The last few days had been an actual whirlwind, but somehow I had managed to get everything done in time and I was ready to go on my vacation with my friends.
The Adventurer guild owned and run by the Romulus family, had wrote back to me to express their keenness to go and send their members on this adventure to gather the magical cores. They were planning on making a whole show of it. They were calling it the 'Adventure of the Century', and they had managed to get the entire kingdom talking about their great expedition. Somehow, The Gismeadean got wind of the plan and they dedicated a whole newspaper to the expedition. It mentioned that I was the benefactor and that it was in order to make new Sacred swords. So for the past few days the noble center had been filled with gossip and chatter. There was a whole bunch of anticipation and excitement, even at my own home. Rudyard, Bard and Auberon kept on fantasizing and predicting which of the S rank adventures would be chosen to go on the expedition.
As the expedition got more coverage, more and more high profile adventurers volunteered to go. By the end of it, Both of the Romulus twins were going (the family that owned the guild), High Lord Fenrys (aka Red-eyes) was going, a bunch of other Legendary S Rank adventures, Edgar and his Mage tutor Lord Elian Von Josselheim, plus (the most shocking of all the volunteers) Prince Kristopher and his guard Lord Braxton Smithson.
Since Edgar was going on the expedition, he sadly couldn't come on vacation with us.
Of course no one from the guild had bothered to tell me that my plan to get the cores had turned into some ridiculously high profile expedition in a span of a few days. I remembered spitting out my morning tea while reading the newspaper article that was detailing the trip I had organized. I practically jumped out of bed and headed straight for my guild and worked like a dog trying to make enough flying chariots for everyone in the expedition as well as a few more weapons they could take with them. I also packed in a whole hamper of my healing potion just incase they lost or broke their rings. Of course everything was marked with my feather insignia.
Using one of the spells I had learnt from tenebris intellexerent, I used a dark magic spell that would allow me to watch and see what they were doing wherever the adventurers went. I cast the spell on a random leaf so that nobody would suspect they were being watched, after all a leaf would fit right into their surroundings. I also cast one of the chariots with a transportation spell, so that I would be able to transport over to them if they were in trouble and needed me.
It took us two days working from dusk until dawn to finish everything. I felt bad about making the Kaltain's work late, so I gave them a bonus and a week off, since I would be on holiday as well. After they had had their resting week they could come back and start working on other things, and run the shop as well, now that we had enough products to sell.
In the past week Percival Peregrine, his father and I had met up a few times and had already organized a good deal for expanding Sophie's café. As of right now a café in the noble sect on Belhazia street (just a few streets away from Sorscha street), a café in the Plumeth district, a café in Girannon's second largest city Kreamore, and lastly a café in the town of Bromfaliath in the west of the Kingdom. All these cafes were in the last stages of their renovations and would soon open up. Not just cafés, but I was also opening up a restaurant in the harbor side as a kind of a trial run to see if people would like the otherworldly food I was planning on serving. (They obviously will, but just in case you know).
I negotiated that the Peregrine's also provide a building for the café workers to live in close proximity to the cafes we were opening up. They agreed, so in each city a building had been reserved to house the café workers. Because the Peregrine's knew they would make a huge profit off of me, they didn't mind paying for each of the cafes to be furnished, but I was in charge of making the safe houses hospitable. Which I had already done by employing the guild I had used to furnish the current safe house. I flew the furnishing guild to the different locations by enchanting their carriages so the work would go faster. By the end of today, they should be done with everything.
I also finally purchased a shop in one of the middle-class districts called Osmeth. It was a good size and I was planning on turning it into an apothecary where I could treat people with diseases and injuries. During my holiday I planned to make as many medicines and treatment plans as possible. I also had a few meetings with the Royal minister of public welfare about building a bus or train station. When I talked to him, he seemed very enthusiastic about the idea, but he told me that I would have to wait a while for an official answer, as he would have to first gain the Royal family's approval on the ideas.
"Riley! Hurry up!" Called Alice from the lawn outside my mansion. I could see that she was eager to start riding in my levitating carriage.
"I'm coming!" I laughed while I stuck out my tongue at her.
I picked Sophie up into my arms and stroked my fingers through her soft light-grey fur and took comfort in the soothing tone of her purr. I wished that we could take Sedgwick with us, but he has a tendency to stress eat whenever I take him new places and Agnes wasn't keen on sacrificing anymore metal candleholders to him, so I was leaving him at the Mage society with the rare animal collectors who were more than happy to look after Sedgwick since a crystalline snake was such a rare creature. I wasn't worried about them being cruel to him since I personally knew the guys from that division of the Mage society. They were all obsessed with rare creatures, if anything they would probably spoil Sedgwick rotten with rare and tasty metals.
"Come one Riley let's fly!" Alice called excitedly as she got into the carriage. I stepped in after her with Sophie nuzzled against my chest.
Alice was wearing a beautiful copper and golden corseted gown.
Arcadia was wearing a really pretty pink dress with rose embroidery.
I was wearing one of the dresses Edna had bought for me.
All the boys looked very dashing, especially Lucian who was in a casual attire which made him look so different after I had only seen him in his uniform for so long.
Dimitri brought his whole painting set plus a few canvases so I expected we would all be subjected to sitting dead still for hours while he painted us.
Everyone quickly got into the carriage, and our staff got into the carriage behind ours. Auberon was the one steering our carriage. He looked behind to check that we were all ready. When he was satisfied an excited grinned broke it into his face.
"Ready... Let's go!" He called out as he tugged on the horses reins, making them start to gallop. As soon as the horses started trotting, the carriage began to lift off the ground at a sharp angle.
"Ahh! It's starting!" Alice shrieked as she stuck her upper body out of the window to watch as the carriage left the ground.
In one swift motion the carriage seemed to be consumed by my wind magic and was completely in the air. Slowly but steadily we began to climb higher, just until the tops of the forest trees were a few meters below the wheels of the carriage. For some reason the horses must have thought that the carriage was flying due to their hard effort, which seemed to make the horses very enthusiastic as they began to gallop and neigh mid air, willing the carriage to go faster.
"Haha Steady boys." Auberon tugged on the reins again to try and calm them.
"This is brilliant Riley!" Alice shouted, her body still half out of the window.
Arcadia was also wide eyes as she watched the trees disappear beneath our carriage.
"How do you get it to fly without expending too much of your magic?" Lucian asked with a curious smile on his face.
"Well for this carriage I used inscription so it..."
"Inscription!" Cornelius jolted back into the carriage.
"You can do inscription Riley?" He asked, his eyes bulging out of his sockets.
I nodded.
"Heavens woman! How many gifts have the gods blessed you with..." Cornelius grinned.
The ride to Hadrian was a smooth and pleasant one. The morning was nice and warm and the company was good. It only took about an hour to reach Hadrian, which was actually pretty astonishing because if we had rode by carriage, it would have taken at least four hours.
The house was really beautiful. It had a friendly/homely vibe to it, plus it had an inviting man-made lake right next to it that was said to be filled with fish. It would be really nice to take the boat and paddle around in it.
Our staff all got us settled into our rooms: packing everything away, setting out our lotions and potions, and making sure we were comfortable.
After all of us were settled in, we went outside and lazed around on the lawn while eating a picnic brunch that Augustus prepared for us.
"So Riley, tell us more about these weapons you want to make?" Cornelius Asked as he cut himself another slice of Gocan cake.
"What do you want to know?" I giggled recalling the very informative newspaper articles. "Didn't you read about it in the newspaper?"
I turned to look at Cornelius. I loved Cornelius as a big brother and I was close to him and Alice and as such I knew him quite well, well enough to confidently say that he was two faced. I don't mean that in a bad way, it just on the one half he was this charming cheerful guy, but in the other half his was an acutely intelligent man who has always got a plan or a scheme in mind. However, that was what most nobles were like, what they had to be like in order to maintain a wealthy household as well as a good public image.
"No, no Riley..." Cornelius began, putting down his slice of cake.
"I already read the newspaper and I've heard the Gismeadean's point of view on everything. What I want to know is where your head is at. I mean you can't be making weapons just for weapons sake..."
Like I said, Cornelius was frighteningly aware, especially of me and my activities.
"What's your mission Riley? What's the point of this whole adventure? I know you must have something deeper planned..." He was looking at me with the sharpest copper eyes trying to unravel me.
Suddenly Lucian reached over to me and pulled my chin away from Cornelius's gaze to his.
"Riley, do you have some kind of ulterior motive in all of this?" Lucian's tone wasn't harsh or accusatory, it was calm but concerned.
Alice, Arcadia and Dimitri were all looking at me in a way that let me know they were concerned about my motives.
"Riley, ever since I've met you, you've always seemed to be up to something..." Alice paused and bit her lip, trying to find the right word to express her thoughts.
"It's like you're on some kind of secret mission, a hidden agenda you can't tell anyone about..." She was looking at me with sincerely pained eyes, she was struggling because she and I were best friends but she knew I was hiding something from her, and I knew that hurt her. Hell it hurt me! I wanted to tell her that I was some alien from another planet who had come to bring peace and happiness. But I wasn't sure how she, or any of them would react...
I didn't think any of them would outright reject me or instantly hate me, but there was still this chance that they would start to act differently or feel uncomfortable towards me, and that's what I was really afraid of. To me, telling them I was from another world would be like coming out to your friends or family, I knew it would be a huge relief to get it out there but still the chance of their reactions being negative terrifies me.
This happy brunch picnic had gone so painfully quiet while they waited for me to reply.
I took a deep breath.
"Your right Cornelius. I'm not making weapons for the sake of making weapons. The money I'll make from selling those weapons will be enough to launch all the projects I am interested in starting."
I told them the truth, but not the whole truth.
"What projects?" Lucian asked, his tone was harsher this time. Could he still tell I was hiding something from him?
"Well, I want to build a school, and I want to implement public transport, and I want to do various things to help the people in the poorer sections of Gismead, maybe a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter..."
Cornelius cut me off.
"Yes Riley, we know that you want to help people, and that your very generous with the lower class, and that you are soft hearted. But what is driving this? Be honest Riley please."
"And while you're at it explain yourself." Lucian jutted in aggressively.
"I'm your friend so out of curtesy I've kept myself from asking you about your mysterious powers, and your even more mysterious arrival into my life. You must know more than you're letting on. It's been more than a season since we found each other in that forest and you lost all your memories. You can't expect me to believe that you know nothing about your background after all this time!"
My heart was beating so hard and fast in my chest that I it was actually painful. I could also feel my body heating up rapidly, a hot flush was coming over me. I felt like a guilty criminal being confronted with my crimes.
"I-I... Uhhh...I..." I stuttered trying to think up a logical excuse.
Alice noticed my distress and reached forward to hold my hand. She gently squeezed mine in hers, it was such a comforting act that allowed all the pent up tension to just flood out of me which allowed me to gain control of myself.
"Riley it's okay. Just tell us the truth. Whatever it is we promise we won't abandon you. We are your friends, and we will stick by you no matter what."
Alice's words were everything that I needed to hear.
"Truly Riley, I'll keep good on the promise I made to you that day to always be your friend." Lucian's eyes were sincere as they were bright blue.
"Riley are you actually a runaway Mage from another kingdom?" Cornelius asked with a warm smile on his face, he seemed to think that he had guessed right.
I frowned.
"No Cornelius, I'm not."
I took in another deep breath an allowed myself a moment of calm.
"I'm actually a person from another world, who was reincarnated into this world."
I waited for each of their reactions.
Cornelius had a really confused expression frozen on his face. Lucian's eyes were as wide as saucers also frozen place. Alice mouth was slightly open as if she was about to say something but then froze. Dimitri and Arcadia looked equally confused and frozen.
I waited...
Silence...
Silence...
More silence...
Still more silence....
Suddenly a bird landed on our picnic blanket and started to peck at Cornelius slice of cake. Cornelius immediately smacked it away violently, which seemed to break the trance that the rest of the group was in.
"Wait what did you just say?!"
"You are a reincarnated Person?!"
"Wait are you serious?!"
"Wait what?!"
Cornelius crawled across the picnic blanket, knocking over a few plates only to grab my shoulders and lock eyes with me.
"Riley. Are you telling us that you are one of the chosen children who the gods handpicked from another world to send to our world to bring us salvation in times of turmoil?" This was the most shaken up I had ever seen Cornelius. His copper eyes were freakishly wide open and his face had gone so pale.
"Well, the angel I talked to did say the gods wanted me to help the people of this world..." I replied leaning as far back in his grip as possible. Cornelius froze again.
Suddenly Lucian elbowed Cornelius away and then proceed to lock me in a death grip as well.
"Riley... I had no idea you were a chosen child... how could you not tell me you were one?!" They were suddenly acting so strangely.
"A chosen child...?" I asked wriggling out of his tight grip.
Alice, Arcadia and Dimitri violently pulled Lucian off me and took his place.
"A chosen child is the name given to ones brought by the gods to this world." Alice said.
"Oh Riley, why would you keep such a wonderful thing from me?" Alice said giving me a warm hug.
"Wait. So there have been other reincarnated people before me?" I asked, kind of shook.
"Well yes of course... During the Great War a thousand years ago a hero was sent by the gods to us, to help us defeat the monsters of the Nomans land!" Alice explained.
"Also a few hundred years ago a man was also a chosen child, who was brought to Girannon by the gods, he was a master of dark magic and he created the library in the Royal Mage society, his name was Lord Tearlach Doersa Velaris."
I recognized the name immediately. The book I had read in the library had been dedicated to Lord Velaris. Who knew he was also a reincarnated person. Everybody besides me it seemed...
"It's no wonder you have such tremendous power! The chosen children always have astounding power just like yours." Arcadia chimes in.
"I can't believe your a chosen child Riley..." Dimitri said flustered. "Well that settles it, I am going to make you my muse! Let me go and fetch my painting kit and a canvas." Dimitri immediately dashed inside.
Lucian suddenly jostled his way back into my view.
"Riley..." Lucian was breathless for a moment as we just stared at each other. Without saying anything else he just grabbed me and held me in a tight hug. He felt so warm and soft, but firm and secure. I was so happy I told them, and I was so relieved that their reactions had been better than positive. They had been downright elated actually and I was so happy to be friends with them all.
"Group hug." I whimpered.
Everyone surrounded me and we all locked in for an emotional hug. I admit that I cried, just a little bit though.
This moment was just perfect. I realized that I had a family, even if they weren't blood related we were pretty much as close and happy as it gets. I really appreciated and...
"Ahh! You stupid bird don't touch my cake!!" Cornelius yelled As he lunged for his slice of cake that the same bird was picking at.
He kind of ruined the moment but it was okay. It made me laugh actually.
We all laughed together at Cornelius's depressed face as he stared at his half-missing slice of cake.
"Riley, we should really inform the Royal family of your status." Cornelius said getting all serious again.
"They would become a lot less suspicious of you and would probably allow you more benefits and freedom if you told them." Cornelius added.
"They're suspicious of me?" I asked with a frown.
"Yes they are, Prince Kristopher even payed me a personal visit to my home to try and get me to divulge information about your background. He also informed me that Prince Geoffrey was sending spies to try and uncover your background as well as monitoring you."
Lucian's words took me by surprise and actually kind of hurt me but I tried not to dwell on them.
"And you think telling them that I am a reincarnated person would make them trust me more?"
"Absolutely." Cornelius said.
"Above all things this country reveres magic and the gods. You are a person sent to us by the gods and thus you become a revered person. Your powers were gifted to you directly by the gods and thus your whole being will be considered sacred. Furthermore, the Royal family are extremely devout to the gods and thus they will cease any and all monitoring of you. They will most likely offer you any support you need in all your endeavors. Don't underestimate how much you need the Royal family Riley."
I nodded in agreement. "I'll tell them when I get back from holiday." I wonder what that conversation will be like...
Hey guys, so sadly I have another set of exams coming up, ones I really need to concentrate for so I probably won't upload for quite a while😭
But besides that pls comment and vote.
Also please could you comment what country your from in the comments. I'm just curious to see where you all are from😁