novelGuides Gift (3)
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Chapter 117 - Guide's Gift (3)
Laura spoke.
"He is speaking the truth."
"Are you saying the Dragon Demon king worshippers will try to start a war between humans?"
"Everything he said was true including that fact."
"Are you talking about the part where he said the Plain of Darkness was plotting to let human society descend into chaos?"
"It is like what happened in Yuren Rizester's past."
When Yuren was young, he was disguised as a street urchin. His mission was to assassinate a well-off old couple. The Dragon Demon king worshippers had wanted the blameless old couple dead, because they wanted control over a particular neighbourhood. A reasonable offer to purchase the couple's house had been turned down, so the Dragon Demon king worshippers had used a dirty method.
These types of method were used to create a foothold that allowed the Dragon Demon king worshippers to burrow into human society. They interfered with the succession of countryside nobles to swallow these noble families whole. They also dominated the underground criminal organizations in order to spread drugs.
Azell furrowed his brows.
"Drugs?"
Yuren was the one to answer him.
"It is an effective way to corrupt humans. It leads to a diseased society. The drugs manufactured by Dragon Demon king worshippers are strong and cheap. This is why it is widely circulated amongst humans."
"......."
Azell was struck dumb. He had never thought about such things.
Laura continued to speak.
"The presence of the Guardian Shadows restricted their activities... However, this was also the reason why their methods to influence humanity diversified."
Before the Guardian Shadows made their presence known, the Plain of Darkness had been able to be very bold in carrying out their plans. They were able to embed spies into the main nobles families and the royal family. It had been a dark times where they were even able to influence, who took the throne.
This all changed when the Guardian Shadows appeared. People with rank and power like Kairen were recruited, and the activities of the Plain of Darkness were restricted. In the beginning, the Plain of Darkness were unaware of the existence of the Guardian Shadows, so countless plans had been wiped out in its entirety before they knew it.
Laura spoke.
"The time before the Guardian Shadows existed... Basically, these methods were never used before the Vast Darkness. Truthfully, it the Vast Darkness worked according to plan, we wouldn't have needed to wait for the revival of the king to...."
"... wait a moment."
Azell had not interrupted her words. It was Kairen. He asked with a trembling voice.
"Are you trying to say.... The Vast Darkness was an artificial disaster caused by the Dragon Demon king worshippers?"
Laura tilted her head in puzzlement at his words. She was still expressionless, but the gesture looked as if she was asking how he couldn't have known this fact.
"Yes. That's......."
Pahk!
In a flash, a dull sound rang out in front of Laura. Kairen's hands were already right in front of Laura's neck. He had been about to snap her slender neck, but he wasn't able to. Azell had stopped Kairen by grabbing his wrists.
"... Duke."
"......."
Kairen was glaring at Laura as if he wanted to kill her on the spot. For a brief moment, he had lost all rationality.
Kairen had lived through the Vast Darkness.
Azell spoke.
"The fact that I have to defend her is funny, but she wasn't even born during that time period. Please cool you head."
"... I'm sorry."
Kairen apologized with a trembling voice as he withdrew his hands.
The Vast Darkness was a nightmare he would never be able to put behind him. He was called the Dragon Sword Duke. He was a hero within the Rulain Kingdom, yet he had been helpless against the Vast Darkness. This truth had made him despair.
People mourned as others died in pain. There was no way the diseased people could be saved, so he had to keep making agonizing decisions... It had been a horrific era.
Azell spoke to Laura.
"Continue."
"... Yes."
Laura's voice shook slightly. It seemed she had been frightened from what had just happened to her.
"The Vast Darkness is one of the king's legacy."
"... Atein? That is preposterous."
"Why do you say that?"
"If he had such a thing, why didn't he use it in the Dragon Demon war? I saw the records. At the time of the Vast Darkness, everyone was helpless against the spreading plague until Baion came up with a cure."
"The king hadn't left it behind for it to be used as a weapon."
"What do you mean?"
"There are records left behind by Aunsaurus in the Plain of Darkness."
The Aunsaurus stored the records as if they were holy scriptures. There were a lot of them. Aunsaurus had been a magician, so he had enjoyed documenting everything. He had lived for a very long time, so he had written over 100 volumes of records.
When Laura became Aunsaurus' heir, she had read all the records. This was also a big reason why Laura had become interested in Azell.
"This happened when the king hadn't crowned himself king yet... The four Dragon Demon generals and the king were the subject of many legends."
Folklores of unknown origin were handed down amongst humans. However, many of these stories were lost during the Dragon Demon war, the fall of the Nadick empire and the Vast Darkness.
However, Aunsaurus had been part of all these events, and his records had remained intact.
"You guys might not believe this, but... The king and the four Dragon Demon generals used to travel around the world, and they had saved a lot of people before the Dragon Demon war."
They had wandered around the world for over a thousand years. They explored uncharted lands, and they fought against beings, who threatened the world. They even helped people in distress to become a beacon of hope.
In this process, they encountered an enemy, who called himself to be the god of pestilence.
"Are you perhap talking about a real god?"
"Aunsaurus evaluated that this being had the power and authority to legitimately call himself a god."
The being was too bizarre to be thought of as a lifeform from this world. He was able to control all kinds of diseases. He even used diseases to grant regular humans superhuman strength. These men were made into his apostles. It wasn't hard to see why Aunsaurus had made such an evaluation.
"The king and the Dragon Demon Generals fought and won against this being. However, they couldn't eliminate the god of pestilence."
Surprisingly, the god of pestilence was almost close to being an immortal. He was defeated by the combined might of the king and the Dragon Demon generals. However, he couldn't' be eradicated. Even the weapon he used was like a holy item that couldn't be destroyed.
"This was why the king had sealed him."
The essence of the god of pestilence, and his holy item was sealed by Atein's magic. It was sealed in a place where human hands wouldn't be able to reach it... It was a frozen land located in the north. It was considered to be end of the world. Basically, it was the Plain of Darkness.
"No one could unravel the seal placed on the god of pestilence. However, the idea to use the holy item was developed."
However, even that wasn't easy to do. After a very long research conducted by the Plain of Darkness, they found a way to use it in a limited fashion.
"The power of the holy item was used to create a Cursed Disease. It's the source of the Vast Darkness."
If Sage Baion hadn't appeared, the Vast Darkness would have eradicated the humans. When the Plain of Darkness was about to achieve their ultimate goal, Baion had lit a beacon of hope for the humans.
Of course, the Plain of Darkness tried to eliminate Baion. However, the Guardian Shadows appeared out of nowhere, and they rebuffed the Plain of Darkness.
"Baion's existence is still considered to be a mystery to those within the Plain of Darkness. He was a human, who hadn't learned magic, yet he was able to cure the disease. The Plain of Darkness had made the disease, but even they hadn't known how to cure it."
In the end, the Plain of Darkness couldn't solve this question, and they saw their mounting ambitions crumble. They suffered a big setback. Afterwards, the fierce battle between the Plain of Darkness and the Guardian Shadows started in the shadow of the world.... The fight was still ongoing.
"Baion and the Guardian Shadows. These two factors made the Plain of Darkness lose more than they had gained."
"However, didn't they finish manipulating information using the Vast Darkness?"
"Manipulating information?"
"I'm talking about the Dragon Demon Qi and the Dragon Slayer's Ritual.... Then there are the information regarding the essence of Spirit Order."
"That was already almost completed before the Vast Darkness."
"Mmm?"
Laura started talking about the deletion of knowledge, which was conducted by the Plain of Darkness, to the puzzled Azell. The manipulation of information in regards to the Dragon Demon Qi, Dragon Slayer's Ritual and the essence of Spirit Order started when the Nadick Empire started to crumble.
"The upper echelon of our organization were afraid of humanity."
The knowledge of Magic and Spirit Order wasn't shared like the other disciplines of studies. It was like martial arts where knowledge was only revealed to the disciples of one's sect. These were knowledge contained within a closed ecosystem.
The closed nature of the information made it very easy for the Plain of Darkness to achieve their goal. The talented magicians and Spirit Order practitioners were killed alongside their disciples. Then the Plain of Darkness deleted their research. These simple steps allowed them to stop the information from being passes on to the future generation.
"Afterwards... A lot of effort was put into cutting off the knowledge of the Dragon Demon Qi and the Dragon Slayer's Ritual."
This task was only possible, because of the Great Darkness within Aincera.
The humans could only exceed the Dragon Demons only if they gained the Dragon Demon Qi through the Dragon Slayer's Ritual.
The Dragon Demon war had engraved a great fear within the Dragon Demon king worshippers, so they devoted themselves to eradicating the knowledge.
Azell clicked his tongue.
"That sounds preposterous... It was true that the Dragon Demon war was a bit of an anomaly. People willingly shared their techniques and knowledge during the war. However, I can see that such practices would have inevitably come to an end."
The continent, which had been controlled by the Nadick Empire, had been broken into seven kingdoms. This accelerated the disposition of people to hoard their knowledge. As the number of foes and competitors increased, the worth of secret techniques went up. It became something that wasn't easily shared with others.
Azell spoke.
"Now that I think about it, the Guardian Shadows didn't know about the Dragon Demon Qi either. Not all of them knew about the Dragon Slayer's Ritual."
All the questions Azell possessed now clicked into place within his mind. He realized this was a grand conspiracy of epic proportion that had spanned much longer than a human's lifetime. He sighed.
5
In the end, Azell took Yuren's advice, and they changed their course. The information from the guide wasn't credible to Azell, but he felt the need to learn more about Yuren. This was worth checking out at least once.
Yuren looked at the map, and he pointed out the location. The location was quite a way off. At the party's current speed, it would take four days.
While they were traveling, Azell felt a bit amazed when he watched Laura.
"I'm asking just in case... Is washing the dishes fun for you?"
Laura was washing the dishes.
The work of setting up the camp was divided between the party member. This work included preparing the meals and washing the dishes. Laura participated in all the chores except keeping night watch and cooking food.
Laura was like a girl from a noble family. She was unaccustomed to doing miscellaneous work. If there were any glasses or vases around, she would have already broken couple of them. However, items they brought were for traveling. They were either made out of metal or wood. Therefore, she didn't cause any irreversible mishaps.
Laura nodded her head.
"Yes."
"......."
"This... I've never done this before."
Of course, as a high ranking official within the Plain of Darkness, she hadn't had the opportunity to wash the dishes. All the miscellaneous tasks were done by her subordinates. She only had to worry about fighting.
"It is enjoyable to clean something with one's hands."
"I... is that so?"
"Yes."
"After you became an officer, you never had the opportunity to do any of this? Aside from washing dishes, didn't you clean your room or prepare food?"
"All of that was taken care of by the servants."
"Hmmm......."
It was very odd. She had been treated inhumanely, and she had been pushed to the brink of death as she grew up. At the same time, she had been treated like a noble lady by those within the Plain of Darkness.
Laura spoke as she saw her reflection on the bowl she had just cleaned.
"When I always came out into the world, it was always boring. It is fun now."
"That isn't something a hostage should say."
Azell grumbled.
It didn't matter what he said. Laura really looked like a girl really enjoying the trip.
In her life, she had never shared her emotions with anyone. She had never experienced this before. In the past, she was always with people, who were separated her by rank.
When she lived in the Plain of the Darkness, she only derived joy from finding old records within the cold yet quiet castle. Moreover, it hadn't been too long since she had asked for stories from the unknown 'elder'.
She only went outside when he received a mission. Only her subordinates stayed close to her during these missions. She was revered by them as their superior, and they only talked to her about the mission. She basically stared blankly into the empty air to pass time until it was time for her to fight.
This was why she liked her current situation. The people around her showed hostility and suspicion towards her. However, they spoke to her as equals, and she actually had people she could spend time with.
"Since I've been born... I've never spoken this much before.."
After surrendering to Azell, she had talked a lot. Just from answering Azell's questions, she had spoken more words than she had in the past 10 years combined. It was very rare for Laura to converse with someone else.
Suddenly, Laura asked a question.
"Do you think there will come a time when I'm not a hostage any more?"
"......."
Azell looked at her with a complicated expression on his face. As time passed, Laura made him feel off balanced.
As if Laura hadn't expected an answer, she turned away. In the end, Azell couldn't say anything to her back.
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