“Wiara, welcome back,” Nestor greeted her when she exited an airship that had just landed on the platform near the Fenchel manor in Ceres. This landing platform was right by the manor and was meant for government officials only.
“Hello, Sir Vogel. How is Lady Ros? She is pretty close to giving birth, yeah?”
He beamed a smile. “Indeed,” he replied with a nod and changed the subject. “How did the mission go?”
“Failed successfully.”
He looked confused for a moment. “That is … an interesting way to put it.”
“I’ve written up my report and am ready to see the lord whenever able.”
“I see. Follow me then. He is available.”
Kamil had been spending most of his time either researching indoor farming or with his wife, Flora. Essentially, he rarely left the manor as of late. In his defense, he was trying to make up for his past mistake where he wasn’t even present during Fionara’s labor. He, as Tom, rarely saw his children grow up also, which was perhaps why he didn’t feel any strong resentment for their death while her death left him a scar.
“Welcome back, Wiara,” said Kamil as he walked into his study. Wiara was already on her knee with her body leaned forward. Nestor had already placed her report on his desk for him to skim over. However, he didn’t bother reading the report and asked right away.
“How did it go?”
She was a bit reluctant to reply since he didn’t read her report. She took most of her time in the airship to write it up.
“Milord, I’ve written everything in my report.”
He glanced down on the report, held it in his hand and skimmed over. She did not explicitly state it but made it clear that powerful magic was required to slay the beast. By just mentioning it, he could think of only one magic: the hurricane arrow. Now, he didn’t have a problem going there under normal circumstances. However, at the moment, he wanted to stay with Flora as much as possible.
But somebody has to do it. And that somebody is likely me. It pains me to admit this, but I must do this.
Crossing his fingers on his desk, he heaved a sigh.
“Wiara, in your report, it says you observed numerous craters. I think I know what caused them.”
“Milord?”
“Ancient text Flora translated says the ancient city, Ceres, was the last bastion of hope against dragons. I believe it is safe to assume that the city battled against dragons and ultimately it fell.”
The age of darkness… The city fought against it. It may have fallen, but the people probably survived and relocated to where Tantan is now.
At least, that was Flora’s explanation. This also explained why they had an underground archive. They lost their records once, thus they chose to store data underground in hope of having a better chance to preserve it even in an event of total destruction.
All this is probably before the Kingdom of Egra even existed, though…
“I see…” Wiara tailed off in thoughts.
“So, in short, I need to go there and confront this beast. Am I correct in my assessment? I am asking because you haven’t made it clear in your report.”
The reason she didn’t blatantly state so in her report was because it would have been rude. In the worst case, she could have been punished for it under a different ruler.
“Yes, Duke. You are the only person qualified to deal with the best with minimum casualties. An army could perhaps accomplish the same result, but as you are aware, the site is within Atra territory.”
They must move in and out swiftly without leaving traces. The latter was going to be hard if not impossible. Kamil, at this point, called for Cezary and allowed him to read her report as well as informing him what she had told him.
“I see,” he replied curly. “She is not wrong. We are dealing with a potentially tricky political issue. Even if the region is mostly abandoned, Atra has long claimed control over it historically.”
It wasn’t recent, either. Atra claimed control over the region for over a thousand years and went unchallenged, making the region de facto a part of their territory.
“Perhaps, we should ask them formally for permission to enter?”
“No, Duke,” Cezary rejected his suggestion promptly. “At least not until we find out what the beast is guarding.” He explained further that, if the beast was guarding a treasure of some sort, they would just move in, retrieve it, and just leave without having to deal with any bureaucracy with another nation which would certainly become a headache on its own. If the beast was guarding something else that could not be taken away, then perhaps a negotiation for the right of passage might be required since they’d find out eventually anyway.
“Makes sense,” Kamil admitted. “Wiara, where are the guild members right now?”
“The ones I’ve accomplished with, I believe that they are staying in Tantan although I am uncertain about the guildmaster’s whereabouts. He did say he had a business back in Ceres.”
“Duke, perhaps you should get this over with quickly,” Cezary suggested. “The situation right now is in our favor. Atra probably doesn’t know what we are up to. We need to finish our business before they somehow find out. The longer the commotion goes on in Tantan, the more likely that they might sniff something.”
“Very well, let’s get this over with then. I shall bring just Lara and will employ the guild members again since they are there anyway.”
“Duke, please do take me in her stead,” Wiara said. She wished to see the magic arrow again. The image she witnessed the last time was deeply engraved in her head. Flashy magic wasn’t something common, and his hurricane arrow was probably as flash as it could get for a magic spell.
“I don’t see why not,” he replied without much resistance. “I want you to lead the adventurers once again.”
“You can count on me, duke.”
Cezary declared, “We will depart tomorrow morning.”
Once the meeting was over, Kamil entered Flora’s room who was writing something at her desk. He informed her of his impending departure.
“Is it just me or have you gotten busier after I became pregnant?” she jokingly replied, setting her pen down and aside while stretching out with her arms in the air. She was never this relaxed unless she was alone with Avina. She may have been legally married to Kamil, but there was always an invisible wall between them, and they carried on with some distance. That distance vanished completely after she became pregnant. Case in point, Avina wasn’t even present in her quarters anymore.
“I am sorry,” was all he could say wth his shoulders down.
“Don’t. You are doing your job. I’ve w-” She paused and shook her head. “Nevermind.”
She recalled her mother silently waiting for her husband to return from duties and whatnot. It was always duties that prevented him from returning at night. However, it was sometimes his mistresses. As much as it displeased her from seeing her mother silently suffer, her father at least fully acknowledged that her mother was the official wife and he had also never brought any of his mistresses near her, which was Flora was grateful about since she had heard of distant stories of infighting between first wives and mistresses. It would happen whenever a head of a family failed to control his women. She had hoped that Kamil was the sort of man who would follow her father’s step of clearly differentiating his official wife and mistresses. So far, he had done so. Well, he hadn’t taken a mistress yet, thus it remained to be seen, but it didn’t look like he was the sort of man who was swayed by women too much. In fact, he was largely indifferent toward the female gender, even to Flora herself. He became very affectionate only after her pregnancy. The reason he didn’t react to females as much as he did was simply due to the fact that he was reborn. He had already seen and done it all with women, meaning he didn’t have any fantasies toward them. He favored big breasts, and that was about it when it came to women.
“I will be back soon. Let me know if you find anything new from the ancient text.”
“I believe I’ve translated roughly half of them now. Lord Weber has been very cooperative in this. I see a common trend when translating the texts.”
“Which is?”
“It seems people rallied behind a heroic figure whenever dark times arrived, and these heroic figures appear to be extraordinary people. There is the holy queen Maco. And I’ve recently found out about another heroic figure whose name seemed to go by Vass.”
Vass the lightning, she found a single reference to the man, so far anyway. There were a few more but no name was explicitly mentioned. Vass was the only one, aside from Maco. Perhaps this was an indication that the man held some significance in history.
“That is to be expected from historical records, isn’t it?”
“True, but there is something to make a note of. The ancient texts I’ve been translating have largely been divided into two timelines. The first is one around holy queen Maco’s time. The second is far earlier, especially during the time when the ancient city of Ceres existed. There appears to be a huge void in between.”
Placing fingers on his chin, he downcast his eyes. “Meaning?”
She grabbed her pen back and began tapping on the desk. “Something does not add up. Queen Maco’s time was about a thousand years ago. The ancient city Ceres existed way before, several thousands. It’s even before the formation of the original Siwen empire. Yet, the language is the same. That’s why I told you that the remnant from Ceres founded Tantan because that’s the only explanation why they shared the same language. That still does not explain why there is a gap of thousands of years in records. It’s as if … some records were deliberately removed.”
“You said you’ve translated roughly half… Perhaps, what’s missing is still there?”
“Perhaps, but there has been no mention at all of what happened between the destruction of Ceres and how Tantan was founded. I just find it a bit eerie.”
Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “What are you implying?”
She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe, they deemed it necessary to purge some records that seemed irrelevant.”
Which actually made some sense. Available space in the underground archive was certainly finite, and they were bulky stone tablets. Space would have become an issue at one point which would have promoted the painful decision of purging some records to free up space.
“Keep up the good work.” He gave his thumb up to which she wasn’t sure how to react. She awkwardly responded by trying to mimic his gesture.
“Okay…?”
The thumbs-up gesture was used between males mostly and among lower ranking commoners. It was understandable why she failed to pick it up.
As soon as Kamil exited the airship in Tantan the next day, Brian approached at once at a fast pace. Wiara followed right behind him.
“Duke,” He greeted Kamil at once.
“Guildmaster,” he replied back curtly.
“Duke, I realize this is sudden, but I have a request.”
“What would that be?”
“I would like to purchase an airship.”
Wiara’s eyes widened. He did claim that he’d purchase one and he did sound serious at that time. However, to think that he wasted literally no time to make the request known, it looked like he was dead serious.
“May I ask why you wish to purchase an airship?”
“I would like to import the seafood to Ceres.”
A strange smile surfaced on Kamil’s face. “Approved,” and he replied right away.
Can’t blame him. I was blown away by the taste the first time I ate their food. As a human being, I cannot and will not deny people from having better standards of life, for I was there once.
“However, guildmaster,” he quickly added. “It is not cheap. It costs four gold pieces.”
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He had a business to run after all. Money flow was still an issue for the city although it wasn’t as severe as before. Whatever came in went straight out since they were undertaking huge projects in building stonewalls and establishing underground settlements.
“That is not a problem,” Brain replied firmly as if he didn’t care about the money at all.
“I see. In that case, I shouldn’t stop you then. Send a formal request to Sir Vogel.”
“Thank you. It shall be done as soon as possible.”
Kamil changed the subject. “Are we ready to move out?”
“Are we moving out right away? You’ve just arrived.”
“I was told that we should not waste time. Thus, I’d like to move out ASAP.”
Placing fingers on his chin, Brian looked to be contemplating something. He was calculating time. Even though they encountered no monsters along the way, the less night they spent in the wilderness, the better. It was simply about minimizing risks.
“Duke, we should depart tomorrow morning. From our last experience, departing in the morning, we arrived at the crater during early daylight. It is the perfect timing.”
“I see. So be it then.”
Alban dashed toward them from afar. “Lord Fenchel! Welcome to Tantan.”
“Lord Weber.” He leaned forward with a palm on his chest. Alban did the same in exchange. “I am here to dispatch the beast, Lord Weber.”
“I see. When will you be departing?”
“Tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun comes up.”
“We have time until then. I’d like to invite you to dinner. My father wishes to speak to you also.”
“Very well.”
“Meanwhile, allow me to show you your lodging.”
“Lead the way, sir.”
In the evening, Aaron, Aloise, Alban, and Kamil gathered together at the Weber manor for a meal. They sat down around a table, and Aaron cleared his throat.
“I am going to retire,” he declared. Seeing Aloise and Alban showed no reaction, they were already aware.
“I see. Who will be your successor, Lord Weber?”
“Aloise will be the new lord. You are the first one to know this, Lord Fenchel. I am going to send a letter to Keviel soon.”
“Just so you know, Lord Fenchel,” Aloise added. “Father is not retiring because he feels old. He wishes to dedicate his time into translating the ancient text and conduct further study on it.”
“Well, if my sons were foolish dorks, I would have held on. But they are capable,” Aaron said with a broad smile. “I will no longer be bound to Tantan and will be free to move around. To be honest, my shoulders now feel lighter.”
“And mine feels heavier now,” Aloise replied jokingly.
“You will do well, brother!” Alban patted his back powerfully. Kamil glanced at his face. He didn’t seem disappointed at all although he would never be certain. He recalled that Alban was in charge of the fishery. Unless he was a fool, he probably saw the writing on the wall that he wouldn’t be chosen to be the next lord because he was distanced from bureaucracy for a reason. Still, Aaron did not abandon his second son. That had to count for something.
“Congratulations, Lord Aloise Weber,” Kamil declared, standing up and bowing toward the newly browned lord of Tantan. Likewise, Aloise rushed to stand up and returned the respect.
After the announcement, a pair of maids brought in seafood. It was raw fish which was unthinkable for Kamil.
“Um…, excuse my rudeness. But …” He paused with clenched eyes, looking at thinly sliced raw fish pieces nearly arranged on a large dish. “I may be tired, but this is …”
“Raw fish, yes,” Aaron replied after a chuckle.
“So…, ehm, you eat raw fish?”
“Aye,” Alban replied, again with a chuckle.
“Of course, you don’t just eat it. You dip it in a sauce and eat it.”
Still raw though?!
In his current and past life, he had never eaten any meat raw. While it was his first time seeing a raw fish, it was clear that it resembled that of meat or flesh for that matter. He was under the impression that any raw flesh must be cooked.
“Is this safe to consume?” He asked without going roundabout.
Aloise replied, “It is. We’ve been consuming raw fish for decades. But it does need a bit of caring since there is a chance that parasites could be within. But we are meticulous about it.”
“Have a bite. You will be shocked,” Alban said.
Grabbing a fork, he picked up what appeared to be deep red flesh. He dipped it a bit of what looked like black sauce and then placed it carefully into his mouth. Unknown to him, he had just consumed tuna sashimi.
Holy God of life -
The fish flesh, for some odd reasons, was melting in his mouth. The black sauce was very salty. He wouldn’t consume it on its own, but the salty taste enhanced whatever flavor the raw fish had. He couldn’t explain the taste of course. The only thing he could tell was that the flesh was melting in his mouth like a small piece of butter melting down.
“This fish is really hard to catch because it’s much bigger than a human male. It takes at least five able-bodies to carry it. Takes more than ten to catch it from the sea,” Alban explained. “When we do manage to catch it though, we slice it like this and share it with everyone in the town.”
“I certainly can see why. What is even this?” Kamil wondered aloud, not expecting an answer. “A piece of raw fish without doing anything to it can taste this good? Or is it some sort of magic?”
“Not magic. It’s just that some flesh is meant to be consumed raw like this,” Aaron explained.
“I see…” He couldn’t stop eating it and ended up consuming one third of the whole dish, which was very large to begin with. Then he recalled Brian’s words.
“A guildmaster from Ceres may be asking to export seafood from here.”
“Oh, I am already aware of Brian,” Aloise replied. It looked like Aaron had already taken his hands off. “He proclaimed that he was going to purchase an airship for that sole purpose. To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether he was serious.”
“Oh, he IS serious. I told him the price for an airship, and he didn’t even blink his eyes and accepted.”
Aloise laughed along with Aaron and Alban. “We have no objection. The town never really had steady exports. This would be the first.”
“Don’t you trade with Estana?”
“We do indeed, but it has always been an occasional thing, never a regular occurrence.”
Alban added, “And it has always been us purchasing spices. It’d be the first time that we are selling something.”
Kuka was a coastal settlement like Tantan. They wouldn’t need seafood which Tantan could only offer in exchange. The town also had copper which was still considered mostly useless. As a former hunter, however, he had a concern about seafood.
“Pardon me but, in my knowledge, raw meat can barely last a day in a warm climate. Does seafood fare better?”
“Nope,” Alban replied promptly. “It fares worse. This is why we are sharing this raw fish with everyone so that we consume it within a half a day. Any longer, there is a good chance of it being spoiled.”
“It takes about a full day for an airship to arrive here. It won’t be good by the time it arrives back in Ceres, will it?”
Alban explained, “If it’s raw, then yes. But cooked seafood has a slightly longer shelf life. Boiled shrimp for example can have up to two days of shelf life.”
“That means you can’t export everything.”
“True. We will be able to export certain seafood, but it is better than nothing.”
“For both of us,” Aloise added and Alban nodded in agreement.
True, it is certainly better than nothing.
The folks of Ceres would get some seafood in a limited capacity, and Tantan would receive a flow of money from a foreign source, probably for the first time ever in its history.
“Good then.”
…. I did try to come up with a way to cool things down back in Lux. But the research never went too far. Perhaps, I should revive it.
Refrigerated flesh would certainly last longer although he didn’t know how much longer. It was certainly worth another attempt at the subject.
I still have indoor farming research going on, though…
With such thoughts going through his head, he enjoyed dinner with the Weber family in the evening.
In the next morning, as soon as the sun was poking its tip above horizon, Kamil, Wiara, and the same adventure group led by Brian commenced their excursion toward the crater once again. This time, they were better prepared by carrying warpicks and hammers in case of the giant isopod attack. They were primarily concerned about the giant isopods since they fully expected Kamil to defeat the beast alone.
“It is as you wrote in the report, Wiara,” Kamil said as he surveyed the environment a day after. The steppe environment would not be able to support any settlements on its own. Everything would need to be brought in from outside, perhaps even water if they failed to find any underground water source. Additionally, without any trees, they wouldn’t be able to construct anything swiftly. Granted, stone structures were sturdier but they took far longer due to logistical issues.
“If a city had indeed existed in this region, either the climate was vastly different or they used stones,” Wiara replied.
The ancient city must have been of a considerable size. Otherwise, fighting back against dragons wouldn’t have been an easy endeavor.
“It’s … eerily quiet however, isn’t it?”
“Yes, duke.” It was Brian. “There are no monsters, either, until you confront the beast.”
“Yes, the giant isopods. They aren’t particularly powerful but they came in numbers,” Wiara added.
Kamil pointed out innocently, “So, let me get this straight. The giant beast won’t move, and the giant isopods aren’t really threatening. Why does it feel like they are simply there to repel invaders?”
Brian, Wiara, and other adventurers froze for a moment with their mouths agape. They were so hell-bent on defeating the monster that they forgot why it was there in the first place.
He added quickly, “I get a strong feeling that they may actually be monsters but guardians.”
If a city was to be able to fight against dragons, its technology must have been far more advanced than what they had. He had no idea what kind of advanced technologies however.
“That… is a possibility. I’ve never thought about that. Highly unlikely though? I mean they looked like monsters” Brian mused aloud.
“Yeah, monsters being guardians?” Mezei agreed.
“But wasn’t it weird? The giant isopods… They weren’t really threatening. They were more like pushing us away, now that I think about it,” Duman also mused aloud with his arms folded.
“If they were truly guardians, what are they guarding?” Cvetko asked.
Kamil replied, “That’s why we are heading over there to find out.”
Their journey until they reached the cliff was butter smooth without any interfering monsters.
“We are almost there,” Wiara declared. “The target is not far from the cliff.”
“I will approach from the sky. I am expected to defeat the beast alone, yes?”
The others nodded.
“Then leave it to me.”
Casting levitation, Kamil flew up high at which point he could easily see which crater to approach. Just as her report said, there was something at the bottom of the largest crater nearby. Looking down on the beast in the middle of the crater, he had a calm expression as if he couldn’t care less about its existence. He swiped his hand across in the air at which point wind elementals began to appear one after one around him, eventually surrounding himself. Brian’s group as well as Wiara were looking up from the ground, their eyes filled with awe. It was never a common occurrence to see so many elementals. He summoned his bow and slowly began drawing an arrow.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5434/bkgjTb.png]
“Dear elementals, I feel no anger this time,” he said weakly with a grin. Whenever he cast hurricane arrows, he had usually been emotionally unstable. This time, however, was different.
“That is the target, a big giant bear of some kind.”
They were a distance away, and it shouldn’t have woken up but it was waking up as if sensing danger.
“Grant me powers to dispatch the beast. This is a selfish request, for I have no quarrel with the beast.”
More wind elementals began appearing one after another, and his arrow began to be entangled with green strings. At the same time, the strings began to glow in bright green.
It’s never the same with this spell…
Indeed, everytime he cast it, the spell manifested in slightly different ways. This spell was the only one that acted wayward like this in his knowledge.
Doesn’t matter.
“Hurricane -”
The glow became more and more intense by seconds, and his whole body was enveloped in bright green glow. In spite of the intense light, he could still see clearly.
“ARROW -!” And he released the magical arrow from his fingers.
“Ohhhhhhhh - OHHHHHHHH -!” Wiara cried, tears in her eyes. When she observed the magic the first time, she was just confused as hell as to what was happening and didn’t clearly see the magic unfold. This time, she didn’t even blink and took everything in without interruptions. Meanwhile, Brian and his group were also vacantly watching the arrow enveloped in what seemed like very lively green flames shooting toward the beast at a speed they simply could not track. They saw the arrow there and then it was gone. The only evidence that it hit something was the aftermath earthquake that lasted several seconds and a giant ball of green magical wave afar, coming out of the crater.
“Holy God of Death…,” Duman uttered. “That ain’t magic … That’s … That’s something else.”
“What. The. Fuck,” Mezei uttered.
“The ire of elements,” Amanda whispered while vacantly staring in the direction. “I can feel it even though I have no affinity to wind…”
Cvetko looked weirdly pleased while silently watching the aftermath. “I have no problem with following someone far stronger than me,” he whispered to himself.
A foreign and low voice spoke in Kamil’s head.
You’ve defeated the guardian, meaning whoever you are was able to cast magic that was ordinarily impossible for others, meaning you are probably a betrayer of the wheel of life. Enter the Labyrinth, explore it, and reach the bottom. It may not be able to answer all the questions you have. But I guarantee that it will be able to give you an answer.
Looking dumbfounded, he vacantly stared at his group on the ground dashing toward the crater. The beast was gone as if it was never there in the first place. There was no remnant of flesh anywhere, nor was there any blood. Wiara, Brian, and others were looking around fanatically; They were looking for bits of the beast. There was none of course. Then the big man, Duman, was walking around where the beast was at which point the ground collapsed, leaving a big dark hole. The others gathered around and threw in a few fire crystal lamps to light the place. Kamil slowly descended toward where they were.
“A dungeon? A labyrinth?” Brian wondered aloud. “What do you see?!”
“It’s some sort of underground passageway!” Duman shouted from inside. “Uh, oh.” Then all of a sudden, he jumped out of the hole. “Goblins! A horde of them!”
“Can they even jump out of there?” Mezei wondered. She was soon answered when a lone goblin bravely jumped out only to have his head explode literally by Duman’s rugged fist.
“Hah! Dungeon crawling, eh? This is gonna be fun!” He said while cracking his fingers. Just as he said, the members of Brian’s group were all smiles. Meanwhile, donning a heavy expression, Kamil watched them from afar with folded arms. He looked clearly displeased.
This is getting complicated, isn’t it? Unless I am wrong, I am meant to explore this labyrinth. Why is everything trying to get me away from Flora?
He gritted his teeth.
All the things I did wrong in my past life, I want to correct them. I want to be with my wife while she is pregnant and I want to be there when she is in labor. And I want to be there while my child grows up. I do not want to repeat the mistakes I’ve made with Fio -
A wind elemental was suddenly orbiting around him. He opened his palm in front and the green translucent butterfly landed on his hand. Vacantly staring at it, his eyes were full of sorrow.
That won’t fix the past, will it… But that doesn’t mean I should make the same mistakes. I will not repeat it. I won’t. I may have ruined the happiness of a woman. I won’t make another suffer the same fate.
“Fio…” Beaming a bitter smile, he whispered. “I have another woman now. I am sorry that I have another woman, but it wasn’t entirely within my control. Besides…, her life is depended on mine. I can’t let another woman die because of me, can I.”
He chuckled bitterly.
“I don’t know whether we will ever be able to talk to each other. I am going to request it when I confront the God of death again... Until then, please lend me your power, the powers of wind elementals.”
The wind elemental on his palm flew away, and he watched it fly away with a distant look in his eyes. Unknown to him, there was a fire salamander a distance away from him on the ground, galloping its tongue across its face and looking in his direction.
“We…” It tried to speak. “We… hear you … loud and … clear…”