Strovn looked at the ships before him, ten of them still remaining. At least a third of the enemy Master stage had lost their lives to them. The rest were making a hasty retreat, sensing that their leaders were dead.

"Should we pursue, sir?" A sailor asked.

Strovn paused. The wise option was to give up. This was a merchant fleet, not a military one. There was no reason to pursue a fleeing enemy.

But…he didn't want to. The Elder was dead. The Elder had sacrificed himself to kill these bastards. The Elder…was dead.

The tears refused to stop flowing as he looked at the fleeing ships.

"Go on without me." he said, taking off towards them. The enemy Master stages felt him coming, emerging from the ships to meet him. But they did not hasten their departure.

After all, they were ten and he was one.

"Oh, what is this?" one of them said, projecting bravado where there was fear.

Strovn killed him first. A blade of water cut into his skin, tearing into his blood and bones before he could even sense what was happening.

The Elder had taught him many tricks. And he would use them all to show these bastards who they had killed. Even if he had to kill every one of them, he would make them realize who it was that they had killed. And what he meant to his kind.

An aura after another emerged behind him as more of his kind approached.

"Stay back." he ordered. And for once, they followed.

And that was when he realized. The Elder had left him in charge. And now that the Elder was dead…he was the leader. The Captain of this fleet.

Strovn feinted at another Master, the Master in question dodging as his attack curved in the air and struck another one.

The count was down to eight.

This was what he was now. What he had been for his entire life, really. A person that wanted to follow in the Elder's footsteps. A half-Elf that wanted to make the Elder proud.

Strovn felt his core react, responding to his realization. That just made him angrier.

Why?!

A strike emerged from his hand shot towards the water, curving underwater, but not shooting up just yet.

Why couldn't it happen an hour ago?!

Strovn shot towards another Master, the Master conjured an elemental shield after another, but failed to protect himself against an angry half-elf's sword.

Why couldn't he have understood this before?!

The remaining Master stages teamed up on him, swiping at him with their attacks as he ducked towards the water, his feet touching it as he let out one huge blade of water. A curved blade with power greater than a Master could conjure.

An easy realization like this. A thing that was at his fingertips. That was what had stopped him for a decade. This was the realization, the one thing that stopped him from being a Master of himself.

Strovn stabbed the air with his sword, letting out blades of water at each of the Master stages as they began to run. Not one escaped.

The eleventh Master stabbed towards him, taking the opportunity to kill him. But he couldn't land the blow. Strovn had prepared for it long ago. The blade that he had sunk into the water launched back up, ending the life of his last enemy.

Mana curled around him as he looked around, and he finally reached a level he hadn’t really been working towards. If had then…

Strovn closed his eyes, tears flowing freely as he realized his own foolishness. Mana poured out of him, taking down every enemy ship around him.

Perhaps it was the mana left over from the Elder's attack, or just the emotion flowing through him, but the breakthrough did not stop. Even in the middle of a battle where he wasted mana recklessly, an increasingly large amount of it poured into him as he reached the next stage of his own cultivation.

The Adept stage.

If only the Elder were alive to see this. If only he had broken through a little earlier. If only…

----------------------------------------

Althea

Althea stared at the pile of papers, wondering if she should start completing them. There was a lot of merit in actually doing that, but she was too lazy today. And hesitant. Ok fine, just lazy. There was no real reason to hesitate.

"Countess," an aide entered the office.

"What is it?" Althea answered, trying to remember his name. But she couldn't. The name just seemed to escape her at this moment.

"There are requests for you to increase the protection of trade routes. There have been several sightings of monsters, and quite a few battles. The monsters aren't too big a problem now-"

"I will assign parts of the army to it." Althea said, waving him off. The army needed something to do anyway. Now that there weren't hordes near civilization, they were just sitting around.

"Well..." the aide entered deeper into the room, another, carrying a huge pile of pages.

"General Forn suggests that we assign different portions of the army to different parts. But Sergeant Tor-"

Althea groaned. "Just leave the papers here and tell those two to come here themselves. If they have something to argue about, then they can do it in front of me, not through me."

As usual, there had to be factions between the military. Sergeant Tor was the Deadre based non-combat fashion that was composed mostly of retirees. The General was a new recruit that was really too young and inexperienced to be a General, but she didn't have much of a choice. An army required a commander, and the General was the best she could get.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The aide quickly left, not wanting to be anywhere near when the two military leaders met. Althea could sympathize. If there was one thing that irritated her, it was factional disputes. And this time, it came with reports.

Althea began flicking through the reports, waiting for the two to enter. The General was the first, his body leaking off mana, clearly having traveled as quickly as he could manage.

"I greet her grace, the Countess Guarding Diery. " he said.

"Hmm." Althea hmmed in the form of a reply, still flicking through the pages.

The Sergeant was next.

"I greet her grace, the Countess Guarding Diery." he said, staring at the General.

A hmm was the only reply he got too.

The two faction leaders stared at each other awkwardly as they waited for her to say something. But when several minutes passed without her uttering a single word, they made their move.

"Countess," the General began. "The people are in need of your aid. The monster attacks are growing in frequency, and it is impacting trade-"

"Don't confuse her grace with your honeyed words, you dolt. The monster attacks have decreased in the last few months, the only issue is the location. Attacking the bases directly will be far more economical and-"

"Just who are you calling a dolt, you coward?! The ones actually fighting? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to attack a monster nest? Perhaps her grace can burn one into dust, but most of them require an entire platoon to ensure no casualties. There is no way we can afford to do something even close to this stupid. The army is just too small!"

The Sergeant surprisingly remained silent for a few seconds. Just as Althea was hoping she wouldn’t have to intervene, he began talking again.

"Are you done?" he said. "Have you forgotten we have reserves? Just conscript a few!"

The General opened his mouth, and Althea could just hear the shout about to escape him. O no, this wouldn't do.

"The county will be buying fur and meat en-masse. Make the information in these sheets public, and disclose where the nests are, the preferred strategies to take them down, and how many people should be involved." Althea said.

"The army will be making routine patrols across the county, and killing any beasts that enters their sight. I want every monster to be afraid of crossing those roads, General. " she ordered, keeping the sheets onto the desk.

The two of them opened their mouths, probably to protest something.

"This is not an extravagant expense." Althea said, looking at the Sergeant. The fur and meat would sell well once it was processed.

"And this is the army's duty. There shouldn't' be any casualties in just traveling through the roads." she said. "If conditions of travel are unfavorable, tell me. I shall have to fix that. Having inns half a day's travel from each other is a good idea." she said. "On that note, map good places to build them."

"W-I- Aren't we going too far, your grace?" the General said." The county barely has any trade, and it has had even less historically. The inns won't have a lot of business."

"That is for me to fix." sh said. "I am sure people will come running once I have a few of my projects up and running."

"A few of my projects, you mean." Pulsie interrupted.

"Oh, sush. Making magical artifacts that could be used by Novice stages was my idea." Althea replied.

"That's just because you come from a different world! I am the one actually inventing them!"

"How far have you gotten anyway?" she asked.

"I have the fans ready to go. That was quite easy to do. There are several elemental options that reduce the mana needed, and the general pure mana option that can easily be used by anyone."

"How much does the pure mana option cost?" she asked.

The sound of gritting teeth was her reply. The poor fellow was still struggling with it. " A Novice just has too little mana! There are barely any in the county anyway!"

"Yes, but people will be hesitant to waste their mana on things like this. The nobles already have far superior devices, and don't really need them in the first place. The commoners use what little mana they have to make a living. The fan has to cost less."

"Is there anything else?" she asked the two men in front of her. The two of them looked at each other, and she suddenly had a very bad feeling about what was about to happen. The two of them rarely agreed with each other, but whenever they did, she had a hard time refuting them. After all, they did control most of the military. Ad they tended to have good points to begin with.

The General opened his mouth, but was interrupted before he could say anything.

Anthony stepped in, holding the communication orb.

"There is an emergency communication from the merchant fleet, Countess."

"Display it." she ordered as the orb began to display.

Verest appeared first, clearly having been also contacted.

"Do you have any idea-" she began, but was interrupted by another person joining in.

An unknown half-Elf. Verest looked worried the second he entered.

"I fear I do not have good news to impart." the half-Elf said.

Althea's heart sank.

"Elder Bel is dead."

Althea took a deep breath, and then breathed out, calming herself before she had a reaction.

"How?" she asked, her voice still forceful.

"The three great pirate groups attacked us." the half-Elf informed. "Elder Bel died killing their leaders."

"What about the ships? Are you in need of reinforcements?" she asked. "I can ask Empress Elara-"

"There is no need, your grace." the half-Elf said. "The fleet was able to destroy the groups without any issue. I was able to break through to the Adept stage after the Elder's death and destroy the rest of them. The pirates will not be troubling anyone anymore."

"I am glad to hear that." she said, but there wasn't a lot of gladness in her tone. The Elder was dead. That was sure to make a huge splash in the Eastern Isles. Verest' face was already looking unpleasant.

"Please let the people know that the Elder's last words were Verde Islar Elvorum Giarnal Moeri." the half Elf said.

Althea knew that he was talking to Verest, but she responded anyway. The saying was actually known to her. The motto of the old Elven Empire had been part of her study of history.

"I shall make sure it is known. There shall be a state funeral to mourn the Elder's passing." she said. "The Elder was an important member of the county, and I shall have the entire Empire know it."

"I am thankful for your offer, your grace, but the Eastern Isles would like to host the Elder's funeral." Verest interrupted.

"That can be arranged." she said. "There is no need for the funeral to be in Deadre."

"As you wish, then." Verest replied. Althea had not seen him so confrontational before.

"Do you have any idea why the pirates were here?" she asked.

"No, your grace. But the attack was far too planned to be a coincidence. I am sure that the pirates knew we were coming and planned for it." he said.

"I see." she said. So, the Duke was behind it. There was no other person that would bribe pirates to attack them.

"I shall ensure that the bounties on these individuals are delivered to you. The ships should have some loot, be sure to collect it." she mentioned.

"The ships are empty, your grace. But we have captured some pirates. I am sure they will be happy to sell out the location of their treasures in return for their freedom." the half-Elf said.

Althea nodded. "I shall begin the funeral preparations and see if I can get the body transported back soon. Please accept my sincere condolences."

The call abruptly cut off as she sighed. This was going to be a mess. A mess that shouldn't have been caused in the first place.

The Duke had gone too far this time.