PIING
Manegia (Otherworldly Court)
Year 1412
“Hah…hah…”
“That was tiring!”
Alicia and co. got back into the court.
They have spent about 2 hours fighting hordes of sentient remains of goblins. Now, it is past noon.
Up until now, all of the activity Alicia had done went like this:
6.30 Wakes up, preparing stuff
7.00 Breakfast
7.30 Owen comes and they go to Otherworldly Court
7.40 First Spell
8.00 Hundred percent loyal maneg
8.30 More spells learnt
9.30 Meeting Fire Guardian
10.00 To Kaomagi killing skeleton goblins
12.10 Where they are now
“Do you always do this, Owen?”
“No, only once or twice a month,” Owen answered, “there’s already Court Wizards normally assigned to this. I’m just helping around since Kaomagi is sister world to ours.”
“Sister world?”
“Kaomagi is connected to our world. It’s possible for normal people on Earth to travel to Kaomagi. Hence, our world is called ‘Kaomagi Earth’.”
Each ‘Earth’ has at least one parallel world connected to it.
You know, that isekai thing on Japanese light novel. Each earth known has its own isekai world.
“Welcome back you two.” The same man who operated the transporter greeted the two.
“Thank you,” Alicia replied.
“Please report to the Fire Guardian” the operator continued.
“Right.”
At the Fire Guardian’s chamber.
“Good work you two,” the Fire Guardian congratulated the two. “Alicia.”
“Yes?”
“Now that you have completed your first mission, in addition to your unique ability that is having 100 percent efficiency, I will bestow you the title of Wizard, congratulations.”
“Eh… I got promoted?”
“Sorry if it was sudden, but I should explain how the ranking works.”
As you know, there are 4 ranks:
1. New wizard
2. Wizard
3. Grand wizard
4. Duke/Duchess and Guardian
To ascend to the first rank, you need to learn the basic orders and then meet your respective guardian.
The second rank requires you to develop a unique technique of your own. It can be anything as long as it has something to do with maneg. Since Alicia has and may only be the wizard who has 100% efficiency, all of her Orders would be unique itself.
Maneg Souls needs very specific, very detailed words in orders or it would not understand what its vessel wanted it to do, sometimes it cannot carry out a specific order even though other Maneg Souls can do it just fine! But, each Maneg Souls could understand ‘vaguer’ orders and this is where each Court Wizards have their own unique Order.
Owen’s unique Order was his ability to make ice popsicle out of anything he touches like he did to the Skeleton Goblins.
It may sound generic and something that any Ice Court Wizard can do but, it’s actually hard to pull off.
The name of the Order is [Deep Freeze] and the Order is: attach to point of touch, spread to entire body, reduce temperature of body to absolute zero.
The step “spread to entire body” is something that Owen’s Maneg Soul could understand. The step is too vague for others, they need to fully describe each particular shape of the body that it’s supposed to freeze. That means each and every limb and its size, the head, whatever necessary.
By this reason, Owen was promoted to Wizard.
The third rank requires you to perform an achievement. Basically, pull off a big stunt during a mission. Owen’s achievement was freezing a volcano big enough to decimate that world should it erupt. Conversely, a person can say to a grand wizard or a duke “What did you do?” to ask their achievement.
If you can’t do that, the other alternative is to have served 10 years in the court.
The final rank requires the Mother Soul to recognize the wizard’s capabilities. Usually a duel with the guardian.
This rank is subject to demotion. 5 years after promotion, it is subject to a re-test. Fail the test or refuse to do it till a month after it was proposed, your demoted. If a guardian dies, all dukes or duchesses gets demoted.
Owen is currently a duke.
“I see… I understand.”
“Oh! I almost forgot! Here you go!”
Aqua handed over two leather bags to Alicia and Owen.
Alicia put her left hand on the bottom of the bag. She instantly knew what it is.
“I see, our reward.”
“I’m surprised you knew. Are you not questioning it?”
“Well, no. After all, it makes sense that you are rewarded for it. Soldiers risking their lives are remunerated, we also should. Frankly, I would complain if we are working for free.”
“Oh my! What a bold answer! Truly the richest merchant’s daughter!”
Aqua chuckled at her response.
“Good! Now that we are done here, let’s meet the Fire Club!”
“The what?”
“All the current Fire Court Wizards active here,” Owen explained.
“Well, only two of them are here,” Aqua said. “They’re in the balcony.”
Name: Alicia Bell Age: 16 Sex: Female Species: Human World: Kaomagi Earth Element: Fire Element Color: Red Cherished Armaments: - Rank: Wizard
Let us take a step back and see before Alicia and Owen got back to the court. After the last of the Skeleton Goblins were dealt with.
Blue and black bones scattered everywhere on the violet plains.
Alicia and Owen had finished off the last of the skeleton goblins.
There were:
53 club-wielding skeleton goblins.
29 bow-wielding skeleton goblins.
4 mage skeleton goblins.
5 leader skeleton goblins (the sword wielders).
5 waves of goblin skeletons.
91 in total. 37 killed by Alicia. 54 killed by Owen.
A whole lot of screams of revenge, murder, swearing, and simple incessant screaming.
Revenge.
That word particularly came out often.
A weird feeling struck Alicia.
It was unpleasant.
It came after the battle was over.
“What is this feeling…?”
“Right, I should tell you that our Maneg Souls suppress emotion so that it won’t get in the way of our judgment.” Owen answered.”But, once that’s done, all of it will flood in. It is strange yes, you’re gonna have to get used to it.”
“I see…”
Then this thought came to her mind.
A demon lord rises every start of a century. The year in this world is 299 AGP. The demon lord has risen twice.
This demon lord is clearly dangerous if the court and the church of this world’s religion put a gag order on the fact that its army spawned five years early.
It is a threat to the world.
The Otherworldly Court existed to protect worlds from destruction.
Then, why did the court simply let it rise every century? Can’t they do something to prevent it from happening again?
As if Owen had read her mind, he gave his explanation.
“AGP stands for ‘After the Great Persecution’.”
“Persecution?”
“These guys here were once completely normal intelligent living beings just like humans, elves and the like in this world.”
“Then by persecution, you mean?”
“Yes, they were heavily persecuted. Just before the AGP started, they were labelled ‘demons’ by the largest religion that time and were all slaughtered and their god too somehow, its creator was too just because.”
“..!”
“It was then that god, went mad, risen as a lord of vengeance, with his army, the vengeful remnants, set out to destroy the world that destroyed them.”
“Then what happened?”
“We of course intervened but, not before letting him destroy the religion followed by humans that persecuted them and their god killed.”
“..! Why?”
“We knew the lord of vengeance’s motives. They deserved for what they have done to them. We came in though we decided to just seal him than completely destroying outright.”
“But why sealing him?”
“We, the Otherworldly Court also practised taking revenge so, it is not our place to not let others do the same but we do it once and that’s it. The lord of vengeance was still not satisfied with it. That is where the difference between us.”
“…”
“Also, the second reason we didn’t oust the lord entirely is to make him as a warning not to persecute others. The god of the last remaining religion that was worshipped the races other than humans and vengeful remnants made this teaching priority and now there is almost zero discrimination in that world.”
“But is that really for the best? Letting him resurrected every century killing people? That would also risk destroying the world, right?”
“Well, that was the decision from the Court Wizards 300 years ago. We simply continue it.”
“…”
“And our term of keeping worlds ‘alive’ is quite broad. We also consider social conditions like racism, politics, stagnation of development and other stuff. An unhappy world is the same as a world that is destroyed. That’s how it is.”
Alicia was contemplating over what Owen said when…
“Graaaah!“
“More coming.”
As more Skeleton Goblins came, Alicia now understood the strange feeling.
It’s guilt.
It was gone soon after.
She had also forgotten their conversation.
