People were giving me odd looks as I am walking through the little outpost dragging some dude from the back of his armor. Quite expected to be honest since he was unconscious and everything.
Walking for a bit I finally reach the guild and step inside. I see Clara is working today and walk on over to her.
“Hey, Clara. How you holding up?”
Clara looked up at me from her paperwork. She looked a bit zoned out and had some dark circles under her eyes as well. Guessing that the ordeal she went through on top of hearing Laura in the middle of the night kept her awake.
“Hi, Lynn. How are…why are you dragging someone behind you?”
Looking down at the unconscious young master, I then look back at Clara and shrug my shoulders.
“Long story, the short version he was an ass. Anyway, I was hoping the guild master was in today.”
Clara gave out a sigh, but despite her looking worried a flash of joy could also be seen spread on her face. She seemed to forget her worries for a moment.
“Yeah, he is upstairs in his office.”
I thank Clara and head upstairs dragging the body upstairs without care for his comfort. I walked down the hall and arrive at the door to the guild master’s office. I knock a few times and wait for a response.
“Come in.”
Hearing that I push the door open and see Arlan sitting at his desk.
“Hello, Lynn. What brings you here today…and why are you dragging a body behind you.”
“I was out doing some shopping when I came across this idiot making a scene. He was harassing people in town and then tried to make me his concubine. I just wanted to know what the guilds' trash policy was. Do you recycle or burn?”
Arlan’s face showed some confusion at first but quickly paled once he grasped the underlying message. He walked over to me and once he saw who it was behind me the remaining color drained from his face.
“Lynn! What have you done?! Don’t you know who this is? He is the son of Duke Aoric! You can’t just go around attacking people like him!”
“Yeah, he made that known. I would have mostly ignored him except he then talked about me.”
Arlan sat back down at his desk letting out a heavy sigh.
“I don’t know for how long I can protect you but there is a good chance the Duke will come after you now. Us normal folk can't go against the nobles, that like courting death.”
“It’s alright. I can look after myself. You just do what you need to do. I’ll just leave this thing here for you.”
As I spoke, I dropped the body I was carrying on the floor and left the building.
“Lynn!”
I had just taken a few steps before someone had called out to me. Looking towards the voice I saw a tall dark-skinned man with long white hair and red eyes. He stood at about 205cm and overshadowed my own height of about 160cm. He was wearing a red robe with some gold trim and embroidery on it. The man walked over towards my direction before stopping in front of me.
“Hello, my name is Asmodeus. Teona sent me to help you out and to guide you in getting stronger. To help me fit in, I will be your instructor in the arts of magic and combat. To help with the cover it would be best to call me master but my name that everyone else will know me by is Eldor the Enchanter.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Before I could respond Asmodeus had cut me off and continued on.
“I am sure you have questions but let’s go to my old shack in these woods where we can talk more privately.”
I follow Asmodeus out of the outpost and into the woods. We take my usual route to the little house as I am familiar with it. The walk was quiet and uneventful and after a while, we eventually reach the house. Seeing the house, he spoke out talking to no one in general.
“This little shack sure has changed in these years. Don’t remember the tree being there last time though.”
Coming out of his thoughts Asmodeus walked into the house and motioned me to follow him. Inside he pulled up a chair and I sat on the bed. After staring at me for a moment, he finally spoke to me.
“I am sure you probably have a few questions for me so go ahead and ask them.”
“So, who are you? Teona mentioned you but didn’t really say anything.”
“I am Asmodeus. One of the nine Arch-Devils of the Nine Hells, or at least I used to be. After the whole debacle in Heaven with the Elder Gods and the disappearance of the Goddess of Fate, Heaven went through a restructuring and the Nine Hells were deemed no longer necessary and all of us devils and demons were cast out to the mortal worlds.”
“Why were you guys cast out and what happened when you arrived in the mortal worlds?”
Asmodeus had a sad look on his face for a bit before responding.
“So, the Nine Hells were governed by nine Demon Lords and each one was governed by an Arch-Devil. The gods, angels, devils and demons actually got along with each other quite well, despite how some cultures in the mortal worlds depicted us.”
“There were a few radicals in heaven that hated seeing us mingle together and after the scandal of the Elder Gods, those radicals finally were able to gain enough power and support to cast us out and destroy hell. Souls no longer went to heaven or hell. Instead, they were all reincarnated with some new and improved system, that same system which blundered so bad that they condemned a good soul and rewarded a bad one.”
“If this had happened with the old system it would have been caught and corrected early on as there would have been better oversight. Now from what I hear, the God of Law and Order is basically ruling heaven with an iron fist.”
After hearing his answer, I slowly digest all the information I had received, putting together this crazy conspiracy. Elder Gods feared a war with other gods. Elder Gods created an army that can kill gods. Radical faction caught wind of it and used it to strengthen their movement. The army was destroyed and hell was disbanded with the residents being cast out. Now there is a new afterlife system in place.
“I understand the current situation in Heaven now, but you didn’t answer my last question. What happened to you guys after being cast out?”
“After coming to the mortal worlds, we tried to coexist with the local races. Unfortunately, most of the worlds we were on, the other denizens viewed us as evil and declared war on us. Since we were no longer in hell, we didn’t have our full strength.”
“We ended up going to war with the other races despite our protests of peace. After centuries of war, our numbers dwindled, and we were forced to go into hiding. We lost most of our Demon Lords and Arch-Devils to the stupid wars. Some of the gods and angels were angered for our plight and left Heaven to give us aid, but in the end, we still lost.”
“We survivors found out that there were a few worlds out there that were more accepting of our kind. So, in an attempt to go to those worlds, we tried to do some rituals that would open up a portal and allow us to leave our worlds. We even had the help from some of the denizens of our worlds, but they were labeled as cultists and all our attempts to leave were foiled and we were forced to stay here.”
After hearing his story, I truly felt pity for the denizens of hell. The Elder Gods got one thing right though…war is coming. Shaking me out of my thoughts, Asmodeus spoke back up to me.
“Well, that’s enough of me and my history. I see you found all the books I have left here and from what Teona told me you read them and taught yourself some magic. That’s good as I will also be officially taking you in as my disciple as well. I will be teaching you the more advanced stuff I didn’t write down in those books as well as teaching you some enchantments.”
I perk up at his words mentioning teaching me more magic as well as enchanting. It feels like I am finally living a fantasy life like those games from back home.
Asmodeus reach towards me with his hands, palms up.
“Give me your hands. I want to see what kind of base you built for yourself.”
Complying with his request I place my hands on his. He closes his eyes starts to meditate. During this time, I can feel something invading my soul. After a few moments, he opens his eyes and removes his hands.
“You have a good foundation built. That is good as our next step will be to tear down what you know and rebuild you. We will need to remove this world’s mana and have you cultivate Eldritch Mana instead. With that mana, you will be able to cast spells of at least arcane tier and higher.”
“Before we do this though we need to renovate this place and make it larger if both of us will be staying here. We could also use some servants or some such. While we will be busy with your training, we will need someone to clean and cook for us.”
Hearing his words, I start to think about anybody I know that could fulfill that role. I thought about Laura, but she can hardly take care of herself at the moment until she can start to function again. My next thought was Clara, but I dismissed that as she needs her job to take care of her sister. Unless Asmodeus is willing to pay for services she won’t do.
What about someone that doesn’t need to be paid? Unless I start going around and enslaving people, I don’t have many options except to pay someone. In my series of thoughts, I came to a realization.
I know the perfect sla…I mean servant that doesn’t need to be paid and will probably follow all my orders too.
“Asmo…I mean Master. I think I know of someone who will be a maid and help take care of the house for us. I just need to go visit a dungeon real quick.”
After saying that I got up and left the house and made my way back into town before dark.
----
After Lynn had left, Arlan walked over to Brendan and woke him up. In shock, Brendan jumped backward and was looking around like a madman before spotting Arlan.
“Guild Master Arlan! How did I get here?
“Well, apparently you angered someone and got knocked out. Afterward, she brought you here.”
As if realizing what had happened before he lost consciousness, his face became red with anger.
“Where is that bitch! I need to teach her a lesson. Being my concubine is too good for her, I’ll make her a slave.”
“Sir Brendan I know you are the duke’s son, but can you please not piss off this particular mercenary? She is a mithril rank and her power is greater than Nilrem and me. I fear what she would do if she were truly angry.”
“She is nothing but a lowly commoner. I need to show her where she belongs!”
With a slight penguin walk, Brendan stormed out of the office. Arlan pulled out a bottle of alcohol and was about to pour himself a drink. Stopping himself, he looked at the bottle and chose to just drink directly from the bottle.
“I swear I am going to retire soon.”