Polymath Redux – Welcome to Solaris, the capital of the new world
Chapter XXXVI
Grasping around the hilt of the sacred sword Mordred acted as though he was incapable of removing the weapon from the Sanctuary. From his years of experience with weaponry in [Hellgana] Mordred could instantly tell from a single glance that this sword wasn’t particularly that great. Though that wasn’t really the point, if he draws this sword from the sanctuary he would be recognized as the hero and thus will be under constant surveillance, making it harder for him to move around.
While it was entire possible to create a doppelganger to play the role of the hero by removing the sword, doing so would only strain him more from the ‘extrasensory feedback’. Currently there were too many doppelgangers moving around on the board and what Mordred needed to do was either get used to it reduce the number of them. Thus it was much easier if another person became the hero and for Mordred to keep that hero under his watch or to convert him to a loyal follower.
Whilst his hand was on the hilt of the sacred sword Mordred placed a trap spell that would activate the moment the sword was pulled out. This spell was known as [repulsion trap] which was under the [Templar] class, a simple delayed trap skill that would knock back an opposing enemy. Of course things were a little different in terms of the mechanics of this skill now that he was in this world. The biggest difference was that Mordred was able to adjust the strength and intensity of the repulsion. With Mordred’s power the knock back force could be ramped up to the point that it would expel just enough force to leave the victim unconscious.
After expelling a disappointed sigh Mordred stepped down from the Hero’s Sanctuary and regrouped with his comrades. He gave off a wry shrug towards his companions as they returned a sympathetic gaze and laughed it off as fellow failures.
“I thought that if anyone from our group would be able to pull the sword it would be you, Mordred.”
Ash spoke as he placed his hands on Mordred’s shoulder giving a sympathetic look.
“Hmm? Why do you say so?”
Mordred responded. ‘Could it be he found out?’ Mordred internally pondered for a moment but he was confident in his acting skills. Of course it wasn’t impossible for Mordred to slip up or that Ash was just that perceptive but that was rather unlikely.
“No real reason, it’s just that out of everyone you had the personality of someone who would become a hero. You know, you’re always so calm and understanding.”
“Ah! I so totally understand! I get that vibe from him too!”
Caroline interjected with a playful look.
“Mmm.”
Padan nodded in agreement. Mordred returned their ‘compliment’ with another wry shrug.
“If the only requirement for being a hero was to be calm or understanding then practically half the city would qualify. Such traits aren’t exactly rare after all.”
Mordred answered.
“I supposed you have a point too. So what now commander?”
Changing topics Ash shifted his gaze towards their commander, Katy Granate.
“We return back to base and continue our daily schedule.”
Katy responded as she corrected the position of her glasses.
…
“Halt, you’re about to enter Solaris, the capital of Xagontetia. You don’t seem like adventurers, are you travelers? If so do you have any ID or pass with you? You’ll have to go through a check up if you don’t.”
A guard with a bushy mustache asked as Tau and Alice approached the front gates of Solaris. Standing behind him were several small floating stone orbs with a small crimson eye, they were part of the security known as ‘Sentry Cannons’. They too were delivered to the country by Morgana Daltress and had mostly replaced the jobs of the soldiers in protecting the front gate.
“We’re from the ‘Imik Village’ a few days west from here. We’ve come here with the intentions of becoming adventurers. We don’t particularly have any special ID or pass with us so you can check us.”
Tau responded with Alice nodding from behind him.
“Alright just step this way.”
The guard guided them towards some of the other guards into private tents for a check up to see if they were carrying anything suspicious. The check up only took around five minutes and they were both deemed suitable for entry.
“Thanks for your cooperation you may enter the city.”
The mustached guard told them after the check up.
“Thank you.”
Tau and Alice thanked and entered the city. Upon entry Alice’s eyes widened with excitement at all the marvelous structures and the countless number of people crawling about the place. To a simple country girl it was a grand sight to behold and a far cry from the peaceful village town she had inhabited for all her life. Due to this one could easily see why she was jumping up and down like a dog that had been let out to play.
“Alice calm down. You’re making too big of a scene. See? Everyone’s staring at you.”
Tau tried to calm her down as he pointed towards the onlookers who gave an amused expression as they passed by.
“Eh~? Isn’t it fine, we’re just a couple of country bumpkins anyway. I’m sure the city folk wouldn’t care what we do.”
Alice responded with a pouty face.
“That’s not the point. Oh geez, let’s just get to the Adventurer’s Guild first before we doing anything else.”
Making their way to the destination, the Adventurer’s Guild, proved much more difficult than initially anticipated. This was not because the Guild was at a location they couldn’t find but due to Alice’s overacting at every single detail at how the ‘big city’ was ‘amazing’. They made so many detours from their original course that they had somehow ended up before the Grand Cathedral where a large line of soldiers were standing outside in wait.
Curious as to what was going on the two decided to ask around. After a few minutes of research they had found out that the ‘sacred sword’ was held inside the Hero’s Sanctuary and the king was trying to find the hero. So far no one had been able to remove the sword and it didn’t seem like anyone would anytime soon.
“Hmm~ a ‘Hero’ huh? Hey~ hey~ Tau, you want to give it a try?”
Alice asked with a bright expression almost as though she had thought of something good. The thought of trying his hand at removing the sacred sword hadn’t left him, in actually it may have even been to his advantage if he could succeed. His entire goal of becoming an adventurer was so that he could access some of the guild’s resources and information network.
However the same thing could be achieved through becoming the hero. Since it was the king himself that was trying to find the hero then becoming one would give him some sort of status. He could then use the country’s resources and information network to find the man who killed his mother. Of course this entailed that he was actually successful at removing the sword and becoming the hero but someone with such ambitions as revenge couldn’t possibly have the qualifications of becoming a ‘hero’.
Besides that there was a long line of soldiers eagerly awaiting their turns. Even if he did decide to try his hand it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
“Can’t you see that massive line, Alice? It’s obvious that we won’t get our turns today so let’s come back at another time.”
Alice acknowledged that the line was indeed fairly long and gave up on the idea of trying their hands for today.
“Okay, then let’s go to the Adventurer’s Guild since it’s about to be sunset. We still need to find a place to lodge for the night after all.”
Tau nodded and thus they corrected their deviated course and made their way to their original destination, the Adventurer’s Guild. It was a large building with numerous people; to Tau and Alice it was like something out of a fairy tale, knights in heavy armor, beautiful magicians and healers, warriors, fighters, everyone had looked so experienced and eye-catching.
“Wow~”
Looking around busily with her eyes darting everywhere from the carpets to the people Alice spoke with widened enthusiasm. Compared to their newbie equipment everyone appeared so much more capable than them. However even this kind display was just a warm up as a certain red haired figure entered the Guild and upon doing so everyone had immediately quieted down and stared in awe.
[Hey it’s Irina; I thought I haven’t seen her in a while]
[Didn’t you hear? They said that she was on a quest to hunt the vampire lord!]
[What?! You mean that monster that ranks over 9000 on the power scale?! That’s insane!]
[Yeah, but there were rumors that she slew a Cerberus and an Elder Lich during the Catastrophe so it’s definitely possible]
[That’s insane…]
Quiet whispers of awe could be heard amongst the onlookers and even Tau couldn’t help his eyes drawn to the mysterious and magnificent figure of the ‘Flame Hero’ Irina. She walked passed them and straight up the reception desk and handed the receptionist a piece of paper that was to prove the completion of a quest.
“A- ah, Miss Irina, welcome back.”
The receptionist lady stood up with a flustered look and hurriedly took the piece of paper. Her eyes rolled with disbelief as she processed the piece of paper that proved that Irina had indeed taken down a monster known as the ‘Vampire Lord’. After a few more moments of exchange Irina left the adventurer’s guild as though a violent storm had passed.
“A- amazing…”
Tau exclaimed as he saw the exiting figure of the red haired hero. Noticing his mesmerized and stupidly dazed state Alice stomped on his foot to bring him back to reality. He cried ‘ouch’ as he crouched down to massage his damaged toes and looked back at Alice with an accusing glare.
“What did you do that for?”
“Hmph, it’s because you were acting dumb. Now hurry up and register us already!”
Alice commanded.
Filling out several forms and pricking their thumbs to finish the contract the paper magically turned into their adventurer cards. On them were their name and adventurer level with them starting at the lowest rank of E5.
“Now that that’s over with we should quickly find some place to lodge for the night.”
Alice spoke in a rather exhaustive manner. Before they had even realized what time it was they had spent their entire day running around the capital and marveling at the magnificent sights. With the sky now dyed orange it was warning them that they needed to find a place to lodge quickly.
They went around trying to find places to lodge but unfortunately they were unable to do so as most of them were filled up or destroyed in the Catastrophe of Fire. Their only available course of action was to pray that there was a place to stay outside the city walls and thus made their way back out.
…
Upon exiting the city they noticed a brightly lit residential district, almost as though some sort of celebration was going underway. Drawn by the prospect of a festival, Tau and Alice found their way there only to find numerous people all busily working. It wasn’t exactly a festival but the lively spirit of the people reminded them of one and amongst the crowd they had noticed the presence of a ‘saintly’ figure. A woman with smooth blonde hair and fair skin, she seemed oddly out of place, as though an angel had descended amongst mere mortals.
After a few minutes of listening in they found out that her name was ‘Morgana Daltress’.
Remembering their original objective to find a place to lodge they asked around. To their relief they were offered a place to stay at the outskirt village chief’s if they helped with the repairs to which they agreed. Thus they spent their next few hours helping around with the repairs all the while they were mesmerized by the presence of the ‘saint’.
After the repairs were done Tau and Alice was guided towards the chief’s house and offered the guest room. They were even called to share dinner with the chief and his wife.
“Thank you for the meal.”
Alice and Tau said as they finished their meals.
“Hoho~ it’s nice to have some young company in our abode once in a while.”
The chief spoke.
“Yes, thank you for letting us stay.”
“It’s no problem. Since our savior is doing everything she can to help us we can’t lose face and refuse a plea either.”
The chief responded with a cheerful smile.
“Savior?”
Alice asked with a curious face. Though she had heard the story of the Catastrophe of Fire she wasn’t exactly too familiar with the details. The chief asked where they were from and after confirming that they weren’t here during the time of the Catastrophe he started to explain in detail what had went on during the attack.
After a lengthy explanation Alice and Tau were blown away at the magnanimity of Morgana and the valor and strength of Irina. Taking the story to heart they had decided to go to sleep as they needed to report to the Adventurer’s Guild for any missions.
“Tau, we’re finally here huh? The Capital of Xagontetia.”
Alice spoke from her bed.
“Yeah… we have to thank the villagers who made it possible for us to come here. We can’t let their good will go to waste so we should try our best too.”
Tau responded.
“I know. But, you’ll always be with me, right? We can do this together, right?”
Alice who was aware of Tau’s history asked meekly. She had understood what Tau was after and was afraid that this journey of theirs would end in disaster. Revenge was never a theme that had much in the prospects of a happy ending; both Alice and Tau realized this but continued to press on. Because of this it was hard for Tau to reply but did so anyway to put a rest to Alice’s unease.
“Yeah, I’ll always be here, so don’t worry.”
“Haha… you’re such a bad liar… promise you’ll stay with me…”
Alice spoke as her consciousness faded off to sleep.
“I promise.”
Rebirth Online World 