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Chapter 385: Second Brother?
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“This is really crazy.”
Such an event was indeed craziness at its peak.
What king would prioritize his “King Test” —no in fact, what king would actually blatantly declare, in front of his own people, that he doesn’t want to be king with brazen audacity— while in the midst of a calamity?
Perhaps… only he did.
Well, for an NPC, if his character design was as predetermined as this, then whoever decided it so was a total noetic madcap.
It was hilarious.
It was new.
It was ridiculous.
It was genius!
Alas, for some reason and another, every NPC in this world was a “real person” in essence. They aren’t just mere character programs… they were alive in a sense that even the best programmers can’t explain it.
Thus, this —former— king of Jeremiah has a real lucid craziness that his own plans does included Jeremiah being at the maws of danger during his own King Test event just so he could filter out all those who had potential and right qualifications from the real trash.
“A ‘mark’ to decide the qualified king candidates amongst the crowd?” Siva murmured. “It’s either he’s really crazy or he’s a genius. I remember my old friends from other worlds back then actually using this method as well. Their empires became really powerful and sturdy although sacrificing a monarchical system in the end.”
In short, to preserve the original qualities of a great ruler to the inheritor of the throne, this king avoided the inheritance system and instead used a “legacy” system.
This was something that will never be bypassed even by blood relations.
It was an example of a type of leadership that do not prioritize family over the needs and wants of a dominion. Selfless it may seem, but it still had its ups and downs.
One such disadvantage is the possible brewing of discontent from blood-related families.
Another disadvantage is the fact that this kind of system is an easy target for malevolent schemes and assassination plans to control the selection of the next heir, or even used by outside forces to bring down the entire monarchy’s fall.
It was a system dependent on the loyalty of its forces and the devotion of its people —reliant on the fact that the “qualities” of their sovereign king is the real “hand” that lets the ruler rule this land.
Still, the fact that Jeremiah —as a country— was built upon that trait and that its people do respect their first Sovereign, Queen Lunette Astarte, who had a benevolent yet strong sense of justice as a quality of a ruler, this kind of system was indeed a fitting choice to select the next king.
Altair Astarte doesn’t have an heir so it can also be considered that he made the right choice by electing to use this method for the preservation of the dignity of the rightful king to the throne of Jeremiah.
“Well, what now?”
“Are we going to join in on the fun?”
“Scoop! This is a Scoooooopppp!!!”
“We went here to add the chances of us living in this attack. I’ve already deployed the Defensive Matrix to reinforce the city’s barrier dome. But I got the news late while we were in the middle of preparing for the jump.”
Siva looked at Maki and then to the rest of them who had different reactions.
He long since had the notion but he only voiced it on his thoughts just now, since when did I become their leader?
Still, he brushed the conception of the thoughts aside and looked at the chaos in the area above the city. Clouds roiled and boiled as it covered an area directly below Baal’s avatar.
It looked like a slowly falling man, limbs spread wide like in a free fall. Its right hand held a large spear the same its height, its tip pointed directly at the territory of Jeremiah.
Its body writhed in the dark clouds, the effects of its plasma-imbued body hitting the barrier of wind and air particles. It had triggered a reaction of the churning air in the lower atmosphere.
“The Demons can sense where the crystal is now that it’s out of the protective case. But since we already got it out of its packaging, I have all the reasons to think that this is some kind of test by Janus… like a pressure to temper whatever he’d planned to temper around me… or perhaps that of his student.”
‘Now that I think about it, Akhenaton said that it was Altair and The Teacher who found him on an ancient battlefield... after Clemente Celestine did back in the ancient times. If Janus wasn’t there, I would have thought that the clues of his location were left behind by Clemente Celestine.’
(AN: Volume 6 Chapter 17… when Siva had first unlocked his [memories])
—although vague, this also proves that Janus has plans for that guy. But…
Using the concept of a sword being sharpened to be used, tempering is a way to make the raw mineral temper itself and become durable.
And by that, Siva thought to himself, since he do believe that letting the demons know about the [Crystal] is part of Janus plans, then why actually set it up as to put a challenge on him… or Altair?
Why is Janus making it hard on him?
Or was it for the both of them?
Siva was sure that the [Memory Crystal] wouldn’t have been triggered by anybody else aside from Scion… and that Scion wouldn’t be with anybody else aside from him.
In short, everything wouldn’t have happened if he and Scion hadn’t gone to the Humans.
At that point in time, Siva also thought of that man this country once called its King, Altair Astarte.
—is it really connected?
—Is this challenge for me or for that guy?
Siva recalled, ‘During the last time moments of the war 56 years ago, I remember that Jeremiah’s first Queen, that Lunette Astarte, is once part of dad’s party… she was one of the Braves…’
The War of the Braves!
Although he was supposedly but a third neutral variable during that war, he was the turning point at which that war ended —no— in fact if it wasn’t for Siva being pulled by Sefirah using an incident that broke his mind again in that war, the Terrans would have actually lost.
‘I killed Mefisto in that war and got corrupted by his powers, went on another rampage that I even killed an Elder Dragon, frightened the living Gods and Immortals, and even threatened to destroy Terroa that Janus had no choice but to ultimately lock up everyone in the [Cage], sealed it up for good, and then planned a few things that can be connected to the current events…. leading to me being sealed by mother.’
Some of these information came from Maki’s own stories and a few of the hazy things he can recall of the events back then.
Everything was connected to Siva, Janus, and to the events and the people after that war.
Everything after the War of the Braves… has the scent of the strings pulled by Janus.
‘Perhaps, that Altair being the son of Lunette and also his own student is one small reason for this attack, aside from it being a reaction of when the crystal is released from its packaging?’
It was always a given: the demons will always go for the crystals once they sensed its location.
Of their reasons for existing in this world; aside from corrupting every intelligent beings of this universe to embrace the darkness folds, Mefisto also hungers over the memories contained inside the crystals —it pertains to the [Spell] the crystals are made to channel.
“But to actually proceed with his King Test…” He couldn’t help voicing this out as he looked over at Maki, “Yo… tell me, who’s that guy’s father? Why are you guys so attached to Jeremiah’s throne?”
Considering that even the Council of Elders are ‘that way’ towards the Humans albeit secretly and in fact not as harsh as the other Terrans, it was actually a wonder as to why the Humans are still protective of the missing ‘status’ of the King of Jeremiah.
It’s as if they are protective of the King that all of the information regarding him was a taboo that no other souls are allowed to know of.
“This…” Maki was stumped for words, “I’m sorry, but the Queen has given me an absolute order to protect his identity at all costs.”
Siva looked at him with a discerning gaze. If Maki actually mentioned “The Queen” as a defense, it all also leads to the fact that Altair’s background is connected to the Nine Braves.
It means that, of the five men of the Nine Braves, one of them was his father, —is that it?
“Hmmmm….” Even the nosy cat is now intrigued by this wagging ‘flag’ of an insider story.
It should be noted that there are almost no info in the NET regarding the Humans, not to mention the supposed “Royal Family” of the Kingdom.
Who in Siva’s close circle are not aware that this personal quest of his had stolen all of the details and challenges of someone who should’ve been the one undertaking the so called [Grand Quest] of RPG: Terroa?
Actually, including those who are secretive about their clues that has a connection to the game’s Grand Quest, all of them are still just in the midst of the ‘qualifying’ quests and missions.
Even the [Excalibur Quest] of the Union of Six Federations of Dakar and [Knights of the Round Table Quest] and the [Emperor’s Legacy Quest] of the Blue Card Legion... are all just Preparatory Quests to be qualified to take the Grand Quest.
(AN: I’ve reiterated this before… The Union of Seven Nations = real world; Union of Six Feds = in-game counterpart, the 7th federation, due to spoiler alerts, will only be mentioned up to here)
In short, even without the actual trigger for taking up the [Grand Quest] of the game, Siva was now, indeed, undertaking its challenges —of what the players have been going crazy to and have been wanting to steal away from him. This is one detail that is in fact part of the Grand Quest.
“Is it one of the nine braves?” Siva asked himself and actually felt afraid for some reason.
[Boss, according to my records, your thoughts are enough to generate a flag of an event.]
‘Is it from the novels and games you’ve scanned?’
[Yes sir.]
‘…’
Although Siva was tempted to command Cortana to erase them, he knew himself that without the actual fact of her informing him of a flag, he will be unable to think of ways to either counter or even perhaps expect the worst parts of it.
‘Tell me frankly, how many situational simulations have you conducted ever since I allowed you to use the hypermedia elements as variables to my progress?’
[Around 4,080,568,934,566 simulations, sir, and I am still conducting the 339,623,589th situational simulation for the current data in terms of all the elements and events in your VR-Environment.]
‘Four trillion possible situational events just for all written and multimedia resources as variables..’
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Siva mentally swallowed.
If there are that many variables, then it can only be said that his goal to save Baron was as risky as one trying to traverse a wire above an active volcano… and he’d actually reached this point in his progress without actually falling into the pit.
Given Cortana’s deductive capabilities, he could even tell that that number is not even half of the possible scenarios that might happen.
The fact that she was able to create a “script” in his first meeting with the Humans was already a large boon so he felt really thankful.
‘Cortana, based on the information given by Maki so far pertaining to Altair, what’s the chance that Altair is somehow related to saving Baron?’
[I have three scenarios… first, he’s going to be a hindrance is 9.27%; second, being a supporting variable is at 64.19%; third, as a neutral variable, the chances are 26.54%]
‘Him being a supporting variable is that high?’
Siva had doubts.
With the kind of brain Altair has, how is it that his chances of being a help to him is this high?
[Variability has 22% of inaccuracy, sir.]
‘That’s still too low. Meaning, it’s almost certain he is going to be a helpful variable in this matter.’
[Yes sir.]
‘Why?’
[The inaccuracy variable is based on the fact that the boss is connected to Janus.]
Cortana had ‘seen’ Siva’s memories and she had that enough data to use for her simulations.
[Honestly, though, sir… is it really that important to know who Altair’s father is?]
‘…’
[I can read your thoughts, sir, and there is a 50% chance that he’s your virtual brother. I included that variable on the simulations as well.]
Siva, ‘!@&#^$%*!($)’
—the disadvantages of someone being able to read your mind.
He could only lament this fact.
Of course Cortana saw what kind of men the five men in the Nine Braves are from his memories of the event. Of the five, there are only two of them who are both a nutcase and a bastard enough to actually dare do that to that Iron Lady, Lunette.
(AN: iron lady = someone who doesn’t have any experience dealing with men and the ‘things’ that are related to them… Pick-Up Masters know this term, ehem…)
He wasn’t close to them and Siva’s memories of the Nine Braves were vague so he didn’t actually get to know who they really are aside from their impressions on him.
So that’s why the chances of Altair being of help was that high; Cortana actually already used that one wagging flag at the back of his mind earlier as a variable to the computation.
Maki remained quiet, not showing any changes on his expression.
‘Lunette is indeed his mother. But his father… to be this crazy is just not the qualities he could get from Lunette Astarte. I’m positive that this gene actually came from his father.’
For some reason, the foreboding premonition he had about Altair became stronger in his heart.
He got a weird feeling about his identity.
Siva could at least remember that within the nine braves during the war, Lunette was a cold and a seemingly ‘stiff’ kind of woman who only knew of three things: first is how to swing her sword; the second is how to lead her military personnel; and third is how to properly be a Knight.
(AN: This is all part of my “The Princess” novel but I am not throwing a ticket for you to read it. I actually posted that novel first before “Siva” with a gap of around a year in between the two, just so you guys know a few things about the history of my story)
She wasn’t the kind of woman that actually allows a man to touch as much as her fingernail —not to mention actually impregnating her— and let that same man not take all of the responsibility for it.
No.
As far as his impressions go, Lunette would have dragged him by the collar in front of the General and then force a military wedding on him. If he do not comply, she would have cut his pen** and then killed herself from the humiliation —if not killing the man on-site upon the deed.
She was that kind of woman.
Thus, Siva had a weird premonition that for some reason or another, Altair and him, Rex Kingsley, is connected.
‘One thing is for sure, I ain’t his dad.’ That, Siva was 100% sure of.
[I can attest to that, sir.]
‘SHUT UP.’
He only briefly, vaguely, knew those ‘kids’ in that war, and Lunette and him never even conversed for more than a few sentences away from all war topics.
Still… as weird as the notion was, Siva still got a bright wagging flag in his heart as soon as he asked that question: who is Altair’s father?
Why he even actually asked that is because of their vague connections with Janus.
Maki wasn’t aware that he was part of that war 56 years ago because firstly, he was far too far for a comparison to the [Siva] that had the strength to flip mountains with a flick of his finger. Secondly, back then, [Siva] is an absolute tyrant and a cold blooded, mass murderer of the Gods —if not a mentally unstable battlefield-monger.
He was the catalyst for Ragnarok!
Yes, he was the key figure that ended the War of the Braves, but that was an information only the actual nine braves back then are aware of. They were the only ones who saw how [Siva] actually looked like... for ever since he can remember, he always liked wearing masks.
Maki wasn’t even there when the war had official ended and had been repairing himself in the SS-Odyssey even until the very last moment.
And so, Siva couldn’t even get an ounce of even the smallest clue to an answer from Maki.
“Whatever.” Siva shook his head, he could ‘see’ that there are a few groups of people fighting in a few places in the city, chasing something that floats in midair, with some even flipping trashbins and signposts in search for other ‘marks’ such as the one on his palm. “I don’t wanna be embroiled in this madness.”
When he declared, he gave the ‘mark’ to Galatea.
“If you become the queen, then you can protect the Humans better.” The reason why Siva gave it to her is because Maki was a known existence to some of the members of The Alliance.
Maki, being a King Candidate, would garner few unwanted attention, even malicious scheming.
She, however, was not a publicly known figure.
Galatea was an existence only the higher ups of the Humans Race are aware of. Not even Gats, as the highest ranking “Human” in the game, are qualified to know of her yet.
She was stunned for a moment then gave him a courteous and elegant curtsy.
“I shall do my best.” Her overly feminine voice stirred the hearts of the men and they felt a very warm shiver below their navels… especially when they recalled how Gaia… e-eherm…
Siva didn’t reply and only addressed them, “We are here to act as protection to Scion. We protect the city, we protect her. The jobs we agreed to in Pistareen’s behalf are all secondary.”
Gaia felt his eyes on him and she gave a light nod to agree whatever he had planned. She was wearing a half-moon mask the same as Scion’s.
He looked up and studied the boiling clouds and frowned, “Baal is preparing to attack. The first strike is going to be a Plasma Burst and will reduce the integrity of the barrier dome by more than half, while the next attack has a likelihood of being a physical attack using that spear. If so, then that will be our chance to deal damage to it.”
Everyone gulped down their escaping bravery.
Just a sheer estimate of Baal’s size already gave them an impression of it being bigger than the already large-sized True Dragon Labrador back in Alexandria.
Ever since they became part of Siva’s entourage, they’ve been playing the game in a roller coaster ride of both emotions and action.
Not one bit is boring. In fact, even in the real world, they still can’t believe that he was being a victim of an underground organization that does not fear the Police Authority.
Mafia?
They only wished.
At least the Mafia can still be dealt with unlike the darker, more sinister organizations that actually held the real power behind the so called ‘powers’ of the real world.
Still, it’s not as if being with Siva doesn’t have any benefits. Being with him, they can at least see a side of the world they can’t imagine with just their normal way of living.
He had a purpose: a real, tangible, and true path, a purpose to the hypocritical and the hypothetical pursuit of strength and power.
Just looking at him alone could inspire all these ‘normal people’ and even give them the feeling of looking at a main character of some novel and perhaps, even of a movie.
His life was full of drama.
In-game, all of them had already benefited from the Dragon Blood baptism.
Volt, Thorn, Gaia, Scion, FlowerLord, Kathleen, Loni, Samara, Agatha, Cramer, Hawkeye, as even Eleanor, Fuma, the remaining acolytes, Eleanor’s four escorts, Marshal D’Catch… practically all of Siva’s personal circle have been baptized in the Dragon Blood and now had a body similar to his.
All of them now have quasi-Immortal bodies.
They are officially the strongest players existing in the game.
“If you survive, then you prove your strength. If you fall and can come back using the Insurance System, then restart your career and choose the Asgard as your starting city. I will teach you how to get a Unique Ability.”
FlowerLord snorted after hearing this. If she so choose it, she can get rich by selling this info to Info Brokers on the NET.
And yet now, Siva was using it as a leverage to pull in these people… permanently.
She looked at him in disdain but Siva ignored it.
This “encouragement” sparkled interest to all of the players. Eleanor and the escorts have long since ignored these ‘random’ nonsense from the players, aside perhaps for Gaia who had a very profound look on her face.
She met Siva’s gaze and she instinctively pulled down her head in submission.
They both knew she knows of the “truth” and it was a secret that must never be told to anybody aside from those who had the right and are also qualified to know.
“So that’s why you made us leave all of our most important Items in our quarters in the Asgard and only made us bring our weapons and few items.”
Thorn had a look of realization.
“Yes I did.” Siva said. “I understand the hardship of gathering materials and slowly building up your strength from scratch so since you’re helping me protect the Asgard, I will also protect your stuffs as part of the deal and just like I said earlier, if you guys fall here, just use the code that I have provided you and come back to Terroa as a new player to restart your career.”
Volt laughed lightly, “I doubt it though. With these power-ups you gave us, aside perhaps for those Supreme Demon Commanders, I bet there’s no other force that can even injure us.”
“Don’t forget about the local citizens.” Siva said, referring to the NPCs like Eleanor. “They have spells and abilities that go beyond our threshold of durability and endurance.”
“You mean those [Arts] and [Forms]?” asked the one who was rationally close to Siva’s thinking and mindset, Heller.
Siva agreed, “Yes. So it’s better to not misjudge our enemies since if lose just one of you, our entirety of our defensive strength drops by a very large margin.”
Having heard this stern warning, everyone gave a nod without anyone grinning.
*****
Only a few minutes passed since they arrived in Jeremiah and on their way towards the HQ of the Enchantment Temple, they’ve met a lot of groups that was after the glowing ‘mark’ of qualifications on Galatea’s possession.
Unfortunately for them, not one wasn’t rendered unconscious by the green-haired Maki.
He was like a violent storm that broke the speed limits any ‘normal’ person physically has. He did not even bother hiding it, thus rallying attention.
In turn, all groups that went after their entourage had a general level of strength that matched one of Siva’s BM-Puppets in full violence mode.
—still, they were all trashed by Maki and the rest.
Also, with Siva’s [Passive Scan] and the group’s own vigilance, they managed to find in two more ‘marks’ from groups who were fighting over it.
In fact, as doubtful as it may seem, not one of their group had the interest of becoming the next King of Jeremiah.
Even Galatea and Volt being ‘competitors’ wasn’t a big deal to them since Volt was doing it as part of Siva’s compensation —a selfless sacrifice of sorts— while Galatea was doing it for her race but wasn’t as much inclined over it.
When Volt was given another one by Siva from the ones he snatched using the BM-Puppets, it was now a task to help Galatea gather four more.
“Open the gates.” Siva commanded and they went in to the main building of the Enchantment Temple.
On the front door were Pistareen and a tall, sexy woman wearing the white-themed uniform of the Knight Order of the Wall of Jeremiah.
“You’re finally here!” Pistareen didn’t even notice the existence of Gaia behind Siva who gave him a slight nod of confirmation which made the man noticed that something profoundly big happened to Siva while he was gone.
—is it because it seemed he was taller than me or something?
Pistareen could only inwardly wonder. Before, he could still pull a few strings from Siva’s heart, but now, it seemed that his defenses are stronger. A forgotten era’s Mage like him could tell it with his bountiful experience.
“Hm. The city’s in chaos now.” Siva replied.
Pistareen sighed, “Altair… he really did caused a mess of a grander scale this time. Of all the time he would pull a prank, he just had to choose this time where the city is in danger.”
“That’s not even the worst part.” Siva said and he gave him another inquiring nod, “Any update to what I’ve commission you for?”
Pistareen cleared his throat, “So far, we already cast the search spell in all of the cities in Zenturo and the South and there are no signs of him in any of the cities there that has our temples. Right now, we are still scanning the Western Continent while a team was already sent to investigate in The North and the Eastern Continent countries.”
Siva seemed to notice the thing about The North.
“Tiara only has five major cities and a few small towns on remote and strategic places, why is it that it takes a lot of time to investigate the place?”
Pistareen sighed, “Long story short, it seems that the activities of the Blue Card Legion was not at least bit been impeded in Alexandria. Just a few hours ago, another attack was made in Paneme that they took responsibility for. It was the reason why we can’t contact our branches in The North, especially in Paneme, a lot sooner.”
The Walled Cities in The North are massive and larger in scale than those in the rest of the world.
Just one city alone has five or six branches. If they can’t scan at least one of those areas, there will be a large hole on Siva’s worries and it was a large enough problem to drive him mad in worry.
Scion put her hand at Siva’s back, soothing him.
He paused for a few seconds. They’ve heard from D’Catch that The Legion’s [Quest] had a lot to do with the cities in The North. Redeye and Zaza also sang about their guild’s plans and it’s been confirmed that the attacks in The North was meant as a distraction to their true goal which is to investigate the ‘spires’ buried in those cities.
‘Gabriel knew about it… he mentioned something about him guarding something sinister sealed in those snowy lands in The North. He also said he was watching if they will bear on his instructions or revive that sinister being.’
As those were part of Gabriel’s ‘Test’, nobody is allowed to interfere with it.
Moreover, Janus’s [Instructions] also included in that group’s goal so their activities were justified to be a part of the bigger scale that he planned for Terroa… it was their [Quest].
‘The North…’ he had a feeling that Baron wasn’t in Tiara anymore but he still felt that there were things that he still had to do in The North.
No.
Rather than calling it a feeling of responsibility, it was more akin to a feeling of “connection”.
‘Right. I feel like I still have a loose end hiding in the lands of The North that I haven’t closed.’
Ever since Siva had gotten Cortana, he had long since made her ‘record’ everything that he sees or experience and save them in her archive to be used as references for connected instances.
As such, the source of this feeling of ‘loose end’ that he was having: it was actually connected to what Gabriel was trying to protect, as well as the decoding algorithms and the information installed in the “laptop” that they confiscated from Redeye and Zaza.
“Why don’t we go in—eh? EHHHH?!!!“
Pistareen’s attention had never departed from Siva until he motioned to the rest of his group and landed his gaze at Gaia.
She was only wearing a half-moon mask so it was impossible for him to not recognize her… most especially her large ehem.
He fell on his knees in an instant and made a loud and overly energetic greeting.
“Your Eminence, Oracle, please forgive this lowly one for not noticing your presence immediately!”
Gaia switched her character to ‘normal’ and didn’t speak in her ethereal angelic voice layered with Mana.
“Stand up, Pistareen. It’s been a hundred years, if I’m not mistaken.”
“It’s already been a hundred and thirty that Your Eminence’s gracefulness and sacredness had last been seen by this lowly Mage.”
“Hoho… you’re too modest. Please stand. I am really not worthy of your reverence when we are in front of someone more exalted than I am.”
She eyed Siva with an apologetic gaze and when Pistareen saw this, he felt that there was a mess so big that he had failed to notice it.
“Let’s go inside.” Siva said and did not even let the girl with Pistareen speak a word.
With Siva in the lead, they entered the Mansion and went straight to the VIP Conference Room.
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It was a very long chapter…
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Next Chapter: Another long chapter.
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