บท 4: Two more
"Um, you can stay in my house for the time being." Aysi suggested suddenly.
"How long would you take?" and Salaric showed no mercy.
She was getting uneasy, naturally. To have taken such a big decision of life in just a matter of seconds, it did not go easy on her. She replied, her lips slightly frowning, "One... Just today and tomorrow!"
"Fine by me."
Salaric was clearly not in need of a companion. His own strength was more than reliable. However, what he needed was a guide.
Living among the highest level of demons for eons, he had little idea regarding what human customs are. If Salaric could watch her and learn about that, it was only beneficial for him!
Also, if she happened to be a reliabe warrior too, then he would not have to showcase his powers which only aided in his other objective.
Aysi began to lead the way for Salaric. Of course, he did not want to stay there either, as Mahibu just said, many people are coming to find him.
'One or two is fine... But having that many companions is just troublesome...' Salaric thought.
Her house was closeby. They reached there just taking an one or two minute stroll. Although the house was in midst of the local area, therefore many people had seen him.
'Whatever, I will have to bear with this for just two more days.'
Entering her house, Aysi showed him a guestroom and went somewhere else.
The house was decent compared to the others in the village. She was definitely not from a poor family but neither a rich one. Built with clean wooden components, Salaric came to become fond of this big house for some unknown reason.
The door to his room opened again, this time there was an old man in front of Aysi.
'Father? Grandfather? Wait, husband...?' he made some primary speculations.
"We are honoured to have you here. Sir Ecclesiast...?" the old man greeted him in a gentle manner.
"I am Aric Dayrise."
"Harmon Joyous. I am a retired Grey Cap as you can see that badge on my table."
'It's his room...? Come on...'
Moreover, what is a Grey Cap?
Ugh...'
He was clearly lost as he introduced himself as an ecclesiast from the Sahri Town right after.
"I have no objections with you taking her on a quest. As her father I just hope she won't be treated unjustly. Of course I can trust that from an ecclesaist..."
'Seriously, what is an ecclesiast's job, exactly?'
"I only ordain possible quests and treat fairly." Salaric stayed quiet for a while and replied with this.
It indicated a few things. First that he was not the type you want to "chat" with and second that he did ordain other quests before as well.
"As expected. You can rest here, Aysi will bring you food."
'Treating your daughter like a maid? Oh, maybe they are just too poor to hire a maid. Well now I suddenly miss my maid... well she did not forgive me either, ironically...'
Salaric nodded in an affirming expression. As soon as they left, he jumped on the bed and started to look around.
There was a bed, three sofas, a table, a flower vase over the table, a bookshelf, and a chair behing the table.
'That's right, I should read some books. Well, I am not sure if I can still read things right... it's been years since I last read something...'
Nonetheless, he expanded his shadow over that bookshelf and materialized it as though it was a part of his organ. Then laying on the bed, he controlled the shadow to bring a random book to him.
"The... Creation... Myth? Ah, I know it. Later."
He then kept it and took out another.
"101 Principles of Priesthood."
'Uh, is this supposed to contain things about the ecclesiast?'
He had decided to check the book out. But first, he wanted to see all the other books that were there.
"Journeys of Gul? What is Gul?
"Demise of the Demon King. Aha, this should be interesting...
"Mysticism Tutorial for new adventurers. How lucky is that author, to be seen by the Shadow Sovereign. No I must not brag like that..."
After a few more choosing, he decided to read the 'Demise of the Demon King' book first.
He could not read fluently, but it was bearable. With a little practise, he would become fluent again.
The book was quite decent, spanning about five hundred pages. In the table of content, Salaric found that the book started from the very beginning of Loht's birth, spanning towards the very end elaborating things as humans had knowledge of them.
His gaze fixated on the name of the last chapter of that book. Creepy or not, he had to let out a smile seeing that. He read it out, silently, "The Nameless Hero."
---
"Come on, where is he?" Hall sighed as the information he received turned out to be false.
"I swear I saw him just a few moments ago. He was leaning on this tree." replied the random pedestrian. "He was talking with a girl. I am not sure who she is."
"Fine, thank you."
As the man left, Hall stared at the tree and found something amiss. The grass beneath it, turned almost pale and black. As though the grass was dead.
'It hasn't been raining for quite a few days now...' he convinced himself that it was not something serious and distracted himself. At that moment, Ciral called him from the other side. Almost running to come to him, he appeared and spewed, "The ecclesiast was with Aysi."
"Aysi? Aysi Joyous?"
"Yes."
Hall then stared at Seulgi. Naturally, it meant 'lead us to her house'.
"Rich people are fast people..." then Hall quoted a statement from the King of their country, Rono the III.
Seulgi simply turned her body to a different direction and the two followed. Aysi was her friend afterall.
On the already short way, Ciral interrogated two more people affirming that the ecclesiast was at Aysi's house.
"Uh... Isn't it rude to just burge in a house like that? He might be busy or something." Ciral suggested, stopping their movement.
Seulgi kept quiet as usual but Hall refuted him, "Rather, I think he is avoiding people."
"That's more reason to wait-"
"No!" he did not let Ciral finish, "There's no telling when he will leave again. We should do it while we still have the opportunity."
Ciral suddenly lost the urge to argue back. "Ah, fine."
As they reached the house, Seulgi knocked at her door.
Aysi who was in the kitchen helping her father make food for "Aric", came running.
"Who?"
"Woo!"
"Ah-"
Aysi had expected the news to reach others but it was faster than she expected. She opened the door and was greeted by her friend. Seulgi and her party.
"Welcome, come in!"
"We have actually come to meet-" Hall was interrupted by Aysi, "He is in too!"
---
"Damn history books are way too exaggerated." Salaric was having fun reading 'Demise of the Demon King'.
It explained the myths of how Loht was born as a result of the Great War's curse pretty accurately. But then the texts relating as to how he rose up to power and founded his own kingdom was unnecessarily biased.
He skipped some pages to come to parts where he was talked about. It read:
"...the army of Loht was massive and they were organised in ranks. Different platoons were under different commanders and 'lords'. While we expect demons to be mindless monsters, they were in fact, truly organised as a functioning empire. The lowest of the ranks was soldier and the highest was Sovereign, which was just below Loht himself.
There are five Sovereigns that we know of. However, historians suspect that there might have been six or even seven Sovereigns."
"Nah, there were eight..." Salaric subconsciously corrected the author.
"Even among the Sovereigns, two were possessors of even further extraordinary fame and power. It is suspected that the two were in fact, brothers. The Nightfall brothers. Salaric Nightfall, the Sovereign of Shadows and Ciralas Nightfall, the Sovereign of Dead. As for who was more powerful of the two, no answer is found but it is evident that Salaric was the more influential one.
A rough estimation says that under Salaric's command over a six hundred thousand humans of Valukia and Galania Kingdoms, suffered death. It is said that one-tenth of the total casualties was caused by Salaric himself. For his despicable crimes, he had gained the title of 'Heir of the Worst'. Although if he was actually Loht's heir or not, it is not verifiable. After the death of Loht, Salaric has been missing. As for Ciralas and the other Sovereigns..."
Salaric was interrupted at that point of reading as somebody knocked on his door. Keeping the book aside, he uttered, "Come in."
Aysi opened the door with three other people.
'Who are they now...?' Salaric was not happy to see them.
"Sir Aric, we expect to receive a quest from you!" Ciral said the first line, coming directly to the point.
'Oh.' the Shadow Sovereign frowned.
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