Once everyone except the Princess, the King, the Marshal and Adam had left, Henry looked at Sarah and said "Sister, as fierce as ever! Truly my fearsome Marshal!"
Sarah frowned and said "Spit it out, what's making you so happy?" Her earlier politeness and etiquette had disappeared, but once again Henry showed no surprise, he knew that his sister broke the decorum while in private, and so did he.
He rose from his Throne and began stretching his stiff body as he said "Valiant Heart, quiet the title you gave yourself. Tell me, why?"
Adam bowed a little and said "Please, call me Adam, your Majesty." However Henry waved his hand dismissively in Adam's direction and said "Good, then call me Henry while we're in private. And don't talk about honor or standing or whatever bullshit you can find to refuse, you saved my daughter and did a great deed to my Kingdom, so if you see yourself as a proud son of the North then class me Henry."
Adam was perplexed by the King's personality, but he then smiled, this was the kind of person he liked. He nodded and said "Henry it is then. As for my title, I named myself as such because nothing can stop me from my goal, be it fear, gods, devils or even death."
Henry smiled brightly hearing his answer and said "Good, I believe your actions have already proven your words to be true."
Next to him, Victoria crossed her legs as she asked "Father, you still haven't explained why you are so happy."
Henry nodded "Right. First, a little story. Victoria, did I ever tell you how I met your mom?"
Before Victoria could say anything a woman's voice echoed from the backdoor of the hall "You already told her a million time."
Everyone turned toward the woman and Adam saw an astonishingly beautiful woman. She looked like an older version of Victoria, except that she had light blue hair.
[Skade, Queen of Azure Sky] (Hero, Level 200)
??/??
Henry turned to his wife and said "Dear, I believe you felt it too."
She nodded and walked next to her husband. However, her eyes were on Adam as she asked "What is he doing here?" Her words may sound aggressive, but Adam felt no hostility but surprise.
Henry replied "This is Adam, an adventurer who goes by the name of Valiant Heart who saved our daughter as well as destroyed a beast tide in its early stages, and he brought one of the hearts here."
Skade widened her eyes and said "Impressive. So you saved our daughter, young man?"
Sarah didn't let Adam talk and said "He valiantly protected the little one and he even got a bounty on his head for saving her! He is getting chased by the Blackheart Alliance for what he did!"
Victoria looked guilty, Henry looked thrilled and Skade was impressed. Adam rubbed the back of his head and said "Well it isn't that bad, I'm not really getting chased, they just put a bounty on my head until I rank up, and it wasn't just from the cult who attacked the princess, Aemon has a hand in this too."
Skade smiled and said "Still, you deserve a reward, although I guess my daughter already gifted you something. How about this, as a fellow Northman come seek me when you are ready to rank up, I will bring you to the Empire myself."
Adam nodded, he didn't really know what to say, for him he never really had a choice, he saved Victoria thanks to a quest he accepted to get stronger for another quest which was forced upon him. Still, he wouldn't say no to additional rewards.
At the same time, he looked at Sarah will a thankful look as he understood she said that to get him other rewards.
Back to the King, he said "Enough about that, we have more important matters. This heart, it isn't just any heart. I picked it up when I was only an adventurer in a dungeon. There, I met my wife, but we also acquired this item. We presented it to Empire, and learned more about it."
Skade nodded and said "This is an incredible item that comes from far back in the past when the gods still roamed our realm. Back then a mysterious item fell in the hands of a mortal who decided to fuse the item with his heart. He succeeded and became known as the God Slayer. However, turning from a weak mortal to an almighty god in an instant turned him mad, and he began killing gods, thus earning his title. In the hand our Patron, Enya, acted personally and killed him. However, upon the Godslayer's death his heart mysteriously split in 25 lesser hearts and disappeared, being spread out all over the world."
Adam asked "Are all the hearts on Epoch?" Skade shook her head and said "Most of them are in our realm, but some are spread in the lesser realms."
Adam frowned "The lesser realms?" he had never heard about that term.
Skade waved her hand and ice coalesced in front of Adam. He could see a big circle. Skade explained "This is our realm, Epoch. This is the biggest realm in existence as well as the origin of life. In the beginning of times, only this realm existed. However, as the gods grew in power and numbers, the Tmesis took place, and Epoch was split in several lesser realms."
As she said that, the big circle became smaller and two others appeared, one above the middle one, and the other below. Skade continued "The top one, the Heavenly Realm where the gods reside. The bottom one, Hell, where the devils reside. And finally, the middle one, Epoch, where mortals live. Those are the three main realms created after Tmesis."
The circles enlarged and several small ones appeared on the sides of Epoch's circle. Skade said "Not much is known about the Heavenly Realm nor the Abyss, but we know that several lesser realms were created around the mortal Epoch. At first those realms were uncountable and varying in size and power, but this led them to become unstable, and thus as time passed only the strongest were able to persevere. Although the total number of realms is unknown, all of them are inhabited by powerful beings. Most of those realms are governed by special races, but that's not for you to worry."
The mana manifestation in front of Adam disappeared and he was left speechless. He was only here to ask for reinforcements and get the bounty on an assassin, but he ended up learning much about the lore of the game, and was probably going to receive one of the best yet hardest quests in the game.
Henry smirked mischievously seeing Adam's mindblown expression, and said "Now, it has been the dream of many to gather all the hearts, to gain the power of the legendary Godslayer. But this is far too hard, to collect all the hearts one would need to travel through all the realms. When I was younger I had this dream too, but even after years of search I wasn't able to find any, and thus decided to settle down and created this kingdom."
Henry's smirk turned into a mocking smile as he said "Who would think that I would find another heart when I stopped roaming the world? Fate truly plays with us mortals."
Adam couldn't help but ask "I guess this heart was in the possession of Aemon's Cult… How come they planted it into such a low level ghoul, from what I've seen this seem to be a strong cult, strong enough to know what this was and not lose it in such a way."
Henry shook his head and said "Aemon's Cult is truly powerful, they are way stronger than this kingdom. I suspect them to have several of those hearts. However, one of the low level cultists found a heart, and because he didn't know what it was he told others. With a few tricks I was able to make him desert the cult, making them lose the newfound heart, but this little cultist was capable of hiding from even me. So he escaped with the heart, knowing it was valuable but not why. Then, he created this beast tide to escape while they created chaos, but his little beasts lost to you, and so he used the heart. He created the ghoul you defeated, and died at your hand, giving you the heart."