Chapter 10

"Long ago, before our culture as we know it was even conceived, our ancestors lived a fractuous, tribal lifestyle. These three tribes were: a clan of great magical sorcerers, a clan of great blacksmiths, and the third a clan a great sailors and ocean explorers. Although divided, they all shared a common desire, to always have as close of a bond with the world they inhabited as they did with their fellow tribesmen. Eventually, they discovered each other and realizing their similar beliefs, they started to band together and unify.

Unfortunately, no sooner had they united, a greedy warlord from a far away kingdom discovered them and desired to use them to satisfy his own desires. He conquered and enslaved the tribes. All their precious artifacts were stolen from them, their lands desecrated, and their lives only worth as much as they could provide to their rulers, no better than animals. For generations they suffered under the oppression and disharmony of their masters.

But, soon a brave soul emerged and challenged their rule, it is said that his mother was a powerful sorceress and his father was skilled blacksmith; using the skills his parents taught him, he crafted a special set of enchanted battle armor that glowed bright red like the blood of his slain enemies. Once his deeds had become known across the land, the people rose up and joined him in his war for freedom, bestowing upon him the title of the Scarlet King. After many years of fighting, the foreign invaders were finally defeated and pushed out of their land. But in a final act of revenge against the Scarlet King, the enemy ruler kidnapped his queen and took her to his own lands. This left the new ruler in a dilemma, he couldn't live without his queen whom he loved with all his heart, but at the same time he loved his people and couldn't bring himself to abandon them and his new emerging kingdom. So in order to make right by all who depended on him, he left late one night to find and bring his queen back; but in order to preserve hope among his subjects, he left his armor behind along with his final and most heartfelt message to his loyal subjects.

My dear subjects, I am sorry to leave you all at this most crucial time, however as many of you may or may not know, the foreigners have kidnapped our queen and I have set off to bring her back home. Even if you all will still have me as your king, I can not accept this honor if I have failed to protect my queen. But please do not fear or despair, I have left behind the symbol of our strength and might with you, enchanted with a portion of my spirit, so as it may judge and deem all who dare dawn it worthy of it and the title it possesses. It was truly my honor to fight alongside all of you to free ourselves and our sacred lands, even more than it was an honor for you all to fight alongside me. Remember what we were, and strive to bring our new kingdom into a glorious prosperity.

Although the kingdom of old has long been lost to time and sacred scarlet armor has been lost along with it, the spirit of the Scarlet King still lives on, choosing whoever it seems worthy of his title. May we always remember the great hero who alone and through nearly insurmountable odds, fought and encouraged others to fight for what was right, to fight for freedom and harmony, not just among man, but with the world itself as well."

Bismarck finished telling the tale, closing the book and placing it close to her chest once again.

Fubuki just stood still, in complete shock and awe. "So this glow that's around my body right now is?" She began to ask.

"Yes, it's reminiscent of the Scarlet King's battle armor," Bismarck answered. "This means that he's chosen you, Fubuki, to be the next great leader." Fubuki upon hearing Bismarck's explanation felt a great sense of pride and joy, as much as she felt when she finally was able to be remodeled back home in the naval district, if not even more so than that. "So, what do ya say?" Bismarck asked, extending her hand to Fubuki, "do you wanna accept this path, a path similar to the one the Scarlet King took himself?"

Fubuki thought for a moment, but reached out to meet Bismarck's hand with her own. "I do," she said confidently.

Everyone in the room cheered for Fubuki. "Well let's get you down the harbor so you can receive some upgrades to better suit your new position." Bismarck said, motioning Fubuki to follow her, Z-4 also decided to join them while everyone else stayed behind chatting amongst themselves.

"I bet this must be really exciting ehh Fubuki?" She asked chipperly.

Fubuki nodded, "yeah it is, I guess I kinda knew that I was special back home at the naval district and not just because of my class. But I'm still kinda nervous about all this, I mean if we happen to run into my friends from the naval district, how would I really explain all this to them?"

"Well maybe a good start would be to assign an actual rank/title for you," Z-4 suggested. "Any ideas," she asked?

"Well," Fubuki tried to think, could only come up with one answer, "the only thing that comes to mind for me is just 'commander'."

Z-4 sighed, "not a bad idea, but if you ask me that sounds way too cliché," she said begrudgingly. But then her face seemingly lit up as if she just had a eureka moment, "how about kommandant," she suggested. "It means 'the one who gives command' in our language, it's a simple yet powerful title," she explained to justify her suggested choice.

Fubuki seemed to like Z-4's decision, "I kinda like the idea, ok let's go with that." Hearing Fubuki's agreement, raising her fist in triumph, it may not really count as a win but she'd gladly take it.

They soon arrived at their destination, above a metal door engraved into the rock read "der Restaurierungshafen (restoration harbor)." "Is this where I'm gonna be upgraded," Fubuki asked? She figured that it was only used to make repairs much like the docks back home.

"Yes," Bismarck answered. "This is essentially one of the remnants of our spellcasting ancestors, it's several enchanted pools so while we mostly use it for repairs and the like, it can also be used for upgrades, especially in your case," she explained pointing to Fubuki referencing her glow.

As Bismarck opened the door, Fubuki was amazed at what she saw, it like everything she imagined a place like this would look like only it now looked even more magnificent, there a large circular pool along with six similar looking smaller pools around it, in a way it almost reminded her of a drawing of the sun in the sky.

"So I'm supposed to get into the center pool and do what, also why is my gear here?" Fubuki asked, first pointing to the center pool and then to her gear which was laid out in front of it.

"Well firstly, you kinda need it on to be upgraded," Bismarck began, answering Fubuki's second question. "And yes, you just step into the pool and just relax or do you know about meditation?" She added with a question back to Fubuki.

Fubuki shook her head, "no I don't know what this 'meditation' is, but if this is it then it shouldn't be too hard." She then proceeded to put on her gear but made sure it wasn't working sensing that the upgrades couldn't be applied unless her body was submerged in the pool which if her equipment was on would prevent. As she began to step in, she first felt out of place since she was were sinking the water, but that feeling was quickly replaced with the relaxing feeling of the semi hot water making contact with her body. As she made her way to the center, she soon felt a slight drop off but managed to tread enough water to keep her neck up. As she turned back to face Bismarck and Z-4, the whole pool seemed to start to take on the same glow as her. Facing her two new friends, she smiled and said, "this actually doesn't seem too ba…". Just when she was finishing her sentence, she suddenly felt a sharp force pull her under, it didn't feel like something had reached up and grabbed her, but rather it was like a sudden vortex or whirlpool opened up and was sucking her down. The last thing she heard before fading away was the two girls yell, "FUBUKI!"