Simula Arka - Chapter 10

[In Kisunei] "Right then. I'll try to make it as simple as possible."

"Okay, please take care of me."

"Right, can you tell me about yourself?"

"Me? Well..." Isaiah paused as he tried to find which word to use.

"Fufu, you don't really have to be detailed you know," Senki said as she drank tea.

"..."

Isaiah was more confused with what Senki said.

"No need for, details."

"Ahhh." 'I don't really understand, but I get what she means, I can just be general. Alright."

"I am a, I'm a man, yes, a man, I'm 18, you?"

"I am a woman, I'm 17."

"Ahh, okay." Isaiah thought for a while before continuing. "I am beautiful. Just like you."

"Haha, thank you." Senki puffed her cheeks as she laughed.

"I like reading books." Isaiah raised a book. "But I get bored reading them."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know as well?|

Then a brief moment of silence as Isaiah ran out of words and also didn't know what to say to continue on.

Sipp

"Anyway, can you tell me, about this, this, this place?" (Isaiah had trouble trying to say place)

"About this place? Hmmm, let see." At the sudden request, Senzuki quickly turned aside to take the family map and unfurled it at the table.

"Here, us." She said pointing to one of the smaller dots at the eastern coast. The map was a simple hand-drawn one, yet filled with a lot of details and information.

"Mhm." 'They don't have balloons yet? I could probably sell maps if needed.'

"And here." She pointed slightly west of the village's location "Is the Great forest of Muramasa where the legendary katana, Muramasa apparently is, but nobody ever found it."

'The legendary sword Muramasa, a demon sword with great powers. As far as I could remember, it exists here too.' Now for the more important question.

"Are there any magical creatures here?"

"Magic beast? Oh, you mean wild beast? No, only up north you could see them, the old lord you see killed them all, for safety."

Isaiah couldn't really understand her completely but he could put 2 and 2 together to make sense out of what he could translate.

"I see, interesting."

Senki then continued on with her explanation, which for some reason, she enjoyed a lot.

Inside the Great Forest of Muramasa, monsters once lived but after the old lord hunted them all down, the highway was extended towards that area, connecting multiple villages and saving days worth of walking thus increasing trade. Although it is now free from any monsters, bandits became very common in this area since merchants tend to use this road often, and apparently, a few villagers have gone missing while traversing inside.

What is worse is that the only freshwater source for the villagers is the Great Blue River which runs deep into the forest, and which is guarded by the bandits.

"And the bandits? They are still there?"

"Mhm, father had asked for help, but the lord has still to answer," Senki said as she explained their plight.

Luckily for them, the sky had been kind enough and rain was plenty, helping their crops and giving them water, but it was only temporary, soon they will have to pay the bandits again for safe passage to collect enough water.

"Why not, you know." Isaiah asked, 'punching' the air.

"We can't. Father used to be a great warrior but now he could barely fight against one of the younger ones and our soldiers were all taken by our lord to fight in his wars."

"Ahhh." A dumbfounded look rose from Isaiah's face as he tried to understand what she just said, at this, Senki chuckled and simply shook his hand. "Nevermind."

"Mhm." Isaiah placed his hand under his chin as his brain raced to find methods on how to solve this. 'If I could somehow help them with this, then maybe Oji-san would give me a place to stay here, or allow me to move on?'

"Shall we continue?"

"Right right, sorry, where were we?"

And thus, Senzuki continued on teaching Isaiah the other aspects of the villages, their names, locations, and what they do.

And so for how long has it been?

"Mhhhhh." Isaiah stretched his body as his back ached greatly from sitting up for a long time.

"Sorry for the very long talk."

"No no, its alright, I've learned many."

"I see."

Senzuki then rolled the map back, but before she could place it back, Isaiah offered. "Let me." Lifting both his fingers, he made the map float by itself and landed softly on top of the shelf where it originally belonged.

"Awesome." Senki praised Isaiah.

"Thank you, I still need to learn much." Isaiah was really trying to show off but tried to put on airs.

"Still, it's amazing."

Isaiah smiled then stood up and helped Senki place the cups back to the tray.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

"Right, I would be back for dinner, you can stay here if you want or go back to your room."

"Mhm, ahh, Senki-san,"

"Hmm?"

"You want me to help you bring those dishes back?"

"Ah, no no, it's alright."

"Please, I insist."

"No no, it's my duty, there is no need."

"Alright. Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Senki bowed once, prompting Isaiah to bow as well, before leaving.

"Now then." Isaiah paced around the room to stimulate his aching legs. 'Never knew that learning a language was this easy, no wonder my little brother could do it.'

Despite having studied only for a few hours, Isaiah was surprised at the progress he showed as he was able to converse, albeit not too much, with Senki.

'Is it because I watch anime a lot before, or is it because I am just good.' Isaiah wondered, again, one thing he was well known for is for having a sharp memory and memorizing stuff was as easy as eating cake for Isaiah, who could memorize books entirely if he tried, and try he did with the dictionary.

'Maybe it's one of my hidden talents or skills in the status page.'

*beep*

===================================

Name: Isaiah

Level: 14

HP: 1,448

MP: 362

STR: 24

AGI: 24

INT: 74

Abilities (Passive)

Blue Stat (LVL 2)

Mana Manipulation (LVL 1)

Skills (Active)

Manipulation (manipulation)

Electric (creation)

Taming (LVL 1)

==================================

Isaiah tried to find the 'Language Comprehension,' but there were none in his sparsely populated skill sets.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

'Wait a minute, why am I overthinking about this things. If it works, it works. No need to complain if it works.'

Though finding out why it works might help.

Isaiah furiously tapped his leg as he tried to satisfy his mind with other theories but it was all in vain. In short, Isaiah decided to end his language comprehension study and decided to read other books when Yumi suddenly arrived.

[In English/Human Language] "Ohayo."

"Ahh, hello Yumi-san. What took you long?"

"Hmm? Ahh, I help bring water."

"Help bring water to where?"

"From storehouse to houses."

'So they were transferring stored water to homes' "I see, but why did you join?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Why you, a girl, joined on carrying? Is there a problem with the men here?"

Yumi nodded, "The Lord has been taking the fathers and brothers for the army."

"There is a war going on?"

"No, a war happens ago, not now, but the lord needs more men. I heard a new war coming."

"Ayayay. Sounds bad,"

"Mhm nothing we can do, by the way, are you done reading?" Yumi said pointing to the dictionary.

"Oh yes, yes. I am done reading, my mind hurts for now so I'll go ahead and read another."

"Hmm, okay," Yumi said as she took the book from Isaiah and began reading it.

'Right' Isaiah stretched his hand out and the book titled 'Kisunean Empire' flew towards his hand.

"Neh Yumi."

"Hmmm?"

"About this book, have you read this before?"

"A little."

"I see, is it good?"

"Why don't you read it?" Yumi suggested.

"Right, okay." Isaiah agreed as he scratched the back of his head.

Isaiah opened the book and the first thing he noticed was that the author was not a kitsune, despite writing about their empire.

'Huh? But that's great at least there'll be no bias or anything, maybe.'

The first paragraph was talking about power.

'Mankind has long since searched for power. In its wake, countless people die, just so one could rule over them all. But in the end, mankind could never satisfy its lust for more power.'

Isaiah placed his hand under his chin as he read short accounts of these 'heroes' who managed to change the world through their strength.

'Power doesn't have a definite form and it could be anything. They say wealth is power, knowledge is power, influence is power, and some, simply power is power. But in the end, the need for more power never ends, to the point that the supply of power becomes lacking.'

And thus, mankind seeks to conquer each other to obtain whatever supply of power remains.

There are plenty of methods to conquer one another, money can sometimes purchase loyalty, but there is always a limit, seducing your enemies with sweet words and promises can also be used to obtain kingdoms, but in the end, the most commonly used method is strength.

Defeating someone through sheer physical prowess is the most common method of conquering others, as well as the most preferred.

But there are limits to that, power is never equally or evenly distributed, and even if you have conquered using your strength, whos to say that your heir will have the same? And so mankind who prefers the conventional method has sought more ways to strengthen themselves.

Magic, which existed before time even began is the standard for gauging one's strength. But due to its unreliability, the fact that not everyone has it, others have sought for other methods.

Then weapons were invented.

No one knew who invented the first weapons, but it revolutionized warfare as a whole, swords, shields, spears, knives, spears, maces, bows, axes and the katanas were invented and now those without magic could fight in an even field against those who had. But then it presented another problem.

'What use is a powerful weapon, when the human body can't use it to its full potential.' A human isn't perfect in the first place, they do have limits.

And so, the history of the Kitsunes began.

The Kisunean Empire, along with the other beastmen races began about 385 years ago when a small group of humans was once researching for theories and methods to increase their individual strength. They once belonged to the Religious Group known as The Seers whose purpose was to research and develop 'Magic' in particular, magics for land cultivation, fertilization, and other useful methods. Of that group, there were those who were more interested in the destructive power of magic.

In their quest for power, they have developed some of the most advance methods of magic, such as better theories of using certain types, the creation of the Paladin Corps, those who are equally great in sword fighting and magic warfare, and its most magnificent discovery of all, beastmen, human beast hybrids.

The physical limitations of the human body meant that some of their theories and research cannot be practiced and thus in order to further their goals, they needed to ascend the planes of humanity, which could be attained by combining the physical superiority of beast and human intelligence, and so hybrids were born.

And it worked wonders.

The human hybrids proved to be the next step in physical evolution and after years of studying, they found three particular beasts that were the perfect match for their ideals.

The agility of foxes, the strength of lions, and the flexibility and survivability of cats.

And thus, the three beastmen species was born.

But not all was sunshine and rainbows, for some, they found this unfair, unethical, and outright disgusting. The most vocal of these complaints came from the church itself.

'There is a reason why humans look like this! We are made in the image of our Creator!'

But the group did not stop, they continued on with their research and development even when the church had excommunicated them and cut off their support. And soon, their numbers grew even more.

This was slowly becoming a threat, and unable to ignore this, Pope Clef of Eleven had begun the first crusade.

A war had thus, broke out, a very bloody war. The Beastmen had formed a tri-kingdom in the eastern part of the continent, land which belonged to the Franco States, and mankind sought to take back those territories and eliminate the curse that plagued their lands.

But the Beastmen, they were made as the perfect weapon, and they rocked the world. Despite outnumbering them 10 to 1, mankind's armies were being decimated left and right as if they were nothing, they had forgotten what purpose that beastmen were created.

The tide of war had turned and now, mankind was in danger of being wiped out instead, but a miracle was born. Six of God's chosen, the most powerful magicians at that time, joined the fight and now they were on even terms.

Years had passed and the war still dragged on, some were homesick others were tired, plenty however was dead. Then, change, a new pope had risen, Clef of Twelve, and he wanted the war to end.

'We no longer need to fight.' He said. 'Our men are weary and weak, they no longer wish to fight on. Let us return home, we have already purged those who were born out of impure means, those that lived are the second generations, born out of the same species.'

In the end, they were all humans, just slightly different. All three species still had human features, the only changes they had were the tail and their ears.

And thus, the 'Bloody Crusade' had ended, mankind and beastmen had formed an agreement, in exchange for peace and the lands which they now lived, beastmen are never to contact mankind ever again.

This, however, did not live well with one of God's chosen, the White Magician Le'cler, and thus, she unleashed a powerful curse in where beastmen's children will never obtain an affinity for magic.

Chapter 10 Fin...