Monsters raid and now of all the time, didn't they said that it will at least take a bit more days for it to actually erupt, why were it erupting so suddenly ? .
Don't worry about it kid , those sirens that went off are acting more as a warning of that the monsters raid is coming soon so it's more a warning than an actual signal of its happening , but i don't blame your reaction since the sirens were very much design to make the newbies Adventurers and those who have no knowledge of how things were being done around here feel fear and insecurity about the next incoming monsters attack , but the sirens normally were going off some hours prior in the same day that the raid were supposed to happen at.
So by they going off now, meant one thing for sure which was , today was the monsters raid erupting day and we are currently a few hours away from it .
Wait, an hours before the erupting of the monsters raid and why would a warning siren induce fear and insecurity to the newbies Adventurers, wasn't this going to affect their will and simultaneously have a big impact on their performance on the battlefield .
I agree 100 percent with what you just said but the king and his devoted general commander believe that it was helping to strengthen the will of the Adventurers and make them adapt more quickly to the dangers that were coming in their way .
A bet, that was the only thought that came to my mind, the king and his general were betting on the lives of those newbies Adventurers, that was all that i can make of this .
But at least it gave me some bit of relief , since it also gave me a clear idea about how much time that i have in try to figure out what was exactly happening with Regard .
Why was he acting as if he didn't hear what i just said then i remembered some of the words that the Bloodlord said about the people who lived on this land .
And began to wonder in a strange line of thought, what if the people under the influence of the Shard were unreal to begin with, it would certainly give a more feasible explanation to why everyone's attributes and status were being digitalize .
A crazy and unbelievable thought but i don't know why i can't take it out of my mind, i called for Liliana trying to know if it was the same with her or was something wrong with Regard in particular .
She greeted me with a refreshing smile on her face and a quite few blush marks on her cheeks, i only told her one word and that word was Bloodlord and asked if she had heard the word clearly .
And this is where things got a lot more interesting and weird too , she was actually able to hear it quite clearly , she even said the same word back to me as if confirming that she did indeed heard it but my deadpan expression give her a confused expression, probably wondering if she said it wrongly or something .
Seeing her reaction i assured her that she said it just fine and thanked her for her help which cheered her up , i asked her to say the same words to Regard and she did but his expression was still the same as if he didn't hear her talking to him just now .
I hurriedly held the enraged girl at being ignored and told her that he left some presents for her in the kitchen and that he didn't ignore her on purpose and she actually believed it and hurriedly went back to the kitchen and she actually fell to that trick .
I looked at the old man still a bit oblivious about what was currently taking place with quite compassion since i could have intentionally or unintentionally set a ticking bomb now threatening to explode once she found out that their were no gifts in the kitchen and curses i just had to say his name .
Well, there was no helping it now and he won't die or anything like that, he at most will get some scratches and some bruises for this, he will survive this, probably .
Looking at the scenery of the inn around me, i was beginning to increasingly doubt his chances of surviving , the inn looked as if a typhoon happen to pass by and have a party inside of it , i'm really sorry for that old man please don't hate me for it .
Now unto a more serious subject, Liliana was able to hear the term Bloodlord quite clearly yet this old retired high ranking Adventurer wasn't, and i don't believe to be a problem related to his age or his hearing just becoming so bad as he aged, since these kind of common senses that were in my old world, doesn't seem that common around here where magic could almost resolve any and everything .
So what exactly did i miss, or what kind of force which was currently missing with me or Regard, i decided to just alert him about Liliana talking to him and telling him what she said and he looked as clueless as before as if he was having a short time memory loss and as if he was glitching he blatantly asked me if Liliana even came here .
What was going on here, she literally just passed by us and he watched our interaction just now, then why was he talking as if he didn't witness anything that just happened , two guys looking at each other in bewilderment for complete different reasons but all related to one subject , why can't regard hear the terms that i just use and why was Liliana able to? .
But the reason that my bewilderment increased even more was actually very much attributed to my fear of that something bad might happen if i were to be more persistent about this kind of subject might unintentionally cause him some unimaginable risks .
Since if something or someone was really responsible for preventing me from having a conversation with the guy that was directly beside me then what could stop that entity from just use whatever authority it have to directly cause damage to the old man .
But now that my train of thoughts stumbled into that weird word Authority, i couldn't help but link it to the influence and authority that were currently influencing this whole land , yes that Shard's Will, but even if it had that much of authority and influence to pull off such a thing .
Why can't it affect Liliana too, and why can't it just remove all the information about that incident from my meager brain and mind directly , or was something or someone else entirely was at work here , came to tell him this in hope of him clearing some of my doubts , he added a lot more to it .
Arrrgggghh , my damn mind is aching like as if it was being splitted into two halves , tons of questions, mysteries, ideas , overloading my brain by a lot .
Take it easy kid , or you might really die of overthinking , you really need to change that bad habit of your of you suddenly engrossing yourself in so much thinking that you begin to detach from the things that are ongoing and the world that is revolving around you .
He wasn't exactly wrong since i was really began to detach myself from all the distractions around me like what i was currently doing in try of finding answers to the questions and information that had me becoming a bit perplexed .
~Slap~ , you are going at it again kid .
~Sigh~ , it really difficult for me to not be getting any reaction from you now that you have those pain killing and damage dampening skills , it just doesn't taste the same as before , how weird .
How weird, indeed, ~Slap~ could you please stop doing this already , even if i wasn't able to feel much from, doesn't actually mean that getting smacked around like that was enjoyable in the slightest.
I guess it was just me who was having fun then .
I was about to lash out at him but thinking about the fate that was waiting for him in a bit and my conscience weren't just allowing me to do so , so i let it go and tried to hold back my laughter since i was currently thinking of his reaction when he gets to see what is waiting for him .
He looked at me confusingly but his brain too was already overheated from all these sudden news that he got to know, so he just released a very deep sigh from his mouth and collapsed completely into his chair, trying to relax his tensed mood and the weird uneas that was weirdly begining to take root in his heart for some unknown reason for him as much as possible , it was unbeknownst to him that he was about to have a tough encounter with death .
But after revising all the information that i got from both that Bloodlord and That Bling family member , i remembered one question that was haunting me the most and the question that i have been forgetting to ask Regard about, but luckily i remembered it this time .
Old man, i believe that you remember what i told you recently about the information i was able to get from that man named Arthur Bling , are you not ? .
Yes, but tell me why are you opening this subject up again ?.
It's related to one of the questions that i asked him about but he didn't answer he just told me to ask you about it, in try of getting the whole and full truth .
What was that question of yours ? .
I asked him about the reasons which you weren't being unable to move out from the capital city for , but he told me that the answer to this question of mine will need you to tell me about that reason yourself .
The old man then looked at me intently for a few seconds then began to appear as if he was filled with a huge amounts of disappoinment and unwillingness as i felt the whole atmosphere in the room began to shift to a more depressing like atmosphere .
He then turned and stared at me with eyes that were filled with misery and regret and asked me if i really wished to know of that old history with a tone that was filled with unhinged sadness and i nodded at his words weakly but said that he shouldn't do it if it will open up his old wounds which he shook his head on and ended up saying :
I will tell since it isn't that much of a secret around here but please be aware to not disclose this information with anyone else , since even if i let bygones be bygones it is still a bit uncomfortable to talk about this kind of incident, that had unintentionally contributed to the current bad shape of the kingdom .
I was intrigued to find what was he exactly taking about , an incident that shaped the fate of this kingdom and it was probably to the worst too , but also a bit cautious since i was a bit wary of this history raising more questions in my mind that i will probably have to add them to the tons of questions that i still don't have any answers for .
I didn't say anything and waited for him to continue , he then caressed his head and began to say :
I usedto be a Royal Guard and the personal guard in service of King Lotor 14 years ago but before that i was a party member of the strongest Adventurer's party in the whole kingdom, so did Rickan's grandpa Doren and believe it or not so did the current king of Troland, Trollan and the previous head of the Adventurer's guild was too .
When the party got disbanded, each of us went in our separate ways but we were all still communicating with each other but a bit more less than before our disbandment .
I then decided to join the guards garrison , believing it to be the best place for me and where i would be able to help the people in the kingdom the most .
From then and on , i was getting promoted almost yearly for my good work until i became a Royal Guard and that's when i was graced to get acquainted with the late and last true king of Troland, King Lotor .
Stopping at this, i was already able to tell, how much respect did Regard have for that late king since his voice was getting sentimental whenever he mentioned him .
Then he chose me to be his personal guard and what an honor had that be, i tried to decline at first thinking that in this way my ability to help the people of this kingdom might get very much restricted, but when i told the king my reasons for refusal, he actually laughed quite hard to the point that he was in tears .
I thought him to be mocking me or something but then he came to me and patted the plate of armor that i was wearing and said : that's exactly why i'm trying to recruit you, you will be my eyes and ears in trying to make this land even greater than my ancestors want it to be , and he give me a kind and honest smile that till this day i can't seem to forget about and neither do i want to , in the end i accepted my new responsibilities and told him that from this day forth , i will do my best to meet his expectations and will try to make the most great and prosperous kingdom in the entire land of Tora .
But as the problems and the responsibilities that i have increased, i decided after returning to the king that we will need to recruit some more working hands since it will be quite difficult to continue operating like this , and that's when my party members came to my mind thinking that with their mighty help we might be able to help the people of this kingdom even more , how wrong was i'm in thinking so .
At the last part, his tone got a bit heavy and more dark like as he took a deep breaths consecutively while clenching his fist as if trying to calm his agitated mood up , before he continued on saying :
I told the king about the candidates that i have in mind and was able to come up with two guys that i believe that getting their help would be nothing short of extraordinary and they were the only two members that were alive and living in Trond, Trollan and Doren .
The first one become a mountain bandits leader positioning near the Teleportation Hall and initially refused my invitation but the king was able to convince him to join a long with those subordinates of his , as for Doren he refused to join after he opened his smithy , but told us that he will support our objective with the best equipments he will make and he will even sell those high-quality equipment on a lower prices just for us .
Then the monsters raid began to strike more frequently than before and the kingdom need every person that can fight, so the king began to recruit the Adventurers as helping hands offering them high rewards and created the Adventurer's guild for the sole purpose of managing those said Adventurers and to make sure each and every one of those guys gets what he deserved, the most brilliant person that his brilliance shone and was shown on the battlefield was the current young prince Ogo , earning both of the son and the father more popularity and influence .
The king himself declared that Ogo as the most powerful warrior in the younger generation, and gave Trollan the ability to exclusively recruit any person he want to his legion as long as it's done willingly of course , i tried to dissuade the king not to but he said that he hopes that by doing this he will get more powerful helping hands in the future .
The coup that happened suddenly in the wicked forest marked the beginning of a new chapter in the life of this kingdom and its people, since after the coup most of the subordinates that served under Trollan suddenly went rogue and positioned themselves in the Wicked Forest becoming a menace to both the adventurers and the other races passing through the Forest .
And Trollan was tasked to get them back and get them back under control, he sent his son who had recently reached the S Rank to do this task , and this was when everything began to turn south, the kid came back as an SS Rank and that rogues he was sent to exterminate came back with him, at first people thought that they were convinced by the strength of the teenage kid and wanted to reconcile but in reality they were here in support of the ambitious of both the kid and his father Trollan .
I fought with Trollan who was also a SS Rank like me and the king fought with that young man named Ogo and his associates and was still able to constantly force them all back , and just as we were about to achieve victory a young cry suddenly came from the king and the queen chamber's direction, momentarily distracting King Lotor and giving the rebels a chance to attack the detached unguarded king .
Aware of what exactly just happened i hurriedly went to the king in try of covering him but was shoot in the back by the skill of that Trollan just as i was beginning to shout towards the king, i gritted my teeth and continued on going towards the king but i was too late to actually save my king, i hurriedly caught his falling down body and he told me his last words :
It'sa goodbye then comrades, i really hoped to see the perfect kingdom that we were trying to make but i guess i won't have the chance now ~cough~ ~cough~ take care of Celine and my little Trina, my last wish will be for all of you to stop the unnecessary bloodshed .
That was the last words of our king and we, we actually accepted the offer of peace with that cursed Father and Son as a way of adhering to our late king wishes , we were then forced to be striped out of our titles and positions and was replaced by those who were in support of the usurper , and was then forbidden from ever leaving the capital.
I was able to meet queen Celine and she already understood what happened and told me that someone broke into her chamber and was about to kill both of us but was stopped by some kind of shadow but his appearance scared Trina and that presumedly what led all of this to happen.
I left the castle and was filled with a strong mix of disappoinment and unwillingness and regrets wondering aimlessly around the area of my family's house when i saw a weak and severely injured young Beastfolk girl hiding in the garden, her body kept twitching and shaking so i pitied her and took her in.
Days later after i bonded with that Beastfolk little girl some more, i was able to understand why a baby cry affected the king that day this much, a month later i got the information that the queen married the usurper and didn't blame her much since i was able to find out that she only did this for the sake of her little girl , i internally apologized to my late king's soul after not being able to take care of the queen and the princess like he told me too .
I returned to my original work as an Adventurer and you already able to guess what happened next.
A benevolent king and a kind hearted and a compassionate man, a majestic yet also modest and just, that King Lotor is really someone worthy of all people's respect .
Yes, he is indeed .
I sighed inwardly and was at loss of words, but some footsteps sounds that were coming from the kitchen was all the sign that i needed to know before getting out of here.
I hurriedly apologized to the old man in front of me and told him that i sincerely appreciate what he just told me and that i was so sorry for his loss but i need to get going to prepare for the upcoming monsters raid and just as i was heading to the doorstep, i remembered the dagger that i wanted to give him as a gift and believed that it could actually be of help in this kind of situations .
So i hurriedly give him the dagger and said goodbye , seconds after i got out of the inn, i heard the loud yelling voice of Liliana saying :
MAAAASTTTER .
In a way and tone that gave me the chills, then i began to follow the swarming crowds, while contemplating about the information that i just got from Regard and figured out a one particular common factor between whatever that had happened 14 years ago and that factor was probably the catalyst for all the incident that happened after .
THE COUP IN THE WICKED FOREST AND THE UPRISING OF THAT DEMON KING BLAZAN .