[Melas] Chapter 141: Catching Up (Patreon)

“—with Dwarven troops marching into Puer’s borders, pressure is now mounting within the Human kingdom’s populace for the war to end, even if it means their surrender…”

War. I always wondered what it was like for war to be waged in medieval times. I’d looked it up— read a handful of articles online about what battles were like before the advent of modern weaponry— and I’d concluded that war was brutish, nasty, and time-consuming. A single siege of a city would take months or even years to conclude.

And yet, here I was, in a fantasy world where swords and spears were still used in the battlefield, with cities falling one after another by the day.

Ok, sure, like maybe the technology of this world wasn’t exactly equivalent to the medieval ages. It was actually quite close to modern times, what, with the guns and cars and planes and… nukes? But there was a disparity— a gap between what technology was available to different nations and continents.

The Taw Kingdom was fairly advanced, unlike the Puer Kingdom which was still barely equal to an eighteenth century western nation on Earth. And that was why Taw could literally steamroll over Puer.

It wasn’t just the Mana Bomb, although that had entirely reshaped the battlefield; the technological superiority of Taw allowed them to win battle after battle with ease. They had mana tech which rivaled even the Holy Xan Empire— exceeded them, perhaps. That was what a few Dwarf Scientists would say, at least.

Their military might posed even a threat to the Church; that was not a small feat when the Church held a monopoly over elite fighters like Saints, Saintesses, Inquisitors, and the Holy Knights. They had even more than just that— I was simply listing the most notable assets the Church had.

That was weird, though. Why were Saints and Saintesses even weaponized? This world had such a weird conception of Saints and Saintesses. Although… I was fairly certain saints back in my world were involved in war too, right? Wasn’t Joan of Arc a saint? She was certainly a martyr.

Regardless, the Church was powerful, and even they had some apprehension about facing the Taw Kingdom in battle. So, why, pray tell, would the Puer Kingdom wage war on Taw? Were they idiots? Of course they’d lose!

Well, the answer might surprise you, but yes, they were idiots.

It sounded completely asinine, yet the generals and the king of Puer had thought they could take Taw with ease. To their credit, there was some strategic planning before they declared war— they’d done so when Taw wasn’t able to readily react to an invasion, especially with a rather prominent Abomination presence within the Dwarf nation.

But even still, the victories of the Puer Kingdom were limited to only the beginning of the war. Since then, they’d been suffering loss after loss to the point that the use of Mana Bombs weren’t even being widely discussed in the House of Or’taq.

They were, of course, being discussed. But it was not a discussion of necessity. Rather, it was a discussion on the ethics of the utilization of Mana Bombs and the possible employment of other variants of the Mana Bomb.

I’d seen some of the plans Bertrand had drafted out, and if I was being honest, those terrified me a little bit.

But the little facets and details about the war didn’t matter to me. Of course it didn’t. After all, I was a kid. I was, like, twelve and a half years old. These matters didn’t… matter to me. Even if I was an adult— which, sure, mentally I was kind of a young adult— the politics of Taw didn’t affect me.

At most, I’d be worried about getting kicked out of Jahar’taw and losing my asylum pass. As it was right now, that didn’t seem like happening anytime soon.

So, what had I been doing for these past few months, then? After all, I wasn’t dealing with Dwarven politics. I wasn’t dealing with the war. I certainly wasn’t dealing with Monsters and slavers threatening my life.

Well, what I was dealing with was a magnitude more important than any of that (again, for the sake of clarification, it was more important to me; I was not referring to the importance of politics or war in the grand scheme of things, although that begged the question whether matters beyond one’s fringes were truly significant if they didn’t impact them.)

What I was dealing with was a darned thief!

“Give it back!” I yelled as I darted down the hallway.

A small black, four-legged figure dashed ahead of me, turning corners more nimbly than I could even run in a straight line. A head popped out of one of the rooms I was passing by, and a familiar Dwarf poked his head out.

“This again?” Aniyar chuckled. “Oi, Melas, ye really gotta look after your food better. Can’t keep letting Luna steal your lunch from you.”

My footsteps slowed, and I halted right by the Engineer. He wore an amused look on his face, which drew a scowl on mine since I was panting in exhaustion from changing that stupid cat around these endless hallways.

“Well, Aniyar,” I said in an obviously irritable voice, “if you’re going to tease me about my situation, at least get your facts right.”

“Oh?” He raised one of his bushy brows.

I gestured at Luna who had also stopped. Somehow, she understood that I wasn’t going to give chase until this brief conversation with Aniyar ended, and once it was over, she’d continue her flight once more.

“Luna didn’t steal my lunch. Today, she decided to steal one of my experimental scrolls. Which, you know, could blow up if in the wrong hands.”

“Ah, I see.” Aniyar nodded slowly as the words settled into his thick head like ale settled into his belly every night. “That’s… a bit of a problem, ain’t it?”

“Yes,” I agreed.

At once, we both leapt forward, grabbing for Luna. The black cat somehow wriggled out of our grasps like she was a bar of wet soap.

Yeah, that was right, I was busy dealing with a cat. Which might not seem like the most productive thing in the world, but trust me, I was in fact being productive.

Until she stole my scroll from me!

Scroll? Like the scroll that Elara had given me?

Yes, exactly like that. But also, not really.

I learned a lot from just gazing into the Tier 6 scroll Elara had gifted me. My very core understanding of magic had been changed just from learning how to cast the Shield of the Sentinel. Yet, there was something I noticed— I realized about the scroll.

The runes that were inscribed on the parchment looked awfully similar to the ones I oft saw in mana tech tools.

They were similar. They weren’t exactly the same, but there was clearly a connection. So, I set out the learn the difference between them and try to create something. Instead of imbuing a mana crystal with a set of runes, I thought it better to imbue runes with mana itself.

A sort of quick-cast, similar to the idea of pre-casting. But pre-casting hinged on being able to adequately cast a spell at that moment. This was different. There was no need for mana or anything else to be utilized. Theoretically speaking, a spell scroll should’ve been able to be used just like a mana tool— except, without the need of mana crystals.

That was the theoretical, of course. The practical was that it was hard to even get to work.

“You’re lucky the spell scroll didn’t fire when you were running around with it in your mouth,” I said as Luna dangled upside down in the air in front of me.

She waved one of her paws at me, trying to swat me. I flicked a finger, and she went flying higher into the air where she couldn’t reach me. I held her up not by my hands. Rather, I used magic to keep her in the air. A simple levitation spell.

“Neat trick,” Aniyar commented as I unfolded the spell scroll. “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”

I clicked my tongue when I saw that the spell scroll was ripped in half from the inside. I’d have to remake it from scratch. That took forever!

“I tried, but she’s slippery. I’d be too busy focusing on my spell and she’d escape. But thanks to your help…” I glanced over at Luna as I released the spell. She landed lithely on her legs and hissed my way. “I caught the little thief.”

She scampered off to who knew well as Aniyar let out a hearty laugh.

“Tha’s some convenient abilities ye have. Honestly, if I weren’t busy working on Project Gold, I’d study tha spell of yers— try to replicate it with some kind of… grabber tool.”

He made a clawing motion to punctuate the grabbing aspect of the tool.

I waved a hand off. “That’s the idea behind my spell scrolls. Don’t steal it.”

“Well, I can’t really use your spell scrolls, can I?” He shifted slightly as I raised a brow.

“Technically it’s the same as using mana tools, right?” That was the basic idea behind spell scrolls. Bertrand had been supportive of it, however, there was still some apprehension as seen by Aniyar. “The mana crystals are just… invisible.”

“I don’t know… it still feels like heresy to me.” And that was the issue.

Feeling.

It worked exactly the same as a mana tool, yet it didn’t feel right. Not to those who’d been following Church doctrine all their lives. After all, even one wasn’t a religious zealot, they’d still find it uncomfortable to violate a moral code they’d been adhering to all their life.

I’d have to talk with Bertrand about it. Maybe Gennady too, although he had been too busy to discuss it the last few times he visited.

“You say that it feels like heresy, but come on.” I crossed my arms and gave Aniyar a flat stare.

He took a step back. “Uh, what?”

“You literally hang around with me every day. I cast magic every day.” I dropped the spell scroll and let it float a foot just before the ground. “You’re obviously fine with that.”

“Seeing it is one thing, but doing it is another!” he said defensively. The Dwarf Engineer backed up, speaking in a hasty voice. “Besides, I found it a bit… odd the first few times you used magic. But I’ve seen it so often of course I’ve grown used to it!”

I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t rebuke him. I wasn’t going to chastise Aniyar and push him towards the anti-spellcaster faction (or, in other words, towards the Church.)

“Come on, Melas.” Aniyar gave me a goofy grin as he patted me on the back. “You’ve been demonstrating your magic for us Engineers! We’ve learned a lot from it! However, we won’t try it. Even if we don’t… judge you for it. It just took some getting used to. But trust me, this is the only place you can freely cast magic around others without getting into trouble.”

“Really?” I raised a dubious brow as footfalls echoed down the hallway.

“Yes—” he started, but was cut off as a pair of figures turned around the corner.

The strong stench of perfume waded its way to my nose as I saw a flash of glitter. Ornate jewelry decorated familiar orange braids, holding them together into what was essentially a ginger Christmas tree on top of a woman’s head.

But she was not just any ordinary woman. She was the princess of the Taw Kingdom. Aishat, the daughter of King Adilet. She walked alongside her butler until she caught sight of me.

Her gaze snapped to the small spell circle touching the palm of my hand, then at the floating piece of torn paper. She took a step back, eyes growing wide.

“Heretic! Someone, call the guards!

I sighed, turning to Aniyar.

“You just had to open your big mouth, didn’t you?”

Author's Note:

It's alive! 

Melas is back!