If you had to prioritize either the past or the present, which would you choose over the other?
Kamil eventually reached a conclusion that the present was more important than the past. In his mind, the past was just a piece of memory. Yes, it mattered. After all, the social hierarchy was built on what happened in the past. But, if trying to exact his revenge would jeopardize his present, he wasn’t going to do it. If he was alone, he might have volunteered to assist Isaac in his scheme to get rid of Karsten but he had a family now and, to an extent, Ceres was like his big family where Raem, Lara, Karla, and the others lived. If failure was not an option, he would rather not take any risks.

“...........”

On a bed, he was laying down with his right arm extended forth in the air. There was a lone wind elemental orbiting his hand which was likely Fionara’s spirit.

“You are important to me,” he said to the elemental. “But Flora is equally important as well.”

He married both women without falling in love. Circumstances forced him to be with them. That didn’t mean he didn’t love them. It was just that he didn’t know the concept of love itself. He grew to like Fionara, and the same applied to Flora as well.

“Besides, you represent my past which cannot be altered… I’d rather focus on matters that I can alter, so …”

Unless a perfect opportunity to kill Karsten arrives, I won’t be making a move on my own. I will not risk the lives of Flora, our baby, my parents, Faro, Taro, and Abel.

He clenched his hand when the wind elemental was within his grasp, but the butterfly could not be caught physically and simply continued to orbit his hand. He recalled Lillian’s not so subtle intent to harm his wife.

“Don’t you dare encroach my peace, Karsten. If you ever step into my territory with intent to harm, I swear to the God of Death that I am going to bring hellfire to your entire god damned bloodline.”

He was not going to repeat the history and watch Flora die or let his family burn in flames. If he could ensure that his family would be safe, he was willing to forgo revenge. It was imperative for him not to repeat history even though he chose to be reborn to exact revenge. With such thoughts swirling in his head, he slowly closed his eyes.

 

The next day, while he was getting ready to receive the missionary from Rem, Nestor informed him that there was a major discovery with the water crystal and pushed back the meeting with the missionary. It was clear that no one was taking the missionary seriously. After all, the Kingdom of Egra was largely devoid of any religion. People loosely perceived the God of Life as something positive and likewise saw the God of Death as something negative.

Although the ancient texts say that light and darkness are the same… Not sure what to make of that.

“Sir Vogel, what have you found?”

He rushed in with two rolled scrolls in his hand.

He declared, “We’ve found a use for the water crystal. It’s pretty remarkable. Please take a look at the report.” And he handed one of the scrolls over to him. Kamil took a look at the report.

“The water crystal absorbs water and only absorbs water? Meaning?”

“We placed the water crystal in a bucket full of ale, and it absorbed only water, leaving an interesting substance that has a strong scent and is highly flammable. Cracking the crystal will release water, meaning it could be used to purify water if required.”

Kamil stroked his chin slowly. “Highly flammable liquid?”

Nestor pulled out a small waterskin off his belt. “Here, it’s the liquid.” He approached his desk and placed it down. Kamil brought it near his nose after opening it. A strong scent knocked his nose which forced his head to recoil.

“What is this?”

They managed to discover a pure form of alcohol.

“We don’t know. But Sir Waszak and I believe that liquid is what makes us get drunk. We tried the same experiment with wine. The same type of liquid was present as well. Sir Waszak believes that this could easily be made into a weapon of some kind.”

“Interesting…, this discovery does warrant this emergency meeting. Any news on the earth crystal?”

“We were so preoccupied with the water crystal that we haven’t really had time to do anything with it yet,” he replied in an apologetic tone.

Kamil tapped his temple slowly while reading the report. “So, this does require cracking the quartz.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Quartz was not an indefinite resource. While there was still plenty to go about, Cezary warned not to waste it if able, although that was a tough call since all airships used wind crystals to operate, and there was an ever increasing number of them in operation. And it looked like it was going to be in even more demand soon.

“Do we have an estimate on how much quartz we actually have?”

“No clue at all. According to Ravas, the deeper we’ve dug, the more they’ve found.”

That actually begged a question.

“How deep have we dug?”

It took Nestor a moment to respond. “Deep. That is all I know. Interestingly, the mining foreman has chosen to dig vertically rather than horizontally. His reasoning is that it would allow us to see how much quartz we have left. And so far, we’ve yet to reach a spot where we haven’t spotted quartz.”

“So, in other words, we have a lot.”

He nodded and added, “I think that is an understatement.”

I won’t worry about running out of quartz then…

If quartz did run out, the future of Ceres would look bleak. With the current level of expenses, the city wasn’t going to survive with just income from trading the tea. At the moment, the city was gradually turning into a major trade hub due to several factors.

One, trading Macomaco tea and quartz brought in a large number of traveling merchants.

Two, because of the diverse nature of the population who were a mix of those from the Siwen, the Egra, and Estana, they asked merchants to bring in what they wanted. Since the merchants would return to Ceres anyway, they complied. Whatever sold good, Julian made sure that items in demand would have a good supply.

Three, as a side effect, the market in Ceres had a wide variety of goods that weren’t often seen anywhere else, prompting some wealthy people to specifically visit the city to see what they could find. With regular airships coming in and out, this was entirely possible. Purely on market activities alone, the city was already on the top, even overshadowing Lux which was generally considered the economic powerhouse in the region.

“What is the other scroll you are holding?”

“Ah, this?” It looked like he had completely forgotten about it. “It’s not that important. It’s a schematic for an anti-air weapon against potential airship attacks.”

“Then it is important. Show me.”

Nestor brought the scroll and unrolled it, leaving what looked like a crossbow but very large with four legs. It was essentially a ballista.

“A crossbow with legs?”

“Yes, but very large. It should be powerful enough to puncture any airship balloon.”

Aerial warfare was becoming a real possibility. Kamil himself demonstrated that airships would become a key part in warfare when he performed a night raid on the Estana army in order to save Fort Reen. Whenever and wherever the next conflict would be, there was likely going to be aerial warfare.

“Sir Waszak is also coming up with a new airship design specifically for aerial combat. He’d like to build three of those to protect our airspace.”

“That’s …” He wanted to say that it was a lot of money, but it was for defense. “Can we even afford three?”

It would normally be at least 12 gold coins.

“According to Sir Waszak, the new type of war airship is smaller. The material cost will be reduced. I did some very rough calculations before coming here. The price for each of these should be about just two and half gold coins.”

That was still a lot.

“Can we afford this?”

“We can’t. But he is not building all three together, thus I suppose we should be able to afford them.”

If it wasn’t for Cezary, their coffers would be in a far healthier condition. At the same time, it was hard to overlook his inventions.

“Okay…” Sighing, he rolled the reports back and handed them over to Nestor. “Thank you, Sir Vogel. I reckon the missionary is still waiting?”

“Yes, Duke. Should I let him in?”

“You may. Did he come alone or -?”

“He arrived with a small group. They were all wearing white robes with golden linings. They claim to be priests.”

“Priests? What are priests?”

It was the first time for him or anyone else in the Kingdom of Egra to have heard about priests because there was no established religion within the Kingdom. Neither the Siwen nor Atra had a religion, either. Estana, since they bordered Rem, could have had a religion.

“A priest is someone who speaks on the behalf of their God, or so I was told.”

I am pretty sure that no one is actually able to talk to the Gods while they are alive…

If anyone was actually closer to the Gods, it was him, Kamil, because he was probably the only one in the current generation who had spoken to Gods and still remembered. It was clear that there had been other people like in the past. Holy queen Maco was one for certain.

“Very well, let him in.”

“Understood.”

 

A man in a pristine white robe entered, who looked to be in late 20s or early 30s. His robe was majestic with golden linings and its sleeves were wide. Generally, people did not wear white robes because they would get dirty too fast. Darker colors, such as brown and gray, as the go-to choice for robes. He was cleanly shaven and had pitch black hair that had been combed well. Additionally, his facial features were completely different. Kamil and those in the Kingdom of Egra, Atra, Estana had the appearance of European whereas this man who stood before him looked Asian. Of course, the very concept of race did not exist in this world, thus, for Kamil, he looked simply different.

“My name is Vetaawala,” he said in Estanian dialect as he leaned forward and had both of his sleeves connected together, concealing his hands completely. His forehead finally touched the connected sleeves. “I’ve come from the holy Kingdom of Rem.” This was apparently their way to show respect.

Veta…aw… what?

He couldn’t catch his name, and it would be extremely rude to ask for his name twice in this situation.

“Welcome to the dukedom of Ceres, my name is Kamil Fenchel, the current duke.”

Vetaawala’s eyes went wide. “You speak Estanian?” Apparently, he didn’t expect Kamil to be able to speak the language.

Why did you speak in that language in the first place if you didn’t expect me to be able to speak it? Were you trying to make a fool of me here?

It wasn’t certainly the best first impression of the priest.

“Say your piece, priest. I haven’t got all day,” said Kamil, obviously slightly pissed that the priest was testing him. It was their first encounter; He should have shown more respect. Vetaawala, too, noticed the quick change in his tone and rushed to repair the damage.

“Duke Fenchel, my apologies if I came across a bit rude. It was not my intent to ridicule you, sir. The official language of my kingdom is Estanian.”

“You do realize not many people speak the language here, do you not?”

In fact, no one really did outside of Ceres.

“I do realize, but learning another language is not an easy task.”

“True, but you claim to be a missionary. Are you not here to spread your religion? Speaking of which, what is this religion about?”

“To put it simply, we teach people the teachings of the God of Life.”

“Teachings of God? Has anyone actually received any words from a God even?”

Vetaawala seemed to be taken back a little because no one actually had received any actual words from Gods. At the same time, if anyone asked such a question in Rem, they would have been punished. For Kamil however, it was a genuine question.

“Not in my knowledge,” he replied reluctantly, admitting that no one had actually received any words from God. “However, there are ancient texts available that describe certain things.”

There was even a book describing such which Ludwig had a hand on. It was never believed that the content of the book held any truth within the Kingdom of Egra. The book he read, it was in fact a bible from Rem. Either way, Kamil was ready to argue that the religion seemed pretty much bogus without further ado but decided to keep his mouth shut regarding the matter. He lost his interest already and was ready to move on.

“Pray tell, what is your religion called?”

“We are … called Divine Will led by Divine Wheel,” he declared weakly. He wasn’t a fool. He already realized that he got off a wrong start with the local ruler and was a bit depressed.

“Your religion is called Divine Will, but what is Divine Wheel?”

“Divine Wheel is the book we’ve written after researching ancient texts. It is the core concept of our religion and is what drives us.” He, then, reached his hand into his sleeve and pulled a book out. Kamil had no idea how a book could have been concealed in the sleeve. It looked a bit too big to be concealed inside and not look awkward. The book had a pure white cover with golden corners, which made it look pretty fancy. And, while he wasn’t overly curious about the content of the book, it would have been very rude to refuse the gift.

“I thank you. Now, let’s get to the topic, shall we? What is the purpose of your visit?”

“Ah, yes, of course.” Vetaawala cleared his throat quietly. “I, Vetaawala, would like your permission to establish a church of Divine Will in Ceres.”

Even though you can’t speak our own language?

Kamil had an urge to retort with such a statement but chose to keep his mouth shut.

“Of course,” he continued while taking out a coin pouch from his big sleeve. “Here is a small token of gratitude for allowing this audience, Duke…”

That has got to be magic sleeves. 

Kamil signaled a guard nearby, and he brought both the book and coin pouch to his desk. It contained five gold coins. He certainly did not expect this much. This impression of him improved vastly in a matter of seconds because those gold coins would improve his current financial situation massively.

“Additionally, we are willing to donate one third of any tithes we collect to you, Duke.”

“Welcome to Ceres!”

He couldn’t care less about whatever religion he was going to spread. The financial incentive was good enough for the time being. However, he did consult Cezary before making a final decision.

“Is this about those who die and meet the God of life and death and be judged?” He asked aloud after being informed of what had transpired so far.

“You know about the religion?”

“Well, not exactly. I suppose their religion is spread across the world here and there. The basic idea is that, if you perform good deeds, you will be judged favorably by Gods and vice versa.”

“He gifted me this book, called the Divine Wheel.”

Cezary took a quick look through the pages. “This is remarkably similar to the one I’ve read.”

“You’ve read this before?”

“Well, among scholars, this book or at least its content is known. Gods' judgment and stuff, it’s all known. I didn’t think it was from their bible however. Interesting. It looks like what I’ve read is a brief summary of their bible.”

Kamil pointed at the coin pouch. “And here is the bribe.”

Cezary glared at the coins, clicking his tongue, looking clearly displeased. “I dislike that we have to accept it,” he lamented. “For we need the money.”

“So, you are saying we should accept their request.”

He shrugged. “Well, their religion itself is decent. I mean they are promoting ‘do good deeds so that Gods will look favorably upon you when you die’. It can only help make people behave better. I am not against the religion itself. I am just against the people who are spreading it.”

He went on to further explain that he never liked the idea of taking tithe. He basically didn’t like the very fact that “churches” existed in the way he did. His idea of “good” religion was just letting people worship, should they desire, on their own terms instead of having a dedicated place for it.

“I am not against this in the end,” he concluded. “Let’s accept the money.”

Of course, it was the money that talked in the end. Meanwhile, Kamil recalled his judgment with the Gods. While he was indeed judged for good and bad deeds, he wasn’t sure what determined good and bad. He did recall that killing animals as a hunter was justified because he had to feed his family. In other words, taking lives was acceptable in their eyes as long as one had justifications, which only made sense because the whole food chain was designed with killing in mind. Carnivore animals hunted down others for their flesh, and herbivores devoured plants. Without taking the lives of others, the whole world could not operate.

I do wonder how Karsten’s deeds would be justified … because I don’t think he has justification for the mass massacre… But then they are Gods. Our definition of right and wrong probably doesn’t apply to their mindset.

A phrase he vividly recalled from translated ancient texts was, “Light and darkness are the same.” Initially, Aaron and Flora believed that it was a sort of a mistranslation because light was considered righteous whereas darkness was always associated with crimes and morally-wrong deeds. Kamil, having retained the memories of the past as well as the Gods’ judgment, had a bit of a different perspective. The way the Gods judged his deeds, as long as there was a counterweight to a deed, right or wrong did not matter, and he did recall others saying that while the reunification war had tens of thousands massacred, the counter argument was that, had the war dragged on, a similar number of people would have perished either way. In that sense, Karsten had not done anything wrong.
He grimaced at such a thought because he had this weird feeling that the Gods would not punish him in his judgment. If that was going to be the case, it was imperative that he ended him with his own hands. Otherwise…

I chose to be reborn to punish those responsible for the death of my family…

Yet he was prioritizing his present.

“Damn it,” he whispered.

“Duke?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I’ve made my choice and am sticking to it.

He chose to prioritize the present.

“Anyway, Sir Waszak, Sir Vogel has shown me your new anti-air weapon. It looked like a giant crossbow to me.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve chosen to call it the ballista. They will be installed on top of city walls as well as on attackships.”

“Preparing for war, are we…”

“It’s highly unlikely that Ceres will be attacked. However, even if the chance is slim, we must have proper defenses so that they won’t even entertain the idea.”

“Shouldn’t we increase the number of our army as well?”

An army of a thousand was in fact negligible. They’d be able to defend the city, and that was it. At the same time, an army of a thousand was a respectable number given the size of the population. At the moment, only a hundred of them were fully professional soldiers, meaning they were paid wages to be what they were. The rest of soldiers were semi-professional who were essentially farmers and whatnot who carried on with their daily lives until called upon. They would train once a week to keep in shape; They were essentially paid to train, once a week. This was the general structure of armies in the Kingdom of Egra. The only exception was the royal army where roughly half of them were fully professional, meaning it cost Karsten a lot to keep them paid because even half was around five thousand men at the least.

“We shouldn’t,” Cezary denied firmly. “Not when our population doesn’t even exceed 10,000. We are already at our maximum capacity.”

“I see…”

“Sir Vogel has informed you about alcohol, yes?”

“Alcohol?”

“The substance we discover by using the water crystal. We’ve decided to call it alcohol. It’s so flammable that it has a wide variety of applications. I see so many ways it could improve our lifestyle as well as weaponry. We are going to need to build a proper refinery of some sort however.”

Do whatever you gotta do. The things you do are often out of my comfort zone.

“So be it.”

“Thank you. Now then, excuse me. I have a lot to do.”

He always had a lot to do, and that wasn’t a joke, either. He did, in fact, have a lot to do. He oversaw the general construction of airships and researched a variety of things in his spare time. As soon as he left, Avina entered the study.

“Duke, Lady Flissing is leaving.”

Finally.

He was actually glad that she was leaving because he couldn’t act freely in front of Flora while she was around. He couldn’t hug her or put his ear on her abdomen to listen to the baby.

Having an in-law around is not comfortable.

“I see. I will see her off then.”

 

Lena was about to board the airship that was specifically built to transport the Flissing members.

“I thank you for the hospitality,” she remarked with a smile.

“I am glad that you’ve enjoyed the stay.”

“Flora is doing well, and she is really happy. I’ve also met Esther as well.”

“You have?”

Because she was a mistress, she couldn’t call her daughter-in-law. She and Daniel were not married technically. 

“A beautiful girl. I can see why she is called the ruby of Ceres.”

“She is indeed beautiful.”

In fact, if she wasn’t his cousin, he might have pursued her. Well, he was even given permission to go ahead by Edmund.

“There has been … a talk to promote her to the first wife,” she reluctantly revealed. It looked like her real purpose of visiting Ceres wasn’t Flora but to check out on Esther. She most likely wanted to see in her own eyes before any discussion would progress further.

“Pardon my intrusion, but she is an illegitimate daughter. You are surely aware of this.”

“That can easily be corrected, can it not?”

She wasn’t wrong. Edmund could simply recognize her as his daughter. That was all he needed since Esther was his real daughter. There would be no need to draft any fake background and whatnot. At the same time, discarded daughters were rarely, if ever, taken back. If this was to happen, she would be the first in the entire history of the kingdom. While good news for her, there was a lingering doubt which was -

“Lady Flissing, she is unlikely to leave Ceres even if she were to be promoted to the first wife,” he pointed out. She wanted a place to belong and found it in Ceres. It was against her interest to leave everything behind once again.

“Why would she refuse to become a first wife? It will be the highest honor a woman could possibly have aside from becoming a queen.”

If Esther was raised as an ordinary noblewoman, she would agree. The problem was that she wasn’t raised normally. She was treated like a princess early on in her childhood and then was progressively discarded, being eventually thrown to Kamil, who went as Ewald at that time. She told him personally that she wanted a place to belong. That was her top priority; Nothing else mattered.

“You speak truthfully, Lady Flissing. But she values something else more than just status.” 

“What would that be?”

“Home,” he replied curtly.

In a sense, she was looking for the same thing as him. They both wanted a place to belong and to protect it at all cost.

“Home…?” She repeated weakly and repeated, “Home, huh…”

“Respect her wishes, please, Lady Flissing.”

Her display of disappointment was clear on her face.

“How is Daniel doing by the way? He hasn’t been here for a while.”

“His father has been giving him some of his duties to carry out. He is old enough to learn the inner-workings of his domain.”

“I see. Send him my regards.”

“That, I shall.”

After exchanging their brief respect, Lena departed at last. There were several questions he had in his mind, but he couldn’t dare ask her since she was unlikely aware of what was really happening over the divorce dispute. The primary job of being a first wife was looking after the family manor. That was really it, and even that was optional. The husbands rarely let women get involved in politics and whatnot. In the end, it wasn’t really his business to meddle in. Besides, he had plenty on his plate already.

“Anyway…, it’s time to talk to Brian.”

He needed to visit and explore the labyrinth to get the bottom of the message he received upon dispatching the guardian. He didn’t like the idea of leaving Ceres for an extended amount of time, but this was something that needed to be done sooner rather than later. The only reason he hadn’t left yet was due to Flora’s mother. He simply couldn’t leave while his in-law was staying.

 

“Duke, I’ve answered your summon,” said Brian on his knee.

“Guildmaster, I plan to explore the labyrinth soon. Would it be possible for you to arrange that?”

“You plan to explore the dungeon? May I ask why? It is a dangerous place for someone like you to visit.”

“When I defeated the guardian, I heard a voice in my head to explore the place and reach the bottom.”

Of course, he left out an important detail where it implied that he was a betrayer of the wheel, but it wasn’t something he needed to know anyway.

Brian narrowed his eyes and put his fingers on his chin. “You did…? Then perhaps…” He trailed off.

“Guildmaster?”

Blinking his eyes, Brian snapped out. “Ah, yes, perhaps your presence is required then.”

“What do you mean?”

“So far we’ve explored five floors and we’ve run into a stone gate that refused to budge at all. We believe it is magically sealed. I’ve been wondering what would make it open. It is possible that you are the key.”

“Five floors…, how deep do you think the place is?”

“The first few floors had goblins and dire goblins and then we faced orcs. I felt like the difficulty was strictly linear. If so -”

“Orcs?” Kamil interjected. “What are they?”

“In short, they are like an adult version of goblins. They are taller and sturdier while sharing a similar skin color. An orc is about the same size as a human adult. They are more intelligent as well.”

He had never seen an orc before. They weren’t present within the Kingdom of Egra.

“They are usually found in the North,” Brian added, answering his question in his mind. “If the difficulty is indeed strictly linear, I assume we will reach the bottom at 20th floor unless there are monsters we don’t know about.”

“I see. Very well, it looks like you have a team already.”

“Yes, you can join them unless you wish to bring someone else with you?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. Bringing anyone new will only disturb the teamwork and harmony they’ve built.”

Brian beamed a satisfied smile and added, “Indeed.”

“I will simply tag along and not meddle in unless requested.”

“If you pardon my bluntness, how good are you as a fighter?”

Kamil crossed his fingers on his desk. “I do not know,” he replied earnestly. “I’ve been to a war once where I couldn’t do much but just stay alive. Other than that, I haven’t actually fought anything.”

He omitted his history of doing a few guild requests and going on hunting with Raem and Lara because those were years ago when they were mere children. He was still a child strictly speaking at just fifteen years old.

“Well, at least you are clear on where you stand. I am sure that you will do fine. The most dangerous type is one who is reckless and eager to prove himself.” A bitter expression surfaced on his face. “We’ve recently lost a young member that way.”

He was talking about Faro who had to take a very early retirement from adventuring. Adventurers didn’t need to prove themselves because there was nothing to prove. Their primary goal was survival first and foremost. It wasn’t as if they were fighting for a cause after all.

He is talking about Faro, isn’t he.

“I see. Very well, inform your team that I will be arriving soon. I will depart in a few days after taking care of some businesses that require my immediate attention.”

“Understood, Duke. Excuse me now.”

Kamil and Brian exchanged a firm nod at each other with the former looking back down on his desk to perform paperworks and the latter turning around to leave the study.