Chapter 137
“An unexpected change.”
Alice Sanders was not stupid.
So as soon as the summoning happened, the first thing she did as soon as she got the ‘welcome to Elinor’ window, was to lock her system screen and explain to her confused grandmother how to do the same between whispers, while taking advantage of everyone else was too busy trying to figure out what was going on. Her grandfather had a frightened coughing fit after choking on his own saliva, and the magicians who performed the summoning mistook it for a cardiac attack when they saw him with a hand on his chest. But he was quickly attended to by a wizard who had been kind enough to give him a potion, believing it would connect him to the heroes.
Soon after, Alice and her two grandparents, Thomas and Sara, were taken to meet the king of the kingdom of Bhallys. And when the polite-looking old king had ordered the guards to bring the summoned heroes to the examining crystal, she had immediately volunteered to be the first to be examined.
The blue screen that the examining crystal projected was full of hieroglyphs that Alice was sure Kalysto would have been very curious to decipher, but that no one in the audience chamber had any idea what they said.
“What is the meaning of this?” the king had shouted, not at all happy to see it.
“I think her system is broken, Your Majesty,” announced one of the court magicians, finding no other explanation.
Before there was any other problem, the blonde rushed and had her grandmother do the test. And just as she had planned, they got the same result.
Alice had to try hard not to smile in front of the annoyed king who had the crystal replaced immediately, claiming it was defective. But even with a new one, the result had been the same.
Then it was her grandfather’s turn.
There was no surprise when the blue window revealed that his class was a farmer. For a man who had spent his whole life working in the fields, getting a different class would have been too surprising.
”Farmer? We go through so much hardship just to get a sick farmer when we have plenty of people willing to work the land?” But the king’s anger subsided soon after when he saw that Thomas Granthy, the young man Alice had been in love with in the past, was the hero they had been waiting for.
Alice, knowing how much trouble Sara, the other young woman who had been summoned along with them and with whom Thomas was hopelessly in love, was, she hurried to ask the king’s permission with all the manners and courtesy that she remembered reading in the author’s books and which she knew would please the king.
“If Your Majesty is so magnanimous as to give me permission since my system does not work and neither my grandparents nor I would like to abuse your hospitality, I would like you to grant us the authorization to get a job in the city and settle down," she said, knowing very well how much the king cared about keeping up appearances and what would be the dark destiny that awaited Sara, who would be used to manipulate Thomas.
But before the king had given her an answer, Sara began to shout.
“This is nothing but a vile kidnapping! I have rights and I will not go to fight against any demon king, or whatever that old man said! I refuse to be a slave of an obsolete and macho system!” In fact, the young former medical student tried to run away, alarming not only the guards but also Thomas, who tried to follow her immediately. But the guards quickly stopped both.
“Boris, prepare a room for the young woman and her grandparents! Take care of creating their IDs, give the young woman a bag with gold, and take her to some guild to be stabilized. Let’s see which one of them is willing to receive her!” Ordered the king, pointing to Alice. “... At least she’s willing to be useful to us in some way," he muttered under his breath, before turning to Sara and ordering the guards to lock her in a dungeon after the crystal indicated that she had no class. “And take the boy to another room and keep an eye on him!”
Alice had taken advantage of the kindness her grandparents had always instilled in her, along with her angelic face, to befriend the guards guarding her room. They told her about Tom’s Inn, where many travelers and adventurers stayed when passing through town.
“It has good food, clean water, and the lodging is cheap," one of them assured her. “But if your grandfather is a farmer, isn’t it better to join the farmers’ guild or perhaps the merchants’ guild?”
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“If there is one thing we have in abundance in Bhallys, it is food. They will starve to death if they become farmers! Why don’t you try the adventurer’s guild, collecting medicinal plants or herbs for the potionists? You would have better luck there and the work is usually not difficult. Most of the adventurers tend to prefer the more risky missions because they give them more money, so you won’t have as much competition," commented another of the guards.
Four days later, Boris, seeing the effort she was making to integrate into his kingdom and learn their customs, gave her their papers and accompanied her to the city, where she followed the advice of the guards and settled in Tom’s inn and joined the adventurers’ guild, who, under Boris’ orders, informed him of all her movements within the guild.
Two days later, they received news from the kingdom of Balsahty, informing them that they were also successful in the summoning of heroes but that as had happened to them, they had a hero without class and another with a broken system. So from then on the constant surveillance they had placed on her and her grandparents disappeared almost completely, allowing her to get them out of the palace.
Alice, happy for the recent freedom she had acquired and seeing that they seemed to have disregarded her, took advantage when Thomas went to visit her after a heavy day of training and gave him her copy in Spanish of the book ‘The Fall of the Hero’, knowing that Kalysto would have no problem reading it, and asked him to give it to her if he met her at the party that the kingdom of Balsahty had invited them to. Of course, neither she, nor her grandparents or Sara had been directly informed of the party, or the invitation extended.
Planning their escape in advance, Alice had added a short sentence in a language Kalysto had invented for the two of them, informing her of the false identity Alice had created for herself.
And a couple of days later, while everyone was busy and drunk celebrating the hero’s arrival in the kingdom, Alice had taken the opportunity to escape in the middle of the night with her grandparents.
But her elaborate plans fell apart a month later.
When she went out to buy bread and some things needed for lunch with the brown wig that Kalysto had given her for last Halloween. And she learned that the capital, which was three cities south of the medium-sized town where she and her grandparents had settled, was under attack and a gigantic portal had appeared in the sky.
Impossible! she thought. It was supposed to be more than five months away! We were supposed to have enough time for Kalysto to find us!
Seeing the restlessness that flooded the village, after finding out what was needed and buying more food, Alice ran back to the furnished house they had rented.
“We have to go!” she announced as she entered, after closing the door, “Grandma, get the bags out and pack everything we need!”
“But what’s the matter?” asked her grandmother as she came out of the kitchen, wiping her wet hands from washing vegetables on her apron.
“The capital was attacked! We have to get out of here before the monsters start invading this part of the kingdom!”
“Weren’t we supposed to wait another month for Kalysto to arrive?” worried her grandmother. “ We’re two and a half days away from the capital. We shouldn’t be in danger here. We can still wait a couple more days!”
“There’s no time for that!” Alice burst out. “This shouldn’t be happening now! Thomas was only supposed to go to the party in a few months and then he would spend it training together with the heroes that survived the summoning of the kingdom of Balsahty, but now everything changed!”
“But what changed?” insisted her grandmother, understanding only half of what she said, thanks to how fast her granddaughter was speaking.
“History, Grandma! History changed!”
“Again with those books, mijita! I think you’d better stop reading them for a while!” She scolded her, full of concern.
And Alice couldn’t help but feel frustrated by her family’s lack of cooperation. If Kalysto were here, she’d be helping me pack by now!... She sighed. What was it that made the story change so much? I’m sure my actions didn’t have much impact, so it couldn’t have been me... But if it wasn’t me, then who?
“Have you heard the news?” Her grandfather questioned as he walked through the door leading to the garden. “They’re saying that the capital was invaded by monsters! The Robinsons believe that now that a good part of the army has gone to the kingdom of Balsahty, the best thing to do is to stay away until the situation calms down. They leave at noon along with the vegetable order to the north. I think we should go with them!”
“Grandfather is right, the safest thing for us is to go north! That leaves the kingdom of Thaluz, Zeer or Solis as our final destination. But Solis is right next to Balsahty and too close to the conflict to be safe! So either of the other two would be fine!”
Several hours later, the Duchy of Brincy. Kingdom of Balsahty.
All the darkness that had surrounded the twentieth floor of the tower began to dissipate, revealing a grayish vaulted cave and two corridors leading to it.
A strange creature with dark blue skin and covered in scales lay on the floor, its side pierced by a thick, long black crystal.
And in front of her, a young woman watched her with a smile on her face. Her brown hair turned blacker with each passing minute.
And so were her eyes.
“Don’t worry, Kalysto," the young woman whispered softly, turning her face to the right, but there was no one there to answer her. “Mommy is here!” She added with a touch of irony, “and I will take care of everything... now sleep... just sleep peacefully... I will see to it that no one interrupts your sweet sleep” and a malicious smile spread on her face as another black crystal sprouted from her hand and she threw it against the terrified creature that minutes before had been torturing her body.