I sat in my room for about two more hours before the King came back in some leisure-looking clothing. He looked a lot less uptight than he had before and knocked on my door even though it was open.
"Greetings, Anima. We're talking about the mission to drive back the demons. We'd like it if you attended." The King told me. I nodded. I left my staff hanging on the door and walked out of the room with the King.
"I noticed the large tree outside... what is it? How did it get there?" I asked the King. He continued his stride forward.
"Oh, that thing? That's the tree of life... Yggdrasil. We built Sieve on the east side of the tree, while Hecate is on the west side. That tree is where the first human is said to have come out of, so every city is based on it. Actually, this ties in with our mission briefing, so I'll explain the basics here so we can get to the important part at the meeting." The King added on.
"The Demons have been gaining ground on all Kingdoms recently... taking the form of humans with illusion magic. I'm not even sure Hecate has any citizens left standing in it, it's only our Kingdom that has put up enough resistance against the Demons that we have one of the last inhabited Kingdoms on Erinautis. We have a ton of refugees, and before you Heroes came, it wasn't looking good for us. We plan to secure a path around Yggdrasil and to Hecate, and would be honored if you came with us, Anima." The King finished.
I was initially suspicious of this Kingdom of Sieve. This was a new world and I wasn't sure how trustworthy it was, but this was a King with good intentions. Securing a path around Yggdrasil and eventually replenishing the Kingdom of Hecate for the people of Erinautis. I guess this would be considered hero-work.
"Of course, I'll help you out. Just tell me what I can do." I responded to the King's request. He nodded in excitement and led me to the room we walked into with all of the nobles. Fuki was already standing at the table with a cool-looking sword once I got there. It had a blue guard, a gem in the middle, and a golden blade attached.
"There he is! So, we can start the meeting now, right King?" Fuki asked. The King nodded and went on to explain.
This Kingdom is in the shape of a circle with a rectangle in the center of it. Within the bounds of the edge of the circle stood the citizens of Sieve, while the King lived in the large rectangle. There may have been walls everywhere that blocked movement from the Demons outside, but the citizens could walk around freely within the entire Kingdom, except in the King's dorm.
I initially had a problem with the structure until I learned about the citizen's freedom. Those who could've been considered impoverished received help and food from the King himself.
He explained that the path leading straight to Yggdrasil has a wall surrounding the main pathway, but the gate near the end was never constructed. Fuki and I are tasked with supporting the army of our respective classes to secure that path and build that gate as quickly as possible. It wouldn't be much ground, but it would be a large step in securing Hecate.
He discussed the paths we would take and introduced Fuki to his group of soldiers with melee weapons. Then, the King introduced me to a group of mages who would sit in the back. I didn't see the girl I wanted to train me, unfortunately.
"Anima, the mages can teach you their spells, and I wanted you to have this book." The King told me, handing over what looked like a large dictionary. It floated to my hip and attached itself. I noticed it didn't have any skills added to it... then what was it for?
"This is the only magical tool I have in my arsenal, so I hope it will fulfill your work as a mage. If you have any other questions, please ask the other mages." The King said, then explained something else to Fuki. We seemed to be moving fast, especially on the first day here. The King said this was important and we were running out of time, but maybe I underestimated how much time we had left until we were overtaken by the Demons.
I was bothered by the fact they used illusion magic to make themselves look like humans so it would be harder to fight them, but that gave me hope for my abilities. There was a lot more magic than I anticipated, so I knew I could become strong one day.
"Hey, do you have any armor for us?" Fuki asked the King.
"Unfortunately I do not, as our armor has a minimum level requirement of ten, and you both are level one. If you rank up enough during this mission, then I'm sure we can get some for you right away. Don't be too hopeful though, it's hard to increase your level off of Demons. You'd need other monsters." The King put a chest plate on himself and gathered together an arsenal of weapons for his own use. A spear, a staff, a bow, a book, and some sort of gauntlet. When he put it all on his body, everything but the spear on his back had disappeared into a familiar pattern of white and blue magical particles. [Bullet] had the same look as the items that disappeared.
Was this King a Hero himself?! Was he fighting on the frontlines?!
"Let's push these Demons back. Anima, Fuki, I'm happy to welcome you into our army and I hope we can work together to reclaim Erinautis from those filthy Demons." The King told me.
He was a very charismatic man. If I hadn't bluntly blocked out everybody's emotions in my life before this one, I would've felt inclined to follow him to my death, but my life was more important than blind devotion. I nodded while Fuki shouted in agreement. Before I knew it, the King, his army, Fuki, and I were all off in a march to the pathway that led to Yggdrasil.
"Are there supposed to be any skills in this book?" I asked the mages behind me. They didn't answer me and barely focused on me.