Rebirth Online World

Polymath Redux – The determination of uncertain destinies
Chapter XLI

Carefully adorning himself with his new uniform Casec stared at the mirror towards his own reflection. Not even a hint of the man he used to be remained in what he saw; he had died yesterday and was reborn anew under a new master. He often believed himself to be a free spirit; never could he have imagined himself serving under a master or even have a place tied down to be called ‘home’. Yet he was here, with a home and a master when he had accepted that man’s proposal.

‘Casec. Work for me.’ He had said. A being with powers comparable to that of ancient gods; such powers that should have been rightfully only been spoken about in ballads and songs of bards. Still, here he was face to face with such an omnipotent being. He had betrayed his former allies and even possibly this country depending on what was required of him. It would be a lie to suggest that he didn’t feel even the tiniest of remorse.

But then again that Casec had died. Yesterday in captivity, Casec had chosen to die honorably in an attempt to take the enemy with him and to prevent further information leak. Thusly the Casec right here; the Casec in the mirror was an entirely new being and person with a new purpose in life.

It wasn’t a good feeling, but it wasn’t particularly a bad one either. With a melancholic taste, perhaps this is what all people experience when they leave behind everything to start anew. Why did he decide to take this chance? Why did he go so far as to betray his allies in order to take this new lease on his life?

‘Follow me and I will show you the world that I have so longed to create,’ that is what he; what Mordred had told him. Casec was naturally interested; a world that a being of such strength wanted to create, just what kind of world would it be? At the very least this reborn Casec had decided to follow through and see for himself, to decide whether this new world was worthy of his loyalty and devotion.

A small knock on his door drew him back from his deep contemplation and to reality. He instinctively knew who was behind that door even without opening to confirm. Most likely it was the head butler of this manor, Grimal. When Casec was recruited, Grimal was promoted to head butler putting Casec as his direct subordinate.

“Yes, please enter.”

Casec replied and let him in. The door slid open to affirm his prior guess, as an elegantly suited man stood before him with an imposing attitude. His silver framed glasses reflected some of the light which accentuated his already sharp appearance.

“Mr. Grimal.”

Casec greeted with the simple utterance and acknowledgement of his name. Grimal gave an affirmative nod and began to speak.

“The master wishes to see you. He’s prepared a job suitable for someone of your caliber.”

“Understood, I will be there once I have finished with my preparations.”

The two exchanged no words beyond that but a clear tension could be felt emanating between the two for them. Yet it was in the spirit of friendly competition rather than abject rivalry; Casec was no longer bitter about having lost the fight against Grimal. That’s not to say that he didn’t have a one sided rivalry going on but Grimal was now more of a goal than an enemy.

As Grimal was about to leave he was halted.

“Say, could it be that you hate the master?”

An almost painful level of silence had overtaken the room and the level of tension rose with each passing second. Grimal’s back was subtly shaking at being asked such a question but after a few seconds he had regained his posture as signified by the drop of tension and sigh from him.

“I do not hate him, merely unsatisfied with the treatment of my master.”

Casec tiled his head in confusion. That last part had especially made no sense to him, because wasn’t Mordred his master?

“What do you mean?”

“It is nothing, you will probably find out eventually. Now stop dallying, the master of the house waits.”

“Right…”

After having dressed up neatly in the black and white Victorian butler suit Casec made his way through the house and stood before a large study. It was clear that some people were inside the room, he could feel their direct presence but no sound could be heard. The most plausible reason for this was that the room was enchanted by some sort of magic or spell that prevented eavesdropping.

He took a deep breath to clear his mind then proceeded to knock on the door to let the master know that he was here as instructed. It was subtle but Casec could feel his own heart beat ever so slightly faster. A mixture of excitement and anxiety swelled inside to create a marvelous cavalcade of complex tension.

“Come in.”

A firm voice commanded. It was the master, Mordred.

“Excuse me.”

Casec replied as he elegantly twisted the handle and entered the room with light steps. Two figures were waiting for him, Morgana and Mordred; enigmatic existences that were far too much of an unknown quality. Despite his proficiency for sizing people up, the depths of their intellect and power were so vast that they couldn’t be calculated with a mere gauge.

Morgana was seated down in front of a large wooden desk with paper scattered all over. From a quick glance they were ministerial administration work. Once again Casec was reminded that Morgana Daltress was the minister of defense for the Xagontetia Sun Country. Even amidst the safety of her home and during the innocent task of paperwork she carried herself with elegance and grace befitting of the title of ‘Saint’.

Glooming over her was a man in a large white overcoat. Immediately Casec could identify that this was no ordinary clothing. In fact it wasn’t limited to the coat alone, but every piece of clothing seemed as though it could be greater than this country’s annual earnings. Just what kind of conspiracy did he have to be behind to have that much money?

He was Mordred, the Master of this house and of Casec himself. Yesterday he merely wore a boring set of standard issue full plate armor but now with what he was wearing he was like a different existence altogether. A much more foreboding and powerful pressure could be felt emanating around him. This person who had denied even death itself from Casec had become the single being most worthy person of his utmost respect.

“Casec, I’ve a job for you.”

He spoke, not a single useless movement could be detected in the way Mordred carried himself. It was clear that the power differences between the two were large, but it was precisely because of this massive difference in scale that Casec’s eyes were opened. Such concepts of ‘who was stronger’ had becoming meaningless in this house, whereas it was everything in the Wayfarer Council.

In this house the only people that Casec was confidently stronger than was the two non-combatant maids. Most likely even Morgana who was also largely a non-combatant was stronger than him.

“Yes, of course. What is it that you wish from me?”

Casec answered with a respectful bow.

“You don’t have to be so formal. Anyway you may have already known but the movements of monsters around the country have become strange as of late. I want you to personally investigate the nature of this phenomenon and track down the person behind it.”

Casec silently contemplated for a second before answering back. ‘The person behind it’? an odd addition. Could it be that Mordred already knew who was behind it but was simply testing him?

“That is to say that you have already confirmed that this was not a natural phenomenon but an induced anomaly?”

Mordred nodded.

“I have personally checked every inch of this continent and this phenomenon is far too abnormal to be a natural occurrence, and from my understanding this kind of situation had never happened before. This means that it wasn’t caused by anyone in this continent, that includes the Baliazoural Empire, and that it was incited by someone from the outside. If we’re talking about an external force that’s connected to demons then…”

“The Great Void; the center continent that was annexed by the Demon Lord… is what you’re insinuating is it not? That they’re finally making a move?”

Casec finished the thought.

To which Mordred gave an affirmative nod. Of course this information was by no means actually confirmed, that was the entire point of Casec’s mission, to confirm whether this was true or not.

“Even if it’s a minute connection I want to be informed of it. Can you do it? If it really is connected to the ‘Great Void’ then the situation could become extremely hostile and dangerous.”

Casec merely responded with an anticipated smile.

“Of course, please leave it to me. Then I shall get started right away.”

Mordred once again gave an affirmative nod.

“Good, then I’ll lay down some ground rules. First is that you’re to make sure that no one knows about you investigating this phenomenon, so carry this mission with utmost secrecy. Second is that you prioritize information gathering but don’t go too overboard; greed is often times the downfall for many. Lastly if it is confirmed that the Great Void is behind this then do not engage the enemy and deliver the information to me first.”

“Understood.”

“One more thing, take this.”

Mordred drew from his pocket a small white stone with a magic rune engraved on it. It was clearly some sort of powerful artefact, but as to what purpose it served was unknown.

“This is…?”

“This is an item known as a ‘spell stone’. It contains a single charge of a powerful [Archer] class skill. You only have one chance so use it only when absolutely necessary.”

Receiving the stone in his hands, Casec could feel the faint but absolute power that was emanating from within. He had never seen or even heard of such an item before but what intrigued him more was that Mordred said it contained a ‘powerful Archery class skill’, just what did that mean? Alas Casec didn’t question his master’s motives and simply accepted.

“Thank you very much. Then I shall depart at once.”

Mordred nodded.

“[Archer] class ultimate – [Orbital Strike]. You’ve sure put a lot of faith into him if you’re giving him something like that.”

After having confirmed that Casec had left eavesdropping distance from the room Morgana took a break from her paperwork to comment.

“It’s mostly for insurance purposes but there are other reasons why I gave it to him.”

Three reasons to be exact.

The first reason was as he said, for ‘insurance’ purposes so that he doesn’t meaninglessly lose his subordinate to an unknown power.

The second reason was to gauge the strength of the opponent should the investigation turn out positive that the demon lord was involved with this phenomenon. Seeing whether or not the enemy could survive such an attack was a good method for gauging the enemy’s strength.

The third reason was for it to be used as a ‘warning’. It was already confirmed that this world had no knowledge of [Hellgana] based skills thus a powerful skill like [Orbital Strike] would make anyone wary. In the best case scenario the culprits behind the demon phenomenon would detract their plans for the time being or at the very least slow it down.

Mordred did not speak out these facts out aloud but Morgana was able to telepathically receive them.

“Hmm, I see. Well I’ll leave it at that. Now then, what do you plan on doing about ‘that’?”

Morgana asked vaguely.

“The Wayfarer Council… is it? For now I’ll let them run around for a bit more. They’re still suffering from the reputation loss from PROJECT: Hellgate, and now they’ve lost two of their prime members. I can’t imagine that they’d be able to move all that much with such a blow. For now we should focus on what’s to come.”

“Fufu~ you’re right, I guess it’s about time for me to step on the stage once more.”

Morgana replied as she gazed out the window to a rising sun. The fruits of yesterday’s labor could soon be harvested.

…

“Hmm~?”

Slowly opening his eyes and letting the hated sunlight pour into his retinas, Tau awoke from his slumber. Much of what had happened the day before had become extremely blurred in his memories and the migraine that was persisting didn’t do any to help his cause.

His last memories were that of drawing the sacred sword but anything after that remained a hazed mess. Having a quick glance he recognized that the place he was carried to was the village chief’s house that he had been occupying for the past week. At the very least it was a relief to know that he was brought to a familiar place rather than some hospital bed in the capital.

As he tried to get out of bed he noticed a small head resting on the side. It was Alice who seemed to have stayed by his side and nursed him back to health, or so he assumed. She had fallen asleep and was cutely snoring and talking in her sleep. ‘No, I can’t eat anymore,’ she would randomly yell out with drool sliding down the side of her mouth.

After stroking her hair a bit he did well to sneak out of bed without alarming her. It was still early in the morning and he had decided to get in some fresh morning air and made his way outside.

A cold moist air brushed past his cheeks as he exited the chief’s house. The sun was still stuck to the horizon and it would be there for a few moments giving Tau the opportunity to bask in the comfort of the shadows and do some light stretches. He did his best to not overexert himself but he needed to make sure that his body was fine after all that has happened.

“Tau!”

A high pitched squeal suddenly came from behind giving him quite the shock. It was Alice who had woken up to find Tau missing and frantically rushed outside.

“Alice… you shouldn’t be shouting so early in the morning.”

“But, but! What about your body? Any injuries? Is there any pain?”

She asked as she tried to inspect every inch of his body.

“I’m fine; you don’t have to worry about me. See?”

Tau replied doing a small combat dance to show that he had been fully healed.

“… Okay. That’s a relief.”

Alice replied as she calmed down.

“Yeah, it’s been so hectic lately that my body didn’t get to have much rest but now that I have I feel so much better.”

“Really, nothing’s been going our way so far so I’m a little worried. I can’t even begin to imagine what’s going to happen so be careful, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry Alice. We’ll be fine!”

Tau gave a hearty thumbs up with a refreshing smile.

The two decided to do some early morning stretches to get back into shape after they’ve slept an entire day. However their early morning exercises were cut short when they were interrupted by several knights. Three knights to be exact, with all of their armors looking extremely polished and of top most quality. They were emissaries of the crown; the Royal Knight Commission to be exact as evident by the symbol of a royal shield adorned on their armor.

“C- can we help you?”

Alice asked meekly as the three towering knights had instinctively cut off any avenues of escape. Once they had made sure that Tau and Alice were could run away they took out a piece of paper.

“By authority of the crown, you are hereby under arrest for the murder of the Grand Cardinal, Lazzaro Zeder.”