Chapter 366 - Lunch and a show (Patreon)

Hera was taken aback by the question. She didn't understand what Naph meant. She had to pick a story? But what kind of story? Also, how would they watch it? Or would someone tell that story themselves?

Seeing her hesitation, Rris turned to the newbie, "Are you not used to that in your pit?"

"You mean telling stories? Kind of, but where are we going to watch it?" for some reason, Hera could only think about how people watched TV while eating, but that felt wrong for the situation.

"Leave the details to me. Just ask a story, and we'll tell you. If you want, I can give you some options, like the tale of the dark warriors or the story of the battle of the peninsula," Naph spoke proudly.

"Yeah, yeah, you just want to tell them because you are the main character. Let the newbie pick," Asher turned to Hera, "If you don't have any ideas, just pick a topic and we'll see if we know a story about it. This is just for fun, so don't pick something too heavy or too complex."

Hera stopped to think for a moment. This could be a great way to figure out something about the Tamer or the Court of Heroes. However, she still wasn't sure if she could ask directly about it. When they were in the cave, Darni seemed unable to understand any question about that subject, so maybe all information regarding them was protected by the system. If she wanted to ask something about them, she would have to be sneaky about it.

After thinking for a moment, Hera decided to try one more time just to be safe, "Can you tell me a story about the Court of Heroes?"

The Naga stared at each other, and  Rris asked, "About what new blood? You just stopped talking after that."

Hera nodded, understanding that this term wouldn't work. Could she still be direct? "Sorry, never mind that. What about the Tamer? Can you tell me anything about her?"

"Hera, are you OK? Your mouth moved, but after the 'What about you didn't say anything," Darni asked.

"Crap, that too? Give me a minute. I need to think about one thing," Hera sighed.

"Sure, just don't take too long, or I'll start a random story," Naph replied before starting to eat. Since she was the one offering to tell the story, she would only eat when someone else had finished so they could pick up where she left off.

Hera tried to figure out what she could ask to get an answer about the Tamer. It couldn't be something too specific so she had to think about the letter and the information given by Ninleyn to figure out what story could involve the hero she was searching for. After some time of pondering, she came to the conclusion that most heroes had participated in some sort of large-scale battle, or at least that's what all the information Ninleyn and the rest of the order had gathered.

"Do you know any stories about a battle where someone had a lot of pets or monsters fighting against some great danger? I mean, they were all on the same side facing some other danger," Hera finally asked.

"Well… there is one that comes to mind," Naph turned to Darni.

"It's alright. She's one of us. It's OK for her to know about our friends, but use their titles," Darni nodded.

"OK, then. Where should I start…." Naph stopped eating while getting ready to tell the story.

Hera could feel her heart beating faster. Sure, her request was something very open-ended, but she already knew that Darni and the others had some relation with the Tamer thanks to the scrolls she found on the temple. Not to mention that someone having more than a single pet was rare, not that people couldn't have them, but it was a lot of work to train and protect them all. In fact, if it wasn't for the Tamer, Hera would believe that having more than two pets was something entirely theoretical.

"Right, let's start like this," Naph pulled a piece of raw metal from around his torso. She crunched the metal with her bare hands, grinding the ore into dust. Following that, she slapped both her hands together, creating a small plume of silver dust in the air. The particles stopped moving and gathered around, forming shapes. At first, they seemed to be just triangles, but little by little, they became more defined, showing some plains with flowers, almost like it was the scenery of a shadow theater.

"It all began in a room somewhat far away. A place peaceful, there were monsters, of course, but nothing that the people who lived there couldn't handle. But things changed when a mad wizard appeared. He used monsters as tests for his spells, which could give someone unparalleled strength, but at the cost of their own mind. Everything afflicted by such spells became little more than a puppet at the hands of the crazed mage," as Naph talked, the picture changed almost like it was a shadow theater following the tale that was being told. Hera had to admit that the Naga was skilled. The pictures were beautiful, even if not very detailed. She also couldn't help to compare that with what Ninleyn had done to explain the order to her. Apparently, using some spells to create a makeshift television seemed to be standard for most civilizations.

"For the people in the room, the experiments of the mage were little more than an inconvenience. However, that didn't last long. The crazed wizard tried to share its work with the kingdom of the room, suggesting that the strongest among them all should have the honor of being affected by his magic, allowing them to get stronger to defend and expand the kingdom for years to come. Even after seeing the spells work and the result of a small monster defeating even one of his veteran guards, the king rejected the mage's offer refusing to brainwash his subjects. Angry about the rejection, the wizard kidnapped the best warrior in the entire kingdom and used his magic to prove that thanks to his power, now the warrior would be invincible. What the wizard didn't know was that the best warrior of the kingdom was, in fact, the queen in disguise. It was the ultimate hidden card, a figure of power that would be targeted by assassins but could defeat anyone who attempted to kill them. Because of that, the wizard hesitated to brainwash the queen, who defended herself, cutting one of the mage's arms and capturing him. Already in chains, the wizard was brought up to the king for his judgment. If it was anyone else, they would have ordered the mage to be executed, which would be the end of the story. However, that king was different. He was benevolent and refused to condemn anyone to their death. Instead, he decided to banish the wizard from the kingdom and block him from crossing through any doorway."

Hera was paying attention to the story, but it seemed like Chika was even more interested. About halfway through the tale, Naph shifted his focus to the snake, allowing her to see the images more clearly. A weird thing was that some of the particles moved in place, and Hera noticed that detail. Remembering that the Naga wrote things with a special ink that had a different temperature, she tried using her [Observe - Red Sight] to see if there was something that she was missing. When she did so, the picture changed completely. It was still a shadow theater, but now the shadows had different colors and shapes. Each figure was much more detailed, with visible expressions and defining markings on their clothes. There were even lighting effects. While the human was in awe of the presentation, Naph continued.

"For a few years, that was the story, and no one expected more to happen. Unfortunately, when the queen gave birth to her fourth child, there were some complications that ultimately resulted in her death. When it rains, it pours, as they say, and this wasn't different. The wizard returned from his exile during the evening of the same day of the queen's passing. Coming from beyond the plains that surrounded the castle, from the dark forest by the foot of the mountain. He was angry and demanded retribution. Despite everything, the wizard was a patriotic man, and being exiled after having dedicated his life to the protection of the kingdom was more than enough to turn his madness into an unbridled rage. During the years he was alone, he kept improving his spells and amassing an army of monsters at his command. He attacked the kingdom with the full moon high in the sky during the queen's funeral. The city had little hope of defending against an army of thousands, and the army was lost without their commander. The king resigned himself to his fate with a saddened heart and was about to head out alone towards the wizard, ready to beg for his forgiveness and offer his own head as an apology. His plan might have worked, then again, it might have not, but he was never able to attempt it."

Naph leaned over and spoke in a whisper, almost like it was a secret, "You see, there were two… groups, let's call it, in the city. They knew each other, or at least, knew of each other, but at the time, neither of them was aware of each other's presence. On the east side of the kingdom, there was a small band of blade masters, each capable of bending an element to their will, who were resting in a tavern before continuing their journey.  A powerful sorceress was there in the West side along with her horde of tamed creatures. Without telling anyone or even talking to the king, the two groups left the city and headed to the hills, where the mad wizard army was getting ready to attack. Each had a different reason for fighting, the blade masters were regulars in that tavern, and they knew some of the people in the city, while the sorceress got extremely angry after hearing about what the wizard was doing. You see, she was someone who always believed in talking things out and that everyone, including monsters, were inherently good. That's a bit of a stretch if you ask me, but either way, that was her belief. They came out of the city gates almost at the same time and met each other while walking towards the hills. That wouldn't be the first time the blade masters worked with the sorceress. After all, they were part of the same circle, but it was the first time they were just by themselves. In total, there were less than 20 bodies, including monsters getting ready to attack an army of hundreds of creatures that were little more than puppets at the hands of the mage."

The picture that Naph was showing was becoming more and more distorted. Not that Hera couldn't see the details, but the Naga seemed to be trying to make everything more scary and dramatic. She wasn't the only one that noticed that, and Darni spoke up, "I'm done. How about you finish your meal while I finish the story."

"What? But I was just getting to the good part!" Naph gasped.

"Yeah, and the last time you 'got to the good part' around children, they couldn't sleep for a week. I'm sure the new blood would be fine with all this, but Chika is too young for your graphic battles," Darni explained.

"But…" Naph started to protest, but the other Naga all shook their heads, "Fine. You guys were more fun before all this," she huffed.

"We have bigger responsibilities now, " Darni turned to Hera, "I won't go into too many details about the fight itself, but it wasn't something that easy. Yet, both the blade master and the sorceress and her pets were all alive in the end, and the mad wizard was defeated and… well killed during the combat. The king thanked the two groups and gave them a generous reward even if they were not doing it because of that. The blades received a small building to serve as their own base, and the sorceress was offered a small farm in the outskirts, but she ultimately refused since she already had a home. That is known as the battle of Talrill."

"Talrill? Like, tall hill? Is that why the hills on Naph's shadow theater were so big?" Hera asked.

Darni scratched his chin, "You know, I never realized that, but yeah. The name is a bit bland."

"OK, but can you tell me more about the people who fought there?" Hera pressed.

"More?"

"Yeah, like, who they are. Where are they from, and how do they fight?" Hera wanted everything she could find about the Tamer, not to mention that the blade masters could also be something related to the Court of Heroes.

"Well, the blade masters are known wanderers. They rarely stay for long in a single place. The sorceress probably returned to her home, I'm afraid I don't remember the name of the room, but it wasn't supposed to be that far away. I can tell that the battle of Talrill happened in the Kamgeo Highland. That's the name of the room."

Hera quickly wrote it down before looking at the floating rock that was counting down the time they had for lunch. It was a bit more than halfway done, meaning she should have about half an hour before they went back to the temple. She would be sure to milk the Nagas for everything they knew about the tamer and this other group not just during this meal, but the rest of her time in the dungeon.