As the soldier collapsed, the whole room went into panic.

Elyse, the leader of the Guild of Healers immediately went to the soldiers aid, laying him on one of the four couches on either side of the room.

Patrick, Bishop of the city of Kasten, went to the other wounded and urged the guards holding them to place them on the other empty couches.

Commander Maxwell ordered five of the nine guards to do something, most likely getting more people capable of Healing Magic – a subsystem of Light Magic.

The others in the room, however, were much less calm and collected.

Judges shouted at each other and at their leader, Head Judge Edgar.

The various leaders of different branches of the Mages Guild began to more or less seclude themselves with their leader, Lloyd, and although it looked like they wanted to be secretive, their panic made them talk louder than they intended.

The couple people of different artisan guilds were the most panicky among them, yelling and becoming more and more agitated with each other while Lady Melissa, leader of the Merchants Guild and the only one here actually a noble – a landless Baroness, tried to calm them down.

The only truly calm people were Maxwell and the remaining four soldiers, staying silent even though their faces indicated fear and worry, an indication how disciplined the Captain of the Guard and Commander of the Garrison trained his soldiers.

They merely watched over the injured soldiers and waited for someone to take control of the situation, the Captain himself clearly not intending to do so himself.

In fact, he shot me a couple of glances indicating I should be the one to do something, being the regent and all.

All in all, there were about thirty or so people inside the office shouting at each other.

I was busy contemplating what to do.

Even though Maxwell silently urged me to do something, why should I?

Though I may have lived and worked here for the past decade, I never actually became a citizen, meaning I have no loyalty to this place whatsoever despite being its temporary ruler.

In fact, although some of the citizens might say otherwise, I’ve never really ‘lived’ here.

Most of the time I was away under the guise of hunting bandits while actually placing the finishing touches on my world and its Laws and systems.

The whole reason I was living here was just to get used to a mortal body, building relations of whatever kind was to be done in my next, ‘real’ life, where I’m planning to be born a mortal and die a mortal.

I’ve never had any intention to stay here longer after I completed the work from the past twenty billion years.

The closest people to me were the innkeeper and his wife and daughters, and that was simply a relationship between a manager and his client.

And there is no particular reason to save them.

Thousands of revolutions happen across my realm every second, let alone the innumerable wars happening at all times.

I’ve never interfered with them, nor did I have any reason to do so.

I merely provide the ingredients for life and for the rest life may do what it wants, that is my philosophy as ruler of this plane.

Despite the reasons not to interfere with whatever was going on here and to instead just leave, I still had one very simple to stay here.

Despite not being a citizen, despite not particularly caring for the people living here and despite my philosophy of ‘let life do whatever it wants’, this doesn’t take away the fact that I, at this very moment, am the mayor of Kasten.

Even if it was supposed to be temporary, a situation has arisen and it is my job to take care of it until either the old mayor returns – though presumed dead for now – or until a new mayor is chosen from among the Guilds and the (rich) citizens.

And why not take this opportunity when it is so easily laid before me?

I was planning to rule a kingdom or empire sooner or later, in another life and after experiencing some lifetimes as mortal.

So why not start with a city where the power is easily thrown in my lap?

Get some experience ruling a relatively small amount of people for a small amount of time before beginning to rule entire kingdoms and empires.

Even if the people of the city want me to stay once a more or less peaceful solution has been reached, I can simply reject and leave if that happens.

I don’t expect it to take long anyway.

Sooner or later, whatever precisely happened at the capital – be it heroes, monsters, angry mobs or anything else – will catch up to this town, so it is merely until then I’ll be staying here.

Meanwhile, the room had gotten more and more noisy.

These respectable men supposedly capable to manage extensive organizations inside the 3rd biggest city of the Kingdom of Asra were now behaving like headless chickens during a little trouble.

My God were they quickly becoming annoying.

“Silence!”

I yelled with one fist on the table and some Body Enhancement cast on the throat.

Although there were some noises of cracking wood, the desk managed to hold.

Immediately the room got deathly quiet.

Irritation was oozing from my voice and even the powerful Guild Leader of the Mages knew not to speak any longer.

Who would deliberately anger a man capable of slaughtering a hundred raiders not even two weeks ago?

Let alone all the other criminals and bandits I either killed, captured or tortured during the past decade, and the entire organizations I was responsible of destroying in this once shit-hole of a city.

I stood up from behind the desk and made an impressing angry-looking face, even though I was just a bit annoyed by their behaviour.

But anger is what they need to spur them into action.

“You are all men and women of merit, capable of controlling entire Guilds for God’s sake! Behave like it and stop squealing like confused pigs!”

They all looked down, embarrassed, except for the top brass of the group, who had remained somewhat calm.

At least they were competent.

I sighed.

Competence is hard to find.

“Everyone, I want you all to go to your guilds and spread the word about what has happened and tell everyone that they must gather at either the market, the town square or at any one of the churches. In one hour, I will release a statement about what will happen. After the announcement, you are all to come back here and we’ll discuss things further. Am I understood?”

I put a tone of unquestionable authority in the last sentence.

They all nodded, seemingly all accepting my commands.

But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a question burning in everyone’s mind.

“Lord, what should we tell?”

Yes, what indeed?

The few words given by the bodyguard before passing out were not very informative.

However, there was one thing almost sure.

“Tell them that lord-mayor Oliver is dead and the capital is presumed to have fallen.

Seeing as the state of the soldiers was visibly terrible, with their many wounds and heavy bleeding, the death of Oliver is all but certain.

As for the capital, it is better to expect the worst than to hope for the best.

And if my conjecture is right, the worst did in fact happen.

Everyone was busy walking – or rather, rushing out the door, trying to as quickly as possible spread the word.

But before they all left, I made a final command.

“Elyse, Patrick, you stay here. Maxwell, order your guards to spread the word as soon as possible, as town criers if they have to. Oh, and let the four here stay. I might need them as errand boys.”

Elyse and Patrick had already expected this, with them being the only ones capable of Light and Healing Magic here, so they hadn’t bothered to stand up.

Maxwell turned for a second, placed their right fist on his heart and bowed as if to his lord, afterwards rushing off towards the barracks.

Elyse was busy patching up the wounds of the unconscious soldier, constantly murmuring healing chants to evoke her powers.

Which was absolutely unnecessary, might I add, since it was just as easy without chanting, although it required a bit more imagination and concentration.

For some reason, people tend to invoke their powers with chants, circles, runes or whatever they could think of.

People who didn’t need them were considered geniuses or prodigies and the like, although I don’t know why.

Then again, since, in a way, I am the power and created it I might have it easier than them.

I never needed to learn it, after all.

Patrick was doing the same with the two still conscious ones, although there was a more religious theme to his chanting.

Probably the result of the difference between Church and normal teachings of Light Magic.

I did not bother with Elyse and went to the couch with the still-conscious bodyguards instead.

Compared to the soldier Elyse was dealing with, the one with the burns and gashes on his face, these two were comparatively easier off.

Although the cloth of their armour had seemingly burned off and their mail had been torn apart by some sort of claw, they had relatively mild wounds.

They had a few scratches on their face, burns on their hands and one or two gashes on their chest, arms and legs, but these were mere flesh wounds.

Still, it was a small miracle how they reached this place, which was a four days walk away from the capital.

Even with horses and without stopping it would take at least a day before reaching here.

With wounds like these, it should’ve been a near-unbearable ride and they definitely wouldn’t have survived four entire days of travel.

Instead of the large and possibly already infected wounds of the unconscious soldier, these two seemed much more… broken than the other.

The unconscious, despite clearly disoriented and horrified at what he had witnessed, had still managed to squeeze out a few words before collapsing.

These ones, however, seemed to able to do nothing else than silently stare at the ground, to horrified to speak.

While they sat on the couch, Patrick sat squatted down in front of them.

I placed myself next to him and got straight to the point.

“Can you make them talk?”

Patrick, a man old enough to be a grandfather, sighed heavily in response.

“I’ve been healing them and trying to get them to talk, but nothing works. Even though their most severe wounds are already reduced to mere surface wounds, I can’t fix their minds.”

His voice was laced with burden and exhaustion.

“Too have witnessed something so horrible. And at such a young age, too.”

He sighed again while shaking his head and rubbing his temples.

I looked up at the faces of the guards.

They couldn’t be much older than twenty and still clearly had the features on youth, no stubbles were to be found as if they’d just shaven moments ago.

Too bad I have to know what they know, and look inconspicuous while doing so.

That means, unfortunately, no quick sweep of the capital to check it out myself.

Instead, I have to do something even I don’t like doing, seeing as the memories it brought back.

I looked at Patrick and spoke again.

“I have to know what they know, even if it might break them.”

I said, trying to gouge how he felt about harming these people even further.

Frankly, I was surprised to hear his answer.

“I know. Even though I don’t like it, I know you must do what is necessary, my lord.”

He said.

Though unwilling, the Bishop still urged me to continue with whatever unsavoury act I was about to do.

I shifted my head back to them and looked them in the eye.

In my Soul I grabbed two threads of Mind Magic and stabbed it into their Souls.

A quick shudder, a scream in their Soul and eyes widened in shock and disbelief; the same look Anna and Damien’s deceased bodies carried as they lay bleeding, the sand around them dyed in the colour of their blood.

Memories were trying to resurface, but I forced them back.

In this world, Mind Magic was my personal power, just like Teleportation and a few others.

The reason why is simply that the power was too similar to that of Death: it was capable for the caster to take over and easily enslave a person’s mind, while they were still fully aware of what was going on around them.

This meant that, while the caster would force them to commit atrocious acts, the enslaved person would see themselves doing these things without any power to stop it.

I didn’t dare release it in this world.

Similar forced suicide and many other unspeakable tragedies would undoubtedly appear if this power fell into the hands of the more morally damaged people of this world.

Instead, I created the similar Illusion Magic, a subsystem of Dark Magic.

The difference is that, where Mind Magic is capable of dominating a person’s entire being, Illusion Magic was to simply make a person see things that weren’t there, or make them confess something they were withholding.

The biggest difference lay in that the person’s mind would go into an unconscious state if they were forced to do things they don’t want to.

The reason I still chose for Mind Magic is for one reason: I could relive their memories first person, giving me a more detailed view of what happened.

Illusion Magic isn’t capable of doing that, although people who are right now witnessing this scene would still think it was Illusion Magic rather than anything else.

So, I delved into their memories and found the one I needed, afterwards freezing their minds so that only I would relive their memories, not themselves.

Also, I made sure that, despite their frozen minds, their bodies would narrate the memories, making it seem like Illusion Magic to Patrick, Elyse and the four guards, who were all undoubtedly planning to listen in on it.

Within moments, I was swept away into their past and arrived at the capital, while outside of my consciousness, the narration started.

It was during the coronation.

All people of note were present at the palace.

The Dukes, Counts, Barons and many other forms of nobility were present to see the crowning of the new King, including the Mayor.

All stood in front of the palace, underneath the many, many steps leading up to the magnificent building, shining brightly in the sun.

Beside the King, sitting at the top of the steps on a beautiful, gemstone-adorned golden throne, stood the Archbishop, ready to crown the new King, the regent who previously ruled and the members of the soon to be King’s Council.

All these stood one the right side, while on the left side, stood others in less ceremonial garb.

They were Commanders, Generals and Captains of the King’s personal Royal Guard.

But that was not all.

Most important among them, wearing impractical yet imposing armour, were the four summoned Heroes.

The Kingdom of Asra had a long tradition, dating back more than three centuries, of summoning Heroes to solve their problems.

Although they were supposedly ‘from another plane’, they were simply inhabitants of another planets, summoned by Summoning Magic as they would summon monsters – also from different planets, since there were no other planes as far as I know.

But in the summoning of Heroes, I added for them to get some extra power, as stories read long, long ago always suggested

They had helped during a war against a couple of neighbouring non-human countries and had a well-earned position in the court of the previous King, and would undoubtedly rise to greatness as well during the new King’s reign.

Now, there was only one thing that everyone either didn’t know or simply didn’t care about.

There was a fifth Hero, who had left as soon as he was summoned, as is a very natural instinct for people randomly thrown into what they perceive as ‘another world’.

He wasn’t present at the King’s ceremony, or so everyone though, until one certain moment that shocked everyone.

From the back, behind even the large mass of peasants looking from far away to see the coronation, there he stood: the Summoner Hero.

Unlike the other Heroes, who had the relatively common Water, Fire, Light and Dark Magic, he had received the power of Summoning Magic, a rare power to have, even for Heroes.

Only a few others in the Kingdom’s history had this kind of Magic, including the previous King, simply known as the Summoner King.

With a simple shout ‘Death to the King’, he opened hundreds of portals – a part of Summoning Magic – and through them streamed the armies of the various neighbouring races who had suffered in the previous war.

He also summoned many, many regular summoning monsters to his aid.

Undoubtedly, the Summoner Hero had spent his time with the other races and had grown a certain resentment to the Asra Kingdom.

A story very common in my realm as well as in the literature of this and the previous world, although the books tend to force a more peaceful solution to these kinds of conflict.

The rest is obvious.

Chaos.

Bloodshed.

Death and carnage all around.

None were spared, not even the civilians.

These soldiers fought, they won a few but saw the situation was hopeless, and when Oliver fell dead, they decided to flee.

They were very lucky, captured a few horses and fled, leaving the many unarmed citizens behind along with their sense of honour.

That was why they were broken.

They witnessed horror and they survived.

Simple survivor’s guilt had eaten away at them, at these two more so than the unconscious one.

That was their story.

A very simple one, and one I had expected, although not anticipated.

Just as I was done looking through their memories, so were they done with the narration.

I retracted my Mind Magic and looked at the other faces, clearly paled in shock.

“What do we do now?”

I heard Elyse, having finished healing what she could, saying.

“There is only one thing to do, isn’t there? Defend against the oncoming horde as best we can and hope for the best.”

I responded.

Ideally, I would like to negotiate, but I doubt the furious horde will allow that.

So instead, we’ll fight.

They fight for revenge.

The citizens to defend their homes.

Me, to experience war as a mortal for the first time.

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I have a feeling I messed up somewhere in this chapter, but for the life of me can't figure out where.

Well, that's life for ya.

Anyway, since I obviously won't post anything before that anymore, I wish you all a happy New Year and hope to see you in the next (God I hate it when people make those kinds of jokes)!