Nathan

Nathan meandered through the crowd, looking for Vanessa. The names hadn't been chosen by whim, they were names they had chosen for themselves. A symbol of their new lives. A life on the run.

The fact that the caravan was gone still hadn't sunk in yet. A dozen Adept stage Fae. A force that was at the peak in any part of the known world. The force had been killed in mere hours. The Countess had treated it like it was an everyday event. As if Adept stages were cabbages that could be killed randomly. Not people that fought by throwing mountains and conjuring hurricanes.

Was this the power of one of the human Empires? The caravan had avoided large Empires, visiting them rarely, and acting cautiously in their region. A lot of the weaker Fae had been upset about that, wanting more loot from the richest places in the continent.

But the stronger ones ruled with an iron fist, and different opinions were not permitted. Now he knew why. The Solerian Empire had massacred the caravan like it was swatting an irritating bug.

And they were still weaker than his family. Nathan knew about the Fae royal family; who didn't? But he didn't know what types of wings they had. Heck, he didn’t even know he had wings. And he certainly didn't know he was one of them. Or that his mother was one.

There were so many questions. If his mother was a princess of some kind, why was she here? Why was she not in charge? And why did the caravan dare to try to kill her? Nathan even doubted the Steward's words, but what he spoke was true.

There were records of the Fae royal family in the Countess' library. An entire book on them. And they were not pleasing to read. The book told about how the Fae royal family often killed among themselves, and how terrifying they were.

There were many types of Fae among them, and mind Fae were among the most powerful. In the book's own words,

Do not be sure of reality before the royal fae, for these are creatures that influence it with their mere presence.

Nathan could see why the Steward moved to kill him immediately. The book advised the same. The royal fae were trained to lie, kill and betray at will. A pinnacle of selfishness he wasn't sure humans could achieve. The fae were not loyal, they would betray the first chance they got.

That was what the Steward thought. That was what the books said. But that was not how he felt.

Nathan did not want to betray anyone. What he wanted was a home. A place where he could spend the rest of his days without fear. Now he just had to see if the Diery county was that place.

sc

The walls felt cold. The wood was like that at times. The people were still dancing. The music was still fast. The food was delicious. But he wasn't in the mood to enjoy it. There were too many things on his mind.

Vanessa had clearly opted not to attend the party, wanting to cultivate instead. At least, he could not find her. And other people were uncomfortable around him. The mask was eerie. Revealing what was below it had just made it worse.

The skin sometimes itched, but his mother had healed it long ago. Nathan sighed. Another thing he did not know how she did. An Earth Fae should not be able to heal. And yet, here they were.

The Countess entered the room, followed by the Elf leader, and of course, the Steward. Nathan frowned, the half-Elf leader was strange. Every time he saw him he got a strange feeling. Like there was a sharp sword in front of him.

The feelings were strange enough for him to ignore, but after finding out about his heritage, he was paying more attention to how people around him felt. Nathan had felt things about people for as long as he could remember.

But the feelings were vague and not very helpful, and he wasn't sure they weren't hallucinations before. The book had cleared his doubts. The royal fae had a special ability to see through illusions, mind Fae could even sense certain characteristics of people.

The Steward was like a steady ocean, still but there. A presence that could not be ignored. But it couldn't be paid too much attention to, or it would disappear.

The Countess was…strange. The perception was changing fast, but that was normal for younger people. The problem was that he couldn't make out what it meant. The feeling he got from her was too difficult to interpret.

There was a homely beauty to her, a friendly hand offering aid. And there was a logical coldness that looked out of place. Two ways of life, one dipped in emotion and empathy, another in cold logic, coexisting. Nathan could scarcely believe it. But it was what it was.

The Countess stood before her throne, clapping her hands. A wave of mana emerged from her, drawing people's attention.

"I would like to welcome all of you to the Diery county's first meet and greet." the Countess smiled. The smile was powerful.

The Countess had a presence that told people to follow her, that informed the world that she was in command. But that made people uncomfortable. A lot of people were intimidated by their new ruler who seemed to be more force of nature than human.

"I am sure you are wondering why it was organized. " The truth was that few did not know its purpose. The Countess was worried that there would be too much division in the county and wanted to preempt it. That much was apparent.

"The reason is, simply put, to increase the cooperation between the many people in the county.

In the spirit of cooperation, we will be playing a very special game." The Countess grinned.

"The guessing game. The rules are simple, I will give a prompt to a team member. The other members must guess the object by asking five simple yes or no questions per person. At the end of the rounds, the team with the most points wins. The servants will inform you of your teams."

As soon as the Countess finished speaking, rows of servants carried cards to the guests. The palace's organizational ability was quite high. How long had they had since people arrived? An hour? Two at most. But they already had teams.

Nathan took the card that a servant handed him, his lips twitching at the names.

Jer Fenesor, Minister of Justice.

Verest, leader of half-Elves.

Why exactly was he paired with these two high ranking people? Nathan had guesses, but he did not want them to be true. Back when he had tried to help the half-Elves, he didn't think he had an option. But now…he wasn't sure he wanted to take responsibility for the people that were rescued. The responsibility was too big for him to bear.

Nathan walked to the group, finding the Minister and the half-Elf leader waiting for him. There was a massive difference between them. The Minster did not give him a powerful feel at all. If he hadn't seen him in the morning, he would have thought he was incompetent.

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Minister gave a nervous, fidgety feel that was very different from the impression he had given acting as Justice Minister

"Are you-" Verest looked at his card. "Nathan?"

"Yes." Nathan replied. "I know that you are Verest, leader of the half-Elves, and the one beside you is Minster Fenesor."

A servant came up with a card. "Which one of you will be the first to try prompting?"

"I will take it." Verest simply took the card, not even conferring with his teammates.

The servant ignored it. "In the first round, your opponents are team 159. I will observe your match, and tally the points."

So they weren't even meeting their opponents. That made sense, the room wasn't big enough to allow hundreds of people to move around and participate in the game.

"So, how do we start?" the Minister asked.

"Just ask him a question." the servant pointed to Verest.

"Is it an inanimate object?" Nathan asked, he'd played similar games before. The first thing was to narrow the options down,

"No." Verest answered matter-of-factly.

"Is it a plant?" the minister asked. A good question, the county placed a lot of importance on plants.

"No." Verest said. And then his eyebrow twitched. The movement was so fake that Nathan was sure the servant would stop them. But he did not. Now what was the half-Elf trying to say? Was he saying they were close? But what was close to a plant?

"Is it an animal?" the Minister asked, clearly not catching the Elf's gesture. What wasn't an animal and not a plant…

"Is it a tree?" he asked.

"Yes." Verest replied, a slight smile on his face.

"The participants are down to two questions." the Steward interrupted.

Ok, what tree could the Countess have put? Hmm, it had to be common and well known…

"Is it the Silverbirch tree?" the Minister asked.

"Yes." The half-Elf smiled.

"Team 137 has one point."

The next two rounds passed quickly enough. Nathan got the sword for his turn. Verest guessed it in three questions.

Is it an object?

Is it sharp?

Is it a sword?

How he did it, Nathan did not know. The Minister's round did not go well. In the end, they failed that one. Thankfully the other team had failed too. But they were still out of the competition. There were just eight teams left in the competition.

The Minister left, flustered. Verest stuck around. Nathan did not know what to talk about.

"How did you guess that it was a sword?" he asked. That was a good enough conversation starter.

Verest paused for a second, as if considering his answer. "Air mana moves a certain way around ink. I read the card."

Now it was Nathan's turn to be speechless. The guy had cheated? And he was confessing to it?

"Why not do the same the second time?" he asked.

Verest pointed towards the Steward watching the final parts of the game. The Countess seemed busy, peering into papers and talking with several men beside her.

"That guy stopped me." Verest said. "I do not think he likes me."

"I don't think he likes me either." Nathan replied as the Steward turned towards them, staring at them as if daring them to do something. Or judging them. The Steward’s face was too frozen to guess at.

"I would be surprised if he did." Verest said. "The Steward of the Solerian Empire is bound to be careful of foreigners."

"I mean, we're not really foreigners, are we? The Countess has already accepted us." Nathan said.

Verest laughed. "Oh my dear, we will always be foreigners to some people. The Human forbids us from being citizens after all."

Nathan did not know how to reply to that.

"The Countess is young, and hopeful. The older nobility have spent too long warding against the attacks of my kin to trust us." Verest said.

"Are you going to rebel then?" Nathan asked.

"Rebel? Oh, no. The treaty forces us into conflict, but that does not mean that I will not take a chance at peace when I have one."

The half-Elf left, but he had given Nathan much to think about. But who were the words for, him or the Steward listening in?

sc

Althea sighed as she looked at the paper in front of her. The part was going well enough, but she didn't have time to pay attention to it. There were other things that begged her attention. Seven beast hordes had emerged around the county in a single day, and they needed to be dealt with.

The county simply did not have enough people to send to every place in time. The troops were too spread out, the area too big, communication too slow. And hordes were appearing faster by the day.

Some of these areas were so far away that whatever danger was there had to have passed. Althea assigned rescue teams there with a heavy heart. The places were rural, far from forests. The least likely places for beast hordes by their assessment. An assessment that had been very wrong. Now she had to fix it.

"I will deal with the beasts nearby." Althea said. "But I need at least some of you to go deal with some of the hordes farther away, and please cull any that are close to becoming one."

Althea took a deep breath. "I can provide bonuses if necessary."

"There is no need, Countess. The fur of the beast will be enough." one of the retired commanders said. "This is what I should do."

The commanders left soon. But it told her that she required more people. The only problem was getting them. The army was too small. Recruiting from the reserves was already in the plan. But that would take time.

The army would grow, the reserves would get more powerful, but both things would take too much time. Althea wasn't sure the beast hordes would give them that time. The half-Elves were an option, but there were too few of them too. And she wasn't sure if they would take becoming soldiers very well. In fact, she was sure it would draw their ire if she did it without compensating them well.

"Steward Ven, could you please ask the Empress if I can talk to her later?" she asked.

"As you wish, your grace." Steward Ven said. Althea knew she would have to talk to him. After all, he was still the most powerful person in the county, and she would need him eventually.

The final round of the game was going on, but there was little attention to it. The party had devolved into conversations. Althea looked at it, watching half-Elves, half-Fae, humans and so many other hybrids communicate with each other.

The Empress had sent the non-hybrid members to their species, but the caravan still had a lot of slaves. Hundreds of adults, and thousands of underage victims. The county would have to make space for them, they would need jobs, schooling and housing.

The county's education system was in shambles to begin with. There were too few schools, and the syllabus was not up-to-date. The biggest problem of the system though was the lack of reward. There was little to do other than farm in the county. And farming wasn't taught in schools, it was taught by people's parents.

Althea sighed as the last round of the game ended. Had it worked? There were people talking, but had there truly been progress? At the end of the day, there was only so much she could do.

Even with her power, she could only set things up. The result was not something she could control.

Skill path unlocked!

[Acceptor] (1/5)

In a world divided, you seek to spread the spirit of acceptance. To lead others to accept and live with those different from them. Should you succeed, you shall gain great rewards.

Reward: Apprentice Skill fragment: [Acceptor]. Mana rush. Mana sense enhancement.

Althea felt mana rush into her, her core spinning as it resisted the urge to glow. There was too much mana in it to begin with. But cultivation's restrictions were harsh. The Apprentice stage required that one practice their skills.

The only way to grow faster was through battles where the practice was more effective. Thankfully, there were plenty of beast hordes for that.

But there was the Skill. A Skill was beyond rare, it was a practically legend. The System rarely gave chances to get them in the Master stage. A Skill in this world was more of a title. A Skill path was like a quest a person needed to complete to get it.

There was only one part of the quest in each major stage…but by that calculation the [Acceptor] skill needed her to be in the Grandmaster stage to get it completely. Thankfully Skill fragments had bonuses too.

System, show me information on the Apprentice Skill fragment [Acceptor]

Acceptor: The power of your morals guides you through life, with your enhanced perception, sense those different and those in need. The hidden talents of the world are presented to you.