——————Narrator——————
Born in a cursed and blessed lineage.
The first king of Verde was granted a skill by the Earth Spirit Queen, Mary. Due to the first king's kindness and empathy towards nature.
Mary granted the first king an abundant land, protection, and a skill called [Intuition]. The skill guides the king onto the path of prosperity.
The blessings may be overwhelmingly amazing in the eyes of humans, the first king later refuted this perception when he first felt the effects of the skill.
Generations have passed and the current king of Verde is Tristan.
The life expectancy for the kings of Verde isn't that long. The reason why lies deeply into the effects of the skill [Intuition].
The skill when it wants the king to pursue the path of prosperity, makes the king suffer a physical and mental drain.
It was thanks to the skill of the first king that the kingdom of Verde became very prosperous. And for this reason, the Earth Spirit Queen made sure that the skill is transferred to the next male heir of the kingdom.
Fathers prepared their sons and trained them even though they knew that no matter how many years or even decades they train, they will never be able to endure the skills' effects.
Everyone in the kingdom was used to the king holed up in his room because they knew that the kings and the next generations of kings are bound to have the same sickness.
The kings of Verde are compassionate, kind, and empathic people. It is why different races reside in the kingdom despite racial discrimination.
People in the kingdom weren't as accepting as they are right now to other races but because connections and bonds were created, it was then that they realized it was only their races that kept them different from one another.
A good king resembling the nature of his own people. Truly an amazing kingdom to exist.
People knew the king's condition but it was only the most entrusted people of the king who really knew what was going on.
Paula, Tristan's wife and Bisse, her royal maid. Emilia, Tristan's royal maid. Emil and Saven, the royal guards for the king and queen. And Miya, Tristan's spy. They were the only people who knew Tristan's skill and what it does to him.
Tristan describes this feeling as an endless feeling of emptiness and void. It wasn't painful, yet it was.
It was at this moment that Tristan's royal spy, Miya, informed him about the "Beacons of the Holy." An event where beacons of light suddenly appear in the kingdom of Bell.
Miya has only finished informing Tristan that he suddenly collapsed and became unconscious.
Everyone around Tristan wasn't surprised that he suddenly collapsed, it was only worry that they felt when he collapsed suddenly.
It was a normal occurrence for them and they would just let Tristan rest in his bed no matter how long.
The effects of the skill intensified and it triggered an evolution. Because of the voice speaking directly to Tristan's head, he was forcibly awoken up.
{Skill [Intuition] evolved into superior skill [King of Intuition].}
{Superior skill [King of Intuition] has three subskills: [Intuition], [Shared Intuition], and [Intuitive Recovery]}
Tristan later became acquainted with his new evolved skill and found a light in his feeling of void and emptiness.
Because of the subskills [Shared Intuition] and [Intuitive Recovery], Tristan is now able to share the effects of his skill to other people allowing the effects that he normally endure be reduced and divided into two if shared with another individual. While he usually collapses when the effects intensified, the intuitive recovery prevents him and other people he had shared his intuition from collapsing.
Tristan and the previous kings knew that whenever the effects of the skill intensifies, it means an important occurrence is happening right now.
Paula, Bisse, Emilia, Saven, and Emil didn't hesitate to accept the effects of the skill when Tristan informed them. It was a sentiment that they have been feeling all the time they see Tristan holed up from his room and stuck in his bed.
The effects of the skill were divided into six that the effects barely drained the physical and mental state of them. But there was still a lingering feeling of emptiness that they carry in every step.
Tristan might know that there is an important occurrence happening right now, what he doesn't know is that the occurrence was Lester's arrival.
——————End Narration——————
So this is the king of Verde? Fertile land, no walls surrounding the kingdom, only an entrance wall filled with guards equipped with spears.
From here, I could see a vast empty land filled with abundant crops. This line from the entrance is very long but it moves fast because the guards only inspect the bags.
While the three of us were in line, I could feel a feeling as if many people were looking at us. I didn't mind it because the kingdom is known for its kindness.
A fast moving line that it was our turn to be inspected but we didn't carry bags nor equipment so I assumed it would be a quick inspection.
It was only when we were in front of the guards that the feeling became intense. An aura of negative intent.
We were told by one of the guards to step aside and stay. I asked them why but refused to answer. It bothered me because the people just kept entering while we stood there waiting for them.
Many people passed and it was there I realized that we were going to be accepted entry to the kingdom. I pleaded once more only to be refused once again.
The guard sounded annoyed by my plea and looked at the three of us, as if he was analyzing our clothes.
Our clothes did seem fancy compared to the ones entering this kingdom so I figured it was some sort of discrimination. It didn't make sense to me that such a thing like discrimination would exist in a kingdom filled with kind people.
I had to approach this situation with logic so that I don't look like an idiot when I plead once again. I needed to plead with excellent and absolute logic.
Bell Kingdom because of its history of social status discrimination would likely make the chances of other people residing there a slim one. So, a kingdom that operates on kindness would likely be the first choice of those people and therefore creating an unwritten and unsaid discrimination against Bell's nobility and Verde's people.
{This is likely the scenario.}
You think so too? Great! At least I know I'm not dumb. Though I'm not that smart either.
I tried to plead once more only to be refused even instantly without the guards hearing our reason first.
He was once again annoyed by my plea that he couldn't help but make insulting phrases to me in an annoyed tone.
I felt embarrassed about his words but couldn't help but understand him because their reasons for refusal were somewhat justified.
The guard who was letting the people in became so annoyed that he kept saying insulting words to us which resulted in him becoming so absorbed that the line stopped moving and people weren't being accepted entry.
Even though it was fine for me, it wasn't for Klaus. The guard kept insulting us that Klaus couldn't help but punch him, resulting in him flying and destroying the whole right side of the wall of the entrance.
I was shocked at first but had Lukas heal the guy. Although, it pained me that I couldn't help repair the destroyed wall so I immediately bowed and apologized.
When I was bowing, I noticed that everyone became silent, and that prompted me to look up and find that they're weapons had been pointed at me.
"What are you doing?" An out of breath man spoke out of nowhere.
Everyone around us knelt, he's probably the king of Verde but I didn't want to risk it so I knelt along with everyone, and instructed the two to do the same.
"Escort him to the infirmary." The out of breath man ordered the other guard.
I knew he was the king when the guard immediately moved based on the instruction he gave.
"Come." The king said to me,
The other kept kneeling until he moved towards the kingdom. We followed him but he was walking out of balance and later tripped.
There wasn't anything that could trip him because it was a refined and polished path so I immediately went to check on him.
"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.
"I'm fine." he calmly responded.
"You're King Tristan, are you? You look sick, would you mind if I carry you to your castle? This path looks long for you to walk." I offered.
"Yes, please." he accepted my offer.
"Please don't say please to me, I'm only just a kid." I said to him,
It just felt uncomfortable for an adult king to say please to a child with no status like me. But it does confirm that the king of Verde truly is a person of kindness.
I waited until he was okay enough to stand so that I could use wind magic to make him fly but not really high up that we're flying.
It would be weird if I carried him and flew to his castle, and I am not that fast to quickly walk there to the castle.
World's Voice informed me that flying so fast would make Tristan even sicker so I created a wind bubble that protects him from all the risks that come from flying too fast.
Oh? The castle isn't a castle? But a simple huge mansion? There's also no elevation that separates the place of the king to other houses.
A huge mansion surrounded by a circular path and four straight paths. I bet if the view is from up here, the mansion would be centered and highlighted because of the circular path that connects the four straight paths. Or to put it simply, if you look from the very up high it would look like a target symbol.
Upon arrival at the huge mansion, Tristan immediately ordered the guards to inform the maids to prepare a room for us to have a conversation.
Ten minutes later, we're in this room facing one another. Tristan and the queen in his right, I'm assuming and two guards standing at their back, while I sat alone in this chair with the two standing at my back.
There's two maids standing on each side of the doors and I could feel that there's two guards outside the door.
They may try hard enough to hide it but from my point of view, they look sick. Not just Tristan, but also the queen, the two guards, and the two maids that are inside this room right now.
I had World's Voice analyze the six collectively and found out that their suffering from the effects of the skill Tristan has.
I wish I could help but I don't know how. Can healing magic help them?
{The answer is no.}
That sucks, I really want to help.
{Finding possible solutions...} {Success.}
{Mark of Purity from skill [Chastity] can be a solution.}
Oh really? How do I do that though?
{It can be done by me.}
Wait! Really? That'd be helpful if you can! And, can you tell me if you can use my skills instead of me? I'm bad at keeping track of it but you are so please help me!
{Okay.}
{Success.} {The six individuals have been marked the Mark of Purity from skill [Chastity].}
{The Mark of Purity successfully acted as a solution.}
Yay! Thank's World's Voice. It's like having unlimited AI help, hehe. But compared to AIs, World's Voice is infinitely better.
Looks like Tristan's skill changed so that it doesn't make them sick anymore.
I didn't tell them about it because it was a breach of their privacy in the first place but it was done for a very good reason so I hope karma doesn't punish me.
Thanks to the Mark of Purity, I could tell that they were visibly comfortable and okay.
"Welcome to Verde, I am Tristan and this is my wife, Paula." The formal introductions began.
"Please let me apologize as the king for what happened at the entrance." Tristan bowed and apologized.
"Oh no! Please get up, I should be the one to apologize after my companion hurt one of your people and severely damaged your entrance wall. Please let me know how to compensate for the damages." I quickly responded.
"I see." He spoke and sat.
"Don't worry about that." He added.
"You must have a reason for coming here, may I know what they are? I might be able to accommodate them faster and better." he asked, interested.
Wow... Is this the courtesy of the kindest person in the world? This is an amazing offer that it would be rude to refuse.
"Well... Right now, I'm in the process of looking for staff, students, and instructors for Bell Kingdom. I was wondering if you would know people who would be interested in that?" I replied.
"Bell Kingdom?" Can you elaborate?" he responded, confused and interested.
Instead of using my words to explain, I just gave him the hard copy of the proposal so he would understand it easily and better.
"Is this really happening?" he asked after reading the proposal.
"The academies are already built, we're just finding people to fill the staff, students, and instructors." I responded.
"This is an amazing proposal, it would make the alliance between Verde and Bell much stronger. It's just too bad, we can't make it official because the king of Bell isn't here." he responded, disappointed.
This seems like a great opportunity for Francis. Should I bring him? Hmmm... I will!
Francis was available so I brought him and now he's directly in front of the king of Verde.
They were both tense and visibly uncomfortable just like what happened in Draven. But I made sure that I brought Francis for absolutely a very important reason.
Soon after they became comfortable, they did this lengthy political talk that I couldn't comprehend or keep up with. I was so lost that I just didn't listen at all.
After the conversation between the two kings, I brought Francis back to Bell. But before I could teleport back to Verde, Francis told me to meet him after our visit in Verde.
I teleported back to say farewell to Tristan but I realized that I wanted to do something. That something was to have a tour in that beautiful vast space filled with abundant crops I saw earlier.
After asking for a tour, I just didn't expect the king and the queen themselves to personally give the tour because it seems highly illogical to do so for someone like me.
We each visited the vegetables first which I found uninteresting. I don't really like vegetables. So it made me happy when it was time for the fruits.
There were a lot of varieties of fruits that we visited and tasted but there were only some that I knew and liked as a fruit.
Apple, Banana, Blueberry, Cantaloupe, Cherry, Clementine, Grape, Kiwi, Mango, Orange, Papaya, Peach, Pear, Pineapple, Raspberry, Strawberry, Watermelon. We visited them one by one and tasted them one by one.
Klaus and Lukas wanted to taste the fruits after seeing me taste them and be happy about tasting the flavors of each fruit.
The only thing I could remember was them wanting me to feed them the fruit by hand. "It just tastes better," Both of them said. I could still remember the feeling of their tongue when they licked my fingers.
A curse for being able to remember all experiences, it felt weird but not bad weird. I don't know, thinking about it makes me fluster a little bit.
I noticed that beside this vast land, there was a forest. I checked it out and flew to see it up close. For a second I forgot that this was a tour and I left them there.
Suddenly, the surroundings were enveloped with white mist. "Are you the one who messed with my skill?" A woman's voice echoed throughout the mist.
"Are you asking me?" I asked the woman.
The mist was visible at first but it became invisible the moment my intrinsic skill [Chaos Senses] kicked in.
"You can see through this mist?" The woman responded, surprised.
"Well... Yes." I replied, confused.
It bothered me that there were a lot of people watching me. People? They might look like humans but they looked green. Like earth spirits who have green skin.
Oh they probably are green spirits! They all looked ethereal and beautiful and I'm so mesmerized by their presence. Can't help but be bothered with the fact they're all looking at me though.
"Why did you mess with my skill?" The woman asked.
"Uhm... I don't know what you mean. Please help me understand." I responded, clueless and confused.
"The skill I gave to the Kings of Verde. Why did you mess with it?" The woman replied.
"Oh! You mean Tristan's skill? I didn't really mess with it, I just helped him get rid of the pain." I replied back.
"So you do admit that you messed with it. For that you'll be severely punished." The woman spoke, determined.
"W-Wait. Why would I be punished? I only helped get rid of the pain." I reasoned.
"Naive kid. Without pain, nothing would make them push forward and strive better." The woman spoke.
That made sense actually and now I feel embarrassed for reasoning when I was in the wrong.
"Who do you intend to punish, Mary?" Klaus spoke while releasing his aura.
The woman only took one look at Klaus and became visibly shocked by his presence. She then began kneeling and the people around us.
Klaus and Lukas emerged from the mist and they began walking towards me until they could take place on my back.
"De-Demon King!? Angelic King?! What brought you here to my home?" The woman's voice became loud.
"It was you who brought our master here so we simply followed him." Lukas replied to her question.
"MASTER?!" The woman exclaimed.
"Please forgive my outburst." The woman apologized.
"Don't worry about it. I should be the one to apologize for messing with your skill. Please let me know if I can do something to make you accept my apology." I apologized.
"How about we start with introductions first? My name is Mary, The Earth Spirit Queen, and this is my son, Beto."
I introduced myself and urged the two to introduce themselves too for the sake of good manners even though it felt like they knew each other already.
"I deeply apologize for messing with your skill, please let me know how I can make it up for you." I apologize once again in hopes of being forgiven so that I don't get punished severely.
"Since you insist, would you mind making Beto your companion? It would help me to know that my son would be taken care of." Mary requested.
Hmm... Is that it? I won't mind if another person accompanies me but it should be up to Klaus and Lukas whether they'd like another person accompanying me.
I asked the two telepathically only for them to ask me again whether I mind and told them I didn't so they didn't argue and accepted that I should make Beto my companion.
I accepted Mary's request and decided to make Beto my companion but I realized that Beto didn't look like a human so it would be difficult for him to accompany me because I'd be travelling in human spaces most of the time.
Klaus can retract his wings and remove his horns by changing his appearance and through the use of his skill [Shapeshift]. Lukas can also retract his wings but he didn't have horns nor a shapeshifting skill so it was fine because it was only his wings that made him look like an angel.
I figured that this world might have people that have different colors and hairs so the two having unique and bright colors didn't seem like a hindrance to looking like a human.
Upon World's Voice analysis, Beto didn't have any shapeshifting skills so I had to come up with a way to make him look like a human.
I thought about using [Lust] but the shapeshifting ability is only self-infliction which means I can only use it on myself and the material shifting ability isn't something that can be used on a living being.
Maybe light magic will work? By creating a thin barrier made of light on Beto's overall body, then manipulating the light to change the appearance of Beto.
Hmm... That would have worked but there are problems about it. The magic needs stability and Beto cannot move while the magic is active because if he moves even a slightest bit, the magic would crumble.
Light magic in some ways can be self-infliction only and this was one of those cases. I can cast light magic on Beto so that his appearance changes, but I can't cast magic that adapts to his body and changes his appearance everytime he moves.
I asked Lukas but even he cannot do it because of a rule. The rule is that illusion magic needs stability and movement consistency if casted by another person. But if Beto himself casts the light magic to change his appearance, it would completely bypass the rule allowing Beto to change his appearance without worrying about the rule.
The only thing I could do was make Beto be able to use holy or light magic but he can't because he's an earth spirit and they can only use earth magic because that's the rules of their races.
And the only way for him to be able to use holy or light magic is for him to become an angel or someone who possesses an attribute to the holy element.
I did the same thing that I did to the demons to allow them to use holy magic and that is imbuing a field with holy attributes in order to trigger an evolution.
Beto evolved into a species of earth spirits who can use holy/light magic called Sacred Earth Spirit. Because of the evolution he gained the ability to use holy magic and he got the [Shapeshift] skill.
Thanks to the evolution, Beto changed his appearance to look like a human while keeping his unique features like green hair and green eyes.
He's as tall as me and as slim but his beauty remains even after his change in appearance. So now I have three companions who are all beautiful and handsome.
Mary requested if she and the people around us can also be exposed to the same thing Beto was and I immediately granted it because I felt bad that only Beto evolved while his family remained the same.
Mary evolved into a Divine Earth Spirit and the people around us evolved into Sacred Earth Spirits.
After evolving, there we said our farewells to one another and we let ourselves out from Mary's forest.
Then we said our goodbyes to Tristan and Paula and went back to Bell in order to meet with Francis after he told me to do so.
Bye bye, Verde!