EPILOGUE
Masahiko walks out of the canyon with his friends. Or rather, he's carried on Daichi's back, as he has broken his ankle, has black bruises that are climbing up his leg, has lost his sense of balance, and feels overall horrible. At his first encounter with Katsuragi-kun's party, he was wounded mortally, now he was beaten so much that there is barely a spot on his body not covered in an injury. Even after the first aid, greatly improved due to his hero-body, he can't move without feeling more pain.
It's bitter. So bitter! He tried so hard and fell short yet again! Now he knew why he should only use [Caliburn] when he can see the path to victory his shishou spoke of. In his fight against Katarine-hime, Masahiko fully relied on the sword, which was only a tool in the end.
At some point, he thought it was his own power. He thought he would win, yet it was a false feeling of victory, something that led him to maybe even lose more badly than otherwise.
Now he knows it for sure: If he continues to rely on [Caliburn], it will only make him entirely dependent on it and he witnessed how easily it was taken from him.
The tears of bitterness have already been cried, but the feeling remains. Teruko walks next to him and she repeatedly kicks a stone before her while grunting angrily. She must feel the same as Masahiko. So close, but the distance they needed to bridge between them and Kyou was so vast.
“Teruko...”, he says in a pained voice: “We'll get her next time.”
She turns to him and hisses at him silently, before she turns back to the stone. After three or four kicks, she says in a quiet voice: “...thanks, Masa-kun.”
Eri is in front, talking with Correo, who tries his best to explain the way to the village and the cave where they would become stronger. It seems like Yoshimura-kun and Hoshibashi-kun were still after Katsuragi-kun, and the merchant wants to join them as soon as possible.
Masahiko has realized that he has been sheltered since he was summoned into this world. Hoshibashi-kun, Yoshimura-kun, and Katsuragi-kun were all fully exposed to what the world had to offer, while Masahiko just went from one training to another. While he doesn't doubt that to learn everything possible is the right way to do it, the other approach granted those three a head-start.
It isn't the time to train now though. Masahiko wants to recover as fast as possible and is ready to use a shortcut to power if it's necessary to be able to deal with Katsuragi-kun. Katsuragi-kun was smart and has been able to make most of the hero-system, collecting an arsenal of [Classes] that makes him hard to deal with, while also having the princess that's power incarnated.
Ara'ainn had even warned him. Yet Katsuragi-kun stole her from Hoshibashi-kun and Yoshimura-kun and used his mind-control on her, using her and Kyou to attack the injured...
Masahiko failed. He failed so hard. Yet thanks to Correo-san, he survived. So he can try again.
He will be back in action soon. He will become a hero and save the day! He owes that to Kyou, to the princess, to Ara'ainn, and even to Katsuragi-kun. Masahiko doesn't know why his former classmate would use such means to his end, but in the end, it may be because he believes that this is the only way to defeat the demon king.
Just wait for me and stop doing this, Katsuragi-kun. I will show you that there is another way.
―○●○―
Lent sits on a rock, his scratches fully healed by now. Correo asked them to stay here for the time being, until he delivers Inoue and his party to a village he knows. While Lent doesn't feel like listening to the merchant, he's keen on how Correo will explain himself.
As a [Wizard], Lent is capable of objectively thinking about the whole order of events. Correo brought Inoue's party to make Lent, Star, and them work together. Lent asked to be in charge, but instead of officially transfer leadership to Lent, he just stopped being active. In a sense, Lent got what he wanted, but then it was a leadership-struggle with Inoue, which may have been bridged to some degree, but in the end, Lent was forced to compromise.
Did Correo use one of his manipulation-skills on Lent? What did he gain from it? Correo lacks the devotion Lent has, so he may have his own agenda.
“UAAAAAAAGH!” Unable to keep his anger inside, Lent's partner Star starts to hit the walls, the rock pulverizes under his fists, but despite this showcase of power, he was bested by an old man. The same goes for Lent. Both of them were overwhelmed by a so-called barbarian.
This is a bitter experience. How, just how? Lent knows that he had a lot of room to grow, he's still far away from Level 100, but to be reduced to this sorry state so easily... Who was that barbarian?
Correo finally returns with the familiar blur of his Seven League Boots. “Inoue-dono has been taken into care.”
“I don't care.”
The merchant shrugs his shoulders as an answer and looks at Star, who is still busy hitting the wall. “Star, you might want to stop.”
“DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!”
“I won't, but you might want to listen.”
“Rggh.”
“You wanted to talk with me, Lent?”
“Yes. Explain yourself.”
“About what?”
“About everything! Why didn't you do something?”
Correo set his hat straight and lifts two fingers. “Two reasons. I'm not a hero or a warrior. I can fight to some degree, but I'm not crazy enough to charge straight into combat, and I wanted to keep Inoue-dono as an ally for the time being. You also didn't come and I didn't know why, so I rather retreated and found out what had happened to you.”
“I asked you to buy time, but you didn’t! So you're a weak coward. How will you solve this?”
“Take a step back, talk with the Lady once more, get enough resources and try again. This time went bad, but I'm wiser now.”
Star snapped. He grabs Correo by his collar and lifts him up, while speaking in a menacing voice: “So this was just a test-run!? Are you messing with us!”
Correo holds his hat while dangling in the grip of the true hero: “Failure is the pavement to success. What will you do? Will you stay with me?”
Star snorts and looks at Lent. The same thinks about it. Correo was weak, he was a coward. Whatever he touches will end in failure. What did that person ever accomplish? Nothing, all he has is failure. “No,” Lent decides. “Star, we'll return to the Lady's side. We’ll show her that we're worthier of her trust and we'll subdue the Undead Army, increase our level in the meantime, learn their secrets and return with an actual army instead of a bunch of unreliable brats. I don't even know why the Lady entrusted you with this mission in the first place, Correo, but you better hurry with it if you want to maintain a shred of dignity.”
“Splendid,” says Correo with a bold smile while still dangling from Star's hand.
―○●○―
Correo looks at Star and Lent who hurry back to the Deep Trails to get closer to the necropolis. Lent's [Merchant] had a skill that allowed him and others to move faster on routes he has marked, so they should be back soon.
This went better than expected, most likely because Lent is too proud to think that Correo had no means to influence him. It's just subtle, but one of the most important skills of Correo is to make people not think about minor, but important details. It works on everyone, even Katsuragi had fallen victim to it before. Would it still work with his ranger-training? Correo isn't sure about that.
Still, while the whole ordeal was a disaster, he lost little to nothing. This whole conflict was an accumulation of different factors... a barbarian who expressed favor towards Inoue-dono and Katsuragi's party. Dangerous.
Barbarians are bad news. They raid villages and roadside inns, sometimes even mercenary companies. They are a plague in these lands. The only bright side of it is that they are few and they seldom work with each other, on the contrary, they have their own little wars going.
Meeting barbarians is bad luck, yet nothing strange. Except that Correo knows—like many merchants—how they usually move. The closest clan of them should be weeks to the north, moving southwards, yet halt before the canyon. Also, that barbarian was on his own and old... Correo knows little about their culture, as the only thing he did whenever he encountered them was to leave behind his goods and run away. Even the one time he tried to trade with them.
Barbarians move in clans. They don't go off on their own. They may be strong warriors, each of them able to use more skills than any regular soldier, yet they need protection of other barbarians to not fall prey to those who would hunt them. There are bounties on barbarians after all and there are many strong people in this world.
Correo needs to keep that barbarian that appeared out of nowhere, in mind.
Another factor that was detrimental was the nature of heroes. They can fight, they can learn different occupations with ease, they endure hardships like no other person can do, they make other people believe in them. A hero like Lent or Inoue-dono can put a strong mental and social pressure on someone without even the use of a single skill. In this case, this may have made the barbarian move on their behalf...
Unseen factors are the bane of every plan. Correo had this happen to him several times, yet the only disaster was when the Bloody-Nosed Mercenary Company failed to capture the princess. Other than that, he can turn every setback into a win.
The Goldbrunn incident wasn't planned at all, yet even that brought him another resource to use: Crusaders. He only needs to give them the word and they will hunt down Katsuragi. Sadly, Correo still doesn't know why Katsuragi became a sinner, yet knowing this doesn't change anything anyway.
Now this incident taught Correo that using more heroes may be more harm than good. All things that make heroes bad enemies also made all of them confused. He also underestimated the elf. Ara'ainn, the hero-sage. He will definitely put a high bounty on her. He will also ask the merchant league to distribute more posters on this side of the Ohl. This may slow them down enough to find out where they are heading and what he can do to stop them.
Inoue-dono's party will train. He gave them a letter of recommendation that would allow them to contact him via the merchant league. The story of the dungeon was half of a lie, as he had it excavated long ago to trade some of these crystals, but he has resupplied it with monsters and crystals in case he needed to trick heroes. He would send a message to an underling of his to set it up properly.
Time to get back to Jeira. He needs to gather resources and learn how his schemes in Déjuma, Fallhellar, and the Temple of the Sky God are progressing. He can also visit the bank and let them write some money orders so that he can gain some liquidity again.
After that, he will visit the Lady and report to her what happened here. She's an important business partner, after all, as she provides him with the Blood. She will most likely order him to get the princess once more... fine with him.
Yet there is one thing he has to do. He takes an urn from his backpack and opens it. It vomits something orange-brown that becomes red for a quick while, before taking the form of a small girl with red twin-tails and horns: His slave. Her sight is just pitiful, as her body shudders while she tries to form words: “Ua-Shi-Ba-Toaaah...”
“Stand up, slave.”
She immediately jumps to her feet while wobbling and reeling. “Yes, Mashta!”
“Now kneel down. Good.” Whenever she's inside the urn for extended periods of time, she needs some time to adjust to the outside. It will take three minutes for her to move normally, three hours before she can spit fire, and three days before she can use her shapeshifting reliably.
“Mashta...” With her body barely under control, she begins to lower her head further and further, ready to lick Correo's boots if he asks her to. He doesn't even need the urn, this is all the result of Correo training her accordingly.
This is the end of her punishment, so Correo doesn't need a proof of loyalty, but rather a sign of dominance, so he steps on her head. “Will you follow my orders?”
“Yeash!”
“Will you start using your brain only when my orders can no longer be executed?”
“Yeash, your shtupid shlave will not shink at all.”
“Good. I may have a use for thinking servants, but from you I demand only following my instructions. That's why you may be the only of my servants that I can trust.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Too kind of you.”
“Slave, I will need to tend to some businesses. I will let you off close to Goldbrunn and you will collect your squirrel underlings. Then you'll head to Uthredt with them, there you will get new orders.”
“What about Katakata?”
“I'll make some preparations that will slow them down. I need to buy some time first and learn where they're heading. If they follow the road, they will also arrive at Uthredt, though they also tend to go off-road...” In that direction, they may either head to Zethtrin, Armika, or even leave the Wildlands for the realms of the northwest. He will soon know.
Slowing them down will mean that the elite-team from Feuerberg will have a chance to catch up. If the rumors are true, then Gottfried is among them and Correo knows that it will be difficult at best to find someone who even dares to get in his way. Another unknown factor: How long will it take him to catch up? Is there a chance before winter comes?
For the time being, Correo will stay mindful of that possibility. This only means that the moment he will make an earnest attempt to capture her, he will have also accounted for that search-party. Even Gottfried will have his limits. If the knight gets her before Correo, the merchant has to think of another plan.
In the end, Correo is indifferent to the princess and her companions. Yet he knows that the Lady will ask for them and therefore he will deliver. Eventually. Until then, they are the bit of chaos he needs to keep everyone around him on their toes.
No, they can be tools as well... Correo begins to smile sadistically. The only question is, how often he can use them before he has to hand them to the Lady.
Correo decides to make a detour to an oracle and find out where they're heading. Ara’ainn said Zethtrin, and it appears to be true, but he doesn’t know if his lie-detecting skills work properly against elves. Most oracles are expensive or seclusive, yet Correo has his connections. This way he will learn about Feuerberg's search-party as well. After that, he can make the proper arrangements.
Correo looks at his slave under his foot. Subduing the princess and her companions didn't work. Using their friends backfired. So he will make them work for him without them knowing for the time being.
If pushing doesn't help, he will pull them instead, all the way to the Lady, and move everything he can along at the same time.
―○●○―
King Heinrich von Stolzherz V sits in a dark chamber. The door opens, letting a beam of light into the room. “There you are,” a man slightly younger than him says. His hair may be dark blonde, yet anybody could see that the two of them are family. It's Ludolf von Stolzherz, brother to the king and one of the kingdom's most valuable tacticians. “Lorena told me you were in the Brooding Chamber.” Saying this with a hint of sarcasm, Ludolf stands before the king before falling to one knee: “My king, I have returned.”
“How are things going in the south?” Ludolf has been entrusted to build a provisional fort in the Daemonicus, the demon realm.
“Bad. We struggle with provisions, there have also been sightings of more demons, so the demon king may have subdued another tribe. I have a portfolio made for you, it's in your study room. We have the troops, but not the means to equip and feed them properly.”
“Have you found any fertile lands?”
“Nothing so far.”
“I see.” Most of the problems wouldn't be there if they could start building a proper fortress within the realm that could grow its own food. “What is your advice?”
“This is difficult. We want to strike down the demon king before he can get too powerful, yet we have no means to intervene. The land itself is poisonous and life-threatening for non-demons, therefore the scouts that return have little to offer, but where not to go. We don't have any oracles here to divine the locations of their villages and cities, so everything we can do is to hold out and let them come to us. We're very good at this with the help of the clergy, but I want to ask you: Has any of your heroes shown any talent at divination or other forms of advanced intelligence gathering? That is what we need the most.”
“No.”
“That face... you did something rash again?”
“I have set four heroes free to find Kati.”
“Oh, her.”
“Not this conversation again, Ludolf.”
“Ha, I know, I know. Eber is now the heir, I heard?”
“Yes.”
“Barely better.”
Heinrich stands up, he's larger and bigger than Ludolf. Both of them have ember-like eyes, yet the king's eyes were basically growing: “I value your opinion, brother, yet I won't let any insult fly by. Eber is not only the crown-prince, but both of them are my children as well.”
“Brother,” Ludolf says as he stands up: “I'm always the one who needs to pick up your slack. You may be the king and I have sworn loyalty to you, but I do it for the kingdom and our ancestry.” Heinrich wants to hit this brother of his in the face, yet this is an argument they had over and over.
“Tactician Ludolf, if this is all, you may go.”
“Actually, I do have something to tell you in regards to what you just said. You have sent heroes away!? To search for Kati? I'd rather have some of them with me instead of sending them to some goose-hunt!”
“I had a person that I somewhat trust, who told me her last whereabouts and provided a way to get to her fast.”
“Trust somewhat?”
“Yes. Correo from the Merchant League.”
“Ah, these secretmongers. Though I never heard of that merchant in particular. What about Rocinante?”
“She introduced me to him, as we have special needs right now. Look.” Heinrich shows his brother a special relic, an iron collar.
“Is this what I think it is?”
“Most likely.”
“Do you want to use it?”
“Do you?”
“Well... that decision isn't mine.” Which means that Ludolf would use it without batting an eye. “Though I can see the value of having some in cases of emergencies.”
This makes the decision easy. Heinrich has thought exactly the same thing. Flames spring from the hand holding the collar, turning it blazing red and then white, melting it and burning every drop of iron before it hits the stone floor. “Hagen would be ashamed of us considering it.”
Hagen is the founder of the kingdom and the revered ancestor of Heinrich. He was also a hero who met a tragic fate after being summoned: Being enslaved by a collar like this. There are still more out there and Correo promised Heinrich to give him all he found, while looking for useful relics for the heroes of Feuerberg.
Magic items are rare and hard to make. Therefore each country buys them whenever there is an opportunity. Relics are harder to come by, as they only show their power in conjunction with heroes and therefore finding them is mostly up by chance. Correo made a living by finding and selling relics, which speaks for his ideas and capabilities.
When Inoue-dono asked Heinrich if he could accompany the merchant, Heinrich decided to put his trust into the hero, not Correo. Yet Correo has honored every deal so far and with him it will be easier to provide the heroes with proper equipment.
Ludolf looks expressionless at the remains of the melted collar, then he coughs slightly. “I need better intel, if you want me to bring the war to the demons.”
“For now, I can give you Crusaders.”
“Then let's hope that they can sniff out demons in the distance. Any backup?”
“Ambassador Cassandra will travel to Zethtrin for the games. She will take Eber with her.”
“Ah, I see. In Zethtrin we may get new allies and she will look for someone there capable of divination?”
“That's the plan.”
“This is great. Now I need something that won't take months.”
“I have more than the war to consider. I have a country to run.”
“Despite that, you seem to have plenty of time to do other things. Lorena told me. Seriously, Heini? Another?”
Heinrich begins to smile a bit stupidly as he's rather proud of becoming a father once again.
―○●○―
The old barbarian continues his way. He was grinning the whole time as he's currently on a streak. He's able to avoid the follies of his youth and he actually did the right thing for once! This... he feels... somehow not that different from before, yet he still hopes that it goes into the right direction.
The fight with those two bearded youngsters has been taxing. While it seemed that he was dominating them, he's not as young as he used to be and using so much power makes him sleepy. He had to be quick to deal with both of them, but manhandling the first to discourage the second worked well.
As the barbarian has battled all his life, he learned how to deal with most skills and situations. He also never gave a fuck about what others thought was possible or not. In a sense, he excelled at providing problems and solving them at the same time.
...wait, didn't he give these bearded boys good advice while taunting them? Use attacks that keep doing damage when facing a regenerating foe as it will quickly exhaust them or that pinning down an opponent is often enough if they're too tough. Yet seeing that berserker using [Fury] the wrong way pissed him off.
[Fury] is a power-source used by several people that are quickly called savages. It's the power of primal rage which is within everyone, something that calls forth the beast within a person. It's difficult to awake and easy to lose yourself into. Especially for youngsters, easily accessible power is tempting and much more likely to control them than the other way around. He never saw a young person using their power responsibly, after all, including himself.
At least he thought so until recently. There was Rine, whose power radiates from her and she seems like a nice girl. Then there is Masahiko, who shows kindness even to strangers with a soul as strong as a mountain. Finally Kenta, who may be a ranger despite his age, yet he still acts and thinks like he's weak.
...he should have met with them. The old man's instincts are sharp and he knows that he has played his part for now, that he should back off for now. Yet... He sighs as he hears the grating of rocks, a bunch of rocky-bears looking at him as he's their prey.
For him, they're a distraction at best.
―○●○―
My liege,
my endeavors of collecting intelligence in these far realms has been met with an interesting encounter. I'm positive that I have met unexpectedly the lost princess who may or may not be on a secret mission for her country as you have surmised. However, she was accompanied by an elf and a ranger, which made me hesitate to extract information from her for the time being.
I beseech you to not underestimate the elves, as they seem to be clever and crafty as well as wrathful. If they enter the war as well, we may face worthy adversaries.
Sincerely,
I-14
The letter is folded and given to a small being, a dove with bony thorns growing out of its wings. The bird flies away to the east. The demon raises the corners of its mouth, thinking about what possibilities lie ahead.
―○●○―
“Faster!” I get hit by Rine-chan's fist, as I try to get her with my knife. She grabs my hand and punches it hard enough for my weapon to fly away. “Overall... some improvement?” She gives me her impression.
I rub my nose. “[Heal]!” Ken is still on his morning-scouting and soon we will continue our journey. The cougars will come with us until we reach the end of the canyon, which is some nice support we get. Maybe I should suggest to Ken that we join a caravan or another group heading to Zethtrin. Correo may have said that he will leave us for a while, yet we can't count on it.
I have restarted my knife-training. There is still a lot of room for me to improve, but that's why I need to push it. In combat situations, I went from dependent to halfway able to carry myself in battle, yet I want Ken to rely on me for more than just healing... I have a lot of unused potential to unlock, like more support spells, more [Knife]-skills, more [Herbal Weapons]. My [Classes] may be not combat-oriented, yet I want to do what I can. I may have improved in the Spirit Swamps, but I'm still lacking.
I will study the witch's books as well while learning more [Arcana] from Arako as well. I'm highly motivated.
Arako is next up, ready to face Rine-chan now. For me it's time to do some sit-ups.
Training time is over and Arako uses [Dry] to dry the sweat we have building up. Ken will come soon back, telling us if something is around.
Here he is... he has pondered again. I guess, he really can't help but to think about every possibility. This is unhealthy, Ken. “Something that looks like goats are close, as well as some monsters at the pond. Nothing to worry about.”
“Good job on scouting.” I say to him, trying to support our newly reformed relationship. Yet he looks at me baffled, unable to really reply to that.
“Phew... let's go. Also, don your raincoats.” Every morning I use [Weather Forecast] to tell everyone the weather and it will rain again soon, so we take all preparations.
After we're finished, I walk to Ken and take his hand, showing him that I want to earn that WP while walking while also talking to him. After we begin moving, Arako and Rine-chan start talking to the cougars. I envy them a bit for that.
Still, I have another, more important conversation to do. “What's on your mind?”
“Nothing changed... no, in a sense, things got worse. The Spirit Swamps did nothing, the only thing we learned is that Correo can find us most likely everywhere and can easily catch up, and he can easily distribute more bounty posters if he wants to, while we're easy targets and are at his mercy.”
“I know what you mean, but I feel like we're still doing better than before.”
“What about your friends?”
“I wish I could just text them, asking them if they're OK. Being in a fantasy world is the worst! Yet you're right, there is nothing we can do. You said it all yesterday, so why are you back to worrying?”
He says nothing, yet I think that he feels a bit better. I guess that he needs some encouragement here and there. So I say to him: “Caring about others is hard, right?”
“Yeah.”
“But you know... you can count on us.”
“...I may take that offer later.”
“Why?”
“I'm going to ask Rine to spar with me, and I’ll need you to fix me afterward.” The notion to become stronger started with the Spirit Swamps. Now we may have raised our level, we have obtained more [Skills], yet we saw how much we have to improve in other areas.
Ken said the only thing we can do against Correo or anyone else attacking us is preparing ourselves. We just step up to the next level. To defend ourselves against whatever may come.
―○●○―
Meldorn looks at the haunted swamps he only heard about. “The tracks are going in there.” He says without batting an eye.
“Hm...” Gottfried looks into the swamps for a moment, then he turns away. “I don't doubt that we could cross them, but it may have consequences. What would you propose, Huntsman?”
“Circumventing it.” There is something inside these swamps, something that Meldorn can't understand. He has trodden hundreds of swamps at this point, as there is often good quarry in them, but in this case, he would rather take a long way around it.
“Ohlbrücken would be the next stop then,” sighs the retired knight, most likely because they were so close to it before. Yet Meldorn assumed that their quarry would circumvent the river and therefore take a long hike, which would have granted them plenty of opportunities to change direction.
Meldorn was wrong, he never thought that they would actually try to cross the Spirit Swamps. He also fears that their quarry may be still inside, but that thought never occurred to his companions who can't feel how threatening this landscape is.
“I have an idea,” comes unexpectedly from August von Rotfeld, a young yet powerful wizard that aims for an archwizard position. “While you may have forgotten it, I'm capable of powerful spells.” He certainly had no opportunity to show it, as all monsters were dealt with by Gottfried in the blink of an eye. “We need to cross the river, right? I can make a bridge.”
Gottfried looks surprised at Rotfeld: “You are right, I forgot about that. Meldorn, please bring us to a spot where the boy-mage can do his thing. This certainly saves me and the people downstream a lot of trouble.”
Meldorn can only guess what that means, maybe Gottfried was thinking about destroying parts of the river to make his way through. Whatever it is, the retired knight looks actually relieved that he doesn't need to do what he was just thinking about.
“...” The young wizard doesn't like being called boy-mage, but after weeks of traveling as a group, he knew that the old man doesn't care about what he says most of the time.
Meldorn is actually impressed, as he knows that it takes a lot of magic to create such a bridge and only a fraction of wizards are capable enough to create large bridges strong enough for people to cross. So Meldorn puts his hand on Rotfeld's shoulder and nods respectfully to him.
The youngster begins to grin a little and is fully motivated.
“[Stamina]!” This comes from the last one of their group, the pontiff Reiner Kasse, who is maybe older than Gottfried, but definitely much less in shape. As he understood that they would travel even more, he replenished his stamina with a spell.
Meldorn didn't expect how the route of the princess turned out. If they cross the Ohl, they're close to that place.
[https://kentusauthor.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/kentaranger61.png?w=676] [https://kentusauthor.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/kyouherbalist57.png?w=676] [https://kentusauthor.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/rinepk58.png?w=676] [https://kentusauthor.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/araainndruid64.png?w=676]