Chapter 14 – The Morning before the Match

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The day of the match came.

Early in the morning I was brought by Raziel, disguised as Lucilla, to a room on the first floor of the palace which I never visited until that moment. It looked like some kind of armory: lances, maces, polearms, axes, hammers and swords of any length were resting on weapon racks of different sizes; mannequins wearing armor spanned all the length of the twenty meters long room; shields and daggers were displayed in long showcases; bows and arrows adorned the room over the racks like wooden reliefs. All the weapons and armors in the room were obviously of a much higher quality than those I used during the training with Gabriel, or at least they were kept in a much better way.

In the middle of the room there was a long wooden table with different kinds of weapons on it that stretched almost all the width of the room it in front of two mannequins, one wearing a greenish gambeson and the other wearing golden full plate armor. In front of the table the king, Gabriel and Lady Raphael were waiting for me.

“Good morning Your Majesty” – I said with a light bow towards the king—“Lady Raphael, Lord Gabriel.”

“Good morning Hero Fortuna. I hope you slept well.”

“Like a baby.”

“Good. I had you come here to give you the equipment you will be using this afternoon. We can’t have you fight with that worn-out equipment you use during training after all.”

“I can choose whichever weapon I want from all of these?”

“Yes, of course. We would also like you to accept the armor we had made for you.”

I went near the table and started inspecting the weapons. All of them were made with a silvery-green metal instead of iron; the wood used for the shafts of the polearms and the handles of the maces and axes was of a really dark, almost black, color; on one side of the table there was a bow made with a white wood with arrows made of the same dark wood as the shafts and tipped with the same golden metal of the armor and mixed between the weapons there were shields of various shapes and sizes made of the same golden metal.

I put my hand around the hilt of a long sword with a one meter long blade made almost entirely with that silvery-green metal except for the golden crossguard and lifted it.

(Light! It’s incredibly light!)

Probably my face revealed my surprise as the king said “You have never held a mithril weapon, right?”

(Mithril?! Now it’s a real fantasy world. Wait, feign ignorance, feign ignorance.)

“No, what kind of metal is it?”

“It is a special metal only found in places filled with spirits. It is incredibly light, as you can see, and, while normally it has the same performances of steel, when mana is poured into it, mithril becomes harder and tougher the more mana is used. There are legends of people who were able to cut through orichalcum armor with a mithril sword but they are, after all, just legends.”

Raziel smiled a bit as the king talked about mithril cutting through orichalcum, but I ignored her for the moment as my mind was thinking about another thing.

“Orichalcum?!” I said without even trying to hide my excitement.

“Yes, the golden metal you can see has been used both for that sword’s crossguard and to make that armor.” – He pointed at the sword I was holding and the golden armor on the mannequin behind the table while saying so – “It is the hardest and at the same time toughest metal known to man. While its weight is a bit higher than steel a lot less is required for making armor as a single leaf of orichalcum is as hard to bend and pierce as a ten centimeters wide steel slab. Orichalcum doesn’t absorb mana, while this makes it impossible to enhance its performance with magic or enchantments it also means it doesn’t interfere with a mage’s spells at all, making orichalcum armor even better than normal clothing for spellcasters. Because of the weight and cost of it most mages and priests still prefer using only light clothing though.”

I put the sword down and started looking at the table again, realizing that all the weapons there were probably of the best quality available.

“I’m sorry if I bored you. Metallurgy was a passion of mine when I was younger.”

“Not at all” – I said shaking my head as I took my eyes off the table and looking back at the king – “instead I should thank you for such a good explanation. What about the bow?”

“I think I should leave the word to Lady Raphael as she more knowledgeable on the matter than me.”

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The moment I looked at Lady Raphael she went near the table, took the bow and said “This bow is made from elven yew, while the arrows and the weapons’ shafts” – she passed me a couple of arrows to make me examine them—“are made of black ash. They are two of the most resistant woods in existence. Black ash’s ability to let mana flow without interference, similar to orichalcum, and its relative cheapness make it perfect for weapon shafts and arrows. Elven yew on the other hand has the peculiarity of becoming incredibly flexible when mana is poured into it making it really easy to draw, as soon as the mana flow is interrupted it immediately returns to its original shape with an unimaginable strength, making it the perfect wood for bows for anyone who can manipulate mana. Elven yew is so difficult to bend when mana isn’t used that bows made out of it are actually carved in shape as it would be nearly impossible to use normal manufacturing methods.”

To prove what she just said she passed the bow to Gabriel who looked at her a bit baffled for a moment before she said “could you show us Lord Gabriel? Without using mana obviously.”

“Yes, sure.” The still a bit surprised Gabriel said before trying to draw the bow, to no success. He then put one leg between the string and the bow, while holding one limb between his legs he tried to push on the other as if he was unstringing it but the bow didn’t bend at all.

“Now pour mana into it and unstring it.”

To the words of Lady Raphael Gabriel poured just a bit of mana into the bow and took the string off it. When he slowly released the bow I saw that the difference in curvature between the bow with and without the string was almost insignificant but it was still there, meaning the string was actually able to keep the bow curved, even if just a little.

“What is that string made of?!” I asked Lady Raphael.

“Titan spider silk. It’s one of the few materials able to withstand the force of the elven yew and the easiest to obtain as titan spiders are raised by the lizardmen in Astall. The gambeson you see on that mannequin is actually made of titan spider silk too.”She said pointing at one of the mannequins on the other side of the table.

(They invented bullet-proof vests before bullets! If I had a male body I would totally have a boner right now. If I come again to this world I have to bring the lesser god of artisans with me.)

“This equipment is amazing. Can I really choose anything from all these?” I said, looking at the king.

“Yes, consider everything you see as a gift from this country to our hero.”

“Well then, thank you Your Majesty.” I said with a light bow while smiling at him.

I went back at looking at the equipment and started feeling all the weapons and shields one by one. I then used space-time magic to open storage, it was one of the last spells Lady Raphael taught me, and started placing the weapons I chose inside it. I started with a mace with a seventy centimeters long handle and a head with four spikes, then I chose the longsword I lifted firs, a rapier with a meter and twenty long blade and an orichalcum swept hilt, an almost two meters tall halberd, an arming sword with an orichalcum crossguard, a three meters long pike, a large heater shield, a scutum-like shield, a buckler and finally the bow and arrows. I then proceeded to take the armor and the gambeson off the mannequins and put these in the storage too.

“You sure took a lot.” Said the king a bit surprised.

“Well, you can never know. Was it too much?”

“No, no. You are free to take whatever you want.”

“Thank you.”

“Well then, as we have finished with this matter you are now free to do as you please until mid-afternoon.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty; I will be in my room in case you’ll need me.”

 I bowed and left the room followed by Raziel.

“What was that smile when the king talked about mithril cutting through orichalcum?” I asked her as we were walking through the hallways of the palace.

“I was just thinking how the first Gabriel cut the orichalcum chains I used on Armand when I kidnapped him.”

(Yandere!)

She probably noticed the baffled look on my face as she said “it’s a long story, I might tell you one day. I’m not crazy.”

“Fine. If you say so…”

“Hey!”

“I’m joking, I’m joking.” I said while laughing a bit.

We kept walking in silence for a bit then I asked her “how comes you still disguise as Lucilla? Doesn’t the king know I found out about you?”

“He does, the point is that almost no one knows about me, the personnel of the palace think that I’m a subordinate of Duke Besalel.”

“Oh, I see, you’re some kind of state secret.”

“If you put it that way it seems like I’m some kind of secret weapon.”

“You are.”

I got closer to her and kissed her.

“You’re a weapon of mass seduction.”

Raziel smiled at me and then said “you know, most people would pee their pants and run away screaming when they find out they are talking to the most powerful undead that ever existed, not tease her.”

“I didn’t know you had such a fetish.”

“I don’t!”

I burst into laughter.

“Fine, fine.”

We arrived at my room and entered. As soon as she closed the door Raziel deactivated her deception skill and turned back to her real appearance.

“I think I prefer this version of you after all.”

“Thank you. You’re only the second person to say so.”

“Really?!”

“Yes, people are usually more comfortable with a more human appearance.”

“Then I’m officially weird.” I said while sitting on my bed.

“You only realized now?!”

“Hey! That hurt my feelings!”

“Oh, shut up. It would take an emotional dragon just to scratch your feelings.”

“You know me too well.” I said and let myself fall on the bed while smiling.

Raziel got on the bed and laid down next to me, looking at the ceiling like me.

 “And yet I feel like I don’t know you at all.”

“That’s the same for me, you know?”

We turned to face each other.

“Ne…”

“Mhh?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

We kissed, lightly at first then more and more passionately as time passed and our hands started moving on each other’s body.

 We started undressing but Raziel stopped at one point.

“Can I bite?” She asked me.

“As long as you don’t nearly kill me like that time.”

“That was an accident!”

“I know, I know.” I said and kissed her.

“So…it’s a yes?”

“…yes.” I said, after all we had found out that if she bit me we both came faster and better, it was one of the traits all vampires shared apparently.

She smiled and we resumed undressing while kissing.

We had sex for hours, stopping only when I had lunch or for the occasional healing spell I had to use on myself. It seemed like Raziel still found it difficult to control herself during an orgasm after all.