Right after Kenji collapsed, the Sheikh, acted as fast as he could. He took Kenji back to his room in the castle, where his companions were, and ordered a healer to be brought in as soon as possible.
The girls made a huge fuss about it, going so far as to threaten the Sheikh. Kaddrad soon explained what happened, and soon, the girls let out sighs of relief. He was confused by their sighs of relief, and after looking at them for a long time, they started to explain why.
Whenever Kenji is immersed in his work, he needs a lot of focus, so he ends up forgetting the things around him. The problem is, that when he does that, he doesn't seem to realize the huge amounts of mana he ends up spending in the process. Not only that, but it has been a long time since such a thing happened. Of him completely spending his mana reserves.
“Well, since it's been a long time since that happened, we won't be discussing much about it.”
Lucy commented, relaxing a little. But as soon as she sat down on the chair, Kasumi and Amara started to complain.
(Even then! He needs to take more care of his body!)
“Just because it hasn't happened recently, it doesn't excuse you for making that mistake. Even now.” – Amara
They both had a strange aura around them… Lucy looked at them quickly and just smiled wryly. At least, I'm not the only one who cares about Kenji-Sama… Then, she looked at Ayla.
“By any chance… does he always do that?”
““Yes.””
“Oh. Okay.”
Ayla felt very distant from the three. Even so, with them knowing what had really happened to Kenji, the healer made a full consultation. In the end, he just said the same thing that both the healer and the Witch had said back in the Imperial capital.
“He is suffering from Total Mana Exhaustion. Both his reserves and Mana Pool are empty.” He sighed, and continued. “Even so, despite having drained all his mana, he is already recovering.”
“Wait. Both? And he’s already recovering?” Kaddrad said, astonished. “How is this possible?”
“I do not know. It may be that he has a unique Skill. And… well, I don't know anyone else that has such a vast Mana Pool.”
“What? How vast… are we talking about? The mage who helped him, has the largest Mana Pool of the dunes! With more than 50 thousand. Kenji-Dono is just an adventurer.”
“Yes Kaddrad-Sama. But… compared to this boy? He doesn't get close.”
“How vast is?” He asked impatiently.
“Above 100 thousand.”
“Come again?” He asked, just to be sure.
“It is what you heard. Even I am impressed. So… If you'll excuse me.”
“One… One hundred thousand?”
When the healer reached for the door handle, he turned around, and mentioned these last words.
“And I suspect it will be even more vast in the future.”
Hearing this, Kaddrad looked at Kenji. He was certainly impressed by such a discovery. Gulping and absorbed in thought, he placed one hand on his chin, having obvious thoughts about Kenji. If I could have him under my control- Hm?
He felt something, and glanced at the four girls on the bed across from Kenji. The four of them had looks of complete contempt towards Kaddrad. He swallowed again, and took a step back.
The first to speak was Lucy.
“Don't waste your time thinking about it.” Followed by Amara.
“If you try touch a single hair strand of Kenji-Sama…” Followed by Kasumi.
(We will have no mercy with you…) And finished by Ayla.
“Or by anyone who gets in the way.”
With Ayla finishing the sentence, Amara, Kasumi and Lucy looked at her curiously. They all looked at Kaddrad, and he just nodded a few times, apologizing for having such thoughts, and left the room.
(So? What exactly was that? Your words, Ayla.)
“Apparently, the three of you don't like me.”
Kasumi spoke condescendingly. Amara looked at Ayla suspiciously and Lucy kept her guard up.
“Hey. I can't do much, okay? I got interested in him because of you.”
She pulled her legs up, holding them and looking at Kenji on the bed in front of her, sleeping soundly. Or just unconscious, actually.
“Especially, when he is so stupid that he can't notice, three beautiful girls right in front of him. Who obviously love him… How can he be like that?” – Ayla
“Kenji-Sama has several things to do.” – Amara
(I wouldn't be surprised if he left things like love affairs until after he dealt with the problems.)
“I wouldn't mind waiting.” – Lucy
Hearing this, Ayla looked at the three. They had longing eyes, for the day that they could confess to Kenji. It was a beautiful scene and all, but for Ayla, it was just a positive thought. In her expression, it was clearly written, that such actions were simple stupidity. Ayla face slapped, and sighed heavily.
“I'm seriously going to have a headache, listening to you.” – Ayla
“What? Why?” – Lucy
“Will you wait? Just like that?” – Ayla
“I don't see a problem with that.” – Amara
“The problem with that? Do you really want to hear what the problem is?” Ayla asked with an angry tone of voice. “The problem is, you may not have the opportunity to speak in time. Let me ask you this. How many times has he put himself in life or death situations?”
The three looked at each other quickly, and after thinking for a while, the three answered.
““5 times.””
“Yeah, this is too much for a single person.” Sighing, Ayla continued. “I don't know why, but he has this strange attraction for dangerous situations. These situations, which he will need to fight, and put his own life at risk. For him, I'm sure there won't be any problem, but for the three of you? Do you really think, that he will remember you, just for being close to him?” – Ayla
(You’re saying things that you don’t understand.) – Kasumi
“I’m sorry? I am going through the same thing as you. Like you, I will wait for the right moment. But honestly speaking? I will not hold my feelings for him.” – Ayla
The three looked at Ayla angrily, but she just shrugged. Of course, she was flustered, since she also had feelings for the same guy these three. But for her, she was not holding onto her feelings for Kenji. Although she was, in reality.
(I'm the first. You are the fourth.) Kasumi said all proud of herself.
“You were the first one he met. This doesn't mean that he will be super attracted to you.” – Ayla
(What makes you so sure?) – Kasumi
“He said he's from another world, didn't he? What? Didn't you think he would have someone, that he already likes, or is already in love with?” – Ayla
As a result, all of them, including Ayla, looked unhappy. Kenji is the person they felt connected to, but at the same time, they had their doubts about him.
(Ah, youth. This is such a good view.)
And out of nowhere, Yuki started talking.
“Whose voice was that?” – Ayla
(What you really want, mother?)
(I’m only checking on him. Since something didn’t felt right from where I’m at.)
“Yuki-Sama?” – Lucy
“Yuki… Sama? THE. Yuki-Sama? The Fox-Goddess?” – Ayla
(Yes. She’s my mother.)
Ayla suddenly felt tiny. She curled up into a ball, and stayed there, motionless.
“She is having the same attitude as me. When I first heard about Yuki-Sama.” – Lucy
(Wait. What did you mean by that?) – Kasumi
(I don't know why, but… Do you know where I'm stuck, Kasumi?)
(No, I don't know. It's a place related to darkness, isn't it?)
(Yes. And… You were born from my arrival at this place. This place, the Deep Dark, is connected to you too. That's why you were able to bring Amara-chan, and him there.)
(That would explain why I would affect the place, but… Why Kenji-Sama would affect the place too? It makes no sense.)
(This Deep Dark is not like the Netherrealm, or even the paradise. He's much older than I know. And from what I've seen of Kenji, he seems to have… some kind of connection to it.)
(Mother… Get to the point.)
(Okay. After you brought him to the Deep Dark, the entity that controls it… seems to have developed a curiosity for him. And… it seems that this entity has connections with people from outside.)
“And what that has to do with Kenji-Sama?” – Lucy
(Kenji… has a bloodline, for more strange that that might seem. Even though he’s from another world.)
“A bloodline? What’s a bloodline?” – Amara
(You can consider a bloodline as a Skill of the system. However, not directly connected to it. It does not appear on the STATUS, which is common these days. And the blood line is directly connected to the family. With all that, the bloodline that Kenji has, is related to the-)
“OH! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT?”
A deep, feminine voice resonated. Even Yuki, a goddess, was having problems without collapsing. Worse, it was that Lucy, was shaking a lot, and panting heavily. She even activated her wings, protecting herself from whatever that voice was.
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“OH! THE ACOLYTE OF LIGHT! YOU GONNA BE THE FIRST I’LL KILL.” The voice said, with an angry tone of voice. “NO. I’LL DO BETTER. I’M GONNA TAKE THAT TITLE OF YOURS, AND THEN! I’M GONNA MAKE THIS BOY KILL YOU, AND HE’LL BE SEEING WITH HIS OWN EYES~ HEHEHEHE~”
(Mother… whose voice is it, and where is it coming from!?)
“OH, LITTLE KASUMI. THAT’S A NICE NAME. ANYWAY. YOU TOO. YOU GONNA BE MY PET, WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE. EHEHEHE~”
(I won’t allow such thing to come.)
“OH! YOU GONNA RESIST MORE? YOU KNOW YOU CAN’T STOP ME. BUT OH WELL! KEEP STRUGGLING! IT IS MORE FUNNY LIKE THAT.”
(What you know about his family?)
“TSK, TSK, TSK, TSK, TSK! NOT YET. YOU’LL SPOIL THE SURPRISE. AND OF COURSE, YOU ALL, WILL NOT TOUCH THIS SUBJECT IN FRONT OF HIM.” The voice said, as if all of its plans were already settled in stone. “BUT DO TRY TO STOP ME YUKI. IT’LL BE REALLY FUNNY TO SEE YOU STRUGGLE. HEHE!”
The presence of that voice disappeared as soon as he finished speaking. Not only that, but Yuki, who was present at the time, also disappeared.
The conversation with whatever that voice was, ended up triggering some bad memories for Lucy, for some reason. On the one hand, that was bad, but on the good side, her wings began to emit a golden glow.
(Mother? She’s gone…) Kasumi glanced at Lucy. (I guess we can settle this talk for now. Lucy doesn’t look very good. Let’s rest, and wait for Kenji-Sama to wake up. We can’t do much for now.)
Agreeing with Kasumi, and after waiting for Lucy to calm down, they prepared to sleep. The interesting thing was that, as soon as Lucy calmed down, she went back to normal, as if nothing had happened.
----------------------------------------
The moment I open my eyes, I can feel my body heavy. My head seemed to be spinning about all of this. I got up, and sit on the bed, and it feels like my soul was stuck on it, while my body was free to move.
After waiting about 30 minutes, just standing still there, I looked around. I was back in my room, while Kasumi, Amara and Lucy were lying together on the bed opposite me. As for Ayla, she was lying on the extra bed there. They get along pretty well. In the beginning, she was all jealous of Amara being close to me. Now, they act like sisters or something.
Something I noticed, which can be considered less bad, was that I didn't collapse in bed for a week! What a thing. Did I really used up all of my mana? It didn’t feel like it.
I got off of the bed, and started my stretching, as usual. Every time I would go sleep, when I woke up, my body would be all stiff, so I started making stretches every time I got out of bed.
And after finishing that, I dressed myself, and got out of the room. It was around, by the sun’s position, I think around 8 at the morning? Dunno. Walking throught the hall, I noticed the people of the castle, with their anxious expressions, like something bad happened last night.
It felt like they all had some kind of nightmare. I walked towards the kitchen, where the chef, who also had the same strange expression of the remaining people on the castle, whom I asked if I could use the kitchen, to make some food for the girls. As an apology for my actions last night.
“Crab Snake's meat, Khnum's meat, Red Crab's meat. Okay… I think this one will be good. Hmm… What, should I-”
“What you doing?”
While I was talking to myself, I glanced to the kitchen’s door, where Lucy was glaring at me. What?
“Preparing some food?”
“Sigh… Back to the room… Now, Kenji-Sama.”
“Wait. This is a-”
“To. The. Room. Kenji-Sama.”
“Why?”
“This is my duty from now on!”
“Sigh… Fine. There's Khnum's meat, Red Crab, and that Crab Snake we ate a few times. Should I left the Desert Bull’s meat here too?”
“Please!”
If Lucy was a puppy, instead of an eagle, she would have her tail wagging right about now. I left the kitchen, not before taking a certain quantity of meat out, and got back to the room. Entering, Amara and Kasumi were glaring at me. Shrugging, I walked towards my bed, and face planted on it.
“What happened?" I could notice that something happened. "I can see by your expressions, even behind those angry ones, that something bad happened while I was out. So?”
The two, three, if you count Ayla, were surprised. She was awake too. Gulping, they looked away, with an expression that said: You wouldn’t want to know.
“You can’t tell me. Got it.”
They glanced at me, but I wouldn’t insist more. If they wouldn’t talk, I wouldn’t insist.
“By the way, do any of you want something inside the vehicle?”
“Something, inside?” Amara asked, cocking her head to the side. Heh! Cute.
“Something you like? There’s supposed to be a big space inside the vehicle, so, I might be able to put something you girls like it inside. Like a garden, or something.”
“YES!” Amara answered with glee in her eyes.
“Okay… What about you Kasumi?”
(A bathtub… And. Uhmm… A big bed!)
“You just want to sleep together, and bath together, don’t you?”
(Yes.)
“No matter what you do, I’m not entering a bath with any of you.”
They started pouting after I said that. Why are you pouting as well, Ayla? After talking more about things to put inside the vehicle, Lucy appeared with… a small cart with lots of food. Asking Lucy, she simply answered she wanted a big kitchen, to prepare food, and a comfortable bed to sleep. Also big, so everyone could sleep together. The blast?
The meal for today, was a hot pot, with Red Crab and Crab Snake's meat. Some roasted meat with spices, out of Desert Bull’s meat, and a stew made from the Khnum’s meat. Hunh. Hm? This smell… IT’S COFFEE!
The first thing I did, was to drink the coffee. I should have a really strange expression on my face, since the girls were looking at me like I was somekind of attraction, for their amusement.
After Lucy finished putting the dishes on the table, we all started eating. The food was even better than before. In fact, when I checked Lucy’s STATUS, she had the [Chef] Class, and some skills related to food. Like [Food Appraisal], which checked if the food was edible, and what it could be prepared into.
Also another interesting one, which was: [Other World Food Archive]. She has access to every single recipe of Earth now! But… How? After reading her STATUS completely, I noticed she had a new Title: [Servant of a Technomaniac].
The effects were simple. It would concede a skill, based on what the owner, in this case Lucy, wanted to give to its master. In Lucy’s case, she was able to select a certain thing that she wanted to give to me, and the Title, based on that choice, would give Lucy a skill. Which, in her case, was a complete recipe book, full of Earth’s dishes. Wait… Why I didn’t noticed earlier? The hotpot, and the stew. They have a familiar taste, but not exactly the same.
Scanning the Dishes, before they were devoured by Ayla, mentioned a few interesting things. A sweet wine, and the copy of soy sauce(which had some flaws).
The copy of soy sauce, was a little too strong. But I guess Lucy taste tested first, trying to replicate the original recipe. But for her to know the original recipe’s taste, she would have to taste it first. So… How did she replicated without a problem?
“Hey, Lucy. How did you knew the exact taste I would like?”
“Eh? Uhm… I don’t know. It came to mind recently. I… don’t understand it either, but… I seem to know what Kenji-Sama likes and dislikes.” – Lucy
“Okay. Kasumi, do you know a goddess by the name of Ziuna?”
(No.) – Kasumi
“Ziuna?” Ayla asked, and I nodded. “She’s known as the goddess of Knowledge.” – Ayla
“Yeah, I received some Scan results, with her ranting about my creations.”
“She’s not only a goddess though.” – Ayla
“What you mean by that?”
“Ziuna, is know as the Goddess of Knowledge, but also… As the creator of the STATUS we know today.” – Ayla
“Hunh. That’s interesting. So she created the STATUS and anything we know as of today?”
“Basically. But I don’t understand too much about it. I just have some simple knowledge on the area.”
“Okay… I still don’t get it though. This whole system.”
“You look troubled by it?” Ayla asked. “I mean, it’s not like I’m not curious too. But… It helps us understand everything we have, so who cares?”
“Still… In my opinion, it's too perfect. Someone can’t just create the thing like that, and have all of those ideas.”
“You make it seem like Ziuna had help.” – Ayla
“Well, yes. After all, back on Earth, games and such had this STATUS thingy. To make it easy to people understand all of their Avatar’s capabilities. And, this STATUS, is the same as that.”
“So, you’re saying that Ziuna, the goddess of Knowledge, used a game as a basis to the STATUS we come to know?” I nodded. “Ha! That’s funny.” – Ayla
“If you think about it, it’s not far off. It’s too identical.” I said. “Not only that, but… That might be related to the heroes summoned in the past.”
“Speaking of which… I wanted to ask this but… Are you… a hero?”
“I’m not."
"Then, why was you summoned?” – Ayla
“I’m still figuring that out.” I say so, while thinking of it as a whole. “But… for everything I saw up until now? I can say for sure, that it’s related to Goldguard.”
“Okay. You have more to say, right? About the system.” – Ayla
“I mean, I do. If it is as I think it is, then it makes sense. So…”
“Okay. Surprise me. Or better, us.” – Ayla
“Alright. But what I’m gonna say, it’s just a theory, okay? Just something that I thought about.”
[Author’s Note: This following part, is Kenji talking too much. If you don’t see quotation marks at the end of a paragraph, that means someone is still talking. In this case, Kenji.]
“Okay, so, let’s make a time travel. In the past, before Goldguard, and even your father existed, I think, this world, was a normal one. Not exactly like mine, like Earth, though. Just so all of you know, Magic does not exist back in my world. That’s why, Technology and Science, ended up being a big achievement for humanity.
“Okay, so, in the past, this world wasn’t in order, and, the gods at that time, needed a way to stabilize it. That’s where the Hero + Demon Lord/A big threat appeared.
“With it, the world would get in order, and would prosper. You might think the Demon Lord as a bad thing, but actually, he might be considered a part of the good guys. Again, that’s only my theory.
“During that time, one of the many heroes that were summoned, might have given an advice to the goddess of Knowledge, Ziuna, and she created the STATUS as we all know. Or she just, found the idea good for the future. The STATUS was created based on the Hero’s Knowledge, and then, it started changing, to what we know today.”
“That does makes some sense, but… Where did some of the skills, like the Virtues and Sins came? By my mother’s knowledge, and what my father spoke a lot, they weren’t there when they understood the STATUS.” – Ayla
“That’s the point. I said the ‘Heroes’ knowledge, impacted with the STATUS a lot. But that doesn’t mean they were the only ones. Probably, due to the amount of threats the Demon Lords had, or anything related to a big threat, started growing weaker. So! They needed to improve.
“And that, lead to the creation of a being. Those beings, can be considered as the New Generation of Demon Lords. They were based on the Heroes knowledge, but every time a new Hero was summoned, new Knowledge was acquired.”
“So, the Heroes, ended up creating powerful Demon Lords?” – Lucy
“That’s a possibility. Back on Earth, there is a lot of Myths, and Religions. And that! Is pure knowledge. So, imagine a Hero that was devoted to god, and believed on the Holy Virtues. Then, a Demon Lord, would be created, based on that. The problem is… Since the knowledge was taken from a little amount of people, it might have created something, more evil, than good.”
“These Virtues… Are you saying that, the Demon Lord who was created with his base on that, would then see the problems of humanity, and… I don’t know how to say it…” – Ayla
“Destroyed the Humans and other Races? That’s a possibility. Blast, it might already happened. But then, we would have a problem.”
“What problem?” – Amara
“You see, Philosopher’s back on Earth, have theorized this. ‘For every force on the universe, there’s an equal, and an opposite.’ The Virtues, are basically the opposite of the Sins.”
“Wait. Then… Are you saying that a Hero, was summoned to this world, and within him, were the Virtues?” – Ayla
“In theory, yes. It could have been one Hero, or seven of them.”
“But in some very old History Books I’ve read, there was only one Demon Lord, that he called himself, the Lord of Sins. And it was only him.” – Ayla
“That’s what I meant. The heroes came with the Virtues, but the Demon Lord was created, to oppose that.”
“So… You said you were from another world, right? But… from everything I understand, after reading some books of this castle’s library, there has been no threat from 500 years ago until now. So-” – Ayla
“Why heroes were summoned? Honestly? There is no hero on the group.” I say so, after remembering everyone’s personality, shocking Ayla. “Most of us died on the Invasion of the Vampires on the Imperial Capital, and the ones that are still alive… Yeah, they’re no heroes. At all.”
(What about that Suzuki Mari? She has the power of a Hero, no?) – Kasumi
“Actually, I don’t think so.” I say so, after analyzing some info. “Wait a second. How am I able to think over 2 things at the same time?”
“What? What you mean?” – Ayla
“While I’m talking with you, I can think over other things. It’s like…”
“A second you, is thinking over those other things. Did you acquired [Parallel Processing]?” – Ayla
“Let’s see here… Oh! I did.”
“Makes sense. You can think over 2 things now, without much trouble.” – Ayla
“Anyway. Back to us being summoned from another world, might be related to our world NOT, having access to magic.”
“I still don’t get it.” – Ayla
“We never had access to Mana. Honestly, I would think that a human who never had access to mana, would actually have some difficulty getting used to it. But probably, and that’s thanks to the gods, they decided that every human brought to this world from another one, would have a better mana understanding than the ones of this world.”
“But there are people on the world that are considered genius or prodigies.” – Ayla
“Yeah, that's a normal thing. But if you search around the world, you might find some people, who are commoners for example, that are prodigies as well.” I sipped on the coffee cup, and continued. “Do you really think, that the countries created at the time, would let someone, with a good mana understanding, ginormous amounts of power, roam the world freely, without leaving that power behind?”
“No.” She fell in thought, and continued. “If it was me, I would try to keep him connected to my kingdom as close as possible.” – Ayla
“Exactly. The leaders of those nations, probably saw that as an opportunity to maintain their reign over people, and also, that probably led to more bloodshed, since… well, not everyone from another world would be a complete, righteous hero. Some might have been a bit greedy.
“Anyway, even if some of those heroes were tied to the kingdom, they might have did a little thing.”
““What?”” The four girls asked. I think they noticed the main point.
“They built a harem. Simple as that.” I sipped again, and breathed out. “The leaders probably didn’t liked that, and tried as much as possible to maintain the Summoned people, tied mainly to their families, or some allies.
“Of course, that didn’t stopped the Summoned people from making a harem with lots of girls, of different upbringings, and races. But, they could trim the people who approached the heroes. I sometimes wonder, if all of those idiots ever noticed such thing.”
“But… Kenji-Sama… Like Ayla-san said… There hasn’t been any threat for over 500 years. So… Why were you, and those people summoned?” – Amara
Looking at Amara, I started to organize my thoughts. I started to remember reading some of the historical books I had read in both the Imperial Capital and Salis-Side. But it didn't matter how much I looked in my memories, I had no answer to that question.
In fact, I had an answer. It's just that I would rather not mention it.
“Most of the problems that appeared 500 years ago, up till now, were solved by a single person.”
“And who that was? I didn’t found anything about it. And it must be a pretty strong one, right?” – Ayla
“Heh! You would be surprised." I say so, with a little of sarcasm under my voice. "The guy’s name, is Alexander Goldguard Herington. The Emperor, of the Valor’s Empire.”
You know those scenes where someone mentions a word about something important and all, and those sounds of impact, and suspension echoes around? Making everyone surprised, and speechless? Yeah, that was what happened when I mentioned the guy’s name.