Chapter 37: Chapter 113 – Not So Impenetrable Fortress

“Let me first introduce myself in a bit more depth, Your Majesty. I think my words could use some credibility other than just possession of the Royal Favor.”

The king nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. Asterios reached into one of his inner pockets.

“I believe everyone present here knows how adventurers are ranked so my plate should be self-explanatory. I’m Asterios, a B-rank Summoner hailing from Rosewind.”

He brought out a coin-sized token and showed it to the others in his fingers.

“Additionally, I was granted a Token of Fealty by Guildmaster Suanori, who leads the Adventurer’s Guild in that town. Can I assume that Your Majesty is familiar with what it represents?”

The king nodded again. “Yes, I do. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m familiar with how adventurers function, including the fealty system. But… Hmmm… Suanori… Suanori… Ah, isn’t she a blond-haired elf that dresses mostly in green and white?”

“That is correct,” Asterios answered.

“I remember now. She is a great person and a skilled adventurer. As far as I know, she had only gifted her token to one person in the past. Judging by your youthful appearance, I assume you are not them. Gaining the favor of such a figure while at B-rank is commendable.”

“To be fully honest, Your Majesty, I received the token while at E-rank.”

The king raised his brow at Asterios. “That’s even more commendable.”

One of his advisors, the person who had previously voiced out his discontent in the throne room, scoffed at the boy on the other side of the table.

“No Guildmaster would grant it to someone this fresh and inexperienced. This sounds like an abuse of power for the benefit of camaraderie. I wouldn’t be surprised if your whole path to B-rank was paved by her with easy promotions.”

Asterios smiled wryly. If anyone looked at the guild’s records, it might possibly look like that due to him jumping a few ranks quite quickly, even if that wasn’t the whole truth.

“Or she saw something more in him,” the old wizard spoke while brushing his magnificent beard. Asterios could feel the man’s inquisitive gaze on him.

The king raised his hand. “It’s of no matter to us who she hands her tokens out to and for what reasons as long as they are not misused, and I believe Guildmaster Suanori is not the person to ignore such actions. Please, continue.”

“As you wish, Your Majesty. I will briefly present the whole situation since it’s quite complex. While undertaking a quest to find a missing child in a town of Ridenia, located a few days of travel from Rosewind, my party found a secret underground facility under a ruined watchtower, closely resembling an abandoned prison. We eliminated a Phantasmal Horror there and rescued the kid. But, what we have learned about the place was a little disturbing.”

“What do you mean by disturbing?” the man in the military garb asked.

“Judging by the leftover evidence, it was a place of torture that focused on developing a poison which was then tested on the prisoners of the human race. We have kept silent about that fact to avoid bringing unnecessary attention to ourselves in case it had been run by someone higher in power, like possibly… the kingdom or other big organization. Pardon my rudeness, but I didn’t know much about that facility back then. I assume you weren’t aware of its existence.”

The king turned to the military strategist, giving him an inquiring look, and the man shook his head.

“Obviously not. We had no prisons or other facilities in that area, Your Majesty. Besides the watchtowers, but our soldiers have been withdrawn from that region a long time ago. I would have to check for the exact date. Those were built when the nearby dungeon had been acting up if I remember correctly. There was no reason to have the knights stationed there after the situation had been tamed down.”

The king then returned his gaze to Asterios. “That evidence you have mentioned, anything more you could tell us about it?”

“I have secured any leftover notebooks we have found in the overseer’s office. And also a few vials of the poison from his personal stash, most likely. The former doesn’t reveal that much but you still can figure out the facility’s purpose from them.”

“I’m sure you will understand, but I have to request that you hand them to us for the sake of investigation. We will send someone to collect the items after this meeting.”

Asterios nodded. “Of course, but that won’t be necessary. My familiars can bring them out for us.”

“Oh? You have hidden them in another realm? Quite a clever idea, albeit equally risky,” the old magician commented.

“My summons are quite special. They have a much easier time storing things for me than the beasts that everyone here might be familiar with. May I request permission to call them? Ah, and please, don’t be surprised by their appearance.”

“Very well. You may do so,” the king answered and turned to the wizard. “Ghuller, disable the—”

He stopped when the magician’s eyes suddenly widened and he spotted some kind of movement in the corner of his vision too. A gate of crimson shadow stood by the youth’s side, who was currently exchanging glances with a black-haired girl holding a stack of old notebooks in front of her.

Another woman stepped out of the mesmerizing portal, bringing in more journals. The two of them kept going in and out of the gate in turns until the table was filled with old notebooks and some wooden boxes.

Finished with their task, the duo bowed towards the dumbfounded crowd and disappeared in the scarlet passageway, which sank into the floor a moment later. Asterios smiled wryly when all gazes landed on him.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“How did you…?” The king was the first to speak, still slightly in a daze.

“I’m not sure myself. They might have humanoid appearances, but—”

“Not that!” the old wizard interrupted him. “How did you use your Summoning Magic with the interference arrays still working?!”

“Uhhhh… Was I supposed to not be able to?”

“Yes! That’s the whole point of Mana Scattering Formations placed on your side of the room! You shouldn’t have been able to condense enough spiritual energy to activate the spell that fast!”

Asterios scratched his head. “Well… To be honest, it did feel more draining than usual to uphold the spatial corridor but I assumed it was a side effect of all that teleportation-preventing plating that my guide had mentioned after we had arrived in front of the castle.”

Ghuller looked flabbergasted with Ast’s answer. Everyone else, excluding the king, seemed to turn a bit more nervous. After a moment, the magician hastily walked around the table and stopped by Ast’s side. He started making some movements with his staff while mumbling something quietly but nothing happened in the next fifteen seconds.

“They are working properly…” He glanced at Asterios with raised eyebrows after giving up on whatever he had been trying to achieve.

“Interesting…” The king rubbed his chin. “Not only are your summons quite special but you can also force your way through the weakening arrays…”

Asterios had a hunch that it definitely had something to do with either his second source or the fiery mana which had been consumed to open the gates to the girls’ realm. Usually, his inborn one had been the one to be used in that process, but for some reason, it had been different this time. Fortunately, since it had been a passive siphoning instead of conscious circulation of mana, his appearance hadn’t changed during it.

“In any way, thank you for bringing out these items. And for bringing our attention to this questionable facility. I can promise you that we will investigate this thoroughly. Is this all you had regarding this topic?” the king continued while he and his aides started looking through the notebooks.

“I would have been extremely glad to say that it is, Your Majesty, but unfortunately, it’s just the beginning. And it only gets bigger.”

“Oh?” He glanced at Asterios again, putting one of the journals back down. “We are all ears then.”

“After reporting back, we chose to not involve ourselves with the people from that hidden place, no matter if they were all dead or still lived somewhere. But, a few weeks ago, my party departed to the Demon Continent from a port in Nebula. We stopped in Dagger’s End today to resupply and rest. And that’s when the whole place was put on lockdown due to some dangerous criminal escaping. That supposed criminal was found by my familiar in our ship. Supposed because it was actually a young dwarf, heavily starved, dehydrated, and seriously poisoned.”

“You don’t mean…” one of the advisors spoke.

Asterios nodded. “It’s as you most likely think. We have learned that he had escaped an almost exact same facility but located in the territory of the Damascu Clan. An active one at that. One of my familiars has their means to check a person’s memories and we quickly recognized the similarities when viewing them. And we were able to confirm a few things. We believe this is a bigger cult or organization, with facilities like these in many other regions, most likely belonging to other races. I think they are trying to come up with some kind of super poison.”

“And that means there might be more of these in our lands…” the king added while furrowing his brows.

“Possibly. The people behind it had enough influence to move the guards in Dagger’s End, thus I was slightly hesitant to bring this up to any governmental bodies, but my grandparents convinced me to share this with you, Your Majesty. They believe that we should inform the other leaders about it. Personally, I planned to infiltrate that facility and destroy it, collecting whatever information I can find on the way.”

“Wait a moment!” The distrustful man interrupted them again. “You said that you have arrived there today! How come you are here then? The transfer magician was sent to Tyrienheim! And even that was quite far for personal teleportation! This doesn’t add up!”

The king and his other aides moved their gazes to Asterios. The man was right. Transcontinental teleportation was not something this trivial and required quite a lot of preparation or powerful arrays set up on both ends of the connection.

“I have my own means of transportation that can reach far distances. But, it’s not without a downside. It’s quite dangerous,” Asterios answered.

“Alright. Let’s leave the discussion about your unusual abilities for later,” the king interjected. “Are you able to back your claims with evidence?”

Asterios nodded. “We rescued the boy. He is all the evidence we need. The poison is not yet gone from his system.”

“Good. Where is he currently?”

“Under the care of my family back in Tyrienheim.”

“We should send the transfer magician to get him then, as soon as possible, so that we can question the boy.”

“Is that completely necessary?” Asterios asked. “I pretty much own a copy of his memories in my mind and could share them. That is if everyone here wouldn’t be against my familiar diving into their minds to create a connection between us.”

“Preposterous!” one of the advisors shouted. “Why not let yourself be subjected to mind-reading spells?!”

“Yes, that could work, but generally, I would advise against that unless you can find people who in one hundred percent won’t try to stray off the path of the memories related to the case.”

“Why?” the king asked curiously.

“I don’t want to feel responsible for anyone’s death. I’ve learned in the past that my mind is not exactly a completely safe space. I apologize for sounding rude, but I would ask for permission not to elaborate on that.”

“That’s crazy! Why are we even still listening to this kid? Everything about him is extremely suspicious from the very beginning!” The man unhappy with Asterios from the start voiced out his thoughts again.

The king silenced everyone with his raised hand. “Then our best option is to speak with the child in person. Even shortly is fine. We can prepare a few memory sealing crystals for you to record what you know later.”

Asterios pondered over something for a moment. Then he sighed, deciding to trust in the king who had shown an understanding side so far.

“I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to mention this, but I can bring him here at any moment.”

Everyone turned silent, stopping discussing who should head out to inform the transfer magician about his task. They all glanced at Asterios together.

“What do you mean?” the old wizard asked.

Asterios extended his left hand slightly to the side. Black mist seeped out of his sleeve and dripped onto the floor. Soon after, it formed a humanoid shape in the space between his palm and the ground. Risvi appeared there after it had receded, with Ast’s hand placed on his hair.

“Mister? Where are we? The trip was much shorter this time.” He looked at Asterios and then all around the chamber.

Everyone, including the king, was taken completely by surprise with the sudden appearance of another person in the tightly protected and safeguarded room. Many of the advisors had their mouths hanging open and the eyes of those more knowledgeable about magic were bulging out to the limits of their sockets.

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To the slight horror of his aides, the king walked closer to the peculiar duo and placed his hand on Risvi’s hair after Asterios took his own away, noticing the man’s intentions.

“This… is not an illusion?” he said in slight disbelief, ruffling through Risvi’s hair.

“I don’t know who you are, but it’s rude to call another person an illusion,” the young dwarf replied while looking up at him.

Asterios chuckled inwardly and dropped to one knee by Risvi’s side. “They are some very powerful friends of mine and they would like to help stop the bad people from doing bad things to the others in your home. I know it might be hard, but could you try to answer a few of their questions?”

“Can’t they look through my memories like you did, Mister?”

“You would have to stay with them for some time if we were to do that. Is that okay?”

Risvi shook his head. “I’ll speak then. Miss Kindra told me not to be late for dinner. I don’t want to make her angry.”

Just as Asterios said, the king then asked the young dwarf a few simple questions while a few of his advisors joined in. At least those who had managed to get through their bewilderment of the previous stunt from Asterios.

Afterward, Risvi was sent back to the mansion through the same means. The king rubbed his chin while watching the moving darkness.

“So, if I get it right, even the anti-spatial plating doesn’t work on your abilities, right?”

Asterios smiled wryly. “I apologize, Your Majesty. Even I was surprised to learn that. As I said, my familiars are a tad peculiar.”

“Familiars? I didn’t see you call those two back here. Did Summoners make some breakthrough that I’m not aware of?”

The black smoke that had previously transported Risvi inside, arose from Ast’s chest and formed the shape of a head-sized raven, perched on his shoulder. The ominous bird turned its misty purplish eyes towards the crowd.

~Greetings, Your Majesty.~ An ancient-sounding voice resounded in everyone’s minds, causing a shiver to pass through the people present in the room.

“For how long… has it been here?” the king asked, visibly shocked.

“Since the very moment I appeared in front of the castle.”

He then turned to his aides. “And no one has noticed anything?” 

They looked between each other and shook their heads.

“No formation has picked anything up?”

They shook their heads again or shrugged.

The king sighed and rubbed his temples. “This is mind-boggling…”

“How could you sneak your familiar into an audience with the king like that!” The man with a problem was at it again. “This guy is dangerous!”

“With all due respect, it was just my means of assuring my own safety in the case the kingdom was involved in this malicious research. I’ve left all my actual belongings in the hands of the guards.”

“Verdan, quit it. I understand your concern but you’ve said nothing except for insults and accusations towards our guest. I would have intervened if I had sensed any malicious intentions from him. And so would the others,” the king berated the lousy aide, effectively shutting him up.

He then turned to Asterios. “You are an interesting one. I appreciate you not hiding these things from us. It only makes you more trustworthy. Although, I’m sure there are still plenty of secrets you would like to keep to yourself. But, rest easy, I don’t plan on interrogating you. Instead, I would like for us to join forces in front of a common goal—to get rid of this underground cult.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. I’m not a hero, though, and I am currently in pursuit of something. Therefore, I’m not sure if I can lend you my strength for a longer period. I do want to take down the facility in Dagger’s End but I’m unsure about further actions.”

“That’s of no issue. You are an adventurer and I’m sure you would prefer to remain in that occupation like most of your kind do. You do not have to join any of the kingdom’s forces. It wouldn’t be the first time the kingdom has cooperated with other people and organizations. Does the guild know about this?”

“Besides the fact that I have discovered a hidden prison under the watchtower during my quest, no. I’ve kept the matters a secret, worried that they might have people inside the guild too. Guildmaster Suanori knows about this meeting but nothing more. And I trust her.”

“Good thinking. We should act quickly on this. My men will go through the evidence you have provided us in less than a day and I will discuss things with everyone. I will contact the rulers of the other races to explain the situation to them too. Hopefully, we will be able to learn something about this organization from our upcoming operation and will be able to share it with them. Regarding that, I don’t think we will be able to quickly move our forces to Dagger's End so I will have to get in contact with their patriarch. I’m certain he isn’t involved. But that will also take at least a few days to reach them…”

“If I may, Your Majesty.”

“Yes?” the king turned to Asterios after stopping his monologue.

“I could possibly act as a proxy. I can travel here and there in a few short moments.”

“Right. Your weird teleportation ability that bypasses all the safety mechanisms.”

Asterios smiled wryly. “Perhaps it’s due to the fact that it’s not teleportation or a spell. My method relies on traveling through shadows. Maybe this will serve as a hint on how to improve security. I’m not sure what else I could say about it that would help. But anyway, instead of jumping back and forth with messages, I could also make an actual conversation between people happen.”

“How so?”

“I’m afraid I would need the permission for my familiar to connect to Your Majesty’s mind to demonstrate.”

The king rubbed his chin while pondering for a few seconds. “Fine. I’ll allow it. You made me very curious. I feel like I don’t need to remind you of this but don’t think about trying anything funny. I can fight back.”

Asterios nodded with a smile. “I’ve noticed.”

Welrond raised his brow at the youth and then felt something prodding his mind. Shielding its core, he let the invader into the outer part, wary of anything suspicious. But, nothing else besides some weird connection being established happened.

Then, another Asterios suddenly appeared by the first one’s side by rising from darkness, surprising the king greatly. The original nodded his head and plummeted into the ground after getting swallowed by a black shadow.

“And, just like this, I can easily connect one or more people together,” the leftover Asterios spoke.

“I don’t think I follow… What was the purpose of this?”

Asterios smiled and motioned with his eyes towards the king’s side. He looked that way and found his aides staring at him in confusion.

He furrowed his brows. “What?”

“Your Majesty… Why… are you talking to yourself?” the old magician asked.

The king furrowed his brows at the man, clearly puzzled by the question. Then, someone knocked on the door to the meeting chamber. Everyone turned their gazes towards the entrance.

“Go and open it,” he ordered one of his aides.

After the man followed the order and opened the door, first unlocking it and deactivating all the arrays, they found Asterios on the other side, making their confusion grow even more. He nodded at the person who had opened the door and walked inside, stopping by his doppelganger’s side.

“I’m afraid they can’t see me, Your Majesty. You spoke with a live illusion that is only visible to you while I was outside of the room.”

Then, Ast’s clone morphed, taking the image of the king. “I think the purpose is easy to figure out,” it spoke perfectly in his voice.

Welrond didn’t hide his amazement. “Then, if I understand this correctly, when the other person agrees to this too, we can hold a conversation through you just like we would be standing in front of each other?”

Both Asterios and the king’s double nodded and spoke at the same time. “Yes.”

Only Asterios continued next. “And it’s not just speaking. My familiar can recreate pretty much any sensation. But, of course, the downside here is that both I and he will know about everything that transpires since it’s pretty much happening in his mind.”

“Still, that is quite impressive. If you were my trusted man, that would make long-range communication arrays almost obsolete. Not only do they burn a lot of mana, resources, and money, but it’s not like they are perfectly secure either. I assume it’s not that easy to intercept this as it’s happening right in our minds.”

Asterios smiled. “It’s definitely not easy to break into a Summoner’s mind, and I would say almost impossible if we are talking about my familia—”

~Someone is leaning onto the door from the other side, Master,~ Umbra informed him.

Asterios stopped and raised a brow at the king. “Are we completely sure that the silencing arrays are working properly?”

Welrond furrowed his brows and looked at the man who had opened and closed the doors, who nodded, signaling that he had properly reactivated them.

“They should,” the king answered. “Why?”

“There’s someone outside.”

“No one should be able to bypass them. Well… No one should have been able to bypass them. I’m not so sure after meeting you. Unless…”

The king walked to the door and swiftly opened them, disabling all the formations in a flash. 

“Ah!”

A familiar girl with fiery hair fell inside, crashing into his chest. She quickly collected herself and respectfully nodded her head, managing to keep a calm demeanor.

“Father.”

Asterios noticed something disappearing from her hand as she moved it behind her, most likely getting sent into some kind of storage artifact.

“Silvia. What are you doing here?”

 

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