The six remaining figures arrived quickly, mana accompanying them, as their presence fell on Ter like a heavy weight.
Fighting the urge to fall to her knees under the weight, she walked forwards to the front of the deck, gathered her mana, and yelled at the top of her voice.
"I greet your graces on this fine day." she said. "How may I aid you?"
The man in the center grunted, blood still marking his sword that he hadn't bothered to sheathe.
"Are you in charge of this fleet, girl?" he thundered, his voice making sails shudder and ships float away.
"Yes, may I know who you are, sir?" she asked, keeping a smile on her face.
"I am Grand General of the Selmor Confederacy. " the man thundered. "And I will be the one asking questions."
Ter froze her smile. This was bad. The Grand General was the half-step Grandmaster stage mage of the Confederacy. There was no need for him to fear the county.
"I greet your majesty, Grand General of the Selmor Confederacy." she said, presuming he was a majesty. What the heck were you supposed to call a Grand General anyway? A mere sir didn’t seem sufficient.
"What are you doing here?" he bellowed.
"I am Ter of the Diery county, representing the Countess Guarding Diery in the Merlen Empire." she said.
The General grunted. "The wench that has been providing the city with food."
So he wasn't pleased with that. Ter had gathered that much.
"Yes, would you like to trade for some?" she asked, forcing her smile to remain. The Solmer Confederacy required food, she knew that. That was why they had entered this bloody war in the first place. That and the chance to get a port.
"Perhaps." the General said. "Why is the city's population in your ships?"
"A deal with the king of the dead nation of Merlen, your majesty." she replied.
"What kind of deal?" the General thundered, waving his bloody sword before she could continue.
"The Countess requires farmers, your grace." Ter's smile was hard to keep up now. But it had to say. "Merlen has a lot of those."
The General glanced at the fleet suspiciously. "The Countess wants hundreds of thousands of farmers?"
Well, she hadn't explicitly said she didn't want hundreds of thousands of farmers.
"Yes, your majesty. The Diery county is large, and she is hoping to trade more food next year."
The General looked at her, making her uncomfortable under his gaze.
"The continent could certainly use more food. And it is just like those Solerian freaks to want more profits."
"Yes, it could." she widened her smile, ignoring the Grand General's insults. Solerian freaks, really? Did the General forget that the Confederacy was far weaker than the Solerian Empire? Ter wasn’t an expert on war, but she was pretty sure the Zerolian duchy alone could handle the Confederacy.
"Would the Solmer Confederacy be open to buying some? I am permitted to offer a million tonnes of food for merely 7 silver coins a-"
"I will take them." the General said, waving his hand as if to dismiss her. This was her fleet! Where was she going to go? The sea?
"I will allow you to leave." the General continued. "Just make sure that you do not have any of the Kingdom's manuals with you."
The pressure on her grew heavier as the General narrowed his eyes. "Were I to learn that you have sneaked away with it…"
Ter fell to her knees, her stomach hurling its contents onto the deck as she struggled to find words. There was no way for her to resist the full power of a half-step Grandmaster. Even her bodyguard had collapsed behind her. Had the General knocked her out?
"Th-e p-a- al -a-ce" she said between bursts of puking. The General scoffed and flew away, his cronies following him. Ter sat where she was, in a pool of her own vomit, as she stared at their receding figures.
The manual was indeed there. The King had known that they wouldn't give up on it. Not after the King had supposedly used it to fight them.
But little did they know, the King did not use it. In fact, the King did not cultivate any manual at all. The King’s element was too unsuitable for his manual and any he could access.
No, he had struggled in secret, forcing himself through many painful trials until he was able to channel mana well enough to reach the Apprentice stage. And then again, and again, until he had crossed stages to reach his current power.
There was no manual. Crowned at the age of fifteen, the King had forged his own legacy. A legacy of Hope and Mind. A legacy he had been glad to pass on to her.
For she too was a wielder of hope. The Countess had not detected it, but the King had known the second he saw her. The legacy was not suitable for her, she had Fire and Hope, not Hope and Mind.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
But it would show her a way, a path, and hopefully, a destination.
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Althea
Althea sat on the floating ship, looking at the mountains from this impractical monstrosity. There was no wind here. The place may look normal, but it was very much not. The space in front of her was folded on itself, blocking any mana from entering it. A special artificial spacial construct that would break apart if anyone more powerful than the Journeyman stage entered it.
The area where the trial was going to take place.
"The Confederacy is finally here." the Empress said beside her, not bothering to hide her irritation.
The entire group of them had been delayed for over an hour for the Confederacy's group. The teleportation mages apparently had other things to do.
"Come, let us begin." the representative from the Sel Empire said, waving the Confederacy candidates towards the front of the ship in a stately manner that did not bely how irritated he was.
The Sel, Ge and Solerian Empires were the only ones to send half-step Grandmasters. The three were the only ones that had them to spare. The three most powerful Empires on the continent, and the only ones with more than one half-step Grandmaster.
The Sel had three, Ge had two, and so did the Solerian Empire now that the Empress had broken through.
The representatives had been glancing at them while they waited. For some reason, she drew attention too. Perhaps they wanted to see who the new half-step Grandmaster favored so much.
The representative from the Sel Empire raised his hand, mana swirling around him. Mana began to flow through space, flowing in a particular pattern. Althea closed her eyes, trying to sense what was going on. The pattern reminded her of the Diery palace's defenses. At least the method behind them was similar, if intended for different purposes. Or…was it?
A few of these she had been very sure were offensive spells. But they were there, surrounding a blank space where mana did not flow. The space was particularly packed with patterns, packed together like a motherboard but stretching across kilometers. A very, very expansive defense system. That had to be it. That made sense. If this was the home of an ancient sect, then they ought to have defenses.
If she could find out how they made these defenses, then she could replicate them while expanding Deadre.
A hand touched her back, breaking her concentration as she opened her eyes. The contestants had begun to move in, if there had been a briefing, she had missed it. But that was alright, the Empress had informed of what she could. The Sel Empire was not going to give anything better.
Althea joined the line, passing through the spacial barrier. Mana passed through her, jolting her, as for a second her heart seemed to stop. The experience was quite…unpleasant. A liquid seemed to flow down from her mouth, sweeping into her lungs, and her entire body as she felt it move around in her body for the second she passed through the barrier.
Fighting back a gag, she looked around her surroundings. The spacial gate would deposit contestants at random locations to prevent someone from ambushing others on the other side. After experiencing it herself, she could see why it was necessary. There was no way she would be able to defend against an attack after experiencing that.
The room she found herself in, if it could be called that, was just four walls of metal. A jail cell, perhaps. There was no window, or door. Just metal surrounding her.
That put subtlety out of the picture. Althea called on her mana, calling on the air to push through the wall. The wall resisted, its joints creaking as they seemed to fall apart.
Althea looked at them with worry, wondering how bad it would be if an entire wall collapsed. The structure should not fall…right? There was no reason for it to. There were three more walls. But if there were floors above it, then it could happen. The wall collapsing could make the building collapse right on top of her.
Extending her sense upward, she tried to make out what was above her. For once, her sense was not very helpful. The metal was blocking her. Althea tried to force herself through, and the metal began to crack.
What the heck?
Mana sense was just sense, not something that should have force. The only way the mana could crack was if the metal was sensitive to mana. But that was unheard of. Sensing and reacting to mana was something only living things did. Metal wasn't livi-or was it?
Althea tensed, wondering what to do. A living metal was something out of a fantasy book, but she was currently in a fantasy book. A living metal seemed appropriate. But what kind of lifeform was it? A sapient one? Or, more likely, something without a consciousness? Althea had to preserve it either way. Perhaps Pulsie could find some use for it.
Calling on fire, she directed it at the walls, trying to cut them apart instead. A part of her protested at burning a living thing, but another part of her told her that it was unlikely the part was still alive. The metal was more likely harvested from a dead thing. Perhaps a beast. Just like the wood that the Diery palace was made of.
Taking a piece of metal into her spacial storage, she looked out. A long drop stood before her, at least twenty feet. Althea took a deep breath, and stepped out. On an intellectual level, she knew that she would not be hurt by such a drop, not with her air magic. But that did little to allay her irrational fear of heights.
Closing her eyes shut, she willed the air to drop herself slowly, hoping no one saw her. A few minutes later, she felt solid ground beneath her feet, and opened her eyes, standing very still. A very silent forest greeted her. A bed of leaves lay below the trees.
The birds were missing. The grass was lying flat on the ground, roots bare to the sky, as if they had been tossed around. And the rabbit was looking at her like she was a monster. An entirely too expressive reaction for a rabbit.
Oh dear, she had conjured up a whirlwind, hadn't she?
That was not completely unexpected. Mana reacted to her intent, and fear lent her a lot of that. The greater she thought of the threat, the more her mana would react. There was any chance to keep her location secret. Now every person with eyes or even a mana sense would know that someone was here.
The best thing to do might be to run away. Or wait for someone to come. A smile spread across her face. Perhaps it was arrogant for her to think she could face down so many others, but she wanted to. That would be a challenge. A way for her to breakthrough. And steal their things. The ground rose up to make her seat for her. A throne of stone.
Althea looked at the rabbit and sat down, folding her legs as she waited. Mana swirled around her as she extended her sense outward. As expected, a number of people were on their way here, attracted by the mana disturbance.
And quite a few were going in the opposite direction. A frown spread on her face. The more powerful ones were moving away, not towards her. Perhaps they thought it's foolish to battle now when there was much to explore. And so few would have collected anything worthwhile.
The first person emerged from the trees, having rushed through the forest to the first here. Althea flung them away.
"What do you have?" she asked, looking at him. A bag. The person had a bag that looked quite empty. How was it that there was someone here that did not have a spacial artifact? Or was he using the bag as a decoy and storing the real stuff in his artifact. That would be a good trick.
The only answer she got was an open mouth as another person emerged. The same tactic as before subdued them. Did they think there was treasure here? Not a waiting enemy? That would explain why they came in a rush without preparing for combat.
Althea turned towards the two dozen or so people heading towards her, hoping they would be more of a challenge. That was the only way she would break through before the Cup. Well, that and the treasures scattered around the island.