RD 4 Ch 29

"Bran, are you just going to ignore the problem?" Circe asked. 

"I'm not ignoring the problem. I'm thinking," I replied. There were already too many things on my plate. Having lost a year and a half, I was, admittedly, scrambling to put the pieces together to protect the entire world.

There was already too much to do and now there was the additional weight that the Demon Lord might have inside information about the future. At least, that’s what his action suggested.

I took a deep breath, there were a number of plates I was trying to keep spinning at the same time. Right now, though I couldn’t give any of them my full attention, they were still spinning and the people in each of our bases were growing more independent by the day.

It was time to focus on the now. "Have you got that up and working yet so we can get more information?" I gestured over to where her head was buried in a hidden closet.

Tartarus had kept some modern technology in that area so they could stay in communication with the Heros Clan proper. While Persphone could create clones out of smoke as her eyes or ears, others needed their own methods of communication.

"What are you doing?" A voice I knew well asked. Persephone appeared in a puff of jet black smoke. 

Circe jumped, smashing her head into something loud enough for me to hear her curse. "Trying to figure out this stupid system.” Circe grumbled.

“Simple, you just don't use it." Persephone smiled, "While I find it highly amusing that you're digging through my trash. But do tell me. What are you doing? Besides setting off the alarms I have inside." 

I shrugged and waved at Persephone. "How are you doing, great-great-grandma? In fact, you coming probably solves all of our needs," I said, working on carving a few enchantments into the walls. 

"Oh, and what can I do for you, grandson?" She said the word slowly, as if she was still getting used to the idea. 

"I may have had some revelations, as it were.” I started off.

“We think someone else from his timeline is here and working with the Demon Lord," Merlin spoke up, taking all my thunder. 

I turned to her, slightly annoyed at having so bluntly laid out the situation. Then again, it was going to get this moving faster.

Persephone studied Merlin for a moment. “I would approve of you in being one of my granddaughters-in-law." 

Merlin gave me a funny look, and I held my hands up as if to say, I have no part in this conversation. 

"I think he has enough, don't you?" Merlin turned back to Persephone. 

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Heros clan men are more than capable of handling a few dozen children. Besides, with his bloodline, given the option I would stick him in a cell with the prettiest women I could find. In fact, I would just keep filling it to the top and rotate them out every time one got pregnant." 

I blinked and looked at her incredulously. "What?”

“For the sake of our clan, fostering a generation of stronger bloodlines would go a very long way. It's just a simple reality. If you're going to call me your grandmother, you might as well do some part in helping the family line continue." She folded her arms.

"I think we have more pressing concerns," Circe called over from her closet. She stuck her head out and I frowned. Given her stats, the head bump shouldn't really cause her any prolonged discomfort, yet she looked rather uncomfortable.

"Right. Someone else knows the future. That's all great and good. Now, if I put much stock in my grandson's little booklet, perhaps I would be caught unaware. But I'm not as conceited as the other two. They might take shortcuts into making decisions. I will operate off the facts present before me. Now, if my lovely grandson had led me somewhere with a level 100 SS instance, perhaps I would be more inclined to do something to help."

"If I told you that, I would have had to tell Hercules and Zeus, and I, quite frankly, didn't want to." I flashed her a broad smile. The Hivnara had been a wonderful whet stone for my abilities.

Persephone smirked. "That's why I'm not too upset with you. But you can't leave me out of all the good stuff, grandson, or I'll think you don't actually consider me a relative."

"Noted." I nodded to her and went back to the inscriptions. "But Circe is right," I said, still struggling with the idea that I wasn't the only one who had come back in time.

But I also could not ignore that there was evidence to suggest there was at least another knowledgeable hand stirring the pot. Even if I discounted the idea that the Demon Lord or someone working for him was helping, the presence of the map telling me where instances that had yet to be discovered were located told me there might be others with profound knowledge that could be a guiding hand.

I wasn’t entirely convinced that they lived a past life, there were many strange abilities in the system.

It was best for me to start operating under the idea that I was not the most knowledgeable person about what was going to happen. The worst that would come of working under that assumption would be me wasting some of my time and energy coming up with contingencies. The best would be it saved us from making the wrong move and better protect my women.

"But Circe is right, we could use more information. It may not be someone else coming from my past life. It could be someone with some sort of clairvoyant ability, or perhaps even someone so close to Hercules and Zeus that they have access to the book that I gave them.” I started listing out alternate options I had to consider. “However, the book didn't have the information on the future killers of the Demon Lord."

Persphone’s eyes grew concerned as I spoke those words. "The people who killed the Demon Lord in the past are now dead?" She asked for clarification.

"It would seem so. Or worse, they have now been possessed by the Demon Lord’s followers. I can't confirm they're entirely the same people, but two of the three kings from my past life that destroyed the Demon Lord seem to be targeted at the very least. So, I can’t expect the Demon Lord to follow the same path as last time. I have to start thinking several layers ahead. Not only do I have to think about what the Demon Lord did in my past life, but I have to consider if he has the same knowledge, what would he do potentially differently. And if he does take those actions, what is my best recourse to either stymie him or go in a completely different direction." My brain started to work.

"Or you can simply get the greatest advantage you can," Persephone said, as if the situation was that simple. "Think about it. If two of you both have knowledge, though perhaps from two different sources, ultimately you two will clash, and the most important part is that then you're the one who comes out on top. The instances won’t change and neither will the talented humans."

I grimaced because there was a part of that plan that she wasn't saying aloud. Going after sources of strength for me would mean abandoning all the people that the Demon Lord was targeting. They were not yet strong enough to take him on.

Persephone read my expression. "This is war Bran, and I know you've gone through it before. His actions are in no way, shape, or form a burden to place on your own shoulders. Allowing him to do so only allows him to drag you down with your own guilt."

I looked up at the ceiling and nodded. This was a lesson I knew, a lesson I had learned more than once in my past.

Yet, somehow, this time around, I felt more responsible than ever before. I was at a supreme point of advantage, one that I had hoped to use for the benefit of all humanity. Coming to grips with the possibility that this advantage might no longer be there almost made me feel like a failure. My response to failing was simple: do not let anyone else down. 

Still, it was crucial to understand what was happening. There were some battlefields that couldn’t be surrendered. On the grand scale of the situation, many extra people could die, deaths could shift, and humanity was incredible in its ability to adapt.

The fact that two of the three responsible for killing the Demon Lord in my past life were gone did not mean that another three couldn't rise up and fill the same role. 

I glanced over at the giant doors that held the Trial of Kings. We needed to find people who could face them. I bit my lip, anticipating the question that was going to come next. 

"Well, why not us?" Circe asked. 

Persephone had enough wisdom in her to wince. "Circe, if he hasn't already begun preparing you for it, then I'm afraid to say he doesn't think you're capable." 

Those words made Circe scowl in my direction.

Gee, thanks Grandma. It would have been better for her to use some tact to answer that one.

"The trials are dangerous. There are multiple of them and they aren’t just about strength. One of the trials makes you lose your memories. The system is only interested in giving the power here to people who it thinks will wield it properly." I answered.

"Right, because you believe the system is some sort of intelligent creature," Persephone said with no small amount of skepticism. 

"Or at least it was designed to look like one," I conceded, knowing that asking anyone to believe Sissy was an actual thinking being was going to be hard. Not many people wanted to admit that there was something thinking that held the level of power that the System held over our lives.

"Alright, we're going to lose our memories if we go in there, so anything you tell us can't be used to our advantage.” Merlin said.

“I understand that.” I grumbled.

“What's so dangerous?" Merlin asked. 

"Do you think if it came down to it, if you were about to die, if you were being tortured, you were at the very end of your rope, do you think you would sell out your kingdom to survive? Your memory is selectively filled with holes to the point you almost believe it's real." I answered.

"I see," Merlin said, staring down at her boots for a moment. "I wouldn't give many people the benefit of the doubt that they would pass a trial to that extent.”

“What was it for you specifically?" Persephone asked. 

"I was given a system message that said if I survived, I would complete the Trial of Kings. I was even still aware that I was in the trial, but I wasn’t really sure what it was. However, in the same breath, I was in a doomed scenario. I was behind enemy lines, only left with a few loyal retainers. The obvious option was to get myself back to my kingdom in the scenario where I would be safe." I spoke about the memory I wanted to forget.

"Except, I discovered traitors amongst my number. If I didn't push further into enemy territory and complete a mission, my kingdom would be gone. Yet, the further I went into the mission, the more I believed that saving the kingdom was part of my survival. Ultimately, I was given a choice: to protect my kingdom or myself. Given that I was in the Trial of Kings, I believed protecting my kingdom was part of the trial and I’d have to figure the rest out. Only, that mission turned into an absolute suicide mission. I went all the way, risking my life, to give what was needed back to my kingdom so it could survive.” I looked at the group to gauge their reaction.

"But clearly, you did survive," Persephone prompted.

"Actually, I don't remember what happened.” I admitted.

"You don't remember?" Therese asked incredulously.

"Right. I vaguely recall the panic, the concern, racing to finish, but I don't recall actually finishing. Given my spirit, that means something interfered with my memory at the end. All I know is that I made the choice to save the kingdom instead of myself, and I was in a completely unwinnable situation, trapped in the basement of my enemy's fortress with incriminating evidence." They all stared at me like a lunatic.

"But you passed." Circe pushed.

"Seems that way. Perhaps survival was not necessarily my survival, but the survival of my legacy, the kingdom," I shrugged, most of the kings had some fuzzy memories regarding the trials. "But for every person that says they want to take the trial of kings, I wonder if they could make that same level of sacrifice without knowing it was a trial or knowing the right answer. When those questions still exist in your mind and it's not simply a game or a quiz to pass, would you die for a bunch of fictitious people?"

Circe looked almost pained by the end of my story. "So, you need to find a bunch of lunatics as crazy as you.”

I laughed. "Perhaps. Perhaps that's the safest way to go about it. And just get enough people that someone manages to pass."

Persephone and Merlin, however, were quiet, calmly watching me as I finished my story.

"I don't think I'll participate," Persephone said after a moment. "Bran's right. It takes an uncommon person to be able to make that call." She looked sideways at Circe. "To be perfectly honest, it’s hard to go against the basic survival instinct. Preservation is baked into our very DNA.”

“And this makes the loss of the people who had passed the trials in your last life even more painful." Merlin said mournfully, realizing just how much we’d lost if those two were really dead.

I finished up with my inscriptions on the wall before I handed a talisman to Persephone and another to Merlin. "Given your two's ability to travel, do me a favor and hold on to these. Who knows, maybe I'll need you to come check the trials." I had another handful of talismans, and based on Circe’s face when she had not received one of the talismans, I reached out to give her one as well.

Well, sometimes perception is most of the battle. No need to exclude her.

“Did you think I was going to leave you out?” I teased. Though, truthfully, she already had plenty on her shoulders.