- Somewhere in the woodlands, 200km southeast of the capital –

- 63 days after the “Fall of Virtue” incident-

- Around 5 am -

“Hiro! We’re surrounded! At this rate, we’ll..!” Hiroshi, along with his party went into the “endless forest” to gain more experience and level up and is currently in an unfavourable situation for them. low on healing potion supplies and low on mana also stamina. Although along the journey, they have increased their level and skills by hunting monsters and participating in subjugations, it is still not enough to win against the demon army that they’re fighting currently.

The endless forest itself lives up to its name. a massive forest, roughly has a size of around 3.7milion km2, which is rumoured to be rich in resources while having C to A ranked monsters roaming around and occasionally S rank monsters are also present, like the Manticore, Hydra, etc. the forest itself is also unique, making adventurers go on thick woods, making them walk for days while seamlessly leading them back where they came from. as if the forest itself is alive. Most research conducted by many kingdoms concluded that the forest is full of mana that rejects any outside mana aura that came from outside the forest itself, creating an illusion to guide outsiders back, and some mages also have made hypotheses on how to get to the middle of the forest.

But the only one that has successfully made it through most of the illusion is Hiro and his teammates, especially the court mage that is with him, Florentina, and also another renowned mage, the Archmage Talisman.

“I know that Tina! But we need to stay in our formation! We need to hold them off until the nearby Knights arrive!” the only male in the party kept swinging his sword while having his left shoulder armour damaged and several mithril shrapnel punctured it. his comrade consists of Florentina the court mage, Sicily the Elf Archer, and the Princess of the Holy Kingdom Nelimista Herself, Lunamaria. All of them were exhausted, although none of them got more serious injuries, the endless hoard of Orcs and Silver wolves had taken a toll on their endurance and provisions.

“Are you crazy!? Even if they arrive, we probably already turned into corpses! Then again, we need a way to destroy that mithril golem! ” exclaimed Tina while shooting another rain of Ice lance, annihilating a mass of wolves around their perimeter. She started to breathe heavily as she was exhausted from the long fight.

“Hiro! I’m nearly out of arrows! And Her highness is low on mana! We can’t keep our barrier up!” Sicily added while shooting more arrows, dropping down a lot of Orcs as it exploded those Orc’s heads. She was placed as the rearguard as her role was to protect the healer, Lunamaria, that barely could stand due to mana exhaustion.

“I’m… fine… we need to keep fighting….to protect the village nearby…” as Lunamaria finished her sentence, she then lost her consciousness and the barrier protecting them from most of the Orcs dissipated.

“Luna!!!” Hiro screamed as he saw an Orc getting close to their rearguards. His passive skill, ‘Eternal Virtue’ was activated, a skill that multiplies his magical and physical abilities to max level for 3 minutes. He chanted the ‘high body enhancement’ spell and ran towards the approaching Orc, slashing its arms that nearly flatten Lunamaria with its steel club. The Orc shrieked in pain, blue blood gushing through its sliced hand. It glares at Hiro, huffing its pig nose while grabbing its Club that is still being gripped by the sliced arm. Hiro kept in his stance, having his sword in a ready position while sidestepping to the right, orbiting the Orc.

“So you’re one of the summoned heroes? Quite the power you have” Hiro and his party were taken aback as they never heard of the demons talk. The Orc still has his glare at Hiro, emitting a murderous aura.

“let me introduce myself, I’m the 3rd army battalion General, Jordan. and my presence here is just an escort.”

“escort?”

“Indeed, this golem is part of our weapon research. Although, my true objective is to measure how the hero of the human army progress, and just as he said, you’re just a naïve kid with overwhelming power” he said while telling his subordinates and the Silver wolves to stand down

“He?” Hiro, uncertain of it, had his eyebrows raised. While Sicily got confused about what is the Orc talking about. Hiro then cast a telepathic spell and talked to Sicily.

“Hey, how many arrows you have left?”

“I got two left, why?”

“get behind my silhouette and ready an arrow with the piercing spell, I’ll create a diversion” Sicily coughed, indicating her agreement.

“but later, you need to explain what is going on, and also….”

“Yeah, yeah, a date, I remembered” Sicily then do as Hiro planned in secret. One of the Orc’s subordinates then told the General that they were far from the planned time, and suggested for they retreat while having the golem annihilate the Hero’s party.

“but that’s not a matter currently, right now, my job is done here, the golem will finish you up otherwise” Jordan then orders the others to fall back. But as he turned around, Hiro attempted to strike the Orc’s back. The Orc General realized it and dodged the attack but was taken by surprise as it was just a faint. Sicily, that is already readied her bow with an arrow, shot the Orc at its legs and exploded it to pieces.

“damnit… you cunning humans….” the General’s subordinates ran away as they saw their general was defeated, while Jordan himself chuckled.

“Tell me, who is this ‘he’ that you mentioned” Hiro desperately interrogated. The Orc General sighed.

“you’re a very desperate kid, he has a reason to fight, respect his decision.”

“But why does he need to go that far?! Assassinating the 2nd queen? Destroying a lot of Church branches and Orphanage throughout the continent? Does he hate his own kind!?”

“who knows? It’s not like I know him much, although…” The Orc General looked towards a certain point in the woods, grinning in victory.

“My job here is done… I’ll leave the rest to you, Apollyon’s sword of retribution….” Tina had her eyes widen upon hearing the spell that Jordan chanted.

“Hiro!” She hastily jumped to Hiro, pulling him away from the Orc. along with the others. Jordan then a black miasma enveloping him and within seconds, he exploded. Tree branches and wooden shrapnel flew through the hero’s party, ricocheting their armour while some punctured their exposed skin. The gang was blown away by the equivalent force of 900kg of TNT, sending them back flying while a barrier was made by both Hiro and Tina. As the forest went silent as the explosion finished and they landed safely, Tina quickly heal her comrades while also giving them the last batch of Mana recovery potions.

“Thanks, Tina, you’re a lifesaver”

“shut your trap for a bit, that mithril lance is coated with poison, this might take a while to heal. Good thing the poison resistance of yours is quite high, a normal human would be dead in an instant”

Kuro Shrieked as the object that punctured his shoulder was pulled out, leaving a hole that made his bones visible. Holding her feeling of nausea, Tina did her best to do a detoxification spell and close Hiro’s wound. As it was closed without leaving a mark behind, she then collapse as she ran out of mana. Hiro quickly catches her body and lay her down. He then stood up while checking around if there was any threat. As soon as Luna woke up, he told both Sicily and the Princess that he wanted to check at the explosion scene again and left them. it took only 2 minutes to walk to their last fighting position. The crater was humongous, fire was still burning from the aftermath of the blast. As the sun rises steadily, the light provides a clearer view of the wreck of the golem that was caught in the blast

“Well, at least this golem isn’t functional anymore” he mumbles while checking at the remains of the golem. And as he was checking for any clues of where the demons are hiding currently, he was caught by surprise by the familiar male voice he knows.

“I see you’ve made this far, Kurogane” the hero turned around while unsheathing his sword, glaring at the man that stood with his recognizable black uniform covered inside a brown cloak that was currently layered with leaves and grass. He opens his hood, revealing his face as he was standing while his hands were holding an advanced bullpup assault rifle model, heavily customized with Holographic collimator sight and its magnifier, tactical laser sight and a suppressor while being covered in a ghillie camo. His face is still cold as usual, looking at the Hero with the white armour with an apathetic stare.

“Wolfenford!! You’ll never be going to get away again!!” he exclaimed and was readying to attack but was stopped as he was shocked that the barrier he cast a while ago didn’t stop the bullet that Wolfenford fired, scratching his cheek, bleeding it.

“the next one won’t miss, and I’ll be aiming at both of your thorax and spinal cord, especially your heart” Hiro gulped, sheathing his sword back.

“Aren’t you going to kill me since you are the demon lord’s general now?” Wolfenford snickers, Hiro’s statement is laughable to his eyes since he knows the truth.

“Demon lord? Are we playing some fantasy game now? Ahahah! How far did the church of light brainwashed you? and also, I’m eternally a Lieutenant Colonel you know”

“They didn’t brainwash me! You’re the ones that have been brainwashed! Killing innocent Priests and Nuns at multiple churches! And even killed Luna’s mother! They’ve turned you into a psycho!” Wolfenford stopped his laughter, sighing. He then jumped towards Hiro, fast enough that the Hero didn’t even have the chance to react, even though he already has his passive skill that detects hostile threats, “Imminent Danger”, activated. They’re now close face to face, with the Mercenary staring coldly at the naïve kid

“You only know the surface of it kid, I’ve been through many battlefields, seen my comrades die in front of me, countless innocents lost due to my slight incompetency. You don’t have the right to judge me”

“Then tell me the reason!”

“I’ll tell you at the right time, but now, I need you to get stronger. Use what the church has to offer to you, and connect the pieces on why they would go to such extent just to annihilate the Kingdom of Apollyon and initiate Project Eos”

“The Kingdom of Apollyon? Project Eos? What does that even mean!!” as Wolfenford wanted to continue, he heard something through his Earpiece, sighing.

“looks like my time is up”

Wolfenford dodged the magic that was shot at him and intercepted the high-speed arrow with his precise shot, causing the arrow to shatter. He kept weaving through the hailstorm of both lightning and ice magic that was rained down upon him. As soon he was slightly far enough from Hiro, both Sicily and Tina formed a formation in front of the flabbergasted hero, pointing their weapons towards the odd-looking man.

“heh, look who has returned, the Infamous hero that defected” Tina glared at the man, still angered at his past doings to her kingdom

“try to hurt sir Hiro, I’ll make sure that your head will be eaten by the Fenrir’s on the northern mountains” snarled the Elf. Wolfenford kept his cold glare and shot a bullet that he knows that it’ll miss but Tina was so alert that she deployed 7 layers of physical magic barriers, trying to block the single bullet flying at near-supersonic speeds. The barriers were ineffective, as Tina didn’t know the right thickness of the magic barrier, causing it to shatter and whizzed through her hair, penetrating the tree on the back.

“Hmm, I see these new subsonic bullets are quite effective against magic barriers cast by a Court mage… I think I need to recalibrate the right density and material for more efficient penetration…” he talked to himself aloud and realized that the Court Mage was on her knees, stunned by her inability to block a single metal bullet flying at high speed and started weeping.

“ah uhh… hey… don’t cry, I didn’t mean to…”

“WAAAAA!!!” Hiro looked at the mercenary, with a disgusted look as his companion wailed.

“dude, you’re mean to girls”

“I’m sorry okay! It’s a force of habit!” The Elf calmed the crying Mage, while kept glaring daggers at the man.

“What are your intentions here? I assume it wasn’t just some simple greetings, isn’t it?” Wolfenford neglected her, checking his remaining ammo in the magazine in the rifle by shaking it a little to confirm its weight after unloading it from the rifle and loading it back.

“Alright Kurogane, Keep the Princess safe, I’ll retreat for now. the frame of this experimental assault droid needs some rework. I’ll see you on the next battlefield.” He then turns around and put on his ghillie hood while lifting the golem and carrying it after slinging the rifle to his back. Ignoring Sicily as she was gritting her teeth from being disregarded.

“Hey! Answer me! And what in the world is a droid!? Another disgraceful creature created by the demons?!” Wolfenford twitched, dropping the golem back and suddenly vanished within thin air as he activated his optical camouflage, re-emerging right behind the Elf, sneering, and then whispering right in the elf’s ear while having his pistol on her head temple.

“All that matters is that we’re enemies now. Either I could kill you now or you just stay silent, going with the flow of your leader. Understood?” Sicily shudder in fear, His tone was terrifying for her to hear up close.

“y-yes”

“good….” He then looked at Hiro that is still surprised at His speed even though Hiro constantly sees how fast Wolfenford’s movement is. Coincidentally, Lunamaria arrived at them at the same time. The Princess gasped as she saw the assassin of her mother standing there, with his expressionless face, as usual, the man had a small smile seeing her and patted Hiro’s shoulder as he wanted to leave.

“Remember what I just said, this isn’t about Demons versus humans, this war is more than that” Wolfenford lifted the remaining intact body of the golem again. As he was ready to go, he then turn his head, looking his back towards the Hero’s party.

“ah yea, forgot to mention. The thing you call demons are humans, their only weakness is that they can’t use magic, but their technology is highly advanced from this civilisation. They were named the Kingdom of Apollyon back then. A cool trivia isn’t it? anyway, Godspeed kids” he then jumps away and activated his hip thrusters while carrying the golem, flying away from them. as Wolfenford is none to be seen, the whole gang sighed in relief.

“Well, that was quite tense, right guys?” The Archer and mage stared at Hiro in disdain, as they were several times on the brink of death in just 15 minutes.

“How carefree are you sir Hero, would you mind another mana controlling training this evening with me?” Hiro instantly does a dogeza, in fear of his mentor and friend’s threat and past action.

“spare me o’ great court mage”

“Yeah, but still… demons are humans? What in the world of insanity did he just tell us so casually… mostly about the Kingdom of Apollyon, that’s a piece of rather jarring news… this needs more information” the hero that’s still bowing, took a peek at her, still waiting for her reply as she was slightly ignoring him.

“so… you’ll postpone any form of training??”

“Indeed, although… an apology in the likes of the eastern island culture isn’t enough, this needs for a timeout on levelling up and going to dungeons, plus, you remembered the….” Tina went all fidgety all of the sudden, and her face was slightly blushing

“Yeah, fine, a date. But don’t make me spend all of our savings from the quests! Especially research stuff!” The Mage stood up and offered her hand to Hiro, smiling in victory. The boy smiles back and grabbed her hand, standing up.

“of course! For the very least…”

“And also, don’t forget about my date” Sicily interjected and seeing that Luna also exclaimed playfully

“and me too! Don’t forget it, Hi~ro~”

“OI! I’m going to go broke after all of your dates! My poor savings…” the girls burst up laughing, forgetting their wounds from the battle earlier and shrugging off what lies later. Their solidarity was very prominent between most of the adventurers at Nelimista and was very recognizable in public, even though the Princess is with them going undercover. As they checked again what was left in their inventory, they then gleefully headed back to the nearby town to resupply and rest.

Meanwhile, Wolfenford, that’s already far from their location, hovers above the treetops while looking through his thermal binoculars toward the Hero’s party that is leaving the forest. He briefly had a smirk, breathed in some fresh air, and sighed in relief. The woman beside him, hovering above a magic circle, smiling at him. she approached him and ruffled his hair playfully.

“Aww… Look at you, just like a parent monitoring his kid~”

“speak for yourself, it’s not like I came here to just gave some warning and such, I also have a mission to do. Unlike the Archmage Talisman that follows her son just to be a creepy stalker”, she twitched her eyebrows and then hit his head.

“I do not act like a stalker! Also, that’s Impolite of you to talk to your mother like that Achilles! Did August forget to teach some manners to you?” rubbing off his head and looking at his pouting Mother. He recalls his flashback half a month ago when he met her, “a fairly very weird reunion” as he remembered….

- Near the “World Gate” –

- 63 days ago -

- Around 2 pm-

In the bright sky in the mountain range near a grassland, there lies a wall of light, beaming high above the clouds. The wall of light was referred to as the “world gate” to the folks in many nations on the continent. Nobody is brave enough to cross that wall as it was rumoured to be halting 90% of the demon army that is currently invading the land. But, high above the clouds, a faint streak of contrail was seen and the aircraft, are carefreely flying towards the World Gate.

As it enters, it slightly rattles as it was experiencing a lot of drag from the wall itself. Nonetheless, it could penetrate through. Meanwhile, inside a mansion in the middle of the woods, on top of the small brick tower structure connected to it, a woman, received an alarm from several small creatures swarming her. Telling her that an unknown object just flew through the world gate. She had a brief smile and thanked them for the information. The creatures then leave. she looks towards the towering wall of light, north from her house on the horizon through a window at the tower, sitting at the window frame. The wind blows gently at her. her long Silver hair has the wind blowing through it, fluttering it gracefully.

“I guess he did keep our promise huh..? alright! time for shopping!” she exclaimed cheerfully and went downstairs, preparing to head to the nearest town to gather some supplies.

The Aircraft finally hovers down in an opening in the woods and lands, the Pilot and his passengers dismounted it as the ladders were deployed on the left side of the nose of the aircraft. And as they touched the ground, the male passenger stretches his arms, feeling the breeze of the wind circulating inside the forest. The aircraft then went invisible as they were outside of it as the optical camouflage activates following the order from the pilot to be on standby mode.

“Ah finally! Land! I could finally be free from the wei- Akkhh…” he groaned as his abdomen got hit by an elbow of the girl that just got off the fighter.

“ahahaha… did you just say that I’m heavy, brother?...hmm???” the girl is very unamused at him, glaring at the boy with an evil grin while grabbing one of his hands hardly. As they were in a skit, the pilot cleared his throat to capture their attention.

“right, I’ve safely transported you both safely, so… I guess this is farewell” he then walks toward the southeast of their location, having a thin but long sword that curved with a thick scabbard on his back, since he wasn’t seen bringing a sword when they met. the girl has a slight disappointment on her face but then came up with something.

“Hey Jaeger, what’s your main destination in this kingdom now?” Jaeger stopped his tracks, turned towards the siblings, and let out a hum before answering.

“I’m heading to the capital, I wanted to have a conversation with the king and wanted an explanation on why this war occurred, and also another thing that I wanted to discuss since the Holy Kingdom Nelimista doesn’t seem to fit the criteria of what I wanted to say” hearing that, the girl’s smile came back brightly.

“That’s some good news! We’re also heading towards the capital too since our family is located there, how about we go there together?” Jaeger didn’t say a word, he just smiled back at her.

“Well, what do you say Ofnir?” a drone then unveils its optical camouflage, surprising both the siblings again. The camera of it looks at both parties.

“We do indeed in need a Guide for the way to the capital sir, I highly suggest it otherwise”.

“wait, these flying golems can talk?” the curious girl then approached the Drone, as she was trying to touch it, Ofnir made it fly up, hovering higher than the treetops, evading her.

“aww… I’m curious…”

“Aurora, you are being unladylike, I keep reminding you to pay attention to your manners outside” Jaeger coughed again, taking back their attention to him.

“Right, I’ll be in your care, lead the way milady” He jokingly says and bows like a gentleman, although it was slightly misunderstood by the two and they instinctively bow back, forgetting that both her and Conrad were actually in disguise. Jaeger noticed it and was slightly suspicious about it

“Ofnir, do you think that these two are part of royalty?”

“From the looks of their manners in the record and now, I do think they are”

“Man, this gonna be a hassle if I accidentally blow their cover”

“speak for yourself”

He then asked them both to lead the way, even though he has already scattered drones all over the woodlands and beyond after they landed, but before that, Conrad requested if Aurora could change her clothes since she was very tattered. He agreed and also ordered Ofnir to do a scan of her body while also providing any first aid with nanomaterials to regenerate any broken bones and close any wounds. Conrad and Jaeger waited for a couple of minutes, later on, Aurora came out behind the bushes wearing the clothes that were taken from Conrad’s dimensional bag earlier.

“So, How is my appearance now??” She asked while twirling around gracefully. Her long silver with a gradient of bright blue hair fluttered as she spins, a small golden hair ornament in the shape of a peony that wasn’t present before, added her charm. Jaeger, that was caught off guard, was quite speechless. Unlike Conrad who casually gave a thumbs up. Aurora noticed it and walked towards Jaeger and waved at his face.

“yahoo~ Jaeger? Are you okay??”

“Eh? Ah! Yeah! You look stunningly beautiful!” thus, the girl was the one that was caught off guard now, blushing in beet red and taking a step back from Jaeger while all flustered. Conrad, with his mischievous smile, chuckled and grabbed both of their shoulders.

“When will you two get a room?”

“Conrad!! We are not like that!!” simultaneously exclaimed, it rings Conrad’s ears that’s sensitive to sounds. The two apologize to him and suggested they all should start going to the nearby town.

They then walked towards the southeast, just like Jaeger intended before. The forest isn’t that thick, all the wildlife there is fairly similar to the ones on the Earth, with several Deer jumping as they see the three passing by, small birds chirping and playfully flying above the treetops, a calm breeze flowing at a certain point in the forest. Although they encountered predators and monsters such as grey wolfs, wild boars and slimes, they have no issues walking through the woods as they efficiently subjugate those hostile creatures. Not long enough, they finally reached a town. The town wall was still fortified with wood, and only two guards were present there. Although, the most striking feature is that there are two metal towers, right on the edge of the town. It’s far taller than the town walls, Ofnir told Jaeger that it has an approximately a height of around 20 meters and emits a slight radio frequency

“hey Conrad, what are those metal structures right there?” Jaeger pointed at the structure as they were walking towards the town gate out from the woods.

“Oh, that? It’s a long-range communication tower developed by our country, it emits signal waves and could be interconnected between towers, making it into a network system. Although it requires mana stones to be activated, it is very efficient.”

“and how do the people here obtain mana stones? And what is mana itself?” Conrad is slightly uncertain to answer Jaeger’s question. And thus, Aurora took the chance to interject between them.

“Ahem, let me explain about mana” both of the boys stopped their tracks and look at each other with uncertainty. but then again, Conrad knows about how his sister more than anyone, so he allowed her to continue while they continue their walk.

“Alright, Mana… some people say it’s a blessing from the gods, some say it’s how we interact with the spirits so we could use magic. But either way, they were slightly wrong. Mana is an energy that resides in our body, an energy that is powerful enough to interact with the laws of the world and thus create the magic that we all know.” She then grabbed from her pocket the mana stones that she picked up earlier unknowingly by the boys.

“Although, Monsters like the ones that we subjugated earlier will drop mana stones since they were created by the energy circulating in the area. But some mana stones could be mined in certain places like dungeons or be created by alchemy, but using alchemy is not recommended since it will dry the user’s mana drastically and could eventually kill the person if he or she is careless with their mana capacity” Aurora put the mana stone back, while Jaeger nodded as he listens to her explanation.

“Mana capacity isn’t as what people say. While yes, some are gifted with high mana capacity and some are not, but in theory, they could increase their mana capacity by certain training.”

“so that means, everybody could have enormous mana capacity to be equivalent to a hero?”

“Exactly”. As they were near the town gate, the guards halted them, asking them for reasoning for their visit to the town. Although, they were wary of Jaeger, as they have never seen him before.

“Sir, who is the man that follows you here?” asked one of the guards politely to Conrad. He crossed his spear with the fellow guard, blocking the trio’s path.

“Ah yes, we met him on the way and hired him as a bodyguard, he’s also a traveller”

One of the guards squinted their eyes in suspicion but decided to shrug it off. They then were permitted to enter the town and Jaeger was given a permit, worth a week of stay in town. As they walk past the gate, the main street of the town isn’t as crowded as Apostysa, occasionally people are walking by, doing some trade, and also interacting with each other. even children are present and are playing around the town centre, cheerfully laughing, ignoring the fact they’re currently at war. Jaeger couldn’t help to smile at the peaceful atmosphere and took a deep breath and breath out relaxingly.

“It’s quite a peaceful town, isn’t it? birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and the children are laughing and cheerfully playing…” Aurora couldn’t help to smile and nod at Jaeger’s remark, it is indeed peaceful to any eyes that visit.

“Yeah, this is why I’m glad that the Archmage Talisman made that humongous barrier, if not, this Town would be the first one to be annihilated due to the war” Conrad added Jaeger’s statement, slightly concerned with the situation

“You two, let’s end the heavy talk, finding an Inn to stay in is a top priority now. And speaking of the Archmage, we need to contact her so this trip would only last only a day” Although this Aurora’s suggestion made Jaeger question how they knew about the Archmage personally, he refrained from asking since the fatigue from flying the aircraft is starting to taking over. They then asked a nearby lady for an Inn recommendation, and she responded with a quick answer. The Inn is quite far from the town’s gate, but it is located across an adventurer and mercenary guild. Although the lady stated that it would be mostly occupied with those who work as mentioned in the guild, the Inn’s service is well known for its hospitality and friendliness.

Soon enough, they arrive at the Inn’s front gate and went inside. They were caught by surprise at how chaotic, yet lively the Inn’s guest & dining area was. People are drinking wildly, some are doing some eating contests while some do arm wrestling. A couple of waitresses were frantically delivering the customer’s orders and also writing some of their new orders. Although, at the centre of the crowd, a woman with a white cloak and a silver, festively drinks a bottle of champagne, along with a man that just collapses after finishing his bottle.

“and the winner is… Miss Christina!!” The crowd cheered as she cheerfully raised the bottle that she emptied, some crowd laughed at their fallen comrade that is now drunk and lying unconscious. Conrad face palmed himself as he looked and sighed at the scene that unfold while Aurora remained silent.

“Haha! You’re still 400 years too early to defeat the Archmage like me!! Drinks on me boys!!”

“damnit! You’re using that detoxification spell again! That’s kind of unfair”

“all fair in love and drinking contest honey~, now… who’s next?!”

The crowd then raised their hands as she exclaimed. The siblings decided to pretend that they remained silent, while also telling Jaeger to ignore them. but to their surprise, as they were slipping past the crowd and near the receptionist’s table, The Women noticed them and startled Conrad.

“Hey, Conrad! Kid! Long time no see!” The three stopped their tracks Conrad chuckled nervously while looking back at her and gave a small wave.

“you know him Christina??” asked one of the male crowds

“Indeed of course! He’s one of my prized pupils after all”

“I think we’ve been found out…” Jaeger whispered at him.

“well? What else do you think?”

“Just give her friendly regards, brother, it’s not like she’s dangerous. She’s also your mentor after all” Aurora added. Conrad slightly groaned and went towards Christina that’s in the middle of the crowd. As the crowd stepped aside so he could have a path, Christina jumps down from the table she was standing on and embraced Conrad teasingly but with a warm welcome. Although he was seen to be trying to break loose from her hug, his face was beet red. Surely anybody would be flustered being hugged by a beauty like Christina herself. Some of the crowd even shouted, “Lucky bastard!” while some also shouted, “It should’ve been me!”. But then again, it is how they show their hospitality.

“Look who’s back from adventuring beyond the barrier, tell me everything about your adventures later at my home! I’ll be making a feast just for you both!”

“actually… there are three people now, Miss”

“three?” She looks at Aurora that is waving at her with a smile and Jaeger that just standing right beside Aurora silently. As she look at Jaeger from top to bottom, her cheerful attitude changed drastically into a serious one.

“Alright, the three of you, follow me to my mansion, now”

Both Jaeger and Aurora looked at each other confused. Nevertheless, they complied with her order. At that same time, Christina’s embrace is too aggressive that Conrad can’t breathe due to the force that was applied, and then the Archmage casually drags her pupil out of the inn after paying the waitress for the drinks and food she ordered.

The woman lead them through several roads and alleys across the town, didn’t take them long enough to reach the outskirts and arrived at a thick bush right beside the town wall, Christina then snapped her finger and thus, the bush vanish, as it was just an illusion spell. Right below the aforementioned bush was a magic circle engraved in the soil, it’s not that big but it is quite eye-catching on how it was drawn as it was full of hieroglyphs and unknown words, along with symbols and lines that interconnected to each other.

“Alright, all of you, step inside the circle, we’ll teleport there”

the three then stand inside it, along with Christina that is preparing to chant. the circle then glow and engulfed them, and as Christina finished chanting, They were teleported into the woods and stood in front of the door of a fairly big mansion, that is a view itself.

“That was amazing honestly, it is still quite sad that most of us can’t use magic. Isn’t that right Jae….ger?” Aurora got confused as Jaeger wasn’t there with them, along with Christina.

“Wait, where is he?” Conrad added and looked around as he also didn’t see their companion in his sight.

“How should I know? He was with us all along, is it part of Miss Talisman’s plan again?”

“and how should I know?! It’s not like I know everything about her!”

“didn’t you have known her for years? Also, I could see your blush earlier at the Inn” Conrad remembered the scene from earlier and got mortified, trying to hide his blushing face again.

“Please stop teasing me sis”

“I am not, I’m just telling you the fact, but anyway…” Aurora tried knocking on the door, as she waits for an answer, she was unconsciously bound by a spell she didn’t notice and was unable to move. And at the same time, a streak of light is flying in the air between her and the door, forming words that are large enough and stating, “would you kindly wait for 15 minutes, I have something to talk about with Jaeger”. As the light dissipated, the spell was also unbounded, making her able to move again.

“Well, you heard her sis, we’ll give her time. It’s not like she’s dangerous, just like you said earlier…” Conrad’s flashbacks of how his mentor taught him came in. And he realized that Jaeger wasn’t even on par with how powerful and dreadful she is.

“on second thought, his mental is in danger” Both of them then frantically tried

Inside, Jaeger was still surprised as he was teleported into a dark room. There, he asked Ofnir to illuminate the room with the flashlight mounted on the shoulder part of the exoskeleton. As the light made a clear view of what room he was in, he noticed it is just a small storage room, without anything inside. But as he opened the door outside, he was greeted by a circular staircase that is rising high up towards the top of the presumably top of a tower. He doesn’t hesitate and walks up the ladder and also draws out his sword.

His katana-shaped sword is heavily modified and uses a nanotech mixed with graphene and magnesium alloy that is five times stronger and lighter than titanium alloy as the core inside the sword to maintain its shape as it is capable of heating itself up with superheated layering, enabling it to slice virtually nearly anything, just like his spare energy sword. The sword’s blade is layered with tantalum carbide & Nickle Chromium alloy as its outer layer so it could withstand the scorching temperature of 3800 degrees Celsius and is also capable of using ultrasonic vibrations for better cutting efficiency.

“Sir, I would have questioned why this sword would be modelled off the most fragile-looking ones. But then again, I remembered your combat style is fairly effective with this sword” remarked Ofnir breaking the ice of the silence

“so… your point?”

“The point is that my master is a literal battle maniac daredevil lunatic that disregards his safety, yet he’s so stupidly effective in a battle that he would win against this era’s elite knight battalions with just bare hands”

“Thanks for the honest opinion, my honest yet blunt AI assistant”

“my, thanks for the praise sir”

“It’s sarcasm you idiot”

As he walks up the staircase, he felt that the stairs are nearly endless. Frustrated, He then jumps up and boosted himself with the thrusters in his hip to gain level faster. Not long after, he then arrived at the end of the staircase. It was the top of the tower, although it’s in a form of a room, and isn’t designed as a watchtower. The circular room is clean and tidy, bookshelves were standing beside the walls, and a window was opened while the blue curtains flutter due to the wind blowing in. there’s a table right across the stairs he came from and a paper lying there. Curious, Jaeger then grabbed the paper and found a huge sentence written in German. “lange nicht gesehen, mein lieber Sohn”

“Heh, you don’t need to be so obvious like this, Archmage Talisman. Or should I say mom?” the mercenary looks behind, the silver-haired woman is standing gracefully with her arms crossed, leaning back at the pillar in the centre of the room. She has the sincerest smile she has had in the last 300 years ago. She then walks to Jaeger and touched his cheeks, examining her son up close.

“he-hey! Stop it! it kind of felt ticklish”

“Truly, August did raise you well… look at you! How dashing you look now… the last time I see you are when you were still 3 years old in my embrace… fragile and cute I…” the Archmage, who’s known for being fearless in public eyes is now crying, on this precious moment by reuniting with her son. She then embraced Jaeger while still sobbing. Jaeger could only pat her back, reassuring her that it is alright.

“I-I’m glad… I could be reunited with you, Achilles… I miss you so much…I’m sorry I erased your memories about us living here…”

“wait, what do you mean by that? And I lived in this world for 3 years? I thought I was brought back to earth when I was a baby”

“*sobs*… let me explain…” Christina then explained what exactly happened, 3 years right after Jaeger’s birth.

On Jaeger’s 3rd Birthday, August was labelled as a heretic by the church of light as he tried to expose what they have planned to the continent. The current priest was somewhat able to get Christina’s immortality spell and planned to summon the gods for him to request to be recognized as a god as well. When the priest noticed that August is interfering with his plan, he instantly announces the false accusation of August’s attempt to murder him. August then fled to the Kingdom of Apollyon as they didn’t employ the spreading of the religion much as they were currently focusing on biological & engineering research with magic. And since the Kingdom of Apollyon is also against the priest’s arbitrary use of his role, he then declares that the Kingdom of Apollyon is destroyed as the demons invaded the continent, and its people are being possessed by the demons’ new spell. He then took one of the citizens on the outskirts of that kingdom and fooled nearly all national leaders in the continent that were present at his speech, as he did a spell beforehand that turned the captured man into a human-pig hybrid or as they call it Orcs and execute it publicly.

“This kingdom is rich in mineral resources, just like how your father discovered it years ago. the mountains on our side are currently being mined and this nation is rebuilding its army. The fact that they need pure rare metal from our mines indicates something is being planned by that bastard. Something bad…”

“So basically, now it’s currently a war for the resources here?”

“yes”

“What happened next??”

“Your father decided to leave this world to raise you since he didn’t want you to be involved in this war. And before that, I deleted your memories about me… since you were very attached to me… I don’t want to see you cry when I cast that world transfer spell” Jaeger let go of her embrace, smiling back at her.

“What has happened, already happened. I’ll make new memories with you, starting over to be your son, how’s that sound?” Christina nodded in agreement and they then both sat down on the sofa nearby and the Archmage finally calmed down. Jaeger looked out to the window that is currently opened, reminiscing something similar back on earth.

“you know, I remembered that dad’s mansion has a coincidentally similar layout as this tower…”

“it does?”

“Somehow, I don’t exactly remember it much though” Christina’s smile came back.

“I see he is still devoted to remembering me huh?”

“I think he does, although…” He looks at Christina with an unamused gaze, crossing his arms.

“what was that earlier in the inn? You were drinking like an alcoholic idiot and did a stupid competition, The heck?” Christina chuckled nervously and averted her eyes away, avoiding his question.

“Y-you k-know, it’s like nearly th-three hundred years and uhm… it’s kinda lonely so… I wanted friends to socialize with… and uhh…” He sighed as his expectation of her went down.

“I can’t believe my biological mother is so carefree and wild…”

“I’M NOT WILD!” She exclaimed, irritated, and pouted at him, and Jaeger couldn’t help but tease her again.

“The Wild Talisman sounds fit honestly, hahaha”

“Achilles you meanie…” And as they were sharing their laughter, the stairway sounded very rowdy and the sound of running footsteps kept getting closer.

“Ah, it must be them. Honestly, I put a binding spell at every doorway and several summoning circles around the house to capture intruders when I’m not present in the house, or when I locked it from inside. They were somewhat very good at bypassing my security.”

Aurora and Conrad finally reached the top, panting and completely exhausted. They both look at Jaeger and Christina, and since they’re also somewhat drenched with some sort of liquid, Jaeger looks away from the two.

“Lehrerin (teacher)! You didn’t do anything to him right?! You didn’t use him to taste dangerous aphrodisiac or test new spells on him, right?!”

“Well of course not, why would I even do something to my own son?”

“Yeah, that does make sense….” There’s an awkward silence as Christina remarks about it, breaking the silence, Conrad let out a small laugh.

“haha, that was a Good gag miss”

“I am not even being humorous now” Conrad’s chuckle died down as he looks at his teacher’s serious statement, and he lifelessly walks to the corner and sat there while burying his face between his crossed hands above his knees.

“Conny?”

“Leave me alone for a while sis, let me rethink my life purpose that is now in vain…”

“you’re being overly dramatic”

“let me guess… is he...?” Jaeger in his pity asked Aurora that nodded in pity towards his brother which felt devastated at the reveal. Jaeger had a small laugh and went to comfort his heartbroken friend, patting Conrad’s shoulder. Casting Conrad’s current situation aside, Aurora instantly asked about the details of her past on how Jaeger could be her son. And so, another 15 minutes of explanation about her history and the connection between her and the war that occur was given to the siblings. As they were talking about how Jaeger’s connection between him and Christina, etc. Ofnir intruded as his Master was listening thoroughly to the story for the second time

“Sir, can I comment on something??”

“Go ahead”

“aren’t we here for something else?”

“I do remember about our objective but let’s relax just for a bit. Plus, this is one of my precious moments right now, I could finally see my mom you know?” Ofnir didn’t say anything else, as he felt that he was slightly being discourteous and didn’t continue his question. The 4 of them then have a good talk for more than hours and as the day turned into night, they headed downstairs as Christina suggested for everyone to stay in the house for tonight instead of heading back to the inn. They waited in the dining room for the Archmage to finish cooking, although Jaeger went up to help her just to bond more with his mother. As he was slicing some vegetables for the cooking ingredients, Christina recalled an oddly uncomfortable smell from Jaeger.

“Achilles, I forgot to mention… you did get involved in many conflicts before going here, isn’t it?” the man that is still in his brown cloak chuckled.

“Yeah, sure did, it was hellish, but I managed to get through-“ he abruptly stopped his cutting on the ingredients as he got slapped by her, the knife in his hands got thrown away by the shock. Jaeger couldn’t say anything as he was caught by surprise by the sudden slap that is so hard, that it echoed throughout the room. Both Aurora and Conrad that is waiting heard the sound and silently peeked at them through the doorway of the room

“is it your father?...”

“what do you-“

“is it your father that told you to be a soldier?! The smell of death is way too strong within you! how many have you brutally tortured and killed!?” He looked down and didn’t say a word as he reminisced about his dark past. it was too gruesome and grotesque to be told to his mother

“it… was my eagerness to know what a war is about… and I was dragged into something worse after my first ever deployment…”

“then why didn’t you dismiss yourself? Or why didn’t your father stop you from the very beginning?”

“he did when I was 16, but I ran away and drafted myself to the Army” Christina sighed and continue mixing the food ingredients even though her emotion is still unstable.

“I won’t ask more, as the stench of death came from you is far worse than your father. Equivalent to the Grim Reaper itself. Just wait in the dining room, I’ll calm myself down and try to remember a spell that could erase that smell” Jaeger didn’t feel any remorse for his action in the past and left the room without a word.

“Can I ask you something before I leave?”

“Sure”

“How did you smell death itself??”

“I see the souls of the ones that you killed keep haunting you, and their rotten blood was being sprinkled to your soul itself as a curse you”