Read after book Alicia Chapter 17 Extra 1
Takes place in Alicia
“Hey, the Daylight Festival in the Eastern Dynasty is coming next week.”
“Really, we’re gonna need to get our leave then.”
As Alicia and company left the Transporter Room, they overhear two operators talking about some festival in the Eastern Dynasty.
The Eastern Dynasty, huh? That is one of the four nations surrounding this place.
Yeah, wonder how we are not invaded yet by these guys!
Voice… Well, I do not want to bother their work so let us ask Aqua instead, or maybe Rose since she is lives here for much longer.
“The four nations?” Rose quipped, adjusting her wheelchair while sitting on it. Right now, only the two out of four female Fire Court Wizards are in the fire chamber.
After the sound of a tiny gulp. “Yeah! I wanna know about it!”
“Well, I do not know much about it,” Rose said. “Master Kenzie and the others did not read the database before it got corrupted after The 1426 Incident and they do not want to talk about that either.”
“Do you have at least some idea?” Alicia asked.
“I only know that the four nations were established around the time the Otherworldly Court was formed. The first Guardians helped four native groups in those same places in Manegia rebuild their civilization that was destroyed after the end of the Eleven-Century War.”
“So it comes back to the Eleven-Century War…”
The Eleven-Century War.
Though specifically, it ended after one thousand and eighty-six years after the day it began, which is also the basis of the Manegian calendar.
As the main records are lost, what was known is through the scriptures in the four nations and testimonies. This is what Alicia was told about it.
It was a war between Soul… Maneg Users from fifteen Mother Souls. It was the time where Mother Souls were manifested in the physical plane and could create hundreds of Maneg Souls every year.
These Maneg Souls also went beyond the world and merged with souls of other realms. Also, it is said that people come to the Mother Soul to ask for a Maneg Soul. During this age, world-travelling is common and Mother Souls world-hopped to get recruits. However, this caused conflicts in other worlds as two Mother Souls of different Elements often run into each other and started skirmishes which often leaves the world scarred by the end of it. And that’s not counting the actions of Maneg Users and the people who asked to be one for their own gain.
The history of the Eleven-Century War is a complex one (and also lost). But long story short, by the end of the Eleven-Century War, one Mother Soul was completely destroyed, two Mother Souls merged together as a last resort of survival, and two more was absorbed by two other Mother Souls. And so it leaves eleven Mother Souls that were left battered. After that is whatever happened that made them take refuge inside a Maneg User’s soul, thus creating Guardians and the formation of the Otherworldly Court.
Alicia didn’t react much she learns this, she treated as another history lesson. But in regards to how different worlds get damaged because of the Maneg Users of old, she now somewhat understood the reason for the Otherworldly Court and it is noble.
“Although it took almost eleven hundred years, the Mother Souls were able to have like-minded Maneg Users who ended the war and united all the remaining eleven Elements and become Court Wizards,” Rose said. “Well then, I believe you understand how the four nations were founded. Do you have any other questions?”
“Yeah! Did we get invaded by any of them!?”
“V-Voice!”
“Yes, we did.” And the vampire elegantly drinks her tea.
“”What!?”” Alicia would have spat her tea if there was in her mouth and Voice almost choke her cookies.
“It was fifty years ago,” Rose started. “I believe your grandfather, Alan Bell, was there, two years after he started to spread Bell Branches.”
“So what happened?”
“To put it simply, there was a political uprising which caused one emperor to rise and began a conquest towards the neighbouring countries including this place.”
“Then how did you fight them?”
“Well… Even though we have countermeasures for when it happens – which we increased after the invasion for good measures – we did not want any prolonged fight and we are to be neutral in any of the nations’ affairs. But as we are attacked, we…”
In the dark chamber.
“And because nobody else among the Court Wizards who wanted to do it, I was hired to assassinate the emperor,” Darc said. “This was before we were recruited.”
“And you killed the emperor and stopped the war?”
Both winced at her casual remark of killing an emperor. He continued, “I returned home by then, so I don’t know the aftermath.”
“Well, I suppose Master Darc prevented a lot of deaths if the war goes on.”
“Yes, it was not the first time we hired his service.” Rose continued, “especially during the wars after the merging, we hired him to take out multiple targets in order to finish the conflict before any more countries crumble down.”
“And she was very generous with her payment.”
“Back then, I was the one that comes and hired him. We did not have his normal currency so we paid him a couple of gold bars every on assignment.”
“I-I see…” That was a very generous reward. In regards to the events after the creation of Rakarok-Earth World Merge, she could find that out later.
“Oh, I felt Rose’s Maneg Soul in front of the door. I will get her.”
Sometime later…
“Alright.” Aqua took the parchments and stamped it. She presented it to two Transporter Room operators. “You are permitted to leave to the Eastern Dynasty for two weeks, please do not be late to return,” she said.
“”Thank you, lady Fire Guardian!””
The two operators gave a bow and left the chamber.
“Aqua, you seemed to be here almost every time,” Alicia said. “Do you not have any duties as a greater spirit in Spiri Raia?”
“Well, we Guardians have to be here most of the time. So the Mother Souls made sure to pick the ones who can. I for one, rarely interact with the humans in Spiri Raia – greater spirits almost never do – and my subjects are well-behaved.”
“I see, I also wonder how the staff like the Transporter Room operators were hired. I noticed they are all natives here.”
“Yes, the people working here are all natives here, Alicia.” This time, Rose answered her. “We hired them as a company would with a job applicant. We Court Wizards need to be on the field, so we had natives from all over the four nations, and also from the refugees, to handle other work. But there are Court Wizards that do these tasks, usually those who are born here. Some times, I helped out a bit.”
“So you know how to use the Transporter?” Alicia inquired.
“Yes, I do. Speaking of which, now that two operators are on temporary leave, I will need to take over.” The vampire sighed.
“Is it hard?”
“Well no,” Rose replied. “But most of it is simply shifting through world surveillances represented in a pond, so we do not actually get to see people doing about their affairs. And then we get [Telepathy] request for transfer from a Court Wizard and the coordinates in which we accept. Also, the other operators are focused on their monitors and take their job as if life or death. To put it simply, it is boring.”
“…I-Is that so?”
“Yes, in regards to that, I will need to call James and go to the Transporter Room.”
And so Rose finished her tea and called James with [Telepathy], prompting him to get her (she is in a wheelchair after all).
“Well, good luck.”
“Thank you, Alicia.”
Minutes later, a blonde-haired man in a fancy suit entered the chamber. James greeted the two other ladies in the room and promptly pushed Rose’s wheelchair out of the chamber.
Trivia (because I could not make it into a scenario)
In every generation of Guardians, one of them is a Manegian. This is to lessen the disconnection between the Otherworldly Court and the world, Manegia – though there was no Manegian among the first Guardians. The current Element of the Manegian Guardian of the 6th/7th generation is the Earth Guardian – whose name I have not come up with yet.
Aside from manning the Transporter Room, Manegian Court Wizards are the usual S/S+ Maneg Beast hunters. As most Court Wizards primarily look after their own worlds, Manegian Court Wizards protect Manegia from very dangerous Maneg Amalgamations that infest the world.
