The town of Soppio lay directly between the border of Noin and Tir. Noin would terrorize the town, attacking them and demanding aurums for “taking land away from them.”
“If you don’t pay, we will take your women and children.”
Tir would in turn step in to protect the town, and then, in the process demand a protection tax fee. Tir would tax the town even more aurums than Noin did! Suffice to say the town was getting screwed over by both these so called “kingdoms” that currently despised each other.
Soppio had no unique bargaining chip they could use to get any advantage in their dealings with the two powers. They had the basic produce and animal materials to trade, but unfortunately for Soppio, many of the villages and towns around Noin already provided those products and goods.
Long ago, Soppio used to be a town that mined ore from caverns nearby. Eventually monsters entered the picture and the town had to abandon their one natural resource. Many soldiers from Tir and Noin tried to liberate the caverns from these monsters but would eventually decide it was a waste of time, resources, and men.
Soppio was at an unfair disadvantage geopolitically.
This w as until a young foreigner entered the town one day and changed their lives forever. First, the boy negotiated a deal to buy an unused building in the town, he then bought land near the town to build a shrine of some sort.
Many of the townsfolk had been wary of the young man; not only did he carry a shocking amount of aurums, he carried his so co-called adoptive father's remains in a wrapped body bag. But their worries proved to be wrong, as the young man, who acted like an old man, was a delightful neighbor who helped everyone in the town whenever he could.
He even cleared the caverns by himself! Of course, the young man needed the access to the ore; the building he bought he used as his blacksmith shop. He forged any and every piece of weapon and armor with a precision and speed that was unmatched by any blacksmith in this era.
He was a geopolitical savant, a genius…a polymath.
The young man made a deal with Soppio: he would protect the town and craft weapons, allowing the town to use these weapons in their trade deals and contracts with the kingdoms. He would also teach the town how to safely mine the cavern and how to craft high quality weapons and armor.
All they needed to do was take the credit and hide his identity from the other kingdoms. A strange request but one that Soppio took earnestly, they needed this new advantage the young man gave them. The man even gave them aurums to buy back some of the women and children that were taken in the last few months, if they were still in Noin.
The young foreigner who they were wary of, became their savior. Even now, that young man, who acts like an old man, continues to protect Soppio from the shadows.
///
Noin
“Nope. This one is worthless as a warrior.”
Alessandro pointed at a male slave, Neco in response motioned her soldiers to take the slave back into the mines. Minerva sat on a rock looking bored and unamused, Alessandro was taking his sweet time looking for warriors. Since he was here he had decided he may as well also help out Noin and provide his services of finding quality warriors.
“Can you hurry through this process? Being here sickens me!” she shouted from the rock.
Alessandro shook his head and sighed. “It’s important to strengthen this relationship I have with Noin,” he said in his thoughts. His deity just didn’t understand how powerful Noin was and the pull they had. Most of his information came from Noin, whether from trading info or his spies he placed here.
He turned to the next slave and felt his heart stop. He saw a little girl, probably around eleven-twelve years old wholooked similar to his Elena. She had the same pale skin and even though her hair was shaven, he could tell she had the same brown hair as her.
He quickly whispered out, “Advent, eye of the general,” and stared at her soul.
Gia Cress
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Gia looked nervous and scared at the strange man who stared at her. His stare felt like it was piercing through her body…through her soul.
“Yes, I’ll take he–” Lost in his analytical thought he felt the sting of a rock hitting his face. Alessandro turned his head as a few more rocks were flung in his direction, some missing him and others hitting his face causing small cuts to the delicate skin on his noble skin.
“Stop lookin’ at Gia, you creep!”
A boy of the same age as the girl continued to throw rocks at Alessandro. He ran in front of Gia, protecting her. Alessandro smiled at the spunky boy and then activated the eye of the general once more.
Luca
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
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His expression turned into disappointment, what a useless soul for him. Neco, in frustration and anger, walked up to Luca and started to beat him in front of everyone for attacking Alessandro.
“I’ll take the girl, Neco.”
Luca, who was still being beaten screamed out, “ NO! I promised Gia… I promised to protect her! You can’t take her away from me! I promised… to…”
He started to lose consciousness as Neco continued. It seemed this was a common event for Luca who tried his best to protect the young girl. Minerva watched as the brute woman continued to pound the child's face in. She turned to Alessandro who was now looking at other slaves and judging them.
“Alessandro, tell that barbaric woman to stop.”
He ignored his deity and continued to look at the others. Minerva's face flushed with anger. She then appeared in front of him, reminding Alessandro of their first encounter.
“Tell her to stop now. The boy will die.”
“Okay, okay.” He made a gesture with his hands at her to calm down and then asked Neco to leave the boy alone. Bloody and bruised, Luca wheezed heavily and spoke out to everyone there:
“I… promised… to marry… her.”
Luca dragged his bloody body and positioned himself back in front of Gia. Minerva’s eyes widened at the child.
“Alessandro, you looked at the boy, right?”
“I did, my lady, he was incredibly weak. I did notice he had no last name, the first time my eye had ever seen that.”
“Grab this child and the girl as your sub-retainers. Souls with no last name are special in the Fantasia world.”
Alessandro paused what he was doing and then turned to the ethereal form of his deity, as he was about to say something sassy or sarcastic, Minerva screamed at him.
“PICK HIM NOW!”
Alessandro sighed. “Yes, my lady.” While they were on friendlier terms, Alessandro was still a bit scared of the Judicator. He spoke to Neco and decided to take both Luca and Gia, Luca still stood defiantly as the man with the creepy eyes walked up to them.
“Bless whatever god you believe in, I’m here to adopt the two of you. I’ll make both of you fine heirs and warriors.” He grinned an eerie smile at the children. Luca in response spat at Alessandro's face, which contorted in anger. His left hand slapped the boy across the face.
“Alessandro!!”
Minerva's voice stopped him.
“Hurt these two children and I’ll hurt you.”
He begrudgingly lowered his arm. “Yes… my lady,” he growled out. Radcliffe had two new members join the sub-retainer force.
///
Tir
Charlie entered the dock warehouse nimbly and swiftly going undetected. She hid behind a giant wooden crate pulling out a hand claw tool that had three sharp, metal blades. This weapon allowed her to climb or hold on to walls; it was a bit bulky and it could attach to her wrist and had a handle for her fist. The handle had a button for her thumb to press.
“Ta-ta-ta-da! Assassin tool number 4: hook-claw!” she exclaimed with a whisper. Freya gasped in amazement. “No way!... What does it do?”
“Oh, you’ll see, Lady Freya, I’m going to show you the new and improved Charlie Wilson!” She smiled and pulled a ninja face mask she had around her neck. Covering her mouth, she continued her swift movements, dodging what seemed to be guards on patrol.
One guard was in the way, and she quickly jumped to the shadows on to the wall, staying in place with the claw she patiently waited until the guard was close to where she was hanging. She then jumped down, covering the guard’s mouth and putting him in a sleeper hold.
Freya couldn’t help but laugh watching her young retainer take down a fully grown man.
It only took a few seconds to knock out the guard. Charlie then dragged the guard to the side and hid him near the shadows, just in case. She gave a thumbs up to Freya, who returned one back to her. Continuing, she took notice of how many guards or workers were around.
About a dozen guards who each had a sword at their waist. On the second floor of the warehouse, four hooded individuals stood, each with a staff. They had been using the staffs to move crates and boxes.
“Four mages, huh.” Charlie mentally took notes of their location.
“Pffft, these guys look like amateurs mages. Just go in and take them out already, Charlie! Come on!! GO BOOM AND BAM! And slice!” Freya summoned a bag of chips and started to eat them as she moved energetically with each, “boom, bam and slice.”
Charlie physically and mentally sighed. “Why would you pick the Assassin role if you expect me to cause a scene like that? I'm supposed to be sneaky!” she whispered.
Freya took another obnoxious bite of chips. “Well, you got to understand the other roles weren’t exactly support material. Tactcation is boring, getting others to fight for you? That’s for weaklings.”
“Umm aren’t you the deity that pawns off all her work, responsibilities, and battles to others?” Charlie bluntly said. Freya felt that sting, grabbing her chest where her heart was and falling to her knees dropping the ethereal bag of chips all over the ground.
“You’re right!” Freya sobbingly cried out. Watching her sob Charlie notice that there was a genuine sadness in her voice. Something had happened to her back on Elysium and it tied directly to what she had teasingly said to her.
“Lady Freya… are you okay?”
Charlie bent down next to her, watching as her deity embarrassingly sobbed and picked up the chips that hadscattered all over.
“No, Charlie… I don’t want to be this way anymore. I gave up on life and pushed my duties and responsibility onto others. Something big happened in Elysium, but I can’t… say anything… when I’m here there’s a power that stops me from recalling it. But know it’s about Achilles and about the Tryfing.”
Charlie nodded as she listened to the venting from her deity. At one point she also tried to pick up some of the chips, but her fingers went right through them.
“This is why I entered the Fantasia world early, I wanted to talk to you and ask you how do you have such courage… After everything that happened to you… how do you keep going? How do you chang–”
Red flashed in Charlie's vision, her heightened senses started to warn her that something or someone was attacking her, attacking with a speed that she couldn’t turn around to see. Instead, she lunged, rolling out of the way.
Freya also lunged and dodged, the chips she collected scattering all over the ground again. She then realized that she didn’t need to dodge the attack and got upset. Charlie stared at one of the mages that had pointed his staff towards her.
Preparing another attack, this time with the other three mages present, they began to chant an incantation and lightly move their staffs. Tiny flames appeared and they shouted the spell.
“Meteors!”
A barrage of fire balls flung towards Charlie who ran towards the mages. She ducked and dodged many of the meteors that were rushing at her from behind her and in front of her. One of the meteors hit her leg; the burn was painful. It felt like her leg had melted off with how hot the meteor was.
She pulled a thick throwing knife out of her belt and twisted a section of the knife, making it expand and transform into ten throwing knives.
“Assassin tool number 7! Compact knives.” Charlie threw out three of the knives. The mages in turn shot at them with their fire meteors. Two of the knives melted in the air as the meteors made contact, the other flew through the air and pierced the chest of one of the mages. He stumbled in pain and fell from the second floor rail.
The guards reached Charlie, surrounding her, and the mages also prepared another assault on Charlie at the same time.
“Heh, I saw you talking to yourself. Is this Tir’s best?”
A male snow elf came out of the second floor office and a human woman who appeared to be a commoner also walked out. She looked nervous and scared at the situation that was unfolding .
“Oh? They sent the Norse Shinobi to kill me. I heard you were some young prodigy killer. But you spent nearly twenty minutes standing around. Hah, who sent you? I’ll let you live if you tell me.” The snow elf looked to be about thirty years old, he had long snow white hair and blue eyes. He had uncommonly dark skin for his species and had the right side of his face tattooed with strange foreign markings, these markings used white ink.
“Um.” Charlie didn’t know exactly what to say in this situation. “I’m not here for you.”
A long awkward silence fell in the warehouse, many of the soldiers and mages stopped charging to attack or broke their stances, turning back at the snow elf. Some even visibly cringed at how awkward it had gotten. The mage who had been stabbed and fell from the second floor coughed once loudly and then died.
“What? But you are an assassin from Tir… I’m one of the Trinity… secretly here! If not me… then who?”
Freya pointed her thumb at the snow elf. “You believe this guy? It’s like he was hoping for someone to come and assassinate him or something.” Charlie agreed with Freya, the two sneakily snickering at the so-called member of the Trinity.
“ ARE… ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME?!” The snow elf’s rage scared the woman, soldiers, and mages around them. “WHO ARE YOU HERE TO KILL, NORSE SHINOBI?!”
Charlie lifted her hook-claw arm and pointed the claw at the woman next to the snow elf. All eyes were on the woman who audibly gasped in shock.
“M-M-ME?!”