The Crimson Warlock

by Paulo Meireles Junior

  I decided to play Let Her Go from Passenger because it was one of Samantha’s favorite songs and since it was originally played on a guitar, Lorelai could lead and I could compliment her with the piano easily enough. This time though she let me sing alone and only joined at the hook at the end of the song.

  With that the Princess clapped again and mentioned that she liked that song better than the one from before. That put a smile on Lorelai’s face and I chuckled.

  “Hey, I’m gonna go, I still need to work on that spell. Thank you for letting me play, I needed that” I mentioned and Lorelai gave me a hug.

  “Believe me, anything to hear you play. Besides, I worked hard on this piano” she mentioned while sliding her fingers along the body of the piano.

  “Yeah, I might visit you more often if I get to play this beauty” I chuckled.

  “That was the reason I brought up the piano in our conversation earlier” she winked at me “alright, thank you for the workup today, I’ll see you soon” she finished.

  “It was nice seeing you too Princess Alexis, have a good day” I said.

  “You too...” she then looked around as if wanting to mention something, when I didn’t moved to leave she commented “you are very talented, that’s what I was going to say” she then turned around.

  “Thank you” I said and looked at Lorelai, she had a weird expression on her face and shrugged when she looked at me.

  With that I hurried to get out of there because I still had a lot of work to do.

  Today I got to play the piano again, and that was very refreshing.

  CHAPTER V

  A ROYAL QUEST

  “Things at the guild seem to be running really smoothly now” Mega commented after we completed another quest for the guild “probably because they know you can defeat basically any monster, you keep completing high ranked quests like there’s no tomorrow”.

  “What? I need the money... Now that I think about it, I don’t know if it would have been better if we kept a low profile, I’ve been everywhere around here lately” I’ve been stacking money completing quests for some time now, I think it’s safe to say that whoever is behind the incident of the wedding probably knows about me by now…

  “Well, whatever you’re doing seems to be working. We might not have a surprise advantage thanks to that mantle of yours, but our networking is excellent” and he was right, my mantle was known by now, one look at it and people realized who I was.

  Meeting clerks at various guilds gave us the networking we needed, particularly when Yuna was too occupied to help, I couldn’t always keep wasting her time, so between my contacts from the guild and the royals, I probably had eyes and ears throughout Heryan, my problem right now was Largos. I have been to one city in Largos and that was Oetto, so my current plan is to try and explore around Largos in the next few weeks, hopefully I will be notified in case something happens here in Sunnara. I just hope Yuna keeps an eye at this place.

  “Have you decided where we’re going next?” Mega pulled me out of my thoughts.

  “Yeah, Yokana has good food and it’s not that far from Oetto”.

  “Oh, the capital… We can get there really fast, I’m not sure about how we’re going to progress looking for the artifacts though”.

  “I need that spell, for now I’ll ask Yuna to keep an eye on any gossip about Largos too. She will probably mention anything interesting that adventurers report to the guild” I commented.

  “That seems good”.

  “I might have a lot of power, but I can’t seem to keep track of whatever is going on” I sighed after saying that.

  “That would be too easy. I’ve been worried. Whoever is behind these events is not someone normal, I wouldn’t be surprised if that wicked god might have worked with another entity from this world. The Hydra, the malign aura in faraway places… It adds up, someone powerful is pulling the strings and I don’t think they are human” that made sense.

  “We will find out eventually” I looked at the sky and contemplated. If the god that caused all of this havoc was working with another entity… I would potentially be in a lot of trouble going forward. Anything to kill the boredom, right James?

  I’m talking to myself now, this is going to be a long day.

  At two-thirty something unusual happened. I got a visit from commander Freed himself, he entered in the inn and immediately found me sitting on one of the lounge chairs reading a book, accompanied by another royal knight, they greeted Clara before heading in my direction.

  “Hello Sir Hunter, how are you?” he smiled.

  “I’m doing fine, thanks for asking. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, commander Freed?” I asked suspicious.

  “Oh, it’s nothing bad. I’ve been told to find you because His majesty, the King, requests your presence if it’s not too much trouble” Nothing bad and the king requesting a meeting in the same sentence should not be classified as ‘nothing bad’.

  “I’m not busy, and if His Majesty wants a word with me, I’m honored to have an audience with him” I responded. I think I’m getting better with the whole formal thing.

  “Great, let us depart then” he said already turning around.

  “Hey, wait!” I said, he turned again, facing me “let me put away this book first” I motioned to the book in my hand. I then teleported to my room, placed the book on the desk by my bed before teleporting back to the lounge “okay, now we can go”.

  We started walking in the direction of the noble district, Sir Freed and the knight took the front while I followed a few steps back admiring the colors of the few leaves left in the trees, winter was almost here, it would be at least two more weeks before snow started falling from the sky. I was kind of excited to see Sunnara in the winter and by what I’ve been told it’s quite a sight to see, according to Lorelai.

  We were inside the castle in no time at all, looking around one more time I imagined the amount of work that was necessary to keep this place clean, His Majesty’s maids sure had it rough when it came to keeping the place presentable at all times. I was so inside of my head admiring the cleanliness of the sheets that I almost missed the turn that the commander made on one of the halls taking me straight to the castle’s audience room.

  His Majesty, King Lucius, waited inside. Three soldiers were posted around the room to guard both the place and the King himself, he was sitting on his throne and he rose as I approached and knelt in front of him to show respect.

  “Your Majesty wanted to see me?” I asked.

  “Please rise sir Hunter, you do not have to kneel in my presence and it is not necessary to be formal” he informed.

  “You don’t need to be formal with me either Your Majesty, you can call me James, truth be told, I’m not very accustomed with so much formality”.

  “Very well” he smiled.

  I rose, looked at the king and nodded, he motioned for the soldiers to leave the room so the only ones that remained inside were the King, commander Freed and I.

  “I asked sir Freed to find you because of a problem that we currently have and after talking with my niece, Lorelai, she recommended that I sought you as you might be able to help” he then sat again and commander Freed settled in a position near His Majesty’s throne.

  “Go on” I urged.

  “As you know, we are in the middle of an investigation regarding the current members of our nobility, we obviously have one or more moles in our court and our investigation is taking up resources and time. I need to be present at all times to consult with my intelligence agents and give the proper orders when they provide me with useful information...” he paused for a moment while someone knocked at the door.

  The King authorized the person to enter the room and Alphonse strode inside asking if we needed something to eat or drink, His Majesty didn’t need anything so I also rejected the offer and thanked him. After he left the room the King continued talking.

  “As a result of that we were forced to postpone
my son’s wedding. That came with a great deal of stress, I assure you. And if that wasn’t enough, we still have a conference scheduled with the emperor of Largos in an embassy located near the border between our kingdoms to discuss future diplomatic subjects and to deepen our friendly relations” he sighed and reached for the back of his head to shake his hair indicating his stress “the problem is, I cannot afford to cancel the meeting so Lorelai suggested that I send a caravan of soldiers escorting her and my daughter while also employing you to reinforce their protection in the journey. Although, that is not why we want you to accompany them” I think I knew where this was going.

  “You need me to travel with them and when we arrive at the embassy I’m to teleport back, so I can teleport His Majesty directly to the embassy, correct?” the King laughed at my words.

  “You are very sharp, I like it. That is exactly what I need you to do. I know you are in the middle of an important mission, but for you it shouldn’t be difficult to teleport back to the capital once a day to consult with the guildmaster” how did he know about me asking Yuna to keep an eye on things? “we do have agents everywhere in our kingdom, I’m sure we can also inform you should something happen. Because of our agents I know about the guild helping you find the source of the malign aura that was present at the wedding” I guess that explains it.

  “I guess that is probably fine” I mentioned. I wanted to know Mega’s opinion about this request but I couldn’t telepathically send him a message asking about it, so I figured it would be a nice opportunity to see the scenery while traveling.

  “Just so you know, that is not the only reason we want you to accept this quest. As you know, being royalty means that a lot of people might want to find an opportunity to hurt me or any member of my family. I’m worried about what the priest said, his master wanted war so he might try to attack us again and this conference is the perfect occasion to strike both kingdoms. Normally meetings such as these are highly secretive and only a few members of my court would have access to its details. But given the circumstances I’m sure you know I can’t fully trust a lot of people right now, I need to inform the emperor of Largos about what occurred here so he can also take proper action on his side and prepare for a potential attack from whoever is the mastermind behind the incidents that have been happening lately”.

  “I get it. That makes more sense... In that case, I feel it would probably be better if I’m present. I can imagine the chaos and panic that an attack at the embassy could cause”.

  “Thank you for your understanding James. I will prepare a formal guild request so you can be properly compensated at the completion of the quest, that would also help raise your rank” He actually thought of everything, I guess that is only natural for the leader of a nation.

  He informed me that I could accept the quest tomorrow morning and we would be leaving the day after tomorrow, that way I would have time to make the necessary preparations. Since the request would arrive at the guild directed to me, I wasn’t worried about someone else taking it in my place.

  With that I was excused from the meeting and escorted back to the entrance of the castle where I parted ways with Alphonse and thanked him for escorting me to the gates. I thought about offering to teleport everyone to a place near the embassy, but I didn’t know the embassy’s location and I wasn’t keen on helping everyone by using transportation magic, lest the people around me end up growing dependent on that, I was here to complete a mission for the god of all gods, not to be a personal taxi.

  “The king is quite right to fear an attack, it would be an opportune moment to strike the embassy” Mega commented “although our mission is not to babysit nation leaders, I’m more than happy to be present at their meeting. If both the leaders of Heryan and Largos die in the same place... It would be catastrophic for their kingdoms, I can see a war emerging from that situation” Yeah, I needed to prevent that at all cost.

  “What would be the likelihood of an attack happening at this meeting?” I asked.

  “Probably very high. Like the King said, it is the perfect opportunity. Let’s just hope his knights all wear proper talismans, so they don’t get controlled again” that would be bad.

  “Let’s hope they attack the meeting then. I’m tired of chasing nothing” I sighed. It was bad to wish for the meeting to be interrupted, but I needed to make progress on my mission and an attack at the conference was likely a possibility for me to both defuse the situation and deepen my investigation.

  “If I didn’t know you, I would say that you just wanna watch the world burn” Mega remarked. Oh, come on!

  I couldn’t do anything but roll my eyes and shake my head.

  As always, Luke was waiting my arrival at the guild and instantly handed me the post with the quest details so I could read, the reward was seven platinum coins which was quite a lot but it was nice to see that His Majesty was willing to pay a lot for what would essentially be bodyguard work. I obviously accepted the quest and went to Yuna’s office to talk. It took me a few minutes to relay my conversation with the king and she pointed out that she also agreed that I needed to be at that meeting. It’s kind of weird how these people seem to trust me so much after they discovered the true nature of why I’m here.

  “Here, take this please” she handed me a small black card.

  “What is this for?” I asked looking at the small card that reminded me of a credit card.

  “What you hold is an artifact of the guild. Given the guild’s network and the amount of enchantments that the card has, it is quite expensive to create an artifact like the one you’re holding. Since you’ll be out of town for a while, I think it’s prudent to give you the artifact. When the request arrived yesterday I took the artifact you’re holding and connected it to mine, that way we can send each other messages anytime we want” Oh, that’s handy.

  “So, is this how you communicate with other guilds?”

  “Mostly the guildmasters, We have two other ways to use the guild network, mostly to send messages and locate adventurers on occasion. Although the network is not accurate when it comes to locating adventurers, so we almost never use that function” interesting.

  “Okay, how do I send you a message?”.

  “Just pour your mana and when the card flashes you need to say ‘record’, the artifact will start recording your message, then you proceed to relay the message and to finalize you need to say ’stop recording’. The message will arrive at the other artifact a few moments later” she then took a card similar to the one she gave me and held it in front of me so I could see “Begin search. James Hunter. Record. Hi James, this is Yuna. Stop Recording” a few moments later my artifact started getting warm.

  “Woah, What do I do now?”

  “Pour your mana into the card and the message will be played” I did as she told me and the message played ‘Hi James, this is Yuna’.

  “Cool”.

  “Since your artifact is only connected to mine, the search function won’t work, so you don’t need to search for me to send me a message, only record it like I showed you and the message will arrive” this thing is really cool.

  I thanked her for the artifact and made sure to properly secure it in my pocket. I probably would leave the artifact inside of my backpack and have Mega help me in case the artifact’s temperature rises and I don’t notice it.

  And here we were, the start of the journey. I woke up at dawn to go to the castle, I had the time to take a long bath and eat some fresh bread before saying a quick goodbye to Clara, promising to get her a souvenir on my way back if we stopped in another city. I was wearing a simple formal white shirt, black pants, dark leather boots and my trusty mantle. After a few minutes of walking I arrived at the castle’s courtyard, finding three large carriages with almost twenty soldiers around them. The majority were male but I could see a few female soldiers among them, that was another intricacy of the royal army of this kingdom, they employed both males and females, that was nice since throughou
t my travels I’ve not really seen female soldiers protecting the cities that I visited, which prompted me to think that women weren’t allowed to work as guards, fortunately I was wrong about that.

  Presumably these soldiers would be making the escort either on foot or with horses. Commander Freed was near some of them, lecturing the knights that the safety of Princess Alexis and Lady Lorelai were their top priority. I approached him and he offered a handshake while beckoning me over.

  “Ah Sir Hunter” he said and put his hand on my shoulder so he could turn me around to face the soldiers “listen up! For those that don’t know him, this is Sir Hunter, he is a friend of the royal family and will personally guard both Princess Alexis and Lady Lorelai on this journey, you are to follow your vice-commander’s orders but also stay out of Sir Hunter’s way should the caravan be attacked” that made no sense, how are they going to protect the princess if I’m in their way? I guess they trust me more than their own soldiers…

  A different soldier approached Sir Freed and saluted him, he wore different armor from the guards that were supposed to escort us, his armor was more decorated than the normal knights but not as impressive as the armor that Sir Freed wore the first time I saw him, if I were to guess, this guy was probably the vice-commander of the royal knights and he was supposed to command the soldiers on our journey.

  “Sir Hunter, this is Alec Montes, my nephew and the vice-commander of the army, his father, my brother, was the commander for a long time but unfortunately passed away six years ago” Freed introduced me to the smiling Alec.

  Alec proceeded to extend his right hand and I shook it, his spiked brown hair shining under the sun made him look like a character out of a movie, although he seemed to be young for his position, I got the feeling that he was also a good soldier which made me interested, I now wanted to see him leading people into battle.