Story 3: Chapter 11: Revelations  (Patreon)

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 11: Revelations 

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- Arthas -

I sent another punch in the air before relaxing my position when a notification appeared in front of me.

Shingen-ryu [Unique Skill] [Level 26/50] [Exp: 1/26000]

Shingen-ryu or "Style That Originates From The Heart" is a school of Martial Arts in which the practitioner learns hand-to-hand combat as well as the ability to control their aura for combat.

Passively Increases +2 STR +2 END +2 DEX +2 INT +2 WIS per level.

Current Increase: +52 STR +52 END +52 DEX +52 INT +52 WIS

This Skill was insane no matter how many times I saw it.

+52 increase to all stats and this was when I was just halfway through the Skill.

That’s more than five levels of any top tier T5 Class. The only problem with it was that it’s levelling speed had decreased a lot.

I wonder if there is any way to increase the levelling speed of my Skills.

Talking about Skills, the Man Slayer Class came equipped with a Skill of its own, a skill similar to the Shingen-ryu.

The Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū Style Swordsmanship.

In fact, I don’t get active Skills by levelling up the Class but rather by mastering the swordsmanship style.

The Game Master seems to want the players to actually learn swordsmanship over just bruteforce levelling the class.

Still, it’s not like I had any problems with it. The Skill gave Passive Increases like the Shingen-ryu style too, which made the stat growth of the Man Slayer Class even more absurd.

It was a T5 Class and yet its stat growth was similar to a T6 Class.

As expected of a Class obtained for fixing a bug.

Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū [Level 11/100] [Exp: 110/11000]

Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū is an ancient kenjutsu developed to allow a single samurai to defeat numerous foes single-handedly. Rooted in the concept of ichi no tachi, or to strike in a single blow, practitioners of this style use a combination of immense speed and agility, battōjutsu, and acquired, observation-based pseudo-clairvoyance that permits a practitioner to anticipate an opponent's moves.

Passively Increases +2 STR +2 END +2 DEX +2 INT +2 WIS per level, unlocks new Skills every 5 levels.

Current Increase: +22 STR +22 END +22 DEX +22 INT +22 WIS

The Skills I had unlocked till now are Ryūtsuisen, Ryūkansen and Ryūshōsen.

Our plan to get ready in three days turned out to be impossible.

As they say the best laid plans of mice and men….

The route through the Forest leading to Lannisport was destroyed….due to the flood caused by us breaking the dam.

Yeah….it was our own fuck up.

The Dam was being repaired but it would still take around a week or two to complete everything and the route to open up again. This left us stuck here so we decided to take care of some important things.

These last few days everyone has been busy collecting money for the next expedition.

Veena was busy using her new recipes and selling new products and training people to run the guild, Shiroe was helping out the guild members plan for how and where to level up at the fastest speed and even offer advice for people who need to select future classes.

This left only Star and me.

We went out hunting together a few times and I found the guy to be quite chill.

If anything, he was dedicated to the grind. The guy didn’t want to sit back and be the weakest link in our team so he was almost always out hunting.

As I was the only one free in our team, I decided to assist him. Just the fact that I was in the party with him, not only increased his Exp. Gain by 10% but also increased the Phy. and Mag. Atk. by 10% giving him an extra boost in his levelling spree. Not to mention, I had healing which enabled us to go wild.

His Apprentice Swordsman Class was levelling at an insane speed due to us regularly hunting down T4 monsters.

Sometimes we were joined by Shiroe while Veena stayed and worked on the medicines as crafting also levelled up her Pharmacist Class.

Currently, she was the highest money earner in the group.

In fact, most of our missions were to get ingredients for her to make the Greater Healing Pill as materials needed to make those were not available in Llyne. They were found in the Marshlands and that’s where we mostly hunted.

It was good practice though as our previous methods of sniping enemies from trees didn’t work anymore as the T4 and even some T3 monsters could easily break down trees or even large boulders given enough time.

We had to constantly change our strategies to keep up with the enemies. It was a nice experience for our team and even gained me another level.

And this has been our routine for the past few days. Hunting in the morning, coming back and watching over the guild matters and practising Shingen-ryu or Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū in whatever free time I had.

I took a towel and wiped off my sweat.

Another thing that happened was the summer.

This being the mediaeval world, there was no electricity or other such facilities and while that didn’t matter that much in winter as we could still warm ourselves with fire or warm clothes but the summers were absolutely disgusting.

I had asked around and found that in the bigger cities, they had enchanted stuff to keep the place cool but unfortunately we couldn’t buy such things nearby.

I just hoped that Sabaody Archipelago has such stuff or we will need to hire enchanters.

Hell, at this point I am just tempted to go there and buy those enchanted goods and maybe we could even sell them here for a much larger profit margin.

The only relief in this time was the new spell Veena had bought from the Black Market for 70 thousand Gold Coins despite us trying to save money for the auctions, the Ice Wall. We didn’t use it for attack but rather carried the Ice Wall for cooling water and other things.

In fact, when some people saw us carrying the ice, they even asked to buy it for Gold Coins. Obviously we sold it. We needed to recover the money used to buy the Skill Book.

Everyday for two hours, people lined up to buy Ice from us, every large block for 20 Gold Coins. This was one of the main reasons for her being the highest earners of the group.

I entered the house and Veena was sitting in the living room, working on the next batch of medicines to sell.

“Oh, finished with today’s practice?”

“Yes. I got another level up for the skill and decided it was as good a time as any to stop for today.”

“Hmm, you shouldn’t overwork yourself.”

I smiled at her words. “Says the one who keeps making medicines from the break of dawn till dusk. I personally think the selling of ice is actually a welcome change as you at least get two hours to rest in between.”

The reason we were all pushing ourselves so hard was because Veena had been working insanely hard and that actually made her guilty as we couldn’t contribute much to the team.

So we did the thing we were the best at, level up and get stronger. Ultimately, strength was the most important thing in this world at this point.

“It’s nothing. You should take a bath first. I will finish by then and take a bath myself.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

Cold baths were the best.

I stepped out of the bath and called out to Veena to enter.

“Oh, you are done. I am done here too.” She said as she kept the instruments back in her inventory and got up, stretching her body.

She was wearing a thin white gown due to the heat and it was sticking to her body due to sweat, outlining the shape of body clearly.

As usual, she was not wearing anything inside.

I shook my head, pushing the thoughts out of my head in the other direction but I was pretty sure I saw her smirking at me.

Ah….she was in one of those moods once more.

The game between us has been going around for far too long for me to blush at such a small matter, especially when we slept together every night so I just gave her a normal smile.

I was pretty sure I saw her smile widen at this, accepting the challenge.

She just sashayed towards her room while I shook my head at her antics and dried my hair and changed into my shorts.

In the last few months, my hair has been growing a bit. I guess I will have to get a haircut soon.

She came out of her room after some time and entered the bath.

I knew she was going to take some time inside so I decided to take some rest till then.

While the physical exhaustion could be managed due to my high stats, mental exhaustion was something I had to deal with by myself.

It was after thirty minutes or so that I heard the door of the bath open and looked in that direction.

Veena came out….as usual in her towel. This time however, it was shorter than normal. It was barely covering her breasts and went down to her upper thighs. Half of her ass was sticking out of the towel and this part was exposed more as she walked.

My eyes widened but I quickly reigned myself in.

I was not going to lose this game so I gave her a simple smile again and closed my eyes while desperately trying to think of other things.

She didn’t say anything again and when she came out, we heated some food we had bought from outside and had dinner in peace and then finally went to bed.

“So,how was your day today?” She asked.

“Same old. The quest was simple and Star had to collect his new equipment today so we returned early. How was your day?”

“The same. Shiroe was right. That girl Elaine has talent….I think she….might be someone from the Supernatural side of the world.”

….

“What?” I was taken aback by the sudden revelation.

“The way she moved was highly reminiscent of Magicians….actual magicians, not the ones in the game. Her moves were something people only gained from actual combat.”

“Are you sure? Did you talk to her?”

“Not yet. I am almost sure that she is from the supernatural side. I will observe her and talk to her after I can get a better read on her character. We are considering her for the team, right?”

“Hmm.”

“Alright, let’s stop talking about work. It’s been more than a week since the last time you guessed what kind of being I was. So, did you find any clues?” She asked me with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes. “You could just tell me and we can get this over with.”

“Eh, where’s the fun in that?”

“Hmm. Then I will take another guess. You….might be some kind of demonic being, succubus or devil or something.”

Surprisingly she giggled at my guess. “Oh my, do you really think so little of me?”

I shrugged. “You were the one who said I shouldn’t believe what I hear until I get a chance to see and judge things for myself.”

“That’s true. Good job on that. So….what makes you think that? Why do you think I am some kind of demonic being and not some angelic being or something?”

I looked up at the ceiling. “Well, from the conversations we have had so far, I could tell that you didn’t exactly have a good feeling for angels.”

“So? I could be a Fallen Angel. Although corrupted, they do have light too.” She insisted.

“The last time you told me the story about Faust and Mephisto, you were quite sympathetic towards the devils….almost too sympathetic as if speaking from experience rather than just mere observation.”

“Oh, and?”

“That was the first clue which pushed me towards this line of thought. I guess that’s it. I did say I was guessing, right? So did I get it right?”

She let out a chuckle. “Well I guess congratulations are in order.”

“Huh?”

“Although you made two guesses, they were quite close so I give it a pass. Succubuses are demons, not exactly devils. Devils are the race created or reincarnated by Lucifer after his rebellion with Lilith. Demons are beings who have existed before that. Asmodeus, Beelzebub and even Mephisto Pheles were demons who were made into devils by Lucifer. Technically, Mephisto Pheles is older than Lucifer himself.”

“Beelzebub and Lucifer are different? I thought it was the name of the same person, the one called Satan.” I asked, suddenly taken aback at the statement, as that part struck me more than the whole mess she had suddenly spoken.

“Oh yes. Some people confuse it. Knowledge often changes over time. Your sources must be from the mundane world so it is understandable. There are four Satans in the Underworld, the Lucifer, the Leviathan, the Beelzebub and the Asmodeus. They are also called the four Great Satans.” She spoke and suddenly a memory came to the surface of my mind.

….

It couldn’t be….

I didn’t say anything and she continued.

“After Lucifer rebelled against his father, he fled to the Underworld to escape with Lilith. But he didn’t run away empty handed. Before running away, he had learned the mysteries of creation. So when he reached the Underworld, he used the same knowledge and with the help of Lilith, someone who had eaten the Fruit of Knowledge, created the whole Devil race. Among them, the strongest seventy two Devils were named the seventy two pillars. Apart from them, they created some more devils as personal servants. They were called the Extra Devil Houses.”

The more she said, the clearer the image became in my mind.

….seriously….not that world.

“He ruled the Devil race with the other three whom he had formed an alliance with to fight off his father. Together, the four were called the Four Greater Satans and the rulers of the Devil race.”

….

“Several thousand years passed by. In that time, several other of his siblings rebelled against his father or they were cast out for the smallest of follies. These people went on to become the Fallen Angels. These beings didn’t forsake their light so they still held corrupted light in their bodies. They formed an organisation called the Grigori and started fighting against both devils and angels and their father, changing the two way fight into a three way free for all. Sure enough, there is only so long that all this resentment can last without blowing up. And when it did, there was War. The biggest war fought in this world….the Great War.”

While she was saying this, my mind was abuzz with completely different thoughts, the prime of them being….’Please don’t let it be the boob world.’

“This war lasted for a long time and was the bloodiest war in our world. Many Pillar Houses died along with the Four Satans before the war finally stopped. But that was not the end for the problems of the devil race. The descendants of the four Satans wanted to restart the war while most of the Pillar Houses were done with the hundreds of years of constant fighting and killing and wanted nothing more than to stop this war for good. This divide in opinions exacerbated over time and led to war, the Civil War of the Devil race.”

….at this point, I was already sure that she was talking about the DxD world.

Well, it was either this or she was also a reincarnator….which was quite improbable. Not impossible as there was already one person, the person who created this game so there could always be more.

She however didn’t realise my inner conflict and continued on with her story.

“The Civil War was a very dark period. During these times, we had to fight our own people, live every day in doubt and fear or being backstabbed by the people we called friends or having to kill members of our own family as there were several houses and even people from the same houses who stood on opposite sides of the battlefield. Thankfully, our side had more members and some heroes rose during such difficult times and won us the war, ending the era of terror.”

She paused and took a deep breath as if remembering something and continued. “It was decided that the position of Satans will not be hereditary from then on and the ones who had contributed the most in the war, the strongest four, were made the new four Great Satans, although they had to break off any connection with their original clans.”

Just to clarify things, I pushed myself and asked her the question. “What were their names?”

“Sirzechs Lucifer, Ajuka Beelzebub, Serafall Leviathan and Falbium Asmodeus.”

….yeah, no more doubts. It was the same.

“These four changed the devil race almost completely, making the current devil race very different from what it was previously.”

“Hmm?”

“Well, for starters, trading or consuming souls of humans or other races was banned completely. Secondly, we had lost most of our people in the two wars, putting us behind the Fallen Angels and Angels and they could have attacked and killed us at any time. Devils have a very low fertility rate and an average devil takes hundreds of years to have even one child. This meant it would have taken us thousands of years to get back our initial numbers and to solve this problem, Ajuka Beelzebub invented the Evil Pieces.”

She then went on to explain everything about the Evil Pieces and the current devil society and the rest of the Supernatural world.

Finally at the end, when she stopped, I asked something which had been in my mind for a while.

“What is your name?”

“Oh my, I didn’t introduce myself did I. I remember saying I would tell you about myself if you ever guessed my race. Alright then, my name is Venelana Gremory.”

….

….

….

….

Fuck!

__________________________________x___________________________________

I woke up the next day with a slight headache.

The information I gained yesterday was enough to keep me awake the whole night….the fact that I was sleeping with the current Lucifer’s mom also contributed to this fact.

Damn….

She was Venelana Gremory?

I mean she did look the part. Brown hair and purple eyes….

Moreover this was really that stupid boob world….

Have I been living for the last eighteen years in this boob world without even realising?

That brought up another thing to mind….just how did some Akihiko Kayaba wannabe manage to trap so many people in this game, including the fucking Lucifer’s mother? There was no way they would just sit back and let such a thing happen….

What did that even mean?

I had been too busy with my thoughts to ask Venelana about her thoughts but if this guy had really managed to trap us inside, there was no way things were as simple as they looked.

Just who was the Game Master and what exactly was this Soul Art Online?

And how do I react from now on knowing I am in a world which was just an anime in my previous life?

I just remained there laying on the bed thinking about everything until Veena woke up.

“Good Morning.” She wished as she rubbed her eyes and stretched on the bed.

“Good Morning.” I wished normally.

First and foremost, there was still a non zero chance that she could also be a reincarnator so I wanted to wait till I had more clues.

She had said Elaine was probably a magician and she could probably tell me more about the situation.

Either way, there was no way I could tell anyone about me being reincarnated….at least not yet.

As for how to treat Veena, she hadn’t treated me badly or let me down yet so it would be stupid to treat her differently after the revelation, especially since I more or less knew the story of this world.

While there was a chance that things could be different from what I knew, there was also an equal chance of it being similar. I needed more information before I could make more decisions.

“You look tired. Didn’t you sleep properly last night?” She asked me, worried.

“Hmm, not really. I was thinking about everything you told me last night.”

“Oh my, are you suddenly afraid of me or something?” She asked me with a smile but I could feel that this question was actually a serious one so I responded to her just as seriously.

“It doesn’t change anything between us. For me, you are the same person you were yesterday, the person who has fought with me, covered my back and supported me in my time of need. You being a devil or any other race doesn’t change this simple fact.”

Trusting someone with your back in life and death fights go a long way to establish trust.

A smile bloomed on her face at my answer.

I continued. “I just had some other questions in mind.”

“Oh?”

“I was wondering if the Supernatural world is real….and so many people have been trapped inside, was it the work of someone from that side of the world and if so then why hasn’t someone tried to do anything yet? From what you have told me, all the creatures from the mythologies are real and they keep each other in line to prevent the existence of the Supernatural world from spreading among the normal humans….then why….hasn’t anyone done anything even after so long?”

A frown appeared on her face and then a serious contemplating look took its place. “That, I don’t know. I have some guesses but I don’t have enough information to make exact conclusions.”

“Can you tell me the guesses?” I asked, trying to get some ideas and maybe I could think of something with my own knowledge of the plot.

“Hmm, remember the part when we were creating our characters and we had to agree to a part about putting your mind, body, heart and soul on the line?”

“I nodded.”

“Well, there is a high chance that they were not mere words.”

“Huh?”

“I think it could be some kind of magical contract and we voluntarily agreed to it. Such contracts have power. I guess I must be slipping to fall for such an obvious trap.” She added before shaking her head.

“So….”

“Maybe that’s why the Supernatural side hasn’t done anything or it could cause us to lose our lives. That’s at least one of the reasons.”

“Still, what reason could someone have for doing something like this?” I asked. And this guy was a reincarnator too.

Just what the fuck happened that he decided to play Akihiko Kayaba all of a sudden.

“That….I don’t know. Sometimes, some people are just mad enough to do something like this. The Old Satan factions that I explained about last night are such people but even they wouldn’t be so blatant about it or it would turn the whole world against them. If I am honest, I don’t think they have the guts for such a thing….at least not all of them.” She added the last part slowly.

Oh, you have no idea about just how crazy those fuckers can be and how much guts they can have. Especially that bastard of Lucifer, Rizevim. That crazy son of a bitch had unsealed the beast of apocalypse and almost caused the world to be destroyed.

Were we really trapped inside by them?

Was this reincarnator guy a member of that Khaos Brigade organisation too?

“Couldn’t they find and well….make him break the contract?” I asked after some hesitation.

She shook her head. “He has the lives of almost twenty million players in  his hands and there are high chances that some of them could be important people just like me, my daughter and her friends. I know for sure that my family and especially my son would have done something already if he could.”

….

“You have a son!” I asked, pretending to be surprised. I still had to play the part.

“Oh my, didn’t I tell you? I have a son, daughter and even an adorable grandson.”

“You….look very young.”

“Thank you. Supernatural races can live for a long time and maintain their youth for as long as they want.”

“So, how old are you?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Now now, asking a woman her age is not good manners.”

“I am sorry.” I apologised.

“Well, I will give you a hint. My son Sirzechs, is almost five hundred years old and I had him two hundred years after my marriage.”

….

So at least above seven hundred years….

And then I suddenly realised something….she had let slip her son’s name.

“Sirzechs? Isn’t that the name of the current Lucifer? Did you name your son after him?”

She chuckled. “No dear. The current Lucifer is named after my son….or rather, my son is the current Lucifer although technically, he is not associated with any houses, it still doesn’t change our relationship.”

She laughed when seeing my open mouthed look. “What, surprised?”

“Well, what do you think?”

“Oh, could it be that the strongest player on the continent is actually scared?” She teased.

I rolled my eyes. “Put yourself in my place and think. I have been sleeping with the mother of the Devil all this time? Not to mention him, your husband would probably blast off my head the moment we get out. How do you think I should feel?”

She burst out laughing. “Seriously, even after hearing everything, my race, my true identity, the very fact that I was a devil, that is what you are worried about?”

“Excuse me but I think I am perfectly sane to worry about such a thing.” I countered.

Sirzechs, from what I remembered, was someone who cared a lot about his family. I had no idea how he would react if he found out that I was staring at his mother’s half naked ass and even slept with my face buried in her breasts everyday.

“Silly child. Devils or rather most long lived races, have a very different sense of morality then that of humans. You shouldn’t judge people based on your human way of thinking. What might seem common sense or societal norm for you might be completely reversed for the other races. It’s one of the results of having such a long life to be honest.”

“Huh?”

“Well, for starters, having lovers or even multiple wives is quite normal among devils. Most devils have harems of their own, men more often than women but it is quite normal. After all, the devil race has a very low fertility and we are still trying to get our numbers back up. Do you follow me till this point?”

I nodded.

“Secondly, there are those people who just fall out of love….or well, they just get bored of each other. It can take a few hundred years to even a few thousand years or even more but after a certain time, they just stop having desires for each other. At that point, they just part ways.”

“Divorce?” I asked.

“Well, not always. They just separate and live their own lives. My own mother-in-law has been living on her own for a while now. There are obviously exceptions, people who stick with their partners but they are exceptionally rare.”

“I see.” And then I thought of something before asking. “You told me about your son but nothing about your daughter?”

If I knew her age, it would at least give me an idea of where I stood in the timeline.

Although us being trapped inside would have changed the timeline almost entirely, something was still better than nothing.

I remembered some things about this world but not everything although I knew the deal with Trihexa and then some Alien Gods would come and attack the planet and they would start with Great Red.

Apart from that I didn’t know much.

“Oh my, thinking about my daughter while sleeping with me?….How bold, Arthas.” She smirked.

“Arthur.”

“Hmm?”

“My real name is Arthur Strauss.” I replied.

It was only fair to share my real name with her after she came forth with her own.

She paused for a moment and then smiled gently. “Arthur Strauss. Arthas….I see. I get it. It’s a good name. Well, since you have opened up to me, I guess I could tell you about my daughter. My daughter is almost the same age as you. Her name is Rias and she had just started her third year in High School and had her eighteenth birthday when she got this game. It was actually her praising this game so much that made me interested so I decided to try my hand at it.”

“Devils go to High Schools?” I asked. “Also, five hundred year old son and eighteen year old daughter. You weren’t kidding about the low birth rates.”

“Well obviously Devils go to school. Knowledge is power and Devils love power. Normally children are homeschooled in their early years and then sent to schools for Noble children but my daughter wanted to experience life in the human world and thus she joined a school in Japan with some friends of hers. I wonder if she is inside this game too.” She sighed worriedly.

I put a hand on hers reassuringly. “If she is, then we will find her.”

She gave me a light smile. “Thank you.”

The topic was becoming sombre so I changed it. “Still, that’s a very low birth rate. One child in a five hundred year period. I can see why everyone would be worried about going extinct.” Another thought came to my mind and I turned towards her. “And what about your husband?”

“Oh? Why so interested in my husband all of a sudden?” She asked, teasingly.

“I’d like to know if I should expect someone to appear outside my house ready to blast my head for sleeping with his wife.” I replied blandly.

She giggled. “You really don’t understand the ways of devils.”

“I don’t. That’s why I am asking you. From a human’s perspective, I would never want my wife to be like this with anyone else. And that’s why, I think it would be incredibly cruel of me to do this with someone else’s wife if they feel like me.” I asked seriously.

She shook her head and perhaps sensing my seriousness she answered seriously too. “You would really be a great knight, Arthas. I did notice that you have maintained your distance from me from the moment you heard I have a son.”

“Obviously, children are the ones most affected in such cases. Even more so than the couples.” I answered easily.

She smiled and shook her head. “It’s refreshing to see someone keep their calm even in such a situation and think about others first.  As for your answer. I don’t think he would mind. He has a harem of his own that he spends his time with. Some of them are even my friends. We have been together for almost a millenia and before anything, we are best of friends.”

She looked towards the ceiling. “The reason I decided to join this game was because….I was bored. While I am happy with my life, things start to become bland after a certain period of time. When you live for thousands of years, there are very few things you don’t experience. Even relationships change. They become less about….physical satisfaction and more about feelings. That doesn’t mean we don’t need physical satisfaction. Sometimes people just lose their passion for their partners. In such cases, it’s better to part ways rather than lead a monotonous life. Both my husband and I understand this.”

“So, you have other partners?” I asked, curious.

She smirked. “My my, are you asking me if I am available?”

I shrugged.

“Well no. First of all, if I had partners I wouldn’t be in this game.”

I don’t know why, but I felt an invisible ‘get a life, otaku’ slap on my face even though it was not her intention there.

“Second, as you said, children are affected when parents separate. My daughter was supposed to get married this year. Any announcements we made would have been after that settled down.”

….damn.

Was there something like that in the novels?

She seemed in quite a melancholic mood so I let her have some quiet time.

It was already early morning so we didn’t have much time to laze around.

We needed to get to work soon.

The two of us left the room with a much greater understanding of each other.

- Venelana -

She packed the new batch of Greater Healing Pills into a pouch and stored it in her inventory and then brought out the next batch of raw materials to work on.

All the while the memories of this morning’s conversation went through her mind.

The whole thing had gone better than she had expected. In fact, it had gone too well.

She hadn’t expected Arthas to take the information about her being a devil so well and not hold prejudice against her.

She chuckled thinking that the whole time the boy was worried about what her husband and children would think about them sleeping together.

Honestly, it was adorable to see this side of him.

She had thought she was losing her edge when she couldn’t make him flustered even after walking out in that towel. He has begun to adapt to her tactics and thus she has raised her game. But in the end, what got him was not that but the knowledge that she was married with two children.

It did make her verify the choice she had made in trusting him once more.

Such people were very hard to find in this day and age.

Not to mention, she was starting to enjoy their time together more with each passing day. Even just the time when she told him stories about the Supernatural world or talked about random topics had become quite special to her.

She had also noted that he has grown a lot more mature in the past few months.

War really made people grow fast.

That said, the conversations of this morning also brought some thoughts she had been suppressing all this time.

Rias.

She wondered if her daughter and her peerage members were really inside the game and if so, were they doing well.

Apart from them Grayfia….

It was Venelana who had called his son’s queen to accompany her to try this game and she was pretty sure that she was trapped somewhere in this vast world.

But then again, knowing Grayfia, she would survive. She was someone who had contended for the position of one of the four Great Satans against Serafall.

Her experience would allow her to survive this world.

Still, Venelana felt guilty for dragging her inside and wished to find them as soon as she could. It was for this reason she was so insistent on expanding the guild.

After all, a hundred eyes can see more than two.

When their guild grows, it would be easier to search throughout the world for their traces than just travelling randomly and expecting someone to just appear in front of them.

That kind of luck was hard to come by.

She was already lucky to encounter Arthas so early in the game and then find Shiroe and Star as new members.

She didn’t want to keep relying on this luck.

The start was a bit shaky but she could see the potential in the guild, especially with the head start they had over the other players.

Venelana was sure that in just a year, she could push the guild to become a big name in the whole country and in three to five years, throughout the whole continent.

It was not that different from running a territory in the Underworld. She had experience with such things but unlike before this time she would be playing for life and death.

On the matter of territory, she remembered that Arthas was also given the title of Baron and a territory in Greenfrost.

Could he manage the territory and collect taxes from it?

She will have to ask around and find out. Still, if that were the case, then it would open so many paths for them.

Perhaps her teammates didn’t understand but she was keenly aware of what such a title meant.

Being a noble, even the second lowest rank like a baron, would give them a leverage over other players and a position to negotiate with the NPCs from.

And if a Baron Rank could be rewarded then so could the higher ranks.

But the first thing they needed to do anything was….funds.

And so, Venelana again concentrated on the batch of raw materials and started processing them into new pills.

It was almost after an hour or so that there was a knock on the door of her workshop.

“May I come in?” The voice of Elaine came from outside.

Velenala kept aside her mortar and pestle and replied. “Come in.”

The door was opened and the black hair girl entered and bowed professionally.

Venelana had observed the girl and knew that she was trained in etiquette, as a maid perhaps, something which was rarely done in mundane families nowadays.

“Take a seat, Elaine. I assume you are here with the list of tasks completed by the members of the guild yesterday?”

“Yes Ma’am. We have been able to complete the order of eighty batches of healing salves for the Knight Academy, five batches of Greater Healing Pills for the City Lord’s Mansion and….”

The girl went on to list the items and Veena noted that the production orders they had received this week were all completed….with three days remaining. Then again, it was to be expected.

Their guild was mostly consisting of Production Class Players.

Most of the players who had left back then had been explorers and although all of them did return, they were not able to get any slots in the guild.

That was not to say they didn’t have any explorers. They had the other independent top players from the raid join their guild too apart from Gareth’s team.

It was just that the number of production class players was far more than them. The ratio was almost seventy five to twenty five and that was after recruiting Gareth’s team and Elaine, which was also one of the major reasons for recruiting them.

She opened the Guild Menu and checked the current status of the Guild.

20% progress in one week.

At this rate, they might get a level two guild in a month and half at most.

Elaine soon completed her report and presented the file to her.

She verified the list of quests from the Guild Menu and found that the data matched and nodded towards the girl and praised. “Good work.”

“Thank you.”

“Did we get any more orders?” She asked.

“We did get orders of poisons and antidotes from the Hunter’s Guild and several healing items from the Adventurer’s Guild as well. Although I doubt there would be much demand in the long run if we started flooding the items in the market.” She added.

“Hmm, true. It seems we will need to change our strategy for long term benefits. Perhaps opening a shop for the goods sold by the Fairy Tail Guild….I will have to plan something. We will see what we can do after returning from our trip.” She then looked towards the girl in front of her. “That’s all for today. You are doing an incredible job. Keep it up.”

“You praise me too much Ma’am.” The girl replied politely.

“So, which country are you from, Elaine?” She asked. “Do you mind if we talk for a bit? This work gets quite monotonous after a while.” She said looking at her crafting equipment in front of her. “And I don’t get many chances to talk with other ladies around here.” She asked with a smile.

The girl looked surprised but nodded nonetheless with a slight smile on her face.

“I am from England.” She replied and they began to talk.

“By the way, is Elaine your real name?”

The girl nodded. “Yes. My name is Elaine Westcott.”

This made her raise an eyebrow. “Westcott? That’s quite a famous name. William Wynn Westcott. He was one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn, wasn’t he? Are you perhaps related to him?” She asked.

This made the girl stiffen a bit.

“Oh. Did I guess it right?” She asked.

The girl hesitantly nodded.

“I see. So you must be a magician of Golden Dawn too. That explains your skills as a magician.” She looked at the stiff expression of the girl and smiled. “Don’t worry, dear. Although indirectly, I have been associated with the Golden Dawn Magician Organisation for a long time.”

“Eh?!”

“Still, I didn’t think I would meet others here. It’s honestly quite a relief to be able to talk about it with someone else after such a long time.”

“Are the Guild Master and others also….”

“Magicians? No. They don’t know about it. Well, I did tell Arthas recently so he does now but the other two don’t. So take care.”

The girl nodded.

They began talking while she worked on the side. When she was done, they left the guild halls for a break.

It was evening.

Arthas was out to hunt with Shiroe and Star again, and she was already done with all the materials for the Greater Healing Pill so she was free for today.

After this morning’s conversations and worrying about her family for the major part of today, Venelana wanted something to soothe her nerves so she invited Elaine to have some girls talk.

On the way to their home, she picked up some mead. Wine was not available in this place but right now even mead sounded great.

Inside the two of them had some drinks.

The girl seemed to be under quite a lot of stress too and she agreed to drinking after some persuasion.

Although Venelana found out that she, just like Grayfia, was a very light drinker.

“So, are you alone inside the game or do you have any friends from the organisation? If so then we could totally use some new skilled members.”

“Ah….I left the Golden Dawn organisation due to some personal problems.”

“Eh….that’s a surprise. So, what do you do nowadays?”

“I work as a….worked as a maid in the Pendragon House.” She said, the last part with a hint of resentment.

This made Venelana raise her eyebrow. “The Pendragon House? Arthur Pendragon’s house?”

“Hmm.” Elaine nodded.

“What happened dear? You don’t seem to be happy. Are they perhaps treating you badly? Although the Pendragon family is strong, the Golden Dawn is nothing to sneeze at. The Pendragon family mostly rests on the laurels of their ancestors while the Golden Dawn is made by the contribution of several geniuses who work hard day and night to upgrade their knowledge and become better. After all this time, even if it’s the current Arthur Pendragon, he would have to answer for treating you badly.” She spoke in a dangerous voice.

In fact Venelana had met William herself. He was a polite gentleman. After all, her son’s bishop Mcgreggor Mathers was also one of the founder’s of the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn and while he had  retired from the position after becoming her son’s bishop, he still maintained a very good relationship with the organisation. And if she knew the eccentric magician well, he would never take the mistreatment of his friend’s descendant sitting down even if the other side was the original king of Camelot let alone some no named descendant.

William himself was offered a position of Bishop by her but he had denied.

After Mathers became a devil to pursue magic and Woodman passed away, he wanted someone to be there for Golden Dawn and stayed there till his last days.

That said, he did accept the offer of becoming her contract magician. It’s why Venelana was surprised when she heard Elaine’s full name.

“No no. Arthur is not a bad guy.” She hurriedly interrupted, breaking her composure for the first time to such an extent.

The girl calmed down and continued. “He treats me very well. Even Le Fay treats me like her own sister.” The more she spoke the lower her voice became and Venelana sensed something else.

“Oh my….don’t tell me….do you have a crush on this Arthur Pendragon?” She smirked, suddenly having found a new target for her teasing.

And as expected, the girl blushed.

“I-it’s not like that. We….we are in a relationship.”

“Eh….”

“It’s just that Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father, doesn't approve of our relationship as I was just a maid in his house and so….”

“So? Is he treating you badly?”

The girl nodded her head. “So Arthur left home with his sister to protect me from his wrath.”

“Heh! This generation’s Arthur Pendragon seems like someone quite courageous.”

“Obviously.” The girl replied proudly. “Arthur is a once in a century genius, a natural born Holy Swordsman strong enough to wield and completely master the strongest Holy Sword Caliburn. His talent is compared to his ancestry.”

“Hoh!” Venelana was actually surprised.

She hadn’t known about this.

She did know about the strongest holy sword and while not as talked about as the other swords used, it was far actually even stronger than the famed Excalibur blades.

The girl continued. “Even Le Fay is a genius comparable to her namesake. Even at a very young age, she is capable of doing magic which many High Class Magicians would have problems with. I am sure that in a few years, I won’t have anything else to teach her. It’s just that….”

“What dear?”

“It’s just that….she is now trapped in this game….and I have no idea where she is….or what she is doing….or if she is even….no no. She must be alive. She is definitely alive. We entered this game to find her and we will do exactly that. Arthur would never give up and neither will I….” The girl continued blabbering in her intoxicated state.

But there was something Venelana heard that completely broke her out of her drunken haze.

“You two….entered the game to go after her?”

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of ‘Soul Art Online’.

I know that most of you were waiting for the visit to Sabaody but I had some change of plans.

The visit will come soon but I wanted to clear some things out and develop the relationships between the characters a bit at first.

So, Arthas finally found out which world he is in….or is almost certain.

We got to know more about Venelana’s side of the story too.

Elaine is a bad drunk but in her drunken state, she revealed something which will completely shake the lives of our protagonists.

How will they take this revelation?

We will see in the next chapter.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.