Chapter 25: Realization

 

"Good, that's what I was thinking too. If the worst comes to worst, I would allow the activation of the city barrier, even if it means revealing the secret of this city to the world. They wouldn't get anything from here anyway." My Father said as he checked the situation of everyone in the mansion.

"Great, it seems like everyone is not affected by it." He said in relief after seeing that all our staffs were still acting normal.

"It's because Ben gave them some soup he made. He claims that it would greatly help people to calm down after taking a sip of it." as I led him towards the kitchen.

"Ben made something like that? How and where did he learn it? At the same time, is it really effective?" Father ask, intrigued.

"Yes, it's effective. I also took a bowl of that soup and it helped me to calm myself. Ben said that he learned the recipe for this soup from a potion master." 

"Then do we still have a lot of it? If it's really effective as what you say, then that would help us a lot in restoring the order in the city." 

"You will be surprised by what the people are doing right now, especially those people who come from outside the city. They are the worst, they won't even listen to any of our soldiers," grumbled my father, still angry about what he saw in the city on his way back.

"That's why Michael was forced to knock them unconscious. It's a great thing we arrive on time. It seems like he was having troubles keeping everything under control." He said seriously to me before we stopped and opened the door to the kitchen.

"Lord Hubert, Master Lucas" said by Ben and Gaspar in surprise upon seeing us entered the kitchen.

"Are you guys done with the preparation of the herbal soup? Father would like to take it back to the city. He said that the people there are going wild. " I said in an anxious voice, hoping that they were able to finish the soup in time.

"Yes, of course, the pot of soup is almost done, were just need to transfer it to another container and were done." Ben said in a weird manner.

"Is everything okay, Ben? You seem to be acting a bit strange. Is there something wrong?" I asked him, noticing that something seemed off about him.

""Ha? Oh no, Master Lucas the potion master told me that this is one of the side effect of cooking too much of this herb. He said that the smell of this herb can help the body to relax the without even consuming it" Ben explained.

 

Oh my, Is this herb similar to narcotics that are found on Earth? I should probably restrict its use to prevent everyone in Florentine city from becoming addicted and dependent on it

"OK, but I think you should tone down the usage of this herbs it might cause some side effects that we didn't know." I suggest with a concerned tone.

"Yes of course Master Lucas, the potion master himself has strictly warned me about the abusive use of this herbs, because it can leave someone paralyzed if too much herbs was put into the soup. But don't worry Master Lucas, I strictly watched Mr. Gaspar while he was preparing his portion of soup and he followed all the necessary procedures so there should be nothing wrong with it." Ben replied in a carefree manner as he was still under the spell of this calming herb.

"That's sounds dangerous, but may I know the name of the herbs that you just used in this soup?" 

"It's called manabiss young master." Ben uttered as he show me a sample of the herbs.

"Hey! isn't this poisonous?" I exclaimed in shock.

"Well, basically yes but the leaves of this plants is not, and only has some mild side effects." Ben answered to me quickly while occupied with his own pot of soup.

"I think it's really effective look at him Lucas." Father said, pointing to the other side of the kitchen.

There We saw Gaspar, who was acting like his usual self. He was calmly stirring the pot quietly, unlike when he would become overly obsessed with using spices. The old Gaspar is back.

"I think this should be enough serving for everyone in the city, and it would greatly help our knights and soldiers to restore everything back to normal. I'm sure that even Hugo is struggling in maintaining the order in the city right now." Father said quickly as he walked towards the exit of the mansion with a troubled expression on his face.

"Father before you leave there's something important that I need to tell you. It's about our cook, .... Gaspar. He brought something to us, .... and I can't disclose that information over here.... there are too many ears listening." I  whispered to him before he exited the house.

"If it's about Gaspar, then that thing can wait. He looks fine to me anyway, so as long as he didn't do anything wrong, then we could discuss this later. But for now, it's more important to restore the order in the city." Father said before he take off towards the city together with the other soldiers and knights.

"Okay, father. Then I'll wait for your return." I said as I watch his back gets smaller.

"Young master, it will be better if you immediately went back inside the mansion it's not safe here outside." said by sir Daniel.

Daniel Dane Griffin is his full name. One of the member of the ten great pillar knights who works for my father and he is also known as the 3rd strongest knight in the territory.

He was also in charge for the security of the entire mansion, since a normal soldier alone would not be enough to deter those smaller nobles who wants to make trouble during this time.

It is also thanks to him that no outsiders have managed to step inside the mansion premises during the chaos. He alone was able to stop all of them from creating more trouble for us.

""Thank you for your concern, Sir Daniel. Can you tell me what happened earlier in the enchanted forest?" I asked as we walked back inside the mansion.

"We don't really know what happened, but when we were about to enter the enchanted forest, hundreds of low-rank demonic beasts suddenly appeared and attacked us. We had no choice but to retreat in order to defend the city from a possible siege," he said, pausing for a moment as he relived the terrible memory.

"But that is also the time when we heard the presence of several high-ranking magic beasts. We all thought that it is already our end. Thankfully they didn't attack us, and the other weaker magic beasts have also stopped following us when we are far enough from that place." Daniel said solemnly.

"Sir Daniel, do you have any idea why this is happening? It's unheard of for such a large number of magic beasts to gather at the edge of the enchanted forest. There were even a number of rank 5 magic beasts present in that place" 

"My apologies young master, but even I don't have an idea on what's going on either. What's important is they aren't attacking us." He said to me in a relief voice.

"But on our way back here into the city I've seen a lot of people and businesses man that are scampering to walk out of this city. A lot of them are now currently leaving the city in droves and it's causing us a lot of trouble."Daniel said in hurry.

"Some of these people are looting stores before leaving the city, while others are stealing gold coins. Several of your family's industries have also been attacked by mobs, but our soldiers managed to prevent too much destruction," Daniel said angrily, looking at the city covered in smoke and fire.

"This is a disaster."He whispered.

"I also didn't expect that something this big would happen to us. I thought that everything would go well since our business is starting to grow." I said in dismayed.

"Don't worry young master. As long as they don't attack us, we don't have to be afraid, the enchanted forest is still a little far away from this place." assured by Daniel.

"I hope so too, but they have been behaving strangely since the earthquake a few months ago." I unconsciously said as both of us have stopped on our track.

"Do you think this could be connected to the earthquake, young master?" Daniel asked as he looked at me in shock.

"Indeed, There's a good chance that it has something to do with it." I said to him seriously.

"But how could an earthquake make them act like this? That's just an earthquake?" Daniel said in denial.

"But the question is, was it really just an ordinary earthquake?"I ask to him again trying to impose my thoughts to him.

"What do you mean Master Lucas, Do you know something that you aren't telling us?" Daniel said seriously.

"Yes, but I thought it wasn't important at all, so I didn't say anything." I said.

"Then what does the earthquake a few months ago have to do with all of this?" Daniel said still confused by everything.

"During the earthquake, I notice that the light crystal in our hall dimmed its light by a large degree, and we all know, those light crystals don't do this at all." I Immediately explain to him as I recall what I have witnessed that night.

"It's unlikely for the light crystal to suddenly behave like this. There must be other reasons on why it happens."Daniel said while frowning and lost in his thoughts.

"And It seems like it was affected by something we don't know, and I think that same thing has also affected the magic beast in the enchanted forest." I said to him seriously as I explain my idea.

"That is also the same time that magic beast has begun to behave strangely, all of it started that day," Daniel exclaimed.

"Yes absolutely, whatever happen that day has changed something, and it's causing upheaval in the enchanted forest," I said with certainty.

"Then this should be reported immediately to your father, but I can't live the mansion during this time I just hope that the lord comes back immediately," Daniel said quickly.

"It's alright I'll be the one telling him about this and besides I have something more important to report," I said determinedly.

"Then I should go back to my duties,, Master Lucas. Someone might take advantage of this opportunity to infiltrate the mansion," Daniel said as he takes a quick vow before he leaves.

"Then just inform my father once he returns that I'll be waiting for him in his office to discuss something important," 

"Definitely Master Lucas, I also don't want this problem to prolong, we must solve this as soon as possible or find the reason for this disturbance."He said in a grave voice.

"Thank you sir Daniel you may take your leave now. While I'll be staying here, thinking of the possible solution for our current situation." I said to him as he gave me a polite nod.

Now that I was left alone in my room, it is much more comfortable to think about the possible reason and pinpoint where it all begans. So that we can finally find a solution to this problem.

The earthquake hit us 3 months ago, and after that, the magic beasts in the enchanted forest started to exhibit some strange behavior.

At the same time, the Light crystal that is known for its continuous lights suddenly malfunctioned during that night. Then it is possible, that something must have happened behind that earthquake?  However, I don't have a way to confirm all of this junctions.

Whatever it is, since it managed to affect the light crystal and magic beast to behave like that, then it must be something bad.

"Wait, if the Magic beast was affected by this unknown thing. Then what about the demonic creatures behind the northern mountains" I muttered in the air before taking a careful look towards the direction of the northern mountains on the window.

If I think about it. It is also strange that the demonic creatures suddenly gone inactive for a hundred years.

There must also be a reason on why they temporarily stopped attacking the great fortress, for this peace to last this long.

For a long time in the history of mankind, since the establishment of the Great Fortress, the Demonic creatures have never stopped their attack against the fortress. Except a hundred year ago where this peace have all began.

Humans have been protecting that place for thousands of year and nothing have stopped the demonic creatures from besieging it, but why did they suddenly stop. what's the reason?

Something is not right here, I don't know what it is but I have a bad feeling about this.

I knew it! Everyone who has transmigrated would always encounters some problem in their lives, and I guess it is also the same for me.

Aside from this kind of sixth sense that I suddenly gained, nothing seems to be useful in my current situation.

But thank goodness that this body has a good foundation I was able to break through to and transcend into a knight. This power would definitely help me on keeping my self alive on this world.

But even so, It's still not enough to keep me safe. There's still a lot of powerful and strange creatures out there that can instantly kill me so I need to be extra careful with my decisions.

But with only one landmass known on this world and that is the Vreachland continent, and everyone lives in this peace of one giant land mass. It's like the entire humanity is trapped in a cage, together with a vicious monster.

Once the demonic creatures breach that giant fortress everything would be over, and human activities would be restricted to a few places.

This are the thoughts playing in my mind while waiting for my father to return, and I don't even know where to begin explaining all of this.