Relicta POV:
"... oh yeah it's so windy.. gosh stop running so fast ahaha..." As I try to catch her as we race across the crops field, my best friend was always an energetic one, never had any patience to be honest, but that's lovely and I have admitted that way too much to her, but as we continue our play time i smell something's... burning? Is someone burning trash? Surely they won't do it so close to the crops, what amateur would make such a silly mistake, but I better check it out
"Wait for me here, i think i smell something's burning.."
I run in the opposite direction, looking down from the field's fence, I see a black figure standing by a fire camp, no.. many black figures, they look big, upon closer inspection I realized they are wearing armors, could it be the village newly trained guardians? So cool! But why would they be setting up a camp so close to the village? Surely a violation, but eh, adults are so complicated I can't be bothered much, I better go back to my best friend, she can't wait forever.
But step by step I feel myself becoming heavier and heavier, as if something is sitting on me, something in my throat started to appear and choke me, I crashed down and painfully got it out, it was... rice? But my chest started to hurt tremendously, huh?! I look around to see fiery flames rising up, the crops are all stepped on and burnt, most of them being already collected.. I quickly storm back to my friend but to my horrors, she was lying there face down, soulless and unanimated, I quickly kneeled to her side and flip her cold body over, I froze in fear as blood painted my hands and her internals started to flood out, even her clothes are ripped to pieces and sticky liquid are on her body, in fear I trembly turn back to run back home, praying someone could explain to me what's happening, but the smoke are making its hard to breath, is this just a nightmare? Why does this feels so real? What is happening? I'm scared, I'm confused. Why is this happening. But as I run I see bodies of the people I know, miss librarian, the farmer that always gave me free breads, the nurse that healed my fever, all of them are on the ground, same state as my best friend, I came back home just to see my family the same as my village's people, mother.. father.. my siblings, please answer me, why are you not MOVING? PLEASE ANSWER ME! I'M SCREECHING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNG, PLEASE MOVE, WHY ARE YOU SO COLD?
The door behind me suddenly gets kicked down, I turn back to see a huge figure of a man, in thick armor and a giant sword, he raised it but slowly he vanished before he or me could realized it, after the man became nothingness, I see another figure, lending his hand down to me.. I realized what have to be done, I take his hand with a youthful flame in my heart, a flame full of fear, full of traumas and immaturity, yet a burning determination to unraveled what happened and a strong desire for vengeance.
"Relicta.. Relicta... RELICTA!"
GRAH!
"Oh my fucking god, you're finally awake, dude I was trying so hard to wake you up, shit you started crying and trembling on the ground, what's wrong?"
I look around in a panic, collecting my fuzzy memories, oh right. This is floor 50.. me and Joshua and another girl, but to my surprised she's nowhere to be found.
"What the fuck's going on, where's the girl?"
Joshua shrugged,
"No idea, but we got something in return of her disappearance though,"
He then points at a bright tile on the floor and showed me a letter
"It's really hard to read but the girl talked about someone from high above? About thanking us profusely in our sleep, weirdo. And that when we're ready we can leave this shit hole when we both step on the tile, it'll teleport us up, keeping all our hard earned loot and knowledge of course, she also mentioned something something about recommending us to find a specific oath to give us specific buff and speed up our respective progression, whatever that means. Well here she wrote that I take the oath of the exiled soul and you should take the oath of nothingness, didn't left instruction or rituals though, such a jackass, although we can leave, so pack your shits soldier, WE.ARE.LEAVING."
Holy shit.
"Oh shit really? Then let's get our asses going then, we can figure out the oaths later, but if anything I'm PRETTY SURE she's talking about the fucking stars watcher Joshua, like the ones that invented magic and control the fucking stars and all that, basically gods if you will and the oath are like vowing yourself to serve one specific god or walk on a specific path for as long as your soul exist, not life span, SOUL span."
Joshua tsk and answers
"Well fuck that shit then I'm not making myself a slave, let's get going."
I laughed out loud, spending time around Joshua make me forget bad things easily, I like it.
"Sure sure."
Finally done getting our inventory sorted out, we both step on the tile and wait for something to happen and something actually happens! The tile started glowing even brighter, making my void eyes went blind for the duration of its effect, but Joshua was completely fine. And within seconds, we were standing on grass. GRASS.
"HOLY SHIT, THAT WORKED! WE ARE FREE BABY!"
Joshua screamed out in joy, I follow his lead
"LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
We start to roll around like maniacs, having finally smell grass after 5 years in the dungeon, the sun shines down upon us, it's so refreshing it's unreal. But before we continue celebrating, a loud yell can heard in the distant
"LOOK EVERYONE! THE HEAVEN HAS CHOSEN NOT ONE BUT TWO PEOPLE TO GRANT DIVINE BLESSING! THAT LIGHT APPEARED NEAR US, LET'S FIND THEM!"
Instantly realizing what's happening, Joshua and I quickly use our respective technique to hide ourselves, while Joshua climbed onto trees and cleverly camo himself up, I simply void my own presence to others , hiding from both organics vision and mana visions, but as we're hiding I start to analyze and slowly understand what they meant by "divine blessing"
"Joshua, good news and bad news."
"Give me the bad one"
"I'm pretty sure we're gods slave now"
"What."
"Yeah you heard that divine blessing stuff? You know before I met you I had quite the reading addiction, and in that period I got my hands on quite a lot of old books and uh.. one of those things mentioned something something about gods choosing an "avatar" to grant their blessings and do their biddings to the mortal world, good part if that we are buffed as shit now, even more than before but come on, we're talking about gods that control STARS and probably destroy planets for giggles and fun, therefor I don't think in theory, we can do anything about it, but we can follow their orders and live happily as overpowered avatar.. overpowered in the HUMAN's standards I mean."
Joshua angrily answers
"WHAT THE FUCK?! THAT'S... okay maybe that's fair enough, we went into a dungeon MADE BY GODS anyways eh?"
I sarcastically laugh
"Yeah no shit."
As we're chatting, soldiers rushed before us, people are restricted at the moment but they eagerly look around, it keeps going on til midnight when everyone eventually gets too tired and decide to rest for the day, that's when we can start moving again, Heaven's Grace huh? Kinda missed this place, well KINDA, don't know how my partner over there think tho.
"So.. where are we going again?" I ask him
"....I want to meet my parent. Rest somewhere safe and we'll wait for tomorrow."
"Roger that."
With that, we rest the night away, the starry night amaze me even after so long, how much I missed seeing such wonderous sights, it only adds more to my desire to become a great void user. Joshua is already asleep, I'll stargazing for a bit more.. wait.. is the stars forming a shape? No.. they are forming.. words?!
The first word formed "Greetings", I greet back in a low tone. And then a passage of words is formed shortly after the unexpected greeting.
"Kanjuden Relicta, I'm deeply sorry for the trouble caused by us, we mean no harm to you nor your partner. On behalf of my underlings and on behalf as the god of magic, I show you my sincere gratitude for freeing one of our angel trapped by our own mishap, Raphael is fine and is recovering after spending so long away from the stars.. for this we offer companionship and blessings to you two. I apologize for listening to you without your permission but it seems you are under the misunderstanding of us enslaving you. Is it not simply not true, and to be truthful. Us Star Watchers are not as powerful as our facade make us to be.. it's true that the stars grant us powers but we cannot fully control them. And to our utmost despair that the amount of star watchers are decreasing at an alarming rates due to mysterious circumstances.. it is a force down on the mortal world, we wish that you will resolve it for us, and to prove our innocence, the blessing we grant you is yours and yours permanently, we have no control your soul nor your belongings. Please Kanjude Relicta and Miyakoto Joshua, save us and solve this incident of "Murder in the Starry Night", in return we offer you a place of a watcher and your deepest desire. I am not the culprit nor I am the resolver, gaze into my heart and figure this out.. that is my role on this ever so disappearing stage."
Then everything fades to black gradually...
SLAMP!
I wake up to the slap of Joshua trying to wake me up.
"Finally, you're up, come on we have business, no surprise but my father already spotted us yesterday when we first set our foot on here. Before I did anything the asshole already sent 2 invitation letters, what a hassle, let's get this over with."
I grabbed his shoulder,
"Nuh uh I need to inform you about something."
The magician is explaining.....
"OHHH SO WE'RE NOT SLAVES, WOOOO!"
"Keep it down Joshua, I can already feel gazes, let's meet the King"
"As you wish your high on adrenaline magician"
The gate of the kingdom started to open, dust from the ground flying toward us, this is too dramatic for my taste and it honestly bore me, like come on make something fancier. We walk through the quiet streets as people stare and whisper to each other.
"Is that really him? The lost third prince? He looks so... strong. And that sword on his hip too! It emits such a threatening aura.."
Huh? Where's my part of the admiration you people are giving? Honestly I should have caused a big big accident or something to build up my name before leaving, now the spotlight only allows 1 person and he is walking beside me, giggling and telling me
"Don't worry, the people in the castle won't just notice me along Relly, keep your cool"
Me, annoyed but follow his advices
"Yes yes whatever."
The path to the giant castle gets smaller and smaller, looking at Joshua, I proudly realized he isn't shaking or anything, he really have grown a lot on our journey in that dungeon, I can't wait for the drama at the castle? Anyone gonna die? Can I kill someone? Is Joshua gonna burn this place to the ground? Are we gonna be menaces? I'm so excited!
The royal guards seeing us from the distant, they start to open the door in sync, revealing a luxurious castle within, Joshua really left this place? What a miss!, but at the same time I'm glad he left, otherwise meeting him wouldn't happened.
Walking room to room, we again get stare at by the maids and butlers who are shocked to see the prince and his little magician friend.
Finally reaching the throne room, unlike with any previous door, Joshua furiously charge up and kick down the floor, sending it flying head on at insane speed, but it quickly get frozen mid air and broken down to little ice, it looks like a cute snow blizzard, walking inside, we are greeted by Joshua's family, heh I'm not sure he even considers them family anymore.
All of them still look surprise, Joshua's 2 older brothers are amused by his presence yet his mother stands there like a statue, but I will have to admit, GOD DAMN SHE'S SMOKING HOT. Ah of course the fucking king looks like he died inside 6 times a day, him sitting there emits a menacing godly aura that overwhelm everything else in the room, proving his kingly status, but as we walk toward them, Joshua aura clearly taking more and more of the room, like an invasion. His father looked shocked briefly but recompose himself quickly. Stopping at a safe distant, No one is saying anything so I initiated the talk
"Hello there your majesty, my name's Kanjuden Relicta, I'm Joshua partne-"
"Family."
Joshua suddenly cut me off, I look to him showing a small grin at me, clearly trying to provoke his family, is he deadass reversing the disownment now?
One of his brother speaks up
"Ah how low you have fallen, after so long you are still a stupid brat doing stupid things and making useless friends, you called that stinky bag your family? Brother it's a miracle you're standing in this room."
Joshua firmly reply
"Silence. Your breath is disabling my ability to think straight, sucked a cock somewhere the night before? Smell like horse shit."
Fucking hell.
His father stops the argument
"Quiet Hanei, I apologize for my son behavior. It is a pleasure to meet you Relicta and.. my so-"
"Joshua" Joshua cut him off but the King continues afterward
"Joshua. My name is Miyakoto Eiko, this is my wife and the queen of this kingdom, Miyakoto Heiwa, my second son who misbehaved is Miyakoto Hanei and my eldest son who is my successor, Miyakoto Leone, Yesterday I have spotted your presence outside my kingdom and if my deduction is true to me, you are blessed by the Heaven?"
Joshua angrily answer, clearly trying to start a fight, the flames in his eyes call for blood
"No shit asshole, of course we are, we fucking are, did your brain reduced to that of a dead goldfish? Even a fucking kid knows it's us you retarded old sack of shit."
He really has a grudge it seems
"I apologize for my partner. Yes sir we are blessed, is there anything you wanted to talk about?"
Eiko reply in a cold tone, unaffected by Joshua
"I wish that you would help me protect my kingdom and train my sons to be great warriors, in turn we shall offer everything we have to exchange your divine teaching."
I feel hot.. did the room got hotter? Oh. Joshua next to me got even angrier, his veins are visible.
"Train what now? Look here you fucking shitlips, my whole life was a LIE and no one even cared to whisper me a word, YOU, yes YOU FUCKFACE, KNEW THAT I WAS BORN WITH NO FUCKING MAGIC AND YET, YOU KEPT PUSHING ME TO AWAKEN IT? WHAT FOR? WHAT FOR??? EVEN YOU YOURSELF DON'T HAVE ANY ANY FUCKING MAGIC, IT'S ALL YOUR WEAPONS, I KNOW NOW, I KNOW EVERY FUCKING LITTLE DETAILS NOW, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK I WENT THROUGH DOWN IN THAT SHIT HOLE OF A DUNGEON. DAY AND DAY PASSED BY WITH PEOPLE FUCKING FORCED THEMSELVES TO ACCEPT ME JUST BECAUSE IM ROYALTY, AND WHEN I EVENTUALLY LEFT BY MYSELF, 1 SIMPLE SEARCH WAS ALL IT TAKES FOR YOU TO FIND ME. YET. YOU DECIDED I WAS TOO FUCKING WEAK TO EVEN BOTHER AND LEFT ME TO ROT. GUESS WHAT PUSSY? I FUCKING ROT AND CAME BACK FROM THE GRAVE. AND THE ONLY FUCKING FAMILY I HAVE. IS THIS LAD HERE, RELICTA. AND IF YOU EVEN FUCKING CONSIDER TO DARE DO ANYTHING TO HIM. I WILL MAKE SURE EVERYONE OF YOU FUCKER MEET A GRUESOME DEATH."
What an outburst, but I'm kinda touched he sees me as family, that's nice.
The king reply
"What will it takes for you to accept my offer?"
Joshua not wasting a second,
"Kill yourself."
I swiftly stand before them, panicking but try to cool things off
"Ahahaha.. such a bad joke, well you see I actually don't know PERSONALLY what happened in his childhood to pend up such hatred and spite for you but please, he just got out of hell with me and it's quite the transition, please have patience, we will accept your offer as long as you let us stay and give us what we ask of you if you have it. Deal?"
The king look at me then change his eyes to Joshua, who stayed quiet for a bit and finally accepts
"Fine. Only because Relicta wants to, my point stand, anything funny and I will shorten your life span to a comically short one you fuckwits."
My life hasn't been any tougher since I met Joshua.
At a moment notices, a beautiful maid appear before us and bowed before introducing herself
"Greetings. My name is Caelum, I am the head maid and will be in your service as long as you stay. Please allow me to guide you to your selected room.
I can't deny a beauty but Joshua just walks off, fair enough he knows this place in and out, turning his back so quickly to his-once-family and yell out to me
"Ignore her. Follow me and we'll settle down, I'm in the mood for some alcohol"
Ah. Breaking one of the rules already, talking about indecency activities in public and in front of the royal family. The maid look at me and smiles, giving off a ray of sun light of her beauty
"Please allow me to call you Master Kanjuden from now on, please call my name if you need my service and I'll be ready in no time."
Then she disappear as fast as she came, Heiwa suddenly talks to me
"Mister Kanjuden, would you please meet me in the garden later this evening at 2 PM? I'd like to get to know you"
As I have confessed, I cannot deny a beauty
"Yes of course your majesty."
She replies in a soft tone,
"Heiwa is fine."
I correspond quickly
"Then please call me Relicta"
At this point Joshua is shouting furiously
"STOP FUCKING STARING AT HER CHEST AND GET OVER HERE ALREADY"
Unable to handle the embarrassment, I open a void and teleport to him, but before I was gone, a slight scene full of shocked people displayed before me as they have never seen a void user before, I truly feel special now.
Teleporting to Joshua, I step out and was greeted by the best room I have ever been in my life, the wood is cool and hard but very comfortable to walk around, a big ass window to stargaze at night, 2 big beds design for maximum comfort and assure rest is delivered at every spot of the body, a giant closet full of clothes that was designed by profession tailors that can transform me from a hobo to a handsome gentlemen miraculously, not to mention the bookcase full of royal books, all of them are rares and some I never even knew existed anymore, my excitement is unfathomable while Joshua is unfazed,
"Come on Relly, settle down, I'm gonna go out later for a walk. You'll have a talk with mo- Heiwa right? Don't stress it she's a pretty calm woman."
Ah... that facade is really coming off now, he missed his mom a lot eh?
"I'll tell her you said hello"
Joshua doesn't answer back but rather just jump on his bed and sleep straight away, almost make me forgot how furious he was moments ago. Suddenly a voice appear in my ear
"Hello hello? Ah hello Kanjuden Relicta, do not panic, My name is Pesho, the god of fertility, one of the remaining Star Watcher, Sorry for the vague message last night mate, I was too tired, but nice to meet you, the others said you and your lad can free us from mysteriously disappearing so I'm looking forward to it, bye now! I'm running low on energy."
What the fuck was that. One of the remaining Star Watcher? Oh shit they're in my head now. This gotta be a bingo, A dungeon, A mythology, Mysterious stars messages, and now in my head, this gotta be an isekai anime bingo.
But I'll rest for now, AHHHHH THE BED IS SO FUCKING COMFORTABL- My vision fade to black immediately...
"Master Kanjuden? Please wake yourself, The queen is waiting for you."
Huh? I look to my left to meet the face of a beauty close to me, freaking out, I fall of my bed but she catches me in an instant, creating an awkward princess carry image,
"Ah thank you Caelum. I'll get ready."
"It's my pleasure Master Relicta."
She then disappears again, as I predicted, when I intentionally fall off and let her catch me, We touched and I was able to void out the barrier of her mind and read her memories and much to my anticipation, her true intention is to monitor me and Joshua while appear as a friendly smoking hot maid but really, she got one big bloodlust demon inside and people ask me why I have trust issue when this kind of shit is normal.
Rushing to the garden, A glorious flower garden meets my eyes, everything a famer dream of is here, all kind of crops, flowers, even the soil is high quality. Heiwa sits under a fancy chair to hide from the hot sun, she spots me and signal me to come to her and take a seat. I followed along and our conversation started. At first it was only your typical starter but then she got to the point quickly.
"Relicta.. could you please tell me what happened on your journey in the dungeon with Joshua? I wish to know if it's not too much to ask."
I promptly tell her the entire story, she looks at me with amazement grabbing my hands with admiration, her skin is white as silk and soft as a sheep wool, holy shit.. but while she's praising in every way possible I breach the barrier of her mind and realized a heart breaking truth. Despite being a powerful witch, unlike anyone I met so far, her heart is as pure as the sky, only good intentions are there, I simply can't spot a single bad thought, when Joshua disappeared, she had cried for months every night and every time Eiko refuse to look for him her heart only breaks more, she has loved Joshua with everything she had since when he was young, she told everyone to keep a secret of his restriction to magic to not crumble his dream, she was the happiest she ever was in years but when Joshua spoke earlier, the depth of her soul was pained severely on the realization of her son is broken and built up again by the dungeon and my companionship, she is confused if she should be happy that her son grown so much or sad that he'll never return as family anymore. Without realizing, tears have already fallen down my cheeks, Heiwa started to panic but I tell her while grabbing her hands
"I'm sorry miss Heiwa, I'm sorry that Joshua misunderstood you this badly. I'll talk to him. You are beautiful miss Heiwa, in and out, I know we just met but I'm moved by the purity of your soul. Please ask me anything, I'll happily answer them all with my only condition being only you know the answers."
She smiles softly and tell me
"I didn't expect such a reaction after you breached my mind young magician. You have my gratitude, please tell my son I still love him and always will. Beside that, I know you want to strengthen your magic. Please let me personally guide you."
Ah. I'm in love.
TO BE CONTINUED...