Disclaimer:
This chapter is actually a bit forward in the future. It’s only four or five days ahead so it’s not much. I’m just putting this now as a transmission so the story would flow better. Also, it may spoil some things that may happen, but I think it’s a good transition from arc 1 to 2.
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Intermission
[In the Dwarven Capitol of Dur’r]
“Forgive me your highness, the ritual was unsuccessful”
“Hmm…”
In a small chamber, a man was kneeling towards one of the most powerful figure in the continent. Orsed kaza’ald, king of the dwarven nation. This man alone has changed the dwarven kingdom from its bitter days. Under his rule, he has improved the national policy of the dwarves. Food supplies were at its highest and the civilians have been given the luxury that they’ve never had before. Military improvements were also made under his supervision.
The latest technological innovation, gunpowder. They’ve managed to make cannons for the past ten years with these, but they have not been able to make smaller and carry able versions of this weapons. The crossbows is still their sword while the dwarven pike wall is their shield. Discipline has also increased making the dwarves one of the most professional soldiers seen in any army. All of these were accomplished by this man, yet it wasn’t enough. They needed an important factor that can help them in the fight against the Devil kin. A hero, one who is summoned alongside the other three nations. Yet now, for some strange reason, they couldn’t do it.
“Hmm… are you sure the spell was correct?”
“Yes my liege. We’ve checked it over and over again. The runes shouldn’t be wrong… yet, we are not able to summon the hero. Also, a strange thing happens”
The king gave a curious gaze towards the mage.
“What strange thing?”
“Whenever we distribute our mana into the device, the runes would light. But then, as if there’s an overconsumption of mana, the magic cancels and the runes are destroyed”
Everyone in the room gave a confused look. It really was strange. In the king’s eyes, you could see that he knows something was wrong.
“How much mana are you putting into the runes?”
The man shook his head.
“Barely enough to power a fireball my lord”
Silence filled the room. Every man thought to themselves about the strange phenomenon. To not even consume enough power as a fireball, definitely something was wrong. In the midst of their thinking, the back door suddenly opened. There, a young girl entered the room.
“Iodi, you’re late”
A bewitching smile appeared from the girl’s face.
“Forgive me your majesty. I’ve stumbled upon some interesting things so I was rather focused for the time being”
Iodi Therfall, the highest known druid of the dwarven kingdom. She’s the leader of the newly created mage corps which now boast the strongest power in the kingdom. She has the highest affinity to nature magic and is known to be strict in training her soldiers. As for her mage corps, she is the only one known to be in the magicians rank. Everyone else are considered mages with high proficiency in many types of lower variant magic.
“Oh, then what exactly did you find?”
“I may have found the reason to your hero problem”
The king instantly raised an eyebrow and began to laugh.
“Alright then, if you may lady Iodi. Please tell us your findings”
“As you wish. I will warn you though that this is merely a theory of mine after finding out several things in the system”
“I will keep that in mind”
Everyone quieted down as their attention was focused on the young druid.
“As you all know, the hero summon is unique. No matter who uses the summoning spell, it will only work when the appropriate requirements are met. The first requirement, the goddess Arian must find our cause of using the spell worthy. Seeing as we’re doing this to fight the devil kin, I assume that our cause is worthy. Hence, we can scratch this off from our list”
She then pulled out a parchment from her robes. She then handed it over to the king.
“The next requirement, only four heroes can be summoned into this world. As the agreement in the pact between the four nations, only one hero summon for each nation. I have already received the messages from the other nations. As for the agreement, they have summoned their heroes. That’s why, the possibility of us summoning a hero is high so we also meet the requirements”
Everyone stared at the king whose face was confused at the parchment he was reading. The young girl smiled as she continued.
“The last requirement… actually, this is more like a rule”
She paused as she stared at all the officials and soldiers in the room.
“A hero can only be summoned, as long as a hero isn’t present already”
Murmurs began spreading throughout the room.
“Do you mean to say that the hero was already summoned without us knowing it?”
It was the commander in chief who spoke up. He seemed to be going through the parchment that the king was also going through.
“Yes… actually, it is best to assume that this is the most probable reason that our summon is not working”
The information settled into everyone’s mind. They never imagined that the hero could have already been summoned. Even the mage was surprised. In his mind, he was already beating himself over for forgetting the three rules in summoning a hero.
“Then, who can it be?”
“How can we find the hero in the kingdom?”
“This is troublesome…”
“ENOUGH”
The loud voice of the king boomed in the room. Everyone once again remained silent as the king continued to look at the parchment in front of him.
“Iodi, this household that you’ve listed here… do explain their role in your theory”
“Hai. Out of many of households in the world, I’ve memorized the majority of them. The Vistroux house, the Truman house, the Resparian house… I can keep going, but I’ve made my point. Each of these house has considerable amount of power, money and influence. Yet, this one household has had… very strange information about them”
She then began to draw in the air. Everyone knew she was invoking nature magic and it was an honor to see it happen before her eyes. Soon, two strange plantlike pillars appeared. In the middle, a blue screen could be seen. This was a spell that allows the user to access the worlds system, a database that has all the information for about every person in this world. There, they saw the information that concerns the Lowell household.
“If you look here, these are the only information I can find about this household”
Everyone stared at the screen. Nothing, there was virtually nothing to be seen. No dealings, no power struggle, nothing. Only three things popped out. The names of three girls.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Iridia Lowell, Rina Lowell and Ferizia Av Lowell. This is really strange. To only have these members in a household, furthermore… such occupations. How have we never heard of them before?”
Everyone sat there in a gaze. High tiered light magician, Holy crusader and another high tiered magician. These girls were an equivalent of a small army. To have not been known of until now. Everyone couldn’t help but be in a daze.
“What I would like to point out though is not that the information is strange. As I have said already, I have memorized the majority of the houses in this world. I have confidence that such a house was never seen before until now”
“How is that possible?! Normally, a household is created by the powers of a king. Are you saying that they’ve somehow had a king who gave them a household name?”
“It is possible seeing as they do hail from a human kingdom. But, in my inspection, there was no meeting with the human kings that could have led to a new household. That means that the system was manipulated”
“… this is getting interesting. What else can you say about the matter?”
The spell changed the screen. There, numbers could be seen on the panel.
“This was found in one of the banks near the dwarven city of Q’urrst”
At first, no one knew what they were looking for. That is until the head of the kingdoms finance pointed towards a single name.
“No way! How did they earn 1000 gold in a single day?”
Everyone looked towards the spot he was pointing at. Surrounded by other numbers, a surprising figure could be seen. Not only that, the deposit was the first time that money of any size was placed into that account. A rather strange occurrence. Everyone immediately began to think of foul play, including the head financer.
“I know how you all feel, but this was not foul play. These 1000 gold. After inquiring about them, they are not from our kingdom”
Everyone became silent and girl once again smiled.
“The gold is also not of any other kingdom or nation. In other words, it just appeared out of nowhere”
Everyone became stiff… for 1000 gold to appear out of nowhere. They couldn’t imagine how that happened. Yet, the king already knew what was happening. The theory that Iodi was showing him pointed to the fact that one of the three girls was the hero.
“Hmm… this is really interesting. But, I can’t say that it’s definite. If possible, we need to study this furthermore”
The girl bowed.
“I agree your majesty. That’s why I’ve already assigned several people to…”
“WHOA, what just happened?!”
Iodi was suddenly surprised at the head of finance. He was pointing towards the screen which seemed to have flickered for a moment. Iodi directed her gaze and gasped. Right before everyone’s eyes, the amount they saw before vanished. Instead, it followed the pattern of all other transactions. From deposits, to taxes and purchases. No longer did the figure appear in one single day. Now, it showed a constant deposit that led towards the extreme figure.
“Did… where you just faking the…”
“No, I wasn’t your liege. You have to understand, this magic is linked directly to the system. That means…”
“The information was changed. IODI, SWITCH IT TO THE MAIN SYSTEM DATABANK!”
Wasting no time, she already switched it back to the previous screen. There, a surprising amount of information met them. Early beginnings, to the deceased king of the Russian kingdom’s approval of the Lowell household, from small dealings to huge dealings. There was even a family line, alongside several hundred other names included with the first three. Everyone sat there in shock.
“The… system was changed”
Everyone couldn’t believe what they were seeing, yet there it was. The information they saw before had actually changed right before their eyes. It was at this point that the king knew. The system wasn’t changed by anyone simple. No, it was changed by the goddess Arian.
“I WANT MESSENGERS SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM! THE LOWELL HOUSEHOLD MUST BE BROUGHT TO THE CASTLE AS ROYAL GUEST, UNDERSTOOD”
“””HAHHH”””
Several messengers immediately scrambled from the room. Even they were flustered as they ran, slamming the doors open and running towards their own horses. As for the king, a smile was in his face.
“Well, this sure is getting interesting”
He then laughed a hearty laugh he’s never had in a while. As for his officials, they all looked at him with a confused look.
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“Burrrr”
“Is anything wrong master? Is it too cold?”
“Ah… no. Thanks for the concern but I’m fine”
Two girls could be seen. One was currently filling a vial with water while the other was serving her a cup of tea. Then, the silver haired girl began chanting something. Soon, the vial began to glow.
“Ahh… I did it!”
“Congratulations master”
“Hehehe, thanks. With this, we can start rejuvenating the city’s economy. After selling this potion to the commoners, we should make other things like food, weapons and other useful things”
“Hai, it’ll be a great way to revive the city”
“Yeah… speaking of which, how’s the subjugation going?”
“Ah, hai. Rina says that only 10% of the underworld is left. It should take about two more days before we have complete control”
“Good, once the subjugation is complete have Roland train the new soldiers. After that, it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to improve the citizen’s lifestyle”
“Master is really kind… but you’re also scary when you fight against your enemies”
The young girl shrugged.
“Eh… I’ve gotten over it. I guess it’s my instincts telling me to kill. But, at least I won’t kill innocent people. Never will I do that. Anyway, let’s take a break. I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces”
“Hai, hai”
Suddenly, the girl grabbed the silver haired girl and began to cuddle with her. With cries of help coming from a small house, the night began to pass over them as the city went into another deep slumber.
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Authors note:
I’m sorry for not posting anymore chapters yesterday. I had a bunch of IRL stuff to do. Plus, something happened with my credit card so I’ve been having trouble until today. So, yeah. I had no chance in working on it until now. Well, either way, I won’t promise about three chapters a day anymore. Every time I promise that, real life always seems to say…
“Nope”
… So yeah. I’m just going to post as much chapters as I can.