Chapter 8 A Back-up Manual

Something was off with his servants.

He came back to Nazarik regularly, either during the nights or during the adventurer's missions he completed too fast. He didn't want to drag too much attention, so he always returned from the completed missions in 5 days at the soonest, the longest so far being two weeks.

He didn't come back because he needed to, but mostly because the NPCs grew restless whenever he stayed out of Nazarik for too long. Convincing them to let him parade as an adventurer had been hellish, and they all were acting weirdly. The guardians specially, always made sure to have a reason to "visit" taking turns so he would see one of them whenever he was on Nazarik.

Demiurge seemed to like to speak about all the advantages and good points he had found about this world thus far, which was interesting but, why was he focusing on the positive? Shouldn't he prioritize the negative so they were prepared?

Albedo would fidget nervously from time to time, but was faring better since he decided her punishment. He had her go deliver a message personally to the Duke of terror Kyouhukou, knowing she wasn't especially fond of the place he resided in. She had shivered in disgust, but had done as ordered and seemed back to herself. Except for the fidgets and odd questions she would make regarding his happiness and if he was satisfied with their work.

Cocytus liked to report personally the results of his tests with the weapons he had given him, which was odd because he had been sending written reports just fine before the whole thing with the world item happened.

He wasn't stupid, he knew they were checking on him, seeing if he was going to pack up and leave like most of the guild members had done. He only wondered where they had gotten the idea all of the sudden. While he knew they feared they would be left masterless, he couldn't understand why they were acting on that fear when it hadn't affected them before.

Even worse when they seemed to think he would leave on his own free will. That he would actually choose to abandon them.

Maybe they had too much free time? He had wanted to assign some NPCs in missions outside Nazarik, but had discarded that idea when the bloody lamp-situation happened. He couldn't coddle them forever, though…

Sighing, he figured he would send them off with emergency portkeys. So he sent Sebas and Solution to go make connections with wealthy people and recompile information from the high-classes in E-Rantel.

Narberal and one of the male servants were to go investigate magic, since he now knew there was a Magicians' Guild in the Kingdom. He had put emphasis in the fact that they were to behave amiably, not cause trouble and only use force when defending themselves, never killing the opponent. The male servant had a Neutral-Good karma, so Harry hoped his presence would balance Narberal's.

Demiurge was to go investigate the nearer countries, but was restricted not to go out from the chosen "safe place", leading the other servants from there. He was thinking about putting a Fidelio on it later on, once Demiurge actually arrived to that place to carry out his mission.

The twins were assisting him with the greenhouse he had wanted to build for the collection of plants he had brought in his bag, since they could probably be used in potions. The Bareare family was indebted to him, and judging from the love for potions they seemed to have, he didn't think they would be opposed to the idea of coming to Nazarik to make experiments with the herbs.

He had shown Aura and Mare a few plants while he explained the area they would probably need to grow healthy, and Mare had a look Neville would have been proud of, an herbologist at heart indeed.

Cocytus was still entertained with the weapons, while Albedo and Pandora administered Nazarik. The over dramatic NPC had a nice share of ideas, and they seemed to get along when they worked, so he was glad he had taken him out of the treasury. His attitude seemed to bother most of the maids though.

Shalltear was helping him with a test. He wanted to know if the NPCs could overcome their programmed weaknesses, so he had her train in a secluded part of the second floor, where she would kill some of the automatically generated defenses and try to overcome the "Blood Frenzy". She was only allowed to try once per week though, since he didn't want to run out of the daily, naturally spawned (POP) monsters.

Now that they were nicely entertained, he could finally breathe in peace. Entering to his room, he missed slightly the little Basilisk, but after the mess with Albedo he had decided to leave the creature permanently giant and on the sixth floor.

He had decided to make a manual for his dear servants, a recompilation of back-up plans on what to do in case this or that happened to him. Thinking about the possible causes that could prevent him from leading Nazarik, he started to make a list:

Death, coma & terminal disease

Mind control

Mental cage

Kidnapping

Summoning

Emergency Quest

These, he thought, were the worst case scenarios that could redeem him incapable of executing his role as Nazarik's Guild Master.

Death wasn't much of a problem, since he would come back soon enough, so he only left instructions for protecting his physical body and heal it if possible. He would still need to gather enough magic and strength to come back, but it would accelerate the process nonetheless. His dead state was actually the same to a coma, so he smashed them together in the same section. A terminal disease could leave him too weak to be useful, not to mention that it could be very long and painful, so the instructions were to kill him and follow the process for death.

On the second possibility, he had items against mind control and his occlumency was as strong as ever, but the shitty devs could have made other objects similar to the lamp so he had decided to include it. He figured that the easiest way to break free from the control of a World item would be to travel to one of the previous worlds he had visited. That should break whatever magical bond tied him to the item. He would need to ask for Death's help with this one though, so he postponed the plan for the time being.

A mental cage was one of the most troublesome, but he wasn't sure they even existed in this world. He only knew of them because some 5 lives ago he had had a nasty encounter with a powerful Dream-eater demon, oddly shaped as a golden triangle, with a single eye, a top hat and a cane. The creature had trapped him in his own mind until he defeated him, stealing some of his memories in the process. For this one, he would need someone capable of Legimency since the battle would be unfolding inside his mind castle. Deeming it unlikely, he postponed this one too.

Kidnapping wasn't much of a problem. A portkey or apparition should do nicely since it was unknown magic in this world. Even in the odd case it failed, the permanent company he had in the form of assassins and shadow demons should be enough to either escape or send a message with his position. The instructions for this one was to ask Nigredo for surveillance, make everyone go back to Nazarik in case they were on missions outside and wait for him to either come back or send a "help me" message, in which case they were free to plot however they wished for his rescue. If nothing happened after a certain period of time, they were free to plot too.

A summon was a whole other level of troublesome. Being the Master of Death had a few drawbacks, the most important being the fact that strong-enough magical beings could summon him to make one request. He wasn't forced to grant it or anything, but the magic of the ritual bounded him to the world he had been summoned at, and only gave him two choices to get free of it. One was to grant the request, while the other one was the death of the summoner. He tried not to kill them if the request was something either morally acceptable or possible to do quickly. For this one, he would have to teach the guardians the summoning ritual, so he could come back as soon as he was finished wherever… having a communication device would be useful too, he may ask Death about it later.

The last was an Emergency Quest, which were requested by Death when the equilibrium between destruction and creation of life was being unbalanced by a third force. Death could not interfere with the matters regarding those living, but Harry didn't have such restriction, so he helped his friend in these instances. The last one had been long ago, when he had to fight against a mad titan that had wanted to destroy everything in the name of courting the entity. He had laughed long and hard at his friend's face when he discovered the motivation of the villain. Nothing could be done on this one, other that keep communicated… he really would have to research a way for doing that.

He would have to work on it another day though, since he received a [Message] from Shizu, who had stayed in the hotel's room, informing him someone was asking for his presence. Sighing tiredly, he put on the armor minus the helmet and apparated at the suite's bathroom, silently wondering who was asking for them at 1 in the morning.

AUTHOR NOTE:

Man the guardians won't like the process of terminal disease. Why are you so cruel Harry?

Congratulations for those that saw Bill Cipher on the Mental cage scenario, and Thanos on the Emergency Quest. Bravo!

These are actually a few plot-bunnies I have, so I may do a spin-off where one of these situations actually happens. In this story though, only the 1,2 and 4 apply so don't worry about it getting overly complicated.

I'm actually rather fond of the overly-used idea of a MOD!Harry summoned in a world where Normal! Harry hasn't defeated Voldemort. If I ever do a spin-off of the 5 it would be something like that but with guardians thrown in the mess. (EDIT* I actually did it lol, the story can be found in this x-over section as well. Wish me luck)

Yes people, this is foreshadowing. Whether it happens immediately or not, I'm still deciding. (Edit* It wasn't! haha)

See you later!