Drechenaux

The Siege of Arconia Chapter 48 + Epilogue + Next Volume Chapter 1 [Includes End of Volume Grimoire List As Well]

As I held the piece of paper in my hand, I had to try not to laugh. I didn’t want Zeke thinking that I was making fun of him but… his idea seemed somewhat preposterous. Like it had come straight out of a children’s fairy tale. “So… this is like a treasure map?”

Zeke sighed. “I know, I know, it sounds unlikely, and more likely than not the map leads to something else, like a religious site or a tomb. But, I always dreamed of one day being able to go there, or to lead an expedition to see where this map lead to. Of course, I can’t do that.” He let out a weary smile. “I deluded myself into thinking I might do so once I retired, but now that I know more of what my father’s job entails and what it really means to be governor, I know that I will never get time to do something like that - not unless I abandoned my responsibilities completely. And I cannot do that. But, if you want to go towards that area anyway, and you wish to explore this world for an answer to your worries… I’ll give you this, and if you ever come back to Arconia, how about you tell me what it lead to?”

I took a look at the original map. “This isn’t in an a language I know…” That was a big hole in my ‘the Ruler of the Astral Winds was from Earth theory’: the fact that if it were so, people would recognize the language I had written my grimoires in, unless he knew a language other than English. However, I had seen some grimoires from Hansini when the Book Fair had come to town, and none of the writing systems matched anything that I could think I’d seen back on Earth.

Still, even if such wasn’t the case, Hansini was one of the biggest hubs of Liberomancy in the entire world - it could be said to be second only to Serragnia.

My first choice of destination was not Serragnia for a number of reasons, chief among them being that it was much further away than Hansini.

“Alright, I can agree to your terms,” I said, carefully taking the pieces of paper he offered me. “If I end up finding something cool, maybe I’ll send a message through the Liberomancer’s Guild to tell you what it is.”

The Liberomancer’s Guild of every country were independent of each other - but they oftentimes communicated with each other. Maybe not with other guild branches a massive distance away, but definitely to those who were situated next to each other. In that way, like a game of telephone, you could pass on a message through the various institutes, and although it would be slow, it would still be faster than walking back to Arconia unless I somehow found a way to teleport.

With that said - if I actually found a horde of Rank Four and especially Rank Five grimoires, I would do my best to keep my mouth shut about what I had found.

Liberomancers relied on cooperating with each others, yes, but they were also simultaneously competitors. The benefits of cooperation were constantly weighed against the risks that a competitor would later use what you shared with them against you - at Rank One and for a good part at Rank Two cooperation was greatly favored over competition.

It changed drastically at Rank Three given how much more powerful Rank Three grimoires were - and Rank Four grimoires were so closely guarded that you could never find one on the open market.

If a Rank Five grimoire existed, or was rumored to exist in a place, I had no doubt that multiple countries would readily declare war on each other just to seize it. Yes, people were bound by rules and regulations - but that was only until the benefits of breaking those rules and regulations outweighed the negative effects. And a Rank Five grimoire would doubtlessly be such a treasure. If it got out that I had one, there would be many people, most of them Liberomancers, who would not hesitate to kill me to get their hands on such a grimoire.

The Ruler of the Astral Winds had been forced to hide most of his misdeeds or do them secretly when he had been Rank Four - but could do whatever he wanted when he was Rank Five. Why was that? Because Rank Five was just that much stronger than Rank Four, to the point where he was said to be practically invincible! Only a demonic Rank Four grimoire had been able to defeat him, and seeing how much more powerful [Crimson Lance] was then an ordinary Rank One grimoire I could only imagine how powerful that Rank Four demonic spell might’ve been.

“I thank you for that,” Zeke said, now returning to his usual business-minded self. The excitement that initially adorned his face was now gone.

I had felt sorry for Drake, but I couldn’t help but also feel a twinge of sympathy for Zeke right now. There were clearly other things he wanted to do in life, but being the elder sibling, he must have been under a lot of pressure to perform, not only for his sake, but also to set an example for his younger brother. And he must have set aside many of his desires, like exploring this area, for that sake.

“When will you leave?” Zeke asked.

“In a few weeks,” I told him.

He shook my hand. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to meet again before you leave, but if we can’t - I wish you luck on your journey, Master Liberomancer.”

I chuckled. “Am I still entitled to call myself that?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Zeke said. “Neither me nor my father have any desire to contest that title of yours. As far as I’m concerned, you made something new - that this world hasn’t seen before, and that is good enough to get that title. I finished that grimoire you had made by the way, soon, they might call me the Spider King of Arconia.”

I couldn’t help but smile - in a way, much like seeing those Elephant Frogs being used during the siege, it was nice to see what kind of lasting legacy I was leaving in this world. Back on Earth, I had been nothing more than average. Here though I was something akin to lower nobility - I had already managed to make somewhat of a difference, even if that change was rather miniscule in the grand scheme of things. I couldn't do much to change society as a whole in the way that I would've liked, but my contributions had likely saved the lives of at least a hundred people in the city.

It felt good to feel important, but not nearly enough to deter me from finding a way home. And as it was, even if I could enact societal change on a far-reaching scale, I knew that I lacked the requisite knowledge and experience to be able to make do so and that I would more likely than not just mess things up. What worked on Earth might very well not work here in Arconia, after all.

“Were you able to make a translation?” I asked him.

Although Charlotte’s Web was written in English, it was still possible for Zeke to speak the translation he knew out loud for someone to transcribe or just to try to write it himself.

The problem was that might not necessarily work. Certain things did not translate well between languages, and the more complex the work, the higher the likelihood that the translation might fail to make a successful grimoire. There was even the possibility that it might work but give an entirely different skill or spell because the translation was that far removed from the original.

On top of which, certain things like poems which relied heavily on wordplay were practically impossible to make faithful translations of that would work as grimoires. So were things that involved technical terms from my world - how would one translate things like ‘quantum physics’ or ‘electrons’ into a language of this world accurately?

Charlotte’s Web was not exactly that complicated, but it was Rank Three, which greatly diminished the chance of that kind of thing working out.

“I haven’t tried yet - most people would not even consider it worth attempting,” he admitted. “But if I can, we could potentially make other copies for our people to use in the future. Despite the massive cost involved and the extremely low probability of success, it still might be worth it for the potential payoff.”

If there was another dryad attack, this grimoire would without a doubt form a great pillar of defense. Not to mention [Summon Tyrant Arachnea] was a useful spell in and of itself even without the combo.

We spoke of some smaller matters before wishing each other luck.

As I exited, I remembered that there was still one last thing I needed to take care of - if I didn’t, I couldn’t feel like I’d left things unfinished here in Arconia. My conscience would not rest easy if I did not do so.

“Granny Qi…” I said one day, when I felt like the time was right. Or was the timing really right? She was just having breakfast so I also thought that maybe I should put it off for now…

When was the time right for something like this though? I was going to be leaving soon, and I also knew that if I kept kicking the can down the road I’d never get it over with - it was best just to peel off the band-aid right now.

“Yes?”

“I uh, have something I’d like to tell you before I leave…” I began.

I had already told three people the truth of where I came from, Lance, Drake, and Zeke. It didn’t feel right to not tell Granny Qi as well.

The only thing was that this felt harder than those other three - I had been living under her roof for quite a long time. How was I going to justify why I had hidden so much from her?

Secrecy had made sense initially, but I had kept things from her for a very long time. There were multiple points of time where I felt it would’ve been appropriate to come clean to her.

“…it’s about where I actually come from. I’m sorry, I wasn’t honest with you earlier, but I wanted you to know before I left,” I began. She stopped drinking her tea, put her cup down, and folded her hands on the table.

I had her full attention now.

And so I told her about Earth - how it was like and how I’d gotten here. How I was looking for a way back, and that I hadn’t found one as of yet. That the reason I was leaving Arconia was to see if I could find a possible way back to Earth.

Once I was done, I waited, wondering how she was going to react. She had listened while maintaining a flawless poker face throughout, though I felt like her eyes could bore holes into my head given the intensity with which she was looking at me.

“...so that’s it,” she said and finished the remaining dregs of her tea before going to go wash her cup.

What?!

“Um, is that is?” I asked. “I thought you’d have more of a reaction…”

“Oh, I knew you were hiding something for a very long time,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “I’m actually just glad it didn’t involve some kind of crime. I had the craziest theories before, though it looks like the truth is stranger than fiction, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…” I said.

And that was it - she never felt the need to bring it up again.

The day of reckoning soon arrived - the day when I was set to leave Arconia.

Out of one last moment of desperation, I made my way to the same place where I had spawned in this city, as if saying “Hey- I’m leaving for good, so if you want to show me a path back home, you better do so now!”

But nothing happened, and so, I could only go through with my decision to leave.

My plan was this - I would first make my way to the capital, get some things done there like buying grimoires and the like as well as meeting the king, after which I would make my way to the University of Hitutsa.

There, I would try to find more information if I could about anyone who may have come from Earth, as well as getting a grimoire that would help me fly.

Afterwards, my plan was to eventually make my way to Hansini. There were actually two large merchant caravans that passed through Hitutsa - my best bet would be to hitch a ride with one of them. I might even end up coming back to Arconia then, possibly, in a few months if I caught one which was moving down back south here.

At Hansini, I wanted to explore more grimoires, and I guess that now I would also try to see if I could find that treasure which Zeke had wanted to find.

There might even be some clues hinting that the Ruler of the Astral Winds was from Earth and possibly a way to go back if he had made any progress on doing so.

If Hansini turned out to be another dead end, that would then leave Serragnia as the other most likely place that might have answers.

And if even that had nothing…

I shook my head. No, I couldn’t let myself wallow in despair - I had found myself in this world somehow, hadn’t I? Logically there must be a way back as well!

Two people accompanied me right to the gate as I was leaving.

One of them was Drake and the other was Granny Qi.

“Good luck, brother,” Drake said, shaking my hand. “I would have loved to come with you actually - it sounds very exciting, what you’re doing.” I would’ve liked that - I was leaving everything and everyone I knew in this world behind, and the knowledge that Drake was watching my back during my travels would’ve been quite reassuring. “But, I have my duties here.”

“I know,” I said. “Tell your brother that I haven’t forgotten the little present he gave me - I’ll see if I can find something.”

“Oh? What present? You mean that map - ah, I didn’t know he was serious about that,” Drake said. “But yes, if you find some buried treasure, do let us know! And one day, once you come back, we’ll go and drink the night away - the three of us!”

“I look forward to it!”

I then turned to Granny Qi.

Tears were gently streaming down her face- the only other time I had seen her cry was when she had been reminiscing about her husband near that waterfall that flowed backwards. “Thank you for everything - if I, if I find a way back home, and I know it’s a reliable one and will stay open long enough, I’ll come back to visit you one last time before leaving.”

Even while I said that, I couldn’t help but feel like I was lying.

If I found a way back home - it would likely be a temporary gate like the one that I brought me here, and even if it wasn’t, how could I be sure it would stay open long enough for me to make the journey back to Arconia? In nearly every single situation that I could think of, I’d have to take the opportunity to go back without hesitation. “And if I can’t come back - rest assured that I made my way back home,” I told her.

“Do you have enough for the journey?” she asked, wiping away her tears. “Food, water, anything that you’re forgetting…?”

“I think I have everything,” I said, while hugging her in a tearful embrace.

“Oh right, on that note,” Drake said, interrupting us. “You do have the paperwork explaining where you got the demonic grimoire from, right? You don’t want any other incidents in the capital…”

“Yeah, it’s all here,” I said to him. I took a deep breath. “Both of you, thank you, and hey - we all just might meet again.”

“I look forward to it!” Drake said. Granny Qi didn’t say anything, but nodded as a gentle smile blossomed on her face.

It was odd - I had a lot of bad memories of this city. I had arrived here with nothing and had been homeless for quite a while as I lived on the streets before finding Granny Qi, I had been fired from my job unjustifiably after working what would be considered abnormally long hours on Earth at said job, and to top it all off also had to fight in a siege and nearly died.

And yet, I couldn’t help but feel something trying to keep me from leaving.

There were lots of negative things about Arconia, yes, but in that moment, it was like they had all vanished as swiftly as the morning dew.

Granny Qi, getting to see her village, that unique waterfall, my coworkers back at Lauren’s shop, the Book Fair… I couldn’t say that everything that had happened to me in Arconia had been a negative experience, now then could I?

Without a doubt, I’d miss it.

But then again, it wasn’t like this was goodbye forever, was it?

And I couldn’t stay here forever - I was sure that there was an answer to how I could go back home - and if by chance someone from Earth did happen to show up in Arconia looking for me, Drake and Zeke would try to send a message to me.

Given how much time had passed though, that seemed highly unlikely.

The only real thing that I felt was left unfinished in Arconia was the issue of that girl - that girl during the Book Fair who had looked like she recognized the language I wrote in before buying two of my grimoires.

But, she had most likely left with the merchant caravan, and so there was practically no hope of finding her now. Maybe I’d see her if I joined the merchant caravan that would be headed back to Arconia once I got to Hitutsa?

And so, it was not without a heavy heart, but I did indeed take the first steps on my new journey as I exited the gates of Arconia.

The Second Bookmark/Volume 2 Epilogue

Several months earlier…

Silas could only curse his luck. He had only managed to make his way into the capital of Meloukas in the first place by having a friend of his smuggle him under a cart, while that friend caused a commotion at the front gates, letting Silas slip past security.

Otherwise, he would have no doubt triggered the guards’ [Demonic Detector] ability.

Now though, the merchant caravan had left the city two weeks ago, and he had been left stranded in the city. His friend had been unable to pull off the same trick twice, and so Silas was on his own when it came to finding a way out.

If he didn’t find a way out he would be eventually discovered and captured.

After searching, he had found a way out of the city… only it was not quite the kind of route he wanted to go down.

The city was surrounded entirely by a wall, which as per his knowledge, had no gaps or crevices from where he could sneak out. But there was a rudimentary sewage system, and at this specific point in the wall there was a place where there was a gap just large enough for a man of his build to slip through on towards the other side.

It must’ve been used for purposes of cleaning or the like given how he found out about it in the first place by eavesdropping on some sewage workers - but that was all just nonsense Silas was trying to think about to avoid thinking too hard about what he was going to do.

Taking a deep breath, he crawled under one of the narrow gaps under the slabs leading into the sewage network.

He nearly gagged immediately at the smell, which seemed to find its way past the wisps of cotton he had tried to stuff into his nostrils in a vain attempt to stop it, though this only lead to him breathing through his mouth…

…meaning he could almost taste some of it.

It was dark, but he had [Night Vision] and was able to, after what felt like an eternity, find the gap he was looking for on the other side and squeeze out of it, finally able to breathe the fresh air of the outside.

No doubt he reeked - and Silas was not normally squeamish or prude - but he did like to keep himself clean if possible. If nothing else, looking like some kind of mutant sewer monster was not very conducive to keeping a low profile.

It was still late into the night and he found himself a nearby stream to submerge himself in, trying his hardest to get rid of the grime that seemed to be eager to cling onto him despite his best efforts.

Though, he only did so after he had made sure what he had brought along with him was safe.

The sun was about to rise once he was done and he needed to get moving, whether he still smelled or not.

There were villages nearby, but he couldn’t stay in one of those.

If they discovered he was a Liberomancer, all sorts of questions would naturally arise, which he would not be able to answer. He was not originally from Meloukas either, and his differing facial features alone would’ve been more than enough to invite a round of questions that he would like to avoid.

Instead he walked for several hours deep into the wilderness until he happened upon the den of a pair of wolves.

Two applications of [Crimson Lance] made swift work of the parents, and as for the cubs, he did not need to waste mana in dealing with them.

Silas was only a Rank One Liberomancer, but [Crimson Lance] carried more than enough offensive power to get him out of nearly any situation he could not evade.

To write it, one had to kill another person with the help of a spear or other lance-like weapon and then use their blood as ink and their skin as paper for the grimoire. Silas had slain a prison guard in another country in order to write the grimoire at the time.

There were other demonic grimoires, like [Dark Hand] that required the victim to be killed by manual throttling, but given his small frame such a task would not have suited someone like Silas.

Some of the demonic grimoires had specific people that needed to be killed in order to make them - many of the Rank Two demonic grimoires required the slaughter of family members. However, Silas had no family, so even if he was able to get to Rank Two one day, he would not be able to make such a grimoire.

Still, even a Rank One demonic spell carried nearly as much offensive power as a Rank Three grimoire in certain scenarios, especially in his line of work.

Once he was sure his hiding place was secure, it was time.

He placed a hand to his chest. “Master… I have something to report.”

He got no answer, but he knew that his master would not answer his beck and call like a common street dog.

It was as night fell, and after he had gorged himself on soft and tender wolf cub meat, that the shadows in the cave intensified.

Something in his heart roared - after all, his heart was not his and his alone anymore.

He had given his heart to the Spirit of Darkness many years ago - back when he had not been known by the name of Silas.

He couldn’t even remember what his original name had been before he had been given that name - he had gone by so many aliases over the years that all of them had a way of blending into each other. He thought his birth name started with R but he wasn’t entirely sure even about something as simple as that.

He prostrated himself. “Master, I have news to report.”

He took out what he had carried out of the capital - a grimoire which he had been carrying in a waterproof wine skin, so that the journey through the sewers had not tainted it whatsoever.

Silas did not have a translating device, but he knew what the title said - Sonnet 95. “I found this, and thought the lettering was similar to what we were looking for, Master.”

The Spirit of Darkness answered him. “Indeed it is. It has been so long, and yet, I still recognize this language as if I had just seen it yesterday.”

Elation rose within Silas’s heart - this meant that all the difficulties he had gone through, including that dive through the sewer, had not been in vain! “So this is truly a language from another world?!”

“Yes it is,” the Spirit of Darkness said. “Did you find out where this grimoire came from?”

“Arconia, a city within Chipker,” Silas said. “The man who was selling this did not know much beyond that.”

There was a sudden flare of the shadows in the cave, as if something had angered the Spirit of Darkness. “I should have known…”

“What happened?” Silas asked.

“Two of our agents within Arconia were killed,” the Darkness replied. “And I have no others within Chipker at the moment.”

The Blood-Emperor was not the first human to give his heart to the Spirit of Darkness in exchange for power, nor would he be the last.

The Spirit of Darkness had a wide network of such people all across the continent, most of them who were demonic Liberomancers, though not all.

Silas’s ‘friend’ who had helped him get into the capital in the first place had been one such person.

“I have a new mission for you then,” the Spirit of Darkness said. “I will attempt to induce a dryad force to deviate from their original course and invade Chipker instead. If we are lucky, they will kill the Otherworlder.” The sacrifice of many innocent human and lizardmen lives was acceptable to him if it would guarantee the death of the Otherworlder. “I do not know how strong he is, however, and in the event that he survives I want you to go down there and kill him.”

The journey to Chipker would be long given that Silas had to go on foot and avoid the busiest roads most of the way, but the impending dryad invasion would also keep them busy while Silas made his move.

“Understood,” Silas said. “Your word is my command, Lord.”

For Silas, there was no greater joy than serving the Spirit of Darkness. The worshippers of Serragnin - that witch (he refused to think of her as a goddess) who had brought much misery to the world; worshipped a false idol.

There were numerous stories of the Spirit of Darkness and Serragnin clashing against each other, though in all of them Serragnin always came on top.

Silas, however, knew a truth that most of the world either did not or refused to believe. That ultimately, it had been the Spirit of Darkness who had beaten and destroyed Serragnin. Stories of her ‘ascending to a higher plane’ were just attempts to explain away her absence from the world passed down by her followers who had not wanted to accept the truth of what had really happened to her.

How did Silas know this when most of the world didn't? The Spirit of Darkness had told him so - and while someone else in Silas’s place might’ve doubted such a tale, given that in its current state, the Spirit of Darkness would struggle to even kill a human infant directly, let alone a Rank Six Liberomancer. There was a reason that Silas had to come here to communicate with his Master after all - there were still those in the world who might be capable of harming him.

Silas could make up reasons as to how it was possible himself - perhaps killing Serragnin had weakened his master to this extent, or his master had done so indirectly much as he had orchestrated the Ruler of the Astral Winds’ demise.

“Another agent of mine works within the University of Hitutsa - when you get there, you can rely on him to help you,” the Spirit of Darkness said. “Tell him - ‘The mountains contain the dangers of rock slides’ to which he will answer ‘And yet the oceans contain the bounty of piles of fish.’ His name is Xin Wu.”

Silas bowed even lower, inscribing those two phrases within his heart.

Although their master, the Darkness, knew all who had given their hearts to him, they, his faithful servants, could not recognize each other without resorting to such tactics. Their master could not be called upon for casual reasons such as confirming identities, and there was also the fact that such things had to be done in utmost secrecy to protect both the Spirit of Darkness and his followers.

Silas was eager to set out once he felt his master’s presence vanish.

He would not fail in this endeavor.

That Otherworlder’s days were numbered!

End of Volume 2 Grimoire List:

Stefan's current repertoire of grimoires:

Rank One

1. A demonic grimoire that grants the spell [Crimson Lance], a powerful offensive demonic spell that can penetrate most defensive spells and skills while striking a single target, and also causes the target to hemorrhage blood after being struck - an effect which is very difficult to treat even with healing magic unless it is Rank Three or higher (this does not apply if the target has no blood, e.g., an inanimate object like a door)

2. Sonnet 95 which gives +1 mana

3. An essay on the properties of water that grants the spell [Create Water]

4. An essay on fire that grants the spell [Create Flame]

5. A short summary of the major organ systems of the human body that grants the spell [Soothe Wounds], a weak healing spell

6. An essay on basic geometry that grants +1 mana

7. A poem Rose had written about Cheddar that gives +1 to Luck

8. An essay on probability, that gives +1 mana

9. An essay on poker that gives +1 to Luck

10. An essay on dice games and gambling that gives +1 to Luck

11. A grimoire from Rob that gives the passive skill [Minor Poison Resistance]

12. A poem Stefan had written back in high school on how much he loved drinking coffee, which gives +1 to Resistance

13. A description of America’s political system that gives +1 to Wisdom

14. A poem he had gotten from Rose that gave +1 mana (He had exchanged Sonnet 95 with her to get this)

15. A manual from Stella that that gave +1 mana

16. A description of how soap was made and worked, that gave the [Clean] spell

17. An essay on various properties of triangles that gave +1 mana

18. A grimoire written by a lizardman whose text was mirrord and gives [Mirrored Slot]. This slot also give +1 to mana (the same effect as the slot before it)

19. A grimoire he had gotten from one of his other coworkers that gives +1 to Charisma

20. An essay on how the stock market worked that gives +1 to Luck

21. A brief history of Egypt that gives +1 to Resistance

22. A description of basic Game Theory that gives +1 to Luck

23. A description of Lanchester’s Law that gives +1 to Wisdom

24. A description of how ranged weapons had evolved from the common bow and arrow to the modern gun that gives +1 to Attack

25. A short essay regarding the sea that gives the [Poissonnier] passive ability

26. A description of how modern banks worked that gives +1 to Luck

27. A summary of The Wizard of Oz that granted [Wizard’s Blessing], a passive ability that lets one cast one spell a day free of its mana cost

28. A grimoire that gives [Summon Red Fox] which allows one to summon a Red Fox once in twenty-four hours. Rank One summons can stay for up to 3 hours or until they are killed. A Liberomancer can normally use a summoning skill of each Rank once every twenty-four hours, but cannot activate two of them at the same time or have two different summons active simultaneously without additional skills.

29. A grimoire written on scented paper that grants the spell [Fragrance]

30. A grimoire of jokes that gives +1 to Luck

Rank Two

1. A grimoire written with invisible ink that grants the spell [Invisibility]

2. A grimoire which Stefan had purchased with granted the spell [Fireball]

3. A grimoire given to him as a prize for winning second place in a tournament that gives the passive skill [Regeneration] which allowed one to slowly regenerate wounds and even lost limbs (though limbs can take weeks to fully grow back)

4. A grimoire on human biology that gives the [Mend Injury] spell

5. A grimoire he had purchased that gives +1 to Wisdom

6. A grimoire on forensics that gives the [Unobstructed Sight] passive ability

7. A grimoire he had purchased that gives +1 mana

8. A section of Romeo & Juliet that gives +1 mana

9. A grimoire he had traded for that gives +1 to Attack

10. Another grimoire he had traded for that gives +1 to Resistance

11. A short biography of Mahatma Gandhi that gives +1 to Wisdom

12. A grimoire that gives [Summoning Extender - Rank One] which increases the duration all summons can be active by an additional one hour

13. A grimoire on stock trading that gives +1 to Luck

14. A grimoire he had purchased that gives the [Miracle Save] ability - once every 24 hours, an attack that would kill the user would instead drop them to a sliver of health

15. A grimoire on the Elephant Frog that gives the [Summon Elephant Frog] skill. Rank Two summons can exist for up to six hours or until they are killed.

16. A grimoire describing the Spirit Festival that gives +1 mana

17. An essay on some points about sailing that gives the [Water Lungs] skill, letting one breathe underwater for up to one hour total each day

18. A grimoire from one of his coworkers that gives +1 mana

19. A grimoire from my coworkers that gives +1 to Attack

20. A grimoire from my coworkers that gives +1 to Speed

21. A grimoire from Lauren’s shop that gives the [Paper Armor] passive ability - every 24 hours it would completely negate the damage done by the first attack that struck the user

22. A grimoire that gives [Summon Bear]

23. The grimoire Lauren left for him personally that gave +1 to Charisma

24. A grimoire Mark gave him upon termination of his employment which granted the passive skill [Longshot] which increased the range of all spells by ten percent

25. A short summary of points about the Elephant Frog that gives +1 to Luck

26. A grimoire that gives [Second Summon - Rank Two] giving the user a second use of a Rank Two summoning skill in twenty-four hours, though both summons cannot exist simultaneously without another skill that would allow this to happen, nor does this allow one to bring back a summon if it had been killed

27. A grimoire that gives the spell [Fish Haul] that can generate an amount of fish whose quantity is influence by one's Luck stat. Synergizes with [Poissonnier] as the nutritional value and taste of said fish can be increased, else they taste like garbage and have very little nutritional value.

28. A description of the basics of trigonometry which gives +1 to mana

29. An description of how islands were formed from underwater volcanos, that gave +1 to Wisdom

30. A grimoire gifted to him by Lauren which gives [Summoning Extender - Rank Two] which increases the duration that all summons can be active by an additional two hours

Rank Three

1. Charlotte's Web which grants the skill [Summon Tyrant Arachnea]. Rank Three summons can exist in the world for up to nine hours

2. The plot of Sharknado which grants the spell [Shark Tornado], a mixed wind and water elemental spell whose effect is greatly reduced if not used over water

3. Hei Nan's grimoire which grants the spell [Grand Fireball], a powerful area-of-effect fire elemental spell that synergizes well with [Summon Tyrant Arachnea]

Volume 3: The Journey to Hitutsa (Chapter One)

As I exited the city, it was time to bring out my ride.

If I had found a way to fly, I probably could’ve been at the capital within two days, but despite all of my best efforts I’d been unable to on that part. I’d tried writing about flying birds, horses, even something about Amelia Earhart, but those grimoires had all turned to dust. Trying to make new Rank Three grimoires was a massive investment, meaning that each failure took nearly a month to write and it really stung when it didn’t work out. Both for the fact that I’d failed again, and also because I’d spend the next week thinking about all the other things that I could’ve accomplished during that period of time.

Long story short, flying was out of the picture. I hadn’t brought a cart or horse with me though, because I didn’t need either of them. I carried my mount with me all the time.

[Summon Bear], I thought, and a monstrous creature appeared next to me. While summoning you could choose some of your summon’s attributes to a degree like color, gender, and size - though you couldn’t ask for something which broke the limits of what that creature was capable of. I had summoned the largest, strongest, and fastest bear that I could summon. But I couldn’t, for example, summon a bear with pink fur as bears did not have pink fur. Not even in this world.

Bears in this world were not all that different from bears on Earth, sure, they were much bigger and apparently their fur and hide was a bit thicker, such that they were somewhat resistant, but not immune, to many melee weapons. Not to mention they were also slightly stronger and swifter than you’d expect, even considering their larger size, so there might have been some magical augmentation to their physical abilities as well.

Other than those tiny things though, they really didn’t have any special magical abilities like the Tyrant Arachena’s immunity to fire - not that they really needed any. This was a species which had been honed by thousands of years of evolutionary pressure to become a natural killing machine. In a straight up fight, it would without a doubt massacre an Elephant Frog despite both of them being Rank Two summons, though an Elephant Frog could just hop away to safety if it ever happened to chance upon a bear.

So what was this mountain of murderous strength and wicked claws doing right now?

It was trying to act cute.

It immediately stuck out its tongue once I summoned it, before rolling over as if expecting a belly rub.

Cheddar did the same thing whenever he thought that I was going to leave home in a ploy to get me to stay longer.

That was why it was behaving like a small puppy - because a summon’s job was to serve its summoner, and it thought that by doing so, it would make me happy.

It wasn’t wrong, but we had a schedule we were on, and even with my grimoires which increase the time it could stay active, there was still a total time limit of nine hours that it could stay in this world.

“Look, we’re busy, no time for belly rubs,” I said to it.

It gave me a sad look and tried to look as pitiful as possible - which wasn’t very successful given how terrifying it otherwise was, but I am sad to admit that it still worked on me somewhat.

“Fine! Just for five minutes though!” I began rubbing its belly. “Who’s a good boy? That’s right, you are!”

It began letting out grunts of happiness, trying to imitate Cheddar once again, though it could not given its voice box was far removed from a tiny puppy’s.

If anyone saw us they would no doubt start doubting what they were seeing, possibly wondering if they were hallucinating. If anything, I felt that this was one of the strangest things that I had done while in this world.

While rubbing its belly, I couldn’t help but notice just how massive and sharp its claws were - yikes! If I had been told this was a domesticated pet who had been raised all its life to never lay a finger on humans, there would still be no chance I would go anywhere near it.

But, summons were bound by several rules - the chief one was ‘you will not hurt your summoner!’

That's why I could do something like this without fearing for my safety; without worrying that it might accidentally tear my head off or something with a careless swipe.

“Alright, that’s enough, let’s get this saddle on you,” I said. I had had this saddle custom-made for a bear its size, and being a summon, it readily cooperated as I put it on.

I would be riding it for several days, and I wanted to be comfortable. It also had some extra attachments which helped me tie the rest of my stuff to the bear’s back.

“Alright, let’s head out!” I said, as it began trotting forward at a comfortable, but still swift pace.

We must’ve been quite a sight - though bears were a common summoning option in this part of this world, so most people would’ve realized how it was that I could ride a bear and be so relaxed while doing so. I wore my purple sash proudly, easily identifying myself as a Master Liberomancer to anyone with eyes to see.

Banditry was far more common now, even with the governor doing his best to stamp it out - but I had no doubt that because of the simple fact that I was riding a bear, no one would dare try anything.

When the above thought came into my head, I sighed.

No!

The quickest way to die in Libraria was to think that you were invincible. Granny Qi’s words echoed from before when she had been warning me about something like this.

The Ruler of the Astral Winds was far stronger than I was now, but had still been blindsided and then slain by the Blood-Emperor.

Forget him, Drake was stronger than I was, but during the siege, a lucky hit to the head had knocked him out unconscious - during which his powers and abilities were useless. He might’ve died if I hadn’t leapt off the wall in order to save him.

No matter how strong you were, you could always be taken by surprise.

That’s why I had realized that [Paper Armor] was actually far more useful of a defensive ability than I had previously thought - mainly because it did not need conscious activation, and it stopped a single blow, no matter how powerful it was.

Say, for example, that I had learned how to use [Ansoon’s Blessing] rather than being an idiot and allowing it to be damaged beyond repair during the siege - on paper it was a far stronger defensive ability as it made you invulnerable for an entire minute, regardless of how many strikes you took.

The issue remained that it required conscious activation, and would not do anything say, if someone had already stabbed you in the chest while you were distracted and had not activated it yet.

As I thought of this, I retrieved my helmet and decided to put it on. It was made of wood and not steel, but did provide a good deal of protection nonetheless. A blow to the head that could potentially kill or incapacitate me was something I’d like to avoid, given I had seen firsthand just how devastating it had been when it happened to Drake.

I had bought a set of leather jerkin armor, which also included a wooden chest piece.

It would’ve definitely been better if I wore full plate armor - but the most exerting job I had ever performed prior to coming here had been as a coffee shop barista. There was no way that I could handle moving around in plate armor without training.

Sure, I had been here for a year and I could’ve tried some training or practicing to get used to a set - but I had found it more important to focus on getting better at Liberomancy. As it was I could not have afforded a full set of plate armor until I had reached Rank Three, so I wouldn’t have had much time to practice with it regardless.

Still, the main reason for the leather jerkin and the helmet was so that my vital areas would have some degree of protection, during which I could buy time for one of my summons to become a defensive wall for me while I struck back at the enemy. Or, if overwhelmed, used [Invisibility] to get away.

As it was, [Regeneration] should’ve eventually taken care of any non-fatal injuries, though hopefully it would never come to that.

It was due to all of these considerations that it was far safer to travel in groups, and traveling with something like a merchant caravan was the best but I couldn’t possibly wait for the time that it would take to come back to Arconia. Who even knew if they would come back next year either - there were still some dryads wandering around, so there was a tiny chance they might decide to skip Chipker next year as well.

We made very good time, and managed to reach Granny Qi’s village before the allotted nine hours was up.

The village wasn’t exactly on the direct route to the capital, but I had wanted to drop by to settle some things so taking a minor detour wasn’t a major issue.

I found the leader of the mercenaries I had hired, and handed him a bag of coins. “Here - sorry some of the pay was late, but I got it just like I’d told you.”

“Many thanks, Master Liberomancer,” he said in response.

“Any issues around here?”

“No, as a matter of fact, there have been many rumors spreading around saying there is a Rank Three Liberomancer in this area, so no one troubles us,” he said with a tiny smile. “And… we might’ve had a hand in making sure those rumors were spread as much as possible.”

I nodded. “Good - if it’ll help keep you guys safe, it’s fine.”

I assured Suki Tang that I had left enough funds to pay the guard’s salaries for the next six months, as well as a tiny amount for a village emergency fund. I was sure that Granny Qi wouldn’t let them fall on hard times either should all of that run out.

“We should be able to start farming for the fall season,” she told me. “By then we’ll be ready, and by this time next year it will almost be like nothing had ever happened.”

The reason the village could recover so quickly was thanks to a massive amount of external support - namely from Granny Qi and I, but I was more than happy to do so.

If anything, I wished I could’ve done even more and lent out a hand to the other villages around Arconia as well, but there was a limit to what I could accomplish on my lonesome.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 45-47

The time had come which I had been eagerly anticipating - rewards were being handed out for people’s contributions during the war!

It turned out that Lance was very generous with the reward he had given me - one hundred thousand Denarii. The bulk of it was because I had saved his son, but I appreciated the amount nonetheless.

A good portion of it went towards helping rebuild Granny Qi’s village - when I gave her the money for the grimoire she had given me that taught [Grand Fireball] she looked very angry and seemed to want to reject the money.

“What’s wrong with you, boy?” Granny Qi demanded. “Did your mother also demand that you pay her back for breast feeding you? Don’t insult me by handing me this!”

I ended up convincing her only after saying that she could use it to better take care of the village.

I didn’t accept most of it in coins, the Liberomancer’s Guild was more than happy to credit an account under my name with the appropriate amount, functioning as bankers - and that too with no processing fee.

That would make keeping money around far easier, at least while I was in Chipker. I was planning on visiting the capital while I left and headed towards Hansini - the king had wanted to congratulate me personally, and I did not want to risk offending royalty by saying ‘no’ to that.

I decided that one of my specializations would be summoner - I didn’t know if I wanted to pick up a second specialization later or not, but summoning just felt right somehow.

I picked up [Second Summon- Rank Two] a Rank Two skill that let one make two summons which were Rank Two every twenty-four hours instead of the usual one - they had to be different creatures, and they couldn’t be active at the same time. There were also skills like [Second Summon- Rank Three] and [Triple Summon- Rank Two] but none of them were available in Arconia right now.

I got [Summon Red Fox] which was a Rank One summoning skill - the red fox was not very useful combat-wise but could be used for tracking, going into places I was too small to go into otherwise, or simply watching over me while I fell asleep. I needed a Rank One summoning skill for some of the grimoires I intended to add later, and also - the thing was just really adorable and could even be summoned inside a city without much issue.

I did need another Rank Two summoning skill to make [Second Summon- Rank Two] work, and I chose [Summon Bear] for that purpose. The bear was a far better offensive option than the Elephant Frog, though not as good when it came to mobility.

I also bought [Summoning Extender- Rank One] which increased the length of time that summons could be active by one hour each.

There were other grimoires I wanted, and not just ones which could grant you the ability to fly (I would likely only get that in Hitutsa or some other country rather than in Chipker).

There was the Rank Two [Twin Summons] ability that let you have two summons active at the same time, Rank Two [Shared Souls] which let summons share the stat boosts, buffs, and other beneficial properties of the summoner, and Rank Three [Recall Summon] which let you re-summon a creature if it had been killed without waiting for the cool down period to be over in twenty-four hours from when it had first been summoned.

However, using [Recall Summon] still counted as making another summon and would therefore need a [Second Summon] skill of that Rank.

While summons were very useful and could be effective even if you had a small mana pool, the issue was that they were generally lacking in both offensive power and range when compared to other skills and spells.

As an example, it would have taken several minutes for the Tyrant Arachnea to have killed those bandits if I had so wanted to, while a single [Grand Fireball] would do so instantly.

If there had been more of them, say, like fifty, it would have been a problem for the Tyrant Arachnea, but [Grand Fireball] would’ve once again, come in clutch. The combo I used on the dryads wasn’t as effective on other races. Additionally, most summons had to get up close to their target to actually do damage or had very limited range, while the range of corresponding spells of the same Rank were usually far greater.

That was why nearly all Liberomancers did use summons, but mainly as meat shields to protect themselves while they cast spells which did the actual damage.

‘There is no strongest spell, only the strongest spellcaster!’

There was no objectively best specialization after all, each and every thing had its own drawbacks and strengths. Even the choice of not specializing at all came with its own perks and downsides.

If there was a video game based off of this world out there somewhere - and there was a PvP option, without a doubt summoners would be considered trash in that kind of meta, while elementalists would no doubt dominate it. Of course, the world was not PvP. Things were usually quite cordial between Liberomancers, on the contrary, and the odds were minimal that I would end up in an actual fight with one.

Still, I still had a few useful offensive options which I thought were good enough, and I could always become an elementalist as my second specialization - I just wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do that, or just get a variety of generally useful spells.

I was beginning to feel the constraints of only having thirty slots for every Rank - before, it had felt like thirty slots was an enormous number when I was scrambling around trying to fill them in as fast as possible to get to the next Rank.

Now though, it was apparent how limiting it was when it came to deciding what you wanted to learn. There were a number of spells or skills I wanted or thought could be occasionally useful, but I knew that I just wouldn’t have room for all of them.

Was there a way to expand the number of slots in a Rank? No one had ever found a way to do so as of yet so far as I knew, and not even in stories like those about the Ruler of the Astral Winds could you find a mention of a grimoire that did that, so it was highly likely it was just impossible.

There was a Rank One grimoire that gave [Extra Slot] which would create another Rank One slot after the slot it was assigned to, but given the fact that it itself did nothing this was of limited use as the effective number of slots was the same. And sadly, even if you used it on the thirtieth Rank One slot that you had, it would not give you an extra Rank Two slot - that might’ve been useful, but the skill just didn’t work that way. It would just end up doing nothing if assigned to your last slot.

Fact of the matter was, I had reached the peak of where I could hope to realistically get to, speaking in terms of Rank - unless something extremely fortunate happened like me finally being able to charge up my phone, or I spent decades in Libraria, which I had no intention of doing.

The only way to really get ‘stronger’ at this point was to fine-tune my build.

Fully specializing, however, had to wait given I couldn’t get a good number of the grimoires I wanted for even my main specialization of summoner.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a drought in the grimoire market, especially with Rank Three grimoires, given all Liberomancers had been busy defending the city, but that was part of why I thought it was okay to delay leaving for a while. I wanted to be as ready as possible when I finally left.

They did find a grimoire that gave [Ansoon’s Blessing] - but this was in the capital, though they agreed to buy it for me and keep it in the capital so I could pick it up whenever I dropped by there.

“Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?” I intoned while giving the red fox in my lap a belly rub. It rolled around happily, until I heard Granny Qi’s voice from downstairs.

“Stefan, someone’s here to meet you!”

The red fox got out of my lap and leapt onto the floor.

“Wha-” I began to say, shocked.

The way that it had moved while jumping, landing on its feet, right paw forward, one of its ears slightly bent, and mouth slightly agape - it was like it had been possessed by Cheddar’s ghost!

I had seen Cheddar strike the exact same pose countless times. The imitation was so perfect that I momentarily forgot that there was someone waiting for me downstairs.

Of course, I soon realized what was going on.

Summons shared memories and knowledge with their summoners - and were also designed to serve their summoners in any way they could. They would, without a single breath’s hesitation, sacrifice their lives for their summoners.

And so, it must have detected how Cheddar acted from my memories and was doing its best to mimic the same - because it thought it would cheer me up.

It did initially - but I knew this was eventually going to be followed by an even stronger wave of sadness when the summoning time was over and it returned to whatever void summoned creatures did when they disappeared from the world.

The fox, no matter how hard it tried, could not actually be Cheddar. It was just a section of my own mind which was inhabiting the body of a fox, after all, when you got down to it.

This was no different than replacing Cheddar with a virtual dog with a similar personality - it could not live up to the real thing.

“Stefan - it’s rude to leave your guests waiting!” Granny Qi shouted.

“Ah - sorry, I was just finishing something,” I answered as I flew down the stairs to see who it was. As I saw the form of a lizardman out of the corner of my eye, I thought it might be Drake or Zeke who had dropped by for a visit, but when I turned my head it was someone who I had not been expecting to see me.

“Lauren?”

“Good evening, Master Stefan,” Lauren answered. She was seated on the sofa, though much like with Zeke, she seemed rather uncomfortable given its size and proportions which were not meant for a lizardman’s derriere.

“What brings you here?” I asked. I hadn’t seen her in a long time - not since that meeting all the way back before the siege, come to think of it. We had been assigned to different sections of the wall and afterwards there really was little that would bring us together. “Uh, first, can I get you something to eat? Or drink?”

“N-No,” she said. “I came just to see how you were doing…”

“Right…” I said.

I didn’t buy that as the actual reason as to why she was here for a minute, but what could I do? Yell ‘Liar!’ at her face?

We tried to make some small talk, but that was a bit difficult given that about two minutes in I realized just how little I knew about her.

She had been my employer for almost a year, but during that time we had had almost no contact. I always talked about things through Mark, a middleman, and after I had ‘resigned’ I supposed that we could talk about our shared experience while fighting during the siege… but that wasn’t exactly pleasant to relive or reminisce about.

“Ah, coming to the main topic at hand,” she finally said after what felt like way too long. “I… I realize upon reflecting right now that it wasn’t the correct decision for me to have pressured you into leaving. I’m quite happy to see that you’ve…” she paused for a moment while the red fox approached me and I tossed it a snack. It caught it in one swift motion - just like Cheddar had done in his younger days. Recently though, Cheddar didn’t seem to have the same energy or reflexes he used to, and just ate things once they hit the floor. It was just a sign he was getting on in years…

…I shook my head. I had to believe that I could get back home before Cheddar passed away!

“...succeeded, but it is rather obvious you succeeded in spite of what I did not because of it,” Lauren said. “And I wanted to make sure there were no hard feeling between us.”

Oh - I then realized what Lauren was here for now. I had kind of led her on the fact that I might be mad at her before - but then the siege and all had happened, and now that things had settled down, she seemed to think that it was better to speak to me rather than it coming to bite her in the future.

“Lauren, I understand why you had to do it,” I told her. “And I think you made the right choice in your position, for what it’s worth.”

Sure, back on Earth, a boss who behaved the way Lauren did would be sued into oblivion - but we were not back on Earth. And hey, things on Earth hadn’t always been this way, had they?

If anything, my reasoning back then during the meeting seemed rather immature given the severity of the siege that had followed and I was rather ashamed of how I had behaved.

There was no way for Lauren to have known in advance that I’d become a Master Liberomancer so soon - or that I would’ve gained such a fearsome reputation in the future. “What did bother me was that you had sent Mark to explain it all, instead of telling me yourself. Or even giving me a simple farewell yourself.”

It was this fact that personally stung me the most. That she hadn’t even bothered to look me in the eye before she kicked me out.

“Ah, yes, that…” she was at a loss for words - and I knew the truth of the matter was that she wanted to say ‘it was not worth my time.’

And when it happened, it was true, it was not worth her time; as most other Rank Three Liberomancers would also feel, to explain themselves to a low-level employee.

My status as a foreigner, and not being a lizardman at the time when there was quite a bit of friction between the two species, meant there was little I could do to protest such a thing. Of course, she couldn’t very well say that now, could she?

Again, I did not appreciate the action, but I got why it was done. “Regardless, let’s forget about all of that. I’m not going to spend time here in Arconia for much longer as it is - I’m leaving the city, and I’d rather we not end this time on bitter terms. I had been planning to sort of throw a party with my other coworkers - even at the same restaurant we had been to once - I think you know the one. I had told Rose about it, but she had never gotten back to me. Why don’t you and the rest of the shop’s employees join me for a party before I leave?”

It was my way of saying that there were no hard feelings. And it was true, I was leaving, and I didn’t see the point in prolonging this spat between the two of us for no reason.

“That would… I think that would be a fine idea,” she said with a weak smile. “Ah, how about next week?”

I wasn’t really doing anything nowadays other than hoping a good grimoire might show up, making preparations to leave, and working on my own Rank Three grimoires, so any time was basically fine with me.

“Fine with me,” I said.

“And… just as a mark of appreciation for what you’ve done…” she said, as she reached into a bag she had brought along and handed me a grimoire - Rank Two no less. “…I had heard through the grapevine you were collecting grimoires related to summoning. This is a Rank Two grimoire that gives [Summoning Extender - Rank Two]. It increases the duration that summons can be active by two hours, in addition to the one hour provided by [Summoning Extender- Rank One], though you have to have the Rank One version before you can use this.”

I opened up a page - it was written in a language I hadn’t seen before. “Where did you get this?”

“From the Book Fair six years ago - I had wanted to sell it or use it at a later time, but I’m not a dedicated summoner, and I ended up forgetting about it until now. You won’t find a copy of that in all of Chipker though, I wager, and it should be helpful to you,” she said.

It was indeed quite helpful - with this a Rank One summon could exist for six hours, a Rank Two for nine hours, and a Rank Three for twelve hours.

Much of the headache regarding using my summons was the fact that I had to be careful when their time ran out - and this gave them a lot more time to exist in this world.

“How much for this?”

“Oh, don’t worry about the price.”

“I… can’t really accept something like this for free,” I said to her. I hadn’t asked for anything and just offered to throw a party to bury the hatchet because I also sort of felt guilty letting a personal issue fester instead of just coming clean during a time the entire city was in danger. “You’re already doing me a favor by selling it to me and not someone else…” There was also the matter that I didn’t want to feel like I owed Lauren a favor that she might try and cash in on somewhere later down the line - I was leaving Arconia, but that wouldn’t be for a few weeks at least, and I didn’t want to gain the reputation of someone who had bilked a favor.

By offering to pay at least a nominal price for the grimoire, it was easier to justify later if I didn’t want to go along with something she was suggesting.

Reputation was everything after all - that was why she was doing all of this in the first place, but it also cut both ways. I had gained quite a bit of a noble reputation from my actions - but conversely that made it all the easier to ruin it as well. The bigger they are, the harder they fall - as they say. And I didn’t want to have people think I was using my newfound reputation to extort favors from other people.

I found myself in the strange position of having to haggle the price upwards rather than downward, though we did finally come to an agreement.

I took the grimoire and wished her a good day as she left, after which I sighed and sank into the sofa.

The red fox, noticing my mood, jumped into my lap and let out a happy yelp.

“Sure, sure,” I said while rubbing it behind the ears.

The party took place next week, at the same restaurant as before - we even sat down at the same table, though two new guests joined this time around.

One was a red-scaled lizardman who had recently joined the shop, and the other was Lauren.

This didn't make up for the fact that there were four people missing who had originally been here - they were not dead, thankfully, but had either moved on from her shop or were simply unable to attend.

Looking back on how it went, I kind of thought it was a bit of a let down.

I had wanted the celebration to sort of be a way for us to have one last good time together before I left, but… things just weren’t the way they were before.

There was always an air of awkwardness hanging above us throughout the whole time.

For one, Lauren was with us this time - and as with most company parties, people couldn’t really act the way they wanted to with their boss around.

I could tell they were all intimidated by me to some extent - either because of the fame I’d gotten from the recent siege, or because I was a Master Liberomancer. I wouldn’t have minded if they had just treated me like any other coworker like they had before, but they didn’t seem to be able to do so. Even Rose seemed distant and quiet, only giving the bare minimum of formal small talk and nothing else unless I directly asked her a question.

Not even Lauren treated me like just another guy - so I guess it was too much to expect that of everyone else.

The only one who behaved even remotely like they had before was Mark, surprisingly enough.

I even tried ordering some wine to see if the alcohol might loosen some lips, but everyone barely drank any.

I couldn’t say that the whole thing had been a total failure - but it felt so stiff and formal, and lifeless. Like an actual office party - which this technically was, but that hadn’t been the vibe last time.

The vision I’d had of us laughing and cheering together, putting all our troubles behind us, was nothing but a fading dream it turns out.

Still, I hoped it had done what I had wanted it to - and that was to go some way to smoothing things over between all of us.

And although I had initially been disappointed with what had happened; I got a pleasant surprise regarding the party two days after it was over that brightened my spirits.

“What happened?” I asked the red fox I’d summoned. It had suddenly woken up from taking a nap on my bed (thankfully it did not wet itself like Cheddar occasionally had recently) and started glaring out the window. “What’s out the - oh?”

There was an odd bird that was sort of like a pelican - there was another name for it but that was in the lizardmen language and so I had trouble remembering that; and just thought of it as a pelican. Its feathers were more brightly colored, and its wingspan slightly smaller, but the resemblance to a pelican was still quite apparent.

Where had I seen this one before? It looked familiar, but why had it come near my window? It was then that I saw the small packet attached to its leg.

Right!

This was Rose’s summon!

When I realized that the strange bird was sent by Rose, my red fox stopped glaring out the window and backed off as I opened it to let it in. The bird very obediently offered its leg and for me to untie the packet attached to its leg, after which it flew off.

Within the packet was a letter - I had to take it to someone to read what it said, but it was basically a written ‘thank you’ for everything, and a wish for good luck on my journey ahead.

That message on top was written by Rose - I recognized her handwriting, but there were signatures from everyone in the shop with small messages like ‘Good luck!’ and ‘Nice to work with you!’ beneath that.

The red fox’s tail was wagging with excitement. “You’re pretty happy to see this too, aren’t you?” I asked, before folding up the letter and keeping it somewhere safe.

After the party with my coworkers was done though, I made it a point to decline most invitations as I had to work hard to get things to head out; and to plan out what the actual route of my journey was going to be in the first place.

Regarding money - the Liberomancer’s Guild did offer banking facilities as well as a way to sell my grimoires even if I wasn’t here physically - I don’t know if they offered such services to non-Liberomancers or not, but they were willing to keep the Rank Three grimoires I had made, sell them on my behalf, and then credit me with the cash which could be used in other cities where they had ties.

It was a lot safer than carrying actual money with me on the way to other places, though I was more concerned that something might happen to the grimoires I had made after what had already happened during the fighting of the siege. I did not want another grimoire to be ruined because of my carelessness.

As for where I was planning to go after going to the capital, I got a few ideas from Zeke.

I had dropped by his office one time when he was free, mainly because we were going over his earlier offer to help arrange a grimoire for me that would help me fly.

“Here,” he said, handing me a letter. “If you give this to a Professor Hebei at the University of Hitutsa, he should be able to help. If you can’t find the professor, just hand it to the librarian who runs the special library for Rank Three Liberomancers there - he will also be able to help you out.” He then paused. “I know many people must’ve asked you this, but are you really set on going? Is there nothing I could offer you to stay? I am sure that if you asked for it, the king would be happy to grant you a title and lands for your work - and if not, I would petition my father on your behalf. You could work your way up the ranks even if you never made a Rank Four grimoire.”

I gave him a tired smile. Drake had also tried to convince me to stay - but when I told him why I had to leave, he understood and dropped the matter entirely. Zeke was a bit more persistent, but my answer was the same. “The only thing that you can offer me which is truly valuable - well, if I got that… I’m looking for a way back home above all, and if I were to get that, I would go back home - not stay here.”

“Can you tell me more about how you came here?”

I narrated things for his benefit once again.

“So, that was it? You had no message or indication of where you were going?” Zeke asked.

“No,” I said.

“And does something like this happen often in your world?”

“People getting pulled into different realities? No, I’ve heard of people going missing without explanation though. I’ve heard stories of things like this - but there usually is a purpose to why people are pulled. As for me? I can’t think of a purpose to have been brought to this world for.”

Zeke chuckled. “You helped save our city - and I owe my brother’s life to your bravery. Surely that would be good enough of a reason?”

“If that were true, you’d think I’d be able to go home now then,” I answered.

Zeke tried a different tactic. “What do you think you’ll find in the rest of the world? You did come to this… place through a passageway, correct? Wouldn’t the gateway back, if it exists, naturally open somewhere here rather than in some other corner of the world?”

“It hasn’t till now,” I said.

“Another place would be quite dangerous - you at the very least have a support base here,” he countered.

“Yes, but there are things I need to check out in other places,” I told him.

“Like what?”

“I want to try to see if I can go to Hansini after I go to Hitutsa,” I told him. That had been my original plan.

“Hansini? Why?”

“Maybe this might sound crazy… but I think that the Ruler of the Astral Winds was also someone from my world,” I said. It had been something I had been pondering for a while, and it made more sense the more I thought about it.

“...why would you think so?” Zeke asked, rather baffled. He hadn’t expected that kind of answer.

“...he rose to power rather suddenly,” I said, finding it hard to put it in a way that Zeke would understand. “Which would be extremely hard - and all the stories say that he did all these things that no one before him had done - I find it hard to believe that he accomplished that on his own. It might be more likely that … he was from my world. And he had somehow managed to arrive here with more resources.”

I had been in a library before I was brought here - and if I had the library’s full collection with me right now, Rank Five would not be a pipe dream.

There was another reason, though I didn’t mention this as it was even harder to convey to someone like Zeke. The Ruler of the Astral Winds, had, to put it mildly, behaved like a complete psychopath at many instances throughout his life. His behavior deviated extremely from what was considered to be acceptable for a Liberomancer. He stole, lied, and did anything needed to crawl his way to the top. Once he was invincible, he did whatever he pleased - his motto in life seemed to be ‘might makes right’ rather than ‘treat others the way you wish to be treated.’

But what if there was a reasonable explanation for this behavior? If you had come from Earth, and thought that this world wasn’t real, or was some kind of video game - you might not hesitate to do whatever was needed in order to ‘level up.’ You might even see the people of this world as nothing more than NPCs or conclude that they weren’t ‘real.’

From that point of view, his actions could make sense, even if I did not see things that way.

“The people of this world are not idiots, Stefan,” Zeke responded, sounding slightly offended.

“No, I don’t mean it like that- it’s just that,” I began. “It would be so much easier for someone to do it if they had the resources of my world with them. Didn’t you suspect me because you thought it was odd that I could make two new Rank Three grimoires? How much less believable is it that he not only made several of his Rank Four grimoires himself, but a good number of Rank Five ones as well?”

Zeke had little to offer as a retort. “Are the libraries of your world that valuable?”

I took out my smartphone. “I had actually wanted to see if you could help me with something else.” I explained what my phone did and that I wanted to find a way to charge it.

I hadn’t been able to make a grimoire that could do that. As for trying to do it some other way - I could try to make something like a battery with some chemicals and if I had some metal to use as a wire, the only issue was how to connect it to my phone in a way that would charge it instead of blowing it to bits and pieces.

I didn’t even have a charger, so I’d have to try to make a port myself.

How could I possibly do that? Even something as simple as a charger was made with the efforts of people all over the globe back on Earth - what hope did I have to accomplish it on my own in this kind of world?

“You’re telling me there is an entire library in this thing?” he asked, picking it up.

I nodded. “I’ve been looking for a way to charge its battery, but I can’t.” I realized he probably didn’t understand what I meant, so I elaborated. “It’s like trying to make a fire, you wouldn’t cast [Grand Fireball] to do that, right, you’d use [Create Flame]? This device also works on energy, a form of electricity, but it has to be the right amount or else it will break.”

Zeke stared at it for a while before saying, “I haven’t the slightest clue how you would do such a thing; I’m sorry. Maybe if you found a lightning elementalist they could - but… I don’t think even one of them could do what you’re describing.”

I didn’t have much hope on that front either - but maybe I’d find someone in the University of Hitutsa who could help me out?

“The Ruler of the Astral Winds huh…” Zeke said, a sudden shift in energy in his voice. “I don’t know if this would help you but…” He took out a key from a different cabinet to open up a drawer on his desk. “I might as well hand this over to you then.”

“...sorry, what is this?” I asked. It was a piece of old paper with letters I could not recognize, and some other pieces of paper that had the writing of the lizardmen on it.

“Back when I was a student in Hitutsa,” Zeke began. “I was with a group of friends and we would often spend our time looking for historical artifacts that might have been forgotten or lost - you know, sometimes you’d find a peasant using a priceless historical vase as a flower pot, for example. We found an antique box like that gathering dust somewhere, and it had this map within it - at least, that is what we figured it showed. It shows directions to someplace near Hansini. The box was dated back to the times when the Ruler of the Astral Winds governed that region…” There was an excitement in his voice I’d never heard from him before. Unlike Drake, he was rather good at maintaining a poker face, but that had cracked considerably right now. He was clearly quite passionate about this piece of paper. “What could it lead to? The box was valuable, clearly, and I hoped beyond hope that it might’ve lead to a library that he owned.”

“A library - like a stash of grimoires?”

“Exactly!” Zeke said. “Think about it - he had died quite suddenly, and had not even set up a designated inheritor for his empire if he passed away, because he probably thought that he would live forever. He must’ve kept a stash of some of his grimoires- definitely the Rank Four ones, and possibly some Rank Five ones! But no one found anything like that. What if… this leads to a location that might have some treasure of his!?”

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 42-44

Everyone in the city was waiting for the raiding party to come back successfully, and the next week, they did return successfully indeed; thankfully with minimal casualties. The raiding party had wide smiles on their faces as they walked back into the city triumphant.

They recounted how the two armies had trapped the dryads between two hills, finding the perfect position to sourround them while the Liberomancers rained down fire upon them until nothing but ashes remained.

If we had been more prepared for the dryad threat, we could have done this from the beginning and avoided most of the large-scale destruction that had occurred. But again, something along these lines had never happened before, though whether or not Chipker would need to consider this in the future was something that remained to be discussed.

The cost of preparing for a potential dryad invasion in the future would be high - Hitutsa could attest to that, though the cost of ignoring that kind of problem would be even higher. That, however, was an issue for people far above me in the administrative ladder to consider.

The important thing was that the threat of the dryads was over. Or at least the major threat was taken care of for now. There would be pockets of them in Chipker for a while that monster hunters like Zhen Liu would take care of, but that could take months if not years to do.

Time…

That was what the city really needed to recover from what had happened.

The issue that the humans had been pressing the lizardmen on - a death penalty for that particular lizardman who had killed a human in a drunken fit - was dropped entirely. Many of them couldn’t even remember what it was that had caused the initial friction in the first place.

“People are like that,” Granny Qi told me as I mentioned such. “But just you watch - give them another six months, and this unity will be forgotten and they’ll be back at each other’s throats for something else.”

“Yeah,” I said.

I could tell that her family wanted to go back to their village - or whatever would’ve remained of it. Many people had already left the city the moment the army had come back as much of the threat had been eliminated - but it wasn’t like the outside world was completely safe now.

“Master Liberomancer,” Suki Tang asked me. “I hate to burden you any further, but we would like to return to our village - though we do not know what lies for us out there. If we had someone like you to help us initially…”

They didn’t have to say any more, because both Granny Qi and I set out in a few days to help them rebuild.

I had told Zeke I was resigning from my position, and after some mumbling he agreed that it wasn’t really needed anymore.

My reservations had been about being caught between the two sides because of that job turned out to be needless worrying on my end. My newfound reputation made me a hero to both sides, something the bat hadn’t been able to do.

We set out, a huge line of about twenty wagons, back towards her village with the Elephant Frog at the head of the column.

The outside world had changed quite a bit due to the dryad invasion even if the full extent of it was not completely evident from just atop the walls.

A lot of the roads had been damaged to the point that they were nearly untraversable to the wagons. Perhaps this was not intentionally, but by the sheer volume of traffic that had passed over them. The ones which were paved were mostly alright, but a good portion of the roads were made of dirt and mud, and those had transformed into what could generously be described as piles of wet mud.

Any crops that had been planted were uprooted and had withered away long ago.

Any farm animals that had been left behind; of which there were many since only a limited amount could be brought into Arconia, had been slain and drained of their blood by the dryads. Their carcasses littered the ground around us, and we would occasionally find one blocking the road.

Many of the animals brought into the city unfortunately also had to be culled as they couldn’t be fed properly and also to feed their owners. All of this was going to be a problem now as there was going to be a huge shortage of them in the future.

Occasionally, we would run into other people who had also just left the city, or had somehow managed to hide somewhere in the wilderness away from the dryads. Many of the survivors were extremely haggard, barely clutching on to life, and could only be discerned from some of the corpses that littered the ground by the fact that they might occasionally twitch or gasp for air. You could see many of their rib cages very prominently along with their other bones - it reminded me of some of the photographs you’d see back on Earth of people who had survived severe famines.

The villagers carefully inspected such people to see if they were alive or not, though the stench of a rotting corpse was rather apparent once one got close enough. The survivors had delirious expressions even as they were offered a few drops of water, most of them being too sickly to speak more than a few words.

We accepted those people onto the carts, and carried them with us towards the village after I worked a bit of healing magic. I didn’t need to use [Fish Haul] - we had stocked up well before heading out, though how things would be once we got to the village would be a different story.

As it was, even now, I had to preserve a good portion of my mana in case we were attacked.

We weren’t - though we did also find the occasional animal who had escaped the wrath of the dryads as well. We found two pigs and a cow wandering off the trail who looked lost, which the villagers eagerly caught.

Given they had no marks to prove who owned them before, they were taken as the village’s property - which I found kind of suspect, but then again I had no idea how the law would’ve handled something like this so I did not object.

As for the various human bodies we found, I wasn’t sure what to do with them. The city guard or some other government body would have to round them up, and see if anyone recognized who they were. Those that couldn’t be identified would be buried by the city. There were just too many of them for us to deal with.

While we didn’t run into any dryads, a bear did pass by dangerously close before it lost interest and wandered somewhere else.

If it hadn’t, I’d have been forced to kill it. The Tyrant Arachnea would have been more than a match for it - it had uses other than being lit on fire and with its deadly venom alone the bear wouldn’t have stood much of a chance.

Because we were traveling while being burdened with a long train of carts and the like, we were not able to reach the village by nightfall and had to make camp.

We found a somewhat elevated hill in the afternoon, and decided to set up our camp there. We arranged the wagons in a protective circle and started a fire in the middle.

Dinner was fish again, and though I got some looks asking me to show off my [Poissonnier] skill, the thing was that I had to decline for now. I wanted to conserve my energy, because someone needed to keep watch at night - and I knew that it was likely that I would be woken up even after my watch was over because I was the only person who could deal with a large threat.

I turned out to be right, as once I fell asleep after my initial watch, someone shook me after what felt like only five minutes, saying that they thought they saw a dryad in the distance.

I got up, my [Unobstructed Sight] coming in handy here.

“That’s not a dryad, that’s just a normal tree,” I told them.

“Wait - are you sure?” the villager asked, concerned.

“Yes, I am, I would see movement with these eyes of mine if it was a dryad,” I told him. It was likely that in the darkness, and with how on edge most people were, that his eyes were just playing tricks on him. He did not have my night vision ability, after all. I yawned. “I’ll be heading back to sleep for now.”

Nothing else happened overnight, thankfully, and we started on our journey again.

Now that the roads were in a lot worse shape than they were in the city, the wagons began having extreme problems, oftentimes becoming stuck and requiring a group of people to pull them out. It wasn’t that the dryads had caused more damage here, but rather that the roads there were more ill-maintained in the first place.

With all of that said, we did end up reaching the village - or where the village was supposed to be late in the evening on the second day.

The village was almost unrecognizable - Suki Tang’s house was mostly intact thanks to the fact that it was mostly constructed from bricks, but the houses that had been less well-built, which included the vast majority of them, had been completely destroyed by the dryads likely while they were scrounging for food.

Many of the villagers burst into tears at the sight of their ruined homes. Some of them had nothing more than an empty plot of land to remind them of what had once been the place where they had lived in relative peace for what was likely their entire lives.

The fields fared no better - I doubted that the dryads had destroyed them intentionally, but with the mere passing of so many of them through these areas, the crops were all ruined, and the fields would need a large amount of work to get them ready for the next harvest.

The walls, which had been rather suspect even when I had come here before with Ganny Qi during the Spirit Festival, were just a few isolated stacks of bricks two or three bricks high now.

Assessing the situation, their first priority needed to be repairing the wall if they wanted to survive out here.

The dryads by now would be quite weak from having been starved, and a single rogue one could be defeated by even a group of farmhands with ease. However, they would still need some layer of protection, not just from the dryads but wild animals as well.

Even Suki Tang’s house, on closer inspection, was not as intact as I’d thought. One wing of it had all but collapsed, and another area was almost uninhabitable. Small vermin like rats and mice were everywhere, having successfully infiltrated and seized Granny Qi’s family home.

‘This is less a village than two or three broken-down houses in the middle of the woods,’ I thought to myself. We had repulsed the enemy, but scars like these would blemish the countryside as a reminder of the terror that had struck this land. The contrast between when I had last visited with Granny Qi and now couldn’t have been more evident - whether you spoke of the village itself or the villager’s morale.

The villagers began working trying to make something of a makeshift wall, which was probably going to take at least a week to finish.

“How is our food supply?” I asked Granny Qi. Once the place was secure, that was the next most pressing concern.

“We can go and restock in the city,” she told me. “But what we have should last us for at least three weeks - don’t worry too much about food, there are also some streams nearby.”

I wasn’t sure about the streams and how many fish they would have right now - I was sure the dryads would’ve over-fished from them. But hopefully with time the fish would repopulate. Also, humans had ways of fishing the dryads likely couldn’t replicate, so maybe there was a group of fish living deep within the rivers that the villagers could grab.

I ended up staying there in the village along with Granny Qi for a total of two weeks. I didn’t really mind the time spent out here, because while I wanted to head out away from Arconia, there were other things that I had to settle first in the city before I embarked on that kind of journey.

I worked on a new Rank Three grimoire I was writing whenever I had free time and wasn’t helping the villagers out with something or the other.

Two incidents of note occurred during my stay.

One was that a dryad was spotted far away - that was it, a singular dryad, who moved rather sluggishly. While it had been fortunate enough to escape from the main army sent after the dryads, it had barely managed to cling onto life.

Although its appearance caused a large amount of panic, it was weakened to the point where I thought the villagers could easily take care of it without me. A single [Fireball] ended its pitiful existence- I honestly felt bad looking at its state even as it tried to crawl away pathetically when I approached it, but knew that there was no negotiating with it or use in keeping it prisoner.

If I let it go, or fed it, it would end up attacking humans sometime later on.

In a way, this was a kindness given that I was saving it from a slow and what was probably a painful death while its body parts withered away from lack of blood.

That had been easy enough to handle, and by the end of the first week the wall was back up and fixed to a state that it would keep any large threats out. The remaining gaps were mended hastily by a wooden fence, but again, the purpose of it was mainly to stop any threat from just waltzing into the village. The villagers still kept a tight watch, of course, but it served as a passable deterrent.

The second major incident occurred four nights after encountering the dryad.

I was deep asleep when I felt someone shaking me. “Just a while longer…” I mumbled, though the person in question didn’t give up.

“Master Liberomancer! Please wake up! Bandits!”

The last words stuck out to me even in my slumber, and I leapt out of bed, trying to get rid of the dreamy haze from my mind as quickly as possible. In a further attempt to snap me out of my sleepy stupor, I used [Create Water] and splashed some of it on my face.

Feeling fully awake now, I glanced out the window.

I had been given a room on the second floor this time, simply because it made it easier to scout things from here, and also because my range with Rank Three magic was at the point where I could snipe most things, if need be, from this place without even having to leave the house.

I saw a group of fifteen men standing outside the village walls. I could make out that some of them were carrying weapons and that some of them were wearing plate armor - though none of them had a full set on. Their loose organization and uneven distribution of weapons and gear meant that they hadn’t been sent by the city.

“Bandits…” I hissed under my breath.

I flew downstairs and ran out the front door, stopping by the hastily-replaced front gate to the village.

The bandits were standing in a group a bit of a distance away, and had sent an ‘emissary’ it seemed. The other villagers had panicked looks, but calmed down considerably once they saw me.

“What’s going on?” I asked one of them.

“They approached us ten minutes ago, demanding we open the gate and let them take whatever they wanted,” one of them told me.

Some of the bandits were carrying swords, or axes, but most of them were carrying the spears that had been distributed to the conscripts.

In short, these were probably conscripts who had been dismissed from duty and had turned to banditry for various reasons. They were supposed to return the weapons they were holding back to the city once they had been dismissed from service, but that was hardly the biggest crime they were committing so why would they be bothered with that. If you were going to turn to thievery as a means of supporting yourself, of course you’d be an idiot to give up your weapon.

“What’s the holdup?” the one standing at the gate yelled out.

I decided to take things into my own hands. “I am the leader of this village. Why are you here?”

“Are you people daft or just deaf? Didn’t we just tell ‘ya what we wanted? Open up the gate, and let us have some food, money, and we’ll be on our merry way and no one needs to get hurt,” he said.

I heard voices from behind him.

“Ugh, let’s just tear down the gate, boss.”

“If it wasn’t for that damned wall we could’ve already been inside…”

“It isn’t all too sturdy - hey, a couple of us could climb through that part over there…”

“I wouldn’t mind taking the company of a lady or two while we’re in there - whaddya say lads?”

“Shut up-!”

“They were smart enough to set up a watch and might be armed.”

“What’re you afraid of? These are backwater peasants, little more than cattle carrying pitchforks at most, don’t tell me that-”

I sighed. I should’ve just cast [Grand Fireball] on them from my window and been done with it. I hadn’t, deciding to give them the benefit of the doubt that they might have a legitimate reason for being there. I also hadn’t killed a human since coming to this world - the dryads were somewhat excusable in my mind, and I didn’t want to start now.

“Listen- you idiots do realize that you’re threatening a Liberomancer here, aren’t you?” I yelled out back. “Drop your weapons, surrender yourselves as prisoners, and you can keep your lives!”

There was silence after my shout.

“Liberomancer-”

“-magic-”

I couldn’t catch much more than a few hushed words after that.

It was doubtful that these people had a Liberomancer on their side, else they wouldn’t have had to resort to thievery in the first place. And if they did have one; certainly not one above Rank Two.

Could there be a demonic Liberomancer among them? There was the slightest possibility of that. I didn’t have any skills that could detect demonic grimoires, so I couldn’t tell for certain.

“Heck - do you think we were born yesterday?” the reply finally came from the other side. “Why’d there be a Liberomancer in a place like this? Next you’ll tell me the king and his family are here too! I’m losing my patience now, open up or- ARGGGH!”

The scream came as the Tyrant Arachnea leapt over the walls and onto the man. It was best to avoid [Fireball] given how close they were to the gate as it would be caught up in the blast radius as well. That was just one of the drawbacks to fire elemental magic.

[Summon Tyrant Arachnea] was also the best skill I had if I wanted to try to take people alive. It was able to produce multiple kinds of venom, including one that paralyzed but did not kill its prey so long as it was injected in small amounts.

On top of that, its silk was nearly as strong as steel, and it often wrapped up its prey to save them for later consumption.

Perfect for taking prisoners!

Screams echoed from outside, and I could feel the Tyrant Arachnea taking damage. It was not much, but still annoying.

“Oi! You idiots - if you kill my summon, I am going to kill all of you, you know that right? Drop your weapons and surrender!” I yelled out.

I still wanted to avoid killing them if possible.

I felt a tug on my mind from the Tyrant Arachnea - it had neutralized most of the threats outside, but four of them had run away.

It wanted to know whether or not it should chase after them.

I told it to do so, but that it should wrap up the others very securely before it did so. Once it scampered off after those who had run away, I said, “Open up the gate, and bring the prisoners inside.”

It had wrapped them all up but left them free just enough so that they could breathe - only their faces were visible through the thick coat of silk that surrounded them. They could not so much as wiggle their fingers however, and I knew that many of them had had small doses paralytic venom injected into them.

With the Tyrant Arachnea’s speed, it would no doubt catch the other four who had run away. It could see well enough at night and had other senses to rely upon, so darkness was not an issue. I did not even need to command it as it could complete this mission all on its own agency.

Meanwhile, several of the villagers moved to comply with what I had just said.

The bandits were either begging for mercy or weeping.

By now, Suki Tang and Granny Qi had come outside, as well as the rest of the village.

“What’s going on?” Suki Tang asked.

“Robbers and thieves,” I said, kicking one of them. “Who are all of you?” When he didn’t reply, I leaned closer to the man. “Speak, or I’ll have my spider devour each of you one by one. Do you know how it is that spiders eat their prey? It’s quite a fascinating process really, though I don’t think people like you would know the details. They don’t swallow or eat their prey like normal animals - they first inject them with digestive fluids until their meal is slowly broken down before they pick it apart slowly and then ingest it. Do you want that to happen to you?”

At least three of them had apparently pissed themselves at my description from the smell of things. I wrinkled my nose but continued to speak in a threatening, dark, tone. “If you want to avoid that - then talk!”

“We’ll talk! We’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! Just don’t do that!”

They were quite eager to spill the beans once I had finished my threat.

“Okay,” I said, and walked over to one of them who looked like he could still speak. Some of them had been injected with so much paralytic venom that they couldn’t get their words our right without slurring half of them. “What’s your name- and why are you running with these folk?”

“M’name’s Guo Fu - please let us go, sir, we meant nothin’ by all this- we just-” a light kick stopped his mumbling.

“Answer the question. Why did you decide to rob this village?”

“Sir, we were let go from the army, and came back to find ruined fields,” he said. “We had no choice, sir, and decided to take our chances…”

I sighed. That was about what I had expected - and sadly this was an easily foreseeable but hard to solve problem. People, after the siege was over, would realize that they didn’t exactly have a rosy future ahead - but some of them still had the weapons they had been lent.

And many would decide that banditry was better than potentially starving or toiling fruitlessly.

These people had evidently thought the same, and assumed that a village like this would be an easy target.

My Tyrant Arachnea came back, carrying four more prisoners with it. Those who were already tied up shuddered - while most of them couldn’t turn their heads to see it, there was no way they would mistake the way the earth shook as the giant spider approached.

“What should we do with them?” I asked Suki Tang. Back on Earth you would’ve just called the police - but I didn’t know how it worked here. Was there a local sheriff or magistrate that we could send these people to?

“I say we slit their throats,” one of the villagers said. “They wouldn’t have hesitated if it was us on the other end, now then would they?”

“No sirs we would never hurt nobody we only wanted some food and-”

“Then you would have us starve to death instead!” the villager answered.

There were murmurs of agreement from the other villagers.

I couldn’t blame them for feeling that way - they had also come back home to ruined fields, but they hadn’t gone around trying to rob other people like these people. And they were right, if I hadn’t been here, these bandits likely would have had no problem either outright killing these villagers or stealing so much from them that they would have no further future.

I don’t think anyone would’ve even questioned it if we did decide to take the law into our own hands like that - as it was, it was easy enough to claim self-defense and with so many witnesses agreeing on what happened, what could the courts do?

But, I couldn’t exactly condone that kind of thinking. “Is there a local magistrate in the area we can hand them over to?”

Suki Tang shook her head. “When conflicts arise within the village, usually the elders pass down their decision together. For such things like outside thieves, we handle them ourselves - but such a thing on such a scale…”

“…hasn’t happened before,” Granny Qi said. “At least in living memory.”

I sighed.

So there was no precedent.

“Alright then, I say that we don’t stain our own hands here,” I said. “Let’s keep them tied up, we’ll drive them towards the city tomorrow morning, and dump them for the city guard to deal with them.”

It was here that my reputation was more of a hindrance than a help. The truth of the matter was that I didn’t really know much of what I was doing - it was the right thing to do by my own reckoning and with the way laws worked back on Earth, but this was a different world with different rules.

My thinking might have been very wrong - the issue was that when they saw me, a ‘Master Liberomancer’ say something, they assumed I was right.

Even if they had some doubts or wanted to dissent, a lot of them would not speak up and bury those thoughts within their hearts. And they might’ve even been correct if they chose to oppose me - but I would never know unless they spoke up, would I?

I turned to Granny Qi - as I was sure that at the very least, she would give me an honest opinion on my plan. “It seems well enough,” was what she told me. “And he has a point: let us not stain our own hands by stooping to their level.”

That settled it, though afterwards no one seemed to fall asleep. I saw many of them pacing around the perimeter of the village, or looking outside the gate to see if there was anyone else who was coming.

I knew why they were so agitated - it was one thing to be attacked by a dryad, but another to see a group of humans try to attack you, people who were supposed to be working with you, was far more disturbing. Especially given that the dryads were gone, but the people within would continue to live. And these bandits were unlikely to be the last.

My summon went to hide in the nearby wilderness, almost blending in completely under the cover of darkness. I could make it out even among the trees - but that was because I always knew where it was through our mental link together. Otherwise, even with [Unobstructed Sight] I think I might have had some problems finding it.

But I was actually glad that it was out of sight, and not just because it could easily ambush anyone stupid enough to attack us.

I didn’t feel as attached to the Tyrant Arachnea as I did to the Elephant Frog - and that was for a rather superficial reason - because it was terrifying to look at even when it wasn’t on fire. It, unlike the frog, did not appear cute whatsoever. I knew people back home who kept pet spiders like tarantulas and the like, but I had never really understood that kind of craze. I could also tell that its presence made the other villagers uncomfortable as well, in a way that the Elephant Frog just didn’t.

Daybreak came, and we loaded up the prisoners onto a wagon like they were sacks of potatoes before setting off.

The city guard did end up taking them, and from what I had heard, they were likely going to be hung till death.

Which, given what they had attempted to do, I really couldn’t argue against. Perhaps we indeed would have saved everyone some trouble if we had just done such ourselves - but at least now we were sure we had done the right thing.

However, I now had another thing to worry about while rebuilding the village. I didn’t want something like this to happen again, so I ended up hiring ten guards in the city - people who, much like the bandits, were out of work and could not return to their farms.

For now, their pay was in arrears until I got the reward that Zeke had promised me for my contributions in the war, or whenever I sold the Rank Three grimoire I had, but many of them were fine so long as their bellies were full for now.

The people we had rescued, numbering half a dozen in total, were beginning to recover and could start to walk around. They should’ve been able to be mostly functional within a few weeks. My magic could only do so much, I did not have the extra funds to hire a healer at the time.

With that, our time in the village drew to a close without further incident and Granny Qi and I returned back home.

We didn’t encounter any dryads on the final trip back either, but we remained ever vigilant, as Granny Qi reminded me - you could never let your guard down.

Back in the city, there were a lot of celebrations now that the place was less congested and people were getting back to business.

Being one of the most famous figures during the war, I had been invited to so many celebrations, from both lizardmen and humans, that there would have to have been a dozen copies of me if I wanted to attend all of the ones that I was invited to.

I did attend a few of them - like one that was held by Master Jiah Pei.

He had set up a large celebration in the bookstore that his family owned - it was similar to the other one I’d been to, but the people were far more appreciative of my presence. “Ah, come meet my family,” Master Jiah Pei said, and introduced me not only to his entire family, whose names I almost immediately forgot after he told me, but also some other important human Liberomancers.

Everyone wanted to talk to me - the hero who had distinguished himself during the fight, and I had ended up shaking so many hands that my own felt numb.

“So, I heard you’re leaving Arconia,” Master Jiah Pei told me as things were winding up.

I don’t know where he’d heard it from, but I guess my preparations to leave by this time had been obvious enough for word to get out. “Yes.”

He sighed. “I would’ve liked for you to stay - but, I guess you’re leaving for your own reasons. Whatever they are.” He did not make any further attempt to dissuade me from leaving. Had Lance told him about Earth and where I came from? That seemed highly unlikely. “There is a final bit of advice I’d like to give you - if you’re open to hearing it. I want you to remember that magic is everywhere. We Liberomancers - we like to pretend that we’re masters of the universe because we can write a few lines on paper and cast a few spells. But magic existed long before even the spoken word did, and it will exist long after we’re gone. Be it the magic that magical beasts can use, the wild magic out in the natural world, or the spirits - we are but big fish in a small pond. The Ruler of the Astral Winds considered himself to be a world-conquering emperor, but was undone by the machinations of the Spirit of Darkness. Be careful when you go out there.”

I nodded - not entirely sure what he was getting at, but feeling that parts of it did sound profound.

I did make a note to meet with the other Master Liberomancers in the city afterwards, though these were less memorable and almost seemed to blur together in a sea of faces and greetings.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 39-41

The sudden shift in tone was something I was not prepared for. He had gone from being nice and gracious to being furious in the span of what seemed like a sentence. “I- I don’t follow. Lie in what regard?”

“Where you come from,” he said with a cold hiss. “I know for a fact that you are hiding your country of origin. I know for a fact that you appeared here in Arconia without going through the traditional means such as through the gate and without declaring yourself. I know for a fact that it is impossible for a person to make two original Rank Three grimoires one after another. I do not know what you are hiding, but you have not been truthful with me or with the Liberomancer’s Guild.” He then relaxed a little. “I have kept my eye on you for a while, wondering what it was that you were up to. I could not openly move against you given your title and a lack of concrete evidence. But, I do not wish to be deceived any longer.”

He sighed and sank in his chair. He had always seemed energetic whenever I had spoken to him, but I could see the weight of everything going on right now written across his reptilian features. “Whatever crime that you have been accused of - or did commit, I do not think that there is anything that cannot be forgiven. Or that a person - human or lizardman - should be condemned for life for a single action. As governor, you have saved my son’s life which is a debt I intend to repay, and I can assist you in getting a pardon, or ensuring that you have a life free from whatever shackles bound you in the past. But, I want the truth and I’m tired of beating around the bush. You have my word that in lieu of your recent actions, clemency will be granted. However, I want an actual answer. Answer me!”

There was a finality to his last words- this was an order. If I wanted to, I probably could weasel my way out of this situation, or deflect it- I doubt that he, even as governor, would want people thinking he had attacked or gone against the ‘hero’ who had saved his son.

However, I had already told Drake about several things- his head injury might’ve caused him to forget it, but I doubted that given what I’d heard regarding his injuries.

And so, Lance was the second person I told the truth to. It was far better that he heard the actual story than think I had assassinated someone in some other country.

However, this clearly had not been what he had been expecting to hear as an answer.

He probably wanted to hear some sort of story of odd political intrigue or maybe of me sleeping with some princess and being chased out of a country, but the only thing he could muster up when I had finished telling him the actual story was, “Could you please repeat all of that?”

I ended up telling him the whole story three times over with him asking questions in the middle to make sure it was consistent before he said, “...and this is the truth?”

“You can ask your son - I had told him the same thing I told you, asking him to tell my family if they ever found a way here,” I said. “Coming to that, have you ever heard of something like this happening before? I’ve been looking for a way back to my own world, but nothing of the sort has appeared. I can’t find such a story in any song or legend. I couldn’t ask about it directly, but now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak…”

“I have never heard of such a thing happening,” he said. “...they did not have grimoires in your world?”

“No, no magic either,” I told him. “So it beats me as to how I ended up here in the first place.”

I wasn’t sure whether Lance believed me or not, but he didn’t seem to want to waste any more time on this and said, “Alright then, I uh… thank you again for your service.”

He probably wanted to say something else, but he likely found himself at a loss for words- something I bet rarely happened to him.

I left, but before I headed home there were some things I wanted to check up on.

For one, I wanted to know whether or not Jiah Pei made it out alive - and after inquiring a bit I was told that yes, he had.

Secondly, I wanted to see if I could visit Drake myself. He was being kept in what had been made into a sort of private ward for him; and I asked his guards if I could be allowed to see him. I was initially told that he wanted no visitors, but a flourish of my sash, my title, and asking politely if they were sure given who I was made them reconsider this.

One of them went inside, likely to ask Drake, and then came back out saying I could go visit him.

Drake was not alone in the room, there was Zeke along with him. The two brothers noticed me immediately upon walking in.

“Good morning,” I said tiredly. I really wanted to go home and get some sleep, but I just felt like I had to check in on him if I could.

I owed him that much.

I didn’t see any bandages on his head where the spear had struck him, but then again, magic could heal without leaving a single scar. Even if the other healers were preoccupied elsewhere, it was highly likely Zeke, Lance, or even Drake himself had some sort of skill or spell for scars.

“Good morning!” Drake called out. “Come take a seat here - I wanted to thank you in person.”

“No need,” I said. As I walked over, Zeke got up and gave me a tiny bow.

“Thank you for what you did for my younger brother-”

“Whoa there, seriously you’re embarrassing me, there’s no need for this kind of ceremony-”

“-only there most certainly is,” Zeke said.

“So you’re fine now?” I asked Drake.

“A bit sore, but I’ll get better,” Drake said. “Main thing is that we managed to win, am I right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Listen… about what I had told you earlier… I just wanted to let you know that it was all true.” I didn’t know if he had treated it as a joke before, but I needed him to understand that I had been fully serious. Otherwise it could cause me problems in the future - granted, it could end up causing me problems anyway, but it would be worse if Lance thought I was lying.

Drake nodded. “I mean, I did consider initially that it was just some yarn to make me forget the stress of battle, but I saw your expression and tone - plus you wouldn’t lie about something like that right before a battle.”

“Make up what?” Zeke asked.

“I’ll explain later,” I told him. “If Drake doesn’t want to do it now - but it’s not important. I just came by to make sure Drake was fine.” Something then occurred to me. “Also, Zeke, sorry - this is a strange thing to ask- but do you happen to have another copy of the grimoire that you gave me that gave [Ansoon’s Blessing]?”

“Why?” Zeke asked.

I pulled out what remained of the grimoire.

Both Zeke and Drake recoiled at the sight - given how valuable grimoires were, any one would’ve reacted that way to seeing one being destroyed. Grimoires were the lifeblood of Liberomancers. To see so much work and effort go up in flames - it was a true tragedy, and for anyone to let this happen to a grimoire was nearly unforgivable.

It would have been one thing to see your work destroyed if it had been assimilated by someone - that was the purpose of making a grimoire in the first place after all.

But this was little better than burning it out in the open, even if it had been completely unintentional on my part.

“I uh, had it in my armor and wasn’t able to keep it somewhere safe before the fight,” I told him. “It ended up taking a spear or claw or something.” Honestly there was a part of me that would’ve preferred to have been injured than have the grimoire damaged. “Of course, I’ll pay for the second copy, but I just wanted to know if there was another one on hand…”

“Master Stefan, I mean, just Stefan,” Drake said. “Did this happen while you were trying to rescue me?”

In truth I had no idea - did someone manage to strike me while on the wall, or while I was down there for a brief period of time rescuing Drake?

If I told them that it had happened while rescuing Drake, they would have definitely gotten me a replacement - I might not have even needed to pay for the replacement.

If I admitted that it might be my fault, they might decline that request. And [Ansoon’s Blessing] was in my opinion, too useful to pass up.

But, I felt like I couldn’t in good faith do something like that. “I… really don’t know. The battle was so chaotic, it could’ve been at any time.”

Zeke sighed. “The author of that lives in the capital - if you don’t mind going on a short journey, I can set things up for you to reserve a grimoire from her. I don’t have any other copies right now, but you could ask the Liberomancer’s Guild if there’s someone else in the city who happens to have one.”

“That would be appreciated,” I said. “Yeah… sorry about getting it damaged like that.”

Zeke shook his head. “You shouldn’t have brought it with you to the wall in the first place. I’m almost done reading the one you gave me, and I had the foresight not to take it with me to battle.”

“I know, I know,” I said. “I just- there was free time on the walls and I read parts of it while on them.” I really needed to be more careful with these things in the future, especially if I ended up getting a one-of-a-kind sort of grimoire like one that would help you fly. I hadn’t forgotten about that, and would hold Zeke to his word of helping me get it, but I would deal with all of that later. I yawned. “Sorry, I really need to get some rest, and I’m sure you need it more than me.”

Drake laughed. “Right, I think we’ve all earned a good night’s- or even a good week’s rest for now.”

‘Amen to that,’ I thought.

I was not religious, but I could certainly agree with that sentiment!

There was however, one thing I wanted to ask about before going back home.

“Do you know what the plan is to deal with the dryads?” I asked. No matter how tired I was, I wanted to at least be in on that part. The dryad horde, though broken in discipline, had not been completely annihilated.

Zeke answered, “The capital will have its forces ready soon, and with their forces cut in half, I think we will be riding forth in about a week or so to eradicate what remains of their army. I don’t think they are dumb enough to try to attack again, but if so, we are more than prepared to repel them. With their numbers whittled down now, they have no chance of breaching the walls.”

“Good,” I said.

“Before you leave,” Drake said, “please give me a moment to express my sincerest apologies.”

“For what? Oh, if you mean that incident back in that restaurant, I’ve already pretty much forgotten about it already you don’t have to-”

“No, not that,” Drake said. He looked askance at his brother as if contemplating whether or not he should continue before saying, “I- we, were suspecting you of being a demonic Liberomancer.”

“Brother, you don’t need to-” Zeke began.

“-no, I think I should,” Drake said. “We thought it was rather suspicious that you so coincidentally knew about the two before they were killed off earlier last year, and you just so happened to decide to use that demonic grimoire. I… thought with the other things that were off about you that this had been something cleverly orchestrated by you, so that you’d have an alibi as to why you had a demonic grimoire.”

“Huh, your father didn’t mention that earlier,” I said. The two of them started a bit when I mentioned him. “Oh, nothing major - he just wanted to know what was going on and stuff - I told him the same thing I told you Drake.”

Zeke was still lost, but I reassured him that it was nothing urgent. If he wanted to, I’d tell him everything myself just so that there was no confusion.

Because right then, I felt like I was going to fall asleep right where I was standing.

I wandered off, found my carriage, and took it back to the palace where there was a room for me. All the work that had piled up till this point - well, I would deal with it later.

I went to sleep almost immediately, and then woke up at some point late in the evening, feeling hungry.

The amount of fish that [Fish Haul] made was dependent on your Luck stat, which is how I ended up making far more than I needed given my investment into Luck before. Whatever - I’d given them off to someone, there were likely still many people on half-filled stomachs in Arconia.

I prepared it myself in the kitchen - I got a few strange looks but no one stopped me. Once I was finished eating and distributed what remained, I went back to sleep.

I felt leagues better when I woke up the next day.

The work that had piled up wasn’t as much as I’d initially feared, thankfully enough - and my new position would likely be dissolved as I didn’t really think it was needed anymore.

The city was indeed planning to go after the dryads, who by now were basically nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

They had asked me to remain behind in the city, not including me as a part of the raiding force. Either they trusted me a lot and wanted me to guard the city as they didn’t want to risk one of their new ‘heroes’ dying out on the field; or that spiel I had given to Lance made him think I was insane and not trustworthy in the open field.

I had watched the force that was assembled to take out the remaining dryads leave the city - it consisted of twenty thousand ordinary soldiers and about sixty percent of the city’s Liberomancers.

The force seemed rather small, at least I thought so, though I was told that the force from the capital was larger simply because the dryad army was closer to the capital right now.

“Ah, I think it’s better if you stay,” Drake explained before heading out when I asked him why they weren’t taking me along. Noticeably, Zeke was not with him. If I had to wager, Lance didn’t want to send both of his sons out to battle at the same time. “The dryads seem to fear your spider combo, and my brother hasn’t mastered it yet. Having so many of the city’s Liberomancers leave might lead to some of our residents feeling unsafe. The people will sleep far more soundly knowing that someone like you is still in the city to watch over them. With both you and my father here, the remaining dryads have no chance of seizing the city.”

“Alright then, fine,” I said.

“Ah - I didn’t think that you would agree that quickly. I thought that you might protest more and challenge me to a duel in order to come with us!” Drake placed a hand over his chest in mock shock.

I shrugged. “I don’t go looking for danger, you know. If I can be safe here, so be it.” Not to mention he had a point - there were lots of civilians in Arconia who needed to be watched over and reassured that they were still being guarded. Such as Granny Qi. It would do no one any good if the raiding party left only to find the city had been taken while they were away.

Drake chuckled. “Well, stay safe then, my friend!”

“I should be the one saying that,” I said, praying that he would come back safe. “I’m amazed your father is letting you go knowing… well, you know, what happened.”

Drake shook his head. “Ah, danger is inherent to being a ruler. This is a chance to prove myself, and I wanted to take it. Even if I die, my father still has Zeke with him to carry on the family line…” he trailed off with a hint of melancholy in his voice. “...ah, but don’t you worry, we are sallying out with a large force, and I will have walls of soldiers to guard my back and front. We will catch them off-guard and return back without losing a single soldier!”

I doubted that was possible, but I nodded and wished him luck once again.

I revisited that memory as time stretched on and we waited for the army to return.

Meanwhile, there was still a lot of work that had to be done within the city.

One thing that made me quite happy was to know that the casualty figures were on the lower side - slightly over nine hundred were dead.

At first, I hadn’t believed those numbers.

Don’t get me wrong, I was glad that casualty numbers had remained so low despite the scale of the fighting, it was just that it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that in a battle involving nearly a hundred thousand on the enemy side, and thirty thousand on ours, that there had been little under a thousand in casualties.

Every death was of course, a tragedy - the main reason that so many of us had survived was because thanks to healing magic many men who would’ve died lived, and that most of the killing was done by Liberomancers at a distance.

By now, the city had entered somewhat of a festive mood. The enemy wasn’t fully gone and the people who came couldn’t return to their homes - yet, but the bulk of the fighting was over and life would hopefully return to normal soon enough.

It could potentially take decades for some of the rural areas to recover and rebuild, but the first steps towards recovery would begin once it was deemed safe enough for people to finally return to their villages.

The dryad army had not retreated as one large mass - most of them had gone as far away as possible, but a few of them had broken off from the main herd and were likely lurking around the city. They would need to be stamped out before people could start to leave.

Two days later, there was a funeral for all who had died during the fighting. The number had seemed small before, but upon seeing so many funeral services, I couldn’t really continue to think so without feeling like an immense amount of guilt within myself.

The humans cremated their dead, while the lizardmen let the bodies drift off into the ocean.

There were two separate large funeral services for the species, though people from both sides attended both of them. I was one of the people who saw both - the families burning their dead, and others pushing them out into the sea. Both services were filled with the tears and lamentations of family members who had lost their loved ones.

Most of the people who had died had been ordinary people - not Liberomancers, even when accounting for the fact that Liberomancers made a proportionately smaller portion of the population.

The casualties among Liberomancers were barely above double digits - because they had not occupied the most dangerous positions during the fight, because they had defensive and healing abilities, and because they had access to better defensive equipment.

If I was in a normal person’s shoes, I might’ve felt quite a bit of resentment at the Liberomancers for such a thing. For one, they exploited the normal people economically in various subtle ways, justifying it as necessary so that they could work for the welfare of the people in case any kind of catastrophe occurred. And yet, when such a catastrophe had occurred, they had been the ones who had lost the least!

And yet, I encountered nothing of the sort whenever I roamed the streets of the city.

I had already been somewhat famous within Arconia - being the youngest Master Liberomancer in the city’s history, having a demonic spell legally, and being a foreigner to boot - but now, I was something of a war hero on top of that.

Everywhere I went, people approached me with awe and respect - two things that I did not feel I deserved nor something I had thought I had earned.

Speaking of things I hadn’t earned - Lance had not done anything up till now to revoke my title of Master Liberomancer despite what I had told him. I could think of a few reasons why he wouldn’t.

One was simply because, in a way, I was not lying. As far as anyone knew - the grimoires I had written were new to this world, so what did it matter if they were based off stories from back on Earth?

How you wrote something was what made writing stand out of course - that was why reading the synopsis of a novel was not the same as reading the novel. If, for example, there was a well-known epic tale that was being passed around, some people might try to make it into a grimoire - like they had done with the story of Lady Ansoon.

But only one of them might succeed- perhaps his prose or other skills were better than the others. Such a person would still be considered to have written an entirely new grimoire, and worthy of the title of Master Liberomancer if it had been a Rank Three one.

Or maybe Lance just hadn’t believed what I had told him, but had no real explanation to give to the guild.

He could also simply be trying to save face given he had openly supported me earlier and wouldn’t want people knowing about this. I had saved his son’s life, so I suspected that might have factored into him just ignoring things and letting me continue to keep my title.

As for the rest of Arconia, they thought that indeed, I was some kind of once-in-a-thousand years genius because of the two Rank Three grimoires that I had ‘created.’ A situation that was made worse (or better, depending on how you looked at it), by my actions during the siege.

Stories of what I had done had already spread far and wide- they were calling me ‘The Spider King of Arconia’ for the way I had used my summon. It was better than being called the ‘Frog Whisperer’ but not by much.

No one seemed to mention the part where I had passed out - so it looked like they either didn’t care, or had spun it as ‘Stefan Dawson had fought with everything he had until he passed out from exhaustion.’ It certainly sounded better that way than it had seemed in my head.

The stories of what I had done were embellished every time they were told and retold - there were some people who said that not only had I killed over ten thousand dryads, but that I had done so with a single spell. I thought that the six thousand number that had been thrown about beforehand was already far too generous - but there was little I could do but correct some people. Before you knew it they might be saying that I repelled the entire dryad army on my own.

I guess stories like this always have a way of getting out of hand.

Maybe the Ruler of the Astral Winds could take out ten thousand of them with one spell, but I sure couldn’t. Still, a lot of the common folk did not understand Liberomancy that well, only that we were weird people with even weirder powers - so they swallowed such stories, even if they were untrue.

And I suppose that was also why they held no disdain for the Liberomancers- sure, many of them had died, but they must’ve realized that the casualties would’ve been far higher if we had not been around. The walls might even have been breached had it not been for our magic that saved the day.

And that was why they treated someone like me- who had contributed quite a bunch, and also jumped into the enemy formation to save a friend, like I was a hero straight out of an epic.

I certainly didn’t feel like a hero though- I felt very tired and sore, and my dreams were still filled with shattered memories of the dryad’s last assault. The screams, smoke, magic, pain, everything - it all formed a broken, tangled mess in my head as I slept and relived seeing the expressions of people as the light slowly left their eyes along with the general sense of terror that had gripped me during that time.

How did people describe great battles like this?

Glorious? Valiant? Spectacular?

I felt it had been like none of those things - it had been chaotic, oppressive, messy, and horrifying. Back when I was a kid, I had dreams of fighting as a solider or somewhere in a fantasy world, but this had been far removed from those childhood fantasies of mine where everything was clean and easy and once the enemy was defeated peace would instantaneously return to the world.

It was an experience that I would not wish on anyone.

“You’ve been spending quite a lot of time in front of that mirror,” Granny Qi remarked as she passed by. “Finally found a lass who catches your fancy?”

I returned to living with her on some days if it wasn’t too busy at the palace, else I tended to sleep at my desk. Even if it was crowded, the rest of her family was always delighted to have me there, and it was comforting to be surrounded by people rather than being all alone.

Also, the city was no longer as congested as before given that a large segment of the population had left to deal with the dryads freeing up some room.

“No,” I said, struggling to read what was in the mirror while holding up my translation device and the grimoire in question at the same time. “I’m trying to read this new grimoire that someone came up with.”

“And you need the mirror for that?” Granny Qi asked.

“It’s written in reverse,” I explained. “As in, it’s mirrored so you can only read it while standing in front of one.”

“That is quite the curious grimoire,” she remarked while glancing at the words written on it. “And a lizardman’s creation, no less?”

“Yeah,” I said. War was usually a time when technological advancements were made, and throughout the siege, although everyone did try to conserve most of their mana, there were those who still tried to experiment. Funnily enough it seems many of them were inspired by me and my invention of [Summon Tyrant Arachnea]. “The lizardman who wrote this said he had a habit of practicing writing in front of a mirror, and one day the thought struck him to write something in reverse. And so, this gives the Rank One skill [Mirrored Slot].”

“Rank One? Why are you so interested in it then?” she asked.

“Because,” I started, while adjusting the mirror for what felt like the hundredth time. Granny Qi’s mirror was not a full length one and so positioning this grimoire properly was an issue given I had to do it with one free hand, the other one busy holding a translating device. “Its effect is to copy the effect of the slot before it.”

It was pointless to use it after a slot that gave a skill or spell, because there was no use to having two slots which gave the same skill or spell. You couldn’t even do something like use a once-per-day ability twice if you did so, it would just do nothing.

However, it could copy stat boosts. Which is what everyone was using it for - to use it to copy a man-raising grimoire to get an extra mana point.

That was useful even to Rank Three Liberomancers, which is why the grimoire in question was being sold like hotcakes. I had only managed to get one through asking the Liberomancer’s Guild and thanks to my current reputation.

Speaking of, I also reached out to the guild to ask if I could get a replacement grimoire that gave [Ansoon’s Blessing] - they said they could try to arrange for it, though it still might take time.

And there was the issue with paying for it - I could sell the remaining Rank Three grimoire that I had for money, but I still had to pay Granny Qi back for the grimoire she had given me.

Oh well - there was nothing to do but begin writing another grimoire to sell I guess.

Rewards were supposed to be handed out after the war depending on one’s contributions, but I wasn’t sure how big mine would be, so when I wasn’t doing anything else I was writing out Charlotte’s Web again as I thought that that particular grimoire would sell rather well since people were already in awe of the combo you could pull off with it.

I tried to help out wherever I could - I knew a very basic healing spell in the form of [Mend Injury] whose use was limited, but it wasn’t like it did nothing. Disease was also spreading as you might expect with so many people crowded together in less than ideal conditions, for which [Unicorn’s Blessing] came in handy for the sicker ones.

When all else failed, I could always make fish for people.

The real question was what I was going to do next. The siege was over, but the merchant caravan would not be coming again until next year - they had taken a detour bypassing Chipker entirely right now, and I did not want to wait that long.

For old time’s sake, I still sometimes went back to the same place where I had first come to this world.

And had gotten no more success than the other few times.

So it didn’t look like I had been called to this world just to deal with the dryads. So then, why was I brought here?

Nothing further had been revealed to me during the fighting, so I could only stick to my original plan of leaving to seek the answer elsewhere.

Great Claw looked out towards the horizon, however, he saw no opening that they could use to escape.

The few of them that had managed to escape had scavenged for food, but as they were simply retracing the steps they had taken to get to the human city, it was to no surprise that there was nothing but dust and dirt on the way back.

The bark from his form had already begun wilting, exposing the soft flesh underneath. His walking speed had been cut in half- all from the starvation he had been subjected to.

That would have been acceptable - had they some chance to escape.

But they were caught in between the hills, with the gaps between them overseen by humans and lizardmen. Anyone who tried to go through them would be battered with fire until nothing remained of them.

Behind them was another army mounted atop a steep incline, and the same fate would await them.

Forward or backward, only death awaited them.

To think that he had had visions of glory where he found himself king… and now look what he had been reduced to!

The dryads, when fishing, would simply dip their hands into streams, hoping to grab onto fish. However, he had seen the humans had better ideas- with the use of ropes tied together in the forms of nets to catch fish. He had greatly admired that idea and had hoped to have his brethren implement that at some time- but now it was as if they were the fish that were hopelessly in the clutches of a net.

They were like hunters out to stalk deer, who had suddenly found themselves surrounded by a pack of wolves.

Perhaps everything had been a mistake from the very beginning.

Perhaps they should never have taken the different path to come to this country, and done the same as their ancestors.

Perhaps that shadow had planned this out from the beginning as a way to destroy them.

Perhaps… some of them might live to see the end of this battle, and tell their descendants that coming here was a terrible idea.

For most of them- him included, this was the end.

They should have never come to this country in the first place.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 36-38

Now that our first line of defense, the Rank Three offensive spells had been exhausted, it was time for us Rank Three Liberomancers to try what other means we had with our mana exhausted.

“Summons!” came a shout from Drake, signifying that the time was ripe.

I had used up my Rank Three summon, and would be saving the Elephant Frog for when things got dire, but anyone else who could summon something, did.

It suddenly looked like a zoo - or a circus had broken free from the top of the city wall. Most summons were too big to actually keep on the wall effectively, and as such, this was deemed the right time to use them as an assortment of bears, wolves, and things like the Elephant Frog appeared at the foot of the wall and charged into the enemy lines.

I couldn’t help but feel a small bit of pride at seeing so many Elephant Frogs in the mix of summons that had been sent out. All of them had been from grimoires I had written and sold, and despite everything I felt a tiny spark of joy knowing that this was the result of something that I had created. It had taken about a hundred hours, maybe more, of me making that grimoire over and over to get money and to swap it for other grimoires - it was quite satisfying to see that bear fruit in other ways.

Also, it was amusing somewhat to imagine how the dryads must be reacting to a living cannonball in the form of a giant frog that was suddenly aimed at them.

There were some very unusual summoned creatures like giant scorpions or snakes mixed in, but that was sort of to be expected. Some people would have unusual summons - maybe from grimoires that had been purchased from long distances away, and others being their own personal creations or secret grimoires passed down through their families.

This line of summons ran into the enemy lines with no regard for their own safety. The dryads attacked back - whether with primitive spears or with their own claws, but they took quite a beating as well.

The summons were able to buy us some time, but the truth of the matter was that there weren’t enough of them to hold off the enemy for any significant period of time. Also, because the summons were quite different in terms of size and methods of attack, they could not hold a united front or formation without their being large gaps within it. Even while playing defensively, the dryads could often slip in between gaps created in the line, or simply use them to strike at a summon from the rear or a flank.

The lines of summons began to thin out, after which the dryads were able to pick away at the remaining ones and then surged forward.

It was time for the Rank Two Liberomancers to act once the dryads were within range of them, casting [Fireball]. That, along with arrows and other projectiles rained down on the dryads. Their skin was normally quite tough, but it seemed that a lack of blood had caused it to become somewhat brittle and soft. Arrows pierced through them easily now. That was good, but not enough to stop them.

Whenever my mana would recover to the point where I could cast it, I would use [Grand Fireball] again, and the enemy line would be broken before surging forward yet again.

It was here that I saw another advantage of being a dedicated fire elementalist - because Drake’s spells required less mana to cast, he could recover enough mana to use them quicker than I could as well.

Eventually, the projectiles and even the mana of the Rank Two Liberomancers ran out, and the enemy had reached the ditch that had been dug out in front of the city’s wall. It was filled with traps, but although there were screams of pain from the enemy, they crawled over each other in an attempt to get over the wall.

Boiling sand and water was cast down, and the spearmen formed up in ranks.

“Liberomancers, get back!” Drake yelled out. I had drawn my weapon, but was pulled back by someone. “Let the spearmen hold the line - recover your mana!”

There were guard towers on top of the wall - many Rank Three Liberomancers moved up to them. By now, the enemy was close enough that they could get a good shot even while perched up there, and it also meant that we were less likely to get injured. I went atop one but had to go back down again - there were unfortunately blind spots where neither I nor the other Liberomancers could get a good shot without hitting our own men.

Projectiles now came from the other side - slung stones, or arrows, or spears. Given the height difference and the walls, as well as the cover provided by where we stood, very few of them made their mark, though a spearman or two did fall over, needing medical attention.

If only things as convenient as mana potions existed in this world. But alas, there was nothing of the sort, which was why mana-raising grimoires were in such high demand in the first place.

I could only hope that the front gate was holding - though since that was guarded by Lance, it should be the part of the wall that held up the longest.

The fight now turned into an odd slug fest with the spearmen desperately trying to keep the dryads off the wall. The dryads possessed strength greater than that of a human or lizardmen individually and were also bigger than most humans, but they were hindered by their position as well as gravity. Not only that, but the spearmen had the advantage of numbers and a tight formation on their side.

I, and the others, cast [Grand Fireball] whenever we could, after which there was usually a lull in the fighting before more dryads poured in.

Seeing how the tide of battle was going, it did look like we would eventually prevail. But people were falling over left and right, most of them ordinary soldiers, but occasionally a Liberomancer as well.

I had felt fear before, in the earlier skirmishes as well, but this was something entirely different. Earlier, I had been casting spells from a very safe distance while the enemy was reduced to cinders, now, the enemy was practically in my face.

If it weren’t for the fact that there was nowhere to go, I won’t lie; I might’ve ran. I had never been in a serious fight before this, let alone a full-scale battle, and the adrenaline was all that was keeping me from potentially keeling over.

And so the rhythm of the battle continued. The dryads had not yet managed to get any of their members on top of the wall for more than a few seconds, which was good.

At some point in the fighting, a claw would’ve scratched off a good portion of my face while I was aiming and casting [Grand Fireball] - it was thanks to [Paper Armor] that I ended up taking no damage, but that was an ability that only lasted once a day. I couldn’t rely on it again for the rest of the fight. I still had not mastered [Ansoon’s Blessing] so using that was out of the question despite how useful it might’ve been.

Time seemed to slow down as minutes felt like hours, as my heart raced so hard within my chest that it felt like it was going to burst, as I heard screams not only from the enemy, but my own side as well.

Images seemed to meld together into one jarring array of pictures as the fighting continued.

A soldier who was dragged off the wall by a dryad and was never seen again.

A novice Liberomancer who had not aimed a [Fireball] correctly and nearly caught some of our own soldiers in his spell.

The face of an angry dryad as he was pushed off the wall.

The sight of a ladder that had latched onto the wall, with soldiers desperately trying to dislodge it.

Volleys of enemy projectiles would occasionally happen, causing everyone to duck.

A strange scent filled the air - I took in a deep breath only to realize that it was coming from someone who had soiled themselves. Actually, multiple people might have.

Punctuated through all of this were the blasts of [Grand Fireball] which were always remarkable for the huge explosions they created - and the large gaps in the enemy line they could make. The dryads were always pushed back greatly whenever one of these spells were cast. No wonder every Rank Three Liberomancer was needed for the fight - a few blasts of [Grand Fireball] could oftentimes buy everyone a few minutes, and no doubt had saved countless lives.

The draftsmen were loyally buying time for us to constantly regenerate mana as they kept up a shield wall. I don’t know if they resented us for that, thought of us as cowards for hiding behind them, or thought of us as incompetent for being unable to hold back the tide completely in the first place despite how much we touted our expertise as Rank Three Liberomancers. To their credit not once had the line broken as of yet. The weather would’ve otherwise been quite nice, but I had already drenched through my clothes completely from how much I was sweating.

I had also accumulated a number of small injuries- a scratch over my face, I was sure one of my toes on my left foot was broken, and I was likely sporting a bruise on my right shoulder from when an arrow had struck it, though thankfully my armor shielded me from the worst of the blow.

The tip of one of my fingers had been cut off by a stray arrow, and it somewhat bothered me how little it hurt, perhaps because of just how much my mind was caught up in the fighting. My mana was still gone, but a medic was nice enough to patch it up so that the stump stopped bleeding. [Regeneration] would take care of the rest, or I could find a proper healer after the fighting was over to patch that up.

I did not bother the healers on duty with my small wounds. There were others far worse off than I was, people who had lost limbs, for example. And every drop of my own mana had to be committed to offense.

Through all of this, the dryad tide did not seem to thin at all, as for every one we struck down, another dryad quickly took its place.

Despite how the situation looked, there was a small glimmer of hope through all of it - the sun was about to set. We had been fighting for only a few hours even though it felt like it had gone on for days, but when the sun set, it would hopefully mean that the dryads would withdraw from their assault. At least, most of us thought so, given that they had never attempted to attack us after daylight hours up until now. Either they couldn’t see very well at night, or just became less active, whatever it was, so long as it gave us time to recharge, they would be sure to lose tomorrow.

If only we could just hold out till then…

The chaotic scenery continued. One advantage that [Grand Fireball] and [Fireball] had over conventional firearms was that they didn’t generate smoke or noise, but even with those advantages, it was hard to keep track of what was going on with all the shouting and spells flying. Some semblance of order was maintained, but it appeared exceptionally fragile, like a glass kept just at the edge of a table practically begging to be knocked over.

Eventually, there was a lull in the fighting. That was when I saw it - Drake had gone near the edge to cast [Grand Fireball] again when an enemy spear found its mark - he turned his head to the side in time but it still struck the side of his helm and he fell over the edge of the wall.

It was like I was watching it in slow motion as I ran forward. Before I could get to him, he had already hit the ground, though he must have had something that cushioned him from the fall like [Gravity Guard] which passively negated all fall damage as I saw no broken bones or blood pooling out from under him. But it looked like the strike to his head had knocked him out, because he was not trying to get up or cast anything.

His fall had momentarily stunned the surrounding dryads, but they were not going to remain like that for long once they realized what it was had fallen into their midst.

I had seconds, if that, to act.

I jumped off the wall, casting [Summon Elephant Frog] during my descent. I had been saving it for a rainy day, and if there ever was a time to use it, it was now.

The frog’s impact cleared up some space, and I ran over to check on Drake who was thankfully still breathing, meaning my assessment that he had to have some kind of skill that saved him was correct. He was however, unconscious.

Now, to get back onto the wall, while keeping both of us safe…

I didn’t even need to tell the Elephant Frog to do what it did next - or give it any other signal of any kind. It just knew it through our mental connection - it knew that I was asking it to swallow the two of us.

I latched onto Drake tightly, and braced myself as we found ourselves inside the frog’s mouth after its tongue had wrapped around us. I held my breath - was it normal for a summoned creature to smell this much on the inside? It was uncomfortable both for us and for the frog, given that Drake was still wearing plate armor. If it had not been a summon it would’ve almost certainly spat the two of us out immediately. But with a sudden lurch, it leapt over the wall, spitting us out with expert precision onto the top, before it dived back down to take out as many of the enemy it could before it died.

I was covered in its disgusting saliva, and no doubt smelled bad, but I was able to finally take in a breath of fresh air, which was a huge relief.

[Create Water] and [Fragrance] would’ve been quite helpful here to clean the saliva and to stop me from smelling, but I had no mana for either of them.

Drake was definitely going to be mad at me for doing that, but I didn’t know how badly he had been injured, and wasn’t confident on getting him back up the wall without hurting him even more any other way.

“Help!” I yelled out. “The governor’s son - Commander Drake! He’s been injured! He needs a healer! I repeat, this is the governor’s son here and your commander!”

My shouting drew in someone who carried Drake away, presumably to a healer.

That whole little escapade had knocked what little energy I had out of me, and I lay there on the wall, panting and covered in frog saliva, hoping that Drake was safe.

Hardly the kind of thing you’d read about in a heroic epic…

I felt my connection to the Elephant Frog break after a few minutes, meaning it had been killed.

Mustering all of my strength, I drew myself up.

“Master Liberomancer - that side might be breached soon!”

“Master Liberomancer - if you have enough mana, we need someone to force them back over there with a [Grand Fireball]!”

"Master Liberomancer - are you in charge now?"

"Master Liberomancer - can you use that skill of yours with a spider again?"

“Master Liberomancer - where should the reservists be sent too?”

Voices assaulted me even as I felt my eyelids becoming heavy - and I realized what the problem was.

Drake was commanding this side of the wall. His second-in-command was a lizardman who was also out of commission for some reason, and I didn’t know who the third-in-command was. Neither did anyone else right now - and so, seeing the sash, and also how much time they’d seen me spending with him they assumed that I might be next in line.

“Alright, I’m not in command,” I spat out. “Someone send word to Zeke, he’ll find someone else to replace Drake, but for now, sure, I’ll handle things. First off, someone please splash water on me and clean this mess off my face.”

Someone obliged, casting a bucket of cold water on me none too gently - it was annoying, but at the same time refreshing and did give me a new burst of energy. I no longer felt like I was going to fall asleep any second now.

I cleaned my face. Though physically I was spent and sore all over, I now had enough magic for another spell, which I made sure to use to its maximum effectiveness as I cast it on the most desperate area of the wall.

Alright, some breathing room. “You, yes, over there! That’s where we need more forces. If there’s anyone with mana, they should target those two areas next. And send a runner to find out what’s going on with Drake!”

I barked out orders, not even sure of what I was doing, but trying to emulate Drake as much as I could.

By now I felt like I could collapse.

But there was still a job to do. The last hour of fighting felt longer than the hours that had come before it combined. Every minute dragged on longer than it should have - it was likely a very dumb decision on my part, but I ended up removing a good chunk of my armor other than the chestpiece. I just couldn’t do anything with the weight on me, and it was as I took some pieces of it off that I saw something.

It looked like… pages were bleeding out?

With a jolt, I remembered that I had been reading that grimoire that Zeke had given me that gave [Ansoon’s Blessing] even today, and when the dryads had started moving I had stashed it away for safekeeping in a pocket within my set of armor.

Only it looks like at some point, a spear or claw had gotten through my armor and ended up puncturing the grimoire - most of its pages had been torn through, and it was clearly unreadable now given how much it had been damaged.

I swore. Loudly.

I had spent the better part of a month whittling away at the thing, and was about three-fourths of the way done.

Only now, all that effort had been in vain! I had gotten this grimoire with great difficulty - this was the equivalent of losing more than a month’s worth of work!

In a way - I suppose I should’ve been happy, because the grimoire being punctured like this likely meant that it had softened or completely negated an incoming blow.

Still, I had no doubt that any Liberomancer who saw this site would weep, much like I felt like doing.

At some point, someone came, another Rank Three Liberomancer who was a lizardman who I vaguely recognized from that meeting I had to attended a while back. I couldn’t for the life of me remember his name, but he hurriedly approached me and said, “Master Liberomancer, I have been sent by Governor Lance to take command of this region.” It took me a moment to realize that he was actually asking for my permission to take command - despite being told this by the governor.

“Of course, thank you for coming.”

“Ah, and the governor also sends his thanks that you saved his son. Sir Drake has been heavily injured, but none of his wounds were fatal,” he continued. “He should make a full recovery, though the healers have to prioritize some others rather than him so it may take some time, but rest assured that he is stable…”

“Thank you,” I said, quite relieved. “Now if you’ll excuse me…” I found a well-sheltered area of the wall away from the frontlines, and dropped to the floor.

I was so exhausted at this point I felt like I couldn’t even lift a finger.

“Master Stefan! Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m not injured,” I said. “Just… can’t fight any longer…”

I’m not sure whether or not I passed out or fell asleep, but regardless of which one it was, the world went black.

I just couldn’t keep up any longer.

***

Great Claw watched with great disappointment as the sun went down.

Their all-out assault on the walls had been a mistake.

He had opined as such many times, but no one listened to him anymore.

After their failure at trying to flood the city, they had nearly cast him aside. He might as well have been exiled for the damage the dryads had taken from trying to build the dam. Even though it was not his fault!

His idea had been sound- it was the fault of those underlings for not being able to complete his project! They were useless hunks of bark with not a single coherent thought between a dozen of them! If only the others were as smart as he was, no, if they were even half as intelligent as he was, they would’ve succeeded and been feasting on human blood right now!

As a matter of fact, he had a feeling that some of his underlings might’ve damaged the dam on purpose. Yes… clearly they were envious of his brilliance and sought to undermine him! He would not put it past lesser creatures like normal dryads to do so.

And even if they had failed with the dam, they shouldn’t have given up after only one try and attempted another time. This idea of his, however, was shot down.

Yes, the others just did not share his foresight. There were other mistakes that had been made during this campaign. They should not have killed all of the humans that they came across - they should have taken some of them as slaves.

They would have been better workers - actually able to complete his grand vision! Not only that, but they could’ve used the humans as hostages or shields against the human’s magic. However, the ordinary dryads could not see beyond their thirst for blood and did not leave anything that they came upon alive.

Yes, it was the others to blame for not having the ability to carry out his vision.

Now, their numbers had been whittled down to less than half as their forces withdrew from the city walls, after having been unable to so much as dislodge a single stone. That was why he had warned those idiots against this idea! Now what were they to do?

Their army was broken now, and they did not have the numbers for another assault.

With the darkness now enveloping the world, they could do nothing but retreat for now. There was still no sign of the shadow that had led directed them here in the first place - it had clearly abandoned them, or even sent them all here as a trap! They had been foolish for following its directions.

Part of him wanted to feel joy, knowing that the others hadn’t succeeded in this assault and he had been right to say it was a bad idea all along, but what was the use of that? They had come here as a group, and would most likely be annihilated as a group as well. Saying ‘I told you so’ might feel good, but it would not do him any good.

He was left with nothing save for the bitter feelings in his heart.

He would have to run now, the only question was, where to?

A strange memory came to me while I was atop the wall.

It was a time when I had fallen asleep in the backseat of my car after a long trip. I had somehow magically found myself in my bed the next morning - though of course, there was no magic to it. My father had carried me there from the car.

And with that memory, my eyes jolted open. I wasn’t in bed - I was still on the hard floor - or rather ceiling, of the wall that surrounded Arconia.

How long had I been out? I took a look at the sky - it was dark now, but didn’t feel like anything longer than an hour had passed.

The fighting, thankfully, had stopped for now.

“Ah, Master Stefan! You’re awake!” the same Rank Three Liberomancer who had taken over for Drake said when he found me. “I was just about to have someone carry you somewhere safer - well, you already chose a rather nice place to take a nap safety-wise, but I wanted you even further away from the line of fire if possible.”

I immediately felt a deep sense of shame creep over me.

When I had been younger, I’d had fantasies, like all boys did, of fighting in some kind of intense battle against all odds. And hey, had it been in some fantasy world with swords and magic, it would’ve seemed even cooler in my mind.

In none of these fantasies was I lying on the floor, having passed out, and still reeking of the inside of a frog’s mouth.

I felt like a failure - when the fighting had gone tough, it had been too much for me, and I had ended up nearly blacking out. What kind of soldier was I? I knew that I hadn’t been trained for anything like that, but I had still wanted to somewhat distinguish myself in battle, or at least not embarrass myself.

What were they thinking of me right now? As a weakling who couldn’t handle stuff and passed out? And what’s worse, they might’ve even needed to get someone to take me away after I had passed out if I hadn’t come to like I was some sort of damsel.

“How long was I out for?”

“Just around twenty minutes or so,” he answered. “I had checked you for injuries earlier, and didn’t notice anything life-threatening, so I had held off on healing you. But, the fighting is over and they’ve retreated, allow me to fix your injuries.”

“No,” I said waving my hand. “My mana’s coming back, and I know a minor healing spell myself. I can take care of myself. Please go take care of those who are more badly injured.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

He didn’t leave right away though. “I just wanted to let you know, Master Liberomancer - I had harbored some doubts about your… position earlier. But upon seeing the valor that you displayed, risking your life to rescue Sir Drake… giving you that job was clearly the right choice! Already, tales of what you did have spread all over the wall.” He then bowed before moving on.

Once I felt like I had the strength to get up, I did. I took a glance across the horizon and saw the dryad army, now significantly smaller, out in the distance, moving away from the city. So it looked like we had really won…

The dryad army might try another assault, but they didn’t have the numbers to last very long anymore. If there was fighting in the future, it would not be as intense as it was today.

I didn’t feel like celebrating though. My stomach growled, and I found a place where they were serving food.

They let me skip to the front of the line upon seeing who I was - which told me that this was likely set up for normal soldiers only, but at this point I couldn’t care, and wolfed down whatever I had been given.

I then found my carriage and took a nap in there - at least this way people would know where I was if they wanted to find me.

I woke up early the next day, before the sun had even begun to rise. But, I felt refreshed, if not sore.

However, I would probably feel sore all over for at least the next week or so given how much I had exerted myself unless I used healing magic.

I must’ve looked - and smelled like crap, but wherever I went, people were in a jovial mood and while before maybe one in three to one in four people bowed on seeing me, it looked like that included everyone now. I wasn’t actually sure what to do now, had some instructions been given overnight on what we were supposed to be doing? Should I stay to man the wall further, or go home and take a bath?

My mana was almost full by now, so I felt if there was something I could do to make a difference, I may as well. With the enemy army seemingly broken, I could even use [Fish Haul] to make food if that was what was called for.

I didn’t have to wait for long though, as a messenger told me that Governor Lance wanted to talk.

It was probably about Drake - and I couldn’t help but think of several things I’d done wrong. For one, the armor I had rented out was damaged - and I would need to pay for its repair and any pieces I had lost. Two, I had passed out in the middle of battle - people didn’t seem to be too enraged at that as they chalked it up to ‘battle fatigue’ and overlooked it given the other things I had done, but Lance was probably going to give me an earful about it. Three, I had lost a very valuable grimoire in the fighting - though he would probably have no reason to be mad at that, after all, it was mainly my loss.

I cast [Fragrance] on myself and tried to clean up as much as I could with a wet rag before going to meet him. He wasn’t in his palace, but in a room on the interior of the wall.

“Good morning,” he said. He looked exhausted - he might’ve even been awake all night for all I knew. He had been fighting near the gate, where the battle had been even more intense than where I had been stationed from what I’d been told. If it was not for his [Inferno] the gate wouldn’t have held till now.

“Good morning,” I said weakly. “How is your son?”

“Doing well, thanks in large part to your heroism,” Lance replied, giving me a weak smile. He motioned for the guards and other officers in the room to leave, so that we were alone.

A chill crept down my spine - what was this about? I had thought that he either wanted to thank me or reprimand me, but neither of those things required any kind of secrecy.

“I wanted to speak to you in private,” Lance said. “First of all again, thank you for saving my son. I do not want you to think that I don’t appreciate all that you did for us. Your contributions during the fighting almost rivaled my own, especially with that unique tactic of yours involving the spider. They say you were responsible for the deaths of over six thousand enemy dryads in yesterday’s fighting alone. I can also appreciate that you performed your job as mediator very well in these past few weeks.” He then sighed; the smile from his face faded and was replaced by what was unmistakably a snarl. His demeanor changed considerably as his words carried a feeling of intense ire as he spat them out. “I do not however, appreciate you lying to my face!”

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 33-35

A severe flood might be worse than even the threat of the dryad invasion - because there was at least something that could be done about the dryad invasion from a Liberomancer’s perspective.

A flood however, was more difficult to deal with even with magic. I hadn’t seen a spell that was the reverse of [Create Water], and as for changing the weather, such spells did exist but even at Rank Three their effects were very limited, often only affecting a small area. Many Liberomancers didn’t even bother with such spells for that reason.

At higher Ranks, it was possible to do something that might actually make a difference when it came to the weather - the Ruler of the Astral Winds, for example, had been said to have once completely buried an enemy army of forty thousand soldiers under a massive sandstorm all by himself.

But there was little that people like us could do with just Rank Three magic when it came to a flood. Maybe better engineering and city design could’ve alleviated the problem somewhat - but it wasn’t like places didn’t flood back on Earth either. And there was little use bemoaning any issues with infrastructure when there was an enemy army at the gates.

Turns out that many of these worries were for nothing as the rain soon cleared up to give way to fresh blue skies and even a tiny rainbow.

Two days afterwards, a large group of the dryads separated from their group - at first there were cheers of joy at the thought that some of them were splitting up or retreating, but it turned out that they were not heading away from the city. Instead they followed the Arconia a few miles further down the shore, but didn’t seem to be going that way in order to circle around and get to the city from the other direction.

Instead… they were building something. Or at least, it looked like they were digging up something, but no one could really tell what it was. People were just glad that they weren’t pointing their weapons or claws at us for now.

It was only when it rained again a few days later that it seemed to click with me what they were doing, as they kept going at it even in the rain.

“They’re trying to flood the city,” I told Drake, almost certain of my conclusion.

“What?”

“Branches of the Arconia go through the city and around it as well, so if they block one of the larger branches out there with a dam or something like that, it will cause it to back flow through the other branches into the city. And it’s already raining,” I said.

Drake, for better or worse, seemed to have trust in my judgment after all this time swapping ideas with each other but still looked somewhat unconvinced.

“Here, let me draw it out,” I said. I picked out a piece of paper and drew a circle. “This is the city.” I then drew the major branch of the Arconia which winded along part of the city before draining into the ocean. “This is where the Arconia goes into the ocean. If they block it off here somehow…” I traced the branch back to its source and then drew a few lines into the city. “Where does the water go?” With the city already somewhat prone to flooding, and it raining every few days, I had to admit that it was a pretty decent plan.

I also had to admit, upon looking at my drawing, that it was pretty bad. It kind of looked more like a ray diagram you would see while studying optics in physics than any kind of map.

Thank god Liberomancy did not involve drawing, otherwise I would be much worse off than I was now.

“I see what you’re saying…” Drake said. “And it could work… but are the dryads smart enough to pull this off? They don’t seem to have much more organizational skills than wild animals, and this seems far too complex an idea for them to come up with.”

“Ah… I don’t know,” I admitted.

The technological attainment of the dryads weren’t great - I had heard of some of them making small mud huts, and their siege weapons were limited to very rudimentary ladders. They had nothing like catapults or the like, and their sorry excuse for a battering ram had fallen apart rather quickly earlier.

Did they even have the capability to make something like a dam and block the river?

I didn’t know the level of technology that was required for such a feat, but it did make me wonder if there were giant beavers in this world that built proportionately huge dams to block out river. ‘Eh, it wouldn’t surprise me if that turned out to be true.’ With giant spiders and frogs, giant beavers didn’t seem like anything too far-fetched.

“It looks like they are trying though,” I said. “And doesn't it make sense to stop them then?”

Drake smacked his tail across the floor. “Tell you what, let’s send a scouting party and see if what you’re saying is right, and then we’ll see what to do about it.”

Their scouting party was a tiny rowboat that they sent out into the shallows along the shoreline, which was able to sail out into the waters far from the city to avoid falling victim to the clutches of the dryads, but did not venture too far into the deep water for it to be dangerous.

When they returned their report seemed to confirm what I had said - that they dryads were attempting to make a large mud wall to block off the river.

The issue was whether or not they would be successful. Creating a dam the size of the main branch of the river was something that even the Arconians would have some difficulty with if they didn’t use magic to assist with the project, could the dryads really achieve the same?

Great Claw oversaw the construction of the dam. It had taken some time, but he had convinced the other dryad lords to see the wisdom of his plan. Truly, their call to the spirits had not gone unanswered! They had bestowed upon him the inspiration for this plan right when he had cursed them for abandoning them.

Raindrops fell from the sky, meaning it was more than likely that when they were finished, their enemies would drown, the great river consuming them and allowing them to fish out the survivors before gorging upon them.

They preferred fresh blood, but even blood from two or three day-old corpses was acceptable.

Yes, his plan was going along swimmingly. If they continued to make great strides like this, his name would echo in the new tales that his kind would tell their children and grandchildren. They had no writing system, but that didn’t mean that the deeds of great dryads who had made themselves known for their wit or valor were not passed down through the generations verbally.

And his name would soon join theirs - the tale of how he, Great Claw, had harnessed the force of a river to drown his enemies would resonate for generations.

Once this was successful, he might even be elevated beyond the mere title of dryad lord - a dryad king!

There had been a few such individuals throughout their history - dryad lords who had been exceptional even by the standards of dryad lords. These individuals were no different from the other dryad lords in terms of their anatomy or physiology, they were not true magical beast kings, but they could wield authority over great armies of dryads like this one. Right now, Great Claw was not their leader, just an influential commander, but that would all change with the success of his plan…

However, his daydreams of glory and fame were broken as he noticed something was wrong. He got up to see what the fuss was about - a small leak had appeared in a section of the base they were constructing. They were about three-fourths done with the base of the dam already, which stood up about two feet in height. They had attempted to patch up this flaw in its design using fallen logs and sap, but nothing they did truly fixed the problem.

The increase in rainfall was what had given him the idea in the first place for constructing the dam, as it was what made the city so vulnerable to flooding during this time in the first place. However, the rainfall had also caused this branch of the river to swell as it overstepped its banks, making their construction of the dam difficult as well. Still, they had persevered, the wet soil functioning as excellent muddy building blocks for the foundation of the structure they were making.

For all his intelligence, Great Claw had not been able to find a solution for this sudden break in the dam. Even as he contemplated another way to patch things over, he was interrupted as there was shouting at another part of the base. There was another hole somewhere else - the immense pressure from the river putting great strain upon what they were constructing.

And then, before he could do anything, and so swiftly that it was nearly instantaneous, the rudimentary construction they had been working on broke. The small holes that had popped up suddenly expanded to cover the entire base of the structure as cracks spread like cobwebs all throughout the base. The water, now freed from its confines, angrily swept away the dryads in its path into the sea as if they were no more than leaves in the autumn wind.

The entire dam had collapsed, with only the faintest trace of its base remaining. The dryads who had been swept out too far into the sea were now lost, left to the mercy of the tides and whatever creatures slept below the ocean’s surface. The ones who were scattered closer to the shore would eventually manage to find their way back to camp, but one thing became clear - the idea for the dam would not work.

Great Claw’s ambitions, dreams, and hopes were swept away with the rain just like everything else.

“Looks like I was worried for nothing,” I said as I heard about the latest report.

The makeshift dam the dryads had been constructing had collapsed and been swept away by the rain without us even having to lift a finger.

“Yes, hehe, looks like you were worried for nothing,” Drake said. “I mean, it was difficult to imagine that they would succeed in the first place, but it was good that you noticed regardless.” He looked up at the clear sky. “After all, in the future, there might be a slightly smarter and more capable enemy who could use this strategy against us. We’ve had peace with our neighbors for a long time, but any adept ruler has to keep the possibility of war in mind. The dryads though - heh, ”

The issue of flooding was mostly out of everyone’s minds now - the rain had thankfully petered down and any flooding that might’ve happened would be minimal. And it did not look like the dryads could make something that could flood the city, even if they were given ten years to do so.

We were having other problems now though.

It had now been several weeks since the siege had started, and though we hadn’t exactly run out of supplies and were not in danger of that happening for a while, rations did have to be severely tightened. And it wasn’t just about food - there were a dozen other things that people were running very short on which I hadn’t even thought of, like oil, which was nearly impossible to buy currently.

Food prices, already at an exorbitant high, had gone up another twenty percent as the city continued to be deprived of its usual harvest. Since the merchant caravan had not come this year, and the siege made doing business impractical but for a few, there were several families who found themselves suddenly broke on top of everything else. Pets, which were a luxury even in good times, were the first luxury to be crossed off when budgets needed to be slashed.

I saw several axolotls wandering the streets, and by the way they behaved, it was clear that they were once domesticated and had been cast out of their homes. Unaware and unused to living on their own, they would wander around looking for anyone kind enough to give them even the tiniest of a morsel - which, during this time was a small miracle in and of itself. I guess it was better than them becoming food, which is likely what would happen if the siege went on for even longer.

The rain had also made the housing situation worse, as it was no longer feasible for many people to simply sleep out in the open in some areas, leading to a lot of discontent. It could’ve been a lot worse had we gotten heavier rainfall or if the dryads had succeeded, but even as it was, it made living in the city a miserable experience combined with everything else.

The roads were muddy and hard to navigate - most of them were not paved with stone, and this made transporting things even harder as they had already been congested before.

I also think that it was at this point the overcrowding issue had gotten to the point where it was causing actual problems. I wasn’t the only person who had nearly ten people occupying a space meant for far fewer people, and while it had been tolerable to an extent as the siege went on and it was clear to people that they weren’t dying tomorrow, moods had shifted.

I thought that a good number of fights and brawls that occasionally broke out were because of this. There were also increasing incidents of domestic violence - though they didn’t call it by that name here in Arconia, it was what many of these ‘household issues’ as they were instead filed under would’ve been termed back on Earth.

Law and order had also broken down to some extent. For one, there were far more desperate people willing to do basic crimes just to get by, and secondly, most of the people who would usually be enforcing the law were guarding the city and stationed atop the wall.

There were problems that I wouldn’t have even considered beforehand that could be an issue - several alcoholics had to stop drinking as the supply of booze dried up or was out of reach of their pocketbooks, and they ended up going into withdrawal. Given how preoccupied people were with the siege, these people were sometimes left on the street for hours until someone checked up on them. Some of them had sadly not been found in time and had passed away; from epilepsy or exposure, and even a few from choking on their own vomit.

“Is everything alright?” I asked Granny Qi another night when I had decided to drop by to check up on her.

The mood was considerably worse than the earlier times I had visited, though this was probably the same in other parts of the city as well.

The stress level of the city was something intangible. No instrument could measure it, but I could feel that it was rising quickly now. It was only the immediate threat of death hanging above their heads that was keeping people in line, but it all felt like a shaky house of cards waiting to topple with the right provocation.

“Good as things can get,” Granny Qi said. “At least we are not low on food, if that’s what you’re wondering…”

I was. I didn’t want her going out to get something and getting jumped by some hoodlum who saw her as an easy target. That was why I had brought the ingredients for this dinner with me, but it was good to know that I needn’t have bothered.

“How much longer will the siege last, Master Liberomancer?” Suki Tang asked with a sigh. She looked far more depressed than usual - but I knew why.

For someone like her, who was used to living in wide open fields, it must’ve been quite depressing to not only be cooped inside the confines of a city, but inside a small house with so many people as well.

“I can’t say for sure,” I told her. “In a month or so forces from the capital should arrive, assuming the dryads don’t fall apart from a lack of blood.”

We had been saying the same line over and over, and I could tell people were tired of hearing it - but what else could we do? The forces from the capital would arrive when they arrived, and there was nothing we could do to expedite that.

The adults, at the very least, were giving the pretense of being optimistic, but the stress was clearly showing through the kids. Their eyes were downcast in a manner I hadn’t seen before as it was harder for them to hide their true feelings.

The end of the siege, however, came far sooner than anyone had anticipated.

Two days later, the dryads started making their move. And this was not a simple skirmish as they had done occasionally beforehand, no, it looked like the entire dryad army was getting into position.

Their first assault was likely them just probing our defenses, while the second assault had been the more serious one designed to succeed. This one though, it looked like it would be their last desperate attempt to break through.

“It looks like they’ve had enough waiting,” Drake said. He was trying to remain calm, but I could hear the tension in his voice. “And it seems they’ve decided to throw the dice and see where it lands.”

It was likely the lack of blood had weakened them to the point that they could not continue further, and they had realized that they could not retreat without being struck from behind or dying along the way.

Or maybe they were just tired of waiting - they were said to be little smarter than animals, after all.

Hopefully they had been weakened by the weeks of not having fresh blood…

The wall, and the city, immediately jumped into fervent action.

The dryads were extremely large in number, to the point that it took them several hours to ‘form up’ so to speak - not that they were much good at doing this. The lack of an overall centralized command structure, which would have been the cornerstone for any army, was clearly evident here when the organization of even greater numbers than before were involved.

Draftsmen were moved to the wall in large numbers, and the sea-facing side of Arconia was stripped down to its bare bones for the incoming attack. The dryads did not look like they were going to attack from that side anyway, and if they did, it would be overwhelmingly obvious by the time they reached that side when a defense could be arranged for that location.

“How have you been?” Master Jiah Pei asked me as I saw him walking up to where I was stationed. He slapped me on the shoulder and gave me a weary smile, strolling around as if he was enjoying a nice scenic walk in a garden.

“Master Jiah Pei - well, I’ve been alright, all things considered,” I said. “Are you going to be fighting today as well?” I did not want to offend him, but I wasn’t sure how to suggest that he stay out of the fighting for his own sake. It looked like it was really going to get intense this time around. We hadn’t been in too much danger beforehand, but who knows what was going to happen today?

“I wouldn’t miss this for all the gold in the world,” he replied, “I thought I’d drop by to say ‘hello’ to an old friend, but if you’ll excuse me, I’m needed elsewhere,” he added, dashing off to reinforce another part of the wall.

I really hoped that he would make it through this… nearly twenty thousand ordinary soldiers now manned the walls, prepared to form a living wall between us and the dryads if need came be. Our magic and skills would likely run out before the enemy’s numbers did - and in that scenario, we would be relying on them to hold the enemy off until we could recover our mana.

The Liberomancers prepared in any way they could - mainly by having buffing magic cast upon them, while others were praying for victory in the upcoming fight. The ordinary soldiers were preparing all kinds of non-magical methods for dealing with the dryads - ranging from catapults, to arrows, to large cauldrons of boiling sand and water. Oil was likely too expensive and rare for them to use for the purpose of pouring it on their enemies, though if we had something like a large supply of kerosene it would’ve been good to pick on the dryad’s natural weakness to fire.

Drake was extremely busy now, and I wished him luck as he wandered off.

As time went on, it was clear that our initial assessment and fears were correct - every single dryad seemed to be mobilizing now.

This was it - the final clash between the dryads and the defenders of Arconia was at hand!

A gentle breeze drifted over from the sea. The sky was cloudless and the weather perfect; nature completely unaware and uncaring of the predicament we were in.

What was I thinking at that moment - knowing that death could very well be coming for me that afternoon?

Initially it was thoughts of what would happen to people in the city who would no doubt die gruesome deaths. It was incredibly hard for them to flee by the ocean, though they’d try if push came to shove. More likely than not though, death would await them at the hands of the murky depths of the sea if they tried.

My thoughts then shifted to my family back home.

To Cheddar, and to my parents.

If I died here - would I be transported back home? I had thought of that at times while thinking of how to return, but had not resorted to trying to kill myself yet. I was too afraid of what the alternative would be. That I would just be dead, and my parents would never find out what had happened to me as my corpse lay in a different dimension or reality, or whatever this place was.

I still had absolutely no answers, even now, on what this world even was, how I had gotten here, or why I was even here. These questions were far from the forefront of my mind though as I thought of what my family would go through if I’d never return.

I had heard several stories of missing people where their families were left distraught as to where they had suddenly vanished off to. It had been over a year - unless there was some weird time dilation thing going on between worlds, what would my family be thinking about right now?

After a year, it wouldn’t surprise me if they thought I was already dead.

Did Cheddar still look outside the window expectantly, as I had been told he so often did after I moved to college, hoping that he would see my car pull up or another sign signaling my return? Would he continue doing so until the end of his natural life, waiting for someone who would never come home?

I could imagine him eagerly running towards the door anytime it opened, hoping that the person who walked through was me.

He was a dog and I knew that he was already getting on in years, if I didn’t return back home quickly enough, I would end up going back only to learn that he had passed away while I was stuck in this world…

I could imagine my parents calling my number on their phones over and over again, hoping that one day I would pick up only to get a message saying that my number was out of reach - and how distraught they must have been while wondering what was happening to me.

The police would have been called, though after months of no progress and no leads, I’d imagine that the case would eventually get dropped.

My folks wouldn’t understand what happened - but how long would they pursue trying to find me? Not even understanding why I had vanished like that must have been torturous. Did they think I had thrown myself off a cliff or something? Or that it had something to do with drugs or human trafficking?

If I died here, they would never get an answer to any of their questions. At every holiday or family function, they would be constantly reminded of my absence as they saw the other happy families around them.

Did they blame themselves, thinking that they had done something to drive me away? I really hoped that wasn’t the case, but I could see that happening. If only I could reach out to them for even a second to let them know that I was alright…

Eventually, they would go to their graves not knowing what had happened to their son - their only child.

“Are you alright?” Drake asked me, pulling me out of my reverie. “I’ve been calling your name for the last minute but you weren’t responding…”

“Uh, yes,” I said, trying to collect my thoughts. Yes, I could very well end up six foot under today - but the likelihood of that would be much higher if I didn’t get my act together right now and focus during the upcoming battle.

“Listen,” Drake said, keeping a scaly hand on my shoulder. “I know the fighting’s going to get intense, but we’ll get through this - we have the advantage here.” It sounded like he was convincing himself more than me, but I nodded. “Hey - here.” He handed me an extra helping of fish.

This was quite common in lizardmen culture - rather than gifting something like flowers or a bottle of wine, they would usually gift a rare or exotic fish. It was also a way of apologizing or trying to cheer someone up - for the lizardmen, fish were perfect gifts for all occasions. It was a bit unfortunate that the haul one could get near the city had diminished with overfishing being rampant because of the siege, but fish was still the most common food item to be found in the city.

“Eat up,” Drake said. “I know it’s hard, but once the fighting starts, who knows when our next meal is?” I definitely felt nauseous, but knew that the fighting would likely go on for hours, possibly until daybreak tomorrow or longer, so he had a point. But Drake seemed to realize there was something else going on beyond just the stress of the siege. “Um… is there something else? You look kind of… different…”

“Do you have five or ten minutes to spare?” I asked him.

“Hmm? Um, sure, there are some things I have to go over and I can do that while we talk - why what happened?” Drake asked.

I took him aside where I was sure we wouldn’t be overheard - with the general chaos that had occupied the wall, I didn’t think anyone was listening in on us anyway.

Turns out the ‘things he had to go over’ included taking out a flask and taking a big sip. Dutch courage? Couldn’t blame him really considering this might be the last drink he had.

“I’ve not been entirely truthful about where I come from…” I began. That seemed to draw his attention immediately - it was kind of surprising to me how attentively he seemed to be listening to every single word I said as I told him about Earth, that I had come from another world and had been dropped here in this other world I called Libraria in my head without any explanation and how I had been hoping to get back home.

It was extremely abridged and I couldn’t even get half of what I wanted to get across in such a short time, but I think that Drake got the gist of it. Or at least, enough so that it would suit my purpose.

“Stefan…” Drake began, forgetting the ‘Master’ for once. “Is this some kind of joke that you’re hoping to cheer me up with before the fighting begins? Because if so-”

I shook my head. “It’s true. The reason I wanted to tell you is because… in case I don’t make it out of this fight alive, and by some miracle my family or someone else from my world comes looking for me… I just wanted someone to know and be able to tell them what happened to me.”

Drake still looked unconvinced until I hadn’t broken into laughter for a full minute, after which he said, “Fine then…”

I didn’t think he had fully believed what I was saying, but he likely had other things to do and quickly disappeared.

Had I made a mistake by telling him? It felt like we had just started to become friends, and I couldn’t think of anyone else to tell, aside from Granny Qi, but I couldn’t very well run back to her house right now could I?

My main worry was that he would think I was a lunatic, which, was something that I would have to worry about only if we survived - so I’d reflect on it more if we got through this battle. And if someone from my world did, as a matter of fact, appear after I’d died, he’d know then that I was telling the truth.

It had taken until the afternoon for the dryads to get organized, after which they finally launched themselves at the walls.

Our first line of defense, and also the strongest, were the Rank Three Liberomancers. Most of us knew [Grand Fireball] and cast it out in waves at the incoming forces.

Master Jiah Pei, interestingly enough, was an ice elementalist. Maybe I had been told that at some point and forgotten - but it did shock me a bit to see him use [Grand Iceball] which caused a huge number of dryads to turn into treesicles. They were weak to fire, but that didn’t make them immune to ice thankfully. It just meant that ice was not as useful as fire when dealing with them.

Then again, that was to be expected. One of the advantages of Liberomancers working like this in large groups, was that we could have different people specializing in different things - one person focused on healing, another on defense, etc. Certain specialties were better than others at dealing with the dryads, but nearly everyone had one or two offensive spells they could unleash to try and tip the scales.

I, of course, had another trick up my sleeve.

It was getting kind of old at this point - but if it wasn’t broke, why fix it?

“[Summon Tyrant Arachnea]!” I yelled out as Drake did the honors and lit it on fire.

Fear was still deeply ingrained into the minds of the dryads, who hesitated greatly upon seeing the creature. This hesitation cost them as they were very close together for this assault, and they quickly fell prey to the spreading flames.

It was here that something like oil or kerosene would’ve been very useful to pour over them, though I supposed even if we did have something like that, how would it reach them at this distance? It was thanks to my summon that our side joined the battle far later than other areas of the wall, as eventually, even after it had taken down over a thousand of the enemy directly or indirectly, my summon fell to their attacks.

After that, my only strategy was firing [Grand Fireball] over and over until my mana ran out.

The dryads seemed to be committed to make this their final attack, and were employing human wave tactics - also known as ‘we have more soldiers than our enemy has bullets’ strategy.

Drake was the last of the Rank Three Liberomancers to run out of mana - he likely had several grimoires that allowed him to cast a number of fire-based spells for free, and some which reduced their mana cost.

But, the gaps we had made in the enemy formation with our spells quickly closed. I knew it couldn’t have been instantaneous; we had definitely been able to hold them off for at least an hour, but it sure felt like it had been over nearly instantly.

It was the first time that this line of defense had been breached up till now, and the dryads rushed in at us with renewed vigor when they saw that we were no longer casting Rank Three spells at them.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 30-32

Drake contemplated my question regarding spirits. “Personally? No,” Drake said. “The humans-” he began before remembering who he was talking to. “I mean, the humans of this city seem to think that all the spirits, at least most of them, left the mortal realm when Goddess Serragnin ascended thousands of years ago and ascended with her. Only the evil or malevolent ones were left behind - my people think differently, but everything has a spirit, you know. Any concept can have a spirit - whether it be rivers, deserts, mountains, or even cities. You’ll occasionally hear stories of people getting lost in the mountains when a young girl suddenly appears out of nowhere and tells them where they need to go to get to safety before vanishing the moment they turn their backs. Was that a hallucination? Or a friendly forest or mountain spirit helping them out? But no, I’ve never seen one and never met anyone firsthand who claims to have seen one. At least, no one who’s account I trust.”

I thought of bringing up how the lizardmen and humans viewed the reverse waterfall differently, but then decided against it. I didn’t know if it was a touchy cultural point for the lizardmen being they had a famous epic surrounding the place - while it seemed little more than a tourist spot from the human perspective. As it was, it ultimately mattered little to me whether one side was right or not. I already had a feeling regarding who Drake would side with if I asked him.

Our conversation moved to more mundane topics - Drake offered me some more wine which at this point I had to say ‘no’ to as I was pretty sure that I would fall asleep if I had another glass. The blanket was making me a bit too comfortable… and the urge to just bury myself into it instead of just having it wrapped around myself and then falling asleep was almost overpowering…

“Master Stefan?” he asked, forgetting what I had asked him at the beginning. Likely these manners had been drilled into him since birth and he found it hard to break them.

“Yes…?”

“What are you aiming for in life?”

“…” That was an odd question to spring on someone, but given that it was nearly midnight, I guessed, and nothing was happening, as if time was frozen in this tiny corner of the world, weird questions were expected. “Not sure. Why do you ask?”

“I’m just saying,” Drake said. “You told me you were still living in a rented room, right? Or sleeping in your office more nights than not from what the guards tell me. But you’ve been a Rank Three Liberomancer for some time now. A normal man would’ve bought a house by now, and would be looking for someone to settle down with. Started a business that would start to bring in reliable income with minimal input from himself, had a few children to inherit those businesses, all those sorts of things. But you haven’t done any of those things. At first I thought it was because you loved Liberomancy so much that you didn’t care about anything in the world other than making new grimoires… but I have a feeling that that isn’t true.”

“Well you’re right, I do like Liberomancy, but not that much. I kind of don’t see the point in doing those things or moving out of my rented house,” I told him. “I was planning on hitching a ride on the merchant caravan and leaving Chipker this year, but look where we are now…”

“Ah, it looks like you sailed right into a storm then. If you were planning on leaving why didn’t you just go last year?”

“I was waiting for something, but…” I wasn’t sure how to preface what I was going to say next. Drake seemed to have suddenly taken far more interest in the topic now though.

“For something? What were you waiting for?”

“Someone from my country… was supposed to meet up with me. Or at least, I thought that they would. It doesn’t matter, because they never came,” I said. “I’ll just have to see if I can find such a person myself somewhere out there in the world.”

Drake seemed to be expecting more elaboration on that, but I didn’t give it to him and he didn’t press me any further. “How about you?” I asked, instead hoping to turn the question on him.

“Well,” he began. “The obvious thing was that I was expected to inherit my father’s position - though my brother seems to be the choice for that, not me.”

It was so obvious that was the case I didn’t even bother trying to reassure him that no, perhaps he still had a chance at winning that spot.

He knew it too - unless his older brother died or got kidnapped by aliens, he wasn’t getting that spot. And hey - that was also important to know that there was a backup in case the current heir died or not. Also, because there was a clear line of succession, it could grant some protection to the current heir. Anyone who wanted to assassinate Zeke would have to bear in mind that Drake would inherit the position afterwards, and the thought of what that might lead to could be deterrent enough against an assassination.

That was one of the main utilities of having a vice-president back home, after all.

“Now though,” he said. “I guess I just have to support him. And work for the city - even if I can’t become governor, I do want to show people that I am as capable as him… at least in some aspects…”

I turned towards him - he was definitely significantly drunk, else he wouldn’t be blabbing about these things.

“Hey - don’t be so down on yourself,” I said. His voice sounded somewhat melancholic, which is why I felt like I needed to say at least something to cheer him up. “You’ve gotten further than most people ever will. And I’m sure your time will come eventually.” Everything in his life had basically been set up for him - which was a blessing in that he had gotten further than most people ever would’ve while putting in only a fraction of the effort. At the same time though, it could be seen as a curse. He had been expected to follow the path carved out for him with little room for him to deviate from it. It was a gilded prison - but a prison nonetheless.

Of course, most people would consider it an excellent deal - there were so many people who had to trudge every single day of their lives in order to make a living who would’ve gladly swapped places with Drake.

But, that would do little to cheer him up. What made it worse was that the goal which he was being led towards was no longer attainable - he had been trained to become governor much like his brother, but he would not realize that dream. Sure, he would still have more than a comfortable life, but that hadn’t been why so many resources had been invested into him now then was it?

It must feel terrible to have been groomed your entire life for a singular goal - for that goal to be everything and your only aspiration, only to be told much later that there was no chance of actually attaining it.

He still had a function of course - to be the ‘spare’ so to speak in case anything happened to Zeke - but what happened to the spare when he was no longer needed? When Zeke would have his own children?

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He was not in an easy position - and if he spiraled down further, he might end up an alcoholic, given he was already about a quarter of the way there.

He nodded. “You think so?”

“Yeah, the future’s not written in stone - who says you won’t get your heroic moment sometime in the future?”

The night went on, and finally the sky started to lighten up as our watch ended. Things were not done though, we were expected to stay on the wall until around noon simply because an attack was more likely at this time and they wanted more hands on deck - I just wished they could give us some time, maybe just two or three hours, to get some shut-eye before then.

Then again, I was sure that if there was an attack, all the fatigue would vanish and be quickly replaced by the adrenaline of battle. Still, it was probably not a good idea to have sleep-deprived people who could function as human rocket launchers in charge of your defense.

Even when it was past noon, my job still wasn’t done as I had been called to some other section of the wall as a fight had erupted between a group of lizardmen and humans, all of them draftsmen.

I was afraid it would turn into yet another situation which had caused all this problem in the first place - though thankfully it had been nothing more than a small brawl and the matter didn’t spill over.

The moment I arrived, and they saw a Liberomancer, both sides calmed down immediately.

I listened to both sides, and really came to the conclusion that they had both overreacted, fined both of them, ordered some healers to heal what minor injuries they had - and then told everyone to go back to what they were doing.

After this, nothing else happened to interrupt my sleep, and I ended up sleeping straight from the afternoon to early next morning - I would’ve guessed it was around four in the morning when I woke up because the sky was just beginning to lighten up.

I went to my office - it looked like there was some paperwork stacked on top of it from last afternoon, but most of it must have been non-urgent as no one had woken me up for it.

I looked through it all, and wanting to get an early start on the day, signed them all where indicated.

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have done that without reading them, but I couldn’t read them as is - I’d need to wait for my secretary to get here to read them aloud for me, and she could do that after I had signed them too. If it was something I didn’t want to sign, I’d just shred it.

The next few days fell into the same routine, with nothing much happening regarding the siege aside from some very small skirmishes.

My next night watch was also unremarkable, until dawn began to break.

The sky was a bit lighter, but still a few hours away from a proper sunrise when I noticed something on the horizon.

I found a small stack of crates to stand atop of while I strained my eyes to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things - I wished I could fly to get a better look at things, as well as for a whole different variety of reasons.

“Everyone! Wake up! There’s some sort of odd movement on the enemy side!”

No one responded to what I had said, so I shouted it out again, louder this time.

“Do you see something?” someone asked.

“Yeah,” I said. I got off the stack of crates. “Everyone! Wake up and sound the alarm! The enemy’s making a move!”

At the sound of my voice, the entire wall burst into activity. Drake also came up running five minutes later from wherever he had been. “There’s something happening on the enemy side,” I said.

To someone who didn’t have [Night Vision] it was almost imperceptible - but I could now more clearly see something advancing towards the city. It would become apparent in a few more minutes when the sun finally came up, not to mention it looked like there were other areas that were mobilizing and heading towards different parts of the wall. However, every minute was precious in a fight like this, and it was better to sound the alarm as soon as possible.

“Can you see what it is though?” Drake asked. He sounded slightly exasperated and was rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He had [Night Vision] as well but I was standing on a pile of crates.

“There’s a bunch of them crowded around something, and they’re headed towards the gate,” I said. “And not just that, but there are some coming this way and the other side as well.”

By the time it was more clear as to what we were facing, the morning team had already begun to trickle in, and it was now bright enough that the others could see what I had seen.

About ten thousand dryads were moving towards either end of the wall, while twice that number were advancing towards the center.

Of the group that was advancing towards the gate, there was a large crowd walking in front of a group that was carrying something - a large amount of fallen trees tied together with vines.

A battering ram!

It was rather primitive, but still looked pretty heavy. It was covered with what I guessed was leather in an attempt to shield whoever was carrying it from arrows.

The dryads, while advancing, were diving into the river water, in an attempt to coat themselves with water before their assault.

I didn’t know if that would do anything to protect them from fire elemental spells, but it might do something against actual fire.

“Wake my father up,” Drake said to one of the other Liberomancers. “We’re going to need him. Master Stefan, there is a huge mass of them, please start off with your combination spell. No wait - summon that spider first, I think there’s something I can do to help out…”

I didn’t bother correcting him this time, but used [Summon Tyrant Arachnea], bringing out the huge spider on the ground below us.

This time, I didn’t light it on fire, but Drake did.

I could see his line of reasoning - his fire spells were far more effective, and hence, this combo was more effective as well.

The reason being was that the Tyrant Arachnea got stronger the more powerful the fire spell was cast on it - it could truly be said to be the nemesis of any fire elementalist! There was a limit to its fire resistance though as it only went up to Rank Three, a Rank Four spell from Lance would still end up roasting it.

On top of the flames, several Rank Two and Rank One Liberomancers began casting various buffs on it.

Even from this distance, the spider, with the huge cloak of flames coiling around it must’ve been visible to the dryads, and they seemed to balk the moment it appeared - which only got worse as the spider ran towards them.

The dryads were not exactly marching in tight formation, but there was still a loose structure to their organization.

This nearly crumbled the moment that they saw the Tyrant Arachnea.

I lived in modern times, so I’d never seen an actual cavalry charge, of course, but I had heard of the principle behind them. As with most things in war, it was about fear rather than actual threat.

Horses, no matter how well trained they are for war, will not willingly ram into a line of spearmen and die. Likewise, those riding those horses will also not willingly ram into the spearmen and forfeit their own lives, even though they would certainly take a portion of the spearmen with them.

But that’s all assuming that the spearmen remained in formation.

The people holding the spears might know, instinctively, that it was better to stay in formation. And that as long as they remained in formation, the advancing cavalry charge would stop and turn.

However, it was here that fear came in. There was something that awakened a primal instinct in the hearts of people when they saw an animal weighing several times them charging right at them - and with an armored soldier on top to boot, let alone several hundreds of them. Logic? Reason? Both would usually go out the window upon such a sight, and when people were in larger groups, it was easier for them to panic.

Why should I remain on the front line? I don’t want to die! And if I surrender, what’s the worse that will happen?

These thoughts would run through the minds of those people holding the spears. Depending on the time period, those who were defeated would become slaves, in which case they would hope for a kind master or for their freedom to be bought. Or, they would return to becoming peasants and tilling their fields, and in the case of nobility would be ransomed off. Fates many would prefer when compared to dying.

And even if you were brave - were the people around you the same? All it took was for a few people to drop their weapons and your formation was suddenly less effective, meaning it would incentivize even more people to desert.

The line of spearmen would usually break, and the cavalry would then ram their weapons into their fleeing backs, which is when most deaths in ancient battles occurred. Not with two sides clashing at each other (such things did happen, but were rarer than you’d think) - but when one side broke formation and was mowed down by the enemy.

There was a reason that veteran soldiers were considered superior to conscripts, even in this world. Experienced Roman legions could operate at half their usual capacity and still be completely functional, simply because veteran soldiers were less likely to break formation than their younger counterparts.

Arachnophobia is quite common on Earth. Most people were already scared enough of regular spiders - I couldn’t imagine that they would handle the sight of one the size of a truck running at them at about a truck’s maximum speed enveloped in flames with no regard for its own life and only bent on causing as much damage as possible, very well.

And all of that not considering the fact that they were even more flammable than humans, being dryads.

Understandably, they tried to put on a brave front, but their barely-kept formation collapsed almost immediately.

Those of them who had rudimentary ranged weapons used them - the arrows were nearly useless as the flames burnt them to a crisp before they could even make contact, and while the spears fared better, they could barely scratch the surface of its chitinous exoskeleton before the wounds rapidly closed up thanks to the flames.

Ten thousand dryads - the Tyrant Arachnea was no match for them, even with its improved coat of fire armor from Drake and buffs. But it didn’t need to be - because the panic spread faster than the flames would.

It was actually a bit of an issue if they ran away - as long as they had been in a tight group, the flames would’ve spread rapidly from one dryad to the other, but this would not nearly be as effective now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement - a speck that was moving through the horizon above the city. Something came out from the direction of the palace, moving through the air towards the dryads carrying the battering ram, much like a helicopter. It looked like Lance was flying out to deal with the dryads and their battering ram.

So we were covered from two positions, but that still left Zeke’s side.

“Is your brother going to be alright?” I asked Drake. With our side relatively safe, I was wondering if we should’ve sent some forces over there. I doubted that he had finished the grimoire I had given him and could perform the same combo as me in such a short period of time. I had only finished about a quarter of mine up till this point. And if anything, he was sometimes busier than I was.

“He can handle himself,” Drake said after clicking his tongue, a verbal tic of his that I realized he did whenever he was under stress or annoyed. He did however, ask for a portion of those stationed near the seaside to move towards that side of the wall. The dryads were not launching an amphibious assault, and given how slow they moved through the water, we’d have more than enough time to reform if they switched tactics.

The dryad’s plan was to distract the rest of us with two separate forces while they tried to batter the front gate down - it was a solid plan on paper.

But as I saw the spell [Inferno] kick up a massive wall of flames even from my position, I knew that whoever was carrying that battering ram was probably nothing but ashes now.

I couldn’t help but turn my head to try and catch a glimpse of what [Inferno] looked like - I had heard a lot about it but never witnessed it firsthand until now. The dryads before us had scattered, so I felt that I could afford the distraction right now.

The pillar of flame was quite apparent even at this distance, as it rose above even the height of the walls of the city. If I was closer, I might’ve even felt the heat of the explosion.

Rank Four magic truly was incredible! Not only that, but [Inferno] was boosted by the rest of Lance’s build and any other buffs he might’ve had cast on him before he had flown out. I didn’t doubt that the sight of his figure flying among the clouds was probably even more frightening to the dryads than my Tyrant Arachnea was.

After several more uses of [Inferno], Lance flew back towards the portion of the wall over the gate, descending and disappearing from my line of sight. He had likely either run out of mana completely, or like me, was making sure he had enough of a reserve should the situation deteriorate further.

My Tyrant Arachnea chased the dryads where it could - when some of them broke off and tried to circle around it to strike at us, I would urge it to turn around and chase whichever group was nearest to the walls.

After that the dryads seemed to have wizened up and realized that their only hope was to take it down. This was easier said than done given how the majority of them were deathly terrified of it. Despite them trying to put up a brave front at points, their formations tended to melt like butter the moment the Tyrant Arachnea drew too close to them.

Attempts were made to slowly whittle it down by some of the dryads, but it took them far longer than a properly organized military force would’ve.

In the end, though they did take it down, half of their forces were in disarray, over a thousand of them had been killed or wounded to the point that they could not fight, and it took them a while to pluck up the courage to regroup and begin to assault this side of the wall even with the Tyrant Arachnea gone.

After all, they didn’t know if we had a second one.

If I had the skills [Second Summon - Rank Three] and [Recall Summon] I could’ve brought out it again, but I hadn’t been able to find either of those skills in Chipker. If I did want to specialize as a summoner in the future, those kinds of skills would be essential.

Still, it wasn’t like we were defenseless. Once they got close enough, [Grand Fireball] rained out over them, and those that survived that were few enough to be shot down by arrows.

The lack of blood seemed to have caused their normally hard skin to become brittle and flaky as the arrows were having far greater effect than they had previously, and upon realizing the futility of what they were doing the remaining dryads fell back.

The fighting on the other side of the wall lasted another hour, but at the end, when all was said and done, the enemy had been repelled.

At that point I felt so tired I thought I could just fall asleep right there on the wall. I tried to force myself to stay awake though - and it was only when it was three hours past noon and it looked like the enemy wasn’t going to make a second attempt that I dared to leave to try to get some shut-eye.

Hr

Great Claw stood still. Nearly perfectly still - as if he were an actual tree.

He had been like this for several hours, standing motionless, not only conserving energy, but hoping to find something.

And suddenly, he felt it.

There!

He felt movement as something jumped over his feet, likely thinking of them as nothing more than tree roots.

And in a flash, he had caught what it was in his hands.

A rabbit - which he promptly beheaded and let the blood spill over onto his roots.

This had been one of the few morsels he had received in the past few days - but for a dryad his size, it was no different from a man being fed a single slice of bread after going hungry for three days.

This could not continue.

As it was, their recent assault upon the human city had failed. Their first attempt was essentially planned to have failed and had only been a fight to test the waters and gain information to plan the second attempt, actual attempt to break through the walls. The second attempt, however, had failed almost as miserably as the first one did.

What else could they do now?

Retreating was not a viable option - though he knew that many of his brethren were considering it and wanted to run to seek greener pastures. But the wisdom of the ancestors had been passed to him through stories, and he had been attentive enough to listen. If they turned around, their enemies would realize how weak they were, and strike them down even as they fled. Given how malnourished some of them were, they could not advance much further as it was, and would find nothing but death beyond.

No, it was do or die here - they needed to find a way into the city. Their last tactic had failed, what more could they do but throw themselves at the walls with all they had?

Around him, there were the occasional moans of pain as some of the ordinary dryads felt their bodies breaking apart without a source of fresh blood. They were not creatures of flesh and blood, but what kept them together still needed nourishment, and without it, they would slowly be chipped away until nothing of them remained.

All throughout this ordeal, no further inspiration from the shadow that had guided them here in the first place came. Many of them had searched for a trace of it, yet it had been fruitless. Now, they cursed the shadow as an evil omen - one which had left them in this situation with no further aide or advice.

In these situations, the dryads had their own methods of trying to reach out to the forces of nature - what humans and lizardmen would understand as spirits.

One among them would be chosen by lots, and would be thrown upon a bed of spears at sunset after they had been told the message the dryads wished to tell the spirits. If the dryad in question did not die by sunrise, they were considered a sinner and killed and the process repeated.

Despite having done this for the last three nights, no help at all had come from the spirits, shadow or not. It looked like the spirits had truly abandoned them.

As Great Claw ruminated upon this, a rain droplet hit his head. And another. And another.

As he gazed out at the Arconia, even though he did not know the name of the river, inspiration struck.

I barely even remembered what had happened after the fight was over, only that I was soon in the warm comfort of a bed.

I was woken up far too soon, at least, that’s how it felt like - I looked out the window to see where the sun was to get a good idea what time it was, only to see the sky shrouded by a mantle of gray clouds.

It was raining. This was sort of good I guess - from the point of view of getting fresh water. Not that we had much of a problem with fresh water to begin with, but I saw people holding up pots, pans, and whatever to collect the rainwater, so at the very least if there wasn’t a supply issue there was definitely a distribution issue.

It was to be expected though, now that the cold season had ended that we were going to be braced with a few weeks of intermittent showers. Libraria seemed to have seasons somewhat similar to those back on Earth, though I hadn’t seen a proper autumn season and it looked like the trees just lost their leaves overnight. Additionally, though it had been cold, it had not snowed an inch and I had been told that it was rare to get snow at all, meaning I guessed that this was the tropical area of the world.

Still, that meant that eventually summer would be back after all this, even if we had to deal with the rain for now.

Which made sitting on the wall even more annoying. Umbrellas and rain coats were a thing in this world - but that didn’t stop the other annoyances. Like how the stairs were muddy and wet and easy for people to slip on, or how water fell from any overhangs above onto your unsuspecting face if you weren’t careful.

I had never liked the rain, even back on Earth, for these reasons.

But there was something else that worried me.

“Does the rain make fire elemental spells less effective?” I asked Drake. It seemed like a stupid question - and also one that I, a a Master Liberomancer, probably should’ve known the answer to, but didn’t.

“Not really,” Drake said. “The initial cast, like with [Grand Fireball] goes through uninterrupted, and the immediate explosion afterwards is unimpeded, but the small flames afterwards might fizzle out.” He looked up at the rain. “But it shouldn’t matter, that last part is only a tiny fraction of what the spell does. Maybe some of them might survive a bit better - but it won’t change much.” He then turned towards me. “What about your skill though- with the spider and the fire?”

“I… I think the water would put it out,” I said. The flames that coated the Tyrant Arachnea were not its own, it was just manipulating them and fanning them out. I couldn’t be sure without trying, but I had a hunch that it would not work as well as it would otherwise.

From this distance, I could see a few of the dryads heading towards the walls. [Unobstructed Sight] was actually great in this context, because my vision would’ve been very badly impeded by the rain drops otherwise. With its help however, I could ignore their motion and obscuration completely.

Their movements were sluggish - I thought initially that the rain would’ve given them a slight advantage against us, but it also made the soil moist and extremely difficult to navigate. Dryads weren’t the fastest creatures around to begin with, and with so many numbers the ground would’ve turned into a big pile of mud quite soon if they would’ve tried to assault the walls. They would be left stuck, unable to move, while we rained down projectiles upon them. “I’m more concerned about the rain for another reason,” Drake admitted. “If we have another flood, it’ll be a problem.”

A good portion of the city was at sea level, and as such, flooding was not unheard of. It had been a decade since the last major flood - though Granny Qi had told me all about it and how the first floor of many people’s houses at the time had been uninhabitable because of it. It was this thought that was worrying most people now.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 27-29

Anyway, whatever it was that Drake was getting at, it was likely nothing compared to the problem currently at our doorstep.

Yes, it had been a big security breach that those two demonic Liberomancers had managed to worm their way into the city, but they were small fry compared to the dryads.

Once my watch was over, while going back onto the street, I ran into someone familiar.

“...Rose?” I called out to get no response from the pink-scaled lizardman. Wait, no, that wasn’t her actual name - just what I called her in my head. I did remember what her real name was, and though it was hard for me to pronounce, I still tried it anyway. “R’arc-stomp-hiss.” Even after all this time, I couldn’t make many of the sounds required to pronounce lizardmen names, and I still could not distinguish between the subtleties of how they used their tails to create three different kinds of syllables.

She was going down a set of stairs while I had happened to be walking by while going in a different direction - the two of us had reached the bottom at the same time. She was looking at something that was either a grimoire or just normal writing in her hands - it was a bit hard to tell given it was turned away from me.

I wasn’t even sure it was her - but not many lizardmen had pink scales.

She did respond to me calling out her actual name or as close as I could get to saying it, though, and looked up. A glance at her features confirmed it. Yes, this was definitely her.

“Ah - eh!”

She was so startled to see me I felt that she might’ve fallen off the stairs if she had still been going down them.

The two of us stood there, at the bottom of the stairs, looking at each other awkwardly.

It reminded me of that time she had blabbed too much on why some lizardmen didn’t like humans that much back when I had first started working for Lauren.

This was awkward for a different reason, however.

I could probably guess what was going on through her mind - I had been forced out of the shop, and now I had the title of Master Liberomancer. Was she wondering whether or not I resented her for it? She hadn’t been involved in the decision to kick me out whatsoever, but hadn’t stood up for me either. Whether it was guilt or fear, it was likely eating away at her from the inside.

The answer on my end was ‘no’ - in truth, I had actually nearly completely forgotten all about my old coworkers. I couldn’t remember most of their actual names, I only remembered Rose’s because I had been a bit closer to her than the others.

It was much the same back on Earth.

I had been very close with a group of friends back in high school - there was Jason who loved motorcycles (my mother had said she would kill me if I ever got on one), Tyler who was amazing at basketball, and Miles who had wanted to become an Influencer. There were many more people that I began to remember now that I strained my mind back to those days - but the point was that on graduation, we had told each other a rather comforting lie that we would still stay in touch. It wasn’t just those three, but with some others as well.

After we all went our separate ways, cold reality hit - that we had been friends because we had happened to be in the same class together. Other than a handful of emails, I had not had any contact with people from back in high school. Perhaps there were friend groups that still stuck together for years, but those were the exception as far as I could tell, not the rule.

“So, how are things back in the shop?” I asked, wanting to break the silence.

“Oh, it’s been closed because of the siege,” she said once she found her voice. Right, I already knew that - why did I bother asking her? I looked rather dumb now. “All of us have been assigned somewhere else to fight or to help with the fighting.”

What else did people like talking about again? Right, their pets. “How is your axolotl doing?” I didn’t remember its name, but that seemed like a safe question. At least, in my case, if you asked me about Cheddar I would’ve normally been pretty happy to talk about him. On Earth, that was. Now though it only reminded me of how frustrated I was to be here in this world whenever someone mentioned pets.

“Doing good, all things considered,” she replied. “Though if the siege goes on a bit longer… it’ll be hard to get food…”

“Mm…” I said.

I wouldn’t call anyone from back in Lauren’s shop who I worked with ‘friends’, they were acquaintances at best.

They probably did not approve of me being forced out, though none of them made a big fuss about it either.

They hadn’t reached out to me after I had left - though you could say that went both ways as I hadn’t reached out to any of them either.

Still, I did not have any malignant feelings towards any of them.

And unlike with Lauren, I didn’t want Rose to be stewing in uncertainty about whether I hated her or not.

My mind went back to the conversation I’d had with Drake earlier. I didn’t want to isolate myself, and yes, I would leave these people behind one day - but the memories would still remain. I had not been in touch with my high school friends in a while, and we may have drifted apart, but did that mean if I could go back in time I would not do any of the fun things we had just because we would drift apart one day? No! And so long as we were all around, there was always the hope that one day, we would in fact meet again. And even if that never happened, I wouldn’t regret creating those happy memories with them, now then would I?

I couldn’t help but feel the same way here. Was I making a mistake? Wasn’t it worth it to reach out to them at least once before I left the city? Even if I left this world, my memories of it would remain - why couldn’t I make some happy memories here? And the answer came to me immediately - I already had many happy memories from this world, there was no reason to shun adding in more. To meet someone met that you would separate one day certainly, and I didn’t want to waste more time than necessary socializing, but I didn’t have to become the city’s biggest recluse either.

There was still time for me to reach out to my old coworkers. But how would I do that?

A way to show her and the rest of them that it was all good between us…

“Ah, I was meaning to get to this at some point,” I said. “I wanted to thank you all for that dinner you took me out to that day. I wanted to celebrate my becoming a Master Liberomancer, but you know, things always get in the way and I couldn’t get around to it before this whole dryad business started. Why not, once this siege is over, I’ll treat all of you at the same restaurant to celebrate?” People had been offering me parties almost nonstop ‘when this is all over’ and I felt like I might as well return the favor to someone.

“Oh… uh….”

“Can you do me a favor, and once this is all done, let everyone working in the shop know so we can figure out a date and time?”

“Oh, sure…”

I moved to clear the path for her, though she shook her head and insisted I go first. Out of respect for my title? Or just out of seeing an old friend after a long time?

I didn’t have the heart in me to argue any further, so I went down and took the carriage not back to the palace this time, but to Granny Qi’s place. I just wanted to see how she was doing, and while it wasn’t feasible to visit her after every shift, I could check on her once in a while.

“How are things?” I asked her. Her house was crowded just like it had been when I left and was a bit cluttered and dirty as a result, though everyone looked to be in good health.

“I can’t complain here,” she said. She looked a bit weary, but otherwise okay. “So long as we’re all still alive, what’s there to complain about? I was meaning to ask how you were doing - did you get hurt?”

“No, and casualties have been mostly low up till now thankfully,” I told her. “Some of the dryads have primitive weapons like spears and bows, so occasionally some people have been hit by them, though most of their projectiles have missed, you know, advantage of being atop a wall. And after the first day they didn’t send any large parties after us.”

“Good, good, now come in.”

“I can’t stay for long, but…” I said as she practically dragged me inside.

”I’ve been meaning to make this,” she said, pointing to some fish she was cooking on the stove. “But I couldn’t get it to taste like you had.” I took a small bite to sample it.

My [Poissonnier] skill activated instinctively. “I think this needs to be cooked for just a touch longer, and if you have something like onions, diced ones will bring out the flavor.”

“Right,” she said and then gave me a brief smile. “I’m glad to see that you’re safe.”

“How are things when it comes to food, by the way?” I asked Granny Qi as I took a seat. I had been particularly worried about her and the rest of her family when it came to that.

“We should be alright, don’t worry about us,” she said, waving her hand. “Are they feeding you properly?”

“Too much hoenstly,” I said with a light chuckle. “Actually I think should be giving some of it out to other people but…” The thing was, I knew that most of the Rank Three Liberomancers had stores of food at home, or the capital to buy food even at the inflated rates they were currently going for in the market. Still, the city rationed out food in such a way as to make sure that they were fed fully entirely on the city’s dime.

Granny Qi shook her head. “If you don’t eat, you can’t fight. How strong are you compared to a normal person?”

I had heard random figures thrown around, but it was said that in an open field, someone like Zeke was the equivalent of five thousand ordinary soldiers. If such were the case, I’d probably rate myself worth somewhere around two or three thousand soldiers at most.

To feed one person fully who could fight as well as three thousand or to feed three thousand people; the answer from a logistics perspective was obvious. Not to mention I was punching way above my weight when it came to the dryads thanks to that little Tyrant Arachnea combo I had developed.

But, that was only if you took cold, hard logic into account and took the human factor out of it. To feed someone like me when there were children who were certainly going to be malnourished… society may have judged my worth to be far greater than them - but there was something about the whole thing that twisted my stomach.

I lent Granny Qi a hand with dinner, and as expected she gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse - asking me to stay for dinner.

“Won’t you stay for dinner?” Granny Qi asked me as I tried to head out the door fifteen minutes later. “You’re the one who helped cook some of it… and I’m sure the kids would like to spend some more time with you...”

The little kids were eyeing me with curiosity - I had met some of them, but that had only been for a while during the Spirit Festival. Naturally they had all sorts of questions such as what was going on, how it was like to be fighting on the wall, etc.

Basically, she was threatening me with how disappointed they would be if I left.

Granny Qi - this was an extremely dirty tactic to try to get me to stay!

I wanted to leave because I didn’t want to strain her house or resources any more than they already were, but she had basically checkmated me with this final move.

“Alright, alright,” I said.

Dinner was very crowded - her table could not seat all of us which is why I sat down on a mat somewhere else. I was offered a chair multiple times - likely out of deference to my title - but I had to refuse.

This made me late for where I was going next, and I hadn’t wanted to be rude by knocking on the door so late at night, but I was left with no choice.

This matter had to be taken care of today, regardless of how late it was.

I was at ‘my rented house’ which I hadn’t lived in for several days by this point. I knocked on the door and someone opened it up - I couldn’t remember his name at this late hour.

“Oh, Master Liberomancer - you’ve been away for so many days-”

“Yes, I wanted to check up on things, I hope you don’t mind,” I said, opening the door myself and letting myself in.

“Oh, sure - things have been fine…”

I walked around the place, cognizant of all the eyes who were now watching me.

I then cleared my throat - I wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, but I wanted to make sure that they all heard me loud and clear.

“I had invited ten of you into this house,” I said. “Why do I count fourteen people here then?”

They all looked at each other, no one really seemed ready to fess up.

“I want you all to know one thing,” I continued. “When I first came to this city, I had nothing but the clothes on my back and my shoes - which I had to sell at that point so I could eat. I had wandered the streets for several days like that until I was lucky enough to get some help, get back on my feet, and attain the title I have today. I’ve always been grateful to the person who made this possible, Granny Qi, and in order to repay her kindness I allowed you all, members of her village, to shack up in here. It went against the rules, but I decided to bend them to give you all a chance. However, I do not appreciate you all taking advantage of that kindness and inviting even more people behind my back.” There was pin drop silence after I finished - my anger was evident in my words and in the way I was glaring at them. Their eyes were filled with fear almost immediately - no one, especially commoners like them, wanted to enrage a Liberomancer.

Several of them opened their mouths to give justifications, but I held up my hand. “I’m assuming these other people you invited are also your friends and family, or members of your village whom you couldn’t bear to see on the streets. Believe me, I can understand that - I would not want anyone to be thrown onto the streets either. And if this was my house, I would have no issues with such - as long as one of you had informed me beforehand, of course. If I had the time and the money, I’d build up houses for everyone in the city so no one would ever be homeless. But none of you told me - however, I would be okay with even that. The issue is that this is a rented house, not my own, and the Guild already was overlooking me housing ten of you.”

“This however, was the equivalent of flagrantly disregarding their rules and spitting in their faces,” I continued. “Those are not my words, they are the words of a guild representative who I spoke to this morning. They were going to send soldiers to come here and throw all of you out - they only stopped because of my title, but clearly stated that if this were to continue, all of you would be chased out, and I would have my privileges of renting out a house like this revoked by the Guild,” I said.

If I had been a normal Rank Three Liberomancer and these had been normal times, they would have likely not even asked before doing all those above steps.

But, I was a Master Liberomancer, and these were not normal times, so they decided to give me a chance.

Drake had also helped me out here by stepping in and asking if the guild could overlook it this once.

“We cannot overlook this breach in regulations,” the representative had said. “But, if you should wish, we are prepared to give you time to resolve this on your own terms. The Guild would of course wish for things to be resolved without having to resort to litigation. However, should this situation continue, Master Liberomancer, your privileges to rent out a house will be revoked, potentially permanently, and you will also be fined for any repairs or cleaning that have to be done.”

“I understand, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” I had told the representative. “Thank you for giving me some time to settle things.”

Drake had then given me yet another lecture on how it was a problem to be too kind - something he thought I had a problem with.

I had been wondering why he had bothered sticking up for me like that, to which he simply said, “I feel like I owe you one for that incident in the restaurant last year.” The fact that we had bonded over the defense of the city probably helped.

My opinion of him had greatly improved following such.

“So,” I continued. “I don’t know what the issue is, and quite frankly with everything going on, I can’t be bothered with the details. But no more than eight of you should be here next morning when the Guild sends their representative- wheresoever the rest of you go, I wish I could help you find another form of shelter, but I cannot. If that doesn’t happen, I will step aside and let the Guild toss you all out- and in such a case you will be treated as trespassers, which I can guarantee you do not want to happen. Am I clear?”

I got various reactions after that. Several of them started bowing, others were in tears, and many of them asked if I couldn’t do something to help them all.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t house any more of you,” I said with finality. I had just become a Rank Three Liberomancer after all, and hadn’t built up a massive business empire that it looked like some of them were assuming. “Here- I know that the rations from the city aren’t enough, I was able to buy some rice which should last you all a while.”

I carried two sacks that I had asked the guild to purchase on my behalf which I had picked up on my way here into the house and left them there.

I then turned around and went back to the palace, all the while trying hard not to burst into tears. I absolutely despised what I had just had to do. It made me regret the whole scheme I had started to help out even eight of them in the first place.

If I ever decided to stay in Libraria long-term, there was a business I knew I couldn’t get into- and that was renting property out. Because I would never find in myself the heart to evict them.

Same for when I went back to Earth. I was not going to become a landlord, that was for certain. Any investment, but not that.

The next day was one of my night shifts, my first one actually up to this point, but this meant that I had the day off.

Ideally I would’ve used the daylight hours to sleep so I could stay awake at night, but the issue was that my new job still had issues I had to comb over and things I had to iron out, and to solve them, I unfortunately had to be awake.

Were there skills that could decrease your need for sleep without any side effects? I hadn’t seen anyone using one, so maybe not…

I did manage to squeeze in a few hours of shuteye anyway sometime during lunch, but I did not feel like that was enough. Especially given that I felt like I had already racked up quite the sleep deficit from all the past few weeks of working.

“How are you, Master Stefan?” Drake asked as he joined me as the sun began to sink below the horizon.

“You can still call me Stefan,” I said yet again.

“Sure thing Stefan,” he replied, though I was sure he would revert to his old ways soon enough. “How is that little renting situation of yours going on?”

“Oh, it’s solved,” I said. I sent someone to verify with the guild, and indeed, they had followed through with what I had asked them to and there were no further incidents.

What had happened to those extra people - I didn’t know, and it did me no good thinking about them.

Didn’t make it any easier to stomach though.

I looked at the dryad horde. Were plants less active during the nighttime? Even if they were, was the same for the dryads? I noticed a lot less movement at night, but that could just be because they were resting. From what we had seen up until now, the risk of a nighttime raid seemed to be low.

That wasn’t to say that it couldn’t happen.

I shivered - it was getting warmer but was still chilly at night. I called out to one of the lower ranked Liberomancers asking if they knew where to get a blanket. It had slipped my mind to bring my own.

I knew there had been some issues with that because I was recently involved in a scuffle involving blankets - there were not enough, and some blankets were not adequate as they were torn or otherwise damaged. It had been a big issue though thankfully it had died down somewhat as the weather improved.

The city had called upon its citizenry to donate blankets if they had some extra, and this endeavor had some middling success.

With all that said, I was not only handed a well-knit and thick blanket, but also told, “If you need another one, just give us the word.”

Rank Three Liberomancers were really well taken care of, weren’t they…

Drake came back again a while later after inspecting other areas under his command. “Up for something?” he asked me, pulling out a bottle of wine.

“You sure we should be drinking while on duty?”

“A glass here and there won’t hurt,” he said with a light chuckle. I was sure that it would, but he likely wasn’t going to care even if I pointed that out. “Not to mention the dryads haven’t done anything at night yet - I don't think they can actually, given how much they need sunlight. They usually remain as motionless as actual trees during this time.”

‘Wasn’t the whole reason that we had nearly fought in the first place last year because you were drunk?’ - I wanted to say that, but refrained from doing so, and instead accepted a small amount. Despite myself, it looked like he was becoming quite the bad influence on me.

“I heard there was a grimoire that you could make that would let you drink without later getting a hangover,” I said. “Or would let you drink without getting intoxicated too much - I forgot which one of those two…”

“Oh really?” Drake asked.

“Yeah,” I said, straining my memory. “But you had to write it with wine as ink…”

Drake took out a piece of paper. “Want to try?”

I really shouldn’t have given the fact that preserving my mana was a priority in case something happened, but at this time, I was still stressed out I felt that it might’ve been a good exercise to help me decompress. As it was, a small amount of mana shouldn’t have made that big of a difference if something happened.

I began thinking of what to write - since it was a Rank One grimoire, it didn’t need to be very long. A short amount of factual knowledge was good enough.

I had tried to do this before… but had never actually finished it. Why was that again?

Oh right, it was because of the person standing next to me eagerly awaiting for me to do so right now - who had interrupted me at the time.

I settled on writing the chemical makeup of alcohol and how yeast made it through anaerobic metabolism - and how there were limits to how strong it could be when done by yeast. If you wanted more concentrated alcohol, you had to distill it which is how one obtained things like vodka.

It was more of chemistry than anything, and I had to pause occasionally, straining my memory to remember my basic chemistry lessons, but I was able to finish it anyway.

The ink glowed, turning green- to give me a grimoire that gave… +1 to Speed?

I was dumbfounded.

Yes, the effects of grimoires sometimes didn’t add up to what they were written about, though there usually was at least a tenuous connection. This one, however, seemed completely divorced from anything involved in making it. Maybe there was some relationship and I just couldn’t see it? I had been expecting something related to alcohol or wine in some way though.

“Guess I ended up wasting some mana and wine then,” I said. “Sorry.”

“No problem,” he said. “If anyone could do it - I felt that you could.”

Before leaving for another check of what was going on, Drake tried to teach me some letters in the lizardman language. It was one way that we had tried to pass the time before, and at least somewhat relevant to me.

I learned something slightly curious as he began writing some letters. “Is that the letter representing ‘lizardmen?’” I asked him.

“Indeed it is.”

“Wasn’t that the same one… wait… I’ve seen it before… doesn’t that mean ‘dragon?’” I could tell as it somewhat looked like a dragon, being a long curvy letter opening into something that could be approximated as a ‘mouth.’ Some letters in the lizardmen language looked like the words they were trying to convey which made them easier to recognize than others.

“Well, of course it does, that’s why we are called what we are called,” Drake said.

“Called what?”

“Dragonmen,” Drake said as if it should’ve been obvious.

I took a moment to think about what he was saying. “Wait… Drake… tell me one thing, do your people… I mean, do you call yourselves the ‘dragonmen’ in your language?”

“Indeed, you’ve been saying the word several times, why is this new for you?” Drake asked, puzzled.

“Okay wait… when I say the word, lizardman, do you hear ‘lizardman’ or ‘dragonman?’”

“You just said the same word twice.”

“I didn’t- okay, so lizards and dragons are different, correct?”

“Obviously.”

“And so lizardmen and dragonmen should be different?”

Drake sighed. “Are you making fun of me or something? You’re saying the same word again.”

“Okay… I’m not, but I think it’s being translated that way…” I said as he shook his head in confusion and walked off. Had the lizardmen been calling themselves ‘dragonmen’ all the time, and it was just translated like that? Why did the humans refer to them as lizardmen then? Because ‘dragonmen’ sounded too threatening? Or was it just some kind of misunderstanding that had arisen at some point because of the way the translation magic of this world worked which no one had corrected? Even I had thought of them all as being lizardmen when I first came to this place, though if I had to choose an alternate name to call them, ‘dragonmen’ would’ve also worked.

It was probably partly the alcohol’s effect and partly boredom, but I couldn’t help but begin thinking of all the other words that the magic system of the world might be mistranslating. How much context was I missing because of this?

The night watch was quieter than daytime, which meant there was even more time to kill. I had already read as much of my new grimoire as I could without depleting my mana to a point where I thought it would be irresponsible to use more. Eventually, Drake passed by again after he was done after another round of routine inspections.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“Good enough,” I said.

Some of the guards were nodding off - no, they were just staring off into the night, I supposed, it was a bit hard to tell.

Even with [Unobstructed Sight] I could not detect any movement from the enemy side. The ‘night vision’ feature of it was not that good at differentiating things like shades of color in the dark, but it was pretty good at detecting shapes and movement - particularly from living things which appeared brighter than their surroundings.

Drake sat down next to me. “Don’t you feel cold in your armor?” I asked him.

“Ah, no, I have an ability that keeps me warm almost all the time no matter how cold it is,” Drake answered. Right - he was a fire elementalist, it wouldn’t shock me if there was something like that. “What’s that?”

“This is the grimoire I swapped from your brother,” I said. It was night and rather quiet as well - maybe I could use up thirty percent of mana instead of the usual twenty right now? It would greatly speed up my progress.

“Ah, is that the one that gives [Ansoon’s Blessing]? That’s a good choice you made by taking it,” Drake said.

I nodded. “Hey - related to this grimoire, are there a few waterfalls in this area that flow backward?”

“Just the one,” Drake said. “I’ve never been to it myself though.”

The grimoire had gone into much more detail regarding Ansoon’s story, as it was Zeke had only given me a brief synopsis. I was only partway through it by now because of the limited amount of both mana and time I had on hand, but it had started with Ansoon’s earlier life and the background regarding the conflict that had led to the tragedy in which her brother had been killed.

Chipker had not always been a unified country, and had gone through periods where it was divided into a western and eastern half, though the Ruler of the Astral Winds had the region firmly under his boot during his reign. After his assassination, however, it was once again split into a western and eastern half torn along the Arconia.

I hadn’t gotten much further than that yet, but this grimoire was more concerned with her personal story rather than the actual broader context of how Chipker had become a single nation and its political situation at the time. I didn’t even know if it would go into that topic later on, or if it would end with her brother’s death.

“Sorry if this is a random question to ask,” I said to Drake. “But have you ever seen a spirit? Like the ones in stories?” A river spirit supposedly was the one who had given Lady Ansoon the power to make the blessing named after her, and also who had caused the waterfall to flow in reverse in the first place. However, I had asked some humans about the waterfall and they knew of no such story behind it. There was clearly a gap between what the lizardmen and the humans thought was the most likely explanation behind the mystery of the waterfall.

As for me, I was less interested in who was right and more curious about spirits in general, which is why I was bringing up the topic in the first place.

The Siege of Arconia Chapters 24-26

Alongside the two of us, some other Liberomancers who had effective spells over water also unleashed theirs.

While not all of the dryads died from this assault, they were scattered all over the place and their attempt to storm the city was thwarted.

A few stragglers did get past our offensive barrier, but they were so few in number and close to the fortifications by that point that they were easily shot down by archers or spearmen. No mana was wasted upon them.

“I though you were a fire elementalist,” I said, watching his whirlpool and my tornado disappear. I knew that Drake and Zeke had to have at least a few other cards up their sleeves that weren’t fire spells to deal with things in case fire didn’t work, but this was a water elemental spell. It was just that it was quite contradictory to the main element he specialized in.

“I am, but, when you grow up near the sea, it’s useful to have a thing or two to deal with threats like that,” Drake said. “I originally wanted to have it to deal with pirate ships if we ever came across any, thankfully no one’s been dumb enough to try in my lifetime.” Drake made it sound like Arconia was just so strong that no one would dare do something like that, but I had a more reasonable theory, that being that the oceans of this world might as well be cursed for how unsafe they were to travel on, so no one tried.

“How is your brother doing on the other side?” I asked Drake. It was hard to tell from this distance, but they didn’t have a combo like mine, so it was possible they were in hot water. From this distance, while I could see some signs of fighting near the other side shore, it didn’t look like any dryads had managed to get much closer to the city than on our side.

“I can’t tell from here, but if they needed help, they’d signal for it,” Drake said.

That was true - and even if the dryads got through the sea and approached the city from that side, they would run into our new fortifications and a line of draftsmen backed by Liberomancers.

That was all the excitement that the day held for us. After the failed seaside assault, no further groups of dryads approached the walls for the rest of the day, and loud cheering could be heard from nearly everywhere. Morale had greatly improved after today given that we had driven the enemy off with basically no casualties other than one person who had tripped and fallen off the wall, though he had been swiftly rescued and patched up with magic.

Unfortunately, my little combo had brought me quite a bit of fame and recognition. People were calling it ‘Stefan’s Spider Combo’ and talking about it all this side of the wall, and likely the story had spread to the other side as well. By tomorrow morning everyone in the city would’ve known about it.

The reason why I said ‘unfortunately’ was because this little action of mine, given it was so effective had lead to other people thinking that I was far more skilled that I actually was.

As such, they were treating me like I was some sort of military genius Hannibal or Caesar. Even Drake was taking my suggestions and thoughts more seriously - normally I would have been happy about that, but the issue was that they were asking for my advice on things like battle strategy which I was woefully ill-equipped to do.

And the last thing that I wanted to do was to hand out a suggestion which might end up backfiring horribly.

I had gotten lucky with that combo in how effective it was. I had no delusions about my own ability, however, I was not some sort of military genius. Not that anyone cared to listen when I told them that. No, I was the youngest Master Liberomancer in the history of the kingdom - and I was just being humble.

Still, it was good to see as the sun set upon the city that the wall still stood, and the dryads had failed in their first attack.

The mood improved considerably thereafter - and I realized what had been going on. It wasn’t just my small innovation which had perked the general mood throughout the city.

The dryads were an unknown unknown - a problem that many people did not have the slightest context for. For all the oridinary people knew, the dryads could break through the city wall easily with only their fists, were immune to magic, and could shoot laser beams out of their eyes. This was not a rational fear in hindsight, the Kingdom of Hitutsa would not have stood for so long if that were true.

But because they had no context for this problem, people magnified the severity of it in their minds. The long amount of time for the enemy to arrive had allowed for their worries to fester, though now reality had begun to set in.

The situation was dire, but far from unwinnable.

The fear regarding the dryads being this nigh-unbeatable force had been so great that it wasn’t until now that the higher-ups realized that there wasn’t a set night float system.

After all, now that it was clear that the siege was likely going to last several weeks, there needed to be some people to man the wall at all times, Liberomancers included. We needed to sleep though.

We drew lots for that purpose, and thankfully I wasn’t going to be starting tonight. I would’ve definitely fallen asleep while on watch given how tired I was.

“Excellent work,” Zeke said, approaching us as we were heading off the wall after the day shift was over. He was speaking to both Drake and I. Drake, for handling his section well, and me, for my little trick with the spider.

I looked up at the night sky. “Do you know if they dryads are less active at night? Is it possible they might launch a nighttime raid?”

Zeke shrugged. “Unfortunately I do not know about that - but that’s what the skeleton crew at night is for. Their eyes reportedly don’t work that well at night, however, so I doubt that they would do such a thing. Actually, I wished to ask you something - that creature you summoned - do you have a spare grimoire that gives that skill?”

I did as a matter of fact - I had been saving it to sell once I joined the merchant caravan, but I knew why he was asking. He wanted to buy it so that he could use it. I nodded.

“I would like to purchase it from you,” Zeke said, proving that my hunch was correct.

It did make sense to give it to him, he would be on the other end of the wall so both ends would be covered by that combo with the middle being covered by Lance. It was a good formation - it was just that, as childish as it may have sounded, this combo was ‘my thing’ and I was a bit hesitant to give it to someone else.

Yes, cooperation was necessary between Liberomancers - but there was also competition between them. The balance shifted as one went from Rank Two to Rank Three towards the competitive side, and was completely skewed in that direction for Rank Four Liberomancers.

Not to mention I had made it for the purpose of selling it later on once I joined the merchant caravan.

But, again, given the circumstances, I couldn’t think of a good reason to say ‘no.’ And it could very well be that having someone else who could use this combo could indeed turn the tide of battle in the future in our favor.

“Sure, but I would rather swap it for another Rank Three grimoire if possible, rather than taking the money,” I said. “I also unfortunately only have one copy right now, and I don’t think I’ll be able to make a second in time before the siege is over.”

The reason I said this was because I had a feeling that the two brothers, thanks to their connections, had access to certain grimoires that would otherwise be hard to find. In ordinary times they might not be willing to trade, but these were far from normal times.

“That’s fine, but in case you’re wondering- I think I said this, but I don’t have a grimoire that could help you fly,” Zeke said.

“No, I remember that - but do you have anything else that could be good?”

“Ah, let’s drop by my study - you’re coming over to the palace tonight, aren’t you anyway? We can go over what I have there,” Zeke said.

We all trotted off, with the streets far livelier now. As I got into my own carriage, people swarmed around me.

“Master Liberomancer, how did it go?”

“What is the state of the city?”

“Do you think we can win?”

Some of them were local passer-bys, others had been reduced to beggars due to the city’s current condition, but they all looked at me eagerly - hoping for some good news. Word had already spread throughout the city, but they wanted to hear it from me.

And well, it wasn’t a complete lie to tell them that for now, things were going well. So I did, much to their immense relief.

Others wanted to thank me for the work I’d done. Some of them simply wanted to get a glimpse of me like I was some kind of rock star. I tried to appease them for as long as I could but quickly discovered that if I stopped to chat for too long, it would only draw in a larger crowd.

“I’m sorry, but I really need to be off,” I finally said, exasperated, but the crowd didn’t seem to get the message until one of the guards in the carriage banged the butt of his spear on the ground loudly and repeated that line at four times the volume. The crowd backed off after that, making way for the carriage.

I was showered with thanks even as I hurriedly shut the door and the carriage sped off towards the governor’s palace.

“So, these are the ones I have,” Zeke said in his office when I dropped by. He didn’t have the actual grimoires with him, they were under lock and key, obviously, but it was a list on paper describing what they did. A list I couldn’t read - which he only seemed to realize after he handed me the list. “I’m sorry, I forgot about that - let me just read out what the Rank Three ones do.”

Some of them were stat-boosting ones, which I was not interested in at the moment. There was the Rank Three [Incinerate], but the thing was that I was already decked out pretty well when it came to offensive options. There were another two that were very good for fire elementalists, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go down that route as of now.

“Wait - what does that ability do?” I asked him. It was called [Ansoon’s Blessing] which I had not heard of before.

“It makes one completely invulnerable to not only damage, but any kind of negative effect for a minute,” Zeke explained. “It can be used once every twenty-four hours, but it can’t be used on anyone other than the caster, and will not do anything to any damage that has already been taken.”

That caught my attention - I had been looking for a defensive option and while not perfect, it was still very good at buying time. It not only protected from magic, but also physical attacks as well. “Alright, I think that’s good - but why that name? What is Ansoon?”

“Who is Ansoon,” Zeke corrected. “And you haven’t heard the epic of Lady Ansoon before? Or seen one of her statues on the square opposite the Liberomancer’s Guild?”

I shook my head. “Again, I’m not from around here,” I reminded him.

“Right,” Zeke said. “Well, I don’t have time to recount the whole tale, but the short version is that there was a lady by the name of Ansoon who was ambushed by an enemy clan. Her brother was with her, and ended up sacrificing himself so that she could escape safely. He had been badly wounded, and Ansoon was unable to heal him. As she lay near a waterfall with her brother’s corpse beside her, a river spirit approached her and took pity upon seeing her weeping over his corpse. She taught her the grimoire that would prevent further deaths like that of her brother’s from happening, and in honor of her brother’s bravery, altered the water so that the waterfall would flow backwards from that moment onward.”

With a jolt I remembered the place I had visited with Granny Qi. She had not mentioned anything by that name - and it was unlikely there were two waterfalls in the area that did the same thing. Perhaps it was a legend only circulated amongst lizardmen - which is why she didn’t know? I think I had heard the name ‘Lady Ansoon’ before now that I listened to the full story, but if it was a lizardman story given the fact I tended to go to human pubs to hear stories and whatnot, I might’ve only heard of it in passing while working in the shop or something like that.

And even if I had seen the statue, it would not have been marked in any language that I could read in, so I’d have no context for it.

“Um, it is transaction still alright?” Zeke asked me as I had spaced out a bit.

“Right, yes, yes,” I said.

We still had to clear the transaction through the guild the next morning, though there was no rush. It would take time for both of us to read what we had swapped, because there was no way that I was putting so much effort into reading another Rank Three grimoire yet again after having done so recently.

It might even be possible that we wouldn’t finish reading each other grimoires until after the siege, but we would have no way of knowing that until after it was over. Using translation devices to read doubled the amount of mana consumed, and so would also halve the speed at which we could progress through a grimoire.

I had had a long day by that point and so turned in to go to sleep. My dreams were fractured bits and pieces of the fighting that had occurred that day - in the middle of the night, I woke up thinking that there was a Tyrant Arachnea in my room, though thankfully that was only my eyes playing tricks on me.

I didn’t know whether the dryads dreamt or not, but if they did, I hoped that my little tactic was causing those fiends to wake up in a cold state just remembering the terror they felt as the Tyrant Arachnea descended upon them.

Great Claw watched the city far off in the distance. Even with the darkness, its multitudes of lights contrasted against the dark countryside.

They had lost many of their forces today - those who returned said that they had been assaulted by fire-breathing dragons atop the walls.

Great Claw knew better though - these were the weapons of the humans and other two-legged creatures they had seen in this country. Even he was surprised by the ferocity of their fire, however. They had not encountered such great resistance until now.

They dryads spoke of another monster, one with eight large legs which spat fire. An entire tribe had collapsed in fear during the attack today due to its presence.

However, this day was not a complete waste, for they had collected many useful pieces of information.

Such as the fact that the great body of water that lay beyond, was not the kind that they could nourish themselves with. There was something in it which caused those among them who tried to drink it to become sick, and it was not the nourishing water of the great river.

Great Claw had not expected victory to come easily, so he was not disappointed by today’s result. He might need some time to convince the other dryad lords, but he was sure that given enough time they could break through. Although the exterior of the city was hard, like that of a snail’s shell, the inside was soft and would be delicious.

They just had to crack open that shell.

The next day, nothing of note happened. The dryads seemed to have wised up and realized that there was no point in sending small squads out to try to probe our defenses after yesterday’s failure.

And so, they remained a large blight upon the land in the distance, but unmoving.

Were they going to try to starve us out? That was fine with me, because eventually, an army would come from the capital, and were that to happen, the plan was to sally out and catch them in a pincer attack.

Until then, we would stay here, behind or atop the safety of the city walls, and they would stay outside, both of us watching the other intently.

I had kept observing them, and while I could see several of what I assumed were dryad lords, I still could not see any sort of central figure in their forces who might be an overall commander - a dryad king, if anything like that even existed at all.

That raised two possibilities. One was that there was no overall leader at all - which seemed to most likely be the case. Hard as it was to believe - after all humans, and lizardmen for that matter, were creatures who formed hierarchies at nearly all levels of organization, whether a king or just a shop owner. That the answer to ‘who is in charge of these hundred thousand or so individuals’ would be ‘no one’ was an idea counterintuitive to the human mind. Surely, someone had to, at the very least, be nominally in charge? And if there wasn’t someone in charge right now, someone would have to eventually emerge who was.

And yet, it seemed to be the truth that there was no such figure on the dryad side - merely a loose confederation of what we thought were tribes, though whether or not they even had that kind of basic level of organization was unclear.

The second explanation was that there was someone like that, but they were hiding themselves. If it was the latter, then I had to admit that they were much smarter than we gave them credit for. If we were able to eventually find a leader like that, it would well be worth it for Lance to fly out and then kill them with a single [Inferno].

That wouldn’t necessarily end the fighting - this wasn’t a game of chess after all where capturing the enemy king meant victory, but it would greatly demoralize the enemy and a good portion of them might disperse.

These thoughts and several others occupied my mind throughout the day - because there was little else to do.

In order to work on reading the grimoire I had gotten from Zeke this morning, I decided that I would spend no more than twenty percent of my mana at a time. Once I had done so, I would wait for my mana to recover, and then start reading again. The purpose was to not leave myself defenseless (or rather useless given I would still have people to defend me in that scenario, I just wouldn’t be able to do much myself) if they attacked and I didn’t have enough mana because I was reading.

This meant of course that I wasn’t really making that much progress reading the grimoire, but it was the best I could do in these circumstances.

To speed things up I could’ve spent more time at night reading, but I had already been doing so for several nights in a row to get [Grand Fireball] and I didn’t have it in me to keep doing it, otherwise I knew I’d eventually collapse from exhaustion.

The smallest silver lining to current events was that the lizardmen and humans really did seem to be getting along again making my job as mediator almost (but not quite entirely) redundant - it was just a shame that it had taken a bloodthirsty army at the gates for this to happen.

For the next four days, there were a few skirmishes involving a few hundred dryads, but nothing truly battleworthy happened. The dryads seemed to be in no hurry to leave or to advance forward.

During these rather (thankfully) boring times, I found a rather odd companion to while the time away with - Drake.

I hadn’t really liked the lizardman when I first met him, and even before the siege began I still had a rather low opinion of him due to his past misdeeds. I was sure that the feeling was mutual even if he didn’t overtly let it on.

However, we ended up spending quite some time together simply by the nature of having to work together. It started with swapping reports and possible battle tactics, but given the stretches of time that we had free, other topics as well.

I began to understand him a bit more, and truth be told, he was easier to speak to than his brother.

Zeke was the ideal politician’s son - he was obedient, did what he was told, and shrewd enough to get around most situations without offending anyone. He was a natural born heir to the family’s legacy, though I had a feeling that the fact that he was the eldest son also formed much of his current character, not just how he had been born as.

Drake on the other hand, was much more like a normal person - though he had just so happened to have been born the governor’s son. A role that he didn’t seem to particularly relish, but didn’t overtly resent either.

He was more open to talking about things, and unlike speaking with Zeke, it didn’t feel like it was all politispeak.

It also helped that we could more easily talk to one another freely than most other people could. I was a Master Liberomancer, and though he did give the respect that was due, he was not overly subservient or awestruck like most other people when meeting me. My rank and the fact that I really didn’t care much for the current hierarchy in this kingdom given I was planning on leaving also meant that I didn’t care much for his position as governor’s son as I guess other people did.

We ended up eating most of our meals together - this was initially just because it was a convenient way to save time on his end. I had to inform him of going-ons as mediator, and he would usually want to pick my brains regarding decisions he had to make, likely because of the reputation I had developed which I did not really deserve.

But, this turned from a business lunch to something the two of us began to enjoy after a while.

I guess the biggest catalyst to the two of us becoming friends so quickly was just the constant danger that the dryads posed. I had heard that it was in the fire and brimstone of war that true bonds were forged. We had only had one major fight up until this point, but knowing that we had to rely on each other to survive no doubt removed many of the initial inhibitions I’m guessing both of us had in talking to each other.

“A quick question, if you don’t mind me asking,” Drake said one day.

We were fed three full meals every day, and while taking bites of mine I couldn’t help but still feel slightly guilty.

Maybe I shouldn’t have for all the reasons that Drake had reminded me of earlier - but the thing was that I just couldn’t get those initial days I had spent in Arconia out of my mind.

It had only been a short period of my life for sure, even when you consider just the time I had been in Libraria it was barely a drop in a bucket.

But, I don’t think I’d ever forget how it felt on those days when I’d had to go hungry. It wasn’t just the cold and the empty feeling in my stomach which had bothered me, but the outright despair at the situation I had been forced into.

I got out of that state rather quickly, but that was also why it was hard to ignore others who were in the same boat I had been.

“Um?” Drake asked when I still hadn’t answered.

“Right, sorry, my mind was just elsewhere,” I said.

“Do you… not enjoy the company of people?” he asked.

“What makes you think that?”

“I… well, I spoke with Lauren and she mentioned that at your old job, you would barely talk to anyone unless they talked to you first. I thought that might be because you didn’t like talking to lizardmen, but you don’t have any family in the city, and it doesn’t look like you have many, if any, human friends,” Drake said.

I shrugged. “It’s hard meeting people here and connecting with them as a foreigner.” It wasn’t like I was averse to speaking or bonding with people - it was just that I knew I couldn’t take it too far without exposing myself, at which point they’d likely think that I was crazy. Barring that, there was very little other than Liberomancy I could talk to anyone about anyway. That, and it didn’t matter whether I made deep connections here in Libraria or not, I’d have to abandon them upon going home anyway, so I didn’t see much point in trying.

Not to mention what I did - writing grimoires, involved sitting in a room by myself and that this took up most of my time leaving very little for socializing.

Drake nodded. “I was just curious as to whether you hated other people’s company or there was some other reason behind it.”

Up till now we had been talking about lighter topics, though there seemed to be something… deeper behind his line of questioning here.

“It’s just that - you’ve been here, what one year? Without any family, it would be hard to live without any friends either. You’re not the only foreigner in the city though - did you reach out to anyone else? Or perhaps you could’ve found someone from your old country who you could share things with?” Drake prodded.

“Um…” I began. Things had been a bit better in that regard when the merchant caravan was in town, that was for sure. “It was a bit easier to blend in when there was the Book Fair you know, but…” Did I end up making any friends at that time? I had been so busy making grimoires before it had started and the first few days I was dead tired because of that. The next few days had been spent wrapped up in the tournament - oh right! There had been that girl, Stella. “...they left once it was over.”

I thought about things a bit more. “Oh, and there was that guy who I ran into - but it turned out he was a demonic Liberomancer.” I frowned. “Did we ever figure out how he got into the city in the first place?”

Drake seemed a bit taken aback by the question, or maybe by my sudden attempt to change the topic. “Well, no. We think he might have snuck aboard a boat somehow - but whether some dock workers were in on the whole thing or it was something else - I think we’ll never know as we’ve halted the investigation given this blasted invasion.” He paused. “I was actually wondering - how did your conversation with him go again?”

“I don’t remember most of it right now,” I said. “It’s been a while, but he was looking for someone - and so when he went around asking for someone from another country, they thought it was me…” I chuckled. “Yeah, and then it became obvious he wasn’t looking for me but someone else. He was acting rather shady too… which is why it felt odd after meeting with him.”

The incident felt like it had taken place forever ago - as it was that meeting had only been for a few minutes. Of course, there was the shock of finding out later what he had really been - and that if he had wanted to kill me in that moment he probably could’ve with childish ease. [Crimson Lance] was quite a powerful spell when used on people. “Before you ask,” I added. “No, I haven’t had a chance to use [Crimson Lance] yet.” People oftentimes asked me about the spell. Information about demonic spells was rather limited- so it was only sort of natural that people were curious, I guess. If you knew a spell or skill, you knew its functions and powers instinctively, and most real demonic Liberomancers were not exactly very talkative to other people.

I was considering erasing the spell from my roster - now that I was Rank Three while it might still be somewhat useful in certain circumstances, it was also a massive headache to have around. I was going to be traveling a lot, and whenever I passed through a checkpoint I’d have to explain how I got it. That was fine while I was in Chipker or its neighboring countries, but would become difficult as we moved further away from this kingdom.

“Is there a reason for this line of questioning?” I asked Drake. His manner had shifted somewhat, and to me, it was like he was trying to find out something but trying his best to ask about it in a roundabout way.

The issue was that he was not very good at hiding it. I was sure that if it was Zeke instead of him, I wouldn’t have even become borderline suspicious.

But, that was also why I felt like I could be more relaxed around Drake in the first place - I could probably take him for what he said at face value.

Zeke was definitely the better candidate to become governor, but that was because he was better at subterfuge as well! I had initially liked him better because he treated me nicer, though with time as I began to realize that was more of a mask than anything else and I was clueless as to how he really felt about me. As I got to understand Drake, this changed and now I’d much rather have a conversation with Drake than with Zeke. Oh, if it was actually something important Zeke was no doubt the one to turn to, but if if was just shooting the breeze after work, it would be Drake. “No, no,” Drake said. “Just wanted to get to know you better!”

This was such a blatant lie I didn’t even bother calling it out and our conversation shifted to more mundane topics.

The Siege of Arconia Chapters 21-23

Drake nodded. “That is good - but do get some rest at some point. This siege isn’t going to last a few hours or even a few days, but weeks if not months - it’s important that we all pace ourselves so we don’t all collapse out of exhaustion.” I thought his tone had a strange condescending undercurrent to it, but I could’ve just been imagining that. It was hard to tell with lizardmen voices and even worse so with how the translation magic altered tones to some extent. “Secondly, some of the soldiers say that they saw you giving away some of your meals earlier?”

“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t have to buy my own food and was fed quite generously for being one of the defenders - I was fine cutting down what I was getting by about a third to give to someone else. I figured that I had other ways of getting enough food to fed myself.

Drake sighed. “Master Liberomancer - I can tell that you have a good heart. And it is far better for a person to have a good heart than the other way around - but that is not a good idea. We might not have as much food in the future, and we might end up having to cut rations even for Rank Three Liberomancers. It is important that you eat and are full, else how will you fight?”

“Your charity to those less fortunate would be commendable in any other circumstance, but do not do so by weakening yourself. Though it may sound cruel, it is better for some of the others to go hungry than you do - you do no one a service if one day you fall and the dryads breach our barriers,” Drake said. “It is better that they go hungry than have their throats slit by the dryad hoards.”

There was so much waste of food when they were giving it out, but I nodded anyway. He did have a point, and I didn’t feel like arguing with him on this. I had enough of my plate.

“Good,” Drake said. He seemed to be relaxing somewhat after saying that but then his head snapped as he saw something move in his peripheral vision. “They are moving towards us!”

I turned to see a group in the distance detach themselves from the main body of the horde - much larger than the small groups that had done so up till then. Another group did the same in the distance on the opposite side, but we could do little on this side of the wall for that as we would soon have our hands full - there must have been at least fifteen thousand of them heading this way.

I was well aware that this location would be highly likely to be attacked - aside from the main gate, this was another flaw in the city’s defenses. The dryads hadn’t headed out towards the ocean yet, but I wasn’t sure how much the seawater would damage them, or if they simply didn’t like being in it. No one seemed to have the answer to that question as the dryads had never come in this direction before in such numbers in all of recorded history. If the latter were the case, it would not serve as a deterrent whatsoever and they would rush towards the open sea.

Drake licked one of his teeth before ordering us all to focus on the main center of their formation. “Once they are in your range, start firing!” Range was affected not only by the tier of the spell, but your stats and skills as well, so it could vary widely between Liberomancers. Two people cast spells before they were within my own targeting distance.

“[Grand Fireball]!” I cast while aiming for the center of the formation - but this was my first time using the spell, and I had not aimed it properly. A flash of light burst out from my hands, traveling towards a location twenty feet off from where I should’ve been aiming before it suddenly blossomed into a huge sphere of red-hot flames. Funnily enough, I expected some sort of recoil given the resultant explosion was larger than that you’d get from a Rocket-Propelled Grenade, but nothing of the sort happened. Of course it didn’t, I told myself, this was magic, not an actual weapon.

About seventy of them erupted into ashes, but that was far fewer than I should’ve been able to destroy with a single spell.

I didn’t need to call out what spell I was using in order to cast it - just the thought was enough, but it was common in group fights like this to do so just so that other people knew what you were doing.

I paused before striking again. Did I feel a pang of sympathy for the lives I’d just ended? Maybe I would’ve if I’d had had more time to think, but in the heat of the moment such thoughts could wait for later. I aimed better with my second casting, but it was still less than optimal, with about ninety of them succumbing to the inferno this time.

Drake frowned and clicked his teeth when he saw how my first two spells landed off target. He cast his own, killing nearly two hundred of them. Not only was he a better shot, but also had skills that boosted the spell’s range and power. He had just been waiting for the right moment to join in.

The barrage of spells from our side had cowed the dryads somewhat, with them stepping gingerly out of what they perceived as the range that [Grand Fireball] could reach. If they wanted, they could stay out of reach while heading towards the water and then circle around to get to us. I didn’t think that would work very well, as the water, even if it wasn’t toxic to them, would greatly impede their movement, but I didn’t want to give them any chances.

“I have an idea, if you don’t mind me trying it out by modifying [Grand Fireball],” I said to Drake. It was an idea I’d had since I’d gotten the grimoire for [Grand Fireball] and seen the combo it could make with [Summon Tyrant Arachnea], but how would it play out in practice?

Drake shrugged. “I would love to see your suggestion.” I think there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but I took it as a go-ahead signal regardless.

“[Summon Tyrant Arachnea]!” I said, as a spider the size of a semi-truck materialized below us.

The ‘Arachnea’ referred to a species of giant spider that lived in Libraria. A normal individual would only grow to be about as big as a car (I said ‘only’ but even that would no doubt be nightmarish to encounter). The Tyrant Arachnea was the species’ equivalent of a prince or lord among magical beasts - and so was far bigger. There probably was a [Summon Arachnea] skill as well, though I didn’t have it and that was likely Rank Two.

I had gotten this skill from Charlotte’s Web fittingly enough. A Rank Three summon could stay in the world for up to nine hours or until it had been destroyed, and could be summoned again twenty-four hours after the skill had first been used.

“A summon?” Drake said, not looking too happy. “Yes, that can reach them, but a summon won’t be able to stop a horde of that size-”

Before he could finish reprimanding me, I cast [Grand Fireball] on the Tyrant Arachnea.

“He cast a spell on his own summon!”

“Has he lost his mind?”

“Master Liberomancer, why would you-”

Cries like that rose out behind me when they saw what I had done. Drake was probably seething with fury.

Before I describe what happened next, I want you to imagine something - say that you’re a well-trained Liberomancer and you happen to have the misfortune to encounter a Tyrant Arachnea on your travels. What would your first instinct be to do, other than run? Assuming you knew one, to cast a fire spell at it, right? It was simple and intuitive gaming logic - it was a bug, so it should be weak to fire, you’d naturally assume.

I probably would have done the same in such a situation, had I not known about the Tyrant Arachnea’s abilities.

Not only was it completely immune to fire as one of its abilities, but it was coated in a substance that should it catch on fire, enveloped it in flames. Not that it would hurt it, as a matter of fact, the flames strengthened it. The stronger the fire spell, the stronger the flames that coated it would be. It could not shoot the flames out like projectiles, but the fire formed a defensive layer on it and even healed its wounds over time. If you were to use something like [Grand Fireball] on it, the reaction would be intense, coating it in a fiery shell.

The ‘fire’ made by [Fireball] and similar spells was not like normal fire for whatever reason in how it interacted with things - there was the initial impact of the spell when it hit something, yes, but the ‘flames’ created by it did not spread like a fire would normally and died out very quickly. This was despite [Create Flame] being quite suitable to create fire for domestic purposes - but not when used for combat purposes. It was one of those things that no one in this world seemed to be able to explain, and was chalked up to ‘that’s just how magic works’ from everyone I’d asked about it. That was why despite being highly flammable, our attacks did not spread that easily to the neighboring dryads after we had cast them, limiting their effectiveness.

The flames that coated the Tyrant Arachnea though, while they could not shoot out like a flamethrower (as cool as that would be), they could spread just like a normal fire would.

At least, that was what I was expecting it to do. Although I knew that this was a combo that was possible, I still wasn’t sure how effective it was against the dryads. The only way to be sure was to test it out in actual combat, and I prayed that it would be every bit as destructive as I was imagining it in my head.

I sent a command to the Tyrant Arachnea via our mental link to advance.

And so it was that this behemoth of a spider, completely coated in flames, an absolute nightmare fuel of a monstrosity, made its way towards the dryads. If I was an ordinary soldier and I saw something that size lit ablaze charging towards me , I would’ve dropped my weapon then and there and ran as far as I could from it.

I almost felt sorry for the dryads.

Almost.

Until I remembered the sight of all of their victims, that is.

‘Give them hell from us,’ I instructed my summon.

As it advanced, I realized that no one else on the wall knew what I was doing, and it was best that I explain myself.

“Relax,” I told everyone. “My summon is immune to flames and can even use them to its own advantage.”

Most people wouldn’t know about the Arachnea - they didn’t live near Chipker (thank god for that) and I had only found a few pieces of information after asking the guild librarian to dig for them. Most of my knowledge came from the actual summoning spell.

“Immune to flames eh…” Drake said, clicking his tongue. To a fire elementalist like him, that was not good news. It was one of the biggest drawbacks to being an elementalist - if you ran into something like a Tyrant Arachnea that countered your element, you were in trouble. Conversely, it was good to be an elementalist against something you were strong against, which is why it was a huge relief that fire elementalists were so common in Arconia. Thankfully we were fighting dryads and not Arachnea - Drake was likely just annoyed that I had a summon that countered most of his build.

“This is…” Drake began to say as the dryads changed course, no longer heading towards the water, but away from what was rushing at them.

The Tyrant Arachnea’s speed was faster than that of a horse and slower than that of your average car. I could try to make it faster in the future by learning a skill that might speed it up in proportion to my Speed stat, but from what I’d heard that would only be a marginal increase. Regardless, seeing something that big moving at you so fast would give anyone pause. I didn’t know just how much the dryads understood things, but they were not without basic survival instincts.

There were ways to combat the Tyrant Arachnea, of course, even if fire magic didn’t work on it. For one, its underside was not as well armored as the rest of its body, and was very vulnerable to attacks. However, while running, its underbelly was not exposed and very hard to target so this weakness was somewhat covered. Secondly, it was extremely susceptible to cold weather and ice element spells as you might expect, though with the coat of fire around it, it had no need to worry about such a thing currently. Third, its eyes were also a weak point that could be exploited and targeted readily even if its underbelly wasn’t exposed. However, since summoned creatures shared information with their summoners, that meant that even if its eyes were gouged out completely, it would still know where to go via my own mental directions.

In other words, I had covered most of its weaknesses!

It ran into the dryad horde with the momentum of a freight train and suicidal nonchalance to boot - being a summon, it did not care whether it lived or died.

The dryad’s claws and primitive weapons were like toothpicks before its extremely tough exoskeleton, and the fire began to spread very rapidly. Unlike the fire started via [Fireball] or [Grand Fireball], it was being maintained by the Tyrant Arachnea and kept on spreading from its body wherever it made contact, going from one dryad to the next like a stack of dominos falling.

Since the dryads were crowded so close together, it was easy for the flames to spread.

First the fire spread to a hundred, then later two hundred, and so on, until more than a thousand of them were ablaze. Some of them ran for the river as they realized what was going on by this point, but most were too far away and ran for the ocean instead. I guess they were so weak to fire that ‘stop, drop, and roll’ really weren’t options for them.

Eventually though, the dryad’s attacks, even if they were mostly ineffective, turned out to be too much, and the Tyrant Arachnea succumbed to its injuries when one of them got a lucky shot at its underbelly by slipping under it.

Looking at the chaos it had created in the enemy lines, it was more than well worth it.

The dryads had remarkable self-regenerating properties so long as they had enough water, sunlight, and blood. The last ingredient was something that we were starving them out of, but I didn’t know how long they’d need to be starved of that before it affected how much they could regenerate.

As such, it wasn’t like I had killed over a thousand of them. Some of them might recover. Despite that, the effectiveness of this attack couldn’t be understated.

For one, they would be out of commission for the next few days assuming that they still had enough fresh blood in their systems to recover. If not, then they might even end up dying from their injuries.

Secondly, you didn’t need to be Sun Tzu to realize that war is mainly about one thing - fear. It was not about killing every single one of your enemies, but rather getting them to finally give up or in the case of humans and other intelligent races to put their weapons down. The goal was to get them to realize fighting was worthless. We wanted this invasion to end, but that didn’t require killing all one hundred thousand or so of them gathered before us, no, we just needed to convince the majority of them that they had about as much chance of breaching our walls as a mouse did at killing a dragon.

It was here that we had an advantage over them - they did not wish to negotiate in any manner, only to kill all of us, so with our backs to the sea, we would fight to the very end. On the other hand, they were free to roam throughout the countryside. For them, it might soon make sense to leave her and head off for greener pastures rather than squatting at our doorsteps.

And for that matter it was very obvious that I had managed to strike a massive amount of fear into their hearts. Although only a little over a thousand dryads had been directly affected by my spell, the force that had been set out in this direction consisting of over ten thousand was in disarray and many of them were scattered around the landscape in confusion. They must’ve been fearing another such attack, even if I couldn’t do so for another twenty-four hours, it wasn’t like they knew that.

This was why Liberomancers were so dangerous for normal soldiers to face. Yes - we could run out of mana and skills making us no more than regular people, how many ordinary soldiers could we kill before that happened? Any commander who said, “Alright, with that guy’s mana capacity over there, he can only kill about four or five thousand of us. You five thousand, go ahead and sacrifice yourselves by taking his spells until his mana runs out and then we’ll finish him off - okay?” would likely find himself swiftly beheaded by his own men before they agreed to charge the Liberomancer in question.

Ordinary soldiers would almost never charge against Liberomancer unless they were completely forced to, because of the simple fact that people would prefer living to dying.

On top of that, given that Liberomancers were a small target, if they had a way to get away or hide, they could continuously kite a very large force until it was either whittled down to nothing, or simply collapsed. The most obvious was to fly away for anyone who had a spell like that, but even I could do something as simple as riding away on the Elephant Frog after all my mana was used up and outpace most horses. After which I could recover my mana and do it all over again.

If Lance had a full set of thirty Rank Four grimoires - he would not have even needed all of us given how the gap between ranks kept widening. The enemy would’ve been slaughtered before it even reached our walls as he could soar above them like a fighter jet and rain down hellfire before coming back to recharge his mana and then doing so over and over until nothing of the enemy remained.

Alas, even the best Rank Four Liberomancers did not have even half of a set of Rank Four grimoires, so this was just a pointless thought exercise. Lance did not have enough options currently for such a bombardment strategy to work. As it was now, while he could soar out and damage the enemy no problem, the problem would arise if the enemy retaliated once his mana was depleted and then stormed the wall afterwards. Because of that, he was currently standing atop the wall like the rest of us, conserving most his mana for the worst-case scenario. If only he had a Rank Four summoning skill as well, and a greater mana reserve, the scene would be completely different.

Point being - if the enemy dryads wanted to, if they were controlled by a zombie-like hivemind and had no regard for their own safety, they could easily climb over the walls and overwhelm us until we were defeated. They might not be very intelligent, but they had no desire to die either and would not throw themselves at the wall with reckless self-abandon.

It was the same concept the other way around as well. If we wanted to, we could muster about thirty or forty thousand drafted soldiers, march out, and bombard the enemy with our spells out in the open field. We might even win a decisive victory like that. As a matter of fact, it was highly likely that such an endeavor would succeed against an undisciplined army like the dryads and we would probably win. The reason we didn’t was because the risks involved were too high - Liberomancers were glass cannons, and it was here, on top of the wall where we could easily retreat and duck when we ran out of mana that we could show our true strength.

Not to mention victory would mean little if it meant a large number of casualties, especially if those were Rank Thee Liberomancers. Given that, why risk going out onto the field when we were perfectly safe here? Unlike the dryads, we were mostly comfortable camping out here atop our walls.

The dryad advance at our end had its momentum killed, and while the dryads seemed to be trying to rally together again, it would probably take them some time. I also had a feeling that they would not be eager to try the same thing again.

“That was quite the tactic there, Master Liberomancer,” Drake said, watching the sorry state the dryad forces were currently in.

“Right, right, so here’s what I did,” explaining things in more detail to him. The other supporting Liberomancers around us heard my explanation too, with some even running over just to figure out what had happened.

“Incredible!”

“Ah, so it was a combo!”

“He used a Rank Three spell and a Rank Three skill together to get an effect almost equivalent to a Rank Four spell!”

“Master Liberomancers are in a league of their own, huh?”

“I’ve never seen nor heard of that kind of combo before!”

“It’s almost like we have not one, but two Rank Four Liberomancers with us.”

“That really was amazing,” Drake said, almost reluctantly.

“Uh, thanks, but it wasn’t really all that special,” I said. The reason why it was so effective was because of a special weakness that the dryads had, and I wouldn’t have even been able to do this had it not been for the fact that Granny Qi had very generously given me that grimoire. I could’ve tried the combo with [Fireball], but its effects would be lessened with a weaker fire spell.

“No, it really was amazing, I haven’t seen anything like that,” Drake said. “That very well might be what ends up turning the tides of an upcoming fight.”

I couldn’t really get why everyone was so amazed by this - yes, it was a combo, but it wasn’t exactly some sort of 10,000 IQ move. The spider got stronger if fire was cast on it, and I used this ‘defensive’ ability of it to my advantage against an enemy who was weak to fire.

There were much stronger combos that had existed in history. The most famous was one used by the Ruler of the Astral Winds. He had conquered a city by the name of Limarea far away from Chipker, and the citizens had initially surrendered without a fight when his army had approached the city gates. As he continued with his campaign further into the country, however, one day the citizens rebelled and killed the token garrison he had stationed within the city.

In response, he had simply flown back to the city on his own, not bothering to bring his army with him. With a simple wave of his hand the entire city, which was said to house between two and three hundred thousand citizens, sank into the earth and none of its inhabitants were ever seen again. By the standards of that day, and of this world, this was still something seen to be quite cruel - it was not unheard of for a city that behaved in such a way to be razed to the ground, but what took people by surprise was how it was done within a matter of seconds. The Ruler of the Astral Winds had either used three Rank Four skills with one Rank Five spell to carry this out, or three Rank Five spells and skills - it was not fully clear based on the sources we had, as the Ruler of the Astral Winds had never made his full power or potential clear before he was assassinated, but that was the strongest combo that had been seen in history.

Compared to that, what I had done today seemed like nothing more than an elaborate party trick.

As I thought about it though, I could see why they were making such a big deal about it.

While this world felt a lot like a video game with the skills and spells it had - but if this had been a video game, you would usually have some sort of shop in the middle of town or what not that would have infinite copies of whatever grimoires you wanted to buy. Additionally, monsters when killed would drop grimoires, there would be treasure chests in dungeons that had legendary grimoires, and completing certain quests would also give you grimoires. It would be easy to make a competitive set in such a scenario.

But, this world was not like that. If you wanted a grimoire and you couldn’t make it yourself, someone else in the world had to make it for you - and that led to all sorts of logistical issues.

It was hard enough to find even a few grimoires that you really wanted. Many Rank Three Liberomancers specialized as fire elementalists not because they particularly liked it, but simply because those were the only real grimoires you could easily find in this country.

As such, finding two or three Rank Three grimoires that could combo with each other synergistically in this way - it was but a dream for many. I had especially lucked out in that it was effective against the dryads.

Even though it was just luck, I had a feeling some of the people around me were thinking ‘had he planned this all out months in advance?’ though that was far from the case.

There were many looks of wonder, not just from the Liberomancers, but the ordinary draftsmen on the wall as well. Few of them had ever seen an actual offensive spell, and to them, this recent display must have seemed like something right out of a bard’s tale.

Amidst all the praise, there was a sentence that was repeated over and over almost verbatim: “It’s true what they say, there is no strongest spell, only the strongest spellcaster.”

I had heard Granny Qi tell me that a few times, but I had assumed it was just one of those platitudes that old people give out. Turns out that this was actually a far more popular saying than I had originally assumed. There are multiple nuggets of wisdom hidden in that line if you think about it.

The first was the most obvious meaning - many of this world’s equivalent of mad scientists had attempted to make ‘one spell to conquer all’ and failed terribly at it. There could be no spell that was useful in all scenarios. If you made a spell that could deal heavy damage to a single target, it would not be useful against a large army. If you increased its area of effect, it would get weaker. Take [Crimson Lance], a spell that was very overpowered for being Rank One. Against an enemy like the dryads however, it was incredibly weak. Fire elemental spells were good against the dryads, but would be worthless against something like the Tyrant Arachnea.

The second interpretation was the importance of experience when casting spells. I hadn’t been able to practice [Grand Fireball] before today as there was no real opportunity to practice with a spell that destructive, and so had not been able to use it fully and ended up missing twice.

The third pearl of wisdom was that a good build was more important than having a single good spell. You needed spells and skills that synergized with each other to be really effective, and also a few counters to deal with uncommon scenarios.

The fourth and final way of interpreting it was the importance of using combos for synergistic effects.

That said, despite how often the line was repeated, I had to note that when it came to the most straightforward interpretation of the line there had never been a truly 'strongest spellcaster' in all of history. You could maybe mention Serragnin but I couldn’t really see how she’d count, and while the Ruler of the Astral Winds was considered invincible my most of his enemies while he was alive, he had still been caught off guard and killed.

“Great work, Master Liberomancer!”

“As expected of a genius!”

More compliments flowed like water, and though I knew most of them were undeserved, it still felt nice to be appreciated after quite a long time of what felt like being trampled on by society in general ever since I’d first spawned in Arconia. Things had improved after becoming a Master Liberomancer, but lately the stress of managing conflicts all over the city had whittled my patience down. Overall, it just felt nice to know that all of the effort I had put in up to this point had paid off.

My good mood didn’t last for long as a few hours later, the dryads regrouped and some of them, a smaller group than before but sizeable nonetheless, were organizing another attack.

“They’re coming via the sea!” someone noticed.

It looks like they really had been terrorized by the Tyrant Arachnea and so decided on a different avenue of invasion - perhaps assuming that the Tyrant Arachnea could not do well in the water.

Then again, I wasn’t sure how well they could do in the seawater either. Most freshwater plants could not survive in saline water, which is why we had assumed that likewise, the salt water would be toxic to the dryads as well though we had little to no evidence that confirmed it.

It looked like they could survive in it long enough to make themselves towards the city through the sea-facing side though. I doubted they could stay in the salt water for too long, but it wasn’t like they died within minutes of entering it either.

“I have a spell that could take care of them over the water,” Drake said.

“I think I have one too,” I said. “But they need to come closer.”

We watched as they approached, and as the water became shallower, they became faster. The dryads floated in the water much like driftwood it seemed, and though they couldn’t swim very fast, they could still kick and wade their way towards us given enough time.

As they got closer, they also became more crowded, likely because they knew they would need to attack as a mob to break through our defenses, or perhaps as a result of the current bringing them closer together.

But this was also the right time to use our spells.

“[Shark Tornado]!” I yelled out. I still couldn’t get over the fact that the plot of Sharknado managed to make a successful grimoire, let alone the fact that there was a spell like this in this world.

A burst of whirlwind appeared over the sea and I willed it to move towards the dryads. It was way smaller than the one in the movie, but still looked quite deadly. This was a hybrid wind and water elemental spell - though this came with a few caveats. Half of the damage dealt was wind and the other half was water, so if it was not cast over a body of water it would only deal fifty percent of its actual potential in the form of wind damage. Because of this limitation, it was not as good as something like [Grand Fireball] generally speaking, though it was quite suitable for a sea-based assault like this.

Within the whirlwind generated by the spell, I could see the shadows of small beasts being carried along with the wind stream. If something was not cut to pieces by the wind or drowned and crushed by the water’s force, they would be sucked inside the center where they would be munched upon by numerous shark teeth. Unfortunately, this latter effect was of limited use against creatures like the dryads which were not made of regular flesh and bone and whose bark resisted the shark teeth to a very large extent. However, the spell was effective at tossing and scattering them around as the dryads were thrown about and smashed, oftentimes being crushed into pulp by the force of the wind.

Drake unleashed his own spell to deal with them. “[Great Whirlpool]!” he said, as a group of dryads was sucked into a large water vortex, helpless against the current. Their natural buoyancy did nothing to save them as they disappeared beneath the waves, presumably to be smashed against the seafloor by the force of the whirlpool.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 18-20

Even though things weren’t as crazy as they were before when it came to work, I knew that it was wrong of me to impose on Granny Qi for much longer.

As it was, a few days later, her entire village had turned up at the city gates. Since they were closer to the city than other villages, they were able to take a bit of what they had with them while fleeing. But that was just relative to some of the other people coming in - it was not nearly enough to sustain them for the coming weeks or months if it came to that.

“They took a portion of the grain,” Suki Tang complained to her sister. The refugees, if they had family in the city, went to go live with them. Granny Qi’s house was so packed now with her family and with people coming to visit me there was no room to even move your elbow without smacking someone in the face. “They said they had to ‘requisition’ part of it to feed the city.”

“Did they at least pay you for it?” Granny Qi asked.

“Of course not - they said it was an emergency, and that if we did not agree with that policy, we were free to roam outside the walls,” Suki Tang said. “Free to do what? Get mauled?” She sighed. “Anyway, we should have more than enough for now… but still… I don’t know what will happen if this siege lasts for too long. Or how we will rebuild once it is all over- I wonder if anything will be left of our house when we go back.”

Back on Earth, the government usually couldn’t grab what you owned without compensating you, though I had to admit that was during normal times. If something like this had happened back on Earth, I had a feeling that not all laws would hold up then either. As it was, this was not framed as ‘confiscation’ but rather as another form of ‘taxation.’

Still, these people had decided to tax someone like Suki Tang - but had also waived my fee for being gifted a grimoire?

Well, they likely thought I was more valuable and that it was more imperative that I have that grimoire than Suki Tang have a few more handfuls of rice.

When I had started settling down in Libraria, I had found it a bit strange but delightfully so that the Liberomancers did not seem to suppress the commoners, or other Liberomancers who were less powerful than they were. After all, that was one of the concerns of living in a society where certain people had strange powers and others didn’t. I didn’t see anything remotely like that though.

Now, I realized that it wasn’t that the Liberomancers didn’t suppress others - they just didn’t do so overtly. You wouldn’t find one beating up commoners on the street for fun or harassing women, for example. Instead they did so in more subtle ways, such as economics and taxation. Laws also favored Liberomancers, and Rank Three Liberomancers especially. If a Liberomancer was accused of a serious crime in Chipker, they wouldn’t be tried by the normal court - but by a special one set up by the Liberomancer’s Guild. And I had a feeling that the alternative court was far more lenient and understanding than the regular court.

“Granny Qi, I will be moving out today,” I said to Granny Qi before packing up to leave. She was a bit surprised, but understood. If she wanted to house as many of her relatives as possible, it was for the better that I leave. “If you need anything at all though, feel free to send someone and I’ll come running.”

“But child,” Suki Tang said, “where will you live now?”

“They have some apartments reserved for Rank Three Liberomancers, I didn’t take one initially because I really didn’t need one, but it looks like it’s time to take them up on the offer,” I said. I grabbed my things, gave Granny Qi a quick hug, and then was about to set out when an idea struck me.

Some time later, a clerk from the Liberomancer’s Guild was showing me a house. It was very bare-bones, which was to be expected, but more than functional enough. I had no complaints given it was being handed to me.

“Ah, but Master Liberomancer,” the clerk said. “This is only for you and your family… you cannot house guests here.”

The guild maintained about twenty of these small, spartan, but functional houses; not enough to house every Rank Three Liberomancer, mind you but they never needed to. Any Rank Three Liberomancer would prefer to find their own accommodations given enough time as it was childishly easy for them to amass the kind of wealth that usually only first-rate merchants could. These houses were mainly set up for traveling Liberomancers or in case there was some kind of grave misfortune that befell one so that they would’ve be left out on the street.

The houses were all empty, but the guild had vehemently refused to let them be loaned out to any of the refugees even now. I didn’t agree with that decision - but I couldn’t change their minds either.

I also couldn’t really take random people with me from the street to help them out, the guild would not allow that. Such were the rules. And these were the guild’s houses, they did not belong to me - they were just letting me live there because of my rank.

But wherever there are rules, there are loopholes to those rules as well.

“Oh, these people are my servants,” I said, waving to the group of ten people behind me. “I’ve read the guild rules, and we can keep servants, can’t we?”

By astonishing coincidence, all of these ‘servants’ of mine (I still cringed while saying that word, we didn’t have servants, at least most people didn’t, back on Earth where I came from) happened to be members of Granny Qi’s village!

After all, that was how the refugees set about finding accommodations and the like. If they had family in the city, they would go to them first. If their family was unable or unwilling to do so, or if they did not have close family, they would go to someone from their village. If there was no one from the same village as them, then someone from a neighboring village, and so on.

If all of the above failed, if they had money, perhaps they could rent out a room, but many of them had been forced to flee under duress carrying nothing but the clothes on their backs, and as it was most of them were poor to begin with.

There were still many who could not find accommodation whatsoever, and there were only so many temporary shelters that could be built by the city in such a short a span of time.

Granny Qi had asked me to help out some of the less fortunate members of her village if I could - after all, she only had so much space in her house, and her immediate family already took up most of it even after I was gone.

Hence this ruse.

“…” the clerk seemed slightly thrown off-balance by my declaration. “Master Liberomancer, does one person such as yourself really need ten servants tending to you in your own house?”

“Ah, yes,” I said. “I am rather fastidious - you see, for example, if I want to drink a bottle of wine, I need five people in order to do so. One of them has to fetch the wine bottle, another one has to uncork it, a third person needs to pour it out into a glass while a fourth person holds it, and then a fifth person has to hand it to me. If any one of them isn’t there, the whole chain breaks down and I won’t be able to enjoy my wine, you know what I’m saying?”

The clerk’s eyebrows twitched. It was clear that he had not, as a matter of fact, bought my ridiculous story, thought about what he was going to do next for a good minute - and then decided that it wasn’t worth his time to object considering that he likely had bigger problems than this to handle. “Alright then, Master Liberomancer, but do please note that any damage or cleaning that will need to be done after you leave will come out of your own pocket.”

Breaking the rules was greatly frowned upon, though this was more of bending rather than breaking them. As it was - I wasn’t too concerned about what might happen if anyone decided to bring the ax down upon me. I had not technically done anything wrong, and if I was called out on it and they wanted to ruin my reputation or social standing instead - I could just play the sympathy card. After all, I had bent the rules not for my own personal gain- but to help out those less fortunate. That was somewhat understandable and less likely to invite censure.

“Thank you, Master Liberomancer,” said several voices behind me as the clerk trotted off.

“It was the least I could do,” I replied. I actually meant that - there were still many people who needed help around the city, but what else could I do? Using [Fish Haul] to create fish would divert mana I needed in order to read that grimoire that gave [Grand Fireball]. And though it pained me to say so - it was more important that I learn that then give out handfuls of food to some people.

I had brought up the idea of mass-producing grimoires that gave [Poissonnier] and [Fish Haul] given the combo you could pull of with both of them to Zeke and Drake, but the idea was shot down. There were a number of hurdles with trying to enact such a plan. The biggest was the language barrier that existed, one was in English meaning I was the only one who could make copies of it (my mana was needed elsewhere), while the other was in the lizardmen language so I couldn’t make copies of that.

[Fish Haul] was a Rank Two spell, and most Rank Two Liberomancers were busy doing other things. The supply of food still hadn’t reached such a low point that creating food with magic on a massive scale would be deemed necessary. “There are better ways to get food, and our reserves should hold well enough for now,” most of the top brass assured me when I brought this up.

There was likely enough food for everyone to just get along - though it would mean that many people would have to get by on a single meal a day for the foreseeable future. They could survive, yes, but to me it still felt like they were suffering needlessly and more could be done for them.

I tried to brainstorm other things that might help during my free time, but came up blank most of the time. The thing that I could do most to help out these people was to deal with the dryad invasion - and I could not do so as well if I did not know [Grand Fireball], so any idea involving me to use up mana had to go out the window.

I did hand out money to some of the people I saw - but there was a limit on how much I could do of that too. I had to pay Granny Qi back for this grimoire after all.

With a heavy heart, I could only turn a blind eye towards much of the suffering in the city and help out the little I could.

The inside of the house was neat and tidy - it would have been more than big enough for a family of four or five. With ten people not including myself, it was very crowded, though there were no complaints given the alternative. This was, after all, only a temporary living arrangement. There was no furniture in the house, I had been expecting to get the furniture myself, so the others would have to sleep on the floor for the time being until it could be arranged, though again, there were no complaints there.

For two days I worked from this apartment, but there were multiple issues. Foremost of which was that I had to report back a lot of things to Zeke or Drake, and as such, it wasted a lot of time sending someone back and forth from here to the governor’s palace. This place was much further from there than Granny Qi’s house.

I told Drake about this, and so they ended up setting up a small office for me in one of the rooms of the palace. It was supposed to be just for work, but I spent so much time there in the coming days that I basically lived there - eating all my meals and sleeping on the desk that had been provided for me. It was actually more comfortable than living back in the bare-bones house with ten people, and it also saved precious time that could be used for things like reading that grimoire.

Zeke noticed this and even offered me a proper room in the palace to stay in. I was quite touched, because although lizardmen and humans usually got along in public spaces, there were still some unwritten rules about what they did or did not do together.

One that that was seemingly taboo was inviting humans to live in lizardmen houses and vice-versa, I had learned of that the first day I had started work in Lauren’s shop. It was extremely rare for either species to even visit or go inside the house of another, and actually living together was one step further beyond that.

It was likely though that Zeke’s family were used to hosting humans, as an exception given their status within Arconia.

I accepted the room, and couldn’t help but note that the palace still had several rooms available. I brought it up casually to Drake once as to why they didn’t allow some people to move in, to which he simply replied that it was a security issue.

I didn’t press him any further, as it was, morale was low, and I did not want to. And in his case, I could understand the concerns with letting anyone in.

No joke, this was a conversation I had overheard between two people while walking on the street:

“If the food situation gets really bad, and we have to end up resorting to cannibalism,” one person said, “do you think you’d be able to stomach lizardmen meat? I think it’s better than human meat, but at the same time, I can’t help but think that it’d taste really funny.”

“Me too,” the other person replied. “But morally I think it’s less reprehensible. I think we’ll have to come up with a system where we exchange human meat for lizardmen meat with the lizardmen if that happens.”

Both of these people were humans, and I had to bite down the urge to tell them that our food supply situation was still pretty good, and there was no need to already be thinking of such doomsday scenarios right now. Than again, I was also someone who was thinking about the same, so I couldn’t blame their minds for wandering in that bleak direction.

I guess the worst part of all was the waiting - sieges in movies were always pretty dramatic events that ended in a few day’s time, though I knew in reality it was more of both sides sitting down and waiting until one of them gave up.

The entire situation came more into focus when we could finally see the dryads on the horizon one day after dark.

I went up to the walls once to take a look myself - with [Unobstructed Sight] I could just make out the dark shadows that were moving towards the city. They would be here, near the city walls, in two days or so.

The number of bodies that washed up in the river had been increasing day by day, and I had a feeling that was one of the main contributors to the feeling of general panic in the city.

If there was one silver lining, my job was much easier in the next few days as people seemed to realize it was better to shut up and get along for now now that the enemy was literally at the gates.

***

Among the hordes of dryad, one stood about two feet above the others. His appearance was markedly different in other ways as well, the bark around him was a darker, richer color, partly signifying his special rank, and also partly signifying the fact that he had easier access to fresh blood than the others.

This was a dryad lord - one among them who had risen above their normal station, and the equivalent of ‘kings’ or ‘princes’ that were seen among other magical beasts. Most dryads did not have names, there was little need for them as they did not really communicate with each other aside from marking their territories aside from large scale invasions like these. Even then it was the lords who did most of the talking. The lords, however, usually tried to distinguish themselves with a name.

His name - Great Claw, due to the rather massive size of his hands, was not clever, but what would he care of such?

He was a dryad lord and able to think beyond what the other members of his species could, formulating plans and executing them on a level the others would not find possible. And so, what did he care if his name did not sound magnificent to humans or the like? The dryads had no real written language which is why they were considered to be beasts in a world of Liberomancers, but they still had their oral traditions and stories. Most of their legends involved names like ‘Big Leaf’ or ‘Tough Trunk’ and so were his name to also join their ranks, it would not be out of place.

Their numbers had once again grown to the point where the forest could no longer satisfy their need for blood, and so they, like their ancestors before them, had set out to assault the human lands and the rich stock of livestock that lay there. However, as they were wandering along the same path their ancestors traversed upon, they had come upon an omen which caused them to change their direction of travel.

Great Claw had been one of the dryads who had witnessed the event himself. As they were cresting a hill after having slain a human village, a solitary human wandered towards them. Initially, this generated some alarm - the dryads had some sense of self-preservation, and had learned through experience and tales passed down that solitary humans could be dangerous particularly those who could use fire like the dragons of old.

As a dryad lord, Great Claw, in addition to possessing greater physical abilities, had three skills at his disposal. [Nature’s Call] which was an area-of-effect type of skill that could be used twice a day to apply a buff to their physical abilities and magical resistance; [Dryad Lord’s Authority] which allowed dryad lords to command large numbers of ordinary dryads; and [Forest’s Blessing] which greatly increased the rate at which his injuries would heal for an hour once a day.

He had used his [Dryad Lord’s Authority] to instruct the others to stand back and spread around in case this human wielded the magical flame they had learned to be so wary of.

His wariness turned out to be unwarranted as the human simply walked up to an ordinary dryad, wielding no magic apparently. The dryad acted out of its nature and killed this human effortlessly. It was an odd site to Great Claw, like a deer walking into a pride of lions, though the other dryads did not take notice of this and began fighting over the human’s corpse.

It was then that something odd happened - as they were carving open the human’s body, a shadow emerged from its torso. Even though it was nighttime, the shadow seemed darker still, as if light could never penetrate it even if the sun were shining in all of its glory.

Great Claw had never seen anything like it. The dryads tried to grab onto it but their hands passed through as if they were trying to grasp a shadow.

And then, the shadow ‘spoke’ to them. Not words, but they heard its thoughts clearly in their minds. It gave them visions of what would happen if they continued upon the same path, how the humans would assault them and wipe them out with ease after they were trapped. The humans had weak bodies but clever minds, and were lying in wait for the dryads further ahead. If they continued on this same path, they would certainly meet their doom.

But it did not just give them bad news, it also gave them a path forward. A way that would allow them to fill their stomachs with fresh blood. A way that had a few obstacles to reach, but would have great rewards if they were willing to take the risk.

It was a risk to go in the direction it was pointing them in, but as more such incidents happened they had ultimately decided to follow its directions. They went down a path that was unfamiliar, one which was not told about in the songs and tales passed down through the generations, but was still close to the fresh water they all needed. The shadow had been right up till now, as they had encountered minimal resistance up to this point.

Many of them thirsted for blood, and that had been satiated partially with the animals and fish they had encountered. And yet, it was not enough.

Great Claw took a look at the city before him - and knew that what they wished for, a great bounty, would lie behind those stone walls.

Their army had no clear commander - dryad lords were able to exert their influence over small groups of dryads, and these lords spoke to one another to come to something resembling a consensus, but these small groups essentially were just traveling with each other much like what locusts might do with little to no regard for their fellow dryads.

Great Claw dipped a foot into the nearby river, quenching his thirst as it traveled up his roots. The sunlight was also good in this country, not to mention the bounty of fish and other animals, as well as humans, had been great.

This gamble of following that shadow’s wisdom seemed to have paid off well.

It made him question the wisdom of those who had come before him - why had they not embarked on this path before? Did the shadow not also speak to them? Perhaps it did but they had simply been ignorant or were too scared, no matter, when they were victorious here and went back to their homeland, they would carry tales of how this land was a much more bountiful place than the others they had been told of.

Dryads in the future, would follow this new path forevermore! That was the wisdom they would leave behind for their descendants!

***

The day had finally come when the dryads were at our doorstep. The amorphous blemish on the horizon was now distinguished into tens of thousands of individual dryads.

My first thought was that they were even uglier now that I could actually see them up close. That drawing had been extremely generous as to how humanoid their faces looked - they were only vaguely human, looking as if someone had taken a club to a very crude model of a human head.

I also saw exactly how it was that they drank the blood of their victims. Their long, lanky arms were used to suspend their prey upside-down, and they would then slit their throats, lapping up the blood as it rained onto their faces. Some of them preferred to simply decapitate their prey, however, and then used their feet to lap up blood from the puddles on the ground - their ‘roots’ seemed to be able to absorb blood as easily as water.

[Unobstructed Sight] was actually more a burden in this scenario because I could see this horrifying sight in very nice detail even in the low illumination of the rising sun. I had to look away when I saw a kid as young as five years old about to be devoured.

If their goal was to terrorize us - I would be lying if I said it wasn’t working.

I was also able to see the so-called dryad lords as they stood taller than their counterparts - other than their heights and some slight differences in the texture of their trunks I didn’t notice that much special about them.

The dryad horde did not seem to really have much organization to it - the merchant caravan was far closer to a well-disciplined military group than these things, which looked like a collection of wild zebra or the like, standing and going wherever they pleased.

I couldn’t identify anything resembling an overall leader who we might be able to potentially assassinate and get this whole thing over with quickly - but this also meant that they were poorly lead and a strong coordinated attack was unlikely.

Zeke had been posted near the eastern end of the wall, while Lance was near the main gate leading into the city. I had been assigned to the western end which was commanded by Drake.

I would’ve preferred to be in some other place - I did not really like Drake and I had a feeling that this sentiment was mutual. He had given a half-hearted apology regarding his actions in the restaurant earlier, saying that he was drunk and hadn’t been completely aware of what he was doing, when we were working together, but things were still frosty between us. Putting that aside I also didn’t think he was as good a leader as Zeke.

The Rank Three Liberomancers were the main pillars of defense with Rank Two and Rank One Liberomancers supporting them with magic like [Greater Reach] which was a buffing spell that increased the range of someone’s spells. Why couldn’t we just have a bunch of people buff one individual and make them super strong? Because buffs of the same type overwrote each other, you could only have single buff for a certain thing. [Greater Reach] was Rank Two but there was a weaker version of the spell called [Lesser Reach], if someone cast [Lesser Reach] on a target and then also [Greater Reach], [Greater Reach] would overwrite the [Lesser Reach]’s boost, and you couldn’t stack multiple [Greater Reach] spells on a single target from multiple people. You could however, cast [Alacrity] on top of it since that spell boosted Speed and not range, and was considered a different kind of buff.

It was a pity that buffing magic worked that way - because in this world the power of a single person could eclipse that of a thousand ordinary men, and if only that power could be magnified further. If we could all stack hundreds of buffs on Lance, I think we wouldn’t even had needed to worry about the incoming army. The dryads had not made any moves yet - some isolated groups wandered near the walls only to be turned into smithereens by a [Grand Fireball].

Other than magic, we did also try using conventional weapons, but the dryad’s skin was harder than even tree bark and ordinary arrows seemed to do little to nothing. There was a niche Rank Two skill called [Armor-Piercing Arrow] that could enchant up to ten arrows a day and greatly increase their penetration power and damage, but the buff only lasted for three minutes at maximum. The dryads had no obvious vital points where they could be hit to incapacitate them, so rather than using that kind of skill direct magic was more effective.

Drake approached me as I was watching the dryad horde off in the distance. “Master Liberomancer, there were a few things I wanted to speak to you about before we begin.”

He was wearing armor and had an elegant sword attached to his hip - if you ran out of mana, or just needed to buy yourself a few seconds, a weapon was extremely helpful. I had rented out a set of wooden lacquer armor from the palace (another perk of my new job) as well as a wooden staff with an iron shod. Plate armor would’ve been better for defense, but the thing was that I was not used to wearing it and it weighed so much that it would more likely than not cause me to collapse if I tried. I was after all, just a college student from Earth, not someone who had trained to fight since birth.

There was a spell called [Lighten Armor] that could reduce the effective weight of armor by half without affecting its durability, but its effect only lasted for an hour and it was Rank Two, meaning it would consume so much mana it was generally not worth using especially in a drawn-out siege like this. Someone very important like Drake could hire someone to assist him who could cast that spell on him so he didn’t have to spend his own mana, but I didn’t have that luxury. Making my armor lighter by casting [Lighten Armor] on me over and over was not something a Rank Two Liberomancer could be spared for. I also had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate even half of that armor’s weight regardless. Much like with buffing magic, casts of [Lighten Armor] could not be stacked on top of each other to reduce the effective weight of armor even further. There was one other issue that I had to keep in mind. Just like back on Earth during medieval times, you could cover yourself in metal armor so thick you were basically invulnerable unless your enemy brought out a heavy bludgeoning weapon like a mace or war hammer. However, there was a drawback to turning yourself into a giant metal lobster in this world that didn’t exist back on Earth in the Middle Ages - fire.

Many people basically had built-in flamethrowers that they could lob at you, and while you could protect yourself against that by having a high Resistance, that only reduced damage done directly from magical attacks. The heat of the impact could cause the metal to warm up to the point that it would weld to your skin, and your Resistance would not help you against that.

Granted, no one on the enemy side could shoot fire, but it was something to be wary of in case one day I managed to train myself to actually move while wearing a suit of armor. Not to mention, the dryads couldn’t shoot fire, but there were people on our side who could. Friendly fire was not actually friendly - granted, I didn’t think anyone would deliberately attack each other, but there could always be accidents.

Drake, unlike me, had clearly been groomed from birth to not only wear his set of plate armor, but to also run and possibly climb up ladders in it. I did not have that kind of strength - and I had to admit that despite any cold feelings I had towards him, his armor looked incredibly cool. A large amount of work had gone into it, and since it was lizardmen armor, there was also a tailpiece in the form of an iron covering that went over the top of his tail, still leaving it free to move as the underside was not covered save for the very tip. It looked exquisite enough to be a work of art rather than a battle piece, and probably cost far more than even a Rank Three grimoire to make.

As it was, the purpose of the armor, regardless of what it was made of, was to block any ranged attacks that might happen to come our way. We were well sheltered on the wall, with numerous points from where we could rain down spells while barely exposing ourselves, so I wasn’t too overtly concerned with this.

Not to mention that in addition to the lower-ranked Liberomancers helping us, there were also normal soldiers who were ready to create a shield wall; a barrier that would encase us in case the enemy did reach the top of the walls somehow.

“Sure, what’s going on?” I asked. Was there another situation that I’d have to mediate?

“I couldn’t help but notice that you seem very tired,” he said. “You look like you’re about to doze off - is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry, but I was up all night for a few days just to finish this grimoire - but it’s worth it because I can use [Grand Fireball] now.”

The difference in firepower between [Fireball] and [Grand Fireball] was enormous. [Fireball] could kill between six and twelve common soldiers depending on how closely they were standing near each other so long as one’s Attack stat was high enough, while [Grand Fireball] was known to easily consume a hundred men or more and had five times the range of [Fireball]. Making Rank Three grimoires was much harder than Rank Two, but they were also correspondingly much more powerful as well.

A Rank Two spell consumed two points of mana to cast, while a Rank Three one consumed three points. Even though the cost of casting [Grand Fireball] was fifty percent higher, it more than made up for it with its results, not to mention that Rank Three Liberomancer generally had larger mana pools than Rank Two ones.

Rank Four [Inferno] was said to be able to kill a thousand or more men, and probably had a higher range than [Grand Fireball] as well.

Fire elemental spells in general had the advantage of having high, well, firepower - they were very good at attacking large groups of weak enemies. Conversely, their weakness was that the damage was hard to control and these spells were ill-suited for use in narrow places like city corridors because it was far too easy for innocent bystanders to be caught in the blast radius. Lightning and wind elemental spells were better at dealing damage precisely to a few targets, but conversely, would not do as well as fire elemental spells in a situation like this involving an open field.

Thank goodness that I had finally read that grimoire and learned [Grand Fireball] in the nick of time for this battle!

However, Drake had concerns beyond my very apparent fatigue.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 15-17

Jiah Pei waved off his own suggestion with that throwaway comment, but I had a feeling that he had been serious when suggesting it. That he really would consider that kind of alliance if she was still unwed.

Was that the only reason that Jiah Pei had wanted to invite me? Because he saw me as an investment for the future?

A part of me hated that I was becoming so cynical, but I couldn’t help it. Once I had reached Rank Three, and even slightly before that when I had been let go from Lauren’s shop - I had seen how much politics were involved in the background when it came to Liberomancy. It was not as simple or straightforward as I’d originally thought when I came to this world. I was convinced of this even more so given the new position I had found myself in.

I did not want to sink into the mire that was Arconia’s politics, but had found myself unable to avoid it.

“No, thank you, I have work tomorrow,” I told him. “I need my head on straight.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself - might be the last drink you take though. Who knows what’ll happen tomorrow and the day after that? If I died tomorrow, I know one of my regrets would be: ‘I should’ve taken another glass!’ Hah!” He then downed it in a single motion.

“Wait - are you participating?” I asked him.

“In what?”

“I mean, are you going to fight?” I asked. I thought that he, much like Granny Qi, would stay on the sidelines.

“Of course!”

“But…” I was going to say ‘you’re old’ but realized that he would find that extremely offensive. “...you don’t have to, right?”

“Have to? Well, maybe I could get an exception for my age, but why would I? Do you think those dryads are going to give me an exception for my age if they breach those walls when deciding whether or not to kill me? No! And if I have to die to save one of you pups, so be it. I would prefer dying on my feet than passing away from sickness anyway,” he said.

I glanced around. “Speaking of, I don’t see the rest of your family here… do you live alone?” He still had a pretty big house by even a wealthy merchant’s standards, but it looked like it was just him and his servants. The size of the house just made it even more apparent just how empty much of it was. People in Arconia mostly lived in big joint families from what I’d seen - it was uncommon for children to move out even when they had hit adulthood.

“Well, I still have a big family,” he said. “Many of them have moved out though - you see, or are doing something right now. Siege’s been keeping everyone busy. That and ah, one of my sons and I had a little misunderstanding and he’s been out of the house for a while now - but we’ll patch things up soon enough.”

“Right, right,” I said.

We continued talking about lighter topics after that. He did try asking me stuff about home - questions which I really couldn’t answer fully, but he didn’t seem to mind much.

The conversation then switched to him telling me stories about earlier in his life and his opinions on various things going on within Arconia.

There was quite a bit to learn from him as well as wisdom in his words, but we couldn’t stay up talking all night. Both of us had matters to attend to.

“Alright, sorry, but that’s enough from me,” he said after he had clearly reached his limit on drinking. “But just you wait, if the two of us survive this, let’s have a real party - and I’ll even invite the rest of my family for that one!”

I smiled. “Absolutely. And I wanted to thank you for supporting me back there.” He had been the one who had first said anything positive about me in that room - and I was sure that was a major reason as to why the job had gone so smoothly.

“No problem my boy,” he said. “Talent needs to recognize talent…”

I led him to his bed whereupon he fell asleep almost immediately. “If you want… it’s late, you can pick any room here…” he mumbled before drifting off.

That was a fine offer, but I had to go back as I had things to do next morning. I told who I thought was the head housekeeper that I was leaving before exiting - the driver of the carriage was still dutifully parked outside.

When I got home I had expected Granny Qi to be fast asleep, but she was still up, praying before the Goddess Serragnin. As I’d imagine many families were doing right now, actually.

“Finally home?” she said, still keeping her eyes closed.

“Ah, sorry, that lasted for much longer than I’d thought,” I told her, a foot already on the stairs that led up to my room.

“Wait,” she said and nothing further beyond that single word, but I stayed put. Five minutes later she was done and turned towards me. “I have something for you.” It took her a few moments to find a special key kept in a drawer which she used to open up a chest I’d never seen her use, but which was buried beneath a few others that I had to help her shift.

The lock was rusty but still opened up with a satisfying click! when the key was turned.

She pulled out a book wrapped in a leather cover, though its light green aura leaking from each page was still visible. It was a grimoire, and the only thing that was in that chest.

“This is one of the last grimoires my husband wrote,” she said, hands tracing over the cover. “It grants the Rank Three spell [Grand Fireball]… he never got around to putting it up for sale before he passed away, leaving that task to me. I couldn’t find it in my heart to sell it, even after all of these years.” She embraced the book like a mother would her infant. She then took a long look at it before turning around and trying to hand it to me. “I want you to have it.”

“Granny Qi, I can’t take this,” I protested. “For one, I don’t have the money to pay for-” I was going to tell her that I didn’t have the cash to pay for it given I had spent quite a bit of my savings on supplies in preparation for leaving Arconia, and while I did have two Rank Three grimoires to sell, I had not put them up for sale as of yet - saving them for the merchant caravan. But, I wasn’t able to finish my sentence before Granny Qi smacked me over the head. It wasn’t hard mind you - but it was the first time she had ever struck me. She had been annoyed at me more times than I could’ve counted; though this was the first time she had decided to express it physically.

“Idiot - did I ever ask you for money? I’m saying that this is yours now!”

I shook my head. “No, Granny Qi, it wasn’t about the money - I meant to say that this is one of the last things that you have that belonged to your husband - how could I take it like that?”

“Tell me child, why do people write grimoires?” she asked, exasperated.

“To sell them later or trade them for-”

“No! They write grimoires because someday, someone will read them!” she said, hands now shaking. “He would not have wanted this collecting dust and then eventually rotting away, turning all of his effort into naught, now then would he? He would’ve wanted someone to read it - otherwise he might as well have lit this grimoire on fire for all the good it would do to the world!”

“Are… you sure?” I asked her.

“Tell me one thing,” she said. “If, I learned that in the upcoming fight, that the spell [Grand Fireball] could’ve saved your life, but you had instead died because you lacked it, could I live with myself then? These dryads are weak to fire, no? Would it not be better that this be with someone who could use it to save the city instead of being food for the spiders in a cabinet? Forget that - what if you can’t defend the city properly because of a lack of this, and then those dryads swarm in and tear my head off, but oh, this grimoire would still be safe in its box? Do you think my husband would’ve wanted that?”

“No…” I said, not having expected such passion in her voice.

“This is the last thing that remains of him - and also his legacy,” she said. “His legacy is teaching someone [Grand Fireball] - and may that legacy live on through you, child. May his legacy help in protecting this city he lived in all of his life. That is what he would’ve wanted.”

“Granny Qi, you say all of that - but if that were true, that you wanted someone to read it, wouldn’t you have sold this a long time ago? You’ve kept it for so long - doesn’t that mean that it’s special for you?” I asked her. She clearly had some attachment to that grimoire beyond its use to teach [Grand Fireball], which is why she’d even bothered keeping it this long.

She nodded. “It is special - which is why I would have never given it to a stranger. To you, however, yes, I have no regrets in doing so.”

There was a lot unsaid in those words. Foremost being that it meant that I wasn’t just some random stranger. Secondly, that we were simply not landlord and tenant or two people who just had a business transaction. Could we call ourselves family now? She certainly seemed to think so, giving me the grimoire like she was handing it to her eldest son when he finally came of age.

I had no objections to give at that time, and I took the grimoire from her. “But… I wouldn’t want to take this without giving you anything in return.” The grimoire was likely the most expensive thing she had - aside from her house. Her fields back in her village would not grow anything for a while due to the dryad invasion, and I didn’t know how the rest of her businesses were affected either.

“We can speak of that after this is over,” she said, waving her hand, delaying the matter, though I resolved that I would not forget it. “Now get some rest! It’s getting late already!”

Her annoyance melted as I approached her and gave her a hug - it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and was likely very awkward. However, she didn’t pull away, and she got the sentiment, even if I hadn’t voiced it. “Thank you for taking care of me.” I then added, "I can't remember any of my grandparents." She gave me a confused look - it was not often that I spoke of my life before coming to Chipker. "They had all died by the time I was two - though I always wondered what it would've been like to have met them if I was a bit older. Hearing the other kids talk about their own grandparents... I couldn't help but feel jealous. It's only now though that I realized just how much I'd missed out on."

She gently wiped away a single tear from the corner of her eye in response. "Since when did a blockhead like you get so good with words?"

"If I wasn't so good with words, I wouldn't be able to write grimoires like I do," I said, and she chuckled before turning in for the night.

"I'm serious - go to sleep!" she yelled out before leaving.

Despite what Granny Qi had told me, I did not go to bed right away. If I wanted to learn [Grand Fireball] in time for it to actually be useful, I could not waste a drop of mana on doing anything else and would have to devote nearly all my waking hours to the task.

This was made doubly difficult by the fact that it was in a different language - if I had someone with me to translate it would’ve been much faster, but that person would also need to be a Rank Three Liberomancer. And where would I find someone like that willing to spend hours with me with an army at the gates?

Thankfully the grimoire wasn’t hard to understand.

Because of the grimoire’s bright aura, it was easy enough to read even in total darkness, almost like reading on a smartphone or tablet at night. Regardless, [Unobstructed Sight] would’ve taken care of that no problem.

[Grand Fireball] turned out to be far more useful than I’d initially thought. When picking up a grimoire, you would know what it did, but like when I had bought the grimoire that gave [Fish Haul] you could also know how that potential spell or skill would interact with the rest of your set. I saw that [Grand Fireball] and [Summon Tyrant Arachnea] could also be used synergistically - I had already seen something between [Fireball] and [Summon Tyrant Arachnea]. However, the output of a Rank Three spell and skill was going to be far greater than between a Rank Two spell and Rank Three skill.

Without a doubt, this was something that I’d be able to use with great effect during the upcoming fight. If we did fight, that is; some small part of me hoped that whatever unknown cause resulted in the dryads straying from their original path in the first place would strike again causing them to suddenly turn away from Arconia any day now.

As I read the grimoire late into the night, a thought struck me.

It was an excellent thing that grimoires vanished when you read them! I had been complaining about how annoying that fact was internally for so long it seemed strange to suddenly come to that conclusion in a sleep-deprived state. However, even when I woke up later, I felt that it wasn't the wrong conclusion.

If that was not the case, and grimoires could be used multiple times, this world would not be so peaceful. You’d probably see people willing to slaughter other Liberomancers and steal grimoires all the time - and Libraria would end up being nothing more than a place where the law of the jungle survived, where the strong openly preyed upon the weak, and the world would probably be run by psychopaths or anyone callous enough to screw everyone around them over for their own gain.

But because grimoires could only be used once - no matter how powerful you were, you had a vested interest in letting anyone who could create a good one live. Because that way they could make more for you and eventually your descendants, especially if it was in a different language!

I realized this while thinking about how Hei Nan had passed away, so he could no longer make copies of this grimoire. It probably would’ve made more sense to give this to someone who could’ve written in the language that he had written it in instead of me so that more copies of it could be made - but that wouldn’t have mattered anyway in the short term of this siege so there was no dwelling on that right now.

Compounding to this was of course, the fact that no matter how good you were, you couldn’t make a whole set of grimoires on your own. You might be able to make a grimoire to make [Blazing Heart] while the Liberomancer next door might make one that gives [Inner Heat]. And thanks to both of your efforts, Liberomancers in the future would be more easily able to make a fire elementalist build. Even someone who is Rank Three might benefit from swapping out one of their Rank Two slots for a new grimoire someone had made that just so happened to compliment their build.

These two factors combined meant that the benefits of cooperation greatly exceeded the benefits of no-holds-barred every-man-for-himself sort of thinking. And so Liberomancers worked within the rules of society, for that was the scaffolding that allowed them to navigate the world and prevented unnecessary conflicts.

After all, that was why Liberomancer Duels had been created in the first place.

Of course, the general temperament among Liberomancers was also different from common warriors by virtue of the kind of training involved. Not to say that all Liberomancers got along, far from it, but they would usually not resort to violence to deal with problems among themselves. Bookworms were not the kind of people to throw hands recklessly.

While Stefan was reading late into the night, in the governor’s palace Drake and Zeke had been called to their father’s office. The meeting of the lizardmen strategists had concluded, but the governor still had several issues to tackle before getting a breather in which he wanted to speak to his two sons.

“Father, you called?” Drake said as he peeked inside his father’s office.

“Yes, there was something I wanted to discuss with you two,” Lance said. Zeke was already in a chair sitting across Lance.

Drake took his seat, stifling the yawn that threatened to erupt out of his jaws.

“Drake, what is your opinion on the human whom Zeke vouched for?” Lance asked.

“He seems willing to do the job,” Drake said. His father’s nostrils flared, and that told Drake that he had given the wrong answer so he hastily added an addendum to his thoughts. “I mean, I don’t like him personally but…”

“Oh? And why is that?” Lance asked.

“Uh… well,” Drake began. The truth was that he didn’t like Stefan because he had so easily made it to the finals in the tournament, and so he had harbored bitter feelings towards the man ever since. But he very well couldn’t give that as a reason, now then could he?

“Zeke, you?”

To Drake’s relief, his older brother was none the wiser. So at least, in this aspect, the two of them were equally disappointing.

Lance sighed. “Alright, I suppose neither of you have been near the Liberomancer’s Guild recently so you might not know - though they had reached out to me regarding the matter of that human.”

“In what regard?” Zeke asked.

“The fact that they think he is a fraud,” Lance said coldly. “And I concur with their assessment.” He paused. “Do you know how many Liberomancers made a Rank Three grimoire - an original one, as their first Rank Three grimoire?” He held up his hand, raising not a single finger. “Zero. Zero up till now, not even in Hitutsa could I find someone like that. New Rank Three grimoires are so difficult to make that we give those who make them several special privileges on top of venerating them. And this human, in the span of a few months, makes not just one, but two of them back-to-back. Which is more likely? That he is a genius the likes of which has practically never been seen before in the world - or that he could make these two new grimoires so quickly because they had already existed?” Lance was accusing Stefan of having copied the two grimoires that he had submitted as his own originals, a very big offense. It was one thing to mistakenly submit something that you thought was original but already existed, it was quite another thing to maliciously lie to the Liberomancer’s Guild not just once, but twice. Who would be so bold as to do that? Being ostracized by the guild would kill one’s career as a Liberomancer, criminal penalties put aside. And yet, it was by far the more logical explanation.

“Why haven’t you had him arrested yet then?”

“Because neither I, nor the Liberomancer’s Guild can prove it,” Lance said. Once Stefan had become even a Rank Two Liberomancer, it was near-impossible to have him detained without good reason - because there would be outrage to doing so from the Liberomancer’s Guild. It was far less feasible now that he was Rank Three; while the Liberomancer’s Guild might have their own suspicions they would still protect ‘one of their own’ from what seemed like blatant government overreach. The Liberomancer’s Guild was extraordinarily influential, and not even someone like Lance could butt heads against them and come out unscathed. Now that the enemy was at the gates, Lance was even more reluctant to open this can of worms. “That is why they approached me to see if I could dig any further than they could to get real, solid evidence.” He took out a grimoire from under his desk. “This is the language that man writes in. I could not find anything even resembling it, even after sending it to the University of Hitutsa for analysis.”

“In that case, doesn’t it mean that maybe… he is telling the truth?” Zeke asked.

“So where did he learn this language from then? If he knows this language, then naturally, there should be others who know it as well. He can’t possibly be the first Liberomancer who knows this language, and so a grimoire that uses this language should’ve ended up somewhere, anywhere,” Lance said. “There are over a thousand different written languages in all of the continent - many of them have fallen out of use, but the University of Hitutsa has written material in over five hundred of the most widely used writing systems, many of them predating the rise of the Ruler of the Astral Winds and are no longer used today. And yet, nothing similar to this. Do you know what I call that? Not improbable - impossible.”

“Could he have invented this language himself, or found it through some ruins?” Drake asked.

“And then also made all of these new grimoires in that language? If he had that kind of talent, he really would be the kind of genius that only appears once in ten thousand years,” Lance said. He sighed. “I do not know what is going on with him, but there is something murky in the water - very murky. I do not think he will obstruct our operations during the siege in any way, even a madman would know that they would be doomed if the city were taken, and he does not seem to be a madman despite all of his other faults. However, you are taking a huge risk by endorsing him like you did, because now anything that he might be accused of will stain your name and reputation by association.” The last sentence was a warning aimed at Zeke, who was almost certain to be the next governor of the city by this point.

Zeke fidgeted in his chair. It wasn’t often that he was thrown off balance - no, he was the more responsible, competent, older brother. It was usually Drake who ended up holding the idiot ball - though it was now firmly in his hands.

Then again, he felt that there was little that he could’ve done to prevent this from happening. His father hadn’t told him this information before, and had simply said, “I’ll leave it to you” when Zeke said he had a person in mind. With the threat of the dryads on the horizon, who had the time to conduct such an in-depth background check?

“Do you want me to get rid of his position then?” Zeke asked. It would look odd if they did so, but the consequences might be worse if they let someone like that run a crucial part of their operation.

“No,” Lance said. “Whatever he’s actually up to, he has to cooperate at least during the dryad invasion and might even be useful for now - so let him be useful to us. If anything, Zeke, attach some retainers to him to help him so that we can keep a closer eye on him. They may be able to catch him slipping up.”

Zeke nodded. From his father’s earlier behavior during the meeting that night he had thought that his father greatly approved of Stefan - then again, by now, his father was a seasoned politician. Even if one was not born shrewd, they would become such after having sat upon the governor’s chair for so long.

“There are other issues with him,” Lance continued. “For one, what country does he hail from? If he came from far away, how and why did he come here? He says he comes from a country called ‘Libraria’ - though he has sometimes answered with another name ‘America’. Maybe this country is known by two names - but neither of them are listed anywhere no matter where I look. He seems to come from a country that does not exist. What kind of person comes from nowhere - a spy, that’s who. But if he is a spy, he has drawn so much attention to himself that he could only be the most incompetent spy I have ever heard of. If one of my information agents behaved like this, they would’ve been sacked.”

“Wait a moment,” Drake said, adjusting himself in his chair. “Father, should not all of this also cast suspicion on the fact that he ‘helped’ us catch those two demonic Liberomancers? We handed him a demonic grimoire practically on a plate after that, and that too legally! What if he had known those two and simply sacrificed them to advance his own plans? He could’ve been the mastermind behind the whole event.”

Lance scratched his chin. Drake’s ideas tended to be disregarded simply because well, they came from him, but he actually had a point this time. “I hadn’t thought of that - though I should reassure you both that the legal loophole which caused that to happen has been remedied. Demonic Liberomancer… it seems excessively cruel to betray your own comrades like that, though I suppose demonic Liberomancers never have much integrity to begin with.”

“Father…” Zeke said. “I understand your position up till now - but I should also mention something in his defense. He got to the finals of the tournament while making new grimoires. He clearly has very good natural talent at making them on the spot - that can’t be denied, enough to fight with Master Jiah Pei on equal footing. I can’t see how he faked that.”

Lance nodded. “True, true, but how do we explain everything else? Anyway, leave that matter for now, he has not done anything overtly wrong that I can punish him for, especially now that I have to acknowledge him as a Master Liberomancer. Not to mention the guild is fawning over some of the grimoires he’s made and doesn’t want anything to happen to their current golden goose. We will conduct a more thorough investigation into his background once this blasted dryad invasion is over. I just wanted to warn the two of you to keep a close eye on him.”

“We will,” Drake and Zeke both said at once.

“Good, good, that is all, you two should get some rest. We have a long day tomorrow - and a long day after that one as well.”

hr

Once I had ran out of mana reading the grimoire I had been given, I went to sleep, though it felt like I had been woken up by immediately after by Granny Qi.

“The governor’s son is here to see you again,” she said. “Wake up!”

I got up, feeling a headache already from the lack of sleep, but I couldn’t very well leave Zeke waiting.

Zeke was there, and I gave him a rundown of what had happened last night.

“Good work,” he said. “Ah, I’ve managed to arrange for a few things to help you out.”

As part of my new role of ‘Liberomancer Conflict Mediator’ (a title that had been created overnight), I was entitled to certain perks. That included use of a carriage, the same driver from yesterday waving at me, a page, two guards, and a lizardman secretary whose name closely resembled Eton.

“Good morning, I am a Rank One Liberomancer, but I can read and write in both the languages of the lizardmen and humans,” Eton said. “I would be happy to assist you in whatever manner I can.”

That was helpful as my new position involved a lot of paperwork and bureaucratic nonsense, which was greatly hampered by my inability to read either of the scripts used in Arconia.

Come to think of it - the whole idea earlier of becoming an earl seemed rather ridiculous when for all practical purposes other than creating grimoires or reading them I was just as illiterate as most peasants. Documents were written in normal text, and a translation device could do nothing about them.

“Oh,” I said to my page. “Could your run off to the Liberomancer’s Guild to let them know that I got a grimoire from Granny Qi?” It was a Rank Three grimoire, so even if it was a gift, there was still a small tax to be paid and the Guild had to be informed. There was a small chance they would not approve the transaction, but I couldn’t not tell them about it. Because if I didn’t and used [Grand Fireball] the question would naturally arise as to how I had learned it - was I going to tell them that I had written a third original grimoire that just so happened to teach a spell that was well known around Arconia? I had a feeling that would be very suspicious.

There was no way to avoid showing [Grand Fireball] given how useful it would be for fighting the dryads. I briefly considered just winging it and not doing so, but ultimately did not consider it worth the convenience of avoiding a minor hassle.

It was best to avoid trouble like that. My page came back a while later saying, “The Guild not only said that the transaction is fine, but given the current circumstances, that the usual tax is waived too.”

That surprised me. This was one of the few fees that the Guild did not waive, even for Rank Three Liberomancers. It was barely a drop in the ocean compared to the actual cost of a Rank Three grimoire, though, so very few people complained - it was likely the guild did not care during these times as they knew how valuable another Liberomancer with [Grand Fireball] was going to be in combat.

I did my best to try to finish reading the grimoire as soon as I could, but it was a bit difficult to squeeze in with all the other things I had to do.

While my official title was ‘Liberomancer Conflict Mediator’ I felt like I should’ve more accurately been called ‘Inter-species Negotiator’ given that I was also tasked with dealing with things mostly not involving Liberomancers.

A group of lizardmen spearmen were practicing on ground ‘reserved’ for human spearmen? The lizardmen refugees thought that the humans were getting better fish than them? A group of lizardmen thought that the humans were writing ‘evil slogans’ against them on signs since they couldn’t understand human letters? I was called for all of these issues and more.

Honestly, I felt more like a babysitter overlooking a bunch of rowdy kindergartners given the nature of most of the squabbles I was dragged into rather than a manager of anything.

Other than putting out these small sparks before they snowballed into large fires - most of my time was spent in solving logistical issues between the two factions. Things one side had too much of or not enough of which the other side needed to provide or wanted: whether it be leather, fish, blankets, or wood.

Not only that, but communicating battle strategies between the two factions fell into my job description as well.

Because of this, people were constantly coming in and leaving my headquarters (formerly known as Granny Qi’s house) and so my office (formerly known as Granny Qi’s dining room) was rather messy all the time despite Granny Qi’s efforts to keep it tidy. Unfortunately for her, I could create a mess far faster than she could clean it up.

I could tell that while Granny Qi put up with this given the importance of my work, she was clearly not happy with it.

It wasn’t just her who was in a sour mood - lots of people throughout the city had multiple complaints, most of them just buried them deep within themselves. Especially now that the dryads, and evidence of their slaughter was drawing near.

Bodies began to turn up in the Arconia - floating downstream from where the dryads had thrown them in to dispose of them. I don’t know if they threw them into the river in order to get rid of them, or to possibly strike fear into our hearts before attacking.

I think more likely than either of those two explanations was the simple theory that they did not care where they discarded the bodies, and some of those which they dumped happened to end up in the river.

Men, women, and children, all exsanguinated by the dryads and then tossed aside carelessly like kids would do to empty juice boxes back home. They had been granted no mercy and there had been no negotiating with this enemy.

There had only been a few bodies on the first day that they appeared, but later on, the number increased to the point where hundreds of them could be seen floating along the river even from the city walls.

Most of the dumb complaints I had been receiving quieted down after that.

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 12-14

With that settled, the conversation now shifted to other things like the assignment of roles and allocation of other resources during the siege.

In the middle of this I had a question and raised my hand. It was how the others had been asking questions up till now, though this was a first from me.

“Yes, Master Stefan?”

“I wanted to ask about how well we are stocked, if this siege is prolonged and the dryads decided to simply starve us out, how will we fare?” I asked. “Can the sea’s haul potentially last… I don’t know, forever?” Some branches of the Arconia flowed through the city itself, so fresh water shouldn’t have been an issue, though food might be.

“Hmm,” Lance said. “I doubt the siege would last longer than two months, up till which we have enough food even if we don’t add to our supplies - but on the topic of fishing, Gorvis? Do you have any input?”

A lizardman answered. “We can fish for quite a while, yes, but that might be difficult with our new fortifications on that side. Not to mention, while we can catch fish, if we try to catch enough to feed the city for a long time, we will indeed end up exhausting the sea’s bounty by over fishing. There is a limit to how far we can go from shore, after all, without encountering something like a sea dragon or giant squid.”

Lance nodded. “It should not have to come to that. The dryads need fresh blood, and if they do not get it for a month they become noticeably weaker as per our intelligence. I do not know how long it would take for them to die without fresh blood, but by a month I would imagine most of them would wander off elsewhere or they would be weakened so that we could sally forth and finish them off. Supplies should last around three months even with the new wave of refugees.”

Many of the others agreed with his figures, so it was likely correct.

I still had the spell [Fish Haul] in case things got bad, but the issue was that it required mana, which I would need for other purposes- namely actually fighting.

I was not too worried about myself - I was a Rank Three Liberomancer and if they started rationing food, I would likely be first in line simply because of how useful I was. If a Liberomancer got too hungry, their rate of mana recovery would be affected, and eventually, they would not be able to recover mana at all. This was documented to start to occur only after about one week of starvation, though this could vary depending on how well-nourished that person was. Other physical stresses like lack of sleep or illness were also known to affect mana recovery. But because of this, I knew that they would continue to at the very least feed us.

I was concerned about Granny Qi though. She was old enough to be exempt from the fighting, despite being a Rank Two Liberomancer. But that also meant that her food supply might be cut off if she was deemed ‘less necessary.’

She had sold off all the rice and other produce she had brought from her village during the Spirit Festival. I really wished she had kept some of it though. She was not a big lady so she should’ve potentially been fine, but who knew how bad things would get as the siege dragged on?

The worst off though would be the new refugees from the surrounding villages. Laws were passed against price gouging, and a rationing system had finally been started by the city. However, I had seen how much food most of them got - it was a fish and some rice, barely enough for a single meal for someone my size. Many of them had therefore signed up to be spearmen simply so that they and their families could be somewhat fed better. Even with the laws against price gouging (which were largely ineffectual as far as I could tell, though they seemed to lower the ceiling of how high prices could go at least), most of the villagers’ wealth was entirely in the form of their farmlands which they had abandoned in order to come to the city.

My heart went out to them. When I had first come to Arconia, I had spent more nights than not with an empty stomach. And things would not be easy for them after this was all over either, as it could take up to a decade for them to fully rebuild their farms.

The topic then shifted as to how to provide blankets and firewood to everyone - it was getting warmer but was still pretty chilly, especially for the lizardmen.

With this the discussion went to topics on other logistics and the like, before it finally ended. Many matters hadn’t been decided as of yet, but the groundwork was laid down for further discussions.

Everyone was getting ready to leave, but there was one person I knew that I needed to introduce myself to now that I was here.

That was the other person who also was wearing a purple sash. I could not remember his name for the life of me, but I walked up to him nonetheless. “Good evening!” I introduced myself.

We exchanged pleasantries, though before our conversation could go any further, someone tapped me on the shoulder.

“I apologize for interrupting,” Zeke said. “However, this is something I needed to discuss with Master Stefan right now.”

“Ah, no worries - understandable that we are all busy. Perhaps we can meet once all of this has settled down?” he offered.

“Certainly,” I said.

Zeke and I walked off in another direction. “So, what came up?”

“I found out where and when the humans are having their own meeting,” Zeke said.

“And you want me to go over there and discuss things with them, right?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“When and where is it?”

Zeke sighed. “It’s happening soon, but you’ll have to head out right now via carriage if you wish to make it.” He described a place which was deep in the human section of the city.

I sighed. This was bothersome, but also what I had signed up for. Unknowingly mind you, but signed up for it I did all the same.

“Alright, this carriage should take you there,” Zeke said as he led me out to the front gates of the palace and called for a cab. He spoke to the driver. “He’ll also take you home. Let me know if any issues should arrive.”

“Wait - you’re not coming with me?” I asked, a bit alarmed.

Zeke shook his head. “They will look at you with even more distrust if I’m with you. I’m sorry, but it’s better you go alone. Do you remember the overall details of our plan?”

I repeated what I had heard and summarized it for Zeke, who corrected me in some spots, and then deemed that it was sufficient. He handed me a letter of introduction written in both the language of the humans and lizardmen of Arconia with his official seal on it as well as his father’s, describing my position. Hopefully it would help in some way. “Good luck!” he said as I rode out.

It was close to evening now, and as I was alone in the carriage, I nearly dozed off and only came to when the driver tapped on the door after I hadn’t disembarked for over five minutes despite him stopping.

“Ah, sorry,” I said groggily, getting off. The carriage was far more comfortable than what I was used to.

I hadn’t been to this part of town before, though it was clear it was quite a classy part of it as even now, I couldn’t see any beggars or the like on the streets.

The building I had been dropped off in front of was one of the bookstores that belonged to the Zie family. There were three families who controlled the human side of Liberomancy within Arconia - the Zie, the Pei, and the Liu. Other families of course worked as Liberomancers, but only as adjuncts or under these three.

If I had not managed to make a Rank Three grimoire myself, I might’ve ended up on their doorsteps asking for a job eventually.

There were guards near the entrance.

“Halt!” they said. “What is your business here?”

“There is a meeting of Rank Three Liberomancers, isn’t there?” I asked. “I am a Rank Three Liberomancer.” It was not clearly visible in the low light, so I brought up my sash so that the distinctive purple color would be apparent.

“You… aren’t on the guest list,” one of them weakly protested. However, I could tell that they were definitely in a dilemma regarding whether to turn me away or not.

“One of you should run in and ask Master Jiah Pei, he’ll be asking for me,” I said.

It was a bluff - I didn’t even know if Jiah Pei was in the building or if he would want me there or not, but it seemed to work as they did not even take me up on my offer to verify things first and instead just decided to let me in.

This was why I had wanted Zeke to tag along - it would’ve give me some authenticity and they wouldn’t have turned away the governor’s son even if he was a lizardmen - right? At least, I would assume that would be the case.

It was likely Zeke didn’t see this as an issue and thought it would be easy enough for me to get in. He was right after a fashion, but it still annoyed me somewhat that I had to somewhat bluster my way through.

“Ah, forgive us, Master Liberomancer,” the other guard said as the opened the gate.

The shop was about thrice as big as Lauren’s, and while it obviously showed off the human-style architecture that was preferred in Arconia, what stood out the most to differentiate it from a lizardman shop was a statue of the Goddess Serragnin placed near the entrance. A plaque had something written on it beneath her, though I couldn’t make out much of what it said.

There were other people within the reception of the shop - it looked quite a lot like the storefront where we would sell things back in Lauren’s shop except slightly fancier.

It was my first time being in a human bookstore, though I had to note that it wasn’t that much different from a lizardman one, save for the large statue of the Goddess Serragnin placed in the interior, closely mirroring its counterpart placed outside. The one inside depicted her hands folded rather than holding a book as the one outside did - I didn’t know if that was just by chance or there was a deeper reason behind that.

Many lizardmen acknowledged Serragnin’s existence and importance, and some of them prayed to her, but they had their own religion with multiple deities unlike the humans here who saw Serragnin as the ‘one above all.’ Because the lizardmen religion was polytheistic, they did not seem to have much of a problem adding Serragnin to their own pantheon, though they also did not hold her in as high regard as the humans did.

I also saw a large painting of Serragnin hung up on the wall as well - it depicted her sitting upon a golden throne, analyzing a sheet of paper that was delivered to her by her vessel, the four-headed owl she was almost always shown associated with.

Whenever one wrote out a text with mana in an attempt to make a grimoire, who was it that judged whether or not it was ‘worthy’ enough to become a grimoire? Those who worshiped Serragnin as the ‘one above all’ said that all grimoires were sent to her after her apotheosis, and it was she who judged which were worthy or not. That was likely what the painting was trying to portray - the goddess in the process of judging whether a text was worthy or not. Quite fitting for a bookstore.

This theory had several holes in it though - the main one being who had judged Serragnin’s grimoires when she had started writing them? Or did she have a hundred percent success rate at the time? Not to mention that there were other Liberomancers around when she hadn’t ‘ascended’ to heaven yet, so who judged theirs?

Others thought there was some sort of mystical ‘magic force’ that judged grimoires - but what criteria did it use anyway? I had a vague idea from trial and error, but there were a lot of inconsistencies in what was allowed to be a grimoire or not - if there was a precise formula to making a successful grimoire, no one had discovered it yet.

I shook those thoughts away for now, because this was not the time to delve into the mysteries behind Liberomancy - I had a job to do.

I saw some people who were likely scribes and other shop employees. “I’m here for the meeting of Rank Three Liberomancers - ah, would one of you be so kind as to point me in the direction of such?”

“That way, Master Liberomancer,” one of them said. They all gave me odd looks. It was as if they were more perturbed by my appearance as a foreigner than the lizardmen were at me being human - though this was likely only because I still couldn’t fully register the subtleties of lizardmen facial expressions.

Still, none of them even questioned my appearance and the fact that I was headed towards the meeting. The sash did all the talking for me.

There was only one guard near the door, and I asked him to introduce myself before I entered.

He was gone for a minute, during which I tapped my foot nervously. I was not actually expected - would they turn me away? Should I have handed the guard the letter first? I cursed Zeke again for not giving me an opportunity to change my robes before coming here. But it would have taken too long to go to Granny Qi’s house and then to here - and lizardmen robes would not have fit me even if I had asked to borrow a set.

Before my thoughts ran any further amok the guard returned, and said I was free to go in.

The interior of the room was smaller than the one I’d just recently been in, though it was almost as richly decorated. There was another statue of the Goddess Serragnin, and portraits of people who were likely Zie family members.

However, though it was smaller, it had about the same number of people in it.

Despite the fact that the humans were outnumbered several times over in Arconia, they had almost the same number of Rank Three Liberomancers as the lizardmen. That was why Lance had been so adamant that they were needed - Arconia would be losing half of its battle strength if the humans did not cooperate. No matter how strong Lance was, he was only one person who knew only one Rank Four spell, he could not cover the entire city. I also saw two people, one of whom was Jiah Pei, wearing purple sashes. The lizardmen only had one - well there could be more on their side, but I doubted that every single Rank Three Liberomancer had made it to that meeting.

As I entered, all eyes were upon me.

The meeting couldn’t have started much earlier judging from the nearby incense stick, but being the last to arrive was never a good thing.

“I apologize for my tardiness,” I said. “And I wish a good evening to you all. I was late because I was just at the governor’s palace for another meeting, but I also come here on official business.” I pulled out the letter Zeke had given me, and handed it to the nearest person there, who passed it to the man who was at the head of the table. He was probably the head of the Zie family - Granny Qi had told me his first name, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember it at that moment. He did not have a purple sash though, so it made me wonder why it was they had decided to hold this meeting here rather than in one of the other family’s shops. Maybe the three families took turns hosting these kinds of meetings?

Once he had the letter, he read out the main section for everyone to hear. I couldn’t read either of those scripts, so it was actually the first time I got to know its contents.

“Why is this person allowed in here?” someone said, pointing at me once the contents of the letter had been read out. He was a young man, probably no older than I was. “He is not one of us and a servant of the lizardmen we shou-” he got no further as Jiah Pei, who was sitting next to him, tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a disapproving nod.

The man shut up, and Jiah Pei stood up, cupping his hands and bowing slightly, to the astonishment of many people there. “Fellow Master Liberomancer, allow me to apologize on behalf of my nephew. I hope you can overlook his outburst given his youth and inexperience?” There was a huge emphasis on the words ‘Master Liberomancer’ when he spoke.

I likewise cupped my hands and also lowered my head. “It is not a problem, Master Jiah Pei. I am not as a matter of fact here on behalf of the lizardmen, I am here as a neutral arbiter to try to smooth things out between us and the lizardmen. Things have been very frosty as of late, and I know many of you have your grievances with the lizardmen, but the fact remains that all of us are in danger right now. We won’t survive the dryad invasion without each other’s help, and the lizardmen felt that I would listen to their concerns as a third party without my own biases. I hope that you can feel the same- so that cooperation is easier.”

There were a lot of murmurs at that, though Jiah Pei’s voice cut through all of them. “I think we would all like to hear what you have to say- though, Chang Zie, we should certainly first get our guest a chair?”

The man at the head of the table nodded. There wasn’t a chair prepared for me - because unlike with the lizardmen, my presence had not been expected.

They called for the guard, who brought in a chair, and room was made for me opposite Chang Zie.

“So, Master Liberomancer,” Chang Zie said once I was seated. “We were discussing the upcoming invasion just as you arrived - and part of our deliberation was on sending an envoy of sorts to the lizardmen, though your presence makes something such as that superfluous. Could you enlighten us on what the governor’s plan currently is?”

I began talking about the general strategy for the defense of the city. They had some concerns and questions, some of which I wrote down to ask Zeke to clarify later.

Still, they mostly agreed with Lance’s plan, probably meaning it was quite a good one. No one officially accepted me as a go-between for the two groups, but none of them outright rejected me either.

They seemed to be talking as if they had already accepted me in that role - so I never brought it up again.

The meeting went on nearly as long as the lizardmen’s, and occasionally they would ask for my input or mention something like leather which they were in short supply of and requested from the lizardmen.

I had a list of all of these things which I tucked into my sleeve as the meeting ended.

Much like the meeting with the lizardmen, after this meeting I approached Jiah Pei, another Master Liberomancer in the room. There was one other such person, but they had already left. I would have to reach out to them some other day. I had a limited amount of time, and I needed allies. The other Master Liberomancers were the best investments when it came to the reward to effort ratio that I could achieve through socializing. That, and there should be something akin to professional courtesy in this world even among Master Liberomancers.

As it was, Master Jiah Pei and I already had a connection in the past, even if it was rather brief. He had made a large impression on me, and it looked like the same was true likewise. At least, I hoped it was.

“Ah, I didn’t think we would meet again like this in such a circumstance,” Master Jiah Pei said. “I thought it would be at this year’s tournament.”

“Yeah,” I said, although I had no real desire to attend this year’s tournament even if it had been held.

“You know, I knew there was something remarkable about you when we faced off,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d reach this Rank so quickly though - it’s as if I barely blinked, and here you are!”

“Ah, I guess I was lucky.”

“Please, join me for dinner. I have a few things I wish to talk to you about,” he said.

“I uh, would - hold on, I just need to speak to my carriage driver, he was supposed to take me back but…”

“...no issue, my family has its own as well, let him know I’ll send you back!” Jiah Pei said.

I explained this to the driver, who said he would rather wait no matter how long it took. It seemed he took his job very seriously and I felt slightly bad for making him wait outside as I rode to Jiah Pei’s house and went inside.

Jiah Pei’s house was naturally smaller than the governor’s palace, but still quite fancy - of note he had the pelts of several animals hung up in various places, so he was clearly a fan of hunting.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked as I sat down.

“Oh, this isn’t about business,” Jiah Pei replied. “I just wanted to get to know you better. Who knows when the next chance might come up? I was thinking of inviting you for dinner for some time now, but the right opportunity never came up. I was busy with something or the other - I’m sure you can understand.”

I nodded - he was probably extremely busy given the size of the small business empire he had built up.

I was a bit surprised by one thing though - after dealing with political bickering for the last few hours I found it hard to believe that there was no ulterior motive here from Jiah Pei. I had agreed to tag along because there really wasn’t anything else I was doing currently, and I did make it a point to try to at least build some connection with the other Master Liberomancers like I had tried to do back with the lizardmen. Reputation can take you nearly everywhere - but to build it I had to interact with people, especially because I would not be leaving the city as soon as I had thought.

“After all,” he continued. “It’s not every day that I get to meet someone who can beat me in a round. It’s not every day I meet someone who legally got their hands on a demonic grimoire. And it’s not everyday I meet someone who became a Master Liberomancer seemingly overnight - tell me, was the Rank Three grimoire that you made the first Rank Three grimoire you memorized?”

I nodded.

“And afterwards, you made yet another Rank Three grimoire yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Incredible - it’s almost unbelievable. They might be right about you then,” he said.

“Uh, regarding what? And who’s ‘they?’”

“The guild when they said that you might have a real shot at making a new Rank Four grimoire,” he continued. “You know, everything you see here- was started by my father. I built on the foundation he had given me - it was easy with this starting advantage, but I wanted to go beyond. To create a Rank Four grimoire - I tried twice but failed both times.” He sighed. “Years of effort down the drain - I’ve given up on that dream since then. But I thought that maybe one of my children or grandchildren might be able to - but no, sadly none of them had anything close to approaching my talent. Forget about surpassing it. You though,” he said, pointing a finger at me. “You’re still very young and you made it to Rank Three with your own grimoire. I think you have a good shot at reaching Rank Four.”

Rank Four…

I had no firsthand experience as to how hard it was to get there, but if someone like Jiah Pei had failed - someone who was called ‘the old monster’ even by lizardmen for his skill in making grimoires in Liberomancer Duels, no wonder the prize for making one was so large.

Rank Four grimoires were about the size of a modern textbook, or so I’d heard. If I could get my phone to work, I had a few texts in there which I thought would fit the bill. Either a textbook, or something like Hamlet might work - but I hadn’t memorized anything of that length from Earth. If I did have access to a modern library from Earth though, this would’ve all been so much simpler- even better than having my phone working again.

I was sure that I could probably make a full repertoire of thirty Rank Five grimoires and even some Rank Six ones (if they existed outside of legend) if I could’ve just had all the books that were in my local library with me right now. Unfortunately, I had been transmigrated without any of the books in that library.

It had taken a year for me to get to Rank Three, and if things went smoothly, I could perhaps fill out all of my Rank Three slots in another four or five years. This length of time could be shortened to around two years if I could get my phone to work, but I had failed with every attempt to do so up till now. Failing that, there were some television shows which I vividly remembered, as well as movies that had sequels or were trilogies, or stories from some video games, that I thought could be translated into long enough scripts to make a Rank Four grimoire.

Still, even if I succeeded, that didn’t mean that it would be something useful - I could end up making a Rank Four grimoire that just gave a stat boost instead of a powerful spell or ability. That, or it might give me a spell or ability that required me to have a set of Rank Three or Rank Two grimoires first which were not available within Chipker or otherwise very hard to obtain. I would still get the prize, but it would not be as spectacular as for creating something like the grimoire that gave out [Inferno].

Something clicked in my mind then - maybe the reason I was getting all this respect from everyone wasn’t just because I was a Master Liberomancer. While that title definitely played a role, I felt there was more to it than that.

Sure, if I wasn’t at least Rank Three most of these people wouldn’t even look twice at me - but a Rank Four grimoire had been mentioned to me pretty often by this point, so it was likely also on people’s minds.

Perhaps all of this respect was not because of what I was right now - a Master Liberomancer, but what I might become. Someone who would make a Rank Four grimoire and become an earl. I was a rising star, and maybe people wanted to latch onto that.

“Maybe, but that would still take a few years,” I said, feeling like I had repeated this line several times before.

“Of course, absolutely, the mightiest of oaks was just an acorn once,” Jiah Pei said. “You’re a foreigner, so I don’t know if you knew this - but there is no Rank Four Liberomancer who’s human in all of Chipker. We have been hoping one would appear - you know, in truth, a lot of us are terrified of the lizardmen.” He said the last bit in a slightly hushed tone. “I mean, Rank Four - there is a big gap between that and Rank Three. If we had someone who was Rank Four on our side anywhere though, we would feel a lot more relaxed.”

Was that why they had fought so hard to get the death penalty for that lizardman who had killed a human? They knew that they did not have the upper hand, and so they felt like they had to compensate for it by being aggressive? It seemed counter intuitive somewhat, but one reason I had been told as to why smaller dogs were more aggressive than bigger ones was because the smaller one were more easily threatened. If you felt you were powerless- you might be more likely to be aggressive, because you simply did not want to show any moment of weakness.

They had agreed to drop their insistence on the death penalty during the earlier meeting however, something I was sure Zeke would be happy to hear about tomorrow.

“You could indeed be that person,” Jiah Pei said. “If you’ve gotten this far - even if it takes you twenty years to do so, it would still be a great achievement. It’s too bad that I didn’t meet you earlier - otherwise I would’ve offered to marry my granddaughter off to you.”

“Ah I-” I wasn’t sure how to respond as I felt some of the wine I was sipping go down the wrong pipe, causing me to cough to clear it up.

“Well, she’s married already, so things can’t be helped there,” Jiah Pei said. “More wine?”

The Siege of Arconia: Chapters 9-11

The only other fields that were easy to specialize in, or so I’d heard, were healing - which was something that you basically had to have specialists in no matter which country you were in given the necessity and importance of healers, and summoning - these were Liberomancers who specialized in using their summons and buffing them. Using summons was quite popular because it meant that you didn’t have to put yourself in the line of fire and it also didn’t require mana.

Currently I was tending more towards following the path of becoming a summoner - because much like becoming a healer, it was more universal in the sense that there would be other Liberomancers throughout the world who were also tending towards the same speciality no matter where you went. If I locked on to becoming a fire elementalist, however, that was fine while I was still in Chipker or Hitutsa, but might not be as good if I went somewhere else where it was not such a popular field and where the specific grimoires I would need would be harder to find.

As for healing - I had enough healing grimoires to the point where I thought it was ‘acceptable’ for my own use for now. I could search for some Rank Three healing grimoires, because there were still potentially many things that my current set could not heal, but they were rather rare and some families hoarded them as their own specialties. Not to mention, becoming a healer meant that I would likely be taking a supportive role to someone else, which did not mesh well with the likelihood that I might be on my own in the future. There was a reason why most healers stayed in big cities, away from where they would have to fight.

“I was a bit curious about one thing,” Zeke said. “Did you ever get to try out that demonic spell you learned - what was it called again?”

“[Crimson Lance],” I told him.

“Yes, that.”

“Well, I haven’t had a need to use it thankfully,” I told him. “I don’t think it’ll be that useful right now either, because it only targets one individual, and the main use of it is that it causes massive bleeding after striking the target, so if the initial hit doesn’t finish off the target the resulting hemorrhage will. But I’m not sure if that holds true for the dryads - do they have blood or some kind of sap that circulates through them?”

“I’m not sure myself,” he answered. “So, it works almost like a viper’s venom, is that right?”

“Yes, you could say so.”

“Hmm…” he said. “If only you hadn’t used it - I was thinking of a way to help you get a grimoire that might allow you to fly, and one possible way to have arranged for it is if you’d have agreed to trade it.”

“Really?” I asked. It seemed crazy that someone would trade a Rank Three grimoire for a Rank One grimoire. The difference in value between the two was immense. A Rank One grimoire would take an hour or two to write and could feed someone for a week. A Rank Three grimoire could take a month to write and buy a small house depending on the location.

“Yes, there are many people who would be curious about it,” Zeke said. “There are many unique grimoires in this world, but not all of them are useful just because of that.” That was true - like the grimoire that gave [Fragrance]. “But, that would still have uses even for a Rank Three Liberomancer. And the possibility of getting one through completely legal means - yes, many people would jump at the opportunity. Ah, but that’s all water under the bridge, nothing can be done about that now. I’ll have to see if there’s another way… but in all likelihood you’ll probably have to travel to Hitutsa yourself if you want one.”

“That’s fine,” I said. I was okay with that - I would be traveling with the merchant train as it were anyway.

We finally reached our destination - though as Zeke was climbing out, he turned to me. “Just one tiny last thing - do you know there’s a reward for making a new Rank Four grimoire?”

“Yes, the earldom, right?”

“Yes, I thought you knew, but I just thought I’d mention it again,” Zeke said. “I’m not good at making grimoires myself, I’ve never even made a new Rank Two grimoire myself successfully. But - you seem to have a real talent for it given you made a new Rank Three one when you’re so young. The guild was saying that you might even make a Rank Four one day, or at least, you were the Liberomancer within Chipker with the highest potential to be able to make one - so I wanted to make sure that you knew, well, just to motivate you. Our country could use another Rank Four grimoire.”

The palace was larger than the guild, but the interior seemed to have been fit more for function rather than style unlike the Guild, as in, it was less impressive on the inside than the outside.

We didn’t have much time to appreciate the inside as the meeting was already beginning. We didn’t exactly run towards it because that was unseemly and we couldn’t be doing it in a place like this, but we did power walk as much as was allowed.

“Sorry,” Zeke said as we approached the double doors leading us to the meeting room. I had to say - his house was huge and I would’ve likely gotten lost if he hadn’t been leading the way. It took us nearly ten minutes of walking to get to where we were now. “I didn’t mean to make us rush like that, but, can’t be helped. The ride here was a bit longer due to heavier traffic with everything going on.” He knocked on the door, poked his head in, and motioned me to follow him.

Everyone else was already seated around a large rectangular table. It kind of looked like a corporate board room from back on Earth, but a lot more old-fashioned with paintings on the wall of blue-scaled lizardmen who I guessed were Zeke’s ancestors, a large statue of a sea dragon, and other such artistic pieces. It was a much fancier room than what the rest of the interiors of the house otherwise would’ve indicated.

Near the head of the table was Drake, and another blue-scaled lizardman who looked a bit older as his scales were slightly faded.

This was the governor - La-smack-n-hiss-r. Something I shortened to ‘Lance’ in my head as the actual did not make much sense to me.

There were around twenty lizardmen in the room - I was the only human there. One of the lizardmen had a purple sash around his waist.

All eyes were on us of course, because one, we were late, and two, probably because of my presence. There were whispers as I passed by people and followed Zeke’s lead to the head of the table.

“Who… is that…?’

“Yes, the new Master Liberomancer.”

“The one with the demonic grimoire?”

“The same.”

“I’ve seen him before - didn’t he work for you at one point, Lauren?”

“I heard he handed that old monster Jiah Pei a defeat in the tournament last year…”

“Really? He beat Master Jiah Pei?”

“No, I was there, he only won one round, but it’s been years since even something like that happened...”

I ignored the whispers as I became rather self-conscious of some other things and cursed Zeke in my mind mentally.

If I had known I was going to be meeting the governor, I would’ve dressed better. Up till now I had only bought the basics when it came to clothes- I had no reason for anything better than that, I just needed to make sure that they were clean. When I had earned my place as a Rank Three Liberomancer, Granny Qi had insisted I get at least two sets of good robes - I negotiated that down to one, but I went along with it and bought a single set. A single set that I had never worn - but this would have been the perfect opportunity to do so!

Clothes did not grant any magical abilities in this world - otherwise I might’ve seen the value in buying some finer one, but if there wasn’t a magical cloak that could boost my mana recovery or give +1 to Resistance, I saw no use. That was my thinking earlier because it wasn’t like I was getting invited to any fancy parties - though this changed when I had become a Master Liberomancer. I had gotten some invitations which I’d declined or deferred for the time being, but I could see the use in having at least one set of good clothes by that point.

I had spent fifty Denarii - enough to buy a Rank One grimoire on that set of robes - and here I was, in my normal clothing while they sat in the dust at home.

Couldn’t Zeke have given me a chance to change before coming here? Well, we were already late as it was, so the answer was likely ‘no’, and I doubted whether Zeke had done this on purpose to make me look bad given that his plan relied on me seeming respectable, but I couldn’t help feel very annoyed by him in the moment regardless.

After all, appearances did matter, regardless of what anyone else would tell you. You wouldn’t go to a job interview in your pajamas back on Earth! The other lizardmen were mostly dressed up well, and some had even come wearing armor and other battle gear, I guess to show their readiness for the upcoming fight. I would’ve done something similar if only I’d known about this meeting beforehand and could’ve prepared, which I hadn’t.

Still, there was nothing I could do about this now, and I put on a smile and hoped that things would turn out fine. Maybe they would take my poor dressing sense in stride thinking I was some kind of savant who was only concerned with Liberomancy and did not concern himself with worldly matters? I doubted that would be the case, but a guy could hope. Governor Lance himself got up to greet me as we approached the head of the table.

“Welcome, Zeke,” Lance said. I expected him to greet Zeke, his own son, of course, but was a bit taken aback when he offered to shake my hand. “Master Liberomancer! Thank you for joining us this evening - I trust that you have been well?”

I found myself a bit tongue-tied by his sudden enthusiasm and welcoming nature, but I managed to blurt out, “It’s all been good - circumstances considered, of course.”

“Yes, yes,” he said. “That’s excellent - I had always intended to meet with you in person one day, by inviting you to one of my banquets at some time - it is unfortunate that we are meeting in such dire circumstances, but certainly once this is all done, we can find a time then?”

“Of course.”

“I have been the governor of Arconia for many years,” he continued. “My duty and responsibilities extend to all of my subjects - humans and lizardmen included, as well as any other intelligent races within the city. The altercations that have occurred were isolated incidents, though emotions have unfortunately, it seems, gotten heated and out of hand. I would’ve preferred to deal with this issue as soon as it struck, but the incoming dryad invasion has kept me occupied. Still, we need to cooperate if we are to survive - and it is much appreciated that you accepted Zeke’s offer to assist us with the same. Please come, sit.”

A seat had been reserved for me, it seemed, right next to Drake. The lizardman greeted me like we were total strangers, which, given the brief but somewhat unpleasant history between us was quite welcome.

Lance began detailing what was going on with the incoming dryad invasion - parts of it I already knew, though I wasn’t aware of the scale of destruction that they were causing until I heard the numbers.

I glanced at everyone else in the room who were all also listening to Lance intently - with the exception of one person.

Lauren - my former employer, who was giving what I thought were nervous glances my way.

I had gotten somewhat better at recognizing some lizardmen expressions, and I thought that I could see the fear written on her face.

I put the pieces together and tried to think of things from her perspective, assuming that what I was seeing was real and not just wishful projection on my part.

She had fired me - well, not technically, but it had been for all practical purposes kicking me out without any real justification regardless of what the official story was.

Now, she saw me sitting here as a Master Liberomancer. That likely had surprised her quite a bit; she would not have even assumed that I could have reached Rank Three so fast. The gap between Rank Two and Rank Three was huge and many people were stuck at that bottleneck for months if not years - I had been lucky enough to soar across it with ease thanks to my knowledge from Earth, but if Charlotte’s Web hadn’t panned out like it had, I might’ve still been at Rank Two right now. However, Rank Two or Rank Three, from her perspective that was still fine, even if I had gotten this title, there was little in the way that she would have to fear from me.

The title was valuable in the sense of having a lot of ‘soft power’, but it wasn’t like I had the ability to lock her shop down or whatever. I had, after all, left willingly as far as anyone knew, and even if I told them what had actually happened - I had a feeling that many people would’ve agreed with her decision.

Pragmatism trumped nearly everything else in this world when it came down to it, and the only reason that some may have sided with me on the matter was because of my current title. If I was still just a Rank Two Liberomancer, they would not have even cared.

Regardless, if she had been worried about something along those lines, she would’ve reached out to me sooner to apologize or smooth things over. There was no way that she had not heard of me becoming a Master Liberomancer given it had been the recent talk of the city until the dryad threat appeared, and there had been ample time to make up if that had been her concern.

She had likely thought that the ‘severance’ I had gotten at the time was enough to smooth things over, and there was nothing further to do.

No, she was likely shaking in her boots because she saw me seated so close to the governor. This was what was really bothering her.

It was like a low-level manager firing an employee unfairly, only to see that employee on the Board of Directors of that company a few months later.

Now, if I brought this fact up to the governor that I had been treated unfairly - it was a different ball game entirely. At least, in her head that must’ve seemed catastrophic.

She was likely worried that it might affect her shop or her standing in society, or both.

Currently, she had no idea how close I was to the governor, only that he seemed to be friendly enough and had asked me to sit close to him. In other words - she was unaware that I really didn’t have any real connection with the governor. But that sense of not knowing for sure what was happening was what really terrified her, I thought. In a lot of horror movies, the monster or creature in question was usually scarier the less of it the audience saw most of the time, simply because what you could imagine was typically far scarier than almost anything a filmmaker could actually show you. If she had been human; sweat would have already coated her forehead as the gears within grinded against each other at record speed.

With that said, she had no actual reason to be worried.

For one, I did not have the pull to do anything to her that would seriously give her trouble. Neither Zeke nor Lance would risk offending one of their own in order to moderately appease me, I was sure of that.

Secondly, even if I could, I had no desire to take revenge on her.

The reason was that even if I still had bitter feelings about what she had done, I understood why she had done it. This was not modern Earth after all, and if I had remained in the shop it likely would have impacted sales majorly in some way or the other. It probably already had, otherwise she wouldn’t have let me go. Why would she sacrifice the well-being of her collective lizardmen employees over the case of one human?

The only issue I had is that I felt like she should’ve come out and told me why she was firing me in the first place rather than having Mark do it in her stead. I felt that I was owed that much after the months I had worked under her and the profits I had generated for her.

Still, there was little reason to carry resentment over such a thing.

I likely would’ve been far angrier at her right now if I had been unsuccessful in reaching Rank Three and becoming a Master Liberomancer, but if that were the case, I would not be sitting here in the first place, now then would I?

However, in a ‘all’s well that end’s well’ sort of sense, I had little reason to complain given that her firing me had, as a silver lining, given me more free time to work on my own grimoires and it had all ultimately worked out for me.

Also, there was no real way that I could dish out any kind of punishment against her without it also impacting my old friends back in her store - I did not want to see the likes of Rose or even Mark suffer because of my hurt feelings. If people stopped going to her shop, she would close it down and find another business to go into, but those people would just be fired. And I had no desire to see them caught in the crossfire.

Plus, ultimately, I intended to leave Arconia. I was only here and cooperating with all of them so readily because I had no other choice other than dying to dryad hands, but after that, I would leave and wouldn’t have to ever think of her again. So what did revenge matter anyway?

I had no desire to seek revenge against her.

I had no ability to seek revenge against her even if I wanted to.

And still…

There was no need for me to openly say those things, now then was there?

Back when I was a Rank One Liberomancer, I had nearly gotten into a bar fight. I would certainly have been beaten to a pulp were it not for the fact that I was a Liberomancer causing them to back off. I couldn’t have actually done anything to them at the time if they had decided to knock my lights out, but the mere implication of that fact that I might have been able to was enough to get them to not only back off, but also apologize to me.

It was the same situation here.

Lauren had no idea what was going on between the governor and I, so naturally her mind was thinking of some of the worst possible scenarios! Her brain must’ve been doing a hundred calculations at once, most of which were incorrect as she didn’t know the full details of what was going on.

I smirked inwardly. No, I was not going to take any direct action against her, but I did get quite a bit of schadenfreude imagining how she must be squirming and torturing herself.

Yup, that would be my revenge. It was perfect as it was all Lauren’s own guilt and worry that was causing her so much distress as she was basically tormenting herself - all of that without me even needing to raise a finger. I also had complete plausible deniability if she were to ever confront me in the future about this, and I had a bit of leverage over her so long as I didn't reveal my hand. Lauren was definitely smart, or at least, moderately business-savvy, but that was coming to bit her in this situation because that was what was causing her to worry so much. Someone who was dumber wouldn’t have even begun to consider the implications, and in this one situation, would’ve been fine.

Even as I inwardly rejoiced, I turned my head to give my full attention to Lance.

Lance started talking about our battle strategy to deal with the dryads.

“We will be placing the Rank Two and Rank Three Liberomancers atop the city wall,” Lance said. “Of course, I shall be there alongside you. The Rank One Liberomancers will be assigned other tasks based on their capabilities, either to use buffing magic or for things such as [Create Water] to help with logistics. We do not think they have the capability to breach our walls, and so the only real point of weakness is the portion of the city facing the sea - we must do everything in our power to prevent them going into the sea and then striking us from the rear. My sources tell me that they can float, though I don’t know how well they can swim, especially against the tide, but regardless, we will be fortifying that side of the city with wooden barricades. As it is also the weakest section, we will staff most of our Rank Three Liberomancers at the two ends of the wall. Our forces will be thinner in other regions - but given our primary objective is to stop them from getting through to us via the ocean, this should suffice. If we had some more time, I would’ve liked to build two flanking fortresses at those positions if only on a temporary basis - and perhaps we should consider this once this ordeal is over, but such will not be possible given the timeframe. In case the dryads do break through that side, we will have a wall of conscripted spearmen to hold the line while our forces rally to that side. I will remain near the city gate, which is our other point of weakness, so that I can easily respond to anything coming from either side, as well as change our battle strategy depending on the changing situation.”

As he spoke, he gestured to a large map of the city, pointing at places of interest. Seeing the map, I thought of two things: one, the city was a lot bigger than I had originally thought of it as, and two, there was indeed a wide area that was open. It was clear that a lack of threats such as invading forces over the centuries had resulted in several things wanting when it came to defense.

‘We really have been caught with our pants down,’ I thought.

Lance took a deep breath and looked at all of us. “I know many of you are worried, but from what I have heard from our allies in Hitutsa, and my own understanding, we have an extremely high chance of not only getting through this predicament, but doing so with minimal casualties.”

“Why don’t these people from Hitutsa come to help us?” one of the lizardmen seated there complained. “Haven’t we essentially taken this problem off of their hands?” There were similar voices of discontent from other people - and I agreed with them.

“I understand your feelings,” Lance said. “But think about it - can we really ask for a foreign army to come in and save us so nonchalantly? It will take them a long time to reach us, and even if they could, the political consequences of such would not be something we can ignore.”

He turned to me. “Master Liberomancer,” that was how he always addressed me - though there was another Master Liberomancer in the room. Likely he just didn’t know my name, I realized, or didn’t want to mispronounce it. Or perhaps he was emphasizing my status so that the other lizardmen would take me seriously? “We would of course need to co-ordinate with our human allies regarding this defensive plan, I take it that you can convey our thoughts to them?”

I nodded. I had understood most of the defensive plan, and felt relatively confident about explaining it to someone else.

Lance turned to the lizardmen gathered there. He then changed the topic and his tone shifted ever so subtly to accompany it. “Since the founding of Chipker, humans and lizardmen have lived together. There are a few other intelligent races within our walls who we have welcomed from time to time, of course, but these have been the two largest groups. Two different species - lizardmen and humans, with different lifestyles and needs, living side by side, without waging war, this is nothing short of a miracle. Of course, there have been incidents throughout our history where this peace between species has become strained, as it has been recently. However, this is not the time to dwell on such aspects. The dryads will not discriminate between humans and lizardmen when they climb over our walls and slaughter all of us - children included. Cooperation is a must in these turbulent times.”

“Tell the humans to withdraw their complaint about having one of our own hanged for something that was not murder - they are the ones making a mountain out of a molehill!”

“We have peace only because the humans do not have the power to wipe us out… we preach peace, tolerance, and cooperation, but what of them? If we did not have the upper hand, we would either be lying in our graves or living with chains binding us in slavery.”

“Indeed, they cooperate with us only because they lack the strength to slaughter or enslave us all - if they had a few Rank Four Liberomancers of their own and the tables turned, they would not hesitate to-”

“If the humans don’t like it within Chipker they can leave, there are other countries out there which are majority human-”

Such objections rang throughout the room. I winced.

I had not imagined the extent to which relations were strained before I accepted this ‘job’, but I hadn’t thought it was this bad.

I had been able to get along with most lizardmen when I went outside, whether it was to buy something or the like, but it seemed that their real feelings were different.

It was likely then that a good portion of the lizardmen also felt this way, even if they repressed such thoughts and did not openly air them out in public.

People were cordial enough to me when I spoke to them, but who knows what they were thinking or saying about me behind my back or behind closed doors?

I was snapped out of these thoughts by Lance slamming the table with his hand. It might as well have been a judge’s gavel, because instantly everyone else became quiet.

“All of you - perhaps I was not clear enough when I said this… We. Will. All. Die,” he put stress on every word as he pointed to everyone in the room and then to himself. He had increased the volume of his speech by a small fraction, but it was enough to gain the undivided attention of everyone in the room. “Should we not cooperate? I have heard these complaints a countless number of times during my long life, and they are always the same. Despite this, we have lived with the humans peacefully for the majority of our existence as a country, and I see no reason why that should change. These complaints that you have - I cannot say that you are wrong for having these grievances in your hearts, but for now, it is necessary that you bury them so that we have a chance against what is coming against us.”

There were no objections to this.

“Many of you are very well aware of Master Stefan here, who has in his short time within our walls, already made quite a name for himself,” Lance continued. “Many of you have already met him.” He motioned towards Lauren.

“Right… yes that is correct,” she fumbled with her words initially before finding her voice. “Master Stefan here was a scribe in my bookstore. I have watched his growth from a Rank One to Rank Two Liberomancer myself. Many of you have purchased Sonnet 95 from him. He was an excellent worker and very talented at creating new grimoires even back then.”

Lance nodded. “That is why I wished to reach out to him - I intend to create a position for him so that he may ease communication between our two factions and smooth out any issues that may arise. I know he is human, but remember that he also does not have any strong familial ties to the humans of this city, and is a foreigner. He is the closest to an impartial mediator we might find.”

“I agree!” Lauren said hastily the moment Lance paused. “I wholeheartedly think that he would be fair and impartial in his dealings with us. The Goddess of Fortune had clearly blessed me the day that he wandered into my shop when he did to become one of my scribes - though I did not know at the time that I had such a diamond in my hands else I would’ve never agreed to let him go!” She chuckled, but it was clearly fake laughter.

I had to resist the urge to snort. All of this praise was born out of possible fear of retaliation from me, and so she had decided that by backing me right now, I would be less likely to strike out against her.

Yes, I had done the right thing by not giving her any hint that things were already alright between the two of us.

“Thank you for your input,” Lance said. “Any other objections?”

The other lizardmen turned their gazes towards me, with quite a few of them locked onto the purple sash I had.

Man, was this thing coming in handy!

“Master Liberomancer, I was simply curious, where are the ninety-four other sonnets? I’ve been waiting for them for some time,” one of them asked and there was some mild laughter, some of it was even genuine, from the others.

“Ah, that was from a famous poet where I’m from,” I said. “Not my original creation - so I don’t remember the others.” It hadn’t been a serious question, but I threw the answer out there anyway.

There were no serious objections.

Lance nodded in approval. “Alright then, my eldest son Zeke will be my deputy - with any issues when I am not present you may defer to him.”

The Siege of Arconia Chapters 6-8

I walked out of the guild once the lesson was over - about twenty percent of that lesson had been worthwhile in the sense that it was something I’d forgotten or was new to me, so at least I could say that I had gotten something out of it.

Also, I had to admonish myself a little. I had looked down at the others in that class for not knowing some basics and harboring beliefs about Liberomancy that were untrue earlier - but it turned out that the same could be said about me.

I had thought that you could use [Diarrhea] on someone to give them diarrhea as a possible offensive option - I did not know the spell myself, but I had heard of it and naturally assumed that was a possibility. But no, it was actually considered a healing spell whose purpose was to try to expel poisons that might have been swallowed by someone. It was rather weak in its effect, but what could you expect from a Rank One spell?

However, because it was a healing spell, it meant that the target had to accept it for it to work, much like a buff. You can reject healing magic or buffing magic whosoever you are - even if your Resistance is low. Offensive magic, of course, could also be negated via either skills, spells, or stats, but [Diarrhea] was useless unless the target consented. If someone was unconscious, healing magic could still be cast on them thankfully, but something like [Diarrhea] would stop before it caused say, life-threatening dehydration or the like. It was not really possible to use it to hurt someone.

As such, any fears I had earlier of someone randomly approaching me on the street and casting a spell causing me to suddenly lose my bowel control were in fact, completely baseless.

It was a gentle reminder that even though people considered me to be a hotshot now, I still had a very limited understanding and experience of this world. I couldn’t afford to let the flattery and attention get to me. Because I was not a native to this world, there were many things that were considered ‘obvious’ that I did not know. It wasn’t right of me - and outright dangerous as a matter of fact, to look down on anyone else then.

And clearly, Zhen Liu was right about what he had said when he had walked in. You can always keep on learning.

The guild was located near the docks, and I turned my attention there for a moment when the salt-laden breeze washed over me.

The sea… it had made so very little sense to me that the people of Arconia utilized the sea very little when I had first come here. Even now, they said that escaping via the sea would be a last resort.

But, I had dug deeper into the issue out of curiosity. Libraria in the past, even though I found it kind of hard to believe, was an even more dangerous place to live than it is right now. Many of the ballads of the Goddess Serragnin involved her fighting creatures of immense power - granted, you could write that off as just being myth, but there were more well-documented recent examples.

Such as the Ruler of the Astral Winds - whenever he conquered a region, he would order the extermination of any monsters that were considered a threat to his subjects. There were some that he, a Rank Five Liberomancer - was forced to deal with himself. Some of these threats would make the incoming dryad horde seem harmless by comparison.

It wasn’t just him though, throughout history, whenever there was a strong monster that killed the common folk, Liberomancers would usually gather and not only slaughter that monster but all of its descendants and relatives until there were none left. Creatures like the Elephant Frog who were mostly harmless might be left alone or simply chased off, but those who actively wished to hurt people? They would quickly go the way of the dodo.

Of course, threats were still present in modern times, but to a far smaller degree than before.

The dryad hordes were an issue as Hitutsa did not have the manpower to completely take over the region they inhabited currently, otherwise they would have found their entire forests burned to the ground if the Ruler of the Astral Winds was still alive today and that region were still under his management.

Things were very different when it came to the sea.

It was hard for Liberomancers to fight sea monsters given that most of them could quickly retreat to the depths and that the sea was extremely wide and difficult to explore properly. Taming the sea in the same way that the land was tamed would be at least ten times more difficult - and there was no one like the Goddess Serragnin or the Ruler of the Astral Winds in these times to help with it. There was a reason after all as to why although dragons were extinct, their aquatic counterparts, the sea dragons still thrived.

The story I had heard while traveling to that lizardmen village cemented this idea in my mind. And so, it was deemed easier to simply leave the sea alone. Yes, the oceans were dangerous, but you didn’t have to sail too far out, did you? The powerful sea monsters did not venture onto land (the few who did were attacked), so just stay out of the deep waters! Sea dragons were dangerous, yes, but they could not fly, so leave them be! They do not venture into shallow water near the shore, so coastal fishing is fine, but don’t stray too far!

There might actually be many places in this world, like islands and maybe even other continents, that were separated from this main continent but that no one knew about just because of how dangerous it was to try to cross the ocean to reach them.

The ocean, in other words, was just as dangerous as it had always been, while the land had been made safer over time.

Of course, if push came to shove, as a last resort people would take their chances and flee by ship, but that was only if the walls fell and the enemy couldn’t be stopped.

The coastal side of Arconia was also a potential weak point as the wall didn’t completely cover that side of the city - so fortifications were frantically being made to stop the dryads from possibly circling around the city and attacking from that direction.

They couldn’t deal with salt water, but it wasn’t clear if that just annoyed them or actually harmed them, so the idea of them stepping into the sea wasn’t entirely too far-fetched.

It was odd just how livelier things seemed to have become in a matter of around three hours. So many people running everywhere…

...they really had no clue how to deal with this, did they? I felt that the underlying cause of most of the panic was just that. This was something new - something they hadn’t dealt with before. It it had been a storm, or a famine, at least they would have had some grasp on what actions they should take. But Arconia was not like the capital which was always prepared for a siege or war, it was a center of commerce and a source of food for the more militaristically-inclined capital.

Even the oldest of Arconia’s citizens couldn’t remember when the last siege had happened. I saw multiple groups of young men - non-Liberomancers, who had been drafted and were practicing keeping in formation with shields and spears. Hopefully they would not have to fight, but if push came to shove, they would be the front-liners who would hold off the enemy while Liberomancers rained spells from over their heads.

I saw some people trying to hastily make something approaching some form of shelter for the influx of refugees - mostly these were just glorified tents with straw at their bases, and even if they were crowded to the point you couldn’t move your elbow without hitting someone next to you inside they were far from sufficient. I couldn’t say that the city wasn’t trying, but their efforts were clearly not enough.

Alongside these large public kitchens had been set up to try to ration out food to those who didn’t have money; mostly the refugees, some of whom had to rush to the city empty-handed. These lines were already beginning to wrap around street corners.

Men were out and about, offering to do any kind of work for pay. By the time I had reached back to Granny Qi’s house, I had nearly emptied what change I was carrying in my pockets. There were a lot of people out on the streets begging - and I couldn’t find it in my heart to refuse most them. I had been a lot like them when I had started out after all.

“Oh? Is something the matter?”

Two guards were posted near the entrance of her house. Did something else happen that they needed clarification with? Interestingly enough both of them were lizardmen - they usually sent human guards to human houses just to keep things smooth and avoid any unnecessary confusion that might arise from a misunderstanding that could occur between the two different species.

There was also a carriage near the house with the governor’s coat of arms on it, meaning that it seemed that someone important had come with them. “Ah, well met, Master Stefan Dawson,” one of the guards said after lowering his head. “Sir Zeke wished to meet with you and is awaiting you inside.”

“Ah, what is this about?”

“I’m sorry, but I do not know. It does seem to be rather urgent, however.”

“Got it,” I said, with a sinking feeling in my stomach telling me this was nothing good. I gently opened the front door and entered Granny Qi’s house.

The interior of the house was the same as when I had left earlier, though the simple presence of a lizardman in the house made it feel oddly alien.

“Good afternoon,” I called out to the somewhat familiar blue-scaled lizardman. He was sipping from a teacup and sitting opposite to Granny Qi. There were no guards inside the house - likely he had not seen the need for any given that it was just an old lady he was dealing with. Again, seeing a lizardman in a human house was a bit of a peculiar sight - the chairs were too small for him and he seemed to barely fit on the sofa, but he didn’t look uncomfortable. For her part, Granny Qi was behaving as if nothing was out of the ordinary and Zeke was just an old friend who had stopped by for a chat this fine afternoon. Of course, Zeke was no ordinary guest - whether you considered what species he was or his rank in the city’s hierarchy. “Good evening.”

“Good evening to you, Master Stefan Dawson,” Zeke said, getting up. He didn’t bow, but did offer to shake my hand, and the way he greeted me told me that he at the very least thought of me as a somewhat equal right now, if not holding me in slightly higher regard than himself.

I knew Zeke had nearly finished most of his Rank Three slots from what I had heard from other people in the guild, meaning he would be around level twenty-seven or twenty-eight, while I was still level twenty-one. In terms of power or wealth, he greatly outclassed me even disregarding the fact that he was favored to be the future governor of Arconia.

And yet, he was not a Master Liberomancer. That was a form of respect that money could not buy, nor something that could be inherited! You couldn’t pay someone to write a new Rank Three grimoire for you and pass it off as your own - the Guild heavily detested something like that and it would be treated like fraud just as much as plagiarizing something and passing it off as your original work would be. Even someone like Zeke could not get away with that.

I also had a feeling he was here to ask for a favor, which is also why he was being so courteous. Or maybe I was looking too deeply into things? People did say he was the more reasonable of the governor’s two sons, so this could just be how he usually is. I hadn’t really spoken with him that much aside from the brief time I’d spent with him when there had been the incident with the demonic grimoire.

“Good thing you finally came,” Zeke said. “I was about to send a runner to the guild to fetch you, I’m sorry, but this is an urgent matter and with the upcoming siege I am already inundated with work, so if you will forgive my bluntness, I would like to get to the meat of the matter as to why I’m here directly.”

“No problem,” I said. “I honestly appreciate open talk.”

“Hmm…” Zeke said, turning his gaze to Granny Qi.

“Don’t worry, Granny Qi isn’t going to mumble anything to outsiders,” I told him. “And I trust her completely.”

“No worries, I’ll be upstairs,” she said, already getting up. “My hearing isn’t as good as it used to be, so feel free to talk - rest assured that I won’t overhear anything.”

“No, no, Lady Qi,” Zeke protested. “You have already been so generous as to invite me into your house, ah, it’s no issue - you can also sit down if it makes Master Dawson more comfortable.”

Granny Qi handed me a cup of tea. “So, what’s going on?” I asked.

“The matter is that I need your help,” Zeke said.

I nodded. That was what I was expecting. “What kind of help?”

“The upcoming dryad invasion is going to need the cooperation and coordination of Liberomancers, both human and lizardmen, in order to repel successfully,” Zeke began. “However, I doubt that you are unaware of the recent incidents between humans and lizardmen that have caused a rift to grow between the two sides.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of the news,” I said.

“I understand the feelings of the humans,” Zeke said. “However, this is not the time for internal squabbling, I think you can agree on that? This is the time to bury the hatchet and focus on repelling the dryad invasion. However, that is easier said than done. It is one thing to say that we must put our differences aside, but in truth, people don’t always think rationally - humans and lizardmen alike. There will no doubt be resentments even if on a surface level we agree to cooperate. Like two gears in a machine, we need to turn in sync, though like with any machine, there needs to be some sort of oil to ensure that the gears mesh well together without too much friction.”

“I… don’t really follow your analogy?” I said.

“Ah, right, sorry, sometimes I get carried away in my own thoughts,” Zeke said. “What I mean to say is that we need someone who can act as a bridge between the lizardmen and the human Liberomancers, and who can smooth over any conflicts that might arise. Someone who both sides can respect, but who both sides can see as one of their own. Someone like you, Master Stefan Dawson.”

That threw me for a spin. “Me? Why?”

“You are instantly respected by anyone because you are a Master Liberomancer,” Zeke said. “Of course, there are both lizardmen and other humans who are Master Liberomancers as well, but they are - how shall I say, bound to factions? Lizardmen will not be seen as trustworthy by humans and vice-versa in current circumstances, generally speaking. But, you have a history of cooperating with lizardmen already, when you worked in Lady Lauren’s shop. Many lizardmen visited her shop and remember you. Of course, the humans of this city respect you for your title and because you are ‘one of them.’ But, as you are a foreigner, you have no close ties with any specific family here. In a way, you are in a unique position where you can appeal to both sides without appearing completely beholden to either.”

“So you want me to act like a bat?”

It was Zeke’s turn to be confused. “A… bat? I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“Right, it’s a story from where I’m from,” I said. “In the jungle, there was a war between animals and birds. The bat, when it saw the animals were winning, appealed to them saying that he was also an animal given his fur and lack of feathers. When the tides of war turned, and the birds had the upper hand, he went to them saying that he was actually a bird - he could fly, after all. You want me to tell the humans that I’m one of them - and you want me to tell the lizardmen that I’m not with the humans as I’m a foreigner and worked for a lizardman, is that right?”

“Yes,” Zeke said. “I’m glad you under-”

“-I’m sorry,” I interrupted him. “But, that’s not the whole story of the bat. See, the animals and the birds eventually had a truce and the war ended, though once this happened, they began talking to each other. They then realized what the bat had done - after which they chased him out of both factions and he was left to fend for himself. So you see, I do agree with you on one point, that we do need to cooperate. The issue is that people, at least where I come from, who play both sides like that tend to be called two-faced and ostracized.”

I remembered incidents from back on Earth - like politicians who tried to reach across the isle between political parties, or people in general who tried to remain neutral when it came to many things. That could work in normal times, but when things were especially polarizing, people who did such tended to be called ‘fence sitters’ and rather than being recognized for taking two different viewpoints into account; were instead more often than not hated by both sides.

“Well, I’m not asking you to deceive anyone,” Zeke said. “Yes, things might be difficult- but I can’t think of anyone else with your reputation and in your position who might be able to easily do this.”

“Listen… I don’t have a problem trying to do this,” I said. I didn’t want the city to fall either, because I was one of the idiots who lived in it. “I just need to tell you two things: one, I not be very good at this given I don’t have much experience.” The only thing I could call that would be even somewhat close to managing something was being asked to lead projects in class- hardly what you could call experience. “Secondly, I do want something in return for accepting this in case things later go south.” I didn’t think that Zeke was the kind of person that would discard me or make me a patsy for things going wrong later on, but I did want to know I was promised something in case that happened.

Reputation was almost everything for Liberomancers - maybe someone like the Ruler of the Astral Winds was powerful enough to do whatever he wanted without reproach, but he had been leagues above anyone else at his peak. If I was placing my reputation on the line - which would no doubt take a hit if we did not succeed, I wanted something for my trouble.

“What would that be?”

“You can fly, correct? I’ve heard about that through the guild grapevine, and I also want a grimoire that help me fly,” I told him. I had tried using the Liberomancer’s Guild to help me in my search for a grimoire that would help me fly, but had come out empty-handed even with their aide.

Aside from a grimoire that could help me do that, the only thing that I felt like I was missing was a stronger reliable defensive ability, but I could probably find something like that if not in Arconia, at least in the capital at some point. It was regarding the ability to fly that I really needed some help.

The only thing that could potentially be more valuable than flight was teleportation, but the only mentions of that I had heard of were in some of the stories of the Goddess Serragnin being able to travel incredible distances nearly instantly - meaning it was likely impossible for mortal Liberomancers to achieve.

“Ah, I - there are a few issues with that,” Zeke said. “That grimoire I used was written in a language I don’t know, so I cannot make a copy for you myself. It is also quite difficult to purchase something like that - to put it into perspective, I cannot even get a copy for my own younger brother right now.”

I nodded. “I understand - I mean, this is not something that I’m absolutely demanding you do, and right now is the wrong time for it anyway given the incoming invasion, but as long as you make a good faith attempt to help me out in this endeavor, I’ll be satisfied.”

That was why reputation was everything - if you were known as someone who couldn’t deliver or bilked on your promises, you would soon be shunned out of most pathways to advancement. People would soon start to refuse selling grimoires to you - and might also show hesitancy with buying them. The guild might stop cooperating with you or you might see attractive offers being given preferentially to other people.

Zeke could get away with things more than most people could given he was the governor’s son, but there was a limit to it. The incident involving his younger brother, Drake, was proof of that.

And I knew Zeke’s reputation beforehand - which is why I was willing to take something as tenuous as his word for it.

“Your terms are acceptable,” Zeke said, and we shook on it. “Ah, I would not worry too much about difficulties with your role, however, I only wish for you to smooth things over. It can take a lifetime to train a politician - trust me, I know, so long as you don’t do something especially egregious or cause conflict yourself, I think that we will be fine. I only ask that you listen to both sides as best as you can.”

I nodded. “That I can try to do.”

“I hate to ask this of you as well,” Zeke said. “But, we are having a meeting with the other lizardmen Rank Three Liberomancers of the city this-” he looked outside, “-very soon actually. I wanted you there, but if we want to get there in time, we would need to leave almost immediately.”

It was like sitting for a job interview, and when you asked, ‘When can I start?’ the interviewer said ‘You got the job. You start immediately,’ and then lead you to where you’d be working right then and there.

“I hope this will not conflict with anything you were planning on doing?” Zeke asked.

“Ah, no, it can wait for later,” I told him. I did have some things to discuss and arrange with Granny Qi, but that could also be done tomorrow. “Let’s go then.”

We made our way to his carriage. I had ridden in a few of them before - if you had to travel long distances you could pay one like you would a taxi, though I usually just walked around.

It was kind of expected that the interior of his carriage was way fancier and more comfortable than any of the public ones. The seats were also larger - being designed specifically for a lizardman.

I saw Zeke relax as he sat down, letting out a sigh of relief.

“I apologize - most of the furniture in the house must’ve been too small for you,” I said. A lot of the ‘human’ furniture was also somewhat small for someone like me; humans in Chipker were on average shorter than back home so the problem was likely even worse for someone like him.

He chuckled. “I have very rarely been in a human house before, and those I do frequent have a chair or few reserved for lizardmen… I guess I can’t really complain however, dropping by like that unannounced.”

“Still, it’s never nice to feel uncomfortable like that,” I said.

The ride towards the governor’s palace took about thirty minutes, and it was only the two of us in the carriage, which made things kind of awkward to just be staring at each other without saying anything.

Then again, what was there to say? I barely knew the guy. I was also never very good at small talk, and on the subway or the bus I’d usually be doing something on my smartphone right now. People in the days before then would read the newspaper on long journeys.

I had nothing like that.

“So, have you given any thought to what you wish to specialize in?” Zeke asked after five minutes of neither of us saying anything aside from general comments regarding the weather and other mundane topics.

This was the equivalent of asking someone what they were majoring in if they were in college - basically a standard question to ask when there was nothing else to talk about.

“I uh, haven’t really decided yet,” I said. I had only recently become a Rank Three Liberomancer, though that was an important question to consider regarding which grimoires I’d add in the future. “I have considered becoming more of a generalist…” I trailed off, because saying that was kind of like saying that your major was Undeclared - in other words, something only people with no direction in life tended to say.

There were people who tried to do a little bit of everything, but much like on Earth, the best way to get ahead was to be very good at doing one or two specific things. A generalist did have more options, but from what I had found out, in ninety-nine scenarios out of a hundred a specialist would be better off.

Usually the only people who were generalists were those who had either given up on really advancing further in Liberomancy due to a lack of interest, or those who had other obligations like family or the like that they had to support. These people were not necessarily generalists out of choice, but more of the fact that they were unable or unwilling to try to accumulate more grimoire to eventually become respected specialists.

“What did you specialize in, and why’d you choose it?” I asked him, trying to flip around the question.

“I am a fire elementalist,” he said. “As for why- my father was one, and so was my grandfather, and so was my great-grandfather.” He chuckled. “And if I ever intend to inherit [Inferno] I needed to be one anyway, so it made sense.”

Elementalists were Liberomancers who specialized in dealing damage with a specific element and would get grimoires to support that element.

As an example, fire elementalists would use grimoires like, [Blazing Heart] which increased damage from fire spells by twenty-five percent, [Inner Heat] which reduced the mana cost of fire spells by thirty percent. Those were Rank Two skills, but there was also the Rank Three skill [Internal Volcano] which increased both range and damage done by fifty percent, as well as [Fiery Spirit] which let you cast a fire-elemental spell twice every hour without consuming any mana. You would also invest in attacking options other than [Fireball] or [Grand Fireball] like [Incinerate] which was a spell that did massive damage to a single target rather than doing moderate damage to many targets like [Fireball] and the like.

I didn’t know the criteria for learning [Inferno] given it was kept a bit hush-hush as it was a Rank Four spell, but presumably it required knowing two Rank Three fire elemental spells in order to learn.

That was one reason why it got harder to add more grimoires to your repertoire as you went up in rank. Like building a pyramid, your options would greatly decrease as you added on more layers, and you couldn’t make a top layer larger than one beneath it. As an example, even if you could somehow theoretically get thirty Rank Four grimoires from around the continent, you would likely not be able to read all of them as some of them might require you to know one or two Rank Three spells to learn them. The amount of different Rank Three spells required would likely, because of this, number more than thirty. And since you could only have thirty slots for each rank, you would likely find yourself in a situation where even if you had thirty of them some were incompatible as a combination because of this limitation.

“Fire elementalists are pretty popular here,” I said offhandedly. “I’ve often wondered why…” I knew a lot about fire elementalists in particular as Granny Qi talked about them - Hei Nan had also been a fire elementalist.

“Oh,” Zeke said. “The royal family are fire elementalists, and the lizardman who invented [Inferno], my great-grandfather was also one. So people naturally looked up to these figures of authority, and thought that they too, should do the same, and it leads to a positive loop where most of the grimoires available revolve around becoming a fire elementalist, and so the easiest thing to specialize in is that field, so more people do so, and the cycle repeats itself.”

That was true. Say, for example, I decided to become an earth elementalist - well, then, I was in for a rough time because there were basically none of them in Arconia. I would have to almost make each grimoire myself, assuming that I was able to create them in the first place, or have them imported from far off lands which half the time would not even be possible especially for Rank Three grimoires given the distances involved unless I went there personally.

“Yeah, I’ve given some thought to becoming one myself…” I said.

“It isn’t a bad field,” Zeke said. “I mean, my entire set of grimoires is basically the same as my father’s and grandfather’s, as it was set up which ones I would read even before I was born. But- I did have to specialize in something. Not to mention, I think it’s a good thing that we have so many dedicated fire elementalists. The incoming dryads are weak to fire-based spells after all. Same reason it’s a similar situation in Hitutsa, where they also have a lot of fire elementalists in order to deal with them more effectively.”

There was of course, a drawback to specializing in an element - if we ever encountered an enemy in the future who was immune to or resistant to fire, it would be an issue. Granted most Liberomancers did have some spells from other disciplines that would come in handy so they wouldn’t be completely useless, but it did mean that their effectiveness would be greatly reduced.

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