“Isana, do you have a minute?” Kiefer asked nervously as he sat on his bed at home, watching Isana let loose her hair that was tied up in a bun.
“Hmm? What is it Kii? Do you finally want to cross the line with me tonight?” Isana asked coyly, striking an inviting pose that was so alluring even Kiefer could not take his eyes off.
“No… this is serious Isana. It’s about Drigor, Wanda and Grandu.” Kiefer replied, finally looking away and down at the sleeping Sher, stroking her soft hair.
Isana’s expression changed immediately at the mention of her family members, quickly pulling a chair over from the table and sitting down facing Kiefer. “And what of them?”
Kiefer hesitated while Isana stared intently at him through the long silent pause. Finally mustering his courage, Kiefer opened his mouth to reveal the truth.
“Back then… After I killed Drigor, something happened to me. Something that might make you hate me and in turn want to leave me. I – I won’t blame you if you do, but I just think it’s only fair that you knew the truth.” Kiefer paused again, carefully studying Isana’s face to read her thoughts and emotions.
“After I killed Drigor, his memories, along with Wanda’s memories before he killed her were passed to me, just like how Wanda’s memories were passed to him. And from there, I saw things. Things that would explain his actions.”
Kiefer watched Isana gulp visibly, then nervously open her lips to speak “You know I love you Kii. You’ve done so much for me, there is no way I will leave you. You killed Drigor because I wanted it. So if there was any fault, it lies with me. Please just tell me what you saw. I want to know the truth.”
“Wanda, she went to attack Drigor first, and he simply retaliated. She was under some kind of mind control by Gondor. Gondor was trying to end Drigor’s life because he was the only living witness to Grandu’s death. He knew Drigor was plotting for revenge and wanted to clear the last obstacle in his way. Drigor ended Wanda’s life out of mercy, not wanting to watch her suffer from Gondor’s mind games.” Kiefer summarized the entire train of events.
“How… how is that possible? Gondor was killed long ago. His death gave birth to Sher and Desir who inherited some of his powers. And you are saying my father is dead?” Isana exclaimed in disbelief, still shocked by the new information she had just heard.
“Yes. I’m sorry. I killed your brother by mistake. I should have investigated this more, there were so many opportunities to find the truth and yet somehow I chose the worst possible path. I’m really sorry Isana.” Kiefer apologized again, his heart breaking at the sight of Isana’s tears.
“So… you mean to say… Gondor killed my father and has been impersonating him eversince? And he tried to kill my brother by controlling my sister against her will?” Isana asked again just to clarify, to which Kiefer just nodded slowly.
A long deadly silence followed, as Isana tried to piece together and accept the new facts that came to light. Kiefer sat there, his throat dry and blocked by a huge lump. His shoulders were stiff and knees were weak, all the while carefully observing Isana’s reaction. Her eye brows were knitted in a frown while tears were constantly streaming out of her vacant green eyes, rolling down her rosy cheeks.
Then after holding his breath in for as long as he could, Kiefer saw the light return to Isana’s eyes as she stood up from her chair and sat down gently next to him. With a swift movement, Isana turned and hugged Kiefer tightly from the side, placing her head on his shoulders as she whispered, “Thank you for telling me this. I know it must have been difficult just holding it in since you woke up from the battle, but rest assured I do not blame you for killing Drigor. I was blinded by rage at the vision when Wanda died. I jumped to conclusions and requested your help in slaying Drigor. Even though you were the one to kill him, I helped in the battle as well. I hold as much of the blame as you do, if not even more.”
Releasing the breath he had held in for so long as a sigh of relief, Kiefer twisted his body and hugged Isana. “I’m sorry this war has not yet ended. I assure you I will help avenge you family. Gondor manipulated Wanda, as he manipulated Drigor to help kill Grandu. I swear I will find a way to render this ability useless, and the moment I do, we shall plan our revenge to rid this world of its disease.”
“Thank you Kii.” Isana replied softly. The 2 bodies stayed stuck to each other through the night, each falling asleep in the other’s embrace. Sometime through the night, they had somehow repositioned themselves under the blanket with Sher tucked snuggly in between them. Waking up at about the same time in the morning, Kiefer and Isana smiled sheepishly at each other before getting out of bed to start their new day.
Kiefer did not have a chance to walk around the town since he got back from the voyage last night, so he spent a good few hours slowly pacing himself through the busy streets of Mutatis. He could see multiple wooden buildings in the process of being torn down to be replaced by bricks. Streetlamps have been installed surprisingly quickly, only lacking in secluded alleyways which were last on the waiting list for the streetlamps.
General Alwin had been really busy getting the new city up to scratch. With more outsiders streaming in daily, security had become an issue and patrol squads were now deployed more frequently. While screens were conducted at the entrances to determine the purpose of visiting the city, some of the vulgar kind were still bound to slip in, causing trouble until they were caught. With no jailhouse at the moment, the crooks were just barred from the city, but they always manage to sneak their way in again.
Kiefer walked past the middle of the city, where there was a huge building still in the midst of construction. It was the biggest of its kind yet, towering over any other building once completed. It was a clock tower that Kiefer had designed for his city, which Rashael had tempered with without his knowledge.
The city was still growing and in the early stages of its birth. Kiefer had so many ideas and he would slowly change it so that the city could make a name for itself. Mutatis had grown to a decent size and with its basic amenities already set up, started seeing more people from outside moving in and settling in the new city. Kiefer’s first objective was to understand where the city stood, as he made his way past several shops and inns to Buffon’s merchant guild building, which right now still held its place as the largest building in the city.
Sifting through the stacks of parchment, Kiefer made some quick calculations an predicted that with the current exponential growth in population size the city was experiencing, there would be problems with jobs, security and most importantly, food. There was currently not enough capital injected into the agricultural sector to sustain the city for more than 2 to 3 years, including the fact that they had to rely on import from other cities.
Meanwhile, Isana and Sher were perusing through the shops and inns, looking for anything interesting. Sher was more excited than Isana since the matter with Kiefer was still weighing on her mind. Then, without any reason, Sher pulled on Isana’s hand and dragged her into an inn.
“Hello!” Sher greeted the receptionist cheerfully, still holding Isana’s hands.
“Why hello there little girl. What can I do for you today?” The Arachne lady replied, clearly amused by the child’s enthusiastic nature, not realizing Sher’s true identity.
“I smell something nice from your kitchen! Can you teach me how to cook it? I want to cook to cheer up my master.” Sher then named her request.
“Oh I’m sorry miss, but that’s a house recipe. I’m afraid only the Chef can decide whether he wants to reveal or not. Why don’t you ask your mommy to teach you?” The receptionist asked, smiling at the girl’s eagerness.
“She’s not my mommy! She’s my sister! And she doesn’t know how to cook either.” Sher rebutted, now pouting at the refusal.
“I’m sorry about this, but could you possibly make an exception this time?” Isana spoke this turn, an idea coming to her mind. “If I learnt how to cook, maybe it’ll bring me closer to Kii, and it might cheer him up too.” She thought in secret, glad that she had brought Sher along.
Seeing that the two ladies were adamant on learning how to cook, the Arachne lady gave in, sighing and softly replying, “Why don’t you head down the kitchen and ask the Chef? There’s still time before the lunch hour rush, so maybe he’ll be willing to teach.”
“Thank you very much” Isana bowed slightly, then allowed herself to be dragged by the overeager Sher into the Kitchen.
“El- elder Titan Isana!” The high elf chef exclaimed, immediately dropping onto one knee. “Ho- how may I be of service to you?” He stuttered, letting the pot he was attending to simmer.
“Please rise Chef. I want you to teach us how to cook.” Isana calmly requested, as Sher was poking around the kitchen sniffing various ingredients. Sher’s facial expression were varied, drooling over the meat with sparkling eyes, a quizzical confused look while inspecting a potato, and pinching her nose and squinting her eyes in disgust at an open bottle of cooking wine.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
And so, Isana and Sher’s first cooking lesson began as the Chef timidly tasked them with the preparation of the ingredients, slicing the vegetables and seasoning the meat. The chef hurried rushed to stop them as he observed Isana about to slice carrots with her half transformed talons. He then handed each of them a knife and watched them fumble clumsily at their first attempt to use a blade.
Kiefer on the other hand had begun to make his way to the northern outskirts of the city along the main road that connected Mutatis to Alluviate in the west. The paving was done about 30% of the way to Alluviate, cutting through the forests and then straight across the eastern Alluviate plains. Even though it can be said that the road cuts through the forest, it was more like cutting through the farm fields that were made after clearing the forest.
The farms were quite small, each with its own warehouse to store the produce. The size were limited to the space available and recent diplomatic interactions with Alluviate had not gone well, with the king of Alluviate refusing to release the wide expanse of the Alluviate plains for farm development. As such, the farms were expanding slowly, their rate determined by how fast the citizens of Mutatis could clear the forest. Even then, they would be hindered by the mountains in the north.
As such, Kiefer decided to give them a hand. His first actual physical contribution to the city would be to help clear the forests for more farmland, and improve irrigation. With his skills, it was not difficult, only tedious and mind numbingly boring. Stepping up to the first tree, Kiefer began his project, twirling sharp circular blades made of orihalcom around him like drones orbiting him, Kiefer slowly walked through the forest, mowing down the trees and thick undergrowth like a tractor in a wheat field.
Occasionally, Kiefer would stop to relocate any wildlife he came across to the forest north of Shearwood lake. He would ferry across entire packs of Fientrals, Seraplors and Shadow foxes through the sky, caging them in his red orihalcom that he now possessed in abundant excess thanks to the runes from the fox tribe.
Slowly but surely, with the help of the residents of Mutatis, stumps were cleared and ground was leveled to make room for development. The process was long and arduous, but it was progress nonetheless. It gave Kiefer time to think about his future plans and his desire to study the netherworld in greater detail.
The monotonous work also meant that he had a way to spend his mana to keep increasing its size. Overtime, his mana had taken shape internally from a triangular bipyramid into an Icosahedron. He could still clearly feel the dense triangular bipyramid crystal embedded within the not so dense newly formed icosahedron, which was in turn coated with a sea of silvery liquid mana.
Taking a break from the boring repetitive work, Kiefer returned home, to be greeted by a table full of omelets. It would seem that that was the only dish the 2 girls had learnt today, but it still surprised Kiefer, much to the glee of the 2 girls. That night, Kiefer slept on a stomach full of egg, wondering how the girls had spent their first peaceful day back at mutatis.
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Kiefer watched as the farmers were harvesting the last of their crops just as Winter began to set in. He currently had his hands full herding a group of Trenitts that had wandered out of the forest onto the cleared land, nibbling at any remaining weeds from the farms. The three eyed rabbits were a delicacy on Aioa, and are often hunted for their sweet meat. However, Kiefer was not going to kill them since he did owe his first meal on Aioa to them.
Finally, gathering all 20 of them into his red cage, Kiefer lifted them up and transported the herbivours through the air towards Arigan, away from all the other predators that he had relocated to the west. The farmers were already used to the sight of Kiefer flying around and simply carried on with their work, ignoring the mouth gaping stares of the travelers using the road.
It has been almost a week since Kiefer started working on expanding the farmlands. He had cleared most of the forest north of Mutatis and was only left with developing the land towards the west, where he would be able to dig an irrigation canal from Shearwood lake through the farms. However, the area was within the domains of Alluviate and he had no right to take and use the land as he saw fit.
Figuring that there was nothing he could except maybe meet and discuss the details in person with the royal family of Alluviate, Kiefer directed his attention to feeding the lands, allowing it to fallow over winter and get it ready by spring. To do that, he had a cheat code of sorts, which had proven to work back in Fiora province. However, he was going to need a lot more help this time.
Dressed in simple but warm peasant clothes woven by one of the Arachne girls while on the boat trip back from the battle, Kiefer entered the adventurer’s guild. Swinging open the large wooden door which creaked loudly, desperately in need of oiling, he attracted the attentions of numerous stares from humans and demi humans alike, all dressed in battle gear ready to take to the roads.
Most had partial plate armour accompanied by leather clothing, while those holding bows and crossbows were dressed lightly in hooded clothes, the colours either green or black to blend into a dark forest background. The notice board in the lounge of the adventurer’s guild was free for anyone to use. Most people choose to put up their requests and wait for adventurers to choose their quest over the 50 others also up on the board. There was no regulation whatsoever in this uncivilized place and anyone could choose a quest as long as they think they are up for it.
Kiefer was dressed lightly, and being the only one without a weapon in the crowd, he stood out like a sore thumb. He did not look rich enough to offer rewards and so nobody thought him to be one to put a request on the board. As such, the muscle heads simply assumed he was a newbie adventurer trying his hand out at one of the simpler quests on the board.
“Oy kid. This ain’t a place for a scrawny brat like you to be looking for work. Why don’t ya just go look to be someone’s apprentice in one of them crafting guilds?” A tall muscular man that looked to be from Diantes yelled out from his seat, putting his mug of beer down and making his way towards Kiefer.
“Bunch of morons.” Kiefer thought, and smiled, making sure the burly man saw it before he turned and ignored the man.
People started clearing out, away from the man and Kiefer. Fights often broke out within the guild building and everyone already learnt to predict when one would occur. Considering that the man who just yelled at Kiefer was notorious for heckling newbies and ‘educating’ them, people were already leaving the building, silently praying for Kiefer’s well-being. The man’s entourage remained quiet, seemingly afraid of angering him. It would seem even they could not stop this man if he got serious, so they just let him do whatever he pleased.
“Boy, if I were you, I’d just apologise and quickly leave. He’s Tigre Trigent. He was the captain of a guard squad in Diantes until he was dismissed for violent behavior.” A passing shadow quickly muttered, brushing past Kiefer on the pretext that he was going to leave. While many left, most chose to stay and watch the predictable outcome. These uncivilized people were afraid of the man, but still could not resist the urge to watch a fight, even if it was an unfair one.
“Trigent huh! Looks like the whole family’s no good. I wonder if Victor managed to save his son from that assassin’s poison? Seeing as there was no sign of Dominick in Nicole’s school, I’d say he failed.” Kiefer kept quiet, thinking to himself while his smile slowly turned into a grin.
The man towering at over 2.3m tall stalked his way across the room, each footstep making people back away even more. Kiefer kept his enhanced senses on Tigre, while he slowly scrutinized the quests posted on the board, trying to get an idea of how to put up a request. Finally, the man overshadowed Kiefer, standing directly behind the small Kiefer, a great axe slung on his back.
“LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU, YOU IMBECILE!” Tigre roared, his voice booming though the building and causing people to cover their ears and shirk away in fear. Tigre shot his arm out, going straight for the back of Kiefer’s neck and head, attempting to slam his head into the notice board.
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I know its a big jump from Epilogue to prologue and then to part 1 of chapter 3, but It is indeed as I planned it. I'm just surprised nobody thought that maybe i uploaded a wrong chapter from another novel. I'm going to try my best to smoothly merge the 2 vastly contrasting themes to the best of my abilities, but as always, if you find anything that makes you cringe, please point it out so i can make amends and improve.