The journey to the house was uneventful, it was still some time in the morning as the streets were not that filled with people. So, they arrived quickly to their destination.

Olivia and Julia entered the house, but Rhax didn’t. He walked a couple of meters to the left and entered a shop. It was a fine thing, the shop itself was built from black stone and had a very big sign that said: Smithy. The door was made with mahogany wood, it had some patterns on it. They were patterns of swords, spears and a lot more weapons.

Rhax pushed in the door and walked in, the moment the door was opened the sound hit him, the sound of metal clashing against metal. It was a beautiful sound. The shop was clean, there were swords and all sorts of weapons on the walls and in special places inside the shop.

“Coming!” A voice familiar to him called from the back room, which was the smithy itself in Rhax’s estimation. The burly Peter came out from the room behind the reception area.

“Ah, Rhax. I see you have been healed, come to the back.” He smiled and bid Rhax to follow him. Rhax followed him silently, he was watching the weapons and valuing them. They were all Not Classified, but some he found were Common. Which wasn’t a surprise, Common weapons and artifacts are not that hard to make. But it starts to get hard once one wants to make a Rare weapon.

“Cool weapons.” He commented while still following Peter, who in turn turned and smiled at him showing pride in his work.

“Thank you, most of these are my work, but some of them are my father’s and grandfather’s. You could say that they are family heirlooms.” Rhax liked the sound of that, it was just a cool concept. The concept of getting things from your ancestor or parents and seeing their work.

“So,” he started, “has your family always been a blacksmithing family, or were you something more?” Seeing that shop and the weapons told Rhax that at least three generations of this family were blacksmiths.

Peter Thought about it for a second. “Well, my grandfather, the one who opened this shop, was a soldier in the King’s army, then when he retired, he came back here and started to pursue his passion. It was tough at the beginning, but gradually he managed to make good weapons and equipment. That was what started the reputation for this shop, my father then came after him, my father was a prodigy, he was very skilled and made some amazing weapons. In fact, his masterpiece, a sword called Tear Bringer, which has the rating of Rare is being carried right now by the City Lord, Lord Bram himself.” Peter huffed his chest in pride at his Old Man’s achievements. It should be taken in account that normal Blacksmiths usually don’t produce a Rare item, it takes a lot of skill and patience to make a weapon, and the tiniest mistake can degrade a Rare item into a Common.

“Wow, I would like to meet him if it is possible?” Rhax asked, but the look on Peter’s face made him realize he said the wrong thing, again!

“I wish I could, too. But unfortunately, he was killed in the war 10 years ago.” Peter had a sad expression on. Rhax didn’t know what he was talking about, he didn't even know what the Kingdom’s name was. He never thought about it, but where was he?

“I’m sorry, but what war? Also, which Kingdom am I in right now? I don’t know where I’m, I just walked and walked until I met your children.” Rhax asked with an embarrassed expression, it was not easy saying what he said, because that was implying, he was a simpleton.

Peter looked at him in disbelief, it looked like he was reading Rhax’s face to see if he was lying, when he found his answer, he started laughing like a mad man. “No way!” He said in between the laughing that was going on. “This is the funniest thing I’ve heard in my life!”

His face was getting redder and redder, and Rhax was worried that Peter was gonna choke on his own laughter. But then Peter calmed down and grabbed a chair to sit on.

Rhax seeing this finally realized that they are in the smithy, the first thing that hit him was the heat, it was like a furnace in here. Of course, the real furnace was working, Rhax saw it behind Peter, who sat in the chair like the temperature was nothing to him.

“Holy shit! How can you work in this environment?” Rhax exclaimed while fanning himself.

Peter chuckled at his reaction. He shook his head. “You will get used to it…” He then instructed Rhax to sit down and Rhax did as he was told. “Let us start with where are we in the world okay.” Peter started. “We are in Navros, the second largest continent. Exactly in the Kingdom of Orion, Orion is one of the strongest Kingdoms in Navros. And I’m not saying that because it is my home, but this is a fact well established. 10 years ago, a neighboring Kingdom, who at that time had a 14-year-old as a King, he was a terrible King, sadist, cruel and didn't care about his people. He was made to believe by his crazy mother that his Kingdom was stronger than Orion, so, on that fateful night, he declared war on Orion. The war only lasted for a few days, but thousands of men and women from that Kingdom were killed. When we won the defense, our King, may Tera give him her blessing, ordered the army to attack. And attack we did, in a matter of a couple of days we took over the Kingdom, the King and his crazy mother were executed, and then the Kingdom was annexed by the right of conquest.” Peter huffed when he was done, like he was disrespecting the Ex-Kingdom they took over.

“You are probably wondering where my father fits in the story? Well, you see, after I became good enough in my father’s eyes, he handed me the shop and then took off. I didn’t know where he was for months, and then I got the news that he was a blacksmith for his Majesty's army. Then when the war broke out, he, according to the soldiers who were there, was killed in battle. That was 10 years ago.” The pride on Peter’s face dimmed a little but then it came back in even more intensity.

“Oh, I’m Sorr-”

“Don’t!” Peter interrupted. “My father died while fighting for his land and for his King. This is something I will always be proud of. And this is not only my conviction, go ask anyone who has people that died in the war, and they will tell you what I just told you. Dying while fighting for your Kingdom and King is the highest honor.” The conviction and the determined expression on Peter’s face made Rhax a little startled.

His thoughts immediately turned to what Peter said. ‘So, he takes pride that his father was killed in battle while defending his Kingdom and King. This indicates that this society is warrior based, like the Viking of old. But Tera is a peaceful Goddess, so why is this society so?’ The Viking were a warrior-based society, they believed that dying in battle was the best thing ever. And from what Peter said this also describes these people’s ideas and convictions.

This was normal, this was a medieval society after all, but what puzzled Rhax was the whole dying and fighting thing. Tera is a peaceful Goddess, she is the Goddess of Nature and Earth, which indicates the Goddess of life in one way. As she is responsible for creating basically everything, from the ground his feet were on to the forests that he almost was killed in. This makes her a very peaceful Goddess, even her followers are known to be one of the most peaceful people in Ethea.

So, one could understand Rhax’s confusion. A land that has Terran as the main religion, but at the same time believe in dying in battle and fighting and dying for their King and Kingdom. Basically, saying that they don’t hate war, but are eager to it.

‘This is a conviction that has been developed for generations, and not something that has come anew. This has only one explanation. Terran wasn’t always the main religion in Orion, but they had another religion that followed these teachings. And for my knowledge there is only one big religion that has this teaching and that is Virturian. As it is a religion who worship the God of War and Bravery. So, these teachings are common in it. So, could Orion have been under the Virturian Church before it changed to Terran?’ His mind was trying to understand the puzzle he found. To anyone, it would seem very boring and lame that he is thinking about this subject this much. But Rhax, or in better words Marcus is a Historian, he lives on history. He loves it and you can’t just give him a clue about something historic and not expect him to research it until he found everything, he can about it. This was the same person who knows the history of a fictional world like it was something that really happened.

And if he really thought about it then he would find out that his love for history and his place now was because none other than A Song of Ice and Fire. When he was still in high school and was reading it, he started to get more and more into the history of this fantastic world. He knew every king, every event that happened before the story happened. That was what inspired his passion for history, he started with the European, he was never a fan of American history, there was nothing interesting about it in his opinion.

“Tell me, Peter.” He said cautiously. He doesn’t want to offend him. “Was Terran always the main religion of Orion?”

Peter was suddenly rigid and his face became blank. “And why would you think that?” There was a wall behind his eyes that Rhax clearly saw. He knew he was stepping on eggshells.

“Well,” he noted that his throat was dry, he cleared it and continued, “Tera is a very peaceful Goddess that believes in the right of every creature to live. And from what you said, it does not go with her teachings. But more toward Virtus’ teaching. And these thoughts do not come in just 10 or 100 years, but they are built into society for generations. Thus, I figured that Orion had another religion and then changed to Terran for some reason.”

Peter had a dumbfounded expression on. “You figured all that out from a sentence I said? Are you some kind of genius?”

Rhax felt the walls he felt earlier were gone now, so he laughed. “No, but before I was a mercenary, I was studying to become a scholar, my specialty was history and in its turn religion. But what can I say, the blade called out to me and I answered.” Rhax said the first thing that came into his mind.

‘I hate how realistic this game is!’ He exclaimed inside his mind, it was really challenging to create a whole new character on the spot and has to give perfect explanation.

Peter laughed. “Who the fuck thought that the man who killed a Direwolf would actually be a scholar?” Rhax laughed with him, but not for the same reason Peter was laughing at which was shock, he was laughing because he was relieved that his in spot explanation was successful.

Peter stopped laughing and then took a serious expression. “You are right Orion was following another God from the time it was created 1500 years ago. But we changed our religion 300 years ago when the last King of the direct line of the Royal family that created Orion died. After his cousin took the throne, Terran became Orion’s religion.”

Rhax noticed how Peter refused to say the name of the religion Orion used to follow, but he was more focused on something else. “Wait! Orion is 1500 years old! This is very damn old!” On Earth this would mean the kingdom is the eternal ruler of its area. As the longest-lasting empire in Earth’s history is the Roman empire which has lived for 1000 years. So, for Peter to say such things without care is like a shock to Rhax.

Peter swelled with pride. “Yeah, it is, even though it is not that old when compared to the other empires and kingdoms in the world it is still a lot.”

Rhax almost had a heart attack. ‘Orion is young?! Just how old is this world?’

“Peter,” his voice was small from the shock, “how old is the world?”

Peter looked at him like he was an idiot. “Didn’t you say you studied history?”

“Y-yes I did, but in one of my jobs I was hit in the head and almost lost all of my memories.” He again said the first thing on his mind.

He sighed a sigh of relief when Peter looked sympathetic. “Oh, I’m sorry about it. The world is at least 10,000 years old. At least that is what the Popes and Magi think.”

Rhax was perplexed, this was very old indeed. He of course doesn’t believe that the Whole World is 10,000 years old, but only when the first civilization emerged. Because let’s take Earth, Earth is 4,6 Billion years old, and civilization has only existed for 6,000 years.

“Can you tell me about the religion Orion worshiped before the change?” He dropped the subject because he was curious about this more now.

Peter’s face fell and he let out a sigh. “I think I should tell you now that you are living in Orion. Orion was once a follower of Nergal, the God of Death.”