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Necessary change. Blood and Oath
🕑 Added 2022-09-22 11:00:05 +0000 UTCSeth gently kissed Maya’s forehead in the morning to wake her up. They spent most of the night just cuddling until they fell asleep. He could see Maya was not in the mood, so he didn’t really mind it.
Maya opened her eyes and kissed Seth’s lips.
“Good morning.”
“How are you feeling?” asked Seth with a smile on his lips.
Maya stretched loudly before looking at the sunlight coming through her window as she said: “I’m fine. I think I’m going to skip today’s classes. I need to take care of a few things at the mansion before going to visit your parents.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” asked Seth with a nod while moving his fingers through her soft hair.
Maya shook her head and said: “No. I thought about it and I’m going to let them have some gold as they move out. They will probably die of hunger if I don’t. I also want to have some time alone with your family, especially your mother.”
“Alright.”, replied Seth and they spent a few more minutes together, before getting dressed and going their separate ways.
Seth walked to his class, albeit a little late, and found the girls naked in the training room. Smiling at them, he said: “I have a few things to take care of today, so I will need you to train normally for today.”
“Also, try to get more used to each other’s energies and add Henrietta into the mix of your mock team battles.”
Seeing them nod, Seth spent a few more minutes proposing some training plans to them before leaving the academy altogether and heading into the city. Walking its noisy streets, full of people cleaning the last night’s snow, he made his way towards the depths of the middle ring.
Arriving in front of the library, he smiled lightly and made his way inside. There, he found Aleena sitting on a couch, her body covered by a thick blanket while reading through one book he left her.
The sound of footsteps made her frown as she lifted her eyes from the book, only for her frown to be replaced by surprise once she noticed it was Seth.
Sitting up, she placed her book on the table and pulled on the corners of her blanket to not let it fall off as she said with a small bow: “Ascended Seth.”
Seth smiled and nodded towards her before saying: “Sorry about not giving you any new books for a while. I’ve been out of the city.”
Aleena nodded and looked at his hands, only for her face to show a small trace of disappointment when she noticed he was not carrying any new books on him today.
Chuckling at her reaction, Seth sat down on a small chair and motioned for her to do as well. Once Aleena sat down, he said: “I came here today to ask you if you still want to become an ascended.”
Aleena smiled wryly and shook her head: “I’m too old now, having already passed the age at which the body could easily absorb the surrounding energy. I also failed to make my source once and I still get pain in my heart sometimes. Thank you for the offer, ascended Seth, but I’m happy just being here, surrounded by my books.”
“What if I could guarantee that you will be successful in creating your source this time?”
Aleena sighed and pondered for a while before shaking her head again. “I already gave up on that path. I would appreciate it if you brought me more books to read, but to create a source is impossible.”
Seth could see the clouded look in her eyes and chuckled slightly.
“You already know, don’t you?”
Aleena looked at him with a raised eyebrow and asked: “What does ascended Seth mean by that?”
“That you don’t have long left to live.”, replied Seth.
“I do.” Replied Aleena with a resigned smile. “I once visited a healer once my heart started hurting, and he told me that other fallen encountered this problem. The closer one got to ascending, the more damage a collapsed source would cause to their bodies.”
“Most would live, but apparently I was very close to actually succeeding, this in turn giving me no chance to live on anymore. Quite ironic, don’t you think? I couldn’t ascend, but I was just gifted enough to kill myself.”
‘Quite strong.’, commented Seth once he noticed that not a single tear escaped her eyes and her expression was just as tranquil as before.
Seth sighed and created two books of earth theory out of midair, as well as two novels.
Ignoring her surprised look, he said: “Two of these contain earth energy theory, while the other two are just the usual stories I know you enjoy. Read them all and we’ll speak again once you’re done.”
Aleena looked at the four books before asking: “What purpose would learning theory serve now?”
“You’ll see when you read them. I have to go now, Miss Aleena. See you soon and don’t be so quick to give up on yourself.” Once his words ended, he stood back up and headed for the exit.
Aleena followed him with her eyes until he was out of the library before picking up one novel from the table. She held no interest in earth theory any longer.
Seth wandered through the middle ring while contemplating his plans.
‘How are the simulations going?’
<Besides a strength take over, the best way would be to frame the royal family and make them lose the trust of the people. Host could slowly instill a revolt of the people, which would avoid a direct confrontation with Iris Golden. This plan is the most consuming and the surrounding kingdoms would complete the alliance before the plan succeeds.>
<Another way would be to marry the royal princess Henrietta and eliminate the other members of the royal family silently, maybe by using a third party. This would make the throne fall into the princess’ arms and, as her spouse, the kingdom’s law will crown you king.>
‘Hmm, I don’t have time to wait and stage a citizen revolt, but I can also ruin the royal family’s name for good measure. Marrying Henrietta would also give me a decent claim on the throne. With the claim from the princess, I could make someone do the dirty work of wiping everyone else. Most viable target to play scapegoat?’
<… Necros. The people hate him hard enough to not support his claim to the throne; eliminating him after would be seen as a heroic deed.>
‘Yeah, but Necros is not that dumb to go against the royals. He knows Iris could kill him with a swipe of her hand. What level is he at now?’
<Earth, peak fifth shell.>
‘Troublesome indeed. If I were to go with this plan, I need to entice Necros enough to make him turn against the royal family while also making sure Iris is out of the city. With everything that happened lately, there is no way she’ll abandon the royals with me in here…’
‘Run a simulation on this plan and give me an estimated time to completion.’
<….>
<….>
<….>
<Between two and five years, but if you don’t succeed in three years, the other kingdoms will succeed in their attack on the kingdom.>
‘Too long. Also, too many things that could get wrong. There’s also Henrietta, who I have to consider. Killing her entire family would also break the poor girl’s heart. She might not hold any powerful feelings for them, but they are still her family.’
<Taking into consideration both Iris and Henrietta’s feelings would rend the takeover almost impossible.>
‘So much trouble…’
<If I may ask, why is host so determined to start with the Oath kingdom?>
‘What do you mean?’
<Starting with the Blood kingdom will make for an easy takeover. You will also weaken the strength of the surrounding enemies and could even sign a truce with Oath by requesting Henrietta’s hand. To reduce the number of enemies, the king will accept.>
‘They would indeed make an easy target, but developing that place will not be easy. Also, all the work I’ve been doing here would be lost.’
<It will still be easier than taking over this kingdom with all the things constricting you now. You can also protect Oath and grow in strength until they would have no choice but to bow to you themselves. This option will give you what you need the most at the moment, time.>
Seth spent five hours walking in a circle in the middle ring of the city, slowly debating the system’s suggestion. Finding the idea more endearing by the second, he figured he might as well try it. The system was right, taking over the Oath kingdom was too hard with all the constraints he put on himself, but Blood was indeed an easy target.
‘Fine, I’ll try it, but I first need to leave this kingdom and take everyone with me. Make me a list to make sure I won’t forget anything and prepare a departure plan.’
A list of tasks quickly started appearing in Seth’s sight.
<Acknowledged.>
<Top priority objectives>
<Convincing Maya to leave with host.>
<Convincing parents to leave with host.>
<Convincing all potential harem candidates to leave with host.>
<Convincing all the families of host’s students to leave with host.>
<Acquisition of a fourth shell earth ascended to help with the barren land.>
<Assuring discrete desertion while avoiding enemy spies.>
<Getting hold of a way of travel to the far south.>
<Medium priority objectives>
<Robbing Necros for energy vials.>
<Threatening the king to not move against the Blood Kingdom>
<Low priority objectives.>
<Convincing Cain to join host’s order>
<Collecting a large amount of food>
<Adding a large amount of gold to the Oath kingdom’s treasury>
“That’s quite a lot of work to be done…” muttered Seth with a pensive look. With the possible acceleration of the alliance development, he needed to start as quickly as possible.
Already having decided to follow this new plan, he had no more time to lose walking through the city. With this thought in mind, he turned around and started heading back toward the academy.
