Next morning I woke up and did my morning routine finishing on my breakfast, strangely I did not see our dad or any of our moms, I asked Dina about this and she told me that my dad and my mothers and aunts were talking in one of the living rooms of our house with the king, and that I was requested to go after my breakfast, I did notice that Dina looked extremely happy for some reason, I could also notice that every one of the servants was in an extremely good humor and working happily.

 

I went into the room and a really big green dome was covering most of the room with just a tiny space to let people enter the room and wait, my dad waited until Dina was out of the room and then he open the dome so I could enter, inside there was a whole family gathering, my 2 uncles were there and that was rare, usually 1 of them was permanently on the fort, my aunt the priestess was there, my uncles wives, and obviously almost taking center stage was the king.

 

- Good Morning Carter – says my dad with a smile on his face.

 

- Good Morning Dad, good morning Everybody, your Majesty – I finish saying while keeping etiquette in mind.

 

- None of that! You are at my level or better, you can drop all the rest of the Etiquette at least while we are in private, and you can call me uncle Kaleus – says the king.

 

- Carter we have been talking at least with all the adults in the room, since she came to visit last night, almost all the people that were in the room yesterday has made a binding Oath to keep the secret, the only ones left are your brothers, sisters and cousins, but we will take care of that later on the day you do not have to worry. – Says my mother.

 

- I just have a question, if it can be answered, why is the king here? I know that you have not invited any other noble or any other person to any of our birthdays, it has always been just the family – I ask.

 

- Let me answer that – Says the king, before my father can talk – every few years I go around and visit most of my vassals at least those that are stuck on perimeter defense, your family is one the 3 duke level houses of the kingdom and all 3 of you are defending the entrances to our kingdom, so the lack of social life is in some way warranted, there are secrets, military secrets to be kept in any of the cities that this families are managing, as it is, yeah there are balls and social life between all levels of our nobility but they happen mostly for now at the capital and the inner ring cities, your grandfather and grandmother who are in the capital are in charge of the social side of the family, if you ever go to the academy you will meet that side of the kingdom. – the king at this point take some water from the table beside him before he continues talking.

 

- This green dome that you see is one of 10 artifacts that was made a long time ago, this artifacts ensure complete privacy from any and all forms of scrying, even if one of the gods wanted to listen to us he would have to have a physical manifestation of his power inside the dome, and only our gods can bypass the protection since the artifacts for privacy were blessed by all the 12 gods and the craftsman that made it wished for our gods to be able to come in if needed, any of the gods of the demons would bounce on the dome and any of their spells would not be able to see what is happening inside – the king says, and I’m thinking why is he being so indirect – but every time that this dome is used the royal family is alerted to its use, we may not know and cannot scry what is happening inside but we know when the privacy dome is being used, there is a main artifact in the royal castle who keeps track of all the different domes, who uses them and how often, and well your father has been using his a lot more often than usual, it started 6 years ago, and now I found out why, and I really cannot blame him.

 

- So part of my reason to be here was to check on how your family is doing, how is the defense of the kingdom is going, be able to have a conversation with your father as we are old friends, and to check why he was using the orbs so much, I did not expect the answer I got.

 

- Oh wow, well I think that what he is doing is right – I say.

 

- Yeah I know Carter, we are not stupid but sadly there are a lot of things that has been lost – The king says this and I see how heavy the responsibility on his shoulders is.

 

- Your majesty – I start saying before being interrupted.

 

- Please drop the formality little one – says the king with a small smile on his face.

 

- Ok – I say then I make an effort – Uncle Kaleus, right now I’m mostly investigating the system, the so called Demonic Bite, I think this is a lie, and I think there are some infiltration on our kingdom by demons, there is probably a race of demons who can take human form and has been spreading false information around.

 

- Yes, those types of demon exist they are called doppelgangers, there are ways of discovering them but it is very difficult and time consuming – says my uncle Richard.

 

- I think they have spread lies and have destroyed information about the system and how it works for centuries, I have seen on some of the history books that a lot of people who knew a lot about the system got assassinated, also at the beginning of the invasion the demonic forces looked bigger I saw a lot more demonic races attacking that in the last few wars we had against them – I say, then take a deep breath to calm myself and continue – So I’ve been investigating, and well I think even the goddess agree with my focus since one of the abilities of the class she gave me will make it easier for me to see what the system does, if I discover anything what can I do?

 

- Anything you discover Carter, tell your father and your moms, the system is our weapon and sadly anybody that has tried to investigate it as you well said has been assassinated, the use of the orb is completely justified under the circumstances, is there anything I could help – says the king.

 

- Is there any way to ensure there are no doppelgangers close by? – I ask

 

- Yes, there is your father, uncles, aunts and ourselves has been cleaning the household ever since your awakening – says my second mom – and it looks like our efforts are being recognized by the goddess since she appeared yesterday, that is a vote of confidence that at least in her eyes, the household is clean and secure, why are you asking?

 

- Because I would like in the future to have a troop that can be trained, also I would like to get either an orc or a goblin king in the future for some tests, and I would like if we could keep this secret, maybe make it seem like someone else is the one that is researching, move the goblin king or the orc publically somewhere else then bring it here under one of the orbs if they are that secure. – I say

 

- And when would you like to have this done, because what you are asking is something that is very difficult to do. – says the king.

 

- No, I don’t think I want this now, since you explained and pretty much confirmed some of my suspicions, I think I would like to have first the Orc or goblin king, in 2 years maybe 3, and the troop maybe just right after, I was hoping to later have a meeting with dad about this under this dome, but I wanted to wait until I had my class and see if I could gain more info on the system, since I gained my abilities yesterday some test and some ways of getting more info has been occurring to me, but I’m still thinking what else can I do and how can I gain more info with the abilities I have, you are sort of having me at a disadvantage here. – I say.

 

The King and my dad laugh and after my dad talks

 

- Yeah I know whenever you have an idea you try to think of as many possibilities as you can so you can ask for everything at once, you have done that twice already – says my dad with a smile on his face.

 

-Oh well I imagine we can start working on these, I will be visiting the other 2 dukes after I go and I’ll tell them we have a project, we will try and do this with as much secrecy as we can. – Says the king

 

After that I went away and took some rest, I saw how during the rest of the day all my brothers, sisters and cousins, were called into the living room with the dome so that they could be explained about the goddess visit and so that they would keep the secret, the king went out and was talking with my dad and uncles while walking the gardens, it was incredible seeing my dad having a good time and just enjoying the moment, he was a happy dad, he whenever he was with me or my brothers or sisters, he was laughing and making sure that we had fun, but I also saw how much he worked and how frustrated he was a lot of the time, sometimes he would sit in one of the balconies, and just looks towards the fort, and I could see his frustration, if he discover me or anybody else looking at him he just hid it and started talking with us, So I was glad that at least for now he was with friends and family and just letting some of it go.

 

For the next week, the king was here with us and he kept talking with my father and uncles doing visits to the hospital, visiting the city and the church, and making himself visible to the population, his daughter just latched onto me ever since the goddess has appeared, and I ended up not being able to do much, she kept asking for songs and well I knew that they were not going to stay long, so I decided to indulge her and kept playing different songs from my previous life and some of the ones I have heard on this life, obviously several of my sisters kept up with the princess and all of them enjoyed the vacation from our normal duties since with the king here most of our classes and other responsibilities were suspended.

 

Finally the King went away and continue his trip towards the other 2 Duchies of our kingdom, and me I went back into my normal training, I started to put a lot more attention into my swordsmanship lessons, I wanted to advance as much as I could since I think this was going to be the most important area for our kingdom to develop and be able to finally do something about the demonic invasion, I did continue forging and my products were getting better every day, I found the forging and my time at the forge to be fun and rewarding, I concentrated heavily in the morning on my swords lessons and I truly pushed myself heavily, but once I went to the smithy, even though I was trying to be better and I was actually levelling up my blacksmithing very fast, I founded it fun and relaxing, just hammering at a steady pace while making sure the swords that I made could take and dish out as much damage as possible.

 

One of the swords I made one day ended up glowing quite a lot and my blacksmith Teacher was all excited about it.

 

- Carter that was amazing, you made a high quality longsword – says Bart.

 

- And that means? – I ask

 

- Well the sword now has more effects than any normal sword we make, this sword will do more damage and won’t require as much energy as other swords, any high quality swords we make are saved for the officers in the army.

 

- Oh is there more levels to this?

 

- Yes there are, but you are tired, I will teach you next lesson, and I think is time to teach you the spell to appraise Items in general, so be prepared and rest plenty, I know you have been focusing a lot on your swordsmanship but for the next lesson take it easy with the sword so you can have plenty of energy to experiment and learn. – says Bart while he starts moving and cleaning the forge.

 

- Ok – I said and start cleaning the forge with my teacher, while I think what new stuff I will get to do tomorrow.