A Vulpine Spanner in the Works
Chapter 23: The Cost of Doing Business
[Count Iselk Bernard von Dalton II]
Day 18:
Today was looking to be a very lovely day. After all, I had a special guest coming to my mansion. From the moment my cousin told me about Kashia Blanc, I saw value. She is a lone adamantite-plate adventurer to start with. Any noble would spend a fortune to add her to their house retinue for just that pure strength. But that was only the start. She is the crown princess of a foreign land that is all alone without protection.
The wealth and power one could acquire with her kingdom's fortune if they were to marry or use other more viable methods on her was delicious to think about. And then, there was the fact that she was immensely beautiful. All of this meant that if I could take her today, then Eight Fingers would own an entire kingdom. One that was unaware and ripe for the picking.
After that night at the feast, I immediately had multiple agents find all the information they could on her. All of which was extremely promising and made what I planned today all the easier.
She has lived in E-Rantel for almost half a month. She only has a few associates; one of which is her adventuring team, the Swords of Darkness, who are just a group of four measly silver-plates without any connections, the sister of one of the members of the adventuring team, Tuareninya Veyron, and finally, Lizzie and Nfirea Bareare, alchemists that could easily be cowed into submission. None of these seven people had enough power or connections to be able to stir up too much of a fuss if she were to go missing.
And, if needed, I could always send a few agents to deal with these people if they became too irritating.
This all led to the current plan. It didn't take long to have a special drug brought in by some Eight Fingers agents on short notice along with magic suppressing shackles. The moment I informed the others on how special an opportunity like this was, they rushed to meet my request.
The drug, known as Dragon's Snare, was a special concoction made to put dragons to sleep. For a regular human, it would probably kill them. But for an adamantite-plate, they'd be knocked out for hours if not days. It helped that the drug was essentially untraceable, so she wouldn't notice anything after consuming any of the food or drink I planned to offer her.
Once she was unconscious, we'd slap all the shackles onto her before giving her a good dose of Princess' Relief, a highly addictive drug that left users in a euphoric and agreeable state. Once the drug cleared from a person's body, said person would immediately begin entering withdrawal mixed with a state of dimmed cognizance. Usually, this dimmed cognizance could be broken once the user had fully exited their state of withdrawal, but long uses of Princess' Relief made this effect permanent.
I found it quite amusing and appropriate for it to be this specific drug that was chosen for such a royal lady.
After that, it'd likely take a few weeks to finally break her before we could begin the next stage of the plan. Due to her being alone, none from her home country, the absurdly named Realm of Foxes, would question if their princess came home wed to a noble from another land. Once there, we'd begin the third phase of the plan. We'd bring in our agents to deal with Kashia's mother. And with her dead, Eight Fingers would now own an entire country with a puppet queen at the helm.
I was quite excited about this plan since I would be said lucky noble who would be wed with the soon-to-be queen. I'm the one who came up with the plan, after all.
Now, all that was required is a beautiful and simple-minded princess.
I didn't need to wait long, much to my growing excitement, as my manservant arrived into my study, likely with a beautiful blonde in tow.
"Greetings, my Lord. I have come with your guest, Princess Kashia Blanc. Shall I bring her in?" Harold, my loyal servant, asked with a bow. I couldn't help but smile.
"Of course! Bring Princess Kashia in at once. And following that, bring some of our good refreshments for our honored guest." I answered with a cheerful tone. It was best to give the princess no reason to be suspicious. Besides, I just needed her to consume anything and I would have her in our trap.
A few moments later and Harold brought Kashia in. I watched with no small amount of pride that she looked around my study with an impressed gaze. I would admit that I had filled this study with quite a few relics of immense value. One of such, an object that the blonde princess was studying with interest, was the skull of a dragon that I had obtained through an underground auction in the capital of Re-Estize.
In fact, quite a few items in my study had been obtained throughout multiple auctions that I had attended.
"This dragon skull is quite large. I'm very impressed that you managed to obtain such a fine and intact specimen." Kashia remarked before moving over to the plush chair cushioned in purple velvet across the table from me.
"That's a good eye you have there, Princess Kashia. In fact, many items within my study are quite rare and took years of time and money to acquire." I explained with a charming smile, "For instance, the chair you are sitting on was part of a set that had originally belonged to one of the former emperors of the Baharuth Empire."
"Really?" Kashia asked with interest as she examined the chair she sat upon. What a simple creature. It seems that even with her adventurer ranking and royal title, she was quite easy to impress with simple things.
"Of course. In addition, the table we're both sitting at once belonged to a former queen of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Queen Erietta II. She would use this table in her sunroom when entertaining guests. It took quite a bit of effort to find and buy this after it had been lost during a fire in the palace. The original table had been extremely damaged and it took a few years to have this restored."
"Very fascinating. I take it that you have an interest in history, Count Iselk?"
"In a manner of speaking, I do. I enjoy collecting unique and valuable things. It just so happens that a lot of what I collect has a grand history behind it. What of you? Do you also find such things to be of interest?" I asked, genuinely curious. While I planned to capture this princess, I would be a liar to deny that I didn't enjoy when someone talked of historical matters or wished to know more about the history of all the objects I had in just this room.
I knew the histories of each and every single piece that had been gathered here. Humorously, I think that I'd likely have enjoyed a profession as an archivist instead of a noble or a leader of the Eight Fingers. Unfortunately, it didn't bring the money or power that the two professions I had now did.
So now, I'd have to live out such a fantasy through my collecting.
"History has always been an interesting thing to research, be it historical or mythological. For instance, there is the known history of quite a few gods back in Yggdrasil." Ah, yes, Kashia did speak of her homeland and how the deities there had closer interactions with mortals compared to the deities here. It would probably be a good idea to know more about them, just in case.
"I'd love to hear of it." Kashia gave me a warm smile, and I felt amusement at how little she understood her situation right now. She probably wouldn't be smiling soon enough, but by then, it really wouldn't matter.
As Kashia crossed her legs, I couldn't help but think of how strange and provocative her odd clothing was. The skirt of her dress wasn't even a single piece. Instead, it cut up on both her sides and left a scandalous amount of her thigh and hip on display. Her simply crossing her legs was more like erotic teasing than a simple movement.
"Excellent!" Kashia excitedly clapped. She really did seem simple-minded. "To start with, one of the more powerful gods in Yggdrasil is the leader of the Aesir gods known as Odin, the All-Father. He was known for an immense wisdom that had been acquired when he traveled to the World Tree and hung himself upside down for nine days and nights on one of its branches. This gave him knowledge of the lands around him. Yet, to fully acquire the wisdom that came with this knowledge, he sacrificed one of his eyes to the World Tree itself, giving him understanding of everything that had been shown to him."
"Interesting. And this Odin couldn't just use his divine power to restore his sight?" I asked as Harold came in with a cup of tea for Kashia along with some scones filled with custard. He set the offered food before Kashia before bringing me my own cup of tea and scones.
"Thank you!" Kashia said as she picked up her cup of tea and blew on the slightly steaming drink. Just a little bit more and she would seal her fate. She then lowered the cup from her mouth slightly, but I made sure to continue remaining calm as I sipped from my beverage. Then, she raised the cup and took a sniff of the drink with a smile.
She shouldn't be able to smell the drug. The reason that Dragon's Snare was used against the creatures was due to how it couldn't be smelled. Obviously, she, as a human, wouldn't have the capability to smell what even dragons couldn't.
"This tea has such a remarkable scent. It wouldn't happen to have nutmeg and hazel ground into it, would it?" She asked in appreciation.
I smirked, of course she hadn't known. It was just the ingredients that were normally used in my morning tea that she noticed. "Why yes, Princess Kashia. You are very keen to notice. My servant, Harold, has been making this tea of mine for years. It's a mixture of nutmeg, hazel, and ginger splashed with a hint of peppermint. I have it every morning." I said while raising my cup and sipping from it.
"What a unique tea." She said as she raised it to her lips before pausing and lowering it infuriatingly from her mouth. "Oh, pardon me, Count Iselk. You asked me a question about why Odin couldn't just regrow his lost eye and I almost completely forgot about it."
"That's fine, Princess Kashia. As my father once told me, there are many things that can wait in life, but good tea is not one of them." I took another sip and watch Kashia slowly raise the cup back up to her lips once again before lowering it slightly once more. Just drink it already!
"I'll have to remember that saying for the future." She said with some amusement before she FINALLY brought the tea to her lips and started sipping from her cup. Good. The drug should take less than five minutes to begin taking effect. "Delicious."
"Hopefully, you'll understand why I love to have this beverage in the morning. It really helps to start off my day on a high note." I said with a small hint of satisfaction.
"Now, as I was saying, when Odin gave his eye to the World Tree, it sealed a divine pact between the two. Odin would never again receive sight from his right eye in exchange for the knowledge provided. Yet, that doesn't mean he actually lost the eye entirely." Kashia took another sip from her cup before picking up a scone and slowing taking a bite from the treat, taking her time to savor it.
"What ended up happening to Odin's eye? I would assume that it would be rendered useless after a pact like that."
Kashia swallowed the scone before speaking, "While Odin could never see from his sacrificed eye, that didn't mean that it was useless. The bodies and blood of gods still contain great power if one knows how to use them, and Odin, with the new knowledge he had acquired, was able to split the eye in two. From those two pieces he reforged them into a pair of great ravens, Huginn and Muninn. These ravens would act as his eyes and ears across the land."
"Simply fascinating. And you mentioned a thing called a World Tree. What is that, besides what one might infer from its name?" I watched as Kashia finished her cup before requesting a refill which Harold performed with utmost haste.
"Thank you." Kashia said before sipping some more from her cup. All this foolish woman did was speed up her fate. "The subject of the World-" The blonde princess stopped for a moment before shaking her head, then she continued, "Sorry about that. As I was saying, the subject of the World Tree is a bit of a mystery since not even the gods know where it came from as it was older than even them."
"Surely, there must be theories?" I asked, becoming more excited as Kashia's eyelids slowly began drooping until she shook herself awake.
"Some say that the World Tree came about from a massive concentration of mana coalescing until it formed a seed-" The teacup that Kashia had been nursing dropped from her hands to the floor and shattered. Thankfully, I had made sure to give her one of the cheap cups in expectation of this moment. "S-Something is…wrong…" The princess stuttered out as her voice became weaker.
She tried to stand from her chair, but she soon fell back down with heavy breathing from the attempt. Her eyes were straining to remain open, filled with fear.
"Y-You…poisoned…" She gasped. I took that moment to smile in victory. Getting out of my chair, I slowly stalked over to Kashia with all the intention to gloat.
"Not poisoned, Princess Kashia, just drugged." Her eyes widened with a questioning gaze. "You might be wondering why I've done this to you. Well, the answer to that is due to your great importance to mine and my organization's goals."
As I said this, I leaned over the chair my soon-to-be puppet sat in as she tried to futilely pull her face away from me. I felt an extreme amount of amusement and satisfaction from the power I held over this member of royalty. Her life was mine, and seeing those orange eyes look at me with fear made this all the sweeter.
"Don't worry, Princess Kashia. When all of this is over, you'll be the queen of your country after your mother suffers a tragic accident. And as your future king, I'll make sure to take good care of you."
The princess didn't have long to contemplate her future role in life as she finally fell unconscious from the drug fully taking hold.
Looking up, I gave a motion to Harold who quickly began pulling out the magic-suppressing shackles which had been hidden in plain view of my collection. The foolish girl had probably been looking at her own chains of bondage without thinking it anything more than a rare and historical item I had attained.
With a smirk as I gazed back down onto the beautiful princess, I felt the urge take a peek at her form. As her future husband and king, it was my right after all.
Yet, as I lowered my hand to her bosom, I suddenly found I couldn't move it. It felt like some invisible force was constricting on my wrist, and when I was about to call to Harold, I felt another invisible force wrap around my mouth, preventing me from alerting my servant as he came over with the shackles.
Then, I looked back down to the princess to see her orange eyes were fully opened and she had a smirk of amusement. Her entire expression reminded me of a cat playing with its prey.
When the sounds of chains hit the floor, I looked over to see that Harold was now being lifted into the air by an invisible force and being choked. His attempts to claw at his throat were stopped as his hands could seemingly only claw at the air, just out of reach as he continued gasping. All he could do was kick his legs helplessly in the air.
No, the plan was foolproof! She drank the drugged tea and ate the food! How?!
"You know, that was a lovely tea and scone. A little bit drugged for my taste, but no one is perfect. Like you, for instance. I've heard quite a bit about you from a friend of yours; Lubelina." As she said this, my eyes widened in horror.
She knew who I was from the start!
And somehow, she had found out all about me from Lubelina! But how could that be? I know for a fact that Lubelina would never reveal such information so lightly. And even if she were to do so, she should be dead. It was confirmed after the fire-
That's when it hit me. Kashia was involved in burning down the Golden Queen. In addition, she must have captured Lubelina sometime before or during the fire, using it to hide the evidence.
"You probably had such a massive scheme in mind with me involved. Though, there are a few snags in your plan that you didn't account for." As Kashia remarked in a taunting tone, I saw a cup, along with a teapot of the drugged tea Harold had been using, start floating over to Kashia before the teapot poured out a new cup that floated into her hands.
She raised the cup up to me in a mocking toast as she soon began drinking the drugged tea without issue. Did she have some magical item on her person that prevented poisoning? All this did was flaunt my failure before me.
"For one thing; Your plan hinged on me succumbing to your drug. Problem is that I'm completely immune to all poisons and such due to my biology. Your second problem; You assumed that if I were to ever marry someone, that it would be scum like you. You just aren't lucky enough." She took another sip after this before laughing.
When Kashia had calmed once more, she spoke, "The final issue; You thought that you could kill my mother with a simple accident. Here's the thing…" Kashia snapped her fingers and reality seemed to ripple around her until a myriad of gold limbs grew about her until growing into nine furred tails as her head became crowned with golden-furred ears.
Looking down, I saw that the force from before, both crushing my wrist and wrapped around my mouth, were a pair of her tails. Looking over to Harold, who had stopped thrashing as his arms and legs hung limply from his body, his neck was wrapped in a tail as well.
Looking to my loyal servant's face, I was able to see that his face had turned blue while his eyes, red from all the blood vessels that had burst, now slightly bulged out from their sockets. Harold was dead.
This inhuman woman did it. This monster! Oh, gods! I was going to be next!
"… When we had talked a few nights prior, I told you that the Realm of Foxes is protected by a guardian deity. Well, I may have also left out the part that this deity is also the queen of this land."
Oh, no…
There was never a chance that this plot could have worked. I had tried to abduct an actual goddess! And then, I stated that I'd have her goddess mother killed as well!
My expression must have been obvious at this point as the goddess laughed and said, "Ah, I see that you're understanding exactly the kind of situation you've managed to land yourself in. Let me reassure you, even if you hadn't invited me to your little house of horrors, I would still eventually have come for you."
I tried to ask a muffled, "Why?" She seemed to understand what I said and gave me a few 'tsk-tsk' in response.
"I would think that even a leader of Eight Fingers would be smart enough to know why a goddess might eventually come for him. But if you want a few more specifics on why I've decided to devote some of my time to breaking down your organization piece by piece; It's because your parasitic group enslaved one of my girls while the other had to suffer years alone without her sister, all the while wondering about the horrors she could be suffering."
Her orange eyes had turned golden at this point and gazed at me with absolute disgust and hatred. The smile she wore while watching me made the image all the more terrifying.
We had managed to piss off a goddess by enslaving a daughter of hers. Likely, she was a young demigoddess as that was the only conceivable way I could see us ever capturing someone like that. Kashia had likely been searching for her for some time. Maybe there might be a way for me to possibly lessen whatever punishment she might inflict upon me.
I tried to shout out a muffled plea to her. She seemed to allow this as her tail snake away from my mouth and instead chose to coil around my throat like a golden noose.
"P-Please! I-If it's your dau-daughter you're after, I h-have enough connections to find h-her for you!" I feverishly pitched to the goddess until she silenced me by squeezing down on my throat, making the act of breathing difficult, let alone speaking.
"That's just it. Both my daughters are safe and sound right now. Yet, there's one small problem." She said while squeezing her thumb and index finger together, "Did you know, when I found Tuare, she had just suffered another of the countless rapes forced upon her. Three of her ribs and her pelvis had been cracked, most of her teeth were missing, her right eye had gone blind due to physical trauma, vaginal and anal trauma, and she'd been repeatedly starved and beaten. This is in addition to the countless venereal diseases she was ailed by."
The teapot that one of her tails was holding ended up exploding when it was squeezed tightly in anger.
"Following that, I had to erase years of my daughter's life from her memory so that she didn't end up suffering from the physical and emotional scars she went through." Kashia took another sip from her cup as I heard the bones in the neck of Harold's corpse start cracking from the tail that was still strangling it.
"My daughters both should've had a happy childhood. They should've been able to play together, talk about relationships, have someone to ask how their day went, have someone to be able to hug whenever they were lonely or sad. Instead, one had to go through hell while the other was left alone in a world that couldn't give a shit about a peasant girl missing her family."
The tail on my throat dragged me until I was a foot away from Kashia's face and those glowing golden eyes filled with wrath. Then, she put a finger to my forehead and I felt like a jagged shard of glass had been driven through my brain. Then, it stopped and Kashia lowered her hand
"Here's the problem. You have already told your little club about your plans with me. I'm not about to let that happen, so we need to handle it, wouldn't you agree?" I couldn't speak or nod my head to agree as her tail had a tight grip on me.
"Let's begin with the easy part. We shall enter the contract of a [Geas]. Henceforth, until your death, you will follow and obey all my instructions with absolute loyalty and without hesitation. Do you agree?" As she said this, the glow of a spell surrounded us and her tail loosened enough from my throat to allow me to speak.
Agreeing to the terms of whatever this spell is would probably be my only way of surviving, since I had no other option otherwise.
"Yes…" I choked out in a hoarse voice as I felt the magic take ahold of me. At that moment, I knew that I'd never be able to disobey or hurt this goddess before me. I was a slave now bound to her…
"Very good." She said mockingly, "Here's what I want you to do; Your friends will probably be wondering why I'm not your captive. You'll give them the most amazing reason of why the plan didn't work and a bullshit excuse of why your friends shouldn't go after me and my loved ones. Following this, you are going to do everything in your power to dismantle and break Eight Fingers. With me so far?"
My body responded automatically without any of my will doing so. "Yes." Came the emotionless answer from my voice.
"After Eight Fingers is as dismantled as it can be, you are going to donate your family's entire fortune along with all of your earthly possessions to the poor and destitute. By the time you're done, the only item that you will own and wear will be a simple potato sack." Kashia continued without an ounce of sympathy.
All I felt was pain from this order. Everything that I had built up and acquired throughout my life would be gone. I'd have a life, but I'd have absolutely nothing!
"You'll spend the next nine years of your life living on the streets of E-Rantel, begging for scraps while giving any wealth you may acquire to those in need. I bet you'll have a better understanding of what those without go through every day while you lived in luxury." That would leave me as no better than a dog. At this point, death would be better.
"Then, upon finishing your nine years of penance, you will spend the rest of your life as a traveling monk that will aid the poor, the destitute, the hungry in whatever method is possible. And, as added insurance so you don't try weaseling your way out of this justified punishment, you are not allowed to kill yourself directly or indirectly."
As she commanded this, she let go of both myself and Harold's corpse before pushing me back and standing from her chair. "Do you understand?"
"Yes. I will obey." I immediately answered.
"Then get to work." Kashia snapped her fingers and the bestial ears and tails of hers disappeared, leaving her with the appearance of a human once more. "Have fun with your new life." She said while walking out of my study. The click of her boots being the only ominous sound that still came from her.
I felt empty by the end of this. Everything that I had worked towards and built was going to be destroyed by my own hands. And I would be forced to go through with this, unable to even kill myself to escape what my life would become.
Yet, I didn't have long to contemplate this sad state of events because my body was already moving over to my desk to pull out some parchment and draft a few letters. I didn't even have the chance to remove Harold's corpse that was still laying on the floor. I had to complete my first order.
[Ninya]
Since Kashia had given me the [Foxfire] tome, I had been diligently working on it since yesterday. Sure, she had me switch to the rapid-casting training after an hour of studying, but I decided to try and incorporate some of the techniques of the fire aspects into my [Firebolt] spell. For instance, one of these aspects was to speed up the casting time of the spell.
Originally, when I learned [Firebolt] I was taught that you needed to compress the mana used within the spell until it exploded outwards. An analogy for that would be like when Lukrut fires his bow. In order to do so, he pulls the bowstring back to gather energy behind the arrow until finally releasing the string, launching the arrow.
Yet, with Kashia's technique, there was a much faster way.
Vibrate the mana.
Strangely, her explanation behind it involved referencing a thing that she referred to as atoms. Apparently, they were extremely tiny pieces of 'energy', as she tried to explain, that were always in a stable motion. She gave me an example with water, which was apparently made up of an impossibly large number of atoms.
When the atoms were stable, they would remain as water. When these atoms slowed, the water would turn to ice. But when the atoms sped up their motion, the water would turn to steam.
Using this concept, gathering mana for a fire spell was made faster and more cost-efficient mana-wise by creating a simple spell array of mana and then having the mana rapidly vibrate within until the spell formed and launched. In comparison, the gathering method took seconds longer and required mana to continually be added to the compression, resulting in some mana being lost in the process.
Utilizing this method, I lowered the casting time of both [Firebolt] and [Foxfire] by two seconds while halving the mana costs. For a person unused to magic, they'd barely notice the difference and just assume that I was casting faster. But for a mage, it was revolutionary!
Lowering the mana cost of not just these two spells, but all fire spells in addition to the time it took to cast them could change magical studies around the world. It could possibly allow for mages who were skilled enough to cast higher Tiered spells, but did not have the mana capacity, to now cast these spells! I held a tome that could change the entire world if its knowledge was spread.
Warfare would change immediately. If the Baharuth Empire, who already had a powerful battalion of mages, were given this tome then they could likely burn through the Re-Estize within the year. Sure, they might not fully be able to utilize the main aspect of this tome which was about building upon the knowledge of [Foxfire] that I already had. But the rest of this knowledge would be worth more than enough.
I needed to make sure that this tome was protected; Both to make sure that the knowledge wasn't abused, but also because this was Kashia's gift to me. That made it more valuable to me than all the treasures in the world.
On the note of the other [Foxfire] spells, I followed Kashia's advice and didn't skip ahead to further spells in the tome. I had a feeling that later spells would likely build upon knowledge I gain with my understanding of the first spell.
And speaking of [Foxfire Will O' Wisp], I hadn't figured out the trick to it just yet. I'd likely figure it out in a few weeks, but I was currently a little stumped. What [Foxfire Will O' Wisp] did is conjure three spheres of [Foxfire] that would be animated like spirits by the caster's mana. From there, the orbs would float around the caster as a form of protection that could block attacks or be sent to chase after an enemy.
I never thought that there was a spell that could give life to fire, but now I knew that it existed and that excited me.
This spell consisted of three main steps. First, you conjure the orbs of [Foxfire]. Next, you allow the orbs to orbit around your body. Finally, you animate the spheres to give them independence. Unfortunately, I still hadn't fully mastered the orbiting step. While the conjuring step was as simple as conjuring three balls of [Foxfire], the latter steps were more difficult.
Whenever I tried the orbiting step, the three spheres begin the orbit for a few moments before I lost my concentration and the spheres would fly off into a random direction or break apart.
But maybe I might be thinking of this orbiting step in the wrong way. Perhaps I was trying to do too much at once and needed to take a step back. I think my problem is that I'm not used to this concentration aspect that the spell requires.
To be honest, I've never had any experience with concentration spells before. They were usually much harder to learn because of the greater effort needed to both cast and maintain. While most viewed it as an obstacle, I saw it as a new challenge to improve myself. If I mastered this concentration spell, then I can apply that mastery to any future spells I would learn.
So, I should start small with this concentration spell. Just try with a single sphere and work up from there.
With that, I began the conjuring step, forming a single sphere of [Foxfire]. Then, with as much control as I could muster, I willed the sphere to begin slowly orbiting me. I had to really clamp down my focus on the spell once the sphere left my range of vision. When it finally came back in sight, I felt a bit of relief that I managed to finish one orbit.
The only issue was that I really started losing control once it went out of my sight. Combine that with how the amount of concentration I needed to maintain this spell was not viable in a combat setting told me that I had a long way to go.
I think that I'll try to make it orbit with my eyes closed this time. That would likely help with the concentration issues I had when the sphere went out of my sight.
I closed my eyes after making this decision and tried to imagine the sphere attached to a spinning wheel, with me as the axle. I can't see the fire, but I can feel it. Just let it slowly spin around me an-
CAW! CAW!
The cawing of a nearby crow made my attention slip for a moment and I felt the flame veer off behind me. Opening my eyes, I looked over my shoulder to see the ball of [Foxfire] fly a few feet away before snuffing itself out.
I sighed in disappointment before looking up at the crow in a nearby tree that was now preening its feathers.
Stupid crow.
At least I was making progress. Maybe I should ask Kashia for some help with my concentration. She'd likely know a lot considering how many spells she often casts at once without issue. There has to be a trick for it.
Taking a moment's break, I looked over to where the others were currently training. Peter currently seemed to have the hardest time with his training since he was still covered in all that weight while swinging his sword in slow, practiced movements. The heavy breaths he took along with how he was sweating buckets showed exactly how strenuous on his body this was.
With Dyne, he had managed to grow a small copse of trees at this point. It wasn't a forest, but it was progress, especially because he was showing less signs of exhaustion from channeling such large amounts of mana. At least that was one good thing about Kashia's casting training; It allowed us to go beyond our casting limits to push our bodies. Spellcasting of any form tires the casters who perform it aside from just using up their mana.
Having to form the casting arrays and distribute mana in moments to create the spell was mentally tiring. Adding on top of this, is that channeling large amounts of mana through one's body tends to stress it. The stronger one was as a caster, the less they would be affected.
The only caster among us besides Kashia who seemed to be an outlier was Lukrut. Aside from having a root arrow limit of five now, since yesterday he'd managed to increase it after our delving attempt, he appeared to have no limit at all.
After testing it out with Kashia cutting her [Mana Font] spell from him, Lukrut could still create and control those root arrows without issue. I know that it is magic, but in a way, it also seems like it isn't since this root magic doesn't seem to use mana. And whatever those white roots of Lukrut are, they are immune to Dyne's druidic magic.
And watching Lukrut now, he seemed to be getting a lot better at controlling his roots since they at least didn't explode his targets when he shot them.
Other than that, the four of us have just spent the past few hours practicing our skills since Kashia had to leave us for a bit to 'handle some business'. Additionally, she didn't want any of us to try the dungeon until she got back. It was understandable since the dungeon was pretty dangerous, even without her being there to help us. Then, she teleported away.
Hopefully, she'll come back soon since all of us were itching to enter that dungeon again. We'd gotten past the gas trap and made it past a few more crypt rooms until we fell to another pit trap.
This time, I know that we'll get even farther than before.
[Kashia]
I felt pretty good after dishing justice to that pig of a Count. Iselk's memories left a bad taste in my mouth, especially because I had to know of everything his plan for me entailed. It gave me shudders just thinking his little fantasies.
But I at least managed to get some salvageable information from his mind. It seems that he had quite a few fingers in the acquisition of stolen goods for Eight Fingers due to being the manager for that department. That, and he knew where at least two of my next targets lived. That save me a lot of time trying to scry out their locations otherwise.
The two targets of interest were Hilda Cygnaeus, the leader of the little club's drug production and trade, and Anton Devlen; leader of the club's transportation and smuggling of goods. I had quite the fun set of options before me. I could go after the transportation of the shitty club first, but that came with a bit of a downside.
Since I suspected that Anton was involved with every branch of Eight Fingers, that meant his services going to shit would immediately alert the other departments of the club. Then, they'd know that someone is after them and scatter like roaches.
Nah, I think that I'd be paying Hilda a little visit soon enough. A few drugs from their drug dealer going missing wouldn't disrupt the club as much as their driver would.
That was when I got a [Message] from my copy. That's odd. She normally wouldn't contact me unless it's important… Or amusing.
"What's happening?" I asked while leaving the pig's mansion.
'It appears that there is a visitor at the Fox Palace.' My copy answered.
"Fox Palace? That's what we're calling it now?" I couldn't help but comment.
'This coming from Miss Tree of the Gods?' She retorted, making me grumble, 'Still, I'm calling you over here because your visitor doesn't seem like someone with the average level of power for this world.' That made me freeze in place.
Was it another Player? Why did they come to the palace? Were the others safe right now?
"Is there anyone else with the visitor that might be hiding? Do you happen to recognize them from YGGDRASIL?" I quickly asked.
'No one we'd recognize from YGGDRASIL, Boss. Guy's wearing very distinct platinum-looking armor. I think this guy's a New Worlder. Additionally, neither I nor the kitsune patrolling have found anyone hiding nearby.'
That's good. Well, not exactly good, but possibly not Player-level of worrying. Still, I needed to take this cautiously.
"Has this person shown any signs of hostility? That or given any reason for why he's there?"
'Guy's been pretty calm so far, considering that he's surrounded by over 50 kitsune between levels 30-70. I also have a few preparations on standby in case he tries anything.'
Shit, I needed to deal with this. Unfortunately, looking down at my normal gear, I didn't think that going to meet this guy as Kashia the Adventurer would be a good idea. God damn clone really was forcing me to wear this…
Quickly teleporting into the bedroom I had last used at the 'Fox Palace', I then rapidly reequipped my clothes to the goddess stripper outfit that had been left in my inventory. Looking down, I hated how much of a fetish parody my copy had made of my normal dress, especially because it felt so damn breezy right now.
That and this veil covering the lower half of my face was annoying to both breathe and smell through.
At least the hat looked cool.
Then, I dispelled my illusion and changed my eyes to a glowing golden. I found it a little strange how easily it was to change my eye color to gold at this point. Before, it occurred without my input by my instinctual side, especially when I was being worshipped by the magic nerds. Now, it was getting scarily easy to do so.
Focusing back to the task at hand, I scried the area to find my visitor in platinum-looking armor standing calmly as a veritable army of kitsune encircled him, poised to attack at the slightest sign of hostility. My copy was likely disguised as a normal kitsune amongst the bunch, just waiting.
The man's armor looked extremely heavy and well-plated since not an inch of his body was visible. The only things breaking up the pure metal look of the armor was white fur that surrounded his arms from pit to shoulder before dropping off behind his armor, and a long tassel of white fabric that came from the top of his helmet. The only thing disrupting this image of a perfect knight was the hole punctured in the right dragon-headed pauldron of the armor.
Floating around this man were four weapons; a hammer, a greatsword, a spear, and a katana. The katana ended up throwing me off since it didn't match the weaponry that I know is used by this country. Where did he get that?
With a sigh, I couldn't delay this meeting any further than I already was. I really hoped that I'd be taken seriously by this guy. Then, I teleported to the entrance of the palace and used my tails to push the doors open with ease.
Might as well make an entrance for this guy since I was supposed to be the goddess known as the Fox Princess.
Then, I copied the way my copy had changed her voice with some illusion magic. "I see that I have a visitor. I hope you aren't bothered by my subjects. They can be a little overprotective of me." I said while making my way down the palace steps.
"Not to worry. I can appreciate strong loyalty in a leader's followers. Besides, I find a situation such as this to be a new experience in my life. I can't claim to have ever been surrounded by an army of foxes before." The man answered with some humor.
Though, my ears picked up on a very peculiar aspect about this armor that became known as he spoke. My nose helped to confirm it. His voice echoed in his armor. It might be a little muffled from interior padding, but the way his voice managed to echo from his helmet to his greaves told me that this armor is hollow. The lack of a scent besides the musty smell of the armor's interior helped to aid this deduction.
Now, was this man a sentient suit of armor or was it being puppeteered by some magician outside of detection range?
"I'm happy to hear it. Though, I do wonder what might bring a person so well-armored and powerful into a little lake like this? One might assume that you were preparing for a fight." I asked while leaving that remark open for my guest.
"If we'll be honest with each other, I came here because of what I've seen and heard about you. I wanted to get a good picture of it for myself." The platinum man answered.
"I hope that all the tales you've heard about me are good." I joked as a few of the seven tailed kitsune subtly began forming around me as bodyguards.
"From what I hear, you are a benevolent goddess of magic able to conjure miraculous feats of magic beyond mortal ability. Others claim you to merely be a beautiful witch that claims divinity. I haven't fully made up my mind just yet." Platinum man replied with ease.
"And what's preventing you from making up your mind? I think we both know that I'm more than just a simple witch." I said with amusement while keeping my eyes on the four weapons floating around the man. It helped that I could increase the glowing of my eyes to make it difficult to tell what I was staring at.
"I am well aware of that. I could even believe your claim of divinity. My indecision stems on whether you actually are benevolent or not. I have dealt with evil gods before. What truly makes you different?"
Recalling the history I had been told about this world, there have been a few instances of beings that appeared before the people of different kingdoms and such that called themselves gods.
An entire country south of us had become zealots because of it. Yet, aside from those benevolent gods of the Slane Theocracy, there were also the Evil Deities that had to be defeated by the Thirteen Heroes.
Why did they have to give these famous historical groups the most boring names in this world?
"Now, isn't that just a tough question to ask me? I could claim that I'm truly benevolent, but you'd likely still not believe me. I could go on about all the good that I've been doing, yet those could be written off as lies to appease you. I could even try showing you, but that might just be waived off as me hiding a long-scale evil plan of mine. So, how exactly am I supposed to answer your question?" I said, listing off every possibility that might be going through this man's mind.
What I didn't expect was for the man to begin laughing until he eventually spoke, "At least you are self-aware enough to realize this. Yet, that still leaves us at a standstill. I don't know your intentions or who you might be."
"To answer your first question; What I want is to make this place better than the one the one I left. This world has many different problems that I'd like to fix." I replied.
"And what if these people don't want your help? What would you do then?" Platinum man asked in rebuttal.
"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. Don't tell me that you've lived with your head in the sands over current events. Look around you, at this kingdom; A place where a criminal organization rampantly gets away with injustice because multiple nobles are bribed to let them if they aren't already working for them. Look at the continual wars between this kingdom and the Baharuth. Boys and men on both sides are sent into a grinding slaughter by leaders who couldn't care less about their deaths, only their continual status quo!
Look south, where a country of religious fanatics is forced to defend their borders from continual invasion and outright annihilation, all the while butchering or enslaving any non-human just trying to live a peaceful existence but found themselves unlucky enough to be stuck inside their borders! That's just three countries! None of the leaders of those three countries likely has any urge to change this, but I do. So, tell me, Platinum Warrior, what injustice have you bothered to lift your silvery ass up to stop?" I finished, more emotional than I thought I'd be.
The Platinum Warrior remained silent for a few moments, likely contemplating what I said. Then, he spoke once again, "I will admit, my last overt act of stopping injustice was when I helped slay the Evil Deities centuries ago. Since then, I've spent my time in preparation."
"Preparation for what?"
"Preparation for when more like the Evil Deities might come. I watched as countless thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, were slaughtered by beings who laughed and reveled in the chaos and misery they created. I have ignored lesser issues in favor of the greater ones I know will arrive."
That's when I figured out who this guy was, "You were one of the Thirteen Heroes that fought the Evil Deities." I stated.
The Platinum Warrior nodded, "I once was part of the Thirteen Heroes until we split apart after our task was completed. They went on to live out their lives, I continued preparing for what the future would bring."
"Then, why are you here? To talk to me or to kill me?" As I said that, multiple kitsune around the man began growling in warning at him.
"I simply came to talk. I wished to gain some understanding of who you are. I made a gamble on the rumors that you are a benevolent goddess, otherwise I wouldn't have even bothered coming near." He answered completely relaxed or what he was trying to make me think was relaxed.
"And from what you've heard me say, what are your opinions about it?"
"I'd be lying if I said that there weren't terrible issues plaguing this world. I've watched kingdoms rise and fall, wars be fought over scraps that would disappear within a decade, allied nations turn on each other within the century after the newer generations forgot why they even came together in the first place. People like you and I are bound to watch those with short lives forget the lessons of the past and repeat the mistakes of history."
Immortality. I couldn't help but become aware of it in this moment. Likely, because of my race as a demigoddess, I'd probably never die of old age or disease. Then, I made the horrifying realization of my racial passive…[Time Immunity]. I really was never going to age.
I would watch as Peter, Dyne, Tuare, Ninya, and Lukrut grew old while I would still look like I'm in my 20's. I would watch Ninya and Tuare change from being teenagers full of life to old women on their deathbeds. Lukrut would give me his last flattering compliment before I didn't hear them anymore.
I'm actually scared thinking about it.
"For a goddess, you're quite young, aren't you?" That brought me out of my morbid contemplation and made me focus on the Platinum Warrior once more.
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
"I've seen enough old eyes to know that you don't have them, no matter how brightly you make them glow. It's easy enough to tell that you're already contemplating your long life and who you'll watch age away. It's all over your face." He answered with complete certainty.
"I…" I couldn't continue.
"I would hazard a guess that you've already grown attached to a few mortals from the way that you're acting." I didn't even bother responding at that point. "I think I've seen enough for now."
That pulled me out of my slump, "What? Why?"
"Because, you've told me everything I needed to hear." As he said this, he began walking away from me. "I'd possibly like to meet with you again in the coming future. Hopefully, you'll be amiable to that."
"I don't even know your name." I said, walk farther and farther from me, the kitsune that had encircled him split away and gave him a path to leave.
"Call me Riku Aganeia." The man said before, surprisingly, he teleported away from view. My mind quickly analyzed what he did before coming to the conclusion of Wild Magic [World Teleportation]. Wild Magic? What the hell was… And then my supernatural insight filled the gaps and I became absolutely disgusted.
Wild Magic is one of the three magics utilized in this world alongside Runic Magic and Tiered Magic. What made it disgusting to me, and caused me to question why someone claiming to be a hero was using it, is because it used souls to power it. It pulled from the souls of the dead of this world like a vacuum, put them through the magical equivalent of a blender, and spat out the remains as a spell.
And what made such a magic horrifying is that it was finite in a way. If there were too many Wild Magic users, then the gathered collective of souls in this world would be sucked away into nothing, making said magic useless. The only way to fix that was to have a constant amount of people dying to refill that collective.
That also meant that any afterlife in this world was absolutely fucked.
I needed to think after all of this.
"Thanks for your protection, everyone. You can return back to your duties." I said to the still gathered kitsune that were waiting for orders.
They all bowed before giving a collective answer of, "Yes, Princess!" Then they went off into different directions. Some towards the bridge, others back inside the palace until eventually, the only ones remaining in the courtyard was me and a small golden kitsune that quickly dropped the illusion and turned back into my copy.
I just sat down on the stairs and considered more of my potentially very long life ahead of me. But my copy eventually joined me and took a seat next to me.
"You okay, Boss?" She asked.
"I don't know. Since coming here, I haven't really thought much about my future, mostly just about everything happening in the present. Eventually, the others are going to die. And I'll still be right here. I'm afraid of that." I answered truthfully. My eyes were beginning to burn at the thought.
"But, Boss, why not use some of your spells and such to try making them immortal? That would solve your entire dilemma." She suggested, something that I had already thought about but couldn't fully rely on for one simple reason.
"What if they don't want to be immortal?" I questioned back as I felt a few tears start dripping from my eyes.
"Oh…"
Wiping my tears away with my sleeve, I took deep breaths in, slow breaths out. "No matter what happens, I just need to enjoy the time we all have together!" I tried to say positively, "We've all got 60 to 80 years of time together! That's a long time… It's gonna feel like forever…" And then I broke down weeping.
[Platinum Dragon Lord]
Looking at my piloted suit of armor resting in the corner of my home, I thought about the meeting I had with that young goddess. That Player. I couldn't trust her, not fully considering that I didn't have a complete grasp of who she was. But, from what I could see already, she was already building her powerbase up in this world. The mountainous stone tree along with the palace of solid gold guarded by an enormous multitude of those foxes which I had no doubt were powerful despite their size.
But I did have some hope that it would be easy enough to reason with her. The fact that she had reacted so strongly to the mention of her immortality told me quite a few things. For instance, she is basically a child in comparison to me. A young goddess who hadn't considered the ramifications of what having an extraordinarily long life would mean for any relationship that she would develop with regular mortal beings. Additionally, the fact that she had made any connections to mortal beings at all while caring about their deaths meant that she had a working source of empathy and care for those weaker than her.
That at least meant she could be convinced to aid the people of this world were something monstrous to come along. Something like another Player.
Looking at the hole in the pauldron of my armor, I was brought to the moment where I piloted my armor against the vampire. That thing was obviously a Player, it was too strong to be anything else. Though, it appeared that the vampire had been put under a powerful spell of mind control, as initially, she didn't react at all when I had approached, only when I attacked.
Unfortunately, my attacks weren't powerful enough to kill her while her guard was down, my armor's damage was a testament to that. So, I was forced to use my [World Teleportation] to escape from the Player before it could further damage my armor with that spear of hers.
I have no idea how many other Players managed to arrive in this world, but I may need allies, and having another Player to aid in taking down one of their own was quite valuable, the former leader of the Thirteen Heroes was truth to that.
It was unfortunate how he had died and chose to remain dead from guilt. He was an honorable warrior who earned my trust and respect. I only wish that he could've seen all of us Heroes complete our mission.
Yet, ruminating on the past did nothing to aid the situation now. I couldn't tell how many other Players could be running around at the moment. Especially, since checking on the spot where that mind-controlled Player had been revealed absolute devastation from a massive battle. Another Player may have come to kill the vampire Player for more power.
From what I've seen previously, Players had fought amongst themselves in a weird form of 'cannibalization' to acquire the power of the other Player, both strengthening the victor while weakening the loser.
It could also be the very same Fox Princess as the Player called herself who had killed the vampire Player. Unfortunately, I was unable to find out since I didn't feel it was wise to prod too much into her. Players can be fickle beings after all. While it is my duty to kill these Players that were brought to this world due to my father's mistake, I felt pity for them.
Perhaps in their original world, they might not have been monsters. But their arrival and actions in this world didn't stay my hand from what I needed to do.
This was a dreadful business and one day I hoped that this world wouldn't have to continue to suffer because of my father.
Sadly, it was not this day.
[Kashia]
Arriving to the training grounds of my team in my regular disguised appearance, I spotted all of them still hard at work on their training. I had been gone a lot longer than I had expected so I hope they hadn't missed me too much.
With a smile, I made my way over to Ninya whose face was buried deep in her tome. At the same time, a sphere of [Foxfire] slowly orbited around her until Ninya's concentration broke and the sphere went flying off into the air before sputtering out.
"Aw, I was doing so well!" My apprentice/daughter complained at the sudden failure.
"I can see that. Seems like you are building your skill at the spell up until you're able to maintain three spheres of [Foxfire]." I commented from behind her, causing Ninya to jump before turning around to see me.
"Kashia! Did you really have to scare me like that?!" Ninya complained. I widened my smile and leaned down a little before mussing up her hair slightly.
"Of course I do, kiddo! Gotta keep you on your toes. Besides, you're so adorable when you jump like that." I teased her before pulling her into a hug. Ninya managed to pull her head up from my chest and met my gaze with a questioning look.
"Are you okay, Kashia? You seem a little off." She asked with concern. Seems Ninya was becoming a real perceptive kid around me. I shook my head to reassure her. She didn't need to worry about me. It's the adult's job to worry about the kid, even if she thinks otherwise.
"I'm perfectly fine, kiddo. I've got everything that I want right here." I answered her warmly. Eventually, we broke apart and I called the others over. The other three were all surprised to see that I had returned.
"Hello, my beautiful fox! When did you get back?" Lukrut asked as he made it over to Ninya and I first.
"Just a few minutes ago. Took care of some silly things. Then arrived back here and terrified Ninya." I replied before kissing him.
When we broke apart, Lukrut raised a questioning brow. "Not that I'm against the affection, but any reason in particular right now?"
"I just felt like it." I answered. I didn't say anything about the existential crisis I just had earlier which made me want to enjoy every moment I have with my loved ones.
Peter and Dyne arrived soon after, well, more so Dyne since Peter was slightly lagging behind due to still wearing over a hundred pounds of weight on his body. I was fairly impressed that he was able to move over here so quickly considering how tired he looked.
"I see you've finally returned. Did you take care of whatever business it was that you had in E-Rantel?" Peter asked with a few huffs as he rested his hands on his knees.
"Yeah. Just dealt with a guy who proposed some absurd little business venture to me that would have never worked. I had to turn him down, but I gave him some good advice which I believe he'll appreciate in the future." I answered with a giggle.
"Good to hear that." Dyne remarked, "At least you have more sense with money than a few of us here." He teased while glancing over to Lukrut.
"Hey, what are you looking at me for?!" Lukrut fired back.
"The amount of money I've won off of you over the years for many of the bets you've made could probably have afforded me a Dalton war horse." Dyne answered with a laugh. Lukrut rolled his eyes but gave a good-natured grin.
"Yeah, well, it just means that the times I win against you are all the more special." My silly archer said confidently.
"Tell that to the money in my purse." We all began laughing at that.
After a while, we managed to settle down and I spoke to everyone, "Seems like all of you have been working hard, but I'll assume that you're all getting a little bored right now. So, I think that it's a great time to make another attempt on the dungeon!" I said, getting my team excited.
"Finally/Yes!" They said together, making me smile at the moment even more.