Happiness, what is that? *checks dictionary* "happiness, the state of being happy."
Well, that didn't help. *checks happy*
: feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation, etc.
: showing or causing feelings of pleasure and enjoyment
: pleased or glad about a particular situation, event, etc.
Is gleefully massacring your enemies not happiness? Okay, I just revealed my twisted self.
Well, not sure if Cavaron will ever be happy. I was even planning on having another champion kill him by destroying his soul... then again, it's too bothersome to give birth to another child with insta-kill capabilities.
We'll see how the story goes.
Also, FIRST-PERSON POV FOR FLASHBACKS, AND HELLO FOUL LANGUAGE!
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"Welcome, champion, to Regasol! The human capital of Edeortha!"
An old man appeared before me wearing royal vestments. It appears that he is responsible for my summoning this time. Feh, I wonder what kind of hell hole awaits me in this world.
I seem to be standing on the remnants of a mana ritual. Hmm... I'll at least give them credit for not using sacrifices, I hate those kinds of buffoons. Anyway, looks like I'm in this guy's castle, judging from the pillars, decorations, and the large number of guards in the area.
I look at the king, probably the king judging from his attire, with an indifferent face. He seems intimidated by my silence, and the fact that I'm looking straight into his eyes.
"Er, champion. May we have the honor of knowing your identity?" the old man asks me. I wonder if I should even answer, over 700 years of the same shit happening again and again makes you desensitized to everybody you meet... or that's just probably me.
"Cavaron." I just answer with my name. Too bothersome to say anything else.
The old man seems taken aback, looks like this is his first time meeting someone like me. Hm? A heavily armored man is approaching.
"I don't care if you're a champion or whatever!" he shouts while pointing a drawn sword at me, "Give respect to his Imperial Majesty, Emperor Aldric Asonar!" Gods, these little shits are everywhere.
Nn? The old man, Aldric is coming forward. "Hold, General Adir. The respect of men with great power has to be earned." He says to the idiot... general? That moron's a general? Huh? Now, Aldric's looking at me. He's analyzing me. This should be interesting.
Aldric turns to my direction and approaches me, "Sir Cavaron, as my dear general said, I am Aldric Asonar, the Sun Emperor. We have summoned you to aid us in our war against the Sky and the Earth." he said with open arms. Sun, Sky, and Earth? I should find out more.
Tilting my head a bit and crossing my arms I spoke to Aldric, "Alright. But first, I need information. All the information you can give me about this world. It should be beneficial to the both of us if I know the ins and outs of... Edeortha, right? Yeah, all the information you can give me." Aldric nodded as he listened to my request and turned to face another old man wearing some sort of cloak with golden designs on it. Must be an aide or a minister.
"Please give Sir Cavaron all that he needs." With a short sentence, his aide or minister immediately left the area. Aldric returns to me afterwards, "Sir Cavaron, since this is just your first day, I suggest we escort you to your room first so you may rest. Is that fine?"
Rest, huh? Damned thing's a luxury to me. I nod to accept the offer and follow a servant who will lead me to my room.
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Leaving the area where I was summoned, I arrived at a courtyard. A massive courtyard, enough to fit two legions of a thousand soldiers each. I guess I really am in an empire, these things are the only ones that are twice or thrice as lavish as ordinary kingdoms. Hm? Looks like that huge building to the left is the keep since the servant escorting me is headed to it. By the way, this servant's a young girl, a cute one, too.
We enter the massive keep, it looks around three or four storeys high and covers an area of around 3000 square meters enclosed by four-meter thick and 16-meter high stone walls. I guess they carved an entire mountain to build this castle. The walls also have twelve 24-meter high round towers and have alternating positions of ballistae and mangonels. For those who don't know, a ballista is a massive siege crossbow, and a mangonel is similar to a catapult that showers an area with rocks and stones. The keep, by the way, looks like one of those medieval castles from Terran worlds.
Anyway, the servant leads me inside. The first floor is the grand hall. It has lavish and expensive looking chandeliers dotting the ceilings, there are stairs to the second floor on the left and another that may lead to the lower floors on the right. The stairs to the right is guarded, must be the dungeon. Aside from the chandeliers and guards, the walls are field to the brim with portraits of people and landscapes. Directly across the entrance of the keep is a huge door as high as 10 meters and as wide as 7 meters. There are two guards posted on either side so it's safe to assume that it leads to the throne room.
The servant leads me to the left staircase on the way to the second floor. The second floor is different from the open space of the first floor. Up here, its architecture is simplified to blocks of two doors each. I'm curious about this floor so I ask the servant since she was about to turn to the next set of stairs.
"Hey, what's on this floor?" She turns to face me to respond to my question, "This floor is reserved for the servants and ministers." and just answers succinctly. What? Not ordered to attend to my inquiries? Fine, I'll just snoop around on my own. Well, I plan to do so if the information they give me is lacking. Empires have a lot of dark things to hide based from my past experiences.
After answering my question, she resumes to lead me up to the third floor. The next floor has wider corridors and smaller rooms. Individual rooms, possibly for guests or important people. The servant leads me to the third room on the right and opens the door. I enter the room and she bows to me before leaving. I don't bother with her anymore since her kind is troublesome. All work, no play makes all of them dull to be with. Eh, well. I close the door and take in the sights of what the room has to offer.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
From the door, the bed is right across to the wall next to the window. Hey, a window room, should be easy to sneak in and out provided there are no hindrances. I look around and find a closet and a mirror to my right, and a map to my left. The map has the name of Edeortha and its a super continent if the measurements of the map are correct, over a hundred and fifty million square kilometers, what the fuck!? This place is huge! I am just standing here staring agape at the revelation of this world's super continent.
Finally having the time to tear my gaze away from the map, I find a table and a single chair beside the bed, and head towards the bed to lie down. Nothing else to do but wait for the information I requested from the old man. Speaking of waiting, I should release a Mana Pulse to see the approximate population of this place. Gathering mana into a ball inside my body, I let it explode and spread across all directions. Ten, twenty five, seventy, a hundred and ninety, four hundred five... Woah, that's a whoozy, over fifteen thousand people within a one kilometer radius from me. Not sure if they're all soldiers or if there are some others in here. I really should figure out a way to identify their locations like the Terrain Radar technology, those guys really have nifty and useful inventions.
Since I have nothing to do but wait, I decide to receive the luxury given to me and sleep.
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I wake up to a knock on my door, "Sir Cavaron, we have the information you need." I get up from the bed to open the door. The old man who was ordered by Aldric greets me, "Good evening, Sir Cavaron. I have a cart of books and records that may satisfy your request. If you need more information than what I have provided, feel free to go to the Imperial Library. It is on the first floor, across the entrance of the keep."
So that huge door wasn't the entrance to the throne room but the library? They seem to put priority in the dissemination of knowledge. I might like this place. Anyway, I receive the cart of books... That's a lot of books, around seventy if I counted correctly at first glance. There are also boxes of scrolls stuck in between the others. I thank the old man and proceed to absorb all of the information within.
Six hours of skimming and scanning, I have only finished twenty out of seventy books. I haven't even taken a look at the scrolls yet. Goddamn, these books are thick. I may need to have a day or two to read all of them. Anyhow, I take a break from reading since it has gotten dark. My eyesight is good if I use Mana Sight, but I don't want to make a habit out of it. Standing up to stretch my body, I head towards the window to see the night life of Regasol.
*whistle* Regasol is huge. Just what you should expect from an empire. This keep where I'm in is on top of a carved out mountain terrace and, looking down, I could see zigzagging pathways that lead to the city. The city of Regasol sits right in the middle of a vast valley. I'm not sure about the size, but from the books that I have read, Regasol is home to 18 million humans. I say humans because there were also books that mentioned angels and demons, and that they are enemies of the human race. To be honest, this is the first time I've had angels as enemies, not surprised about the demons, though. Wow, there are even buildings and residences built on the valley faces. Now I'm curious if they have underground labyrinths and establishments. A city having to house 18 million people is no small feat to achieve, I mean, where will you put everybody?
Huh? Is that Aldric? What's he doing out so late? Hmm... I want to follow, but someone might come for me when I'm out. *knock* *knock* Ah, hell. No choice.
"Sir Cavaron, it is time for dinner." A girl's voice comes from behind the door.It's different from the servant girl who escorted me. I leave the window and head to the door to open it. The servant girl greets me and motions to follow her. Brown hair tied to a knot with glasses, if it was me from before, I would have eaten her instead but now, these kinds of pleasures are beyond boring for me. I'd rather fight with my life on the line killing enemies left and right. The thrill you get from risking your life is elating.
I leave my room and follow her to probably the dining hall. Instead of going down, we go up to the fourth floor. Whoever made this keep is weird, having your guests climb up floors just to eat. Well, whatever. Stepping onto the fourth floor, I was greeted by a lavish hall filled with gold and silver. There was a long table in the middle that seats forty people and two shorter tables on either side that seats twenty people each. Aldric, who should be down below, is right in front of me. What the actual fuck? Is it a twin or a double? Anyway, the old man spots me and motions me to sit across him. He was seated at the middle of the long table on my right, so I take the seat on my left. There were servants around us and a glaring lack of guards. Is he confident, or are these servants themselves the guards? Analyzing a nearby servant proves my suspicion, there are swords and small weapons beneath their clothes. Trustworthy, huh. Should be so if they are united against angels and demons.
Having taken a seat, servants appeared from an entrance on the other end of the hall carrying food and drinks. They placed the food in between Aldric and I as well as some other food next to us within an arm's reach. Having placed everything, the servants returned to the room they came from.
Aldric clasps his hands together and looks at me, "So, Sir Cavaron. How's life?"
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I dropped the "<" and ">" symbols. It kills my momentum.