Redmont Manor,
Serisis.
7:45 a .m. 19 th Banem 1092.
The world announcement regarding the orcs’ inclusion as a playable race and the tremendous advantage given to the Silver Spear guild was like a bombshell dropped among the top guilds in Destia. Thousands of men and women instantly mobilized, many of which headed toward Daggerfall, eager to fish out some clues as to the origin and meaning behind this prompt.
The once forgotten land of Daggerfall, and in turn, Ederwoord, were about to experience a massive influx of visitors. Even as some were still getting used to the news, many Summoned dissatisfied with their current classes or race logged out and returned a moment later in Daggerfall as newbie orcs.
The top guilds around the globe panicked, realizing that Silver Spear had stolen ahead of them with this announcement. This news attracted countless fresh newbies or old hands who were yet to pick a guild. If this went on, these guilds would be forced to fight for the scrappy leftovers.
Naturally, with the rest of the Summoned receiving the prompt, the Hopeful Maggots in Redmont Manor were no different. However, rather than panic, the Hopeful Maggots’ guildmaster only reacted with a curious smile as he read the prompt.
“Hmm, now this is interesting.” Seated on a chair in his room, Kashi muttered as he pondered on the contents of the world prompt. The daeben, fresh off a nice bath, contentedly relaxed in the comfy chair in a simple T-shirt and loose pants. A small parchment with a half-finished painting rested on the armchair, small fluctuations in the space around it revealing it to be a dimensional painting.
“Is this alright?”
Kashi looked up from the prompt, eyes widening with admiration when he saw Lunette standing at the bathroom door. Lunette, dressed in a loose blouse and a pair of shorts, gently dabbed at her hair with a towel as she approached the daeben with concern in her eyes. This was probably the first time he had ever seen her in casual clothing. It was somewhat refreshing and homely.
Noticing Kashi’s blank stare, Lunette rebuked with a teasing smile, “Focus,” and then tossed the towel over his head. The songstress walked over as Kashi placed the towel on the armrest and looked at her with a sheepish smile. Lunette pointed at the prompt which Kashi had left in ‘public’ mode. “Won’t this be a problem?”
“Don’t see why it would,” Kashi replied with a shake of his head. “If anything, this is a good opportunity. The orcs are a powerful race. It’s nice to see them joining the global stage.”
Lunette cast a curious glance at Kashi. From the outside, his nonchalant expression suggested he really did not put this incident in his eyes. Normally, she would have assumed this was an act. But after her experiences with Kashi, she knew he was serious.
Maybe Kashi did not realize the enormous repercussions?
Lunette opened her mouth to talk about it, but a set of loud but strangely rhythmic knocks interrupted her thoughts. Looking to the door, she couldn’t help but wonder, “It’s already time?”
“Not yet,” Kashi replied with a smile as he rose to his feet and walked to the door. “Like clockwork,” remarked the daeben as he opened the door. His lips curled in a knowing smile as he looked at the dark-haired wisben awaiting him with an angry glare. “I see you got the prompt too.”
Leila Lightwood, vice-guildmaster of the Hopeful Maggots, glared at her guildmaster, feeling extremely vexed at his lax smile. “I knew you’d be like this,” she complained and was about to push her way in when she recalled that Lunette was also in this room. Glancing at Kashi with a weird look in her eyes, she asked, “Is it safe for me to come in?”
“What are you talking about?” rebuked Kashi, rolling his eyes as he stepped aside and opened the door. “Get in already.”
Leila smirked, knowing she had achieved a tiny, minor victory over the daeben, and then walked into the room. She spotted Lunette at a chair at the other end of the room, examining a painting in her hands. She revealed a polite smile as she greeted, “Good morning, Lunette-san.”
“Good morning Leila-san,” returned Lunette. She placed the painting on the chair and then approached Leila with a wide smile. Grasping the wisben’s hands, she proposed, “You can call me Lune.” Glancing at Kashi, she added, “Please take care of our blockhead.”
Leila revealed an awkward smile as she glanced at the hands that grasped hers. She really was not used to dealing with other females in a friendly manner. She had no female friends aside from the chipmunk that hounded her every day in school. As a result, most of her interactions with other women were in official capacities.
“Ah, I will… Lune… chan.” In the end, Leila still couldn’t call Lunette without any honorifics, so she added the friendly ‘chan.’
Lunette, seemingly understanding the wisben’s discomfort, smiled and then said as she released her hands, “Then I’ll leave him in your care, Leila-chan.” She then added, “I need to get ready,” and then returned to the bathroom to get changed in private.
With Lunette gone, Leila’s awkward smile turned flat. She turned to look at Kashi, who sported a teasing smile. “Not a word.”
“Hey, I didn’t say anything.” Kashi shrugged, the smile widening as he added, “It’s just always nice to see Ms. Perfect struggling to talk with girls.”
“Urgh,” Leila groaned and shook her head. “Forget it. What do you think about the announcement?”
Kashi raised a brow. “What do you mean what do I think? I already told Lune. It’s a nice addition. The orcs are strong, you know? It’ll be fun meeting them on the battlefield. Did you know they have a natural resistance to most magic and elemental attacks?”
“Of course,” Leila muttered as she glared at the daeben with disdain. “The only thing you can think about is fighting.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Of course!” Leila challenged with a loud shout. “Silver Spear can use this as a springboard to recruit a large number of Summoned, and if my hunch is right, they’ve also added the entire orc race to their army. This doesn’t bother you!?”
Kashi shrugged. “We’ve always pursued quality over quantity. Doesn’t matter how many hyenas gather, lions remain king of the pride lands.” The daeben paused and then added, “Who cares if they have orcs? By the time we’re done, they’ll be forced to either submit or die.”
Leila raised a brow and gave the daeben a once-over, curiosity, and surprise in her gaze.
Kashi, weirded out by her intense gaze, was forced to ask, “What? Is there something on my face?”
“No, that’s not it.” Leila shook her head but did not stop her intense stare. “You’ve changed. You never used to say such prideful stuff.”
Kashi chuckled, his lips curling into a playful smirk as he replied, “Maybe this whole guildmaster stuff is finally getting to my head? What? You want me to stop?”
“No, nothing like that,” refused Leila, finally relaxing her gaze. “It’s a good look. You should keep it up.” After a short pause, she returned to the topic at hand. “To be honest, I do not particularly care if Silver Spear gets more recruits. Anyone who joins them simply because of the orcs can’t be trusted anyway.”
“So, what’s really bothering you?”
Leila’s eyes flashed with anger as she questioned, “Why did they get to unlock the orcs?”
“Huh? Didn’t the announcement make that clear? They’ve formed an alliance or something to that effect.”
“In that case, what about our guild?” Leila cast an exasperated look at Kashi as she released a frustrated sigh. “To my count, we’ve made alliances with the Drakul, Centaurs, Dwarfs, and the entire nation of Serisis, yet not only did we not get the bonus, but we also didn’t even manage to unlock those races. “What did they do that we didn’t?”
“Oh, that’s what’s really pissing you off,” stated Kashi. The daeben sighed and then confessed with a shrug, “To be honest, that might be my fault.”
“What do you mean?”
Kashi shrugged, revealing a helpless expression as he replied, “First, I don’t think the drakul and centaurs were ever intended to be playable races. Their populations are far too few – Only a couple thousand each. More importantly, though, the drakul originally belong to the ‘lesser races’ like kobolds and froggers – Not quite beastkin but not completely devoid of intelligence. Through my connection with them, the drakul have evolved into a much more intelligent race. But, even if that should have made them unlockable, by default, all drakul serve me now. To keep the lore of this world intact, Genaco never makes one-track mind races playable.”
“What about the centaurs?” Leila questioned. “They’re much more intelligent and have individual desires.”
“That’s a little more tricky,” answered Kashi truthfully. “It’s one of two things. Either their numbers are too few, or the announcement has been held back for the same reason as the dwarven announcement.”
“What’s that?”
Pointing at himself, Kashi answered with a guilty smile, “Me,” and then clarified, “See, the nature of my quest requires me to completely conquer territories and place them under Rosendun’s banner. Trade alliances and such do not cut it. So, I’m assuming, at least in the case of the dwarfs, that I have to wait until Aygorzi is formally under Rosedun before they will be unlocked.”
“Wait,” said Leila, as she let out a frustrated sigh. “Are you saying that if another guild had met the dwarfs, liberated them and all that, then they would be playable right now?”
“More than likely,” concluded Kashi. “It’s because of me, our guild hasn’t gotten that announcement yet.”
“So, you have to conquer to unlock,” muttered Leila, her gaze heavy with thoughts. “Isn’t that requirement too harsh?”
Kashi, however, replied with a nonchalant look, “Not particularly. I mean, that is our end goal anyway. The delay only means the rewards will be even better.”
“Wow. Nothing’s ever easy for you, is it?” Leila and Kashi turned to look at Lunette, who had returned from the bathroom dressed in a beautiful, navy blue, one-piece dress. The songstress looked at both schemers and then questioned, “So, what exactly counts as conquering?” As far as I know, both the centaurs and the dwarfs have submitted.”
“Not yet,” Kashi replied with a shake of his head.
“Not until it’s formally established in contract and writing,” Leila clarified. “If Kashi’s conjecture is true, we should see some result after today’s meeting.”
Kashi grinned as he said, “To be honest, even if we don’t unlock the races, I’m expecting quite the show. We’re uniting a whole third of the continent. The rewards cannot be small.”
“True,” Leila replied. “But it won’t be easy. These negotiations need to work, or everything will have been for nothing.”
“No pressure,” Lunette teased, causing Kashi to wince.
“Yeah, no pressure,” affirmed the daeben with a pained smile. He then looked at Leila and said, “As you want, I’ll take point on this, but I’ll leave the technicalities to you. Deal?”
Leila nodded. “Naturally.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Alright then…”
*knock* *knock*
“Right on time,” Kashi muttered as he walked to and then opened the door to see a maid.
“Good Morning Kashi-dono. We wish to inform you that breakfast is ready. Would you like to dine at the hall, or have it delivered to you?”
Kashi looked at the women behind him, and after getting confirmation, replied, “We’ll eat in. Thanks.”
“As you wish,” The maid nodded, bowed, and then walked down the hallway to inform the other guests.
Kashi closed the door and then turned to Leila. “So, we’ve got a few hours. Time to drill everything I need to know for this meeting into my brain.”
Leila’s eyes shone with a sinister look as she remarked, “It’s been a while since my last cramming session with Suzuki. This ought to be fun.”
Kashi revealed a weak smile. “Go easy on me…”
Four Hours Later , an exhausted Kashi exalted praises to all the gods in the heavens as a knock on the door finally interrupted the seemingly endless cramming drill. The daeben peeked out of the corner of his eyes as Lunette went to answer the door, and then his eyes lit up when he saw the maid stood there.
The maid bowed politely and then reported, “Honored guests. The meeting is scheduled to begin in but a few minutes. Your presence is humbly requested.”
Kashi grinned as Lunette thanked the maid and then said with a ‘helpless’ glance at a sneering Leila. “You heard the woman. We can’t be late.”
“Since when do you care about being late?” Leila questioned with a raised brow. Unfortunately, although she did want to drill Kashi a little more, she knew he was right. They could be late for anything else, but definitely not this meeting. There was far too much at stake. She sighed in resignation as she shook her head and said, “Forget it. We can only hope our preparations are enough.”
Kashi released a sigh of relief as he patted his chest and then rose to his feet. “Alright then. Guess it’s time I get changed.”
“Finally,” exclaimed Lunette, a bright smile on her face as she approached the daeben with a set of clothes in her hands. “I’ve been waiting to give you this.”
“You also had these made?” Kashi asked as he accepted the clothes and then put them in his inventory, thus allowing the game’s one-size-fits-all feature to mold the clothes to his size. Expert Tailors and above could charm clothes so they could stretch or constrict to fit whoever wore them, but there was no guarantee that an Expert tailor-made this. And Kashi did not want to go through the frankly awkward process of asking who made it.
“Oh,” Kashi softly exclaimed, mouth agape as he examined the articles of clothing in the inventory window. As an artist, he had more than dabbled in his fair share of character designs, and in turn, outstanding costumes. But even with his high-level taste, he found himself mentally drooling over the thought of donning the clothing in his inventory.
Without further ado, Kashi rapidly tapped on every piece of the set. A bright light enveloped the daeben, shielding him from view. When it dissipated, Leila and Lunette’s eyes brightened with admiration.
Lunette had put a lot of thought into the clothing’s design. The design blended Kashi’s typical dark-black sleeveless style with a more regal approach. The daeben’s trademark sleeveless top remained intact, but with a few alterations. The top was a sleeveless leather vest with intricate designs made from mithril threads. A loose long sleeve attached to the left arm added a unique air to the design.
Below the waist, Kashi wore loose leather pants, on top of which he wore a sort of a strange windbreaker that started from the waist down. The windbreaker was held up by a pair of buckles that looped around both the daeben’s shoulders. They also secured a hard-leather pauldron adorned with a regal silver wolf medallion to the left shoulder.
Naturally, as the Hopeful Maggots’ guildmaster, the Hopeful Maggots’ emblem had to occupy a prominent portion of his clothes. This was a particularly tricky act. Numerous guildmasters usually ended up with tacky outfits that made their logos seem like football kit advertisements.
To combat this problem, Lunette had the tailors use mithril threads to etch the howling wolf emblem at the vest’s back with an accompanying complimentary wolf emblazoned at the windbreaker’s hem.
While Kashi was admiring the attire, Lunette took out a pair of obsidian gloves from her inventory and then handed them to him. “I made those,” she revealed with a loving gaze as Kashi put them on. She scratched her chin, revealing an embarrassed smile as she confessed, “The quality’s not as good as the rest of the outfit, but I added a little something extra. Try injecting some mana into it.”
Kashi raised a brow in interest and then did as she instructed. As the daeben’s mana flowed through the gloves, several runes lit up, igniting clumps of silver flames that engulfed the daeben’s hands. Sets of runes rose from amidst the flames until they surrounded Kashi.
Kashi made to touch one of the runes, but the rune suddenly shattered before he could. To his shock, a beautiful voice emanated from the particles of the shattered rune. Kashi turned to Lunette in astonishment, but another rune shattered before he even had a chance to raise his questions. This time, a set of violins and trumpets rang out, and as time passed, a full-blown orchestra song played around Kashi with Lunette’s vocals in the lead.
Affected by the song, Kashi’s blood quickened, and his heart raced. His senses sharpened, and he could feel his strength increasing at a rapid rate. At the very least, his offensive stats had improved by at least 20%, which was not a tiny amount by any means. In a dire moment, a power increase of 20% could spell the difference between victory and death.
Lunette smiled, her heart appeased by Kashi’s expression. Scratching her chin, she shyly revealed, “You have a habit of running around, and I won’t be able to follow you everywhere. I figured, this way, I could still be with you even from afar.”
Kashi froze, stunned by Lunette’s confession. He gazed at the gloves and then at her, unable to conjure up words to describe how he felt. How did he feel anyway? He wasn’t sure. The rising warmth in his chest was an alien feeling, and he didn’t know what to do. The heat grew hotter with every second he spent looking at Lunette until it began to seem like his entire chest was on fire.
Pa!
As if sensing his distress, Leila suddenly slapped Kashi’s back and then prompted, “Hug her already, dumbass.”
“H-hug?” Kashi stuttered as he looked at Leila, who encouraged him with a fierce glare. “Um…” The daeben hesitated as he turned to look at Lunette. This was uncharted territory. He had no clue as to what he was supposed to do here. But as the heat in his chest grew hotter, Kashi relented. He awkwardly wrapped his left hand around Lunette’s shoulder and then pulled her into his embrace.
Lunette blushed, her face turning beet-red as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest. She smiled as she listened to Kashi’s rapid heartbeat, wondering what the daeben was thinking of at the moment.
Kashi, for his part, winced slightly once Lunette rested against his chest as it seemed to spark the fires, which burned even hotter. Fortunately, it was only for a moment, as bonfire soon mellowed out, turning warm and sweet. Kashi could not understand why, but he felt strangely relaxed and at ease. His chest strangely felt increasingly cool and comfortable the longer he held her, almost like the heat was slowly melting a wall of ice around his heart.
Kashi did not recognize this new feeling, but he knew he liked it. So, he instinctively pulled Lunette into a tighter embrace to savor the feeling. This, in turn, caused Lunette’s blush to deepen as she joyfully tightened her grip. Liking Kashi was like the world’s worst endurance test. She had to savor every scrap of affection he showed cause who knew when next he would express his emotions… or even have them?
Kashi and Lunette, both reluctant to let go, continued to engulf themselves in each other’s sweet embrace. That is, at least, until Leila saw fit to interrupt their session with a loud cough.
Kashi and Lunette, shocked awake by the cough, quickly let go of each other, neither able to hide the embarrassment in their eyes. Kashi took a moment, cleared his throat, and then pointed at the door. “We should get going. We don’t want to keep them waiting.”
“Of course,” Leila voiced her agreement with a mischievous half-smile. “We shouldn’t keep them waiting.” Gesturing at the door, she offered, “Lead the way, guildmaster.”
“Sure.” Even though Kashi knew Leila was making fun of him, he was only too happy to obey her command as it meant he could escape the room. Without another word, he immediately turned and walked to the door with Lunette and Leila trailing behind him. Fortunately, because he had his back to them, he did not see Lunette hold up her palm, which Leila sneakily high-fived. Then with a fist-bump, a fast friendship was formed and cemented.
Kashi, oblivious to what was occurring behind him, led the women out of the room, where a maid awaited him patiently with a smile. The maid greeted the trio and then led them through the hallways, up a flight of stairs to the third floor of the manor. Along the way, the maid explained that the summit was to be held in the manor’s largest conference hall. The conference hall was usually utilized for important events that required explosive numbers of attendees. The regular throne room was unfortunately too small to handle occasions of this magnitude.
The reason the King of Serisis had decided to use this conference hall was that it had an important historical significance. It was in this hall that he married his wife, the first interracial royal marriage in the history of Serisis. This had been a major event as it directly helped heal the strained relationship between humans and beastkin in Serisis.
Before this, humans had always ruled over Serisis despite it being a majorly beastkin country. During the daeben wars, many beastkin were dissatisfied because it seemed like the humans were willingly throwing their kind to die while preserving their own.
Soon, rumors began to spread that the humans thought themselves better than the beastkin. Only later would it be found out that this was indeed a ploy by the daeben to split the country from the inside to make their invasion easier.
Unfortunately, at the time, the Serians were fooled, and a civil war nearly broke out. However, at this time, the unthinkable happened. King Chu Tianjo took for his wife a seafaring, young midi woman named Xu Yao. The announcement had seemingly come out of the blue. For the first time, a beastkin was going to sit on the throne!
Granted, it was the queen’s throne and not the king’s, but for the beastkin, this was was a huge boon, as it meant their needs could be better heard amongst the top brass.
And heard they were.
Xu Yao took her role as the beastkin’s voice seriously. With Chu Tianjo’s help, she addressed most of the beastkin’s concerns, closing the gap between them and their hairless neighbors. Policies were put in place to make it easier for beastkin to get high ranking positions in the government. The ratio of beastkin to humans sent to the frontlines was also looked at.
Within only a few years of their marriage, race relations in Serisis were heavily repaired. While there were still a couple of bad eggs here and there, at the very least, the governing system was no longer rigged against beastkin.
Unfortunately, only a few years after giving birth to a set of twins, Xu Yao was lost at sea during one of her expeditions. Countless search parties combed the seas, skies, and seabed for any signs of her, but to date, all efforts proved fruitless.
Kashi’s expression hardened as he listened to the brief history lesson. From the maid’s tale, he could tell the significance of holding the summit in this hall. King Chu Tianjo was obviously hoping that this summit would prove to be as big a boon to his people as the marriage was.
Under the weight of expectations, Kashi knew he could not afford to treat this as a joke. Even though the daeben preferred to act like he did not care, even he knew when it was time to be serious.
Leila’s eyes shone as she noticed the change in Kashi’s aura. What was once flimsy and lackadaisical was now sharp and purposeful, like a bowstring pulled taut. She could not see his gaze, but she knew from experience that once he got like this, very few could lock eyes with him for long. ‘Heh, the guildmaster in him is finally awake.’
Just in time, too, as the maid stopped in front of a set of ornate double doors.
As if sensing Kashi, the double doors opened inwards to reveal a magnificent golden hall with a giant crystal chandelier hanging off the ceiling. A round, donut-like table with a wide space at its center sat beneath the chandelier with sixteen chairs placed around it.
Eleven of the sixteen chairs were currently occupied by King Chu Tianjo, his daughters, and a minister; King Xafier Anton, and three ministers, and finally, King Parissius Vermillion and three ministers.
Several related parties surrounded the round table, including extra ministers from the kingdoms, some important personnel in Serisis, and of course, the Hopeful Maggots crew.
Interestingly, Durst, Ragnaf, and Rudega were also present and stood close to the Hopeful Maggots. However, Durst and Ragnaf had ugly expressions, like something terrible had happened.
Everyone in the room looked up as Kashi, Lunette and Leila walked into the hall, their hearts immediately stolen by the gorgeous women by his side. Many-a-man wished Kashi dead at that moment, but as this was not the mood to express their jealousy, they could only express their admiration through their gazes.
Kashi noticed no one was paying attention to him in particular. Normally, he would not care, but this was not the time to play a background character. Vwoooom! Night seemed to envelop the entire room as the daeben leaked a bit of his aura. A sense of dread filled everyone in the room, and they involuntarily found their gazes drawn to the seemingly unassuming daeben.
Only, this time, rather than an unimportant addition to Leila and Lunette, Kashi seemed to fill their entire vision. Kashi, seeing he had gotten their attention, bowed, and then softly said, “Your Majesties, and all present; I apologize for my tardiness. I should never have made you wait on my behalf.” Without waiting for a reply, Kashi stood straight and then met the gazes of everyone. “Now that I am here, I see no point in delaying further.” The daeben then walked towards the last set of chairs with an aura that did not brook disagreement. “Miote, Jade.”
Understanding his meaning, Miote and Jade left the Hopeful Maggots’ side and walked up to his side. Kashi, Lunette, Miote, and Jade occupied the last four seats, their commanding auras making many doubters finally understand the Hopeful Maggots’ hype.
Meanwhile, Leila Lightwood, Vice-Guildmaster of the Hopeful Maggots, Honorary Minister of Rosendun, and Ambassador to Serisis, raised a portion of the table, allowing her to pass through to the space at its center.
The proud wisben issues a wisp of a smile as she greeted those gathered. “Your Majesties, King Chu Tianjo and Serians, King Parissius Vermillion and Rosens, and King Anton Xafier and Aygorians; Guildmaster Kashi and his Hopeful Maggots, and everyone present in this room at this historical moment, it is I, Leila Lightwood’s honor to welcome you all to the first, and hopefully not last summit of these three nations.” With a smile that was not quite a smile, Leila turned to King Parissius Vermillion and said, “King Parissius. If it’s not too much trouble, could you please state the agenda for this summit, so we are on the same page?”
“No trouble at all,” stated King Parissius with a bright smile. The Rosen King sported a brilliant smile as he rose to his feet and then gazed around the room. “We are gathered here for only one purpose.” The king’s aura exploded, carrying with it the scent of conquerors. “The formation of the continent’s first Empire…”