After listening to Mike's story, Michael decided to help him out by securing a deal with him and buying his wares.
Despite the disagreement that happened between the two during the night, Michael didn't take Mike's provocations to heart. No… he actually found them quite refreshing, after all given his position, he rarely experiences the feeling of being criticized in an upfront manner by others.
Besides this fact, Michael really enjoyed the talk he had with Mike, mainly because they dropped the formalities, deciding to pay no mind to the difference in social status.
But of course, only Michael had this favorable opinion regarding the interaction, because on the other side…
Mike was terrified, only after striking a deal with Michael and getting some rest at an inn did he understand what he had done. He had just insulted a noble to his face, and had decided to start a casual conversation after the fact.
Mike was lucky to not have been thrown into a jail cell awaiting trial, and he knew that, but Mike also understood that his luck didn't just allow him to escape this situation, it also enabled him to meet Michael and establish a connection with him.
After calming down, Mike started thinking about Michael, a strange high-ranked noble that didn't dispense punishment after being insulted and dropped noble etiquette in favor of a more casual conversation. A man with a great amount of resources with whom you could speak casual… A man who helped him achieve his goal.
For Mike, who had decided to secure a major deal to secure his independence from his father, his next course of action was obvious.
"I have to make him my client!!!", thought Mike.
4 day later…
Mike started his journey back to the "god of commerce nation" after staying in the city a few more days trying to strengthen his connection with Michael, and he only departed when he found out that Michael would be staying in the city for a few more months, trying to clear the roads that led to the "god of commerce nation" of bandits and monsters.
Michael wished Mike a good journey and good luck in his future endeavors.
1 month later…
Mike visited "Cliside" city again under the pretext of taking a rest from his "stressful life" back home, he found Michael stationed at the city barracks and hanged around the city with him for the next 3 days.
2 months later…
Mike appeared in "Cliside" city trying to strike a weapons deal with Michael, which succeeded. He stayed for 3 days in an inn opposite the barracks and would often invite Michael to drink at taverns when he was off-duty.
By the 3 months mark, Michael finally understood what Mike was trying to achieve, however, he didn't mind. Mike was good company and someone with whom he could drop his noble "act", so he never really tried to distance himself from him.
After a few more months, Michael started seeing Mike as a friend, and the same could be said about Mike.
After 1 year, Michael finally left "Cliside" city, taking care of the bandit and the monster problems at the nation's borders took him more time than he had imagined… But before leaving the city he had authorized Mike to write to him.
This decision, of course, led to him receiving letters from Mike on a monthly basis discussing a diverse number of topics, from the political and economic situation of each country to the personal experience each one of them accumulated in their respective fields.
For 1 year, they communicated with each other via letters, writing casually or making business deals with each other, and maybe things would probably have progressed this way until the end of both their lives, if not for the selection of the new hero of mankind.
The Hero of Mankind…
A champion chosen by all the gods of the human pantheon to guide mankind in the destruction of the other two races that inhabit the "Eliadia" continent, the elves and the dwarves.
A mortal who would be bestowed with the battle knowledge from all the previous heroes, and other prominent figures in human history. He would be given a book blessed by divine hands which would have been partially filled with the history and experiences of his predecessors, while the rest of the book would be left blank to document the journey of the new hero.
This type of book which contained the Pieces of Inherited Knowledge or PIK's in abbreviation from important historic figures was not exclusive to the hero. Prominent figures on the continent were also porters of their own books. However, while others would be bestowed this book by the god of their respective nation and inherit the knowledge from a celebrated countryman, the knowledge the hero inherited was not restricted to just one people and it extended from all the countries under the human's god's influence.
What all these books had in common, however, was the fact that they didn't outright bestow abilities and capabilities to their owners but simply gave them knowledge of said abilities and capabilities. You may have inherited the knowledge of a great knight, his swordsmanship and his mannerisms may have been grafted into your mind, but you never had his experiences, you never used his swordsmanship in combat, you may never have seen real combat even.
For this reason, "book holders "normally have to train using their knowledge. Generals of the army must be submitted to different kinds of battlefields to create a type of rationality that can accompany the knowledge they hold. Warriors and mages must throw themselves into battle. Rulers, similar to generals, must be exposed to different types of governing issues to develop their rationality, and the hero… Well, the hero has to do all of the above and much more.
For this reason, while the appearance of a hero in the human race signifies the beginning of the war with the other two races, the combat itself doesn't start for a few years…
Besides humans, the other two races also had champions of their own backed up by their race's pantheon that appear at same time as the human hero. Due to this fact, all races are aware of the start of the conflict, and like the human side choose not to initiate combat while their heroes still need training.
Under normal circumstances, that is what's supposed to happen, that is how things have been decided since the 1st great war, and everyone had reason to believe that the 3rd great war would also take the same path.
But they were wrong…
The elves attacked the human border at a time when the human nations were still coming together to form a unified front. The attack ended up being successful and various cities from the "Sea god nation" ended up being captured, tough they didn't remain in the elves hands for long.
An army was quickly mobilized from the capital of the nation to recapture the city, which they did, after a few weeks, with relative ease. The elves were not accustomed to holding fortified positions for long, after all their tactics of war always revolved around ambush tactics in forests instead of trying to maintain fixed positions.
Of course, their tactics worked for them because they occupied a major part of the "Eliadia" continent, they have their own strongholds surely, but they are located so deep in the vast stretch of forest they call home that the other races armies would be quickly dismantled by their relentless ambushes before reaching one of their cities.
Besides the difficulty the elves had in maintaining a stationary position, there was also the problems of their numbers. Elves had low fertility, followed by dwarves and then the humans - they had a miniscule population when compared to the other two races, so they were always outnumbered in every conflict that started, although they always counterweight that disadvantage with their natural talent for magic and formidable shooting proficiency with long-ranged weapons.
After the recapture of the cities the different leaders of the human's nations reached a consensus to fight back against this invasion and opted to start trailing and securing a path through the forest with their armies instead of fortifying their recaptured cities and holding position until their hero was ready to join the battlefield.
The dwarves receiving reports stating that the number of humans and elves near their borders were starting to decrease due to many of them being mobilized to join the early battlefields, decided to attack the weakened borders of both races and were, surprisingly for them, repelled by the defenders that were already expecting this course of action and had prepared accordingly.
And so, in this manner, a situation never seen in the previous "Great Wars" unfolded – The beginning of armed conflict just a few weeks after the start of the war.
Despite not having any training, the heroes of each race were quickly mobilized to the battlefield under the assumption that they would develop their skills along with the continuation of the conflict.
The war was brutal, with each race bringing something new to the battlefield, never seen in previous conflicts.
The Elves came up with different, more powerful and diverse spells. They would breach city walls using giants roots that extended from the deep underground into the surface, they would flood settlements and fortified positions located near bodies of water and they would tear down cities using storms and hurricanes.
The Dwarves introduced new technology to the battlefield which were difficult to counter, the "Flame-starter" maned normally by six dwarves was the nightmare of the elves who saw the waves of fire spread through their forests burning them to a crisp, as for the human side, the defenders of different cities were stunned observing their walls being torn down by the so called "canons" the dwarves brought with them to each battlefield.
The humans not really having any specialization but being able to strike a middle ground between magic and technology, brought their massive numbers to the conflict, often winning battles because they were able to outnumber their opponents by a large margin.
Each race was merciless during combat, they reaped numerous lives while utilizing wide-area spells and during long range combat, though the close combat was another hell in itself, it was gruesome at best to outright traumatizing at worst.
It was not surprising that when the inexperienced heroes were thrown into this scenario they didn't last longer than a few years. To be precise, all the heroes perished 6 years after the start of the war, and their death marked the end of the conflict between the races.
Although the hate that each race had for one another was something that fueled the conflict in addition to the prospects of acquiring more land and more resources, the main reason that led the races to wage war against one another was due to divine decree, and so when the heroes, the chosen champions of the gods that were supposed to serve as a spearhead to break through enemy territory died, the war also started slow down until it came to a complete halt.