Hello, everyone!
This is another release of Fate Overlord. I hope you enjoy it. Please tell me if it is good, bad or meh.
Chapter Five "Planting Seeds"
The Re-Estize Kingdom's city of E-Rantel was situated at the border between the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy. The three layers of stone walls separated the city into zones, each having their own unique characteristics. The outermost districts were used by the Kingdom's military, and thus had the necessary military equipment and facilities spread all around it. The district created by the innermost wall housed the administrative zone. It had its own warehouses for food, was heavily protected by soldiers and the zone in between these two areas was the residential area for civilians.
E-Rantel was thus also known as the Fortress City because it was so heavily fortified and was home to a high number of soldiers, as well as being a bustling city full of civilians with a healthy population of Adventurers to boot.
In the lively crowd, shop owners loudly hawked their wares in an attempt to attract customers. Merchants wearing exotic clothes haggled over the price of fresh ingredients; youths were running around the cacophony, enticed by the fragrance of food. The plaza was incredibly lively in the day; the noisy and crowded atmosphere would usually carry on till sunset.
Today, the usual bustle was silenced, as every eye in the plaza was drawn to a figure as it stood motionlessly in the middle of it.
The figure was a male who was in the prime of his life, no older than his twenties. The corners of his eyes were sharp and shone with the brilliance of polished ember, and his auburn hair reflected the sun like pearls. What was most noticeable about him, beside his physical characteristics, was what he wore. A body-fitting black leather armor that covered his body from neck down. He carried himself with dangerous air, the aura of a warrior. His red twin-tailed coat also helped aid the aura of a warrior he projected, for its deep color seemed a result of so much blood being spilled on it to create the distinct crimson-red color.
He looked around and then started towards a particular direction from the plaza.
The crowd, once silent, now started to murmur in gossip as they watched the back of the figure fade into the distance. The rare sight surprised them, but they felt no fear or wariness towards the unusual figure, for individuals such as the figure they had seen were surprisingly common in E-Rantel.
When the figure disappeared from the plaza, everything resumed like it had prior to the figure's appearance.
- O -
Shirou sniffed the air and continued to follow the direction where the particular smell was coming from like a dog. If his guess was right, then it should be a place related to herbs somehow. He continued forward, to a place where the smell was becoming stronger and stronger, likely the origin of the smell. Peering left and right, Shirou walked on until he was in front of the largest shop.
Physically, the shop was not really that different from its neighbors, besides only being slightly larger. Yet, Shirou was not fooled by the shop's normal outward appearance, his magical and spiritual senses picked up the undisguised magical aura that any proficient magic user would have noticed.
Several different types of magics had been applied to the store. The most abundant being that of a protective nature that made the store tougher than the mundane wood and glass the shop was made out of. The normally medieval-era glass that would usually be incredibly fragile had been toughened to that of wood, while the wood had become strong as the more commonly available strong material like stone.
Other forms of magic used in the store were those that reduced the level of noise and smell originating from inside from coming out. Several esoteric charms that kept inside other things that might deter potential customers, and also one particular charm that prevented others from noticing if anything unusual was happening inside the shop.
Great if you want to keep anything unusual happening inside from being noticed from the outside… Shirou really hoped that everyone inside hadn't been murdered for some reason.
Shirou stepped towards the shop, and he pushed open the front door. The bell mounted on top of the door rang surprisingly loudly as he entered.
He found himself in something that looked like a guest lounge. There were two facing benches in the middle of the room, cabinets of books lining one of the walls, and he could see ornamental plants in the corners of the room.
"Welcome!" A male voice, though it sounded too young to belong to a man, shouted in a friendly tone as Shirou stepped into the lounge.
Looking around, Shirou saw a teenage boy standing before him, dressed in a beat-up set of old work coveralls that were stained with juices from crushed plants. The boy's blond hair covered half his face, so it was hard to guess his age, but from his height and his voice, Shirou thought he should be in his mid-teens.
"Are you...Nfirea Bareare?" Shirou asked as he compared the boy's physical appearance to the memories of his believers from Carne village.
"Yes, that's me." The boy — Nfirea — nodded and asked, "May I know what business you have here?"
"Ah, yes. Hang on a bit." Shirou replied as he retrieved a sealed envelope that had been prepared specially for Nfirea from his pocket and he passed it to the boy. "The villagers of Carne prepared it for me. It should verify my identity."
Upon receiving the sealed envelope, Nfirea opened and read it.
"I see… so that's what's going on. Then, can I see the potion?"
Shirou took out the potion and handed it to Nfirea.
The boy brought the potion so close to himself that his hair covered it. Nfirea swept his hair away, revealing a handsome face, which would surely break the hearts of many girls. However, within that youthful face of his was a pair of steely eyes. It was hard to imagine that someone who spoke and acted like he did could have eyes like that. Those eyes sparkled with excitement and perhaps a bit of madness. Nfirea shook the potion bottle several times and nodded to himself.
"Forgive me, it's not convenient to speak here." Nfirea said as he cautiously looked around at the customer-empty and magically defended store. "Could you follow me inside?"
Shirou agreed easily, if this was anything untoward, he was in no danger. He wondered what it said about himself that the first thought that came to his head when following a seemingly harmless person was murder… Properly paranoid, he thought to himself. And so, under Nfirea's guidance, he soon arrived at a messy room.
The room was filled with round-bottomed flasks, test tubes, distillation equipment, mortars, funnels, beakers, alcohol lamps, balances, a bizarre-looking pot, and various other items. The shelves on the walls were filled with mysterious herb and mineral samples. Thankfully, for his sense of paranoia, it was not lined with various body parts or experimental subjects… Hanging around amoral Mages his whole adult life has really done a number on his personality, huh.
An urge to berate Nfirea about the room's cleanliness almost overtook Shirou. The room was so unorganized that someone could easily get hurt with how everything was all over the place. It would be no surprise to him if people had been hurt in the past or would be in the future. It was only his sense of self-preservation and distaste of murder that disabused of him of that notion. God knows how Mages are very defensive about their Workshops.
The person who was already within the room stared at the two people who had barged in. She was a very old woman, and both her face and hands were heavily wrinkled. Her hair, which reached to her eyebrows, was pure white. Her work clothes were stained with even more green residue than Nfirea's, and she smelled heavily of grass.
Nfirea, who had just entered, called out to the old lady, "Granny!"
"What is it, what is it, I can hear you even if you don't shout. My ears are sharp, you know." The elderly woman grumbled as she made her way to Nfirea pausing as she noticed Shirou's presence. "Why did you bring a customer back here?"
"That's not important right now, granny! Take a look at this." Nfirea shouted excitedly as he handed Shirou's potion to his grandmother.
"What has gotten you so excited?" Lizzie asked with a raised eyebrow as she accepted the potion Nfirea offered her.
As Lizzie studied the potion, her gaze which previously was disinterested now was so focused and keen that Shirou was delighted by the sight. There was no doubt in his mind that Lizzie Bareare truly lived up to her reputation as the greatest apothecary of E-Rantel. He got the same feeling from Lizzie as some of the most experienced potion-makers Shirou had met in the past. And the maddened glee and curiosity he could see bubbling beneath her calm demeanor, only meant good things in this case.
"This potion… did you bring it here? A legendary potion, perhaps? No, could it be… God's Blood!?" Lizzie stammered in shock as she stared at Shirou in disbelief. She quickly grabbed Shirou's arm and shook it as she started to display strength beyond her age, trying to make Shirou hurry to tell her. "Impossible… this potion. Where did you get it from? A ruin? Who did you steal this from?!"
Shirou was left stunned by how Lizzie had been able to identify the contents of the potion that he brought so quickly. He had come here knowing that the elderly woman would have the ability to deduce some properties of the potion, but never had he expected Lizzie would be able to figure out the exact content of the potion. He could feel Da Vinci's smug expression from his soul.
"Granny, don't scare him!" Nfirea shouted in an alarmed tone, mistaking Shirou's stunned appearance as someone that is scared by his grandmother's excitement. Whether it was out of fear that Shirou would hurt his relative or flee from their store, Shirou couldn't really tell.
"What are you saying, Nfirea?" Lizzie replied as she turned to face her grandson. The deadpan expression she got was one borne of her experience dealing with panicky younglings, "I didn't scare him at all… right?"
"No, you didn't," Shirou replied with a smile. "I think the letter might explain the situation faster. Can you please pass it over to your grandmother, Nfirea?"
Nfirea nodded in agreement and handed the letter prepared by the Carne villagers to Lizzie. The elderly potioneer took the letter and carefully read it. She then suspiciously glanced at Shirou several times as she re-read the letter multiple times.
Shirou didn't really know what the villagers wrote, or more specifically what Da Vinci made the villagers write, but he was sure that his believers wouldn't do anything to harm him.
"I find it difficult to believe that such a remote village could find something as precious as God's Blood," Lizzie said incredulously. "This is the 'blood of a god', for heaven's sake! Wars are fought over this kind of stuff."
"Really, granny? That potion is that great?" Nfirea asked in shock, finding his grandmother's explanation slightly unbelievable, as if she was telling him a fairy tale.
"Hah?" Lizzie's eyes were stern as she regarded her protégé, before softening somewhat. "I would like to chastise your ignorance as an apothecary, but I guess it would make sense that you wouldn't know about it. You don't know about God's Blood because it is treated as forbidden knowledge for a good reason, and I certainly didn't teach you about it. Whenever the presence of God's Blood is publicly known or even suspected: entire villages, towns and cities have been destroyed to prevent information about its existence from being spread."
Shirou was not surprised when Nfirea looked very ill. He would have reacted the same if he hadn't seen many similar or worse atrocities. Though, now, he could understand the necessity of it. Some secrets are better left unknown, after all.
"Why would people do such a thing…?" Nfirea asked with great difficulty as he suppressed the urge to throw up.
"There are many legends surrounding it, I don't know how much is true or exaggerated. But, what little I know of it is that whenever God's Blood makes an appearance, the final victor of the bloody battle to get it, finds the sacrifice worth it." Lizzie replied in a grim tone.
"Is it really the blood of a god?" Nfirea asked curiously as he eyed the potion in her grandmother's hand.
Lizzie shrugged and replied, "Whether or not it really comes from a god is impossible to verify, as that would mean interacting with a god. Not that it matters in any way, its effects are legendary enough to warrant the name, at least so the legend goes. What is known is that God's Blood comes from an unfathomably powerful creature that exceeds Tier 10."
"What are the uses of God's Blood?" Nfirea continued inquiring.
Lizzie turned to Shirou with a wary look, clearly catching on to the fact that anyone possessing the potion in her hand wouldn't be anyone simple. "I think you should ask him." She said while pointing at Shirou. "He is the one that brought it, and something tells me he knows a lot about it then I do."
"That's impossible!?" Nfirea blurted out as he stared at his grandmother with wide eyes. "He is too young to know more about potions than you, granny. Besides, he is a warrior, not a potioneer."
"Age isn't everything. It is a matter of skill, experience and knowledge." Lizzie shook her head. "Look at me, Nfirea. I might be the best potioneer in E-Rantel, but that isn't the case in the entire world or even the kingdom. There are some prodigies that are of your age or even a few years younger/older that might surpass me."
Shirou looked at Nfirea's expression, and he knew that the boy refused to believe it. Lizzie Bareare was the pinnacle of what Nfirea believed to be in the art of potion making. The notion that someone decades younger could be better than his grandmother was likely more like fairy tales to him, despite whatever Lizzie had to say to the contrary.
"Excuse me," Shirou coughed loudly. "We have gotten off-topic."
"Ah, yes." Lizzie nodded in agreement. "Please excuse my grandson. Would you please enlighten Nfirea about the properties of God's Blood?"
"It is better to show it, as I doubt my words would convince your grandson otherwise." Shirou replied as he pointed at the potion in Lizzie's hand. "Drink it."
"Drink this!? How could I do such a thing!?" Lizzie screamed incredulously. "Just the rumors of the possible location of God's Blood have caused wars. Me drinking God's Blood is the greatest waste of such a naturally occurring potion or incredibly potent potion reagent!"
"Take a look inside." Shirou responded as he threw a pouch at Lizzie.
Lizzie caught the pouch and opened it, what she saw made her eyes pop open. It was so unbelievable that she didn't know if she was hallucinating or dreaming. She quickly cast several magic spells like Appraisal Magic Item and Detect Enchantment on the pouch.
"Ahaahaaahaaa!" A crazed laughter echoed through the narrow room. Lizzie slowly raised her head, a terrifyingly mad smile on her face. "Are those what I think it is!?"
Shirou nodded. "Your eyes are not playing tricks on you."
"Who are you?" Lizzie asked as she stopped laughing and stared at Shirou very seriously. "I don't think this amount of God's Blood has ever been discovered before in history."
"Will you drink a dose of God Blood or not?" Shirou inquired, ignoring Lizzie's question. "There is no point turning down the chance when there is so much more."
"How could I resist when there is so much more God's Blood for me to study!?" Lizzie laughed as she opened the bottle of God's Blood already in her hands and drank all the blood-red liquid in one gulp.
And then, nothing happened. But to those in the know or have keen senses, the effect on Lizzie can already be seen.
"Stop building suspense and just tell me…" Nfirea spoke and stopped mid-sentence at what he saw. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief and pointed. "That cannot be right!"
"Your eyes are not fooling you," Shirou chuckled as he looked at where Nfirea was pointing at.
If Shirou had been in Nfirea's shoes, he might have reacted exactly in the same way. It was hard to believe that where Lizzie was standing was a completely different person. The individual was nowhere the same age as Lizzie or possessed the same physical appearance.
Yet, Shirou knew that the young, beautiful woman before him was very much Lizzie Bareare.
He had watched with his superhuman vision as Lizzie transformed right before him. She had become younger, and the beauty that had been robbed by the passage of time had returned to Lizzie. In fact, the change might have as well been in slow motion to him, given Shirou's recent and ever-going transformation into a god.
"Don't you dare say that I am not Lizzie Bareare, young man!" Lizzie shouted with renewed vigor at the shocked Nfirea. And before Nfirea could question the now young Lizzie, she started sprouting all sorts of personal secrets that only Nfirea's grandmother could ever know.
Shirou watched in amusement as Lizzie leaked all sorts of personal secrets that embarrassed Nfirea so much that the boy seemed to be wanting to dig a deep hole and hide inside it. The scene was funny for a while, but it soon started to become boring as he listened to matters he had no place knowing, or any interest in for that matter.
"Lizzie, I think Nfirea understands that he isn't dealing with a stranger now." Shirou coughed. "As you see, Nfirea, a dose of God's Blood by itself, is an incredibly potent potion. It contains an incredible amount of vitality and mana to do many things upon being imbibed. Reversing aging is one you just saw, but it can cure just about any wound or aliment, bring the recent dead back to life and enhance the abilities of its drinker."
"God's Blood is also an incredibly powerful and versatile tonic that can be used in all sorts of applications that is not limited to just potion-making." Lizzie added as she looked at Shirou knowingly.
"Here are all the known properties of God's Blood." Shirou said with a shrug as he produced a tome from the knowledge of his believers and tossed it to Nfirea. "Go take a look if you want while I talk to your grandmother."
Nfirea caught the tome and was about to respond when a look from Lizzie silenced him. All he could do was grumble and leave the room with his new tome in hand.
"I doubt you brought enough God's Blood to topple a nation and giving me one for no reason," Lizzie said as she turned to Shirou. "There must be something you want from me. So, what is it?"
"I cannot answer that question until you sign this contract." Shirou replied as he produced a magic scroll. "If you refuse to, then I will erase all memories from you and Nfirea about me and the God's Blood, I won't do anything else though. So be assured that you are not in any way compelled to sign." Shirou added, not that he needed to reassure Lizzie in any way, though. Shirou knows Lizzie's kind all too well. As long as what he put in the scroll didn't infringe her bottom line, she would sign the contract with glee, if only for the chance to learn more about the God's Blood.
"Let me see the magic contract," Lizzie grumbled as she looked at the scroll and read the conditions and rules inside. Though, if Shirou's eyes were not mistaken, she didn't really care about the restrictions too much as soon as she saw what she could gain by signing it. "The contract is very simple, but the terms are incredibly strict. Any breach of the contract is punished very harshly. The worst breaches resulting in death."
"I think the conditions are fairly reasonable if you look at what you gain from signing the contract." Shirou refuted calmly. "Many people would die to be in your shoes right now."
"Aye, there is no denying that." Lizzie nodded easily. "I don't know what you're planning to do by having Nfirea and I permanently migrate to Carne Village, but if you hold up your part of the contract, then my grandson and I will not hesitate to sign this contract."
"Good to hear," Shirou said happily. "Then let's sign the contract right now. Your grandson can sign at a later date."
- O -
Shirou Emiya sighed in relief as he left the Bareare Pharmacy. He had secured Carne Village, the last quintessential service that any population center needed, a source of medicine. Carne Village now had all the food, water, housing and medical services to be self-sufficient for now.
Still, there was more that could be done.
"Do I really need to create and expand a religion dedicated to worshiping me?" Shirou asked himself as he recalled the lively debate he had with Da Vinci.
"Yes, you do, Shirou." Da Vinci nodded. "I highly suspect this New World, as you have come to call it, is a Lostbelt. There is no other explanation I could think of regarding how YGGDRASIL servers' shutdown did not return you back to reality and into your personal quarters in Chaldea HQ. The Counter Force is the most likely explanation, and it wouldn't be the first time the Counter Force acted in such a bizarre manner."
"I share your suspicion that the New World is a Lostbelt, but what does a religion that worships me has anything to do with resolving this Lostbelt?" Shirou asked incredulously.
"Well, you and I are the only ones here. There are no Servants or allies to help us with this, never mind the resources that Chaldea could provide. Until we find any free Servants wandering around or allies to help us, we need to construct our own power base. A religion centered around helping you just happens to possess the traits necessary to aid us. And, luckily, for our lack of Servant support, YGGDRASIL's game mechanics allow the summoning of Servants. But, it would only be possible if you have enough believers or religious fervor." Da Vinci replied as if it was the most common cause of action anyone would take.
Shirou clutched his temple at the phantom pain of the future headaches he would have. He felt as if he was cheating people by pretending to be something that he wasn't. While the act of being a god was necessary to gather the manpower and resources for the noble goal of preventing the collapse of the Human Order, it still didn't change the fact that he was lying to a great deal of people.
"Fine, but when we locate Servants that are inhabitants of this Lostbelt or local allies powerful enough for our goals, then the charade of a religion worshiping me is over." Shirou responded firmly, refusing to budge on the matter.
Shirou chuckled as he also recalled Da Vinci's forlorn expression in reaction to his declaration. It was quite amusing to see that he had robbed Da Vinci of a golden opportunity to study a human undergoing the apotheosis into a Divine Spirit.
Shirou looked around at his surroundings and thought about what he knew that a village needed to grow beyond being self-sufficient. He focused on what he had learned about Earth's history on such matters to create a roadmap to foster growth and prosperity in Carne Village.
"It's time to plant more seeds for the future." Shirou remarked to himself as he set forth to convince more businesses to immigrate.
Was this god, bad or meh? Please tell me what you think. I accept all criticism as long as it is no flaming.