To the dwarf kingdom

“Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!” Paladin Mjanomin screamed at the top of his lungs. “How did they escape from me again?! Her Majesty will be disappointed.”

The twelve paladins, Mjanomin included, gathered around a fire in the same cave Masayuki’s party had slaughtered the dire wolves. The real Mjanomin wore a deep black paladin armor, which was made of pure adamantine, over his Holy Kingdom outfit which was a deep grey. He had his broad sword hanged around his waist in a loose manner.

“No trace of them, Sir.” Came a paladin that just appeared in the cave. “The sand tracks cannot be followed, and the mana signatures disappeared too quickly to tell which direction they headed in.”

Mjanomin never feared losing his job or his life as punishment or if it meant furthering the holy queen’s agenda, but he feared being the cause of the queen’s plans failing. Every Sect leader feared causing the queen trouble because, they knew she was of god heritage and as far as they knew, gods never made mistakes. Being rejected by the gods was a punishment none of them could even imagine. It meant they were lower than filth.

Even the few Sect leaders who never shared that thought cycle still had a reason to aim for perfection. Two words: Holy Sage. She could inspire the best and worst kinds of fear if she sensed mutiny or felt unsatisfied. Her only obligation was to protect, care for and assist the Holy Queen in any way she felt necessary, but she could go the extra mile for any queen she deemed worthy enough to befriend.

“We have no idea where they are?!”

“None, Sir.”

“It seems we underestimated the god kin. Darion, give me all the information your group got from the village people, leave nothing out.”

“Yes sir. According to every statement made by the village people, the god kin and his party appeared in the village from the direction of the sea to the east. They were each level one when they arrived, but shot up in levels quickly enough to gain a platinum rank as a party. The leader of the party, the god kin, had the ‘pre chosen name’ of Masayuki.”

“Pre Chosen?!”

“Yes sir.”

In this world, a ‘pre chosen name’ referred to a name one was given by their parent or guardian. As one grows, one can choose their own name which is marked on one’s soul for life and cannot be changed by any means. Naming one’s self gives the person one thirtieth of their full power, which is why every paladin is required to name themselves, to gain the extra power, before they can be accepted into a sect. The chosen names have to be different from their pre chosen versions completely.

“Sigh…”

He killed me without even having a chosen name. I lost half my levels to a god kin with no chosen name, I’m sure to be looked down on by the other Sect leaders. With such power, he could surpass our god kin easily, no. Before I make any plans, I should gather every shred of intelligence I can.

“Continue…”

With a bow, he continued. “The party was noted to have two stronger ones and two weaker. The stronger ones being the god kin, Masayuki, and a demon kin, also with a pre chosen name, Petra. The other two were identified as Hana, with little elf elements in her blood, and Aoyama, also with little dragon elements in his blood. Of the party, there was none identified who could read—but they spoke the language fluently.”

“These people are rather odd, but the chances of this Masayuki being a god, instead of a god kin, are higher now that we’ve learnt all this. Hopefully, her majesty will accept this information and forgive our failure.”

“…”

“Prepare for departure, we return to the Holy Kingdom tonight.”

………………

…………

……

“AAAAHH!! Monsters! MONSTERS!!”

“Huh?” I woke up to the screams coming from Hana. I jumped out of my tent to find her terrified, looking behind my and Aoyama’s tent, so I turned quickly—pulling my sword from my personal space as I did so. I almost lost my cool when I saw an ogre and a strange looking man with grey wings standing there, watching us. They looked at us disappointedly while Hana struggled to pull Aoyama out of his tent.

“Who are you?”

“Hm? Better question is, who are you?” The ogre asked back.

“We are lost adventurers resting up for our journey, now you?” I was surprised to see the man with the grey wings laughing at my question.

“Ha-ha-ha, this one is pretty bold! I am Halphir, a fallen angel of immeasurable strength, and this is…” He gestured to the ogre courteously with his hand for him to introduce himself.

“I am Dorangi, son of Doranga and prince of the Dorang ogre village.”

“Don’t you mean banished prince?”

“Now is not the time for that. Ehem… you people are trespassing. Leave now and keep your lives.”

The ogre transitioned from annoyed to furious as he spoke to us. I couldn’t tell others’ levels by looking at them so I hesitated whenever I was challenged by any monster. The same couldn’t be said for Petra and Aoyama though.

“Come get some!” He screamed as he sprung up from his sleep.

“Arrogance, I like that.” Petra followed.

“Sigh… could you guys stop and think before challenging every single thing that moves?” I tried scolding them but I was ignored.

“You fools dare argue in the presence of Dorangi the doom bringer?!” The ogre roared.

“Doom bringer, when did you get your title exactly?”

“Now is not the time, Halphir.”

“Now is exactly the time, cant you inspect your opponents before fighting them? They are stronger than we are, no need to hide it. They are disappointing for their strength, but they are strong.”

“Yeah, I know. I tried to scare them off but it wasn’t working huh?” The ogres voice changed from a deep threatening voice to a nice normal voice. “Let me start over, my name is Dorangi and I’m a banished prince. You know him as Halphir and he is a banished angel.”

“Fallen, I’m a fallen angel. Get it right!”

After observing them for some time, I decided they weren’t a threat. The fallen angel stared at me for some time before asking, “What are you?”

He must be powerful or intelligent if he was able to discern my mixed blood so easily. “What exactly is a fallen angel?”

“I don’t think now is the time for that, what are you really doing here?”

“We could ask you the same thing.” Petra answered.

“We could all stand here asking the same question over and over again, or we could just answer honestly. We are here to claim this land as our own. Now answer our question.”

“We did! We’re adventurers resting up for our journey. We do not need this land, if that’s what you were thinking.” I answered confidently, only to be questioned again.

“You are a hybrid of some sort aren’t you?”

Ignoring the fallen angel, I went walking with the ogre while discussing the current geography of the land. According to his map, the dwarven kingdom was on the northern side of the mountains, the Safe Jump Seas to the east, the Forest of the Fox to the west and the Kingdom of Lanburel to the south. Across the Safe Jump Seas was a large mass of land which was labeled Evil God’s Kingdom.

The center of the mountains, where we currently stood, had a grassy plain which span a large area.

“Why is this part labeled evil god’s kingdom?”

“Surely you jest. You must be a newborn or an alien to not know the evil god! The god slayer?! The eclipse runner! Come on!”

“Could you just tell me? Mentioning his titles won’t give me memories of him.”

“Sigh…” Dorangi went on to tell me about the evil god and gave some human history to the best of his ability. Apparently, two gods were believed to appear between thousand year intervals and lived on a mountain, north of the Forest of the Fox, called Shingoth. The gods were the most powerful beings in the world for three thousand years, so powerful that the original creations—the seven demon progenitors, seven angel primordials, four great spirits, four corner dragons and the four titans—left them alone. That all changed when the evil god killed them all eight hundred years ago. “Not much is known about the evil god, but the land he’s called home for five thousand years or so.”

“Interesting, I wonder why I never got any information about him in the vilage, it is a ‘he’ right?”

“Yes, the answer to your first question is simple. Every human nation, and some non-human nations as well, have ban all talk of the evil god. It is considered the greatest tragedy in the world to date.”

“Because…? I mean you’re not human, and there are other races so why should it be a tragedy for the whole world?”

“Where do you come from anyway? Sigh…some of the gods were equally benevolent to all races. Some even shared their knowledge and weapons with us. Then the evil god slayed them all…well, most of them. He couldn’t kill one of them so he banished that one to some other planet.”

“What about the goddess Zaire? What happened to her?”

“Huh? I don’t know much about what happened to each god, ask some humans about that.”

So they may all be dead, but Zaire must still be alive since dad told me to find her. Maybe she got sent to that other planet. How the hell am I going to save her when dad finds her. Another thing, those paladins called me a god kin so they must think I’m the surviving child of one of them or a descendant. I should be careful with my skill, I can’t risk anyone finding out I’m a new god or else that evil god will surely find and kill me.

“Hello?!”

“Huh? What?”

“I asked what you are, your aura is really strange. There is no way you’re a demon because your willpower is different, akin to human willpower. A little strange too.”

“I don’t have to tell you though so I’m just gonna ask one more question. What were you and Haphir doing behind my tent?”

“Hmm, very well, I’ll answer you. We were curious.”

“…? Um… curious about what exactly?”

“What you are.”

“Alright, my party’s got to be done preparing by now so I’m leaving now.”

“Could you be a new…”

I left before he could finish his question. When I got back to the tents, Hana and Aoyama were standing beside the burning tents, watching a fight that was going on between Haphir and Petra. They both looked tired and the match looked even.

“What the hell?!”

“Hm? Oh hey Masayuki! We were just testing each other, don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t care about your sparring match, I bought those tents! Don’t you know how to ration things?”

“Are we leaving yet? I’m getting bored of their fight and a little jealous of their strength.”

“Sigh…Grab on, get over here Petra!”

“Aww, until next time fallen.”

“Alright. Until next time.”

Before I could activate my {Blur} skill, Dorangi called out to us,

"We can be of assistance to you in the future, since we need funds and all. We are highly capable and smart enough to come to agreements that are beneficial to both sides. Consider our proposal..."

I nodded, then activated my {Blur} skill and sped off toward the Dwarven-Jura State. After moving for what seemed like twelve hours, we nearly smashed into the side of the mountain. After an argument over our arrival, we proceeded to the main entrance--while still arguing.

“We can get serious now.”