"Sir! Fourth General and his army have failed to return!" The scout reported. Third General slammed his fist into his chair but didn't seem surprised. He had didn't expect Baylight to actually defeat a whole one thousand soldiers, but he knew how incompetent Fourth General was.
Now he was just plain frustrated. Third General rubbed his temples.
"I think it's time that I take things into my own hands," Third General said and stood up. "We won't attack immediately, but we will in due time. And when we do, I will be the one leading the charge."
"Yes, sir!"
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Queen Peluna rubbed her temples and sighed. The destroyed treaty started to smolder and soon, it burst into flames and burned to a black crisp.
"My Queen," one of the advisors said. "I have to inform you, that it is not too late to fix the treaty and repair the bridge between Poris Kingdom and Baylight."
"No, it is far too late. It was over the instant I ordered Tethla to steal his weapon. There is no repairing anymore. He was right: I was going to use him and manipulate him," The Queen admitted with another heaving sigh.
"But it was for the benefit of the kingdom, right?" The other advisor asked.
"Yes and no. It would benefit us greatly if we learned to create and use weapons like that, but unless Baylight willingly gave us their technology, any attempts to take them would be acts of theft and ultimately break ties, like what just happened," Queen Peluna said. "Now, he must think that we are his enemies and won't hesitate to attack us."
"I-I'm sorry! It was all my fault for being too careless!" Tethla said and got to her knees. "Punish me in any way you need to!"
"It wasn't your fault, Tethla," Queen Peluna softly said. Tethla looked surprised, then gratitude covered her face. She bowed even lower.
"Moving on to more important topics," the first advisor coughed and looked distastefully at Tethla. "Are we now considering Baylight to be on our allies list or enemies list? Or do you wish me to move them to the undecided group?"
Queen Peluna thought for a moment. "Keep them on the allies list. They might consider us their enemies, but we won't. If it is possible, I want to attempt to recreate ties in the future."
"Yes, Ma'am."
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Everyone was still in good morals when Lucius got back, and frankly, he was in good spirits too. He got rid of something that potentially would've killed him in the future.
So, to celebrate the victory, Lucius planned a feast that would occur on the same day. It would include all of the fruit that Lucius grew and much more. So generally, everyone was excited.
But first, Lucius and the healers took care of the wounded. They carried all of them to the hospital and treated their wounds with bandages and herb remedies. One thing that Lucius realized that none of the beast-men used any form of healing magic like the one Olive used on him. He asked one of the beast men this phenomenon.
"Us beast-men are incapable of using any form of magic, but we make up for it with strength and speed!" He answered, puffing out his chest in the process.
"Can other races use magic other than humans?" Lucius then asked.
"Yes. Demons and High Destruction Beasts."
According to other beast-men that chimed in, High Destruction Beasts, or HDB, are intelligent beast-men that have insane destructive power. Not only are they able to use magic, they were also able to shapeshift and destroy anything within their reach. Even the weakest HDB's are able to fight over fifty soldiers at once. They are something like gods to beasts and beast-men alike. They lived all over the world, but they stayed hidden. Even though they were powerful, they were hunted for materials that would greatly boost the damage output of weapons.
Demons were a mysterious race. They were stronger than humans and beast-men, but they rarely interacted with them. Unless there was a war that involved them, they would stay on their continent. They were both strong with magic and physical skills and they were smart. Not much was known about them.
Stolen story; please report.
After the wounded were taken care of, Lucius went to his underground garden and picked raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. He still hasn't planted the watermelon seeds or the elderberry seeds; those would be a little too complicated to just put into the ground.
After he filled several wooden buckets with them, he set them aside and went into the forest.
There were a few hunting parties out already hunting for meat and the Royal Slimes were diving into Sorus Bay for fish. Lucius cut down a few trees and created a long table and dragged it to the middle of the town. Immediately, the table started to fill up with all different types of food. Lucius, being relatively new to this world, was amazed by the variety. He went back and grabbed his fruit, setting it down on the table along with the rest. The beast-men were delighted to see all of the food, especially the fruits.
Then Lucius spent the next few hours just milling around. He didn't really need to do anything else and he didn't know where Balos and Luna where.
In the meantime, he just chilled inside Sorus Bay.
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As the sun slowly fell, the entire town of Baylight started to stir. The table that Lucius made was packed with all sorts of foods and some people were even dragging out tables to fill them with food too. Torches were being made and lit, giving the feast a festive mood.
Lucius made a quick speech, thanking the bravery and the fighting of the beast-men. A cheer went up, and the feast began.
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The next morning, Lucius was confronted by Balos and Luna.
"We have both decided on something, Lucius," Balos said.
"Hm?" Lucius asked.
"We have decided that it would be a good idea to send you to a school," Luna said. "You currently don't know much about this world at all, and there is only so much that we can teach you. Also, you have good techniques in fighting and all, but we think that it will be a good idea for you to learn more."
"Uh... so you're sending me away?" Lucius asked.
"Not really," Balos said. He held out a large pouch. "This is filled with Transportation Gems. When you need to, you can use them to come back here, but you need to make sure that you get crystals to come back."
"Ah, okay," Lucius said, still a little uncomfortable with the idea that he would be traveling away from Baylight. "So, uh, when do I leave?"
"Oh, not anytime soon," Balos said. "The start of school starts in about two weeks, and it is in Trupe City, so there is not much need to rush."
"Okay," Lucius said. "What about you guys? I reckon that Voxis Kingdom wants to attack again."
Luna waved the question off. She quickly made a full recovery after she was hit with the <
"Don't worry about us," she said. "We can take a lot more than a thousand soldiers."
Lucius grinned and nodded.
"So, do I need anything to go?" Lucius asked.
"Not much to bring," Balos said. Lucius was a little surprised that Balos knew so much about the school, but he didn't question it. "You only need to bring your weapon of choice and some money. And unless you are local to Trupe City, you need clothes and other necessities."
"Alright," Lucius said. "Do I need to sign up or anything?"
"No," Balos confirmed. "Well, not at the moment. When you get there, you will need to sign some papers, and then there will be an entrance exam that will decide what classes you will be taking."
"What will I get tested on?"
"That, I am not sure," Balos admitted.
"I'm sure that there are tests about swordplay and magic display, along with other things," Luna chimed in.
At the word "magic," Lucius pipped up. "Oh yeah. Do you guys think that it would be possible for me to learn magic? With me, like, being from another world?"
Balos scratched his chin. "I'm not very sure. You are the first person that I've heard of that came from another world, so I'm not exactly sure. You can try, but if you can't grasp how there is always plan B."
"What's plan B?"
"There is a potion that exists that converts a small amount of blood into Glim, and if you don't know, Glim is a, thing inside your body. You can't really describe it, but it is there. It is what fuels magic."
"Uh," Lucius said, a little skeptical about that. "How much blood?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but maybe about four pints?" Luna shrugged. Balos didn't know either.
Four pints?!?! Two more pints and then I'm dead! That's pretty close...
"I think I'll pass on that for now. So, how do I learn magic?" Lucius asked.
"We don't know," Balos said. "We are beast-men, so we don't exactly know how to do it."
"Oh. So, will I learn it if I go to the school?" Lucius asked.
"Again, we don't know," Luna said.
"Oh," Lucius said, a little deflated. "Well, I'm going to pack now."
Balos nodded. "I have made something for it. It is already in your room. It'll help you pack."
"Thanks," Lucius said and walked back. When he went inside his room, there was a well-made leather backpack. It had two pockets; one bigger than the other. As there were no zippers, Balos used buckles instead.
In the small pocket, Lucius put in most of his gun cartridges. He threw in some magnets and other supplies, just in case he wanted to do some tinkering.
In the big pocket, he put in a roll of white bandages and a few herb potions that were left over from the war. He even wrapped those up so that they won't break.
Then... he was done? He didn't need much.
Then, he waited.