As Arthur woke up the next day and made his way to his office, he noticed something strange. There were no slamming windows, no banging doors. It was peaceful, far too peaceful, and Peaceful enough to make Arthur paranoid.
Moving cautiously through the hall, he kept glancing around, half-expecting a chunk of gold or anything else lethal to come flying at him. Yet nothing did. Step by step, all the way to his office, the silence held.
Only when he finally sat in his chair did something happen.
A knock, then the door burst open.
A golden-haired blur shot toward him. Arthur flinched on reflex, shutting his eyes and raising his arm to shield his face. He braced for impact.
…Nothing.
Peeking through one eye, he saw Cecilia, his golden-haired head maid, face-first on the floor.
"Uh… Cecilia? Are you alright? Did you come to report something?" Arthur asked, trying to calm his racing heart. He really needed to admit it: at this point he might actually have PTSD. Not from war, but from the color gold. Maybe Hohenheim could diagnose him.
"Ow… ah! Yes, Lord!" Cecilia scrambled upright, her face red. "Master Hohenheim seems to have discovered something about your blood! He wants to show you in his magical workshop!"
Cecilia was the new head maid Arthur had hired. Quite capable, frighteningly efficient, and, for the most part, perfect at her job. But she came with two serious problems:
First: she was a walking disaster. The girl could trip on flat ground, trip over rugs, and trip over her own legs. Arthur suspected she could trip on air molecules if she concentrated hard enough.
Second, she treated Arthur less like a lord and more like a little brother, trying to "spoil" him at every turn. Everyone else in town respected him; Cecilia? She dotted on him. Worse, whenever her upper body leaned too close, his armor would strangle him in protest like some jealous spirit. Suffocation by divine cosplay wasn't exactly the heroic end he envisioned.
And then there was her habit of watching him from odd corners, which he had only noticed after a couple of weeks. Unnerving, yes, but her cooking was far too good for him to consider letting her go.
"I'll go see him, Cecilia. Go back to your work. I don't need you leading me around the mansion," Arthur said with an exasperated tone as she leaned closer, clearly intending to grab his hand. He already hated the fact he was stuck looking like a ten-year-old and didn't seem to be growing. The last thing he needed was Cecilia reminding him by treating him like a child.
"Oh… I understand, Lord." Cecilia's shoulders drooped for a moment before she immediately perked up, puffing her chest with pride. "Big sis will return to work and cook a healthy, delicious meal, so our great lord can grow into a strong, healthy adult!"
Arthur sighed, Wonderful. Not only was he cursed with golden blood, now he also had unsolicited parenting.
.............................................................................
As he walked through the halls, his thoughts turned to Hohenheim. Did Hohenheim discover something about the divine spirit? A way to dilute its influence? A cure to stop his spells from twisting into disasters? He brooded on it until he realized he was already standing before the magical workshop.
Inside, Hohenheim was hunched over his bench, hands steady, gaze fixed on the faint glow of a containment crystal. Arthur waited until the old man finally lifted his head.
"Hohenheim, Cecilia said you found something about my blood. What is it?"
"Yes, Master." Hohenheim's voice was calm, but his eyes betrayed unease. "Your blood is… not merely magical. It is drawing something in, a current, a tide, a force from outside this world."
Arthur stiffened. "From the divine spirit?"
"Perhaps, Perhaps not," Hohenheim shook his head. "The dragon you spoke of…no, the resonance is not the same. This is older, deeper. I followed the pull beyond the atmosphere itself, but the link severed the moment I reached for it. It was as if the planet itself rejected my pursuit." His voice dropped, edged with reverence and dread. "Master… it felt less like a 'source' and more like a gaze, A will, something vast, patient, and infinitely far away."
Arthur's mouth went dry. "And the energy itself?"
Hohenheim hesitated. His hands tightened around his staff. "When I channeled it into a rabbit… its skin warped, Metallic, Purple. And then it collapsed into a perfect sphere and…." he exhaled slowly, "then…it vanished, As though this world had no place for it, As though it had been claimed by something else."(Nanook seeing the rabbit void ranger: …what the hell is this (-_-)?)
The workshop fell into silence. Only the faint hum of the crystal remained, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Then Arthur heard the sound of a system notification.
**Skill [Blessing of *********] Rank Increased
[Echo of Ruin] (C Rank)
Whisper of the Distant Star
"All things end, yet you walk a moment further beneath a watching gaze."
(Your spells draw faintly on [Cosmic Entropy], veering into ruin, +5% spell power, -3% magic cost.)
Special Effect: Once per battle, if your health falls dangerously low, your body resists collapse for a brief moment, allowing you to act before falling.
Arthur blinked. 'Did… did that skill just upgrade?'
First [The Fool's Delight] mocked him. Now this one sounded like it wanted him dead. Were there no normal divine spirits in this world? Was he secretly living in the Cthulhu mythos? And if so, why were all the "quirky" Great Old Ones fixated on him of all people?!
Well… what happened, happened. He couldn't do anything about it. Please, god, at least let the iron vein appear soon. That first blessing seemed to come from a pretty good guy, not like these two freaks.
He was too tired to care, Paperwork first, then sleep.
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The days that followed passed without incident. No strange phenomena, no creeping horrors, just routine. Arthur continued learning magicraft from Hohenheim, buried himself in paperwork… until, finally, good news arrived.
Tiberius and his team had discovered an iron vein. Where, you ask? Practically next door to the camp, Somehow no one noticed it for the past two and a half months, even though both he and Hohenheim passed through the area multiple times. At this point, Arthur was convinced whoever was behind [The Fool's Delight] had hidden the vein just to mess with him. (Sigh) Whatever, Nothing he could do about it now. (Aha: …ehe~)
As he and Hohenheim followed Tiberius to the site, they discussed how best to use the iron. Even if they couldn't start mining immediately, they needed to at least inspect the area, test safety, and make sure it wouldn't harm the miners later.
When Arthur finally laid eyes on the vein, he wasn't disappointed. It was large, though nowhere near the monstrous crater of the gold and silver deposit, but enough to be worth celebrating. At this point, he'd happily take "enough."
He resolved to ask Hohenheim to make some mining familiars. Even if they only extracted small amounts, Arthur was fairly certain the town would upgrade once iron entered the picture. After that, he could recruit proper miners.
Preparations were already in place: nearly three thousand empty huts stood ready, modest, but enough to house new arrivals until proper homes could be built. Thanks to the bizarre events of the last two months, the food stores were also sufficient. If more than three thousand people were sent, things would get a bit tight, not to the point of starvation, but everyone would need to tighten their belts for a month or so. At least he'd already spoken with Quintus about expanding the fields.
By the time night fell and the two returned from setting up the mine, they found themselves talking as they walked.
"I suppose finding this iron vein can be considered the first real sign of mundane progress for the town since my summoning," Hohenheim mused. "You once said the Human Order sends more people to the settlement whenever it advances, yes, Master? But why? Why would the Human Order be interested in this world? Is it another branch connected to the Root?"
Arthur exhaled. "I don't know, Hohenheim. Maybe there's something here they're after. But for now, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. If it's on our side, let it do what it wants. We're hardly in a position to interfere."
Still, Arthur couldn't help but wonder. Why had he and his people been sent here? Was the Root trying to extend its influence into a world not yet connected to it? Or was this one of Alaya's schemes again? For now, he didn't have the luxury to dwell on it. He'd figure out where he was first, and then worry about why.
That thought reminded him of something: the broken historical tablet he had yet to examine. Maybe he will do so tomorrow
..............................…..............................................
Arthur woke the next day with purpose. By afternoon he had rushed through his paperwork and other tasks, clearing his schedule. At last, he took out the broken tablet.
The moment he looked at it, he knew. The design resembled the murals he had seen in the ruins, clearly another story of that divine dragon. Perhaps it was even a key to learning this world's language. He'd need to speak with Hohenheim about returning to the ruins… but only after summoning a second Servant, just to be safe.
He began to read.
...............................................................................
Broken Tablet of Icatus (Fragment)
"…in ...…, rites… Pillar of Stone, ...…
…Mysteries of Icatus… twofold… Revival in Cultivation… Harvest in Reaping…
…Era Bellica… birth of Death… with it Age, Sickness, Hunger…
…men in greed… forests stripped, beasts taken…
…wrath of ...… plants withered… men devoured one another…
…but Pillar… loved all… pleaded mercy…
…mole, earth's kin, stole apple… led man to field of gold…
…the multitude trampled, seized… yet one priest… seed kept… prayer spoken…
…buried as the mole burrows… life spared…
…temple raised where seed was sown… city Icatus born…
…Reaping Month… first wheat brought… offering to Titan…
…Dawn of Revival… families take earth, cleanse, enshrine…
…image of ..... unearthed… borne in procession… prayers rising…
…Harvest, sun's height… feast till nightfall… priests lift ear of wheat…
…altar… memory of folly… thanks for mercy…"
...................................................................
Arthur leaned back, exhaling. 'Well… this thing is almost useless'. Still, three points stood out to him:
First: The dragon he met in the ruins probably bore the title Pillar of Stone. It fit the deeds shown on the murals, not to mention those earth-like scales.
Second: The divine spirits of this world were apparently called Titans. The one who helped humanity in the story had to be that dragon. Which meant the offering of wheat was to him. So… Titan of Earth? Or should he call it Gaia? After all, the name of his own Noble Phantasm had Gaia in it, albeit in Latin.
'Wait… Did Alaya send me here just to kill another version of Gaia? If that's it, then wow. This poor guy really caught a stray.'
Third: The ruins surrounding them were likely the city of Icatus itself. The name sounded Greek to Arthur, and it matched the evidence: the central temple with wheat symbols, and the dragon's presence there.
But one question gnawed at him, how had the system even found this tablet? The language of this world was completely alien to him, nothing like anything he knew back on Earth. Unless… was it some form of ancient Greek? If so, his odds of summoning Medea had just skyrocketed.
Not useless, then. A little piece of this world's truth, however small, was still a start.