There was a place in Magic Land where the headquarter of Magic Council was situated. The city was enriched with magical energy and it was the best place humans had where magicians, sorcerers and wizards could train in.
Because of its beauty, it was given the name Moon. Its beauty was what rivaled even that of the moon. Inside the city, there were ninety nine towers which were no less than skyscrapers in height...maybe even more. The towers were high enough to pierce through the clouds.
At the tip of each tower was where the magical energy was dense in the city Moon. There were many floors inside the tower but not everyone could train inside the tower. Heck, if one could even train in the residential houses inside the city, they would have been lucky enough.
Moon city didn't just let anybody train inside. Even for training inside the residential area, they would have to be strong in their academy and must be allowed by the higher ups to enter the city, not to mention those ninety nine towers.
Each tower had about five hundred floors and only floors below four hundred were the ones which even the talented disciples of many academies could only hope to train in. Above the floor four hundred, it was off limits to the one who were not worthy to enter it.
The Moon city had its own strict rules and regulations, and if one violated it, no matter who the person was; even if they were to be the children with powerful background, they would be executed without a second thought.
One needed to be domineering, strong and flexible to be the ruler of the city which had harsh but fair rules and Ekiji was worthy of his position of being a city Lord. It had been five years since he started governing the city and he had done a very good job doing it.
If it was any other day then the Moon city would have been peaceful, quiet and out of much commotion, but today it was different. Many human lords, nobles, Kings and queens had just arrived inside the city.
With a great banquet, they were welcomed inside the city but nobody paid any mind to it. The disciple magicians were quite depressed because it was their chance to show skills and get attention of those lords who might take a liking to their talents and train them.
But no human lords stopping for the banquet made it awkward. They had practiced their skill so hard for this day and when it arrived, the banquet was ignored. But no disciples dared to speak and just accepted it gritting their teeth.
Out of those about three hundred people, there were those who governed a city or two in Magic Land to the people who governed about ten to fifteen countries. The countries they governed were the sizes of any normal country on Earth and those who governed them were called as Kings or Queens. If compared with a country, the city Moon would be deemed as continent of its own.
Today they didn't come here for just sightseeing and enjoying the services provided by the city but they had been summoned by the Divine Lords of ninety nine towers. Divine Lords were just titles given to the elders of the Moon city who were responsible of maintaining the rules and regulations inside the ninety nine central tower and managing them.
If compared to the city Lord of Moon city, the ninety nine Divine Lords were not that strong but they were strong enough to manage the towers by themselves.
One of the ninety nine tower was the headquarter to Magic Council and at the five hundredth floor, all the human lords, nobles and other authoritative figures sat beside each other sharing a large table which also included ninety nine Divine Lords. Although with so many people, the place didn't seemed cramped but even had too much space left.
The lords discussed among themselves as they didn't knew the reason of them being summoned and were to get the wind of the news. One of the impatient Lord said,
"What does the Magic Council wants this time? Why did you summon all of us saying it was related to an emergency matter? I have my works to do, so let's make it quick."
"What? You think you're the only one with all the work here? We have to work even harder than you but we aren't complaining, so what gives you the right? Just shut up and wait for the meeting to start." Another man said.
"Don't push your luck," The man shouted angrily seeing the person who said it was none other than his rival who felt satisfied humiliating him, "Owning three countries doesn't make you superior than me who owns two countries."
"Superior? I didn't say that," The man replied, "I don't think I'm superior. I only think that you're inferior and that's it."
"You..." The man stopped with his words because he knew that if he said any further, he would have been asking Harphin to humiliate him even more.
But one couldn't just keep it at heart when he was humiliated and if the frustration and anger kept building up then it would only add to his stress. So, Duirol also wanted some reason to vent out his anger and just when he was searching for it, he found an empty seat in the corner of his eyes.
"He didn't attend this time as well? He doesn't respect the summons, does he?" Duirol said and changed the subject.
"Well, unlike you, he handles eleven countries, so, he has the right." Harphin ridiculed again.
"You..." Duirol kept quiet as Harphin laughed looking at his angry face.
"Don't cause a ruckus," A female voice echoed, "You guys just stay quiet."
The girl was about seventeen years old but when she spoke, the two men kept quiet and didn't dare to laugh anymore. Entire room was filled with silence just because of that sentence of the girl. Even though she was one of the youngest of the room, nobody defied her.
Why would they? They could defy her if they didn't plan on living anymore. Her name was Qin Xuan with the nickname of cold queen, the queen of thirteen countries in the Magic Land. If one wanted to rule a country, they didn't need to have a King. If the person was strong and had enough power backing them, then even Queens could govern the country.
But it wasn't easy as baking a pie to own a country like them and become Kings and Queens on whim. No money could buy a house in Magic Land, not to mention a country. They had to contribute to humans inside the land and the contribution towards the human race was what decided their position.
The most contribution towards the human race was made by Qin family by giving humans many genius magicians which helped them occupy more and more land here and because of the contribution made by Qin family, the daughter of main family was given thirteen countries as a gift to govern by Ekiji.
Qin Xuan then looked at the middle aged man who was playing with a marble like ball and asked, "So, why did the Magic Council summoned us?"
The middle aged man then looked at her and shook his head gently, "It wasn't the Magic Council who asked for Divine Lords to summon everyone present here. From what I know, everyone here was summoned by the orders of city Lord."
"City Lord?" She furrowed her brows. If the situation indeed required the attention of Ekiji then it might indeed be an emergency situation. Otherwise, why would the city Lord who rarely showed himself would summon them. Others who were silently listening frowned as well.
What was the situation that required his assistance? They all had the same question on their mind.
While they were in a daze, a voice sounded from the room's door.
"Attention! City lord have arrived."
Creak~
With a long noise, the door opened and a figure who seemed as if he was in his middle thirties entered the room. With those wrinkle free skin with a fair tone and those black hair, who would have been able to guess that the man in front of them was actually in his seventies.
"Greetings to the city Lord."
Seeing the figure entering the room, everybody present in the room stood up straight and gently bowed to the city Lord nodded and entered the room and waved his hand gesturing for them to sit down.
"Now let's talk about these emergency situations!" Ekiji said as he sat at the chair of honor.
***
Oslo and Alphonse had finished the quests and were about to leave the village next day.
It was when the horizon was enveloped in red and the sun was setting on west. With the water being warm in the cold breeze, Oslo didn't even hesitate for a moment before he jumped inside the hot spring.
Alphonse followed the same cause and jumped in as well. As Oslo was enjoying the warmth the water provided to his cold body and cleansed it, Alphonse asked,
"Brother, why are you keeping on wearing that dirty piece of bandage in your arm even while you are bathing?"
Oslo looked at the bandage and said calmly, "It helps me muster the courage to fight magic beasts."
Although what he had told was entirely the truth but what he had said wasn't a lie as well. The dragon mark on his hand was what was driving him to push forward and it also gave him the courage.
"Courage, huh?" Alphonse' eyes lit up but it was only for a moment. Then he suddenly said, "My name is Alphonse Hysteria. What might the brother's name be?"
"First of all, don't call me brother!" Oslo calmly said, "And my name is Jackson Morph."
"Hmmm..." Alphonse quietly stared at Oslo's eyes and said, "Don't lie! I can detect when someone's lying."
"It's Ric Banard!"
"Don't lie." Alphonse shouted.
"Just tell me your real name."