It didn't take long for the people to accept Pascal as their lord, especially when he had the king seal with him. One man left to notify the others so by the time he got to town the everyone who lived there was already waiting for him. After bowing to him – or rather to the king's seal – they led him to a house that was even smaller than his bedroom back at the palace. They explained that because they didn't get a notice beforehand, they couldn't build a new house for a lord. It seemed that they didn't have a lord before and were living as freemen. Well, somewhat free, since everyone in the Northern Region were subjects of the throne. They promised to build a new house for him soon but Pascal rejected their offer, living in a bigger house was useless since there was no one to show-off too.
He assigned to people to take care of his luggage, a girl and her uncle, while he went to bathe. After he cleaned of the grime and blood off of his body, he went to his room to find everything where they should be, his bedding had been placed over the bed, the chest filled with his clothes was placed in a corner, and a small mirror was placed on a table. He walked up to the table and looked at the mirror, straight at the injury on his face.
"Urgh, that's going to leave a scar." He stared at his face for a few minutes, tilting his head left and right to find a position where his face looked somewhat okay. When he was bored with that, he jumped on his bed and fell asleep, he didn't bother to get dressed.
He slept till the next day. When he woke up, he quickly freshened up and went out to look at his land. When he came out, he was immediately given a fright. There was fog everywhere, he could barely see past ten steps in front of him. Only when the fog moved could he see the vague outline of other things. Then he heard footsteps coming towards him, but he couldn't point out where it was coming from, he was tempted to summon his armor.
"My lord?" He heard the voice of a girl, and with a quick search of his memory he remembered where he had heard it before; it was the girl who had helped him with his luggage.
"Here!" He called out to signal his position to her. Soon, she came to his side, she seemed relieved when she found him.
"Thank the gods, you didn't wander off." She breathed out, her fiery colored hair falling over her face.
"I wouldn't have." Pascal said, "I was given quite a shock when I came out though, I didn't know something like this happens here, Does the fog come like this every morning?"
"Fog?" The girl – Morgana was her name, if he remembered correctly – tilted her head a little bit, "This isn't a fog, these are clouds."
Clouds? "What are you talking about?" Do clouds fall in the Forsaken Lands?
"We are very high up, don't you know? Ugh, you won't get it until you see it," she reached forward and grabbed his arm, "Pardon me, my lord, you would get lost if I don't do this." Then she pulled him towards a direction, he couldn't tell where because the fog – the clouds – were too thick. While they were walking, he could hear the movements of people around him and there wasn't a grunt to signify that they hit an obstacle because of hindered sight.
'Everyone here is probably used to living like this.' He focused on his feet so he wouldn't trip. Soon, they got to a place where the breeze was much, so the clouds were scarce, so he could see that if they continued walking, they would fall.
'Does she want to push me off a cliff?!' Pascal thought, but they stopped before he could they reached the edge.
He looked at Morgana in confusion, but she just pointed downwards, "Look." She spoke.
He slowly shuffled to the edge and peered down, he kept Morgana in his peripheral vision, just in case she was going to push him. He was going to quickly glance off the edge and look back, but when he looked down, he couldn't take his eyes back.
" Oh, gods… "They were way his up than he thought. The town was on top of a fucking mountain! And not just any ordinary mountain since the mountain could touch the fucking clouds. How was that possible? How did him and Cornelius ride up a mountain this big without them knowing? And why wasn't it freezing? He had read somewhere that mountains get colder the higher you climb.
But that was not what snared his vison, because not too far from the bottom of the mountain, was a city! Because the mountain was so high, he couldn't see the outline of the buildings, but there was one that was very clear, a huge construction – as big as a small mountain – was built at the back of all the smaller buildings in the city. It was like a guardian watching over the people it swore to protect. The building – which Pascal was sure was the palace – was majestic, the way it was built was also unique, it wasn't just a single huge building, but a collection of buildings built on top one another, each smaller than the one before. Every single house in the kingdom was colored light brown, even the streets were the same color.
Pascal couldn't see people moving though, so he asked Morgana, "Where are the occupants of this city? Who governs this city?"
Morgana shrugged, "I don't know who the ruler was, this city has been deserted for years, probably hundreds of years."
Pascal was stunned, "Wait, why didn't the people in the town live there then, there's plenty of space down there."
"We can't," Morgana turned solemn, "There are ghosts down there."
"Ghosts?"
"Yes, we don't know where they came from, maybe they are they ghosts of the people who lived there. Anytime someone tries to enter the kingdom they get attacked by the ghosts."
'Woah. A ghost city, of course something like that would appear in the Forsaken Lands.' Since the town people hadn't relocated the ghosts probably couldn't climb up the mountain, so Pascal was sure of his safety. He'll just stay put and manage his fief.
[Ding! New Quest Unlocked: Overlord Rise!
The God of Origins wants a special place where his followers would thrive. To conquer the city, raise the [Blessed Gem] up in the highest point of the city.
Rewards: Management Book, Regal Clothes, Construction Blueprints, and a random reward]
[Note; Be ready for the followers of the God of Origins, they will be here soon.]
Pascal stared at the quest for a few moments before accepting it. Deep down, he knew what it meant to be an Overlord. From the moment he was given the title, he stopped being a baron. He held up the [Blessed Gem] that appeared after he got the quest and raised it up, the sun rays reflected through the clear gem, creating a dazzling show of scattered, dancing light.
He heard a gasp and turned to see Morgana staring at the gem in awe, "My lord, what is that?" she breathed.
Pascal smiled and responded, "Our future."
…
"My lord, are you sure about this?!"
"Yes. Don't worry, I'll just pop in and pop out. You said they won't go past this opening, right?"
"Yes, but…" I didn't think you'd want to see it! Morgana sighed, when she saw the 17-year-old boy who was going to be their lord, she expected him to be a pansy, and an overall rude individual, but he was adventurous, and he didn't look at anyone differently. She watched him run towards the city gates in excitement and couldn't help but smile. When they were coming down the mountain, Pascal's curiosity on why it didn't feel like he was riding on a mountain the day he came was sated. There were different sides to the mountain, the path to the town wasn't vertical from the ground, instead it started like a normal road and slowly eased upwards till they reached the town.
When he asked why the town wasn't filled with snow according to a book he read, she just shrugged. The face he made was particularly funny.
Later, with his carriage, they reached the opening where the gates used to be, from there Pascal could see that the houses weren't painted brown but the dust that had accumulated for years covered the original colors. He looked straight at the majestic palace far back, the size seemed to exaggerate now that he was looking at it from ground level, he couldn't wait to see how it would look when he was standing directly under it.
Unable to contain his excitement anymore, he crossed the gate.
'Woah, he really did it.' Morgana was surprised by Pascal's courage, she waited for him to run back out but he didn't, he was probably waiting for the ghosts to show up. And they soon appeared, before he even walked three steps in. Morgana shuddered; she could never get used to their appearance no matter how many times she had seen them. The black clouds didn't have any distinctive form or shape, although sometimes they seemed to want to form a human shape but couldn't. They always let out a cold feeling, and a wail that was heard by the soul instead of the ears. Morgana quickly looked away; she never could bear staring at them for long.
It was then that she realized Pascal hadn't moved.
'Shit! He's probably paralyzed with fear!' Without wasting time, she immediately rushed forward to pull him out. The ghosts wailed and rushed towards him.
'Oh no, I'm not going to make it in time!'
She expected something gruesome to happen, but instead a bright golden light flashed on Pascal, and when it disappeared, he was wearing a golden armor. Morgana watched in awe as he swiftly cut down the ghosts that surrounded him.
Pascal watched as the wraiths disappeared into nothingness, he was attacked by five wraiths on the get go, but although they were fast the armor still made him faster. 'I can still go on, although they don't give much exp…'
When he walked forward, he was assaulted by twenty wraiths. Even though they were four times more than before, he didn't feel pressured. He used [Resplendent Light] to take out five at once, when he saw it was faster and more effective, he used it again. The first time he used that skill he poured every ounce of his power into it, this time, the skill – although still powerful – was a lot weaker than before. When he finished up the batch of wraiths, about a hundred more appeared.
'Shit, time to go.' He quickly sprinted away, when he passed the gate, he looked back and saw that the wraiths had disappeared.
'How scary…' But he expected this much from the Forsaken Lands. He de-summoned the armor and turned around to see Morgana staring at him with her mouth agape. The fact that she was stunned by him gave him a sense of pride, Pascal had to bite his upper lip to stop himself from smiling. As he approached her the first thing she did was scream.
"What the fuck was that?!"
Pascal was stunned speechless for a few seconds, "Um, what?"
"That…," she walked up to him and began patting his body, as if looking for something, "That, armor. Where is it?"
"Oh, you mean this?" Pascal summoned the armor once more before immediately removing it. His action caused Morgana to stumble backwards in shock.
Pascal couldn't help but chuckle, "Don't worry, it won't hurt you, unless I want it too…"
"A-are you a sorcerer?"
"Umm, well, yeah I guess you can say that – "
"Really?!" Morgana abruptly came up close to him, "Wow, that's amazing! I've always wanted to meet a sorcerer. So, you used magic to create that armor, what else can you do? Can you teach me magic?! I've always wanted to be able to chuck a fireball at someone's face…"
As she talked, Pascal couldn't help but notice that she had a dazzling smile. She also wasn't calling him 'my lord', in her excitement she had forgotten to use the correct honorifics. But he didn't mind that, he wasn't part of the Northern Region's noble system anymore.
"If you want to use magic, I can tell you how you."
When he said that, she paused for a moment, her face filled with shock and disbelief, then her excitement seemed to double.
"Really?!" she screamed, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Pascal laughed, "Okay, okay, settle down. Dou you want to know how I got my powers?"
"Yes!"
"Okay, I'll tell you, how the God of Origins saved my life."
He began recounting his story as they walked back to his carriage.