Chapter 15

Father came home early this morning after standing guard for the entire night, against the possible attack from the magical creatures within the enchanted forest. The quake last night was felt throughout the land surrounding the northern mountains, and I know that it disturbs a lot of things. Including the creatures that live on the northern part of this continent. I just hope that it doesn't disturb the forces of demonic creatures on the other side of these mountains.

If this quake woke them up from their long inactivity, I doubt that the Great fortress would be able to stand against the relentless wave of Demonic creatures. Even if the human kingdom seems strong on the inside, a lot of things have changed after hundreds of years of low activity from the demonic creatures. It produces a lot of weak-willed knights.

It's just that their number is covered up by the huge number of old veteran soldiers, that were stationed in the Great fortress, but this information was noticed by my father after taking his 3-year service of serving the Great fortress as a knight from a noble family.

During his duty in the Great Fortress, he discovers a massive problem, that plagues its higher officials.

As time went by, the quality of knights that were serving under the Great fortress have gone down drastically. Many of the newly deployed forces at the Great Fortress are often lax in their duties, and even with the supervision of veteran knights, there has been no improvement. As they feel comfortable and confident that no attack from a Demonic creature could take down the Great fortress.

But my father knows the truth. He faced them before, he knew them, as he studied under one of the best knights in the Great Fortress. He showed my father the ferocity and the vileness of this creature, by venturing outside the perimeter of the fortress.

Even though no massive attacks have been documented in the last hundred years, they still exist on the other side of the wall, growing and propagating under the sight of these overconfident knights and wizards.

Because of the extensive renovations to the Great Wall by the wizards using their magic-infused weapons, many have become overconfident and reliant on them. However, these weapons have not yet been fully tested against a sustained wave of demonic creatures.

Sure, they have been fired before, but only a few times and most of the new soldiers and wizards have become reliant on using this massive weapon of Magic craft to annihilate Demonic creatures to the point that most of them have already forgotten how to fight them on hand.

My father is a bright man. He knows that this kind of situation isn't right, but he doesn't have the power to change anything, and no matter what kind of persuasion the veterans do, nobody wants to listen to them. As the new knights always tell them that the weapon on the wall is enough to deal with all those demonic creatures, even the wizards themselves claim that no demonic creatures can step on the fortress as long as the weapons are there.

"Fools," my father said one time when he talked about them. He knows how powerful a wizard is. They can conjure spells and use them to fight. They can even devastate a small kingdom if they want, but even so, they still have their limits. Unlike the Demonic creatures who don't know what fear is. They don't get tired either, as they will do anything to destroy any living things in their sight, like what they did in the northern mountains that are now covered in their corrupted blood.

Father also told me about the things that he heard in the city on his way back home, especially the quake last night that has become a major topic among our people.

The quake last night created huge disturbances in the lives of everyone living in the Florentine city. It causes massive chaos and panic among the people.

Thankfully, my father arrived on time and managed to calm down everyone, even so, there were still some people who were arrested after spreading the news about the end of the world, and some were caught after looting a store while everyone was occupied by the chaos caused by the quake.

It was the very first earthquake that was experienced by everyone here in Florentine city, and although all of them know what an earthquake is. What happened last night is still very unusual for them, as they only heard about them from the stories of some drunken people or travelers who often visit the taverns.

It was also really strong. And I do understand why they are uncomfortable with it, but I still can't remove from my mind the odd phenomenon of the light crystal last night, because based on what I know about them. Light crystals are known for constantly emitting light without pause, and the thing last night, whatever it is. It disrupts the rules of light crystals and no known study from any kingdom, shows anything that can affect light crystals, no matter the level of mana in the environment is, they will constantly emit their own light non-stop.

This is also one of the reasons why light crystals are expensive since you can put them anywhere, no matter what the environment is, they will still emit light. Even on the side of northern mountains beyond the boundary, nor does the corrupted blood of demonic creatures can affect the light it emits.

That's why I'm puzzled as to what kind of phenomenon can interrupt its light. I have a hunch that the quake had some kind of relation with it, but I don't know how or what is it, and what kind of change it would bring to our lives.

I would like to tell Father about this, but I know that he already has so much going on around him, that this Light crystal isn't even the most important event.

"Lucas, I heard from Manuel last night that you want to use the sunken part of the ground in the city wall as the entrance for your waterway project. I personally checked it that night and the quake didn't damage the magic formation on it. So, I think it would be best to utilize that, but make sure to hide it in plain sight. I don't want anything to go inside the city using that structure of yours." Father said suddenly, as he interrupted my thoughts.

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Father suddenly mentioned Manuel and the thing I asked him to do last night.

"Well, father, I would just like to take advantage of this opportunity by utilizing what's available in our surroundings and, besides, by doing so, it can fasten the progress of my project."

"Sandra has already confirmed to me last night, you can use that place to build your waterway project. It won't affect the magic formation on the wall, so you can start it by today if you want, but any further work on the wall needs my approval, and Sandra's guidance first, understand? We can't afford to make any mistakes as we don't have the capability to fix that magic formation, without revealing it to the world, and you know how valuable an ancient relic is to any kingdom, so be careful with your work and don't do anything reckless." Father said strictly.

"I understand, father, I will make sure to report everything to you before we make any alterations to our plans."

"That's good to hear, you might also want to go into the city as people are still not back to normal. Some of them are still worried that a quake might happen once again. You can use this opportunity to familiarize yourself with our people. You're a grown-up now and someday you will become the leader of the city, and to become an effective leader you must know what are their needs." He said as he stares at me.

"You might also want to take Michael with you and inspect Manuel's work on the city wall as Sandra is already waiting for you there." He added.

"Sandra is already there? But I haven't even given her any instructions," I said with a baffled tone.

"I told her to go there first, In order to guide Manuel in planning the waterway project of yours. Sandra has some knowledge with the magic formation, and Manuel is the craftsman responsible for building it. You are lucky that you have the help of those two people. It would greatly lessen the time and effort you need to develop this project of yours." Father said as he sat down on his chair.

"I know that father, that's why I'm thankful that we have such skilled people in our city, especially Sandra. Her knowledge of Magic formation is enough for her to work with wizards, but she chooses to stay here with us." I said in a happy tone.

"Sandra is someone I helped with when I was young. She has witnessed everything about how we run our territory as she also knows how dark the world of nobility and wizards is, and I'm glad that she decided to stay with us despite all the knowledge that she has.", Said by father as he lean back on his chair and closed his eyes.

"Then, Father, I'm going out now. I'll take a look around the city as well as to check their progress with their work," I said as I walked towards the door.

"Take care of yourself, and if you need anything, tell it to James first. I was too busy last night handling all the problems that arose due to the quake. I need to take some time to rest before I can go back to my work." Father said as he leans back in his chair and closed his eyes once again.

As I went outside the mansion and looked around the city, I noticed that some people were still quite anxious about the situation last night. Some stores are still closed while others are working on fixing the small damages to their houses.

The quake didn't do a lot of damage to the city, but it sure did leave a lot of people in trauma after experiencing the strong shock from it.

Most of the buildings here are made from one of the strongest woods available to us, which can be found in the enchanted forest itself.

Last night, some creatures in the forest, have become active and their roars can be heard as far as the city mansion, but thankfully, none of them have ventured outside the forest.

But it seems like it's not safe to go out inside the enchanted forest or its periphery for now. As my father said, that they had seen some sightings of groups of Fungus deer that were being chased by a powerful magic beast, it would take us weeks before the situation inside the forest starts to settle down.

Authors Note:

Fungus deer is simply a unique low levelled magic beast since they aren't aggressive they are known for having a lot of special fungus growing on their body that is also used as a special ingredients since they're rich in mana and even their meat were actually tasty and even one of the best magic meat we used for exports unfortunately only a few of them have magic cores inside their body.

-end-

"The quake from last night has kept me awake till now, no matter what I do I can't find a place to sleep." said by an old lady beside the road as I walked by them.

"I dreamed about the quake last night and it was horrible. Everything is much worse in my dream." A middle age woman said while cleaning the broken debris outside of her house.

"Indeed, that thing was a nightmare. Everything I saw was moving, even the ground."

"That was the first time I had experienced something like that in my life."

"The entire house was shaking last night, some of our stuff has fallen to the ground."

"My mother's favorite figure was destroyed last night. It fell off of our shelves," said by a teen.

"The house of Mr. Birling was burnt last night. The candles have fallen off of their tables, burning the rugs and everything in the house, but thankfully they all manage to go out before they are consumed by the fire." said by a man while cleaning the road.

That's just one of the things I heard along with the people as I traveled towards the location of the wall, and I know that there were far more serious things that happened last night, enough to tire out my father.

I eventually reached the place where the ground had collapsed and I saw that Manuel and Sandra were almost done with the planning. They are just waiting for my go signal to start it all.

"Wow, that's really deep," said by Michael as he looked towards the collapsed ground.

"Indeed, I thought it just sunk a few meters. It seems like I'm wrong. Wait, this looks like an arc. The wall beneath has an arc." I said to them as I excitedly shared my discovery.

"It is young master, the city of Florentine is built on an old ruin and our city wall is just an extension of that, but most of the ruins are now underneath our feet," Sandra said as she gazed at the arc.

"But Master Lucas, I-I don't know that there are ruins in the Florentine city. If not because of the quake I wouldn't know about this, and the Magic formation is connected to those ruins I need to report this to Master Hubert."

"Later Sandra, Father is currently taking his rest, but don't tell anyone about this. Even you Manuel, no one is allowed to talk about this. Father would explain everything and Michael, help me with this rock. We need to cover this wall for now," I said to them as we covered this section with giant rocks.

"Wait, I thought that father had already covered this part of the wall. Who removed it then?"

"It's Hugo, your father's right-hand man. He helped us remove this rock for the assessment of this area." Sandra answered as she stares at some drawings on the parchment.

"Hugo?, you mean Mr. Hugo?, my father's best friend, his back now?" I ask in Shocked.

Hugo is a strong knight, second only to my father. He is also my father's best friend and right-hand man in managing the other knights. But father often sent him to an unknown mission that lasted for years before he gets back to us.

"Then, where is Mr. Hugo now?" I ask with a puzzled face as I look around.

"He is in a hurry, Master Lucas. He saw us here while he was looking for your father and he decided to help us for a bit before he decided to proceed to go towards the mansion." Sandra explain.