Tales of the Old World Demon Lord

Chapter 10 – Blue period

[Eternum Calendar 1971]

“Let’s cut through the forest, it’ll be much quicker that way.”

One farmer said to another. It was an understandable suggestion as the two farmers were struggling to pull their heavy cargo along for too long. At the rate they were going they wouldn’t reach their destination before sunrise but if they cut through the forest they could just barely make it before evening.

The other farmer thought for a second.

“Hmm, but isn’t that a bit dangerous? I mean, monsters live in that forest and with our cargo we’d be at a disadvantage if we’re attacked.”

The other farmer interjected but his arguments were a little weak. This was because on the demon continent of [Vertloch] monster attacks were practically non-existent. The last time they ever even heard of one was decades ago. Suffice it to say, with the majority of the population, even farmers, were demons such stories never tended to arise.

The first farmer scoffed at his friend’s worries as he countered.

“Pfft, quit your whining. We’re going through the forest, ‘kay?”

“Fine, but only because I want to be done with this delivery.”

However that was the first mistake made by these two farmers as they would soon find out. Two people would enter the forests but only one would leave with their life barely intact. Yet that was still not the end of the story, several more cases of random monster attacks on the outskirts of town were reported. With several reports starting to come in day by day the entire city of [Vertloch Snowdown], Morgant’s hometown, decided to have an emergency meeting.

…

On a rare occasion Morgant sat by idly in his room. In a contemplative daze he stared out through the window of his room to the white abyss of the world outside. Their city was known as [Vertloch Snowdown] a place perpetually covered in snow. The never changing purity of this city’s climate gave to it a mysterious and tranquil atmosphere.

The thought of going to the forest to meet with Astaroth had crossed his mind but he decided to put it off. If Astaroth truly had the abilities of precognition then she would see when Morgant would go and match that day. Thus there was no real reason to rush, plus he needed some time to think.

Staring out to the serene scene Morgant took the opportunity to rethink and readjust to everything that had happened in the past couple of days. Once more he stared down onto his small hands as he thought to himself, ‘Psychokinesis, the power of ancient man… it just doesn’t feel real’. With a heavy sigh he stood up from his bed and walked over to the windowsill and opened it slightly.

A cool breeze of snowy air came rushing past his face.

“Sovereign… if you were here now what would you think of this world? A world with monsters and strife… Would you scoff at the mindless entities of this world that struggle through their daily lives? Would you be disappointed at how everything you’ve worked for has been bastardized? Or… perhaps you’d be angered because nothing you’ve set out to achieve has been successful?”

Morgant laughed wryly at himself as he asked the non-existent apparition. The truth was that Morgant was lost on what he had wanted to do now. Before all of this had happened he thought he would be like the other children; he thought he would graduate from the orphanage and follow a profession or trade and live peacefully in this city for the rest of his days.

Yet since he had discovered the truth of this world he felt as though he now had an obligation to fulfill. However as to what exactly those ‘obligations’ were, even Morgant himself didn’t know. In the recordings Sovereign had wished Morgant success in whatever endeavors he was pursuing but no such thing existed now.

Whilst Morgant was thinking to himself his ears twitched to the sounds of his door creaking open. A certain silver haired woman in thick brown clothing walked over to him and sat by his bed with a slightly worried expression. Her silver ears hiked up as she waited for him to say something.

“Miko? What’s wrong?”

Morgant asked as she looked back at him with a small and uncertain frown.

“That’s what I want to ask you. You’ve been cooped up in this room since morning and your friends are getting worried because of that.”

“Ah… you can tell them not to worry. I just need some time to think to myself, is all.”

Miko sighed at his response and after a brief moment of silence Miko asked straight out.

“Hey… something did happen back in that dungeon didn’t it?”

Hearing her question Morgant gave a bemused chuckle as he tried to answer in the vaguest possible manner. There was no way he would be telling her the full truth, not even the minute truth. He knew that Miko was the kind of person that would give the children room to think to themselves and not ask too many questions. Of course she would still be there if the children ever needed help; that distance and confidence she placed into those children were Miko’s form of kindness.

It was this facet of her personality that Morgant took advantage of to not answer her question.

“I wonder…? Being invited by an ancient apparition to the grand city of the lost ghosts; I don’t think the question is ‘if’ anything had happened, rather ‘what’ had happened. Yet regardless, no matter how many times anyone asks I will simply reply with a smile and tell them that ‘nothing much’ happened down there.”

By describing the situation Morgant took away Miko’s ability to further question him. She could only respond with a perplexed and worried expression as she didn’t exactly know how to deal him. In fact it wasn’t just now but with this boy named ‘Morgant’ had always been a great enigma to both her and Diana.

His expressions were hard to read and often times it felt like he’d be the one seeing into their deepest thoughts. He was much smarter, cunning and illusive than the other children and barely even acted appropriately for his age. This problem was compounded even more ever since he ventured into the deepest part of the dungeon several days ago. Keeping everything to himself, yet also maintaining a social distance that made it extremely difficult to determine if there really was anything truly wrong with him.

“Hmm.”

Miko tried to say something but gave up half way. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to deal with him but simply that she didn’t know how. Seeing the perplexed expression on her face Morgant let out another chuckle. He also took this time to closely [analyze] Miko’s status.

Miko [Title: Banished Fox]

Age - 27

Race - Therianthrope (Fox)

Threat Level - 223 (Low)

Affinity - Lightning Element

Condition - Normal

Ailments - None

External Effects - None

As expected she was a little higher than Diana in terms of threat values, but that’s to be expected as Miko was a fighter. She was the one that taught the children self defense and other such related fields.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

Miko asked.

“No reason, I just thought you looked cute sitting on that small bed.”

“Don’t make fun of your elders. Anyway if you have nothing else to do for the day then come with me.”

“Where to?”

“The shopping district, we need to stock back up on supplies and I need a little bit of help carrying stuff.”

Once more Morgant couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I understand then please wait for me as I get dressed in the proper attire.”

Miko gave a swift nod and exited the room. After making sure that she was outside of hearing distance Morgant pulled up another holographic text box in his mind. This time the title had read [Inventory] and underneath it was a list of items that were somehow stored away. He had asked Ingrid about this before and she had explained it as more of a ‘matter transference’ technique.

The ‘information’ and ‘matter’ of the object would be digitized and stored away into a ‘cloud storage system'. To recall the stored item Morgant had to input a specific command, that being the item’s code or name followed by the command ‘Matter Reconstruction’. The item would then be recreated using the digitized code and matter.

As a test run Morgant had previously stashed away some of his clothing just to see if it would accept it. For the most part only items from the Old World had ‘item codes’ thus all he had to call out was the item’s name.

“[Jacket and muffler, Matter Reconstruction].”

What Morgant was doing was interfacing with the cloud storage system through his augmentation, thus he only needed to speak out the command with his specific voice. It was also possible to take out these items without verbally chanting those commands but that method had to be done by telepathically interfacing with the cloud storage system and thus took far more concentration. Overall simply speaking out the command was much simpler, of course there would be times when not doing so could be advantageous.

As he had expected his favorite jacket and muffler had instantly materialized into his hands. After feeling around with it just to make sure nothing was wrong with it he put it on and visually there was also nothing out of place by it.

“Hmm.”

He hummed and nodded to himself as he looked into this own reflection in the mirror. Dressing himself up appropriately he came down the stairs to see Miko waiting for him while surrounded by his friends. As they saw him coming down they waved to him with a smile on their faces.

“Morgant! Quickly!”

Alice shouted with a happy expression.

‘She tricked me,’ Morgant thought to himself as he responded with a calm smile and waved back. Having felt his accusing glare Miko slightly shifted her gaze while pretending that she didn’t notice.

“Umm, are you okay now Morgant?”

Celina asked in a worried tone, her hands clasped together as though she were praying for his swift recovery. Seeing her like this Morgant couldn’t find it in him to be displeased by the situation and decided to forgive Miko. Thinking back on it he felt that he was also out of it for locking himself in his room and making his friends worry like this.

Only Ren had a smug look to him as if to suggest he knew that everything would turn out fine.

“Are we going or what?”

Ren asked Miko.

“Alright then make sure to follow closely so you don’t get lost.”

“We’ve already been quite well acquainted with the layout of the city Miko. There’s really no chance that we’d get lost anywhere here, so don’t worry.”

Ren responded with a dismissive voice.

“It’s just in case, you little brat.”

Miko answered in her defense.

…

Though covered in snow the city was bustling with business as usual. Various vendors and stalls were set up in the middle of town and were loud advertising their goods and services. Just beyond the town’s square and vendors were the real market districts that had their own buildings. Those buildings consisted of item shops, blacksmiths, armorsmiths, grocery stores, restaurants, etc.

Going just beyond that was the port and docks where many fresh goods were being unloaded off the boats at the pier. Several different races were hard at work transporting large, heavy looking crates. Those races consisted of [Dwarves], [Titans], some [Humans] and also [Elves]. With a marvelous cavalcade of races working in conjunction the city truly shined despite being a pure white desert.

Since the snow would cause obvious problems within market districts and the town square a large open dome was erected. Thus the town square was fairly dry and easy to navigate through. It was there that Morgant and his companions were doing the grocery shopping for the orphanage.

As they passed by several shop keepers called out to them, throwing them fresh fruits and vegetables for free. Everyone in the city knew the orphanage and understood of the struggles those poor children were going them. Thus oftentimes the citizens would donate some of their stocks to help them out even in minute quantities. Of course the most famous of the orphanage’s children was their poster child, Alice who, along with her bright smile, brought cheer to everyone as she passed by with hyperactive spirits.

“So, are you really feeling okay?”

Following the girls from a distance Ren turned to ask Morgant in a subtle voice. Though he didn’t say it before, now that they had some time to themselves he asked.

Morgant gave a small chuck in return and answered.

“I’m fine, I really just needed some time to think. About myself and what I want to do in the future.”

Hearing this Ren became silent for a brief moment. He hadn’t thought about it all that much, about what he would do after graduating from the orphanage. He had always thought that he would be together with his friends in the city as they took on various professions. However after seeing Morgant’s expression he thought that maybe nothing was as simple as how he wished things to be.

They were all orphans so shouldn’t they at least stick together? Or so he had thought until now.

“I see… so, um, did you come up with an answer?”

He asked nervously, but Morgant shook his head.

“No, but I’m sure I will soon, I have to.”

“What do you-”

Just as he was about to ask a large commotion started in the middle of the shopping districting. A man tattered in bruises and cut slowly made his way through the crowd of people as he trailed blood behind him. Some people screamed at horror as they saw his state and some tried to help him with various healing magic.

The children and Miko too went to see what all of the commotion was about.

“Are you alright, guy?”

One of the bystanders asked.

“What happened?”

Another asked.

The man tattered in bruises and cuts responded with hoarse voice. With clear exhaustion in his eyes he cried a little.

“It… it… it attacked!”

He shouted and as he did many people stared to whisper amongst themselves, speculating as to what ‘it’ could be.

“Quiet people! Let the man talk!”

One of the healers tending to the man shouted.

“Now, calm down and tell us. What exactly attacked you?”

The man swallowed and heavily breathed in a few times.

“G- goblin…”

At the answer everyone started to get confused. Goblins especially weren’t really all that known for their strength and their intelligence was even less. They all started to make wild speculations as to what it really was since they couldn’t just accept ‘goblins’ as the answer. However the man was not finished, he continued to reveal what really attacked him. He shouted just as he lost consciousness…

“G- goblin… God… it was… a Goblin God!”