It’s been one month since my only friend for centuries died. Finally, the funeral is done. Of course, I’m the only one attending. If anyone else discovered his death, the consequences would be very negative to Venerai. The deitydom would be completely lost without him. And other nations would probably seize the opportunity to cause trouble. But that introvert hasn’t shown himself for over two hundred years, so it’s not difficult to cover his death.

The shrine was first made over a millennia ago. I wasn’t even born yet. But due to frequent maintenance it’s still as shiny and clear as it was when it was first built. It stands over eighty hubna tall and twenty hubna for the two side lengths. Or forty-two ments tall and with sides ten and a half ments long in the new “base 10” system of measurement. Apparently it’s supposed to be more easily calculated, but it seems to be around the same amount of effort for me.

As a simple white block with a rainbow metallic sheen, the shrine isn’t nearly as impressive or as large as the main shrine in the temple. But he never cared for elaborately carved shrines that serve little purpose beyond decoration. This shrine uses the power of the divine fragments that it's made of to create a shield around the whole capital. This shield is secret to all besides me and will only be needed when the other shields fail.

In front of the shrine is a newly added statue the same color as the shrine of a humanoid dragonair sitting on a wooden chair, sipping rakail. That bastard had an even mix of dragon features and human features; human face, torso, and hands but dragon ears, wings, tail, and legs. Then there’s me, who looks like a human besides my six wings. And they don’t even have membranes, they’re just skeletons of metal. I can’t even fly with them.

This statue is my addition, serving as an altar for the deceased depicted on it. As per tradition. Surrounding everything and lining the room is a ring of white rakail trees. Sunlight can’t penetrate the ceiling, so magical substitutes are used. Luckily they feed off of the shrine so no replenishment of energy is needed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have money to pay for the altar.

As I kneel in front of his altar crafted from rusted divine fragments—the dwarf company I commissioned cost a fortune and I had to pay out of my own pocket—I wonder why he decided to die now. He always had wanted to die, but seemingly couldn’t find an optimal time to do so. But all of a sudden, he told me he was going to die and said he would leave me a present. Six months later, he died after playing one last round of hune with me. There was no explosions, no burst of light. He simply said goodbye, then left the world forever. Well, more specifically, his last words were, “Alseni, my sweet summer child. I won and now you’ll never win against me, haha. Do you want to know why? Because you haven’t found a reason to live.”

At that, I responded with, “Hm? But I have a whole list of things to do and things that will give me reason to live in a schedule good for three thousand years.”

“…Let me rephrase that. You haven’t found something you want to do. Just simply living isn’t how life works. Though finding a passion means that eventually, your goal will be achieved and afterwards there will be nothing to do, it’s better than doing nothing forever.”

“These aren’t nothing; they’re specifically calculated to give me the maximum amount of happiness for the maximum amount of time until everything has been achieved—”

At this point, he started to look a little frustrated. “Are you an AI?”

“What? A eye? Am I getting fat to be that round?”

He sighed. “Nevermind. You haven’t changed your mind for centuries, I’m not going to change it in a few minutes. Hopefully my final gift to you will help you find your reason to live.”

“Did you really decide to die now? I mean, I haven’t finished this current extermination thing to the maximum and after it’s been expended of use the people will need to be convinced by you.”

“And you also will miss me?”

“Not at all. But you won’t listen to an emotional argument, so if I use a logic-based one, maybe you’ll stay for at least a few decades?”

He shook his head, with his beautiful membrane-filled secondary wings flopping around on either side of his head. “I’ve made my decision. Besides, Venerai will listen to you.”

I had tried to coerce him into playing another round by resetting the game. But he didn’t sit back down. Instead, he looked at the pieces—the lopsided brown tree from that second-hand game merchant, the floppy-eared beast called the unab split in two because we couldn’t find an identical piece, the two starstone player pieces. Then he looked at me. He smiled and said, “It’s been a wonderful life. But it’s been thousands of years since my goal has been achieved. There’s nothing else I wish to do in life and there’s nothing you can do or say to convince me otherwise. But I hope you will be happy. Truly happy.

“I don’t wish you a long life. I wish you a happy one with better friends than me, who is about to leave you. I’ve made this long enough. Goodbye Alseni.” Then he disappeared from his internal domain. Leaving me, two wooden chairs, a wooden table, and a hune set alone in the slowly crumbling white void.

I later found his true body in my bed. Is this his way of forcing me to look at his beautiful, membrane-filled wings?

…Why the bed though. I have to pull the blankets off, then take the decaying corpse out and…

I didn’t stay to watch the decay.

After symbolically holding his funeral, I found his will and present in the tree garden. I’ve been in my office the entire month, leaving them undiscovered until now. Maybe I should read his will now…but according to the back of the envelop I can read it within a hundred years. But the present is revealed immediately without a box.

It’s a piece of paper with some words in another language on it. Though it’s fairly small, around half the size of a playing card. The sides are covered with blue pillars holding a blue arch up. Some white words are in the arch. My name is in the middle below some black incomprehensible words. Below that is…my signature? I never signed anything like this….why would he forge my signature onto this piece of paper? And there’s a suspicious red, circular seal behind the words. Is this a contract? What am I contracted to…

In any case, there has been no sign of any contracted companion or duties I must get to for a month. Then again, I haven't gotten a report on the state of the world since he died. Maybe it’s a giant monster from another world.

But before I go to find Henas, I have to decide what to do with the thing in my bed.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I exit the failing tree garden and walk to my bedroom, encountering no one else. I dismissed everyone to hide his death. Now the quiet hallways have become silent. No one has cleaned the floor in a month, but I haven't been doing much outside of my office so the black-and-white marble floors merely have a slight layer of dust on them.

I open the black door to my bedroom. It’s still there. I imagine it's probably completely turned into divine ore now. I have to…use it. Divine ore is too valuable to be left in my bed. Especially complete and not rusted or in fragment form. It’s not as valuable as him though.

Usually if divine ore is melted from its base form it becomes divine fragments…unless it’s heated at a high enough temperature very quickly. I’ll have to burn my room down, but I can melt the ore, transplant it into a square mold, and quickly freeze it before its magic dissipates enough.

So I cast the spell Hell’s Volcano within my room after activating the shields around it. I don’t want to burn the whole castle down. After the bed disintegrates, I kick the mold into the room. Once the melted ore has fallen in, I cancel Hell’s Volcano and cast Deep Freeze.

The semi-transparent illusion of a black volcano disappears, along with the white flames erupting out of it in a tornado, and the red magic circle floating on the ground. That circle is replaced with a bluish-white one that spews white particles. They quickly congeal into ice crystals, which stay until the divine ore is frozen and I dispel Deep Freeze. These two spells are really impractical, so much mana and concentration just for heating and cooling. Extreme heating and cooling, but there has to be a more efficient way. I’m not very strong with magic, so I haven’t discovered one yet.

Now that the ore is no longer in the shape of my friend, I can easily carry it away and into the treasury. Once I tell everyone to end their vacation, I can ask the forgers what should be made. The door to the shrine will always have to be locked though.

With that done, I can free Henas from the room I’ve locked her and a few others too crucial to be kicked out of the palace in. I’m sure I gave them enough food and water for a month.

I disable the containment spell on the dormitory wing and open the dragonstone door.

Markad, a tall, green dragonair with three wings and a tail—otherwise looks human—spits out the orange uim he was attempting to drink and bolts to his feet. The other four in the room have the same reaction and all five then bow, right fist over open palm.

Looking at the state of the room, no one knows how to clean…food is everywhere and on the couch, dishes are unwashed, and the room just generally smells like an old dragon drank too much spoiled uim and mated with a wet black-and-white beastpedal. And I tell the five bowing as much.

Henas blanches. Or I think she does. Females have dragon faces so it’s more difficult for me to read them. It’s been hundreds of years and I still can’t read them well. Oh how I wish I was born a female. Then I could at least could on having one dragon feature besides wings, which everyone has. Instead, the only thing differentiating me from a human has been cursed to uselessnesses…

I tried to make a joke to soften the mood, but it seems that it failed. Maybe another one?

“I didn’t know we had imports from Yuinae,” I say, referring to the uim all over Markad’s dark blue shirt. Uim is a fruit that only grows in the tropics of Yuinae.

My attempts at reassuring the five chief ministers backfires miserably as Markad drops to the ground and slams his face down. I definitely shouldn’t have locked them in the dormitory wing, but they would have seem the divine ore otherwise. Now that I have a good explanation for it, they can go wherever they like.

But I honestly think that the first joke was good. Maybe not the second one; it could be seen as something I’m displeasured over. At least simply not laugh instead of crying in fear. Erne, the Minister of Defense, has…excreted yellow, foul-smelling liquid into his pants and the floor. I don’t want to be disrespectful about it, so I’ll word it like that.

I cough awkwardly and address Henas. Though they haven’t been able to leave the room, they ministers still have access to reports from their subordinates via telecommunications.

“Give me a report on the state of the world,” I ask Henas.

Henas shakily waddles out of the room to fetch her documents. After re-entering the dormitory hall, she reports with her head still down, “To the west, Triskyu has taken their armies off the border, along with Ikuanir. To the north, the Ynare-Cantorian Empire has placed an embargo on us. They seem to be discussing a blockage with the Tsoko Theocracy. The eastern border is still secured by our navy, but if Ynare-Cantoria and the Tsoko Theocracy hlockade us, it will be difficult to trade with declaring war on them.

“To the south, our vassals are still secure and obedient, but the Ruparai Empire implements increasingly aggressive policies, such as unfavorable tariffs and “inspection” of merchant caravans. If the caravans don’t pass inspection, they will be imprisoned. Additionally, there are reports of bandits raiding caravans, particularly ones containing slaves. The Church State of Caresan remains allied and hasn’t made any major moves. Would you like reports on other allies and great powers?”

Definitely. But maybe when Erne’s liquids aren’t spilling out of him. Or when Markad isn’t shivering on the floor. Or when the other two ministers wake up from their newly fainted state. I have things to do in the meantime. The policies of the Ruparai Empire are concerning and need to be addressed along with the potential blockade and bandits, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Those nations have always been enemies, but the same applies to Triskyu and Ikuanir. “Why would Triskyu and Ikuanir take their armies off the border? They took them away completely?”

Swallowing, Henas nods. “I-it appears that…well, you know how the Ebvirsjo Syndicate summons heroes from another world?”

I nod. “How could I forget about the nation with the unpronounceable name and incomprehensible policies? I remember that he was telling me about world-traveling theory and that the world the Syndicate was getting the heroes from was the closest to us or something…apologies, I’m rambling. Continue.”

Henas continues, “U-uh, it seems that, um, well, this may be a false report—I mean, it's impossible…” I wait for Henas to collect herself.

She quickly recovers. “A nation from…according to what they say…from another world is at war with Oso.”

“What?!” I recoil in disbelief.

The Syndicate was a minor nation that I hadn’t even known about before their guardian deity discovered that their domain extended to other worlds. Now they’re one of the eight great powers, on par with Venerai. Not because of their economy, not because of their population or technology or military. But because of their summoned heroes.

And now, a whole nation from another world has been summoned. A whole nation of those seemingly invincible soldiers.

“When did they appear?”

“Uh? Around one month ago.”

One month? Is it a coincidence? Or…did he do something? No, his domain was teleportation this time. But it’s a similar domain in the category of space…

“How is this nation faring against Oso?” It’s a minor nation, but they have the advantage all dwarven nations have; technology. Oso isn’t very strong in magic, but its technology bumps it up from a village nation. Additionally, it’s desert geography makes it a nightmare to invade.

“Um, it's a nation of humans, so normally they would be disadvantaged. Plus, summoned heroes are from a magically rich but technologically backwards world. I suspect that this nation is from a completely different world because they have completely outclassed Oso in terms of technology. Oso’s metal vehicles are all-around inferior. The nation appears to use projectile weapons that don’t require magic. And what’s causing the most damage are the flying…things that destroy Oso’s armies before they can even leave their bases. It’s why Triskyu and Ikuanir have been alarmed enough to take their armies off the border. They know us. But they don’t even know what weapons this nation is using.”

Technologically advanced? This is…amazing. Technology was always something I’m interested in. I’m a master of magic more or less and any advancements can really only be made by the gods. But technology? The dwarves have shown the world that they don’t need the gods if they have technology. And as Venerai no longer has a god…I can't think of a better nation to befriend! And it’s from another world! Not even the one the Syndicate has access to! I rarely curse, but fuck, I can’t wait to meet them.

“Give me the full report when you’ve recovered. You’re free to leave, so call Construction to repair my room and end the employees’ vacations.” Once I take care of the immediate problems, I’ll send either an invite the nation to my capital or a request to visit theirs.

“Before I go, tell me the name of the nation.”

To which Henas replies with five words before fainting; “The United States of America.”