As a drop of blood hit the red carpet below Murakumo’s sword, all of the knights and mages in the room were about to start attacking the man. However, the moment the first sound of a sword being drawn was heard, everyone in the room aside from the King, Queen and Princess were brought to their knees as an unbearable pressure beared down on them.

The more experienced people in the hall realized that this wasn’t bloodthirst. This was pure presence emanating from Murakumo, and overwhelming them. After glancing behind him at everyone, he let out a ‘hmph’ before flicking his katana, causing the blood to scatter off it, before sheathing it. In the deathly silent hall, the sound of his blade clicking back into its scabbard resounded, and at the same time, everyone breathed in relief as the pressure was taken off of them.

“I come here by the wish of Max, my friend, to offer my assistance. And I am repaid with slander, by the very person whose life I saved. You, Prince, are unworthy. This Kingdom would be better off in the hands of the Princess. At least she had the will to fight, and the strength to back it up.” (Murakumo)

Glancing over at the princess, Hiro left those words. In what little he had seen, he knew well enough from stories and what he had actually seen, that she was being seen as below such a worthless prince, just because she wa a girl, and born second. At least with this, it would be a good “fuck you” to the trash prince.

While the King wanted to speak, he found himself at a loss for what to do. As a King, he needed to show dignity, but his son had just trampled all over it, so there was no point defending him. As a Father, he was ashamed that his son did not have any insight in the least to judge a person’s strength and worth. If anything, he was thankful that Murakumo hadn’t beheaded his son.

Of course, there was a little uneasiness and anger in him because he just had some unknown person do such things in his court. Though he buried it down, knowing the circumstances were as they were.

“I’ve done what I came here for. If you require my assistance, then you know what to do.” (Murakumo)

Turning like that, Hiro left the hall. No one stopped him either. They had felt that terrifying pressure hold them down, and it left a lingering sense of fear in the back of their minds. The prince, who was less stable than the rest, had a distorted look of shame and anger on his face. But as he looked towards his father, fear became more evident. His father was looking at him with a stern face, ready to beat him over the head.

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Returning to the Drinking Bear, Hiro became himself again and had a meal since he was hungry. Following that, he returned to his room and started meditation, focusing his mind as best as he could to revolve around magical theories and questions he had. In particular, now that he had given out so many pendants, he needed to be able to create a personality which he could segment in his mind, and attach those to the pendants. That way, when one pendant was called for, the persona’s conscious would activate and take control of that magic power that was released.

On top of that, he needed to have a way to share memories between them so they could keep up to date with everything. While at it, he may as well allow it to be blocked by him to give them their space, customize each persona, and even their appearance. In the future, he planned on making real, living, breathing clones, doppelgangers, who would hold a portion of his power. Maybe 10% each clone, while he would still retain his full power. Why 10%? Because it was a nice number and fraction, and cliche.

It didn’t take him long to create this. Within his mental landscape, he converted the magic and knowledge as if he was using a computer. Creating a hard drive partition of his main memory, copying over the folders which contained “knowledge” and “memories” and whatnot, crawling through personality files and selecting what ones he wanted for each partition, selecting an image from his library of characters, merging some features together, and using that as a custom avatar for the persona.

Applying motions to their avatar, special features, preferences, and so on. For anything else he missed, he imagined it being a program which had a ‘randomly generate’ button for blank spaces in a form, drawing from his assortment of files to do so. In Hiro’s years of doing whatever he felt like, creating characters was something he was skilled at. Characters and plot lines were always his favorite. He just always had too much running through his mind to ever go beyond the mental creation process.

Like this, Hiro created a total of 14 character partitions in his mind. Eventually, when he manages to make them of flesh and blood, each partition would instead be uploaded as the operating system of a new computer, instead of being a part of his own computer. Separating the minds so that they weren’t reliant on him.

Before he knew it, it had already become the next day, and his stomach was complaining. Heading downstairs, he got some food from Syldis, ate his fill, then went out into the town. Before he left, he asked if the guests were still around, and heard that they left early in the morning. Seems like Max was making his move.

Now in the town, Hiro wandered about as he kept a hand in his pocket underneath his cloak. Stealthily, he began creating gold lumps, as that was a lot more simple to synthesize than gems which had more complicated structures. After a while of going down backalleys, he found a place that looked like a good pawn shop.

Entering it, he found a single person at the counter. It was a small store, but a lot more merchandise was probably in the back. There were also a couple of people in the room, probably hired thugs or guards. Walking to the counter, he put an illusion on his face, so that he was wearing a blank white mask with only a single eye hole on his left eye. Of course, he could still see clearly himself.

Wrapping his arms in an illusion as well, he made it seem as if he was wearing long black sleeves and gloves. At the counter, he put a handful of gold lumps down. Without saying anything, he looked at the attendant. Seemingly understanding without words, the man moved the gold lumps to one side, brought out a device, and put them on it. It seemed like a scale made specifically for gold.

After checking the measurement, the man looked towards Hiro.

“Even.” (Hiro)

Like that, the man reached under the counter and began to stack coins. From what he had learned, the currency was 1 Gold Coin = 100 Silver Coins. 1 Silver Coin = 100 Copper Coins. Typical and cliche, but it worked. The man had a large pouch ready. The “even” was referring to the distribution of coins. It was troublesome to spend a gold coin on something that only cost a few copper, after all. 15G 200S 500B. As for the small amounts after that, he left that in return for the service.

Checking if he was ripped off? He had no idea what the ratio was for gold to cash. But he knew well enough, and kept an eye out. There was no foul play. After all, if they messed up or ripped someone off, their reputation would fall, and they’d be at risk of being robbed and/or killed by angry customers if they did it to the wrong person.

Burying his hand into the pouch, he left about 5G 50S and 100B, and put the rest into his storage. That would be more than enough for spending. It wasn’t like he would be buying a mansion.

… Should he? That would be interesting… Nah, too much attention.

For the rest of the day, Hiro went through different stalls, trying different foods and looking at unique products. He also picked up his custom tailored clothes, though it didn’t look like he would use them at this point. Leaving those in his storage, he also packed a bunch of food in his storage.

Thinking about it now, he would need rations, camping gear, cooking utensils and so on. Heading to a general store, he grabbed anything he thought he would need and shoved it all in his storage.

Done with that, he returned to the Drinking Bear, and paid for his stay in advance, as well as for his expenses thus far. While Syldis said it was alright, he paid anyway. Wouldn’t be good for business if she lost out too much.

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A couple of days passed after that. Hiro spent most of his time in his room, training his body and studying magic theories. He was nearly done working on establishing a full flesh and blood clone. Most of the time was spent recalling his biology lessons, filling in the blanks he couldn’t remember, and figuring out how to simulate a core of magic.

As his own Aura Core and Mana Core had steadily been developing, he decided to use that as the basis. Formulating the magic theory to create his false life characters was the easiest bit. To finish it, he just needed more time and mana. Even with his vast amounts unrivalled by all, it was still not enough. It was creating life, after all. Though he had this feeling that after his mana core had finished forming, he would probably be able to do it.

It was while he was meditating, that he felt a tugging in his mind. One of his pendants had been shattered.

Sending out one of his persona’s, he resumed his meditation.

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…

In a dark cave where no light reached, even as the court mages tried their best, Lily was in a dead end with another mage a little bit older than her. With their back against the blocked passage, they were breathing heavily as they were trapped and caught by some shadowy monsters. Demons which even one of could easily massacre a platoon of Knights. But there were several here.

They were desperate, and running out of mana. They had held out by working in tandem; one would create a light barrier to trap them at the entrance of the path, while the other would obliterate them with fire. But the clever demons weren’t so easily caught.

At the end of their wits, Lily remember the pendant she had been given during the meeting a few days ago. Quickly taking it off from around her neck, she through it as hard as she could against the floor. The moment a clear sound of glass shattered was heard, a large swirl of mana expanded and flooded the cave before solidifying in front of Lily, taking up the form of a person.

Short, blonde hair. Standing about 5’10. Pale skin. Golden eyes that were glowing with a pale light. Dressed in a pale bluish grey yukata, with a black haori over top, adorned with gold and red flower embroidery. In his right hand was a red parasol with beautiful flower patterns in a ring near the edge. Despite the darkness encapsulating them, Lily and her friend were able to clearly see the man in the dark cave. His whole body was emitting light.

As the light died down, the man took a glance around, a piercing gaze locking on to the monsters hiding in the dark at the end of the passage. With his parasol closed, he pointed it towards the end of the tunnel.

Beings… Demons of shadow that seem to blend in the darkness. I can see them with mana sight. There are… three of them. The counter to darkness… is light and fire. (???)

Reaching that conclusion quickly, the parasol fluttered open, and he began to spin it slowly. As the parasol began to glow, it suddenly shot out a white flame. Unlike a normal fire, this one moved about as if a snake in the air with its own will. At a high speed, it shot out towards the darkness. With the white flame snake finding its target, the man called out a spell.

“「Absolving Flame」” (???)

In an instant, the white flame snake burst out and engulfed the darkness, causing the death throes of the shadow demons to ring out. After all three were confirmed dead, the flames crawled over to the man quickly and creeped up with body, engulfing him. While Lily and the other girl were afraid of the power as well as concerned for their and the man’s safety, they quickly noticed something odd. The flames weren’t hot to them. If anything, it felt comforting. The man also wasn’t burning.

The man had let the flames coalesce on him. Better to keep it around until he knew everything was clear. With a quick pulse of mana spreading out like a sonar, he detected three more presences. One court mage, two more shadow demons. And also… It looked like there were five humans behind the blocked passage he was in.

Turning to Lily, the man gave a slight bow to her.

“I have been summoned at your request, Lily. My name is Yasu. I detect one more mage, and two more shadow demons. The way out is clear. Please excuse me as I get rid of the remaining threats.” (Yasu)

Like that, his figure wavered with the flames on him, until he flickered out of existence in their eyes. All he had done was return his body to pure mana so that he wasn’t restricted to moving like a human. As he left, the darkness receded, and the girls could see light again emitting from their illuminating spells.

Yasu moved quickly, and soon enough, his figure appeared behind a court mage who looked to be in her thirties. The shadows were just about to swipe at her and separate her limbs from her body. Yasu’s hand shot out past the woman’s head, appearing in her sight, as he spread out his fingers. The flames crawling over his body spread from the palm of his hand, forming a shield of white flames.

“「Absolving Flame」” (Yasu)

As he said this, he used his parasol, opened up, to obstruct the view of the mage, and the topside of it released flames, engulfing the enemy. As their cries echoed out, he waited until they were completely burned up before he closed his parasol, holding it beside him as he walked to the front of the mage.

Bending down, he offered a hand with a slight smile to her, the white flames still dancing over his body here and there. When looked at the woman’s face, she seemed to be left agape, and at the same time… somewhat flushed? Regaining her sense of self, she accepted the hand up, standing up.

“My name is Yasu. Lily and her friend are safe, and the cave is now cleared. However, I’m afraid to say that the three of you are the only survivors. The way out is clear, and the darkness won’t hinder you anymore. I’m sorry I cannot remain, but there are some pressing matters I must hurry and attend to.” (Yasu)

Before the woman could speak, Yasu had already flickered out of existence like a flame blown out by the wind.

Passing through the blockage as just mana, Yasu reappeared in an opening which had a magic circle inscribed on the ground, along with a pedestal in the center with a stone sitting on it. Most likely something magical. There were the five dark mages in the room. Appearing next to the pedestal without a sound, Yasu had his parasol open and leaning on his shoulders as his flames surrounded him, ready to lash out.

“Apologies, men. It seems your luck has run out.” (Yasu)

As he said that, and before the men could respond, the flames shot out and surrounded them. Four of them burned up, screaming, as they turned to ash. As for the last man, his body had been restrained by the flame, and Yasu released pressure on him to suppress any suicidal thoughts.

Walking over to him slowly, he put his palm to the man’s forehead, and forcefully extracted their memories in order to learn everything he needed to know and share it with Hiro. It seems that the mages were created by putting runes on the body, allowing magic. The guy was just a thug who had been picked up and used. Though it did seem that there was some undead guy commanding them. As a result of the memory extraction, the man died. But, it couldn’t be helped. The information was valuable.

“So this stone is linked to another, and when charged, they create a portal… interesting.” (Yasu)

Like that, Yasu touched it, causing it to be charged instantly. Like that, a portal opened up, looking like a black void. Picking up the stone, he walked through it.