The masked Aksha and several high-ranking members of his army, which included the likes of General Ahmi and Captain Groma, were watching multiple screens in front of them. The room they were currently in looked like a war room, with a table that simulated the forest near them and screens that showed different information about their surroundings. Some mid-ranking officers also had their stations where they watched screens depicting specific things. One screen was showing a map with multiple red dots moving in a line along a road. Another screen was a live aerial view of those red dots as people escorting a cart.
"Commander, we're detecting packs of beasts moving into the targets!" A soldier said she was one of the people who sat down in their stations.
The screen with the red dots now showed a great amount of purple dots approaching the road.
"Is it a safe level?" General Ahmi asked.
"No, sir! With their numbers, they have a high probability of being overwhelmed. Should we send in the troops now, sir?" The soldier replied.
"No," Manusya said. "I heard from Gavrin that they are trained and more skilled than normal knights. This is our opportunity to study more Hydarian techniques. Leave them be. If it gets dire, we'll swoop in for the rescue" He ordered.
The soldier replied, "Affirmative!"
"Heh. I do wonder if that spy of ours overestimates their ability." Captain Groma said and scoffed.
"We'll see." General Ahmi chimed in.
Everyone in the room watched one brave woman launch small fireballs at the approaching beasts. She then moved forward and caused spikes of earthen fire to protrude off the ground and stab the wolves. On her own, she defeated many of the hostile creatures.
"Impressive! She's certainly more skilled than the drunken and babbling Hydarians we fought." Captain Groma said.
"Yes, but how long can she keep this up, I wonder." Another army captain spoke.
The rest of her party joined her combat effort. People in the room could see that while they seemed less armed and protected, the people depicted on their screens were much more adept than a simple soldiers. They defeated waves and waves of enemies before finally starting to seem overwhelming.
"Commander, more beasts were attracted to the scene!" A soldier in the station said.
More purple dots popped up in the forest and approached the scene of battle. It was getting dire.
"Alright," Manusya said. "Order the soldiers to help them and escort them here."
"Aww," Groma uttered. "I suppose every show must end. It was some nice entertainment."
General Ahmi approached Manusya. "Alright, we can take care of the rest. They should be here in around one hour. You can take a small break, Commander." He said.
Manusya nodded. "I suppose I will, call me when they are near." He said as he walked off the room.
It had been nearly three months since they started preparation for the incoming retaliation by the Hydarians. The Osma army had built a grand fortress in the middle of the forest, where it would serve as their headquarters in the upcoming defence effort. They brought nano printers and the delivery bots transported metal minerals from the automated mines to construct the fortress. The main building was this pyramid-shaped building that Manusya helped designed as it reminded him of the buried pyramid he found together with Mata, where she revealed the truth of the previous three ages.
This main building was dubbed 'The Sanctuary' by the soldiers, as it served as the heart of their operation. Manusya left the room and entered his private room, where a simple bed was accompanied by a table full of traditional Osmanian food and beverages. He took a glass of Osma tea and sat down on the sofa.
"So, feels good right?" A voice said next to the sitting Manusya.
Manusya almost jumped in surprise but he recognised the voice. He turned around to see a figure from his nightmare. A Hydarian knight with short brown hair and a goatee, a bullet hole in his forehead could be seen. A walking corpse that was Esteban q'Saul, the Hydarian captain he killed during the fortress fight and had been haunting him since.
He's here again. This is getting worse. Mata explained it to me, but I can still scarcely believe it. Manusya thought.
"I said, feels good right? Commanding your troops, building this fortress, controlling the lives of your soldiers. Thrilling, must be, right?" Shadow Esteban said and smiled mockingly.
"No," Manusya turned the other way to ignore him. "Leave me alone."
"Aww. You're really going to ignore your only friend here? C'mon, even you have to admit that you are starting to like the company." He replied.
Phantom trauma was what I decided to call it based on Mata's explanation. Manusya said in his mind.
Manusya recalled Mata's further explanation of his ailment. When Mata pulled him out of his illusion during the military demonstration a few months ago, she knew what illness he was suffering. Mata explained more about her theory that to weave aether is to impart your desire into the natural world. Human dreams and emotions were the driving force of manipulating aether. She then explained that when people had ailments that affected their minds, the aether would also react and amplify them. People with trauma and mental ailments that caused them to have visions would receive realistic illusions of them. People with multiple personalities might split the soul itself, making multiple individuals live in one body for real. The phenomenon was still a mystery with the limited sample size in Osma, but Manusya had ordered Mata to continue her studies on aether to unlock this secret.
Of all things, my vision created this corpse sitting next to me. Oh great. Manusya thought and sighed.
Esteban had appeared in front of him in the real world for the first time around one month ago. He was in the middle of his nightly rituals before going to bed when that man materialised in the physical plane. And it was truly physical, Manusya could touch him and feel his presence physically. When he had called on someone to enter the room, they could not see Esteban, and it looked like Manusya was touching air to them if he touched that man.
To be able to fully trick my five senses like that is dangerous.
There was still no cure for this ailment. Manusya had tried taking some drugs prescribed by Erectus, the ship's artificial intelligence, but even none of the old medicine from humanity's past worked. It seemed that a solution would only lie in the further development of aetherial technology.
"Just leave me alone." Manusya sighed. "You would be a lot more useful if you have the memories of the real Esteban, but you are not him." He said.
"Of course, I'm me, baby!" Esteban said as he stood up and made a show of himself in front of Manusya. "I'm here in the flesh. Sure, my memories are not all there but I'm here for you!"
Manusya stood up and was about to leave the room when Esteban teleported in front of him.
"You might think this is all a big joke, don't you?" Esteban smiled sinisterly. "Just wait, when the Hydarian army reached here, untold blood and carnage would fall on your hands."
Manusya pushed him aside and opened the door, he turned around and replied, "I will not let that happen." He said as he slammed the door behind him.
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The welcome was nigh. Manusya stood in front of the tall and imposing metallic gate of their walls. He stood directly in front of it while rows of soldiers were in their resting position on parallel sides to him. They all heard the sound of a horn which signified the returning party, and slowly the heavy doors were opened by multiple men through a crank mechanism.
The shadow retainers...I'm curious to see what they're like. Manusya thought.
The Fazquez retainers entered with nervous steps as they looked to be in shock and awe at the construction of this military base. They all muttered to each other in disbelief at what they were witnessing, the savage Osma made something as advanced as this was beyond their reasoning. At the front of the party, a dignified blonde woman stepped forward and bowed as she looked at the Aksha.
"I am Lydia un'Fazquez, the shadow retainer of the Fazquez family," Lydia said respectfully.
"We are the retainers of the Fazquez family." The rest said as they bowed deeply as well.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"We greet the Aksha of Osma." All the retainers said in unison.
Manusya approached them. "I am the Aksha of Osma. Please, raise your head. We are on equal grounds here as parties representing two countries." He said. This time, Manusya had passed his voice through a slight filter in his helmet to make him sound more regal and imposing. The voice filter worked as the Hydarians looked at him with awe and fear.
"That is...very kind of you to say, Lord Aksha, knowing that you will go to war with our country in two weeks," Lydia said with a smile. The rest of her party looked at her as if she was crazy, but she stood her ground.
Manusya smiled underneath his helmet. As I've heard from Gavrin, this woman is the closest thing he has to a mother. She seems quite reliable already. He thought.
"Nonsense," Manusya replied. "I will go to war against your King and the nobles. I am not going to go to war with your country or your people. This trade agreement will signify that."
"Very well said, Lord Aksha," Lydia said with a look which indicated that she was rather impressed by the eloquent and diplomatic answer.
"Please." Manusya motioned towards 'The Sanctuary', the pyramid-shaped central building of the fortress. "Let us continue our conversation inside. We would like to offer you a warm welcome." He said.
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The unofficial Hydarian delegation was escorted into a room on the third floor of the building. On the way, they briefly witnessed various Osma soldiers trained as they climbed through obstacles and fired their rifles to shoot target dummies. When they entered the building, they were in awe of the completely foreign architecture and interior design of the building. Everyone entered a large conference room where the delegation was seated on a long table that faced another long table on the opposite side. Manusya, General Ahmi and Captain Groma. The set-up was rather similar to diplomatic meetings between two states of the distant past. After everyone was seated, soldiers entered the room and brought drinks and refreshments, which were Osmanian tea and locally made sweets. The Fazquez retainers did not want to be rude and they tried the food and beverages, which were to their liking.
"These are quite nice, Lord Aksha. What is this called?" Lydia said as she lifted one of the sweets.
"It's an Ummi, grounded up balls of 'rice' sprinkled with sugar and 'cheese". Manusya said. He had mentioned 'rice' and 'chocolate' in Osmanian, as those words did not exist in Hydarian.
"I do not recognize those ingredients you mentioned...but you mentioned sugar? I did not recall sugar canes existing here from the reports." Lydia said.
"Well...let's call it a trade secret on how, but we have access to a variety of different livestock and plants now," Manusya replied.
"Is that so?" Lydia uttered as she started thinking. "Lord Aksha, I hope you would gracefully accept the gifts we brought to the cart. We brought various wine, clothing, jewellery, gold and some of our staple food, among other things."
Manusya nodded. "Thank you for such a gracious gift. But what about samples of what we requested?" He asked.
Lydia looked at one of the retainers and they brought forth two wooden boxes from their bag. A soldier came forward to retrieve them and presented them to the Aksha. Manusya then opened the two boxes to reveal a crystalline material of metallic lustre on the first box and a white substance on the second box.
General Ahmi leaned into Manusyaand asked. "Commander, why do we need these things again?" He asked.
Manusya sighed and turned to him. "I know you have been focusing on the military but please take some of the other curricula sometimes." He answered.
General Ahmi coughed in embarrassment as Groma openly chuckled at him. The Fazquez retainers, on the other hand, gazed at them with worrying gazes as they were afraid that the goods they brought were unsatisfactory judging by Aksha's sigh and the laughter from Captain Groma.
"Is...it to your liking, Lord Aksha?" Lydia asked.
Manusya nodded. "Yes, very much so. Can you tell me more about these things from your Hydarian perspective?"
Lydia began explaining. "Of course. The first box is a material that is usually discarded during the mining of minerals so we do not call it anything, but by your request, we managed to find them. The second box is rubber, our kingdom discovered the plants that produce these things in one of our colonies on the southern continent. Local children were using this material to create bouncing balls and the people there also used it for materials to create various things that did not break even if stretched apart." She said.
Your people 'discovered' it, huh? More like you stole them from your colony. Manusya thought. I feel dirty using the Hydarian colonization of those territories but the Osma reaches simply do not have the climate for rubber fig and we are going to need rubber as a material moving forward to create many things.
Manusya felt conflicted. The Osma people were colonized for their aethers by the Hydarians, and yet he was going to import rubbers made from another exploited colony. It seemed like grand hypocrisy, especially since the Osmanian stance against colonisation was enshrined in the founding constitution.
But such is the nature of international relations and building a country, we will need to do unsavoury things occasionally from here on. But our commitment stays the same, we will free those colonies when the time is right and our preparation is complete. Manusya thought.
He consoled himself with the fact that freeing other colonies was one of the Osmanian national objectives and that they were going to use imported materials from those exploited regions to better themselves and advance. It was still quite unpleasant, but he tried to set his sight on the bigger picture first.
"As for some of the other materials that you requested from our country and our colonies, we will need some time to supply them," Lydia explained.
"This is all quite excellent," Manusya said.
"But...the material on the first box, why do you need it, Lord Aksha?" Lydia asked with a curious gaze.
"Oh, do not worry about that. We simply need it as it is somehow quite rare here." He replied.
They're silicon! We will need it to create semiconductors. Manusya answered but only in his mind.
Despite silicon being plentiful back on Earth, it was rather rarer oon this new planet. During his study of Hydaria from the explanations and perspective of Gavrin, he discovered that there were mines in Hydaria that did have silicon. They were useful in creating semiconductor materials that would be used on microchips and things of that nature. Humanity had found a more efficient method to create microchips at some point, but the people of Osma were barely stepping foot in the industrial revolution, and thus a more primitive construction for everything was to be expected. The silicon would boost the Osma technology greatly. Manusya had ordered some other raw materials that he had a hard time finding in the Osma reaches, but it seemed that the retainers could not bring everything.
While Manusya was deep in thought, Lydia interjected again.
"Lord Aksha...I see that you have advanced the Osma people greatly, but are you sure that you can defeat the Hydarians? As you requested, we also have a document that outlines what we can observe from the new invading force, and if I have to admit, despite the strength of your soldiers, I am still worried." She said.
Manusya leaned forward. "Interesting. I would like to hear your reasoning as to why you are still worried. Despite this brief glimpse, I would have expected you to understand our current strength."
Lydia frowned with a worried face. "The new advancing force is approximately six thousand strong, and this is in addition to the tools and weapons of war that they will bring. But that is not why I am worried, some of our most talented magus were also recalled from the frontlines for this. In addition, half of those six thousand men are from the Serpent Legion led by General Vaius q'Asturias, one of the most brutal generals in our army." She explained.
The Serpent Legion...Why are they so feared? Manusya thought.
"I know what you are questioning even underneath that mask, Lord Aksha," Lydia said.
Clever woman. He remarked in his mind.
"The Serpent Legion is feared for their barbaric war practices such as rape, murder, pillaging and various intimidation tactics that emphasized might to generate fear. They are also led by the Naga Squad, aether users that could eliminate hundreds with their small number. General Vaius is despised even by other generals for his savagery." Lydia explained.
The other Osmanians in the table did not understand Hydarian, but they were all wearing earpieces that translated every word spoken. As they heard this, their faces became increasingly severe and worrying. Despite their newfound strength and might, they were still previously subjugated by Hydarians. They were imagining that if the soldiers that they fought were only the advance party of drunkards and failures that did not make it to the frontlines of the war going on in the outside world, then how strong were these battle-hardened veterans?
Manusya hit the table as he noticed his military officers were close to showing their unbecoming weak side to the Hydarians.
"Do not worry, Lady Lydia. We will be fine. You should know that we would not invite you here if we are not confident that this can be a long-term trade agreement. You see, we will drive those Hydarians away, and when that happens, I believe what will happen is that the Hydarians will start to maintain border security along the forest and try to establish some sort of diplomatic relations with us, even if it was still hostile. They, after all, still need the aetherus in our lands. We will not be giving them anything, nor will we establish any trade relationship with them. At that point, we will announce our independence to the world and exercise our self-determination. I want you and the Fazquez family to be my connection to the outside world, both Hydaria and other nations. Of course, we will discuss the logistics for that later since I know that war is still happening. But the bottom line is we will create a secret and secure trade route with you." Manusya explained thoroughly.
The Fazquez delegation discussed amongst each other the nature of this upcoming agreement. If it was true that the Osmanian could drive away the Hydarians and that what they had shown in this fortress only represented a fraction of their capability, then it would be as if they were the first-ever exclusive party to have a trade agreement with a glorious and rich nation. The prospect for profit was too large for them.
Lydia coughed to quieten down her colleagues and spoke. "It would be a pleasure, Lord Aksha. But as I represent the Fazquez interest, I also have a request."
"Oh? Speak." Manusya replied.
"I would like to see your nation. If we are going to enter into a trade agreement, then I believe it is fair that we see what you can produce and give us back in return for the goods that we will bring to you, Lord Aksha." Lydia said.
General Ahmi leaned into Manusya. "Propestorous. This was not planned. We do not know if we can trust her, Commander. It will pose a huge national security risk if we let them in, Commander." He said.
"I am inclined to agree, Commander....despite my reluctance to do so," Groma said, adding his displeasure at Ahmi at the end of his sentence. "Our technology is a secret. What they can see in our lands they may be able to steal." He said.
Manusya looked at both of them. "I admire both of your seriousness in considering this. It is good that you put national security at the forefront like that. But while I do not know about the rest of these retainers, this Lydia seems rather reliable. Leave this to me." He said to them in Osmanian so the Hydarian could not understand what he spoke.
Manusya leaned forward once more on the table. "Very well. The party you brought with you will stay here with my soldiers. But I would like to personally invite you, Lydia un'Fazquez, as our first foreign guest to see our new city." He said.
The Fazquez retainers uttered in surprise and discussed amongst themselves. From what Manusya could pick up, they were displeased that they could not come along to see the nation but Lydia calmed them down.
Lydia also leaned forward on the table. "It would be an honour, Lord Aksha. Please take care of me."
And thus a meeting that would change the course of history occurred. In a small way, the Osma nation's debut on the world stage was currently in rehearsal.