9 – Humble Beginnings
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Venice had disappeared overnight. After investigation, it was found that several guards had been bribed to open the city's southern gates at night, who were promptly jailed. Even so, it did not change the fact that Venice, whose engagement had just been announced, was gone.

The searching parties the Viscount had sent out all returned empty-handed, a fact that infuriated him to no end. In his anger, the Viscount disavowed her, severing all ties and removing Venice from the Ermius family lineage. 

Calun wasn’t worried about her safety because Venice was clever enough to have planned her departure in advance. He was confident that, no matter where she ended up, Venice would be able to prevail; she was simply that type of person. However, he still had mixed emotions.

In his previous life in the Apocalypse, Calun had defended the refuge he was in charge of until his last breath. Even when annihilation was certain and the last of the upper-class fled to the few remaining research bases in the far north, he had stayed behind.

Absolute devotion was both a prerequisite and a consequence of working as a sub-administrator. 

He was disappointed because Venice’s actions were tantamount to abandoning Larmes, but was also glad that she could escape from her sufferings. It was a strange feeling, one that he had never felt in his previous body. He attributed it to the previous owner’s subconsciousness.

 

In the city hall, Calun walked down a corridor, followed by Elliot. They were both holding a stack of documents that had been retrieved from Venice’s now-deserted room. All of them had to be sorted and reexamined, since the person that was in charge of them was no longer there. Occasionally, a clerk or scribe would pass by them, nodding their head in greetings.

Arriving at a sturdy wooden door, Calun took out an iron key and unlocked it, oiled hinges only making the barest of sounds. It was the largest office in the building, previously belonging to Venice. From now on, this office would be his. Likewise, those employed at the city hall would be under his orders, since both the Viscount and Klaes seldom visited.

The Viscount gave no explanations to the workers at the city hall regarding Venice’s disappearance, but it was implicit that Calun would take over her role. His disregard for Venice’s work was as blatant as his penchant for alcoholism.

Inside, the office room was quite spacious, albeit dark and musty. Calun propped the door open and set the papers down on the desk. He gestured for Elliot to do the same, who was looking around curiously at the various trinkets in the room.

Back when Calun had visited the orphanage to check on the children’s progress, he was surprised at the speed of Elliot’s learning. He had only spent a month studying the books Calun delivered to the orphanage and was not only literate, but proficient in basic mathematics and economics as well. Having found such a talent right underneath his nose, Calun wanted to develop Elliot’s skills properly.

Asking him to handle the orphanage’s affairs was more for his experience than anything else. If such a talented person ended up as a mere accountant, Calun’s heart would undoubtedly break. Thus, he had brought Elliot out to the city hall in order to familiarize him with the territory’s workings.

 

“Can you open the curtains?” Since the room was stuffy, Calun would’ve liked to open the windows as well, but was afraid that the breeze would cause a mess of the neatly stacked papers.

Elliot nodded and stepped to the other side of the room, opening the shades. Spring’s sunlight flooded in and illuminated the dust particles floating in the air. 

Although it might seem impossible to read through all the papers at a first glance, Calun was confident he could finish them all in four or five days. His processing speed was quite high, after all.

He sat down at the office’s main desk and cleared some space to work in. Several spare inkstones and quills were stored in the drawers, but Calun had no intention of using them. He drew out a magic pen from his jacket, fine etching running along its surface. He had ordered a few hollowed shells a week ago, but the workmanship was a little rough since the blacksmith had never made such an item before.

The pen was an enchanted object that was simple to engrave, and Calun had made and sold several of them to traveling merchants that had passed by. 

Like most cities, Larmes had branches for both the Merchant's guild and an Adventurer's guild. Unfortunately, both buildings were semi-deserted since there were few commodities after the quarries were mined out and little demand for mercenaries.

Calun made a mental note to visit both guilds at a later date before diving into the work at hand. Tax reports and payrolls, bandit reports and criminal sentences, as well as other miscellaneous issues. They were divided by their importance and ordered by their dates. Calun started with the stack closest to him, the top of which was a report of the grain taxes from the surrounding hamlets.

Soon, the room was immersed with the sound of scratching and shuffling of papers as both Calun and Elliot focused on their tasks. Elliot was going through some of the less important files with a regular quill and would ask a question every now and then. Calun would glance at the paper before giving a short answer. Elliot only needed a sentence or two from Calun to resolve his issues, which allowed the two to go through the papers at a brisk pace.

 

Calun finished looking over a request for additional soldiers to patrol a nearby village suffering from wolf attacks and signed it. It would be received by one of the clerks, who would then send the notice to the city captain. 

Leaning back in the chair, Calun stretched out his shoulders when one of the papers caught his eye. It was a regular scouting report that detailed an increase in orcs lurking around some of the bordering territories in the north. Such creatures did not exist in his previous life, but Calun had seen several mentions of them in the books he read. 

Orcs were a semi-intelligent race that lived in independent clans in the far north, isolated from the continent’s major powers. Though they posed no significant threat, they were still a level more dangerous than wolf packs.

“Master Calun.” 

His thoughts were interrupted by Elliot, who handed a paper to him. It was on the bandits that had been brought back during his excursion and sentenced to drudgery. With little else for them to do, Calun had sent them back to the quarries, turning the bandit’s main base into a makeshift labor camp, supervised by a group of soldiers. 

Even if there was no more silver to be found, there were still other, less valuable, metals. This time, they had chanced upon an iron vein. It wasn’t silver, but it was still something. Perhaps they would even be able to find a coal deposit in the future, but Calun didn’t pin his hopes on it. 

The more conductive a metal was, the more efficient it was at transmitting mana. Likewise, a gemstone's ability to store mana was correlated to its hardness and size. The grade and potential of enchanted equipment depended on all these characteristics, as well as how accurate the engraving was.

Either way, there was still enough silver ore seized from the bandits that Calun didn’t have to worry about running out of material for a year or two. His main obstacles were time constraints and a lack of larger gemstones for more complicated artifacts. Without gems, Calun was limited to low-grade equipment, like the ring enchanted with Serenity or the magic pen, both of which relied on absorbing ambient mana.

As for the iron ore, Calun decided to send it to the blacksmith to turn into swords and spears rather than storing or selling it. He wasn’t short of money and having the ore sit in a warehouse was a waste. Klaes had also mentioned to him that the Randell City Lord was drafting an excessive amount of conscripts. In any case, it was always better to be well prepared.

There was a sudden sound in the room, drawing Calun’s attention. He looked up in confusion, turning towards Elliot. Was that…?

“Er, sorry.” Elliot apologized with a blush. “I haven’t eaten in a while.”

“Ah.” It was only then that Calun realized that they had been working for quite some time. Unwittingly, several hours had passed by since they arrived without him noticing.

“Alright. There are a few restaurants nearby we can go to.” Calun gathered the papers that he had gone through and stood up. Gesturing for Elliot to open the door, he walked into the hallway. “Let’s go drop these off first.”

On the way to the entrance, Calun listened to Elliot comment on some of the reports he had read. His explanations were far more insightful than what Klaes or the Viscount could come up with, not that those two bothered reading reports anyways. Calun found himself nodding along in approval.

 

Arriving at the main desk, Calun and Elliot handed the papers to the receptionist, a middle-aged man with a hawkish nose. Returning his polite greeting, Calun stepped outside while thinking about what to get. There was an inn nearby that many of the city hall workers frequented during lunch and dinner, so he decided to go there.

Calun walked forward for a few seconds before noticing that Elliot had stopped, staring strangely at the sky. “Elliot?” 

Calun followed his gaze upwards. The moon, although hard to see, was visible in the sky, the silver crescent just barely visible. “What’s wro-”

He paused, eyebrows creasing as a sense of foreboding appeared. At a first glance, it seemed normal, but closer inspection revealed that the moon was dyed a very faint crimson. It was easy to overlook if one wasn’t paying attention.

“It’s red. Why’s it red?” Elliot muttered in confusion. “Master Calun?”

“I don’t know either.” Calun shook his head. He didn’t remember any books mentioning the moon being strangely colored that he had read so far. “Maybe the temple priest knows.”

“Oh.” Elliot shook himself out of the daze before catching up to him. “Master Calun, where are we headed?”

“There’s an inn nearby. We can go get some food there.”

There was another sound from Elliot’s abdomen, and he blushed again.

"Okay."

 

-

 

Inside a massive cathedral, light shone through the stained glass and cast mesmerizing patterns on the stone floor below. Large murals decorated the spacious hall, painted directly on the walls and ceiling. Its splendor could only be matched by the roaring sun; such was the accumulation of generations of tribute to the first church of light.

As impressive as it was, the lady hurrying down the corridor took no notice of it, having gone through the hallway countless times. Biting her lips in anxiety, she pushed open the door to one of the residential rooms. Inside was a man clothed in the traditional white robes of the church.

“Why have you not informed me of the oracle’s revelation?” Barely managing to lower her voice, the lady scolded the priest. She had bid her time for over a decade, waiting for this opportune moment to strike. After so long, all of her preparations were now being threatened by an untimely message from that old fart! 

“There is no cause for worry, your Highness.” The man’s tone was indifferent. “The prophecy will not affect your plans.”

“What do you mean? It is the third Calamity.” She emphasized the word angrily. “The entire nation will be in an uproar!”

“Do not be so impatient.” His face remained unchanging. “The oracle has also divined its location. Its arrival will be on the eastern continent.”

“The eastern continent?” The woman stopped pacing around the room. “Then…?”

“Yes, your Highness.” The man continued in monotone. “All contact between the continents has been cut off since the first Calamity. Until the great leviathan is slain, the happenings of other continents are of no importance to us.”

“Ah. I see.” At his words, the lady visibly relaxed. “It seems I was overly anxious.”

“Yes, your Highness.” The man nodded in affirmation. “Fret not. Time alone will tell the fruits of your labor.”

 

“Time tells all.”

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