Chapter 24: In Distress

“Master Lucas, What’s going on those roars aren’t normal. Something in it makes my body tremble unconditionally.” Melissa suddenly said to me when I exited my father’s room.

She looked weak and frightened even her entire body is still shaking uncontrollably from time to time.

“Stay inside the mansion, Melissa, those roars aren’t from an ordinary magic beast. Only a rank 5 magic beast can have this terrible effect on everyone.” I said to her solemnly.

“Oh no, why is this happening? Last time it was the earthquake that gave me terrible nightmares and now a rank 5 magic beast, oh lord this is a calamity.” She tearfully said as she tried to stop her cries from coming out.

“Don’t worry Melissa, you’re safe here, are all safe here. My father and I would make sure of that.” I said to her as I tried to console her poor soul.

“Master Lucas here is some soup to keep you warm, Ben has made some for all of us to help us calm down.” Jane suddenly said as she carried a tray full of soup served in a small bowl.

Even though she has managed to keep her calm on the surface and cover it with a comforting smile and I can see that her hands are still trembling albeit not that obvious.

“Oh thank you Jane, I really need something like this.” Melissa said as she take a sip of the soup.

“My brother Ben has prepared this immediately. He said that it would help us to calm down. He learnt the simple recipe from the potion master.” Jane explained as she handed our own small bowl of soup before going to another room.

“Master Lucas, what should we do? No one is a match to fight that magic beast. Even if we include all our knights in the city, there’s only a little chance of them defeating it. Why must it happen to us.”

“Don’t worry Melissa, we will be safe as long as we stay inside the city. No magic beast can invade it from outside.” I said determinedly since we still have our secret weapon in the basement, but once I activated it people would also know what lies beneath this place.

“I have a great trust in your father that he can find ways to solve this because he never fails to do it.” She said with faith.

“I know what you mean, Melissa, my father is an amazing person. That’s why I would also grow up like him.”

“That’s good to hear, young master. I also know that you’re going to be a good leader for everyone and I should take my leave now. The soup has helped me calm down. I must go back to my task and assist the others.” She said with a calm voice.

“Are you sure you’re okay-it hasn’t been so long since you suffered from that terrible suppression from the roars of a high-ranking magic beast?” I ask her worriedly.

“I’m fine, Master Lucas, the soup really helps me calm down. At the same time, talking to you sets my mind at ease and I’m old enough to handle myself. You too, master Lucas. You should go back and check other important things. I know that you must have a lot of work to do today. Even if your father arrives today, I’m sure that he won’t take a rest for the entire day.” She said to me before leaving me alone in the room.

What she said is right. There is a lot of work waiting for me to do and I know that once father gets back he would immediately call for an assembly to address the people and the situation.

I immediately went back to my duty and checked everyone inside the mansion and, thanks to the special soup that ben have prepared, most people had already recovered their strength. While others were busy checking the situation and worriedly talking about the loud roar that disturbed the peace within the city, I saw Gaspar excitedly speaking with Ben.

I knew that if Gaspar was involved then something is not normal here. I just have learned my lessons. This middle-aged man has too many secrets on his body.

Wait middle age? He doesn’t look like that old anymore. In fact, he looks younger due to eating so many magic fruits, but what I don’t understand is how is he able to eat it without having any problems.

“What else did you put into this soup? I can see that you didn’t used anything special and mostly ordinary ingredients but why do you have this herb? This is something not for human consumption due to its bitter taste.” I heard Gaspar said to Ben.

“I didn’t really put anything special I just learn this recipe from the potion master since I ask him a good potion that would help someone to calm down. He said that I didn’t need any potion for that and can use this herb instead and he also taught me a way to remove its bitter taste to make it into a soup.” Ben replied.

“That’s great, then you can prepare a lot of this soup. We can give it away to people in the city to help them calm down. I know that Michael must be having some trouble controlling the crowds now.” I suddenly said to them as I disrupted their conversation I don’t want to give Gaspar another chance to commit something unimaginable. He might try to do some experiment with it and who knows what kind of consequences we would suffer from it.

“There’s no problem in preparing this soup at all. Master Lucas, since we already have all the ingredients that we need It’s just that it might take me some time if I just did it all by myself.” He said while carefully mixing the pot of boiling soup.

“I can do it I can help him. All he needed to do is to learn the recipe, then I could just follow every step and process of it.” Excitedly said by Gaspar.

I knew it. This man must be planning something else, but since he was the only one who could help us for now, I have no choice but to give him permission.

“Okay then prepare a lot of it. We will go in the city within half an hour. Can you both do it?” I said as, I gave them a time limit.

“That’s good, I-I mean, yes, we can do it definitely,” Gaspar said in full joy, not minding that other people are still affected by the suppression of the magic beasts,

“Yes, definitely, Master Lucas, this soup doesn’t require anything special and simple to prepare half an hour is enough for us to cook several pots of it if we utilize all the stove in the kitchen.” Ben said in a serious manner.

“Then that’s good to hear I don’t know what’s going on the city right now and your soup is really effective in calming people. This should help us a lot in stabilizing the situation.” I said as I leave them both busy in the kitchen.

I just hope that Gaspar won’t try to do anything unordinary while I am away with those looks on his face I know that he must be planning something again and every time he is involved that is not something good.

I decided to wander around the mansion to see if there was anything I can do but upon closer inspection it seems like all the servants in this house is highly trained, even though they have just experienced something terrible. It didn’t take that long before they went back to work.

Though it seems like their worries haven’t faded yet, as I could hear some whisper from time to time about suppression that they felt when they heard the roar of a high ranking magic beasts.

Even though the mansion is located quite far from the main population of Florentine city, I could still hear faint voices full of terror and people panicking in the city with my enhanced senses as a knight. It wasn’t difficult for me to hear the chaos going on this place.

While ordinary soldiers have already resumed their patrols to try and organize the crowd, the entire city itself is still in chaos. Due to the sudden expansion of the market and with the rise of the new industry, a huge inflow of people have come in the city and now those people are now crying to be evacuated away from this place. In fact, some rich businessmen and small nobility had already tried to forcefully enter the mansion, but they were taken away by the soldiers.

If the worst thing had really come and several rank 5 magic beasts have decided to attack the city, I would be forced to open up the ancient formation on our basement.

That would also be the first time that it would be activated since Florentine city was built. I don’t know how long or how strong that formation is but one thing is for sure, it is something that a beast on that level can’t destroy.

When my ancestors found the ancient formation in the city 800 years ago, the barrier around the formation is still working perfectly fine. They only manage to get inside of it when he accidentally stumbles on a hidden entrance that leads to the current basement of the mansion.

But that entrance before has now been blocked by a landslide he purposely made, but it was described in his memoir that the narrow walls along the pathway is all made of special steel that not even his most powerful attack using his spirit managed to penetrate it entirely. Only a small dent was left on its walls.

That is also how he found out that the entire narrow pathway he has taken is made up of meter thick steel walls that would take a long time to destroy. That entrance he found leads him to the control center of the entire formation and there he found the special key that maintains the barrier around the old ruin.

It was written on his memoir that there wasn’t any defensive mechanism around the key as most of the place have already fallen into disrepair only the remaining magic formation remains in the old ruins.

But it still took him a long time before he managed to buried the entire ruin on the thick amount of soil since most of the buildings themselves inside the city have fall down only the walls and the giant formation need to be hidden away from the sight of other people.

That key now lies in the secret room in our basement once it was put into its position the entire formation would start working again and the barrier would once again appear in front of many people.

I read all of this during the first month that I got here on this new world I spend most of my time learning something about this new world through due to limited information written on those books are mostly stories that was pass down to people for a long time.

My ancestors have tried to investigate on what’s the role of the old ruin but due to the passage of time most of the thing he found out are broken magic artifacts. The machine and gears that run around the place have long been rusted and broken down.

Even the mechanism to open the steel doors have failed but thankfully most of the materials have already degraded into powder.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the voice of my father calling for my name at long last they have arrived.

“LUCAS…..LUCAS…” father shouted in alarm.

“Father, I’m over here.” I said as I went in the direction where the voice had come from.

“Great you’re okay.” He said in relief as he held me in my shoulders.

“Father, what’s going on. What happens? Why is there a high-ranking magic beast in the enchanted forest?” I ask in worry.

“I also have no idea why several powerful magic beasts would choose to live in the edge of the enchanted forest. We didn’t even manage to reach the entrance of it. We were attacked by hundreds of its minions so we needed to fall back, but what I didn’t expect is that they would use their loud roar to announce their presence to everyone.” Father said in a solemn voice.

“I’m already prepared to activate the formation if necessary. At the same time, Michael has gone into the city to try and restore the order. People are now panicking because of this sudden appearance of many high-ranking magic beasts.” I said to him while explaining what happened during his absence.