“They what?” Kamil raised his voice. He was in his study along with Cezary and Nestor. The latter had a scrolled parchment in his arm. They had just received a message from Estana where it said that they were willing to go ahead with the marriage between him and Princess Heiga.
“I don’t understand,” he continued with his fingers crossed on the desk, donning a heavy expression. “Did I not make it explicitly clear that I wasn’t onboard with the idea?
“I thought you did,” Cezary added with his arms folding while letting out a long sigh. “It’s either they are desperate or the princess must have taken a liking to you.”
The reality was a bit stranger than his assumption. They were desperate, yes. The princess took a liking as well, yes, but to his wife, not him. Of course, none of them in the room was aware of this.
“You know, the woman was taller than me, and I do believe she is physically stronger than me as well. Her dress was hiding it, but did you see her hands? Those were that of a warrior.”
“It is no secret that she is a warrior. It’s well-known,” Nestor said.
“Is that why she hasn’t married?”
“I do believe so, yes,” Cezary said. “It’s my understanding that she is being forced to marry someone, you in this case, because she is the only one left in the Rajmund family.”
“Then am I right to assume that she isn’t entirely onboard with the marriage then?”
“Likely so, Duke.”
Kamil heaved a long sigh and lamented, “Neither of us is having this easy, huh.”
“The king of Estana did loosely propose a marriage between you two a few years ago. I can only assume that he is pushing for it now,” Cezary said.
“Gosh dang it,” he muttered while massaging his temple. “Must I announce loudly that I don’t want a second woman?”
“I am afraid it is perhaps too late for that.”
Nestor added, “It’s good that the two women seemed to get along well at least.”
Kamil narrowed his eyes at once. “About that, she spoke mostly with Flora at the meal. I think we didn’t even exchange a word after the initial greeting. It was as if she didn’t want this marriage, either.”
“Milord, you do know how it works, do you not?” Cezary sent a subtle reminder. “Your marriage with Lady Fenchel didn’t start off good, either.”
Kamil folded his arms in protest but he couldn’t argue back because that was true. He didn’t want to marry Flora, either, and neither did she. Both of them were forced onto each other and eventually learned to like each other. It was never love at the first sight for either of them.
“So, I am assuming here that both of you are in favor of this.”
“The circumstances dictate that you should accept,” Cezary said. “Additionally, you have only one woman. Someone of your status needs more than one.”
He never understood that logic but he wasn’t going to argue since it was the norm.
“Furthermore,” Nestor added quickly, “She is a royal princess and she is coming in as a second wife. In other words, you are marrying on your own terms.”
“At least on paper,” Cezary said with a crooked grin.
“Alright, enough, the both of you.”
I am getting a fucking headache.
“Let’s change the subject.”
“Then, I have another report to make,” Nestor said. “Lord Karsten Egra has abdicated the throne to his eldest son, Leonhard Egra.”
“He what?!” Kamil raised his tone at once, looking surprised.
“I know that you are shocked, Duke, but I speak the truth.”
“What does it mean for him? Has he retired?”
“Well, sort of. He has demanded Elsos and is holed up in the North. He also has about five thousand royal soldiers with him. It is almost as if he intends to defend the city at all cost.”
“Karsten I know would never…,” Kamil trailed off, not finishing his sentence. Was it possible that he could have changed? After all, he did go through a near death experience. “Defend the city from what exactly?”
“Our scout airships have reported that waves of monsters are gathering both in the North and South. Those appear to be organized and equipped with siege engines even.”
“Excuse me? Monsters and siege engines?”
“Some monsters, like orcs and goblins are capable of using tools,” Nestor added.
Frowning hard, he downcast his eyes. “I thought the dragons would try wiping us out,” he remarked. That was his understanding of the Age of Darkness where the two dragons would wreak havoc.
“The king of Estana is preparing for a similar act as well,” Nestor continued. “He is gathering supplies and men to fend off hordes of monsters. I can only assume that Lord Karsten is doing the same.”
Lord Karsten, huh… Well, that rings … differently.
He really didn’t think that Karsten would abandon his throne just like that. He believed that he would cling onto his throne until his final day. Apparently, he was wrong.
“So, to sum it up, monsters are invading us from the North and South.”
“Yes, Duke.”
What do I need to do here at this point? Do I tackle the dragon of the North or the South?
“Sir Waszak, your advice?”
Cezary made his three fingers stick out. “We have three issues, two of which are dragon-related. I assume you know the third, yes, Duke?”
“The deadland,” he replied curtly.
“Yes, we should take care of that to relieve pressure on others.”
Curing the deadland wasn’t going to solve the refugee issue, but it would prevent it from worsening. At the moment, only Fadin was swallowed up by it. The next one to be affected was Dido, the Flissing’s land. If Dido was to be evacuated, they would have a full blown refugee crisis on their hands. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, Kamil needed to release the holy power. The only reason he had been holding it was due to a cautionary warning from Cezary where he pointed out that he may need the power in case of something unexpected and dire happening. Thus far, however, the dragon attacks had been rather subdued, or rather the havoc they caused wasn’t actually affecting them much first hand, giving them some breathing room to react.
“Prepare an airship. But instead of simply curing the land right away, I’d like to conduct a test.”
He explained that he planned to bring a potted Macomaco tea plant with him.
“I am going to bless it and see how it works now,” he added.
His motive for this was to check whether he met the 40 points mark per Vass’ claim. For the record, he did this before when he attempted to cure the deadland before, which ended up as a failure. But that was some time ago.
“Call Lara, Anita, Wiara along with the elite squad. Tell them to prepare at once. We depart tomorrow morning.”
Nodding, Nestor walked out of the study.
“What do you plan to accomplish?” Cezary asked. He did not tell his inner circle the full story with his encounter with Vass, withholding some crucial bits of information to himself. For example, Cezary wasn’t aware of the 40 points qualification and that he was a betrayer of the wheel who was reborn with his past memories intact. What he told them was the nature of the Age of Darkness and that Vass’ own civilization succumbed to it in spite of having far superior technology. Therefore, him bringing the potted plant must have sounded odd.
“I feel there is a chance that Vass has cast a blessing of some sort on me as he ascended to meet the God of Death,” he lied although his assumption wasn’t too far off. Vass did not cast a blessing on him. However, by choosing to keep eyes on him, he essentially earned another support from wind elementals, effectively boosting his affinity with wind. “And I want to see whether I could cure the deadland on my own instead of using the holy power.”
Cezary looked skeptical. “And if you are able? Will you preserve the power?”
“No, I will not. I will still release it either way.”
He didn’t want to drift away further from his humanity. It had been more than a month since he held onto it. While he wasn’t feeling any noticeable side effects, he held onto the warning dearly. He wasn’t going to hold onto it any longer. Meanwhile, Cezary cast skepticism on him. He was a highly intelligent man and probably knew that Kamil wasn’t speaking entirely truthfully on the matter. Even so, he held all the cards and, since he wasn’t likely acting against humanity, he had little reasons to dig deeper.
“I will trust your judgment,” he replied, not putting up any resistance.
Once the meeting was adjourned, he paid a visit to Flora and Cecilie. The mother was found cradling the baby in her arms and was walking around in her room. Avina, as always, kept her pair of watchful eyes in the shadows. She was humming as she was walking around at a slow pace. He didn’t want to disturb her and thus he stood still and watched her. Her blissful humming and cradling reminded him of Greta who had done a similar thing when she visited his parents’ home in Laufeld years ago. Eventually folding his arms, he leaned his shoulder against the door frame. It was literally an ASMR session. With his eyes half closed, he was drifting in and out of tranquility until she noticed him standing by the door frame.
“Oh, I am sorry. I didn’t notice -”
He interjected at once, “That’s fine. How is she?”
“Good, drinks well and … poops well.” She chuckled cutely. Cecilie’s big bright eyes were tracking her mother’s face.
“I heard that she doesn’t cry often.”
“That’s true. I was told that she didn’t even cry after being just born. I think she cried only once during her diaper change due to my mishap.”
She approached him close enough to transfer the baby at which point the baby started tracking Kamil’s face instead with her big googly eyes.
“Hello, little one, remember me?” he told her softly to which the baby responded with giggles, sticking out her tiny arms toward Kamil’s face as if wanting to touch it. Complying with the request, he brought her to his face at which point she started to feel his face with her tiny fingers. Her giggle became louder as if she was enjoying feeling her dad’s face.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
……. I never held my sons like this before, did I.
Indeed, he never did. In his defense, he went out early in the morning to hunt and came back home after the sun had set. His sons would be asleep by then. He never meant to neglect them. Besides, he didn’t know any better back then. He was a simple hunter living in a remote village.
He woke up early the next morning, took a quick bath along with breakfast and proceeded to the airship platform with a potted plant of Macomaco tea from his underground farm laboratory. Anita, Lara, Wiara, and about twelve female soldiers were present. All of them would use the same, single, airship. The female soldiers were highly trained by Wiara herself and had been performing covert missions, or so he was told. He had no idea exactly what kind of missions they had been undertaking.
“Yo, Duke,” Lara casually greeted him. “I get a feeling that we will be having some fun, am I right?”
She always had a cat-like instinct.
“You aren’t wrong,” he replied candidly to which she replied back with a wide grin.
“Like the old times,” she said gleefully, holding her spear tightly in her hand. Meanwhile, Wiara dashed over and showed respect with a bow.
“Duke, I’ve been briefly informed of our mission by Sir Vogel. We are fighting the undead, yes?”
“Correct, it will be waves of them.” He glanced over the twelve women who had hard leather armors on them from head to toe. Hard leather, or boiled leather, was pretty tough material and was especially effective against blunt weapons such as club and mace. It wasn’t easier to move in, compared to regular leather armor, but it was a trade between protection and mobility. “Are they good enough?”
“Better than regular soldiers, yes.”
That wasn’t … good enough, he felt. As if reading his thoughts, she quickly added.
“They’ve been trained to fight in a team. They’ve been specifically trained to combat overwhelming odds. Individually, they are slightly above average. But, together in a team, they are far stronger.”
“If I may, why did you train them in such a way?”
Her face darkened, and she hesitated. He didn’t push her and simply waited for her to continue.
“I trained them so that they would be able to escort Lady Fenchel to safety in the worst case,” she confessed eventually. Essentially, they were there for the worst case scenario. Kamil would likely be dead at such a point where Flora would need to be escorted out of the city with just a dozen guards. He could have taken offense in her statement. Honestly, however, he couldn’t care less. Pride and ego was something he didn’t have in abundance.
I see. That does make sense. Female soldiers wouldn’t be able to work together in a regular army. I suppose she had to come up with a specific purpose for them and trained them that way.
“I see,” he replied stoically, not displaying either approval or disapproval. “It is time to put them to a test then.”
Taking his response as approval, she replied back with a stronger, determined, voice. “You can count on us, Duke!”
Everyone had to have something to do no matter how mundane. If her women soldiers are as capable as she thinks that they are, then perhaps I should recruit women into the army. That would provide a way to increase the size of the army without hurting crop yield.
Although he didn’t think further on it, it would also provide a way for women to break their traditional roles. Not all women were content sitting back and supporting their fathers or husbands. Those with elemental affinity could become adventurers. Those without it, though, it was a tough call. Once supplies were loaded and final checkups were made, the airship took off eventually and headed straight to the deadland. It was to be a short trip although no one really knew how it’d go. Only Kamil and Lara had a vague idea of the ordeal ahead of them.
“Man, this airship is fast,” he remarked while looking out through a tiny horizontal gap in a closed shutter window. He still remembered the first iteration of the airship which was made of two main components, a linen balloon and a ship. The current airship he was aboard was nothing like the first one. It had almost a fish-like shape with the balloon part tightly integrated with the ship part, and he felt that it was flying at least twice faster. The interior had seen many improvements as well. It had a kitchen for longer voyages and had eight small rooms underneath. The pilot compartment had been completely isolated with a locked door as well. Overall, it was a comfortable experience riding the latest airships.
“We are here!” Wiara announced loudly at one point which snapped Kamil out of his short nap in one of the rooms.
Well, that didn’t take long.
He jumped out of the bed at once and made his way above.
“Your orders? Lara asked as soon as she spotted him coming up.
“Do not land the airship but get to the ground close enough that we can jump down. Get to the edge by the way. No need to land in the middle of the deadland.”
Since he planned to test whether the blessing would work or not, there was no need to expose themselves to be surrounded by undead. By conducting the test along the edge, their rear would be safe at least and it would allow them to retreat without much difficulty. Additionally, it wasn’t a good idea to touch the deadland because anything it touched would rot, turning things into gray ashes. It was preventable by cutting off the contaminated part. For something like the airship, it was just better to prevent being contaminated in the first place. Once it was close enough to the surface, Lara opened the door, and the others gathered around at once. Kamil, taking the blessed potted plant, was to go down first. The female soldiers all had a round wooden shield with iron trim on their backs and a short on their belt.
“Alright, here goes something,” he said as he made the jump, making the perfect landing on the edge of the deadland. He put down the pot at which point the whole thing started to glow in green immediately. He beckoned others over. Lara was the first one to make a landing, followed by Wiara and then Anita. The latter was wearing a maid dress which wasn’t ideal when she jumped down. She made it work however and drew out her whip as soon as she made the landing.
“Come on, women! Get down now!” Wiara barked, and the dozen of the female soldiers all made their jumps. “Form a circle formation around the potted plant!”
As the potted Macomaco plant began to glow bolder, numerous undead were beginning to rise from the ground. Their hands would poke out first and then they’d slowly drag themselves out of the ground. Lara dashed toward one of them and thrust her spear into a head, piercing and smashing its skull at once before it’d come out of the ground. Then she’d continue on doing so.
Man, she IS fast.
Not only was she fast, she was deadly accurate as well. She was effectively delaying the undead from ever coming out of the ground around them. However, because the entire deadland was releasing undead, sooner or later, they’d be overwhelmed. And, as expected, undead from further away were slowly making their way toward the potted plant.
“Lara, fall back!” Wiara shouted.
There was no point in attempting to eradicate undead simply because there were too many. Their job was entirely to defend and protect the potted plant. Kamil, casting levitation, gave himself a short distance in the sky for a better view to access the situation. The potted plant looked to be doing better objectively, and a small radius underneath the pot was turning green, a sign that his total point was probably over 40 at this point.
“SHIELD WALL!” Wiara shouted with her sword up in the air. The female soldiers immediately raised their shields to their chest level and held firm. Twelve would have not been enough to encircle the potted plant because it was barely enough to form a line around it with their rear secured. Anita was in the rear safely on the green ground to catch anything that might pass their defense. With their shields keeping them away, they were using their swords to thrust through the gaps between their round shields. Meanwhile, Wiara was going around and gave a helping hand whenever and wherever she was needed. Lara was using her spear to attack behind the shield wall, a feat that was possible due to the nature of her weapon. Overall, they were holding the line.
I do think that the blessed plant is working. That’s good. I should be capable of harming the dragons then.
He did wait a bit longer just to make sure that the deadland was being cured by the plant. At one point, the glow from the plant was subsiding as if it discharged enough, and the land underneath it was clearly cured. Satisfied with the result, he shouted to the others.
“We are done here! Withdraw into the greens!”
Wiara gave a nod affirmatively and shouted at her soldiers.
“Withdraw slowly while maintaining the line! Do not look back! We will take care of any obstacles! Duke, may I kick the pot to destroy it?!”
“Yes, you may!”
On the cue, Lara kicked it hard at the pot so that the others backing up would not get caught by it. The glow quickly vanished as she did so as the soils within the pot crumbled away and the plant fell sideways. As soon as the threat was gone, the intensity of attacks from undead subsided as well, with some turning away from the scene as if they had lost their target and were confused. In the end, it was relatively easy to withdraw to safety.
“Good job, women!” She told them as she wiped a few beads of sweat off her forehead, donning a satisfied smile.
I don’t feel like they did anything significant, though…
He really didn’t feel that the female soldiers did anything remarkable. All they did was hold a line in a controlled situation. The odds were highly in their favor to begin with. However, it was probably the first time in history where a group of professionally trained female soldiers held a line. Meanwhile, the undead would simply stand idle at the border and would look lost and confused. They also avoided the cured spot made by the now-destroyed potted plant. It was as if the cured spot was no longer their concern.
Okay, that’s enough.
“Everyone, get back to the airship!”
It was time to get rid of this deadland once for all. He proceeded to ascend higher to get a good view of the entire deadland, leaving the others behind him. They were safe, mostly.
“I should do this right in the center…”
It took about ten minutes of intense flying to reach what felt like the center of the deadland, during which he could barely keep his eyes open due to wind bashing his eyeballs.
“Actually…, how do I even do this?” he wondered aloud. “Elementals! I need your advice!”
Three wind elementals immediately showed up around him.
“Three?”
There used to be two, Fionara and Ludwig. Although initially puzzled, he had a hunch.
“Don’t tell me…, Vass?”
‘You got it.’
“Hah…,” he laughed weakly. “Good to hear your voice again.”
‘Did you miss me?’
“Nope, but good to hear you nonetheless. Now, help me out here.”
‘We shall. I don’t think you are able to release it on your own. Stick out your hand and face the wasteland.’
He did exactly as instructed and then the three elementals flew around to his hand in a circular motion.
‘Place your desire onto your palm.’
He desired curing the deadland as instructed. Soon enough, pale-yellow mist was releasing from his palm, pouring out like a waterfall except it poured down in a straight path.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/666/jn67qa.png]
I am not feeling anything…
He expected to feel drained or something, but there was in fact nothing of the sort. Interestingly, he felt slightly hungry but he wasn’t sure whether it was due to him being genuinely hungry or due to the holy power being drained. Either way, as the pale yellow mist touched down onto the deadland, the ground began to explode on a small scale as if a bunch of firecrackers were being used. The small explosions continued on as the mist crept through the deadland. Undead immediately rose up from the ground at a far faster pace but they stood no match against the holy power and simply crumbled away as soon as they made any contact with the yellow pale mist. While it didn’t appear that the ground was turning green, it was turning a different kind of hue, dark brown.
“Just regular soil?” he mused in the air, watching the scene unfold before his eyes. He felt that it was pretty anticlimactic. It didn’t take long for the mist to be depleted from his body, but it continued to spread down on the ground, effectively curing the deadland as it passed through, traveling outward. Slowly but surely, the deadland was turning into a healthier color overall before his eyes, and the pale yellow mist was gradually dispersing and then eventually disappearing into thin air. He scratched the back of his head weakly.
“Man, talk about anticlimactic,” he muttered. “Is this it? If it was this easy, I should have done it earlier.”
Vass wasn’t talking anymore. In fact, all three wind elementals were gone.
“One down, I guess?”
His eyes eventually caught the expanding gray sky from the North, where Siwen Mountain was. It had expanded significantly over the past several days. It wasn’t affecting Ceres yet but it was clear it was only a matter of time. Then he looked south where he found no sign of the clouded sky.
“Vass said there are dragons of life and death. I am assuming here that the dragon of the North is death.”
He assumed so because of the gray sky which would have a direct effect on crop yields. If so, he wondered what the dragon of life would do.
“I don’t believe either is less harmful than the other. The dragon of life must be deadly in its own way. Vass, do you know?”
A lone wind elemental appeared and answered in his head.
‘I may have known, but some of my memories have been wiped out.’
“I expected as much,” he said with a shrug. He was certain that the Gods found his knowledge too dangerous.
“So, were you a wind mage?”
‘Yes, I manipulated wind magic to enhance my physical speed, thus earning the nickname of lightning.’
“Oh? Interesting, perhaps I could learn your method as well?”
‘I am afraid that part of the memory is gone.’
“Man, they really crippled you.”
‘Perhaps, but they did allow me to watch you, giving you the extra points you seemingly required.’
“Can’t argue with that,” he chucked and joked, “I sometimes wonder whether the Gods are on my side or not.”
He noticed that the airship was approaching where he was. They must have taken everyone in and went out to search for him. As it approached, the door dropped down, and Lara appeared.
“Get in! Let’s go home!” she shouted to get her message across with her ear-length hair flying every which way.
He had a final look at the barren land; he understood that vegetation would eventually grow on the land, which would take time. People might still avoid this land since they wouldn’t know it was cured. Either way, an internal problem was gone, hopefully. It was now time to prepare and tackle the dragons.
“Okay,” he said to himself with a firm nod and flew back to join Lara.