The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  “Yeah lil bro, you really protected your women right.” Void joked only to shut up after getting glared at by Hilda.

  “Oh right, father you won the bet right? How much did you get in return?” Xero asked.

  Nil grinned and shook his magic bag, “90,000 gold coin at the rate of 6:1 at the start. This is good funds that will help after we get back home. I’ve already been thinking of how to get the bag back home quickly and having it invested in city development.” Nil said.

  Xero nodded, “It’s probably better for father to be present instead of handing all the money at once.” he heard Zip say.

  “Yes that is true, it's hard to say who is trustworthy after all.” He sighed.

  “I shall be going, Univa, would you like to stay with your fiance or stay at the Crost compound?” He asked.

  She blushed fiercely but accepted to stay with Xero and train with him so that she can make sure he doesn’t slack.

  The men chuckled but soon they get up and all left the coliseum.

  Chapter 19

  Within the majestic Holy Academy, besides the main school building, each church builds their own section. Normally each section contains a library and training area most suited for each church.

  One such section was decorated in light and dark pink and had a warm loving aura. The aura had a feeling of many different kinds of love. A person would feel the one they desire the most when submerged inside this aura.

  This area was formed by the followers of the goddess Eros and those who follow her. One thing to note was that besides humans and sentient races, amazingly wild fairies and monsters were in some areas. Although they did not speak the human language, a special ability of the angels of Eros is the ability to understand all languages, monsters, animals and sentient beings.

  Within this area, a young girl, very beautiful, she had long white hair, yellow glowing eyes, had a slight tanned skin. The only problem was that her yellow glowing eyes were dull and without will to live. Her long white hair was a mess, her tan skin had paled while her body was a bit skinny. This person was Silvia.

  A few months after being expelled from the order of the Holy Light church, and their teachings, she was cared for by the Eros church. Her features had greatly weakened, her strength was deteriorating but this was her attempt to kill herself because she had been prohibited to so many times that she simply lost the will.

  This has caused quite a lot of worry for the Eros church priestesses because if one looked at her lower belly, they would see a very small bulge. This had been the main cause for her current state. The priestesses had told her that she was pregnant.

  The policy of the Eros church protected children, besides being the Goddess of Love and Fertility, she was the Sovereign Protector of Children. Their order highly abolishes the idea of abortion or killing a baby before it was even born as all infants are innocent not to be blamed by the wrongs of their parents.

  The door opened and the beautiful woman that had saved Silvia appeared. Behind her walked in some girls, all simple but pretty in their own way. What is more their robes were slightly glued to their body showing the curves on their body down to the waist.

  “How are you child?” She asked but Silvia remained like a statue.

  The woman just sighed, ever since Silvia became like this it has been hard, the girls that come must bathe and feed her, going as far as using charm magic to control her body to make her eat enough for her and her baby. They did not like being forced to do these methods but they followed their beliefs and choose to protect the child in her even if it was a bit heavy handed.

  The girls walked over and helped her up and undress before cloth bathing her, brushing her hair a bit to try and get its gloss back but it had become oily, very unclean from not being properly cleaned.

  The woman watched while sighing as she saw the situation of the girl, she let the girls take care of her and charm her to make her eat all the highly nutritious soup, fruits, meat and more to try and make her eat more and regain weight.

  After they were done the two girls cleaned up and left bowing to the beautiful woman.

  Only she was left and she looked at the girl, uncharmed, “Silvia… how long do you plan to stay like this?” She asked.

  The girl looked up with her dead eyes, “What is the use for me to exist after what happened?” she replied with a hoarse voice.

  “Why don’t you try to see the world outside of the view of the Holy Church, it is not the only ‘right’ path.” The woman said.

  “I don’t need to listen to a slut who shakes her ass even to monsters.” Silvia venomously said.

  The beautiful woman just shook her head, “Tell me, do you consider the goddess Eros a Light, Dark or Demon goddess?” The woman asked.

  “Dark, it takes pleasure in vanity and lust, inhuman relations between animals, monsters and humans which are taboo!” She replied.

  “Why is that?” the woman asked.

  “...” Silvia suddenly froze and looked at her.

  “Why is it taboo? Do you know why it is we have relations to monsters? We do not have relations to animals, after all humans and sentient creatures can’t breed with animals, monsters we can but do you know why?” She asked.

  Silvia remained quiet as she listened, uninterested.

  “Humans and monsters can’t mate with each other but humans can only do this with other humanoid monsters, only our familiars, the messengers of Eros can mate with monsters.” She said.

  “That simply makes the ‘thing’ in my seal just that much worse.” She said.

  The woman sighed, “You know that some of the Holy academy went to the Snake Nest Dungeon, we were planning to send our people, I am thinking of taking you so that you can see the world outside of the Holy church.” the woman said.

  “I do not care about it.” She said

  The beautiful woman could only shake her head, “Do you want to see and learn about how different what you know and what is the real order of Eros?” She asked.

  “Leave me alone.” She said and suddenly went silent no longer reacting.

  The woman shook her head, “Be ready, a few girls shall come get you ready, they shall take you for some pampering and to properly wash your hair and return you your beauty. We shall go and even if you do not like it, you shall see the world from our view and no longer look throw the narrow blind justice you have followed since your brainwashing at the orphanage you come from.” She said with little patience left but regained her composure. She stepped up and took Silvia’s face and kissed both cheeks. “Just remember, you are only alone if you want to be, there can always be someone nearby extending a hand, you just need to look.”

  The beautiful woman stood up and walked out of the room.

  A few tears fell from Silvia’s face but her expression remained the same.

  ***

  Knock! Knock!

  “My My, who could it be?” Opal said as she heard the knocking as she passed through the house. She put on her casual warm smile and walked to the door and opened.

  “My dear flower, I have come to pick you up. Come for we… GAH!”

  POW! POW! BANG!

  The voice of the man was cut as he moved forward to kiss Opal before he ate the full force of the heavy wooden door Xero made for his family once in the face while the second he held the space where the wall so it was slammed between the door and wall causing both his hand and face to be injured before Opal slammed the door and locked it.

  “Madam, who was it?” The head maid asked.

  “Please escort this young man off the premises.” She said without batting an eye and walked off.

  The head maid looked at her and walked to the door and opened it.

  “Come into my arms my dear lady!” He said even more forceful and quickly this time taking the middle aged head maid in his arms and planting a kiss on her lips.

  PAH!

  “You vile thing again! You still dare come here and more…” The head maid was
fuming as she grabbed him by the face and began tighten her grip.

  “Ahh! W-wait i-it was a mistake!” He said.

  The sound of cracking could be heard from his skull from the force of her grip. The head maid dragged him like this all the way to the gate of the Lord’s manor before throwing him out like garbage. He was only able to get past the guards because this man was above level 31 while the knights were still young men of level 15 at the highest. Of course, this maid was no common maid after all, a true maid is also a skilled fighter and she was a very high level one at that but was still caught off guard at this moment.

  “Return again and I shall make sure you don’t call yourself a man ever again.” She said turning around walking inside.

  The young man that was thrown out like trash was a knight but not one of the Lurian empire, after all there was no benefit in trying to woo the wife of a 2nd rank noble with just the strength of a rank 1. He was from the Church of the Goddess of Harvest. The reason for him coming here had to do with the extremely good mood of the entire city.

  With the time spent in expanding the farmlands, when the spring cycle started the city was able to clear and plant around 50 acres of land of many crops while under the command of the Harvest fairy that Opal owns. Besides using magic a few times to water and fertilize there was only organization that was done and how to water the plants that was instructed by the fairy. That said, much to the amazement of the populus, those small order resulted in the crops growing so much that it was like looking at a plantation from the northern nations.

  The crops harvested from just the initial 50 acres of land produced almost as much as 100 acres anywhere else in the Lurian empire. Unlike most nations, the Church of the Harvest Goddess isn’t widely spread here and it is this goddess that spreads the earth’s blessing for planting as well as protects them from pests. That is why when the harvest reached such a miraculous degree, there were even a few simple farmers that thanked the Goddess for the harvest and thanked Opal as an apostle of the goddess here to bring good harvest.

  One thing should be known, Harvest fairies have a unique method of growth, only by successfully guiding farmers to harvest several good seasons of crops they would convert those merits into mana that normally instantly rushed into its body causing it to grow but because of the intense faith of the Harvest Goddess mixed in with the constant harvest of the crops it lead to grow, it not only grew but it evolved into exactly that, a Lesser Cherub of Harvest.

  The harvest fairy had gone down a unique path were spirits evolve into angels. Of course, this did not go unnoticed, when a familiar turns into an angel aligned to a specific god, similar angels can feel it’s birth.

  The level 4 Harvest fairy had evolved as well as constantly converted merit to mana until it reached level 8. Besides just evolving it also gave birth to new Innate spells. Opal had 1st and 2nd year knowledge from Xero so with her still low level familiar, she was able to easily handle the spells that formed. What was amazing about it was that the Harvest Angel was still tied to spirits and could now summon Water, Earth and Harvest Fairies but it wasn’t minions, instead they were summoned and a contract is formed and the fairies are given shelter and food in exchange for their work.

  The pay would be the work of the humans themselves setting up suitable locations for them, to which Opal let them live in her very own herb garden and let them change it as they please. The result was a small pond surrounded by the flower she loved most and several special trees that worked to hold the ‘nest’ houses the fairies built on their branches.

  The result of all this instantly caught the attention of the Harvest Goddess order and they sent a representative. But unlike the first six orders, the Dark Holy, both Dark and Light Fire and Ice church and the Knights order, this one did not come to settle here. Instead they sent a dashing knight to woo Opal into being his woman and take her back.

  Of course, a virtuous woman with a perfect family built over the decades in her middle ages and a loving family and husband, didn’t even bat an eye at the advances of this man. After a short while, even the slightly airheaded Opal started to lose her patience even if it didn’t show, her mannerism towards him is many times more blunt and has even grown ruthless as she aims to physically injure him during his ‘forceful’ methods such as outright kissing her to snatch her away.

  Even her bright smile was slowly turning into a frown and her calm was slightly fading as she went to help her daughter in law and the scholar manage the city.

  With almost 130 acres of land cleared outside of the village, all the space on the south side of the village and part of the east side was clear of trees, except one section where natural springs were so the trees around it were all left to preserve a precious source of water.

  “We have heard that there might be a pest infestation spreading through the nearby villages, it was only near the end of their harvest and did not affect it to much but it is something to worry about.” The scholar said.

  “My my, that is worrisome. Still I have been needing to train my magic since Leo evolved. He can now use the spells, Inferior Lesser Earth Blessing, Lesser Blessing of Protection and Inferior Lesser Blessing of Fast Growth. If we use Fast Growth it might attract bugs and weaken the soil quicker but it will cut the growth by a month. With the other two spells we cover the possible dangers.” Opal commented.

  “I fear what the Harvest god’s order might try.” Jasmine said.

  “They can’t do anything, if they poison the soil then it would be an act against the royal crown and we already suspect them because of their attempts to woo Mistress Opal.” The Scholar said. “I have already sent word to the royal scribe so he is well informed of this matter.”

  “The summer harvest will be quite big, but the diversity is just as big.” Jasmine said as she looked through the information.

  “We should avoid easy to spoil fruits and crops, we should plant crops that can be conserved well for the winter like grain.” the scholar said.

  “Grain is good but substance is better, we should plant corn, wheat, potato and split several areas to start cultivating orchard. The several dozen nut and berry bush found in the region have a decent production but what would really be good is trees like apple tree which are good spring and summer fruits. Nut trees would also provide a great source of food.” Jasmine said.

  “Orchards are a very long term plan that needs several years to bear fruit.” the scholar said.

  “Exactly, no better time than the present right? Also I am one to do my research and know that an apple tree for instance requires the minimum 2 years for some trees and 4 years for others. This is considering natural trees, we are cultivating trees so the soil condition is better and magic is used to improve it.” Jasmine said.

  “Indeed.” The scholar nodded understanding. “We should use the east side for Orchard field while the south side could remain crops.” he said.

  They all agreed and began to discuss which crops and where should be planted.

  “Mother, will you be alright going out?” Jasmine asked.

  “Of course, I shall take Eva, she is much stronger and very smart so don’t worry you two.” Opal smiled, “Conner, please go to the granary with some farmers to pick up the seed grain I shall go start preparing our land.” Opal said.

  “As you wish Mistress.” He bowed and stood up with a scroll under his arm as he walked out.

  Opal and Jasmine stood up and walked out, “So dear, how has your knight’s training been?” Opal asked.

  “It’s much harder than I thought, the captain doesn’t even let me do much except run and swing the sword.” Jasmine said.

  Opal giggled, “Of course dear, you aren’t one of those sweaty men who have trained for many years, you first have to train your stamina to handle your own pretty little body but I’m sure Zip will be happy to find you even prettier and strong when he returns.” Opal said and covered her lips, “Maybe it would even make him happy enough to finally give me a grandc
hild.” She said.

  “M-Mother-in-law!” Jasmine blushed.

  Opal gave a ‘Fufufu’ laugh, “My my, what’s to be so embarrassed dear? Eventually you will need your own little babies and fill this house with cheer.” she said as he entered the room of her youngest baby, a few young maids were here playing with the baby and when Opal entered Zilch was playing and saw her before lifting his arms, “Mamamama!” he said.

  “Ah~! My my! My little baby is so adorable. Come on, mama is going for a walk.” She said lifting the 1 year old.

  “Does Mistress require anything?” The young maid asked.

  “Find Eva for me, I am going out and want her with me.” Opal said.

  The maid bowed while Opal had a few things prepared for Zilch as well as Nero who was in the study with Eva being taught magic that he never gave up on asking to learn. Unexpectedly, he was very talented with magic, being able to use small scale supportive magic like a weak healing spell for scratches or a common cold, some ice magic but he could only make a small stone of ice, and some other really simple spells but it amazed Eva that he could even use it.

  When the boy heard they were going out he was excited and wanted to go so with her two baby boys, Eva and even Jasmine they decided all to go out to the farms.

  Eva prepared a butler with a carriage to escort them out to the farms. The carriage was rather simple but because Eva was a skilled maid she knew how to properly make a carriage so the interior had stuffed comfortable seats.

  Nero looked out at the city that was growing really quickly but organized under the hand Conner’s command as well as the growing number of Guards who monitored and noticed all changes and new shops that start building without properly paying the price for the land to which they are then charged.

  Halfway to the farms the carriage suddenly stopped and Eva frowned and looked at the opening to the couchman, “What is going on?!” she asked.

  “My dear Opal! You are the gem of my life! Come out and let us leave this ‘wretched’ rocky wasteland without future for a true maiden of the land!” a familiar and quite irritating voice.