¯s just as Mek here said. You have an attitude problem. Well, Mek is my disciple of sorts, so I am sure he will show you how wide the world is.¡±

    ¡°...Talk¡­ Less¡­ Old¡­ Man¡­ Fight¡­ Now¡­?¡± I asked as I swung my practice sword a few more times.

    ¡°You! How dare you talk to a Master like that!?¡± The now no longer stretching apprentice yelled.

    ¡°Now, Now, Mek, just smash this loudmouth down, no need to talk to people like this. Now, let''s finish stretching.¡± The elderly said and then focused entirely on his student.

    ¡°Sorry about that Cat, he gets angry easier in his old age, but Master Gort is a skilled teacher, and his disciples will be your opponent, so that is why he is here.¡± The middle-aged man said, not sounding at all sorry. ¡°Well, normally we start Goat Style matches ten feet away, so just stand somewhere you want, and Mek will start at an appropriate spot.¡±

    I didn¡¯t respond to the receptionist and instead removed my falchion from my back and tossed it towards the wall, and then I walked in and stood at a random spot. After a second, the old man left the fighting area, leaving only the apprentice behind.

    I held my wooden sword in both hands at the ready while Mek was lightly hopping up and down, his practice sword, identical to mine, was held loosely in his right hand.

    ¡°Well, you both know the rules, so begin.¡± As the middle-aged man said that, Mek jumped into action.

    Instead of charging at me, he jumped sideways and started trying to circle around me. Instead of avoiding the rocks and stumps, he was directly landing on them, and then bouncing off. Occasionally he would come a bit closer to me, feinting a charge, but he would quickly bounce backward away.

    I for my part, just turned my body to face him as he circled around, slowly and steadily advancing towards him.

    It took a few seconds, but eventually, a smug smirk appeared on my opponent''s face, the same smirk that had appeared almost immediately on the two men observing the match.

    ¡°What kind of footwork is that?¡± He called out to me as he bounced further backward.

    Instead of answering, I trod toward him steadily.

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t be that, you don¡¯t know any footwork at all? It looks like you¡¯re just walking.¡±

    There were a few other apprentices in the room, in addition to the one that would be my next opponent, and they were all snickering as they watched.

    ¡°This is pathetic,¡± Mek said as he lunged forward, changing direction twice as he did, but then pulling back, well out of striking range. ¡°Are you a complete novice? You responded to each of those feints. Have you ever been taught how to fight with a sword?¡±

    ¡°...Never¡­¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Mek actually stopped completely, even his bouncing when I said that. ¡°Really? This is ridiculous.¡±

    The fact was, Olivia had not ever trained with a sword, after all, she was still seven, a girl, and rather frail. Pamela my older sister, also was never trained in any military art. If either of us had wanted to, I was sure our parents would have let us, but that never came up.

    So Olivia knew nothing about using a sword, and for my part, I had never really used one myself. I''m sure I had at some point, swung a sword around, but when it came to real fights, I would either use my magic, or would use my own body as a weapon. A tool, a weapon like a sword, was something I didn¡¯t need.

    Footwork, stances, techniques, I knew nothing of them.

    Suddenly, Mek seemed to fall forward off of the stone pile he was standing on. As he fell, he kicked off of the pile, and sent himself lunging towards me, even with my short stature, it appeared as if the dashing Mek was even lower than me.

    At five feet away he suddenly jerked and launched himself towards my left, by the time I turned, he had already come to a stop on another plank of wood, and then he leaped up into the air, flying towards me while bringing down a powerful overhand chop.

    Footwork, Stances, Techniques, I needed none of them.

    As Mek¡¯s two-handed slash came crashing down, I sidestepped away from him, his strike went harmlessly past me, and as he landed, I sent a horizontal slash that was aimed at the back of his head.

    But, he was nowhere near there when my sword reached the area. When he landed, even before that, he, having realized I wouldn¡¯t be hit, had given up on landing normally, and once his feet touched down, he tumbled forward. Just like when he had lunged down from the rocks before, he had sprung forward. By the time my sidestep and slash was completed, Mek had already put nearly five feet of distance between us.

    ¡°Oh, not bad reflexes,¡° he laughed. ¡°But that¡¯s it. I bet you rely on those reflexes and your fast movements, but you don¡¯t really know anything. That might work against amateurs, but against us, you¡¯re nothing but trash, like a goblin. Come to think of it, maybe you are a goblin under all that leather?¡±

    As Mek prepared for another assault, and his fellow apprentices laughed at his comments, I cut all of them off by charging forward.

    All I did was run straight at him, and then as I came into range, I skidded to a stop and let loose with a powerful sideways slash, that missed him by a wide margin as he jumped backward again.

    I could tell he was surprised by how fast I had closed the distance, but I also could tell he was in no real danger, he had dodged it with ease after all.

    ¡°Well, you are trash, but, well, decent trash. Let''s see how long you can hold out.¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 9:35

    The Raging Chimera School, 6th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    For nearly ten minutes, I traded blows with Mek. I charged and swung with powerful strikes, while he dodged and nimbly sent a flurry of strikes back. When I retreated, he would launch a powerful attack. Occasionally I parried and blocked, but I mostly dodged, and for his part, Mek dodged every attack.

    But by now, Mek was getting tired, and I, I was learning how to fight.

    I could have simply overwhelmed Mek if I had wanted too, but if I had brutally crushed him, it would have been obvious I was hiding my strength. I could easily break him, but then no one else would fight me, and things would get complicated.

    So instead, I wasted my time with this game.

    I was still nowhere near being a skilled swordsman, but by using my superior base stats, I could now put up a decent fight. Even now, as Mek was tiring, I was still holding back.

    But, now it was time to finish this.

    Mek had just bounced himself away from another one of my attacks, and this time, I quickly lunged at him again, without making any effort to reposition myself or regain my balance. For the first time in this fight, I thrust with my sword. Not only did I thrust, but I put nearly my entire body behind it.

    Mek could tell I was powerful, he knew if he received this thrust, not only would he lose, but he would be severely injured and possibly even die. He also knew that there was no way I could ever hit with such a haphazard attack.

    He jumped back and to my right, his right leg kicking off of a small mound of dirt, his left landing on a stump. My thrust missed him by a wide margin and left me completely open.

    Rather than sending a large attack my way, he sent a fast one, he jumped forward and sent a single-handed downward slash towards the top of my head.

    But, I stepped forward harder, as his jumping attack went forward, it would bring him past me and his slash would go over me and miss completely. And yet, I wasn¡¯t done. Using my strength, I spun and twisted my body, turning my thrust into an upward slash.

    As Mek slid past me, the tip of my sword flew up right into his armpit. I felt his arm dislocate with a pop. Mek stumbled forward, a pained expression already on his face as he let go of his sword.

    With an injury like that, Mek would not be able to continue the fight even if he wanted too, it was my win.

    Winning, however, was not why I was here.

    As Mek stumbled forward, I used the force of my upward slash to completely spin my body around, and I used that rotational force to swing downward. Mek, who was on his way to collapsing, never even saw the attack coming.

    My wooden practice sword¡¯s edge crashed down onto his right shoulder. With a crunch, his collarbone splintered, his shoulder shattered, and the entire joint was reduced to tiny shards. The force of my blow sent Mek tumbling forward, he smacked into the ground, his face cracking into a stone and splattering blood as his lips split open. He rolled and came to a rest on his back.

    An unconscious Mek, his face a bloody mess, with his right arm twisted and bent, his shoulder crushed and warped, laid there in the mud.

    For a moment, the cheering from his fellow apprentices had come to a complete stop and silence reigned.

    ¡°...Weak¡­¡± I stated.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 9:37

    The Raging Chimera School, 6th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Ben, Son of Roka.

    ¡°...Weak¡­¡± The halfling¡¯s voice broke me out of my stupor.

    ¡°Call a healer!¡± I yelled as I rushed towards the unconscious Mek.

    At the same time I reached his side, so did Master Gort.

    Mek was bleeding heavily from his face, his mouth and nose were both leaking blood, and Mek was beginning to choke on the blood that was pooling in his mouth. I knew only the most basic first aid techniques, but that wasn¡¯t the case for Master Gort. The old Master quickly, but gently, turned Mek¡¯s head to the side, allowing the blood that was preventing his breath to leak out onto the floor. Master Gort wasn¡¯t a mage, but he could cast the most basic of spells like most people, so from his hand, he created a small amount of water that washed the blood from Mek¡¯s face. The only new blood came from his mouth and nose, there were no major cuts which was good, most likely both of these would stop given time.

    But, suddenly Mek started choking again and gasping for breath.

    Master Gort frowned, and then without warning, shoved his finger down Mek¡¯s throat. After he withdrew his hand, Mek spit up a mass of blood into Master Gort¡¯s waiting hand, and in the bloody goo, I saw two small white things.

    ¡°Teeth?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yup.¡± Master Gort responded with a solemn expression on his face.

    Another, smaller, amount of water appeared, this time falling into Mek¡¯s mouth and washing away the blood. With that gone, both of us could see that his two front top teeth were missing.

    ¡°I¡­ think he is fine here,¡± I started, but then looked at his right arm, ¡°But his shoulder¡­¡±

    Mek¡¯s shoulder had dropped down almost three inches, his arm was limply bent behind his body, and when we pulled his shirt down, his skin had already swollen up and turned back. But even through that, we could see lumps hidden underneath it. Master Gort gently placed his hand over it, but even then, Mek groaned in pain.

    ¡°How¡­ How is it?¡± I asked.

    ¡°A mess. It¡¯s a fuckin mess. His shoulder is ruined. I don¡¯t¡­ I don¡¯t even know where to start.¡±

    ¡°Shit! Where is the healer!?¡± I yelled.

    ¡°Ben, we¡¯ll move him to a bed.¡±

    ¡°...Weak¡­ Pathetic¡­ Fight¡­ Other¡­ Now¡­?¡±

    ¡°You son of a bitch!¡± Orth yelled and then started running towards the monotone halfling.

    ¡°ORTH! Stop!¡± Master Gort shouted. ¡°We need to move Mek, then you can fight.

    ¡°Help us move him,¡± I added.

    Orth looked conflicted, but eventually, he came over along with two other apprentices. We slid a board under him, and then the five of us lifted him up and took Mek out of the room and into the medical room.

    ¡°Assistant Master Ben, Lomb ran to go fetch a healer, he should be back soon.¡± Another apprentice said after we laid him down on a bed.

    ¡°Okay, keep an eye on him, call us if anything happens, but we need to get back,¡± I ordered as I shared a glance with Master Gort.

    ¡°Orth, come with us, we need to talk.¡± Master Gort said.

    Outside of the medical room, we stopped to regain our wits. I could tell Master Gort was shaken, but it was nothing compared to Orth.

    ¡°Orth, lad, calm yourself. You can¡¯t fight like this.¡± Master Gort said while putting his hand on the young apprentice¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°I know, it¡¯s just¡­¡±

    ¡°Mek and you are friends right?¡± I said.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ we are... we are friends¡±

    ¡°Okay, well, you need to be in control to get revenge. So let''s discuss this.¡± I said, but then left the start to Master Gort.

    ¡°Yes, okay, why did Mek lose?¡± Master Gort asked. ¡°That fellow was a complete amateur, at least when it comes to using a sword.¡±

    ¡°But, the halfling is strong and fast. A strong body can be a replacement for skill.¡± I answered.

    ¡°Right. And Mek got tired as the fight went on. That fellow probably has a really good body, that fellow just wore down Mek.¡±

    ¡°Okay, then, what do I do different?¡± Orth asked, having calmed down a bit.

    ¡°Mek took his time, which was a mistake, but it is also the fault of the Goat Style, the Goat Style doesn¡¯t have a lot of decisive strikes, right Master Gort? You are a master of the Goat Style.¡± I said.

    ¡°Bah, that was a long time ago. But, yeah, that is right. When Mek did go in for a decisive strike, he left himself open, he was too tired, and that fellow got lucky with that strike. Orth, you just need to keep striking, wear that fellow down instead. Plus, after a fight, that fellow will be tired.¡±

    ¡°Okay, yes, I need to avenge Mek, let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± I stopped them, ¡°There is something else. Orth, have you ever fought a halfling?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ I don¡¯t think so?¡± He answered.

    ¡°Come to think of it, I haven¡¯t either.¡± Master Gort added.

    ¡°I have once, they are a pain. Not too many of their kind become warriors, they tend to be weak and their reach is short. This one seems strong, but that¡¯s not important, what is important, is that halflings are short.¡±

    ¡°Er, what does that have to do with anything? Shouldn¡¯t that just make them worse fighters?¡± Orth asked.

    ¡°It usually does, but, it also means that their attacks come in from below, something you aren¡¯t normally going to face. That is also why they make for good assassins, it¡¯s hard to dodge or parry that type of attack.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­¡±

    ¡°I see, Assistant Master Ben is right.¡±

    ¡°Also, because they are so small, you too need to aim lower. Most training will have you aim at an enemies head, neck, chest, or stomach. Some might even have you aim for their arms, but on a halfling, if you aim at those areas, you¡¯ll hit nothing. So you need to aim downward, which is difficult.¡± I lectured.

    ¡°Hmm... And I bet, they¡¯re just a harder target because they are so small. If you hit them, they¡¯ll take a bunch of damage, but hitting them is pretty hard. That fellow was pretty nimble too¡­¡± Master Gort mumbled.

    ¡°Yes, that is true, but it won''t matter for you, Orth. The Lion Style focuses mostly on full body attacks that should cut through the entire enemy, so you are already used to swinging all the way down, you just need to get used to the timing. Just keep attacking, and you¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, okay, let me go knock that piece of shit around,¡± Orth growled angrily.

    ¡°Right, let''s go.¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 9:41

    The Raging Chimera School, 6th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Ben, Son of Roka.

    Since Orth didn¡¯t focus on the Goat Style, we had gone to a different training room, this one was just a normal room, the same size as the other, but with stone floors.

    ¡°Okay, same rules as last time. Begin!¡± I announced the start of the fight.

    ¡°RAAAAAARG¡± Orth Shouted and charged forward.

    A lion uses all of its strength, even when hunting a rabbit.

    That phrase makes up the basis for the Lion Style. Every attack is one aimed to kill, every attack is powerful. If one attack doesn¡¯t defeat the enemy, use two, if two fails, use four. Keep attacking, overwhelm the enemy with power.

    Orth was extremely skilled with the Lion Style. He didn¡¯t use feints, he didn¡¯t slowly whittle down his enemy, he just put all of his strength into each attack and crushed the opponent.

    People who used their speed to dodge attacks, were caught and smashed, those who boasted of a powerful defense, had their shell cracked open and were knocked down, those that relied on technique, were defeated without getting a chance to show their skills, and those that used their own strength, were beaten down with even more strength.

    Orth was a prodigy of the Lion Style, within a couple of years, he would for sure be at least rank 5.

    Or, that was how it was supposed to be.

    The extremely powerful Orth charged forward, and like a lumberjack splitting wood, swung his sword straight down. It was such a powerful blow that it would probably kill the halfling, and it was so fast, that there was no way to dodge it.

    But¡­

    But, the halfling¡¯s own sword shot out, a thrust aimed towards Orth¡¯s head.

    It never got there, however, because the tip of the halfling¡¯s sword came into contact with Orth¡¯s wrist.

    There was a wet tearing sound as the giant, powerful wrist of Orth seemed to explode. Blood splattered across his face, his sword went flying from his grasp, and his left hand dangled limply from his arm, held on by only some muscle and skin.

    ¡°AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! MY HAND! MY EYE!¡± Orth Shrieked in agony as he crumbled to his knees.

    I could see something, a piece of white, sticking out of the center of his left eye.

    ¡°A bone¡­¡± I said shocked.

    A piece of bone, part of Orth¡¯s wrist, had actually been blown out from within his skin, and acted as shrapnel, embedding itself deep into his eye.

    What kind of monster was this?

 Chapter 10: Cousins.

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 10:18

    Madam Tilly¡¯s House of Heavenly Delights, 5th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Martin Steam-burst Fredirin

    Most commoners limit themselves to one avenue of study; hunting, tailoring, fishing, smithing, farming, soldiering, exploring, and so on. Even within those broad fields, most commoners further specialize in one area, some farmers grow one type of crop, some smiths focus on tools while others on weapons, some warriors focus on the bow, while others the spear.

    This is because commoners lack the strength of character, the intelligence, and the wisdom, to even try to master more than one thing. Not so for the nobility. Nobles, by right of our birth, are simply inherently better in every way when compared to the ignorant masses.

    Even when it comes to magic, most commoners, and even lesser nobility, limit themselves to the basic elements. But for the higher ranking nobility, such as myself, elemental magic is seen as crass and crude. If one is going to pursue magic, and any self-respecting noble will, then one should at the very least, pursue the mysteries of arcane magic.

    Arcane magic brings order to the chaotic nature of the world, it isn¡¯t powered by emotions, but by reason and thought; therefore, only those with a clear and powerful mind can truly master it.

    However, while I pursue the mysteries of the arcane, and I respect those who follow the same path, I also acknowledge another path that some of the upper nobility tread. Some, using their vast fortunes and connections, delve into even more esoteric paths of magic, and while these paths lack the purity of arcane magic, I can still respect the dedication required to master them.

    Most of the time.

    If there was one person whose magic I couldn¡¯t respect, it was the girl in front of me right now.

    Victoria Goldfield, the thirteenth child of Duke Zachary Goldfield, and one of my many cousins.

    ¡°So¡­ Cousin Martin¡­ what has my big, strong, handsome, cousin come here today for?¡± She practically purred as she spoke those words.

    ¡°How would I know? You are the one who sent me a letter asking for my presence.¡± I spit out, a bit more harshly than I wanted.

    Normally, since I had graduated from the Royal Academy two years ago when I was fifteen, I spent my time traveling to the domains of the other ducal houses to act as an ambassador on behalf of my father, Duke Jason Steam-burst. My work rarely brought me to the Royal Capital Arvas, but when it did, I would find myself swamped with work.

    Two days ago I had received a letter from my cousin asking for a meeting, and it was only today that I had an opening in my schedule and could meet with her.

    ¡°Ara? That is right, I did call for you, didn¡¯t I? Still, how cute, my older cousin dropped everything and came running once I called for him.¡±

    ¡°You¡­ Hah, right, this is how you are. Well, what is it that you wanted?¡±

    ¡°My dear cousin, maybe I just wanted to see you? But, I see that the feeling is not mutual, after all, my dearest cousin hasn¡¯t looked at me once.¡±

    That wasn¡¯t technically true, I had glanced at her when I first walked into the room, but once I saw what she was wearing I had pointedly directed my vision away from her.

    ¡°And why do you think that is? What are you wearing anyway? And why are you still in the bed? At least appear presentable.¡±

    ¡°This?¡± she asked as I heard her shift on the bed, but I still locked my vision onto the incense holder on the shelves. ¡°Count Leopold gave it to me¡±

    ¡°The Count of Bestera? ¡­ The rumors about him though, I thought he was...?¡± I couldn''t help myself and asked.

    ¡°Impotent?¡± Victoria answered with a chuckle. ¡°That rumor is true, I am sorry to say. He is like a loaf of bread left in a bowl of soup too long, limp and soft.¡±

    ¡°...I did not really¡­ hah...Then why was he...?¡±

    ¡°Here? In my little slice of paradise? Here in Madam Tilly¡¯s House of Heavenly Delights?¡± she asked theatrically.

    ¡°...¡± I stayed silent because while I was interested, I didn¡¯t really want to have this conversation.

    My cousin was 3 years younger than I, but was an accomplished, if disgraceful, mage. What exactly her magic was, I didn¡¯t know, but it had allowed her to open this business two years ago, Madam Tilly¡¯s House of Heavenly Delights, the Royal Capital¡¯s most luxurious and successful brothel. Madam Tilly was an alias used by Victoria, so every aspect of this sprawling compound was controlled by the young girl sprawled out on the bed wearing little more than strings.

    ¡°You are no fun, such a stick in the mud.¡± She sighed. ¡°Well, consider it a freebie then, Count Leopold is a regular here, but he doesn¡¯t come for himself. I entertain his wife, Countess Henriette.¡±

    ¡°His wife!?¡± I almost shouted out of shock.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ Yes, the Countess is an active woman, but since the Count cannot fulfill his role, he had to look elsewhere. Further, the Count already has four children, he needs no more, especially a bastard child, so he found some women to¡­ help his wife.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ That is absurd.¡±

    ¡°Haha.¡± She laughed. ¡°Does my cousin find it that strange? Maybe you need this place¡¯s services more than I thought? Well, you might be surprised to know that about a third of our clients are women. Of course, many of them are here to find male companions, and many of them are here for¡­ group activities, but still, a fair bit of them prefer the more gentle touch of a fellow woman.¡±

    ¡°Yes, well, let us never speak of this again,¡± I said, as calmly as I could.

    ¡°How cute, your face is red.¡±

    ¡°You..!¡± I snapped and stood up.

    ¡°Okay, okay, calm down my dear cousin. I won''t tease you anymore.¡±

    ¡°You best tell me what you called me to this¡­ den of perversions for, otherwise I will leave.¡±

    ¡°My dear father has bailed out Baron Stephan Korst after he went into debt from a failed investment.¡±

    ¡°Baron Korst? I don¡¯t recognize him. And what was his investment?¡±

    ¡°Wine, his barony grows a type of grape known for being very sweet, I have a few bottles if you want one. But, let us see, what happened? Right, he decided to increase production and make a business out of it. In the past, his people just collected the wild grapes and made wine, but now he wanted to try and properly cultivate the grapes.¡±

    ¡°And?¡± I asked.

    ¡°He failed, of course. As it turned out, what made the grapes sweet, was not just the soil, but the adjacent plants where they grew, and those plants take most of the nutrients from the earth, it was simply impossible for him to produce more without converting massive stretches of land into vineyards. So his investment fell through, and he found himself heavily in debt.¡±

    ¡°And then your father, the Duke of Goldfield, paid off his debts? Why?¡±

    ¡°Who knows? Sometimes, I do not even know if my Father himself really knows why he does things. However, I have a guess.¡±

    ¡°And that guess is?¡±

    ¡°The Korst Barony is known for two things, its wine, and also the fact that just recently, the road that cut across it has seen heightened traffic, large wagons filled with a black tar-like substance travel from the Quarry Dukedom all the way to the Steam-burst Dukedom.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Now, while I don¡¯t know what exactly these wagons are used for, I understand they are valuable to Duke Steam-burst, your esteemed father. I also understand, that my, not so esteemed father, had a, let us say, strong dislike, of his siblings. Now, since prior to this, the Baron of Korst had no interaction with my father, I suspect he might have some ulterior motives outside of pure altruism.¡±

    ¡°... Damnit.¡±

    ¡°Indeed.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what he is going to do?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Not at all, but I would guess, he could either delay your caravans or charge a tariff. Of course, he already charges a tariff, so he would need an excuse to raise it, something like the fact that your wagons are damaging the road and increasing the upkeep costs.¡±

    ¡°Haah¡­ This will be an issue, but not a big one.¡±

    ¡°Well, that is if he only raises the tariff.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯d delay them? How, inspections?¡±

    ¡°So uptight my cousin.¡± She said with a sigh. ¡°No, inspections won''t cut it, even a tariff won''t cut it, if he charges too much, it will be obvious something is going on, and if he doesn¡¯t charge an absurd amount, it won''t really be that big of an issue as you said. Instead, what I suspect he¡¯ll do, is allow his roads to fall into disrepair.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ would he really do that?¡±

    ¡°I do not see why he wouldn¡¯t. The Baron has already shown a lack of foresight, since he invested heavily in an unverified business plan, even going so far as to take loans out for it. And now he is firmly under my father¡¯s thumb, and I can assure you, Father does not care one bit about the Baron or his lands. I had a look at the maps, and that road skirts the edges of the mountains, so come spring, when the snow begins to melt, there will be many blockages. Normally, the Baron¡¯s people would clear them and maintain the road¡­ but now¡­¡±

    ¡°Damnit, I need to let my father know this as soon as possible,¡± I said as I stood to leave.

    ¡°Forgetting something?¡± However, before I left, the words from behind stopped me.

    ¡°Right, what do you want?¡±

    ¡°Ara? Playing coy? With me?¡±

    ¡°Fine, how much?¡± I asked.

    ¡°¡±Well..¡± Her voice purred, but not from the bed, instead, she was right behind me. ¡°Should not a negotiation like this be face to face?¡±

    ¡°Grr¡­ Fine.¡± I said as I turned to face her.

    My cousin was only a foot away from me, far too close. I was tall for my age, as was she, but since she was both younger, and a woman, her head only came up to my chest, forcing me to look down on her. From the edges of my vision, I could see her flawless white skin of her neck, along with the thin, light blue fabric that was barely covering her.

    If I looked further down, I knew that whatever it was she was wearing, would do nothing to impede my sight, so instead, I locked my eyes on hers, two shimmering red orbs that seemed to draw in my soul.

    ¡°Five percent,¡± She stated clearly, not breaking the link between our eyes.

    ¡°Five? Absolutely not. One, two at best.¡± I countered.

    ¡°My cousin is jesting with me it seems. What would happen if things had played out naturally?¡± She said, her eyes sparkling.

    ¡°True, the information you have given me is valuable, but only to me and my family. It had no value to you.¡±

    ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°Even if I desperately need it, a seed is simply a seed, a merchant that raises the price might make a profit, but they will at best be second class, no, third class. This costs you nothing, so five is out of the question.¡±

    ¡°Fine, four percent.¡±

    ¡°No, even if this were a normal situation, four percent is still too high. If you hadn¡¯t shared this information with me, it would have at best been a minor inconvenience for my family. One percent.¡± I stated plainly.

    ¡°How short-sighted of you, my dear cousin. You forget, if you were forced to react after the fact, then my Father, and our other uncles and aunts would be able to glean quite a bit about how important those caravans are to you. Currently, no one really knows what they are for, think of how much information could end up leaking.¡±

    ¡°Grr¡­¡± She had a point.

    ¡°See? You know I am right. Four percent sounds better now, does it not?¡±

    ¡°Well then,¡± I used my last card. ¡°You are right about that, but do not forget, you gain from this too, a black eye for Duke Goldfield is exactly what you want. Do not pretend that this was all for my family¡¯s benefit.¡±

    ¡°Three percent.¡±

    ¡°Two¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Two and a half.¡±

    ¡°...Fine, two and a half it is.¡±

    ¡°Excellent.¡± She finally broke eye contact with me and turned and sashayed back to her bed. ¡°That means I am now twenty-seven and three-quarters of the way towards having my way with you.¡±

    ¡°Hmmph,¡± I grunted and turned to leave.

    ¡°Goodbye my upstanding knight of a cousin, I can¡¯t wait to have you all to myself in this bed.¡±

    ¡°Harlot.¡± I spit out through clenched teeth as I left her room.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 12:44

    Prancing Pony Inn, 6th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Lenis Redstone.

    ¡°Mmmm, it is probably fine¡­¡± I said to myself as I straightened the collar of my overcoat.

    Like my father before me, and like his father before him, I had trained and studied to assist the one who would be my lord. Commoners would refer to me as a butler, and while that was technically a correct term, what I did was so much more than one people would assume. In fact, many of the duties that the uninformed would think I do, I do not in fact do.

    Or, well, I should say, that is how it is supposed to be. In truth, many of those things that people would think I do, I don¡¯t, but I also don¡¯t perform many tasks that I should be doing either.

    My master is Gwyneth Canyon Fredirin, a lady of the Canyon House. When she was a child, she was a tomboy, when she grew into a young girl, she was still a tomboy, and when she became a young adult, and then a proper adult, she remained, a tomboy.

    Instead of being an upstanding lady, spending her time on the arts, or her studies, or socializing with her friends, she spends her time running around, killing monsters, and challenging people to duels.

    The reason why I can¡¯t get my coat to fit correctly is that, underneath it, I wore a suit of chainmail.

    ¡°My Lady, may I enter?¡± I said, having given up on straightening my coat any further.

    I waited for ten seconds and then tried again.

    ¡°My Lady, it is Lenis, may I enter?¡± I asked again, this time knocking on the door.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Come in.¡± Was the muffled response I got through the door.

    I couldn¡¯t help but be annoyed, if we were in the Canyon Estate, where we should be right now, the soundproofing on the door would have prevented me from hearing a response. Instead, we were in some random, low-class inn.

    ¡°I am entering,¡± I said and opened the door.

    This inn had twelve rooms, four single rooms, four double rooms, two single rooms that were a bit larger and nicer, one single room that was the best the inn had to offer, and one common room with twenty beds in it.

    My Lady had taken the best room, I was in one of the nicer singles, and we also booked two of the double rooms for our guards.

    Still, the room that was described as the best the inn had to offer, was, if I were to be generous, shabby, and if I weren¡¯t, was a dump. Dirty wooden floors with only a single fur rug that looked filthy thrown down, a rickety bed, some scuffed and almost rotting shelves and tables, the curtains were faded and patched, and the hearth was caked with ash and soot.

    And for some reason, My Lady was enamored with this inn, it was her favorite and we stayed here rather often.

    ¡°What is it Pops?¡± My lady asked.

    Gwyneth Canyon Frederin had turned sixteen last summer, but she looked older than that. She was taller than average, and while she usually kept a casual and playful atmosphere around her, the things she had done, the people she met, had altered her temperament, no one I had ever met was quite the same as my Lady. Outside of her atmosphere, the fact that she had an athletic build, and the fact that she had weather her fair share of experiences, she looked as if she was in her late twenties. A single scar that barely peeked through her hair only added to the effect.

    Right now, My Lady was wearing a pair of long shorts, two mismatched socks, and a simple undershirt while she sat upon her bed performing maintenance on her sword, an elegantly curved scimitar.

    ¡°My Lady, you should talk a bit more-¡±

    ¡°Yeah yeah, I know, you¡¯d think you¡¯d get tired of that by now.¡±

    ¡°It is important¡±

    ¡°So you say, but I always ignore it. You know, they say insanity is doing the same thing, but expecting a different result.¡±

    ¡°Hah¡­¡± I could feel a headache coming already.

    ¡°You know pops, if you keep rubbing your head like that, you¡¯ll end up going bald in that spot. And I can¡¯t have an assistant missing a patch of hair.¡± My Lady said without looking away from her sword.

    ¡°Yes, well¡­¡± I struggled to calm myself down. ¡°Putting that aside, Poe left earlier to go pick your jitte up from the blacksmith. I do not expect any problems, so he should be back soon.¡±

    ¡°Oh, good.¡± She said sounding happy, ¡°I¡¯ve been feeling stiff lately, I''m looking forward to having my first match in a while.¡±

    ¡°First of all My Lady, it has been only one week since your last match-¡±

    ¡°Too long¡±

    ¡°-And, you could have gone back to using your dagger.¡±

    ¡°Eh¡­ Well¡­¡± She stopped polishing the sword and put it down on the end table before drawing her dagger and holding it up in the light. ¡°Ash Fang is a nice blade, but I can¡¯t use it fully, and the jitte is better anyway.¡±

    My Lady had developed her own personalized combat system, in one hand she wielded her scimitar, a weapon used by the desert people of the south, and in the other, she originally used her dagger.

    Due to the heat of the desert, heavy armor was rarely used, so more nimble weapons were developed and used, the speed of the strike was more important than the power of the strike. Of course, My Lady¡¯s scimitar, Dry Wind, was made out of a mithril and steel alloy, giving it a bit more weight, but also make it a lot more durable, and it held its edge well, so while she did rely on nimble movements and quick, pinpoint strikes, she could still cut through most armors, and those she couldn¡¯t, she could smash through without damaging the sword.

    And Ash Fang was her dagger, it was literally made out of one of the fangs from a monster called an Ash-Eater, a type of wyrm. The fang was sharp, almost unbreakable, and it corroded metal and most living and formerly living materials. Despite the fact that it didn¡¯t leave clean cuts, it was a useful weapon for breaking through armor and weapons.

    But, Ash Fang was designed for someone who could use Earth Magic, and My Lady had almost no talent with that element. And while the tip was sharp, the edge was rather dull, Ash Fang should be used for stabbing, but My Lady¡¯s style had her using the dagger mostly for defense, and only occasionally making a quick slash if there was an opening.

    ¡°Maybe if it was balanced better for throwing?¡± She added, still looking at the dagger.

    I had to agree with that however, Ash Fang was oddly shaped, resembling more of a curved cone than a normal dagger. Even a dagger that wasn¡¯t weighted correctly could still be thrown with decent accuracy, and some damage could be expected from a clean hit even at twenty feet away. Ash Fang, however, could only accurately be thrown less than ten feet away, and even then, having the point land on target was extremely difficult. The thrown weapon could be guided using magic, and in fact, My Lady was skilled at using wind magic which would allow for that, but in almost all cases, it would be better to just attack with magic instead.

    Also, there is something to be said for not throwing an incredibly expensive magic weapon at someone.

    ¡°Well, it isn¡¯t as if I''ll get rid of it or anything,¡± She said as she put it away in its sheath. ¡°I can use it as a backup or something, and it is still a good card to keep on hand, but that Jitte just works better.¡±

    A little over a month ago, a caravan had entered the capital. It was a normal trade caravan, but it had come from an area even further south than the deserts. A lot of exotic items were brought along, many weapons and armors were included too, and one of which was the jitte my lady bought.

    It was a bit longer than a dagger, but not quite long enough to be considered a short sword. The handle had a guard, but it was only on one side, and instead of covering the user¡¯s hand, it pointed upward in the same direction as the blade. But most interesting of all, it didn¡¯t have a proper blade at all, the weapon was basically just a pointed rod. It wasn¡¯t rounded, but was shaped into a form with eight sides. It did get thinner towards the end where it came to a sharp point, but there was no cutting edge at all, and in a way, it was a lot like Ash Fang.

    However, while Ash Fang couldn¡¯t really cut with its edge unless a large amount of force was used to saw through something, the jitte could be used almost like a light mace, powerful blows could rain down with it, and it still had the swiftness of a dagger. Even the odd hilt itself was actually used to catch the enemy¡¯s weapon and then disarm them.

    And because there was no cutting edge in the first place, there was no need to fear it getting dull, nor would it break. It was a perfect match for My Lady¡¯s style of using the scimitar to attack and the sidearm to defend and harass with.

    ¡°I was pissed when the handle broke though.¡± She mentioned. ¡°I like the jitte, but that one was just a basic, everyday weapon, I need to get a better one.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, the trader didn¡¯t know how to forge them, and no one knows how to make it that durable, but also light. And the weight is perfect. They¡¯d have to melt it down to find out, but then yours would be lost.¡±

    ¡°I know. How long until the blacksmith finishes the set of prototypes?¡± She asked.

    ¡°Hmm, probably a week or two, Mister Flat-Hand¡¯s work is in high demand, but since he is skilled with weapons, he is the best bet. It would have been faster if you could have at least left your jitte with him for a while.¡±

    ¡°Not happening.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Well, then after Poe returns, you should probably reacclimate yourself with the jitte, but we can probably schedule another duel for some time tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Ehh¡­ too long, let''s do one tonight.¡±

    ¡°My Lady¡­ even if that were a good idea, it will be difficult to find an¡­¡± I trailed off, the sound of feet running up the stairs was heard by both of us.

    While my lady again drew both her sword and dagger, I slid towards the door, locking it as I leaned up against the wall nearby. My own weapon, a plain looking warhammer, was already in my hand.

    We waited with our breath held for a few seconds until the footsteps stopped in front of our door.

    ¡°My Lady, it is Ned, I have important news.¡± a voice called out in tandem with some frantic knocking. ¡°Ah! Right, password. Horse Shit.¡±

    I frowned but opened the door since Poe has said the correct password. Why My Lady insisted on such crude passwords, I would never understand.

    ¡°What is it, Poe?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Jitte. Where is my Jitte?¡± My Lady asked.

    ¡°Right here.¡± Poe went over and presented the jitte wrapped in cloth to her.

    ¡°Poe, what was so important?¡± I asked again.

    ¡°Right, it¡¯s bad news,¡± Poe said, a solemn expression taking over his face. ¡°On the way back, The path was near the Wild Bear School, and I heard people saying that the school had been raided.¡±

    ¡°Huh? I said shocked.

    ¡°I know, ¡°Poe said as he looked my way. ¡°But a lot of people were talking about it, someone raided the school and caused a bunch of injuries.¡±

    ¡°Is that one of our schools? I think I heard the name before, who is the patron?¡± My Lady asked.

    ¡°You are My Lady, The Wild Bear, Raging Chimera, and Swift Wind Schools are all under your umbrella. The Wild Bear School is lead by Mister Wild Bear, he¡¯s a barbarian from the north.¡± I said exasperatedly before turning to Poe and continuing with my questions. ¡°Poe, did you learn anything else?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he nodded in the affirmative. ¡°I figured I should check in to see if the rumors were true, and they were. Since I was just a guard, the school wouldn¡¯t let me in, but I learned that Mister Wild Bear was out hunting and was still away, but his son, Little Wild Bear had been in during the raid. He wouldn¡¯t meet me, so I don¡¯t know what happened. But, while I was there, a messenger from the Raging Chimera school came by.¡±

    ¡°Eh? Why?¡± I interrupted confused.

    ¡°This is where it gets crazy,¡° Poe said, getting excited. ¡°The Raging Chimera School got raided also, and they had a bunch of injuries too. So they called for a healer, but the healer was too busy because as it turns out, the Stalwart Man School was also raided.¡±

    ¡°The Stalwart Man¡­ That is owned by your cousin, Bartholomew Lakeside.¡± I stated.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, so the thing was, the Raging Chimeras sent word to our family, but they also decided to send messengers to the other nearby schools.¡±

    ¡°Apparently, they were too late for the Wild Bears,¡± I said.

    ¡°Hey, Pops.¡± My Lady suddenly said.

    ¡°What?¡± I asked, but I was pretty sure I already knew.

    ¡°Let''s go find them.¡±

    ¡°Eh¡­¡± I really, really, did not want to do this. But, I also knew I had no choice. ¡°Alright, get ready, and I will have everyone mobilized in ten minutes.¡±

    My Lady didn¡¯t say anything, only turning and grabbing her armor. I quickly steered Poe out of the room, because I knew that the presence of two men would not stop her from getting changed right then.

    ¡°Our Lady is really motivated, we can¡¯t let people raid our schools like this,¡± Poe said excitedly.

    ¡°Indeed, go get everyone ready.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± Poe saluted and then left.

    ¡°Haaah¡­¡± I sighed as Poe left.

    Poe thought My Lady wanted to avenge the schools under us that got raided, but he didn¡¯t really understand her. Sure, she was slighted by having this happen, and she was probably pretty angry, but she didn¡¯t actually care for any of the members of those schools. And while she was annoyed, that played second fiddle to how excited she was about the prospects of fighting a strong opponent.

    My Lady had a great track record in her duels, almost never having lost, and I just hoped that would stay true.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 15:10

    Bartholomew¡¯s personal villa, 4th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    #27

    ¡°My Lord, I bring you news,¡± I said as I descended the wide stairs into My Lord¡¯s Basement.

    My Lord was Bartholomew Lakeside Fredirin, the youngest son of Duke Henry Lakeside Fredirin, he wasn¡¯t the youngest child, however, he had two younger sisters. My Lord was only fourteen, as such, he should have been in school right now, but due to his proficiency in the academic arts, he was able to avoid classes and only make an appearance during the testing periods.

    ¡°Oh, #27? It is good to see you, here, hand me that potion.¡± My Lord said.

    ¡°Yes My Lord.¡± I dutifully replied as I handed him a potion, the only potion that was on the table.

    Bartholomew found other people to be, let us say, below his notice, not worthy enough of having him remember their names, so he used numbers to identify them. I was the twenty-seventh chamberlain that My Lord had hired, and the first one to last more than a week, hence, despite the fact I had stayed for over a year, he still only referred to me by number.

    In some way, having my name replaced by a number should have upset me, but after all, I was a broken person. What should bother me, what should elate me, what should sadden me, what should anger me, my drives, were all different from normal people.

    Just like my Lord.

    ¡°Well #27, what is the news?¡± My Lord asked.

    ¡°Before that My Lord, what are you doing?¡± I asked as I watched him work.

    ¡°An experiment.¡± Was the reply I got.

    ¡°I see that, but what exactly are you trying to discover?¡±

    ¡°Wooo. This was harder than I thought it would be,¡± He said as he grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat off of his forehead. ¡°What were you asking again?¡±

    ¡°What it is that My Lord is doing.¡± I reminded him.

    ¡°Right. An experiment. See, a few weeks back, a caravan from the Far South arrived, and it had some books in it.¡±

    ¡°I do remember that My Lord, I was the one who bought the books from the traders.¡±

    ¡°You were? Good, good. Well, one of those books explained the society and culture of the empire down there.¡±

    ¡°Yes? And that has what to do with this experiment? I asked, not at all comprehending what My Lord was getting at.

    ¡°Our Fredirin Kingdom has a rather unique, but dare I say, effective method of running the government. Our neighbors are well behind us in regards to this, but, that book claimed that this Empire, The Crystal Jade Empire, was able to create a highly stable and efficient government in its own way.¡±

    ¡°And that way is?¡±

    The Crystal Jade Empire believes that only by focusing, and shunning the worldly needs, can people be dedicated to their work and the Empire itself. Of course, they still have an aristocracy that holds a large amount of power, but all of the central government matters are controlled by what are essentially career bureaucrats.¡±

    ¡°That is interesting, but what does it have to do with your experiment?¡±

    ¡°These career bureaucrats live their lives wholly dependant on the state, they have no property or wealth themselves, but the Empire takes care of them. In turn, they devote themselves to the Empire.¡±

    ¡°That seems as if it will not show results. That book seems flawed.¡± I stated my opinion.

    ¡°It does, or it would if there wasn¡¯t more to it. See, a man must always provide for his family, to ensure his bloodline continues. While I don¡¯t care for this, I understand how others think.¡±

    ¡°Of course, that behavior baffles me too, but it is the prevailing opinion of the masses.¡±

    ¡°Indeed. In fact, I believe it is family ties that cause a great deal of corruption, even in our own Kingdom, but I digress. The Crystal Jade Empire does not allow these bureaucrats to have families, in fact, they also are forced into daily meditation sessions and also, if I am understanding this book right, something like indoctrination.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating. Still, the experiment?¡± I prompted again.

    ¡°Right, right. Well, even then, the Empire does not believe that would be sufficient, so all of the bureaucrats are also¡­ what was the word? You-knocks, You-knick. It is in the book, hold on.¡± My Lord began searching through the book that was beside him.

    ¡°These, You-Knicks? I haven''t heard that term before, what are they?¡± I asked, my curiosity piqued.

    ¡°Eunuch, that is it. Eunuch. Right, these Eunuchs are all men, who have been castrated. Like livestock, apparently without the need to reproduce, these men are seemingly calmer and more thoughtful. Without the stronger emotions, and without a family, they are more devoted to the nation.¡±

    ¡°I see, I wonder if that would work?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I wanted to test it. However, I wasn¡¯t sure if they were castrated while young, or after they became adults. It is normal for a child to follow in their parents'' footsteps, but these men can not have children, so where did they get the eunuchs from? Did men volunteer for this job? Or were they raised from their youth?¡±

    ¡°So you tested it then?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I had my guards pull twenty men from the streets, and then I castrated them. However, I wasn¡¯t sure how much to cut off, and so far six of them have died. Still, this latest one, he seems to be doing well.¡±

    ¡°Yes, he is conscious at least, a bit pale, however,¡± I said as I looked at the man chained to the table.

    ¡°Yes, originally I removed the entire reproductive tract, but I quickly realized that interfered with urination. Then I tried cutting just parts off, even crushing the different parts with a vice. However, for this man, and two before him, I made a small incision, and then reached in with pliers and removed them. Then I just sewed them up, and then used a standard healing potion.¡±

    ¡°I see, still, it will take some time to see if they really do become less emotional.¡±

    ¡°Yes, in fact, I am not sure I can accurately test that with this batch, I would have needed to study them in depth in a natural environment before I castrated them to really tell if there are differences. This is mostly just to see if they survive and as a proof of concept. Much later on, I might require all of my employees to be eunuchs.¡±

    ¡°I feel that that may be difficult to implement My Lord, we are already rather short staffed, and I do not think that this would help matters. Come to think of it, we are missing another maid, do you know if she ran away?¡±

    ¡°Hmm? A maid? Which one?¡± He asked.

    ¡°I think it was M-305¡± I replied.

    ¡°Ah, right, that one. Her arm came off, and she was making a fuss about it, so I locked her in her room.¡±

    ¡°I see, did you call for a healer?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you know what? I completely forgot about that, I wanted to get back to my experiments.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, so she¡¯s dead?¡±

    ¡°Probably? I don¡¯t think she could use healing magic.¡±

    ¡°Haah¡­ We¡¯ll need to find a replacement then. And I guess I''ll need to dispose of the corpse.¡±

    ¡°I always trouble you #27. Moving on, what was the news you brought?¡±

    ¡°Yes, about that, I suspect someone has made a move against the Canyon Family, a large move.¡±

    ¡°Oh? And why is that?¡±

    ¡°Earlier I received word that several combat schools had been raided, it is a bit past noon now, but already more than ten have been hit. One of which you are the patron of My Lord.¡±

    ¡°Who cares.¡±

    ¡°Exactly. Regardless, as I said, several have been raided, and I am getting reports that still more are being attacked. Four belong to the Canyon Family, one from your Lakeview Family, three from the Goldfield Family, two from the Quarry Family, and two from the Steam-burst Family.¡±

    ¡°While the Canyon Family did suffer more attacks, it does seem as if they are spread out pretty fairly, what makes you think this is a targeted attack against them?¡±

    ¡°I thought as you did at first too, none of the schools are particularly important or noteworthy, and only two the Canyon schools and two of the Goldfield schools have the same patron, so it does seem random, and in fact, if I hadn¡¯t heard this last piece of news, I would have overlooked it.¡±

    ¡°And that news is?¡±

    ¡°Michael Canyon Fredirin, your cousin, was assassinated in their estate last night.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really?¡± My Lord asked, for the first time showing genuine interest in this conversation.

    ¡°Yes, our spy in their estate here in the capital passed word, his body was discovered by a maid this morning. The Canyon Family locked down the estate to investigate and prevent word from spreading, but it also slowed their response towards the raids, the other families are already mobilizing people, but the Canyon Family has done nothing.¡±

    ¡°This is really interesting, I wonder who planned this?¡±

    ¡°Right now, there is no information on who the assassin was, or how it happened, and there is likewise only limited information on who raided the schools. Our Stalwart Man School has reported that the attack was a halfling wrapped fully in leather armor who talked oddly, but that tells us little.¡±

    ¡°A halfling warrior capable of raiding the schools¡­ do we know of anyone like that?¡±

    ¡°No My Lord, unless there was some trickery involved that the Stalwart Man School didn¡¯t notice, but they claim the halfling faced them head-on. They did have a lot of complaints, however.¡±

    ¡°This is a shame, we can¡¯t even begin to guess who did this at this point, and if we make a wrong move, we could overextend easily. We¡¯ll need to wait until more details emerge. However¡­ Maybe we can make use of this?¡±

    ¡°Oh, how is that, My Lord?¡± I asked.

    ¡°We can guess at how the other families will respond to this, some will defend their interests, some will try to use the period to build up their own strength, and some will further attack the Canyon Family. We could easily determine how a single family will react with some simple observation, but if they were the ones to initiate this, then they¡¯ll have extra, hidden plans. This makes it hard for us to move. But, there is one family whose plans we know.¡± He explained.

    ¡°Which family is that?¡±

    ¡°Our own.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ I see, then, what orders should I give?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Let us see¡­ My older brother Sebastian, he has those boat restaurants, they should sink. Also, reveal the fake account forms we have slipped into his trading company. Hmm¡­ we should also spread the damage about a bit, so have a business or two belonging to one of my sisters get vandalized.¡±

    ¡°The since the two families that are contesting the Steam-burst¡¯s dominance were both damaged, the assumption will be that it was either the Quarry Family, or the Goldfield Family, or maybe even the Pine Family.¡± I reasoned out.

    ¡°Exactly, if we don¡¯t suffer, the most likely assumption would be that it was us after all. However, I think we can do better. Have the spy we planted in Sebastian¡¯s house assassinate my brother. This will also remove a thorn from my side.¡±

    ¡°As you will it, My Lord.¡±

    ¡°Get to it #27, but now I need to finish my experiments, I have two more men to castrate, and this time, I want to try freezing the area before I cut.¡±

    ¡°Yes My Lord.¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 17:20

    Bonto Lane, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    ?????????????

    ¡°So¡­ Loud¡­¡± I groaned to myself as I threaded my way through the streets of the Royal Capital Arvas.

    Everywhere around me was the hustle and bustle of the city, adventurers, soldiers, civilians, traders, craftsmen, merchants, guards, so many people.

    Too many people.

    ¡°So¡­ Loud¡­¡± I groaned again.

    I hated the city, I hated people, but I couldn¡¯t live elsewhere, and this mass of people, this faceless throng of anonymous men and women, was vastly preferable to only listening to a few people.

    Still, every day, every hour, every minute, was pure torture.

    A bit behind me, following me, were two of my guards. No matter where they went, how they hid, I could always track them, because instead of the boring and petty voices of everyone else, these two made a sound that was a mixture of glass shattering, stone being ground down, and wood snapping. A cacophony of sounds, only slightly better than the voices everyone else created.

    They were both my guards and the chains that kept me locked down. They protected me, but they would also stop me if I tried to flee, not that I had any intention of doing so. Any other city would be just as bad as Arvas.

    In fact, Arvas wasn¡¯t completely awful, lost in this crowd, bustling with people, I could at least, almost, lose myself.

    ¡°Oh careful there, stupid children, little girl, brat, are you okay, I hope my clothes aren¡¯t dirty.¡± The old man who I had bumped into said.

    ¡°....¡±

    ¡°Are you hurt, say something you dumb brat.¡±

    ¡°...sorry¡­¡± I whispered.

    ¡°It¡¯s good that you are alright, now I am going to be late, you should be heading home, don¡¯t stumble around in the road like an idiot, your parents are probably worried about you, probably a street urchin.¡±

    ¡°...Yeah¡­¡± I said and hurried away.

    ¡°I wonder if that was a pickpocket?¡±

    ¡°Scrawny child, probably poor.¡±

    ¡°Filthy kid.¡±

    ¡°I bet if I offered her a couple of coppers, I could buy her for the night.¡±

    ¡°Poor thing.¡±

    ¡°Jeez, who cares, get out of the way.¡±

    ¡°I need to meet Mat soon.¡±

    ¡°Wonder what the tavern has on sale today?¡±

    ¡°Did I drop of that parcel today or yesterday?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s late.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s gonna be cold tonight, I can feel it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, my hip, I wonder what I did to it.¡±

    ¡°...Stop¡­ it¡­¡± I groaned in pain, my head throbbing.

    Unable to stay here any longer, I started running. I had no destination, no goal, I just needed to be somewhere else.

    I ran and ran, but my tiny body didn¡¯t give me the speed that I needed. The voices faded, but new ones rose to take their place. My guards followed behind, the annoying sound never getting far away.

    As I ran, the heaving of my own breath almost managed to drown out the voices. My exhaustion almost distracted me.

    But, it didn¡¯t.

    I wound my way through the streets, the main thoroughfares turned to connecting streets, which turned into back streets, which then turned into dark and damp alleys.

    ¡°WOAH!¡± A voice called out.

    I had run out of the alley and into a real road, right in front of a small wagon. The driver pulled on the reins of the horse, and it just barely managed to stop without hitting me.

    Of course, I wasn¡¯t in any real danger, one of my guards had swept forward and pulled me back, even if the carriage had made no effort to stop or turn, I would have been fine.

    ¡°Sorry about that, that was almost bad, are you okay, I should''ve have been paying more attention.¡± The driver asked.

    ¡°...¡±

    My guard was still holding me, but he didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Well, good thing that guy saved you, really that could have been bad, if can offer you a ride as an apology, I hope this is okay with My Lady.¡±

    ¡°...sorry¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, it was my fault anyway.¡±

    I stepped back and kept my head down, not looking at the man.

    ¡°Well, if you are okay, I hope she is okay, I''ll be on my way, I need to get My Lady home before dark.¡±

    The wagon started forward and slowly went past me.

    ¡°That almost took a year off of my life. I know I shouldn¡¯t be rushing like this, but now is a really bad time for My Lady to be on the streets. Still, I can¡¯t believe this went as well as it did. How is My Lady this strong anyway? I heard rumors, but they said she was frail and timid, when did she change? Was she always like this.¡±

    The man¡¯s voice slowly faded, as the wagon went away. I wondered what he was talking about, who was his lady, so I turned to watch his wagon leave, but I then I froze.

    Sitting on the back of the wagon, its feet dangling off the edge, was a small person, almost as small as I was. It was wrapped all in black leather, and there was a large sword on it¡¯s back. A pair of silver eyes were looking at me, staring at me.

    But, there were no words, it was silent.

    I still heard the driver, I still heard the mess of sounds from my two guards, I could hear the two people in the building to me left, the children in the one to the right, I could hear the people down the street, across this street, upstairs, there was even one woman moving underground within the sewers.

    But the person on the back of the wagon, was completely and absolutely silent.

    ¡°...hey¡­¡± I said as I tugged on my guard¡¯s sleeve.

    ¡°Hmm? What is it, Miss?¡±

    ¡°...Cary me, and follow them.¡± I ordered my guard.

 Chapter 11: Hidden Base.

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 17:24

    Bonto Lane, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Larry, let us call it a day,¡± I said from the back of the wagon as we slowly went down another road.

    Occasionally, as I finished off another combat school, a few pursuers would give chase, but those fools were left battered and bruised in various alleyways. But as time went on, more and more groups of people, that seemed to be searching for us, were spotted on the roads. It got to the point where out of the last four schools we went to, one of them wouldn¡¯t allow us entry, and two others were too heavily guarded for my plan to go forward.

    The Rain Sabre School was the last to be successfully raided, and that was almost two hours ago.

    We stalled at the end, but the morning and early afternoon had gone well, fifteen different schools, all belonging to my cousins, had been raided, their disciples and apprentices were all left broken. Just like with the pursuers sent after us, I had held back and refrained from killing anyone, which both served to blunt any reprisal that would come, and to camouflage my behavior. Instead of an active attack against the families, this could appear as if I were simply a traveling warrior looking to make a name for myself.

    The halfling warrior Cat would now be a persona I could use later on.

    ¡°Yes¡­ Cat.¡±

    Captain Nev still struggled when it came to some things, calling me anything other than, My Lady, was one of them.

    While it was an annoyance, it was only a minor one, and I didn¡¯t blame him either. It was a matter of course. Captain Nev was a Spectre of the Hemlock, our Pine Family¡¯s elite force. The other families all had something similar, a fiercely loyal, powerful, small scale force.

    I wasn¡¯t sure what went into their training, but I knew a few things. The Spectres were all orphans, a choice made so that they would have nowhere else to go, so that their backs would be to the wall, but also so that they had no outside conflicts. The Pine Family was their family, their fellow Spectres were their brothers and sisters.

    So calling me without using the utmost respect, went against Captain Nev¡¯s very being.

    ¡°Hey, Larry, that girl we just encountered, did you notice anything about her?¡± I asked about something that had been on my mind for a while.

    ¡°Hmm? The man who pulled her to safety must have been a guard, and he must have had some skill. She might have been a noble?¡±

    That was likely an accurate guess. I was sitting on the back, so I didn¡¯t see the moment when she came running out, nor did I see when the guard pulled her away, but I was able to get an idea based off of the sounds.

    ¡°That isn¡¯t it. Didn¡¯t she seem¡­¡± I trailed off, not exactly sure how to describe it.

    ¡°Well, she was certainly odd, a bit quiet and shy I guess?¡± Captain Nev answered.

    ¡°Shy? That wasn¡¯t what I saw.¡±

    When we pulled past her, she had her back to me, but her posture was languid, unfocused. She did lazily turn to look back at us, and at first, her gaze was likewise, unfocused and vague, but after a second she focused on myself and her gaze sharpened, to an almost frightening degree.

    ¡°She seemed unsteady on her feet, and she looked down when I was talking to her.¡± He added.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡±

    I could only sense a small amount of mana from her body, likely some kind of low-grade protection magic, or even something to keep her warm in the cold temperatures. Nothing particularly stood out, but her gaze was too intense for her to be a normal person.

    ¡°Why are you asking¡­ Cat?¡±

    ¡°No matter. Larry, return us to the warehouse, it is still early, and I have something I need to do before I head home.¡± I ordered.

    ¡°Yes, My¡­ Cat¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 17:39

    Olivia¡¯s Warehouse, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Our warehouse within the 7th circle hadn¡¯t changed much since I had last seen it, which after all, was only a day ago. The Spectres had moved some additional furniture in, but the big change, as the several crates of supplies that had been moved in.

    Boxes of preserved food; nuts, dried fruits, salted meats, even pickled vegetables were spread around. There were several barrels of water too. Besides the food, there was also medical supplies, bandages, salves and poultices, a few potions, and various antidotes. And deeper in, either hidden by other things, or stored safely in the basement, was a multitude of weapons, long and short spears, crossbows and bolts, axes, hammers, barbed chains, caltrops.

    ¡°How is it My Lady?¡± Ula, one of the three female Spectres asked as I came in.

    ¡°You have done well.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. We¡¯ve been working on this place tirelessly since you left. We have enough supplies to comfortable feed all of us for weeks, enough water too.¡± She said proudly.

    ¡°That¡¯s not all,¡± Oz, another one of the Spectres added, ¡°we¡¯ve also opened up all of the walls, we loaded them up with iron rods. Nothing short of a siege ram will take down these walls.¡±

    ¡°While Oz is right, there is only eleven of us when we are all gathered, and this place is too big to properly defend with that number, so we built several fall back positions, not to mention traps. If we do get attacked, this place will become a deathtrap.¡± Bahn, another said.

    ¡°You have all done well.¡± I praised.

    ¡°Thank you My Lady.¡±

    ¡°Thank you My Lady.¡±

    ¡°Thank you My Lady.¡±

    All three of them became a chorus of thanks.

    ¡°Ula, is there a private room for me?¡± I asked.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Yes, of course My Lady, would you like me to show you?¡±

    ¡°Please¡±

    ¡°Right this way.¡±

    ¡°Also, Can one of you go to the roof? There should be a rather dirty stuffed animal on the northern corner. Bring it to me.¡±

    ¡°Yes My Lady.¡± Bahn jumped when I asked.

    ¡°Then right this way My Lady.¡± Ula said.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 17:40

    Olivia¡¯s Warehouse, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    The private room Ula brought me to was very similar to my normal bedroom, just smaller, made with lower quality items, and lacking shelves of stuffed animals.

    There was a bed, and just looking at it, I could tell the bedding was at least of high quality. For now however, I skipped the bed and was going to sit on a comfortable looking arm chair, but then I realized I was still wearing my armor. My dirty, bloodstained, leather armor.

    ¡°Haah¡­¡± I sighed as I sat down on a simple wooden chair set at a table.

    ¡°My Lady, it is Ula.¡±

    I didn¡¯t need to wait long before Ula returned.

    ¡°Enter¡±

    ¡°Pardon me,¡± Ula said as she came in. ¡°I¡¯ve brought the stuffed animal. Bahn was needed to set another trap.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. And extend that to Bahn also.¡± I said. ¡°Here, let me see that.¡±

    Ula dutifully came over, and held within her hands was a dirty, soot-covered stuffed sheep.

    Gimmy.

    ¡°My Lady¡­ where did this come from?¡± Ula asked hesitantly.

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    ¡°Well, we did scour every corner of this building when we first came in, and while it was somewhat hidden, there is no way we missed it before.¡± She explained.

    ¡°Ah, well, this is Gimmy.¡±

    ¡°Gimmy? Oh! Your stuffed animal?¡±

    ¡°The very one who came with me when we left the Citadel.¡±

    ¡°I see, where did it get too then? And how did it get¡­ burnt?¡± She asked.

    ¡°Secret,¡± I responded.

    ¡°Ah! My apologies My Lady.¡± Ula said while bowing in a panic.

    ¡°Do not worry about it, but, I would like some privacy.¡±

    ¡°Yes My Lady.¡± She said as she swiftly withdrew.

    Now alone, I looked at Gimmy. When I had controlled him I could see, in a manner of speaking, but Gimmy¡¯s eyes were glass beads, far different from my own. His vision, while similar, was only a facsimile of what a person could see, as such, I hadn¡¯t been able to truly see what he had looked like until now.

    ¡°You are quite dirty,¡± I said to the filthy stuffed animal.

    The great majority of the filth was soot and ash from when I had guided him through the vents in the Canyon Estate, but some of it was also blood, and a small bit of brain matter, that belonged to Michael Canyon Fredirin. The blood was not only caked into his fur, but it had mixed with the ashes and created a sludge that was even worse.

    ¡°I¡¯ll ask Ula to give you a bath after, but first¡­¡±

    I unlatched the belt of pouches that was draped over Gimmy¡¯s chest. None of the tools were particularly important or valuable, they were made and acquired hastily, so even if I needed them again, higher quality tools could be easily acquired.

    The soul extractor was an exception, however.

    Putting the sheep down on the chair across from me, I held up the soul extractor. It was little more than a magic wand, a bit thicker and a bit shorter than a normal one, but still, little more than a normal wand. But, with a twist, the top part with two prongs on the tip was disconnected from the bottom, and within that bottom, was a thumb-sized crystal.

    When I had received the extractor from the guild¡¯s man, Caterpillar, this crystal was a colorless white. Now, it dark brown with hints of red, almost black really.

    I held the crystal in my hands and focused my attention on it. My mana slowly crawling out like tendrils, wrapping around the stone, before they just slightly entered it.

    ¡°Micheal Canyon Fredirin, can you hear me?¡± I asked.

    In response, the solid color of the crystal began to sparkle, some parts became lighter, and others darker, and these colors swirled around within it.

    ¡°Wake up,¡± I said as the swirling grew stronger.

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Michael Canyon Fredirin, Wake up.¡±

    ¡°...huh¡­¡±

    ¡°Focus Michael Canyon Fredirin.¡±

    ¡°...who¡­? ... what¡­?¡±

    ¡°WAKE UP!¡± My voice shot directly into the crystal.

    ¡°Huh? Shannon? What¡­ What is going on? Where are you?¡±

    ¡°Are you awake?¡±

    ¡°Who? Who are you? Where is this? Where is Shannon?¡±

    ¡°Calm yourself, Michael Canyon Fredirin. You must focus.¡±

    ¡°I am focused. You focus. Who are you?¡±

    ¡°Answer me then, who are you? What is your name?¡± I asked him.

    ¡°Michael Canyon Fredirin, you''ve called me that already.¡±

    ¡°Who is your father? Your mother? Who is Michael Canyon Fredirin?¡± I asked softly this time.

    ¡°Father¡­ who is my father again... ¡°

    ¡°Focus, think, remember.¡±

    ¡°My father is¡­ Patrick Canyon Fredirin, a duke. My mother is¡­ Carrie Canyon. Right¡­ I am the son of a Duke, Michael Canyon Fredirin.¡±

    ¡°Have you calmed down?¡±

    ¡°I think? Where am I? Who are you? And where is Shannon.¡±

    ¡°I do not know who Shannon is, so I obviously do not know where she is either. As for the rest, well, in time.¡±

    ¡°No, not in time. You will tell me now.¡± His angry voice said.

    ¡°Oh? Is that the domineering attitude of the son of a duke? Still, you win, I will answer you. You are in the basement of a warehouse in the 7th circle.¡± I answered.

    ¡°Then, what is this red fog?¡±

    ¡°About that¡­ Well, instead, let me ask you something. Do you know what a soul extractor is?¡±

    ¡°Soul extractor? Of course, they are used to make magic items. Specifically, they pull a soul out of¡­¡±

    ¡°Do you understand now?¡±

    ¡°... Haha. Funny. You are suggesting that not only was I killed, but my soul was extracted?¡±

    ¡°Exactly.¡±

    ¡°Impossible. I went to sleep in my room, it is impossible for someone to have snuck in and assassinated me.¡±

    ¡°And yet, I am here, someone who you don¡¯t know. Which would imply, I had kidnapped you, would that not be even more difficult?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Nothing to say then?¡±

    ¡°... Even if¡­ Even if you were able to get to me in the Canyon Estate, you couldn¡¯t have taken my soul, soul extractors will not work on sentient beings.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ that shows how little you know. Soul extractors are normally ranked by grade, the grade indicating both the size of the crystal within, and the magical circuit that facilitates the transfer of the soul from the body to the crystal. In regards to the crystal, most of them are primed towards the type of beast that they are intended to be used upon. It follows the elemental types, red for fire, blue for water, gold for light, and so on. However, they can also be left in their base state, for when you do not know what you will be using it on.¡± I lectured.

    ¡°So? What does that have to do with anything?¡±

    ¡°The uncalibrated ones are less effective, requiring a stronger grade than a calibrated one. This, of course, increases the cost, but did you know an uncalibrated one will actually cost more than a calibrated one of an equal grade? Of course, this makes little sense at a glance, since a calibrated one goes through an additional step. What most people do not know, is that the uncalibrated one, isn¡¯t actually uncalibrated, it is instead primed for all six types of mana.¡±

    ¡°Again, what does that have to do with anything?¡±

    ¡°A soul extractor that is actually, truly, uncalibrated, is an unfinished product. In fact, even more than that, it is a highly illegal product. Why do you think that is?¡±

    ¡°First of all, I do not trust you in the first place. But as for why, I do not know.¡±

    ¡°Simple, because during the calibrating process, a restriction is placed within the crystal, a restriction that prevents the crystal from absorbing a soul with a certain degree of structure. In other words, a soul from an intelligent being.¡±

    ¡°... I do not believe you.¡±

    ¡°In fact, if used early enough, a calibrated soul extractor can be used on a newborn infant.¡±

    ¡°That is appalling.¡±

    ¡°Indeed. Of course, most people do not try that, there is no need since an infant¡¯s soul would be shockingly weak. Well, as for you, I should mention that if one knows the correct people, and is willing to pay, they can acquire an uncalibrated soul extractor.¡±

    ¡°Impossible. Production of soul extractors is controlled by the Artificer¡¯s Guild, and is highly restricted.¡±

    ¡°It is, but money opens all sorts of doors. I do not know the specifics of how this one came into my hands, but I know it did. And then, it found its way to you.¡±

    ¡°I still, do not believe you.¡±

    ¡°I see, well the funny thing is, since you are merely a soul within a small stone, there isn¡¯t much that can be done to prove it to you.¡±

    ¡°We are at an impasse then.¡±

    ¡°For normal people, yes. But, I am not normal. I wouldn¡¯t say I am particularly skilled in it, but I do know how to perform soul magic, so how about this¡­¡± I said as I circulated my mana.

    ¡°...!¡±

    ¡°How was it?¡±

    ¡°That¡­ was that¡­ what you were seeing?¡± he asked in a near panic

    ¡°Yes, it was,¡± I answered.

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°And that little rock in my hand, that was you. Your soul.¡±

    ¡°... What is it that you want?¡± He asked, his voice barely being held together now.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ what do I want? You bring up a good question. To an extent, you are a hindrance to me. But, killing you would have sufficed for just that, so it could be said I also want to give me information.¡±

    ¡°... I see¡­¡±

    ¡°I would, however, be lying if I said I didn¡¯t have another, baser, reason for all of this.¡±

    ¡°And that is?¡±

    ¡°Revenge,¡± I stated.

    ¡°Revenge?¡±

    I didn¡¯t answer, instead, I looked away from the stone and towards the adjacent chair while I circled my mana again.

    ¡°What¡­ is that thing?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Gimmy.¡±

    ¡°What is a Gimmy?¡±

    ¡°A stuffed animal, specifically, a sheep.¡±

    ¡°A stuffed¡­ sheep...? Wait, you can¡¯t be!?¡± he shouted.

    ¡°Introductions are in order I guess,¡± I said slowly.

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Olivia Pine Fredirin greets you, my cousin.¡±

 Chapter 12: Michael Fredirin.

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 17:42

    Olivia¡¯s Warehouse, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Michael Canyon Fredirin.

    I was shocked speechless.

    If what I was just told was true, not only had I been murdered, but a highly illegal and unethical item was used in my death. But, what shocked me most of all, was that the person who killed me, was my cousin, Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Olivia¡­ is it really you?¡± I asked hesitantly.

    ¡°It is. I think it has been¡­ a bit over a year and a half since we last met? If I remember correctly, it was then that you used Gimmy to test a spell.¡±

    Suddenly, a scene appeared in my mind.

    It was late summer, the air had begun to cool, but the trees had yet to change color. I was traveling through the school¡¯s grounds with a group of my friends. While we were just going about her business, a small child had stumbled up to me. She had been wearing a simple white and silver dress, her brown hair was tied to the sides in a twin tail, each held in place with a sapphire studded pin.

    And in her hands, was a bright blue sheep.

    I had had no idea who she was, which wasn¡¯t surprising at all, the number of people I didn¡¯t know far outweighed the number I did, especially so for small children. She looked as if she was four or five, and since I was twelve at the time, I would have had nothing to do with her.

    She, however, knew me.

    She tottered up to me, looked at me with a pair of big gray eyes, and then stuttered as she attempted to say my name.

    When I looked at her confused, she got frightened, but then slowly introduced herself to me, she was my cousin, Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    It took me a second to recall who exactly that was, I knew I had a cousin by that name, but I wasn¡¯t sure if we had ever met before. Eventually, I did remember a time that I had been at a ball a few months prior, and I was pretty sure she had been there too. In fact, it was possible that someone might have introduced us, but I did not remember speaking or interacting with her at all.

    While I was thinking about that, she had shyly approached and had begun pulling on the edge of my pant legs. She had timidly told me she had gotten lost, separated from her mother, and she wanted me to help find her.

    It was then that I remembered, her Pine Family, and my Canyon Family,we were rivals. Long before then, I had already had various businesses put in my name and I was already participating in the race to see who would become the next king. Olivia might be a distant relative, but she was also a potential enemy.

    But, when she looked at me with those sad, teary eyes, I wasn¡¯t sure what to do.

    The choice was, however, not one I need to decide, one of my friends did for me. He plucked the blue sheep from her and then mentioned to me that I had just been talking about how I finally mastered the acid arrow spell, now I had a target to test it on.

    He was right, I had just learned that spell, after much effort. My brother Roy, two year younger than me, was already an accomplished mage, skilled mostly with fire magic. But, while earth magic was the field I was most skilled at, even Roy had already learned the acid arrow spell that I had struggled with. I wasn¡¯t exactly jealous of him, but I feared for my own position. At the time, I had been putting my all into my magical studies, but I wasn¡¯t seeing results. Then suddenly, a child two years younger than me came out of nowhere and surpassed me in my best field with one of his worst, I was under a large amount of pressure.

    On one hand, I was excited and proud of my accomplishment in regards to the acid arrow, but I was also embarrassed and ashamed.

    When my friend said that, anger took over the blood rushed to my head. I agreed to test the spell on the sheep.

    Olivia seemed as if she was going to cry when we took her sheep, but we told her we were just going to play a game, and she reluctantly let us place it upon a bench.

    I still couldn¡¯t cast the spell instantly, so I needed to recite the aria. The crowd watched, my friends with anticipation, Olivia with apprehension.

    When I finished, a wet-looking green line in the vague shape of an arrow formed in the air and then shot wobbly out towards her sheep. The acid splashed across its face and down its side. As it sizzled, there was a moment where I saw my friends smile and begin to congratulate me, but, before they could say even a word, my cousin¡¯s ear-splitting wail echoed across the courtyard.

    She dashed over in such a panicked rush that she tripped over the hem of her own dress. She fell and skidded across the cobblestone pavement, scraping her hands, dirtying and tearing her dress. Even while sobbing in pain, she continued to wail as she got up and continued towards the sheep. All the while, she kept crying and yelling out its name.

    Suddenly, it occurred to my friends that not only was she really loud, but that it would be bad if we were caught. Without a word, my friends turned and ran.

    And I did too.

    That night, I spent my time in my room, expecting to have someone come and demand an explanation, but no one ever did. In hindsight I understood, even had the Pine¡¯s lodged a complaint towards me, my family would have done nothing. Bullying a small child wasn¡¯t a praiseworthy action, but the Pine¡¯s were our enemies, and even if my family thought I was wrong, they would have defended me just to spite the other side.

    Of course, not even that had happened. I didn¡¯t know if Olivia hadn¡¯t said anything, or if she had reported me and her guardian hadn¡¯t followed through with it.

    However, that incident had been a turning point for me. I gave up on my magical studies, focusing instead on the administration of our family¡¯s businesses. I had also distanced myself from those friends. And a few months later, I had even met Shannon.

    ¡°What are you thinking about my cousin?¡± Her voice broke me out of my reverie.

    ¡°Ah, no, it¡¯s nothing.¡± I stumbled over my words.

    ¡°You seemed to be remembering something.¡±

    ¡°No¡­ that is¡­¡±

    ¡°Let me tell you something, cousin. Being a soul is a lot different from being in a living body. A body, it makes noise, lots of it in fact, but, you do not realize it because your mind filters it out. At the same time, the automatic functions, breathing, the beating of your heart, these, while they are done without your conscious thought, they still take up some of your mental resources. For you, however, all of that is gone, you are now nothing but a simple mind, unbound by anything else. You can now focus on your thoughts to a much greater degree. That is true for your memories.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand?¡±

    ¡°Simply put, your memories are now able to be recalled in much greater detail than ever before. It is much easier for you lose yourself in them. And without any kind of outside stimuli, it is much easier for you to do so accidentally. This is why almost all spirit type undead go insane. Being an unbound mind without training is incredibly difficult.¡±

    ¡°Well, I am already dead, so what does it matter?¡± I asked with defeat.

    ¡°Do you want to be a raving, insane spirit?¡± She asked mockingly. ¡°It will take you decades, if not centuries, to break down if I leave you in that stone, and you can spend that entire time lost in your memories, without a conscious effort, you will bounce back and forth between the good ones, and the bad ones.¡±

    ¡°Is that what you plan on doing? Leaving me here forever?¡±

    ¡°I am just warning you, think of it as you cousin being nice, you know all about that right? Extending a helping hand?¡±

    ¡°About that¡­ Olivia, you said you did this for revenge earlier?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ Yes, revenge is a part of it. A big part if I am being honest. You do remember that day too? Do you not?¡±

    ¡°I do¡­ About that Olivia, I know it will sound¡­ insincere, but I want to apologize to you for that day.¡± I said resolutely.

    ¡°Oh? Do you?¡± her sharp voice shook the red fog that surrounded me.

    ¡°Yes, I do. I deeply regret what I did then. I have no excuses, I was young and immature. If I could-¡±

    My words were cut off as a pressure surged around me, crushing me very being. A pain that I could barely comprehend assaulted me.

    ¡°Cousin Michael, do not think that just because you lack a body that you can not experience pain. You can experience a much greater degree of pain in this form.¡±

    ¡°Gaah¡­ Ol...ivia¡­ Sorry¡­¡± I choked out, but the pressure only increased.

    I was being crushed, crushed to an extent that I could barely think of anything other than the pressure.

    ¡°Well then.¡± She said and the crushing sensation abruptly stopped. ¡°You burnt my sheep, I shattered your skull, ripped your soul out, and imprisoned it in a tiny stone, so let us say we are even.¡±

    ¡°...Then¡­¡± I tried to speak, but even though I was free from physical constraints, I still found it difficult to do anything but freeze up from the memory of the pain.

    ¡°Yes, we are even.¡± Even though my cousin was the source of that pain, her voice still allowed me to break away from the past pain, calming me down.

    ¡°Then¡­ you forgive me?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Was her response.

    ¡°...No?¡±

    "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You have wronged me, I have wronged you, we are even. Simply that.¡±

    ¡°But, you do not forgive me?¡±

    ¡°Forgiveness must be earned, not given. Even now, I still find my rage difficult to control.¡±

    ¡°... I am sorry¡­¡± I said.

    ¡°You have said as such before.¡±

    ¡°I know, but to me, it was but a single incident. And I already apologized for that. However, for you, it left behind a scar, you have felt pain for it to this day, so now I am apologizing for that.¡±

    After I spoke, what might have only been seconds, or might have been minutes, passed in silence.

    ¡°... Let us move on, I want you to tell me everything you know in regards to your family.¡± Olivia said, breaking that long stretch of quiet.

    ¡°That¡­¡±

    What was I going to do?

    I had wronged my cousin in the past, and it could be said that her killing me was only fair. Well, if I do say so myself, I think murdering me and imprisoning my soul is not exactly equal to what I did, but since I started the hostilities, I have no grounds to complain on.

    However, my death is a different matter entirely from betraying my family.

    Judging from that pressure she emitted before, I know torture is certainly an option here, and while I do think of myself as strong willed, I also know my limits, I would not be able to resist that for long. Furthermore, I do not even have the luxury of death, she could unleash the worst upon me without fearing that I would succumb and die.

    The question wasn¡¯t if I would give her information, it was how much would I give.

    ¡°...Very well, I will answer you.¡±

    ¡°Oh? That was quick, I thought you might resist.¡±

    ¡°That is not really an option, is it?¡±

    ¡°No, it is not.¡±

    ¡°I did not think so. You would get what you want regardless, so I will make it easy on myself and cooperate.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡±

    ¡°However, since I am cooperating, I would like to ask you a question myself.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°You do not have to answer if you do not want to.¡± I toned my demand down a bit.

    ¡°You may ask. I might not answer, but you may ask.¡±

    ¡°How did you kill me?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I thought I mentioned this? I cracked open your skull.¡± was her answer.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ¡°Yes, but exactly how was that possible? My family¡¯s estate is well guarded, I can not believe it was easy to sneak in.¡±

    ¡°You would be wrong, it was rather easy. For me at least. Rest assured, while I could make use of the same method again, assuming nothing changed, no one else would be able to mimic me.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ does not leave me reassured.¡±

    ¡°That is a shame.¡± She said dryly.

    ¡°Still, so you snuck in?¡±

    ¡°In a manner of speaking.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­¡± I hesitated a bit, ¡°Was I the only one who was killed?¡±

    ¡°... Ah, I see now. Haha, you mean to ask, was Shannon killed too?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Shit, she saw through me.

    ¡°What if she was? What if I killed her too? I slight her throat, shattered her skull? What if she is sitting on the table in an identical small stone?¡± She laughed as she spoke.

    ¡°Then I will tell you nothing,¡± I said resolutely.

    ¡°So you say, but I do not think you could hold out for long.¡±

    ¡°I guess we would find out,¡± I said defiantly.

    ¡°Well, truth be told, how would I know who this Shannon is? How would I know if she was alive or not? Who is she?¡±

    Of course, that was only obvious, why had I not realized that until she mentioned it?

    ¡°Shannon is¡­ was, my¡­ maid.¡± I said.

    ¡°A maid? I doubt that. Or should I say, she may be a maid, but she isn¡¯t only a maid? She is something more than that, right?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Dammit, I made another mistake.

    Olivia was now aware that Shannon was important to me. She didn¡¯t know how or why, but she knew I had a weak spot. Now, if I refused to help her, or if I did anything to hinder her, Shannon could become a target.

    This¡­ this was a massive mistake. What is wrong with me? How could I have messed up like this?

    I could try and deceive my cousin, but it was probably too late, I have already painted a target on Shannon. At best, I could try to make it seem as if she isn¡¯t that important and hope that the effort Olivia would need to expand to harm her is too much. But¡­ I am not confident that I could pull that off, I do not even know how much effort Olivia needed to kill me.

    What if I just refused to answer? No, that would be even worse. I would still leave Shannon in danger, possibly even more so, and I would start my cooperation with my cousin by disobeying her, that would be a really poor start.

    Then, what if I tell her the truth? That is probably the worst thing I could do. Right now, Olivia only knows Shannon is my maid, but if I tell her everything, she will really understand how important Shannon is.

    Think. Think. Think.

    Okay, what will my family do? Investigate who killed me and how. If they can not find anything¡­ they will likely hide my death for a short while, then reveal I died of an illness or injury. If they do that, they won''t be able to continue the investigation, at least overtly. In that case, nothing happens.

    If they discover something, they will seek some form of retribution, but, Olivia seems confident she will not be discovered.

    Then, the most likely outcome is nothing coming from this.

    So what happens to Shannon? Most of my family find her to be an eyesore, I doubt she¡¯ll be a large concern for anyone. She will probably be allowed to continue her work as a basic maid, but that is it. Security around her will be extremely lax, and that is assuming that the family doesn¡¯t kick her out.

    I did leave a will, but, I do not think that will make much of a difference in how the family treats her, they might even ignore the will entirely.

    In this case, Shannon will most likely be left to her own devices, so what will she do?

    ¡°So¡­? Who is this Shannon? Tell me, my dear cousin.¡± Olivia¡¯s voice intruded on my thoughts.

    Shit¡­ I don¡¯t have time.

    Shannon will probably investigate on her own. Shit, that is the worst.

    If my family ignores my will and kicks her out, that might be for the best. Without resources, she will likely not be able to get far, and while I am not okay with her wasting her life like that, at least she will be safe.

    But¡­ if they do support her, she might come too close to discovering who killed me. Not only will I have set her up as a target, but she will directly be threatening Olivia.

    ¡°Answer me!¡± She said, the pressure from before coming back to lightly crush me.

    No time¡­ What to do?

    ¡°... Shannon is¡­ My maid.¡± I tried to stall.

    ¡°You said that. But that is not all.¡±

    Shit! Shit, there is only one thing I can do.

    ¡°Shannon is¡­ My maid, and also¡­ My fiance¡­¡± I said slowly.

    ¡°Oh? really? ¡° She said as the pressure receded.

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± I said as I mustered my thoughts. ¡°Well, she might be my wife now I guess?¡±

    ¡°Explain that.¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course,¡± I said calmly, all I could do now was see this through. ¡°I had proposed to her before, and while she did not accept, she likewise did not reject me. She felt she wasn¡¯t worthy to marry me.¡±

    ¡°Fiancee seems like a stretch, Wife even more so.¡±

    ¡°Shannon is an orphan, but she was originally from the south, the Holy Uvalin Theocracy. Unlike in the Fredirin Kingdom where marriage is just a binding of two people, in the Theocracy, it is a religious ceremony with strict rules. When a man proposes, he gives what is called an engagement ring, if the woman accepts, she wears the ring to indicate she is taken. Then, during the actual ceremony, both the man and women exchange two lesser rings, the pair of rings signify that they are married.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating. Well, not really, I could not care less. What does this have to do with anything?¡± She asked, her tone clearly annoyed as she suspected I was wasting time.

    ¡°I gave Shannon a ring that had single use magic stones in it. I told her it was simply to keep her safe, but I had it engraved with the marriage vows, so it also doubles as an engagement ring. I didn¡¯t explicitly state what it was, but I know that she understood. We just never¡­ verbalized it.¡±

    ¡°That explains the finance part, not the wife part.¡±

    ¡°Yes, about that¡­ I also left a will. I had already bought our wedding rings and left them along with the will. If Shannon accepts, she will become my wife despite the fact I was killed. As my wife, she is entitled to some of my fortune, and my family will take care of her.¡±

    ¡°She might not accept.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is true. My family might also not tell her. However¡­ I think they will. Shannon knows everything about me, so to investigate, they need her assistance. And I think she will accept, because I suspect she will also want to investigate my death. Being part of the family will allow her to do so with ease.¡±

    ¡°I see. So it is just a matter of if she had discovered your will?¡±

    ¡°Most likely. How long¡­ have I been dead?¡± A surreal question if one had ever been asked.

    ¡°Almost a day, I killed you last night, and it is almost sunset now.¡±

    ¡°I was probably discovered at dawn, unless you moved my body?¡±

    ¡°I did not, your corpse was in your bed.¡±

    ¡°I see, then, if she has not been informed of the will already, she will soon. Unless they choose to hide it.¡±

    ¡°Let us move back on topic.¡± She said.

    ¡°Wait¡­ I would like to¡­ make an offer.¡± I said as I decided to go all in with this.

    ¡°An offer? What makes you think you have anything to offer?¡±

    ¡°I will cooperate with you to the best of my ability, I shall be your pawn, your slave if you deem it. I will betray the Canyon Family completely, I will even give up my name. All I ask is that you give a message to Shannon.¡±

    ¡°...No.¡± She rejected me.

    ¡°Why?¡± I asked bewildered.

    ¡°Let us suppose, that I trust you to not hide something in this message, how would I see she gets it? Not only would I risk discovery, but I would be revealing that at the very least, I was able to interrogate you for information before you died. If they even considered that I had claimed your soul, that would be an even bigger problem.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Shit, those were all very good points.

    ¡°Then¡­¡± I considered an alternative. ¡°All I want is for Shannon to be safe. If she doesn¡¯t do anything, then that is fine, and I will still fulfill my end of the bargain. But, if she appears before you, I ask that you do not harm her.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Since she was staying silent, perhaps she was considering it?

    I was not asking for much, but on the other hand, I was not offering much. And, she would need to trust me. Ideally, having me cooperate fully of my own will would be best, if I wasn¡¯t, even if I appeared compliment, I could omit important information or provide information that is slightly wrong.

    The problem was, even if I said I was fully cooperating, I could still do these things.

    ¡°A slave? Do you know what that means?¡¯ She suddenly asked.

    ¡°Yes?¡± I answered, not exactly sure what she was getting at.

    ¡°You will become my thrall. You will not be able to disobey me at all. If I ordered you to, with your own two hands, to wring that Shannon¡¯s neck, to squeeze the life out of her, you would not be able to resist. You understand this?¡±

    ¡°...I can only trust you.¡±

    ¡°I should mention, if you were to become my vassal, and you harbored any deceit, there would be consequences,¡± Olivia explained.

    ¡°Such as?¡±

    ¡°You will be destroyed. Utterly.¡± She answered succinctly.

    ¡°Well¡­ That¡­¡±

    ¡°You might think that would be an escape, and you would be right. If you try to deceive me, and are obliterated, you will have successfully escaped.¡±

    ¡°But¡­?¡± I prompted her for more.

    ¡°Should that happen, I will be most displeased. And Shannon,she will bear the burden of that displeasure. I assure you, should you cheat me like this, I will not rest until your wife is in my hands. I will torture her until death. And then I will collect her soul, and torture her again. I will only rest when her very being collapses, until the entity known as Shannon becomes nothing but a mass of negative emotions. And then, I will use that as a basis to make an undead. Do you understand me.¡± Pure venom dripped from her voice as she explained that.

    ¡°...yes¡­¡± I whispered.

    ¡°Then for now¡­¡± She said offhandedly. ¡°You should sleeeeeep¡­..¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 17:50

    Olivia¡¯s Warehouse, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    I leaned back on the chair and looked towards the roof. Shadows flickered as the candle burnt down steadily, but it didn¡¯t hinder my sight at all.

    Slowly I brought the crystal containing my cousin''s soul up before me.

    Light still swirled within, but it was more subdued now.

    ¡°What should I do?¡± I asked, ¡°Gimmy, what do you think?¡±

    The sheep offered me nothing, just as I knew it wouldn¡¯t.

    On one hand, I could torture information out of Michael Canyon Fredirin. Some of it would be useful, some of it would be fake, and much of what I wanted would be omitted. Torture could be rather satisfying, but it was also rather ineffective.

    With this, I risked nothing, and at the very least, I would gain something.

    On the other hand, I could bind his soul to me, making him my thrall, a vassal. If I did this, I would gain all of the information I wanted, and with no hidden issues. I would also gain a loyal underling, a powerful one at that.

    My gains would be much greater, but at the same time, my risks would increase in proportion.

    As I mentioned to my cousin, if he didn¡¯t give himself over to me, he would be destroyed, and then I would gain nothing. But what I didn¡¯t say to him, was that I would also suffer a severe injury if it was unsuccessful. My life would not be at risk, but I would be weakened considerably for at least several months.

    Thinking about it, the risks vastly outweighed the benefits. But¡­

    But¡­ the risks depend on how much I trusted my cousin. If¡­ if he was being honest, then the risks were actually very low. If on the other hand, he was lying, then the risks would be great.

    It was a matter of trust.

    How much did I trust him? My cousin, Michael Canyon Fredirin.

    I had killed him after all.

    But, his concern for his maid, Shannon, seemed genuine.

    Yes, I was confident it was genuine, but that mattered little. I genuinely cared for Gimmy, as much as I hated it, it was embarrassing, but that blue sheep sitting across from me was important to me. I also genuinely cared for my brother and sister, more so than the sheep, if I needed to, I would obviously sacrifice Gimmy for Pamela and Timothy.

    My cousin cared for Shannon, but did he care for her enough to betray his family?

    ¡°Gimmy, I have never had¡­ a confidant. Someone who I could share my heart with, in a way, you, a stupid sheep, serve me a purpose.¡± I spoke slowly while still looking at the crystal I held above me.

    ¡°What should I do? If I weigh the risks¡­ I conclude I should ignore him and simply resort to torture.¡±

    That was the safe bet, and there was no reason not to take the safe bet, it was what I had always done.

    ¡°Right,¡± I suddenly sat forward and looked at the dirty and burnt sheep. ¡°That is what I would conclude. It is, in fact, what I have concluded. A solution based on my experience.¡±

    Now I stood up.

    ¡°However, those experiences, have already lead me to my end once already. I am now Olivia Pine Fredirin, if nothing else, this is a shining example of my past failures.¡± I nodded to the sheep.

    ¡°Michael Canyon Fredirin, let me try trusting you. If you betray me, I guarantee you''re Shannon will suffer for it. But for now, let me try.¡±

    I took my leather armor off without another word. Each piece, the upper arms, the shoulders, the neck guard, the breastplate, the under armor, I took it off one part at a time. Eventually, there was only a simple cotton undershirt on me, but I took that off too.

    I reached to the table and picked up the dagger that Gimmy had held as I directed him to kill my cousin. It had some of his blood on it, but it was still sharp and undamaged.

    I didn¡¯t hesitate as I plunged it into my chest, between my ribs. I wretched it around a bit, and for my effort, I was assailed with a type of pain I had never known before, the pain of my physical body suffering severe damage. It wasn¡¯t the worst pain I had encountered, but it was unique.

    Still, I could bear it with ease.

    With the gash now opened, I used my other hand to reach in, sliding my fingers between my ribs. Human bones would not hold up to my current strength, but these bones were already something beyond human, so I circled my mana to strengthen my hand, and with a quick jerk, I broke the first rib with a loud snap.

    Three more snaps and I broke three more ribs. Then, using the dagger, I sawed through the connecting muscles. Satisfied with my work, I placed the dagger in between my teeth. With both hands free, I was able to reach into my chest and wrench my ribs apart. With an opening now giving me access to my chest cavity, I pushed past my lung and searched deeper within.

    Gently, my fingers traced through the muscles, veins, and other tissues as blood poured out, splashing down my front, staining my armored legs, and pooling on the floor. Then, as my fingertips gingerly explored, I felt it, a light thump. Prodding the area, I found the exact location. I extracted my right hand and took the dagger out from my mouth, and then went back in with it, sawing through this last protective layer.

    At last, I was at my heart.

    The anatomy books Olivia had seen in school described a human heart as a large, always beating muscle with four chambers.

    Mine was different.

    There were bits of tissue anchoring it down, but I cut those too, and then slowly began pulling it out of my chest.

    For a while, I could survive without my heart. I could probably even survive having it completely destroyed, assuming I could create another in time. Still, it was best to leave it intact, so I only cut the connecting tissue, I left the veins and arteries in place.

    As I pulled it out, I could feel my major blood vessels being pulled, my neck bulged and my other organs shifted, but with the exception of some smaller blood vessels that ruptured, everything held together.

    Still, it was a rather unpleasant sensation, even without considering the pain.

    Finally, my heart was completely out of my chest.

    It was small, smaller than it should be, even for a seven-year-old girl, it was barely larger than a chicken¡¯s egg. It was also almost a perfect sphere, the only difference was the various bulges on its surface. A close look revealed that the bulges were moving in a steady, yet fast rhythm. Also unlike a normal heart, where the veins and arteries connected at one point, mine had several connecting vessels that originate from the edges of the pulsating bulges.

    Those bulges were the chambers of my heart, each was much smaller than a normal heart¡¯s, but I had twenty-four of them, six times as many as a normal human.

    From the books I had read, many humans consider the heart to be the resting place of the soul, but I knew this to be wrong. The soul infused the entire body, but it was primarily focused in the brain, the source of thought. The heart, while important, was no different from the other organs, it held no special significance.

    Without hesitating, I plunged the dagger into my heart. Using the opening I just made, I pulled it apart with my fingers, revealing the center of the muscle, where a vortex of crimson mana could be faintly seen throughout the flood of my blood.

    The soul did not reside within the heart, but the heart was also the main junction for the body¡¯s mana flow. Blood carried not only oxygen, nutrients, and waste products throughout the body, but also mana. While mana was generated internally within the brain, it was stored within the heart, even when it was used immediately after being formed, it would still go to the heart first.

    Of course, only powerful mages would store enough mana that it could be seen. And even then, normally cutting into and opening the heart would, if not fatally wound the mage, deal enough damage that they would not be able to contain the mana any longer.

    But for me, while I found this entire process unpleasant in the extreme, it wasn¡¯t causing me that much damage. Plus, the damage it was inflicting, I was carefully healing with my mana.

    I dropped the dagger I had been using to slice apart my insides, it bounced onto the floor where it was covered by the steadily enlarging pool of blood. Holding my heart open with my left hand¡¯s fingers, I used my right to pick up the crystal that contained my cousin''s soul. And then I carefully, placed it within my heart, slowly pushing it through the gash and towards the center, only stopping when it was enveloped by the vortex.

    Once satisfied, I simply pushed the wound closed and it swiftly healed. I then pushed my heart back into my chest, pulled the surrounding cut tissues back towards it, and then placed my lung back where it was. I replaced my ribs, setting them back where they were originally, and then pulled my skin back and pinched it together. Within seconds, the wound had closed.

    My insides were still a mess, but that would just take time.

    I willed the blood that had leaked all over the room back to me, and it moved on its own, swirling towards my feet, then sticking to my legs and traveling upward. For a while, I was covered entirely in the red fluid, but it was swiftly absorbed through all of the ruptured capillaries on my body, and as they were repaired, the rest went in through my eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

    I spent around two minutes pulling out my heart, another opening it and placing the crystal within it, and then another thirty seconds repairing myself and collecting my blood. Less than five minutes, and there was no evidence of what just happened remaining.

    My internal injuries would take several hours to heal under normal circumstances, but until Michael Canyon Fredirin finished absorbing my aura, the healing would slow to a crawl. I would be operating at a fraction of my normal power for at least a day or two.

    ¡°Excuse me, My Lady, it is Ula.¡±

    ¡°Come in¡± I called out as I began replacing my armor.

    ¡°Excuse me My Lady, but Captain told me to- My Lady! You are injured!¡± Ula almost yelled as she ran over to me.

    I looked down at my still bare upper body and realized that my normally pale white skin was now largely a mottled blue and black.

    ¡°Hmm, it is just some bruising from earlier,¡± I said offhandedly.

    ¡°But¡­ It looks really bad¡­¡± She said hesitantly.

    ¡°Do not worry about it, I am fine,¡± I said as I continued putting my armor on.

    Ula didn¡¯t say anything, even though she looked like she really wanted to. Instead, she lightly sniffed the air and looked confused.

    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I smell¡­ blood I think? It is really faint.¡± She responded, unsure.

    ¡°Probably from my armor, enough of it splashed on me earlier,¡± I said, trying to sound unconcerned.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ It is strange though. I didn¡¯t smell it before, and it doesn''t smell stale, but I guess when you removed the armor, the scent was released. Still, it smells odd¡­¡± She wondered.

    ¡°You have a good nose?¡± I queried.

    ¡°Ah, yes.¡± She looked embarrassed as she peeled back her lips to reveal a set of teeth that were pointed. She even tilted her head back so I could see that there was a second row of teeth behind the first. ¡°One of my parents seemed to be a beast-folk, or a grandparent I guess. Maybe even further back since I do not have many obvious traits. But they must have been a shark-folk, so I got the teeth, my skin is kind of rough too, a bit sturdier also. I''m also pretty good in the water, but, my nose is really sensitive towards the scent of blood.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ I didn¡¯t know.¡± I responded.

    ¡°I don¡¯t exactly like talking about it. Beast-folk are considered barbarians. They aren¡¯t exactly discriminated against, but still, it isn¡¯t a good reputation. And half-breeds like me, people look down on anyone who marries a beast-folk.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    This was information that was completely new to me. In my previous life, I knew nothing about the intricacies of beast-folk relations in the Fredirin Kingdom, a nation I had never even heard of before. As for Olivia¡¯s memories, she knew of beast-folk, having seen a few before, and having learned about them through classes and books. But no one would teach that kind of thing to a small child.

    ¡°Shark-folk are even more savage than the rest. They¡¯re also really rare, so even if someone knew something was off with me, they wouldn¡¯t normally be able to identify what it was,¡± she added.

    ¡°Hmm, well rest assured, it does not bother me. In fact, I should have inquired about your abilities before now.¡±

    That was true, when I had left the Citadel of the Pines, I had received a dossier on all eleven of the Spectres, and it had mentioned that Ula had Shark-folk blood to some degree, and it also mentioned she was the squad¡¯s tracker, but it hadn¡¯t mentioned much else.

    Not understanding the capacity of my subordinates was in fact, a huge problem, one that I would need to correct.

    ¡°Ah, no worries, My Lady, I should have mentioned it before.¡±

    ¡°It is fine,¡± I said as I waved it away. ¡°Besides that, what is it that you needed?¡±

    ¡°Oh, right, Captain says we should head out soon, unless you still want to rest?¡± She said as she scanned over my now leather-clad form. The bruises were hidden, but I knew she still remembered them.

    ¡°No, let''s go,¡± I said and followed her towards the door.

    It was time to go home.

 Chapter 13: Sisterly Bonding.

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 19:04

    Pine Family Carriage, 4th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Welcome back My Lady.¡± Carla greeted me as she helped me back into the carriage.

    Captain Nev managed to get me back to the bridge with only minutes to spare, I only had to wait in the rafters for a short while before my carriage with my Guardian Knight Carla and Uncle Jop passed under me.

    ¡°Olivia¡­ no, nevermind. How did it go?¡± Uncle Jop asked.

    ¡°As expected. I didn¡¯t achieve everything I wanted, but it was sufficient.¡± I replied as I sat back down on my bench, Carla again taking a seat next to me. ¡°How were things on your end?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­¡± Carla said with a wry smile on her face. Even Uncle Job had a similar expression on his face.

    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked curiously.

    ¡°Did you know¡­ that the Young Master Varsin is¡­ crazy?¡± Uncle Jop asked.

    I scanned my memories just to make sure, but I had no recollection of him being strange. He was a dedicated craftsman, and he seemed a bit sensitive if people looked down on his craft, but that was relatively normal.

    ¡°No? What was wrong?¡± I asked while directing my glance at Carla, after all, she had been there with me many times in the past.

    ¡°Young Master Varsin felt that he should¡­ entertain us as we waited.¡± Carla said slowly. ¡°At first¡­ it was normal. But he started talking about stuffed animals after an hour¡­¡±

    ¡°And he never stopped.¡± Uncle Jop added.

    ¡°Never stopped?¡± I asked bewildered.

    ¡°No, he never stopped. He talked about them, every aspect of them, for hours.¡±

    ¡°He¡­ got animated.¡± Carla mentioned.

    ¡°I now know far more than I needed to about stuffed animals.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ me too.¡±

    The two of them had the look of a defeated soldier on their face.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ I guess I should apologize for asking you two to do this?¡± I said apologetically.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine.¡±

    ¡°Right, it is my job to serve My Lady.¡± They both rejected my apology.

    ¡°Still, you spent the entire time with Varsin? So you did not hear about anything else?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Should we have?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I thought to myself.

    I was sort of hoping that I could see how much information about today had spread, but they apparently knew nothing. The Canyon Family had probably concealed information in regards to Michael, but something may have already leaked to the average people.

    As for the raids on the various schools, that should have spread everywhere, but at the same time, that wasn¡¯t the news that normally gets transmitted to a shop that makes stuffed animals for the wealthy.

    ¡°Well, let us head home.¡±

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 19:49

    Pine Family Carriage, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    As our carriage advanced towards the main gate of the Pine Estate, I was lost in thought. The trip was mostly silent, I had things to think over, and my two guards seemed mentally exhausted from spending a day at Varsin¡¯s.

    The early part of the ride was spent thinking about future plans, but the latter half, I spent doing something else.

    As the carriage progressed, a faint hint of anticipation was welling up within me, and it took me a while to figure out what it was, but when I did, I couldn¡¯t help but frown.

    I was excited to return home.

    Home¡­

    When had I last felt like that? My domain before I died, that was my possession, my territory, but it wasn¡¯t my home. Not a place I could relax in, at least not fully.

    Had I ever considered a place home? I did have a family before, but no, never a safe place that I could call home.

    Even now, it wasn¡¯t until I made this realization that I had even noticed I considered this my home. My family, yes, Timothy, Pamela, even my mother and father along with my two other siblings who I haven¡¯t met yet, I considered them my family.

    A part of me was concerned, these were all potential weaknesses. At least in the past, my family members had their own power, they couldn¡¯t be killed easily. But that wasn¡¯t the case now, I needed to protect them.

    And now, besides just a family, I had a home I needed to protect too.

    In the past, my family and I would be forced to flee, sometimes from enemies, sometimes from allies, and sometimes from the very land itself. Because we didn¡¯t have a home, we were able to simply pack up and move. But it was different now.

    I needed to change my plans now. Before, I thought just protecting my family would be sufficient, and that was something that if the worse came to pass, I could see to myself. Now, that wasn¡¯t the case.

    ¡°My Lady, we are almost home. Do you want to wear your coat?¡± Carla asked as the carriage passed through the gate and entered the Pine Estate¡¯s courtyard.

    ¡°Mmm.¡± I nodded in the affirmative.

    In the time it took Carla to ready my coat and get it on me, the carriage had already rolled to a stop in front of the main entrance. I disembarked into the cold air of dusk, my guards coming out from behind me.

    ¡°My Lady, welcome home.¡± Came the voice of Lisa, another one of my personal maids.

    Lisa, along with two other maids, were waiting at the entrance for us.

    ¡°Mmm, I''m back,¡± I said and couldn¡¯t help but smile.

    ¡°Dinner has passed, but if you haven¡¯t eaten, the kitchen can provide a meal, or is there something else you need?¡± She asked.

    ¡°Where is Pamela? And Timothy?¡±

    ¡°The Miss is in her art studio, and the Sir is in the library.¡±

    ¡°I see, then I will go see my sister. Could you have a meal brought to me there?¡±

    ¡°As you wish My Lady.¡± Lisa motioned to the two adjacent maids who both hurried away after giving me a short bow. ¡°I shall guide you.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    I, of course, knew the way, but it was impossible for myself, or any of us siblings, to ever go anywhere by ourselves, even if it was within the estate.

    However, before I followed Lisa, I turned back to my two guards.

    ¡°Thank you for accompanying me today,¡± I said.

    ¡°You are welcome.¡±

    ¡°You are welcome.¡±

    For nobility, to give thanks is something that should only be done at important times, or to a superior noble. For others to serve us, it is only natural. Nobles do not offer thanks lightly, even to their equals, much less their subordinates. Likewise, a subordinate should instead reject the thanks, saying something like, those words are too much for me.

    However, the Pine Family does things differently. Just like our family meals, the rules are that we must give thanks, at least when it is appropriate. For our servants, most of them will just silently acknowledge our thanks, some who hold some degree of prestige themselves will offer their gratitude in return. It is, however, against the rules for the servants to demean themselves and say that theyaren¡¯t worthy. In my Mother¡¯s words, if they aren¡¯t worthy to receive our thanks, would that not mean we wasted our time giving it?

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    While musing on how strange our family is, I followed Lisa as we went through the estate and finally arrived at Pamela¡¯s art studio.

    Pamela actually had several studios spread through the estate, while some of them were devoted to different forms of the arts, most of them were set up near different windows giving different views. This particular one was on the third floor, and the roof was a glass dome that allowed one to see the sky almost unobstructed. Unfortunately, because glass tends to not be the best insulator, this room would have normally been rather cold. To combat that, the surrounding rooms were redesigned to be a boiler room and also a large spa like bathroom. The heat, and humidity, leaked into the studio, making it rather comfortable, at least during the colder parts of the year.

    As we approached, one of my sister¡¯s maids, whose name I didn¡¯t know, nodded to us, and then knocked on the door and announced us. Without needing to say anything, she opened the door and let me in.

    ¡°Welcome home¡­ Olivia¡­ How was¡­ Your¡­ day¡­?¡± My sister asked while shifting her focus between me and the painting she was looking at.

    ¡°Good. What are you painting?¡± I asked as I moved around towards her side.

    My sister was not bothered by clutter, so moving through the room was actually easier said than done.

    ¡°Sunset.¡± Was her reply

    Now that I was able to take a look, I saw that the painting was barely half-finished. The canvas was rather large, but only the left half was being worked on. From what I could see, it depicted a group of birds flying over the setting sun. Hues of red and orange painted the sky while the sun itself was a dull gray.

    However, the painting was only half finished, so I couldn¡¯t tell for sure what it¡¯s final form would be.

    ¡°You do not like it?¡± I asked, knowing that Pamela would only stare this intently at it if she felt something was wrong.

    ¡°It¡¯s the sun. Originally, I wanted it to be darker, almost black, but not quite. But then I realized it would blend into the dark red of the sky near it, so I made it lighter. But¡­ it¡¯s not right¡­¡± She sighed and then sat down.

    ¡°You won¡¯t continue it?¡±

    ¡°No, I am still only at the start for this child, but I can tell it won''t be good.¡± She said despondently.

    ¡°I see¡­¡±

    I looked around at some of the other paintings here and frowned. Generally, my sister could paint anything, landscapes, historical scenes, animals, plants, people, buildings, anything. However, since this studio was focused around the large window, and the various plants that Pamela grew here, nearly all of her paintings were landscapes showing the horizon, or smaller paintings of various plants and flower.

    But even the best ones, the ones that Pamela framed and hung on the wall, were only half finished. All of them only contained a left side, the right side was blank canvas.

    Looking back at my sister, I saw her sitting on a small stool, her paint stained figure hunched over as she absentmindedly rubbed the area around the eye patch that covered her right eye. She didn¡¯t even notice she was smearing orange paint on the side of her face while doing so.

    ¡°Does your eye hurt?¡±

    ¡°Hmm?¡± She looked at me in surprise. ¡°No, not at all.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± She smiled wryly at me. ¡°A bit. It is just¡­ a soreness that comes by every now and then.¡±

    ¡°...¡± I said nothing, but I could feel my hands clenching at my sides.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t bad, don¡¯t worry. It hurts sometimes, and at its worst, it''s not much different from a light headache.¡± Having seen my expression she tried to reassure me.

    ¡°We do not even know who did it.¡±

    ¡°Olvia, it was an accident. An accident.¡±

    ¡°Indeed. Instead of containing a magic stone capable of emitting low-grade mana signals, the box accidentally contained a high-grade magic stone with the sunburst spell inscribed within.¡± I said sarcastically.

    ¡°...¡± Pamela just looked at me sadly.

    Our mother, Duchess Isabella, was a daughter of the current king. Our father was only the third son of a baron, which should have consigned him to a lifetime of mediocrity. However, according to their family¡¯s history, his great grandfather had earned the favor of a Fairy. In return for whatever it was that he did, he was blessed with a unique magical skill called Fairy Eyes. His eyes could literally see the mana flowing in the environment. While a detect magic spell could also do that, the detect magic spell did not come with different degrees, and in a high mana environment, the spell would overwhelm the caster. Fairy Eyes were like normal eyes, able to adjust to different degrees, so a holder of Fairy Eyes could detect even trace amounts of mana, and could also distinguish different mana flows even in a high mana environment.

    With those eyes, his great grandfather who was only a foot soldier was able to rise up and become a knight, and then when his son, our father¡¯s grandfather, was born with Fairy Eyes, they raised up even further and became a baron household.

    During the next generation, two of my father''s uncles and aunts inherited the eyes, but not his father, our grandfather. The eldest son had the Fairy Eyes, but he died from an illness when young, and one of the daughters also held them, but she eloped out of the family and was never heard of again.

    Father ended up inheriting them, and of his five children, Pamela inherited only one Fairy Eye, and our younger brother, Vincent, inherited two of them.

    Being able to see the mana was already a useful skill, it allowed one to determine a great deal about what kind of spell another party was using. But, as Arcane Magic began flourishing, it was discovered that the Fairy Eyes could allow a much greater control over the spells being cast.

    Casting Arcane spells was like weaving the mana into the spell, instead of just using brute force to emit it and shape it. Most people weaved the spell blind, but with Fairy Eyes, a caster could do the weaving with much more finesse, casting spells faster, and getting the same effect with far less mana. At a young age, my sister was already an accomplished arcane mage, even having never opened her magic core, she simply didn¡¯t need the extra mana to cast spells due to her exquisite level of control.

    However, that came to an end one day.

    While at school, she was undergoing a test to determine how fine of a magical spell she could see. A small magic stone was brought out that emitted different types of mana at incredibly small levels for short periods of time. The test was to determine both if she could sense them, and how fast she could sense them.

    So having focused her Fairy Eye to the max, they activated the stone. But, instead of only releasing trace amounts of mana, the stone was inscribed with a sunburst spell, a spell that creates a massive flash of light.

    To put it in perspective, if used at night time in our courtyard, the flash from the Sunburst spell would be spotted by the entire capital city.

    The light and the mana was so harsh that it burnt out my sister¡¯s eye, the magical vessels that made a normal eye into a Fairy Eye were completely destroyed, and even then, her eye lost almost its entire ability to see normally. She could see vague shapes and light, but if she was only using her right eye, she could barely differentiate different people.

    And then the worst parts came later.

    Because she was used to having the Fairy Eye allow her to see what she was doing when she cast an Arcane spell, without that, she lost her ability to use magic. She could technically cast spells, but they were so inefficient that they were barely effective at anything. Because of this, she gave up her magical studies, and instead focused on her only other passion, art.

    Pamela always loved painting, but even that was taken from her. With one eye effectively blind, she couldn¡¯t paint at all. Eventually, she discovered that if she blocked the damaged eye''s vision, she could still create half a picture, but that was all she could do.

    ¡°Well, little sister, what did you come to find me for?¡± She asked, breaking me out of my brooding.

    ¡°Right¡­¡± I said as I swallowed down my anger. ¡°I was hoping you could paint me a picture. Just a draft, I do not need anything extravagant.¡±

    ¡°Oh, what is it that you want?¡± She asked looking excited.

    ¡°Do you know my stuffed sheep, Gimmy?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Um¡­ Gimmy¡­ Gimmy¡­ Is that the purple one? Or wait, it was blue?¡±

    ¡°That is the one. Could you paint a picture of Gimmy, but as if he¡­ grew up?¡± I asked, not exactly sure how to word my request.

    ¡°Grew up?¡± Pamela asked, clearly not understanding me.

    ¡°As if he were an adult. Make him look¡­ tall, and more¡­ human.¡±

    ¡°I see? So you want him to look, like a Goatfolk? I can do that I think.¡±

    ¡°Can you? Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Not a problem, whatever my cute little sister asks for, I will strive to do.¡± She said with a smile. ¡°Still¡­ how ¡­ sheepy do you want him? Covered in wool? Or with a mostly human physique?¡±

    ¡°I will let you decide that.¡±

    ¡°Haha, leave it to me then. I will do it right now.¡± She said and then stood and tossed the canvas she had been working on aside.

    However, after she put a blank canvas on the easel, she instead walked away and grabbed a sheet of paper and clipped that over the canvas. It wasn¡¯t paint that she took, but a pencil as she started sketching.

    ¡°I¡¯m just doing an outline and rough draft first to get some ideas.¡± Having seen me look confused she offered an explanation.

    ¡°I see.¡±

    I watched her work, and slowly but surely, the left half of an adult, more human looking, sheep appeared on the paper. Since it was just an outline and lacked any color, I couldn¡¯t say for sure, but it looked pretty good.

    My sister was a skilled artist after all.

    ¡°By the way Olivia, what are your plans for tonight?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡±

    I didn¡¯t really have plans per se, but there were some things I wanted to focus on. I needed to continue reforging my body, but that would likely take a back seat towards dealing with the crystal that contained my cousin''s soul that was still inside of my heart. Both of those required simple meditation for the most part. I also wanted to analyze the results of today¡¯s raids, plan out options for the different responses the Canyon Family might make, finalize what I want from Michael, plan for any encounters with Shannon, prepare my future moves, and now I also needed to consider what could be done to protect my home. Not to mention, I needed to go to school tomorrow.

    ¡°No, I do not have any plans.¡± I lied.

    Despite what I needed to do, I knew Pamela wouldn¡¯t have asked the question if she didn¡¯t want something from me.

    ¡°So you are just going to go back to your room and sleep?¡± She asked.

    ¡°I guess.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± She paused her conversation while she made some last minute changes to the sketch. ¡°How is it?¡±

    I looked over her work once more and found nothing wrong with it.

    ¡°It looks good.¡±

    ¡°Good, then now I''ll move to the paint.¡± She said as she took the paper away and then tacked it to the wall near her.

    ¡°Thank you again,¡± I said.

    ¡°Nothing is too much when my little sister asks. Hmm, so¡­ I am thinking I will give him a mostly human appearance, but I will dress him up in armor, and then use blue fur around the edges. He might look like a barbarian, is that okay?¡±

    ¡°That is fine. But why armor?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Ha, well, I can¡¯t very well leave him naked, can I?¡± she said with a laugh.

    ¡°Why not?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­¡± She stopped painting and looked at me for a second. ¡°You are too young for that.¡±

    I quickly scanned through my memories trying to figure out why that mattered, but I came up blank. I understood why a person would not want to be seen naked, it being an issue of pride and dignity, but this was a drawing, it had no pride or dignity.

    In fact, the human need to be clothed was somewhat confusing to me. I understood the need for protection, human bones were somewhat frail, and human skin was paper thin. They were susceptible to the elements, the climate, pretty much everything. Even internally, their organs were weak, clustered together, and had few, if any, redundancies. And if the initial damage wasn¡¯t fatal, human recovery was slow, and that was only when it worked in the first place, many injuries, while not instantly fatal, would still kill a human in time.

    So while I understood the need for clothing and armor, I found the human obsession with it to be too extreme, why were there so many varieties? Colors? There were far too many. And when the immediate protection requirements were met, they still wore them. Even now, this room was a comfortable temperature, but it was still required to wear clothing.

    I didn¡¯t understand it.

    ¡°Oh, I almost forgot, I think Timothy wanted to talk with you.¡± Pamela¡¯s voice brought back my focus.

    ¡°What did he need?¡± I asked with a frown.

    ¡°I do not know. He probably has some second thoughts about what we talked about last night.¡± She said without stopping to paint.

    ¡°Second thoughts?¡±

    ¡°Well, I think he agreed in the heat of the moment. Now that he has had time to think it over, he is probably wavering. This is a major choice after all. That said, I for one, think you are probably right. But what do I know? I paint, Timothy is the one training to be a knight.¡±

    My brother changing his mind would be a problem, especially since I''ve already made my opening moves.

    Before I could say anything, someone knocked at the door.

    ¡°My Lady, it is Lisa, I have brought you your meal.¡±

    Leaving Pamela to continue painting, I went over and opened the door. Lisa promptly pushed a cart with several trays of food into the room, but then stopped.

    There simply wasn¡¯t enough room to push the cart in any further.

    ¡°Pamela, is there a table somewhere in here?¡± I asked not being sure what else to do.

    ¡°Um¡­¡± Pamela stopped painting and look around the room before pointing towards a table covered with canvas. ¡°That table should be fine, just throw out the paintings on top of it, they are all no good.¡±

    While Lisa looked hesitant, the other maid who served my sister quickly came in and grabbed the paintings and then disappeared without a word. While she was going out, Lisa walked the trays the rest of the way to the table, placing the dishes and plates down one after another.

    ¡°Here you are My Lady.¡± She said as she was finished.

    ¡°Thank you, Lisa, I will call you when I am done.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± she said as she bowed and then left.

    I went over and pulled a seat over to the table, besides an apple or two while out with Captain Nev, and a few pastries while I was in the carriage, I hadn¡¯t eaten at all today. I didn¡¯t actually need to eat, I could subsist entirely off of magic, but until my stomach atrophied to the point where it didn¡¯t function, I would still feel hunger.

    And¡­ a lot of foods were rather pleasant to east.

    ¡°Olivia,¡± My sister called out from behind the canvas. ¡°If you do not want to deal with Brother, why don¡¯t you spend the night here with me?¡±

    ¡°Mmmph,¡± I swallowed a bite of bread, bread that was salted and had some kind of cheese melted on it. ¡°Stay here?¡±

    ¡°Yes, you can avoid Timothy, and we can spend some time bonding.¡±

    I guess this is what she wanted.

    ¡°Okay, let us do that.¡± I agreed.

    ¡°Good,¡± She said happily. ¡°Now come over here and take a look, I have just finished.¡±

    Putting down the rest of the cheese colored bread reluctantly, I headed back to her side.

    On the canvas was half of a sheep-folk, he was standing in a simple green field with a small sun over his head. He had a human looking face, in fact, it was indistinguishable from a human, save the spiraled horn on his head above his ear. His body was like a human''s too, he wore simple leather armor with some belts strapped across his chest. The tops of his gloves, the area around his shoulder, his boots, and the area around his waistwascovered in fuzzy looking blue wool. Even his hair was blue.

    ¡°I was pretty sure his eyes were black, but I wanted to ask you since I did not remember,¡± Pamela asked.

    ¡°Black is fine, his eyes were just beads after all.¡±

    ¡°Okay, black it is.¡± She said as she swiftly colored in the two formerly colorless eye on the picture.

    ¡°This is really good, thank you, Sister.¡±

    ¡°No problem. Still, I wish it wasn¡¯t just half¡­ this is the first time you have asked me to paint you something.¡± She said forlornly.

    ¡°...¡± I didn¡¯t know what to say.

    I regretted that I never learned how to reassure a person, to comfort someone who was upset.

    ¡°Come, help me eat my dinner, then we can take a bath and go to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Mmm, Okay, I will help.¡± She said while smiling.

    <hr>

    Wednesday, February 18th, N.E. 807, 22:13

    Pamela¡¯s Auxiliary  Bedroom, 3th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Almost two hours later, after fighting with my sister over who should eat the carrots, neither of liked them, and who should eat the banana muffins, both of us enjoyed those, and after we had finished a bath, we were both now wrapped in blankets in the small bedroom Pamela sometimes used when painting in this studio.

    Pamela wore a simple white nightgown, much like my own, the only difference being that since I wasn¡¯t concerned about the cold, I left my legs bare while she wore a pair of long socks.

    My sister could only sleep when she was covered in blankets, so the air in the room was rather chilly, but the layers of heavy blankets kept us warm. Even if they were insufficient, Pamela was currently treating me as a stuffed animal, she had wrapped me up in her embraced and pulled me close,into her chest.

    It should have been uncomfortable, the steady movement as she drew breath should have been irritating, and the slight sounds she made as she lightly snored should have been annoying, but it wasn¡¯t.

    It was actually rather comfortable.

    I couldn¡¯t describe it, try as I might, but I felt¡­safe,wrapped up with my sister.

    ¡°Pamela¡­?¡± I whispered slowly.

    ¡°...Hmm¡­? What is it¡­ can¡¯t sleep?¡± She asked as her eyes fluttered open and she looked at me.

    Darkness did nothing to hinder my vision, as close as we were I was easily able to look into her right eye. With my mana senses, I could tell that the basic foundation of her Fairy Eye had been completely destroyed, there was nothing left to repair, even if I was able to do so.

    ¡°No¡­ it is nothing.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ okay then, go to sleep.¡± She said sleepily as she closed her eyes again.

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    I watched as Pamela''s breathing slowed down again and her movements stopped. Slowly, gently, I raised my hand and traced the area around her eye before moving onto her hair. I softly patted her head and I watched as her sleeping face slowly shifted into a smile.

    ¡°Sister¡­ don¡¯t worry, I will protect you.¡± I said to myself.

 Chapter 14: Rising Panic.

    Thursday, February 19th, N.E. 807, 07:54

    Pine Family Carriage, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°It¡¯s been awhile since you¡¯ve been to school, I hope you haven¡¯t fallen behind Olivia.¡± My sister, who was sitting beside me in the carriage, said.

    ¡°Mmm,¡± I replied off hand.

    School¡­ I had never experienced something like school.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure she will be fine.¡± Sitting across from us reading a book, Timothy added without looking up.

    ¡°Mmm.¡±

    In my previous life, there was nothing like a school, at least not to this extent. The powerful, and the knowledgeable, would take disciples, and they would teach them in something that was similar to a classroom. But, these classrooms, if they could even be called that, were not part of any greater facility, they were separate, belonging to the one who had taken the disciples.

    ¡°At least there is only today and tomorrow until the weekend, so you will not need to suffer through an entire week.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    There were a few military training schools, and a few groupings that were essentially research institutes, but a structure dedicated to teaching a wide variety of subjects, was a foreign concept.

    ¡°Olivia¡­? Are you okay?¡± Pamela whispered to me.

    ¡°Mmm¡­?¡± I looked at her confused, I wasn¡¯t fully paying attention. ¡°I am fine.¡±

    The Olivia that existed before I had woken up, she had gone to school. And her entire existence was now a part of me, so memories of school existed with me. But¡­

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± She whispered again, seemingly trying to avoid letting our brother hear.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    But¡­ what that Olivia did not know, or did not understand, existed in far greater amounts than she could have ever known. I, however, understood far more than she could have ever begun to comprehend.

    ¡°You are sweating though?¡± Pamela¡¯s voice seemed unsure.

    While my understanding and knowledge far exceeded the prior Olivia, the fact was, I didn¡¯t really know what to expect in school.

    ¡°Hey? Olivia?¡± Pamela¡¯s voice had gotten a bit louder, enough to draw Timothy¡¯s glance up from the book he was engrossed in.

    That Olivia, she had few positive memories of school, but many negative ones. In fact, she absolutely dreaded going to school. But, she had held it in, for fear of burdening her brother and sister.

    ¡°Olivia, look at me!¡±

    Pamela was now in front of me and kneeling down so that her face was right in front of mine. I could see Timothy had put his book down and was standing behind her, worry could be seen in both of their eyes.

    ¡°I¡­ am fine¡± I choked out, my mouth was strangely dry.

    ¡°Timothy, tell the driver to stop.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± I almost shouted. ¡°No, we need to go to school.¡±

    Right, we needed to go to school. We needed to maintain our schedule as much as possible, to avoid suspicion, we could not skip. No matter how badly the prior Olivia did not want to go.

    No matter how badly I did not want to go either.

    ¡°Olivia, what is wrong?¡± Pamela¡¯s voice was steady, but I ignored it.

    Why did I want to avoid school this badly? The prior me hated it, but she was only a part of me. I wasn¡¯t her, not anymore, what upset her would not bother me.

    There must be¡­ a memory or something I didn¡¯t notice, I need to look through those memories again. No matter how painful they were.

    ¡°Hey! Pamela, what is going on?¡±

    ¡°Just stop the carriage, she needs to get out.¡±

    Memories of Gimmy being taken from me and burnt with acid.

    Memories of eating alone in the cafeteria until I was chased out and forced to eat elsewhere.

    Memories of having my books cut and covered in ink.

    Memories of having my belongings disappear.

    ¡°We can¡¯t stop the carriage, we are on a major road.¡±

    ¡°Shit! Olivia, look at me!¡±

    I remembered having food, rolled up paper, even dirt,thrown at me.

    I could remember the mocking whispers that followed me wherever I went.

    The muffled snickering whenever I couldn¡¯t answer a question.

    ¡°Olivia, it is okay. Just calm down.¡±

    I could feel Pamela pull me into a hug, but it did not stop my memories from returning.

    That time I was locked in the bathroom.

    That time when I was pushed down the stairs.

    That time when hot tea was poured on me.

    That time someone used a knife to cut away some of my hair.

    ¡°Pamela, what is going on!?¡±

    ¡°She is having a panic attack,¡± Pamela said while drawing me deeper into her embrace. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Oliva, it will all be okay. It will be fine. Just calm down. It¡¯s okay, you are safe here.¡±

    Pamela¡­ right, my sister, I could even remember when my classmates mocked her, claiming she was a worthless mage and a worthless artist. This one time, and only this time, I had stood up, fought back.

    And for my efforts, I had been smacked in the face, had my hair pulled, and then was dragged outside where I was tied to a bench in the rain. If not for a groundskeeper who found me, who knew how long I''d have been tied there.

    ¡°Ha¡­ Ha¡­ Ha¡­ need¡­ Ha¡­ School¡­¡± I tried to speak, but could only pant furiously.

    ¡°Olivia!¡± Pamela shouted as she grabbed my face with both hands and forced my gaze to meet her eyes. Some small part of me wondered where her eye patch had gone. ¡°Breath. Slow. Breath in. Breath out. Do not think of anything else. Breath in. Breath Out. Listen to my words. Breath in. Breath out. Slowly.¡±

    Pamela¡¯s eyes were filled with concern and worry, but they were also steady as they locked with my own.

    ¡°Breath in. And Out. In and out. You can do it Olivia.¡±

    Right, I needed to breathe. Just like Pamela was saying.

    ¡°Good, good Olivia. Just like that. Slowly breath in, and breath out. You are doing good.¡±

    ¡°Pamela, seriously, what is going on?¡±

    ¡°I told you, she is having a panic attack.¡±

    ¡°What does that mean? What should I do?¡± Timothy almost pleaded with her.

    ¡°She is¡­ We need to go back. Olivia¡­ she is¡­ scared. She is really frightened.¡±

    ¡°Scared? Of what?¡±

    Was I? Scared? How could that be? I, who had been through tens of thousands of battles, who had massacred my enemies, was afraid?

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. The carriage, school, getting attacked again? I don¡¯t know, but we need to go back.¡±

    ¡°Alright, I will tell the driver.

    How could I be afraid?

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Olivia, we are going home. You will be safe there. It will all be alright¡­¡±

    <hr>

    Thursday, February 19th, N.E. 807, 09:10

    Mitchell Canyon Fredirin¡¯s Office, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Mitchell Canyon Fredirin.

    Mitchell Canyon Fredirin was the 4th oldest child of the Canyon Family. He had an elder brother and two elder sisters. At 22 years of age, he was a splendid adult, and he looked the part. He was tall, just shy of six feet, but he looked a shorter than he was due to the fact that his body had nearly perfect proportions. His chest was broad and muscular, sturdy arms and sturdy legs completed the ensemble. His hair was a dirty brown, cut short, that blended well with the small but bushy mustache he had under his nose. Mitchell spent time training his body daily, giving him a toned and muscular physique.

    He looked even more adult-like in his crisp military uniform, a utilitarian outfit of gray, white, and burgundy.

    The Fredirin Kingdom severely limited the number of troops and military hardware the various noble families were allowed to field, this was true even for the six ducal houses. However, the Kingdom¡¯s own army was commanded by officers that were made of a mixture of the Royal Army officers and the ducal houses officers. The Royal Army¡¯s uniform was a simple gray with white accents, and the Canyon Family replaced some of that with a ruddy burgundy.

    Mitchell¡¯s uniform was adorned with a silver insignia of a spear and sword crossed over each other, indicated his rank of colonel. The uniform, his rank, his body shape, and his stern countenance would all lead a person to assume he was a powerful warrior, but he was anything but. In actuality, Mitchell was only as skilled as a low-rank knight, at least when it came to martial skills. His rank stemmed from his tactical brilliance, his organizational skills, and powerful talents in magic.

    He was one of the few Spiritualists, his talents lay in the summoning of fey spirits. Most Spiritualists contract a spirit, a fey, an elemental, or an actual spirit. Their contracted spirit can then share their magic with the contractee, allowing them to use the spirit''s innate magic. Talented Spiritualist that have a strong affinity with their contracted spirit can temporarily manifest the spirit, allowing it to do battle directly.

    Calling him a prodigy would not be going far enough, because Mitchell Canyon Fredirin was able to contract with three separate fey spirits. While some Spiritualists can contract even more, in fact, most can contract at least twice as many, Mitchell¡¯s affinity with his contracted spirits was at the max, allowing him to permanently manifest all three of them.

    And due to a loophole in the Kingdom¡¯s law, Mitchell was able to apply for citizenship for each of his contracted spirits. Not only was citizenship granted, but each spirit also joined the army along with their contractee.

    Mitchell sat at his desk looking over the document in front of him, his expression stern. However, the other three human occupants in the room didn¡¯t feel any tension, since Mitchell¡¯s sternness was softened by his contracted spirits. Standing at attention on his shoulder was Ixall, she was six inches tall. Her defining characteristic was her mostly bald head, the only hair being a single long braid of dark orange hair that went down to her waist and then acted as a belt, her glowing orange eyes, and a pair of tiny orange and white butterfly wings. Cartivo was laying on her back, on top of Mitchell¡¯s head, as she lazed about playing with his hair. Unlike Ixall who looked like a normal, if small, human, Cartivo¡¯s entire body was pitch black. Her hair, eyes, even the inside of her mouth along with her teeth, were all pure black, even her massive wings were black. And finally, Zyaipa, the shortest at barely four inches, was also the most muscular of the fairies. She was currently sitting on the desk, sipping a small cup of tea and snacking on a jelly filled biscuits. Zyaipa looked mostly human, but she too had a pair of wings, hers were like a dragonfly¡¯s, and she also had a pair of small bony horns coming from her head that were only partially hidden by her dull brown hair.

    Each of the three fairies wore the same uniform as Mitchell, only instead of the silver sword and spear insignia, theirs were simple gold circles, indicated each one of them held the rank of captain.

    ¡°Have you read this?¡± Mitchell broke the silence and looked up towards one of the two other men in the room.

    ¡°I have sir.¡± The man answered.

    He was Brent Toors, the steward of the Canyon Estate. Brent was formerly a powerful warrior that served the head of the family, Duke Patrick Canyon Fredirin. However, when he was serving under the Duke, he suffered an injury that ended his days as a warrior. In gratitude for his service, Patrick Canyon Fredirin had made him the steward of this estate.

    ¡°Your thoughts?¡±

    ¡°I have none, sir.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± He said and then turned his gaze to the only human woman in the room. ¡°Miss Tammy, what can you tell me about my late brother¡¯s maid, Shannon?¡±

    ¡°Shannon?¡± She looked surprised for a minute before stopping to think for a second.

    Tammy Bestel, Miss Tammy as Mitchell called her, a habit from when he was a child, was the head maid for the estate, all of the servants were under her direct orders. She was a veteran of many years, her hair was gray and her face was crisscrossed with wrinkles.

    ¡°Anything you can tell me,¡± Mitchell added.

    ¡°There were several complaints about her from the other maids she worked with. However, upon investigation, almost all of them were blown out of proportion or were false claims. My understanding is that Shannon was not only an orphan, but a foreigner too, so she had¡­ a difficult time with the other girls.¡± She calmly stated.

    ¡°Anything else you can tell me?¡±

    ¡°Besides the complaints, she has always completed her work mostly satisfactorily. She had not completed all of her training as a maid, but she did achieve passing grades on what she complete. She was always close to the late Young Master.¡±

    ¡°What about you, Cory? Is she clean?¡±

    ¡°As far as I know, and we have gone over everything with a fine-toothed comb since yesterday.¡±

    Cory Canyon was a commoner adopted into the Canyon Family, and he was also in charge of security in the estate.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Then call her in.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Miss Tammy said and then exited through the only door.

    A few seconds later, she came back in, and behind her was a young woman. She was short and small, and lacking in presence. She was pretty in a way, but in a completely ordinary fashion. However, right now she looked haggard, her eyes were red and teary and she was clearly exhausted, physically and mentally. Like she was the walking dead, she shuffled up in front of the desk, but she kept her gaze down towards her feet.

    ¡°You are Shannon, Daughter of Jerry?¡± Mitchell asked firmly.

    ¡°...Just Shannon. I do not know my father, that was just something that Mich- that the Young Master made up to make me seem presentable.¡± She almost whispered without looking up.

    ¡°I see,¡± Mitchell said as he shot a glance towards Cory, who lightly nodded, confirming what she had said. ¡°Do you know who these people are?¡±

    For a moment, she looked up and glanced at the three people, Miss Tammy who was standing behind her, Cory who was leaning against a bookshelf to her left, and Brent who was seated on a sofa to her right.

    ¡°Head Maid Bestel, Steward Toors, and the chief of security, Sir Canyon.¡± She said as she lowered her head again.

    ¡°You are well informed,¡± Mitchell said as he leaned back in his chair and stared at her.

    ¡°Madam Bestel is my superior, and Steward Toors is too. As for Sir Canyon, I often coordinated the Young Master¡¯s security detail, so I have at least seen him before.¡± She answered.

    ¡°And do you know who I am?¡±

    ¡°Mitchell Canyon Fredirin, the Young Master¡¯s elder brother.¡±

    ¡°I do not believe we have met before.¡±

    ¡°Silly," before Shannon had had a chance to respond, Zyaipa who had finished her biscuit and who was licking the jelly off of her fingers, spoke up, "she probably does not know you, but she probably knows us, is that not right, human girl?¡±

    ¡°That is correct My Lady," she replied to Zyaipa before turning back to Mitchell, "I recognized my Lord from your summoned spirits.¡±

    ¡°See? I told you, Silly.¡± Zyaipa said as she stuck her tongue out towards Mitchell. ¡°Oh, can I have another one of these?¡±

    ¡°No, you¡¯ve already had enough¡±

    ¡°Mitchell¡­¡­¡­¡­.¡± A voice came from atop his head. ¡°This child¡­¡­.. The shadow of death¡­¡­. Surrounds her¡­¡­¡­ she has forsaken¡­¡­. Life¡­¡­¡±

    Cartivo rarely spoke, in fact, she rarely did anything but lounge around.

    Of Mitchell¡¯s three contracted spirits, Ixall and Zyaipa were the youngest, even by fairy standards they were young. Fairies do not keep track of time like humans do, but by asking them about the things they experienced, it was possible to estimate their age. Zyaipa was about a hundred years old, and Ixall was just slightly older. Of course, while the fairies themselves did not know how old they were in years, they could instinctively know if another fairy was older or younger. Ixall¡¯s and Zyaipa¡¯s memories weren¡¯t that different, and if it was left to human hands, most likely no one would be able to determine who was older, but the two fairies knew.

    As for Cartivo, the things she remembered were all nonsensical, none of her memories existed in any records Mitchell could discover. Since it was only young fey that would contract with humans, it would have made sense for Cartivo to be very young, a newborn in fairy terms, after all, her memories were illogical in the first place.

    However, both Ixall and Zyaipa were not only convinced she was older, but that she was positively ancient. Even having conferred with other Spiritualists, no other contracted spirit would feel even close to Cartivo¡¯s age.

    ¡°Cartivo, that is rude.¡±

    ¡°Sorry¡­¡­..?¡±

    ¡°It is fine My Lord. Lady Cartivo is right.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Mitchell frowned at her reply.

    When he hadlead men into battle, occasionally after the fight, there would be soldiers like the girl in front of him. Those who had no hope, who had given up on life. Sometimes it was guilt due to failing to accomplish something that was important, other times it was because someone important to them had died.

    Cartivo was right, people who looked like this would soon find themselves dead. And it was very rare for anyone else to be able to do anything about it.

    Mitchell didn¡¯t look down on these people or belittle them, he only found it to be a pity.

    ¡°This,¡± He said as he pointed to the document on the desk in front of him, ¡°Is my younger brother¡¯s will. There is a section for you.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Also, this,¡± he now pushed a simple wooden box across the desk towards the despondent maid. ¡°Is what he bequeathed you.¡±

    That garnered a slight response as she looked towards the box and her hands twitched towards it.

    ¡°I will read out loud what the will says about you.¡± He said and then picked up the will.

    In regards to Shannon, I have left an oak box in my vault, it is magically sealed, and only her ring has the spell to unlock it. The box contains two items and a letter. The letter has a request for Shannon, if she accepts, and I hope she does, then read the next section. If she does not, then skip that and go to the next page.

    As he finished speaking, the only sounds in the room where the light, repressed sob of the girl.

    ¡°I¡¯ll need to ask you to open the box here, and we will need to see the contents, and to read the letter. I am sorry.¡±

    While Mitchell regretted forcing the young woman to go through this in public, he had no choice. He steeled his heart as Shannon slowly reached forward and swiped her hand over the box. The ring she wore, a gold band with several small gemstones studded in it, glowed briefly, and then with a click, the box popped open. Shannon stepped back and made no effort to go near the box, allowing Mitchell to reach forward and grab it.

    As was written in the will, the box did contain two items and a sealed letter. The two items were two identical golden rings, neither of which were magical. Mitchell returned them to the box and then put it aside before turning his attention to the letter.

    ¡°Forgive me, but I will need to read this. If you would prefer, I can read it out-loud.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡±

    ¡°Then I will read it out-loud,¡± Mitchell said as he used a small dagger to open the letter¡¯s wax seal.

    To my dearest Shannon,

    I know you never let me talk like this to you, but now that I have passed on, I hope you will forgive me just this once. However, I suspect you will not be able to read this in private, so I shall hold myself back.

    As you are no doubt aware, I have died. I would like to hope that it was painless and natural. I would also like to hope that you were there with me, I know that would be painful for you, but I shall be selfish.

    Still, I have rewritten my will every six months, and the next time would be on my 15th birthday, which unfortunately means I died when I was 14. It is rather unlikely that I died naturally and peacefully, in which case, I hope you weren¡¯t there for my death. Since you are reading this, I can at least console myself with the fact that you are alive and okay. Thank the gods for small mercies.

    My will should have instructed my family to pass you the box that contains this letter and two rings. I am sure my family could figure out how to bypass the lock, so if you did not also receive the two rings, go complain to someone. From this point on, I will assume you have the rings, but put them aside for now.

    A long time ago, when you first rejected my proposal, you also told me about the customs of the Holy Uvalin Theocracy, specifically, the tradition of exchanging rings and also of the tradition of the engagement ring.

    I confess I lied to you.

    The ring on your hand, the very one that should have unlocked this box, is not only a magical item, but it is also an engagement ring. Although smart as you are, I am sure you realized. The fact that you wear it, well, I guess I do not need to spell it out.

    Back to those two rings.

    They are the wedding rings that we should have exchanged when we married. If you should put your ring on, it will signal your acceptance of my proposal. For various reasons, the Theocracy allows posthumous marriages, and while our Fredirin Kingdom has no law to govern such a topic, if my family has allowed you to read this, then they should be agreeable to letting this slide.

    It is my deep regret that I could only call you Shannon, Daughter of Jerry. That I never had the chance to call you Shannon Canyon. That I could only introduce you as my maid. That I could never introduce you as my beloved wife.

    I am so sorry.

    I am so sorry that I have left you alone.

    I know it will be hard, but as my legal wife, I can at least make sure you will be provided for, so please, Shannon, I beg you, accept the ring.

    I know I have failed you by dying, I know you are upset, that you are sad. But please, grant me this one last selfishness.

    I will wait for you, but I hope you make me wait a long time. I hope that when we meet again, you have many stories to tell me, I hope you have a rich life, a happy life, a meaningful life. I know there will be bad times along with the good, sad along with the joyous. I not only want to hear about your triumphs, but I wish to comfort you over the rough patches and setbacks.

    Sadly, this parchment is running short. And I know you do not like it when I talk like this, so I will leave it at that.

    But Shannon, never forget, that I, Michael Canyon Fredirin, loved you more than anything. You were my everything.

    With love,

    Michael Canyon Fredirin.

    Having finished reading, Mitchell slowly folded up the letter and then stared at it, as if he were trying to see through the parchment.

    Miss Tammy was secretly wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, Cory was looking down and frowning as he leaned against the shelves, Brent had a bittersweet look on his face, even as his eyes were unfocused, his mind lost in the past. Ixall was shifting her weight between her feet, outwardly she appeared the same, but Mitchell could tell she was upset. Zyaipa was sitting still, looking at the box, trying to see the rings. And Cartivo had stopped moving on his head where she still sat.

    As for the maid, she had frozen still.

    ¡°Shannon, Daughter of Jerry,¡± Mitchell said as he placed the letter back into the box beside the rings, before pushing the box back in front of the young woman. ¡°The choice is yours. If you choose my brother, I will ensure that the Canyon Family accepts your choice.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°If I may,¡± Mitchel began as he glanced at the will that was still in front of him. ¡°I hope to one day, call you sister-in-law.¡±

    The young woman, however, remained frozen. She neither spoke nor moved, her gaze still locked on the floor. Seconds turned into minutes, and still, she didn''t move.

    After five minutes passed, just as Mitchell was about to sigh and take back the box, her hands haltingly came up and took the box. Her entire body was trembling, tears leaked down her face, but she withdrew the smaller of the two rings, and then slipped it onto her left hand¡¯s ring finger, the gold band coming to rest right against the ring that already existed there.

    ¡°I wish it were under better circumstances, but I welcome you, Shannon Canyon, to the family,¡± Mitchell said solemnly.

    ¡°My Lord-¡± she began, but then stopped to correct herself, ¡°No, Brother-in-Law Mitchell, as the wife of Michael Canyon Fredirin, I can expect the Family¡¯s support?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is the case,¡± Mitchell responded while frowning, not at all liking where this was going.

    ¡°Then I have a request.¡± She said, her voice cold.

    ¡°...¡±

    Mitchell looked at his new sister-in-law. Tears still leaked from her eyes, her body still trembled, but now, an almost imperceivable energy emanated from her body. Light wisps of black energy were leaking out of her, swirling around her body like a light fog.

    ¡°What is your request?¡±

    ¡°I wish to be in charge of my investigation of my husband.¡±

    ¡°That¡­¡± Mitchell was taken aback, he didn¡¯t expect that from her at all. ¡°Putting aside whether or not you are able to do so, why would you want to?¡±

    ¡°Revenge.¡± She suddenly looked up, and Mitchell could see that her gray eyes now had flickers of red hidden within. ¡°I will figure out who killed my husband, and¡­¡±

    ¡°And¡­¡± He prompted.

    ¡°I will tear them apart!¡± She yelled.

    At her yell, the black energy that was swirling around her suddenly exploded. A sinister wave of blackness shout out across the room, the tea set cracked and shattered, the papers blew, the windows rattled, the wood corroded, the food even began to rot. Brent and Cory took defensive stances, mana coating their bodies. Miss Tammy shrieked and fell over, and Ixall created a thin wall of fire in front of Mitchell.

    But, before anything could happen, Cartivo appeared in the air over Shannon. Between Cartivo¡¯s tiny hands was a small black ball, the ball wasn¡¯t a physical object, but a mass of some kind of baleful black energy.

    Like water draining from a tub, the sinister energy still emanating from Shannon was sucked straight into the ball, within a second all of the energy in the room was gone, absorbed into the ball.

    Cartivo blinked out of existence again, this time reappearing right in front of Shannon, where she gently laid a palm upon the much larger human¡¯s cheek. Once the two made contact, Shannon immediately lost consciousness and crumpled onto the floor.

    ¡°Mitchell¡­¡­..¡± Cartivo¡¯s drawn out voice was the first sound to break the new found silence. ¡°This child¡­¡­. Has awoken¡­¡­. A bloodline¡­¡­¡­ She is like me¡­¡­..¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Mitchell said as he leaned back into his chair before shooting Ixall a glance. ¡°Thank you Ixall.¡±

    ¡°Hmph. I need to protect my Contractee.¡± Ixall spoke her first words today in a humph as she erased the small wall of fire.

    ¡°Mitchell¡­¡­. Let this child¡­¡­. Do as she will¡­¡­.¡± Cartivo demanded.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Mitchell thought to himself.

    Cartivo rarely did anything, let alone make demands and requests, so just simply based off of that, he wanted to indulge her. However¡­

    ¡°Cartivo, she seems¡­ unstable right now.¡±

    ¡°That does not matter¡­¡­. I will support her¡­¡­..¡±

    ¡°If that is the case, then it will be fine. Sorry Cory, can you work with Shannon on this one?¡± Mitchell said, but then added. ¡°And Cartivo too.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that will be fine.¡±

    ¡°Miss Tammy, I hate to bother you, but can you take my sister-in-law back to her room for now?¡±

    ¡°Yes My Lord.¡± she said, having already stood back up and also having straightened out her dress.

    ¡°When she wakes up, she will need a new room, see to that too.¡±

    ¡°Yes My Lord.¡± She said with a bow. ¡°Sir Canyon, would you help me move her?¡±

    ¡°Sure¡±

    Mitchell watched as the two of them lifted Shannon off of the floor and carried her out. The whole time Cartivo sat upon her stomach as the fairy slowly began to eat the black ball of energy she had condensed.

    With nothing else to do, he went back to his brother¡¯s will and looked over the first section.

    <hr>

    Thursday, February 19th, N.E. 807, 10:10

    Olivia¡¯s Bedroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°How are you doing Little Sister?¡± Pamela asked me as she came back into my room having just seen the Pine Family¡¯s doctor out.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    I was laying on my back on my bed. I still had my school uniform on, a dark gray skirt with white stockings, and a white shirt with a loosened blue ribbon. The jacket that went with the uniform was discarded on the nearby chair.

    ¡°I see,¡± Pamela said while folding up dark gray jacket and placing it on a hanger before sitting down in the chair.

    ¡°What did Dr. Minkle say?¡±

    Was it a poison? Or some kind of illness?

    I should be immune to nearly all poisons, but something that was magically created might be able to survive within my blood. The same could be said for any bacteria or virus that could infect me.

    However, something that was durable enough to survive within me, and was also able to cause¡­ whatever it was that just happened, should have been easily noticed when I was reforging my body. Even in my past life, a poison or disease that could stay hidden and survive while being able to do that to me was unheard of it.

    I might have thought it was a curse, but there was no way I wouldn¡¯t notice a curse being cast on my soul.

    ¡°Physically, you are fine. As far as he could tell.¡± Her response betrayed my expectations, however.

    ¡°I am?¡± I asked, shocked.

    ¡°Seems so. You are probably still tired, it hasn¡¯t been long since¡­ that accident with your carriage.¡± She paused and looked at me for a second before continuing. ¡°Your magic is a bit unstable, but that is probably due to the fact you recently awakened a bloodline.¡±

    That, or the fact that I had cut open my own chest and hidden someone else¡¯s soul inside of my heart.

    ¡°You have no signs of any illness or disease, not even the common cold. And while you can never really be sure, there was no sign of poison either.¡±

    ¡°Impossible,¡± I said.

    ¡°... Hey, Olivia, I doubt they went over this in school yet, but did you know that the study of medicine is in its infancy?¡± She asked.

    ¡°...no¡­?¡±

    ¡°Most healing is done either through alchemical potions, or magic. It is much easier to set a bone than to cast a spell capable of regenerating it, and yet, most people have no idea how to make a splint, let alone attach it to a person with a broken bone. Magic makes it too easy to bypass those basic steps.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­?¡±

    ¡°Humans, our bones, and organs are slightly different than the other races. Elves have thinner and softer bones, but they have larger lungs. Dwarves have thick and heavy bones, their lungs are about the same size as a human, despite being smaller than a human, but their other organs, besides their livers, are much smaller. And beast-folk are all over the place. When you consider that there are so many races, and then when you add in the half-breeds, it is simply impossible to unify them all into one set of medical rules. That is why we instead focus on magic and alchemy.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ does that mean Dr. Minkle is wrong?¡±

    ¡°He certainly might be, but I do not think he is. The focus on magic is sufficient, most of the time. But not always. And because we focus on magic, very little effort is spent researching the other aspects of medicine.¡±

    Pamela stood and went over to the table and poured two cups of tea, one of which she placed on the nightstand table next to my bed.

    ¡°Olivia, did you know, sometimes when soldiers go to war, some of them return home and are plagued by nightmares?¡±

    ¡°I did not.¡±

    Not only did I not know that, but I had to check my memories as to what exactly a nightmare was. I did not sleep like a mortal would in the past, and even before I had awoken and taken over this body, trace amounts of my existence still affect the previous Olivia, and she had never had a dream or nightmare before.

    ¡°Not only nightmares, sometimes they will have flashbacks. They will mistake a simple kitchen knife for the head of a spear, a child throwing a ball for an attack spell, a stray dog for a rabid wolf.¡±

    ¡°I do not understand?¡±

    ¡°Somethings¡­ they work on a person¡¯s mind. There is no physical cause, healing magic does nothing to help, but there is an undeniable problem, it is just in the person¡¯s head.¡±

    ¡°So you are saying, something is wrong with my head?¡± I asked in disbelief, and a little bit of fear.

    ¡°You know Olivia, your big sister, she could be considered an expert in this field.¡± She said with a sad smile.

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Yes, really.¡± She said and then removed her eyepatch. ¡°You might not know this since I never really told anyone, but for months after I was injured, I could not paint at all.¡±

    ¡°I remember that.¡±

    It was almost a year after her eye injury when Pamela had completed her first painting, at least the left half of it.

    ¡°No, see, you probably think that I did not want to paint, or that I was too upset to try painting, or that my results were disappointing and I never finished. I mean, I was physically incapable of painting.¡±

    ¡°...what?¡±

    ¡°I really wanted to paint. My magic studies¡­ losing them did not bother me that much, but my art, oh Gods Olivia, you have no idea how badly I wanted to just retreat from the world and paint. Nothing would have made me happier, but I couldn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Why? I don¡¯t understand.¡± I was getting flustered, without realizing it I had sat up and looked towards my sister.

    ¡°Whenever I tried, I would get sick. Looking at the canvas, I would get dizzy, touching the brush would make me throw up. I would shake, I would become pale and get drenched in sweat. If I kept trying, I would faint. How many times did I wake up on the floor of my studio?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I didn¡¯t know,¡± I said, taken aback.

    ¡°No one did, I hid it.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ why?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t want anyone to know. I didn¡¯t understand what was wrong with me, I was scared. I was embarrassed and ashamed. I had already lost my magic, and now I couldn¡¯t even paint, what else was left of me? The person known as Pamela Pine Fredirin did two things, paint and study magic, with both of those gone, what worth did I have?¡± Pamela said sorrowfully.

    ¡°No one knew?¡±

    ¡°No one. Some people probably suspected something, but the exact circumstances, I do not think anyone really knew. I also never had any intention of telling anyone.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­ why are you telling me?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Because, well, I think telling someone is probably good for me. Even now, it is not as if I have fully conquered my problem. I am certainly not enjoying this conversation, but, I do feel as if a knot hidden within me is coming loose. It is still tied, but it is looser now. And also¡­¡± But before she finished, she stopped to take another drink of tea.

    ¡°And?¡± I promoted her.

    ¡°And, you are probably going through the same thing.¡±

    ¡°... I am?¡±

    ¡°I think so. Just like your body can be wounded, so can your mind. If you experience something terrible and traumatic, then a scar can be left behind in your mind.¡±

    ¡°But, nothing terrible has happened to me.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­? Is that what you think?¡±

    ¡°...Yes?¡±

    ¡°Did you not almost drown a week ago?¡±

    ¡°That¡­ that was¡­¡±

    That was terrifying for the previous Olivia, and it was also confusing and chaotic. It was undeniably an unpleasant experience, but it wasn¡¯t something that that would leave a mental scar.

    ¡°Well, that probably is not it,¡± Pamela¡¯s voice refocused my attention. ¡°I thought it might have been at first, but I knew you had been in a carriage since then, and that wasn¡¯t even the same route that you took that day. No, I think the source, would be school.¡±

    ¡°School?¡± I said, but even simply saying that word alone, I felt as if my stomach was churning.

    ¡°When I mentioned that accident, your expression did not change at all, but just now, when I said the word ¡®school¡¯, and when you repeated it, you became paler, your breathing sped up, and I do not know if you noticed, but you clenched your fists.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡­?¡± I looked down, and indeed, I had balled both hands into fists.

    ¡°Olivia. Answer me honestly,¡± Pamela spoke with a steady, yet stern voice. ¡°What has been going on at school?¡±

    At school?

    ¡°Nevermind. Your expressions just told me enough.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Olivia¡­ haah¡­.¡± Pamela sighed. ¡°I can guess what happened now.¡±

    ¡°...What should I do?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I do not know,¡± She put down her empty cup and then stood and walked over to the window. ¡°Sometimes, facing the source of your fear helps. They say that when an adventurer has a close call with a monster, they should immediately go and fight something similar, otherwise they will have a lasting problem. At the very least, repeating something makes it easier to do on subsequent times.¡±

    ¡°On the other hand, if we knew exactly what was causing you distress, we could work out something specific. But if my own experience is any indication, that is easier said than done. Afterall, I do not know what the linchpin of my own problem was. Do you have any ideas?¡±

    ¡°...no¡­ or I should say, there is more than one.¡±

    ¡°As I thought,¡± She said and shook her head. ¡°Then all we can do is work through this one step at a time.¡±

    ¡°I do not understand why this happened. I was fine before.¡± I said.

    ¡°Well¡­ that is obvious,¡± Pamela said as she turned and smiled at me. ¡°Do not tell me you haven¡¯t realized?¡±

    ¡°...realized what?¡±

    ¡°Haah¡­ Olivia¡­ no, well, I guess it is only to be expected, you are only seven after all.¡± She shook her head and then came over and sat down on the bed next to me. ¡°When you woke your bloodline and unsealed your magic core, you inherited the bloodline¡¯s memories, right?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± I lied. It wasn¡¯t exactly false, but it wasn¡¯t the truth either.

    ¡°The memories gave you knowledge and wisdom. You might not have realized, but your personality has changed quite a bit this week. All of that means that you now see things differently, and I would say, more accurately. Maybe¡­ maybe before this, you didn¡¯t fully understand¡­ exactly what was happening around you. But, now you do, and with that improved clarity, well, this happened.¡±

    I flopped back on the bed. Pamela was right, completely right. The former Olivia, in her naivety, was able to look at her situation optimistically, something I could not do. She dreaded going to school, but she still hoped that things would get better. For her, there was a sliver of hope.

    Not to mention, many of the things that happened to her, some of them went over her head, she didn¡¯t realize exactly how bad the situation was. Why had that groundskeeper who discovered her tied to a bench not report it? Why had none of the teachers stopped these things? Perhaps they didn¡¯t know about some of it, Olivia never said anything, but there were things that they were clearly aware of, even if Oliva did not realize they knew.

    Not only could I see the extent of the bleakness, but to me, it was even more dark and desolate than Olivia had thought.

    ¡°Do not worry Olivia,¡± Pamela tried to comfort me. ¡°We will work through this. Together.¡±

 Chapter 15: Snow Day.

    Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 16:30

    Olivia¡¯s Bedroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Dr. Minkle prescribed rest, and Pamela concurred with his prescription. While there were things I wanted to do away from the estate, originally I had planned to devote the day to school, so staying home and resting wasn¡¯t an issue. As such, I spent the day cycling my mana internally, reforging my body, and further infusing my mana into my cousin¡¯s soul.

    If I had to find something to complain about, it was the fact that skipping school a day after Michael was killed and someone raided a bunch of combat schools would be somewhat suspicious. Granted, there were many excuses that could be made, and it was not that vital of an issue, but it was still a weakness. More importantly, even if it was only a minor weakness, it was one that should have been easily avoided.

    I only stopped my reforging process twice, once to eat dinner with my siblings, and once to again discuss with Pamela how we would handle my trauma.

    Unfortunately, we did not come up with anything despite spending more than an hour on it. The only real option seemed to be to muscle through it, facing the source of my trauma head-on. We did decide that I would skip school again tomorrow, and then I would go with Pamela after the school had closed for the day. The hope was that I would be able to handle the school building without the people inside of it being around. Divide and conquer.

    I had wanted to go that night, but Pamela told me to rest, so rest I did.

    In fact, I took her words to heart and even stopped cycling my mana after dinner, and instead focused on looking through the great deal of documents I had requested.

    Steward Clarace had sent more detailed information on the Spectres he had lent me, these documents had arrived along with the carriage I had entered the capital on two days prior, but I was too busy to read through it. Until now that is, and the information was both interesting, and informative, if not particularly important. It was important to know the exact capabilities of my subordinate, but the original dossiers I had read covered nearly all of the important points.

    I also looked over the documents pertaining to our holdings in Arvas, but those were rather light. The Pine Family¡¯s entire set of businesses, stores, and schools was just slightly more than what Michael Canyon had under his name. We hadn¡¯t invested much outside of our own domain, and of what little we did control, my aunt and uncles had suppressed heavily. Most went bankrupt, or were barely holding on. Whatever was left behind was operating at a loss, or was something so inconsequential that no one bothered to do anything to it. In regards to the first category, the Pine Family owned one of the three major trash collection businesses in the capital. We charged a small fee to removed trash and garbage from various businesses, but the fee came nowhere close to paying for the service, the rest was supposed to be made up from donations from other nobles, but that amount was even less than the collected fees, leaving our accountants to fill in the gap. As for the second category, we controlled a semi-guild like organization that employed water carriers, people who carried buckets and tubs of water from the canals to various businesses. The water wasn¡¯t clean, so it couldn¡¯t be used for consumption, but it was fine for cleaning and other similar uses. Water carriers were a step above beggars, making just enough money to survive on, and they only paid us a minor tax, and even that was only paid if they made over a certain amount of money each day. Most of the time, they did not manage that. Granted, our expenses for this business were non-existent, but so were our profits.

    I had wanted to look over our intelligence on the other families, but we had none. Literally, none. It was decided that any attempt to gather information could be seen as provocative, so we just did not do that.

    So I made a mental note to meet with the thieves guild again and buy that information.

    Before going to sleep, I spent the last few hours researching the various topics that I knew I was lacking in.

    Unbeknownst to me, after dinner, it had begun to snow.

    Outside of the higher elevations, it rarely snowed within the Fredirin Kingdom, and when it did, it tended to be light flurries or the occasional winter storm. This was the rare snow that was neither, just a gentle dusting that continued throughout the night and into the morning.

    When I woke up the next day, the snow continued, and there was already half a foot of light fluff on the ground.

    Snow was¡­ a strange concept to me. Olivia did not seem to enjoy it much, it was cold, and she had once gotten sick after playing in it for too long. And in my previous life, light snow like this didn¡¯t exist, it was either no snow, or a frigid wasteland. Still, none of that mattered to me, the snow wasn¡¯t thick enough to hinder any of my plans, so it was irrelevant.

    Or, so it should have been.

    At breakfast, my siblings informed me that they were both skipping school to keep me company.

    I had, strongly, objected at first, but they did not seem to be budging. And furthermore, once we missed school yesterday, the damage had already been done, missing a second day would make little difference.

    So instead of school, my siblings bundled me up in coats and gloves and then drug me out into the snow to ¡°play.¡±

    ¡°Play,¡± consisted of a snowball fight, something that I was particularly bad at, and making snowmen, which were men only in name.

    A snowball fight, despite the word, ¡°fight,¡± being in the name, is not actually a fight, not even a spar, even calling it a mock fight would be going too far. All it is, is throwing clumped up masses of snow at each other. There is no rules, no scoring, and no one really wins, the only goal is to hit others with snow, and to not get hit yourself.

    But as it turned out, the part about there not being rules was false. For instance, using magic to guide the snowball, was against the rules. Using magic to accelerate the snowball, was also, against the rules. Using magic to create a barrier to block incoming snowballs, was likewise, against the rules. Even using magic to dodge the snowballs, turned out to be, against the rules.

    Except for the times, I was, ¡°cheating,¡± I almost never managed to hit one of my siblings. I probably could have hit Pamela a few times, but every time I got a chance, she hid behind Timothy, and he had the reflexes to dodge and block.

    Making snowmen was another nonsensical event. We took snow and rolled it through more snow, which made it get larger as it went. We made two or three of these, and then stacked them up on each other. They had neither legs or arms, but we used stones and sticks to make faces on them. I suggested that since limbs seemed to not matter, then based on the body shape, the snowmen made of three parts would be insects, and the two-part ones would be arachnids, but both of my siblings rejected that.

    There was one positive point, when Timothy mentioned that sometimes carrots were used as a nose on a snowman. Pamela and I quickly raided the estate¡¯s kitchens for all of the carrots and used them for the noses. We even made more snowmen so we could get rid of more of the carrots. It took a while for Timothy to realize our motives were not pure, but based on our dislike of the orange vegetable.

    Lunch was a warm and hearty stew lacking in carrots that we enjoyed around a fireplace in one of the estate¡¯s many lounges, but afterward, we were forced to split up.

    Missing two days of school in a row was somewhat problematic, earlier they had sent someone to the school to pick up yesterday¡¯s assignments, and they had also picked up mine along with their own. I was able to piggyback a letter and delivery to Varsin¡¯s House of Plush, the painting of a more humanoid Gimmy was included along with a request to create a stuffed animal in its image.

    As for my school assignments, on one hand, the vast majority of it was shockingly easy. At my age, the work was not complicated, it was largely memorization of various facts, and as an outsider, I was literally incapable of forgetting something. Even Olivia¡¯s memories from before I took over, were perfectly clear within my mind. While that Olivia wasn¡¯t the best student, she did pay attention in class, so I had all of the knowledge I needed to easily breeze through the assignments.

    On the other hand, While Timothy and Pamela had both only missed one day, I had missed more than a week at this point. The work I needed to make up was rather large.

    On Fridays school would let out early, the idea was to allow the students who might need to travel long distances to go home for the weekend some extra time to travel before night.

    Originally, Pamela and I were planning on trying to approach the school after an early dinner, but by late afternoon the snow had picked up, what had started as a half foot of light fluff had now become a foot of heavy slush. When it was lighter the public cleaners were able to keep most of the streets cleared, but now only the major roads were kept open, and they were wet and slippery.

    Arvas was effectively shut down until the snow stopped.

    With the Royal Capital being shut down, any plans I might have had for tonight were also effectively shut down. I could still go out if need be, even if I had to forgo a carriage and travel on foot, but anywhere I would want to go would be shut down, any people I wanted to see would be inaccessible.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    With nothing else to do, I had intended to spend my night reforging my body. However, that was not to be.

    ¡°My Lady,¡± Ava¡¯s voice resounded from beyond my door.

    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked while stopping my mana flow, the process was much slower now that Michael was in my heart, being interrupted was now an annoyance.

    ¡°You¡­ you have a visitor,¡± she replied.

    ¡°A visitor?¡± I asked, bewildered. Who would be visiting me, in this weather no less? ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°She did not provide a name, but she said brought a message from someone named Larry¡±

    ¡°Ah, take me to her,¡± I said as I stood up and went to the door.

    As expected, Ava was standing there along with Lisa. Lisa had been assigned to wait on me during this time, but it was Ava who delivered the message.

    ¡°My Lady¡­ should you not get¡­ changed?¡± Lisa asked while Ava nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± I looked down, but I didn¡¯t see anything wrong with my clothes.

    I had on a pair of skin-tight shorts and a tank top, and before I opened the door, I had stuck my bare feet into a pair of warm, fluffy slippers. My room was sufficiently warm that I didn¡¯t need heavy clothing, and even if it were not warm, I could easily withstand this level of cold with just my body, I didn¡¯t even need to use mana.

    Furthermore, it was slightly easier to cycle mana when wearing less restrictive clothing.

    ¡°You should really change,¡± Ava added.

    ¡°It does not really matter, and I should make haste, this might be important.¡± I rejected.

    ¡°... At least, a coat?¡± Lisa tried to reason.

    ¡°Haah¡­ Fine,¡± I said as I returned to the room and grabbed my school jacket and threw it on. ¡°Let us go.¡±

    I followed Ava, while Lisa followed me, throughout the estate. Normally, if someone whose identity could not be confirmed showed up at the estate, they would be kept at the gatehouse, not fully allowed to enter the main building. However, there were no connecting pathways from the main building to the gatehouse, a security measure in the event that the outer wall was breached. But now, with the snow, it was unreasonable to ask me to travel through the cold night to meet with someone, so my visitor was brought into the estate and was under guard in one of the waiting rooms usually used for the guards and attendants of visiting dignitaries.

    That said, since the Pine Estate rarely had guests, these rooms were largely unused.

    ¡°My Lady, the guest is inside,¡± It wasn¡¯t Ava or Lisa who spoke, but Carla who had been waiting in front of the room.

    ¡°Carla¡­¡± I started while lightly shaking my head, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have bothered yourself with this.¡±

    ¡°I am sorry, My Lady, but it is my duty to protect you. Even if you are aware of who these people are, you can never be too careful.¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± I said as I opened the door and walked in.

    Lin turned out to be my guest, she was sitting on a cushioned chair near the fireplace, one of her hands was held out towards the fire while the other was holding a warm cup of tea.

    ¡°My Lady,¡± However, when she saw me, she swiftly placed the tea down, stood, and saluted me.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­¡± She glanced at the three other people in the room, Lisa, Ava, and Carla.

    ¡°Do not worry, they are my subordinates. They are trustworthy,¡± Having guessed her concern I reassured her.

    ¡°Then... ¡° She gave them one last glance before continuing. ¡°We¡¯ve discovered signs that someone has been scouting our position. We haven¡¯t been able to identify them, but we know we are being watched.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± I said, lost in thought.

    ¡°It is only a small group, but they seem to be skilled, we can pick up traces of them, but they always pull back well before we arrive, Captain thinks they are trying to bait us into moving further out since they are letting themselves be detected.¡±

    What a headache.

    We should have been discreet enough when we set up that base, but apparently, that wasn¡¯t the case. Or perhaps we were followed on Wednesday after I finished my raids. Well, too late now. Now the question was, who discovered us.

    The best case scenario would be that it was an unrelated 3rd party, maybe even the thieves guild. It could also be someone related to one of the schools I raided, in fact, while this was still pretty bad, it wasn¡¯t that awful of an outcome. It was also the most probable option. And then the worst case scenario, that it was someone from the Canyon Family.

    With no information, trying to guess who it was was a waste of time. So then, the next question is, what to do about it.

    The safest option would be to abandon the warehouse entirely, but at this early stage, that could be a waste. I could do nothing, just let the situation develop, but that would be giving the other side the initiative, and that was less than ideal.

    ¡°Lin, is the escape route finished yet?¡± I asked having come to a preliminary decision.

    ¡°I am sorry, but no, not yet. We had to pause our work to deal with this situation, But, we are almost finished.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­ that is fine,¡± I finalized my choice now. ¡°Lisa, please go call Commander Tale and Steward Hart.¡±

    ¡°Yes, My Lady,¡± Lisa said, doing her best to conceal her surprise.

    Ava managed to do it perfectly, that or she simply wasn''t surprised, but Carla was even less successful than Lisa.

    While we waiting, Ava poured me a cup of tea, and also offered one to Carla, but she rejected it. The tea wasn¡¯t great in the first place, it wasn¡¯t the high-quality tea I normally drank with my family, but something less expensive given to questionable guests. And it was a far cry from the Tesk tea that I really enjoyed.

    Apparently both Old Man Hard and Commander Tale had heard about Lin¡¯s visit, and both were on standby in case they were needed, so both of them arrived together in under five minutes.

    ¡°My Lady.¡±

    ¡°My Lady¡±

    Both of them greeted me as they entered.

    Old Man Hart was a mixed breed, half human, a quarter dwarf, and a quarter elf. His father was a half human, half moon-elf, and his mother was half human and half mountain dwarf. Despite his name, he was actually only in his mid-thirties, his dwarven blood gave him a weathered appearance that made him look older than he really was, and it also left him with a thick and bushy beard, not to mention it left him shorter than an average human, he was only five foot five.

    On the other hand, the moon-elf blood made him thin and lanky, and also gave him the well-known silver-gray hair that all moon-elves had. The end result was that he had weathered skin, a short and lanky build, and a head of gray hair and a bushy gray beard. The fact that he has suffered a foot injury that never healed properly as a child, and thus used a cane to get around, made him look as if he was in his seventies or eighties.

    Commander Tale, on the other hand, was three-quarters elf and one-quarter human. He was raised by his human grandfather, and besides behaving like a human, he also had a human¡¯s ear shape, not an elf''s, which was rather rare, most half-elves, even quarter elves, developed the elves¡¯ pointed ears.

    Despite looking like a human, the Commander of the Estate¡¯s forces was actually well over two hundred years old.

    ¡°Thank you for coming, introductions are in order I guess?¡± I looked expectantly at everyone in the room.

    ¡°Right you are. Hart Cedar, steward of the estate here.¡±

    ¡°Commander Eslan Tale, all Pine Family forces in the capital are under my supervision.¡±

    ¡°Guardian Knight Carla Redwood, Lady Olivia is my charge.¡±

    Lisa had stayed outside, and once she had seen that everyone who wanted some tea, had a cup of it, Ava had retreated too. The three who had already known each other had introduced themselves, but Lin still hesitated, at least until I slightly nodded her way.

    ¡°Greetings your lordships,¡± Lin said with an awkward bow, ¡°I am Lin¡­ Lin Hemlock, part of Spectre Squadron 10-25¡±

    I knew for a fact that there were other Spectres within the capital, probably several different groupings, and some of them were probably larger than a squadron. But, they acted largely independent of each other, and while Old Man Hart and Commander Tale likely knew about all of the squads that were normally deployed here, they also probably did not have much interaction with the majority of them.

    Still, they knew about them.

    And they also knew Squadron 10-25 was not one of the ones deployed here.

    That would probably be shocking enough, Spectres do not move about lightly, but the fact that one of them had come to meet me in person was highly unusual.

    As such, three sets of eyes quickly shifted to focus on me.

    ¡°Before I left the Citadel, I borrowed Squadron 10-25,¡± I answered their unspoken question. ¡°They are under my command.¡±

    ¡°What is their mission?¡± Commander Tale asked, his voice sharp.

    ¡°Secret,¡± I answered with a smile.

    ¡°... As commander of all Pine forces in Arvas, I at the very least need to be aware of any independent units operating within my zone of control. At the very least, to make sure we don¡¯t come into conflict with ourselves,¡± he said sourly.

    ¡°I understand that, but they are fully under my command.¡±

    Truth be told, I was not really against telling everyone in the room what I brought the Spectres for, at least the basic concept, I would not give them specifics, not yet.

    But, how long had it been since I last argued about who had more authority with someone? Years, decades, longer? Human years meant little to me back then, but I knew it was a long time. This feeling, of not being on the top, of not being unquestionably obeyed, was nostalgic.

    ¡°I really need to know.¡± He said firmly.

    I was really only opposing Commander Tale for my own amusement. Since that was the case, and since he was correct, I decided to let him off easy.

    ¡°Interdiction, sabotage, intelligence gathering,¡± I said slowly and plainly, ¡°And assassination.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°What!?¡±

    ¡°...hmm¡­¡±

    Commander Tale and Old Man Hart took that in stride, the raising of their eyebrows the only real indication they were caught off guard. Carla however, abruptly stood up in her seat before becoming embarrassed at her actions and sitting down with her face bright red.

    ¡°The target of this mission is?¡± Commander Tale asked.

    ¡°Now that, that is a secret.¡±

    The quarter elf man looked annoyed at that, but he didn¡¯t say anything more.

    ¡°Well then, with introductions out of the way, I have a request.¡± Seeing that there were no further comments, I moved onto the main topic. ¡°My Spectres need additional support and manpower, I was hoping to borrow some extra forces.¡±

    ¡°How many do you need?¡± Commander Tale said professionally, but I could tell he wasn¡¯t exactly happy with how things were going.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I thought about it for a second, ¡°If pure infantry, I need thirty to forty men, but a mixed unit is a better option, in which case I need twenty to thirty.¡±

    ¡°When do you need them, and for how long? I also need to know what they are being used for.¡±

    ¡°Also, they can not be used for anything else, do not forget that Eslan,¡± Old Man Hart added.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°I need them now, and I will need to keep them for at least a week, probably more, but we can rotate them out if needed. And they will be used for defensive purposes. They won''t do anything questionable.¡± I explained.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Commander Tale was thinking to himself.

    ¡°Gorig¡¯s platoon is free, you said you were going to send him back to the Citadel at the end of the month too, so it won''t affect our status here regardless.¡± The steward mentioned.

    ¡°That could work¡­¡±

    ¡°Who is Gorig?¡± I asked, not recognizing that name at all.

    ¡°Lieutenant Gorig is a platoon leader, it¡¯s a mixed group of elites,¡± Commander Tale began explaining, ¡°But, the lieutenant is a half-orc, and all of the members are either half-orcs, hobgoblins, or beast-folk.¡±

    ¡°...And?¡± I asked confused.

    ¡°Arvas has its fair share of non-humans, but they stay in the outer circles, it is somewhat rare to see them in the inner circles, so some people were surprised to see them, is what we will say it was.¡± Old Man Hart answered in the Commander¡¯s stead.

    ¡°The Lieutenant is a valuable soldier, his platoon only has 21 members, but they are all elites.

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    Most likely, people who were looking to pick a fight with our family set their sights on the non-human platoon lead by this Gorig. I''ve been learning about how a lot of people discriminate against non-humans to some extent, so I could imagine what had happened.

    ¡°Lieutenant Gorig¡¯s platoon will suffice.¡± I said to Commander Tale before turning back to Lin, ¡°Lin, return to the base and figure out how Captain Nev wants to handle this. I will defer to his decisions.¡±

    ¡°Yes My Lady,¡± She said as she saluted.

    ¡°Then, Commander Tale, I will leave the reinforcements to you, I need to return to my room for now, but Carla, be prepared to go out tonight.¡±

    ¡°Tonight?¡± Carla looked surprised.

    ¡°Yes, I''ll lead Lieutenant Gorig¡¯s platoon out, and you will need to come with me. So get some rest while you can.¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes My Lady.¡±

 Appendix: Character Info.

    Character info.

    Pine Family

    The Pine family is one of the six ducal houses whose leader has the ability to inherit the throne of the Fredirin Kingdom. The family is headed by the Duchess Isabella Pine, and her husband, Franklin Pine. The Duchess and her husband have five children, ranging in age from 17 to 4.

    The Pine Family has unusual customs for a noble family of their rank, they focus on family bonds, respect, and being humble.

    The Pine Family has no ambitions towards the throne, according to the Duchess¡¯s wishes, the family is attempting to maintain a low-key and neutral stance, while also trying to build up a foundation that they can rely on after the competition is over.

    Unfortunately, their plans are not showing results, the other family¡¯s either do not trust them or see them as an easy target.

    Despite that, because the Pine Family is focused almost 100% internally, while the other pick at them and whittle them down, their power base within their own territory is powerful, powerful enough that the Pine Family is in a three-way tie for second place.

    The Pine Dukedom

    Located in the northeast of the Fredirin Kingdom, the Pine Domain is mostly mountainous terrain covered in forests. Due to the elevation, the domain is cold and snow is common.

    Further north are the God¡¯s Wall Mountain ranges, an incredibly difficult to traverse mountain range that serves as the Fredirin Kingdom¡¯s northern border, and beyond that is the Barbarian Lands, whose inhabitants are in an uneasy peace with the Fredirin Kingdom. Further to the west of the domain would be the Sea of Sorrows, a sparsely populated body of water that takes months to cross. There are few islands in it, and for the longest time the sea was considered a wasteland but the Pine Family has been investing in naval forces and marine production lately. To the east is the Quarry Domain, home of the Quarry Family, and to the south is the Steam-burst Domain, home to another ducal family.

    The pine domain only had three cities of note, the Citadel of the Pines located in the heart of the mountain range, that covered the one valley that connected north to the Barbarian Lands. The Port of Good Seas on the coast, and Arnbache which was the administrative seat of the domain.

    Duchess Isabella Pine Fredirin, age 38.

    The Duchess is a sweet and caring woman, the word ¡°Motherly¡± would describe her well. She married her husband out of love, and she still acts as if she was a newlywed, much to the chagrin of her older children, and her husband who can be overwhelmed by her displays of affection. Especially when they happen in public.

    The Duchess has no aims towards the throne, and seemingly cares little for the management of her domain. She set broad policy directives, but she leaves the day to day affairs to others.

    She is a straightforward woman, and her primary objectives all revolve around her family.

    However, it should be noted, that the Duchess survived the last competition for the crown, helping to propel her father into becoming the next king. She is not a simple character.

    Franklin Pine, Age 32

    Franklin Pine was the 3rd son of a baron, low-ranking nobility if there ever was any. He was a competent military leader but was only slightly above average at best. He poses a magical eye called, The Fairy Eyes, that allows him to see mana with a great degree of clarity. These eyes were inherited from his family.

    Franklin is less of a fighter, mage, or strategist, and more of an administrator, which counterbalances his wife. He helps with the administration of the Family''s domain and is also the driving force behind the Pine Family¡¯s recently developed naval power.

    He, like his wife, is a devoted family man, however, he is awkward around his children, not knowing exactly how to respond to them, and this problem is made even more apparent when he interacts with the younger ones. Still, he tries.

    He is also a devoted husband, however, he finds public displays of affection to be embarrassing, and his wife always teases him. However, their relation is doing extremely well, and it is only a matter of time until the family receives another member.

    Benjamin Pine Fredirin, age 17.

    The eldest child of the Pine Family, Benjamin takes his responsibilities as an older brother very seriously, perhaps too seriously at times. While he pampers his siblings whenever he gets the chance, he finds it nearly impossible to be stern with them or discipline them.

    Benjamin could be called a Jack of All Trades, he is trained as a knight, can use all but light type magic, and is also a decently skilled archer, however, he isn¡¯t good enough in any of these fields to really make a career out of it. He is also well learned in a strange assortment of fields, including agricultural, engineering, painting, piano, smithing, fishing, even logging.

    Since he graduated school two years prior, he has become his father¡¯s assistant, helping him administer the domain.

    Timothy Pine Fredirin, age 14.

    The second oldest child, Timothy is still in school and is also still training to become a knight. While his training is still incomplete, Timothy is only slightly above the average, and his horsemanship is terrible. He specializes in Earth Magic but can use all elements to some degree. He unlocked his magic core early, and while he is talented, his overall magic capacity is on the lower end, limiting his potential as a mage.

    He has a straightforward personality, and he strives to act with honor and be just and fair whenever possible. He finds the family¡¯s situation to be vexing in the extreme, but he is also obedient to a fault and a stickler for rules.

    Ironically, despite being somewhat self-righteous, thought random luck, Timothy has avoided any major problems during the competition, and his straightforward and upbeat personality has allowed him to be the only member of the Pine family with any real friends.

    Appearance wise, Timothy is on the shorter side, only slightly taller than Olivia, who is both 7 years his junior, and also rather small herself. He has light brown hair that he keeps cut short, except for a single braid he keeps at the back. His eyes are brown, and give anyone looking at them a comfortable feeling, in fact, all of his facial features are somewhat soft looking. Whether this is just his natural state, or because he has yet to hit his growth spurt, only time will tell.

    Pamela Pine Fredirin, age 13

    The third oldest child and the older girl, Pamela is one of the two children of the Pine Family to have inherited the Fairy Eyes from their father, although she only developed one of them. She was formerly considered somewhat of a prodigy, both in Arcane Magic and in painting. However, three years prior, due to a freak accident that was almost certainly not an accident, she lost almost all sight in her fairy eye, and the magical power in it was lost completely. This caused her to give up on magic entirely and severely stunted her abilities as an artist.

    Pamela still paints, although she can not complete a full work and even this required great effort on her part. The event that ruined her eye left her with mental scars that lead her to have panic attacks whenever she tried to paint, and this took her nearly a year to get over to the point she can paint, but she isn¡¯t completely cured, she routinely has nightmares of that day.

    If there was something good that came from that event, it was the fact that Pamela studied natural medicine trying to cure herself, and also became a hidden expert into the studies of mental trauma and other mental illnesses.

    Pamela is tall, only a few inches away from six feet. Unlike Timothy, Pamela has hit her growth spurt, her face is still a bit round and young looking, but otherwise she is indistinguishable from an adult, a very womanly adult. She has silver hair that extends a bit past her shoulders that she usually keeps in a plain ponytail.

    Unlike most girls her age, Pamela does not enjoy dressing up, possibly due to the fact she would have nowhere to go after dressing up, and she instead prefers simple, comfortable and easy to move in clothes. She often is covered in paint smears.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin Age 7/???

    Olivia is the 4th oldest child and second oldest girl of the pine family, but she has a second identity, a powerful evil Outsider that once ruled an entire dominion consisting of three great cities.

    The human Olivia, before the Outsider took over, was a timid and small girl. She wasn¡¯t particularly talented, nor was she particularly inept. She diligently listens in class, did what was asked of her, and then did nothing else. Lacking self-confidence, she was an easy target for harassment from her peers, and Olivia¡¯s school was filled with bullying, bullying that left the young child with several mental traumas that are only just coming to light.

    The Outsider Olivia existed in another plane of existence, she spontaneously spawned from the ambient mana along with 47 of her siblings. She and her brothers and sisters lived a hard life, but she eventually raised herself to heights she never would have thought possible, but in the process, only five of her siblings remained. Even during her rule, those five were again reduced until only Olivia and one other survived.

    This form of Olivia was a shockingly powerful being, although how that strength stacks up in the new world she inhabits, is still unknown. One thing worth mentioning was that Olivia pursued an aggressive fighting style, one that left her consistently wounded. To increase her survival rate, and to also increase her ability to deal damage, Olivia mastered blood magic, which allowed her to rapidly heal and use her blood as a weapon.

    When the Outsider Olivia died, killed by her enemies, a magical amulet given to her by her one remaining family member activated, transporting her soul to another world, allowing her to reincarnate with her memories intact.

    The timid human Olivia was always the new body of the Outsider, but a mortal body could not hold Olivia¡¯s soul, so a fake personality was made using a fraction of her soul, the fake personality lived as Olivia for 7 years while the main portion of her soul slumbered and waited for the body to grow stronger.

    However, what may have been an assassination attempt, or may have just been the regular harassment going too far, put Olivia¡¯s life in danger and forced her to wake up.

    Olivia is now fully awake, and she is a cunning, brilliant, vicious, brutal creature. She knows little of mercy or human morals, she is driven by her desires and will do anything to see her wishes fulfilled. However, she is still naive in ways, she does not understand many human traits, the memories of the fake personality are hers, but they are clouded by her previous experiences. Concepts such as racial discrimination, the need for clothing, and things like pride, are confusing to her.

    And because she absorbed the fake¡¯s memories, she has come to see the Pine Family as her own, and she is fiercely loyal and devoted to her family.

    While her power pales in comparison to what she had before, her body can still only withstand a fraction of her might, she is already an incredibly powerful mortal. She is immune to most poison and disease, her physical body is stronger than an ogre and more durable, and she also has flawless control of her mana, and she has a nearly inexhaustible amount of mana to her fingertips.

    She has stretched the truth a bit towards her family, claiming she had awakened a bloodline, which is the excuse for her soaring power, and her change in personality.

    For her appearance, Olivia, before she woke up, was a frail and timid child, short for her age too. She had dark brown hair and gray eyes. After having awakened her true soul, her hair turned pure black, her eyes lightened into a shimmering silver that was almost pure white, and while she maintained her size and shape, her body filled out, no longer appearing frail and weak, and her features gained a much sharper and more adult-like look.

    Vincent Pine Fredirin, age 4

    Vincent it the youngest child of the Pine Family and his young age has prevented him from doing much of anything in his life.

    He has inherited two Fairy Eyes from his father, and he is a thoughtful and quiet child, but he is also somewhat timid. If left alone, he will generally just stay in place, rarely crying unless he needs help.

    Pine Family Vassals.

    Ronald Clarace, Age 56

    Formerly a general of the royal army, his was a friend of Franklin Pine¡¯s father. When he retired, he was recruited to serve as the steward of the Citadel of the Pines. He is a steward in name, but most of his duties are still military in nature.

    Patricia Clarace, age 38

    Ronald Claraces only daughter, his wife having died in childbirth. Patricia serves as the head maid in the Citadel of the Pines, but since so few people live there, the number of maids is limited and she doesn¡¯t actually do a lot of work.

    Worth mentioning, Patricia is a widow, she was wed into an arranged marriage, but during the festivities, the groom tripped and fell, breaking his neck. Patricia had no real feelings towards the man, but felt it would be disrespectful if she were to remarry, and has remained single for over 20 years

    Hart Cedar, AKA Old Man Hart, age 36

    Hart Cedar is a half human, quarter dwarf, quarter elf. His racial traits make him appear much older than he is. He is the steward of the Pine Estate in the Capital Arvas.

    Eslan Tale, age 225

    A mix blood human and elf, his blood is ? elf and ? human. He a well known mercenary figure, but is extremely loyal once hired. The pine family hired him 18 years ago for a 25-year term.

    He is currently the commander of all pine forces in Arvas.

    Ava Spruce, Age 22

    One of Olivia¡¯s personal Maids, she was an orphan raised by the Pine family.

    Lisa, Daughter of Ren, age 21.

    Another of Olivia¡¯s personal Maids, Lisa¡¯s entire family has worked for the Pine family for several years, her mother is a cook and her father died of an illness five years ago. Her brother was a freelance adventurer, but while exploring a dark cavern, he was eaten by a Grue.

    Spectres

    The Spectres of the Hemlock are the Pine Family¡¯s elite covert forces. They focus less on direct confrontations, but all combat oriented Spectres are at least rank 4 warriors, and the more skill-oriented ones are usually rank 3. They operate in 10-12 man squads most of the time, but will often break up into smaller teams, rarely do they combine to form platoons.

    Some Spectre squads focus on intelligence gathering, some do counter espionage, and others are scouts and patrol teams. While they have never officially been given the orders, Spectre teams can easily function as guerrilla fighters, and assassination is also one of their strengths.

    However, since the pine family has not taken any aggressive stances towards the other houses, the Spectres have only been used for defensive purposes, or hunting down bandits and other criminals within Pine Territory.

    All Spectres are orphans raised from infancy by the Pine Family, they are fiercely loyal and highly skilled.

    Spectre Officers are always one rank higher than what their position would entail, normally a sergeant would lead a squad, but a Spectre squad is always lead by a lieutenant.

    Captain Nev Hemlock, age 22.

    Captain of Spectre squad 10-25, Nev focuses on command and control of his squad, he is a planner and a tactician, not exactly a fighter. He is still a rank 3 swordsman.

    Nev is a stickler for the rules and prefers proper etiquette.

    Nev is also a captain, which as a Spectre, allows him to command a platoon, but Squad 10-25 had no need for the extra members, and stayed as a squadron.

    Sergeant Penk Hemlock, age 25.

    The oldest Spectres are all 26 years old, and there are only 7 of them. The 2nd generation of Spectres are 25, and there are only 10 of those. Penk is not only one of those ten, he is also one of the two Spectres with druid training.

    Druid Spectres would have been really useful to the Pine family, but the devotion to nature conflicted with the devotion to the family, and of the 10 attempts, only three of them passed through their training, and one of those three have since died.

    Penk prefers to only use his druid spells for utility purposes and to heal, in combat he uses a wooden staff.

    Penk is also one of the two sergeants in Squad 10-25.

    Sergeant Lars Hemlock, age 24.

    Largs is the second sergeant from squad 10-25 and is also a battle mage, he focuses on earth and water magic.

    Lin Hemlock, age 18.

    Lin is a small girl, and she acts as the squad¡¯s scout. She prefers ambushes with a short bow or her daggers. She is also the fastest runner from the squad, both long distance, and in short springs.

    Wen Hemlock, age 17.

    Wen¡¯s weapon of choice is a battle ax that he wields with one hand, the other holding a shield. Wen was formerly in a different team of three that ended up getting attacked by two dire bears. He was the only survivor, and his body is covered in scars from that encounter.

    Jeb Hemlock, age 18.

    Jeb is one of the strongest fighters in squad 10-25, he is almost at rank five. His weapon of choice is a broadsword which he wields with a heavy shield. Spectres usually stick to studded leather armor, sometimes going as far as wearing chain mail, but Jeb is one of the few that wear a lightened set of scale mail.

    Ivan Hemlock, age 20.

    Along with Jeb and Naya, Ivan is one of the top fighters. Ivan isn¡¯t even a citizen of the Fredirin Kingdom, but an orphan from the barbarian tribes. This shows in combat where he only wears the lightest leather armor and dual wields hand axes. He actually carries 4 of them, so that he can throw up to two of them at enemies.

    Ula Hemlock, age 23

    An older Spectre, Ula¡¯s combat potential in a direct fight is limited. She wields a bow and a short spear, but her strengths are focused towards tracking, she can easily track both man and beast through almost any wilderness terrain. Sadly, that isn¡¯t very useful within the capital Arvas.

    Oz Hemlock, age 24.

    Another older Spectre, Oz is a trained combat engineer. He is able to build field encampments, and also effectively dismantle any others he finds. Oz¡¯s weapon of choice is a sling, but he can also use it as a deadly cudgel if need be.

    Bahn Hemlock, age 16.

    Like Ula, Bahn is a tracker and hunter, but unlike Ula, his strengths lie in setting traps. He wields a repeating hand crossbow and a short sword if forced to fight.

    Naya Hemlock, age 24.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Naya is one of the best fighters in the squad, and is the most balanced of them. Her weapon of choice is a glaive.

    Carla Redwood, age 25

    Carla was one of Olivia Pine¡¯s two Guardian Knights, her loyal protectors and bodyguards. Carla was born to ordinary parents who were moderately wealthy merchants, but Carla had little interest in running a business, instead preferring to play and fight. Her parents agreed and let her join a combat school.

    Carla is not a genius or a prodigy, but she makes up for it with earnest hard work. After she joined at the age of 8, within two years she had already moved from that school to another. Carla has been through several schools, learning several different techniques, until she was picked up by the Pine Family. Her accomplishments earned her the option to become a guardian knight for the newborn Olivia, and she jumped at the opportunity, getting adopted into the Redwood branch family of the Pines.

    As a Guardian Knight, Carla focuses on battlefield command and defense of her charge. Knights, especially guardian knights, have a reputation for using swords, So Carla does use a heavy broadsword as her primary weapon along with a large shield. But she is skilled with many different types of weapon, and her favorite is a massive heavy flail.

    Carla kept her hair cut very short, her red locks almost making her look like a man. This wasn¡¯t a stylistic choice exactly, for whatever reason, Carla¡¯s hair was unruly in the extreme unless she cut it short, she would look like a wild woman. She was tall, had an athletic build, and her bright blue eyes contrasted with her reddish freckles and her red hair.

    <hr>

    The Goldfield Family.

    The Goldfields are one of the six ducal houses of the Fredrin Kingdom, lead by Duke Zachary Goldfield, the eldest of the six dukes and duchesses. Despite being the oldest, the duke has a bad reputation and is generally considered somewhat incompetent. He was married twice, and divorced twice, and as such, is still single. His two marriages did grant him 16 children, aged 11 to 39.

    The Goldfield Family is tied for last place, and is generally assumed to have no hope of winning, they have always been in last place by themselves, it was only recently that another house fell alongside them.

    The family is also in internal disarray due to the duke''s policies and behaviors.

    The Goldfield Domain.

    Located southeast of the kingdom¡¯s capital the Goldfield domain is the kingdom¡¯s breadbasket. Crisscrossed with small rivers, the entire domain is one sprawling expanse of open land with some small hills. It is named after the fields of golden wheat that blanket it during harvest season. The capital Arvas is actually surrounded by the Goldfield Domain, but it is located in the upper left corner while the domain spreads much farther to the south and to the east.

    The domain also borders the other five dukedoms, but it has no borders with foreign nations. Due to its abundance of food, and its central location, it is also the wealthiest dukedom out of the six.

    Duke Zachary Goldfield Fredirin, age 51.

    Duke Zachary Goldfield is actually a talented man, skilled in administration, the sword, and magic, he is even a natural socializer and negotiator. Unfortunately, his talents are paired with equally great flaws, this is lazy, lustful, hedonistic, arrogant, and incapable of taking personal responsibility. He is a raging alcoholic, and he even sired his first child when he was twelve, his first wife being his governess who was over twenty years his senior. Both of his wives divorced him to due his outrageous behavior, and his tendency to have affairs, with almost anything. Rumor has it that his last wife left him after finding him having an affair with two maids, one of his guards, a horse, and one of each of his daughters and sons, all at the same time, in the estate¡¯s library.

    The Duke blames his failures on anyone but himself, which has created a very strained atmosphere within the family. The fact that he seemingly has taken some of his own children as his consorts has only made things worse.

    However, the Goldfield Family seems to hold an even darker secret. Unhappy with his older children¡¯s progress, the Duke ordered questionable procedures to be done to his children, in the hopes of creating superior breeds. Many of his children now possess strange and powerful magic, but they also possess a burning hatred for their own family.

    Victoria Goldfield Fredrin, age 14

    Born to the Duke¡¯s second wife and also one of the children that went through modifications when a baby, Victory is one of the more competent children of the Duke. Victoria''s changes involved trying to bind charm magic into her magic core, the process was ultimately successful, but it prevented her from using any other type of magic, but she did gain the ability to use powerful mental magic with very little effort.

    Her childhood was a painful one, as she always accidentally charmed the people around her, and when magical defenses were used to prevent this, she learned she had no idea how to interact with other humans. To make matters worse, she was universally feared for her ability to effortlessly mess with people¡¯s minds.

    When Victoria was 9, she ran away from her house, using her innate magic to facilitate her escape. She lived as a street urchin for a few days before utilizing her magic fully and living with generous people who she had charmed.

    Eventually, she began working as a serving girl in a tavern, something that opened her eyes, having worked for herself she radically changed as a person. By the age of ten, she was working as a street girl since no respectable brothel would hire such a young girl. However, by utilizing her charm, she eventually formed her own brothel, Madam Tilly¡¯s House of Heavenly Delights. By the time she had reached 12 years old, she was a first-class courtesan and Madam Tilly¡¯s was the Capital''s, and the kingdom¡¯s, finest brothel.

    After cementing Madam Tilly¡¯s position, she returned to the Goldfield Family and serves as their intelligence gathering arm, however, she is actually moving behind the scenes to undermine her family which she still hates. She routinely leaks vital information to the other ducal houses and even provides fall information to her own family.

    She is a flirtatious being, highly seductive even without the use of her charm magic, something she rarely uses anymore.

    Despite her career choice, she is actually somewhat petite, looking a bit younger than she really is. She has blue eyes, but she never has the same hair color for more than a day, sometimes a few hours.

    <hr>

    The Canyon Family.

    One of the three families tied for 2nd place, although that is a somewhat misleading statement. The leading house is far in the lead, and the two trailing houses are far behind. The Canyons, Pines, and Lakesides are all relatively close to each other, but far from the others.

    The Canyon Family is a military family, they defend the southern borders against the Holy Uvalin Theocracy of the deserts. They are, for the most part, an honorable and upright family.

    They also have 13 children, ranging from 1 year old to 35 years old.

    The Canyon Domain.

    Located at the southern border, the Canyon Domain is named after the massive God¡¯s Divide Canyon that runs east to west, acting as a bulwark that stopped the spread of the Brown Wastes, a massive desert that sits beyond the edges of the Fredrin Kingdom. It also acts as a stop gap to block the advances the Holy Theocracy.

    The river that carved the canyon had long since run dry, and only a massive scale civil engineering project that created hundreds of miles of aqueduct and canal brought enough water back to the canyon to allow people to live within.

    Only a slight portion of the Canyon Domain touches the Steam-burst domain and the Lakeside Domain, the vast majority of it borders both the desert and the Goldfield Domain.

    Most of the Canyon Domain is arid, and not suitable for much farming. There are a few spots where maize is grown, and areas around the larger aqueducts and canals see some light farming also, but the domain gets most of its food from ranching and cattle herding, and importing it. And because Duke Goldfield particularly dislikes Duke Canyon, imported food suffers a heavy tax. This has lead the Canyon Domain to be pioneers in some interesting foods, like snake, scorpion, ant, and some types of cactus.

    Duke Patrick Canyon Fredirin, age 49

    Duke Patrick is a knight, through and through. In fact, his devotion to honor and justice is strong enough that you might suspect he was a paladin instead. Of the six dukes, Patrick is probably the strongest, but his talents focus on defense, he is still a powerful warrior, but anyone fighting him will first note that he is basically unkillable. He fights slowly, methodically, and relentlessly, and he handles everything else in the same way.

    Duke Patrick has a good, if stiff, relationship with his family. He respects his children, and they respect him, but family bonds are somewhat lacking. Even his wife, who bore him those thirteen kids, looks at him as if he were a business partner and not a husband.

    Mitchell Canyon Fredrin, age 25.

    A straight-laced and stern man, Mitchell holds the rank of Colonel in the army. He currently has neither soldiers or a mission and is instead on standby in the royal capital.

    He has a rugged appearance and what could be called boyish good looks, if he ever smiled.

    His talents lay in administration and spiritualism.

    He was able to summon three fairies and contract with them, and his affinity was strong enough to permanently manifest all three of them.

    Cartivo, age ??? (Old)

    The oldest of Mitchell''s three summoned fairies, and also possibly one of the oldest faries ever summoned.

    Cartivo is lazy, she spends all of her time lounging about, she rarely eats, she rarely does anything but lounge.

    Her body is pure black, her eyes, wings, teeth, tongue, nails, all black.

    She seems to be able to sense death auras and can tell when a person has given up on life.

    Ixall, age 100~

    Ixall is another of Mitchell¡¯s contracted fairies, she is just slightly older than Zyaipa. She is just over six inches tall, her eyes glow orange, she has a majestic pair of butterfly wings, and she has as a single long braid of orange hair on her otherwise bald head.

    She is a fire spirit and is capable of fire magic, but she actually prefers to manifest an arm of fire-wielding a sword of fire and attack with that.

    Zyaipa, age 100~

    The youngest of Michell¡¯s fairies, Zyaipa is also the smallest, despite the fact her body shows clear muscle mass, something very rare for the fey. She has simple brown hair and eyes, but unlike her sisters, she has two bony like horns on the side of her head, and she also has dragonfly wings instead of butterfly wings.

    Zyaipa uses earth magic.

    Gwyneth Canyon Fredirin, age 16.

    Gwyneth is a black sheep of sorts in the Canyon Family. Like most of the family, she is entirely focused on martial pursuits, but that is where the similarities end. Gwyneth calls herself a duelist, she fights not for the army or for a cause, but for herself, for fame, and for the cheers of the crowd. She is an entertainer at heart.

    Some people think she is a battle junkie, but to Gwyneth, the fight is secondary, all that matters is that she receives cheers.

    The Wild Bear, Raging Chimera, and Swift Wind Schools are all assets under her name.

    In combat, she uses a Jitte, a weapon from the Crystal Jade Empire that she recently acquired, along with magical scimitar called Dry Wind.

    She had an athletic build, but she was somewhat weathered by the elements which made her appear a bit older than she was. She had shoulder length dirty blond hair that she normally kept tucked into a headband, and she had a light scar on her forehead.

    Michael Canyon Fredrin, age 14.

    Michael was another black sheep of the Canyons, but not to the extent of his older sister. He had no real achievements in and martial or war-related field, instead focusing on accounting, administration, and diplomacy. However, he has done all of that for his family.

    In the past, Michael had bullied Olivia Pine Fredirin by burning her stuffed animal with a spell, leaving behind a very dangerous grudge. Michael, however, regretted his actions, and it was the pivot point that let him change his life for the better.

    He was engaged to his personal maid, Shannon, Daughter of Jerry, who he loved greatly. Michael wanted to support his family and improve their standing, so he could then step back and retire, being able to live happily with Shannon.

    Michael was killed by Olivia who was using her magic to puppeteer her stuffed sheep Gimmy. Michael was not only killed, but had his soul extracted.

    He later agreed to work fully with Olivia to protect Shannon, and his soul is now being reforged with Olivia''s magic while hidden inside of her heart.

    Shannon, Daughter of Jerry (Fake last name)/ Shannon Canyon (As of 2/19/807), age 23

    Shannon was an orphan discovered in the Canyon Family¡¯s domain, but she was originally from the Holy Uvalin Theocracy. The theocracy itself is made up of various clans that all follow the same religion, some of those clans are very powerful, appearing similar to the dukedoms of the fredirin kingdom, and others are much smaller, being no different from single villages with a chieftain. The harsh climate of the Brown Wastes means these smaller tribes are often destroyed.

    As far as anyone could tell, Shannon was from a smaller tribe that was destroyed, not by a raid or battle, but by a sandstorm. Shannon was picked up by a group of nomads who probably intended to take her as a slave, but they two were wiped out by another sandstorm. A dehydrated and nearly dead Shannon stumbled upon a Canyon Patrol that just so happened to have Michael Canyon within it.

    Shannon became a maid for the Canyons, eventually become Michael¡¯s personal maid, and then his Executive Maid, after he invented that position.

    Shannon and Michael were a couple in form, if not exactly name. They were unofficially engaged, even if neither one of them admitted it. Shannon was against Michael¡¯s plan to leave the family so they could elope, she wanted him to fully assist the family because she thought it would be the best for him.

    Following Michael¡¯s murder at the hands of Olivia Pine, Shannon was the one who found his corpse the next day and suffered a severe shock. The day after, she agreed with Michael¡¯s will, and became his wife, a fact that was officially recognized by Mitchell Canyon, Shannon then became Shannon Canyon.

    Shannon has a plain ¡°Village girl¡± appearance, but she is also somewhat don-descript, easily overlooked. Her hair is black, her eyes gray, and she is small in stature.

    Previously, Shannon had some basic self-defense training, but nothing more. Following her marriage, she awoke a bloodline of unknown origin and gained some form of power.

    Roy Canyon Fredirin, age 12.

    Roy is Michael¡¯s younger brother, but the two have little interaction. Roy is an Elementalist who focuses on fire magic, but he is an extremely skilled mage who learned to use all six elements. He never had any real conflict with his older brother, but Michael was threatened by his growth, and ashamed by his own lack of talent in magic for a while, which lead to a strained relationship between the two that never really recovered.

    <hr>

    The Lakeside Family.

    The Lakeside Family is one of the more unusually dukedoms, and they are in many ways, the counterpart to the Canyons. Both are tied for second place, but while the Canyons are upright and honorable, the Lakeside are cunning and treacherous. While the Canyons focus on military might, the Lakesides focus on magical research and development.

    Because most magical research centers are long established facilities, most of them are located in the capital, but many have been popping up within the Lakeside Domain in recent years.

    The lakeside family only has six children, ranging in ages from 11 to 19, a relatively low amount compared to the other families, even those headed by female leaders.

    The Lakeside Domain.

    The Lakeside Domain is a very apt name for Duke Henry¡¯s dukedom. The southeastern edge of the Fredirin Kingdom, even running up to the eastern reaches towards the mountains, is the massive Big Blue Lake, a lake that is large enough to be considered a sea.

    The lake is shallow, only being 70 or so feet deep and the deepest, but most of it is a comfortable 30-40 feet deep. It is a freshwater lake, and it is also a very calm body of water, dotted with islands of varying size.

    The Lakeside Domain surrounds the lake on all sides, only extending about 50 miles away from it at the farthest parts. Most of the domain is situated on the small island. Due to this, the domain only has one major city, Lake-Gate City, situated on the mouth of the river that feeds into the lake, and one major fort, Lake-Guard Castle, on the far side of the lake.

    The far side of the lake is craggy worthless ground, and it has never been claimed by any nation, and is instead filled with goblins and wild orcs. Occasionally those creatures, or even the Theocracy or Empire will launch attacks, but the Fredirin Forces can just pull back to the coastlines and islands, neither of the opposing enemies has any level of naval force.

    The domain focuses on two things, fishing, and magic research, the isolated islands make for good experimental labs, and also reduce the collateral damage when things go wrong.

    Duke Henry Lakeside Fredirin, age 43.

    Duke Henry is one of the Kingdom¡¯s greatest mages, his rank isn¡¯t known, but he is estimated to be at least a rank 8 Arcanist. He isn¡¯t a combat focused mage, instead, he prefers to focus on research and massive ritual magic, but with his rank, he is still an incredibly dangerous foe.

    The Duke is a man of strange contradictions, he¡¯s cunning and ruthless and has few, if any, friends. He isn¡¯t particularly rude or obnoxious, but he creates such an aura of distrust that no one wants to be around him. He is likewise a stranger to his children, making no effort to interact with them at all.

    On the other hand, he is a highly devoted husband, seemingly only able to trust his wife. His wife, however, is somewhat sickly, which explains the small amount of children.

    The Duke has had a long-running rivalry with his brother, Duke Patrick Canyon since they were children, although it is for the most part, a good-natured rivalry.

    Sebastian Lakeside Fredirin, age 15

    The third oldest child of the Lakesides, Sebastian is an interesting character. He is a natural diplomat and socializer, able to make friends with anyone within moments of meeting them. At the age of fifteen, he has already built several floating party houses that he positioned in the capital Arvas, and he often hosts parties in them.

    Sebastian has no interest in getting his father the throne, and in fact, he is envious of the Pine Family¡¯s stance. Despite having nothing in common with his father, he is the child that gets along with him the most. He has a distaste for his younger brother, Bartholomew¡¯s behavior, and he often moves to thwart his more wicked actions.

    Sebastian however, was assassinated by his brother in the chaotic opening made after Olivia killed Michael.

    Bartholomew Lakeside Fredirin, age 14.

    The 4th oldest son of the Lakesides. Bartholomew is a sociopath, but he isn¡¯t overtly evil. He takes the most efficient path towards his goals, even if such a path would be morally reprehensible. He doesn¡¯t view the sentient races as having much more value than livestock, and he treats them as such. He believes the worth of a person is based only off of their actions, a useless person is like a sick animal and should be put down. His views extend to himself also, he would have no complaints if he were killed to further someone else''s goals.

    He also believes that only the most valuable of things should have names, so he calls all of his servants by numbers, he probably only knows the name of a handful of people.

    He is capable of actions of great cruelty if need be, but he gets no satisfaction from those actions.

    His older brother Sebastian often moved to stop Bartholomew''s plans, which resulted in the younger brother assassinating the older.

    <hr>

    The Quarry Family.

    The Quarry Family is tied for last place with the Goldfields. They are technically, in a worse standing than the Goldfields, but unlike the other family who has effectively no hope of winning, the Quarrys might improve their position, and in fact, are trying to do that.

    Six years ago, the Quarry Family made a large gambit that if successful, would have put them well in the lead of the other six families. The Canyons, Lakesides, Goldfields, and Steam-bursts all united to stop them, and stop them they did. The Quarries were completely thwarted, everything they put into their attempt was lost, and in the ensuing chaos, the other four families picked them apart. Even the Duchess Analise Quarry Fredirin¡¯s husband died in the failed move.

    Now, the Quarry Family has reorganized and focused on strengthening their defenses while biding their time to make another attempt.

    The Quarry Family has five children, ranging in age from 14 to 1.

    The Quarry Domain.

    Located in the far north of the Fredirin Kingdom, in the Spiky Mountains, is the Quarry Domain. The Spike Mountains are a bunch of sharp but short mountains, divided by steep ravines. To the west is the Pine Family Domain, to the south, the edges of the Goldfield domain borders it, and to the south-east is the only part of the domain that isn¡¯t mountainous, before it reaches the Lakeside Domain.

    The Quarry Domain is the source of more than half of the Fredirin Kingdom¡¯s mines, the rest being an even split between the Canyons Pines, and Steam-bursts. However, while the other families tend only to be able to mine one or two different types of ore, the Quarrys have a mine for just about everything.

    As their name implies, besides mines, they also provide the kingdom¡¯s cut stone, providing large amounts of granite, and the more valuable marble.

    Very little food is produced within the Quarry Domain, small farming villages are set up, and there is a degree of goat herding, but the vast majority of the food comes from trade.

    Militarily, the Spiky Mountains are easier to traverse than the God¡¯s Wall Mountains, so the Quarry domain is dotted with various fortresses that overlook the many pathways into the barbarian lands.

    Duchess Analise Quarry, age 34.

    An ambitious woman, Analise Quarry¡¯s desire to become the next ruler of the Fredirin Kingdom is likely the strongest of the six dukes and duchesses. Her ambition manifests in a reckless outlook, which has been her own worst enemy. The Duchess is found of large, complex plans, and ones that risk a ton, but also potentially gain a ton. She is also generally rather lucky, even when she fails, she always survives, as does a stable foundation of her strength, so she always has an opportunity to rise again.

    In fact, long ago, many of her cousins met their ruin when the Duchess¡¯s plan fell apart, and then they attempted to chase her down and give her the final blow. While others might move steadily, the Duchess moves haphazardly, and while most are surprised she hasn¡¯t been destroyed yet, it is also worth mentioning that she had utterly destroyed more of her rivals than any of her siblings.

    The other five ducal houses view Analise Quarry as possibly the biggest threat.

    Outside of her own reckless ambition, the Duchess is actually a pleasant person to be around. She is learned in pretty much every field and topic, she is a decent mage, a decent administrator, a decent general, and a decent warrior. She is also, by far, the most charismatic of the six, no one really dislikes her, even those she has trampled over in the past.

    She is a surprisingly loving mother and wife too, although six years ago when her husband died in her failed gambit, she was left depressed for over a year, always wearing mourning dresses whenever she went out.

    Since then, three years ago she remained in a purely political sense. Her new husband holds none of her trust, and has almost no power, the Duchess rarely even bothers to tell him what her plans are, let alone consult him.

    <hr>

    The Steam-burst Family.

    The undisputed top dog of the competition to see who will be the next king of the Fredirin Kingdom. The Steam-burst Family¡¯s lead is so massive, that no one really expects anyone else to stand a chance.

    The Steam-bursts have little interaction with the other families, instead focusing on their internal development, in this way they are like the Pine Family. However, unlike the Pines, the Steam-bursts will strike back, viciously, if they are messed with, and while uncommon, they do occasionally strike first.

    The Steam-burst family has 7 children, aged 18 to 13.

    The Steam-burst Domain.

    Before Duke Steam-burst took over this area, the Steam-burst Domain was not actually part of the Fredirin Kingdom, but part of a large stretch of unclaimed land that no one cared for.

    The original Steam-burst Domain was a small section of land between where God¡¯s Divide Canyon flattened out before reaching the coastline, and the southern edge of the Pine Domain. This small area had two dilapidated forts before the Steam-burst took over. From that point, the coast continued down south-west, and if one were to go from there to the south-east, they would reach the deserts of the Brown Waste. However, the gap between the coast and the desert was a barren swamp marsh dotted with occasional volcanic vents that spewed steam and boiling water out.

    The land was inhospitable, being entirely marshland, the bodies of water were either too brackish to drink, or contained nearly lethal amounts of sulfur. The only wildlife was small and tended to be poisonous itself. Hostile lizardfolk made this area home, as did a few sahuagin tribes, and it was also one of the main avenues for the Crystal Jade Empire to attack through. Even the Theocracy, would occasionally try to send a flanking army through the swamps. And because the swamps were so inhospitable, many of those invasions would see numerous soldiers dying within, who to this day, rise as bloated undead corpses.

    The Steam-burst family aggressively reclaimed this area, pushing south along the coast, using a relay of boats from a port they built near those two forts. Once they reached where they wanted, they began transporting in tons and tons of stone, gravel, sand, and dirt. Building up mounts to hold towns and even cities. A massive, raised, roadway along with an aqueduct allows transportation through the swamps.

    However, all of these gains would have meant nothing had the Crystal Jade Empire invaded.

    The Steam-bursts used the volcanic vents to create a series of cannons, large towers were built over the vents, and inside of the towers were magically sealed tanks that held the pressure that spewed out. A large warhead could then be shoved into a hollowed out tube, and then the steam would be released, firing the shell out like a cannon. The power of these cannons allowed them to have a range many miles out, and the many vents allowed several towers to fire upon any army that advanced. Different types of magical stones allowed different types of attacks. Since they Steam-bursts took over this land, they repelled countless lizardfolk and sahuagin raids, two large-scale invasions from the Empire, and one from the Theocracy.

    Duke Jason Steam-burst, age 30.

    Jason Steam-burst took this name before he had reclaimed the salt marshes that would eventually become his domain, which indicates that he had a plan from the beginning and that he knew how to make the steam cannons well before he started building them.

    Which wasn¡¯t unsurprising to anyone who knew him. Jason was a quiet, spindly man, lacking skill in any of the martial talents. He was shy, not particularly attractive, and not liked by anyone. He was, however, highly intelligent and studious. In fact, he spent nearly all of his time in libraries and classrooms.

    He married one of his maids, who was in her thirties at the time. No one knows exactly why they married, the fact that she was pregnant was one reason, but she was neither a person with political backing, a person with their own talents, or even a person who was particularly attractive.

    Their marriage is, however, harmonious, they act less like a noble couple, and more like a family of commoners. Since the Duke is absent-minded and socially awkward, and since his wife is nearing her sixties, they appear more like a couple of grandparents.

    The fact that their last child was born over 13 years ago lets some outsiders make verbal jabs that the Duke is no longer attracted to his wife, but in a rare moment for the Duke, during a banquet at the Royal Capital, he loudly announced that that wasn¡¯t the case at all and that the Steam-burst Family Doctor had recommended against any more children due to her age. The fact that he hasn¡¯t remarried seems to indicate that that was true.

    Martin Steam-burst Fredirin, age 17.

    The second oldest child of the Steam-bursts, Martin is a trained knight. Due to being on the frontier, the Steam-bursts have a strong need for military might, and Martin takes up the mantle of being one of the families strongest combatants. At the age of 16, he had already been considered as a rank 6 knight.

    He currently acts as a traveling liaison to the other families, he doesn¡¯t actually negotiate much of anything, since that isn¡¯t his skill set, but he keeps the others informed of the Steam-burst Family¡¯s intentions.

 Chapter 16: Elemental Overflow.

    Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 22:55

    8th Camp, 2nd Defense Line, Bleeding Forest, 34 Miles South of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Sergeant Moric, Son of Stoor.

    ¡°How are you boys doing?¡± I asked as I stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the bonfire, ¡°James, that ain''t boozes is it?¡±

    ¡°Sir!¡±

    ¡°Sir!¡±

    ¡°Sir!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s enough of that, sit down you fools.¡± I cut my men off before they could stand up and salute. ¡°Too cold for that.¡±

    The three of them looked around sheepishly before sitting back down on the wooden stools they were issued. I did notice James tried to shove a bottle into the snow behind him, but I chose to ignore it for now.

    ¡°What brings you around lieutenant?¡± Gorp asked.

    ¡°Ain''t a lieutenant anymore son, it¡¯s sergeant now,¡± I said, my voice sounding more like a growl than I wanted it to.

    Nothing to do about that though, it was my age catching up with me, that and the time I took an arrow to the neck might have something to do with it.

    ¡°Sir...That¡­ I¡­ We are sorry.¡± Wron said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry bout that, ain''t your fault,¡± I said, but then added, ¡°At least no more than it is mine.¡±

    ¡°Still¡­¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that bastard dropped your rank,¡± James spoke for the first time since he hid his ale.

    ¡°That¡¯s life, nobles like him, they do what they want, and us freemen get the short end. Nothing to be done bout it.¡± I shook my head as I said so. ¡°But you boys, you still got a living to make, you need to learn to take that shit without making a mess of things. Me? I''ve got the last few years of pay saved up, and no wife or kids to spend it on, so I''ll be retiring after this.¡±

    ¡°You will?¡± Gorp sounded shocked.

    ¡°Yah, time to rest these old bones of mine. I ain''t as young as I used to be, mornings are rough anymore, and¡­¡± I drew my sword, a plain old thing that looked like standard issue goods, because it was. ¡°The fingers don¡¯t work like they should no more, I can barely hold this thing. Ain''t gonna be no good in a fight like this.¡±

    ¡°...¡± Gorp just watched as I put my sword back into the sheath.

    ¡°Sir¡­ I never did ask, but how long have you been a soldier?¡± Wron asked.

    ¡°How long? Hmm¡­ Since our General was just a brat, that is for sure¡­ she grew up well.¡± I said as I lost myself in thought for a second, ¡°Probably about thirty years now I guess. I was a patrolman before that, since I was about fourteen? Sounds bout right.¡±

    ¡°Wow¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a long time¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah, Sir, how many fights have you been in?¡±

    ¡°I never talked about this?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, sir. Well, I don¡¯t think anyone asked?¡± Wron looked towards the other two who both shook their heads.

    ¡°I heard from another guy that you fought against the Empire and the Theocracy, he said you are probably the only one left in the army who went against both,¡± James added.

    ¡°Ain''t no way that be the case son, lots o folks fought both of them, the Empire sent some troops into the swamps just a few months ago.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ that was just a small skirmish, I''m talking about a real fight.¡±

    ¡°Last time what you call a ¡®Real fight,¡¯ happened, was a long time ago. Older than me for sure.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t they attack twenty or so years ago? My Pops said he was levied to fight them then.¡± Gorp mentioned.

    ¡°Yah, you be right, they attacked, but it ain''t no fight. They sent three battalions, two of infantry and archers, about twelve hundred men, and then four hundred light cavalry. We met them with eight hundred trained soldiers and another thousand of conscripted civilians. And you know what we did?¡±

    ¡°No sir.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡±

    ¡°Haha¡­ We stared at each other for two days. Every few hours their horsemen looked like they were gonna charge and moved around, their archers would let lose a few shots, and then they went back to their lines. When it was all done, they just upped and left.¡±

    ¡°Er¡­ Really?¡± Gorp asked.

    ¡°Yah, there was no fighting at all.¡±

    ¡°Pops said he saw a man die, said it really scared him. That¡¯s what he said when he tried to talk me out of joining the army.¡±

    ¡°He mighta been right, some guys got unlucky, an arrow slid past a shield, something like that. I don¡¯t remember the commander''s name, but I know he was a local, didn¡¯t want the conscripted soldiers to get too hurt, so he put them in the back. Normally they¡¯d be in the front to blunt a charge, then the regulars would move up and clean things up, but this guy did the opposite, so it was the regulars like us that got showed with arrows. Well, it wasn¡¯t too bad, we all had shields. Your father woulda been in the back though, near a field hospital, probably saw some of the wounded moving back.¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­ I always thought he saw real combat.¡±

    ¡°No one saw real combat son, no one crossed swords. Our archers weren¡¯t good enough to shoot them either, so no one on our side did anything.¡± I said, but then added an afterthought. ¡°Don¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t brave, we didn¡¯t know there would be no fighting. We had numbers, but they had the better army, plus, one horseman is worth a lot more than a foot soldier.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Lieu- I mean, Sergeant, you mind if I ask you a question?¡± James asked.

    ¡°Pass me that bottle you got buried there, and you can ask all you want.¡±

    ¡°Er... yeah¡­¡± He said and then bent down to pull the bottle out before passing it to me. ¡°I¡¯ve been enlisted for two years now, but I''ve been at the Capital the whole time.¡±

    ¡°Yeah? And?¡± I asked as I took the bottle from him.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been down south to the Canyon and Lakeside Domains, right? And I heard you served somewhere up north too, what¡¯s the rest of the country like?¡±

    ¡°The rest of the country, eh?¡± I said as I opened the bottle and took a whiff, ¡°Good Gods is this strong, what is it?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ well¡­¡± James looked embarrassed. ¡°My Ma makes it, she calls it Pig¡¯s Piss. Said the color is right.¡±

    ¡°Ha, Pig¡¯s Piss? Sounds right. Your mother sounds like fun. Good woman I bet.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s stronger than Pa, I saw her pick him up once and throw him out the door when he came home drunk one night.¡±

    ¡°Haha, is that right?¡± I said and took a swig of the foul brew, Pig¡¯s Piss was a good name for it, ¡°Well, you¡¯re right, I have been down south, course it wasn¡¯t called the Canyon or Lakeside Domains back then. They ain¡¯t much different from here, warmer for sure, especially on a night like tonight with all this blasted snow. The Canyon Domain is pretty dry, it don¡¯t rain much, and there''s dust everywhere, it gets in your mouth, your eyes, everywhere. The Lake though, that is a nice place, warm but not hot, cool breeze comes off the water, even smells nice.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Gorp clenched his fist triumphantly.

    ¡°Damnit¡­¡± And James looked down sadly.

    ¡°That where you two are going after this?¡± I guessed.

    ¡°Yeah, Gorp is going to become a marine next month, and James is heading to a fort somewhere in the Canyon Domain.¡± Wron answered.

    ¡°Where are you going son?¡±

    ¡°Somewhere in the Pine Domain, I hear they are setting up a port on the coast.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about the Pine Domain, I was at the border for a few weeks, but the soldiers over in the Quarry Domain needed help with some trolls, and I ended up with a broken leg from that. Got sent back home for a few months to get myself fixed up, and never went back.¡±

    ¡°I see, so the north is pretty dangerous too¡­¡±

    ¡°Not really,¡± I said as I finished James¡¯s booze, ¡°The Pine Domain is pretty safe, only the Barbarians to deal with, and they rarely come south. Now the Quarry Domain, that place is dangerous, the Barbarians are a lot more active there, though I haven¡¯t heard much about them lately. The big problem there is the Danger Zone, most of those mountain ranges are still overflowing with rampant Mana, and all sorts of monsters. The Dark Crevices are probably one of the worst Danger Zones, them and the Forlorn Marsh down in the Steam-burst Domain.¡±

    ¡°I heard the Blue Abyss was the most dangerous,¡± Gorp broke in to ask, ¡°I hope they don¡¯t send me there.¡±

    ¡°They won''t,¡± I said confidently. ¡°You be right, the Blue Abyss is much scarier than the other four Danger Zones, but, it''s underwater. No one goes in, and almost nothing comes out. And when they do, it¡¯s a fish out of water.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Gorp looked relieved, ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought about that.¡±

    ¡°Well, you think about that, but don¡¯t let it stop you from keeping watch,¡± I said.

    ¡°Are you heading back¡­ to that bastard?¡± James asked.

    ¡°He¡¯s the commanding officer, bastard he may be, so don¡¯t talk like that. Might not matter that I got demoted, but you boys still got your life in front of you, no use wasting it by picking a fight with some noble brat.¡± I said sternly.

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±

    ¡°But no I ain''t, I''m going back to my tent to get some sleep. The cold made my joints stiff and it woke me up. I just came out to warm myself at the fire and check on you fools.¡±

    ¡°Mmm, sleep well then sir.¡± Wron said.

    ¡°You boys stay warm. And James,¡± I stood and then tossed the empty bottle back to him, ¡°Tell your mother she named this vile brew well. I know it keeps you warm, but no drinking while on watch, you go-GAH!¡±

    I didn¡¯t even see it, but something shot out of the dark. James¡¯s head exploded, blood, bone, brain, it all splattered everywhere. Even as he fell, headless, another attack smashed into his shoulder, tearing his entire arm off and sending it flying through the air. Whatever hit him, then hit me, I felt a breeze near my neck and then I felt warmth spreading down my chest. One hit my hip and broke through my mail while digging into my bone and another one hit my left wrist, cleanly severing my hand.

    ¡°Wha!¡±

    ¡°At-attack!¡± I yelled, feeling faint.

    ¡°JAMES!¡± Wron yelled as he jumped towards James¡¯s corpse.

    Not a breath since he moved, something flew through the air. Wron was lucky, but Gorp, who had sat there shocked, suddenly pitched forward, a spear, six feet long, was sticking out of his chest, propping him up as he leaned forward. The spear¡­ No¡­ the shard of ice was thicker than my arm. Gorp tried to bring his hands towards the ice, but they fell away, the light from his eyes gone.

    ¡°Blow-Blow the Ho-horn!¡± I yelled as I dropped to my knees, I no longer had the strength to stand.

    ¡°The horn¡­¡± Wron was in shock, still trying to staunch the blood leaking from James¡¯s mangled body.

    ¡°Bl-blow it¡­¡± I could feel my voice weakening, I was losing too much blood.

    My hip was probably fine, my left hand would be a problem, but my neck wound was going to kill me much sooner. My scarf that I had been pushing into the cut was already soaked with blood.

    ¡°Ye-yeah¡± he stuttered as he looked around, and then seeing the horn on a rack near the fire, stood and ran towards it.

    ¡°NO! St-stay do-¡±

    As I watched, Wron¡¯s body was shredded to pieces as he moved. Bits of him splattered about, his head rolled towards the rack, one of his arms landed in the fire, his two legs fell limply where he last stood.

    ¡°...dammit¡­¡±

    I crawled, through the blood and guts of my men, leaking my own life as I went. Ten seconds to get to the rack, another three to knock it over, and another two to bring the horn to my lips, but it felt like an eternity.

    And it was too long. The horn was in my hand, the mouthpiece on my lips, but I had no strength to blow it.

    ¡°...shit¡­¡±

    The fire was my only remaining chance.

    I crawled back to it, this time slower. I had no strength remaining, nowhere near enough to use magic, even if I could do that in the first place. And using snow to put out the fire would take far too long.

    But, since I was dying anyway¡­

    I slowly drug myself into the fire, trying to smother it with my own body.

    I could feel my face burn, my skin peeling back, my eyes that had already lost their sight began to boil. But even as I burnt, I felt no heat, my body just got colder and colder. I was halfway into the fire when my strength gave out and I fell into the burning ashes. As I choked on the ash, I couldn¡¯t even cough.

    I only hoped it was enough.

    <hr>

    Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 23:07

    Pine Family Bathroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Unlike humans, and most other mortal races, Outsiders do not typically bathe, nor do they need to.

    Humans sweat, because of stress, because of exertion, because the environment is hot. Their skin is fragile, requiring moisturization, so it produces oils. They also have no innate ability to clean themselves.

    Outsiders do not sweat because their bodies are not mortal. They do not secret oils or other fluids, unless that happens to be a method of attack or defense. And mana can easily be used to remove any dirt or grime that gets on their bodies.

    Thus, there is no need to bathe.

    This is something I have recently discovered to be a shame. A great shame.

    Bathing is wonderful.

    ¡°It is not too hot, is it Olivia?¡± My sister asked.

    ¡°It is fine.¡±

    Apparently, many cultures have different bathing habits. Most of the wealthier members of the Fredirin Kingdom rely on wooden tubs filled with heated water, while the poorer citizens instead just towel off and occasionally dump a bucket of water over their heads.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    In this case, we are a bit behind the nations to our south. The Theocracy lacks water since it is situated in a desert, they, therefore, rely on saunas. My brother Timothy finds these to be relaxing, having had one built, a small room with coal-filled braziers where water is splashed around and turned into steam.

    Pamela occasionally uses it, but I do not see the appeal.

    However, in the Crystal Jade Empire, that is even farther south than the Theocracy, they have a culture of communal bathing. Considering the Human need to be clothed whenever others are nearby, I find this habit or bathing together to be somewhat odd, but the large baths, filled with hot water, are absolutely wonderful.

    ¡°Are you sure? If it is too hot you can get out and sit here.¡± Pamela said motioning towards the stone benches surrounding the pool.

    ¡°Mmmm, I am fine,¡± I replied as I floated through the water.

    Our mother seemingly enjoyed the large baths of the Empire, and she had had this room built when the Pine Estate was constructed. The room was a rectangle about thirty feet long and fifteen across, the front was sectioned off so that people could enter and get changed without the steam wafting out, and also so that when people did enter, the cool air from the hallway wouldn¡¯t bother those inside. The pool was an oval-shaped crescent, benches were carved into the sides so that people in the pool could sit down, the pool itself was too deep to sit at the bottom for even the tallest humans. In the center was a raised platform where a large basin was built, warm water bubbled up through a pipe that ran underneath it, and then flowed back into the pool creating ripples and waves.

    I was currently floating near that, letting the water splash over me.

    ¡°You look like you are enjoying yourself,¡± Pamela said with a laugh.

    Unlike myself, Pamela had already stopped submerging herself in the water, and instead had pulled herself onto the lip of the pool, letting her legs dangle in the water.

    ¡°Um¡­ Why am I here?¡± The third person in the bath asked.

    ¡°Because you smelled.¡±

    Carla, who was sitting in the far end of the bath, and who still had a towel wrapped around her even as she was under the water, still managed to look indignant at Pamela¡¯s words.

    ¡°Yes, because you smelled.¡± I followed up.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t my fault,¡± Carla complained, ¡°And everyone there would smell.¡±

    ¡°Olivia did not.¡±

    ¡°Right, I was fine.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ I don¡¯t know how you managed to not smell, it was a sewer.¡± Carla said suspiciously.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to follow me, you could have stayed and avoided smelling,¡± I mentioned.

    ¡°As your Guardian Knight, it is my duty to follow you.¡±

    With Carla there when I met with Lin, I knew she wouldn¡¯t let me go out by myself. To preempt that debate, I had decided to bring her with me. I probably could have convinced her to stay behind, but it didn¡¯t seem worth it, and time was also a concern.

    I did not, however, mention that the escape route that the Spectres were making connected to the sewers. Nor did I mention that said escape route was not finished, and that we would need to stay hidden within the sewers until it was done. And as it turned out, it took nearly two hours for the work to be completed.

    ¡°And follow me you did, into a sewer, and now you smell, so you needed to take a bath.¡±

    ¡°She brings up a point Olivia, how did you manage to avoid smelling like that?¡± Pamela asked me as she slipped back into the water. ¡°Ah¡­ that is nice.¡±

    ¡°Magic,¡± I replied, truthfully.

    Odors are just residue stuck to an object, so all I had to do was, when no one was looking, cover myself in a thin layer of blood. That would capture anything that could leave behind a scent, and then my blood would break it down.

    As I found out with Ula, a faint trace of blood would stay in the air, but that was only detectable then because I had bled heavily, and it took place in a small, enclosed space. In this case, I had done it outside, so any traces of blood would be blown away by the wind.

    ¡°Can¡­ Can you tell me how to do that?¡± Carla asked hesitantly.

    ¡°I could tell you, but you would need to be able to use the same type of magic as me.¡±

    ¡°Knight Carla, you are looking somewhat red,¡± Pamela interrupted, ¡°you should sit on the edge and cool down a bit.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes,¡± Carla said as she pulled herself up out of the water and onto the edge of the pool. She crossed her legs and tried to scrunch up her body to better allow the small towel to cover her.

    ¡°You know, Knight Carla, you should grow out your hair a bit, it would match your figure.¡±

    ¡°Ah, well¡­¡± Carla seemed to be even redder than when she was in the water, ¡°My hair is really unruly, I can¡¯t even tie it down. And as a knight, I shouldn¡¯t do much more than that. Plus¡­ My figure is¡­¡±

    There were, curiosities, in the memories I inherited from the original Olivia. There were things I ¡°Knew¡± to be true. Whether or not they really were, I wasn¡¯t sure, but I was confident in them for some reason. The thing was, I didn¡¯t know why I was confident in them. They were things the original seemed to have picked up piecemeal through thousands of minor and insignificant observations.

    One of those things was the standard of beauty for the kingdom.

    My knight Carla did not have the ideal womanly figure, I could tell that even with the towel covering her, actually, the towel did little to hide her figure as it stuck to her body. Even then, she was just a bit too wide, her hips were small, there was almost no curve from her legs to her waist, her shoulders were just slightly too broad. Her limbs were not smooth and soft, but sturdy with muscle. She was just slightly off, however, and while she couldn¡¯t ever pass as an elegant seductress, she did have the form of a beautiful lady knight. If anything, her only real problem was that she was just a little too short, she was shorter than Pamela, who was half her age.

    ¡°Your figure is fine, have you considered braids?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­ No, I have not.¡±

    ¡°You should try it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe¡­¡± Carla said with a wry smile.

    Carla¡¯s thoughts were pretty clear as she scrunched herself up even further. While she did that, Pamela was reclining on one of the submerged benches. My sister was still growing, I knew because she had been wearing pants earlier today that didn¡¯t quite cover her ankles, she also complained about her favorite shirt being too tight. But even as she was still growing, her figure was already superior to Carla¡¯s.

    My sister didn¡¯t quite match the elegant seductress mental image I had inherited from the original Olivia, but she was very close. Really, the only difference was the demeanor, Pamela was just too easy going and almost¡­ motherly, to pull off that look.

    ¡°Also¡­¡± Pamela began while stretching out her back, ¡°You always wear trousers, I know as a knight you have to wear something easy to move in, but you should try to wear something that suits you better.¡±

    ¡°Er¡­ th-that is¡­ M-my Lady¡­¡± Carla stuttered unsure as to what she should do.

    ¡°Okay Sister, leave my Guardian Knight alone, she isn¡¯t your dress up doll,¡± I said, saving my knight.

    ¡°Oh, alright, if you insist.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, My Lady,¡± Carla said feeling relieved.

    ¡°She is my Guardian Knight, and thus, my dress up doll. I will be the one to choose her outfits from now on.¡± I said smugly.

    ¡°...wha¡­?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha.¡±

    Carla just gaped at me while Pamela laughed.

    <hr>

    Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 23:12

    Command Center, Eastern Keep, Bleeding Forest, 34 Miles South of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Frederica Canyon Fredirin.

    ¡°We have no contact with the first two defense lines!¡±

    ¡°Third defense line is confirmed overrun!¡±

    ¡°The fourth line won''t hold, they need reinforcements!¡±

    ¡°Captain Vot¡¯s company is moving in to reinforce.¡±

    ¡°It won''t be enough, Lieutenant Colonel Tina¡¯s battalion should be sent forward!¡±

    ¡°There is no time!¡±

    ¡°We are going to lose the fourth line if we don¡¯t move them now.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s already lost! It has been breached in multiple spots, we need to fall back to the fifth!¡±

    ¡°Are you crazy!? There are 300 men holding that line!¡±

    ¡°And already half of them are dead you fool! If we send more there, we will only be sending them to their deaths.¡±

    Even before I opened the door, I could clearly hear my staff officers yelling from the hallway.

    Those idiots.

    ¡°SILENCE!¡± I roared, slamming the door open.

    The noise and my appearance caused a temporary lull to fall over the six men and women in the room.

    ¡°Report!¡± I demanded.

    ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°Sir.¡±

    ¡°Ma¡¯am¡±

    ¡°Yes General.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±

    ¡°General.¡±

    Six voices called out to me and six bodies went to salute.

    ¡°Forget that. Report.¡± I said again as I waved them away with my stump of an arm.

    ¡°Yes General!¡± Adjutant Kark began, ¡°The attack started ten to fifteen minutes ago. There was no alert from the first defense line, and no alert from the second, but someone in the third must have noticed something and they raised the alarm.¡±

    ¡°Camp seven of the third line blew the first horn,¡± Adjutant Vai continued, ¡°that alerted the rest of the line to a problem, and then camps one, two, and five also immediately blew their horns. By that point, the entire line was engaged.¡±

    ¡°We started mustering reinforcements, we assumed a fast breakthrough of the first two lines and that the third was where it was slowing down, we didn¡¯t realize the first two were gone¡­¡± Urlis, another one of my adjutants stated with his tone devoid of any emotion.

    ¡°Two minutes later, the first horn sounded from the fourth line, camp two. Camps three and eight followed.¡± Adjutant Wiln added.

    ¡°At this point, the entire fourth line is under attack, we have confirmed that the third has been overrun, no one retreated from it.¡± Apz, my fifth adjutant said.

    ¡°There may be pockets of men left, but the blizzard is hindering vision, we can¡¯t tell.¡± My final adjutant, Porso added.

    ¡°Five camps of ten men each on the first line, the second is just watch-posts, fifteen camps, three men each, the third has a company of one twenty, and the fourth has a battalion of three hundred. We¡¯ve lost almost two hundred men in the first three, and more than double that are about to go with the fourth,¡± I spat out in disgust, my voice sounding worse due to my deformed lips, ¡°Gods be damned. Alright. What are we dealing with, wyrms, drakes? Something else?¡±

    ¡°We¡­ we aren¡¯t sure,¡± Wiln started, but then looked over at Vai who was normally in charge of communications.

    ¡°General, the blizzard is preventing us from seeing them at this point, and we are getting¡­ conflicting reports from the few survivors,¡± Vai said.

    ¡°Are men falling back from the fourth line?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, as best we can tell, the line is holding its ground-¡±

    ¡°For now.¡± Porso interrupted, earning an annoyed look from Vai.

    ¡°But the fourth line sent men out to get reports, the enemy is capable of powerful ranged attacks, and most of the messengers and scouts never made it.¡± Vai finished.

    ¡°Anyone not under cover is getting killed, even some in the fifth line who were moving forward have been hit. Shards of ice it seems...¡± Urlis added.

    ¡°Shards of ice¡­¡± I said while thinking to myself.

    The Bleeding Forest is named for the fact that everything in it is large and sturdy, and also violent. Nearly every creature within gets mauled in some way, every day, so anyone who stumbles upon one of them, will find it to be bleeding.

    With the blizzard raging about, more monsters with an inclination towards ice and water magic would show up¡­ but nothing that is capable of shooting shards of ice. Winter wolves have a cold breath that can leave a layer of ice on a man, and winter wyrms can freeze a man solid with their own breath. Up north there were supposedly spiked ice beetles, bugs about the size of a small horse and with a back covered in spikes of ice. They could launch those out, but they did not have that much range, took days to regrow, and could only be shot out at random, no real aiming was possible. And more importantly, they had never been spotted before here in the Bleeding Forrest.

    Unless¡­

    ¡°Elementals¡­!?¡±

    My adjutants all looked like they wanted to say something, but their silence was enough.

    I spun around and rushed out of the room, my ruined leg making me limp, but hardly slowing me at all. I heard the six others follow me through the door, but I said nothing to them as I sped through the halls and up a staircase. Another hall, and finally I was at my goal, I pushed open a door only to have a blast of cold air and snow hit me in the face.

    I stomped across the roof of the keep, ice and snow crunching underfoot as I moved towards the edge where two sentries were standing near an open fire. They both saluted, but I ignored them as I went to the edge and peered out into the snow. I could see the fires of the sixth defense line and the fifth, and many smaller torches as men moved into position behind the sixth, but the fourth was blurred by the snow. However, I was pretty sure that there were far fewer fires than the nine there should have been.

    ¡°Sunburst flare,¡± I ordered. "Now!"

    ¡°Er¡­ General, if we do that, it will wake up-¡±

    ¡°Do it,¡± I ordered again, giving a death glare towards the man who didn¡¯t immediately follow my orders, a sergeant I noticed by looking at his insignia.

    ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am!¡± He hurriedly saluted and ran to make it happen.

    I only had to wait for half a minute before one of the ballista mounted on the roof was angled towards the sky. A huge wooden shaft was fitted into it, but instead of a sharpened point that would let it fly smoother, and shred targets better, this one had a yellow ball fitted on the front. With a loud twang, the ballista fired, the projectile flew through the air, and into the blizzard where I quickly lost sight of it.

    One¡­ Two¡­ Three¡­ Four¡­ Five¡­ Six¡­ Seven¡­

    When I counted to eight, the sky suddenly lit up. A golden glow illuminating the sky, even seeming to burn away the falling snow for a moment. The light faded in intensity, from the brightest sun at noon, to a golden glow.

    But it was enough.

    The first defense line was within the tree line, so I couldn¡¯t see that, but the second, third, and now, almost all of the fourth, was gone. Red splatters and stains, mangled and ruined bodies were all that remained of the men who had guarded them.

    And then their killers, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of moving, walking, statues of ice. They had no consistent form, some walked on two legs, some on four, some crawled, others slithered.

    Elementals.

    Their first wave marched through the remains of the fourth line, their second was just passing the third line, the third wave was about to reach the second line, and the fourth wave was just exiting the tree line. Their vanguard, if the formation of these mindless things could even be called that, was going to hit the fifth defense line in about a minute.

    ¡°All troops, this is General Canyon.¡± My voice echoed over the entire field thanks to the magic effect built into my necklace, ¡°The fifth line is to fall back and regroup with the sixth. Both will fall back to the keep. All artillery squadrons are to fire at will. Grenadiers, fire at will, mage teams, fire at will. Concentrate all fire on the first group. Activate the keep¡¯s wards, and raise the barrier.¡±

    It took the first troops a second to begin moving after I finished giving my orders. The men and women of the fifth defense line began falling back, it was less orderly than I would have liked, but it became a chaotic mess once the advancing elementals started unleashing barrages of ice shards. Some were little more than daggers, but others were the size of spears and javelins. Over the blizzard, I couldn¡¯t hear them, but I knew that the cries of dying soldiers were resounding across the field.

    Before it could become a rout, the first ballista opened fire. Sharpened poles flew through the air, some even firing bundle shots, several smaller spears tied together that would spread in flight. Even one of the smaller catapults had let loose with a rock the size of a human torso.

    Most of the projectiles missed, the stone kicked up snow but rolled harmlessly past two elementals. The bundle shots rained down over a group, breaking off a few limbs, but not really affecting them in any way. One of the larger shots landed right next to an elemental, the shock blowing it off its feet, all three of them, and another scored a direct hit on one of the bigger ones that looked like a giant ball on two legs, which became only one leg, one foot, and a bunch of shards of cracked ice afterwards.

    The attack did not inflict the casualties I wanted it to, needed it to, but it did disrupt the elementals. And, it kicked up a lot of snow that obscured vision, providing cover to the retreating soldiers. The elemental¡¯s ranged attacks sputtered down, only a few more men were hit before they finished crossing the two hundred feet to the sixth line.

    Still, nearly fifty bodies lay bleeding in the snow.

    More twangs reverberated around me as more artillery began firing, and as I watched, I saw a few bursts of light, bolts of lightning, fireballs, and hunks of rock begin being fired out from the final defenses. Only a few mages were capable of firing at targets at that range, but their aim was much better compared to the siege weapons.

    I turned to head back to the command center when the entire keep under my feet began to glow, faint symbols and characters appearing over the stones. The Keep, at a truly ridiculous cost, had been turned into a magical array, by burning through an absurd amount of crystallized mana, the stone could be reinforced, until simple stone and mortar would be just as durable as solid steel.

    And then, even as I stepped back through the door, I caught the sight of the barrier activating, a massive magical wall that surrounded the entire coastline. As long as that was powered, the only way in or out would be through this keep. It would keep the elementals from crossing the river, but it would also focus all of them right towards this location.

    ¡°General, what do we do?¡± Vai asked.

    ¡°...¡± This¡­ was not an easy decision.

    The fort might be able to hold against what I just saw out there, if we did everything perfectly, but the odds were against us. And if there were even more elementals approaching, we would have no chance.

    We were caught off guard, we lost too many men too fast, and we had no time to set up formations and traps. We could rely on our defenses, but there was a very fundamental problem.

    The monsters that usually came out of the forest were large beasts. They were strong, durable, but they were living beasts. To fight them, we relied on several tactics, but for the most part, those tactics involved pelting them with arrows and javelins while keeping them at bay with spear walls. On anything really dangerous, we would use the siege weapons, or send out higher ranking warriors.

    But against elementals, ice elementals at that, arrows would have little effect, the same with spears. Really, what we needed were heavy blunt weapons, axes, or maybe double handed swords. Weapons used to crush and smash, not poke and let bleed.

    Moral was also likely ruined.

    No, this could not be won.

    And elementals would advance tirelessly and unceasingly, we would not be able to defend and stall, they would plow right into us.

    ¡°We retreat,¡± I said resolutely.

    ¡°B-but..¡± A shocked Wiln stuttered out.

    ¡°We can¡¯t hold here,¡± I said shaking my head. ¡°We¡¯ll be wiped out.¡±

    ¡°But a retreat is¡­¡± Apz looked unsure.

    ¡°Going to be a clusterfuck? I know.¡± I said with a sigh. ¡°Elementals are going to be faster than our retreat, especially in this snow. We¡¯ll need a rearguard to stall them.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ Will require a large rearguard¡­¡± Urlis said in his standard emotionless tone, but I could sense worry in it.

    ¡°We are going to lose everyone outside soon, that will put our loses at eight to nine hundred. We¡¯ll have about five thousand men left.¡± Kark said as he tried to calculate how many men we had to fight.

    ¡°Let¡¯s wait until we are in the command room, the others should have arrived by now.¡±

    It took us less than thirty seconds to return, and I was proven right, the formerly empty room now had several more figures.

    ¡°General.¡±

    ¡°Ma¡¯am¡±

    ¡°Gen-¡±

    ¡°No time for that,¡± I said, ¡°We need to retreat as soon as possible.¡±

    Most of the room looked shocked, a few appalled, and a few thoughtful.

    ¡°You won''t be able to escape, they¡¯ll run you down.¡± Major Hervis Alarville, the commander of the garrison¡¯s small cavalry company said.

    I noted that he had said, ¡°You,¡± and not, ¡°Us.¡±

    ¡°I know. But we can not all fall here, we need to link up with the rest of the Capital¡¯s forces. So, we¡¯ll need to have people stay behind to stall them.¡±

    ¡°Mmm¡­¡± Lieutenant Colonel Lores scratched his graying beard, ¡°It will need to be at least two full battalions. That doesn¡¯t leave us a lot to work with after.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I denied him, ¡°I have¡­ something like a plan.¡±

    ¡°Haha, a plan?¡± He said quizzically.

    ¡°First off, Major Korlean,¡± I said looking at the half-elf commander of the mage forces, ¡°You need to have your people use everything they have right now, casting until they pass out. Major Alarville will have his men share their horses with them. But we need to do as much as we can now.¡±

    ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am.¡±

    Major Alarville showed nothing on his face, but I couldn¡¯t help but notice that the horseman looked relieved. Well, not that I blamed him.

    ¡°Lieutenant Colonels Jay and Zuu,¡± I said looking at the man and woman who commanded the sappers and grenadiers respectively, ¡°I am sorry, but I need both of you and your men to stay. You are the only ones who are going to be able to really do anything.¡±

    ¡°...I understand¡­¡± Lieutenant Colonel Jay replied hesitantly, fear clearly in his eyes.

    ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am¡± Was the simple reply from the head of the grenadiers, anyone who used those handheld explosives was probably immune to fear.

    ¡°Knight Commander Deo, I am sorry, but you¡¯ll need to stay too.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± He looked as if he were about to cry, but he still saluted resolutely.

    ¡°Major Pirtsen, you¡¯ll take two companies of our best foot soldiers, we¡¯ll arm them with any axes and hammers we can find, even work tools, and we¡¯ll use them to defend the keep.¡±

    ¡°Got it. I was just thinking, it was about time for me to retire,¡± The grizzled old veteran said with a toothy smile.

    ¡°Then, Colonel Issold,¡± I said turning to my second in command, ¡°you¡¯ll be in charge of the retreat. We have already sent word to the capital, so ideally they should set forth to meet with you.

    ¡°Understood General¡­¡± she said, but then realized something, ¡°Wait, where will you be general?¡±

    ¡°Ha, I''ll keep an eye on things here.¡±

    ¡°No!.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t!¡±

    ¡°That¡­¡±

    ¡°General, let me stay instead.¡±

    ¡°Silence,¡± I said as I banged my one good hand onto the table. ¡°These are my orders, see to it. Issold, the first troops need to start crossing that bridge within minutes. We have no time.

    ¡°Yes¡­ General¡­¡±

    <hr>

    Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 23:37

    Pamela¡¯s Auxiliary Bedroom, 3th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Can you not sleep, Olivia?¡± Pamela asked me from her bed.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ No¡­ something is¡­ bothering me.¡± I responded somewhat unsure.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ Really?¡± Pamela said, having woken herself up a little bit more.

    ¡°Yes¡­¡±

    Something was bothering me, but I could not determine exactly what it was. It was just a slight sense of something being wrong, it pricked at my skin, floated just outside of my sight, it hummed beyond my hearing.

    ¡°I won''t say to come back to bed, but at the very least, you should stay away from the window, you will catch a chill.¡±

    ¡°Mmmm¡­ I am fine.¡± I said, still looking out the window into the snowy night.

    Pamela didn¡¯t say anything, but I heard her shift and move about on the bed. A few seconds later, I felt her presence as she moved up beside me, and draped a blanket over my shoulders.

    ¡°You are cold,¡± She said as she slipped under the wool blanket next to me.

    ¡°I am?¡± I asked confused.

    ¡°Of course you are, the room might be heated by the fireplace, but if you stand this close to the window, of course you will get cold.¡±

    Was I cold? I couldn¡¯t really tell, temperature changes of this magnitude were barely noticeable to me, and would have no real effect on my body. I did not require food for energy, and since that was the case, I did not generate heat like a normal human would. The contraction of my muscles, the functioning of my organs, the flow of my blood, did produce some heat, but it was a far cry from what a human would normally create. However, being that cold would warrant concern if anyone touched me, so I normally forcibly circulated my blood to generate extra heat.

    I had only been looking out this window for a few minutes, but the fact that Pamela could feel that I was cooling down indicated just how much I had let my attention lapse.

    ¡°I guess I am.¡±

    ¡°Here,¡± Pamela shifted under the blanket, going from my side to my back where she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her soft embrace. ¡°You can borrow some of my warmth.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t actually borrow her warmth, at least as she meant it. If she held onto me like this, she would only waste her own heat as she tried to warm me. However, now that she was holding onto me, I began forcing extra blood through my veins, slowly warming myself up.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Mmmm¡­¡± She said drowsily as she rocked back and forth, seemingly trying to lull me into sleep along with her.

    ¡°Pamela,¡± I said suddenly.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°...¡± I hesitated.

    ¡°Olivia?¡± She said, sounding more awake now, and a little concerned.

    ¡°You know¡­ my bloodline that I awoke¡­ there is more to it than just magic.¡± I said slowly, unsure if I should really be saying this.

    ¡°I know,¡± Pamela responded, but she was probably referring to the inherited memories that come with almost all bloodlines.

    ¡°Not just the memories¡­¡±

    ¡°...What do you mean?¡±

    I am¡­ not really sure¡­¡± I said, hesitating. ¡°I know the cold is not something that bothers me any longer. I do not get hungry or thirsty as often, and I do not get tired either.¡±

    I wanted to say more, I wasn¡¯t sure why, but I wanted to confide in my sister. The emotional part of me, the vestiges of the old Olivia wanted that, but the rational part of me knew I shouldn¡¯t say too much too soon.

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Pamela said slowly, ¡°Is that why you were still awake now?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ well¡­ maybe, something is bothering me, but it isn¡¯t my own body. But I think my¡­ changes¡­ are what is causing this, at least, indirectly.¡±

    ¡°Then, what is bothering you?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I am not sure,¡± I said as I still looked out the window. ¡°I think it¡­ is the snow. Something¡­ seems off with it.¡±

    ¡°You were not bothered earlier today, did something change when you went out with the soldiers?¡± She asked.

    ¡°...¡± I thought back to when exactly this sensation had begun. ¡°I was fine earlier¡­ I do not know, it is probably nothing.¡±

    I did say that to reassure my sister, but, it wasn¡¯t as if it was completely impossible that this was nothing important, actually, it was quite likely it was nothing important. My heightened senses, and the way I used to perceive the world as an outsider, were now being filtered through a human body made of flesh and blood. That filter was altering and affecting how those senses were working. There probably was something I was sensing right now, but because it was being done with a mortal body, it was being skewed in one way or the other.

    There were also plenty of explanations for this to be happening in the first place. Snow tends to have strong elemental traces, and since I woke up, this would be the first time I had encountered anything with such traces. I could be sensing the snow itself, or the residue from the storm that produced the snow, or I could even be sensing the subtle changes in the Capital¡¯s elemental balance as the snow fell. For all I knew, someone could be casting magic onto the snow, trying to melt it or collect it or do who knows what, and I was sensing their spells.

    ¡°Are you sure Olivia?¡± Pamela asked, her voice both tired, and filled with concern.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said as I took my eyes away from the window. ¡°Let us go to sleep.¡±

 Chapter 17: One Strike.

    Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 23:57

    Command Center, Eastern Keep, Bleeding Forest, 34 Miles South of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Frederica Canyon Fredirin.

    ¡°Haah...Haah...Haah¡­¡± I panted, exhaustion already sinking into my body.

    I was only 31 years old this year, but already I felt like an old woman. By the Gods, if this was what growing old would be like, I would be happy to just die.

    ¡°Haah¡­ Well¡­ that might be the case regardless.¡± I quietly said to myself as I straightened myself back up.

    Just in time as another elemental charged at me. This one¡¯s body was simply a ball, and where its legs should have been, were a pair of arms that ended in stumpy hands, arms that were identical to the two on the upper half of its body. The thing looked as if it¡¯s top and bottom were mirror images.

    A hand reached out towards my face as it shambled past me, what passed for fingers seemingly trying to grab at me, but I slightly shifted and the finger just brushed passed me. I pivoted and spun, my own strike, a horizontal slash at its back, landed clean, bisecting the elemental almost perfectly in half.

    Even before the top half could hit the snow-covered ground, my second attack hit the lower body, shattering it into hundreds of shards.

    ¡°Haah¡­ just need¡­ haah¡­ to take this nice and¡­ haah¡­ slow¡± I once again spoke to myself as I watched another soldier bring a large pickaxe down onto what remained of that elemental. It took three strikes, but it shattered and died.

    If elementals could even truly die.

    A long time ago I was called One Strike, because every opponent of mine fell in one strike. Or so the rumors went. In actuality, many of my opponents survived more than one strike, and many even went on to beat me. They never killed me, so there is that.

    There was some truth to the rumors, the style I learned, and then eventually altered into my own, was one based around putting everything into one powerful attack. It wasn¡¯t the pure offense of a berserker, I defended, parried, dodged, looked for openings, feinted, probed, but when the time came to strike, I put everything into that one blow. I wasn¡¯t merely trying to cut my opponent, but striving to cut through my opponent.

    And then one day, and one fateful encounter with an ancient salamander and everything changed.

    Everyone knows that salamanders spit fiery globs of oily goo that burn like oil, and at least everyone who lives in the Canyon Domain, knows how to tell when they are about to do so. They lift up their chests, they take a big breath, their throats swell up, they pull their heads back, and then they let loose. The key is the swelling of the throat, every year hundreds, if not more, would be adventurers from the rest of the kingdom end up dead or severely burnt because they don¡¯t know what to look for. However for those of the Canyon Domain, it¡¯s common knowledge, even trainee soldiers know how to defend those attacks.

    I could avoid those attacks without even thinking about it.

    But, ancient salamanders were something else entirely. Only the largest and oldest salamanders are considered ancient, and they are incredibly rare, in my entire life, I had ever only heard of that one. It really was massive, almost ten feet tall when it was still keeping all four feet on the ground, it was nearly thirty feet from head to tail, and it was pure muscle. Salamanders are usually lithe creatures, thin and nimble, but still strong. Unless you look closely, you can¡¯t even tell they have scales. Not so for an ancient, it looked less like a salamander, and more like a dragon or wyrm.

    I knew how dangerous the creature was, I knew how much of a threat it¡¯s burning spit would be, so I charged straight at it. My rush was fast and strong, I lept towards its face, and brought my sword down upon its head. I intended to cleave right through its face, its neck, and however much of its chest I could reach.

    And the ancient salamander was slow to react, it made no effort to dodge or defend, my blade effortlessly sliced through scale, flesh, and bone. As the salamander¡¯s head split in two, I knew it was dead.

    But I immediately realized my mistake. The ancient salamander¡¯s body was big and bulky, not at all like its younger version, and its throat did not swell up when it prepared to spew its fiery spit. As my slash continued down, slicing through its neck, the mass of burning goo exploded out.

    I barely survived, burns covered nearly half of my body. My face, never exactly what one would call pretty, was now a burnt mess, only one eye survived. My right arm was burnt badly, everything below the elbow was completely gone, my right foot was nearly destroyed, and the majority of the muscles on the right side of my torso were ruined too.

    With only one eye, one arm, and one working leg, everyone assumed my fate was to never wield a weapon again. But, my family has a strong belief that only an individual can make their own fate, so I proved everyone wrong, modifying my style so that I could still fight. However, my title of One Strike, slowly changed, it no longer told of how I could kill any enemy with one attack, but now it referenced the fact that I only had one arm, one leg, and one eye.

    ¡°Haah¡­ Not good¡­ getting lost in the past like that¡­¡± I said shaking my head.

    The last few elementals around us were being destroyed, but I could see another group a bit away steadily making their way towards us. I had maybe thirty seconds to recover my strength and check on the situation.

    ¡°Wiln¡­ How are things looking?¡± I asked my adjutant who had stayed behind with me.

    ¡°Not good General¡­¡± Wiln answered as he crawled out of the pile of snow he had been hiding in.

    Wiln wasn¡¯t a warrior, not in any sense of the word. In fact, he had almost zero combat potential, he was instead trained as a spy and as a thief. Even from an ambush, he was only as skilled as a normal soldier. But, if he wanted to stay hidden, he would be extremely hard to find. I wasn¡¯t sure how well that skill would fare against the elementals, but he was still alive.

    ¡°Haah¡­. Not good¡­ how?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve lost almost all of the knights for starters.¡±

    ¡°How did¡­ that happen?¡± I frowned as I asked. ¡°What is Deo doing?¡±

    ¡°Knight Commander Deo is dead Ma¡¯am, and his second-in-command was... one of those, ¡®Valorous¡¯ types. That said, she died before she could cost us all of the remaining knights¡± Wiln said with disdain.

    ¡°I¡¯d order you to have the rest of the knights folded into Major Pirtsen¡¯s command, but I am sure they are already there.¡±

    ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am. As for the sappers and Grenadiers, Lieutenant Colonel Jay last reported that most of the heavy siege has been destroyed, they are using the smaller stuff, but it isn¡¯t as effective and his people are suffering heavy casualties. And the last I heard from Lieutenant Colonel Zuu was that while her grenadiers were highly effective, they were running low on munitions. I don¡¯t know how that has turned out.¡± Wiln reported.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± I asked sounding shocked, ¡°find out.¡±

    ¡°General¡­¡± Wiln hesitated for a second. ¡°Vai is dead.¡±

    ¡°Vai¡­? She is?¡± I said, truly shocked.

    I scanned over the battlefield looking for my adjutant. Vai, like Wiln, was not a warrior, and unlike my other adjutant, she was not a spy either, she instead specialized in various types of utility magic that she learned as an arcanist. Vai was my communication''s officer, able to use telepathy to talk to distant people, and to use basic scrying spells to gain an understanding of the situation. Because we would need to rapidly adapt to changes in the situation, I had needed her to stay, and she, much like Wiln, had volunteered without me even needing to ask.

    ¡°She was hit by a shard of ice,¡± Wiln¡¯s voice brought an end to my search. ¡°Someone brought her back into the keep, but it was¡­ I am sorry.¡±

    ¡°Haah¡­¡±

    Vai wasn¡¯t just my adjutant, she was my friend. Since I was a child, Vai had always been by my side.

    But, I had to focus. I could grieve later, if I survived. Now, without Vai relaying my orders, defending would become even harder.

    ¡°Wiln, tell...no, nevermind.¡± I said as I readied my weapon again, ¡°there is no time. Hide yourself well.¡±

    I watched out of the corner of my eye as he shuffled back under the snow. He had probably said something, but I couldn¡¯t hear it over the clangs as I used my sword to deflect the several shards of ice that had been launched my way.

    These attacks couldn¡¯t kill me, not like this at least, but they sapped my strength, slowly wearing me down. And they prevented me from moving, a fact that would normally bother me, but since my encounter with that salamander, my style no longer relied on moving.

    The first elemental, a six-legged wolf with a pair of small angel like wings on it¡¯s back, pounced right at me, even as the shards were still flying through the air. A few bounced off of its body as it flew towards me, but they did no harm to its equally hard body.

    The sword in my left hand was still dancing through the air, redirecting the shards away from me, and away from the soldiers behind me. My right arm had no hand, so I could not wield a weapon or a shield, but that didn¡¯t mean I was helpless. As the wolf approached, I shifted and slid past it, my sword deflected two more shards, and my right elbow came down right on the wolf¡¯s head, shattering it along with a large portion of it¡¯s body.

    Touching an elemental was dangerous, especially these ice elementals. Even though I had a finely crafted steel elbow plate strapped to my arm, and a layer of chain mail under that, a chill permeated into my arm. If my right arm had been good for anything besides last-ditch attacks like that, this would have been a real problem.

    The rain of ice shards came to an end as the next elemental went my way. This one was much stranger than the last, it''s body was nothing more than a log of ice, six to seven feet across. The only limbs were four horse like legs that ran the length of it as it charged at me.

    Against normal soldiers, the charge would have served as a plow, smashing through an entire line. Against me, a simple overhead slash easily cut it in two as it approached. The two halves stumbled and crashed past me where my soldiers would finish it off.

    ¡°Haah¡­ We can¡¯t do¡­ much more of this¡­¡±

    A humanoid elemental changed direction and headed my way, this one was similar to a human, except its legs were twice as long as those found on a normal human.

    This one would also be easy, it would obviously attack with its legs, and all I needed to do was sever the leg when it came near, and it would fall.

    However, when it was still ten feet away from me, the ground shook. That elemental, and some others, along with several of my soldiers, all tumbled to the ground.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Whatever made the ground shake was going to be an issue, but right now, I needed to take advantage of this opening.

    Mustering what power I could in my ruined leg, I dashed forward. The shaking had no effect on me, and I reached the still airborne long legged elemental and cut it before it landed. I changed direction, shooting toward a worm-like elemental that lost it¡¯s head as I passed, another pivot, and I killed the five-legged elemental that was about to kill two fallen soldiers. My left leg kicked out, sending one of those soldier¡¯s discarded hammer flying. Even as that hammer shattered the chest of a hunched over elemental, I had sliced through two more, and then I ended my attack by stomping on and crushing an elemental that was a mix between a rat and a bird that had fallen due to the shaking.

    ¡°Haah¡­ Haah¡­ Haah¡­¡±

    I was now completely exhausted, but almost all of the elementals in this group were now dead. My men would be able to finish whatever was left off.

    ¡°Haah¡­¡± I breathed out heavily, but again, the ground shook.

    b...o...o...m

    b...o...o...m

    B...o...o...m

    B...o...O...m

    B...O...o...M

    B...O...O...M

    With each thundering crash, the ground shook, the intensity building with each crash.

    ¡°Haah¡­ Haah¡­ I never¡­ catch any¡­ breaks¡­¡±

    Its ponderous footsteps brought it closer, one massive leg stepped through the veil of snow created from the blizzard. The leg was like a castle tower, over ten feet until the knee. There was no foot, only a flat bottom. From the knee, another ten feet of massively thick ice lead to the elemental¡¯s body, all three of its legs connected to what I could only assume was its core, a vaguely humanoid-shaped torso that was twice the size of a normal human chest. A tiny, featureless head sat there, between two shoulders that were the size of boulders, at least twenty feet across, and covered with spear sized shards of pointed ice. The shoulders ended in tentacle-like arms that reached the ground, each one being drug behind the massive elemental. It was currently at least fifty feet tall, but it might be closer to sixty if it extended its legs fully.

    Elemental Overflows were caused when a fragment of dense elemental energy happened to find itself in an area where the boundaries between the magical, and real world, were thin. The fragment would tear an opening and burst forth, and other elementals would pour out through that opening. The fragment would always be in the form of a huge elemental.

    Exactly like the one in front of me.

    It¡¯s presence here was both good and bad. Good, because once it emerged fully, the rift would seal, and no further elementals could make it through. With the fragment here, the overflow was at an end. Of course, only some of the elementals would have headed directly towards our keep, many would have tried going in different directions until we raised the barrier locking them in this island. The Bleeding Forest would still be crawling with elementals, and they would be heading here now, since it was the only way out of the island. But, at least an end was in sight.

    It was, however, bad, because we would not be able to fend off an elemental of that size at all.

    A large, unending, barrage of heavy siege weapon attacks might bring it down, but I had already lost almost all of my larger, heavier, siege weapons. Individual warriors would be hard pressed to handle something of that size, even I, in my prime, could only keep it at bay, I wouldn¡¯t be able to destroy it. An army would just get turned into minced meat if they went against it. Really, the only decent option was to blast it with magic, but I had sent all of the mages away. Even though I knew this would show up sooner or later, the mages were too valuable to waste here.

    ¡°Fall back!¡± I roared at my frozen men, ¡°Into the keep!¡±

    We were already fighting right in front of the keep, they only had to fall back ten, maybe twenty feet.

    But, we were too slow.

    Elementals do not have voices, they do not naturally make noise. But the fragment elemental flailed it¡¯s tentacle arms with such speed and force that the air cracked. They smashed through the few palisades still standing from the first and final defense line, scattering the logs through the sky. Even as they still fell back to the ground, the fragment elemental reared back, and with the sound of thousands of whistles, the spears growing from its shoulders were fired.

    I could just barely track the spears, and I was confident no one else among my forces could even do that. Ultimately, it wouldn¡¯t matter, even if anyone could see the ice approaching, they would not be able to dodge, and nothing would be able to block an attack like this.

    Unluckily, my men who were just starting to retreat back to the keep were not the target, but the very keep they were falling back to was. Made from the most solid granite, reinforced with steel beams, and inscribed with powerful wards, the damage was kept to a minimum. The outer fortifications were scraped away, a few of the anterior rooms were crushed and collapsed, but the damage was largely superficial.

    However, almost all of my remaining siege weapons were destroyed, and my sappers and grenadiers would have suffered devastating casualties.

    ¡°Leave this bastard to me, the rest of you focus on-¡±

    My sword intercepted a sharpened blade of ice an inch away from my neck. I stopped my head from flying, but the force was still transmitted to me. It was a testament of my years of practice that I held onto my blade even as I was launched backward. I smashed into the ground, bounced into the air as I spun, and then landed skidding further back on my two feet.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± I cursed as I spit out the blood that welled up into my mouth.

    Idly I realized that the me from before would not have been able to stay on my feet after that, something positive did come from my experience with the salamander.

    The elemental that sent me flying was shorter than me, just under five feet tall. It was very similar to a human, but its lower legs and lower arms were blades made of ice. It slowly stood upright and then, while keeping its featureless face locked on me, began circling around me.

    ¡°Ah¡­ Fuck¡­¡±

    Elementals were mindless. They had some rudimentary instincts, they knew how to use their bodies, as strange as those bodies often were, and they were consumed by an overwhelming hatred of anything alive, the more intelligent that life was, the more they hated it.

    But, they were less than beasts in many ways. They could not learn, they could not adapt, they had no sense of self-preservation. All they could do was charge and attack. The big one, the fragment, would have a slight sense of self-preservation, but it would still be as mindless as the others.

    Elementals were strong, but if you had the right tools to face them, they were an easy opponent. They would charge right into what was clearly a trap and no matter how many before them were destroyed the rest would follow them in.

    Every being made of ice here, including the fragment elemental, would be classified as a lesser elemental.

    Except for the one that just tried to decapitate me.

    That was undoubtedly a greater elemental.

    And that was a huge fucking disaster.

    ¡°All remaining siege weapons and grenadiers, target the big one. The rest of you, do what you can to stop the little ones. This fucker,¡± I said while pointing my sword at the greater elemental, ¡°Is mine.¡±

    The greater elemental stopped as I spoke, and when I finished, it seemed to laugh, even though such an action was impossible for it. And then, in the blink of an eye, it was in front of me, jumping through the air while sending a roundhouse kick towards my ruined eye.

    This time I knew it was coming, my sword clashed with the leg, and both of us were blown back. Even as we stumbled, I spun and lunged out with one of its arms, but the pommel of my sword met that, and we were blown even further back.

    The greater elemental landed with both of its hands, rotating its legs, trying to use them as scythes to slice me in half, but I easily ducked under that and sent a slash towards its face. It pushed off and flung itself into the air, the shockwave from my slash blasting away the snow and gouging a ten-foot trench into the ground.

    The being of blades and ice landed twenty feet away and cautiously began circling me. It knew I wasn¡¯t something it could kill easily, and it knew it had to change its tactics.

    The fragment elemental was a massive mindless creature, but due to its size, there was only so much I could do to it with a sword. But this greater elemental, it might be intelligent, and stronger, vastly stronger than a normal lesser elemental, but I could still cut it, could kill it.

    It charged, its body low to the ground as it skimmed past the fallen snow. Its two arms were thrust out, one aimed at each of my legs. If my right leg still worked, I could have jumped away, but that wasn¡¯t an option for me.

    My sword gave me greater reach, so I met its dual thrusts with a thrust of my own, my sword aiming for its head as it approached.

    Realizing we weren''t playing the same game, the elemental skidded to a halt, barely avoiding being run through, but still getting blown away as the force of my thrust blasted a crater into the ground.

    ¡°Wow¡­ how disappointing, ¡°I said with a smirk while tapping the flat of my blade on the steel faulds that protected my hips.

    Provocation wouldn¡¯t work on a lesser elemental, and I wasn¡¯t sure if it would work on the greater elemental before me. I wasn¡¯t even sure it could understand me, but at the very least, it would see that I was leaving an opening. Whether it could comprehend I was doing so intentionally, well, who knows?

    Unfortunately for me, my opponent decided to be cautious as it began circling me again. It wasn¡¯t as if I couldn¡¯t approach it, but that quickly depleted my stamina. It would be much better to let it come to me. On the other hand, I couldn¡¯t dawdle forever with this greater elemental.

    ¡°Well let¡¯s try something else first,¡± I said as I raised my sword and got ready to attack.

    I swung, a powerful horizontal slash sent towards the greater elemental that was still over twenty feet away from me. The shockwave let loose by my slash only created a faint ripple in the air, but my enemy easily sensed it and ducked. And then dove to the side to dodge the second shockwave I fired off, and then jumped over the third.

    These shockwaves would never hit it at this rate, but they were also pretty easy for me to make, so there was no real loss.

    It sidestepped another shockwave that cut into the ground, throwing up chunks of frozen dirt, and then it dashed towards me in a zigzag pattern, first coming from my right, then left, then back to the right.

    ¡°There we go,¡± I said with a smirk.

    It jumped at me from my right, one arm going towards my neck, another towards my heart, and even one of its legs was brought up and sent towards my stomach.

    But it had good instincts, it pulled out of its attack at the last second and curled up into a ball, just in time to receive my slash, the fastest slash I had unleashed so far.

    The edge of my blade met it¡¯s two crossed over arms, and as little chunks of ice were scattered from the impact, the elemental was smashed into the ground and sent bouncing back towards me. My shoulder tackle caught it in the side, sending it tumbling through the air. Even as it bounced and skidded across the ground, I stepped after it. A rising slash caught it unaware, my blade easily severing one of its arms and the force leaving it spinning out of control in the air. The pommel of my sword descended, crashing into its back and leaving a web of cracks as it smashed down into the ground, blasting out dirt and making another crater.

    Before the weakened elemental could get back up, my steel boot crashed down onto its head, grinding it into the dirt.

    ¡°Haah¡­ this took a lot out of me, but it ended well at lea-¡±

    Once again, in too short of a window, my sword was raised just barely in time to intercept an incoming attack. First, it was a blade of ice, and now it was a spear of ice. Unlike last time, when both of us were blown away, this time it was only me.

    I was sent flying, smashing through a snowdrift and leaving a path of disturbed snow as I skidded along the ground. My sword acted as a shield, and I was able to protect myself, but I was still battered from the sheer impact that had knocked me away. Still, I instantly jumped out of the snow and took a ready stance with my sword prepared to block another attack.

    No attack was coming. In fact, the spear that had sent me flying was still in the air nearby, and as I watched, it slowly retracted the forty feet back to its owner.

    Standing next to the greater elemental that I had almost finished off, and that was now standing up and leaving the crater I had left it in, was another elemental. Almost twice as tall as the other, at around nine feet, this one looked as if it was a heavily armored knight sculpted of ice. The armor was rounded in most spots, what would have been the pauldrons were covered with small spikes, and the helmet had two horns coming out of the sides. In the left hand was a massive kite shield, and in the right was the lance that had just almost run me through, now back to a more normal size.

    ¡°Haah¡­ Two greater¡­ Elementals¡­ Just my¡­ Luck¡­¡±

    Half of all elemental overflows end up producing a greater elemental. Two of them showing up was very bad luck.

    The knight slowly trod forward while the damaged one began circling me again.

    ¡°Haah¡­ This is rough¡­¡±

    I needed to be cautious of the knight¡¯s extending spear trick, but I also couldn¡¯t let them surround me. I''d need to take out the damaged one first, but I couldn¡¯t make a move on it until I had a better idea of what the knight could do.

    ¡°Haah¡­ Damnit¡­ two is going to be hard¡­¡± I said to myself as I regained some of my strength, ¡°Well let¡¯s get¡­ aw¡­ Fuck!¡±

    Before any of the three of us made a move, a ten-foot tall spider stepped out of the blizzard, its spindly legs effortlessly allowing it to glide across the snow. And before I could even acknowledge that, a long serpentine body burst out of the snow on the ground. Its tail was almost twenty feet long, and it had a humanoid torso, making it look like a lamia. However, it was headless, and instead of arms, it had two snake-like appendages that ended in fanged mouths.

    ¡°Well¡­ Fuck me, this is bad,¡± I said, unmoving, as the four greater elementals surrounded me.

    I didn¡¯t need to see them in action, nor did I need to be a mage to sense their mana, they were clearly all extremely powerful, my instincts were screaming at me to run. I could fight one of them and win easily, two of them I could manage, maybe even three. But four, that was too many. Way too many.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a while, and I hope I can handle this¡­¡±

    Back when I was still One Strike, I had created a magical aspect to my style, having fused mana into my swordsmanship. After I was injured, I had continued refining that, hoping that it could compensate for what I had lost. In a way, I had succeeded, the complete form of my style, with magic fully integrated, was very powerful. Using it allowed me to reach heights that were well beyond what I was capable of before.

    But, there was a flaw, a major one.

    The foundation of my style was built before I was injured, was based upon the premise that I had my old body. With things as they were now, I could bring out a great degree of strength, but doing so would tear my body apart, I could easily kill myself if I went all out.

    Not that that mattered right now.

    All four of the greater elementals paused their approach as they felt my mana gush out, the muscles in my arms and legs bulged, the veins glowing read through my skin. The sweat dripping down my body evaporated, and then soon after the snow surrounding me did too, creating a sphere of steam that battled with the blizzard that still raged. Then, after I grew nearly half a foot, and after all of the snow near me was gone and the dirt had been baked dry, my sword ignited into a brilliant white flame.

    ¡°Well then, you all are dead,¡± I announced as I charged into battle.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:10

    Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    The Royal Capital Arvas is the biggest city within the Fredirin Kingdom, in size, in population, in the degree of importance. The city was the heart of the nation. Despite that, when the sun sets the city would sleep. In the depths of night, only a fraction of the population would still be awake, some servants, some guards, a few merchants, and some people with more disreputable occupations.

    The fact was, most people would not waste resources to illuminate the night. And during the season of winter, not only were the nights longer, but they were colder. This not only required one to waste fuel on light but on heat too. The blizzard raging only made the situation worse, Arvas was shut down securely tonight.

    However¡­

    Bbbbbrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    A great horn, made from the bone of a dragon, let loose with it¡¯s deep, thundering roar. The sound reverberated throughout the city, shocking the population into wakefulness. Most had no idea what the sound was, many even feared it was the call of some monster coming to attack the city.

    Before the groggy citizens could fully drag themselves out of their beds, the low roar was joined by another, less majestic sound, the call of a second horn.

    And then a third.

    And a fourth, and fifth, and sixth.

    And then more than anyone could count, their blaring sounds merging together into a cacophony of rumbling noise.

    Only seconds had passed since the extra horns had joined in when the first bells, great metal bells from the churches and clock towers began to ring. They added their clangs and chimes to the chaotic orchestra of sound that had at this point, roused every person from their slumber.

    The more astute and aware realized that many of these horns indicate the various alarms that could resound throughout the city, but never before had all of them bellowed their call at once. As some people began exiting their houses, coats and scarves wrapped around their bedclothes, the sky was suddenly lit up.

    The first Sunburst flare, fired from the castle at the heart of the city, burst in the air, illuminating a portion of the city. As that light faded from blinding flash to a simple glow, a multitude of additional flares were fired, from guard posts, from walls, from gateways, from military barracks, from supply depots, from stables, from the city hall, from all over the city.

    Suddenly, the darkness of midnight receded in an instant, just like the silence of the night had disappeared moments before.

    Arvas was awake.

 Chapter 18: Crisis Management.

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:10

    Pine Family Dining Room, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°What is going on?¡± I asked as I entered the dining room that had been designated as our meeting spot for this.

    ¡°It¡¯s not good.¡± Commander Tale replied without even looking up from the document that sat in front of him.

    I could tell he too had been asleep. He was wearing simple cloth pants and his silky white shirt was only buttoned up halfway. Even his hair was left hanging loose, down upon his shoulders.

    Not that my entourage was much better. Pamela was with me, and both of us had enough time to put on proper clothing, pants and a shirt for me, and a simple dress for my sister. But, we only had time to do so, because we were prevented from leaving my sister¡¯s room until our guards had come to meet us.

    Pamela¡¯s Guardian Knights were the first to arrive. One was tall, dark-skinned woman wearing a pair of shorts, a tank top, a thick and heavy coat, and armed with a short spear and a wooden shield. The other was more average in shape and build, but her outfit was even stranger. She still had her night clothes on, but had thrown a shirt of chainmail on over them. She too was armed, a spiked morning star at her hip and a heavy metal shield strapped on her back. Pamela had introduced them as Lala and Pammy respectively.

    Soon after my own guardian knights arrived. Carla with her standard sword and shield, along with half of her armor, while Abby, my temporary protector, was wearing a robe and little else, but she was carrying a massive warhammer that was longer than I was tall, and the business end was larger than my head.

    Only when all four knights were there, were we able to leave and meet here, and on our way, we were joined by our maids.

    ¡°Olivia, Pamela, are you okay?¡± Timothy, who had already arrived, asked as we both came in.

    ¡°We¡¯re fine, just a bit tired,¡± Pamela said with a smile while I looked over Timothy¡¯s two guardian knights.

    To his left was a huge shirtless man, his body crisscrossed with scars. He had leather pants on, or I should say, he head leather armor on his legs, and two metal gauntlets with spikes over the knuckles. To his right was a man who was only as tall as my brother, who was currently sitting down. I recognized the knight as a dwarf, his bushy red beard was braided in the manner that only dwarves used. I couldn¡¯t see any other parts of his face because he wore a full helmet. And like many dwarves, his weapon of choice was a one-handed battleax that he paired with a shield.

    ¡°Commander, what is happening?¡± I asked again, and this time he did look up.

    ¡°The forces at the Bleeding Forrest reported an Elemental Overflow. This report here,¡± he said motioning to the document he had in front of him, ¡°Says that most of the soldiers are retreating here as we speak, but a rearguard action was organized to delay the elementals¡¯ advance. In the meantime, the Crown itself has issued an emergency call to arms for all combat forces that can be spared.¡±

    There was a collective gasp around the table at his words, but I was momentarily at a loss.

    I quickly scanned through the Original Olivia¡¯s memories, and only found a few, vague references to what Commander Tale had just mentioned, an Elemental Overflow. From what my original understood, occasionally an elemental fragment would tear an opening to an elemental plane, allowing large amounts of elementals, plus the fragment itself, to flood into the material plane.

    Elementals were inhuman, in the sense that they were intelligent, but their methods and manner of thought were completely alien to mortal races. Even to outsiders, of which elementals technically were, their behaviors and motivations were hard to grasp. They were, however, powerful and dangerous, but besides trying to create a more comfortable environment for themselves, they were rather passive in nature unless threatened. Water elementals, for instance, would simply seek out a place with large amounts of water, or try to create such a place, and then would just idle within there. Unless they were attacked, or the place containing the water was attacked, they would generally ignore anyone else. Of course, what constitutes an attack was somewhat hard to determine, so to play it safe, most people would avoid them.

    But according to my memories, here at least, they would burst out in great numbers, and such an event would be considered a great disaster. I could understand if it was fire elementals erupting out in a forest, or really any kind of elemental appearing in a city, but I didn¡¯t understand why they would seemingly head here.

    ¡°Do we have to heed that call to arms?¡± My brother was the first to break the silence.

    ¡°Of course we do,¡± our steward, Old Man Hart, who I hadn¡¯t even noticed had entered, answered, ¡°That said, we have a lot of leeway to determine how many of our soldiers we send.¡±

    ¡°We do?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, yes we do. We still need to maintain our own defenses, and even if the summons called for every soldier we had, there would still be limits.¡±

    ¡°So what should we do?¡± Timothy asked the important question.

    ¡°A good question,¡± Commander Tale answered in the steward¡¯s stead. ¡°We do not maintain a large force here, just enough to defend this estate with some men to spare. If we were to send what we have without weakening our defenses, we could send maybe one to two platoons, no more than thirty men, maybe even less.¡±

    ¡°What if we reduced our defenses to the bare minimum? How many could we send out then?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± The elven commander seemed to think for a second. ¡°To actually maintain the security of the estate, fifty men. If we were to reduce our forces further, keeping only enough to ensure the people in this room¡¯s safety, maybe a small company of eighty. But, I do not recommend that, if anything did happen, we would be forced to abandon the estate.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± I said.

    ¡°What will we do?¡± Timothy asked.

    Both the commander and the steward exchanged looks before Old Man Hart answered.

    ¡°We should try to send at least fifty men, even if we do compromise our defense here. Anything less, and it would reflect poorly on us here.¡±

    ¡°I do not think we should do that,¡± Commander Tale disagreed, ¡°Whatever we send will likely suffer casualties, possibly heavily. The more men we send, the more we will lose.¡±

    ¡°Well, what about¡­¡±

    I let the conversation wash over me while I became lost in my own thoughts.

    Everyone in the room was debating on the best course of action, but their goals were to maintain the stance that the family previously had. And that was not my goal, not at all. This was a great chance to make a large move, but, I had reservations.

    I preferred to lay out my plans in advance, to take in the big picture, to clearly analyze it, and to make detailed moves. There is always a degree of last minute choices in any plan, because no plan will be followed to the letter. However, on-site decisions in regards to an actual plan are a completely different beast as compared to this. Right now, I had no plan, so making a move here would be risky. Very risky.

    But still, letting this slip by, was not what I wanted to do either.

    Thus, I was considering two different options.

    The first was to send no forces at all, or at least only a token amount. This would, as Old Man Hart mentioned, reflect poorly on our family. But that did not matter at all, already all of our actions were viewed unfavorably, the stock of the Pine Family in the public eye was already rock bottom, a further drop would be irrelevant. And if we sent no one, we would suffer no losses either, leaving us with more options after this crisis passed.

    This is what I would normally have done. If we had real allies here, I might have participated, but the other five ducal houses are enemies, letting them bleed amongst themselves while we continued to build up our own strength did seem to be the safe bet.

    However¡­ I keep going back to the thought that I had tried those actions before, and I knew from first-hand experience, that they were flawed.

    Which brought me to my second option¡­

    ¡°Everyone,¡± I said, drawing attention to myself and causing a halt to the existing conversation, ¡°We should send all of our forces to assist.¡±

    ¡°That, if we do that, we will not-¡± Commander Tale began, but I cut him off.

    ¡°You misunderstand. I do not mean just our guards, I mean everyone. All mages, all knights, everyone.¡± I smiled as I stood up. ¡°We shall send out everyone capable of fighting within this estate.¡±

    ¡°That, is not an option.¡± Commander Tale denied me.

    ¡°Sir Jop, Sir Silver Falcon, and Lady Peony are rank 7 mages,¡± I continued, ignoring the elf¡¯s objection, ¡°We have two more mages at rank 6 here, in addition, we have ten rank 6 warriors, and how many rank 5¡¯s and 4¡¯s? That is a considerable amount of military might.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Old Man Hart rubbed his chin while thinking about my words.

    ¡°And those people are vital to our defenses here. We can not deploy them.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°We can,¡± I said, my smile growing larger, ¡°This estate holds one thing of value, the people within, and nothing else. We will leave behind half of the common soldiers to defend the estate and to prevent opportunist who might want to break in and steal the furniture, but the rest will escort the staff into the 1st Circle, we can find lodgings for them there easily enough if we ask.¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°What do you think, Steward Hart?¡± I changed my target, ¡°With all of our powerhouses together, our losses will be minimal, and we will be able to make a bold move and show off our might and devotion to the kingdom in one swift move.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ well, it is a bold plan if I do say so myself, however¡­ it is risky.¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± I agreed, ¡°but only to a degree. And you forget, if the army is defeated, then we risk an even worse outcome.¡±

    Not that I considered that a real possibility. I wasn¡¯t sure how many elementals would be included in this Overflow, but I knew that the Capital¡¯s garrison consisted of at least ten thousand men. If we included the conscripts currently being pressed into service, plus the regular guards, they could easily reach thirty thousand. Unless the quality of the soldiers were shockingly poor, which I was confident was not the case, or unless the general leading this was completely inept, we would be in no real danger.

    ¡°Well¡­ there is that¡­¡± The old steward seemed unsure.

    ¡°What do you think, brother and sister?¡± I changed targets again. ¡°Should we do the bare minimum? Or should we use everything we have to save as many people as possible?¡±

    ¡°Of course we should!¡± Timothy said enthusiastically, which made me feel a bit guilty since I was sort of manipulating him with my words.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Pamela hesitated, and then looked at me for a second. Her face shifted into a frown, but then changed to a more resigned expression. ¡°I agree with Olivia, we should send everything we have.

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± The elf said.

    ¡°Come now, Eslan, this is a losing fight for you. I myself, am inclined to agree with the young lady.¡± Old Man Hart said with a sigh.

    ¡°You may agree, but I am in charge of the Pine Military forces here.¡±

    ¡°Indeed you are, but I am in charge or everything else, and if I, and our Lord and Ladies, all think we should act, I believe you are outnumbered. And while you do have final say, that is only if you can in good faith, say this course of action is wrong and will lead to unacceptable losses to the family. Can you say that?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°I will take that as a no.¡±

    ¡°... I understand. I will make the arrangements for our soldiers. Steward Hart, I will ask you to coordinate the evacuation of the staff.¡± He said, frustration clear in his voice.

    The two began sending a flurry of orders, and I could finally relax.

    The first part of my plan was now being put into action.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:22

    Temporary Command Center, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    General Merrick Miller was a miserable man. Not in the sense that he was wretched or unpleasant to be around, but in the sense that his predominant state of mind could be described as unhappy and depressed. His parents had disowned him when young, his wife had left him, his children did not speak to him, most of his subordinates looked down upon him, as did his superiors and his contemporaries. He had no goals or objectives, and his life was effectively stagnating, he even lacked hobbies and pastimes.

    And yet, he carried on every day.

    The Fredirin Kingdom was a highly structured kingdom, and one way that manifested was in trying to rank everything. The best hunter, the best blacksmith, the best horse, the best painting, the best restaurant, and the best general. If a commoner was asked to name the top five ranking generals within the army, they would answer.

    General Jaz Portlo, a masterful strategist who plays with the entire nation¡¯s army as if it were a game.

    General Kimberley Goldfield, whose use or calvary is the best even in the surrounding kingdoms.

    General Horin Copper-Spade, a dwarven siege specialist who could bring down any castle or fort.

    General Red Hog, a descendant of the northern barbarians who leads his men from the front.

    And if asked for which general would take the final slot out of the top, they would fall into a debate.

    However, and what really bothered General Merrick Miller, was the fact that the top five generals were in fact, already clearly ranked.

    And that he was one of them.

    Rank 1, Jaz Portlo.

    Rank 2, Kimberly Goldfield.

    Rank 3, Merrick Miller.

    Rank 4, Horin Copper-Spade.

    Rank 5, Red Hog.

    Not only was he in the top five himself, he was ranked third. And yet, no one knew that.

    Of course, there was a reason for that. The other four generals were all noteworthy people, having great deeds connected with their names. General Goldfield was the only general originating from one of the ducal houses to be allowed to be stationed with a permanent army, General Red Hog personally crushed enemies while leading his men. General Copper-Spade once brought down an entire castle filled with theocracy forces in one night, and General Portlo could easily recall where every single unit was stationed within the kingdom. As for himself, General Merrick Miller had none of their talents, nothing flashy or noteworthy like that. Instead, he was a master administrator and an expert in logistics. Even the first rank General Portlo would enquire with him when he needed to move forces.

    And his talent, boring and unassuming as it was, did happen to be incredibly valuable right now, as the Royal Capital¡¯s defense forces needed to rapidly muster their forces and integrated the numerous conscripts.

    ¡°General, the Royal army is leaving their positions within the inner city, they should be reaching the rally point within minutes.¡±

    ¡°We have requisitioned as many wagons and carriages as possible to move supplies. We will only need enough food for one day, but it is still an enormous amount of food.¡±

    ¡°The merchants were not happy about the order, however. We even appropriated a large amount of their supplies.¡±

    ¡°A necessity,¡± The general spoke, ¡°The roads are going to be clog as civilians flee north and as the soldiers begin moving south towards us. If we begin emptying our depots in the northern half of the city, the traffic will slow to a crawl, and we don¡¯t have time. So we will commandeer anything we need from the south half.¡±

    ¡°I understand, and the emergency orders give us leeway to do whatever we need to make the army combat ready in thirty minutes, although I think that might be pushing it.¡±

    ¡°It is fine, at least for the royal army, I will get us ready in half that time. It is the guards, the noble¡¯s forces, and the civilians that concern me.¡±

    ¡°About that general, Guard Commander Genkly says he can only spare two to three thousand men, the rest need to protect the civilians. Already there has been more panic that we expected.¡±

    ¡°That is about what I expected, less than I wanted, however. Still¡­¡± The general scanned over his adjutants for a second, ¡°What of the civilians and the nobles?¡±

    ¡°The civilians are moving well, all of the major combat schools have begun moving, and numerous individuals are already moving into our set up rally points. We are well on our way to making the numbers you estimated. We might even exceed them.¡±

    ¡°The nobles are, however¡­ not as promising. We are getting soldiers, but their quality¡­¡±

    ¡°And they are coming with an awful lot of complaints.¡±

    ¡°I bet those nobles will think twice when their estates get overrun.¡±

    ¡°Doubtful. They¡¯ll just blame us and then ask the Crown for reimbursement.¡±

    ¡°Ignore their complaints. If they interfere, arrest them. And as for how their troops will be used, that isn¡¯t my job, I do not know who will command this venture, but it won¡¯t be me, and I thank the Gods for small favors like that,¡± General Merrick said as he shook his head. ¡°What of the ducal estates? What have they sent us?¡±

    ¡°So far, only the Steam-Bursts have sent forces, one hundred heavy infantry and eleven mages with an average rank of four.¡±

    ¡°The Canyons and the Lakesides have sent messengers pledging their forces, however. The Canyons regret only being able to send fifty men, but five of them are rank four knights. The Lakesides can¡¯t send any soldiers, but they are sending a group of mages and twenty iron golems.¡±

    ¡°Charles Goldfield is personally coming and leading a force of fifteen high-rank warriors.¡±

    ¡°That leaves the Pines and the Quarrys. The latter likely has nothing to spare, their estate is almost abandoned.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ A messenger from the Pines just arrived with a letter outlining the forces they are sending¡­ but¡­¡± one of the junior adjutants hesitated to speak up.

    ¡°But what?¡±

    ¡°Are they sending no one?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­ No¡­ that isn¡¯t it.¡± He still looked unsure.

    ¡°What are they sending then?¡± The general asked.

    ¡°A rank 7 elementalist, a rank 7 arcanist, a rank 7 druid, thirteen rank 6 warriors, eight rank 6 mages, two rank 6 priests, and¡­ nearly forty other warriors and knights of rank five and four. Also¡­ another thirty mages and priests of those ranks too¡­¡±

    ¡°...Huh¡­?¡±

    ¡°...Wha¡­?¡±

    ¡°...That¡­¡±

    Shocked expressions covered his adjutant¡¯s faces, and even the general himself, could not prevent his mouth from falling open.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:26

    Blue Sky Street, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Our carriage slowly proceeded along the road that would have normally been almost empty during the day, let alone at night. However, during this night, the road, normally a wide, scenic one, was packed with people. Men and women wearing the uniform armor of the Royal army marched southward in great groups. Smaller groups of civilian warriors, of guards, of mercenaries, of even temple priests and holy warriors, they too headed south. And then there was the multitude of normal civilians, now little more than refugees, fleeing to the north. Under normal circumstances, commoners would not be allowed within the 3rd Circle without good reason, but either those rules were allowed to fall lax tonight, or the guards who would normally man the gates and prevent their entry had been recalled.

    With the road being packed, our group of travelers should have been slow. However, the opposite was the case, we were able to proceed even faster than normal. That effect was courtesy of the fact that we were not simply a carriage with a few guards, but a large military convoy. The commoners, even panicked as they were, could see the resplendent robes that covered our magicians and priests, the ornate armors of our knights. Magical effects were also clearly visible, glowing rings, twinkling necklaces, shields that made the air around them shimmer, weapons that literally burnt with golden fire or that crackled with blue energy.And the fact that the leader of our convoy was sitting upon a massive black skinned animal with a serpentine neck and a head that was not only covered in spikes, but that dripped saliva that seemed to burn and sizzle as it fell onto the slush that covered the ground, made sure that no one approached or got in our way.

    ¡°My Lords and Ladies, it is almost time.¡± Pamela¡¯s guardian knight, Lala, spoke up breaking the silence.

    This carriage was much larger than the ones we had used previously, easily able to sit four or five people side by side, and it had four benches instead of two. My siblings and I occupied one, one guardian from each of us occupied another, and the other two were filled with our personal servants.

    ¡°Lala, Be safe,¡± Pamela said with concern.

    ¡°Send those elementals back Foriv,¡± My brother said to his Dwarven knight.

    ¡°Good luck,¡± I said as I nodded to Carla.

    Slowly our carriage, along with the entire convoy, came to a stop. The Blue Sky Street that we had been traveling eastbound on had come to an end, we could either turn left and head north, or turn right and head south.

    Or, there was the third option that we were currently taking, to split our convoy into two.

    The three knights were exiting the carriage, and they would combine with the rest of the high ranking warriors and head south, while the fifty some regular soldiers were going to escort us into the 1st Circle where we would take refuge in the Royal Castle.

    ¡°Carla, wait,¡± I said suddenly.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Carla, who was the last to leave, but she was already stepping down from the carriage into the snow, paused at my words.

    ¡°Carla, you are my knight,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes! I am your knight,¡± She said, looking up at me who stood in the doorway.

    ¡°You know Carla¡­¡± I hesitated for only a fraction of a second before I continued, ¡°Things are going to change for the Pine Family.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­?¡± She looked confused.

    ¡°Did you know? I draw a strong distinction between things in the world.¡±

    ¡°Um, My Lady¡­ we do not really have time¡­¡±

    ¡°Just listen,¡± I said with a sigh, ¡°Carla, everything in this world can be split into two camps, things that are mine, and things that are not. And I will not allow anyone or anything to take or harm my possessions. Do you understand?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡±

    ¡°You are my Knight, Carla.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    ¡°Then take this,¡± I said as I handed her a small crystal set into a chain. ¡°If you put mana into that crystal, it will keep you safe. Only use it in an emergency.¡±

    ¡°This¡­ thank you My Lady.¡± gratitude covered her face as she placed the chain around her neck.

    ¡°Then get going,¡± I said as I returned to the carriage.

    Carla said nothing else, and no one within the carriage spoke as we slowly began moving again. But, I could see the worry in everyone else¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Do not worry, it will be fine. You will be safe in the Castle.¡± I spoke up as I reached into one of the overhead racks and pulled down a long and thin package.

    ¡°Hmm, yes, we will be safe there.¡± My brother said.

    ¡°...¡± Pamela was lost in thought, but she suddenly froze and then looked up at me.

    My sister knew me too well.

    ¡°Olivia¡­¡± She was about to say more but stopped when I opened the packaged and revealed a long machete-like sword.

    And then, before she could say anything else, I removed the coat I was wearing, revealing my leather armor.

    ¡°Olivia?! What are you wearing?¡± Timothy yelled, looking shocked.

    But I didn¡¯t answer him right away, instead, I focused on putting my gloves and mask on. But, I could tell that he wasn¡¯t the only one shocked, everyone was. Pamela at least seemed to understand something, but everyone else was just baffled.

    ¡°Well, it is about time for me to depart,¡± I announced as I looked out the window.

    ¡°Depart? Where are you going? What are you doing? Wait, you can not leave.¡±

    ¡°Brother,¡± Pamela said to him, ¡°Calm down. You are panicking.¡±

    ¡°Ah, right,¡± He said as he sat back down, ¡°Wait, what are you saying Pamela? What is she doing?¡±

    ¡°Pamela,¡± I addressed my sister, ¡°I leave it to you.¡±

    Before anyone else could speak, I opened the door and snuck from the carriage. We were currently crossing a wooden bridge, and our carriage took up all of the space on it. Without anyone noticing, I was able to slide out and descent past the railing of the bridge. Before the carriage had passed me, I was already under the bridge and slipping into the icy water.

 Chapter 19: Getting Ready.

    The Fredirin Kingdom had a history dating back over four hundred and fifty years, and the one thing that stood out amongst its neighbors was the competence of its rulers. Thanks to the method in which the new king or queen was selected, the Fredirin Kingdom had no useless rulers, no puppet leaders, no idiots, no fools, and no incompetents. Some ruled for decades, King Leon ruled during an uneventful era that lasted for fifty-three years, while others ruled for only short periods of time, Queen Elisa took over after her father was slain in battle, and she too fell only a few days later. But even then, each king and queen continued an unbroken chain of strong leaders that existed for thirty-four generations.

    Which isn¡¯t to say that every leader was a perfect specimen of mankind, talented in every field, in fact, the Kingdom¡¯s rulers generally fell into three main categories. One group consisted of those whose claim to fame was their own personal power. Those who were strong warriors and knights, or who were mages capable of bringing down devastating magical effects. These men and women usually lead from the front, however, there were always outliers. Queen Liddy disdained a direct fight, instead preferring to slip a dagger into the opponent''s back, preferably in the dark, and King Jacob was a deadly archer, able to hit targets almost a mile away. Despite their differing talents, these kings and queens often served the nation well when it was in a precarious situation.

    The second type of ruler were those who lacked personal power, but were able administrators, strategists, economists, diplomats, and bureaucrats. Able to wield the might of the Kingdom¡¯s armies, of the Kingdom¡¯s finances, of the Kingdom¡¯s allies, of the Kingdom¡¯s people, of the Kingdom¡¯s laws, this group served the nation better when it was at peace, able to focus on internal issues and build the kingdom up.

    And the final group, the rarest of the three, were those who had neither personal power or skills that could control the kingdom. These rulers, Like Queen Ophelia, who was a master blacksmith, or King Hadrik, who was a savant in the arts, oversaw the kingdom in some of its oddest moments. When the nation was at peace and stable, they helped advance the nation in the long run, but when the kingdom was threatened, they were poor rulers who often resigned to allow one of their more able children to take over.

    As for the current ruler, King Erwin, he oddly enough, fell into neither of the three categories. He of course, as a benefit from being the highest ranking nobility in the kingdom, was an able warrior and mage, but he was only at around rank 4 or 5. He was a competent ruler, but he could only be considered competent, not excellent. He embarked on no great reforms, he did not come up with new ideas, he did not revolutionize anything within the Kingdom. And as for other talents, despite being somewhat talented with the piano, and enjoying gardening, there was nothing noteworthy about him.

    However, the Fredirin Kingdom has never had a useless leader, and King Erwin¡¯s brothers and sisters who he competed with for the throne were not fools either. In fact, they were all very powerful competitors in their own right. And yet, they did not win, it was King Erwin who emerged victorious, and as such, no one doubted his victory in the slightest.

    King Erwin¡¯s power wasn¡¯t his own, but it stemmed from the loyalty he earned from others, specifically, the loyalty of seven of the kingdom¡¯s most important people, who all swore their allegiance to the young Erwin.

    The Kingdom¡¯s most valuable strategist and the first ranked general, Jaz Portlo.

    The only mage to reach rank 9 as an Elementalist, Arcanist, and as one of the rarer magical disciplines, a Summoner, the Elven mage Ilvisar Caranith.

    The genius administrator who served as the prime minister, Roy Gonds.

    The woman said to know everything everywhere, and the leader of the kingdom¡¯s intelligence service, Tina Wanev.

    The man reputed as being the strongest mercenary of all time, Xavier.

    The famed enchanter, able to mass produce magic items of shocking quality, the halfling Betty Begonia.

    And the mysterious and beautiful queen of the kingdom, Lynn Fredirin.

    Each of these men and women possessed talents and skills that would allow them to compare to the greatest of the past rulers of the Kingdom, and King Erwin held the loyalty of all seven of them.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:39

    Olivia¡¯s Warehouse, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    As I had said to my sister earlier tonight, the cold did not bother me. In fact, as the reforging of my body progressed, I was quickly reaching the point where even the coldest reaches of the planet would have no effect on me.

    That fact allowed me to consider jumping into the icy water as a viable way to sneak away. It did work, the cold was not a problem, and I was able to slip away without anyone noticing.

    But, my lack of familiarity with clothing seemingly reared its head. I was not prepared for my leather armor to begin freezing once I left the water, and it made my second trip to the warehouse where my Spectres were staying at largely uncomfortable.

    ¡°Is everything going according to plan?¡± I asked Captain Nev who had just entered the room.

    ¡°Yes My Lady,¡± He said, while avoiding my gaze, ¡°Everyone has begun moving out. Sergeant Penk, along with Lin and Wen will be staying behind to defend this location along with the soldiers you lent us.¡±

    My understanding of human body language and mannerisms were rapidly advancing, but I still considered myself a novice at best. Even then, I understood that refusing to meet another person¡¯s gaze tended to indicate guilt or dishonesty, which is what I would have assumed Captain Nev was feeling, if not for the other more obvious reason.

    Captain Nev wouldn¡¯t look at me because of my attire, or mostly due to my lack thereof. My leather armor was drying as close to the fire as possible without it risking igniting itself, and I was simply wrapped up in a blanket.

    ¡°So, everyone is on their way?¡±

    ¡°Sergeant Lars just left with Ivan, the rest of his team, Oz and Bahn had already left. Of my team, Naya and Jeb already went towards their targets, and Ula will leave with me¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it Captain?¡± I asked having sensed his hesitation.

    ¡°I¡­ I want to ask about our targets. We are avoiding the Canyon and Lakeside Families, and I wanted to ask why.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± I looked at the captain, and I could tell he had something else on his mind, but I decided to answer this first. ¡°Simple, the thing I want to avoid the most is causing one of the family¡¯s standing to fall too far.¡±

    ¡°I do not understand. If the other five households stand in our way, do we not need to defeat each of them?¡±

    ¡°And when facing multiple enemies, it is best to focus on one and remove them entirely, that is what you mean?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± He nodded his agreement, ¡°We¡¯ve already hurt the Canyons pretty badly, should we not continue the attack?¡±

    ¡°If I felt we could decisively defeat the Canyon Family, I would have considered it. But, my Aunt and Uncles are not easily defeated. Right now, the Canyon Family must be locked down tight, preparing to dig in and defend until they can figure out what happened. Make no mistake, we did hurt them badly, but we also caught them off guard and hit them in their soft underbelly. Now that they are aware, it won''t be as easy. And as we slice off more and more of their flesh, what remains will only become harder and harder to damage.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I see, I am sorry for doubting you.¡±

    ¡°It is fine.¡±

    Not everyone can excel in every category, in fact, almost no one can. Captain Nev ran his squad well, extremely well, to the point where I had nothing to complain about. But the bigger picture, understanding how all of the moves being made on the micro level affected the macro level, he did not understand at all.

    And that was perfectly fine because he was a captain and not a general.

    ¡°If we could completely suppress the Canyon Family, and devour their power base, then I would consider such a move, but we cannot do so. And in that case, if we weaken them too much, they will become prey for the other families, who are all more able to take advantage of a weakened Canyon Family than we are.¡± I added.

    ¡°So¡­ we do not want to harm the Canyons anymore?¡±

    ¡°That is the idea.¡± I responded, before adding on, ¡°Captain, what do you know of the current situation between the six ducal families?¡±

    ¡°The situation?¡± He asked as he thought about it.

    ¡°Yes, explain what you know.¡±

    ¡°Well then¡­ forgive me if I am wrong. The Steam-burst Family holds a dominating lead. They heavily expanded the kingdom¡¯s borders and reclaimed the marshes of their domain, even fending off invasions from the Empire and the Theocracy. Behind the Steam-bursts is a three-way tie, with our Pine Family tied with the Canyons and Lakesides, and then the Quarry Family and the Goldfield Family are tied in last place. The Goldfield family has always been in last, but the Quarry Family fell from their old position of being a top contender when they failed to invade the Barbarian Lands to the north.¡±

    ¡°Is that all?¡±

    ¡°I know of the basic situation surrounding each family, but I¡­¡± He trailed off looking almost ashamed that he couldn¡¯t answer the question properly.

    ¡°Our Pine is in a similar situation with two of the families, can you tell me which ones?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Um¡­ The Canyon and Lakeside Family¡¯s?¡±

    ¡°No, although those two are similar to each other.¡± I denied him.

    ¡°Then¡­¡± He trailed off again.

    ¡°The Goldfields and the Steam-bursts,¡± I said plainly.

    For a second Captain Nev seemed lost in thought as he tried to figure out what I mean, but he eventually gave up and looked at me expectantly.

    ¡°Our Pine Family has very little interaction with the other families. We have little offensive power in the competition for the throne, but we are still tied for second place,¡± I lectured while checking to see that my armor was still damp. ¡°Our strength comes from our powerful foundation and base. We have few weaknesses, although that is due to the fact that the other¡¯s have already chipped away at whatever weaknesses we did have.¡±

    ¡°I understand that.¡± He said.

    I did not doubt that he understood that, he was a Spectre, one of the finest forces that could be found within the kingdom. His job specifically, was to patrol and secure the Pine Family Domain, so he knew exactly how strong our defenses were, how powerful our domain was.

    ¡°The Steam-bursts are the same, they interact little with the other houses, and their strength comes from their powerful domain. They might have come to that point differently than us, where we built up what we had, they expanded and claimed more, but the net result is the same. The Steam-bursts have a powerful foundation.¡±

    ¡°And the Goldfields?¡± Captain Nev asked.

    ¡°My uncle, Duke Goldfield, might not be a great leader, but the Goldfield Domain is by far the wealthiest and most populous domain within the kingdom. Because the Duke soured relations with the other¡¯s, they too have little interaction, but they have a powerful foundation, possibly even better than ours.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± he said, understanding having dawned on him. ¡°But then, why is the Goldfield Family in last place?¡±

    ¡°The competition only looks at what we managed to do for the kingdom, the actual final numbers are not relevant,¡± I explained. ¡°If we started with a score of 100, then we built that up to 200. The Steam-bursts started with 100 too, and they conquered their way to 500. But the Goldfields started with a score of 1000, and did nothing with it. They might have a very powerful foundation, but the competition looks at the difference between what we started with, and what we ended with. We had a gain of 100, the Steam-bursts 400, and the Goldfields 0. That is why they are losing.¡±

    ¡°This¡­ does everyone know that?¡± He asked, shocked.

    ¡°I doubt it. That was, after all, a very simplified version of how the next king or queen will be selected. The actual process is described in a book that is four hundred and twelve pages long. It is likely that most people only know the specifics, and it really isn¡¯t in anyone¡¯s interests to spread the more exact information around.¡±

    ¡°So everyone has been wrong about how this works the entire time?¡± Captain Nev seemed heavily shocked by this realization, but then he seemed to come out of it. ¡°And you read the book?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s that one over there,¡± I said as I pointed towards a thick, leather-bound book on the shelves in the room, ¡°And you speak as if the general idea is wrong, but it is not. Only some details are off. And even if most people did not understand exactly why, the end result was still correct, everyone still understood the ranking of each family.¡±

    Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°I¡­ I see¡­¡±

    ¡°I did, however, bring this up for a reason,¡± I said, bringing the discussion back on track. ¡°Should the Canyon Family be destroyed, the majority of their assets will still exist, and the remaining families will be able to claim them as their own. The ideal scenario would be that each family takes an even portion, and the status quo would get maintained.¡±

    ¡°Would it not be better for our family to take the majority of the Canyon¡¯s assets?¡±

    ¡°No, not at all. And even before that, we likely couldn¡¯t. Our focus on defense and building up our internals serves us well, but it leaves us wholly unable to consume that much of the Canyon Family that quickly. But let us assume that we could.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡°We acquire more than half of the Canyon Family¡¯s assets, that would put us in a comparable position to the Steam-bursts, at least rank wise. However, we would not be able to maintain that at all. Our defenses are sufficient to protect ourselves right now, but those defenses are located within the Pine Domain, whatever we acquire from the Canyons would not be protected, and we would quickly lose control of them. We¡¯d even run the risk of overextending and leaving openings elsewhere. But that is not the biggest problem we would face¡±

    ¡°What is?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Once we make a big move like that, we transform from the easily ignored Pine Family to the now an actual threat Pine Family. Our defenses, as I said already, are sufficient right now, but no one is really, seriously, attacking us. And you can be assured, that if we suddenly rise to prominence like that, we would come under much stronger attacks.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­ What are we to do?¡±

    ¡°That is simple. At the current rate, we can not win. The Steam-bursts have too heavy of a lead, it is just too difficult for us to build up our own score fast enough to overtake them. We also lack the means to effectively weaken any party in an effort to lower their score. But, by sowing discord and chaos, we can let the other¡¯s fight each other earnestly. They will weaken each other, and we can use that time to build up the capacities to attack the others.¡±

    ¡°So¡­¡± Finally, it seemed as if Captain Nev understood my intentions, ¡°We attack the other houses, and then they will assume it was each other, and then start fighting amongst themselves. With their attention diverted, we¡¯ll have free reign to do what we want.¡±

    ¡°You understand,¡± I said with a smile, ¡°The worst thing that could happen to us, however, would be for one side to suffer too heavily, so we need to act as mediators, to never allow one side to fall, or another to grow too strong. The Steam-bursts are already a problem, we can not handle two dominant players like that. Since we already hurt the Canyons, and since someone took advantage of our moves already and had Sebastian Lakeside assassinated, we won''t go after those two. They¡¯ve probably already heavily raised their guards too.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ but¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± I prompted him to continue as I stood and checked on my armor again, this time finding it mostly dry.

    ¡°Most of the moves we are making tonight are focused on the Goldfields and the Quarrys. I understand why you want to avoid the Lakesides and Canyons, but why did you only send two people after the Steam-bursts?¡±

    ¡°That too, is simple,¡± I responded as I took my armor back to the chair I had been using. ¡°The Canyon¡¯s and Lakesides needed to be knocked down a bit, but nothing more, and we¡¯ve already accomplished that goal. The Steam-bursts are powerful enough that these little moves will not make much of a difference. But as for the other two, the Goldfields and Quarries are actually the biggest threats.¡±

    ¡°They are?¡±

    ¡°The other families need to be cautious because they stand to lose if they make a bad move. Not so with the other two, they are already at rock bottom, so nothing is holding them back.¡±

    ¡°Is that the case? Even if they do something, it can¡¯t make that much of a difference.¡±

    ¡°And that is where you are wrong. Both of them have different situations, but let us look at the Goldfields first. As I mentioned, they have an incredibly powerful foundation. Using that vast amount of wealth, my uncle can simply try over and over again. Even if he fails ten times, twenty times, fifty times, a hundred times, he can always try again. And all he needs is to get lucky one of those times. And in fact, most of my uncle¡¯s moves, have been attacks that have been mutually destructive. I am pretty sure his motivation stems more from wanting to crush the other houses, than any real desire to be the king, which is why he finds it acceptable to bleed out both sides. Even though he hurts himself more with each attempt, he can recover quickly due to his foundation.¡±

    ¡°And then the Quarrys?¡±

    ¡°They are, in a way, even worse. My Aunt does not have a good reputation at the moment, her stunning loss, when she invaded the north, is still fresh in everyone¡¯s mind, but if you look through her history, she has always favored risky gambits that had massive payoffs when they worked. She has come dangerously close to complete ruin several times, but she always rebuilds, and then does something no one thought was possible. If we let her, the Quarry Family will recover, and then try something drastic again. She could easily reverse the entire situation in one move. Or she could fail spectacularly again, and in that even more weakened state, the Quarry Family could be devoured by someone else. We face the same problem as before.¡±

    ¡°So we need to keep the Canyon¡¯s and Lakesides weakened, prevent the risky moves from the Goldfields and Quarrys, and also drag down the Steam-bursts? That seems¡­¡± He said, dejected.

    ¡°Difficult? Yes. But we do not need to do it ourselves, the other five families will help us along.¡± I said with a grin, ¡°Now all that being said, I need to put my armor back on.¡±

    I would have put it on in front of him, but I knew that that bothered him. And most people, come to think of it. The human obsession with clothing and nudity still baffled me.

    ¡°Yes My Lady,¡± He turned and quickly left, before stopping at the door. ¡°One thing My Lady.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°You assigned Ula to vandalize two stores belonging to the Steam-bursts.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± I asked, bewildered.

    ¡°Those shops aren¡¯t particularly important, and you just mentioned that focusing on the Steam-burst Family is not important right now.¡±

    ¡°Just speak your mind Captain,¡± I said exasperatedly.

    I had gotten more familiar with Human social customs, but sometimes their refusal to just speak their intentions still got on my nerves.

    ¡°Not only are those shops low priority targets, but they are near where my team is going to be operating, so if I took over her responsibilities, Ula could be reassigned somewhere else.¡±

    ¡°And where would that be?¡± I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

    ¡°I think¡­ It would be best if you had an escort. Ula should follow you. I would do it myself, but I need to keep my team together.¡±

    Frankly speaking, while I did enjoy Ula¡¯s company, having her follow me around would be nothing but a hindrance. Ula was a tracker, her Sharkfolk blood gave her an oddly specific sense of smell, which allowed her to easily follow animals or people through the mountains of the Pine Domain. But in a city, she wasn¡¯t of much use. She was an acceptable fighter, but she focused more on ambushing than straight up fighting, which would not really help me.

    Plus, I hadn¡¯t told Captain Nev exactly what my target was, and I didn¡¯t intend for him to find out, but having Ula along with me would mean he would find out once we got back. And¡­ having Ula would prevent me from using some degree of my power. I had no intention of going all out, but just in case things did go poorly, I wanted to keep my options open, and needing to avoid using all of my magic would be an extra obstacle.

    On the other hand, fighting the Captain over this seemed like it would waste time, and it wasn¡¯t really all that important. Captain Nev would likely discover what I had done eventually, it would just be sooner in this case. And in the worst case scenario, if I really did need to reveal a portion of my power, as much as I wouldn¡¯t want to, I could always kill and silence Ula.

    ¡°Fine, do as you want. Ula can escort me,¡± I said with a sigh.

    ¡°Thank you, My Lady.¡±

    ¡°Tell her to be ready, once I get my armor on, we will be leaving. And get to your own mission too,¡± I ordered.

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:47

    Temporary Command Center, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    Word of the Pine Family¡¯s reinforcements had already spread, and it had brought mostly positive effects to the army. For one, morale had increased greatly.

    Rank 6 and below were considered the Realm of Mortals. The name had two meanings, one being that mere mortals were generally limited to rank 6. Only with nearly divine talent, divine luck, and divine levels of effort, could one break through into rank 7. When a warrior strives for the peak, if they are looking at it realistically, they are aiming for rank 6. The second meaning was that once someone broke through and became a rank 7, they were something beyond a normal mortal.

    Their lifespan would increase greatly, their tolerance to pain, to poison, to illness, to hot and cold, would all drastically increase. Under rank 7, a warrior''s strength still existed within the bounds of common sense. A rank 6 knight might be able to withstand a catapult¡¯s shot, a rank 6 warrior might be able to uproot a tree and use it as a club, but the knight cannot deflect the fired boulder with their hand, and the warrior cannot lift up a house.

    Neither are due to lacking strength or resilience, but due to simple physics. The knight might have the power to deflect the rock, but unless the knight is anchored to the ground, the momentum of the flying stone will knock them away. The warrior might be able to lift something that weighed the same as a house, but houses are designed to rest entirely upon the ground. If someone was to lift one, all of the pressure would fall on the area where they were holding it, and the house would crumble.

    But, a rank 7 could deflect a thrown boulder and could lift a house. The power wielded by a rank 7 wasn¡¯t the same as a rank 6, it was something completely different. A rank five could give a decent fight to a rank 6, the lower rank would only rarely win, but they could hurt the higher rank before they fell, and they could delay them for quite some time if that were the goal. But a rank 6 could do almost nothing to a rank 7, they were in different dimensions.

    Obviously, due to the great power that ranks 7 and above held, they were also incredibly rare, and also valuable. The entire Capital Defense Force only had six rank 7s within it, and with the Pine Family sending out three, let alone the fact that almost no one even knew the Pine Family had that many high ranking warriors, it was a huge boon to the defenders.

    Morale increasing was only to be expected.

    The other great benefit was that the Pine Family¡¯s absurdly generous move had galvanized some other noble families to send out additional forces. Since many families, not only the other ducal houses, looked down upon the Pines, they couldn¡¯t stand being one-upped that badly by someone they viewed as their lessers.

    However, the one negative to all of this, was that the additional soldiers being sent were making the mustering of the forces take longer, and they were now missing several of their timelines.

    ¡°General, the Smith¡¯s Guild has sent additional men.¡±

    ¡°House Weey has sent some extra mages.¡±

    ¡°The Temple of the Sky has deployed additional acolytes.¡±

    ¡°Both the Carpenter¡¯s Guild and the Shipbuilder¡¯s Guild sent another group of foot soldiers.¡±

    ¡°The Crushing Hammer School has sent out their leader along with their grandmaster, both are rank 5 warriors.¡±

    ¡°The Canyon Family deployed another squad of ten knights.

    ¡°Good,¡± General Merrick nodded at the reports, ¡°Are the various merchants still balking at lending us supplies?¡±

    ¡°No, not at all.¡±

    ¡°Their ilk are good at seeing which way the wind blows, with the noble families now providing more earnest support, they know that even if we were to fail if they held back anything, they wouldn¡¯t be able to escape unscathed¡±

    ¡°Hmph, Merchants may be scummy opportunists, but they have their own code,¡± The general spoke, ¡°We are soldiers, and we have our own code, but we should not look down on anyone else''s, otherwise we will suffer for it. Always know to respect your enemy, and if you do that, you can learn from them, make their strengths your own, and you can utilize their weaknesses.¡±

    ¡°Yes Sir,¡±

    ¡°Yes Sir,¡±

    ¡°Yes Sir,¡±

    Merrick Miller looked up from another document to see all of his adjutants offering him salutes and he realized that he had misspoken somewhat just then.

    ¡°At ease,¡± He said slowly, ¡°It isn¡¯t as if I do not understand your opinion, after all, both of my parents are still merchants, and I did get to see first hand how wicked they could be. But from my position as their child, I was able to see both their strengths, and what was wrong with how they did everything. And as you know, I must have done something right, otherwise, I would be a simple clerk somewhere, probably fleeing to the north like everyone else tonight. Instead, I am standing here, with the word, ¡®General,¡¯ in front of my name.¡±

    His men all looked thoughtful before nodding their agreement. The fact that his parents were simple merchants was somewhat well known.

    ¡°That being said, I would probably be a lot safer, and warmer, if I had been running north instead of standing in this tent.¡± He said, reducing some of the tension with his joke. ¡°Now then, once we know who our commanding officer will be, we can get this show started. The castle did say that¡­¡±

    As he trailed off mid-sentence, his men looked at him confused, but he barely noticed.

    This army was a hodgepodge of various forces, mercenaries, simple guards, martial practitioners from the various schools, and household forces from the different noble families made up more than half of their numbers. They were a group lacking cohesion and any kind of uniform structure. In the last several minutes, worn down mercenaries that looked like little more than bandits, priests and paladins wearing shimmering golden robes and armor, gaudily dressed nobles, and plain looking practitioners had all arrived to announce that they would join their forces.

    The man approaching now, looked as if he was a slightly better mercenary. His armor was a dark gray and made of mismatched parts lacking any kind of symmetry. His helmet that hid his face entirely, was adorned with a single chipped horn in the center, his left pauldron was spiked, his right had double layers and was shaped like a box, part of his arm was bare under that one and ended in a simple metal gauntlet, while his left was completely covered in heavy metal and ended in an evil spiked gauntlet that seemed darker than the rest of his armor. His breastplate was scuffed and scratched, lacking any insignia or crest, his leg armor was a mix of metal and leather. His whole outfit looked as if it was made piecemeal as he picked it up from various battlefields, not from merchants, because every piece appeared worn and tattered.

    At a glance, he was a competent, if irrelevant, mercenary.

    But Merrick Miller had an item that he considered to be his prized possession, the glasses he currently wore. They were made of several smaller lenses, giving his eye¡¯s the appearance of a bug¡¯s, but each individual lens had a different magical effect enchanted upon it. The one on the bottom left of his right lens was particularly noteworthy, because while it did not actually detect magic, that was the domain of a different one, it could instead see the ambient effect created from magic. Unlike the other lens that could see actual magic, this one had a much more limited scope, it could see if a powerful magic was used in an area previously, or, and largely more importantly, it could still spot the effects of some spells, even if those spells were intentionally being obscured in some way.

    This particular effect was somewhat rare, and also rather difficult to utilize correctly, even his prized glasses could only show such an effect as something like a vortex, similar to when water flows down a drain.

    And around the approaching mercenary was a vortex-like nothing Merrick had ever seen before. It hugged his armor like a second skin, the effect would have been nearly impossible to spot, if not for the fact that the vortex was the most powerful he had ever seen. It was so strong that he feared it would have a tangible effect in the real world, that if he were to touch it, it would rip his hand apart.

    Of course, Merrick Miller was a smart man, and he not only knew to not do that, but he also was able to guess the identity of the man before him.

    ¡°My Lord!¡± he said, offering a formal military salute, ¡°General Merrick Miller cedes all authority to Lord Xavier. If your lordship wills it, I will serve you as your second in command.¡±

    The armored man casually walked all the way into the tent while ignoring everyone in it.

    ¡°...Yes¡­¡± a grave voice hissed from under his helmet.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:58

    Ruby Pawnbrokers¡¯ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Ruby Pawnbrokers was a business under the umbrella of the Quarry Family. Despite the name, they did not deal in gemstones or precious metals, but in weapons and armor. While they did buy and sell used equipment, their main business was in loans, with said equipment serving as collateral.

    At least, that is how it appeared on the surface. It was a well-known secret that Ruby Pawnbrokers were a form of recruitment for the Quarry Family. The Pawnbrokers would offer loans to aspiring adventurers and mercenaries so that they could buy equipment, but the terms of the loan would stipulate where they were allowed to spend the money, the Pawnbrokers would direct them to a few merchant houses and craftsman that were themselves, under the umbrella of the Quarry Family. Because the Quarry Domain was the kingdom¡¯s biggest producer of both raw ores and finished metal products, they were able to produce enormous amounts of equipment at a low price.

    With their loans, the hopeful youth would then be able to buy equipment at very reasonable prices, all of which built up some loyalty. The Pawnbroker would follow their clients as they progressed through their career, offering better loans, and sometimes referrals to mercenary companies or combat schools that were also under the Quarry Family.

    Despite essentially being a system to recruit for the family, the Ruby Pawnbrokers still managed to turn a small profit. One of the benefits of controlling the entire supply line, from the mines, to the forges, to the caravans, to the shops, to the loan company, to the mercenary companies that hired the clients.

    Ruby Pawnbrokers had several offices through the kingdom, and even had three separate buildings that served as pawnshops and loan offices within the capital. They also owned one massive warehouse where they kept the items used for collateral when they weren¡¯t being showcased in one of the three stores.

    Two of those stores were being damaged tonight, the third was located too close to a large guard garrison which made attacking it too risky. The warehouse would have been a nice target, but it would be guarded to some degree by private mercenaries, and there was also a logistical problem. Breaking into the warehouse would do little, I would need to either destroy the items stored within, or steal them. Stealing them was impossible for two people, and burning down the warehouse was a degree of escalation I was not willing to make.

    At least this soon.

    However, in addition to the three stores and the warehouse, there was also a central office that stored all of their important documents, including all of their records on their clients.

    Because that building had nothing of value to steal, and because they very well couldn¡¯t leave guards in a visible location during the current crisis, there were only two mercenary guards within the building. Both of which were now dead.

    ¡°Too bad we can¡¯t just burn the building down,¡± Ula said as she continued throwing scrolls and books into the fireplace.

    ¡°It is too close to the adjacent buildings, we can not risk a major fire, especially right now.¡±

    ¡°I know¡­ but¡­¡±

    I did not need to try hard to understand the Spectre¡¯s annoyance, the Ruby Pawnbrokers had two entire floors devoted to storing documents, and only had two fireplaces, two small fireplaces.

    We had already begun using some unorthodox methods to destroy their records. We opened all of the windows, allowing snow to begin entering the rooms, where it melted on the floor. Single documents and scrolls could be thrown into the water where the ink would run, that freed up the fireplaces for the larger books. But there were a lot of books, and the fire was already flooding the room with smoke. Further, the floor had already been layered with pages, and the water was not building up fast enough.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you use magic or something?¡± She asked me while she was using her teeth to tear apart a thicker book, her shark teeth easily slicing through the parchment.

    ¡°Blood magic is not really applicable in this situation.¡±

    I could make blades of blood and hack apart the shelves, or even spears of blood and punch through them, but the actual destruction to the documents would not be all that great. We could also do something similar with our actual weapons, so there was no need to waste my magic on it.

    If I were able to call on all of my magic, I could encase the shelves entirely in blood, and then rip it apart, but that would require a degree of blood and magic that I couldn¡¯t expend right now, not as long as my cousin¡¯s soul was still being nourished within my heart. As long as he was there, I was severely limited in what kind of large, sweeping effects I could create.

    ¡°Hey¡­ My Lady¡­¡± Ula said suddenly as she went over to the window to get a few breaths of smoke-free air.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°There are three people standing in the road watching the building.¡±

    ¡°Guards?¡± I asked sharply as I dropped the book I was tearing apart and drew my machete.

    ¡°Not sure. They aren¡¯t guards, but two of them are armed. The third is a kid? Maybe a halfling?¡± She said as she drew her own weapon, a short bow she kept on her back.

    ¡°Let me see,¡± I said and then went towards a different window.

    Considering the smoke coming out of this building, it wasn¡¯t entirely unreasonable to assume someone would come to investigate, but it seemed a bit too soon for armed soldiers to show up.

    But Ula was right, two armed soldiers, both of which held themselves with a degree of poise that clearly showed they weren¡¯t rank and file guards, stood there in the street. Between the two of them, stood a small child.

    And I recognized two of them, one of the guards, and also the child.

    The same child who walked out in front of my cart as I was returning to the warehouse on Wednesday. The one who had a strange air about her.

 Chapter 20: Strange Meetings.

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:03

    Temporary Command Center, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°All forces¡­¡± General Merrick began, before giving a quick look towards the commander of the army to be sure, ¡°Begin moving out.¡±

    His adjutants began issuing orders. With Lord Xavier here, the command structured was greatly simplified, the general¡¯s words were Lord Xavier¡¯s words, and no one dared to dispute the strongest mercenary¡¯s words. No one argued, but this army was a mishmash of various forces, and not only that, but the general rarely commanded forces in the first place. The army moved, but it was sluggish and awkward, a recently roused behemoth, still drowsy and stumbling.

    But, it did not matter any longer.

    General Merrick had no desire to command this army, and unless forced, he would have refused. The capital held several potential commanders that would have been a better fit, some that had a better grasp of strategy than him, some that had a better sense of politics and would have eased the relationship issues, and some that were even more charismatic.

    If the general was in charge, he was honest enough to realize that there was a good chance that the worst could come to pass, that they would be eradicated to the last man, and that the Royal Capital would be destroyed.

    With Lord Xavier, such concerns were now unfounded.

    Ranks 6 and below were often called the Realm of Mortals, but there was another name for them. The Ranks of the Ordinary. Rank 7 and above were then the Ranks of the Extraordinary.

    Why the two different names? Most people who were not as knowledgeable used the latter, Ordinary and Extraordinary. They drew a clear line between Rank 6 and 7. Those that used the former knew that not only was there a line between 6 and 7, but another between 10 and what would be called rank 11. Ranks 7, 8, 9, and 10 were known as the Realm of Transcendence, and the common people simply called this the Ranks of the Extraordinary. But they did not realize that rank 11 brought a change from rank 10 that was even greater than rank 7¡¯s change from 6.

    No one really knew for sure, since rank 11s were figures from the myths and legends, but rumors said that Lord Xavier was rank 11.

    General Portlo had once mentioned to General Merrick that even at rank 10, a person could not be considered a mere warrior, or even an army unto themselves. A rank 10 was a disaster in human form.

    And General Merrick agreed, he had once seen Lord Ilvisar Caranith, who was a rank 9 Elementalist and summoner, but also rumored to be of rank 11 as an arcanist, test a spell. The spell was small, its effect only the size of a single room, and yet, that small space was still crackling with arcane energies that would reduce anyone who approached to dust. Lord Ilvisar had called it a failure, because the spell spread too easily, he had required considerable effort to contain it only to that small space. He had even mentioned that if left unchecked, it could have covered a city in seconds.

    Magic might be able to wreak havoc on a greater scale, but with Lord Xavier, they could not loose.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:05

    Ruby Pawnbrokers¡¯ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°What should we do?¡± Ula asked.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± That was a good question.

    From the way the girl stood between the two guards, it was clear she was their charge. Whether or not she was their master, or someone else had sent them to protect her, I couldn¡¯t tell for sure. The fact that they allowed her to come here during the night, during such an event, indicated that she had some degree of control over them at the very least.

    So who were they?

    There were no identifying crests on their clothing, or what little of their armor I could see under their cloaks. And I did not recognize them from anywhere either. Granted, neither of those facts really mattered, the number of people who I wouldn¡¯t recognize was massive, and anyone looking to do something questionable tonight would likely forgo anything that could reveal their identity.

    I had seemingly met them by coincidence a few days ago, but was that really just a coincidence?

    If it was not, and I was being tracked and followed, why would they allow themselves to be spotted, and in such an amateurish way? To confuse me and allow me to let my guard down? No¡­ that is too much of a roundabout approach, too illogical, and too prone to failure, all for very little gain. If that was a temporary failure, a mistake on their part, then there was no reason for this particular group to continue following me, someone else should have taken over.

    That at least, indicates that it might truly have been a coincidence.

    So they stumbled upon me, and then chose to track me down for some reason, why?

    Their lack of uniform equipment, not to mention the small girl, means that they are unlikely to be soldiers. The girl herself is wearing a few magic items, more than she was when we first encountered each other, but those were the only notable magical signatures emanating from her body. She was clearly not a mage herself, nor did she use magic to augment her physical powers, so at best, she would be around rank 2 or 3. She could be a halfling, but she was even too small for that, most likely she was just a child, maybe around five or six years of age. She wasn¡¯t part of their military might, nor was she an officer.

    The other two were then clearly her guards.

    Was she from one of the combat schools? That seemed likely at a glance, I met her soon after my raids, but that would also indicate that our meeting was intentional, and I already discarded that idea. Further, the information I had received on each of the schools made no mention of a young girl who would require guards being affiliated with any of the schools.

    Another seemingly likely option, was that this too was a coincidence. They were not particularly following me tonight, and we just happened to stumble upon each other again. But this was also nonsense. Ruby Pawnbrokers might be a viable target for someone looking to rob, but not this office. The only people who would break into this building were those looking to damage the company, not profit themselves.

    I suppose they could have just noticed something odd and were trying to investigate, but if that were the case, they would not just be standing out in the open on the side of the road. They would have either entered, or stayed hidden while watching.

    No, one coincidence I can accept, but not two. I am clearly the target here.

    But are they after Olivia Pine Fredirin, or the halfling warrior Cat?

    One thing I was confident of, was that they were from one of my aunts or uncle¡¯s houses.

    ¡°We will invite them in,¡± Concluding my thoughts instantly, I responded to Ula.

    ¡°We will?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said before removing one of my gloves.

    I drew my machete across my palm, leaving a decent cut that welled with blood. As it dripped onto the floor I saw Ula spin to face me, for a second an image of hunger flitted over her eyes before she scrunched up her nose and stepped back.

    My blood did not pool onto the soggy parchments that were underfoot, but instead seeped through, away from sight. As the wound on my hand closed up, and as I put my glove back on, the blood had filtered through the floorboards, then slid across the roof of the 1st story towards the door. Before it reached, I split it into four parts, one spread onto the hinges of the door, and another part went to the doorknob. The other two took up seemingly random positions, one moved to the far wall and the other stayed on the ceiling a few feet away from the door.

    Satisfied, I used my blood to unlock the door and turn the knob, and with the door now free, the hinges swung inward. To anyone looking in from the outside, such as the girl and her two guards, it would appear as if the door opened without anyone¡¯s assistance.

    Before I could consider if they would take the bait, and even before the door had fully opened, the girl had started walking forward, her two guards hurrying to follow.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:05

    Ruby Pawnbrokers¡¯ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    ?????????????

    Once I saw the door open, and heard that I should come in, I did not hesitate.

    I wanted to run, excitement coursed through me, but I also wanted to make a good impression. I was schooled in etiquette when I was young, and while I no longer went to my lessons, I still remembered. I knew that my Destined One had also received the same education, so I did not want to disappoint her.

    My two guards followed me after a second of delay, their hesitation rousing my ire. I knew they did not understand, could not understand, even if I had tried to explain. I did not need to hear them to know that.

    The building, whatever it was for, was not in a good state. The interior was dark, I could see that even when I was still on the road, but entering it allowed me to see that it was also wet and damp. Puddles had formed on the floor, and cold water was dripping from the ceiling.

    When I was younger, I feared things like ghosts and spirits, and this building looked as if it should be haunted. The misunderstandings of youth, what I thought were spirits, were just people, and the undead no longer scared me. I was able to hear most of them, the undead. The more intelligent they were, the easier it was. Less intelligent ones were more like animals, only able to say simple ideas. The completely mindless ones such as skeletons or zombies did not speak at all, but they emitted a low humming sound.

    There was only one thing that I could not hear, and that was my Destined One who was above on the 2nd floor, along with one of her guards.

    Spectres, they called themselves. Not an accurate name, her guards sounded no different than other humans, while specters, when they did anything other than wail incoherently, would still scream and cry.

    I wondered why they called themselves that.

    ¡°My Lady¡­¡± One of my guards, his presence surrounded with the sound of scratching, scraping, grinding, and tearing, tried to dissuade me from entering, but I ignored him.

    Entering with my two guards in tow, I realized the building wasn¡¯t as bad as it at first appeared. It was dark, but one of my guards had a light emitting magic device that lit up the surroundings. The building seemed to be an office, a counter was in front of us, some chairs and small tables made a waiting area, and then the back was sectioned off by some doors, one of which was opened and revealed a staircase going up.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Water was everywhere, but it seemed like a recent development, everything looked to be in good order aside from the dripping.

    ¡°Wait!¡± My guard called out suddenly, his hand already on his sword.

    I looked at him confused, he was dividing his stare between a section of wall between two of the doors, and a bit of the roof right over our heads.

    ¡°...what is it¡­?¡± I whispered.

    ¡°No¡­ I thought¡­¡± He mumbled, but then shook his head and put his weapon away. ¡°I thought I sensed magic, but it must be nothing. Still, we should be careful. Let Forik go first.¡±

    I looked at my other guard, Forik if the first was to be believed, I never trusted them in the first place, I couldn¡¯t hear them due to the awful sound they made, but I did not think they would lie about their names, there was no need to. He was also looking around, and hadn¡¯t drawn his sword, but I could tell he was larger than the first. I did not know who was stronger, but the large one would probably delay any enemies longer with his body, allowing the first to escape with me.

    ¡°... It is fine¡­¡± I said and walked towards the stairs.

    Neither guard said anything else, but they both followed me.

    Each step up the staircase was excruciating. My Destined One was there, just up these stairs. I so badly wanted to run, to sprint to her, to hear nothing. But I must restrain myself, I must present myself well. I need her to be pleased with me.

    She is my Destined One, the only person I can stand to be around, but I know that to her, I am nobody. No, even worse, from hearing her guards these few days I knew I was an enemy.

    Ah¡­ how difficult is this? My entire life, I cursed the fact I could hear, but now, in front of this one person, this one person I desperately wanted to understand, I could hear nothing. The irony, because if I could hear her, I would have no desire to do so in the first place.

    I could hear her guard, the Spectre, she must be equipped with a bow of some form, she was standing back, but ready to shoot if something happened. I would never do anything to upset my Destined One, but my guards¡­

    I hadn¡¯t told them who my Destined One, that she was my cousin, Olivia Pine Fredirin, so they should have no desire to harm her. But, I know that in my efforts to meet her, they had realized that she was a figure of some power, and dangerous. How many times, if not for my ability to hear, would we have been caught trying to find out about that warehouse? Still, to my guards, my own safety was the most important, so as long as I wasn¡¯t in danger, they will stand down.

    Now at the landing, I stopped to take a couple of breaths.

    ¡°...do not¡­ do anything¡­¡± I whispered to my guards, ¡°...No matter what¡­¡±

    I stepped into the room and froze.

    My eyes locked onto the adjacent pair, two silver orbs barely peeking out of her black face mask, they were two shimmering stars in the night sky. Nothing else mattered, only those eyes.

    ¡°...how beautiful¡­¡± My absent-minded words were heard, and the silver eyes suddenly narrowed.

    Panic wracked me, I needed to make a good first impression.

    My former etiquette teacher told me to smile when meeting new people, and I tried to do so. But it had been so long, too long, since I last smiled. My facial muscles were stiff, I could only put a cramped and crooked smile onto my face.

    I must look awful.

    ¡°Li-Lillian Qu-Quarry Fre-Fredirin,¡± I stammered out, ¡°gr-greets y-you.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:07

    Royal Army Mounted Command Center, outside the southern wall, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    Located safely in the middle of the now nearly forty thousand man army, we advanced into the cold night. The army was still a mishmash of various groups, Royal Guardsmen, the Capital Defense Force, the Kingdom¡¯s army, mercenaries, various noble household troops, adventurers, members of combat schools, apprentice mages, priests from the different churches, even the Crystal Jade Empire had dispatched fifty soldiers from their embassy.

    A motley assortment of forces, but a powerful one still. Morale was high, supplies were abundant, the cause was just, and while the elementals were a powerful foe, they were a stupid foe. As long as we had the numbers and strength to not break apart at first contact, we could easily defeat them. With the numbers we currently had, not only would we win easily, but most likely casualties would be low.

    Lord Xavier being given command was a great boon to the army, but it overshadowed the contribution made by the Pine Family, and the forces that they sent were arguably more important. If they hadn¡¯t sent out such a powerful group, which itself not only provided a powerful boost to morale, but also shamed the other nobles into participating earnestly, the army would be much smaller and weaker. In a way, with Lord Xavier, a less powerful army wouldn¡¯t matter much, but injuries and deaths would be much higher.

    The Pines would receive some kind of commendation for this afterward, but he would have little to do with that, outside of sending in the initial petition. Everything beyond that would be politics, and outside of his pay grade. However, since he knew the army¡¯s current state was owed to them, he had extended an invitation to the commander of the Pine forces, the half-elf Eslan Tale, who was now currently seated atop his horse following around with the rest of his adjutants.

    ¡°Once again, I need to offer my thanks to you, Commander Tale,¡± The general addressed the Elf, ¡°If not for your family¡¯s reinforcements, things would not have gone as smoothly.¡±

    ¡°Think nothing of it General Miller,¡± The elf calmly shook his head, ¡°And regardless, your thanks are misplaced.¡±

    ¡°Oh, how so?¡± He asked with interest.

    ¡°The Pine Family has few forces within the Capital, and standard protocol would dictate we only send out what we could spare after securing our own territory.¡±

    ¡°...¡± The general frowned lightly to himself, The commander¡¯s words did ring true, but still¡­

    ¡°Come now, Commander,¡± One of his adjutants said, ¡°Few forces? With what you sent, I fear for what you consider to be a large force.¡±

    ¡°Haha,¡± Another spoke, ¡°Yes, if three rank 7s is small, then this army must be considered as only medium sized.¡±

    ¡°Surely you jest,¡± Commander Tale said without laughing, ¡°These forces we sent, consist of all of our available forces.¡±

    ¡°Haha¡­ Wait, really?¡±

    General Merrick was likewise surprised, he couldn¡¯t stop himself from turning to look back at the elf, along the way noticing that several of his adjutants appeared shocked.

    ¡°You surely left defenses at your estate and other holdings?¡± Another one of his adjutants asked.

    ¡°We left a skeleton crew at the estate, but we evacuated all of our staff into the Royal Castle. We¡¯ve deployed all of our available forces here.¡±

    ¡°...¡± His frown deepened.

    That was not good military strategy, even a half-baked strategist like him could tell that. All of the Pine Family holdings, save for their main estate, would be undefended, and even that estate would be barely defended. And should the worst happen, if the General remembered correctly, three of the Pine Family¡¯s five children were in the Capital, they would be without any protection. Even if the Elementals were beaten back with no danger befalling the city, which is how it should work out, but if their forces suffered heavy casualties, they would be in an incredibly precarious situation.

    If this was a grab for glory by Commander Tale, he would have to rethink things.

    But then, he remembered something.

    ¡°Commander,¡± He said, ¡°You said my thanks were misplaced? If not to you, who should I send them to?¡±

    ¡°Mmm¡­¡± The Commander seemed to think as he rubbed his chin with one hand, ¡°To be honest, this idea was not mine, but my Young Lady¡¯s.¡±

    Very quickly, General Merrick recalled everything he knew about the two young ladies of the Pine Family.

    Pamela Pine Fredirin, the eldest daughter, was relatively unknown. In the past, she seemingly had some talent as an artist and as a mage, but she had fallen off of the stage into obscurity. As far as he knew, she wasn¡¯t skilled in management or military affairs either.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin, the youngest daughter, had almost no reputation to speak of. She was too young to make any waves since she wasn¡¯t a heavens defying genius, but he did recall hearing that her carriage had crashed into a river early in the month. In fact, last he heard, she was recovering back in the Pine Domain, he wasn¡¯t even sure if she had returned or not.

    ¡°Which young lady,¡± He asked, ¡°If you do not mind telling me.¡±

    ¡°It was Lady Olivia Pine Fredirin¡¯s idea, General.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Is what he said, but he really did not.

    Some of his adjutants had strange looks on their faces, looks that they quickly hid before the elven commander could see them. He¡¯d have to ask them about it, later on, there was something he wasn¡¯t understanding here, but it wasn¡¯t important right now.

    ¡°If you do not mind me asking a question myself, General?¡± The Commander asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°What exactly is our plan? The information sent to our house was not detailed.¡±

    Of course it wasn¡¯t, detailed information, what little they had, would not get sent out to anyone. In fact, only the upper ranking generals within the capital, of which he was one of three, were informed. That information was restricted not only to prevent a panic, but to stop any opportunistic individuals or groups from getting any funny ideas.

    Plus, it contained matters of great importance in the succession competition, after all, Frederica Canyon Fredirin, one of the Canyon Family¡¯s new pillars of support, had likely fallen in battle. Sending that out, especially to the other ducal houses, was completely unacceptable.

    With that being said, Commander Tale was now a major contributor to the entire army, and since he had sent the Commander an invitation to the command group, he couldn¡¯t refuse to tell him what had happened. And regardless, that information would come to light after this situation was resolved, so the Commander would hear of it sooner or later.

    ¡°About that¡­¡± He said as he glanced at Lord Xavier, the mercenary had remained silent atop his horse this entire time, and remained so even now, ¡°The fortress at the Bleeding Forrest has likely been overrun by now, the general in charge lead a rearguard action to stall the Elementals, but we lost all contact about an hour ago. The last report indicated contact with the Fragment that started the overflow, so based on the time frame, we are looking at around ten thousand to fifteen thousand elementals.¡±

    ¡°I see, so the general sacrificed himself to buy time for the rest to retreat, then are we meeting up with them? How many are there?¡±

    ¡°Three thousand, approximately. And we will not be meeting with them.¡± He let out a breath as he said that.

    As he knew it would, almost everyone within earshot sported looks of disbelief on their faces.

    ¡°We can¡¯t,¡± He spoke before anyone else could, ¡°The rear guard only managed to buy, at best, thirty minutes of time for the rest to retreat, and that thirty minutes ended almost an hour ago. In snow like this, how far could the retreating forces get?¡±

    ¡°If we rushed¡­¡± An adjutant spoke up, but even as she did, she knew it was pointless.

    ¡°If we rushed, we might be able to rendezvous with them in time, but we might not. Even if we make it, we¡¯ll have an exhausted army meeting up with an equally exhausted army that was being chased. We might even lose the entire battle in that case.¡± He spoke his words firmly, even if they pained him.

    The loss of three thousand men was a terrible thing, from a purely numerical standpoint, and from the perspective of a man who leads others into battle, who takes their fate into their own hands.

    But what really pained him, was to disregard General Canyon¡¯s intentions. She had likely sacrificed her own life to save as many of her men as possible, but now, her sacrifice would be wasted, those men and women she saved, would be forsaken anyway.

    ¡°Plus, we have another problem. The Elementals will go straight towards the largest and nearest concentration of living things.¡±

    ¡°Which is the capital,¡± A different adjutant said.

    ¡°No, it is not. Besides the retreating forces, the other large congregations of living things would be Riversdale and Morristown. Most likely, the elementals were split and some will go after each group. To make matters worse, Riversdale is to the east of the road we¡¯ll be using, and Morristown is to the west. If we rush south on the road, the other two groups of Elementals could end up flanking us, or even hitting us from behind.¡±

    ¡°Actually, there is an even worse outcome than that,¡± The only adjutant he had shared these plans with suddenly spoke up.

    ¡°He¡¯s right. If the flanking groups outpace us too heavily, they might end up closer to the Capital than to us, if they decide to go towards Arvas, the city lacks the strength to defend. I do not need to tell you what that would mean.¡±

    Arvas sent out almost everything it had, the remaining guards and household troops would be nowhere near sufficient to defend against even one flanking group. The walls would be breached instantly, and what would follow would be a chaotic urban fight that would be less fight and more slaughter. The Royal Castle itself had magical defenses that would keep it safe, but the rest of the city would end up wrecked and scoured of life. And the Castle was only so large, they could easily lose nearly all of the Capital¡¯s people.

    ¡°That is why we are going to only advance five miles to the Berzin Hills. We¡¯ll set up formations within the basin, build fortifications, and load whatever siege weapons we have up onto the hills themselves. We¡¯ll spend whatever time we have digging pitfalls and burying mines, we need to do whatever we can to preserve our forces. Gods forgive us, but we just can¡¯t save those soldiers.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 01:12

    Bleeding Forest, 34 Miles South of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    ??????????????

    The Bleeding Forest was young, no tree went more than a few years before being uprooted by some rampaging beast. It was a land of constant death and rebirth, the rampant mana running through it saw to that. The mana nourished the ground, making it extra fertile, and any seeds that took root would grow rapidly. Their forms would be twisted, corrupt, but they still grew. Even the area near the keep, which was culled daily, still saw shrubs and other plants bursting into existence in only a moment.

    However, right now, an oddity had appeared.

    The blizzard was not enough to slow the growth, even the Elementals, as they cut through the woods and froze everything else in their path, only hampered the Forest. Already, the dead trees were breaking down, new ones spouting in the now vacated areas. Molds and vines used the corpses of plant and beast as fuel for their own rampant growth.

    But not here.

    An area nearly a hundred feet across was scoured of all life, the very ground was baked, the dirt and mud turned to glass.

    Only two entities existed within the crater, a pile of ice, and the battered body of a human. The ice was slowly melting, the water trickling towards the center of the burnt basin. The human too, was leaking, as it struggled to draw breath, blood oozed from its body and made its own journey towards the center where it mixed with the water.

    Snow fell onto the two of them, at first it melted as it touched either the human, or the ground around it, but as more fell, the ground, and the human began to cool. A fine layer of white began coated the blackened ground, and after a while, the human too. A cold wind blew, further stealing the human¡¯s warmth, and making the breaths even more laborious. Seconds ticked by, and soon all that showed of the human was a red layer of snow. But still, it struggled to breathe, to live.

    The human¡¯s hand held a sword, but slowly its strength waned, the hand relaxed, and the sword slid from its grip. The weapon resembled nothing like the form it held an hour ago, the hilt crushed, the blade cracked, but even then, its quality was clear.

    As it slipped farther away from its owner, it left a small trail in the snow. And seemingly having noticed that the sword had left it, the human attempt to grope through the snow and reclaim its weapon. Inch by inch, fingers crawled towards it.

    But with each additional labored breath, the movement slowed, until finally, it stilled. The hand stopped, and then a moment later, the breathing came to a stop.

    There was no warmth in the clearing any longer, no movement, no life. It grew colder and colder. The ice stopped melting, the water froze, even the blood turned thicker until it too froze.

    And still, the temperature dropped, the body of the dead human froze, the nearby trees, destroyed from the battle, froze solid. The air became so cold that little droplets of clear liquid began forming on the ground. As the droplets appeared, the wind picked up, howling with a fury almost never seen. Snow blew from all over the forest, all of it drawn to this small clearing. The droplets kept forming, the wind kept blowing, and the temperature kept dropping. The human¡¯s body began to crack apart right as the first blue drops of liquid began forming. The blue mixed with the clear, and all of them converged onto the corpse. They moved independent of the wind, seemingly having a mind of their own. They crawled onto the body, slithered across it, through clothing, through armor, through frozen blood and flesh, and then they seeped into the openings, the eyes, mouth, nose, ears, even the wounds, nothing was spared.

    Suddenly, the dropping temperatures let up, the wind returned to what could be called normal within a blizzard, and only the snow continued to move as it drifted down from above. It was as if the violence from moments ago had never happened, the scene was no different from when the body had drawn its last breath, from when Frederica Canyon Fredirin had died.

    The small droplets had displaced the snow that had fallen on her body, and the flakes that continued to fall suspiciously avoided it. It was only the snow that rested on the ground that was disturbed as her body sat up without warning, and then stood. Her movements were halting, jerky, but she moved yet still.

    She flexed her one good hand, while at the same time a layer of ice formed over her ruined arm, even forming a crystal clear elbow, then a forearm, and then even a hand. Partially covered in a layer of ice, with one of her limbs now made of that same ice, Frederica looked around emotionlessly, before she locked her gaze towards the north.

    She said nothing, but as if she were an afterimage made by the snow, Frederica disappeared into the night.

 Chapter 21: Lillian Quarry Fredirin.

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:14

    Ruby Pawnbrokers¡¯ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    I am not an expert in human mannerisms by any means. My past experiences were rich and plentiful, but they were in regards to something other than humans. The prior Olivia¡¯s memories can be recalled with crystal clear clarity, but they are too few, too sparse. I have a general idea, but there are subtle nuances that I miss. While many of my past life¡¯s experiences are applicable, not all of them are. And to figure out which ones do and do not fit my current existence, that is the difficult part.

    Negotiations can be handled in thousands of different ways, there are different approaches, different methods, different techniques, and they all show different results in different situations.

    They have different strengths and weaknesses.

    I chose to remain silent, to stare down the other side. By not saying anything, I showed that I was not rushed, that I was firm in my own position. I had no need to ask for anything, no need to make demands, no need to gleam my opponent''s motives. I was confident, confident enough to say and do nothing.

    Much then, could be seen from how my opponent reacts, If she is aggressive, if she hesitates, if she gets upset. I had my expectations.

    But, they were all betrayed.

    My opponent did not get angry, get nervous, become panicked. No, my opponent sat there in silence along with me. However, she did not radiate confidence like I did, she was not firm in her own position like I was. No, she had a big smile on her face as she stared at my own expressionless one. As the seconds turned to minutes, she only became happier, her smile growing.

    The fact was, my silence, my visage of confidence, was just that, a fakery, a deception. I had no idea what my opponent wanted or why she was here. I had gambled that she would reveal something, and all I received was wasted time and a stupid smile as Lillian Quarry Fredirin looked back at me.

    At last count, I had forty-four cousins, forty-six before Michael was killed by my own hand, and someone else made use of the chaos to kill Sebastian Lakeside Fredirin. Of those remaining forty-four, five of them were from the Quarry Family. Lillian was the middle child, she had an older brother and an older sister that were one and two years older than her respectively. She likewise had two younger siblings, the girl was three and the boy was one year old.

    Lillian was only a few months younger than my own sister Pamela, she should be twelve for a few more months. Her age should mean she went to school, but for some reason, she did not. A few of my cousins stayed out of the limelight for various reasons, Morgan Goldfield, for instance, was reportedly deformed and handicapped, and as such, never left her home. A few others seemingly lacked the required skills and mentality to stand on this stage and were not active in the competition. As far as I knew, Lillian was one of those. The only rumors that the thieves guild could discover about her was that she wandered around capital all day, and she did little else.

    It was always possible that she was a hidden asset, a trump card to be used only at the most pivotal moments, with my understanding of her mom, my aunt, that is what I had assumed to be the case. However, now that I met her in person, I was not so sure.

    ¡°So, what brings my cousin out this¡­¡± I spoke to break the silence, but seeing the giddy expression that came over her face, I paused.

    ¡°Ahhh¡­.¡± She sighed contentedly. ¡°I can hear you¡­ At last, I can hear you¡­¡±

    It only took me a moment to understand what she was saying. After she greeted me, she asked to speak in private, and immediately sent her guards out of the room. I had simply nodded to let Ula know she should exit too. Even as my cousin used a magic item to make a sound barrier I spoke not a single word. Thus, this would be the first time I spoke in front of her.

    But understanding her words did not make me any less confused by the entire situation.

    ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°Want? I want? What do I¡­?¡± She spoke as if she was unfocused, and she looked that way too. ¡°Oh! What I want? I wanted to meet you.¡±

    ¡°Why? For what reason? Do you even know who I am?¡± I asked sternly.

    ¡°Yes! You are my cousin, Olivia Pine Fredirin.¡± She answered my last question.

    But it was not an answer I wanted to hear.

    I suspected as much, it really was only a matter of time until my haphazard disguise as Cat was seen through. Still, being found by one of the Quarry Family, while inside one of their businesses, was not the ideal scenario to be discovered.

    ¡°So you know who I am, and I imagine you came to find me? For what reason?¡±

    ¡°I wanted to meet you, I want to¡­ I want¡­¡± She suddenly stopped as she struggled with her words. ¡°I want¡­ to follow you, to be with you, always.¡±

    ¡°You are not answering,¡± I said.

    ¡°Sorry!¡± She suddenly panicked and apologized. ¡°So sorry!¡±

    ¡°Just answer me,¡± I said exasperatedly.

    ¡°I am sorry. I can not¡­ describe it better¡­ I just want to be around you.¡±

    Something was wrong here.

    I scanned her body again, even going so far as to make my scan detectable. But the results were the same. Her mana core was unsealed, but its capacity was low and the purity of her mana was also low. The meridians in her body were undeveloped, indicating she wasn¡¯t a warrior, even her muscles appeared to be average, she would be at best Rank 2. She did have more magical items on her person as compared to the last time we met. I could sense a few enchanted items, and several different scrolls, even a few wands, two of which seemed to hold powerful spells. If I really focused, I could discover what each of the items did, but I could tell by the amount of mana that they held that they were no threat to me.

    Her sound barrier was still surrounding the room we were in, but I could still tell where the others were by sensing their mana, and none of the three had moved since we began sitting in silence. Her guards were likewise equipped with magic items, but neither of the two had activated any of them.

    What was I missing?

    ¡°I am¡­ Sorry Oliv- no, my cousin.¡± She said suddenly. ¡°It is just, I have heard so much about you. And¡­ And I am not very good at¡­ talking with others.¡±

    ¡°You heard so much about me?¡± I said while frowning, nothing she heard could have been good.

    ¡°Oh, yes!¡± She exclaimed, her excitement taking over. ¡°Your brother and sister are both very proud of you, they love you very much. Even the servants of your house, they all want the best for you.¡±

    ¡°Do they now?¡± I asked, suspicion rising up in me.

    ¡°Yes. Yes, they do.¡± She nodded vigorously. ¡°And your guards, they all trust you. They all are excited to no longer have to suffer. The one called Nev says you might be a bit too rash, but he is willing to protect you with his life. Ula only wants to be of use to you, Lin says you are the cutest child she has seen and wants to hug you, Jeb respects your strength, They are all in awe of you.¡±

    ¡°It seems as if you¡¯ve spoken to them?¡±

    ¡°Spoke? Me to them? No, not at all.¡± She denied it. ¡°I¡­ find it difficult to talk to others. I just listened.¡±

    ¡°You listened? How is that possible?¡±

    Yes¡­ something was very wrong here.

    ¡°I¡­ I heard from your knight, Carla, that you have awoken a bloodline. I have too.¡±

    I frowned again, Lillian should have had no contact with any of the people she had named, but not only did she seemingly know them, she managed to overhear their conversations, their conversations in regards to topics they should definitely not be speaking of.

    ¡°What kind of bloodline?¡±

    ¡°It¡­ is not a good one, not like yours. Mine is from a race called the Penuka¡±

    ¡°Penuka?¡± I asked as I searched my memories, but came up blank.

    ¡°Yes,¡± She nodded. ¡°A race that died out a long time ago. The Penuka were a small, secretive race. Smaller than humans, but taller than halflings, they looked as if they were just tiny humans.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of them,¡± I said.

    ¡°Most people¡­ I do not think have.¡± She looked sad as she spoke. ¡°There were never many Penuka, and they lived hidden amongst the humans. They had to.¡±

    ¡°And why is that?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ Penuka were¡­ well, they were born with natural telepathy. They could read the thoughts of any nearby humans. They did this to stay alive, but also to eat, Penuka require the thoughts of living things to survive.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡±

    If my cousin inherited the ability of telepathy, that would explain why she knew so much about me, she was listening to the thoughts of those around me.

    However, something seemed off.

    ¡°Penuka cannot feed off of one person for long, that person will experience headaches and mental fatigue, so they were forced to live in places with many other humanoids. But with no other skills, the Penuka struggled to live in those place. No one knows why, but the Penuka¡¯s abilities decreased with each generation until the entire race faded away.¡±

    ¡°But you inherited their bloodline,¡± I stated as I temporarily shelved my concern.

    ¡°Yes. I did.¡± She agreed, ¡°You probably have too.¡±

    ¡°That is the first I am hearing about it.¡±

    ¡°The Fredirin Royal line is¡­ filled with many different bloodlines. Everyone that marries in is usually a great person to some degree, and bloodlines are often the source of that, even if it doesn¡¯t awaken. The Penuka blood may have come from my father, but it most likely came from my mother, and then from our grandfather. So you should have some in you too.¡±

    ¡°Mmmm¡­ That does make sense.¡±

    ¡°I say that, but the amount of Penuka blood should be incredibly small.¡±

    ¡°And yet you managed to awaken the bloodline.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ that was my mother¡¯s doing.¡± her face looked pained as she said that.

    ¡°How so?¡± I asked while ignoring her discomfort.

    ¡°Mother knew¡­ That to become queen, it would depend on her children, but as a woman, she could not afford to have many of us, so she decided to make each of us as useful as possible.¡±

    ¡°That also makes sense.¡±

    ¡°She knew that her children would likely carry the traces of some kind of bloodline, so all she had to do was awaken them. You may not know, but many different substances can trigger a bloodline to at least awaken partially. But, you would need to know what bloodline you are trying to awaken, and then find the corresponding substance.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡±

    ¡°Besides matching the right ingredient with the right bloodline, there are a few things that work on nearly any bloodline, even if it is less likely to work and awaken it fully. One of those is liquified Mana Crystals.¡±

    ¡°That would work, but¡­¡± I frowned again as I thought of how that would play out. ¡°The person consuming that would need to be able to channel their own mana, at the very least, they would need to have their mana core unsealed.¡±

    ¡°Normally, that would be true. But, my mother found another way.¡± My cousin said with a grimace. ¡°If she took the substance herself while she was still carrying the child, she could channel it herself.¡±This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°I see, that is an option.¡± I nodded in agreement. ¡°However, it would be very difficult, and very taxing on both the mother and the child regardless of its success or failure. At the very least, splitting off your mana and giving it to another should be incredibly painful.¡±

    ¡°It is,¡± She looked solemn as she spoke. ¡°Three of my brothers and sisters were never born because my mother failed. And each time she would try, her screams would wake up the entire castle. It was so loud¡­¡±

    ¡°Let us table this discussion for now,¡± I said as I switched topics, ¡°You¡¯ve read the minds of my followers and subordinates, and presumably mine too, so-¡±

    ¡°NO!¡± She interrupted with a yell.

    Suddenly she stood up from the chair and rushed around the table that was between us before dropping down to her knees in front of me. My cousin was nearly twice my age, but she was only a few inches taller than me, and now that she was kneeling, her legs sinking into the layer of damp paper, her head only came up to my chest.

    ¡°I have never heard your thoughts!¡± She stated firmly.

    ¡°Is that so? But I have no way of knowing that, I am not you, I can not read minds myself, so how can I trust you?¡± I asked while giving her a vicious look, ¡°You know all my secrets, you are a huge risk to me, and you expect me to believe you?¡±

    ¡°It is true! I swear. Please, you have to believe me!¡± She practically groveled at my feet as she spoke. ¡°I can not hear your thoughts at all, you are the only person who is silent.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± I said, and for the first time, I smiled.

    Purely mental powers are difficult for people to understand, even outsiders such as myself find them confusing. There is no visible effect, no cause, just a result. But just like with anything else, a result derived through a mental power can come to be through various means. Telepathy isn''t one single thing, there are many different types.

    ¡°Can you read the mind of animals?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes! I can,¡± She hurriedly replied, ¡°But all I can hear from them are vague impulses.¡±

    ¡°So not actual thoughts then? What about other races, elves, goblins, orcs?¡±

    ¡°Yes! They all sound different, but I can hear them just fine.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    So, my cousin could read the surface thoughts, but likely nothing deeper. She couldn¡¯t actually pick through their mind, she could not read through their memories, unless they target was reliving their memories. Animals did not think in the way humanoids do, so she could only feel the animalistic urges, and she could likely feel those from humans too, they were just less prominent, and somewhat masked by the actual thoughts. If what I suspect was true, she should be able to understand the thoughts of the undead too.

    ¡°Cousin, you are the only thing I can not hear, please, believe me.¡± She begged, still kneeling in front of me.

    ¡°What of the undead, can you hear them too? And what about plants?¡± I asked while ignoring her pleading.

    ¡°Yes! Yes! I can not hear mindless undead, but the other kinds, I can hear just fine. Even undead without bodies, I can hear. But¡­ I can not hear plants.¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± I said as my smile grew even bigger.

    Souls are made from mana, but they do not reside in the mana core. The core simply generates mana, pulling it from the surrounding environment while creating a small bit itself, normal people use this and it dissipates, and they draw more as they go. Mages can store the mana, initially in the core, but with additional training, mana can be stored anywhere within the body. Still, the soul doesn¡¯t stay there, but in the brain.

    The brain thinks, it stores memories, it processes information, makes decisions, it is a vital part of a person. But the soul guides the brain, without a soul, a body would be an automaton, little more than a golem or puppet. Magic could make it move, but it would do nothing on its own and would waste away. And a soul without a brain would normally not be able to exist. Undead use negative energy to fuse with the soul and create a facsimile of a brain, but it isn¡¯t the same. Undead can create new memories, but they struggle heavily to change their existing views and opinions. Even something like a lich, one of the most powerful undead, if it believes something to be a fact, it will find having its mind change to be nearly impossible.

    Since the two, brains and souls, are two separate entities, then for them to work in tandem, some form of communication must be taking place. The soul conveys its intent to the brain, and the brain conveys the information it perceives back to the soul.

    My cousin¡¯s form of telepathy was picking up on that communication.

    She can not hear the thoughts of a plant, because there is no brain, but she can hear undead because most undead have brains, and those that don¡¯t, use negative energy to create something similar.

    As for why she can not hear me, it is because I am an outsider. Currently, my body is flesh and blood, but my soul is linked to every part of it, my brain is my soul. There is no communication between the two, and with no communication, there was nothing for her to intercept.

    ¡°Does¡­ that mean, you believe me?¡± She asked expectantly.

    ¡°Mmmm, Yes, I will believe you,¡± I answered, but then added, ¡°For now.¡±

    My cousin had likely never met an outsider before, which isn¡¯t uncommon. Outsiders do not naturally live on any of the material planes, and while crossing over is not exactly difficult, it is a hassle. Even if it weren''t, there are few benefits to doing so. Most outsiders will find themselves weakened when out of their home planes, and a different plane would have little value for an outsider. Any that do cross over, are usually summoned by someone on the plane, or they do so on a whim.

    The offspring of an outsider will maintain most of the outsider¡¯s traits, but within two or three generations, those traits will devolve until the children are little more than outstanding mortal children.

    Thus, my cousin having never met an outsider before would be the standard state of affairs.

    ¡°I understand you can not hear my thoughts, but that does not explain why you have sought me out.¡± I said to my cousin, who was now almost shedding tears of joy at my acceptance, ¡°You know what I am doing through the thoughts of my family and subordinates, so you know that you pose a massive risk to me. What is it that you want?¡±

    Suddenly, she stood back up and reclaimed her seat opposite of me, her joyful face was replaced with one of bitterness and sadness.

    ¡°I was born with my Penuka Bloodline awakened, it has always been with me. I am a bit smaller than average, and I do not eat as much either, my fingernails are a light pink, I have four extra teeth, and my sense of smell and hearing are less developed than a human''s, but otherwise, I am the same. So much so, that it was at first thought that I had no bloodline.¡±

    ¡°And¡­?¡±

    ¡°But I did have a bloodline, and I could hear the thoughts of others. I always could, from as early as I could remember, I was always able to hear what others were thinking. When I was still very young, it wasn¡¯t a problem, but as I grew, I realized something was wrong. People had two different voices that they spoke with, and I could not differentiate them. I now know that what people think, is not the same as what they say and do, but back then¡­¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    Humans are weak, extremely so. To survive, they had to form groups, communities, societies. Outsiders tend to be more solitary, relationships are built on the benefits both sides bring. As I was before, I would not have understood my cousin''s problems, but with the child Olivia¡¯s memories, I could understand some of her hardships.

    ¡°I¡­ had difficulties ever since. Some people learned to not speak to me, and to only think at me. That helped, but a person can not control their thoughts¡­ My tutors all hated me, I could hear what they wanted, what the answer was, but I never really understood why. When I was given books to work from, I could not figure out anything. My behavior was strange too, people would think I was odd, so I would panic and act even stranger.¡±

    ¡°Eventually the fact you had a bloodline was discovered, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ when I was six. But that only made things worse for me. Before that, with my strange behavior and lacking academic results, my family expected little from me. Now that they knew I had a bloodline, I was suddenly valuable. My mother wanted to train me as a spy, but since I could not act normally¡­¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ And you would be a security risk to your family also.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ My mother was the first, but eventually, everyone in our estate started wearing magical items that blocked their thoughts, for the first time I couldn¡¯t hear them. But, those items do not prevent me from hearing, they just create so much sound that it blocks out the thoughts, they are awful to hear. And soon after, we discovered that I needed to hear the thoughts of others for sustenance, I fell ill and almost died before my family provided slaves for me to feed off of. But, only being able to hear the thoughts of those who are miserable like that¡­ was just as bad as starving.¡±

    ¡°So you wander around the city? Picking up the thoughts of those random passer-bys?¡±

    ¡°It is better for me to lightly feed on as many people as possible. If I only hear a few thoughts, it is easier on me too.¡±

    ¡°And then you met me, a person whose mind is silent¡­ I see¡­¡±

    ¡°All I want¡­ Is to be around you, to talk to you like a normal person. I can not feed off of your thoughts, but you are the only person I have encountered that I can be at ease around. You are my...¡± she trailed off.

    ¡°Well¡­ be that as it may, we have a pressing concern to deal with now.¡±

    ¡°We do?¡±

    ¡°Yes, see, I am pretty sure I need to kill you now,¡± I said frankly.

    ¡°...Why?¡± she said, looking shocked.

    ¡°What else am I to do?¡± I asked rhetorically. ¡°I could reject you, tell you to never seek me out again, but would you listen? You must have realized quickly who I really was, and you can not be so far out of the loop in regards to your family to know that the Pines and the Quarrys are not friends. Despite that, you still sought me out. Even if you could avoid meeting me again, I could never trust that, too much is riding on this for me to simply accept your assurances.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ would¡­¡±

    ¡°It is fine,¡± I said while waving my hand dismissively. ¡°I can not reject you. So what if I agree to associate with you? Your guards probably do not know who I am at this moment, since I assume you haven¡¯t told them?¡±

    ¡°I would never tell them!¡± She replied.

    ¡°But they will figure out sooner or later.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Even if you have no intentions, someone from your family might make a move. In fact, even if we exclude your own family, there is a chance that you are under surveillance from another house, and you could end up leading them to me.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ is¡­ well¡­¡± She was at a loss for words.

    ¡°So then, if I can not reject you, nor can I agree to meet with you occasionally, my only option would be to take you into my custody. In other words, kidnap you.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ That is fine¡­¡± she said, a blush spreading on her face.

    ¡°Sadly, it is not fine for me. I would need to make sure that you are not being tracked in any way, if I failed at that I could be discovered, and kidnapping you for any reason would be a huge problem. But, let us suppose that I can kill your guards and take you away without leaving any evidence for your family to follow. You would still become a huge liability to me. If I kept you hidden somewhere, having you rarely encounter anyone, an existence that would be similar to being a prisoner, the fact that I had captured you would be somewhat unlikely to leak out. But, you would also provide nothing of use to me, I would be taking a risk, a small one, but still a risk, for no gain. If on the other hand, I utilized your ability, then the risk you bring would grow.¡± I explained.

    ¡°I¡­ Then¡­¡± She mumbled.

    ¡°The safest option for me would be to kill you now,¡± I stated matter of factly. ¡°Granted, there is some risk to that too, your guards have probably left behind reports indicating you were acting strangely lately. Someone could follow that trail back to me, but, consider the current situation. The capital is in disorder, your death here will go unnoticed for a while. Even when discovered, you having been killed within your family''s own business will provide plenty of distraction. Did you notice something happening here, and then tried to defend the building only to die in the process? Perhaps you had gone here seeking shelter, and then just stumbled upon a robbery. There will be enough confusion for me to erase my own traces.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I just wanted¡­ to be¡­ friends¡­¡± My cousin said as tears began to well up in her eyes.

    ¡°Friends¡­¡±

    That was a concept that was somewhat foreign to me. Friendship, that did not exist in my past life. Partnerships based on benefits, the relationship between subordinates and leaders, debts owed, the feeling of superiority when the strong lord their strength over the weak, those existed. But friendship, that was unknown.

    Even to the previous Olivia, friendship was largely unknown. She loved, and was loved by her family, she was treated well by the servants of the Pine Family, but as for friends, she had none.

    She longed for them, however, for friends, for companions, for someone she could be herself with, to have fun with. She had read in books about friends, she had heard about it from stories, and she wanted a friend more than anything else. But, unable to make any, she was forced to rely on her stuffed animals.

    ¡°Friends¡­ Huh¡­¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:22

    Ruby Pawnbrokers¡¯ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Lillian Quarry Fredirin.

    After my cousin, Olivia spoke, she had fallen silent, lost in thought.

    A part of me acknowledged that she was the only person I knew where being lost in thought equaled silence, but an even larger part of me was simply sad.

    As a child, I read books. Many books. Because only when I saw written words, could I not hear another¡¯s thoughts. I could live those stories myself, the characters within, I did not know what they were thinking, only within things like that, could I pretend to be a normal person.

    I liked the stories of heroic princes, who would fight evil, who would fight injustice, who wanted to make the world a better place. And who would save the princess, and the two would live happily ever after.

    By knowing the thoughts of everyone around me, I realized since a long time ago that the world was not so simple. There was no pure good and pure evil, no one was wholly unjust and wicked, or righteous and upright. Those stories were simply fiction.

    And yet still, I wanted a prince. Someone who would sweep down, and save me. Whose thoughts were pure, who would care for me without any other motives. I wanted to be saved, to be rescued.

    I spent my days wandering the city streets, sampling the thoughts of every person I met, in the hopes that one of them, might in some way, be my prince. My destined one.

    And then I found Olivia.

    She was a girl.

    I could tell from the thoughts of those around her that she was not a righteous person.

    She was younger than me.

    Smaller than me too.

    Cuter even.

    And yet, she was my prince. The only person I could be comfortable around, the only person who I wanted to be near.

    My destined one.

    But, her words rang true. How could we be together?

    I knew I was not really clever, I could only read the wants of the person in front of me. If I was unable to do that, I was useless. I couldn¡¯t see how to overcome the problems facing us, but I knew there was a way.

    There was always a way.

    And by overcoming those obstacles, it would cement our friendship, our bond. Book after book proved it to be true. We might need to sacrifice, but we could do it.

    I would sacrifice my family and my name without any hesitation. But I was unsure if that would be enough.

    I didn¡¯t know what to do.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:23

    Ruby Pawnbrokers¡¯ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Suddenly, I was broken out of my thoughts. I had sensed Ula and Lillian¡¯s two guards making moves.

    ¡°Eh...? A Horn?¡± My cousin said looking confused.

    ¡°The sound barrier!¡± I shouted suddenly. ¡°Cancel it!¡±

    My cousin fiddled with the magic item, a small chime, that had created the sound barrier. Even as she did, I could sense that the three we had told to wait downstairs were rushing up to meet us.

    Right as they reached the top of the stairs, my cousin had turned off the sound barrier.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    The sound of a horn echoed throughout the night.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    Each blaring sound seemed to shake the very building.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°What¡­ What is going on?¡± My cousin asked.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°My La, Cat, it is the attack horn!¡± Before I could answer, it was Ula who burst in and shouted.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°My Lady.¡± One of Lillian¡¯s guards said as he rushed up to her, ¡°We need to leave. Something has happened.¡±

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°What¡­ Is this¡­?¡± I said to no one in particular as I was almost shocked speechless.

    I could sense, a wave of wrongness approaching. It wasn¡¯t evil, but it was corrupted so heavily that it appeared utterly alien to my senses. The very world was being tortured by this existence, the barriers between this world and the rest were quaking. The rejection between the two sides was so intense that soon reality would begin warping, trying to push out the invader.

    ¡°My Lady? What is wrong?¡± Ula tried to speak quietly, but she still had to nearly scream over the horn.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    But I did not answer her, instead, I rushed to the window and looked out.

    We were on the second floor of the Ruby Pawnbroker¡¯s office, nowhere near one of the highest vantage points in the city, not even in the 7th circle. But, the location was good, and from my window, I could easily see the great wall that circled the city.

    The wall was seemingly devoid of humans, but not devoid of figures. I could see some humanoid shapes, some bestial, and some even more unnatural than that. Their bodies were made of ice, a crystal clear ice, nearly transparent with only hints of blue and white mixed in.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°Elementals! Here! How?¡± A shocked Ula, who had followed me to the window, blurted out.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    Even with my back turned to them and my attention elsewhere, I could sense that my cousin and her guards had all become shocked at Ula¡¯s words.

    ¡°Elementals?¡± I asked incredulously, ¡°those... are elementals?¡±

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°Yes My Lady.¡±

    ¡°How¡­¡±

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    How could those¡­ things¡­ those wretched things, be elementals?!

    I had encountered elementals many times in my past life, they were neither good nor evil. The strongest could be a real problem, the weakest were little more than pests. They had no society, no culture, they were little more than the raw elements given form.

    What was before me now, was not the elementals I had know.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    They were an abomination. An affront to everything that would normally exist. I couldn¡¯t even grasp what exactly these things were.

    ¡°We need to leave. Now!¡± One of Lillian¡¯s guards shouted.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°Too late for that,¡± I said.

    The elementals had already overrun the outer wall, I could sense at least twenty of them already within the 7th Circle, and more were coming in. In fact, several were heading straight towards us.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°Oli- I mean, um, Cat, what should we do?¡± My cousin asked.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°We need to destroy them,¡± I answered unhesitatingly.

    These things could not be allowed to exist.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°Okay, uh, Cat, we will help.¡±

    ¡°My Lady! You cannot!¡±

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    I spared a glance at my cousin¡¯s two guards, Guardian Knight¡¯s clearly. They should both be around rank 4 or 5, no, considering how valuable Lillian was to her family, they should both be around Rank 6. If the Quarry Family was known to have any Rank 7s stationed in the capital, I would have even thought they might have been of that rank, but the Quarrys had the smallest garrison in the capital out of the six families.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    I was unsure how strong these elementals were, but at rank 6, her Guardian Knights should be more than a match for them. Even if I was wrong and they were lower ranked, they should still be able to fight and survive.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°You have no choice, they are already here.¡±

    My words were punctuated by a spear of ice that punched through the wall and smashed through two bookshelves before coming to a rest in the wood of a third.

    Before anyone could gather their wits, the remainder of the wall was torn away. A ball of ice the size of a horse crawled in, its three massive ape-like arms pulled the body that still had two other spears of ice sticking out of it.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    Lillian¡¯s guards moved, shields appearing in both of their hands and they moved in front of my cousin to protect her. However, their actions were somewhat pointless.

    Before the two Guardian Knights had finished their move, my machete had already left its sheath and was brought down on the center of the elemental. Halfway through the opening in the wall, it made no effort to dodge or defend, and my blade sliced through its body. The two halves fell back down into the road where they shattered upon the hard ground.

    Bbbbrrrooooooommm!

    ¡°Easy,¡± I said as I glanced at my now slightly chipped sword.

 Chapter 22: Sneak Attack.

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:25

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°General¡­¡± One of the generals adjutants ran up to him, a pained look on his face, ¡°The snow owls sent to Morristown and Riversdale have reports.¡±

    ¡°Hah,¡± The general sighed. ¡°How is it?¡±

    ¡°It is bad. The owl sent to Riversdale reached the town, but it was already¡­¡±

    ¡°Understood. And Morristown?¡±

    ¡°There is a host of elementals, about two to three thousand strong advancing north-west towards the town, they are only minutes away. The owl has a warning for the garrison, but¡­¡±

    But Morristown¡¯s garrison was at best one hundred men, and they were barely trained. Even if they were elites, the best of the best, with minutes to prepare, and outnumbered twenty to one, they would still stand no chance.

    ¡°The host that hit Riversdale, where is it now?¡±

    ¡°It is heading towards us now, it will probably be the first group to make contact.¡±

    ¡°And the retreating forces from the Forest?¡±

    ¡°They¡­ They split off another group to try and hold the main elemental host off, but¡­¡±

    ¡°But they were destroyed.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir. The rest of their forces are still retreating north, but a force of about two hundred cavalries broke off, they might make it to us before the elementals catch up, but the remaining infantry¡­¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡± The general said solemnly. ¡°Still, it is good that the Temple of Nature decided to help us out, Wodof is one of the few gods that utilize druids, and the snow owl familiars are greatly helping right now.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±

    The adjutant saluted and then backed up before turning to resume his duties, leaving General Merrick to continue watching over the preparations.

    The Berzin Hills were a series of eight hills that were clustered next to the main road that ran north to the Capital. Considering that the surrounding land was relatively flat, and that the hills were rather unusually shaped, it was thought that they might have been artificially built in the past, however, no records indicated anything of the sort, and no research into the hills turned up anything either. They were simply an oddity.

    Still, people believed there was some greater meaning to them. The hills formed almost a perfect circle, with only a small opening to the south. There was enough space between the hills to allow easy access as long as the hills were not defended, but the road was still diverted around, even if it was a somewhat large detour. The earth around the Hills was very soft and loose, prone to becoming a muddy mess with even the lightest of rain showers, and the basin in the middle of the hills held water like a bowl.

    Right now the ground was frozen, so the army in the middle of their preparations did not need to worry about that particular problem.

    Palisades were being built surrounding the northern four hills. Normally, all eight would be used while the central basin would be where the main army rested. Or, the defenses would be hidden with the intent to lure an enemy into the basin itself, and then attack them from all sides. However, the Elementals were not a normal opponent. They could sense life from miles away, so a hidden ambush would be impossible. And if they had fortified all eight hills, the elementals would just mindlessly charge the first they encountered, leaving the others with nothing to do.

    Instead, only the northern four were defended, and the bulk of the army was left behind those four. The elementals would charge those, and would, to some extent enter the basin, allowing the mages and the limited siege weapons they brought to catch them in a crossfire. While the elementals focused there, the rest of the army would move around on both sides to flank the elementals.

    Still, while the flanking maneuver was a huge aspect of their battle plan, their methods were primarily defensive. The forces flanking would only move into a range that allowed them to bombard with ranged attacks, and then would take a defensive stance themselves. No one would charge into the elementals.

    Still, the fighting would be intense, and the flanking forces would be lacking the palisades that the defenders on the hills would have. So to help them out, pitfalls and trenches were being dug where the flanking forces were to move to, and even magical mines were being buried in the frozen ground.

    Still, there was one huge gamble they were taking.

    ¡°Commander Tale.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir?¡± The half-elf responded immediately.

    ¡°We brought five of the Capitals Light Throwers to face off against the Fragment. We can whittle it down with normal attacks, but we can only rely on something like the Throwers to finish it off. And since the Fragment is just as mindless as a normal elemental, we figure it will come straight down the middle.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°There is a chance it will hit somewhere else, but we have plans in place in that event, the Light Throwers are being pulled by mountain oxen, so we can move them easily if we need to.¡±

    ¡°I understand, what is it that you need our Pine Family to do then?¡±

    ¡°Based on the size of this Overflow, we think there is a good chance that a Greater Elemental will show up. They are considered to be around Rank 8, as strong as the Fragment, just smaller. They are also a bit smarter, so they could attack us anywhere. Your Pine Family sent us the largest group of high ranking combatants, so i want to ask you to stay near the front, but away from the actual battle. If a Greater Elemental shows up, you will need to rush there and engage it. I will give you the authority to command any soldiers in the area to assist.¡±

    ¡°What if there is no Greater Elemental?¡±

    ¡°Then you get to sit the fight out, unless the worst comes to pass, but I do not think that will be the case. I know all of your forces are high ranking, so it¡¯s unlikely you would suffer losses regardless, but you never know what can happen in a battle like this. Fend off a Greater Elemental, and as payment, you can rest easy during everything else.¡±

    ¡°I understand General. In that case, I should head back to my forces.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Commander. You¡¯ve already done us a great service just with your show of force, I do not like pushing this task on you. With luck, there will be no Greater Elemental for you to face, and you will be able to spend the battle idle.¡±

    ¡°No, Thank you General for being so accommodating.¡± The Half Elf offered a crisp salute before turning to leave the command center.

    ¡°Hopefully, things go well.¡± General Merrick muttered as he watched him leave.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:29

    Bleeding Forrest Garrison Retreat, North-South Main Road, 12 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Colonel Issold Redia.

    ¡°Ma¡¯am, do you think¡­ that Lieutenant Colonel Lores will be able to hold them back?¡±

    ¡°No. He will not.¡± Colonel Issold Redia replied without even looking at Captain Mike.

    Issold was not normally such a taciturn person, she was friendly and easy to get along with, unlike her superior, General Frederica Canyon Fredirin. Her General was brusque and a somewhat difficult person to be around, she was hot-blooded and fiery, and Issold acted as cool water to compliment her fire. But tonight, she was not the smooth water she normally was, instead, she was frozen like ice.

    Major Korlean¡¯s mages all at least dabbled with scrying magic, it was simply too valuable when maintaining the Bleeding Forrest for every mage to not use it. Even exhausted as they were, a few of her mages were able to scry behind them to see what was happening.

    Issold had, despite the difficulties of this retreat, maintained her normal calm demeanor, but fifteen minutes ago when a mage reported that the elementals were chasing after them, her calm expression had begun to freeze.

    If the elementals were behind them, then the fortress had been overrun. If General Frederica had been in good shape, if she hadn''t nearly lost her leg years ago, she might have been able to flee on foot. But she did nearly lose her leg, and she would have been fighting there on the front line herself, so she would have been exhausted and wounded. There were no horses left at the keep, no way for anyone to flee.

    General Frederica, one of the only people that Issold Redia looked up to, had died, and so her smile had faded.

    As she realized that they couldn¡¯t outrun the elementals, she became colder.

    When she ordered Lieutenant Colonel Lores to take a third of their forces to stall the elementals, she had begun to freeze.

    When she asked Major Alarville to take Korlean and nearly all of the remaining mages, she had frozen over.

    In her heart, she knew that only the one hundred and fifty horsemen and the similar number of mages stood any hope of survival. The rest of them, they were dead.

    An hour ago, she would have expected the Capital¡¯s forces to rescue them, but with her frozen heart, she no longer had any hope. She moved forward not because she planned to live, but because she had no choice. Her general told her do whatever she could to protect her men, and she would obey that order to the best of her abilities.

    Even if it were impossible.

    Even if she was only staving off the inevitable.

    Even if all she wanted to do was follow her general into death.

    ¡°What should we do then?¡± Captain Mike asked.

    ¡°Keep moving Captain.¡± It was Apz, one of General Frederica¡¯s adjutants who spoke up in Issold¡¯s stead.

    Two of her adjutants had stayed behind, Vai and Wiln, and both were presumed dead. Apz, Porso, Kark and Urlis were now with her, serving her since she was their commander¡¯s second in command.

    She knew without even needing to look, that the four each had a face caked with ice, their tears froze from the cold as they fell down their cheeks.

    The same as her own.

    ¡°Colonel¡­¡± A voice called out to her.

    The speaker was a man mounted on a donkey, one of the few beasts of burden from the keep, the donkeys were now being used to carry the remaining mages that were all too tired to stand let alone walk. In fact, the mage on the back of the donkey was so pale that he was pure white, cold sweat was dripping from his head, and his eyes were barely focused.

    Sure signs of mana exhaustion.

    ¡°What is it¡­¡± Issold glanced at him to see his rank insignia, ¡°Sergeant?¡±

    ¡°I scried¡­ behind us¡­ Elementals¡­ two thousand feet¡­ away¡­¡±

    Issold heard the hiss of sharp breaths being let out as the news was heard by those around her.

    ¡°What do we do?¡± Captain Mike asked again, ¡°Should we¡­ scatter?¡±

    ¡°Won''t work,¡± Urlis answered this time.

    ¡°Elementals can sense life force, we won''t be able to escape.¡± It was Porso who continued. ¡°If we split up, it might delay them for a minute or so, but we¡¯ll all end up dead.¡±

    ¡°Then, what should we-¡±

    ¡°All forces!¡± Colonel Issold interrupted him, ¡°About face! Battle Formations!¡±

    The two thousand remaining soldiers stalled in their march, sluggishly coming to a stop. But while they paused, they did not begin moving into formations.

    Colonel Issold could see it in their eyes, they were tired, they were scared, they were battered and beaten. Even if they had not seen combat against the elementals themselves, they had watched their friends get slaughtered just hours ago. They had been forced to flee with their tails between their legs, to abandon their comrades. They had to suffer the guilt as they left the others behind, the guilt as they realized, deep down, that they were relieved to flee, to not need to fight and die. As they rushed through the blizzard, their strength being sapped by the snow and the cold, they had realized that their friends who stayed behind were dead, they were forced to split again, and those left behind had again, fallen.

    And now, it was their turn.

    ¡°The Elementals are behind us. Minutes away.¡± Issold called out to the forlorn troops around her. ¡°We can not escape, we will not be rescued. We can only die here tonight. If anyone wants, you may run. The Elementals will chase you down, they will catch you, and they will kill you wherever you hide. You might get lucky, they might overlook you, but i would not bet on it.¡±

    She looked around, seeing the resignation in the soldier¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°We are all dead. Not now, not yet, but soon. We are all dead.¡± She said solemnly. ¡°But, so what?¡±

    The men and women around her shifted nervously.

    ¡°It is said, that it is a sin for a child to die before their parents. Well, it is also a sin for a general to die before their soldiers. Our General stayed behind, she stayed so that we could have a hope of survival. She died. Died so that we could live.¡±

    No one in the surroundings spoke, everyone was focused on Issold.

    ¡°Well, I say, FUCK THAT!¡± She roared. ¡°Our General ordered us to retreat, but we are all dead. And the dead do not follow orders. The military says to put the group ahead of the individual, to not allow our emotions to take charge. But we are dead!¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Issold drew her sword, a thin rapier, and pointed it towards the south.

    ¡°They killed our general, those fuckers killed her. Regulations tell me to follow orders, to not seek revenge, but fuck that! Fuck the regulations! Fuck orders! And Fuck those ice bastards! I will kill them, each of those fuckers i murder will be an offering for our general. Run if you want, hide if you want, but I. Will. Fucking. Kill. Them!¡± She bellowed, her yell even seeming to cower the wind.

    Issold ripped her rank insignia off of her chest, the piece of metal falling to the snow as she stormed backward towards the elementals.

    ¡°Fucking Kill Them!¡± ¡°Die!¡± For our General!¡± ¡°Those Bastards!¡± ¡°Kill all of them!¡± ¡°Fuck!¡± ¡°Damn them!¡±

    Two thousand voices roared, in anger, in resignation, in pain, in sorrow, in hatred.

    In agreement.

    The men around her drew weapons and marched back to face the elementals. They tore their own ranks off, creating a mixed blur that combined officer and soldier, subordinate and leader. Everyone was united in their hatred of the Elementals.

    As they roared their resentment to the heavens, they marched forth. And in the distance, through the snow, silhouettes of ice could be seen.

    For a second, all was quiet.

    ¡°Charge! Kill!¡± Issold roared.

    Her roar was echoed by her side, but met with silence from the other. They charged, steel and flesh crashed into ice.

    Hot blood splashed onto the ground, where it cooled and began to freeze.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:35

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°We have little time before the enemy is upon us, so I want to take this time to go over the plan.¡± General Merrick Miller¡¯s voice easily encompassed the entire tent that made up the temporary command center.

    ¡°I will be candid,¡± he spoke as he looked at his various aids and adjutants, along with his lieutenant generals who he was nominally in charge of. ¡°As you all no doubt know, direct battle plans are not my strong suit, while ultimate authority lies with Lord Xavier, I am his instrument in all of this. Since his Lordship has sat out during the planning stage, it has fallen to me. Now, our plan is simple, but I want everyone to feel free to speak up and add anything or point out any flaws.¡±

    Seeing everyone nod affirmatively, the General walked to the table in the center of the tent, upon which sat a crude, but mostly accurate representation of the Berzin Hills and the hasty defenses built around it.

    ¡°The bulk of the enemy force is heading due north, directly towards us. They will enter the battlefield from the south. Two enemy detachments will enter a matter of minutes behind the main force, one from the south-west, and the other from the south-east. Since the battle lines will have already formed at that point, we do not expect there to be any issues with the detachments¡¯ arrival.¡±

    The General paused, giving enough time for someone to poke holes in his plan, but there were only a few affirmative nods at his words. A good sign for sure, but this was only elementary strategy at this point, the problems would come later on.

    ¡°This battle will primarily be a defensive one, the enemy will strike us, and we will hold. However, the unique aspects of this enemy should be well known, even if few of us have ever personally encountered them.¡±

    ¡°Elementals¡­¡± High Priest Brent, a paladin from the Temple of Defense spoke with a haunted look on his face, ¡°Do not tire, do not rest, do not stop. Their hatred of all that is living overwhelms even the undead. They are mindless, they will advance without end. They have no morale, they will not panic, this will not be a normal fight.¡±

    The High Priest¡¯s words were taken seriously by everyone in the meeting, he was the only one here who had ever stood against an Elemental Overflow. The middle-aged man lived in a village of nearly one thousand that was destroyed by a small Overflow of Earth Elementals, he was one of only four people who survived.

    ¡°If this humble one may speak a word?¡±

    ¡°Of course, Ambassador Zhou An, feel free to speak.¡±

    ¡°Many thanks,¡± The ambassador from the Crystal Jade Empire said as he gave a deep bow. ¡°This humble one has never directly seen an elemental, however, this humble one had inspected the aftermath of an Overflow that occurred near Green Vine City.¡±

    General Merrick shot a glance at the adjutant who was nearest, but the man only lightly shook his head in denial.

    ¡°Ambassador, I do not recall having heard of an Overflow occurring within the Empire recently. I haven¡¯t heard of Green Vine City either,¡± General Merrick stated.

    ¡°This humble one knows that your Excellency. The Overflow happened sixteen years ago, only a year after I entered officialdom as a eunuch, inspecting the aftermath was one of my first major duties, and it had stuck with me ever since.¡±

    As the bald man spoke, General Merrick was able to hold himself back, but a few others in the tent cringed or otherwise drew back at the mention of his status as a eunuch. While not everyone knew what that entailed, enough did, and they struggled to hide their revulsion at the Empire¡¯s methods of ensuring loyalty in their bureaucrats.

    ¡°As for Green Vine City,¡± The aged, not-quite-a-man continued on, ¡°the city was located far to the south of our mighty empire, but during the Overflow, it was destroyed, the entire population of sixty thousand was lost.¡±

    ¡°...I see¡­¡±

    General Merrick was not exactly happy with the ambassador right now, truth be told, he found the man to be similar to a snake, his nature as a eunuch only made his distaste for him stronger. The General had wanted to remind the men under him that should they fail, the Royal Capital would be in danger, but the ambassador had preempted him.

    ¡°That day a relatively small Overflow happened to occur, but the Elementals that came forth were Fire Elementals, and they burnt the city and its inhabitants to ash.¡± He spoke solemnly as he twirled his thin, white beard with his fingers. ¡°The nearby garrison forces, in an effort to stop the fire, destroyed the local dam, flooding the city and surrounding area with water. It was due to this that the small garrison was able to defeat the Elementals¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately ambassador, we have no nearby dams to break.¡± High Priest Brent said sourly.

    ¡°Of course, this Humble One knows that. However, this Humble One just wanted to point out a simple fact. Elementals do not breath, they are not alive. While some were undoubtedly destroyed by the force of the water, most were left almost perfectly fine. The reason why the garrison could defeat them wasn¡¯t due to the damage inflicted by the water but was due to the fact that the flood greatly upended the elemental balance of the area. Fire and water are opposed, when the area was infused with the elemental power of water, the Fire Elementals were then severely weakened. Even the powerful Fragment, was easily destroyed by a group of rank 4 soldiers. This Humble One just wanted to suggest that we use fire as much as possible in the upcoming battle.¡±

    ¡°The¡­ ambassador brings up a valid point,¡± Brigadier General Tino spoke suddenly, ¡°However, we lack oil or tar to create a large fire, and with the blizzard raging, finding a fuel source is¡­¡±

    ¡°A natural fire is out of the question, which leaves us with a magical one, however, the strong influence of cold and water brought about from the Elementals themselves will hinder the casting and use of most fire spells.¡± Colonel Dexter followed up.

    ¡°This humble one, of course, knows these facts. This Humble One just wanted to inform you illustrious gentleman of what this Humble One knew. However, if this Humble One were to be presumptuous, this Humble One has noticed a fuel source that was overlooked.¡±

    ¡°And that source is?¡± General Merrick asked.

    ¡°Are there not nearly forty thousand men and women in this army? This Humble One suspects that some are most likely of noble blood, but many of them will be peasants. The human body can serve as a fuel source if need be.¡±

    ¡°You¡­¡± Cardinal Drei from the Temple of Mercy looked appalled, ¡°You want us to burn our own people?¡±

    ¡°This Humble One only suggests it as a last resort, better to suffer self-made losses here, than to get destroyed and let the city suffer damage.¡±

    ¡°Enough!¡± General Merrick shut down that discussion. ¡°Ambassador, I thank you for your suggestion, but we will not sacrifice our own citizens like that.¡±

    General Merrick realized what Zhou An was trying to do.

    Defending the Capital was of the utmost importance, but preventing heavy casualties within their own forces was also extremely important. If everything went well, they would be able to easily handle the Elemental host and suffer only light casualties. Even if things were to go wrong, while they would suffer for it, they would still triumph.

    But, it could still be said that their backs were to the wall. If something were to go wrong, before they could calmly respond, there was now a chance that someone would pointlessly ignite their own troops.

    Unlike everyone else here, the ambassador served a different nation, one that was sometimes at odds with the Kingdom. From his perspective, any loses the kingdom suffered, would be a boon to his own nation.

    ¡°No, this Humble One apologizes for his words, they were lacking in thought.¡±

    No one said anything, but most of the people glared or otherwise sent looks of disdain towards the balding eunuch. Some of them probably realized what he was trying to do, but they could not voice those concerns to his face.

    ¡°Then moving on,¡± General Merrick brought that topic to a close before continuing, ¡°Our basic strategy will be a simple one, we will focus on defense while wearing the enemy down with ranged attacks. Archers will have limited effectiveness, so we will be relying on heavy crossbows, slingers, magical attacks, and siege weapons. On the topic of siege weapons, we have brought all of the lighter ones from the capital, so we will have an abundance of those.¡±

    Everyone around the table nodded in agreement, the fact that they would be able to batter the elementals down with the heavy weapons was a great relief for everyone there.

    ¡°The plan for our actual defense is a bit more involved, so I will ask Brigadier General Tac to go over it, it is after all his plan.¡±

    ¡°Thank you General,¡± Brigadier General Tac, a dwarf, said as he moved up towards the center of the room. ¡°If we face the Elementals head on, we can expect catastrophic casualties. This is why we are taking a defensive stance, however, just that alone will not be enough. If we focus on making a sturdy wall, the Elementals will just break through it. If a hard defense will not work, we will use a soft one.¡±

    The dwarf let his words sink in for a moment before he continued.

    ¡°The fortifications we managed to build are not designed to block the Elementals, but to break them up and funnel them to certain areas. We do not want them crashing into us in one mass, but in small streams. Our regular soldiers will focus on defense using shield walls, but they will form platoon sized clusters with mage and ranged support mixed in. These clusters will be durable enough to weather an Elemental assault for a short while, but nothing more. Meanwhile, the area between each cluster will be filled with our warriors who are of at least Rank 3. They will make up the kill team, while the others act as distractions.¡±

    ¡°If I may General?¡± High Priest Brent interrupted.

    ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°While this does seem as an effective way to destroy the Elementals, it does put the greatest burden on those high Rankers. If they get worn out, the other defenders will crumble rather quickly.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is a valid concern, but it brings me to the next point.¡± Brigadier General Tac nodded in thanks to the Paladin before he continued, ¡°Each defense sector will be handled by a regiment of two thousand troops. Each sector will be split into two parts, a left and a right. Nearly all of our ranged support will at first focus fire upon the left part, this will greatly reduce the Elementals that get through that part, but at the same time, the other part will face their full fury. After a while, we will change targets to the right, the positions of the regiment will be swapped. While the left part takes over the bulk of the fighting, we will cycle out the tired and injured. We will repeat this as we go, the focus fire will buy us time to reorganize.¡±

    ¡°I understand, thank you.¡±

    ¡°There is one last thing I need to mention,¡± General Merrick took back the reins of the meeting, ¡°We have a plan for dealing with the fragment, the Light Thrower¡¯s we brought from the capital should be sufficient to destroy the Fragment with a single volley, assuming all Throwers score hits. That is, however, probably not going to happen. Still, we should damage it enough that we can either finish it off with concentrated attacks, or at least keep it at bay with concentrated spellfire long enough for the cannons to recharge. However, that is only one problem.¡±

    The General looked around the tent, meeting the eyes of everyone within.

    ¡°Based off of the size of this Overflow, we are confident that there will be a Greater Elemental mixed in. There is even a decent chance that a second Greater Elemental slipped through before the tear closed.¡±

    ¡°One¡­ I would expect, but two¡­¡± Cardinal Drei mumbled to herself while everyone else expressed basically the same idea.

    ¡°Thanks to the assistance from the Temple to Wodof, we have been able to view the aftermath of the battle at the Forest, there is a large destroyed area within the trees. Most of you might not know this, but General Frederica is¡­ was, a Rank 8 warrior. We suspect she did battle with one of the Greater Elementals, and even if she didn¡¯t destroy it, she likely damaged it heavily. Rank 5 and Rank 6 warriors will be able to keep it at bay while our mages finish it off.¡±

    ¡°That will be enough for an injured one, but what about an uninjured one? Granted, there may not have been two in the first place, and General Frederica may have killed the second, so all of this might be a moot point, but still.¡±

    ¡°And that, is where the Pine Family comes in,¡± General Merrick said, for the first time this night, he felt at ease. ¡°Commander Tale will utilize the Pine Family''s forces as a detached group that will hunt down the Greater Elemental when it shows up. Even if two appear, the Pines will be able to assist with the second.¡±

    ¡°Then, everything sounds good.¡± Cardinal Drei stated.

    ¡°Yes, this is a good plan, it will allow us to defend the Capital, and nothing else matters.¡±

    ¡°Do not forget everyone,¡± General Merrick said, ¡°We are the protectors of the Capital¡¯s citizens, we cannot fail.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:46

    Bender Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Two more, heading down the alley to the east!¡± Ula yelled from her vantage point atop a nearby roof.

    My machete was currently cleaving through the body of an Elemental, two of its four heads, the laughing one, and the crying one, were already severed and on the floor. The angry face and the expressionless face were still attached to its bloated body, but the top half of that body was now breaking apart as my blade cut through it. Two short stubby arms flailed about, trying to stop me, but coming nowhere close to reaching me or my blade, and they then ultimately failed, the fat, four-headed Elemental was cut in two.

    I could sense the wretched elemental powers that gave it life fading even as it fell, soon it would shatter and begin to melt.

    ¡°I¡¯m on it!¡± Yelled one of my cousin¡¯s two Guardian Knights, so far only that one had moved more than two feet from the young girl, the other had stayed to protect her.

    Elementals were beings of pure elemental power, pure fire, pure water, pure cold, pure earth, pure darkness, pure whatever.

    These¡­ things, these Elementals were not pure at all. They were tainted in some way, some inexplicable way that corrupted them so deeply that I had never seen anything remotely similar. Whatever happened that caused this, certainly left an impact on the Elementals¡¯ behavior, turning them hateful, insane, and unable to think.

    Lillian¡¯s knight charged through one of the houses, knocking the door apart as he did, and then lept through the backdoor into the alleyway. He was swift and came from an unexpected direction, but he was spotted by the two Elementals well before he got close, they could sense his approach with ease. Whether they were sensing magic, heat, or something else, I did not know, but the result was the same. His sword clashed with a tentacle-like appendage sent to block him from one of the Elementals, but it was then cut through.

    My cousin¡¯s Guardian Knights were Rank 6 as I suspected, but they were also outfitted with high-quality equipment. That knight¡¯s sword was magically enchanted to increase the weight of the blade when it made contact with an object, so despite being a normal longsword, it hit with the force of a great ax. He would easily handle just two Elementals.

    Which was good, because I was still occupied.

    An Elemental with an upper body of an hourglass and a mass of tentacles for legs charged at me and attacked by swinging its head at me like a club. Due to the difference in size between us, I was not even four feet tall, and the Elemental was closer to ten, the only attacks it could send my way were a low sweep, or a headbutt smash directly into the ground.

    It chose the sweep.

    Which I was easily able to duck under and step into, the point where the top and bottom halves connected was thin, I didn¡¯t even need my sword for this, a well-placed punch shattered that point and the upper half went flying before smashing into a wooden house.

    Elementals only die when more than half of their body is destroyed, this one was unharmed before I hit it, and while the top part was a large portion of its body, the bottom part had the addition of the tentacles, losing the top was only losing about 40% of the body. Elementals, at least these Elementals, do not feel pain, nor do they even notice the damage to their bodies, as such, even as the top part of its body was crushing through someone¡¯s house, the tentacles shot up at me.

    I jumped back, my machete swinging as a few of the tentacles of ice that tired to entangle me fell to the ground. But even as I landed, the Elemental charged forward, the part where I broke of the top had now become a point for which it tried to impale me.

    ¡°Too easy,¡± I said, stepping a bit to the side and catching the charging point under my left arm. Having locked it in place, I slammed my blade into its body. Even as its tentacles lashed at me, I pulled the machete back, leaving a trench upon the formerly flawless ice.

    The Elemental began to crack and shatter, the mana animating it began to fade, so I dropped it to the ground and moved on.

    The first of Lillian¡¯s Guardian Knights was still in the alley, but he should be done soon, and of the three Elementals that I was dealing with, one changed targets and went towards my cousin, only to be smashed down by her remaining defender.

    ¡°How is it, Ula?¡±

    ¡°There is a group of civilians three blocks north, but there are Elementals on their trail.¡±

    ¡°Will we make it in time?¡± I asked.

    ¡°...No.¡±

    ¡°Well, too bad. Still, we should go and finish them off.¡±

    ¡°No need, Cat, there are only two Elementals, and a group of mercenaries is closing in on them.¡±

    ¡°Then we will keep heading west towards the wall, we need to reclaim that first.¡±

    The great wall that surrounded Arvas was fifty feet tall, and while the buildings surrounding us partially obscured the view, from what I could see, Elementals were still jumping down from it.

    The city had issued a mandatory evacuation order to the southern sections of the 7th and 6th Circles. The Elementals were advancing due north, but they would be intercepted by the forty thousand strong army that the Capital had sent out. There was no real chance the army would be defeated, and if it were, the Capital would suffer severe damage regardless of any evacuation orders. But, there was a chance that some Elementals might slip through, in fact, the odds were good that the Elementals would split up, some heading north-west towards Morristown and some heading northeast towards Riversdale.

    Riversdale was only slightly out of the way, so while the Elementals might have been able to hit that and then rush towards the Capital, the Army would be right in their way. Commander Tale assured me that Elementals were mindless, so something like diverting around the army to sneak attack the Capital would be impossible. But even if they did, they would have hit the south side of the city.

    Likewise, if the group that went after Morristown decided to go towards the capital after finishing with the small town, they would likely hit from the South too. However, Morristown was further away and required a larger detour for the Elementals to reach, based on the reports, they should just now be reaching the town, they would still need to destroy it before moving on. Simply put, there was no way for the group that went to Morristown to already be at the Royal Capital.

    The south of the city was evacuated, and the majority of the remaining guards that were not helping with the evacuation were stationed on the southern walls. The western, eastern, and northern walls had even less than a skeleton crew, and that crew, lacking as it was, was made up of new recruits and the elderly.

    To make matters worse, the primary method of noticing enemies was through detect life, detect magic, and detect heat spells. All three of which would not work on Elementals. With the blizzard reducing visibility, the defenders on the northwestern section of the wall didn¡¯t even raise an alarm until after the wall was covered in Elementals.

    ¡°We will follow you wherever you go,¡± My cousin spoke up, even as her two guards, including the onewho had just come back, frowned, but said nothing.

    Her guards were not at all happy right now. They wanted to retreat to safety, bringing my cousin with them. The fact that I had revealed strength at the peak of Rank 6, while they had just stepped into the Rank had also left them concerned, after all, my identity was still unknown. Still, while they were nervous around me, they also realized I was a valuable partner who could help protect their charge, and while they did want to retreat to safety, they also were not willing to abandon the thousands of people who were currently being slaughtered in the 7th Circle.

    ¡°If we can retake even a section of the wall, we will be able to get a better idea of what is happening,¡± I said, more to the two knights than to my cousin or Ula, ¡°And we can also act as a rallying point. Right now the few defenders left are being bogged down in this chaotic melee in the streets. Not to mention the fact that the Elemental¡¯s have an advantage in detecting our allies.¡±

    Neither of the two knights said anything, their frowns remained on their faces, but the fact that they did not object was an agreement in its own way.

    ¡°Okay, Ula, keep an eye out as we adva-¡± I stopped mid-sentence and swiveled my head to the north.

    Bender Street was not a major road, nor a notable one. Like all of the roads running parallel to the city¡¯s walls, Bender Street had a slight curve to it, which limited how far a person could see down it, although the blizzard that still raged made that a moot point at the moment.

    I could not see anything, but I could feel it.

    Approaching through the snow and ice, was something so corrupted, so wrong, that I could feel the very fabric of the planes begin to groan. Different from my own kind, different from the chaotic demons, different from even the creatures from beyond the void, what was approaching now was so wretched that existence itself cried out, refusing to bear its burden.

    ¡°Ula,¡± I spoke without turning my eyes from the end of the road, ¡°I need your sword.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± She hesitated, before unsheathing her dirk and then tossing it to me.

    Ula¡¯s sword was about as good as mine, but thinner and agiler than my machete, it would be a particularly poor weapon to use against these Ice Elementals. However, Ula had not used her sword, instead, she had used her short bow to harass the Elementals. Her sword was undamaged, unlike my own which was chipped and cracked.

    ¡°It is here¡±

    Through the snow it stepped, its large and powerful form slowly revealed. An evil looking knight, it¡¯s armor studded with spikes, it¡¯s helmet sporting two horns that curve upward. It held a shield that was easily large enough to cover my entire body, and in the other hand was a spear of crystal clear ice.

    Unlike the other Elementals that had charged straight at me even before we could see each other, this one slowly walked forth, its gait was leisurely, but it held great power.

    ¡°That¡­ That is a Greater Elemental.¡± One of Lillian¡¯s knights muttered.

    ¡°I see¡­¡±

    A Greater Elementals. A being of at least Rank 7, but most likely higher. A very powerful opponent, and with Michael¡¯s soul still within my heart, I would not be able to use even the limited powers I had available to me.

    Still, I could not allow such a thing to continue to exist.

    ¡°Defend yourselves, and if you see an opportunity, strike,¡± I said as a gust of icy wind blew down the road.

    The Greater Elemental bent it knees and rested it¡¯s lance upon its shield as it prepared to charge.

    The veins on my body bulged, the blood within flowing faster and faster, stronger and stronger.

    The knight launch itself at me, its feet sliding across the frozen ground.

    My blood vessels ruptured, blood flowing from my body. My arms, my legs, they all dripped with my tar-like blood.

    The knight covered the hundreds of feet between the two of us in only a second, its lance thrust towards the center of my body.

    My blood formed a bubble in front of me, catching the lance within and slowing it. It still pierced through, the ice sizzling as it was corroded by my blood, but it was too slow. I sidestepped the thrust and my machete flew towards the wall of ice that was the Elemental¡¯s shield.

    The blade shattered, shards of ice were scattered, and blood sprayed.

 Chapter 23: The Battle of the Berzin Hills Commences.

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:52

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°General, I''ve got a few¡­ reports¡­¡± One of General Merricks aids came up and said with a frown.

    ¡°What is it?¡± The General asked with concern, not having missed the atmosphere around the man.

    ¡°The two hundred riders that were carrying the mages from the garrison force have made it to us, they¡¯re under command of Major Alarville and Major Korlean. They are healthy, but exhausted, the two hundred mages especially so.¡±

    ¡°So General Frederica managed to save the fort¡¯s mages¡­¡± General Merrick sighed in appreciation. ¡°She was a good commander.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ However¡­¡± The aid hesitated.

    ¡°Something else?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir. The Druids of Wodof have reported that the rest of the garrison¡­ they turned back and made a last stand. They were¡­¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡±

    General Merrick Miller was not a normal soldier or officer. He worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a clerk in the logistics department. In many ways, his success in the military, even if he lacked the fame and recognition he deserved, was a story that was almost a fairy tale. But, he was never a soldier, never a man who fought and bled. Unlike other generals who waged war alongside their men, who braved danger with the soldiers under them, General Merrick worked his way to his current rank while sitting behind a desk. Worse, the logistics department was never really held in high esteem by the rank and file in the first place, when things were going well, no one took note, but when things went poorly and deliveries of supplies were delayed, the logistics department would be cursed all the way from the lowest ranks to the highest. When things got really bad, the soldiers would view the logistics staff with the same hatred and animosity that they viewed their enemies with.

    In many ways, he lacked the sense of comradery with the men and women who really laid their lives on the line to fight.

    But, even he, who was so far removed from the struggles of the normal soldiers, he who had such an analytical mind who saw everything as if it were on a balance sheet, still mourned in his own way for the valiant lives that were lost.

    ¡°Then, is that all?¡± He asked as he pulled himself out of his morose thoughts.

    ¡°Unfortunately, no.¡± The aid shook his head sadly, ¡°The last report from the snow owls indicated that Morristown has been destroyed, the Elementals were last seen turning northeast towards us. As for the host that destroyed Riversdale, we lost track of it when it entered the tip of the southern woods.¡±

    ¡°I understand¡­¡± But after a moment of thought, General Merrick¡¯s face frowned slightly. ¡°Why would they enter the forests? Is that not slightly out of the direct path towards us?¡±

    ¡°Umm,¡± The aid stopped and tried to think about it also. ¡°I am not sure?¡±

    The fact that both the supreme commander of the army and one of his aids could not recall the exact lay of the land would appear to be a pretty big failing, but in actuality, it was not. Detailed maps were a military secret, the manufacture and possession of them were highly regulated, even more so for the area around the capital. That being said, it was still the area around the capital, the area that saw the largest amount of traffic, most commoners could draw a rough map of the surroundings by memory, at least assuming they routinely traveled through those areas. Further, while the maps were regulated, General Merrick and his adjutants were all allowed to view the most detailed maps the kingdom had. Their problem wasn¡¯t a lack of familiarity with the maps, but the maps themselves.

    The maps focused on the major geographic features and the major man-made features. The towns were all accurately portrayed, the river, the Berzin Hills, and the roads. And that was the problem, the maps were based around the roads, those were the most accurate aspects. The main highway that leads north to the capital went right around the Berzin Hills, but it did not connect to Riversdale, a smaller side road branched out through the surrounding farmland and connected to the smaller town. If one wanted to go from Riversdale directly to the Hills, there would, of course, be smaller paths and roads, but they were not displayed on the maps, and even if they were, said roads would still follow the natural contours of the land, they would not be a direct, straight line.

    And direct, straight lines, were how Elementals would travel.

    General Merrick walked to one of the side tables and found a smaller map that covered the areas around the river, his frown deepening as it confirmed what he thought. The southern edge of the tree line was not in a direct path from Riversdale to the Berzin Hills.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ You are right General,¡± The aid, who could now see the map for himself, said.

    ¡°High Priest Brent, a moment of your time please,¡± General Merrick asked the holy man from the Temple of Defense who was seating to the side in prayer.

    ¡°Hmm? General?¡± The high priest opened his eyes and placed the shield-shaped holy symbol of Avior, the God of Defense back around his neck and walked over. ¡°What can I help you with?¡±

    ¡°You are the one with the most experience with Elementals here, and we have an issue,¡± the General said as he pointed to the smaller map, ¡°The host that sacked Riversdale curved slightly to the north, eventually reaching the tree line where the druid¡¯s snow owls lost sight of them. What is your take on this?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± The old man hummed to himself in thought as he ran a calloused hand through his gray beard. ¡°I am not an expert on these things in any way, but, if they diverted from the direct path, that would mean there was a group of living beings there. Or, I suppose a fire, being Ice Elementals, they would hate that as much as a group of the living, but I suspect the druids would have noticed a forest fire¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see.¡±

    Elementals would charge endlessly towards the biggest concentration of living beings that they could sense. That much was common knowledge. If there was a group of five hundred and a group of one thousand, the Elementals would ignore the smaller group and go towards the larger, this too was common knowledge.

    But, it wasn¡¯t completely accurate. Yes, the Elementals will head to the largest group, but only if both groups are roughly an equal distance away. Few experiments were done considering the nature of Elemental Overflows, but it was generally assumed that if the number of living beings in the second group was half that of the first, but it was also half the distance, the Elementals would be just as inclined to head towards the smaller group.

    While their army was forty thousand strong, it was still a decent distance from Riversdale, if there was a small group of people in the woods, the Elementals could have easily changed direction temporarily.

    ¡°However, why would people be within the forest now?¡± High Priest Brent mumbled to himself.

    ¡°Could it not be animals?¡± The General asked.

    ¡°Unlikely,¡± Was the response as the holy man shook his head, ¡°Elementals do hate and seek to destroy all life, they won''t leave a horse, cow, dog, or even a rat alive when they attack, but they focus much more intently on sapient beings. Unless there was a huge group of animals, or something particularly large, I do not think they would have gone north. And considering these woods are so close to the capital, I doubt a large beast would be walking around.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps a shepherd had left their flock there?¡± The adjutant who had almost been forgotten spoke up.

    ¡°Perhaps, but¡­ Ah!¡± General Merrick looked surprised as he had a moment of insight.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°The Spring Welcoming Festival is less than a month away.¡±

    ¡°The Festival? Why does that¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see, that makes sense.¡±

    The high priest did not understand, but the general¡¯s aid did.

    ¡°This weather is unexpected, but normally there would be many caravans of goods heading to the capital in anticipation of the Festival. With the snow, they would have been trapped on the roads, and they would not only need to seek out wood for warmth, but the trees would provide some shelter too. There is¡­ was¡­ probably a caravan holed up in the woods there.¡±

    ¡°I see, those poor souls,¡± The high priest spoke with grief and anger.

    ¡°But, General¡­¡± The adjutant hesitated to speak.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°If that is the case, there are probably several groups of travelers, including other caravans, taking shelter within the forest.¡±

    ¡°Yes, there are likely going to be heavy casualties there now,¡± the General said with a frown.

    ¡°No, that isn¡¯t it General,¡± High Priest Brent interjected, ¡°The Elementals will bounce from one group to another, they are all likely in close proximity, there is no telling how soon they will head our way. In fact, they might not even come our way.¡±

    ¡°...shit.¡±

    This was a problem.

    General Merrick was now at a loss as to how to proceed. The host that attacked Riversdale was around two to three thousand strong, just like the host that just finished off Morristown. Human forces would be hard pressed to fight Elementals on even footing unless they outnumbered them ten to one, or consisted of many high ranking combatants. Even then, they would suffer heavy casualties in the process. General Merrick could not break off a group of high ranking warriors to search for that host, and if he broke off a small section of a few thousand soldiers, those soldiers would end up annihilated if they actually encountered the Elementals without the benefits of the defenses they built at the Berzin Hills. To safely track them down and defeat them, he would need to split off nearly half of his army, which was not a real option, the remaining half of twenty thousand would need to face off against about ten thousand Elementals. With all of the high rankers supported by the defenses they built, they would probably win, but they could expect to lose at least half of their numbers. And that was assuming that once they started suffering heavy losses, the army didn¡¯t just break and run. The people under him knew that that would lead to a disaster, but in the heat of the moment, no one really knew what would happen.

    ¡°Tell the druids to keep an eye out for that host, we can¡¯t let them get lost in the forest. Luckily, we do not need to worry about them attacking the capital right away, with the evacuation of the southern zones, and with the magical barriers built into the walls, the Elementals should not be able to sense much from that area, so they probably won''t head too far north. Still, send a message to the capital, tell them to tighten their guard.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± His aid saluted and then left to follow his orders.

    ¡°It should¡­ be fine¡­¡± The old high priest said as he still pondered the situation.

    ¡°General!¡±

    But before General Merrick could ask him for more insights, another of his adjutants ran gasping for air.

    ¡°Report.¡± The general ordered.

    ¡°Enemy vanguard has been spotted! Numbers unknown, five minutes out. They are following the projected course.¡± Was the out of breath response.

    ¡°Okay,¡± General Merrick too a deep breath himself, steadying the slight tremor in his hand as he reached for a mug of warm water that was on the table.

    The water was tasteless and lukewarm, but it returned the moisture back to his suddenly dry mouth.

    ¡°Alert the army, have everyone prepare for combat.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:57

    Royal Army Center, 14th command post, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Guardian Knight Carla Redwood.

    Carla Redwood was sitting on a stool a few feet outside of the tent that acted as the center army¡¯s 14th command post. The family that she swore loyalty to, the family that she was a part of, had deployed just over sixty of their best men and women, and they were all congregated around this tent. Carla was among friends and family, but she was still alone, a solitary island amongst the seas.

    Few spoke, few moved, few did anything. Carla suspected that like herself, many of them should be checking their equipment, making sure their armor was one firmly, their weapons were well maintained and sharp, that their scrolls and potions were easily grasped but not easily knocked loose, but few were doing that. Like Carla herself, they sat in silence.

    The Pine Family had built up an impressive military force of a few Elites, Carla knew this. She also knew that her family had deployed a huge amount of might here tonight, more than practically any other house. But she also knew, that her friends and family sitting around the tent along with her were untested, untempered in battle. A few were mercenaries or knights who had fought before, but most of them were products of the strict training and laborious study regimens. Technically, they were strong, on paper, they were strong, but would it really turn out like that?

    Carla¡¯s left hand, surrounded by a shimmering steel gauntlet shook, she remembered the times in the past when she had fought. When she had killed goblins for training, the time when she had killed some orc raiders, the two times she had killed another man. She remembered the looks on their faces, the pain, the fear, the despair.

    She understood that she had no reason to feel guilt, and she did not regret those actions. But she was always able to place her own face over the faces of those she had slain. Tonight, they would fight Elementals, beings that would show neither pain nor fear nor despair. They would relentlessly charge forth, to kill and take lives. Carla could not help but see herself and her fellows falling beneath their icy limbs, their own faces twisted into grimaces of pain, fear, and despair.

    Carla¡¯s right hand was covered by the same shimmering steel as her left. It connected to the same vambrace, which connected to the same couter, which connected the same rerebrace, which connected to the same pauldron, just as it did on the left. They had the same chain mail connecting the pieces, the same leather armor acting as a final line of defense, and as an insulator to keep her warm in this snow.

    But her right hand did not shake, did not tremble, it was steady.

    In her right hand, sitting upon her palm, was a small red crystal. Calling it red was incorrect, it was a deep, dark crimson, and it was set into a simple iron chain.

    Carla did not know exactly what it was, she could sense a faint trace of mana from it, a familiar mana that she knew came from her Lady. She did not know what it does, but her Lady told her it would protect her, and that was enough.

    Carla suddenly came to a conclusion.

    Her Lady, Olivia Pine Fredirin, had told her that she was her Lady¡¯s knight, her possession. That she would not allow anything to harm or take away her possessions. Then it was simple.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Carla placed the chain around her neck, the red crystal falling beneath her cuirass. She slipped the visor on her helmet shut, she strapped her heater shield to her left arm, and with her right, she drew her sword.

    She would not die. She would return. She would not let her Lady suffer a loss.

    Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!!

    Suddenly, the deep boom of war drums rang out in the camp, a series of horns let loose adding to the sound. Several Sunburst Flares were shot into the sky, the snowy night was illuminated as if it were the brightest of days.

    Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!! Boooommm!!!

    The battle had begun.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:02

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    Some generals lead their troops from the front, cleaving through the enemy lines. Others sought out and dueled the enemy leaders. And still, others sat back in a command center and moved their troops as if they were pieces on a board game.

    General Merrick did none of those.

    His role in this fight has effectively been paused. His task was the work that lead up to the start of the battle. Maybe if things started to go wrong, he would act as the ultimate authority figure and make the final pick from his subordinate''s differing ideas, but he would have little say in the formation of those ideas. When the battle ended, his work would resume, he would need to see to the wounded, wrap things up, and return the army back to the capital in an orderly manner. And, should the worst come to pass, should the army suffer catastrophic losses, he would then be the one who takes responsibility for the failure.

    His only job right now was to watch and wait.

    The Elemental vanguard, if a proper military term could be applied to the hoard of enemies, came directly from the south, exactly as planned. While they were still five hundred feet out, they were met with a withering barrage of incoming fire.

    The heavy ballista were the first to fire, their massive projectiles little more than sharpened tree trunks, soared through the air and crashed into the advancing Elementals. Brigadier General Elise had been in charge of setting up the siege weapons, and she had deployed two each of the heavier weapons on the left and right hills, three at the center hills, and two more in each of the small gaps between the center and sides. Because the Elementals did not use formations, the effectiveness of the heavier weapons were reduced, but the spread of fire from different directions helped address that concern. Still, only a small amount of Elementals were damaged in the first attack.

    The second to fire, were the catapults, both the heavy and the lighter ones had held their fire until this point. The catapults had ranges longer than the ballista, but only when using large solid projectiles. Like their ballista counterparts, only a few of the heavy catapults were able to be brought from the capital in time, and Brigadier General Elise had deployed all six of them at the center hill. Meanwhile, of the twenty-seven smaller ones, nineteen were at the center and the remaining eight were split evenly between the two small gaps on each side.

    The heavy catapults fired clay pots filled with tar and oil, that were then ignited with a torch before being fired. They lacked the time and the supplies to clear the snow from the entire valley between the hills, and then set up pools of oil, but they had done their best, and the six clay projectiles had splashed liquid flames over the Elementals and ignited sections of the valley.

    The smaller catapults fired bundles of smaller stones, each the size of a human head, which tore apart the icy figures in the lead.

    With their front line destroyed, and with the middle scattered from the fire and ballista, the remaining Elementals were even more disorganized when they entered the range of the cheiroballistra. The army was equipped with several hundreds of these smaller weapons, and a rain of spears fell into the Elementals. Individually they did little damage, even direct hits mostly just bounced off while leaving behind some cracks, but the sheer amount of falling spears were enough to destroy many of the Elementals. Even for those that survived, the force of the attacks were able to knock the Elementals off balance, and sometimes even off of their feet, further blunting the momentum of their charge.

    At one hundred and fifty feet out, the mages added their arcane might to the mix. Pellets of hardened earth, bursts of fire, arcs of lightning, icicles, rays of light, smoking balls of shadow, globs of acid, crackling masses of chaotic energy, bolts of force, pressurized spouts of water, even blades of wind, all crashed into the Elementals as arcanists, elementalists, and priests, all attacked at once. Some of those attacks, the shadow balls, the water spouts, the icicles, amongst others, would be less effective than normal considering the anatomy, or lack thereof, that Elemental''s possessed. Shadow magic inflicted less damage, but it turn drained the strength and stamina of the target, an effect that would do little to the Elementals, likewise, water and wind attacks were designed to cut the enemy, and without easily cut skin and without blood to leak from wounds, they too, would do less harm than normal. Still, it was often better to let mages use their best spells, even when that type of magic was less than ideal, and with the sheer amount of magic being fired into an already weakened enemy, it simply didn¡¯t matter.

    At seventy-five feet out, that was when the mages would have opened fire again, using the already planned for system of alternating fire while allowing half of the enemy to meet their line, but no enemy reached that point.

    The vanguard had been stopped entirely, two hundred Elementals were torn apart and shattered upon the valley.

    A low cheer went up amongst the men, but it was muffled by the sound of the eleven heavy ballista firing again. The projectiles shot through the night sky, arcing over the heads of the cheering soldiers before crashing into the second wave of Elementals.

    Through the smoke and snow, the second wave of Elementals were already advancing, as was the third, and fourth, and behind them, more silhouettes making up the fifth could just barely be seen.

    The catapults fired, stones smashed into ice, six more patches of fire spread onto the ground, and yet still the Elementals advanced under fire. Again the smaller cheiroballistra fired, and again the mages fired, but this time, six injured and half-destroyed elementals crossed the seventy-five-foot line where they were easily blown apart under more mage fire.

    They died instantly. Still, while they arrived in small numbers and weakened, they had still reached that point.

    Thirty seconds later, eleven Elementals broke through the seventy-five-foot line, and soon after that, nineteen from the fourth wave were likewise destroyed at the same point. The fifth wave saw twenty-seven reaching it, and the sixth wave saw thirty-nine.

    Nearly five minutes into the battle, the seventh wave managed to survive long enough for eight ragged Elementals to reach the army¡¯s front line and engage in melee combat with the defenders.

    From the command post, General Merrick and his fellows were able to see that the battle had finally started in earnest.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:11

    Royal Army eastern line, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Dan, son Reil.

    HOOOOT!!! HOOOOT!!! HOOOOT!!!

    ¡°Switching targets in ten seconds!¡± The lieutenant yelled.

    No one responded to his yell, the five mages and five men holding the largest crossbows he had ever seen before continued firing directly into the front.

    HOOOOT!!! HOOOOT!!!

    ¡°Five seconds. Hold fire.¡±

    The crossbowmen continued to reload, but the two that were already ready held back. The mages too, stopped casting as they mustered their strength.

    HOOOOT!!!

    ¡°Here they come! Stand ready you fools!¡±

    As the lieutenant spoke, the rain of stones, magic, and spears that had been falling directly in front of their platoon came to a stop as it shifted thirty feet to their right. The Elementals that were charging there were suddenly torn apart, their bodies shattering into smaller shards.

    But, Dan, son of Reil had no time to watch, with the ranged fire having shifted, they only had a few seconds until Elementals currently charging would reach their platoon.

    ¡°BRACE!!!¡± The lieutenant¡¯s loud yell was heard by the entire platoon.

    Without thinking, Dan grabbed both handles of his massive tower shield, he placed his shoulder against the interior, and he even double checked that the wooden post that had been driven into the muddy ground was still sturdy and flush against his shield.

    Even as he did this, from the corner of his eye he saw the five mages and three of the crossbowmen firing forward.

    CLANG!!!

    ¡°Uhgg¡­¡±

    The sound of something heavy smashing into metal echoed out as their shield wall shook.

    Before Dan could do anything, not that he was able to do anything even if her were able, more bangs were heard and the shield wall buckled with each one. Something hit the surface of his shield, but it was a light hit and the shield barely shifted.

    The seconds passed, the clangs and pained groans of his fellows would ring out, occasionally his own shield would suffer additional light hits, the mages would cast, the crossbows would reload and fire, but Dan hardly noticed any of it, his attention, his very being, was focused on holding his shield up.

    But suddenly, a heavy mass smashed into the small gap where his shield and his neighbor¡¯s met. The two heavy steel plates shifted just enough that a gap was formed, and before he or the other man could do anything, a crystal clear hand of ice reached through the opening. The hand had eight fingers, each ending in a hooked talon, and it began groping around blindly.

    Luckily for Dan, the clawed hand went towards the other man, who like Dan, had his right shoulder pressed upon the shield. The man did not even see the hand approach, he made no effort to dodge as the claws were raked across his back, the leather armor he wore, leather armor identical to Dan¡¯s own, was torn like paper as the talons sliced right through it.

    Dan thought he heard the man cry out in pain as the eight bloody lines were drawn on his back, but the crackle of lightning drowned out the sound. A bolt of electricity was fired by one of the mages, the attack hitting the arm in the elbow, blowing it apart and showering Dan and the injured man with shards of ice.

    The leather armor that did nothing to stop the claw, did provide protection against the small splinters, but since the arm was only inches away from Dan¡¯s head, he still felt the skin on his face being sliced open. His skin, numb from the cold, suddenly felt warm as something dripped down his chin.

    Before he could do anything, even check his own injured face, something heavy hit his shield, and the top started tilting back. He could do nothing to stop it, even the wooden post was being forced deeper into the ground. He looked up at the top of his tiling shield, and almost lost himself in fear.

    A horse made of ice was climbing over his shield. Two hooves were already over the tip as the being flailed about silently, trying to push the shield down. Then, as if sensing it was being looked at, the horse plunged its head down, it¡¯s entire muzzle, it¡¯s entire face, was dominated by a single, large, mouth covered in fangs. But unlike a normal horse, this one¡¯s mouth ran vertically, from the chin to above where the ears were. The entire thing split open like a flower blooming, and then snapped shut with a loud crack, just inches from Dan¡¯s own head.

    ¡°Look out!¡± Someone yelled.

    A heavy mallet on a staff, a lucerne hammer, Dan recalled it was called, swung and smashed into the side of the horse¡¯s head. It did little, if any, damage, but it did succeed in knocking the thing off of his shield.

    ¡°Get up! Back to your shield!¡± The person, the woman, with the hammer said as she pulled Dan up from the ground.

    ¡°Y-yes!¡± He stammered, wiping mud, snow, and blood, from his face as he repositioned his shoulder back to the shield.

    ¡°Good. Sixty more seconds.¡± She reassured him as she patted him on the shoulder and then turned to Dan¡¯s neighbor, ¡°Harry, you okay?¡±

    ¡°Swell. Just a scratch on my back though.¡±

    ¡°Good, keep stea-¡±

    One second Dan had his body pressed against the shield, and the next he was on his back, his shield instead pressed onto his chest as he gasped for breath.

    Something heavy and large had smashed into the shield wall, and the wall gave without any real resistance. Dan was knocked back along with his shield, his shoulder was numb and every breath he took sent pangs of pain through his ribs.

    But, he was better off than some of the others.

    The woman with the hammer had been sent flying, smacking into one of the crossbowmen as he was reloading for another shot. His weapon snapped, and the string which had already been pulled tight, had lashed his face, almost peeling off his skin to the bone. The woman herself was lying motionlessly in the snow, her neck bent at an odd angle. Dan''s neighbor to his left, the one with the wound on his back, was also blown away, partially covered by his own shield. And to Dan''s right was another of his fellow soldiers, his shield was still somewhat up, but the man behind it had been knocked into the wooden post that helped hold the shield. The post had splintered, and the man had fallen into it, a sharp shard of wood was sticking through his thigh, but the man ignored it as he tried crawling backward.

    Dan noticed all of this, but paid it little heed as his attention was wholly focused on the source of the damage. An ape-like Elemental, it¡¯s front arms twice as big as Dan¡¯s torso, and its back covered in jagged shards of ice, stood just where the opening in the shield line had appeared.

    Worse yet still, two other Elementals were standing right next to it, one of which was the horse from before.

    HOOOOT!!! HOOOOT!!! HOOOOT!!!

    A horn sounded at the same time that a gray ball of energy smashed into the ape, blowing off a chunk of its shoulder and knocking it off balance. A ray of light then reached into its center, blasting a crater into its chest. The lieutenant then dove into the Elemental as it was reeling, his smaller shield smacking into its side and knocking it prone. As he rolled away, a halberd came crashing down from the side into the ape¡¯s flank, and then one of the crossbowmen had discarded his weapon and picked up the dead woman¡¯s hammer and brought it down along with the halberd.

    As the two continued beating and hacking upon the ape, there was a sudden gust of wind, and then the horse fell to the ground, all four of its legs severed at the knees. Dan saw one of the mages, a man in his fifties with a salt and pepper beard, fall back into the mud, his eyes, ears, and nose were all leaking blood as he fell.

    HOOOOT!!! HOOOOT!!!

    From outside of their little circle of shields, two men, heavily armored and armed, rushed in. The third Elemental that had done nothing so far was quickly dispatched as one of the men cleaved it nearly in half with a greataxe, the other used his short spear to skewer the flailing horse even as he stomped down and shattered the head of the ape.

    HOOOOT!!!

    ¡°Everyone, fall back!¡± the lieutenant called out, tension still filling his voice.

    At the man¡¯s command, their battered and nearly broken shield wall collapse inward in an orderly manner. Someone helped Dan to his feet, and shoved his shield back into his hands, and then moved to help his neighbor up. The man with the gash on his back was woozy, but able to stand by himself. However, Dan¡¯s other neighbor needed help to walk. As another man helped the injured crossbowman who was still holding his face in shock, and two others lifted up the body of the woman, a barrage of spears and magic tore apart the ground that was only ten feet in front of their collapsing shield wall.

    Explosion after explosion blew the mud apart, the Elementals caught within were likewise torn asunder. Without the barrier made by the shield wall, the shockwaves almost sent Dan and a few others tumbling back to the ground, but they held strong and began retreating.

    Two minutes they stood there with their shields up, two minutes they weathered the Elementals. There were thirty one of them, five mages, five crossbowmen, fifteen shieldbearers, and five men with polearms plus the lieutenant. Two crossbowmen were injured, one seriously, two mages were down, one with injuries and the other with mana exhaustion, two shield bearers were dead and the rest had some degree of injury, and of the remaining five, one was dead and three were injured.

    Just a minute longer, no, maybe even thirty seconds longer, and they would have been wiped out. Even then, in just two minutes, they were effectively forced to retire from the fight, few if any of the people in his platoon would fight again tonight.

    And Dan, son of Reil, knew, with his shoulder dislocated and some of his ribs cracked, he was one of those that would be forced to sit the rest of the fight out.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:13

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°Things seem to be going well,¡± The dwarven officer, Brigadier General Tac, said.

    ¡°Yes, just ten minutes in and we¡¯ve destroyed a tenth of the enemy.¡± High Priest Brent responded.

    ¡°Still, we¡¯ll need to keep this up for close to two hours,¡± General Merrick said with a frown, ¡°What are our casualties looking like?¡±

    ¡°Sir!¡± One of his adjutants ran up with a report, ¡°Fatalities are low, beating projections. Injuries are as expected, but we are seeing a lot more minor injuries than we expected. We are healing most of them to the point where they can reenter the fight, but they are being held back for now to rest.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± The general replied.

    ¡°If this humble one may be so bold, but is that not bad?¡± A voice belonging to a foreigner spoke up.

    ¡°Feel free to speak, ambassador.¡±

    ¡°Then this humble one shall speak his mind,¡± Ambassador Zhou An spoke as he walked to the front of the room. ¡°This humble one is but a simple official, not a general, but, this humble one thinks that having a large portion of the soldiers being wounded, would be a bad turn of events.¡±

    ¡°Yes well, not having wounded would always be better,¡± General Merrick responded, ¡°But, most of the ill effects due to having wounded within the army fall on the supply train and the logistical department, problems we will not need to deal with.¡±

    ¡°This humble one see¡­¡± The man from the Empire looked at General Merrick for a moment before continuing. ¡°This Humble one forgot that the General¡¯s expertise does not lay in traditional combat, but in clerical work.¡±

    The temperature of the tent, already cold due to the weather, dropped even lower.

    ¡°My apologies General Merrick Miller, this humble one¡¯s words were not meant as an insult, after all, this humble one also shares an expertise with the illustrious general,¡± The ambassador¡¯s words did little to turn the tent¡¯s opinion around, but it was an apology, if in name only, and it wasn¡¯t the time to cause internal discord.

    ¡°What is it you want to say?¡± The general asked.

    ¡°Only that, an army with a large amount of wounded would be¡­ in my tongue, it would be Sho ti li san yunsho, fan yi odo, but in your language, perhaps it is.. Brittle? Empty, no... hollow, yes, Hollow, that is the word.¡±

    ¡°Hollow?¡± The General asked.

    ¡°Oh, I see,¡± Brigadier General Tac suddenly spoke up, ¡°with many injured, it is hard for us to tell how strong the army actually is, since we would normally just use the pure numbers to determine that. Injuries sap morale, they breed fatigue too, an injured army could collapse upon itself rather easy, hence, it is hollow.¡±

    ¡°Then, Brigadier General, how do you suggest we address this?¡± General Merrick asked.

    ¡°There¡¯s no real solution, we can only take small baby steps,¡± The brigadier general said with a shrug, ¡°We keep an eye on it as best we can, if we have the leeway, we keep the injured resting as possible, and those with the heavier injuries, even if they are healed fully, we try to avoid sending them back in. But right now, we do not have the ability to sit on our haunches and play it safe.¡±

    General Merrick sank into thought, but before he could even marshal his thoughts, there was a ruckus as a harried men rushed into the tent.

    ¡°G-General, U-urgent news,¡± He panted, sweat beading his forehead.

    ¡°What is it?¡± General Merrick asked louder than normal in an effort to silence the others who started murmuring.

    ¡°T-the Capital, it has fallen under attack. E-elementals.¡±

    The tent was thrown into an uproar at the man¡¯s words, but again, the General silenced the others.

    ¡°Details!¡± He yelled over the din in the tent.

    ¡°The o-outer wall has been o-overrun. Elementals are within the 7th and 6th circles. Major General Warren has f-fallen in battle, and Brigadier G-general Abe is m-missing in action. A-and¡­ and we have c-confirmed the presence of a G-greater E-elemental along with a h-host of at least o-one thousand.¡±

    The uproar from before had changed to shocked silence as the tent digested this news.

    ¡°The host that hit Riversdale¡­¡± Someone mumbled.

    ¡°What¡­ What do we do?¡±

    Slowly, all eyes turned to General Merrick, but the General barely noticed, lost in thought as he was.

    They could not disengage the army, not without leaving a sizeable rearguard to die, and then whatever was left would need to rush to the capital, engage the Elementals there, and then prepared to fight the main host, with fewer numbers and without the benefit of their defensive plans. No¡­ that would only lead to the annihilation of the entire army, it wasn¡¯t an option.

    Then, do they stay here and finish with the main host before turning back? But that would take at least an hour, closer to two, what state would the capital be in after two hours? If only the messenger brought information about the current defenses of the capital, but without that, they could only assume the worse, that the defenders were in disarray and were being overwhelmed.

    Which left only one remaining option.

    ¡°Brigadier General Tac, take ten thousand men from our reserve forces and head back to reinforce the capital. High Priest Brent, if it isn¡¯t too much, but I would like you to go with him.¡± General Merrick spoke as if exhausted.

    ¡°That¡­ Well¡­ Yes, Sir!¡± The dwarven general said.

    ¡°Do not worry, General, we will protect the capital.¡± The holy man added.

    The two then swiftly turned and left to follow their orders.

    ¡°At the very least, we now know that we do not need to deal with that Greater Elemental,¡± One of the many adjutants in the tent spoke up.

    HHHWWWAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAARMMMM!!!!

    But as his words ended, a horn blared throughout the entire army.

    A horn that signified the presence of a Greater Elemental.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:16

    Royal Army Center, 14th command post, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Guardian Knight Carla Redwood.

    For a quarter of an hour, the battle had been raging. Stationed on the side of one of the northern hills, the Pine Family forces were able to overlook only a portion of the battle, only a small section of the valley. But what a brutal battle it was.

    The ranged attacks ripped the Elementals apart, along with the ground, but many still got through. The brawl taking place on the slopes was messy and brutal, ice smashed into steel, men and women were tossed about as if they were simply dolls. But they were winning, the Elementals were being killed, the defenders were being cycled out smoothly, the injured and tired falling back while the fresh were coming in to take their place.

    But just a moment ago, the situation changed.

    An Elemental, larger than the others, charged through the hail of stone, spear, and magic. Its body was a snake, over twenty feet long, it had no head, but its body was that of a woman, a woman whose arms themselves were snakes.

    It smashed into one of the shield platoons, it simply overran them, it¡¯s massive serpentine body crushing the platoon into a paste of red that mixed into the snow and mud. The two adjacent platoons directed their ranged attacks, a few crossbow bolts and spells rained down upon its body, but they were shrugged off. The nearest high ranking warriors that made up the kill-zones between the platoons rushed up to engage, but within seconds, the Elemental whipped its arms around, and the ten soldiers who were rushing forward were torn apart. Before anyone could act, the tail was swung, sending the second platoon flying as their shield wall did absolutely nothing to protect the men behind it. And at the same time, one of its arms were pointed at the other platoon, a burst of razor-sharp ice shards exploded out of the mouth, they punched through shields and armor with ease, leaving behind a small area of dead soldiers.

    ¡°Warriors of the Pines,¡± Commander Tale¡¯s voice suddenly echoed over the hill, ¡°That there, is a Greater Elemental.¡±

    The sixty of them stopped watching the massacre being played out by the snake-like Elemental, and instead turned to see their commander.

    ¡°Some of you have the name of the Pines, some of you, do not. Some of you have sworn your loyalty to the Pine Family, some of you instead have a contract. None of that matters right now. That,¡± The commander then pointed towards the Elemental with his sword, ¡°needs to die. Fortune is with us, however, because if there is one thing the warriors of the Pine Family know how to do, it is to hunt. This is not a fight. This is but a simple hunt. We will hunt down our target, take its head, and be done with it. Simple. So let us go.¡±

    And without another word, Commander Tale began walking down the hill towards the Greater Elemental. Behind him, were the sixty warriors, mages, knights, archers, and priests of the Pine Family.

 Chapter 24: Blood and Ice.

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:18

    Bender Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Lillian Quarry Fredirin.

    I could not hear my cousin Olivia¡¯s thoughts. Her mind was silent, blessedly silent. Because I could not hear her, she should have been the person I understood the least.

    But, my cousin was my Destined One, and I strove to understand her as best as I could.

    Because hearing the thoughts of everyone else was not something I ever wanted, I never tried to really listen to them, to grasp what they meant, to really understand the person who was thinking.

    I could not hear Olivia. But those around my cousin, I could hear them.

    She had changed when her Bloodline had awoken, a girl much like I was, and still am, had transformed into something else. I never knew that girl, I do not know if I could have heard her thoughts or not, but she was not my Destined One, the Olivia in front of me, she is.

    Olivia is strong.

    The people around her were not sure of this, they did not know how strong she was, but they knew she held power, power greater than she should have had. But her limits, her full capacity, they did not know.

    I knew she was strong, not only because I could hear what others thought of her, but because of a feeling I could not describe.

    My mother tried hard to make use of me, even as she started wearing a magic item to block her mind from my senses, I could tell through her actions.

    She wanted me to be a spy at first, but while I could hear the thoughts of others, I lacked the ability to deceive another, to guide them to reveal things they did not want to reveal. Because deception was a foreign concept to me, I was helplessly naive, even while I could read other¡¯s thoughts with my bloodline, my own thoughts were read by others just as easily.

    If not a spy, then a warrior. Perhaps I could read the thoughts of my opponents and react accordingly. But again, I failed. Most warriors act on instinct, their thoughts came too quick and were too simple for me to read. Even when I did pick up on their intentions, my small body left me too weak to do anything with that knowledge.

    Giving up on becoming a warrior, the next attempt was as a mage, but again, I was unsuccessful. The sad truth was that I was simply not smart enough to be a mage. I could read the thoughts of a mage, but I could not make any sense of them. Even if I were able to, what then? I was too weak to fight with a weapon, too dumb to fight with magic, even if I understood what the enemy mage was doing, I still could do nothing myself.

    I did, however, learn some things from these failed attempts. I might not be a warrior or a mage myself, I might never be able to become one, but I had more than a superficial knowledge of fighting, of using a weapon, of combat magic.

    My cousin Olivia was strong. Very strong, shockingly so.

    The knight shaped Elemental was strong, stronger than my cousin. It¡¯s spear gouged out the ground, it shattered buildings, it ripped apart stone and brick. The shield demolished the houses and stores, its bulky body smashed through wood and mortar with ease. When it and my cousin clashed, Olivia¡¯s smaller body would be sent flying.

    My trainer once said that strength was simply how much might you had behind your blows, anyone could be strong. To be powerful, strength was not enough, you must also have skill. With skill, you could become powerful, with skill and strength, you could become absurdly powerful.

    Olivia was strong, but the Elemental was stronger.

    Olivia however, was skilled.

    True, when they clashed directly, she was blown back, but, that rarely happened. My cousin was violence incarnate, a god of fighting. The Elementals spear would come at her, but it would hit nothing. The shield would be swung, but besides a gust of wind, nothing would touch my cousin. The Elemental¡¯s entire bulky body would try to crush her, but it never even came close.

    My cousin¡¯s thin blade scored hit after hit on the icy armor, leaving scratch after scratch. When she could, her knee, her elbow, her palm, her foot, her fist, she would rain blows upon the Elemental. Cracks and craters, scratches and scuffs adorned the body of ice.

    The fight brought the two into the surrounding buildings, buildings that soon became rubble. My cousin nimbly navigated the wreckage, she bounced off of walls, she slipped through openings in the roofs, through doors, through windows. She struck while horizontal to the ground, while upside down, while falling, while leaping, while skidding, she barely touched solid objects, she seemed to fly.

    And yet, she was not strong enough to finish the Elemental. She landed hundreds of hits, but she could not kill her enemy.

    She would need help.

    ¡°Farlier, Faulen,¡± I spoke to my two knights who were watching the fight in awe, ¡°Help her.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:21

    Bender Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    My elbow crashed down onto the Elemental¡¯s left thigh, doing little damage, but knocking my much taller opponent just slightly off balance. Slightly enough that the downward swing with its lance missed by a hair¡¯s breadth. The already ruined roadway was further ripped apart, pebbles and frozen mud lightly pelted my back, but I paid it no mind.

    I leapt into the Elemental¡¯s chest, my knee smashing into where its sternum would have been had it actually had a skeleton. With the Elemental still following through with its swing, and with the momentum from my jump, the impact between the two of us was great enough that a small shockwave blew around us, scattering snow as the armored figure reeled backward.

    Using the rebound, I bounced back, and then using my mana to control my own blood that soaked my body, I twisted in mid-air to deliver a heel kick to the knight¡¯s upper arm, but this time, it hardly shifted, and its retaliatory shield swipe came towards the area I would have fallen into.

    But by using the Elemental¡¯s arm as a springboard, I was able to spin in the air long enough to dodge the shield. My hand caught the top of it as it returned, and I pulled myself back into the Elemental¡¯s chest where I delivered a crisp slash with Ula¡¯s sword to its blank face.

    I slid over its shoulder, narrowly avoid the horns on the helmet and the spikes on the pauldrons, and then I directed two more slashes towards its neck before bouncing off of its back and putting some distance between us.

    This Elemental, this Greater Elemental, was a curious being.

    I had had my doubts when Commander Tale had described the Elementals. Mindless, he had called them.

    Elementals were not mindless. Stubborn and single-minded? Yes, but mindless? No. It was true, that they had limited personalities, and while that developed as they grew stronger, even the Elemental Lords were still somewhat lacking. But they were not mindless. In fact, it could be said that their single-mindedness was a form of purity of thought, that when it came to the few things that they really cared about, that Elementals could show deep and intelligent thoughts.

    So I had assumed that calling them mindless had only meant that they were relentless with a narrow focus.

    But that was wrong, the nearly one hundred Elementals I had destroyed in the past hour were in fact, mindless. Driven by instinct that allowed them to function, they existed only to advance and kill. They were similar to the lowest undead in that sense. Whatever had corrupted them to my senses was obviously responsible for their regressed mentality, but how or why, I did not know.

    As for the Greater Elemental, it too was largely mindless, it ran off of instinct as it relentlessly tried to kill me. But at the same time, the instincts it had were more developed, while it was incapable of planning or altering its approach in any meaningful way, it was capable of observing me.

    It was much stronger than the other Elementals, but despite its strength and improved instincts, it would still pose no threat to me at all.

    I ducked under the suddenly extended lance that was swung horizontally at me as the Elemental spun to face my direction, some debris from the houses it crushed to reach this far bounced off of my body, but it did no damage.

    If I had come to a rest a bit closer, it would have lumbered towards me before engaging me at close range immediately, if I had gone further, it would have done its trick where it slid across the ground while charging at me. But at this range, it would always swing or thrust with its lance, depending on its own stance.

    Its attack missed, and now its footing was currently secure, the distance between the two of us was the same, and my own stance was stable, so as I expected, the lance shrunk back to its normal length and the Elemental stomped towards me, both lance and shield were ready to respond to my movements.

    And move I did, rushing forward while low to the ground as if I was going to try and slide under its legs. The Elemental brought the shield forward, using it to cover most of its body as it crouched slightly and prepared to face my charge. When I was only steps away the Elemental lunged forward, trying to tackle me with the shield, but I had already shifted and shot towards the lance held in its right arm.

    The pommel of Ula¡¯s sword met the tip of the lance, sending it off of its trajectory, and allowing me to slide right into the area under its arm. My first target was the armpit, a quick slash landed cleanly before I fell into a backflip, the toe of my right boot lending on the inside of the knight¡¯s elbow. Then, even while upside down, I sent another slash at the Elemental¡¯s ankle. I pushed off of the ground with my remaining hand, dodging the stomp that was sent my way, and then while flying through the air, sent another slash that landed on the being¡¯s wrist.

    Even as I landed, I could see that my attacks from the last two exchanges had done very little. There was a web of hair-thin cracks running across on its chest, scruffs adorned where my kicks and elbows landed, and light scratches were visible on a few more surfaces of the knight¡¯s icy body, but the damage did not even qualify to be called superficial.

    The fact was, I was at my limits.

    I could continue this fight for quite some time still, but I could not win at this rate, and if I refused to retreat, I would eventually lose.

    An Ice Elementals was similar to a Stone Elemental, the body was extremely durable. Ula¡¯s sword was too dull and too fragile to do any damage without breaking. My own body was in the same situation, I could possibly strike with enough force to damage it, but my flesh and blood body would be wrecked in the process, I could harm it, but my limbs would end up destroyed, my bones shattered and my flesh torn. Even if I was willing to sacrifice my arms and legs, I simply did not have enough limbs to allow such a strategy to work. Normally, I would use Mana to reinforce and protect my limbs, but the more damage I wanted to prevent, the more Mana I would need to use, and the level of mana that would be needed to prevent my limbs being ruptured would require an amount of mana that would instead shred my meridians and leave me unable to control my mana within the affected area. Even if I were to do both, shred my meridians first, and then destroy my limbs, I would still most likely not be able to finish my enemy off.

    And I would be left completely helpless in that case. If my body was damaged, I could make do with my Mana, repairing the damage to a degree and forcibly moving my body despite the damage. If my meridians were damaged, I could simply rely on my physical body to move. If both were two happen¡­

    I was actually using small amounts of mana to protect myself just enough to avoid heavy damage, but even this was taxing my meridians, and the imperfect protection was allowing damage to get through. Under my armor, I was already covered in bruises.

    If it was only that, I might have been able to deal with it. But, each time I struck the Elemental¡¯s icy body, the cold was leaching into my own limbs. I could stave that off with my mana, but it was taking its toll as it even further limited my mana and sapped my stamina.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Still, I could carry on for several hours at this rate, but, I would not be able to win.

    The Elemental began circling me. It did this occasionally, something about the environment was causing it to hesitate, but once it found a position it liked, it would attack again. Sometimes I let it do so unhindered so I could try to discover what it was trying to accomplish, but this time I preempted it and went first.

    I shot to the side, leaping into the air and landing on one of the still standing walls nearby. Running across the wall, I approached in a wide arc, until the wall ended and I jumped again, this time into the air straight towards the Elemental.

    The lance came straight at me, its extended form trying to run me through while I was in the air and unable to dodge. But, another mass of blood formed in front of me, catching the lance of ice and slowing it enough for me to grab on with my hands.

    As the blood was drawn back to my body I slid down the lengthened shaft of the lance while the Elemental tried to retract it. Sadly for it, its efforts only increased my speed and force. When my foot smashed into its face, the entire head was blown back, even one of the horns were snapped off as the Elemental tumbled backward.

    Still, it recovered faster than I did. My kick had come in harder than even I had expected, and the damage done to the Elemental was paid for in the form of several of the bones in my foot shattering.

    The Elemental spun, its lance digging a crescent-shaped trench in the ground as it tried to smash me, but before the lance came near me, and before I had a chance to dodge after having used my blood to hold my foot together, a ball of gray energy impacted into the side of the Elemental¡¯s head, blowing the remaining horn away.

    The lance missed by a wide margin without me needing to move, and in that opening one of my cousin¡¯s knights charged into the off-balance Elemental. Steel shield met icy armor with a loud crack and the Elemental tumbled even more. It moved its legs to try and gain leverage against the human that was pushing against it, but once it did, the other Guardian Knight rushed in from behind, his entire body put into a single thrust of his sword that slammed down into the back of the Elemental¡¯s knee.

    The sword screeched, sparks of metal and ice crystals exploded as the Elemental was brought to its knees for the first time in the fight.

    I did not hesitate.

    Ula¡¯s sword was swiftly covered with a layer of my blood as I rushed in. Even while falling, the Elemental had wedged it¡¯s shield in front of the first knight and forced him away, but that left an opening for me to exploit. Reaching the area within its chest, I pivoted my entire body and used all of the force I could muster, and drove the sword into the Elemental¡¯s chest. My blood held the sword together and honed the edge, so the blade pierced into its breastplate with ease.

    There was a loud crack, and the Elemental''s chest splintered. Nearly half of its chest snapped off, including the arm that held the shield. If its body was human, not only would its heart be exposed, but so would most of its spine.

    Another gray ball of energy smacked into its shoulder even as the lance descended and I was forced to jump back to avoid being crushed.

    Ula¡¯s sword, which I had left within the Elemental¡¯s chest, slowly crumbled into shards of metal as my blood left it. Considering the damage I just dealt, the loss of the sword seemed a fair trade.

    ¡°You two, do either of you have a spare weapon?¡± I asked my cousin¡¯s two knights who were both surrounding the Elemental as it slowly got back on its feet.

    ¡°Just a dagger,¡± Answered the one who had driven his sword into the enemy''s knee.

    ¡°Same,¡± responded the other one.

    ¡°Well, that is fine then. We shall do this the hard way.¡± I said as I pulled out my own dagger.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:26

    The Royal Palace, Northern Grounds, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Pamela Pine Fredirin.

    My charcoal pencil lightly scraped across the small canvas I had brought with me. The form of a carriage moving forlornly through the snow was slowly, and if I was being honest, haphazardly, beginning to form.

    Already, the picture was ruined, the perspective was off, the rear of the carriage was seen from directly behind, as if it were heading away from the viewer, the but the sides were visible, as if it were at a slight angle. The background was too small, the foreground too faded, even the proportions of the carriage were wrong, the wheels were sized wrong, and the front and rear wheels were not comparable.

    A complete failure of a sketch.

    I knew this, but I still carried on.

    ¡°Pamela¡­ Will Olivia¡­ be okay?¡± my brother, Timothy, asked.

    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t she be?¡± I responded, my hand continuing to move back and forth on the canvas, adding some depth to the shadow under the carriage.

    ¡°Pamela¡­ You¡­¡± Timothy sighed, annoyance clear in his voice.

    ¡°What answer do you want, Timothy? You have asked me this four times now.¡± I said, exasperated.

    ¡°Well, that is¡­¡± He sighed again, this time in dejection, ¡°We... You, should not have let her leave.¡±

    ¡°Brother,¡± I spoke slowly, as I finally raised my head from my canvas. ¡°Olivia wants to change things. I have thought about this, and I think she is right. We should not let things stay the same.¡±

    ¡°I have thought about it too,¡± He spoke heatedly, ¡°Maybe she is right, but we should not disobey Mother¡¯s directions.¡±

    I returned to my canvas without responding to my brother. He was right, in a way. Children should listen to their parents, although the two of us, being thirteen and fourteen, were hardly children any longer. Still, even now, my eye would occasionally throb with pain. Even now, I could still vividly recall that day. Even now, the sketch in front of me, while a failed work regardless, only showed the left half of the picture.

    Maybe Timothy and our parents were right, but, I do not think I can accept such a course of action any longer. Olivia finally opened my eyes, so to say.

    I would not turn back.

    ¡°Pamela, I¡­ I am sorry, I know how you feel about that topic, I will not bring it up again tonight,¡± My brother¡¯s apology suddenly came.

    ¡°No, it is fine. I too, understand what you are saying. It is just¡­¡±

    A silence descended between us then, the only sound the scraping of my charcoal pencil on the paper.

    ¡°Still,¡± Timothy broke the silence, ¡°I worry for Olivia. She is too young to be doing¡­ what is it that she is doing?¡±

    ¡°I do not know,¡± I responded as I continued working on the shadow.

    ¡°You do not know?¡± He asked suspiciously.

    ¡°Olivia has told me nothing,¡± I replied plainly, ¡°And I have not asked.¡±

    ¡°You have not asked?¡± He sounded incredulous, ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, two reasons I suppose,¡± I said as I stopped drawing and rubbed my chin, but then realized I had inadvertently smeared charcoal onto my face and quickly stopped.

    ¡°And they are?¡± He prompted, even as he produced a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to me.

    ¡°For one,¡± I began as I wiped the soot from my cheeks, ¡°I trust our sister. If she needs my help, or yours, she will confide in us herself. She knows I am willing to listen, but she still says nothing, so she either does not need our help, or she is keeping the information of her activities to herself for a reason.¡±

    ¡°And the other?¡± My brother said sourly.

    ¡°As for the second,¡± I paused for a moment, handing Timothy back his handkerchief and then turning back to my canvas, ¡°What help can I provide even if I knew? I am knowledgeable in magic, but my knowledge is hardly unique, the books in our library contain more information than I know. And if she needed more detailed information, she would be better off seeing someone who can actually cast the spell in question, something I can not do. Then, besides my knowledge, what else do I have?¡±

    ¡°...¡± Timothy looked as if he wanted to say something, but he held his tongue.

    ¡°Do not look at me like that, Brother,¡± I said without looking at him, ¡°I am not wallowing in self-pity. I am just being objective. I am a mage who cannot cast spells and an artist who can not finish a work. Neither of those things will help our sister out.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Still, I too, worry about her.¡±

    ¡°...Then, why do you not stop her?¡±

    ¡°I wonder?¡±

    ¡°Pamela!¡± Timothy said angrily, ¡°Answer the question.¡±

    ¡°I worry for Olivia, but I worry about you too, and for Brother Benjamin and little Vincent. But the worry is mine, my problem to deal with. I will just do everything to support you, Olivia, and our two brothers. I will do whatever I can to help, and I will keep my worry inside.¡±

    ¡°... What if she gets hurt? Or¡­ worse?¡±

    ¡°That¡­ I do not know,¡± I said while shaking my head, ¡°but let me ask you this, what did we do when Olivia¡¯s carriage fell into the water? What was done when my eye was¡­ Well, you know what I mean to ask.¡±

    ¡°...¡± Timothy said nothing.

    ¡°But, I do not believe anything will happen to Olivia.¡±

    ¡°... And why is that?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± I thought to myself, trying to come up with a concrete reason for my confidence.

    ¡°... Well?¡± Timothy prompted.

    ¡°...Women¡¯s intuition.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:29

    Bender Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    The Elemental¡¯s lance shot towards the first of Lillian¡¯s two guards, the man only managing to dodge by a hair¡¯s breadth as he practically threw himself flat onto the ground. While cutting it close, he still managed to avoid harm, and the Elemental''s attack left it open for a counter attack.

    A bolt of gray energy exploded upon its shoulder, a ray of light shot out and hit it in the lower stomach, and the remaining Guardian Knight slammed his sword into the Elemental¡¯s knee, leaving behind a gash half an inch deep.

    I would have normally followed up with my own attack, but I was instead wrenching the head off of an Elemental with the form of a six-legged cat.

    Lillian and her two knights gave me the opening I needed to severely damage the Elemental, and the fight was all but concluded at that point. The Greater Elemental was only stronger than the other Elementals, it was able to adjust to the loss of the limb and the changes in balance that the loss caused, but it was unable to alter its strategy and tactics in any meaningful way. It did not try to use its missing limb, it was aware enough and smart enough to use only the remaining arm with the lance, but its behavior was still the same.

    Even without the two knights, and the magical attacks being launched from the wands held by Lillian and Ula, I could still finish this fight myself. However, their help was appreciated, since, for the last few minutes, regular Elementals had been stumbling into the fight.

    ¡°Ula! Are there any more?¡± I yelled my question to the Spectre who was weaving about on the rooftops.

    ¡°Three more, heading our way from the north,¡± She responded even as she leapt from one building to another, the alleyway between the two doing little to slow her down, ¡°they will be here in fifteen seconds.¡±

    The Greater Elemental recovered from the last chain of attacks, its lance drew an arc through the air as it smashed apart one of the buildings that my cousin had been using for cover as she shot at it with her wand, but she had long since vacated the structure.

    ¡°You,¡± I said as I looked toward the knight who was the farthest north, his name I hadn¡¯t learned, ¡°There are three more coming from the north, take care of them.¡±

    Without waiting for a response, I lunged towards the back of the Greater Elemental.

    I would win this fight given time myself, but it seemed I was lacking time. Wherever this Greater Elemental had been before, whatever it had been doing, had destroyed whatever semblance of an organized defense that had remained after the wall had been overrun. At this point, the entire western section of the 7th Circle was likely lost. And that, unfortunately, meant that the Lesser Elementals who were formerly fighting the defenders were now able to focus on the five of us.

    The ray of light from Ula¡¯s borrowed wand cut into the Elemental¡¯s chest, but it did little to prevent it from swinging the lance towards the remaining Guardian Knight. Confident that he would dodge, I sent my own attack, a kick directed towards the back of the icy being¡¯s knee which caused it to buckle as it followed through with its own attack.

    The Guardian Knight not only dodged, but was able to dash into the chest of the larger opponent, there he sent a flurry of slashes into the hips and legs before he scurried away to avoid the Elemental¡¯s shoulder tackle.

    ¡°Keep it occupied!¡± I ordered as I backed away from the fight.

    I jumped over a pile of rubble before kicking through the side of a partially collapsed wall. The room behind, probably a small house of some sort, was in disarray. The far wall had been torn away, the interior was wrecked, and two frozen bodies, a man, and a woman, were sprawled out on the floor surrounded by icy blood.

    The state of the room was irrelevant, what wasn¡¯t, was the fact that my cousin was within it, drinking a vial of an orange liquid.

    ¡°Oh¡­ Olivia¡­¡± She looked surprised to see me, ¡°This potion restores stamina, do you want some?¡±

    ¡°Do you have any other wands with magic attacks?¡± I asked while ignoring her offer.

    ¡°Um, no. Only the one I gave to your Spectre, and this one,¡± She replied while showing of the wand she held in her hand, ¡°do you want to use it?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I need it to finish the Elemental off.¡±

    Lillian said nothing else, she simply finished the potion and then handed me the wand.

    ¡°Thank you, now stay here where it is safe.¡±

    I turned and left while ignoring my cousin¡¯s words.

    With Michael¡¯s soul still within my heart, I couldn¡¯t use that much magic without destabilizing the crystal that housed him. While it would certainly destroy him, it would also severely injure me if I did that, so throughout the entire fight, I had limited my magic to only the most basic blood manipulation and some basic physical reinforcement.

    In that way, it would take too long to kill the Greater Elemental, but there was another option I had overlooked somewhat. Using a magic item, I could draw a larger amount of my own mana out without putting Michael¡¯s soul into jeopardy.

    Magic wands, in their most basic sense, contained everything necessary to cast a spell, besides the mana needed to power it. For the simpler, elemental wands that launched globs of fire and the like, they were little more than a crystal that converted raw mana from one direction, and spat out fire in the other. For the more elaborate ones, they often had spell formula engraved within the crystal and the wand itself that altered the base spell. I did not get a chance to look at it up close, but the wand Ula was using was probably not using a simple light elemental crystal, and was using something with engravings built in. Lillian¡¯s wand, however, was clearly a construct of arcane magic, since it was using magical force, which was not a base element. The two of them were also using mana crystals as batteries, since neither of them had enough mana to reliably use the wands more than once.

    Ironically, the batteries were the crystallized mana made from using a soul extractor on some form of beast, the same that I used to extract Michael¡¯s soul.

    Since the wands would process the spell for me, all I had to do was provide the raw Mana, and that would save me a large amount of Mana. More importantly, it would allow me to utilize the Mana only on increasing power, when normally about a third of a spell¡¯s cost was used to actually form the spell and make it function.

    Still, I would need to make the process even more efficient.

    Using the dagger I had taken from one of my cousin¡¯s guards, my own having already shattered during the fight, I sliced into the palm of my left hand. Peeling back the skin, I cut through some of the muscles, pushed aside the veins, and then using the blade, dug my way into my wrist. I jabbed the dagger between the smaller bones that made up the wrist and then wedged them apart, tearing the ligaments that held them together in the process. With a sufficient opening made, I pulled out the dagger, and then firmly gripped the wand which had a diameter of about a quarter inch, and then shoved it into the gap between the bones.

    The wand was just under six inches long, and my forearm was just a bit less, however, by jamming it a bit into my elbow joint, and by leaving a small part of the tip still within the wrist bones, I was able to seal up my palm without trouble. The wand hidden within would make moving my arm somewhat difficult, but it was now securely fitted inside.

    As I exited the building, the scene in front of me was much the same as when I left. Ula was darting about on the roofs, occasionally either using magic to scan the surroundings or taking a shot at the Greater Elemental with her wand. The Guardian Knight who had left to intercept the group of Lesser Elementals had returned, and he along with the others were moving around our enemy, mostly dodging, but occasionally moving into whittle it down whenever Ula¡¯s attacks made an opening.

    ¡°Ula! How is the surrounding area?¡±

    ¡°Uh, good.¡± She responded as she dropped down from a partially collapsed building and then ran through a wrecked courtyard. ¡°There is a lone Elemental to our east, twenty-five seconds away. And a group of two to the southwest, about a minute away.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± I responded to my spectre before raising my volume so that the rest could hear me, ¡°I¡¯ll get its attention, the rest of you need to make me an opening and I will finish it.¡±

    The two knights shot me a glance but said nothing, which I took to be an agreement on their part.

    Without needing anything else, I kicked off of the cobblestone and charged towards the Elemental even as the two of them suddenly backed off, leaving myself as the only target. The Greater Elemental¡¯s lance came crashing down from above, the impact as it smashed into the street created a shockwave which I used to boost my own jump, sending me flying parallel to the ground as I circled to the left.

    When my feet hit the ground, the Elemental had already retracted the lance and was sending a lengthened thrust my way. Like I had many times throughout this fight, I jumped over it, a ball of blood forming in its path, and giving me a foothold to land upon it even as the Elemental started retracting it. Like before, I rode the lance back, but unlike the last time when I had shattered my foot against its icy face, this time I leapt off and over its head. Using the Icy spikes I stopped my jump, and then slid down its back. As I landed, the Elemental twisted and tried to stomp down on me with its foot, but I shot forward, between its legs, and slammed the blood coated dagger into the inside of its knee. The ice cracked, and the Elemental shook even as the dagger splintered into pieces.

    Still, the Elemental¡¯s attention was all on me.

    A beam of light sliced into its face, a solid hit that even it couldn¡¯t ignore as it reeled backward. Before it could refocus back to me, the first of my cousin¡¯s knights charged in recklessly. He had discarded his shield and was wielding his sword over his head with both hands as he charged straight in.

    The Elemental¡¯s instincts pinpointed him as the greater threat, and the lance was thrust his way, directly towards his chest. But, this was exactly what he had been waiting for, his slash was not aimed towards the Elemental, but towards its lance. Mana burst from the edge of the blade as it crashed into the tip of the lance.

    The lance cracked, the blade was knocked from the Guardian Knight¡¯s hand, even as the man in who was holding it was blown backward by the shockwave. The Elemental¡¯s stance, having never been stabilized after I attacked its knee, was knocked further off balance by Ula¡¯s attack, and from that position, had sent a fully powered thrust from an awkward angle, only to have its attack deflected with brute force.

    In other words, its footing and stance was in complete disarray.

    It could do nothing as the other Guardian Knight charged in, took a crouching stance with his sword hidden across his chest near his armpit, and then sent a raising backhanded slash towards its elbow. The tip of the blade released sparks as it scrapped across the street before it smashed into the joint, cutting deep into it and knocking the Elemental¡¯s arm up into the air.

    That was all the opening I needed.

    I poured my mana into the wand I had hidden within my arm, the wand itself growing hot as it was overcharged with the raw mana flooding into it. I used my mana for two things, to increase the power, and to clamp down on the wand, forcibly keeping the spell from firing. It took the time from when the first Guardian Knight¡¯s attack hit the lance until the second knocked the arm away for me to pump enough mana into it, enough mana that my arm was burning from the inside out, my blood was boiling, creating a haze of red.

    When the Elemental¡¯s arm was knocked away, I jumped. As it reeled backward, trying to regain its footing, I reached the ideal height, and slammed my palm into the icy knight¡¯s stomach.

    There was a grey flash and a loud pop, as if a large bag was inflated and then punctured, and then only a cloud of icy mist remained.

    Within that mist, I landed from my jump, my vision blurred not only from the mist, and then I crumpled to the ground.

 Chapter 25: Crisis

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:33

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ It seems as if the Pine forces are struggling¡­¡± an adjutant spoke

    ¡°Well, that is only to be expected,¡± General Merrick responded even as he kept his eyes locked on the battle still underway.

    ¡°It is?¡±

    ¡°Greater Elementals are around Rank 7 to Rank 8, but that comes mostly from their durability. Even if the Pines were able to outpower it, killing it would still be difficult.¡±

    General Merrick¡¯s voice was the only real sound within the open tent. When the battle had begun, he had dispatched different commanders to cover the two flanks and the center, and the Cardinal from the Temple of Mercy had left to help in one of the many field hospitals that had been set up. That left only himself, High Priest Brent, Brigadier General Tac, and Ambassador Zhou An to reside as the senior staff in the command tent. The two generals both had several adjutants, High Priest Brent had a few acolytes, and the man from the Empire brought along two servants that were likely bodyguards too.

    But with the Capital falling into danger, General Merrick had sent the dwarven general and the human priest to go assist, leaving only himself, his half of the adjutants, the ambassador, and the two foreign servants.

    Furthermore, the command tent had largely done its job, the actual running of the battle was being handled by the three sub-commanders.

    Even Lord Xavier, who should have been in the tent, had retired to a smaller one nearby where he was reportedly sitting alone in the dark. General Merrick had had zero interaction with him once they arrived at the Berzin Hills, Lord Xavier had even refused to allow guards near him, and had also refused to have an adjutant keep him abreast of the situation. The General did not even know if Lord Xavier had been informed about the state of the Capital.

    ¡°I see¡­¡± The adjutant said hesitantly after a moment¡¯s delay.

    ¡°There is more to it than that of course,¡± The general then added, ¡°The Pines sent three Rank 7s, but all three are mages, an Arcanist, an Elementalist, and a Druid. Druids are not known for their offensive might, and my understanding is that the Pine Family¡¯s Arcanist focuses more on utilitarian spells, barriers, scrying, enchanting, that type of thing.¡±

    ¡°Then, are they not in trouble?¡±

    ¡°I doubt it, if they were, Brigadier General Mindy would have made some changes to the formation. Since she hasn¡¯t, things must be going according to plan.¡± He said with confidence, a confidence that originated from his trust in his subordinates.

    ¡°Oh, you are right. Now that you mention it, it looks as if the Pines are fighting the Greater Elemental while still maintaining the overall defensive line.¡± The adjutant said as he nodded his head in understanding.

    Hearing that, the General did not consider the matter dropped but instead frowned and shot the adjutant a glance out of the corner of his eyes.

    General Merrick knew his strengths and his weaknesses. He was an administrator, not a warrior, not a tactician, and certainly not a strategist. His ability to understand the flow of a battle was barely above what an amateur could comprehend. To compensate for that, his subordinates were all highly skilled officers that had studied extensively in the different military doctrines.

    If the General could understand the state of the right flank where the Pines were engaged, then it was impossible that his adjutant was unable to do the same.

    ¡°General, actually¡­¡± The man said, his voice quiet as he stepped a bit closer, ¡°there is¡­ something bothering me.¡±

    His adjutant¡¯s eyes swiftly scanned the room, lingering on the trio of the ambassador and his two servants before coming back to the general.

    ¡°What is it?¡± General Merrick asked, his voice equally low.

    ¡°The report we received about the Capitol, something has been bothering me,¡± He began, ¡°We haven¡¯t heard anything else yet, have we?¡±

    ¡°No, not yet. The Spirit Familiar spell takes some time to cast, and while the Familiar is fast itself, it still needs to travel, it is not instant. Why?¡±

    ¡°That is,¡± the adjutant hesitated for a second before mustering his resolve and pressing on, ¡°The message said that Major General Warren had died in battle, but that Brigadier General Abe was missing. The Brigadier General, he was stationed on the west wall if I recall.¡±

    General Merrick¡¯s gaze over the battlefield became unfocused as he searched through his memories, and what he found validated his adjutant¡¯s words. Major General Warren had taken over for Brigadier General Jayce, who was temporarily serving as his second in command on the south wall. Brigadier General Abe was stationed on the west wall while Brigadier General Tio was on the east. And Colonel Boris had taken over for the commander of the north wall who was currently bedridden with an illness.

    ¡°They must have arrived from the south and overrun the defenses there, Warren dying in battle is only to be expected. Abe must have moved his forces to assist¡­¡±

    "Yes, that is what I thought at first too, but¡­ Major General Warren falling in battle makes sense, but why is Brigadier General Abe reported as missing in action?¡±

    General Merrick¡¯s attention on the battle wavered even more as he thought about it. If the Brigadier General had been killed, then it would have been reported as such. A report of missing in action would mean that he was engaged with the enemy, and then contact with him was lost, his status wasn¡¯t known. No, even that was not right. If he was still leading forces, but contact was lost, the report would have just indicated that they were not able to communicate with him, Missing in action would only be used if there was a decent chance he was dead or captured.

    ¡°What do we know about Brigadier General Abe?¡± He asked instead.

    ¡°The Brigadier General is old, in his seventies, He is a by-the-books officer, he tends to be defensive but is also overly cautious.¡± The adjutant replied, the words required no thought which indicated he had already considered this.

    The western wall commander was missing in action and the southern wall commander was dead, but they had received no information about the easter or northern walls. Logically speaking, Riversdale was to the southeast of the capital, if the Elemental¡¯s were a human army, they would have attacked from the southeast almost directly, there were no major geographic features, man-made or natural, that would have hindered them. If what they assumed was true, that the Elementals got lost and distracted by hunting down merchants in the woods surrounding the capital, then it was reasonable to think they would have arrived from somewhere other than the direct southeast.

    Since the southern wall commander had been killed and the eastern commander was apparently still alive, it should be the case that the Elementals arrived from the south instead of the southeast.

    The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced something was wrong.

    Why was the western commander missing, while the eastern was presumably fine? And how did the western commander end up missing in the first place? For a man who was a textbook officer who focused on defense, how would he have overextended badly enough that being reported as missing in action was possible?

    Furthermore, the southern wall was being heavily fortified in the event that their army here, at the Berzin Hills, was defeated. The southern wall would be the final line of defense, and it was being built up to do that. The southern wall had nearly five times as many defenders as the western and eastern walls, not to mention the barely defended northern wall. Considering that, if the southern wall were to be breached, it would make even less sense for a defensive and overly cautious general with a large amount of experience to end up missing in action.

    In fact, the mere fact that the southern wall was overrun, made little sense. The host that destroyed Riversdale lacked the numbers to break through the southern wall, at least this quickly. Even if there was a Greater Elemental mixed in, the wall would not have suffered such a quick end, and the fact that Major General Warren had fallen in battle was even more unlikely.

    ¡°General, I think the Elementals might have attacked from the west, and not the south.¡± His adjutant suddenly proposed.

    ¡°That¡­ No, that is impossible.¡± He lightly shook his head in denial at the man¡¯s words, ¡°It might explain the report we received, if the western wall was attacked, Abe might have been overrun and would be missing in action, and Warren could have moved in to assist before being killed without the aid of the defenses, but there is no way the Elementals could have circumvented the city with the time they had. In fact, they couldn¡¯t do that in the first place, once they sensed the capital, they would have charged right towards it.¡±

    ¡°Sir, that is not exactly true.¡± The adjutant spoke hesitantly again, ¡°Based on the speed we¡¯ve seen the Elementals use, if they went in a direct line from where we lost sight of them to the western wall, they might have been able to make it according to the necessary timetable.¡±

    ¡°Yes, if they were a human force, they could push themselves and rush there, maybe.¡± General Merrick finally took his eyes off of the battle and looked at his adjutant, ¡°But they are not human. What you are suggesting is that they moved with a purpose, that they wanted to attack from the west for some reason. Elementals do not move with a purpose, they are mindless. It is not possible.¡±

    ¡°That is, well¡­¡±

    ¡°Besides, there is nothing we can do about it. We¡¯ve already spared whatever we can to send to the Capital¡¯s aid, even if they have attacked from the west, even if there was some purpose to this move, it is out of our hands. We can only wait for a report from the defenders, and hope that they hold out long enough that we can finish here and then return to assist them.¡±

    ¡°Yes Sir, I understand.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± The general then looked back over the battlefield, ¡°That said, while we cannot send a Spirit Familiar to ask for additional information, I want you to get a hand on any incoming messages first, and report to me personally. We do not need the command tent thrown into chaos again in case something does happen. And, with our present company included, we might want to keep some details back.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir!¡± the man started to salute, but then realized he should keep his actions hidden and stopped, ¡°I will get right on-¡±

    HHHWWWAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAARMMMM!!!!

    His adjutant froze, the others froze, Ambassador Zhou An froze, even General Merrick froze.

    That horn should have only been sounded when a Greater Elemental appeared, but it was sounding right now.

    The largest and most destructive Elemental Overflows through all of History, generally would contain only two Greater Elementals, and these Overflows were incredibly rare, occurring only once every hundred to two hundred years. While some Overflows that contained only one Greater Elemental, or sometimes even none of them, would still do great damage, that usually stemmed from the failures on the defender¡¯s side, and not from the power of the Overflow itself.

    But, the chronicles of ages past occasionally spoke of Overflows where three Greater Elementals appeared. Never more than three, never four, but even then, an Overflow with three Elementals was an event that destroyed nations, that changed the landscape, that caused incalculable damage to society and civilization.

    The last time such an Overflow occurred, was over four thousand years ago.

    But as the people within the command tent watched the ten-foot tall spider of ice leisurely skate across the snow as it headed towards the center army, they realized that an Overflow from the legends was currently happening.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:35

    Royal Army Western Line, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Guardian Knight Carla Redwood.

    Carla¡¯s large shield, covered with a layer of dull yellow mana that indicated her proficiency with earth magic, crashed into the trunk of a tree-shaped Elemental. The frozen tree, already having been peppered with a few ranged magic attacks, shattered under the blow. The top half, with its few bare branches, did a flip through the air before landing into the mud, the bottom with its legs made of mobile roots simply fell sideways before it started to melt.

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t that the horn for a Greater Elemental?¡± Lala Redwood, one of the Guardian Knights in charge of Pamela Pine asked.

    ¡°Maybe? Who knows?¡± Abby Redwood, Carla¡¯s temporary partner said offhandedly.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, we need to fall back since this place is secure for now. We¡¯ll catch our breaths before another group comes in.¡± Pammy Redwood, the other of Pamela Pine¡¯s two Guardian Knights, responded as she adjusted her grip on her spiked morningstar.

    ¡°Yes, let''s do that,¡± Lala said, even as she started backpedaling away from the front line.

    ¡°I would have liked to smash a few more of these icy bastards, but a rest sounds good too.¡± Abby chimed in as she hefted her huge warhammer between her two hands, but even she was showing signs of fatigue.

    The four of them steadily fell back, making their way back to where the defensive line, that the army had set up, was located. Sporadic fire from mages and siege weapons landed around the area they were vacating, but the intensity was now much lower. The bulk of the ranged support was being sent towards the massive snake-like Greater elemental a few hundred feet away, a Greater Elemental that was locked in a grueling battle with the bulk of the Pine Family¡¯s forces.

    Commander Tale had split them up, the Rank 6 warriors were to hold it back while the high ranking mages finished it off with spellfire. While they did that, the rest of them that were not strong enough to contend with the Greater Elemental were sent to cover the areas that the main army had given up when the Greater Elemental had shown up.

    Unfortunately, the plan was, for the most part, not working. As it turned out, the plan relied on the Greater Elemental engaging the Rank 6 warriors in combat and then getting locked down there so the mages could attack at their leisure. But, for whatever reason, the Greater Elemental was not interested in those warriors, instead, it was intent on going after the main army. It constantly moved down the front line, throwing the defenders into even greater disarray and forcing those Rank 6 warriors to chase it down and try to distract it.

    They did enough to prevent it from rampaging through the defense lines, but not enough to prevent the defense lines from being forced to flee. The main army then had to divert the ranged attacks towards the Greater Elemental to keep it boxed in as much as possible. While that was successful, and the snakelike Elemental was now prevented from messing up the rest of the defenses, it also meant that the supporting fire that was the linchpin of the main defense had dried up.

    The lower ranking Pine forces now not only had to cover the wider area that had been cleaned out, but they had to support the remaining regular soldiers who were not getting the expected support fire.

    The only saving grace was the fact that the Pine forces generally were all higher Ranks than what the main army was fielding. The lowest of them were Ranked at the peak of Rank 4, but the majority were Rank 5. Not only that, but the Pine forces all had superior equipment. Lala, Pamela Pine¡¯s ebony skinned Guardian Knight was wearing leather armor while using a wooden shield and a simple short spear with a wooden shaft. But, her armor came from a drake that the Pine Family had hunted down, and was heavily enchanted. The wood that made up the spear and the shield was from an Elder Treant, and the simple looking speartip was not iron or steel, but was Adamantine. And of course, both the shield and spear were enchanted, just like the armor.

    ¡°Carla? Are you alright?¡± Pammy asked as she came closer.

    ¡°Hmm, I''m fine,¡± Carla responded to her friend.

    ¡°Are you sure? You look¡­ a bit out of it.¡±

    ¡°I am¡­ just thinking about something.¡±

    ¡°Not good to let your mind wander in battle,¡± Abby interjected from the side, ¡°It is a good way to end up dead.¡±

    Abby¡¯s words were blunt and to the point, just as the woman herself was. But, they were not wrong, and Carla knew that.

    ¡°...¡± She was going to respond, but as the four heavily armed women were passing one of the defensive platoons and were drawing a variety of looks, she decided to hold her tongue.

    ¡°Actually Carla,¡± Lala spoke before Carla could say anything, ¡°Your sword is looking a bit worse for wear.¡±

    ¡°Ah, well that is because Carla¡¯s sword is made from Cold Iron,¡± Both Abby and Pammy had looked at her blade when they heard Lala¡¯s words, but it was Pammy who spoke up for her.

    ¡°Cold Iron? Isn¡¯t that stuff only good for fighting the Fey?¡± Abby asked.

    ¡°Spirits, some Outsiders, really, anything magic, Cold Iron will work better than actual steel. If these Elementals were ones with less corporeal bodies, like Fire or Air Elementals, Cold Iron would be a better choice.¡± Pammy continued defending her friend.

    ¡°Still, Cold Iron is more brittle, and it does not help much against these enemies.¡± Abby rebutted.

    ¡°Would Meteoric Iron not work just as well?¡± Asked Lala.

    Carla looked down at her sword, the gray blade was scuffed along the length, and a few chips were showing up along the edge. It was not in any danger of breaking, yet, but it was beginning to dull and its effectiveness as a cutting tool was already dropping somewhat heavily. Luckily, the Elementals were not an enemy to cut, but one to hack into, and a dull blade did that just fine.

    ¡°Carla learned a style to defend against magic with a sword, but it works better with Cold Iron. And Meteoric Iron is expensive.¡± Pammy answered on her behalf again.

    Her friend was right, she had learned a style of magic for combating mages that focused on deflecting and dissipating spells. By infusing her mana into her weapons in specific ways, she could disrupt the formation of most spells, it was even effective at breaking through magical defenses. And like Pammy had said, Cold Iron¡¯s natural resistance to magic meant that anyone who learned to use the technique while wielding a Cold Iron weapon, which was harder to do for sure, would find the skill was far more effective. The only real downside to it was that it required a fair bit of concentration, which made it ill-suited to be used in a close quarter fight. Carla could utilize it to defend against incoming attacks with a high degree of success if she was able to focus, but while engaged in a melee fight with someone else, her actual fighting skills would drop heavily if she tried to use it then.

    However, her special technique that could be called a trump card, was only one of the reasons why she used this sword. The other was sentimental, her sword was granted to her when she became her Lady¡¯s Guardian Knight five years ago.

    The sword was plain, nothing special about it at all, the fact that it was both made of Cold Iron, and still managed to hold an enchantment that honed the blade made it a bit more valuable than the other basic weapons that most knights used, but when compared to Lala¡¯s spear, Abby¡¯s warhammer, and Pammy¡¯s morning star, it was vastly inferior. The fact was, each of the Pine Family knights received a decent quality sword when they received their investiture as a knight, and then after they proved their worth, they would receive a second weapon that was considered their real weapon. The swords were then considered mostly ceremonial weapons.

    Carla¡¯s sword was a bit better, which required her to put off getting her real weapon from six months to three years. To be fair, Carla had high requirements for her real weapon, so even if her sword had been normal, it would have still taken around two years to acquire the extra wealth and merits that weapon would require.

    Still, Carla almost never used that weapon. She could feel its weight on her back, strapped onto her armor with only the bottom of the handle peeking through the top of her cloak, but, the weapon sat unused.

    She was a knight, a Guardian Knight, and knights were known for their defense, for their skill as protectors. She did not think less of Lala and Abby for wearing light armor, the fact that their weapons were not standard, or that Abby didn¡¯t even use a shield, she would never hold this against them.

    But, that was not her path, not the path of the Knight that Carla Redwood followed.

    A knight used a lance when mounted, and when on foot, they used a sword and shield. That was the image of a proper knight that she sought to emulate. Because she was not a normal knight, she rarely fought mounted, so she did not have a specialized lance, but when on foot, she always used her sword and shield.

    Even if her other weapon was a vastly superior one.

    Even if she was more skilled with that weapon.

    Even if that weapon would be a better match for her enemy.

    She would only use the weapon strapped to her back if she was forced to, if the sword she so loved was unable to protect what must be protected. And since her Lady was far away from the battlefield, there would be no need to use such an uncivilized weapon.

    Without a word, Carla looked down at her sword and prepared herself to use it once again.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:33

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°This is bad.¡± General Merrick said to no one in particular.

    The spider-shaped Greater Elemental had been fighting the army for just over sixty seconds now, and everything about it was looking bad.

    Unlike every other Elemental, even the other Greater Elemental, this one did not mindlessly charge into the fray looking to kill as many as possible and to wreck as much havoc as possible. No, it stood back, and using four of its eight legs, summoned massive chunks of ice out of thin air, and then hurled those chunks into the army. It was those chunks that then killed as many as possible and wrecked as much havoc as possible.

    Many of the Elementals were capable of firing ranged attacks in the form of spears or bladed shards of ice, but they were no different from arrows fired from bows. The fact that the Elementals couldn¡¯t coordinate with each other prevented them from launching concentrated volleys, which would really disrupt the defense formations, was the only upside. So all things considered, they were dangerous, but easily handled.

    Not so with this Greater Elemental.

    The lobbed hunks of ice did not behave like ice would normally, not at all. Sometimes they appeared oddly bouncy, hitting the ground with a thud, and then jumping back up ten to twenty feet in the air before smashing their way further through the army¡¯s lines. Other times, even when they looked as if they would bounce, they instead shattered into hundreds of razor-sharp shards that could even cut through chain mail.

    The bouncing ones could be dodged or deflected with magic, and the exploding ones could be blocked with shields or magical barriers, but, there was no way to tell which was which. If shields were raised, but the chunk did not shatter and instead smashed through them, all that would happen was that some smashed soldiers would be left under their shields. If they tried to vacate the area, but it then exploded instead of bouncing, the shards would just cover a larger area before slicing into the soldiers.

    The worst part, was where the Greater Elemental was staying. At three hundred feet out, only the ballista and catapults could effectively reach it, but every one of those weapons that were not firing upon the regular Elementals was making the fight for the soldiers in the front that much harder.

    Unfortunately, they had no choice, General Merrick had passed the order to have some of the siege weapons try and target the Greater Elemental, and those attacks had just come to pass.

    And the results were poor, to say the least.

    The Greater Elemental was over twice as large as a normal Elemental, but it was still only around twelve or so feet tall, not to mention the fact that its spider-like body was thin and provided a limited profile to aim at. Of the thirty different attacks that were just launched at it, only three or four came close, and only one was going to hit it directly, a massive spear more like a log fired from one of the heavy ballista. But before it hit, the Greater Elemental spotted it, and simply moved out of the way. The huge projectile smashed into the ground a foot or two away, but only managed to scatter snow and mud over the icy spider.

    The Greater Elemental would, if left alone, rip apart their defense lines completely, it would only be a matter of time before the center collapsed, and then the rest of the army would follow.

    The problem then was, what to do about it. And it was this problem, that General Merrick was struggling with.

    Basic military doctrine did offer several ways to handle a Tactical Class threat, which is what the two Greater Elementals would count as.

    The first way, to engage with your own Tactical Class combatants.

    The second way was to create a multilayered field of fire to wear down the threat.

    The third was to charge forward regardless of casualties and try to bog the threat down with numbers.

    The fourth, and final way, was to avoid combat with the threat.

    Options two and four were not options, retreat was off the table, and they were already doing their best to wear it down with ranged fire, it simply outranged them.

    That left one and three.

    The first option was probably the best, but, the army only had a few Tactical Classes, and all of them were already engaged in their own battles. If he ordered the ones that were supporting the various parts of the army, then those parts would face a very real risk of collapsing.

    As for the third, even if he were willing to order the army to charge the Greater Elemental, they simply couldn¡¯t. The Greater Elemental was safely within the main host of the Elementals, for the army to reach it, they would need to fight through the entire Elemental host, without the benefits of their defenses or the support fire from the siege weapons. Even with the resolve to lose the entire army in the process, they would still almost certainly fail.

    So really, he only had one choice according to standard military doctrine, wait for the Pine Family¡¯s forces to finish with the first Greater Elemental, and then send them immediately towards the second one with no rest between. And hope that that both the Pines and the center do not suffer too much damage before the first Greater Elemental goes down. Even then, the Pines would need to break through the Elemental Host and engage the Greater Elemental with no support.

    But, while that was the only option that had any chance of succeeding, it was still an incredible long shot.

    Which left him with one remaining option, the same one he had been about to order the second the spider-shaped Greater Elemental had shown up, but he had held back because he really, really, did not want to use that trump card.

    The Fragment had yet to show up.

    Ambassador Zhou An would certainly report the effectiveness of them back to the Empire.

    And there was no guarantee that would even work.

    But still, he had no choice.

    ¡°Order the Light Throwers to engage the Greater Elemental¡­¡± General Merrick said with a sigh.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:34

    Royal Army Center, 2nd Techno-Artillery Position, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    3rd Grade Technomancer, Mezhanos.

    ¡°We have our orders!¡± Mezhanos¡¯s commander called out over the surrounding din. ¡°Let us show the army what we can do!¡±

    Normal soldiers would have been pumped up at this chance, would have rallied upon that call.

    But Mezhanos and those around him were not normal soldiers. They were Technomancers. They were nothing like normal soldiers.

    But their commander, he was. Sure, he was well learned in their art, he knew, as much as anyone not of their fold could, what they could do. But still, he was not one of them.

    He did not understand.

    That was not his fault, and none of them blamed him or held it against him. At least, not overtly. But the faithless could not understand the faithful. And while they paid homage to no deity, Faith, was not something they lacked.

    Only silence met the commander¡¯s words, but the man, thick-skinned as he was forced to become when he took this assignment, let the silence wash over him without complaint.

    ¡°Connect the cooling hoses.¡± He instead ordered.

    And that was an order that brought life to their small group.

    Before they had been silent, but that did not mean they were emotionless. Did not mean they were unconcerned. Did not mean that they were not excited.

    They were.

    They were overflowing with excitement.

    They just did not show it like a normal soldier would have.

    Mezhanos rushed forward with his partner, 3rd Grade Technomancer Beoskle, the both of them grabbing the handles on each side of the massive hose that lay before them. The hose was twenty feet long, it had a diameter of one foot, and the leather and metal supports made it rather heavy, but the simple strengthening equipment they both wore was enough for them to lift it and drag it forward.

    The hose was connected to a massive tank of magically pressurized and supercooled liquid. A mixture of mercury, saltwater, some alchemical fluids, and ice drake blood. The tank held five thousand gallons of the mixture, and with the other three tanks, they had a total of twenty thousand gallons. Considering the value of the liquid, it was quite the sum, enough to buy at least one mansion, maybe two, within the third circle of Arvas.

    Their commander had mentioned this on more than one occasion, but none of the Technomancers understood why anyone would spend that much money on a mere house and not on research. Nor did they care to learn.

    While the four tanks were large, ten feet tall and five wide, the object that the eight Technomancers were connecting the hoses to, was even larger.

    A Light Thrower.

    Unlike the tanks that were symmetrical cylinders, the Light Thrower was a hodgepodge of shapes, of pipes, of tubes, of hoses, and of jutting magical arrays. At its highest point, somewhere in the middle, it was thirteen feet tall. It was twenty-one feet long, at its thickest, it was eight feet across and at the thinnest, it was two feet wide.

    Mezhanos, like the other seven of them, eight if the commander were to be included, knew every inch of the Light Thrower.

    At the back was the access hatch, currently firmly locked, that if opened, would allow a person to enter the main chamber. Bellow that was the base, the foundation that held the Light Thrower stable, and also where the more mundane gears and levers were placed that allowed the entire thing to be rotated and have its angle adjusted.

    In the back of the main chamber was where Mezhanos and Beoskle connected their cooling hose. On the opposite side, 3rd Grade Technomancers Rixian and Arplun were doing the same, and in the front, on both sides, the remaining four Technomancers were connecting the other two hoses to the firing array.

    ¡°Lock in the hoses,¡± The commander called out.

    At once, with a practice and steady motion born from hundreds of hours of practice, Mezhanos and Beoskle both turned the knobs on the side of the hose, then flipped the latches, and then applied a layer of magic to the frozen seal on the front, melting it and turning it back into the gooey substance it was supposed to be.

    ¡°Insert fuel rods.¡±

    The main chamber held two of the four components of the Light Thrower, the condenser crystal, and the fuel rods. Each fuel rod was a hollow mithril tube filled with a lattice of hundreds of mana crystals, all filled with light mana. While each rod held a different quantity of crystals, and while the purity of each crystal¡¯s mana differed, each rod contained exactly the same amount of total mana, and the lattice that held the crystals in place would ensure that each rod discharged the stored mana at the same rate.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    It had taken many trials and experiments to develop the lattice structure, but it had been a vital aspect of the Light Thrower, for without an equal amount of mana coming from each rod at the same rate, the device would misfire, with catastrophic consequences.

    Each of the eight of them took a fuel rod and carefully approached the rear of the device. The rods were light, the crystals weighed very little and the metal that made up the casing was pure mithril. A simple drop would not cause any damage to the rod, even striking it with a weapon would do nothing, the mithril frame would not bend, and nothing short of magic directed with the intent to damage would do anything to the crystals.

    Still, while they knew it in their minds, the simple fact that they were holding something of such incredible power left them with a feeling of reverence. They did not dare profane the fuel rods, and as such, they paid extra care and attention to their movements.

    The eight fuel rods fit seamlessly into eight different openings towards the rear of the main chamber. They were now firmly held within their casings, where when the weapon fired, the mana stored within would be drawn out, and pumped into the massive condensing crystal. There, the eight different mana flows would be combined into one, the purity level evened out so that there were no hidden issues.

    ¡°Confirmation of Fuel Lock?¡± Their commander asked.

    ¡°Lock one, secured.¡±

    ¡°Lock two, secured.¡±

    ¡°Lock three, secured.¡±

    ¡°Lock four, secured.¡±

    ¡°Lock five, secured.¡±

    ¡°Lock six, secured.¡±

    ¡°Lock seven,¡± Beoskle¡¯s voice spoke up, ¡°secured.

    ¡°Lock eight, secured,¡± Mezhanos said dutifully.

    When the condensing crystal discharged during the firing process, the energy temporarily stored within it would be sent out equally into the four firing arrays that made up the majority of the second component of the Light Thrower. These arrays were similar to what would be found in a standard magic wand. They drew power from a source and then converted the raw mana into the desired effect. Sometimes, a ball of fire, other times a bolt of lightning, other times a spear of ice, and in this case, a pulse of blinding light.

    ¡°Locks confirmed, begin coolant flood.¡±

    At the commander¡¯s words, a group of 5th grade Technomancers swarmed around the four coolant tanks, pulling levers, until, with a gurgle, the large hoses jumped and inflated as the freezing mixture began flowing into the main chamber.

    ¡°Target is the Greater Elemental, named, Spider,¡± No one responded to the commander¡¯s declaration because no one needed to. They just waited as he looked across the battlefield through a simple brass spyglass. ¡°Adjust aim, rotate negative four degrees horizontal, drop two degrees vertical.¡±

    Now, a smaller group of the lower grade Technomancers moved towards the gears at the base. With barely a sound, the massive Light Thrower slowly shifted its aim slightly to the left, and then the nose dropped a few inches closer to the snow-covered ground.

    ¡°Switch to active targeting.¡±

    At the commander¡¯s order, Urglivo, the only 2nd grade Technomancer in their group, and the only one able to utilize the complex aiming system that was built into the Light Thrower moved up to the side. There, he plunged his hand into one of the few openings in the device and closed his eyes as he prepared to aim the weapon.

    ¡°Target is 760 feet out, set pulse count to¡­¡±

    The commander trailed off, but every one of them knew what to do, even if they did not move until he gave the order. At this range, four pulses would be overkill, but three might not be enough. If they were the only weapon firing, four would be the correct choice, but the Bright Dawn was only one of the five Light Throwers that would fire, thus, the correct choice should be to fire three pulses.

    ¡°Set count to four.¡±

    Mezhanos frowned, but he said nothing. The commander¡¯s order was flawed, but not completely wrong.

    The Light Throwers fired pulses of light, and originally, they could only fire one pulse at a time. However, a single pulse would lose power rapidly as it traveled through the air, it would be devastating at incredibly short ranges, but anything beyond two hundred feet would see reduced effects, and at five hundred feet, the damage would be drastically reduced, to the point where the device was no longer useful.

    At that time, the pulse was not even called that, it was simply a shot. However, by linking two shots together, it was discovered that the first shot would clear the way through the air, allowing the second to arrive with its power intact. Still, at ranges over five hundred feet, the second shot would begin to weaken, and at longer ranges, a third was required.

    Because these rapid-fire shots were released in such a quick succession, and because the halo of light that came off of them seemed to connect them, they were called pulses to help differentiate them from the idea of taking a completely different second shot.

    At under eight hundred feet out, the first pulse would be weakened nearly into insignificance, the second would have a bit more than half power, and the third would be nearly full power. A fourth pulse would only be needed if the range was farther, or if the target, Spider, was presumed to be strong enough to weather a full powered pulse, which in Mezhanos¡¯s mind, was an impossibility.

    ¡°Coolant is 90% full.¡± Someone yelled out, but no one needed to respond.

    Still, while it might be playing it safe to use four pulses, there was a real problem with it too.

    The fuel rods could only hold so much mana. Since the minimum requirement for the weapon to be useful was two pulses, the first fuel rods held enough for six pulses, three shots of two, or two shots of three. However, as the designed of the Light Thrower¡¯s were improved, they became accurate and usable out to greater ranges, and the need for four pulse shots, and even stronger, began to arise.

    The ideal number of pulses able to be produced with one set of fuel rods was twelve, enough for six shots with two pulses, four shots of three pulses, three shots of four pulses, or two shots of six pulses. There was enough leeway there to mix them up too, two shots of three pulses, a four pulse shot, and a two pulse shot, or a six pulse shot along with three shots of two pulses.

    However, the construction of the lattices that made up the fuel rods turned out to be a bottleneck, a rod that stored enough mana for twelve pulses was beyond what they could make. And having the condensing crystal absorb mana from more than eight fuel rods at once turned out to be too difficult to stabilize. Thus, the best they could do, was produce fuel rods that held enough mana for nine, maybe ten pulses. And even then, the tenth pulse was a risk, sometimes the draw from the mana crystals wasn¡¯t perfect, and the final pulse would come up unbalanced and the weapon would misfire, something no one wanted to experience.

    ¡°Coolant is filled.¡±

    ¡°Power up, begin charging.¡±

    A low hum began to sound, the ground shook ever so slightly. Right now, within the main chamber, the light mana was draining from the fuel rods and was flowing into the condensing crystal. As the hum increased in pitch, going from a light, easily ignored sound, to a loud whistle, Mezhanos could estimate the time until the Light Thrower charged.

    ¡°...18 seconds¡­¡± He whispered to himself, knowing that the others would be doing the same.

    The whistle morphed into a shrill screech as the coolant began to evaporate, blueish steam bursting through the vents. The slight tremor in the ground turned into full shaking, and the silver weapon began to glow a dim red.

    The surrounding soldiers, left there to guard the weapon without really knowing what it was, had begun to notice something was happening, their heads would turn and glance at it before turning back to resume their duties.

    ¡°7¡­ 6¡­ 5¡­¡± Beoskle could be heard counting down.

    The Light Thrower was now completely obscured in a cloud of blue mist, but even then, the burning orange glow from within was still illuminating the entire small clearing they had claimed. More and more of the surrounding soldiers were turning to look, some confused, others curious, and more still worried.

    ¡°Charge complete! Final aiming adjustments?¡± the commander yelled over the din.

    ¡°Target is clear! Good to fire!¡± Urglivo¡¯s own yell came from within the cloud of blue.

    ¡°5 seconds! Get Clear!¡± The commander yelled.

    ¡°Done!¡± Urglivo shouted even as he burst out of the cloud running, the blue mist clinging to his body.

    ¡°EVERYONE!¡± The commander suddenly yelled. ¡°CLOSE YOUR EYES!¡±

    The Technomancers had no need to do that, each of them dropped a pair of black goggles over their eyes that blocked out almost all light. But, the surrounding soldiers had no such protection. In fact, closing their eyes might not, no, would definitely not be enough.

    But still, the Light Thrower would not wait, the energy contained within the condensing crystal discharged into the four firing arrays, the pure light mana was turned from something intangible and ethereal, into something very real. With no pause, the arrays sent their work into the central array that would combine the four individual blats of energy into a single pulse, and then would release it out the front of the device.

    Mezhanos¡¯s goggles were so dark that he could not even see a torch held in front of his face, so dim that even on the brightest days, the noontime sun would be nothing other than an orange ball in a background of black.

    But right now, the darkness of his vision was replaced with a brilliant blinding light.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:36

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°Wow¡­¡± Someone within the tent uttered.

    It took the General a second to realize it must have been one of the guards who spoke, because only the surrounding guards would have had the training required to protect their eyes from the flash that had just illuminated the night.

    The rest of them, they were blinking stars out of their eyes.

    ¡°Report!¡± He ordered, trying to get a handle on the situation while he was still partially blind.

    Most of his adjutants were trained enough to count themselves as being Rank 3, and in fact, the General was too. At that Rank, they should have been able to protect their eyes, but they were trained less for direct combat, and more to simply defend themselves should either the worse happen and the enemy reaches the headquarters, or to at least buy time against an assassin. The more well-rounded training that would have taught them how to protect their eyes from bright flashes, was something that they did not really go through.

    ¡°Uh¡­ I think only four of the Light Throwers fired.¡±

    ¡°Yes, it was the 4th position that did not fire.¡±

    ¡°Damnit, I can¡¯t see¡­¡± The General muttered to himself. ¡°I will need stronger glasses at this rate¡­¡±

    Suddenly, he recalled that his glasses were a magic item. And worth mentioning, they were a magic item that was capable of casting shadow magic on the inside of the lens, specifically to protect the wearer¡¯s eyes from sudden bright flashes. But, not only had he forgotten that function, he had forgotten exactly how blinding the Light Throwers could be, at the very least, he could have turned his head away even if he had forgotten his glasses could have helped.

    General Merrick ground his teeth in frustration as he reached up and triggered a different effect on his glasses, a water mana based healing effect that would soothe tired eyes. Once he felt the refreshing coolness come over him, his frustration dropped, and he was able to see over the battlefield again.

    But, while his vision was now fine, he could still see very little, and what he was able to see, did not help him understand the situation.

    The five Light Throwers were stationed individually around the army, mostly a bit further back on the sides of the hills. That positioning did limit their firing range and angle quite a bit, if their target had shown up anywhere besides the direct center, some of the weapons might not have been able to fire without packing the entire device up and moving it, something which would take several minutes.

    Still, it was a necessity that the weapons be set up on the outskirts of the army, just in case something went wrong. Ideally, they all would have been set up together at one vantage point that allowed them to fire over the entire field, such as the current hill the command center occupied, but, bunching the Light Throwers together was an awful idea.

    Despite the problems with the firing range and angles, the General was confident they had done enough to take that into account. Unfortunately, they had overlooked the bright light that accompanied the firing of the weapons. Because each device was spread apart, and located in the rear, the blinding beam of light had to cross over the entire army, and from five different directions.

    The end result was that nearly two-thirds of the army was now in some kind of disarray, the soldiers and officers were temporarily blinded. It would have been even worse had one of the five Light Throwers not failed to fire for some reason.

    But, that two-thirds of the army was not entirly accurate, at least not as far as anyone could immediately tell. There was another problem they had overlooked.

    General Merrick had once seen one of the earlier models of the Light Thrower fire, it was a weaker model, it was fired during the day, and it was fired in a grassland. He had thought they had accounted for the first detail, and they may have done so. The second detail was a miss, the weapon had dazzled far too many, but it was the third detail that they had really missed on.

    He knew that the weapon created an enormous amount of heat when fired, in fact, Light magical attacks like that inflicted most of their damage through burns, enough that some wanted to classify Light as a subcategory of Fire. He knew that it would burn the ground, but he had not been prepared for what it would do if that ground was covered in snow.

    The end result was that the entire area around the impact point, the center of the Elemental host, was now completely obscured in steam from the vaporized snow. It even extended to the front lines, hiding the first fifty to one hundred feet of their formations from view.

    ¡°Quick!¡± He yelled in a near panic, ¡°Have the mages blow away the fog!¡±

    No sooner than he had spoken, one of the mage commanders proved their worth, a group of mages with an aptitude for wind magic began summoning a powerful gust of wind. Limited as they were, and with little time to work, their efforts only managed to thin the mist that shrouded the frontlines, but it was enough.

    ¡°Damnit¡­¡± The General groaned.

    In the less than twenty seconds since the Light Throwers fired, the front line had been savaged. Many of them had been able to shield their vision, but that moment of shock and distraction had still left a great opening, something the Elementals who were immune to the effects were able to capitalize on, even if they had no overarching strategy. Worse, the steam clouds created by the weapon then obscured the front, preventing the mages and siege weapons from providing their support fire.

    Unable to tell the situation around them, the clusters of defenders in the front had held their position, barely managing to hold their ground, but they paid a heavy price.

    ¡°We need to order them back, before another wave hits.¡± One of the General¡¯s adjutants spoke out the very thoughts he himself was thinking, but he hesitated.

    For nearly an hour now, the waves of Elementals had merged into one inexhaustible flow, a rising tide. There was no gap between waves, they just endlessly advanced forward. But right now, he could see a few remaining Elementals in combat with the defenders, but new ones were not appearing.

    Before he could come to any kind of conclusion, two things happened nearly simultaneously.

    The first was that a massive hunk of ice, larger than the previous chunks, shot through the ceiling of the fog, arched over the frontlines, and the reserves, before smashing into the side of one of the hills.

    The second was that the remaining mages were able to muster the needed combined effort, sending a great gust of wind blew across the entire field, pushing the remaining fog away, and revealing why exactly, the assault of the Elemental¡¯s had stalled.

    Four lines, twenty feet in width, were seared across the field. The blackened trench was completely lacking any moisture, any snow, and any ice, including from the Elementals. Even in the area around each line, only the partially melted and broken remains of icy limbs and bodies could be seen. Each line ended in a crater, fifty feet across of brownish black glass.

    The heat and force from the Light Thrower¡¯s attack was enough to scorch the ground it merely passed over, and to melt the dirt at the impact point, turning it into boiling glass.

    The only Elemental standing near the four impact craters was the Greater Elemental, but even that was worse for wear. Two of it¡¯s eight spindly legs were missing, and the rest of its body was cracked and deformed. Even then, it was again forming a large chunk of ice in the air with it¡¯s remaining legs. The chunks were larger, and with only two legs to create them, the process was slower, but it was still a threat.

    ¡°Order the Light Throwers to attack again!¡± General Merrick yelled in a hurry, ¡°And find out why the one didn¡¯t fire.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:38

    Royal Army Center, 2nd Techno-Artillery Position, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    3rd Grade Technomancer, Mezhanos.

    The basic gear that any decent Technomancer wears contains various methods to deal with injuries. The most common were burns, so the entire suit that each of them wore was able to help repair any burns and to also dull pain. Lacerations were also rather common, and could easily be healed and the pain reduced.

    Puncture wounds, however, often required dedicated healing, an automatic system would almost always create additional problems. Thus, when detecting wounds of a certain depth, their suits would only cover the wound, apply a hemostatic agent to reduce bleeding, and then also apply a numbing agent.

    Mezhanos¡¯s suit determined that the piece of metal or wood that had just torn through part of his arm was deep enough to be treated as a puncture wound, so it only numbed the area and did what it could to stop the bleeding.

    But, while he had experienced the suits first aid before, this was his first moderate injury, and he found the first aid to be lacking. For one, it was slow to act, while he was in no danger of bleeding to death, or even losing consciousness due to blood loss, enough of his blood had leaked out, staining his arm, and now that it was rapidly cooling, making his arm heavy and unwieldy to use. And the numbing agent did numb the wound, but it only numbed the wound, the pain was not removed or erased, but only reduced. Considering the fact that he was pretty sure his bone had fractured from the impact, simply numbing the pain was doing nowhere near enough to alleviate his problems.

    That said, it could have been worse, his partner, Beoskle, was on his back, his chest caved in, blood bubbling from his throat as he died.

    ¡°We need to fire again!¡± The commander yelled, ¡°Urglivo, are you alive?¡±

    ¡°I-I-I¡­ I am¡­ F-fine.¡± Urglivo stammered.

    Mezhanos directed his gaze at the 2nd grade technomancer who was normally unflappable to see why he was suddenly so shaken, but quickly averted his gaze out of disgust.

    Urglivo was standing up, his back ramrod straight, but he was also covered in blood and gore. It wasn¡¯t his own, but originated from the corpse near him, the upper body was was behind him and the legs were at his feet.

    ¡°Then get to the panel and aim. Better this time! Now go!¡±

    ¡°Y-yes!¡±

    ¡°How are we on coolant?¡± The commander asked once he heard Urglivo begin to move, even if his steps were unsure.

    Mezhanos expected one of the 5th grade technomancer¡¯s to respond, but none did. Turning his gaze towards the tank that he had been assigned to align with Beoskle, he saw another tragic sight. The group of young technomancers, all four of them assigned to that tank, were dead, or at least dying. Unlike Mezhanos who suffered a grazing blow, and Beoskle who was hit dead center with a single small object, the rest of them were covered with pieces of shrapnel that shredded them.

    ¡°Ta-tank three¡­¡± He tried to say, but he had to swallow down some bile before continuing, ¡°Is le-leaking!¡±

    Like the group of 5th grade technomancers under him, the massive tank filled with cooling liquid had been peppered with chunks of metal and wood. The wood only splintered apart against the cylinder, but some of the metal chunks punched holes through the casing, allowing the silverish-blue liquid to leak out onto the ground.

    ¡°C-coolant is 75% f-full!¡± Urglivo reported.

    ¡°Tank two is fine!¡± someone yelled.

    ¡°Tank four¡­ is good!¡± Arplun said hesitantly from the other side of the Bright Dawn

    ¡°Tank one¡¯s hose is torn, no, it is severed!¡±

    Mezhanos turned his gaze to the front where the group from tank one was in a similar state to his own group, Erquish was on the ground missing an arm, and three of their four 5th grade technomancers were in the mud, unmoving. Only one of them along with Thiela were moving, trying to patch the massive hole in the hose that lead from the tank to the Light Thrower.

    ¡°Disconnect the hose from tank three and use that.¡±

    ¡°Understood,¡± Thiela responded, and Mezhanos heard himself say something similar as he rushed towards the Light Thrower.

    Ideally, they would just leave his hose connected to the Light Thrower and then disconnect the tail end from tank three and connect it to tank one, but the hose wasn¡¯t long enough to reach from the rear of the device to tank one. Both sides would need to be disconnected from both hoses, and then the hose from his tank would need to be brought over to tank one.

    He sealed the hatch on the Light Thrower, preventing the cooling fluid from flowing back out when he disconnected the hose, and then immediately released the seals from the hose and let it fall to the ground. Normally, he would have left it connected before going back to the tank and repeating the same process, all to prevent the expensive cooling fluid from being wasted. But right now, time was of the essence, and the fluid within tank three was going to be wasted regardless.

    But even as he began rushing back to the tank, he couldn¡¯t help but grimace at the thought of the valuable liquid pouring out into the dirt. The monetary value was of little concern to him, but the liquid was difficult to produce, and they only had so much of it here, and wasting it pained his heart.

    Even then, he did not stop as he skipped the process of sealing the hatch on the tank and just directly unlocked the hose. Again, the hose fell to the ground, but this time the freezing coolant splashed out over his hands. His suit was prepared for this however, a cold resistance spell was cast on his hands and arms, and a series of antidote spells triggered to prevent the toxic substance from killing him.

    ¡°Coolant is at 80%¡± Urglivo reported, the process running at half speed due to the fact that two tanks were not assisting.

    Even while a layer of blue ice was flaking off of his still cold hands, Mezhanos bent and grabbed the hose to drag it over to tank one, but he was forced to stop. Normally moving the hoses was a two person job, two people assisted with the strengthening enchantments in their suits. Beoskle was dead, and Mezhanos¡¯s suit was torn, the strengthening enchantment on his right arm was hardly working, and even if it were, Mezhanos¡¯s arm was not. He was able to operate the latches and gears, but lifting the heavy hose was beyond him.

    He was about to call for help, but his comrades had already noticed. Thiela and the 5th grade technomancer had already grabbed the end closer to the Bright Dawn, and even Rixian had come over to help. Using his good left arm, and with Rixian¡¯s help, they were able to drag the end of the hose over to tank one.

    Once they were there, they dropped the hose and Mezhanos stumbled when the lack of weight threw him off balance.

    ¡°Rest for a second, I can do this,¡± Rixian said as he gently pushed Mezhanos back to the ground.

    He wanted to object, to stand up and keep helping, but he was exhausted, his arm was throbbing with pain, and his vision was begging to swirl.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ I''ll just sit here for a second,¡± he responded as he flopped down into the mud.

    ¡°Coolant is at 90%!¡± Urglivo announced.

    ¡°Make final aiming adjustments while refilling, then charge immediately. Three pulses this time!¡±

    Mezhanos wanted to watch his fellow technomancers work, wanted to be ready to assist if need be, and wanted to see the moment when the device fired again, but the exhaustion, the pain, and the steadily increasing nausea was too much, he turned his head, threw up once, and then pass out.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:39

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    The spider-shaped Greater Elemental threw two more large chunks of ice at two different hills, but while they were cause for concern, General Merrick was focused on the battle¡¯s front line.

    They had suffered from that moment of distraction when the Light Throwers had fired, but since they also severely thinned out the Elementals that were currently engaged, they were able to just barely hold their ground.

    Looking at it from the top, they had actually come out ahead. The front line took heavy damage, but a larger amount of the enemy was destroyed. This time, when the weapons fire, they will be more prepared and it won''t be as bad.

    Still, the fact that the front line had almost been overwhelmed had left the General with a cold sweat and a case of the jitters that even now persisted.

    ¡°Those¡­ Light Throwers? Is that what you called them? They are impressive.¡± Ambassador Zhou An suddenly spoke up from beside him.

    The man, the half of a man, had come up to the edge of the hill to better see what had happened, but he had, until now, remained quiet.

    General Merrick had known this moment would arrive, as long as he was forced to use the Light Throwers, and he had prepared for it as well as he could.

    By asking the Royal Castle for directions on how to handle it.

    ¡°Yes, that is what they are called,¡± he spoke, trying to sound casual. ¡°They are one of the few, semi-useful new products that the Technomancers have produced.¡±

    Technomancers are loosely organized into a guild that governs them. In reality, they form hundreds of smaller guilds that focus on specific types of research and production. But unlike more mundane guilds that require full devotion from their members, the various technomancer guilds do no such thing. Members jump ship from one guild to another all the time, in fact, they basically promote the behavior. Sometimes, an entire guild will just close up shop, and then reform as an entirely different guild with a different focus, sometimes even keeping all of the same members, sometimes not.

    Because each guild pays homage to a foundation that promotes the study of technomancy in a grand scale, and because each of the smaller guilds are maddeningly frustrating for non-members to deal with, the larger foundation is viewed as the governing body, even though it technically does no such thing.

    The Light Throwers were a product of the aptly named, Light Thrower Development Guild. Most similarly named technomancer guilds end up producing nothing of use, their product fails to come to term and they move on to something else. But occasionally, something with some degree of usefulness comes out.

    ¡°The general is being humble, these weapons are not merely semi-useful, they are quite impressive.¡±

    ¡°They are powerful, I will agree to that. But they are an extremely inelegant weapon with several problems, and the Kingdom has no plans on producing more of them.¡±

    ¡°Oh really? If this humble one may be so bold to ask, why that is so?¡±

    General Merrick paused for a moment as he marshaled his thoughts. The truth was, what he just said was not a lie, at least entirely. The Light Throwers were plagued with problems, and the Kingdom did plan on halting production. However, they were still funding the maintenance of the currently existing devices, along with promoting researching into upgrading them.

    Because most of the issues facing the Light Throwers were logistical, General Merrick was actually rather well informed about them, and in fact, he had been the one to push for a freeze in the manufacturing of additional devices.

    ¡°Cost for one,¡± He said truthfully. ¡°Each Light Thrower costs an absurd amount to produce, with the main cost coming from the rare metals they are made from. The fact is, even if we wanted to mass produce them with no concerns for cost, the ingredients are simply too rare. But outside of the construction costs, the cost to maintain them is also high. And then, actually using them, they require special mana crystals and a special liquid to cool them while they fire, each of those things costs far too much to be practical.¡±

    ¡°Ah, cost, the merchant''s way of thinking,¡± The ambassador said theatrically, ¡°but some would say that no cost is too high to safeguard the nation.¡±

    ¡°That is true,¡± the General conceded the point while ignoring the ambassador¡¯s not so subtle jab, ¡°But another problem is how difficult they are to use. They are large and heavy, and they require tanks of that liquid I just mentioned, which are also large and heavy. That basically limits them to defensive uses, but even then, they are too big for all but the heaviest walls. And because they only fire in a straight line, they need to be positioned at a high vantage point to be of any real use.¡±

    Again, this was all true. The weapons were actually too big for most walls, although they were able to be fitted on the Capital¡¯s walls, and most of the forts on the southern border would be able to house them, not to mention the fact that a dedicated platform could be made to hold them. Still, such a platform would need to be made of something sturdier than wood or raised earth, which did largely limit them to already existing fortifications.

    As for offensive use, they could be used to siege a city or castle, but they were fragile, and also a rather conspicuous target. Even if they weren¡¯t a nightmare to transport, they would be unlikely to get more than one or two shots off before the defender¡¯s own defenses would return fire. And in cases like that, the defender would always have the advantage.

    ¡°This humble one sees¡­¡±

    General Merrick couldn¡¯t help but shoot a glance at the ambassador as he looked over the battlefield, the anticipation for when the Light Throwers fired again was clear on his face.

    When he had asked how to handle this, he was told basically two things.

    Be as truthful as possible while trying to emphasize that they weapons were limited in use, and were only defensive in nature.

    ¡°Still, they are a potent defensive measure. And this humble one is sure, if need be, they could be used offensively.¡±

    The General was about to answer, but they were interrupted when a messenger ran up to them.

    ¡°Sir!¡± she said with a salute, ¡°the 4th techno-artillery position reports that their weapon suffered a failure due to a misaligned¡­ auxiliary connection¡­ node on the third¡­¡±

    ¡°That is good enough,¡± He said as he waved for the poor woman to stop trying to remember the random terms the technomancers used, ¡°is the weapon unusable?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir! But they are trying to repair it, only¡­¡± she trailed off there.

    ¡°What is it?¡± he prompted.

    ¡°They think it is unlikely to be ready anytime soon.¡± She said nervously.

    The military had rules about abusing rank and harassing the regular soldiers, but still, no one wanted to bring bad news, especially at a time like this.

    ¡°That is what I figured, thank you, corporal.¡±

    ¡°Sir!¡± She saluted and then retreated from the tent.

    General Merricks focus went back to the battle, but he noticed that the foreign ambassador¡¯s eyes followed the woman as she left.

    ¡°And that Mr. Ambassador, would be the other problem.¡± He finally said.

    ¡°This humble one does not understand, what is the other problem?¡±

    ¡°The Light Throwers are notoriously unreliable. They suffer failures almost half of the time. That was a more moderate failure, requiring some repairs, usually it¡¯s just a failed shot and they have to rearm the weapon. Sometimes it just takes some time, other times they waste crystals or fluid. Occasionally it wounds or kills an operator too.¡±

    ¡°This humble one sees.¡±

    ¡°It was somewhat surprising that only one of the five failed, but I guess the fact that it was a medium sized failure makes up for the lower number.¡±

    ¡°The repairs, they will take some time then?¡±

    ¡°Most likely,¡± He responded with a shrug, ¡°I¡¯ve studied these things rather intensively for my own duties, but I have no idea how they actually work, or what just broke in that one. It might be something simple, they just need to shove something back into its position inside. But, to do that, they¡¯ll need to drain the fluid from the weapon, crawl inside, shove it back, and then run a test to make sure everything is fine. That might take ten minutes, maybe more. They might also need to take the whole entire frame out for some reason, which could take days. They could also be wrong about what went wrong, or they could do their repairs incorrectly. I''ve basically already written that weapon off for the rest of the battle, but maybe we will get lucky and the repairs will be done in time for when the fragment shows up.¡±

    ¡°It is a shame, this humble one feels that unreliable tools are even worse than ineffective tools.¡±

    ¡°I agree,¡± The general said with a nod.

    Suddenly, a long high pitched whistle sounded, the sound that the Light Throwers were about to fire.

    And unlike last time, everyone took the appropriate steps, many of those in the room closed their eyes, and for good measure, covered them with the hands. A few channeled mana to protect their vision while they kept their eyes open. For the General, he simply pushed something on the side of his glasses, and then his vision when dark.

    But even with his vision dark, he could still see some of the glow from the weapons firing.

    For good measure, he counted to three after the whistle stopped before opening his eyes, but the battlefield was as he expected, a new cloud of steam was obscuring his view.

    ¡°Hey,¡± He called out to one of his adjutants, a man who also doubled as a guard and who was cable of using magic to protect his vision, ¡°I am pretty sure I only saw three beams?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± His adjutant said with a frown, ¡°the 4th position did not fire, and for some reason, the 1st didn¡¯t either.¡±

    ¡°Find out why.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± He said before running to go get a messenger.

    ¡°This humble one now truly sees, while powerful, these weapons really are unreliable.¡±

    The General found the idea of a foreigner looking down upon their military to be irritating, even if it was exactly what he wanted the ambassador to think.

    ¡°Unfortunately, they were all we had on hand right now. And for that matter, I would not be surprised if we decommission them after this.¡±

    That was actually a lie, the higher-ups, General Merrick included, were still discussing what to do with the Light Throwers, when they used up their current stock of cooling fluid and fuel rods. They might give up on them, or they might have more produced while they waited for improvements in the weapon to materialize. Regardless, while they did bring enough coolant for several shots from each weapon, and two sets of fuel rods for each weapon too, that was nowhere near their current stockpile. They simply could not transfer more, they only had just enough cooling tanks for each weapon¡¯s own use.

    Even if they were to decommission the Light Throwers when their stockpile ran out, that would not happen for a long time.

    ¡°Sir!¡± Suddenly, his adjutant returned with a grim look on his face.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°The Greater Elemental¡¯s last attacks, they were aimed at the techno-artillery positions.¡±

    ¡°What!?¡± General Merrick stood up in shock and faced his adjutant.

    ¡°Position two suffered minor damage, but heavy casualties, and position five received no real damage, but the fuel storage was hit, the weapon can not be fired again. And as for the first position, it took a direct hit, the Light Thrower was completely destroyed.¡±

    ¡°Shit!¡± The General cursed loudly, ¡°We¡¯re down to only two of them now? We need to do everything to protect them now, have the mages hold back and try to intercept those blocks of ice.¡±

    ¡°General, if this humble one may speak?¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± The general curtly shot back, not taking his eyes away from the adjutant he was giving orders to.

    ¡°Your worries, are unfounded it would seem. Look¡­¡±

    The General glanced at the ambassador, and seeing him gesture towards the battlefield, he instead directed his sight there.

    His mages had been prepared this time, another gust of wind had already swept through the valley, and the steam had dispersed. Three new scorch marks ending in craters filled with rapidly cooling molten glass had appeared, but one of those craters was notable for what was near it.

    Just to the crater¡¯s side, one of its legs still submerged into the glass, was the Greater Elemental. Including the one that was melting into the glass, the formerly eight-legged being was now down to three, one of which was missing the foot portion, only one leg was still whole. Its main body was cracked and blackened, it was clearly barely alive, but even then, it was still dragging its body towards the front line. It was no longer able to make ranged attacks, but even with it¡¯s three legs, it could still wreak havoc on the front line.

    A front line that General Merrick noticed had again, fallen into disarray due to the flash and subsequent cloud of steam that obscured the vision of the mages and siege weapon operators.

    ¡°Order the remaining two Light Throwers to finish it off.¡± The General said after a moment of thought.

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:41

    Royal Army Center, 2nd Techno-Artillery Position, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    3rd Grade Technomancer, Mezhanos.

    Mezhanos woke up.

    Not the abrupt way, when a person is shocked into wakefulness.

    Not the groggy way, when in the middle of sleep, something interrupts and wakes them up.

    And not in the peaceful and calm way, where a person wakes up rested after a pleasant night of sleep.

    No, Mezhanos woke up in the most peculiar way, where he was still tired, still wanted to sleep, but simply could not.

    The general fatigue he felt, the blood loss, the assortment of antidotes and other chemicals he recently absorbed, and the various healing spells, all left him unconscious, but it was the magic and the alchemical items that kept him asleep. There was a set limit, however, of things that they could ward off while keeping him there, in the land of dreams.

    The pain from his arm was one thing, the frost on his hands was another. His nausea, his anxiety, his stress, those were another. The sounds around him, orders being yelled, some pained cries, the rumbling of the Bight Dawn as it charged and then fired, the sound as coolant flowed through the hose, the hiss of steam being released from the device, even the whistles, horns, and drums that sounded throughout the army, were all things that combined, were under the threshold of what he could sleep through.

    The coolant leaking out of the Bright Dawn itself, and then slowly seeping its way across the ground, until the point where Mezhanos was laying in a pool of it, that was beyond that threshold. As he got damper and damper, colder and colder, and as warming spell after warming spell was cast on him to prevent hypothermia, he finally woke up.

    It was a slow waking, coming in stages, he wasn¡¯t exactly sure when he first woke up, or how long he was there, in that state of half-wakefulness. At one point he was aware he wasn¡¯t asleep, but of little else beyond that, and then slowly the other things he was aware of increased until suddenly, he felt fully awake.

    ¡°We¡¯ve sealed the leak, and we should have enough coolant for another shot,¡± someone said.

    ¡°Good, set to three pulses, and begin charging once the coolant is filled,¡± another voice responded.

    ¡°I told you!¡± A third speaker yelled, ¡°We can¡¯t risk the third pulse.¡±

    ¡°The Bright Dawn is a newer model, it can handle three pulses,¡± the second voice argued back.

    ¡°Maybe. Maybe if everything was in the lab, but we¡¯re out here in this blizzard. And the Bright Dawn is damaged, we need to refuel!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s no time, just follow orders,¡± The second voice yelled back again, ¡°we only have a minute, tops, before the target gets too close to the front line, then we won''t be able to fire.¡±

    ¡°Coolant is at 90%,¡± a fourth voice suddenly shouted.

    ¡°Can we just use two pulses?¡± The first voice asked.

    ¡°Two won''t cut it, not at this range, not even if we scored a direct hit, right? You know this thing better than me, don¡¯t you?¡± The second voice challenged.

    ¡°...Two pulses won''t be enough¡­¡± The third voice reluctantly agreed.

    ¡°Then follow orders, set to three pulses and fire when ready.¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡± the first voice timidly interjected, ¡°won''t the other¡¯s manage?¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t rely on that,¡± The second shot back, ¡°Only three of us managed to fire this last time, and there is no telling how many will manage to fire this coming time. Even if all of the other four could fire, we can¡¯t rely on them hitting, we¡¯ve only managed one glancing blow out of seven attacks. No, we can¡¯t risk it, set to three pulses.¡±

    ¡°...fine¡­¡±

    Mezhanos listened as their argument came to a close and each of them moved to go perform their duties. He wanted to go join them. But while he was awake, he couldn¡¯t manage to get his body moving, even trying to move out of the coolant he was laying in was beyond him.

    ¡°Coolant is filled!¡±

    ¡°Good, begin charge and make final aiming adjustments.¡±

    Once again, the voices paused, and all Mezhanos could hear was the sound of movement, of his fellow technomancers, working.

    And then there was a flash, and nothing else.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:42

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    With no warning, there was a blinding flash a few hundred feet to the left of the command tent. Partially obstructed by the walls of the tent, the bulk of the flash wasn¡¯t seen by those inside, and the blinding effect was reduced, if not completely missing this time.

    So, with almost completely unhindered eyesight, everyone in the command center could see the orange and red glow as a massive fireball erupted from the side of the nearest hill. While they were still shocked motionless, a warm wind blew across their own tent, rattling the posts and making the flaps dance about.

    General Merrick had been sitting when the flash and explosion happened, but Ambassador Zhou An had been in the process of taking his own seat, he was caught off guard with his legs bent, but before he had made contact with the wooden chair, and had stumbled into it.

    ¡°What was that?¡± He asked, irritatedly as he was messaging his now newly bruised elbow.

    The General said nothing, even though he was pretty confident he knew the source of the blast.

    ¡°General!¡± another one of his adjutants yelled even as he was still coming back from the side of the tent. ¡°Techno-artillery position two¡­ It exploded.¡±

    He could only manage a grief-filled sigh as he ignored the ambassador¡¯s perplexed look.

    ¡°How much damage to the surroundings?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I can¡¯t tell, there¡¯s too much smoke. But, position two had been hit earlier, and the surrounding guard unit took the brunt of it, I think they had already pulled out most of the wounded...¡±

    ¡°Well, go find out, please.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±

    He sighed again as his adjutant rushed off to follow his orders and discover how many people had just died in an accident.

    ¡°Well, Mr. Ambassador, that is also, one of the problems with the Light Throwers.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ That they explode?¡± The foreigner asked with some confusion.

    ¡°Yes, that they explode.¡± He responded while taking a sip of his tea, a somewhat bland Green-Leaf blend.

    ¡°If you do not mind this humble one asking, how often does this happen?¡±

    ¡°Rarely,¡± he said as he put the cup down, ¡°When the devices are in good condition, they explode maybe once every hundred times they are fired. The explosions are usually small, most of the crew gets killed if they are close, injured if they are farther away. Now they all stand twenty feet away when firing the weapon to keep them mostly safe. Any explosion, even the smallest, will generally destroy the device entirely, however.¡±

    ¡°This humble one would like to point out that that was not a small explosion.¡±

    ¡°No, that was a medium sized one. I actually saw one like that before, the entire crew died then too. Large explosions are about three times as powerful as that. Very dangerous, even if it happens rarely. Medium explosions are infrequent, the should only happen less than once every five hundred uses of the weapon, but they haven¡¯t been tested enough for us to really know. As for large explosions, they¡¯ve only happened a total of two times.¡±

    ¡°It would seem, that we were rather unlucky just now.¡±

    ¡°Not really, position two had reported light damage earlier. Failures of any kind are a lot more frequent when the device is being used in environments that aren¡¯t ideal, such as on a cold snowy night. And they are much more common when the device is damaged or has been used repeatedly.¡±

    ¡°This humble one sees.¡±

    ¡°Well, you could still say we were unlucky. A medium size explosion is still unlikely, and is a large problem itself.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Not to mention the fact that position one was destroyed earlier, position four is undergoing repairs, and position five is out of mana crystals to fuel with. With position two having just exploded, that leaves only position three to finish off the Greater Elemental.¡±

    ¡°That is, indeed, quite bad. Not to mention, the Fragment has not shown up yet.¡±

    ¡°Ideally, position four will manage to come online before that happens, but even if not, I gave orders for position four¡¯s spare fuel to be sent to position five. At the very least, we will have two Light Thrower to deal with the Fragment, and also, the Fragment is larger, so we won''t have to deal with all of these poorly aimed shots.¡±

    ¡°The Fragment, however, will-¡± The ambassador abruptly stopped his words, because suddenly, a high pitched whistle began blowing, the sign that the remaining Light Thrower was ready to fire. ¡°Well, let us see how this goes.¡±

    The ambassador turned his head and covered his eyes while the General just toggled the shadow guard on his glasses again.

    There was one single flash, as they expected, and it was not followed by an explosion this time. After a few seconds, the two men were again looking over the battlefield, waiting for the mages to blow away the fog, a fog that was smaller and less dense than the last two times.

    ¡°Excellent!¡± The ambassador exclaimed.

    General Merrick said nothing, but he could not help the smile from appearing on his face. As the mist cleared, a new crater had appeared, and it had appeared directly where the Greater Elemental had been crawling through the snow. There was no trace of the icy spider.

    HHHWWWAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAARMMMM!!!!

    And just like that, the smile on his face froze.

    The remainder of the mist was blown away, to reveal a massive Elemental standing at the back of the host. It was sixty feet tall, it had three massive legs that could stomp a man and horse into paste, no, it could probably stomp two or three men and their horses at once. Its body was somewhat small compared the rest of it, except for two bulges where the shoulders should be. They were almost the size of the command tent, and they were also covered in massive spears of ice. There was no head, and the shoulders ended in two whip-like arms that trailed across the ground behind it.

    The Elemental, the Fragment, stood still for a moment, as if it were surveying the battle, even though it had no head to survey with, and no brain or mind with which to make senses of what it saw. Then after that second of standing still, it slowly and ponderously moved forward.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:45

    Charo Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Your arm¡­ Is it okay? I didn¡¯t bandage it too tight?¡± A fretful Ula asked.

    ¡°It is fine.¡± I lightly responded.

    To her second question, I was honest, the bandage was fine, as far as I could tell. To the first one, I may have stretched the truth a bit. I had needed the wand to be in complete contact to allow a smoother transfer of mana, that required that the wand be inserted into my arm, a fact I had hidden from the others.

    My body could repair mundane damage, torn skin, damaged bones and muscles, blood loss, anything of that sort with ease. But, I had pushed the wand beyond its limits, and it had exploded within my arm. Realizing what would happen, I was able to direct most of the force from the explosion towards the Greater Elemental, otherwise, my arm would have ended up like the crystalline knight I had killed. That level of injury, a complete regeneration, was beyond me.

    I had avoided the worst, but the end result was bad, most of the bones in my arm were shattered, they, along with the pieces of the wand, tore their way through my skin, leaving my arm a bloody mess. And for good measure, the wand¡¯s explosion also severely burnt what was left.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt?¡± Ula asked again.

    ¡°Hurt?¡±

    ¡°I mean, are you in pain? We probably have something to help with that?¡±

    ¡°Oh, pain¡­ Yes, I suppose it does hurt? But that does not matter.¡±

    Pain was another thing I struggled to comprehend.

    Pain was discomfort, something unpleasant, but it was also nothing more than a sensation. Humans seem to put great emphasis on pain, on the avoidance of it, but I struggled to understand why they went so far. Of course, I preferred to not experience pain, but pain and suffering were just a cost sometimes required to get what you wanted, a price I would gladly pay. The pain I was feeling, it was a cost required to defeat my enemy, nothing more, nothing less.

    ¡°What about you, Ula? Are you okay?¡± I asked my Spectre.

    ¡°Me!? I am fine too, just a bit ragged,¡± She said with a shrug and a wry smile, but then her eyes seemed to glaze over for a second and she added, ¡°Just a bit¡­ hungr- no, that doesn¡¯t matter.¡±

    Ula shook her head and then stood up and moved slightly away, her eyes locked on my bandaged arm the entire time.

    She had done that a few times, seemingly losing herself in thought as she was bandaging me, sometimes I even had to call her name to bring her awareness back. I did not really need the bandages in the first place, I had already stopped the blood flow myself, but both Ula and my cousin had insisted. And since Lillian had no medical knowledge, and her two guards were busy with their own injuries, the job fell to Ula, even if her stomach did keep growling and she did keep licking her lips while she was working.

    ¡°Um¡­¡± After Ula wandered away, my cousin came and sat down on the crate next to me. ¡°D-do you know th-that¡­ she w-wants to e-eat you?¡±

    While I was unconscious for a few minutes following my fight with the Greater Elemental, the group and retreated into a storage cellar in one of the surrounding buildings. Lillian had used a magic scroll to create a non-detection area that had prevented any of the remaining wandering Elementals from finding us, which had bought us needed time to rest.

    But, now that the immediate danger had passed, my cousin had reverted to her stuttering and more awkward manner of speech.

    ¡°She¡¯s reacting to my blood,¡± I explained matter of factly, ¡°She has some Sharkfolk heritage in her, it makes her sensitive to the scent of blood.¡±

    ¡°I-I see¡­¡±

    ¡°Once we get out of this building, the scent will dissipate and she will be fine,¡± I said as I stood up.

    ¡°Should¡­ should we not stay here for now?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I denied as I scanned over the four other people in the room, ¡°We should fall back for now, whatever happens next, we do not want to get caught up in it, and we¡¯ve recovered enough that we can easily fight our way past any normal Elementals we encounter.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­ O-okay. Then¡­ will we go di-different ways then?¡± she asked sadly.

    ¡°For now, yes.¡±

    ¡°...C-could¡­ C-could we m-maybe meet again¡­? In the f-future?¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡± I said, ¡°But for now, we need to get out of here.¡±

    My cousin was grinning foolishly, Ula was still trying to keep her distance from me, and the two knights were standing protectively around Lillian when we exited the trap door back into the courtyard of the building we were hiding under.

    Our battle had wrecked a decent sized chunk of the area, falling buildings made up the majority of the surrounding structures now, and everything was covered in ice. Two large frozen legs made to resemble armor, and some fist-sized chunks of ice were all that remained of the Greater Elemental.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± I said curtly.

    There was nothing visible, Ula had even jumped up on one of the more intact builds to look around, and had spotted nothing. We were safe, but I felt a sense of oppression slowly building. When we were still down in the cellar I had felt nothing, but once we began climbing the ladder outside, I started noticing it.

    And it was getting stronger.

    ¡°There is a survivor over there,¡± Ula shouted from the roof, her hand pointing toward the south.

    We all turned our gaze to where she pointed, and indeed, she was correct. A woman stood there, likely a soldier who barely survived. She wore armor, but it was cracked and smashed, the leather torn and cut. She still held a sword, even if the weapon was damaged, but she held it limply and loosely, as if she were shocked senseless. Her red hair was unruly and dirty, her clothing and armor were caked in mud and blood, but she looked like any normal person at a glance.

    But, she was no normal person.

    A sense of wrongness and corruption, stronger than anything I had felt all night, stronger than I had even though possible, emanated from the woman. The feeling that the Greater Elemental gave off was nothing compared to this, a light breeze compared to a tornado, a puddle on the floor to an ocean.

    The woman turned to face us, the right half of her face was burnt, even the eye was gone. Burns extended down her neck and down into her armor, most likely covering her chest and going to her arm and leg. Butthose burns were now covered inice, in fact, her entire right arm was made from transparent ice, the original limb of flesh and blood was long gone.

    The Greater Elemental was powerful, but not what I would call strong. If I had been properly equipped with quality weapons, I would have easily destroyed it, if Michael¡¯s soul had not been hidden within my heart, I would have destroyed it easily. And if I were still the me from before, the Greater Elemental would not have even qualified to be my opponent.

    But this, this thing in the guise of a woman¡­

    This was strong.

 Chapter 26: Defeat.

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:47

    Charo Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    The thing observed us with its one remaining eye, this simple act making my skin crawl, my muscles tense, and my mana to flow erratically. It took all of my willpower to not move, to not attack the corruption before me, to not turn and flee.

    And while I locked my body down, my attention had wavered, I had not even noticed that the thing in the guise of a woman had turned fully toward us, even having begun to lift its weapon.

    ¡°You! Name yourself!¡± One of my cousin¡¯s guards had noticed however, and yelled out to the thing.

    But he did not understand what was before us. Just like with the other Elementals, no one seemed to understand what they were, how wrong they were, how corrupt they were.

    And yet, the thing halted in its movements for just the slightest moment as it considered what he said. Still, it was only for a moment, and then it resumed its seemingly hostile movement.

    ¡°Stay your hand!¡± The same guard yelled again, but the thing ignored him and even took a step towards our group.

    But, that one moment of hesitation was enough for me to realize it wasn¡¯t as mindless as the Elementals we had been fighting.

    ¡°I said stop! If you-¡±

    ¡°Wait.¡± I cut the knight off and stepped forward towards it.

    The corrupted thing did not stop as I stepped forward, it did not alter its movements at all.

    ¡°By the Covenant of the Planes, I ask for parley,¡± I spoke in the ancient, arcane tongue that once spread throughout the multiverse.

    My words, a mixture of hissing, growling, singing, and normal speech, could only be understood by those who already knew the meaning behind them. Anyone who did not, would find it impossible to make sense of what I just said, to remember the sounds, to try and copy them. Even a single word, repeated, would sound different each time, it would defy any attempts at leaving a record. A listener could not even remember the words once they were spoken.

    My companions all stopped and threw odd looks at me, but I paid them no mind, my attention was focused on the aberration of nature before me. The thing stopped at my words, but other than tilting its head, it did nothing else.

    ¡°By the Covenant of the Planes, I ask for parley,¡± I asked again.

    This time, the thing lifted its other arm, the one made of ice, and began feeling around its face. It explored both of its ears before turning to the front of its face, it ran frozen fingers over its throat and then moved to its mouth. It peeled back its lips, pushed around its tongue, moved around the cheeks, and then even tore out one of its teeth.

    ¡°By the Covenant of the Planes, I ask for Parley,¡± I repeated for the third time.

    The thing watched me as I spoke, it¡¯s eyes taking in my every movement even as I attempted to make each of those movements as obvious as possible. Finally, it seemed to have a moment of clarity, and it drew in a ragged breath, something it had not been doing since it first appeared. At first, it choked, the blood leaking from the scratched interior of its mouth and missing tooth did not help, but after a few breaths, it mastered how to breathe.

    ¡°Byyyyy¡­ bbbY.... BY!... bY¡­ ThE¡­ coVEn¡­ CoVenANt¡­ of¡­ ThE¡­ PLaNeSSS, I Grrrr-GrANt pARleY¡­¡± The thing struggled to speak, but its words could be understood. ¡°bY ThE CoVenANt, nA-nAMe¡­ yoUR¡­ yOURselfff¡±

    Its words were difficult to understand due to its lack of experience using a human body to make sound, but it was enough. Enough that I could understand it, and enough that it could understand me, which was all I needed to use this ancient language to try and negotiate with it.

    A long time ago, when this language was more widely used, a grand spell was woven into it, that allowed any two sides who could both understand it, to forcibly come to a discussion. Unless the Elemental before me had never learned this language, or was completely mindless, the magic in the words would force it to talk to me.

    All of this was an ancient way to try and avoid conflict between the most powerful beings, and it seemed to have worked to some degree, just like it was working right now.

    ¡°I Am Olivia Pine Fredirin. I ask for your name.¡±

    ¡°KeLLhuS, EmiSSary of sTiLL FRost.¡±

    My hands, already clenched into fists, tightened further still at the thing¡¯s words. I had already suspected it, but knowing what this thing was, it still increased the pressure on me.

    ¡°Greetings, Kellhus, Emissary of Still Frost.¡± Despite my unease, I still followed the ancient protocol for this meeting.

    ¡°Grrrr-GreatinGS, OlivIA pINE FRedirin.¡± And the Elemental Lord before me did the same, following the rules perfectly.

    Still, an Elemental Lord... This was a calamity for Arvas, and likely the entire Fredirin Kingdom. I was unsure what heights the mortals of this world had reached, but from what I had seen so far, an Elemental Lord should be beyond them. Maybe, if the entire Kingdom fought it at once, they might be able to prevail, but such a concentration of forces would be largely impossible.

    From the understanding I had acquired since I had woken up here, this Elemental Lord will likely be able to sweep through the entire Kingdom, if it desired to do so. In fact, it should be able to sweep through the entire planet, nothing would be able to stand against it. And that presumes that the planet itself doesn¡¯t collapse under the weight of the Lord¡¯s Mana. Most likely, within days the planet will break apart and the chunks will be absorbed into the Elemental Plane of Water.

    A Lord could step upon only the strongest of worlds, and this one, while pretty decent, was not strong enough to host such a powerful being.

    ¡°Cur-CurIOUs ThAT a moRtaL-aL knoWS This toNGue aND knOWs of ThE CoVenANt.¡± The Elemental Lord, Kellhus¡¯s voice broke me out of my thoughts. ¡°whiLE I haVE giVEn pARleY, yoU mu-muST spEAk.¡±

    ¡°Why are you here?¡± I decided to ask the most important question first.

    ¡°HEre? whY am I HEre? WhEre is HEre?¡± Kellhus instead asked in confusion.

    ¡°Here?¡± I,myself, was confused at its confusion. ¡°This is a material world.¡±

    ¡°It¡­ iS¡­?¡± It looked around bewildered for a second, ¡°It iS¡­ whY am I HEre? ThEre is LiTTle wATer, LiTTle iCE.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­¡± I was getting even more confused by Kellhus¡¯s behavior, ¡°How did you get here?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I am an AsPEct. I waSss insPEctinG a Di-disTURbanCe. An OpEninG in ThE bARrier to a wORld. BuT¡­ ThE bARrier waSss wICKed, cORruPt. I waSss¡­ I waSss drAwN in, trapPed! cuT of FroM mY mAin BodY!¡± Kellhus¡¯s tone stayed neutral, but it got louder and it was clear it was agitated.

    However, none of its agitation mattered to me.

    This thing was not an Elemental Lord itself, but only an aspect of one. A Lord could divide their will into portions, allowing multiple bodies with their own mind to work on multiple projects at once. Aspects were powerful, holding a portion of the main body¡¯s strength, but they were nothing compared to the main body.

    ¡°And that body? It is a mortal¡¯s, is it not?¡± I asked.

    ¡°YeS, mY BodY waSss deStROyed wHen I waSss drAwn in. ThiS BodY waSss SUitaBLe.¡±

    With that, I was able to confirm that while Arvas would take severe damage in the process, defeating the Aspect should be possible for the people who had remained within the castle. My only current concern would be that that was where Pamela and Timothy had been taking shelter. That said, there was nothing I could do about it now, and they would also be safest there, I knew that the castle would be the last place to fall if it came to that, and it would not. The elites within would move out well before the rest of the city was destroyed and the castle threatened. I knew that the King, my grandfather, has a powerful bodyguard by the name of Xavier, who was reportedly over Rank 10. He might not be enough to face this aspect himself, but with support, he could surely destroy it.

    ¡°Then I would like to ask you to allow me and my companions to withdraw peacefully. Otherwise we will be forced to fight, and while weaker than you, with your body being unstable, you should avoid a fight now.¡±

    ¡°nO.¡± Was the simple reply.

    ¡°Why?¡± I frowned, not understanding why Kellhus would want to fight.

    ¡°ThE mAGiC of ThE CoVenANt PReVeNts me fRom attACKinG yoU nOw, buT ThE AuRA of cORruPtioN aROUnd yoU is tOO stROnG, I neeD to CLeanSe it.¡±

    My frown deepened at that, but it made sense. The Elemental itself was so corrupted that to its own senses, anything else would seem corrupt in turn.

    But, it was also a problem. Because I understood exactly how overwhelming the sensation to destroy the source of this unpleasant feeling was. The only reason I did not attack it was due to the fact I would not win.

    ¡°We have no conflict between us.¡± I tried to reason.

    ¡°YoU havE deStROyed mY breTHRen, a conFLiCT yoU stARted.¡±

    ¡°...¡± I couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh.

    ¡°ThE lesSEr spaWN aRe of no cONcerN, buT yoU deStROyed onE of mY chiLdreN. ThiS bodY I hAVe taKEn deStROyed anOTHer, anD onE mORe waS deStROyed bY ThE lesSer MortALs reCENtlY.¡±

    Elementals could be logical to a fault, but they also operated from a different base than most other things. In Kellhus¡¯s mind, the people here needed to be destroyed, thus, they should be destroyed. If they resist, that was, to the Elemental, illogical and irrational. That other Elementals were destroyed in the fighting, was not excusable, Kellhus did not give us the right to self-defense, and no amount of reasoning with the Elemental Lord would change its mind. The fact that three Greater Elementals had been killed had likely cemented its stance.

    Still, to think that the original owner of the Lord¡¯s body had destroyed a Greater Elemental herself, she must have been someone of some import.

    ¡°By the Covenant of the Planes, I offer compensation for favor and grace.¡±

    ¡°bY ThE CoVenANt of the PLaNeSss¡­ yoU mAY preSEnT yoUr oFFer.¡±

    ¡°By the Covenant of the Planes, I require time to present my offer, time to discuss it with my companions.¡±

    ¡°GraNTed.¡±

    Without another word to the Elemental Lord, I turned back to the others, who all looked confused at the conversation we were having.

    ¡°Lillian,¡± I said while ignoring their questioning gazes, ¡°We need to get far away from that thing, do you have any magic items to help?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I do not know? What is it?¡± she started out panicked, but calmed quickly once she began talking, ¡°And I think I recognize it?¡±

    ¡°It is¡­¡± I hesitated, unsure how much I should say, but then decided on just the minimum for now. ¡°It is an Aspect of an Elemental Lord.¡±

    ¡°A what?¡± My cousin voiced her confusion and the others all showed equally puzzled expressions on their faces.

    ¡°An Elemental Lord is a step above a Greater Elemental, but that is only an Aspect of one, and a weakened one. It should be¡­ well, still very powerful.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­ we need to outrun it?¡± She asked, probably not really understanding what I had explained.

    ¡°We can¡¯t fight it. It is, at least, three or four times more powerful than the Greater Elemental we just fought.¡±

    And that, caused everyone¡¯s confused expressions to morph into panic and fear.

    ¡°I¡­ I do not know¡­ I have a wand that can allow a person to fly, but the speed is not that fast,¡± she said hesitantly.

    ¡°How fast?¡±

    ¡°Maybe¡­ a normal person¡¯s running speed?¡±

    ¡°Not fast enough,¡± I rejected that without a thought. ¡°Anything else?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ I have a ring¡­¡± She said and then lifted her hand to show a small, bland metal band on her pinky finger, ¡°It can be used to cast a recall spell¡­¡±

    ¡°But¡­?¡± I prompted knowing there was more to it than that.

    ¡°It can only be used by one person¡­¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡±

    ¡°And it will teleport the user into the basement of my family¡¯s house, but still¡­¡± My cousin said as she removed the ring from her finger and then handed it to me, ¡°I want you to use it.¡±

    Lillian put the ring into my own hand, and for a moment, I was at a loss.

    Certainly, securing my own safety was the best option. Ula was one of my soldiers, and while I personally liked the woman, she was a soldier. I would not want to abandon her if I could help it, but if I must, I would. As for my cousin, I was still unsure what to do with her, my prior deliberations on the topic were left incomplete when the Elementals attacked, and by now, not only had she shown her worth, but she had begun to¡­ grow on me. Leaving her behind, that was not something I wanted to do if I could help it.

    As for her two guards, I couldn¡¯t care less about them.

    But, I also had to consider where the ring was going to take me, which was right into the depths of the Quarry Family Estate. The estate might not be that heavily guarded right now with the current situation, but would definitely be trapped and magically warded. I could probably escape, but that was not a risk I wanted to take.

    Unless I had to.

    ¡°I will keep this for now,¡± I said as I stored the ring into one of my pockets, all the while ignoring the two knights who looked as if they were about to explode, ¡°But, we need to consider alternatives. We can not fight that, and we seemingly can not run, can we hide?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± My cousin seemed lost in thought for a second before suddenly coming to a realization, ¡°I have this!¡±

    Lillian reached into a pouch on her hip and withdrew what appeared to be an hourglass. But instead of sand or water, it was filled with a shimmering green dust.

    ¡°This can be used twice. When the dust goes down the first time, it will turn red, and then on the second, it will disappear entirely. It takes sixty minutes for the sand to change places, but while the sand is flowing, it creates a nearly impenetrable barrier, we can hide in it for that time, and maybe someone will come by to help? Or the Elemental will leave?¡±

    ¡°Hmm...¡°

    That could work, but I wasn¡¯t sure if Kellhus would leave, or if anyone strong enough to fight the Elemental Lord would arrive, at least not without it creating a lot of destruction first. But, my real concern, was that the impenetrable barrier would not live up to its name, a magic item can only store so much magic, nothing made by mortal hands could ever be unbeatable or unbreakable, and I feared that my cousin did not really understand what we were up against.

    But, we had no choice.

    ¡°I need to say something to the Elemental, but when I speak, I will have my hands clenched into fists, when I release them, activate that magic item,¡± I instructed.

    ¡°Okay!¡± my cousin said excitedly. ¡°Oh, the barrier will enclose us, but it¡¯s small, so we all need to be close together.¡±

    ¡°Then, everyone get near me,¡± I said as I turned back to face the Elemental Lord.

    ¡°My apologies for the wait,¡± I said to Kellhus, and momentarily paused as I felt four bodies huddle right behind and beside me, ¡°We have come to an agreement on what to offer.¡±

    ¡°MaKe yoUr oFFer.¡±

    ¡°I offer nothing,¡± I said as I unclenched my fists.

    As my words echoed out across the empty street, a mist-like barrier that barely obscured vision spread out from behind me, stopping only a few inches in front of me and about two feet above me.

    My cousin was right, it was small.

    ¡°It¡¯s active, the Elemental won''t be able to reach us.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± I responded, but then frowned as I saw the Elemental¡¯s lips move and realized I couldn¡¯t hear it any longer, ¡°It seems that this blocks sound too.¡±

    ¡°It does, it blocks everything. Magic won''t go through it at all, it even blocks underground, and because air can¡¯t get through, the item makes its own air¡­ I think enough for five of us¡­¡±

    ¡°So we can not get a message through either?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, nothing. Well¡­ Sight can go through it, so we could motion to people, but nothing else ca-¡±

    My cousin froze mid-word as the barrier shook, a great blast of icy air smashed into the barrier making the mist like structure waver.

    ¡°Wha¡­ Th-that took off about a minute of time!¡± She said in a panic as she looked at the magical hourglass.

    ¡°So we have around fifty-eight minutes left?¡±

    ¡°B-but how can its attacks damage the barrier like that?¡±

    ¡°Just be happy that we can tell it''s happening. In the worse case scenario, it can keep doing that, and we¡¯ll be forced to use the magic item a second time.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ the item needs to recharge, it only takes five minutes, but still¡­¡±

    ¡°Then¡­ we need to buy time¡­¡± Ula spoke for the first time since we left the cellar, luckily the dire situation seemed to have cleared her mind, and she no longer wanted to eat me.

    But what she said¡­ could we buy time against an Elemental Lord? Even just a weakened aspect of one?

    No¡­ After thinking about it, we could not. The other four people would die once it focused on them, and I, in my current state, would be hard-pressed to even stall for one minute, let alone five.

    What to do¡­?

    If only Michael was not still within my heart, I would be able to fight more freely, then I would be able to not only stall, but maybe drive Kellhus away.

    Again, as I pondered what to do, the barrier wavered, and I heard my cousin exclaim that we had lost another minute. That was two minutes lost in about half a minute of time, at this rate we would have less than thirty minutes in here, maybe even less than twenty.

    If Michael¡¯s soul being within my heart was the problem, then I just needed to remove it. But, the crystal was fused to the tissue of my heart, I could not just tear it out, not without severely damaging my heart in the process. And I could easily sense that the crystal was not yet ready to be removed naturally, it still had a day to go.

    But¡­ that might be my only option. I could speed the process up.

    If I focused entirely on cycling my mana into the crystal, I could reduce the time. But just that, was not going to be enough. I simply could not cycle enough mana through my body fast enough, not without damaging my body with the force of my own mana.

    Which meant, I needed to further strengthen my body first, and the only way I could do that in a short time, was to convert my mortal body into something that was more in line with my soul, in essence, becoming part Outsider.

    This was my long-term goal in the first place, but I would have originally spent much time, years even, first reforging my body to make it as strong as possible. If I did it now, while I could increase in power later on, it would be more difficult to do so.

    And, I would be trapped in this body, the body of a child. Once I converted the parts I needed too in order to cycle my mana, my growth would slow to a crawl, if it didn¡¯t stop entirely.

    The barrier wavered again, and I had no more time.

    ¡°Everyone, I need to meditate, do not bother me while I do, but alert me when there are only five minutes left,¡± I said and then abruptly sat down in the little space I had, and then closed my eyes.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:55

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    Tunnel vision could be a real problem for some people.

    ¡°I¡­ Don¡¯t understand what it is doing¡­¡± An adjutant mumbled in confusion.

    Experts tended to look at everything through the lenses of their expertise, a craftsman will try to solve a problem through their craft, a merchant will try to use money, a general will try to use military might, a mage will try to use magic, and so on.

    It can be a dangerous mistake to make. A merchant looks at everything throughthe lens of how much profit it can bring, the costs versus the benefits. It is really easy for a merchant to assume others do too, that they all think the same. But sometimes, the appeal of benefits is far less effective than an emotional appeal.

    General Merrick¡¯s adjutants were all trained in the military arts, and they viewed the world in that way. Maybe not always, but right now, in the middle of a military conflict, they were locked into that one mindset. And due to that, they were baffled by the Fragment¡¯s actions.

    For ten minutes now, the Fragment had done the same as the spider-like Greater Elemental, stood still and used ranged attacks. Unlike the Greater Elemental that threw massive chunks of ice that smashed through the army¡¯s lines, the Fragment fired off a volley of frozen spears every fifteen to thirty seconds. These spears then rained down upon the entire army.

    Also unlike the Greater Elemental¡¯s thrown attacks, the chunks of ice that smashed through the defenders, the Fragment¡¯s attacks were almost completely blocked, inflicting very little damage upon the army.

    ¡°You know, it is pretty simple,¡± General Merrick said.

    ¡°It is?¡± An adjutant replied while everyone nearby turned to look at the General

    ¡°The Fragment is no smarter than a regular Elemental, and its overriding goal is to kill as many things as possible. So it could lumber forward slowly and crash into our line, or it could stand back and shoot ranged attacks over the entire army. Which do you think is best?¡±

    ¡°Well, of course, the ranged attacks would seem like the best idea,¡± The adjutant answered, ¡°But since we knew what we were facing, we brought proper defenses.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± The General agreed.

    All Elementals are capable of using ranged attacks, at least that was the theory. No one could tell exactly what the differences was between two different Elementals, so while some tended to use ranged attacks more often, it was assumed that all could. Regardless, enough of them would use ranged attacks that defenses against them were not only worthwhile, but were vital. Any army lead by a general with half a brain would know to defend against ranged attacks when facing humans, against Elementals, it was even more obvious. And since the Elementals would be limited to only magical attacks based off of their Element, I was even easier to set up the proper defenses.

    The entire army was protected with heavy shields that would deflect the shards of ice, but beyond that were the magical defenses. Large-scale barriers were the final defense, but walls of wind could blow the smaller shards away and destabilize the larger ones. Firewalls would turn the small ones into water and the larger ones would be weakened and dulled, and while they didn¡¯t have many of them, walls of lightning could shatter any ice-based projectiles.

    The reason why the army was able to so quickly blow away the mist created from the Light Throwers was because this army, in particular, had a huge amount of wind mages.

    The absolute front line that came under direct fire suffered, but the bulk of the army was largely protected. Not perfectly protected, that was close to impossible.

    ¡°So why does it keep¡­ Oh!¡±

    ¡°You understand? The Fragment is too stupid to recognize the failed results of its previous attack. It views the situation, decides it can do more damage with a ranged area of effect attack, and then lets loose with all those spears of ice. When it fails to do any real damage, it doesn¡¯t notice.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ And I feel¡­ sort of dumb now.¡±

    ¡°Hmph¡­¡± The General had to stop himself from laughing, ¡°Well, it is easy to miss that. Still, have we heard anything from Techno-artillery position 4 and 5?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± A different adjutant said with a salute, ¡°Position 5 has received the spare fuel rods from position 4 and is in the process of reloading. It should be ready to fire in minutes.¡±

    ¡°So that gives us two Light Throwers able to fire?¡±

    ¡°Yes, position 4 will likely not be able to complete repairs anytime soon.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re also low on fuel I take it too?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, yes. Each Light Thrower only brought an extra set of fuel, and we lost the stockpiles from position 1 and position 2 when they were destroyed. Position 5¡¯s was destroyed too. Position 3 used its own to reload, and position 4 sent theirs to position 5. 4 still has their unused fuel currently loaded, but the weapon is offline and those fuel rods have already synchronized with it and can¡¯t be used elsewhere.¡±

    ¡°Then, once position 5 finishes reloading, have both fire simultaneously...¡± General Merrick said, but then stopped as he thought about something else, ¡°Have each weapon set to five pulses.

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±

    The General had held back from firing, even when position three had finished refueling, he ideally wanted all three of the remaining Light Throwers to fire at once, but since position 4 was now out of commision, the remaining two would have to do.

    The Fragment was currently having very little effect on the battle, it¡¯s presence was likely sapping morale, and some of its ranged attacks were slipping through the defenses. And those defenses would not hold forever, but for right now, it could be ignored to an extent.

    But, he was afraid that should it suffer damage, or even perceive itself to be under attack, it would alter its behavior. It could not learn from previous experiences, but it could react to the current situation. So seeing that it was not doing anything important, he had issued an order for the army to likewise ignore it, which was not hard since it was outside of the range of all of their potential attacks aside from the Light Throwers.

    And now, he was going to attack it. As such, he needed to make sure it was destroyed in one attack. A five pulse attack would contain a huge amount of destructive power, enough that it would destroy the Fragment even if only one attack was on target. Even if it survived, there would be enough fuel for each weapon to fire a follow-up attack with four pulses, and if that was not enough, he was not sure what to do.

    But, he still was concerned, the Light throwers have proven to be rather unreliable so far, if one failed, even if it did not explode, it would be a massive problem.

    ¡°Sir! Both Techno-artillery positions report that they are ready to fire.¡±

    ¡°Then blow the whistle.¡±

    After giving his orders, he touched his glasses again and his vision went black. The whistle sounded, and he waited.

    Two bright lines cut through his darkened vision, and then there was a bright flash and thousands of glowing flickering lights, and he knew something had gone wrong.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:57

    Royal Army Western Line, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Guardian Knight Carla Redwood.

    ¡°Carla, are you alright?¡± Pammy asked as she crouched down and pulled Carla up from the ground.

    ¡°Ye-yes, what happened?¡± She asked, dazed.

    ¡°That stupid weapon they¡¯ve been using, it must have hit too close to us, we got caught in the explosion.

    Carla looked around and could barely see anything through the mist created when the beam of light fired. They had just left the front line to go out and cut through the Elementals, but they were near enough that they should have been able to see the nearest platoon. But all she could see was a broken shield, a single dead soldier, and the top half of a bear-shaped Elemental.

    ¡°They¡¯ll blow the mist away in a second, but I think we need to fall back,¡± Pammy said, tension in her voice.

    ¡°Your arm, are you okay?¡± Carla asked, just now seeing how her friend was cradling her arm.

    ¡°A chunk of something hit me, pretty sure it is broken. We¡¯ll deal with that later, something must have gone wrong and we need to move.¡±

    Carla could only nod as she regained her bearings. Whatever had exploded had thrown her off of her feet and into the ground. She wasn¡¯t hurt, but the impact had left her stunned.

    ¡°Are you two okay?¡± Abby¡¯s voice rang out suddenly as she appeared through the mist.

    Pammy was about to respond, but she froze upon seeing their fellow knight. Or more accurately, she froze when she saw how Abby¡¯s arm was wrapped around Lala¡¯s neck as she drug the crying woman forward.

    ¡°Wh-what happened?¡± Carla asked.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°Her spear broke,¡± Abby said with a shrug, a shrug that shook Lala¡¯s body since she was still being held by the larger woman¡¯s headlock.

    Sure enough, Lala was holding both parts of her spear, the wooden shaft had broken clean in half. There was only a few inches of wood below the spearhead, and then the rest of the shaft was held in her other hand.

    ¡°My¡­ spear¡­ my spear¡­¡± Lala mumbled in disbelief.

    ¡°She used it to block a shield that got sent flying,¡± Abby explained, ¡°It would have taken her head off if she hadn¡¯t, but the spear couldn¡¯t handle it, and snapped right after.¡±

    ¡°My¡­ spear¡­¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s been like that since, I had to drag her here to find you two. Pammy, is your arm okay?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s broken,¡± She said with a sigh, ¡°but I¡¯ll get it fixed once we fall back, we shouldn¡¯t stay here.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s do¡­ Oh, the wind, the mages are blowing the mist away.¡±

    As Abby said, a huge gust of wind blew through the battlefield, cleaning away the mist that the beams of light had kicked up for the fourth time now. Carla was now able to see the area around them, and whatever the weapons had done, they had devastated the area before the front line.

    A few of the farthest forward platoons suffered some damage, mostly being knocked over while a few truly unlucky ones took a direct hit, it seemed and were reduced to a pile of bodies. But the Elementals took the brunt of the attack, nearly everything up to one hundred feet out was damaged or destroyed.

    ¡°Pammy, Lala can¡¯t fight right now, and you¡¯re injured, so you¡¯ll need to drag her back,¡± Carla ordered since she technically outranked her friend at the moment, ¡°Abby and I will stay and prevent the next wave from overrunning the front.¡±

    Pammy frowned, she clearly did not want to leave just the two of them behind, but she knew Carla¡¯s words were right. The next group of Elementals would reach the front soon, and the forward groups were in severe disarray, the Elementals might have taken the most damage here, but that would change if they overwhelmed the defenders and broke into their lines.

    ¡°Fine, but be safe.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 02:59

    Royal Army Temporary Command Center, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    General Merrick Miller.

    ¡°What happened?¡± General Merrick muttered as the wind once again blew, clearing away the mist that the Light Throwers had created.

    Hundreds of Elementals had been destroyed in that attack, but the Fragment was completely unharmed. If it wasn¡¯t for the devastation left behind, he would have assumed that both weapons had missed, but that clearly wasn¡¯t the case.

    ¡°General¡­ I think¡­¡± His adjutant said even as he leaned forward while squinting towards the battlefield.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°There¡­ seems to be a small layer of fog around the Fragment.¡±

    ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°It was always there, but I think we just thought it was nothing special, but if I look closer, it looks like it isn¡¯t just a fog, and is a layer of ice shards, very small ice shards.¡±

    At his adjutant¡¯s words, no one spoke, but several other people either joined him in squinting as they leaned forward, or grabbed spyglasses and used those to look out towards the Fragment.

    ¡°He¡¯s right! It is surrounded by ice.¡±

    ¡°How could we have missed that?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ they are small¡­¡±

    ¡°So!¡± The General¡¯s voice stopped their chatter, ¡°What does that have to do with anything?¡±

    ¡°Sir, I think it is a defensive measure, a barrier. Siege weapons would be able to get through it, but not normal arrows, and as for magic, I guess it depends on the spell?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s right,¡± Another one of the General¡¯s adjutants, this one with a background in magic, said, ¡°Any spell that detonates on impact won''t be able to get through that, and then most other spells do not really have that much penetrating power. Wind blades, flamethrowers, water sprays, they won''t do anything.¡±

    ¡°And if we try the Light Throwers again?¡± The General asked, even if he already knew the answer.

    ¡°No good, Sir. I doubt even if we fired a full ten pulse shot, that those would get through. Maybe if we fired all five Light Throwers one after another at max power, but¡­¡±

    ¡°General Merrick, if this Humble One may say something?¡± Ambassador Zhou An suddenly said.

    ¡°Go ahead, Ambassador.¡±

    ¡°This is just this Humble One¡¯s thoughts, but, the Fragment should not be able to create that ice cloud without limit. Even if it requires little effort, it should still require some time, so if your mages were to either deplete it, or push it away, then, might the Light Throwers find an opening to strike?¡±

    ¡°That¡­ might work?¡± The General shot a glance at the adjutant who had already spoken about magic.

    ¡°The theory is sound¡­¡± That adjutant said as he seemed to momentarily become lost in thought.

    ¡°The question is, could we manage to do that? And then have the Light Throwers follow up?¡± Another adjutant asked.

    ¡°I think so¡­ but¡­¡±

    ¡°But, what?¡± The General asked.

    ¡°Our mages won''t be able to put out enough power at this range. They¡¯d need to be much closer.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± General Merrick said before he let his gaze wander over the battlefield, until he suddenly realized something. ¡°The Pine Family¡¯s forces should be able to cut through the Elementals and get close enough.¡±

    ¡°But they¡¯re still engaged with the other Greater Elemental.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ Pass them a message, tell them what we need them to do and then ask them to try and speed things up. And offer them any help we can.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 03:02

    Royal Army Center, 14th command post, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Commander Eslan Tale.

    ¡°Understood,¡± Eslan Tale, commander of the Pine Family forces replied without looking at the messenger, his gaze never leaving the Greater Elemental that was rampaging near the front lines, ¡°We won''t personally need help, but any reinforcements that can be sent to the front would take some pressure off of us.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir, I will see that it is done.¡± The messenger saluted and then was gone.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± The elven commander only hummed to himself, the frown he wanted to show never appeared on his face, only a stoic look that revealed nothing as he watched the unchanging battle.

    Eslan Tale was a learned officer, he had spent many years of his life, a long life by human standards, short by elven ones, studying tactics and strategy. He had an attention to fine details, but he could also see the big picture. In many ways, he was an ideal staff officer.

    But, he had little real experience.

    He had led small groups on small excursions that ended in small skirmishes, he had set up patrol routes and accurately read what small, two-bit opponents would do, but he had never fought in a large battle like this, never commanded a group of elites like he was now.

    ¡°Have Sir Jop, Sir Tolvald, and Lady Gisele report to me,¡± He ordered.

    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±

    From early on in this battle, he had realized he had made a mistake.

    His objective in the battle was first to minimize Pine Family loses, and the second was to showcase their might.

    The Greater Elemental was a powerful foe, little more than an animal, and he knew they could defeat it. He had planned to slowly box it in, to surround it and distract it, and then have his mages bombard it and destroy it in one go.

    It was a strategy he had used many times in the past when hunting.

    But, the Greater Elemental was not an animal. It did not tire, it¡¯s stamina did not wane, it did not even slow down.

    More importantly, it had no self-preservation instincts. It defended itself, but that was it. His plan of boxing it in, using groups of soldiers to block its path and direct it where he wanted, had not worked. The Greater Elemental simply did what it wanted.

    Realizing that mistake, and realizing that the Greater Elemental was willing to just ignore the Pine Family and attack the front lines, he was forced to quickly change his strategy. Now, the Pine Family was barely engaging the Greater Elemental, less than half of them were chasing after it in the hopes they could attack it from behind, while the remaining forces were supporting the front and closing the gaps that the Greater Elemental left behind.

    But, this too was not working. They were locked in a stalemate, slowly whittling each others strength down. The Greater Elemental occasionally received some attacks while his forces were slowly tiring themselves out and while the front line was suffering light damage. Because he had no way of telling how much damage the Greater Elemental had really taken, he could not be sure which side would fall first, but it did not matter. Both sides would be able to hold out until the end of the battle, and then with the help of the main army, the Greater Elemental would fall.

    This was, however, not an acceptable turn of events.

    The Pine Family had deployed an impressive amount of troops that had awed the other factions, it was a great boost for the family he served.

    However, if they spent the entire battle failing to kill a single enemy, would they not look like fools? They would have no other achievements in this battle, nothing else to fall back on. Worse, the Greater Elemental was dealing some damage to the frontlines, each soldier that lost their lives, some degree of responsibility would fall onto the Pine Family.

    Eslan Tale knew that that was just the harsh reality of war, but that was one thing, and politics was another. After the battle ended, their detractors would fall into two camps, one that would mock the Pine Family¡¯s incompetence, and the other that would claim that they had intentionally held back to conserve their own strength, that they were cowards who let the regular army feel the brunt of the Greater Elemental¡¯s might.

    The Pine Family¡¯s reputation, already low, would fall even lower. And as for Eslan Tale, while he served the Pine Family, his own reputation was considered good, so such a mark on his record would be unbearable.

    ¡°What is it Eslan?¡± came a raspy voice.

    Tolvald, the Pine Family¡¯s Rank 7 druid had seemed to materialize right out of thin air, but Commander Tale knew that he had just taken the shape of some bird previously, and had just reverted to his humanoid form, the form of a pale skinned and hairless old man.

    Behind him was Sir Job, the family¡¯s Rank 7 Elementalist, and so was Lady Gisele, the Rank 7 Arcanist.

    ¡°Command gave us orders, they need our help with the Fragment.¡± He stated.

    The three of them showed various frowns, but they said nothing since each of them were smart enough to know that there was more to come.

    ¡°We do not need to kill it, but create an opening for the army¡¯s own weapons to finish it. There is a cloud of ice around it,¡± He gave them each a second to glance at it and see for themselves, but none of the three took it, ¡°And we just need to blow a hole through that.¡±

    ¡°I see, that will require us getting pretty close,¡± Sir Jop spoke up.

    ¡°Yes, and to do that, we need to finish our current opponent¡± Lady Gisele added.

    ¡°Easier said than done,¡± Tolvald said, ¡°The stupid thing won''t stay still.¡±

    ¡°The army is going to reinforce the front so we can focus on it, but we have one chance. What do the three of you think?¡± He asked.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Sir Jop trailed off as the three of them shared a glance.

    Commander Tale let them think, because currently, he too was at a loss. Rank 7 might be a huge increase in power over Rank 6, and neither of the three were newly promoted, they each were at the middle of their Rank. But while Rank 7 was extremely powerful, not all Rank 7s were the same.

    Lady Gisele was an Arcanist, but she specializes in research and theory, and the spells she was most comfortable with were utility spells and barriers. If they needed to fireproof the Greater Elemental, or communicate with it at long distances, or let it fly, she would be a great help, but in a fight, she was less than ideal.

    Sir Tolvald was a druid, and his magic focused on affecting living things, of which the Elemental was not. It was immune to poison, to disease, to fatigue, to having it¡¯s flesh injured. Sir Tolvald was limited to hitting it with dirt or sending golems made of mud at it.

    And then, Sir Jop was the only one of the three that really focused on combat, but he was more of a duelist, his spells were designed to fight other humans, they were fast and accurate, but lacking in power. Worse, he specialized in water magic, which was by far the least useful element to use in this scenario.

    ¡°I can create an oversized Icicle spell, that should smash it to pieces, but I¡¯ll need some time, the spell will take a few seconds to cast, and then the attack will be slow. It will kill it if it hits, but getting it to hit¡­¡± It was Sir Jop who spoke up first.

    ¡°Well¡­ this old man could maybe hold that snake down for a few seconds, but, I¡¯d need to be out of the way before your attack lands. And, even the attempt will leave me exhausted, I¡¯ll be out of the fight after.¡±

    ¡°You can?¡± Lady Gisele asked in surprise.

    ¡°Aye,¡± Tolvald confirmed, ¡°I have some big things I can turn into, but I can only hold those forms for about half a minute, then I¡¯ll be done for.¡±

    ¡°If you could just hold it down to the ground, I think I could bind it to the earth. I was able to bind its arms, but since it has no legs, there was nothing I could do to keep it in place, it just slithered away and then the first spell would wear off.¡±

    ¡°If the two of you can restrain it, can you Sir Jop finish it off?¡± The commander asked.

    ¡°I think so.¡±

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 03:06

    Charo Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    ¡°Um¡­ Cat, there are only five minutes left.¡± Ula¡¯s soft voice along with her gentle shaking brought me back to awareness.

    ¡°How long has it been?¡± I asked, even as I still tried to finish doing what was needed.

    ¡°Less than twenty minutes¡­¡± Was Ula¡¯s pained response.

    I frowned.

    Ula¡¯s words, they only confirmed what I had already known, I had run out of time.

    I hadn¡¯t finished refining Michael¡¯s soul, not only that, I hadn¡¯t even transformed enough of my body so that I could accelerate the refinement process safely.

    But I could not fight with his soul within my heart.

    ¡°Um... ¡° Lillian began to say as another wave of energy crashed into the barrier, ¡°There is only three minutes left.¡±

    If I fought without being able to use most of my power, I would have no chance.

    And since that was the case, I could only remove the crystal now, no matter how much it would damage me.

    ¡°I will need any potions and healing supplies we have in a second,¡± I stated but did not listen to what anyone else said.

    My mind was focused on my mana, the flow of it as it circulated within my body. Just an hour ago, the flow was mostly similar to any other humans, the mana traveled along with the blood, from the heart to the brain, then through the organs, to the extremities, and then back to the heart. Mine was slightly different, the amount of mana collected near my heart was greater, the connection from heart to brain was faster and smoother, and pools of mana were able to form and stay within my body.

    But things had just changed, in my arms and legs the flow was the same, but not in my chest. As I converted some of my organs into something beyond mortal, there was no longer a distinct flow within my chest, all of the organs, muscles, bones, and tissues within were able to absorb mana directly. If a detailed examination were given, my entire chest would appear to be functioning as a heart.

    I pulled the mana from all across my body, condensing it into one area, my heart. With each beat of the muscle, my mana acted the same. When my heart contracted, my mana was pulled in, when my heart expanded to push out blood, the mana went out with it. At first, it beat at a normal rate for me, fast for normal humans, but it quickly sped up. Two hundred beats per minute, three hundred, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and then, eventually nearly a thousand beats per minute.

    The organs in my chest, partially converted, were just barely able to handle this, but the rest of my body could not.

    The blood vessels in my arms and legs ruptured almost immediately, and, even while I diverted some of my focus to repair them, they instantly broke down again. Under my leather armor, my skin was turning purple and black as blood was welling up under the surface. The process of constant destruction and repair along with the erratic mana flow was ripping apart the surrounding tissue too, my ligaments, tendons, and even muscles were snapping and tearing, and I could not be bothered to deal with them. Very quickly the damage spread to my nerves, and I lost all sensation in my limbs.

    That, however, could be repaired easily enough after I was done. The organs I had not sufficiently converted, they were going through the same process, and they would be much, much harder to fix.

    Both of my kidneys failed at practically the same time, I had barely converted them at all, and they were torn asunder. My stomach ruptured, sending bile that mixed with blood up into my mouth, my intestines broke apart, nearly half of my liver ended up gone, and some of the smaller organs ended up completely destroyed.

    But it was enough.

    I felt the crystal, now completely refined, slid out of my heart. Unlike when I forced it in, it was now a part of myself, and I could manipulate it with my mana just like I could my own hand or foot. I simply pushed it through the wall of my lung, the tear swiftly sealing itself, and then I forced it up into my throat.

    ¡°Are you okay?!¡± Ula yelled in a panic as she saw me spit out a flood of crimson blood.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I responded even as I slid the crystal that had come out with the blood into my pocket, it bumping into my other cousin¡¯s ring in the process, ¡°how long?¡±

    ¡°Less than a minute,¡± Lillian said, unease clear in her voice. Whether that was from the impending collapse of the barrier, or seeing my state, I did not know.

    ¡°I will keep it occupied for five minutes and draw it away in the process. You need to try and either hide, or run. After five minutes, if you are still around, I will come back, if not, I¡¯ll run myself.¡±

    I looked at the abomination, Kellhus, who had remained exactly where it was when we were speaking, fifty feet down the road from us. I was confident I could hold it back for five minutes with the current level of power I could show, but I was not sure my body would hold up for that amount of time.

    ¡°Will you be okay?¡± my cousin asked.

    ¡°I can at least run if I need to now,¡± I said, and then I pulled the ring from my pocket and gave it back to the small girl, ¡°Here, you keep this.¡±

    I could tell she was protesting, I could tell that Ula did not seem happy either, that her two knights were happy, but I did not pay attention. I had my final preparations to do.

    The blood within my body had repaired what could be repaired, reinforced what could be reinforced, and then it slowly seeped through my skin, flowing down my body and soaking into my armor. I could not see it myself, but I know my eyes had turned black and red again, back to how they usually were. As the pupils stretched from small dots to slits that ran from top to bottom, I could suddenly see more than I could before. The mana in the air, previously something I could just sense, was now visible.

    A film of blood appeared in front of me as I raised my hand after seeing Kellhus begin to draw mana for another attack.

    I braced myself, and waited.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 03:08

    Royal Army Western Line, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Guardian Knight Carla Redwood.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ something is up.¡± Abby Redwood suddenly said.

    Of course, Carla was able to tell that herself, the magic attacks landing near them, formerly sporadic and infrequent, had suddenly increased in intensity. The nearby Elementals that would only occasionally suffer a small hit if they got unlucky, were suddenly being blasted apart.

    Still, the rain of magic attacks was aimed twenty to thirty feet away from the two of them, so while they could tell the attacks had picked up, the exact damage being inflicted could not be determined.

    But both of them would have to be blind to have not noticed the nearly three platoons of additional soldiers that had rushed forward to reinforce them. And these men and women weren¡¯t simple fodder either, they were elites of the army. Probably each of them was an upper-level Rank 3 or maybe even somewhere in the early stages of Rank 4. They all held high-quality equipment too, it didn¡¯t compare to what the Pine Family¡¯s knights used, but for a regular soldier, it was high-quality stuff.

    ¡°Yes, I wonder what is hap-¡± Carla began to say, but a loud roar echoed throughout the field and cut her words short.

    Both knights swiftly turned their gaze towards the source, where a massive brown scaled wyrm was lunging into the Greater Elemental. Two snake-like arms shot out, biting time and time again into the wyrm¡¯s body, tearing through the scales and sending acidic green blood flying. The wyrm paid the bites no mind as it coiled around the Greater Elemental¡¯s body, it¡¯s own claws raking the icy being as it¡¯s fanged maw bit down on the shoulder. The two struggled, but it was the wyrm that came out on top, as more superficial wounds were inflicted upon its body, its blood oozed across the Greater Elemental¡¯s body, pitting and burning it.

    ¡°That must be Sir Tolvald¡­¡± Carla said surprised.

    That Sir Tolvald could transform into different animals was well known, that he could transform into a forty foot long wyrm, that was not known.

    ¡°I wonder why he didn¡¯t do that from the start?¡± Abby questioned.

    Carla would have answered, but she had no idea. The two of them, along with the soldiers nearby, watched in awe as the giant wyrm wrestled the Greater Elemental to the ground.

    And just as it did that, there was a bright red flash, and then the wyrm was gone, but whatever was the source of the red light had remained. As they watched, unsure as to what was happening, a massive shard of ice suddenly appeared in the air over the red light.

    ¡°Shit, that Elemental is doing something,¡± Abby said.

    ¡°No,¡± Carla shook her head, ¡°I think that is Sir Jop¡¯s magic.¡±

    The ice shard begun to rotate in the air, it¡¯s spinning picking up speed to the point where the snow in the air was blown away.

    At once, the icicle shot forth, smashing into the ground where the source of the red glow was. A great shock shot through the ground, bouncing several of the soldiers around as they lost their balance.

    ¡°Huh, I wonder if they got it?¡±

    Carla said nothing, she just stood still and watched. The impact had kicked up a great deal of dirt and snow which was now obscuring their vision. But as the debris started the settle, they could see that the red glow was gone.

    Without warning, the ground a hundred feet away from them suddenly erupted, snow, mud, frozen chunks of dirt, even some unlucky soldiers, were sent flying into the air. This cloud was even larger than the one kicked up by Sir Jop¡¯s spell.

    ¡°Fall back!¡± Carla yelled, a sense of unease suddenly passing over her.

    From the eruption of dirt and ice, the Greater Elemental barreled out, it was missing a huge chunk of its chest, as well as one of its arms, and it was covered in mud, but it was very much alive, and very much charging straight towards them.

    ¡°Scatter!¡± Abby shouted, and the surrounding soldiers ran in every direction possible.

    Carla knew that the Elementals, even a Greater Elemental, could not get angry, they had no emotions, no mind at all. But as she watched the massive Greater Elemental in the shape of a headless lamia charge forward, she couldn¡¯t help but feel that it was enraged, that it was furious.

    The Greater Elemental moved quickly despite its size, or maybe due to its size. Regardless of how, it was already upon them, and those that hadn¡¯t gotten out of the way were either knocked flying, or were ground to paste under its serpentine body.

    Carla held her shield out and braced her body. Her feet were firmly planted on the ground and mana flowed through her body, a layer of yellow light glowing around her as she waited.

    And it was a short wait, one second the Greater Elemental was still several feet away, the next a solid wall of ice was in front of her, and then the next, she felt light and numb, her feet could not feel the ground, and she could only see the night sky as her vision grew dim.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 03:09

    Charo Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    There are many different styles that one could use to fight. Some like to watch their enemy like a predator and aim for their weak points, others prefer to rely on speed to strike and retreat, others depend on their powerful defenses, others strike with the intent to win in one blow, others let the enemy strike first so that they can land a counter. There are uncountable ways to fight.

    In the past, I preferred to go all out, to overwhelm my opponent. Every strike aimed to crush the enemy. I would batter down any defenses, I would knock away any attacks, I would attack and attack and attack so that no counter could be sent, no one could run, I furiously advanced, through any obstacle, through any defense, through any attack. I crushed my enemies from the front. There was no honor, no dishonor, my attacks would be sent towards any opening I found, no area, no method, nothing was off limits, anything to smash my opponent into the dirt. It might have been inelegant, but it was efficient, a surefire way to take apart my enemy.

    It was a style that not many could use, it required a high degree of speed to keep the flurry of attacks coming, a high degree of power to make the attacks count, a high degree of defense to weather anything that was sent your way, and a high degree of awareness to always keep track of the target and their weaknesses and openings.

    Not many used it, but it was a style that fit perfectly with me, and it was what I tried to use when fighting the Greater Elemental earlier. I might have lacked strength, but I never let up my attacks, I attacked furiously and relentlessly.

    I am not so prideful to think that I was the best fighter, or even that I was the best with that particular style. But, I knew it well, knew it extremely well. And my experience and knowledge was telling me one thing right now.

    I was going to lose.

    Kellhus used the same style. The Elemental Lord relentlessly advanced towards me, every attack was an attack with all of its power, every attack came in with the intent to kill. A flurry of blows, each aimed at taking my life. The only reason I had not been defeated yet was due to my small size, the fact that every time I blocked one of its hits, not only was I damaged, but I was blown backward. I dodged or deflected its sword, but as for its legs, knees, fists, and elbows, while I tried my best to dodge those too, many of them I simply couldn¡¯t. I did my best to block, only a few hits managed to break through my defenses, but that was still too many. Even the blows that I did defend against, that landed on my own arms or legs as I guarded, were damaging my body to a great extent.

    Two minutes we fought, three more I had to hold out for, and I did not think I could do so.

    But what was really bothering me now, was that I had this feeling suddenly, that something was wrong. In my past, when one of my siblings had been hurt or killed, I always had a feeling right before it happened. A sinking feeling in my stomach, a sense of unease that permeated my being.

    Kellhus closed the distance again, its sword flying in a horizontal backhand arc trying to cut me in half, but I jumped back and barely dodged it. It stepped forward after me, his right fist, a limb made of ice, was sent straight out towards my head. I ducked the blow, pushed off the ground and tried to leap sideways, but somehow an armored foot was sent at me. I curled both of my arms in front of me, and the foot smashed into my forearms, my bones cracked, but since I was again sent flying, the damage was mitigated. I smashed through the wall of some building, stone and mortar falling down around me even as Kellhus followed me in.

    Another slash, another knee, another fist, another elbow, the attacks kept coming in. Again, I was sent flying, breaking through the back of the building into a different road, and again Kellhus followed.

    I was losing, but I could not focus my mind. Something was wrong.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 03:10

    Royal Army Western Line, Berzin Hills, 5 miles south of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Guardian Knight Abby Redwood.

    ¡°Shit! Shit! Shit¡­¡± Abby Redwood cursed as she drug her friend and fellow knight through the snow.

    Her arms were looped under Carla¡¯s armpits as she pulled her away from where she had landed after getting hit by the Greater Elemental, a trail of broken and dented metal plates that were formerly armor, mixed with blood, showed that she had been pulled nearly forty feet.

    ¡°Hey¡­ Hey! Carla!¡± She yelled as she stopped dragging her and tried to wake her up.

    Abby removed the bent helmet, revealing a blood-caked face. Carla¡¯s nose was broken, a large gash across her forehead was leaking blood, and even more was welling up from her mouth. On occasional cough was the only sign that she was still alive.

    ¡°Shit! Damnit!¡±

    Abby felt around Carla¡¯s neck, trying to check and see if she had any broken bones there, but the metal plate that protected her throat made it difficult to tell. Still, she was confident enough that she tilted Carla¡¯s head to the side and then, using her finger, scrapped as much of the blood from her mouth as possible. Seeing that things were as good as they were goint to get, Abby stopped and then reached into a pouch on her belt and withdrew a small metal flask.

    ¡°Come on¡­ Drink this¡­¡±

    She tilted the flask into Carla¡¯s mouth, but most of the faintly glowing red liquid ended up overflowing her lips and running down her chin. Even less of it went down her throat once she started coughing again.

    Soon the flask was empty, but Abby withdrew another one, and this time she first poured a bit of it over her friend¡¯s face, the blood from her nose and forehead wound was making it hard to tell exactly what was happening.

    By the time she had brought the half-empty flask back to Carla¡¯s lips, the bleeding on her head had already slowed. Carla again coughed as Abby tried to feed her the potion, more blood had welled up in her mouth in that short moment of time. Abby was a pure fighter, but she knew basic first aid, so she also knew that the blood coming up from Carla¡¯s throat indicated some form of internal injury.

    But that was obvious right now.

    Carla¡¯s armor was crushed, the breastplate was split open down the center, shards of the metal had snapped the underlying chain mail, cut through the leather under that, and then dug into her flesh. Her armor was little more than scrap metal now, and her body was not in much better of a state.

    Abby tried to pull away some of the fragments of Carla¡¯s armor, but gave up when she wiggled one of the pieces and her friend gave a pained groan as blood seemed to almost squirt out of the cracked armor. Abby¡¯s third potion was then poured directly into the opening in the armor, directly into Carla¡¯s chest. This wasn¡¯t exactly a good idea, the potion would try to heal the wound, but ideally, a wound needed to be cleaned out first, or at least, the large foreign objects needed to be pulled out, otherwise the healing tissue would grow around them leading to all sorts of problems.

    Still, there was no time.

    A fourth potion was poured over the wound, and then Abby took the fifth potion and drew it into her own mouth, before bending down and bringing her lips to Carla¡¯s bloodstained ones, and trying to force the potion down her throat that way. She wasn¡¯t sure how successful she was, but Carla¡¯s breathing became slightly less labored and the coughing was softer.

    Carla was still dying, but she managed to buy some time. Not enough to get her to a proper medic, but enough to try something else.

    Abby rooted through Carla¡¯s pouches, the injured knight had her own potions, but the flasks that contained her healing potions had been crushed along with her armor, the life-saving fluid had already drained into the mud. The remaining potions had various beneficial effects, but besides a single potion to restore stamina, the rest were useless right now.

    Abby poured the stamina restoring potion over Carla¡¯s wounds, the effect would be reduced greatly without ingesting it normally, but she had no great hope for the potion regardless, and she lacked the time to force feed it to her friend like she had the healing potion. Still, it was better than nothing.

    As an afterthought, she poured a water breathing potion onto her friend too. She wasn¡¯t sure if it would work, but if it helped Carla breath even while coughing up blood even a little bit, that would be enough.

    Giving up on the potions, she moved towards the pouch that held her friend¡¯s magic scrolls.

    The Pine Family was extremely generous when it came to outfitting their troops. Even the run of the mill guards had decent quality chain shirts and sharpened weapons. For the more important warriors, not to mention the Guardian Knights that were charged with protecting the members of the Family themselves, they had a large pool of resources that they could use. Potions were a part of that, but potions, while easy to use, were vastly inferior to actual spells, so most of the more important members managed to learn the basics of spell casting so that they could use scrolls.

    Abby however, did not. It wasn¡¯t as if she did not try, but she was not really motivated to learn, and the arcane arts did not come east to her at all. Still, she could usually trigger the activation of a scroll, and she knew enough to figure out what a scroll did most of the time.

    ¡°Messenger Spirit¡­ Mend metal¡­ flare, I think¡­ antidote this one looks like¡­ cold resist, why would she even have that?¡± Abby struggled to read the arcane words on the scrolls as she went through them trying to find something useful. ¡°Ah, this might be a healing scroll!¡±

    The scroll in question had words to indicate it was a curative spell from the light element, which was probably a healing spell of some sort.

    Abby carried no scrolls herself, she could barely use them and as such, her resources were spent elsewhere. Since she couldn¡¯t reliably use scrolls, she invested in some simple magic items, and the magic crystals that powered those items, could in a pinch, be used to power a scroll.

    Ripping a crystal out of one of her magical items, she placed it in the center of the scroll, pushed the scroll down onto Carla¡¯s chest, and then crushed the crystal.

    ¡°Activate!¡± She yelled to herself as much as she did the scroll.

    The scroll glowed, and then a white light seeped from the parchment into the injured woman under it. But then, nothing happened.

    Abby frowned, but then threw away the now blank and brittle parchment and resumed going through the remaining scrolls. She had hoped that scroll was a healing scroll, but it could have just as easily have been a restoration scroll, or something to cure a curse or disease. It would make sense for Carla to carry various curative scrolls, and sure enough, Abby found another scroll that was from the light element and seemed to be used for some type of healing purpose.

    Ripping out another magical crystal, she placed it on top of the scroll and then placed the scroll on top of her friend.

    ¡°Activate!¡± she yelled again.

    The scroll glowed white again, and the glow then seeped into Carla¡¯s body, and again, nothing seemed to have happened. But as Abby threw away the second blank and crumbling piece of parchment, Carla¡¯s eyes fluttered open.

    ¡°Carla! Are you okay?¡± Abby said as she rushed forward and helped her friend tilt her head and spit up more blood.

    ¡°Wh-... what¡­ ha-...happen¡­¡± Carla¡¯s voice was weak and faltering as she failed to make a complete sentence.

    ¡°Carla! Which of these are healing scrolls?¡± Abby asked, holding up the various scrolls in front of her face.

    ¡°Th...that...one¡­¡± Carla choked out as she tried to point at one of the scrolls. But her arm barely moved. The larger heater shield strapped to her arm was bent completely in half, and the arm behind it was snapped and crooked, her hand hung limply at her wrist, the elbow itself was torn open with a bone sticking out under the chainmail, and even her shoulder seemed to be dislocated.

    ¡°This one? Water¡­?¡±

    The water element was the second best element when it came to healing. While light healed faster, water healed more completely, but also slower and slightly less effectively. Still, Abby did not hesitate as she broke open another magical item and extracted the mana crystal that powered it.

    For the third time, she placed the crystal at the center of the parchment, and then pressed the two down onto Carla¡¯s chest.

    ¡°Activate!¡± She said.

    But nothing happened.

    ¡°Come on! Activate!¡±

    And again, nothing happened.

    ¡°Activate! Activate! Come on! Activate!¡± She yelled over and over.

    Stopping temporarily, she broke a second magic item and added its crystal to the first.

    ¡°Activate! You fucker! Activate!¡±

    Finally, after several attempts, the scroll glowed a light blue, and again the glow seeped down into Carla¡¯s mangled body. Carla grimaced in pain as her torn flesh started writhing as it tried to mend itself. But, it was clear that the scroll could only do so much.

    ¡°Carla¡­ I need to get you to a proper medic, so just hold on.¡± Abby tried to reassure her friend as she stood up and got ready to start dragging her again.

    ¡°Wa-...wait¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Ne-...neck...lace¡­¡± Carla said as she brought her uninjured right arm and tried to remove her neck guard to no avail.

    ¡°Necklace?¡± Abby asked confused, but didn¡¯t stop to think as she returned to Carla¡¯s side, after all, it was possible Carla had a magic item in the form of a necklace that could help right now.

    But, the neck guard that probably helped save Carla¡¯s life, was now just as broken as her breastplate, the bent section was pushing into her collarbone, a bone that looked as if it was broken, and Abby couldn¡¯t remove it.

    Instead, she went through the front of the shattered armor. She healing scroll has mended enough of Carla¡¯s flesh that Abby could wipe away some of the blood to see what was happening. Carla¡¯s chainmail was split in the center, the rings simply snapped apart, so she was able to lift that up easily enough. The leather armor bellow was more intact, even if it was torn up pretty badly. But, Abby¡¯s dagger, serrated specifically to tear through tough materials like leather, was able to easily cut through it.

    Underneath the leather was a simple cotton tunic, soaked slick with blood. The right side of Carla¡¯s chest was oddly flat and unmoving, an ominous sign that seemed to indicate her right lung had collapsed. As for the left, if it wasn¡¯t for the two pieces of bone, Carla¡¯s ribs, that had cut through her skin and were sticking out a half inch, it would have looked mostly normal.

    But Abby only glanced at the injuries before spotting a single necklace, a simple silver chain that held a red crystal pendant.

    ¡°Uh, what do I do with it?¡± Abby asked.

    She had only enough training to sense magic from an active source, for an inactive magical item, she couldn¡¯t tell it apart from a simple nonmagical item. And the necklace around Carla¡¯s neck, as far as she could tell, it was just a normal necklace, the crystal looked a bit like it was alive, but that was it.

    ¡°Br-break¡­ the...cr-crystal...¡± Carla wheezed out.

    ¡°Yeah, okay,¡± Abby said as she squeezed the crystal between her fingers, but the stone did not even crack.

    She tried squeezing it even harder, eventually, she even tried crushing it with her entire hand, but it was to no avail.

    ¡°Hey, Carla, I can¡¯t break it,¡± Abby said as she looked back towards her friend, but Carla didn¡¯t respond.

    She had fallen slack, her eyes had closed as her breathing, already labored, began slowing down.

    ¡°No, no, no. come on Carla! Stay awake!¡± she yelled as she tried shaking the injured woman awake, ¡°Shit! What do I do?¡±

    She was out of potions, out of scrolls, and Carla wouldn¡¯t survive long enough to get to a medical tent.

    ¡°I need a healer!¡± Abby yelled towards the surrounding soldiers, even as she kept trying to crush the crystal.

    <hr>

    Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 03:11

    Jenus Street, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

    Olivia Pine Fredirin.

    Kellhus launched an ungainly kick, a straight kick that morphed into a roundhouse halfway through. The move might have been awkward, but it belied its power. As I ducked under it, the shockwave released from its foot cracked the shutters and tore the door from the hinges of the house behind me. If the wall had not been brick, the house itself might have collapsed.

    Pivoting from his kick, Kellhus slashed downward with his sword. My head that had been there a fraction of a second ago was already gone, his sword sliced through the pavement, adding another deep gash through the stone, but doing nothing else.

    Using the momentum from my dodge, I flipped across the ground away from the Elemental Lord in the human body. Kellhus immediately went to chase, but the instant it took a step towards me, four thin spears of blood shot out from between the stones and flew towards its chest. I had hidden them there as I escaped, knowing they would do nothing but buy myself a second at best.

    As I expected, while Kellhus halted his movement, he simply sent a burst of his mana into the air, and my spears of blood were no longer connected to me, no longer able to use my mana to compete with the Elemental Lord¡¯s, so they instantly froze and shattered. As the crimson shards still floated in the air, Kellhus was already charging towards me as I continued to back away.

    Just about a minute left.

    Whatever I was sensing, whatever left me with that sense of foreboding, was still there, still gnawing at my mind, begging for my attention. But, I simply could not spare it a thought and had pushed it from my mind almost entirely. With my mind fully focused on the fight, I was able to dodge more and my blocks were smoother, I was even able to proactively try and delay the Elemental whereas before all I could do was try and maintain my life.

    I was even able to divert some of my attention towards observing the Elemental Lord, and I had discovered something that might almost have been a weakness.

    Kellhus was an Elemental Lord, an incredibly powerful one, its title, Emissary of Still Frost seemed to have a decent amount of power to it. But, it was still an Elemental. Elementals were made up only of their element, they had nothing else, they were nothing else. Just a chunk of their base element, ice in this case. They had no organs, no bones, no muscles, and no joints, just ice.

    But right now, Kellhus was controlling the body of a human woman. A body with an internal structure was something it was unused to. To be honest, when I had first fused the two parts of my soul and became Olivia Pine Fredirin, I had, at first, required a great deal of concentration to get my body to move right, and I had the benefit of having a former body that also had a skeleton.

    Unlike my own circumstances, Kellhus did not care for the wellbeing of his host body, so he was making movements that were undoubtedly damaging the body, likely heavily. If the burden of housing a Lord Level being didn¡¯t destroy the body first, it would likely fall apart within a day or so just due to the stress it was being put under. In fact, that the body was holding up so well was a testament to the power of the original owner, whoever she was, she must have been quite strong. Of course, she managed to kill a Greater Elemental herself, despite the fact she was already missing an arm and most of a leg, so that by itself spoke volumes of her skill and talent.

    Despite that, some of its movement were awkward and delayed, and while it did not care if the body was damaged, some movements were simply impossible. The elbow joint only allowed the forearm to bend inward, but if it was willing, and it was, it could dislocate the joint and send the arm outward, bending the joint in the reverse. However, without completely destroying the joint and some of the surrounding bones, it could not make the joint go left or right, only forward and back.

    This caused some of his movements to be delayed just slightly, and it caused others to have a pause after they were completed, this was just enough for me to avoid an outright defeat.

    Once again, Kellhus closed the distance all too quickly, its crystalline right arm swung towards my head as if it wanted to claw off my face. I leaned back, its clawed fingers stopping merely two inches away from my nose, but even then, I was not unscathed. The force of its attack left the thin cloth that made up my mask in tatters, the wind dug trenches into my skin, more blood dripped out, soaking into the already slick remains of my mask. If not for the fact that I could draw my blood back into my body, and the fact that I could rapidly replace any lost blood, I would have long since bled to death.

    Kellhus spun with his swipe, turning his back to me and using the rotational force to send an elbow that would have shattered my body had it hit. But, this was one of his more awkward moves, and the elbow came nowhere close, in fact, the opening he left gave me enough time to leap back. And I did so just in time, seeing that his elbow was going to miss, the Elemental Lord released another burst of freezing air.

    Those bursts did not really hurt me, but they did sap my stamina, and more importantly, they temporarily slowed me down. The only solid hits I had taken had come in while I was temporarily slowed from that mana attack.

    Again Kellhus charged, and again I retreated. It attacked, I dodged, it advanced, I ran. Only thirty seconds now.

    Thirty seconds seemed like too long, but it was also too short. Yes, I wanted to disengage from this fight, and in that way, thirty seconds was an eternity. But on the other hand, I needed the capacity to break away from the Elemental Lord, I needed to get away, regroup with the others, and then let Lillian reactivate the magic item. Considering that the longest time I was able to stay away from Kellhus¡¯s attacks was three seconds, I wasn¡¯t sure how I would manage that.

    I ducked under another wild swing, sidestepped a punch, and then just barely dodged out of the way from a shoulder tackle that shattered the building behind me. I anticipated the burst of cold mana and met it with a shield of blood, a sword thrust towards my head just grazed me, but still drew blood, the thrust then turned into an elbow strike that brushed past me with enough force to send me tumbling to the ground. Kellhus tried to capitalize, jumping forward and bringing its ice-covered right leg down as it tried to stomp me into paste. Without any grace or finesse, I rolled out of the way of the descending leg, but as the ground was crushed and smashed into a new crater, I was once again sent flying.

    I turned myself in the air and brought my feet down on the side of another building¡¯s wall, and then without hesitation, launched myself off, just in time to avoid the Elemental Lord¡¯s follow up attack that left the building little more than rubble.

    Again, we fell into our roles, Kellhus attacking, and I avoiding.

    Fifteen seconds now.

    There was one opening I had noticed. Only one, and I had avoided using it so far. Kellhus was slowly learning from this fight, the awkward moves that came frequently were now coming only once every ten to fifteen attacks. Luckily, I had gotten used to his speed and power at the same time, so I was still managing to hold on. But sooner or later, they would be gone entirely, and then I would have no hope.

    But this different opening, I had not made use of, because I needed to save it until the last moment.

    Kellhus was in the body of a human, using the body of a human. It was constrained by the limitations of that body. The woman it had taken over, was dead, her corpse was animated by Kellhus¡¯s magic, she did not need to eat or breath, and as long as Kellhus did not will it, she would not freeze or burn. But, the physical makeup of the body was still there, the structure of the body¡¯s bones was still hindering the Elemental Lord.

    And more importantly, Kellhus was using the body¡¯s one working eye as a source of vision. I could tell by the minute movements as the lifeless eye followed me, I could even see the lens move as I got closer or farther away.

    He was, of course, using other senses to track my movement in addition to normal vision, so even if I destroyed that remaining eye, there would be no real effect. In fact, he might even become more dangerous since he would be forced to rely on sensing my mana, which was vastly superior to simple vision.

    But, he was still using it at this point, and if I could just temporarily blind him, that would create a real opening that I could exploit to do something.

    Ten seconds.

    A backhand slash that I jumped over, a simple straight punch that just barely missed me as I flew through the air thanks to the Elemental Lord¡¯s unstable footing, and then a second backhanded slash right as I landed, that cut across the edge of my shoulder. Even though only the absolute tip of the blade touched my armor, the leather was still split apart and a half an inch deep gash was cut into my shoulder. It would have gone deeper if not for the bone.

    Seven seconds.

    I backflipped away, waiting for the wound to seal itself. The Elemental Lord¡¯s cold mana would seep into any cuts, slowing the healing process, a cut like that should have healed nearly instantly, but here it would take at least a second.

    Kellhus tried to tackle me again, and mid flip I dropped to the ground and scurried out of the way. The Elemental Lord skidded to a stop, tried a completely wild slash with the sword that came nowhere close to me, and then released the burst of ice mana again.

    Five seconds.

    The wound healed, but I was unable to defend against the cold air blast. Luckily, Kellhus¡¯s wide swing left it so off balance that it was only able to attack after the slowing effect had already worn off. Kellhus knew this, so it held back until I kicked off the ground, leaping back up to my feet, only to see a powerful thrust heading towards my chest.

    I ducked forward, the blade sliding across my back, leaving a deep cut across the entire length, even cracking a few of my ribs in the process. Ice mana infused this wound just like the others and based on the size, it would take three seconds to heal this one.

    But that was the least of my worries, The Elemental Lord¡¯s icy fist was launched towards my ducking form, and I could do nothing but take the attack. I crossed both arms, coating them with blood to strengthen them while I even went so far as to create a film of blood like those that I used to block the bursts of ice mana.

    The fist went through the film as if it wasn¡¯t even there, even my superior senses could not notice any decrease in the speed of the attack. I heard, and then felt, both arms crack. The force was then transferred to my chest, at least ten ribs broke, and then I was blown away through the air.

    Three seconds.

    I tumbled through the air, focusing my mana on repairing my arms first. By the time I smashed into a tile roof and bounced past that building into another road, I had managed to set the bones and was already working on mending them. By the time I had landed on my feet on the next road, the bones were mended and I was back to working on the cut on my back, the ribs would be next.

    One second.

    I paid a heavy price there, but I bought two seconds while Kellhus chased after me. I hadn¡¯t intended to let it hit me, but it had worked out well enough.

    Kellhus charged, it was only ten feet away when both of us caught movement off to the side.

    An arrow, with a glowing blue stone in place of the arrowhead, came flying.

    Kellhus acted with perfection, the arrow coming from its left was neatly intercepted with its sword, the arrow, and the blue stone, were shattered. But, the effect of the blue stone still happened, a burst of electricity surged through the dead body the Elemental Lord was using, and then promptly did nothing.

    The body was dead, dead and frozen, and that small amount of mana in that magic stone would have done nothing to Kellhus regardless. But even then, it still surprised it, distracted it.

    A burst of wind then flew past me and crashed into the Elemental Lord¡¯s chest, but besides tearing off the few remaining scraps of metal and cloth, leaving Kellhus topless, the blast did nothing.

    But both attacks were little more than a distraction, the second of my cousin¡¯s two Guardian Knights flickered into existence a few feet from the Elemental¡¯s right side, directly in his blind side.

    This was my opening.

    I broke into a sprint, charging straight towards the Elemental Lord.

    The knight¡¯s sword was easily caught within the frozen right hand of Kellhus, but it released it even before his swing was complete, using the magic item that let him teleport a short distance a second time as he retreated twenty feet away from the Elemental Lord.

    Whatever that magic item was, it was a good trump card. Kellhus had sent a burst of ice mana towards where the knight was when he caught the sword, but the knight was nowhere near there when it hit.

    Distracted by the three incoming attacks and its own miss, Kellhus almost did not notice that I was already within range. For the first time, I sent my own attack towards the Elemental Lord¡¯s knee.

    Kellhus had learned its lesson well in regards to its joints, it knew that if my attack landed, I would shatter the knee joint and its mobility would fall. It would be little more than a nuisance, it would be able to force the limb to work just like I was with my own damaged body, but considering that the Elemental Lord was unable to kill me in peak condition, it knew it could not let that happen. With both arms otherwise engaged, Kellhus could only lift its leg, trying to meet my strike with its knee.

    But, my strike was a feint.

    I raised my body from my downward crouch, pivoted, and slid even closer into Kellhus¡¯s space. Before the Elemental Lord could react, I looked up, and spit a mouthful of blood into its face. There was no magic in this blood, no trick to it, it was simple, normal, blood.

    But, it splashed into its eye, robbing him of his vision.

    That was not going to be enough, and in that fraction of a second, where Kellhus was distracted, off balance, confused, and blind, the only true attack I had launched in this entire fight, crashed into the stomach of the reeling Elemental Lord.

    I heard the lower ribs crack and snap, and I felt the icy cold organs rupture under my strike. None of this would really hinder the Elemental Lord, but the important part was that the force of my strike sent Kellhus skidding backward.

    ¡°Fall ba-¡± I started to yell, but I never was able to finish my words.

    Kellhus, who remaining standing even as its feet dug two trenches through the ground as it slidbackward, suddenly turned pure white. I felt the huge mass of mana surging within its body, and I instinctively raised the strongest defense I could.

    The skin on my arms exploded outward as a great flood of my own blood gushed outward, forming a thick protective bubble around my body. The films I used to block Kellhus¡¯s other attacks was only slightly thicker than a hair, but this was closer to an inch thick, and denser.

    Still, almost immediately, my connection with the blood was lost as it froze solid, the crimson shield turning white as it was covered in a layer of frost. That same layer of frost covered me only a moment later, the ice mana rampaging around within my body.

    Before I could react, the frozen shield of blood shattered, blown apart as a volley of ice shards tore through it. The Elemental Lord has released these attacks in a burst around its body, the surrounding buildings were torn apart, reduced to gravel and splinters. I noticed that the Guardian Knight who had attacked Kellhus with his sword, had his frost-covered body shattered into shards, much like my blood shield when it was hit.

    And nine of those shards impacted my body.

    One dug into my left thigh, another blew through my right shin, blowing apart the bone and leaving the limb a mangled heep, another cracked into the right side of my hip, shattering the bone, another sliced into my stomach right at my belly button before coming to a rest at my spine, another crashed into my lower ribs on the right, a sixth dug into my right breast, slicing through my lung, before blowing out of my back, a seventh slammed right into my sternum, an eight landed just under my elbow on my left arm, severing everything below the joint, and the final one cut halfway through my neck, just barely missing my vertebrae and leaving me with a massive gash that would have put even me in danger of bleeding to death if not for the layer of frost that instantly sealed the wound.

    ¡°A Do-domain?!¡± I stuttered bewildered, blood bubbling out of my barely intact throat and splashing onto my frozen lips.

    I lifted my head and looked at Kellhus. The Elemental Lord¡¯s avatar was now in the center of a clearing, nearly two city blocks, everything within one hundred feet, besides myself, was obliterated in the attack. The rubble, the street itself, was all covered in a white frost. A powerful wind had picked up, with Kellhus at its center. The frost suddenly started to shimmer a light blue, as if wet, and as I looked on, I realized that was exactly what was happening. I could only look on in grim shock as Kellhus lowered the temperature enough that the very air was turning into liquid.

    Certainly, a Domain, but how could an avatar use a Domain? Especially a damaged one such as this?

    ¡°We need to move,¡± Lillian¡¯s remaining Guardian Knight said as he suddenly blinked into existence next to me.

    I could see he had a gaping hole in his shoulder and another deep gash on his leg, but the distance from Kellhus must have allowed him to avoid most of the projectiles. He wasn¡¯t fatally injured, but he was heavily hurt.

    Despite his wounds, he leaned down and hugged me, and then we blinked out and in of existence, putting fifty feet between us and the Elemental Lord in a heartbeat. We did this two more time in rapid succession.

    But I could only stare shocked at Kellhus.

    Yes, some powerful Lords class beings could create avatars with enough power to manifest their Domain. But it was rare. Not only did the Lord in question need to be shockingly powerful, but they also had to be willing to put enough power into the avatar, and should the much weaker avatar be destroyed, most of the energy fed to it would be lost, greatly weakening the Lord if they put too much in.

    Was Kellhus just that powerful? Or had he for some reason put an enormous amount of power into this one avatar?

    Lillian¡¯s guard suddenly collapsed and passed out, his skin extremely pale. Whether or not being in that close proximity to Kellhus, even for that short period of time, or if that teleporting ability was just taking a lot out of him, I wasn¡¯t sure, but he was now in a critical condition.

    ¡°Ac-activate!¡± I heard my cousin say as suddenly the cold lessened slightly and the familiar magical barrier popped up around us, ¡°po-potion, where are my po-potions?¡±

    ¡°Do-doesn¡¯t ma-matter,¡± I choked out, ¡°how much ti-time is le-left?¡±

    ¡°Fi-fifty¡­ se-seven mi-minutes.¡±

    Not even fifteen seconds, and we already lost three minutes. Kellhus was currently doing nothing, and he was two hundred feet away. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the barrier failed immediately once he made a move.

    We were going to die.