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Chapter 1001
“Siti… you can make a portal directly to the capital city of Ost Republic, correct?”
“Yes, I have been there once as Grand Master went on a diplomatic mission there once.” She declared.
In the past, I had never worried about the limits of portals. How far a portal could reach was a mixture between the level of the portal spell and the amount of mana poured into it. Since the portal I used had traditionally been part of the dungeon point system, it acted like a level 100 portal every time.
Thus, I had never had any limitation teleporting anywhere I had ever been. It took ending up in another continent before the distance reached too far. Even then, simply adding a lot more mana resolved that issue. Siti here was a much higher-level blue mage than I was, but she didn’t have a level 100 portal, nor did she have the mana reserves I did. It seemed like the Ost Republic was still in her reach though and she was confident she could make the portal.
Since I had never been to the Ost Republic beyond the border, I wouldn’t be able to travel there on my own. Thus, I had depended on her. I had never been that close to Siti, and now I wasn’t sure how much I could trust her. I had Miki check her out before she left, and Miki didn’t find anything in her that suggested she was still under Calypso’s control. Of course, there was also the possibility she was never under Calypso’s control in the first place.
I knew very little about the Blue Mage, and I didn’t know how much I could trust her. She had worked for the Grand Master, a man who had allegedly been one of the elites of Aberis. However, he had perished and now she was on her own. I decided to allow her to remain with us unofficially, and she spends most of her days in the traveling guild. There, she was extremely renowned, as her magical experience was many times greater than the current blue mage working there. Whether she was content working as a blue mage was hard to know.
That was why she was coming along as well. She was technically just the transport, but she might be able to help us get away if something happened. Although Prince Aberis seemed content with the way things were going, I wasn’t so confident. I still feared that this wedding might be some kind of trap that was prepared by the Ost Republic. Did they favor peace?
Yet, it was my responsibility now to escort Eliana. Prince Aberis had put a lot of trust in me to keep his sister safe, so I needed to live up to it. She had already portaled over to Chalm. Perhaps it would have been better for all of us to portal to the capital and then have Siti portal the rest of the way, but things didn’t turn out that way and she said she could handle it.
We ended up using the traveling guild, which was a well-established site for portaling. I rarely used such a thing, but when going to other nations and such, I guess you could be seen as an invading force unless you traveled the proper way. Well, there weren’t too many rogue blue mage’s like me anyway.
It wasn’t too long before she opened a portal. This wasn’t direct teleportation like most blue mages did, but a hole in space surrounded with blue light like I was typically used to. The group of us walked through, and like that, we were in the territory of the Ost Republic.
Chapter 1002
I realized as we walked out of the traveling guild that I knew very little about the Ost Republic. I knew that it had once been a part of the Demon Lord Aberis’s conquered domain, and had been part of the country Osteria. The Demon Lord Aberis’s invasion had come from the sea. He hadn’t gained enough strength to contend with the Imperial Cloud Meadow, so he focused on conquering the south. He was stopped by the wilderness to the west, never managing to mount an invasion on Dioshin.
The mountains to the southwest had similarly kept him from continuing. He was trying to invade Esmore when he was finally defeated. The country of Osteria had been composed of the large Osterians, a human-like species that ranged from six to eight feet tall, as well as Elves, the humans, and the Surface Dwarves.
The Dwarves fled the territories of the demon lord, as he had a policy of enslaving them. They bunkered down in Esmore alongside the Esmere, eventually taking up a permanent residence there. The Osterians joined the demon lord, feeling that the humans were often prejudiced, and using this as an opportunity to flip the tide, leaving the physically superior Osterians on top. It would ultimately be one of their princesses, the Princess Hero Xin, who teamed up with Maid Hero Elaya, and Hero King Edward to defeat the demon lord and reclaim the lands lost to them.
In time, the territory had split, with King Edward taking the northern half and calling himself and his country Aberis. His anti-Osterian and demon policies pushed them out of the country, where they fled to and created the Ost Republic. Meanwhile, the declining elves all but disappeared, leaving Aberis a country of humans with a somewhat xenophobic view of other races.
I had always believed that the demons had been eradicated during the war, or perhaps that the Demon Lord Aberis had brought no demon followers to begin his war. Taking one step onto the streets of the Ost Republic capital, I realized this was completely false. The city was filled with a rich variety of species one didn’t see in Aberis.
Many Osterians were walking around, with their tall bodies, long fingers, and distinct brows making them stand out. However, there were also numerous demons. I had encountered many demons before while in the Twilight Dungeon. They didn’t look much different from humans, except that occasionally their skin had strange shades, and everyone had horns and a tail, which differed from demon to demon. It wasn’t impossible to see a red-skinned demon with long ram horns next to a light blue demon with little doe horns.
There were humans in equal number, and also Dwarves as well. Other than Garnet, I had only ever seen Dwarves in the memories delivered from blessings. Like her, they looked younger than their age suggested. How did I know they were Dwarves? It was the beards. Some stereotypes were stereotypes because they were true. Male Dwarves had beards.
This didn’t mean that all of the dwarves we youthful, but even the young dwarves who should be considered children were working hard. It was like their development was just slowly, so an adult looked like a teen. How old did that make the elderly dwarves?
It seemed like all the Dwarves in the city were working. Now that I noticed, the entire architecture of this place differed from Aberis. There was a lot more stone and a lot less wood. When I raised an eyebrow, it was Eliana who spoke up.
“While we humans build with our own hands, a lot of Ost Republic was built by the Dwarves. They commission Dwarf workers to come at regular intervals to build and perform maintenance. Regrettably, they get along with Esmore better than we do.
“I see…” It seemed like Aberis was an isolated country with enemies on every side. It was remarkable that we had kept things running for so long. I wanted to invite some more Dwarves to Chalm. Perhaps, I should look into it while I was here.
Chapter 1003
“We don’t have a lot of time.” Eliana sighed. “If you had taken even a day longer to heal, we would have missed it entirely. Normally, we should have arrived two weeks ago. How early you arrive is considered showing respect. It informs them of how important you think they are. In other words, showing up today is considered disrespectful.”
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it have been better if we just didn’t come?”
“Well, the Tibults had already been sent ahead of time to smooth things over. Furthermore, Prince Aberis has opted not to come. He’s used the reason that he isn’t a King yet, making it inappropriate for him to come himself. Ultimately, General Tibult has been acting as a diplomat the last few weeks, and he has warned us they if someone of the royal family didn’t come, they might take offense.”
“So, you decided to come? Why couldn’t your father come?”
“Do you think that is a wise idea?”
“Probably not.”
I knew it was foolish the second I said it. Her father had a poor relationship with the Ost Republic. Even now, he wasn’t in favor of creating peace with them. However, he promised to step aside and let his son lead, and that’s exactly what he’s done. I didn’t even know where he went. I hadn’t seen him the last few times I came to Aberis. I was glad about not having my life threatened, so I had kept my mouth shut, but it was possible he had taken off again and the Prince didn’t know where he was. He was a flighty man, after all.
“By the way, I was honestly very surprised when I saw fiance’s new appearance,” Eliana spoke up. “You fit in well among these Osterians.”
I blushed. “Ah, is it okay?”
“Brother would say something like ‘you’ve become a man’s man!’” She even did a rough voice trying to imitate him before blushing. “I’m just glad you are safe and alive. However you look, you’re still my fiancé, so that’s that.”
“Is that all?” I asked.
Her blush deepened. “You shouldn’t flirt with me in public, especially around the help.”
We had been edging closer together as we spoke, and the distance between us seemed nonexistent. Although she had a presence, she stood next to a tall, muscular man. It looked like a couple being followed by Faeyna and Raissa.”
“I-it’s okay. You’re married!” Raissa cried out when we looked back at her, her tail wagging.
“Even so… you can tone it down…” Faeyna cut in, a shy expression on her face. “Unless… we can… join…”
I cleared my throat and Eliana took a step away from me. Looking for something around us to take the tension off the moment, my eyes landed on an odd sight in the middle of a square. It was both extremely familiar, and also extremely strange. There was an old sword stuck into the ground.
“Don’t tell me, Excalibur?”
“Hmm? Ah, you’re wondering about that sword?” Eliana offered. “You can try to pull it if you’d like. It’s a local folklore. They say that the man who succeeds will end the republic and become king of the new Osteria.”
I really shouldn’t… should I?