Chapter 31 | Jeromy 1

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“Lord Harris and the court, I present to you Sir Jeromy of House Powle, Captain of the Seutarian Mercenary Guild, and Hero of Viennera,” the steward announced to the court.

Being led by one of the stewards in the Guild Hall of Viennera, Jeromy came into the grand courtroom. This room was designed to seat the lords and judges of the city on an elevated bench with a huge space for the gallery. The majority of those of such importance was absent for this meeting. The only people in this windowless room were Jeromy, Merchant Lord Harris, and two other high-ranking Association officials.

Jeromy noticed when the steward closed the doors that he placed a continuous spell that surrounded the room called Zero Sensory. It was a spell to prevent any spying by blocking all signals whether magical, physical, or supernatural from leaving the room. Anyone who wanted to peek inside would be faced with this spell and the guards outside.

“Sir Jeromy, I must apologize in advance. Whatever we discuss here mustn’t be learned by the Imperials,” Lord Harris said in his deep and commanding voice. He certainly looked like the last person anyone would expect to be involved in politics. He looked like a suburban dad with small stature, not someone who could command the room with his voice as he just did.

“I understand, My Lord,” Jeromy bowed to the three sitting above him.

“I have a commission received from King Nyoug to subjugate a Dungeon Master. A dragon named Ventra. I’m sure you’ve heard of him before,” the Merchant Lord explained.

Jeromy was taken aback by the request, “I don’t believe there is a freelancer alive who hasn’t, My Lord. Although I’m gracious that you think highly of my abilities, no human alive can defeat Ventra.”

“Whether you complete this commission or not is irrelevant but I want you to use this as a pretext to go to Emered to have an audience with the king. There’s something I require from you when meeting him.”

“As you will, My Lord.”

After the meeting with the lords concluded, Jeromy made his way out the hall when he bumped into someone leaning against the door. The elven woman was slightly shorter than himself with lush silver hair and dark green eyes.

She was stunned by his sudden appearance but recomposed herself quickly while hiding her embarrassment. Because of the spell, of course, she couldn’t hear his footsteps or even feel his hand on the door handle.

“So…Jeromy,” she spoke while dismissing that ungraceful display earlier. “What did Lord Harris have to say?”

“Nothing important. Just that we’ve been commissioned to fight Ventra,” Jeromy said in a carefree tone.

“Ventra?” Her eyes grew wide from surprise. “Do you believe we have a chance against an ancient dragon?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never tried,” Jeromy smiled and spoke again in his carefree tone.

The elven woman was getting annoyed but spoke plainly, “If you cannot defeat Ventra, there is no one on Theia who could. There is no one alive who faced Ventra and survived.”

“Perhaps. But, in any case, we’re going to need more men,” Jeromy began to walk away but she stood in front of him, blocking his path.

“Did you not hear what I had told you? No one survives. Not even with someone as powerful as you, we cannot win this.” Pass her usual stoic expression, she was concerned.

“…You can trust me on this. Selina, when have I ever steered you wrong?”

“Must I answer such an obvious question? Many times!” He laughed at her response which made her pout her lips.

“Don’t worry about it. Everything is going to be fine. It always does for us,” Jeromy grasped her hands and stared into her bright eyes as the setting sun shined on them through the window. Selina looked away and brushed him away with a difficult expression on her face. He was teasing her again.

“I wish you will tell me the things you know,” Selina turned away. “But I trust you.”

As Selina walked away ahead of him, Jeromy knew what she meant. The line has been drawn. But there were things about this world that couldn’t be said lightly, even to those close to you.

“Relationship trouble?” A voice appeared directly behind him. Jeromy jumped slightly by the scare and faced the person with his sword halfway up his sheath when he saw who it was. It was a child, a pre-adolescent, with green eyes and short brown hair.

“JACK! How many times do I have to say not to do that?! I could’ve hurt you!” Jeromy scolded the child. This wasn’t the first time and if he didn’t know any better, he could’ve drawn his sword on reflex and sliced him.

“Yeah! But you didn’t~! Geez, it was a joke!” Jack caught himself acting childish as he was whining and abruptly changed into a more serious demeanor. “You didn’t tell Selina yet about the Guardians?”

“…She knows but not the exact nature of the threat we face,” Jeromy said.

“Then you can tell her. She’s already too involved for her to disassociate from you.”

Jeromy refuted, “The Guardians have killed anyone they believe was directly involved with our operations through their Inquisitors. If she knows the full truth, she’ll be in greater danger.”

“Everything’s relative, Sir Jeromy. If they do find your involvement with the Phoenix, does it matter if she doesn’t know? Guilt by association. Any probable cause and she will be hunted along with you.”

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“That’s really grim. Where is this coming from, Jack? You said the Guardians couldn’t find us.”

“That was the case but something has changed. The Network settings have changed recently.”

“What?!” Jeromy exclaimed but lucky, no one was around to hear it.

“The Guardians have likely noticed the Phoenix’s presence. Fewer and fewer reincarnated people have been persecuted so they must’ve figured out a large group like ours was operating in Theia. We knew something like this would happen eventually. I’ve already told Elise to relay the message. Don’t use the Network more than necessary. The Guardians might still be able to track us even if we are using a proxy.”

“I understand.”

“Here, in case you need it,” Jack continued and handed Jeromy an enchanted monocle.

The circular piece of glass had a small bump on the frame for a handle which was an unnatural design because there was usually a loop for a chain. It was unremarkable and cheaply made with plastic and a thin black coat of paint.

“As for your mission to Emered, Nolan wants you to pick an artifact up for him. As such the nature of this mission, we can loan you fifty men.”

“Fifty men? That’s quite generous coming from Nolan.”

“He doesn’t want to leave this mission up to chance. Whatever happens, you must come back with the motherboard intact.” Jeromy nodded to Jack. “And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of your prophecy.”

“Just one word: Ventra. The gods do like to be vague. I thought Nolan wasn’t superstitious?”

“It’s not that he isn’t. He just had doubts about the girl who gave you that prophecy. You see, back on Earth, the White Knight was a man. You have to be careful when dealing with such godly words or they might lead you to ruin. His need for a motherboard in the elven territories and with you receiving a commission about Ventra is too much of a coincidence.”

They looked at each other with a seriousness that reflected the importance of this moment. A prophesized event was about to take place. He couldn’t hide this from Selina any longer.

With that, the child disappeared the next time Jeromy turned his head. Jack must’ve thought he was really clever with that trick but Jeromy saw through it the first time he saw it and didn’t want to ruin his excitement. Jeromy wasn’t a reincarnated person but he was one of many natives of this world to be in the Phoenix.

The Phoenix was established by Nolan to be an organization to protect the reincarnated. The threats they faced so far, the Church and the Empire, were poultry when compared to the Guardians. They were the New Gods of this world. Their word was the law on Theia, even if no one has ever heard of them.

As the New Gods, they ordered the Church to exterminate all reincarnated people on sight. They marked them as devils and demons, the evils of humanity reincarnated. They swayed nations and directed history with divine interventions. And so, a conflict between the Guardians and the Phoenix was an inevitability.

However, the upcoming conflict wasn’t the normal skirmishes between the reincarnated and the forces of the Church. To threaten the Guardians themselves was to know the Truths of this world and disrupt the system they created, also known as the Network. For that, Old-World artifacts and other forms of spiritual magic were employed.

Only trusted members of the Phoenix knew of the Guardians and even fewer knew of the Truths. They had to be very careful who to tell the Truths to lest they become insane and suicidal. To know the Truths was to fight against the Guardians and their systems and to stay ignorant was to be a subject to the system. In no other time in human history has this statement could be so literal in meaning.

Fifty men from the Phoenix Militia would arrive in Riverside to rendezvous with Jeromy’s forces before heading into the Elven Forest towards Emered. He only had thirty men with him in Viennera but they were among the best mages in the world. Jeromy didn’t expect those reinforcing him would be as skilled but battles between casters were a numbers game.

A battle between mages was usually decided between the number of mages on one side and the other. Because no matter what, the force of a spell was proportional to the amount of mana output. No matter how skilled a caster was, the brute force option was ideal for head to head battles. Fifty moderately-skilled casters could easily tip the balance of mana in their favor.

***

At the tavern of the Vienneran Association Guild House, Selina was going through a few documents when Jeromy arrived and took his seat across from her. The place was bustling with the activities of patrons. Over the noise, he doubted they’d be overheard.

“How’s the hunt?” He asked as she sipped his beer.

Selina continued her work as she spoke, “There was no shortage of applicants but I am having difficulty in finding a suitable choice. Many of these mercenaries are qualified so you will have to review them so we can set times for interviews.”

Jeromy paused for a moment because he wanted to ask a difficult question. There was no way to bring this topic up without feeling awkward about it. “Selina, have you given any thought to learning the Truths?”

She was caught off guard by the question but only glanced up at him for a moment from the papers, “Where is this coming from?”

“You said you wanted to know more about what I’m hiding from you. This is the way.”

“Many people, even the reincarnated, died after knowing the Truths. Do you want me to become suicidal?” She asked casually.

“But hey, I know the Truths and I’m fine.”

“Thank you for the reassurance,” she said sarcastically. “But I have seen men dabble in the Truths by looking into the monocle. It never ends well. Jack gave you the monocle, correct?”

“…No,” Jeromy lied blatantly, despite knowing about Selina’s elven empathetic abilities.

She sighed at his teasing, “I am being serious. Do not force that monocle on me.”

“Okay. Okay.”

“You can just tell me what it is, Jeromy. You do not need a monocle to tell me.”

“That’s the problem,” he said under his breath but Selina heard that with her hearing. “Better if we take this conversation upstairs.”

They both cleaned up their table and took their dinners upstairs to their room. They had a single room together with two beds and a few furnishes and a stool. Jeromy closed the wooden and rickety door and casted the sound blocking spell. It was similar to the one placed by the steward and enveloped the whole room so no one outside could peep on them.

Selina and Jeromy sat across from each other on their respective beds. Jeromy pulled out the monocle and revealed it to her.

“The reason why I wanted you to look through the monocle is that there are some things in this world that you can’t see or hear without looking through it. That is what it means to know the truth of this world. This morning, Lord Harris didn’t want me to go to Grethenia just to subjugate a legendary dragon, he tasked me to form an alliance with them and to use me as their diplomat.”

Selina took his words to heart and knew that it was true. She knew the consequence of this Association action if ever discovered: war.

“As someone who knows the royal family, who better? But that’s not what I’m worried about. Jack told me that the Guardians are making moves and we might need to confront them soon. And if Nolan said is true about their interest in the artifacts, this mission might get dangerous.”

“He tasked you to retrieve another artifact for him?”

“Yes. But I have a feeling this expedition will be no ordinary commission by any metric we have gone through so far.”

“I understand but you are still not telling me everything.”

“That’s all I can tell you right now.”

“What do you mean? You can tell me. Please share your burden with me,” Selina said those embarrassing words easily while not understanding their affect on Jeromy. It was common enough for him to brush it off.

“We can’t if you don’t look through the monocle. We physically can’t. We cannot talk about anything about the Guardians beyond speculation.”

“Speculation? How can we possibly know what is speculation and what is not?”

“You don’t, Selina. But I do.”

Selina remembered a conversation they had before about this but vaguely, “…Forgetting about forgetting, huh? Have we had this conversation before?”

“Yes. That’s why Nolan has given permission and has long done a background check on you and your family. He hasn’t found any irregularities.”

Selina looked at the monocle and carefully lifted it from Jeromy’s palm.

“It’s your choice.”