Evan woke up, but he didn't see Noche, so he started getting worried because he didn't want to lose his grimoire so fast. He started searching all across the room, unable to find Noche and started panicking since he would be losing his only way to know how to recover all the skills.
“Noche? Where are you?” Evan asked as he looked around, since he didn’t want to lose his only source of information of his tutorial seal.
“Inside your body. When I sleep, I enter the current Dark Lord's body. I can also stay here, to not attract attention. And if you had telepathy, we could talk with only our thoughts. Noche said, as his voice echoed inside Evan.
Noche's voice came from inside Evan, to be exact from Evan's torso, which felt extremely weird to Evan but decided to not worry about it. Mainly because otherwise it’d be a headache, and also because he wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly ever again if he did.
“I see. Can you tell me about the tutorial quests?” Evan asked.
“Yes. The first quest is to learn more about this world. Mostly, you can just grab any history book and read it. The second objective is to learn about the different countries.” Noche explained.
“Well, today I will do these two quests. If each quest is that simple, might as well do them as fast as possible, recover my powers… And get onto bloody living my sweet life by making an army, sitting back, chillax, and eat some fire wings. If I can get enough undead, I can just conquer a town, make it independent, and live an easy life.” Evan said as he smiled.
“Good idea, for a lazy dark lord. But I am sure you want to do way more than that. After those two quests, the third one is to learn about the ways of this world. You have finished 65% of it. You know about slavery and all that, but you don't know about the darkest secret of the orphanages.” Noche said, as if he was withholding some information.
“I have to guess that the orphans that cannot get a job… End up as slaves.” Evan said as he looked angry at Noche, noticing that he was keeping quiet about something.
“Not exactly, ask Legias about it. 85% completed. If you complete these 3 quests, you will be able to level up, open the status window and the skill window.” Noche said as he looked forward.
“Fourth quest?” Evan calmly asked, as he pondered the situation.
“Level up. Only one level and you complete this one. After that, you have to learn a skill. The fourth reward will be your extra inventory, and the fifth is the journal.” Noche explained.
Evan looked impressed, and was hyped about getting the inventory back. That is, until he noticed that Noche said extra inventory and not his. Then he noticed that until the 4 years passed, his old items weren’t coming back, but wanted to confirm his suspicion.
“Good. How many quests are in total? And wait a second... Only an extra inventory? Not mine from Dawn's World?” Evan said as he squinted his eyes, worried about his inventory since it carried many items that could be of use. Without counting the valuables he had, which would speed up all the process of upgrading Cherub’s Rest.
“Namika said that sorting out that hellscape would take 4 years, and I heard her cry every time she thought about your inventory. So yeah, 10 quests in total. But the last two will take you 4 years. Because one is to survive until you are 10 years old, and the other is to do the blessing bestowing ritual where you will be given a job skill. That said, what you have in that inventory?” Noche explained calmly.
“Well, let's say that inside my inventory... You could find a lot of things. From building materials to my equipment. But well, the quests are easy to do for now. By the way, don't scare me like this again.” Evan said as he scratched his head, knowing that his inventory was a hellscape of legendary and unique items of all kinds. Mainly he was interested in one particular item known as Crisse’s Blood. A consumable item with both status enhancement attributes, and healing properties of the highest caliber.
Crisse’s Blood increased the vitality of one person by 100 points, which was a lot, and restored the user’s body completely, but was almost impossible to craft due to the insane amount of materials required for it. 100 hearts of minotaurs, 50 hearts of lizardmen, 200 gallons of hydra blood, 3 kilos of a special healing herb known as Vitalum Herbaceum, and 4 hearts of wyverns.
Evan never used it since he never truly required it, and while most would have sold it due to the problem that Crisse’s Blood could only be used in a safe place since the one who used it would attract all kinds of monsters for 24 hours after using it… Evan was a hoarder of the highest caliber, a loot goblin, and he kept items like that hidden in the inventory to the point where even thieves with skills to steal items from the inventory received damage just by looking at the sheer disorganization that inventory had.
“I am not apologizing, because probably your inventory has a lot of powerful stuff.” Noche said, as Evan scoffed.
Evan got up off the bed and started getting ready for the day. During the night Lillian had left an eyepatch made of leather, a white cotton shirt, black trousers, black underwear and a pair of black boots in Evan's closet. This made Evan happy, because at least he had some normal clothes, but that was equal to his despair that he would not have his equipment until he was 10 years old in that body he was left with. Only to remember that he wouldn’t have access to the special consumables he had stashed away in case of necessity back in Dawn World, which in this situation would be a boon… If he ever managed to find them inside that disorganized inventory.
Evan got out of his room, but he was unable to find the stairs that led to the living room until he found Legias. After all, the bedrooms were located on the second floor alongside a large storage room that was filled with cloth, wood and some iron ingots.
“Hello!” Evan said as he smiled, trying to be kind to Legias and making sure he had a good relationship with the kids.
Legias looked at Evan with a curious look, clearly having forgotten something, but wouldn't remember what it was exactly. After a few seconds, Legias shrugged and smiled at Evan with a wide smile.
“Hm? Hello.” Legias said.
“Do you know where the living room is?” Evan asked as he scratched his left cheek.
“Oh, you got lost.” Legias said calmly.
“Yeah. Still getting used to the orphanage. At least I have the eyepatch.” Evan said as he nodded.
“Well, just follow me. Also, yeah, I got lost almost every morning of the first month, so don't worry.” Legias said, to reassure Evan, as he started moving along.
Evan and Legias walked to the living room together that was in the first floor, while Evan was clearly worried about what Legias had said. Someone who had such difficulties moving around this place even after a month meant that either there were extra rooms or that the person had no sense of direction.
The living room was a big room with a long wooden table and several wooden seats. Rose and the other kids were already sitting in their seats waiting for Lillian to prepare breakfast.
“Good morning!” Rose said as she was blushing while looking at Evan.
“Good morning.” Evan calmly said as he sat down.
“Good morning, people.” Legias said as he sat down.
“Evan, want to win some money?” Zerana asked, with a smirk on her face.
Evan was surprised slightly by how direct Zerana was, and didn’t see her being greedy to that point. That said, having more money would be good later… Right now, he had to complete quests as fast as possible to recover as much as he could right away.
“That would be interesting, but, I have to start working on undoing the tutorial seal. I have to look for a history book.” Evan said as he scowled.
“We have one in the library.” Zerana said as she smiled.
“Then I'll head there later. But first, explain to me about how to win money.” Evan said as he scratched his chin.
Zerana looked rather excitedly, her wolf tail wagging quickly, and she had quite the wide smile. Evan found solace in the fact that at least the kids were still innocent kids that enjoyed life.
“We, orphans, can do some quests, kind off like if we were adventurers. They aren't risky jobs. We carry things here and there and get some coin. Those quests are called odd jobs.” Zerana explained.
“And are those jobs legal?” Evan asked, squinting his eyes.
Flint, who was looking at Zerana with a tired look and seemed to have seen Zerana explaining the odd jobs more than once.
“Don't get tricked! Some of them are illegal! Some kids end up as assassins, but the cause of that is the taxes! At least, they are better than back in the country I was born in… But that doesn’t mean they are nice.” Flint said as he glared at Zerana, who simply chuckled.
Evan raised an eyebrow, since that could grant more information than he had expected. And that alone was a victory for him, and the day had just started… Which made Evan get excited about how much information he could obtain today.
“What taxes?” Evan asked excitedly, while in his mind there could be heard a few alarms and several mini-Evans saying: ‘Not going to fight the IRS! Nope!’.
“Living in this country is hard because you have to pay a monthly tax just so you can live in it. But there are two exceptions to this tax. Slaves, who have nothing and are tied by a debt which the monthly tax covered, and the children. But the orphans cannot stay in their orphanage after they are 10 years old! So they have to become adventurers or become slaves…” Flint explained.
“But?” Evan asked as he considered a few more things, seeing how quick Zerana wanted to share about the odd jobs.
Vivienne looked at Evan, clearly surprised at his lack of knowledge of Elstivia, and excitedly decided to explain it to him.
“But to become an adventurer, you have to pay 2 silver coins! We orphans usually don't have a source of income, so after getting out of the orphanage we would become slaves. If it weren't for the odd jobs, it would be a fate that we could not escape.” Vivienne explained, as Evan processed the information he was acquiring.
For Evan, it seemed like this morning would be a morning filled with surprises, and the kind that would have him feeling bad about the orphans. Who in their sane minds would make legislation so ruthless towards orphans? It’s like if the Elstivian government wanted the orphans to become slaves for all of their lives.
“Who created that rule?” Evan asked coldly, trying to hold inside his wrath.
“At first, it was until we were 18 years old. That law was created by your grandfather, Evan. King Vestas, also known as the mad king. Then your father, King David, tried to abolish the slavery.” Legias replied.
“And we all know what happened to him.” Evan said.
Legias and the others nodded, while Evan just looked at them and took a deep breath. For him, that was only a simple Tuesday. Back in Earth, he had seen all kinds of cover-up operations made by experts in dealing with scandals and the like to handle his father's sins.
“But just after the attack, before King David the second took charge, the prime minister decided to reduce the age limit for orphans.” Legias added, which didn’t help with Evan’s self-control.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Well, I can guess that was the reason for the conspiracy against my father. Stop the abolishment of slavery and ensure that all orphan become slaves. That said: Why? Are they that self-destructive? They clearly need to learn that the children are always the future and the lifeblood of a country.” Evan said as he started grumbling internally about the intelligence of the country.
“But the odd jobs started a long time ago. So if we work well, we might be able to dodge the fate that the prime minister has thought out for us.” Rose said, with a hopeful tone.
“That wretched brother of mine. He does not do anything to ensure that the last will of our father is done.” Evan said as he grumbled.
“From what I've heard, all he's done is summoning a hero.” Legias added, without noticing that said information was more important right now than ever.
Evan looked scared and surprised at the same time, mostly because he was in his worst condition with most of his skills taken away and with that condition... Facing a hero would be equal to sure death, specially if it was like in the novels he heard about.
“What!? A hero!? Now!? WHY!?” Evan asked, as he panicked.
“The more rushed they are, the less powerful the hero is." Zerana said, as he reassured Evan.
“But he hasn’t been around even for a month. He will be weak as hell!” Evan said, not understanding why the hero was summoned now. Either they knew of his predicament, or the king was truly stupid.
“But he can be trained.” Rose said.
“And brainwashed.” Flint added.
“Or tempted with women or men and fortunes.” Legias said.
Evan heard the responses of the children, and started guessing things. Maybe he could get a legitimate reason to kill the hero before he became a danger for his life, and that meant a perfect way to do what no villain he knew could do… Which was killing the hero preemptively. Evan knew of a few colleagues who thought of rather nasty solutions for overpowered heroes, but he hated the idea of using white phosphor or worse poisons.
“If the hero is a man, what would happen?” Evan asked.
“We have to ensure that you live, then. If you die, his work will be done. After all, the hero only has one role: Kill the Dark Lord with the help of 5 comrades from 5 different races.” Rose said with a serious gaze.
Evan started noticing something fishy about the situation, mostly due to the similarities this had with a certain novel he had read about, but at the same time wouldn't understand truly for what reason the children would help him.
“And what kind of women are going to be given to the hero?” Evan asked as he squinted his eyes.
Every child looked down to the ground and looked scared. Evan clearly connected the clues he was given, and couldn't believe it. No, in fact, he could believe it, but he couldn't believe that situation was unfolding on him right now.
“Don't tell me…” Evan said as the conclusion of the logic path dawned on him.
Zerana nodded while looking clearly sad, which made Evan feel a rage hard to quell. Noche was clearly interested in the fact that Evan wasn’t just cartoonishly evil, unlike some of the previous dark lords.
-Zerana: Yes. All nuns who hold an orphanage can become property of the hero. After all, you must be a holy maiden to have an orphanage.
Evan looked angry to the point of bursting, his face becoming a smile that made every child shiver and looked similar to a demon. He did not have the memories of Edward, but he was able to see what would happen if he died at the hero's hand. All the orphans would lose their chance to be free, and that was opening some options in his methods he usually would have left out.
“That bastard! So he gets what he wants, huh? Well, good luck at finding me out! I will be careful. I just need to produce enough troops…” Evan said as his demonic smile fully showed.
“Good idea, for a start, that is.” Legias said.
“Once I recover my strength... I will kill the hero as if he was a fly!” Evan said.
“That's risky.” Zerana warned Evan.
“Then we have to finish some things quickly, while avoiding worrying Lillian.” Evan said.
Lillian arrived to the living room with a lot of crêpes, pancakes and 7 mugs filled with milk, while the children quickly smiled and got ready to eat.
“Breakfast is ready!” Lillian said as she placed the plates and the mugs on the table.
“Thanks, sister Lillian!” The children said in unison.
Everyone started eating breakfast and Evan asked them questions about the countries, which ended up in a mess for Evan because the children were quite noisy while eating.
Meanwhile, in the throne room of the human kingdom there was a tall man with long golden hair, blue eyes, and a scar on his left cheek dressed in silver armor with a red cape. He was sitting in a throne made of a blue crystal and grey stone.
He was King David (The second) and he was waiting for the hero and the representative of the elven kingdom, Saida, and they finally arrived.
The hero was a tall man with pale skin, short black hair, black eyes and with a rugged countenance, who was wearing a brown leather armor that covered all his body unless the head, and had a brown scabbard on his waist that held an iron sword. The name of the hero was Kanbe Tokugawa, and he was quite the naive boy with some confidence built up from fighting monsters and assisting the country to deal with several issues of high importance.
The elven representative was an average height woman with slightly tanned skin, long golden hair, braided and styled to look regal, and golden eyes who was wearing a black robe with reddish stripes, black stockings, and a pair of black high heels. In her hands she had a sword and a staff respectively, and had a sheath for the sword on her left hip.
This elf was the princess of the elven country, known as Saida, and seemingly a member of a really long line of mages and advisors until her father became the king of the elves.
“Hello, Saida. I hope that your escort has been to your liking.” King David said as he welcomed the princess.
Saida looked clearly tired, but decided to just sigh and do a careful bow to David. She was the crown princess of Rivialt, yet she had to come here to ensure that she could be with her boyfriend.
“He is a fine man. But you know that I have a boyfriend.” Saida said with a scowl on her face, as she bowed to the king.
“And yet here you are. There is trouble in your homeland, I assume?” David said with a serious look in his eyes.
“Indeed. My father seems to be unable to have more children. Which leaves a mess that has to be fixed. Because our traditions say that unless there is no male prince, the princess is unable to become queen of the elves.” Saida said as she sighed.
“And that cursed sibling of yours still breathes. Poor Legias, if only he was not a cursed child.” David said with a seemingly truthful sad face.
“I am here to end his life. Before his curse turns him into a mindless beast that only kills and eats.” Saida said, with a serious gaze. 'And before he can reclaim the right to the throne. If he does, father will force me to marry a noble.' Saida thought as she considered how to murder Legias.
Kanbe looked at David, with quite the strong gaze, but also an innocent face. He had been summoned here just a day ago, or so the official reports said, and he didn't know much about this world known as Terra. Truth is that he was summoned six months ago, and he had already dealt with goblins and some other monsters, but he decided to trust the king who got him here in the first place.
“And I decided that I will not aid her. By what lady Saida told me, he is a strong man, but he is a kid. And that curse may not activate.” Kanbe said, trying to make David rethink the plan of action.
“I see. A danger that we must avoid! But I must ask discretion about this. So if you cause any mess, you will have to try to capture him, or I won't be able to cover your actions.” David said.
Kanbe's face shifted to one of pure worry and pity for the young boy who would have to be killed for the safety of the world. After all, Kanbe wasn’t a fan of hurting innocents, even if it was for the greater good.
“But he is a kid.” Kanbe protested against the orders of the king.
David looked at Kanbe with a bored look, knowing why he was having to deal with the hero, but also tired of said hero not following the orders directly.
“Hero. Please just protect and control Saida. I only ask that. Saida can defeat Legias. If not, she wouldn't come.” David said, trying to convince Kanbe.
“Understood. Then I shall be going with you, lady Saida.” Kanbe said with a frown on his face.
“Okay. Thanks for your aid with our trouble. This won't be forgotten, his majesty. But you should remember your debt.” Saida said as she smirked.
“And you should be more careful, that was something that your maternal bloodline always said. To always pay your debts, and you should know what happened to your mother.” David said as he smiled at Saida.
Saida scoffed, and left with Kanbe, while David smiled. If the curse activated, that would give him a chance to send all the cursed children to the slavers and have a lot more of slaves to sell. Maybe that way, the kingdom would have some decent profit after paying back the debt to Rivialt.
Saida Status:
Race: Elf
Gender: Female
Age(elven age/human age): 50 years old/ 18 years old.
Height: 1.40 meters tall.
Three sizes: 90-56-85. (Only shown when the analyzed one is 18 years old or older)
Cup Size: E. (Only shown when the analyzed one is 18 years old or older)
Likes: Elven ceremonies, parties, banquets and making new friends.
Dislikes: Cursed children (And hates Legias even more), traitors and monsters.
Ailments:
Stiff shoulders: Only causes a minor nuisance to the victim. Caused by carrying heavy weights.
Level: 10
STATS (Maximum of 1000):
HP: 12500/12500
MP: 15000/15000
STR: 25
VIT: 25
INT: 100
DEX: 25
AGI: 25
Magic affinity: Ice magic, Wind magic and Water magic.
Skill affinity: Magician, Elementalist, Warrior, Merchant, and Royalty.
Titles: Comrade of the Hero, Great Warrior Eden’s lover.
Job: Princess of the Elven kingdom.
Skills:
Magician (adept):
Magic Knowledge: Passive. Allows the use of magic.
Magician's soul: Passive. All spells cast by the user are a 20% stronger.
Magic control: Passive. All spells are cast 10% faster. Some can even be used without chanting.
Water Magic:
Water ball: Active, 2 MP. The user throws a ball made of water.
Water wave: Active, 4 MP. The water rises up and strikes the enemy. Can push an enemy far from the user.
Water Cannon: Active, 20 MP. The user shoots high pressure water from his/her hands.
Water Prison: Active, 25 MP. The user traps the enemy in a water ball that acts as a cage. If not used carefully it can drown the enemy.
Water Tidal wave: Active, 40 MP. The water surrounding the user will rise and spin around the user, cutting anyone who gets close.
Wind Magic:
Wind bullet: Active, 1 MP. The user shoots a bullet of concentrated wind that can pierce even iron.
Wind twister: Active, 5 MP. The user cast a tornado that sends everyone flying. It is shot from the user's hand.
Wind blade: Active, 10 MP. The user can either create a windblade to cut the enemy or implant the wind element temporarily in a blade.
Wind improvement: Active, 12 MP. The user temporarily has an extra 30% AGI.
Ice magic:
Ice Blade: Active, 5 MP. Allows the user to create an ice blade or to implant the ice element temporarily to the blade.
Ice burst: Active, 10 MP. The user throws a concentrated explosive ball of ice that will burst and freeze anyone close to it.
Icebolt: Active, 4 MP. The user shoots a bolt of ice that freezes upon touch.
Ice spear: Active, 12 MP. The user creates spears of ice to attack the enemy.
Ice Wall: Active, 20 MP. The user creates a defensive wall made of Ice.
Warrior (Minor):
Knowledge of Swords: Passive. Allows the user to use more efficiently the swords, greatswords and any other kind of weapon.
Flash strike: Active, 3 MP. The user does a swift strike that is hard to parry.
Impact strike: Active, 5 MP. The user does a strike with enough impact to disarm the opponent.
Merchant (Minor):
Knowledge of materials: Passive, allows the user to see the materials used in any item and be able to know the price of the item.
Royalty (Minor):
Trust of the people: Passive. The user is more trusted by the people.
Well, now we know why Lillian had the job of Holy Maiden. And seems that Legias is going to have troubles.
What will happen? Stay tuned for more chapters and if you liked this chapter, hit the vote so I can notice that you like it.