"So you mean a lich somehow choose this century to spawn in our backyard,while a war is going. Ha! what a sick joke."A red headed man with a imposing figure and aura laughed as if he heard the best comedy for the week.His Green eyes deep and piercing,just like a veteran of war who have faced death more often than most people.
"Sir Bradley,please be quiet while I think."A young women with her grey eyes and braided waist length jet black hair was sitting behind a large office desk spoke while rubbing her temple in annoyance.
This was Liam's aunt ,Leah Massoutré,who was recently promoted to the position of provast due to her exceptional talents in various field of management and shows of leadership.
She have heard about the liam's arrival,but was frustratingly buried in her work and due to that she haven't found a chance to meet her cute little nephew and ask him about how him and winey were doing these days.
"Ah my bad my bad haha …but lady Leah,I suggest we should investigate about this supposed informat that ivy have refused to tell us about before sending in the inquisition."Bradley suggested,the matter leave a bit too much for imagination to sent in his team to investigate.The possibility of a trap was also apparent.
Ivy who were standing infront of the desk narrowed her eyes at the brute that is making her life unnecessary difficult,the sack of rotten body parts filled with necromancy magic were on the table,that in itself should be enough to sent the group of glorified inspectors to do their job.
*sighs*
"Bradley,either way we needed to know if it was true or not.No spys would be stupid enough to tell us this just to distract us when a team of scout is enough to tell the truth. A wandering army of thousands ,undead or not,will leave its tracks."Leah finalized his decision and ignored the sighs of Bradley.
"But another problem needed to be addressed,I think we may have understood what is causing our ordered supply to be late by such a long time.Isnt that right?Eric?"Eric,the inspector that were sent to liam's home town nodded in agreement.He was here to settled a few ends before going back to the frontline.
As the kingdom needed his ability as a grand mage now more so than ever,he was asked to do a few last mission before being relieved of his role of professor and advisor in the academy completely.That included scouting for talents to become officer cadet,which was why he was in liam's hometown.
"Our supplies have been late by almost 2 weeks,the letters we sent to the merchant guild were replied but it just told us that they will arrange another team of carriages in a months time due to many other request they are processing at the moment.Obviously,that will not be acceptable,the city surronding the Academy only relied on trades and didn't have farm lands.We will run out of rations in a two weeks at most."Everyone in the office grimace at the realization of the situation.
As ridiculous as it is,the city Uspistan is hard to reach from most other city due to ï.Many development and creation of new artifact,spells and weapons were held here.It is primary feature for a city were the Academy,the development center and various trade in monster materials.
The kingdom have used the largest farmland that settle in another close by city to supply Uspistan with ration and other necessity for years,a large adventurer guild is also built in Uspistan for the past students of the academy to honed their skills in battle while collecting the needed material for developing the latest creation of the kingdom.
But now that the only place that have been continuously supplying their city have it's latest heavily guarded convoy seemingly disappeared into thin air,possibly due to the army of lich for no groups of outlaws could do the same in this area.
"Maybe we should put in a request for the adventurer to hunt some nearby animal instead ?hmm...but then our developement team's progress might suffered…"Ivy voiced out her suggestion but then realized the set back that might occured.
A ▪︎Monster▪︎is a concept that can be quite vague and loosely defined.Some of them might just an animal to other people,but in general,a monster is a being that have any form of magical abilities or bloodlines that grant them abnormal power too different from what people would considered normal.These doesn't included sentinent beings like elf,dwarf and beastkin etc for they are considered part of mankind.
Another featured needed to consider a creature a monster is that it impose a certain amount of threats to people,settlement or even the nation and continent.So in this case, if a big bear or a pack of wolfs with no ability decided to continously harassed and kill people,they would still be considered monsters.
In the nearby area were mostly non edible creatures like golems,poisonous creatures or elemental beings that were harvested for their materials.The very few left that were consumables were too thinned and rare in number to feed people of a entire city.
"...…No I think ivy has a point,but if we put some changes in the plan it should be more optimal for what we want.How about we sent some of the trainnee that is experienced in hunting a request via the guild?"Eric suggested,I it were just animals and they sent a convoy of guards composed of higher ranked trainnee and a knight as supervisor,it would serve to hone their skills and courage to face threats,secure the ration they need and even give the trainnee merits in the guild that will help them in the future.
*Slam*
"Alsolutely not!We are not letting them risk their life so early when they are so ill-prepared!"Everyome cocked their head at her sudden out burst,raising an eye brow or two along with a questioning expression.
"Ah…! if this is about Liam then don't worry~The kid is not so weak as to be harmed by animals or even low ranking monsters."Eric confidently state and nodded in understanding, Leah on the other hand just started at him with a pair of lifeless eyes.
"How did the Academy survived so far with an air head as head advisor like this?"Leah question inward if she should send a request to take his retirement fund away because he really pissed her off in a multitude of ways.
"…eh?Leah isn't that playing favorite ? you are playing favorite right??Who is this kid?"Bradley and other advisors barraged Leah with questions and lectures which she could only accept,she groaned at these annoying old men's babbling and sworn that if something were to happens to her sweet nephew,she will surely make eric suffer for the rest of his career.
"Fine...fine!We will arrange that job for the students ,first let...…"The groups discussed the finer details that would be implemented and adjusted for the plan for a few hour until they finally put the plan into action.
_____________
Liam and Gareth was walking back to their respective room after their class and parting aways with the girls.When they were chating away random things,Liam find one phenomenon happening around them to be almost unbearable uncomfortable.
*Stares*
"This...ah…I mean…he is definitely has that aura around him…the princely type"Liam tries to relax under the unified gazes of the girl's that is directing their untapped feeling at gareth but couldn't stop himself from fidgeting occasionally.
"Sir Gareth…!Please take this bracelet I spent a few days making it so I hope you like it!"
"Get away from him,you wench…Hey why don't we head out for lunch this weekend?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself!What makes you think he will actually accept that.…"
"Wait !wait!…calm down please everyone…I appreciate your gesture,so please calm down!"As much as Gareth tried to calm the tide of maiden that is trying devour him for one reason or another,he still ended up being swallow up in the group.
*clapped*
"Goddess artemis please look after my friend's well being and guide his sinful soul to its rest."Liam prayed towards his patriot Goddess with utmost sincerity for Gareth.And silently move away from gareth so he can enjoy his time alone in his room after a long day of classes.
"Ah...I guess the gods does have favorites afterall...it will be great if he got buried to death under those girl…right kid?"After arriving at the boy's dormitory ,A young man voiced out from the side when liam walked past him,making young liam frowned at his use of words.
"Although as much as I would like to agreed with your idea,that man is still my friend so please take that back."unwavering,Liam stared straight at the young man with light blue messy hair that have bangs long enough to cover his eyes.As much as he hate making trouble for himself,it doesn't make feel well for Liam to leave that remark against one of his few newly made friends aside.
"Oh!…sorry about that,that was inconsiderate of me...But I like your spirit kid,a guy who would actually looked out for his friends is seriously rare these days.Ah!I know!please allow me to give you this sacred treasure of mine as my apology."The young man pulled out a book from his pouch and hand it to Liam, who was suspiciously eyeing between him and this supposed *tressure*
"Ah come on…!Do you know how many people who kill for one of these books?It is of the utmost valued especially here in our dorm,I promise you young warrior that after reading it.A whole new world of possibilities will open before your eyes!I am only lending this to you for a few weeks so take good care of it okay!?"The suspicious man then shoved the book into liam's chest and ran off in another direction.
"ah…wait!!…eh...?"Liam sighed and decided to go back to his room with the book in his grasp,it won't hurt anyone to try to read a mere book …besdies he could do with some reading after such a long time to distress himself.
After arriving inside his room and closing the door behind him,Liam take off his thick officer jacket that is making him hot and really sweaty and take seat on his bed.Occasionally the internal injuries from the duel would still affect his movement but his body is healing well so far.
"So let's see…what kinda sacred treasure is this supposed to be…some kind of spell books?No…that will be too crazy to lend to anyone you just met for the first time…"Liam wondered as he stared at the book on his lap,it was a brown leather bound book with a magic circle engraved on its cover along with the title"The forbidden power of my stepsister."
"Hmm…that sounds odd …but maybe it is contained some forbidden spells script afterall?"Liam spirit lift greatly up at the idea,spell script is what most mage learned their spells from.It is extremely valuable and some of the more rare one has even made it into the kingdom's treasures.
With great anticipation,he started flipping over to the first page.Surprisingly, waiting for him in the book was the detailed drawing of people with really attractive characteristics.
Although he have heard of this kind of book existing,a form of reading material that is made from the combined effort of experienced artist and their various advance magic tool made for printing the image and drawing them in vivid details.This is still shocking to see how beautiful the arts are,Liam knows that these books are still really rare and often can't be found in most cities.
So,he with overflowing gratefulness started to read further and further into the book,his expression slowly changing from a excited smiles to a beet red flushed face.
*yelp!*
Suddenly Liam felt a burning sensation from his back and yelped in pain,on his back someone could have seen a set of engraving and runes glowed brightly through his thin shirt in emerald light for a few seconds.
As the light subside,a dark green orb slowly emerges from the engravings and float towards liam,stopping just before his face and above his book.
*Yawn!*
"After all these years…I thought I would be stucked inside your inner world for the rest of your pathetic life…Ah~Thank you artemis big sister!!"A feminine but condescending,slighly high pitched voice like that of a young girl came from the orb as Liam move back from the sudden intrusion of this unknown being.
Firstly,the dark green light of the orb completely subside,the owner of the voice came into view.
She have two pairs of transparent wind like those of you dragonfly, with her waist-length emerald hair and golden eyes glinting with pride.
"ignis armament"Liam swiftly tried to cast a rank D that would usually cover a part of his body in mana flame inorder to defend himself against this unknown fairy like entity.
Usually…
"Eh??Why…is it?!"The flame that would have answered his commend and cover both of his arms by now never came into existence.As he stared at his arm in confusion,a giggle from the green haired fairy brought him back from his stupor.
"Ah Sorry your face was so funny just now.Ahem!
I guess I have to explain here huh... Ahem!My name is Celine and rejoice!!For I am sent by big sister artemis to your spirit guide!Well I really didn't want to accept the job but since it big sister's request there is nothing I way I can complain...And from the looks of it,your mana is at a acceptable level for your age as a convoy.So Be proud young warri...!"
When the fairy Celine went on about her introduction and her background,she also took a look around her in curiosity.At first,it just seems like a normal boy's room that is properly tidy up so she was nodding in approval inwardly.
Thinking that Liam must at least be a dependable,respectable normal talented boy.There was no way her sister would picked some random boy as her convoy.
That is until her sight landed on the book opened widely on the ground,it's content was etched into her mind the first moment she laid her eyes on them.
And like that the silence continues on for a full minutes with Liam being a bit confused at the sudden turns of event.He get the gist of the story and since Celine did know he is supposely a convoy of the goddess artemis.There is a reasonable amount of chance that she was not lying about her story.
"Sister artemis I am very sorry…please forgive me but I need to eradicate this beast in human skin from the surface world right this instant.Otherwise I will never be able to live and forgive myself when this pig laid his paw on a girl."Celine clasp his hand for a moment and spell her divine judgetment.
"ah!!!!Wait wait!! this is not even close to what you think.Let talk about this like civilized peo－Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!"Liam didn't get to finish his sentence as Celine conjure a magic circle in front of him without moving an inch.
*Whoosh!!*
Within the pal green magic circle beaming with power,a number of arm-thick vines burst forth and ensare him, dangling him upside down from the ceiling like a piece of meat.It was too quick for him to react and he can only grit his teeth as his mind raced for a solution to this situation.
"I can't use my magic for some reason,but my mana is full so the only explanation is that she has sealed it...I can't move my body at all…so that means …there is only one thing left to try…"He gaze at the grim faced fairy,even when she narrowed her eyes and squeeze his body even tighter,he never averted his eyes and grit his teeth to stop himself from screaming or trembling too much.