The atmosphere of the small village was quite serene despite what had just happened. It was probably not the first time that the incident had happened. However, if we looked a little deeper, the eyes of the villagers were strained.
The presence of the elder before Isaac reassured them slightly, but since his show of force in the clearing, the news had spread like wildfire. And like all gossip, the description of his powers had been exaggerated.
"I heard he seriously injured Artiel"
"It seems he reduced Artiel to ashes!"
"Olivier told me that Rebecca tried to hinder him but couldn't do anything"
"Even Rebecca can't counter him ?! We're screwed!"
Gradually, the rumors that circled around the elf slowly reached his ears and the whispers grew louder and louder. It was not abnormal, after all, in such a remote village, the slightest event was subject to discussion in the hour which followed.
And now that it was about an elf, the locals were sure they would find all kinds of stories to feed into their evening discussions.
For his part, Isaac paid no attention to it. He had already gotten used to it in high school and college, so villagers were not a new experience for him.
Seeing that he did not seem irritated, Rita was relieved and continued her walk towards the large house of the elders. Above the large tower-like building, two guards immediately spotted the old one and Isaac and quickly descended, calling for the two old ones.
Immediately, the two old men then left before approaching Rita, a smile on her face.
- "Rita, finally back? I hope you didn't bother our host too much, hm?" said the first.
- "Don't worry Luke, we treated him in the noblest way possible" Rita answered with a little nod of her head in greeting.
The two elders were suddenly surprised by the reserved and controlled aspect of Rita. Usually, as soon as one of them came up with a joke to make fun of her, she would pull out her cane and start chasing them down to hit them.
But this time, none of that. They then shifted their eyes before bowing respectfully to Isaac.
- "We welcome Your Excellency to our humble village" they said in chorus before raising their faces as they began to study the face of Isaac.
Isaac tilted his head slightly forward in salute before turning to Rita, his gaze full of expectation. Right now all he wanted to do was read the famous books and records the old lady had collected during her life.
Once an adventurer and wanderer, it was very young that she decided to run away with her husband to discover the world. She met many different people there and helped her to forge a very open and atypical personality. Despite being very volatile, she still knew how to keep her cool and behave inflexibly when the situation demanded it.
The villagers had not had the opportunity to see this part of her. Even after returning to the village after many years of adventure, she had retained an unpredictable temperament which always surprised her comrades.
Nonetheless, today was the first time they had seen her keep such a neutral and calm expression. It was the first time she was serious and no one dared say anything to her. The two elders then understood that Rita and the elf had to do and decided to get out of the way.
Immediately, the elder began to walk and indicating to Isaac to follow her. They then entered the rather poorly furnished or decorated house and headed for a room. Rita took out a key that she entered in the lock before turning it and opening it, revealing a small cabinet and a table with a quill and a stack of ten books.
Isaac's face suddenly lit up as Rita watched in surprise before he threw himself on the books and opened one, devouring them with his eyes.
He had been a fanatic of reading since his earliest childhood. His preference leaning more on fantastic or fanciful books, he had long included in his reading a panoply of philosophical and technical books, especially in computer science.
Once immersed in his book, it was difficult to get him out of it and that, Rita understood immediately. In silence, she then decided to back up and exit the room, leaving the door open and slowly walked outside. As soon as she left, she closed the door of the house under the gaze of the elders.
- "Nobody comes in until he's out. Got it?" she said, turning around.
The two guards nodded and stood in front of the door and placed their spears in front of the door to bar the way of anyone who wished to enter.
Although it was a medium-sized village, it had a fairly large number of soldiers. Without the support of a large kingdom like Kilguana or Durvador, bandit attacks were recurrent in the past.
They therefore had to develop a defense capacity very quickly. Once the fence was erected, they began to train soldiers for a strength of about fifteen per generation. Each new generation, the elders chose from among the strongest of the children most suited to become soldiers and placed them under the teaching of the current captain.
Thus, little by little, their small army had grown until it reached about thirty soldiers who were now very well trained over several centuries of training, teaching and learning.
Isaac learned a lot from his reading. The old books could be placed in three categories: Logbook, Encyclopedia and Tale. Although he didn't know where she got her encyclopedias, the diaries she wrote dated back to when Rita was still an adventurer.
Each week she tried to find time to write down the events that had unfolded. Although ink and paper were quite rare items most of the time in medieval worlds, it didn't seem to bother her.
Thus, Isaac was able to obtain a lot of information on the political situation that shook the Kilguana kingdom a few decades ago. Now relatively stable, the situation was much more tense between the great nobles and in particular the dukes trying to scavenge power and the king of the time being often sick and weak of his advanced age could not counter them.
Her thirteen-year-old son was also unable to address this situation. But that changed the day the King managed to restore some semblance of balance.
Thanks to a forced marriage between the crown prince and father of the current King, the Duke of the North, Gregory Soleyris, succeeded in making his family part of the royal line. Immediately, the exchange of power swung in favor of the King and the Duchy Soleyris as well as his ally, the Duke of the East, with the support of the King, succeeded in controlling the tensions and restoring order in the kingdom.
However, until today. Now, despite the current King, Kylis, being born to a member of the Lubeyllis royal family and descended from the Soleyris lineage, he had held a bitter grudge against the Duke of the North. Notably because of the resentment his mother had for him, since he monopolized a large part of his father's attention.
Once crowned, his first action was to cut ties with his maternal family, creating new political tensions. On top of that, his many anti-slavery reforms had also drawn the wrath of the nobility and aristocracy. He was sure things were going to take a turn for the worse again.
After that finished, he decided to look at tales and legends. Much less provided in content and written in verse phrasing, Isaac would find it much easier to read them. The stories told how the world worked, the adventures of many heroes and described various races including demons but above all, what interested the elves.
Described as a reclusive, noble and powerful race, he now knew why the looks of all the villagers were so curious. He initially thought it was a curiosity closer to that of a circus animal due to its rarity, but after several stories showing the importance and power of the Elven people, he began to change its mind.
The elves were the only race that had managed to unite under a single banner more commonly known as the people of Angremort. According to the writings, all the elves live in a reclusive and remote thousand-year-old forest, access to which is forbidden to humans and demons. No one knows what lies beyond the borders, since all those who had ventured there never returned.
It was after various excursion attempts by the Draconic Empire a few centuries ago that Angremort decided to make himself known as an independent kingdom and established its borders as their forest. After many unsuccessful invasion attempts, the kingdoms decided to stop and admit the authority of the elves.
No information is given on their hierarchy or government structure, however what can be said is that during the last centuries during which the elves were able to make contact, only two elves had been observed. Two fraternal twins named Loyf for the boy and Seu'r for the girl.
Together, they represented the diplomats of Angremort and the only ambassadors of their people. It was through them that the outside world communicated with the Elven kingdom and that after several decades trade links were established. In exchange for commodities such as salt, spices, and exotic seeds, the elves provided traders with all kinds of magical artifacts.
Whether it was enchanted staves or magic stones, everyone wanted to trade with the elves and their popularity rating with traders was extremely high. If it were not for the quantity restrictions imposed by the elves on their export, the merchants would undoubtedly have emptied the elven stocks.
Besides stories and journals, Rita had also collected two encyclopedias. The first on botany and herbalism that Isaac devoured. The second rather biblical and religious, describing the functioning of the Church of the Sun, its precepts and many sacred texts in particular on the creation of the world.
Intrigued by the content, he then began to read it.
According to the writings, the Sun is at the center of the world. "Almost but that's already about right", he thought before telling himself that things might be different in this new world. "Is the sky at the center of the solar system? Is there a solar system?" he wondered as he continued to read.
The Church has a hierarchy is made on an election based on the faith of an individual. According to the writings, a pious believer accepted by the Sun God, more commonly known as Father by believers, will be granted a certain amount of divine energy. On this part, Isaac was very interested.
Each believer can receive a dose of energy varying according to his faith but also based on the respect of the precepts taught by their god, namely: Eliminate the darkness and the forces of the shadow, help his neighbor and obey the doctrines and oracles decreed by Father.
Depending on the amount of divine energy a believer has, he or she can access various benefits including care, accommodation or a meal. It was a system that was fairly new to Isaac. "A meal for divine energy?" he wondered.
It was after that that everything was explained. The divine energy given by believers to the Church is used to enchant and fuel divine artifacts to keep them in working order. For example, in most churches there is an artifact of communion. Taking the form of a metal disc cut to resemble the sun with the inscription of a male silhouette in the center.
This artefact when loaded enough allows priests to ask for favors from their god such as favorable seasons or a fruitful harvest. Depending on the amount of divine energy contained, their favors are granted or not.
From there, the Church collects most of its revenues by offering favors to the nobles according to the donations of gold and wealth they made to the Church.
At present, the most powerful person in the Church is Pope Desterixis Yavir, a devout believer whose divine power alone easily rivals that produced by those of all the inhabitants of the capital.
In exchange for their divine protection, the Kilguana kingdom made this religion their unique belief throughout the territory, granting them great advantages with the Church. Additionally, the capital is protected by a protective rune powered by the Cathedral's divine energy and is said to be indestructible and impenetrable. No shadow force is supposed to be able to penetrate it.
As he continued, Isaac suddenly came across a page of text radiating a very small amount of golden energy. He had never seen this energy, it seemed soft but powerful and almost seemed more powerful than mana. Puzzled, he then tried to read it before realizing he couldn't.
"Another language ?" he wondered.
Besides, it came to mind now, but how was it that he could read? Or even read the old fashioned books. The fact that they spoke French was a very low probability close to zero, but it was not immediately obvious to him.
Immediately curious, he turned behind him before seeing that the sun had set and that he was alone. "How long did I stay here?" he wondered as he closed the encyclopedia.
He then took the enormous book and carried it with him as he left the room, looking left to right before heading for the door. "She let me read? That's nice," he said to himself as he approached the handle when suddenly voices reached him from the other side of the doorway. Curious, he brought his ear closer to listen better.
- "Do you think he's going to stay a long time? I'm starting to get hungry" said a male voice.
- "Yeah me too, do you want us to stay by turns? You can go, I'll keep the door until you come back" proposed a different voice to his partner.
- "Okay, I'm going to be quick... Wait... Fabien, we agree that we let no one in, hm?" suddenly asked the first.
- "Yeah why are you asking ... Wait, why is there light inside?" continued the second.
Immediately Isaac looked at his shiny white robe and sighed. He decided to open the door, surprising the two guards slightly, before giving them a small smile.
- "I have a question for Rita, where is she?" asked Isaac.
Both guards swallowed and one responded.
- "I'll get her right away."
Before Isaac had time to retort, he wanted to relax his legs a bit, the guard had already run off towards the house next door. He sighed for a moment before turning around and walking back inside and sitting down in a chair observing the golden text written on the pages.
- "Strange ..."