Chapter 21 – descent to the merchant state

 

After we descended to the merchant state we were met with a chubby middle-aged man. “Welcome brave hero’s; thank you for accepting our summons please come this way to a more comfortable room.” Before we arrived Athena gave a priestess in the capital's temple a fake hero summoning ritual Aura created. It was pretty funny since she set it up to have fancy lighting effects. She was pretty impressed especially since it only took her a few minutes to create.

 

We entered a small meeting room that could fit around 6 people inside. It was quite ordinary however, I spotted a large bookcase on the wall. Books in this world are still quite expensive so this single bookcase would be worth a small fortune. Near a weirdly colored desk were three people waiting. After they noticed us they got up and gave us a slight bow. “Welcome Hero’s from another world. We are glad you have come to save our world in this time of need.”

 

Even though she was all pumped up and was confidently talking to literal gods she has suddenly become quite meek. After the surprise of the character-changing hero wore off I spoke up since I will be leading our group to defeat the Demon Lord. “Hello I am Nathan Garner and this is Hanna Jackson, we have answered your summons for a hero. The goddess has already explained the situation and has granted her divine blessings  upon us so we can defeat the demon lord, but we will need the support of the surrounding nations.”

 

With a surprised look on their face, they spoke up with an anxious tone. “We are glad to hear that the goddess has explained the situation... We are the four main merchant families and we plan to become your benefactors in this war against the demon lord. Please inform us of anything you may need and we will do our best to accommodate you.”

 

While raising an eyebrow I asked in an accusing voice. “Shouldn’t there be thirteen main households that run the merchant state? This is not time to be divided; I have already obtained a great amount of information from the goddess so we will not be fooled so easily.”

 

With a panicked tone, the chubby man who was the head of state at the moment spoke up to interrupt the three others. “No, no we didn’t mean it that way hero. We meant we would supply extra help with things of great urgency. This is your choice of course and you may choose to refuse if you wish. They just fumbled their words, brave hero.”

 

While attempting to sound somewhat heroic I stated a few demands since they now have their backs to the wall. “Since that’s the case I would gladly accept extra assistance.”

 

The confused Hanna pulled my sleeve in an attempt to get my attention. Thinking it funny with her sudden personality change I decided to tease the tiny hero. Holding up my hand to the men I lean down and whisper in Hanna’s ear. “I decided to give them a bit of a fright to make sure they don’t do anything unsavory to you while I am gone.”

 

After lowering my hand the merchants spoke. “That’s great young hero’s and it's a lovely sight to see you two getting along. So please let us know if you need anything.”

All four men had relieved expressions written all over their faces since they felt like they have just escaped falling off a cliff, but sadly I was not that nice. Since I worked from a young age I learned a few things about dealing with greedy people. It's always better to give them a taste of their own medicine or they will continue to take advantage of you.

 

Letting out a sigh in my head I looked at the head of state I give him a devil's smile. “I do have a few requirements D A V I D, First we will require a somewhat large area for our troops. Secondly, I wish for you to gather all the required daily living essentials for Hero Hanna. My third request is to gather all the main families for a meeting today. Lastly but this one is not a request but a demand.”

 

I knew the men did not tell me their names on purpose to make it more difficult for me to report them to others immediately giving them enough time to perfect their stories. Making my smile larger and releasing a minuscule amount of my aura I spoke in a serious tone. “You better make sure none of you plan anything to her while I am away. The goddess has given me another mission to do by myself for a while. You all better be a where of the consequences if you give her anything or do something unsavory to Hanna.

 

Even though I have released only a tiny amount of my aura since it contains divinity mortals will feel heavy pressure from it. The girls and I have been coming down to the world periodically to gain some levels. My current Status is quite high for the average human level. At the moment they have bottled necked at the average level of 14 for normal citizens. Knights and nobles have levels from 17 to 22 and have a naturally higher growth limit.

 

 

Name: Nathan Garner

Level: 26

Experience Points – 100,155/9,094,947

Classes – [(Unique Hidden) Creation Deity] Lvl 26, Hero Level 26

Titles [(Hidden) Creation Deity], [(Hidden) One who stands above the heavens] [Hero] [High Blessing of Goddess Athena] [Sadist] [Harem Seeker] [Greatest Mage] [Wielder of lost Magic] [Monster Slayer]

HP – 12,600/12,000

MP – 102,600/102,600

Strength- 126

Dexterity- 126

Constitution- 126

Intelligence- 1026

Wisdom- 126

Charisma- 126

 

 

David the chubby head of state nodded quickly. “Yes, yes I understand sir. P PPP please retract your aura.”

 

After retracting my aura we left the meeting room under the guidance of a butler. We were brought to a large lounge area. Hanna and I spoke pleasantly while waiting for everyone to gather. After around an hour, a group of twenty people walked inside.

 

Assuming these are all the heads of the major merchant families Hanna and I prepared to begin this lengthy discussion. After taking their seat on the surrounding sofas we got down to the main topic. I got Hanna to speak since she will have to deal with them in the future.

 

“Hello merchant heads, I am the hero Hanna. We were the hero’s summoned.”

A man with fancy clothing with wrinkles all over his face spoke up. “We are glad to see mighty heroes like yourself. I am John Fitmore the new head of state. I would like to apologize for the mistake of the four earlier. David the former head of state has resigned and I have taken over his role. I would like to say that your entire previous requests are being prepared immediately.”

 

“That’s fine and thank you for your prudence.”

 

After half a day of talks, we have discovered they had prepared troops of around two hundred to be under our direct control. They wish for us to do some basic assessment to understand our skills. I had informed them that Hanna would require training and they have assigned a bunch of different instructors. After informing them I had to leave for a few days to perform a task none of them had objections. I assume the former head of state David House has informed them of my power already.

 

After we left I did some basic assessments with some knights and mages. I had beaten the knight and mages pretty easily however, the same could not be said for Hanna who has never done any form of combat training. Her stats at level 1 might be high however, she has the skill and stat gaps with the knights and mages who are around level 19.

 

 

 Name: Hanna Jackson

Level: 1

Experience Points - 0/100

Classes – Hero Level 1

Titles [High Blessing of Goddess Athena]

HP – 2,500/2,500

MP – 2,500/2,500

Strength- 25

Dexterity- 25

Constitution- 25

Intelligence- 25

Wisdom- 25

Charisma- 25

[Author Note- Hero’s will gain a stat point on each of their four most used stats upon leveling hero class.]

 

 

I had beaten the knights pretty easily due to my high stats however, my skill with the sword and overall mana control were still lacking compared to theirs due to my lack of sparring. I will train with them to improve my skill. I will need to find a way to lower my stats while training because holding back makes it quite hard to practice.

 

I had to always worry in case I accidentally used too much power and injured someone. Aura had me learn to control my strength, however when you are attempting to learn how to fight it makes it impossible not to easily counter your opponent. It is like competing against a child in a sport. That child might have more skill but you are still easily able to beat them due to you having so many advantages over them.

 

After we finished with the training I left Hanna in the room and I went to speak to the butler to get a carriage out of the city. Instead of a horse, they used something similar to a giant donkey. It was a sort of monster they had managed to tame at some point. I planned to look into it before I returned from the meeting.

 

Before I left I asked Hanna to introduce herself to the soldiers under our command and work out the place they will be granting us to build a base while we are subjugating the demon lord. I asked her to do this so people would not take her too lightly since she will be living in this world from now on.

 

After leaving the carriage I headed towards a forest infested with monsters. Apparently, it was too difficult to fully clear so they keep the monsters at bay by using adventures to hunt them.

 

With a sudden flash of light, I was back inside my divine realm. I was surprised to see Aura, Athena, and Freya all dressed up. I was shocked since they all looked beautiful. Aura wore a pink thrilled dress with a white cardigan, while Freya and Athena both wore a similar outfit. Athena had a white dress with a black cardigan while Freya wore a red dress with no cardigan due to her wings. Luckily they had a dress with a partially open back so she could have her wings go through it.

 

With a happy skip, Aura walked over to me. “Did we make your heart skip a beat Darling?”

 

With a slightly red face, I answered honestly. “Yes it did, I might have to poke some eyes out if any other man decided to look at you girls.”

 

With a happy chuckle, she pushed me towards the others while acting a bit shy. Aura has been reading quite a few web novels from our previous world so she has been learning to act coquettishly, but she always acts shy if I tell her my honest opinion in front of everyone though.

 

 Aura had the elves create some clothing for all of us at some point. They had to alter one to fit Freya but apparently, she had a similar body type to Athena so it was just some minor adjustments.

 

 

 

Side story- Goddess of the Earth Gaea’s Divine Diary part 4

 

Today is New Year but my daughter is no were to be seen. She had gone out with her crush last night to watch the fireworks and she had come home quite late. I had snuck into her room and found her diary. I like to read her diary since it's always so cute. She had written about her feelings for that mortal boy on over half the pages. Even though Zeus and I can see pretty much anything we wish in this world we have a rule not to use our powers to spy inside her room. I do periodically look through her stuff but I'm sure most parents do though. If she has anything she doesn’t wish for me to see she better make sure that she learns to hide it where I am unable to find it.

 

I always knew she had a crush on him but in her most recent diary entry, she wrote that she loved Nathan. This was the first time she wrote that directly. Before this, I assume she was not quite sure what her feelings for him were. I am starting to feel bad for the boy due to her elven nature but this might be a happy thing for the boy who has always been shunned by the people around him.

 

When Aura first hung around the boy we did some research into him to make sure he was not a bad character, but I was shocked. Even though he was quite young he had gone through a lot. His older sister was considered a genius, by the time she was four she could write and read way above the children her age. By the time she was ten, she was able to solve highly difficult math formulas. Now she is fourteen and she has just started university by skipping several years in school.

 

The bastard known as Nathan was considered the shame of the family even though they never gave him a chance. Nathan's father had an Affair and she gave birth to him. His wife was outraged but they paid off the woman and they took Nathan in hoping he would become a genius as well. His sister was happy to have a sibling after many years of being an only child. She never knew Nathan was a child from her father's affair and her mother always hated him. She was always told by her mother that he was stupid and she shouldn't associate with him even though she wished to. Even though the girl was a genius she still had far too much trust in her parents and couldn’t see through their lies.

 

When he had grown up a bit his father realized he was not as gifted as their daughter and his adopted mother through a fit due to him distracting their daughter. They decided to let the boy move back home and they would send money to his father’s mother. She was an elderly woman who would happily look after Nathan. She would often spend time with him but as the years past his parents would begin to send less and less money for the boys living expenses. They would rarely visit but when they did it was to make sure Nathan was still alive since they didn't want any trouble from the government.

 

While looking at this I was disgusted at parents that could do this to their child. The worst part was that the boy was never stupid. He never had talent in maths and never excelled in most of his studies. That was expected due to his situation, but he had a skill like no other. He was extremely good at understanding his surroundings and he was able to think out of the box even at a young age. He had strong willpower that even surprised me.

 

When his grandmother became ill while he was eleven he began to earn money any way he could so he was able to help provide for her. He would buy things cheaply and then sell them at a profit anywhere he could. He never did anything illegal and would happily take all the insults many kids his age would give him for being a poor weirdo. He always kept a smile on his face even though he felt pain just so his grandmother wouldn’t worry for him.

 

They must have just been fools not to see his talents for what they were. This is the issue with most short-lived races. They can never look towards the future, but I went off topic a bit.

 

But I'm glad these two met. Both of them have had many hardships while growing up. Aura had pointy ears due to her being an elf. This led to many children her age calling her names like a demon. I have to stop Zeus from sending a thunderbolt down. Even though I hate to see her go through this it is a necessary thing for her to get used to. Since we are immortal she will have to go through many hardships even worse than this including watching everyone she once knew to fade into dust. Our faction is like all others filled with conflict and strife. She will one day be brought into this world and I want her to be prepared since Zeus may not always be able to solve her problems for her. But at least with this boy at her side, she will never be alone. I understand they are still young but I doubt they will separate in the future due to both of their natures. Both are extremely loyal. Aura's nature is because she is an elf and Nathan is due to his environment.

 

They both cherish the ones close to them. This is their biggest advantage in life and I will continue to push for both of them to be together. After putting the diary back in Aura's room I looked at the smiling elf girl with a happy grin.

 

I walked to the window and used some mana to create fireworks that lit up the sky. I wished for them to have a happy new year.

 

 

Author note

I wish everyone a happy new year. I hope everyone had a good time during the holidays and comment down below on your new year resolutions you are 100% going to keep ;)!