Twenty Ninth-Day after the summoning.
After the defeat of the Ghoul Lord. Roria — Castle grounds, Kings throneroom.
Zect sat on his throne, brushing his beard gently while his gaze was fixated on the murals on the ceiling. Beside his throne were his son and daughter, standing idly beside their father. Lines of guards stood on either side of the throne room, reaching all the way to the entry gates — all of them unmoving, stiff - it barely looked like they were even alive.
Oscar was also present in the throneroom, leaning against one of the pillars. Silence encased the room, as everyone present in the room just remained in their places – waiting. Then, the gates opened with Earl walking in, holding his helmet in his right hand. Behind him, Sarah and Calliope followed. Zect closed his eyes, moving his head down to look at the trio, while Oscar threw a careless gaze.
“I assume you were successful in the subjugation, considering your arrival?”
“Indeed we were Sire.” Earl replied, before handing his helmet to Sarah, moving closer to the throne, stopping just a bit away from the stairs leading up to it. Then, the Knight kneeled. “It was no trouble at all.”
The Princess beside Zect snickered. “That’s our Knight Commander. Earl is unrivaled even now that he’s much, much past his prime.” Earl chuckled, lifting his head to look at the Princess. “Your Royal Highness Samantha, I am glad to see that you still are able to joke like before. While I’m here, allow me to extend a much, much too late congratulations on your full recovery.”
Samantha smiled and waved the Knight down. “Please, I already recovered a month ago. There’s no need to congratulate me anymore.” After their small talk was finished, Oscar kicked himself off of the pillar and walked towards the throne as well. “Sire, may we now speak about what I witnessed in the dungeons?” Zect looked at Oscar before nodding. Afterwards, he gave a sign to Earl, whose facial expression turned a lot more serious, before he stood up and looked at Sarah and Calliope. “You two can head your own way now. I’ll handle the rest from her. Sarah, please make something nice for the kids when you get back.”
The pair of women exchanged gazes before bowing towards Earl and without saying anything, turning around and leaving the throne room. Once the gates sealed shut, Oscar sighed, crossing his arms. Earl looked at Zect.
“Fill me in on the details. How bad of a situation is it?”
Later.
Everyone sat around a round table, which was located to the side of the throne room. Oscar placed down his cup of tea, sighing, while Earl was staring down at the table with a worried gaze. “That is all for my report about the dungeon incident. After they escaped, I was unable to locate them at all.”
“They must have used a long-range teleportation ritual to escape in the split second of distraction they created for you.” Samantha commented, while Albert, the Prince, remained silent next to his father, his arms behind his back. Zect looked at Earl. “What do you think, Earl?”
“Well… It is worrying, that is for sure. I mean, a mage capable of using the singularity spell created by Archmage Baphorlex? Those are rare nowadays.” He leaned back into his chair. “Extremely rare. You’d be lucky to find someone capable of using the weakest of Baphorlexes spells — but… singularity?”
“I am aware it sounds impossible, however I know what I saw. Right as I was about to attack, in a split second, he managed to not only distract me but also cast the spell. It was as if he knew I’d be forced to deal with that first, before I could do anything against him.” Oscar added, resting his arms on the table. Earl remained silent for a moment, before taking in a deep breath and exhaling. “Alright. I have no reason to suspect you as a liar Oscar, so I believe you. I suppose the next course of action would be to figure out who that mage was.”
“That indeed will be our next move. The Scholars of Ruin are already enough of a nuisance, but with them having a mage that is capable of using high tier magic created by the Mad Mage, I’m afraid that we may be forced to worry about more than just the Revenant Monarch.” Zect added in his thoughts, lifting up his cup of tea and drinking it. For a moment everyone remained silent.
Then, Oscar cleared his throat.
“I shall personally look into it. I will reach out to the Magierring Scholars and ask for any and all information on every spellcaster that ever learned Baphorlexes spells. Once we have a list of names, we can start narrowing it down to who it may be that is working with the Scholars of Ruin.” Earl nodded in agreement, while Zect lifted up his right hand, ordering Oscar to pause for a moment. “I believe that it would be better for someone else to reach out to them. Their people already managed to make it much, much deeper into the city before they were caught this time, and if they decide to come again - especially with that mage - we’ll require your strength here in the capital.”
“But Sire, I have an excellent connection with the Magierring Scholars – I have the highest likelihood of getting any information from them.” Zect nodded.
“True, however, I believe that Mariana will be just as fine.”
“Sending her back to where she studied? That’s a bit cruel of you, don’t you think Sire?” Earl laughed gently, while Zect shrugged before placing his cup back down. “Mariana may not want to do it, however she is by far the second best option to send. After all, those scholars are so arrogant that they’ll only listen to a select few individuals.” Oscar sighed in defeat, lowering his head. “I understand Sire. I shall inform Mariana to head out as soon as I get the chance.” Zect nodded, before looking at Earl.
“Earl, I want you to create a full report of the Ghoul Lord fight later. Hand it in to Albert once you have it done.” Earl bowed his head towards Zect. “Sire.”
Afterwards, the small group discussed some other things that had happened around the Capital and Kingdom. They also touched on the growth of the summoned heroes, where Oscar reported that so far — all the Great Heroes have reported only positive things and that the training they were giving their students was coming along swimmingly. After an hour or two of discussions, Earl stood up.
“Alright, if that is all, I shall take my leave—”
“Hold on Earl, there’s actually one more thing.” Oscar said, ushering Earl to sit back down. The Dragon Knight looked at Zect, who sighed, before gesturing to the guards in the room to leave. “Albert, Samantha, you two also head out. This next topic is strictly to be discussed between me, Earl and Oscar.”
“Yes Father.” The two children replied, with Samantha getting up from her seat, before together with her brother and the guards, leaving the room. Once the door closed behind them, a barrier enveloped the room. Earl looked confused for a second, before exhaling heavily. “This is going to be something heavy, I just know it. Alright, what’s up? What happened that must be discussed in a deafened room?”
Oscar exchanged gazes with Zect, before adjusting his glasses. “I’ll be blunt – we suspect that Saint Alicia acted out on her own thoughts at the summoning ritual.” Earl narrowed his gaze. Then, he seemingly realised what Oscar meant, sighing and closing his eyes. “...It’s about the missing student for Taming, right?”
Zect nodded.
“Indeed. After Oscar told me about it, I was rather suspicious and recently sent some mages to inspect the summoning hall. Inside we found traces of a transportation spell, the destination of which was near impossible to pinpoint, which–”
“Means that it was connected to somewhere with a high density of magical energy.” Earl cut Zect off. The King looked rather surprised by the bold move for a moment, before sighing and nodding. “Indeed.”
“And you suspect it was Alicia who cast it on the student that was meant for the Hero of Taming?” Earl looked at Oscar who confirmed his suspicions with a gentle nod. “It couldn’t have been anyone else other than Alicia. She was the only spellcaster in that hall at the day of the summoning and the traces, though nearly completely faded by now, were able to be traced back to have been cast on the same day as the summoning.” Earl remained silent, exhaling before leaning back in his chair in disappointment.
“I knew she disliked Andrius, but not to this extent.”
“I was also surprised by Saint Alicia's bold move. However, at the same time, it isn’t surprising either. Andrius is far too powerful for her to take her frustrations out on and even if he wasn’t, fighting between the Great Heroes is prohibited, so she most likely took the opportunity to take her years of built up hate towards Andrius out on that poor student and sent him to somewhere dangerous.” Zect commented, resting his arms onto the chair's armrests. Earl closed his eyes again. “Alright, what do we plan to do about this? Alicia going out of her way to send an otherworlder with no experience to a dangerous location constitutes a violation of the churches codex, no?”
“It does… however…” Earl opened his eyes, looking at Oscar. “However?...”
“We don’t have any evidence to prove her crimes. The magic traces the mages found are all but gone by now. Even they barely managed to pick up on them and decipher all the information about them they could. I’m afraid that even if we report it to the church, we’ll be disregarded as trying to influence its power and even potentially accused of trying to cause its fall by making accusations against the Saintess.” Zect finished off Oscar's trail of thoughts, with Oscar gesturing to the King. Earl looked a bit annoyed, but not completely surprised. Without solid proof, any accusations thrown at the Saintess were pointless, considering the church's image and reputation, and the Saintess’s position in it.
“...Then what do we do?”
“For now? Nothing. We can’t do anything to prove Alicia's crimes and by church's laws, we are not allowed to force her to admit the truth, lest we wish to jeopardize our relationship with the church.” Oscar replied, before adjusting his glasses again. “All we realistically can do is perhaps try to find the student that was sent away by Alicia.”
Earl looked doubtful.
“If he was sent to a place with enough magical energy to make it impossible to pinpoint the coordinates linked with the traces, I do not believe that the student is still alive – especially after a month.”
“Normally I would agree, however, I still think we should at least try. Who knows, perhaps the student managed to survive somehow and is still alive. Especially with the Hero System at his service, survival isn’t impossible.”
“...As long as it isn’t somewhere like undead territory.” Earl added, causing shivers to run down Oscar's spine, before he cleared his throat and composed himself. “We should focus and hope for the best scenario. I have already contacted some Diamond and Ruby ranked mercenaries and adventurers to search all possible places for the student to be located in. All we have to do is wait and pray they can find him.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Earl remained silent, listening to Oscar, however his scepticism didn’t disappear from his face, as he looked out the window in the room, looking at the capital beyond it. “And what if he’s in the Great Labyrinth?”
Silence.
Neither Zect or Oscar responded. Oscar rubbed the back of his neck. “...That’d be the worst case scenario… The danger of that place is unlike any other possible area the student could have been transported to.” Earl looked back at the Dragon Knight, before exhaling and getting up from his seat. “I am simply throwing out possibilities. I do hope that the student is alive and well myself. I apologise for my rather strict negativeness.”
Zect pardoned Earl with a hand gesture. “Lift your head, you’re simply being more realistic than me and Oscar. Chances are far, far too slim. In fact, it’d be more likely for us to suddenly be invaded by the Marquishire Empire than that student surviving wherever he.. or she was transported to.” Oscar nodded in agreement while Earl smiled and laughed it off. “Well, we can only wait and see.”
“Indeed.” Zect exhaled before lifting his right hand up. “That is all for now. You two are dismissed.” Earl and Oscar nodded, with Oscar getting up from his seat and together with the knight heading to the door. Upon reaching it, the deafening barrier was removed and the two men left the room, leaving Zect all by himself in it. Alone with his thoughts, Zect looked out the window, catching a glimpse of a strand, of amber orange hair, as it disappeared from sight.
Zect sighed.
“Andrius, don’t do something foolish - alright?”
Outside, right above the room where the trio had their discussions just prior, Andrius was pressed up against the wall — arms crossed and his head up against the wall. The Tamer exhaled, before kicking off of the wall and leaping off from the castle, falling down the mountain for a moment, before a dragon swept by and caught him, flying back up.
“So they also know of it…” He thought, looking down at his right arm as he got comfortable on top of his dragon. After staring at the hand covered by a gauntlet for a moment, he squeezed it into a fist and exhaled, laying down onto the dragon's back and staring at the sky, as a strong breeze shot across his body.
Soaring above the skies on top of the Dragon, the Tamer flew towards a mountain range in the distance – silently lost in his thoughts.
Earls Home.
Evening.
As the sun was setting, beside the crystal clear lake, Aihara and Raito were training – using their real swords for their mock battles. The two looked pretty roughed up, clearly indicating that they had been at this for a while now. From the house, Sarah watched the two, leaned up against the wall, her arms crossed. Earl then stepped outside the house, joining her side. “So, how are they doing?”
“Fine I suppose. This is their twentieth mock battle in a row that I’m observing. They’ve been at it for quite a while.” Sarah replied without even throwing a gaze at Earl at first, before eyeing the man. “So, whatcha discuss with the King and Oscar?”
Earl sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, while resting his right arm on his hip. “Honestly? There was so much, I don’t know where to start. From the worries about what the Scholars of Ruin are up to, to Marquishires Empires continued scheming as well as worries of whether the students will be able to reach the necessary strength needed before the next battle against the Revenant Monarchs army – we have a lot on our plate.” Sarah sighed, lifting her arms up above and then behind her head. “Yeah… we’ve got a lot indeed. Sometimes I wonder if we can even make it through alive to the promised ‘Golden Tomorrow’ with all the different variables.”
Earl shrugged. “I don’t know. Right now, with everything taken into account – the future isn’t looking all that bright if you ask me. There is a lot of room for things to go south and everything to fall into chaos before you can even blink.” Earl crossed his arms, looking out at the two students clashing by the lake, smiling gently. “But, let’s not focus on the darkness that is looming over the future for now. We gotta focus on the light we have today. Just gotta ensure that the students grow steadily and that they’re ready for whatever fate decides to throw at us.” Sarah smiled looking at her adoptive father, before taking in a deep breath and kicking herself off from the wall and resting her arms onto her hips, looking down at the grass for a second, before lifting her head up and casting her gaze back towards the students.
“Indeed. Worrying about everything will just cloud our judgement. Better keep our heads clear.” The woman gently laughed after her statement, while Earl just shook his head gently and laughed himself. “You know, seeing you switch between serious work mode and a silly girl is still quite a sight.”
“Oh shut up–” Sarah gently hit Earl against his shoulder, laughing. The two students by the lake finished up their mock battle, before noticing the two mentors by the house. Aihara lit up, waving at them both, before the two of them moved towards them. Earl waved back at Aihara, before throwing a look at Sarah. “Come on, let’s forget about the dark stuff. Go inside and set up the table for dinner.”
“Right, right～” Sarah replied, turning around and heading inside the house, while Earl awaited the two students to reach him, smiling brightly. “Having fun training? You two look like you’ve been in the swamp for four days hahah.” Aihara examined her clothes before examining Raitos and then awkwardly smiling. Then, the girl shook her head before placing the sword in her hands back into its sheathe and excitedly looking at her mentor. “Anyways, what’s for dinner?!”
“Haha, first you two gotta clean yourselves up. Come on, head upstairs and take a bath you two. As for dinner – it’ll be a little surprise.” Aihara excitedly rushed inside, before running up the stairs, while Raito gently sheathed his sword up and scoffed, gently laughing under his breath before walking inside himself as well. Earl remained outside by himself for a moment longer, before looking at the setting sun in the distance. The beautiful rays it cast over the land and sky looked like a blazing dance of flames, which sort of put Earl's mind at ease for a bit. With all that he discussed with Zect and Oscar today, it was easy to feel a bit overwhelmed and worried, however, watching the sunset like this….
It really did calm the nerves pretty well-
As well as filled him with hope. I hope that perhaps there isn’t anything to worry about. That the ‘Golden Tomorrow’ will come eventually, and that he’ll be able to welcome it, together with everyone.
…
It has been Forty two days since we were summoned to this world. I’ve learned a lot and basically have gotten used to life here. The daily grind that me and Raito go through sometimes feels a bit heavy on me, however, I never complain.
My body and soul – have both gotten stronger.
…So much happened in just forty two days. Just three days ago, me and Raito achieved our first rank evolution after levelling up to one hundred. It was a weird, funny feeling – even painful at times, but with Earl's support, we got through it. After it, I felt much, much stronger.
I also feel like I’ve gotten far more skilled with a sword thanks to Earl's teachings, however, I know I still have a long way to go.
Earl says that the fight against the Revenant Monarch is still far away, so we don’t have to worry too much about it – especially since some fortress on the border between the untouched territory and the territory claimed by the undead is holding the front line for now.
However, despite trusting his judgement, I admit….
I find myself scared. Even terrified.
Even if I’ve grown accustomed to fighting and the way this world works, at the end of the day, me, Raito and everyone else from my class – we are just students. We’re young people, who have never even seen a warzone, let alone participating in one.
So the thought that one day, we’ll have to go into one…
It scares me.
…Heh – thankfully, Raito says that we don’t have to worry. Though he seemed a bit distant and cold at first, he’s actually really nice. He’s kind and joyous, though sometimes expressionless and seemingly emotionless, he is caring. I’ve seen how he worries about my safety whenever I do something stupid, or how he holds back ever so slightly against me during mock battles. Honestly, his gentlemanness is really, really attractive sometimes…
A-Ah, anyways…
I should get back to training.
I cannot slack off too much, otherwise Earl will get annoyed.
…I miss you Mom. I hope you, brother and Dad are all doing well.
Just wait — Once I’m done here, I’ll come back.
With lots of love, Aihara.
Your Beloved daughter.
…
Shut.
Aihara took in a deep breath, before looking out the window at the beautiful morning sun in the distance. Placing her quill to the side, she stood up and stretched out, before picking up her sword and heading out of her room.
Everything was peaceful.
Like she liked it. Nothing to worry about.
…However…. You never know in this world. While one part of it is peaceful and calm, just on the other side of the world – who knows what may be happening.
???
Unnamed Sanctuary — Northern Mountains.
At the top of the snow covered mountains, a man stepped forward towards a large, large fortress, with its walls towering up so high - they easily dwarfed everything around it. Unknown to most of the world then, this was going to be an incident that placed the world onto a dark path. An incident in which a sacred item would be stolen and the ones guarding it, wiped out in a massacre by a single man.
So, with this chapter the FIRST VOLUME for 'Rejected Tamer' comes to a close!
What a wild journey through it all it has been eh? It feels like SOOO much has happened, but when you look back on it...
Not that much actually DID happen!
This chapter mostly serves as set up for the second volume and what I want to do in it.
I wish to explore more of this world as well as expand on the history of the Great Heroes and what not.
I also wish to introduce more antagonistic forces BESIDES the main villain of the Revenant Monarch, IF that wasn't obvious hah...
I'd love to hear your overall thoughts about the first volume and the story so far in the comments, as well as any critiques or suggestions you may have!
I am always looking to improve at my craft, so hearing feedback, both - positive and negative - REALLY helps me a lot. The next chapter will be a small 'bonus' chapter that'll just be a look into Jacks past as a military mercenery and carry almost no weight to the main story right now, apart for maybe showcasing more of Jacks personality, ideals and image in the world BEFORE he was summoned.
It's alright, I'll get them out with future volumes. :)
Volume 2 will start probably at the end of February or the start of March, since I wish to continue my other story as well, so I DO apologise for the small 'hiatus' that will happen between volume 1 and 2! I swear to you all to continue writing this story and further helping you all get familiar with the world in it and its characters.
Unlike the story, the future for 'Rejected Tamer' is looking bright everyone!
Alright. See you next week for Chapter 39.5 and then - see you all in Volume 2!
Rejected Tamer
Original Story by SimplyUnst4ble.
