Polymath Redux – Chapter 5

Polymath Redux – Don’t explore just one path, explore both!
Chapter V

Duncan had been the village chief for the bulk of his existence, from a young age he was expected to fulfill the role of being the village’s guide. He knew from that point on that greatness was not part of his destiny, but that was fine. He loved the small village and the people around him were his life.

Many people looked up to him once he took over the position of his father.

For 40 years he had lead the village in peace, there wasn’t a single incident until this fateful day. Since they lived on the fringe borders of the Xagontetia Sun Country, there were occasional monster attacks, but the monsters that tried to raid were weak.

Most of the time patrolling knights from the Sun Country would come and assist.

He was a little over 60 now, his time was due to come shortly, it was then this great tragedy befell his village. Many people far younger than him had perished, he who should rightfully be dead was alive, while the young were not.

A great sense of guilt overcame him as the two strangers saved their village. A part of him wanted to die before they were saved. He couldn’t look his citizens in the eye and be happy. As the red haired woman crushed the knights he felt exhilarated, ‘you got what was coming to you’. He felt guilty for such thoughts also.

Even as he was reaching the end of his life, he could feel a great change within him.

But for the sake of his village, he had to stay true to himself. He couldn’t afford to change, not while his village was facing its most terrible disaster. Many children lost their parents and many parents lost their children. He needed to keep strong and continue leading the village.

The two strangers had given him the responsibility of bringing down judgment on the man responsible for decimating the village. No doubt that many parents would like to see this man die in horrible agony, and many children also. However, that was the right way. He knew he couldn’t just let the feelings of his villagers get the better of them, he had to lead them so they didn’t lose sight of themselves.

None of the villagers said anything regarding the man’s punishment, they were all thinking, but none said a word. They would let the chief deal with it, it was his job after all. But to look the criminal in the eyes and let him free would be like disrespecting the dead, but to kill him would mean the living are the ones would be disrespected.

In such a situation, there was no victory. He wanted to blame the two strangers for giving him such a responsibility, but deep in his heart he knew it was the correct decision. As they said, it was not their right to enact justice in their stead.

This was their village, he needed to be the one who chose.

…

“This place has good air.”

Irina didn’t really understand that meant. The air was great, well it wasn’t really a surprise, she was only born a few hours ago after all. However for Mordred who spent his entire life in a small room in the city this was really good air.

A village on the fringe borders of two hostile nations, Mordred was surprised they were even able to survive up till now.

[Intuition]

When the user concentrates, the effective range could spread to over five hundred meters. Aside from the local wildlife there were quite a few monsters around. Low level, low intelligence monsters wondered the forest in search of their next meal, it could be they were just beasts deep down inside.

Perhaps it was because of the demons that exist outside the borders of the village they were able to survive this long. It was unlikely that enemy knights would navigate through a monster infested forest just to take down a few fringe border villages with no real strategic value.

The forest was quite quiet despite the awful tragedy that had just taken place within the village. Nature was cold like this, even back on earth it was no different.

The elder chief of the village came walking slowly to Mordred. He was quite wary of Irina who was able to slay tens of knights by herself in such a short span of time. But the elder had decided to trust in Mordred and did nothing to speak against the presence of such a dangerous person in the village.

They had decided to release the prisoner.

“So, you decided to just let him go? I can’t say that I would have done the same thing.”

Had it been up to Mordred, in all likeliness he would have executed the prisoner. However he had given the duty deciding the punishment to the villagers.

“Sometimes even great evil can be used to achieve goodness. We hope that the knight captain find peace and think over his life. Who knows, perhaps he will fight for good now that he has been shown mercy.”

It was a sentiment that Mordred couldn’t understand. Whether that was because he was a child of earth, a very cynical planet or it was the accumulation of all his life experience was unknown.

It could be a mixture of both.

“Thank you for saving our small town.”

The chief made a bowing gesture in gratitude, though it felt rather uncomfortable for someone older than Mordred to be doing that to him he let it slide. Usually it would have be the other way around.

“You don’t have to thank me, I only helped this place out of convenience. It wasn’t any sentiments of justice I had.”

Indeed, Mordred had no delusions of grandeur, he was no ally of justice, it was only to satisfy himself that he decided to save this village. Self satisfaction, it was because he couldn’t live with himself if he let the village die that he took action.

“Even if you only helped for your own convenience it is still better than not helping at all, so please allow me to say it; thank you.”

It was unknown how much information one could get from a small time fringe village like this but it was still an opportunity, Mordred had to ask.

“Chief I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Of course what is it?”

“This would probably sound strange but I want you to tell me about this world. Everything about its culture, customs and nations.”

“Hmm, I see. Well follow me to my home and I will answer any questions you have.”

The chief looked at him with an odd expression, but he couldn’t decline the favors of his savior. Complying with his wishes the chief ushered them to his small abode and started by serving them tea.

…

The chief brought out a large map and started explaining. Oddly enough Mordred found himself able to read the language of this world, in fact it all sounded and looked like english to him. Perhaps some magical force in this world was translating it for him or if the resident language of this world was english was unknown but it was rather convenient.

In any case Mordred’s current location was the ‘Xagontetia Sun Country which shared half the continent with its enemy, the ‘Baliazoural Empire’, which had also claimed many island nations along its borders. However Xagontetia and Baliazoural were simply small corner nations, there was a larger continent just north east called the ‘Great Void’.

This wasn’t a legally recognized country, but a continent that was claimed by the demon lord and his army. Because of the heavy demon infestation humans were unable to conquer the land in the center of the world and had to do with various island nations and smaller continents.

It was said that a hero would appear to lead the humans and other races against the demon races but such a hero had yet to appear. So for now they were living in fear that one day the demon lord would launch his attacks, of course they weren’t totally unprepared. Powerful adventurers constantly traverse to the Great Void to pave a path for the future and hope to someday defeat the demon lord.

Other than that, there were three other smaller continents known as the ‘Laethiaserus’, ‘Xedian’ and ‘Carcosa’ with each their respective governments.

That was the gist of things in regards to the positions of continents in this world; Mordred had read so many stories about the chosen hero fighting the demon lord, it was standard stuff. This situation was no different from such, only the hero had yet to be chosen.

“So how does a person get ‘chosen’ as a hero?”

Mordred asked.

“Each country has a different method, unfortunately I do not know the other methods but for this country the only requirement is to pull out the sacred sword enshrined in the ‘Hero’s Sanctuary’.”

So your standard ‘Excalibur’ system?

They spent a few more hours discussing about everything the village chief knew but to be honest most of the information wasn’t too helpful and bordered on useless trivia territory. However the information about the relationships of the countries did help Mordred in deciding his next course of actions.

‘I guess it’s to make friendly contact with Baliazoural, and I still need to contact Xagontetia’s military to send in some knights to protect this place’, those were Mordred’s thoughts, and with such his destination had been decided upon.

“I see, thank you very much Mr. Duncan. I’ll be heading to the capital of Xagontetia and try to ask for some protection of this village.”

Mordred said as he stood up to leave, instinctively the village chief found his body also rise along with him, perhaps it was the pressure from a higher being that was Mordred that compelled him.

“Ah, yes thank you very much.”

Village chief Duncan bowed once more in gratitude and saw the mysterious duo leave his house. As they passed the village’s exit Mordred and Irina noticed a small mass funeral having taken place, once again he offered a silent prayer, since the dead should be given a quick thought before having forgotten about completely.

Several other villagers came to offer their gratitude and see the duo leave.

“Thank you.”

Ultimately that’s what every villager had said, however to Mordred he didn’t quite feel as though he had earned the right to receive such words. In truth he only saved this village on a whim, if things had turned out even a little differently, if a small part of his brain said ‘no’, then he would’ve just as easily discarded the village. However to the people of the village that small chance of being saved was all they could hope for, it was the how they lived their lives.

…

“Xagontetia… ideally it would be better to join some sort of adventurer’s guild as they would have a lot of information but joining this country’s military also would be a good idea to get some ground on political matters.”

Mordred was torn between which group he wanted to join. An ‘adventurer’ was just a hired sword that were dispatched to deal with demons and monsters, the benefit of this was that since each country had an ‘adventurer’s guild’ he would be able to freely enter any country.

However there was also benefits to joining a nation’s military, that was further political insight. Mordred wasn’t the type to get hyped up about political matters, but that’s because no politicians back on earth had to deal with dragons or man eating monsters, that’s boring. Right now however, Mordred was entirely interested on politics, he wanted to see how people in such a world where they constantly battle their own mortality ruled.

“Whichever you decide, I will follow. My master.”

Irina said with a smile.

“Wait, no. I have an even better solution.”

Mordred came upon a good idea, well for him anyway.

“What is it? My master.”

“We’re going to have to go our separate ways from now on.”

That phrase alone ran through Irina’s head like a 5 ton truck. She didn’t understand what her master was saying, no she understood the words but she couldn’t fathom why. Did she do something bad? Did she do something he didn’t like? What was it? Was she being abandoned? Panic started to subtly overtake her.

She didn’t want to be discarded, she wanted to be by her master’s side forever…

Noticing the slight trembling Mordred grabbed onto her shoulders.

“Irina, calm down. I’m not going to discard you. I just want to cover more ground.”

“… Eh?”

“We’ll each join separate sectors, I’ll join Xagontetia’s military and see what I could do from there, whilst I want you to join the adventurer’s guild.”

“…”

She was a little dissatisfied that she wasn’t able to be near her master. Honestly it bothered her a lot but tried not to show it outright, but Mordred could see the subtle changes in her expression and took out a few things from his [inventory] and gave it to her.

Two things to be exact.

The first was a small medallion; a [Communication Medal], as long as Irina wore this she could contact her master via telepathy any time she wanted. It was a small necklace with a circular medallion attached to it in the design of a dragon head. As the master Mordred could contact her also.

The second thing was a [summoning token]. A small piece of metal with a magic circle inscribed on it. It would allow Irina to summon her master at any time, of course Mordred was also able to summon Irina, though he didn’t require a token to do so since she was his familiar.

“I understand… but please allow me a condition. If you will.”

A familiar that asked for a condition before following orders, Mordred was slightly amused and acknowledged it. Self autonomy, though a little frightening to think about, it was a good thing in the end, if his familiar could grow in this manner then she could become even stronger without having to increase her levels directly.

“I’ll allow it, what is it?”

“P- please let me contact you at least once a day…”

She asked while hanging her head down, thus making it unable for Mordred to see what kind of expression she was making.

“Very well, you can contact me whenever you feel like.”

“Thank you!”

Irina replied with a smile.

With their destination and agendas accounted for they were on their way to the Xagontetia’s capital city.

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