Edward Closely was the typical servant of the British crown, in the year 995, having lived among the royal family, he saw a lot of strange things, in addition to the Vikings who always attacked from the sea
He saw terrible monsters killing entire villages, he saw the eyes of some of the crown's most important servants change color or glow.
but, even having seen all this, Edward didn't know what was happening, even though his eyes were open to the stranger, talking about the strange things in the castle was forbidden
However, this never stopped Edward from trying to learn, he stole books from the library, and studied legends, but nothing there was comparable to the knowledge he wanted to have, nothing in the library explained the events in the castle
He went to church and left with nothing, besides more doubts, because the priest told him 'never interfere in the affairs of abnormal people'
Walking through the city that surrounded the castle, Edward grimaced as he observed that beyond the city's mask of prosperity, there was misery there.
He turned his eyes away from children and old people lying on the ground agonizing from hunger and illness, there was nothing he could do, if he helped himself he would bring hatred to these poor wretches
for being chosen by a royal servant while the 'worthy' ones were not and that's why he continued to ignore all this falsehood of a perfect city
Continuing to ignore and dodge the city's pedestrians, Edward's eyes lit up, on the front street was a store he had never seen before
Different from ordinary stores full of dirt around them and made of wood, that store was made of stone and had something transparent blocking the objects in the store
this was the thing about glass... Edward thought, he knew about this wonderful invention, but only the nobles had the money to pay, to have glass objects like mirrors and a store to have glass right in the middle of the outskirts of the village, it was something that Edward didn't believe was real
"How? How come no one has robbed this store yet?" He asked shocked and looked at the sign above the store "Wishing Club, Time Doesn't Wait"
he, as one of the royal servants, was taught to read the basics to be minimally useful to his masters in situations that required reading
Attracted by the store, Edward swallowed and opened the door, when he fully entered the store, his vision found a girl standing behind the counter cleaning an object with a smile.
He was amazed at the girl's beauty, beautiful was not enough to describe her, she had curly red hair that reached her shoulder, large and lively blue eyes, pale white skin, and a thin body, with minimally detailed curves.
The girl looked at him and smiled sweetly.
"Welcome to the wishing club, here we fulfill all our customers' wishes for a reasonable price" The girl spoke calmly with a sweet tone and a beautiful laugh "Sorry, I didn't introduce myself, I'm Alice, the club's priestess"
"Do you grant wishes?" Edward asked in amazement, something in him said that this woman was as dangerous or even more dangerous than the castle's inhabitants. "Any wishes?"
"as long as you pay the price, yes!" Alice commented, not letting her beautiful smile fall, and took a walk around the counter and looked deep into Edward's eyes. "We can give you everything you want, come on, Young Man, tell me what you want?"
As if he was being hypnotized, Edward opened his mouth, "I desire knowledge, I want to know the truth of this world, I want to know what those beings in the castle are."
"Knowledge, Huh?" Alice commented thoughtfully and tapped the table three times "Unfortunately, this type of desire is not within my power, I will call my owner, he will be happy to meet you"
"Owner?" Edward asked and his mind grimaced, was this beautiful young girl a slave? Edward hated slavery and tried everything he could to convince royalty to abolish it, but he always failed.
"Yes, the owner of the store" Alice spoke with happiness that made Edward recoil, he saw love in Alice's eyes and not just any love but the love of a believer for his god "He is the owner of the store and of all those associated with it"
a fanatical slave? Edward didn't understand what was happening
"Did you bring me something quite interesting this time, my beautiful subordinate?" When a calm and confident voice rang in Edward's ears, "Hello, my name is Kronos and I'm the owner of the store"
In front of Edward was a young, handsome man, 180 cm tall, with pale white skin and light blue eyes, he was wearing a white suit and a black hat on his head, and in the man's hands was a cane.
Edward noted that the man was not lame, but still used a cane, but decided not to question him.
The man took a piece of paper out of his pocket, on it there was a pentagram drawn in its center, and placed the paper on the table.
"This is the mind spell, created by the great Atlantean sage called Alnear" Cronos spoke with a slight smile "By touching the paper and saying the words outo, you will have all of Alnear's knowledge, but, as a consequence, the more knowledge you use, the less knowledge you have"
Edward knew that the man's words seemed to be a lie, but something told him deep down, in his soul, that it was true.
He then believed it by looking at the paper and asked "Does Alnear know what beings are inside the castle and the truth of the world?"
Cronos looked at him and then smiled"Yes, Alnear knows everything and everyone"
"Does he know who you are?" Edward asked with a little fear and Kronos laughed happily scaring Edward
"That was a brilliant question" Cronos joked dragging the paper in front of Edward "He knows who I once was, but he doesn't know who I am today"
"A riddle? He knows who you were in the past, but he doesn't know who you are in the present" Edward shook his head and then sighed "I don't know what you mean, but one day I'll find out, what the price is"
Edward asked suspiciously, if what Kronos said was true, he might have something in his hands that resembles literal omniscience, a power that only God has! There's no way it can be cheap
"Odin, sacrificed an eye to have part of Alnear's knowledge," Kronos said making Edward's eyes widen "But, you, I want your soul"
"Odin? the God of the Norse? a god gave his eye just to have part of the knowledge" Edward asked and greed got the best of him "Very well, take my soul, I want this knowledge, I want all of it"
"make sure you made a good deal" Cronos spoke and a paper appeared in Cronos' hands "Sign and all the knowledge of Alnear"
Edward took the paper and signed it, sealing his fate.
"Master, was it really a good idea to give such knowledge to a human?" Alice spoke next to me with concern, seeing Edward leave the store "Alnear's knowledge had spells capable of killing even a prince of hell and hurting an archangel"
I laughed at my servant's foolishness
"Don't worry, my lovely subordinate" I spoke with a joking tone and pointed outside "he has no preparation or magical potential to be able to use Alnear's magic and he is a human, his head cannot support such knowledge, he himself Odin, a 3rd generation deity, with millions of believers could not bear even half of Alnear's knowledge"
"A human, I couldn't bear all of it" Alice's eyes widened "He's going to go crazy or die soon, the fastest soul to be harvested in millennia, master"
"Hahahaha" I started laughing at the possibility, I could throw this in Azazel's face, but I won't do it"I limited the power, he will use Alnear's knowledge 5 times without side effects"
"Why?" Alice asked confused "Why benefit a human so much?"
I looked at the sky outside the store and saw the lightning falling, the sun shining and the rain falling, a damn bizarre climate if someone thinks of it naturally
In reality, this is literally a fight between the Norse and Greek pantheons, both at their peak of power, overwhelmed by human faith, together with angels and demons warring against each other.
this was disgusting and wrong, the earth shouldn't be a war park for supernatural creatures, this was wrong
"What do you see when you look at this world" I asked Alice honestly
"A battlefield" Alice replied
"Exactly, a battlefield, where the weak suffer" I spoke angrily "Vampires like you once were, werewolves, mermaids, ghosts, humans, beings without the power to fight back against the powerful, this is wrong, I hate cowardice"
"That's why you gave him the knowledge" Alice stated understanding my words "He will spread the knowledge, but what about the others? Won't the humans become the fourth most powerful and oppress the rest?"
"They will for a while, but that was already expected," I said irritated, and then I stroked Alice's head and she melted "Don't worry, the reign of humans won't last long, this world will be ours eventually"