Thursday 23 January 2014

Hey there, how ya doing?

I'm Cozy. And well, as sad as it is for me to say this, I'm gonna need to go on a short, short hiatus for this story. Again.

Well, the avid readers probably know that I am a student, and I'm in my third year right now. This is the time for exams, for projects, for gearing up and making that last push for my CGPA. As such, I'd like to devote my time towards my studies for the time being.

My exams officially end on March 7th, and that's the time when I can freely type my stories, being free from stress, from the festivities, from many, many things. I understand how horribly bad it is to leave the story hanging at one of its peak moments, where Katachi's raging mad and getting ready to kick the shit out of Wang Gu, but please understand.

Well, Chinese New Year's around the corner, and the projects don't get any easier. I'm heading down to the MOE Building to grab a reprint of my O-level certificate! Hahaha. Time sure flies. I'm going to the building of moe. I'll see animu girls floating and spinning about and serving me Miltank milk while wearing a maid outfit or something. REVERSE MAID SCENARIO- Just kidding, by the way, don't take it seriously. Ha.

... I worry for it. The future of this story, my future, what career plans I intend on having... I don't know. There are many uncertainties before my eyes, and the only things that are definite are the feet I'm going to walk with. Every step I take is corporeal and solid, and it leaves a mark, an impression. It causes me to fret more since my mistakes will also be engraved, but at least I can trust my feet to step forth.

Unlike Korean manhwa or Japanese manga or Oriental/Western cartoons, I can't simply earn a living by writing. At least, not with my second-rate work. I do want WoP Quest to be serialized by somebody out there, but right now there's a lot of flaws with the story. For starters, every chapter of this story is a second draft, that is, a rough idea, an unpolished sketch given form from the messy, bullet-point-shaped first draft. I intend on rewriting my older, previous chapters- Scratch that, I intend on rewriting EVERY chapter to make them even better than they currently are. I see many areas for improvement.

For another thing, if you haven't noticed yet - WoP Quest's plot and storyline is sort of... Flimsy. I haven't had the time to properly sit down and collate every single idea into a humongous timeline, of what exactly happens in each route and all. I'm just shooting blind and getting off with progressive updates every week, from my vague memory of the chapters and from re-reading at most 5 chapters ahead of the previous ones. As such, I tend to forget important parts and plot lines of the story, and since none of my ideas have been penned down solidly... Yeah. Not that good.

I do have a lot of ideas down, though. I've already completed the plot of Messiah and Herald. So, let me pen it down now, and if you wish to read it, by all means - It's quite predictable.

In Messiah, Katachi encounters the dastard Wang Gu who uses his Word of Power to manipulate women into co-operating with him, and the women, under a trance, are forced into prostitution, as a source of income. (That explains why there are officials stopping by a small village like this.) Katachi rescuing Roberia and killing Wang Gu increases the tension between Anik and Findel, since that starved the depraved and corrupt officials of one of their biggest sources of entertainment and relaxation - Fucking women of different nationalities to exude their superiority over the opposing countries. (In the other routes, a Word of Power hunter, Ned, shuts this ring down instead because Katachi and Roberia didn't marry and enter the village in those routes.) Of course, Katachi killing Wang Gu itself is a grave act, a sin he swore never to commit, repeated. You'll... You'll find out soon enough.

In Herald, Katachi and Roberia... Are not lovers. They are enemies in Herald. Where he had chosen option B in Messiah, he chose option A in Herald, convinced that she ought to return home to be with her parents, and had Roberia march back to her country, in shame and defeat. But he will soon regret that decision, because of her regal status, and will need her help because Hraxiif could use Rugnud's power to its own benefit, being at the core of the continent and having the highest accessibility and all. But Roberia resents him for defeating her, and when they meet again, it won't be a friendly greeting. Clashes of steel, wood, and blood will happen, and when you actually see it... Hohoho. You'd be glad I got Messiah out of the way first, because Herald is a really, really dark story that you ought to be mentally prepared for.

In any case, sorry for there being no chapter this week. I'll make up for it next chapter. It's going to be a really intense scene, I promise it.

With love,

Cozy

Sunday 19 January 2014

Messiah 16 : Scumbag

She hadn't walked for long before she laid Katachi down onto soft grass.

It's tiring having to carry a person around. She felt the growling and churning in her stomach becoming harsher and harsher, and simply sat down to rest for a bit.

R : (He's sleeping. It is pretty late into the night, so I'm not surprised.)

The howling draft stirred up an uncomfortable chill in her spine, and Roberia rubbed her palms against her arms. It wasn't enough to keep the cold spell away, so she reached for Katachi's groundsheet and blanket and began setting it up. As she worked, the brushing of her hand against his skin in the dark was enough of a sign that Katachi was cold as well.

R : (Wha- His icy skin's full of goosebumps! I'm surprised he hasn't woken up from this chill yet.)

She fumbled and flapped the groundsheet wide, and lay Katachi down gently, being careful not to aggravate the wound on his left arm, nor the sprained left wrist.

*Cozy's Notes : AND LO, THE LEFT HAND OF THE BLACK KNIGHT IS OF THE DEVIL'S WORK- I'm joking. Heh. Torturing him by adding salt to his wound.*

Then, she laid next to him, and murmured some things.

R : "I'm sorry for being hard on you, and having you carry me even with a sprained wrist. I'm sorry for having you play along with my lie. I'm really sorry, Katachi. As your consort, I've done little good and gave you many troubles, without so much as trusting you. I'm sorry for being so selfish, Katachi - Even after all I've put you through, even when I know it's wrong of me, I can't help myself but do it because of the circumstances. I'm really, really sorry..."

She wiped off her tears with her thumbs, and withdrew her arms close to her body. And so she snuggled up to him, and prayed for his forgiveness in the silence of the night.

*** ***

They were greeted with a warm invitation of bountiful sunlight as the day started. There were no walls about to block its rays, so it was effective as a method of waking up at sunrise, but a windowed wall would have served the same purpose, and kept them warm throughout the night too. Not like they could complain about it, but they're starving, and their gold is limited, so they could only stomach their fate and pray it turns out better.

R : (It's morning.) "Good morning, Katachi."

Resting next to her, under the wraps was a young, black-haired boy who seemed to be of an Ohdean descent. His clothes was tattered and patchwork was sewn into various spots. He had a serene face about him as he rested on the groundsheet in peace.

R : (... I kind of wish he heard what I said to him yesterday night. But a part of me wished he didn't, so he wouldn't have questions for me, or stuff like that.)

She reached her hand for his forehead, and touched it, checking his temperature for any signs of illness-

*insert Korean sfx kko-reu-reuk*

His stomach growled. Roberia let out a chuckle of relief, and reached for Katachi's pouch of gold.

R : "... You're hungry. Don't worry, I'll go get something."

*** ***

She had left the boy resting in a comfortable, snug position and walked about the town a bit, to look for things she could purchase as food. As she walked, she ran her fingers over the contents of the pouch, to find a disappointing amount of gold inside.

R : (Wow. We are really, really tight on our gold reserves. Katachi's been doing his best in making sure we get by, hasn't he? I can see why he would get so angry over my lie.)

She clutched the small pouch of gold in her palm, and a smile formed on her face.

R : (But, he is rather stupid, isn't he? Falling for my lie this easily. I do feel guilty over how gullible he actually is that he would trust me like so, but I guess there is some form of basic trust between a man and wife when they wed, even if they are strangers.)

At the corner of her eye was a small bench. Roberia tilted her body to the right, steering herself away from low hazards that could cause her to trip unconsciously.

R : (All that aside, I have to find someplace around here where they accept coin like this. We're in Anik now, so I'm not sure if they would accept this. In fact, I'm not even sure if they understand that we're trying to buy their food with our currency, but can't convey it.)

A couple of minutes walking about idly yielded no results. Roberia clutched her stomach lightly, and turned around to head down another street.

"姑娘呀~ 姑娘, 姑娘!"

Someone was calling out to her.

As Roberia turned around, a fat man wearing a cloth vest and pouchy pants was approaching her, with a rather tired look on her face. From how he was outstretching his right hand towards Roberia, he was probably addressing Roberia as this... Gu-nyang person.

"姑娘呀, 要不要跟我一起走, 抽一抽熱鬧呀?"

He used his sweaty palms to grasp onto Roberia's free left hand, and her hand felt a strange, disgusting sensation of being inserted into a lukewarm soft leather pouch that was wet inside. A coarse texture on his skin, lubricated with sweat, was enough to make Roberia look at him in disgust and fright.

R : (What is he saying? What is he doing?! His hands are so revolting. They remind me of the time I had to reach into that fat noblewoman's bosoms to retrieve Cosette's pendant...) "No... Uh, no, no. It's okay. I don't want or need anything!"

Roberia shifted the gold pouch into her pocket, and used her freed up right hand to pull her left hand out, dissuading any persuasions or advances the man planned.

"不要這樣嗎, 和我作一下嗎!"

*Cozy's Notes : Well, it appears that our dear Roberia has been forced into a state of 作, that would mean to cooperate with him.

... Oh shit. That's... That's not good, is it?

YOU DON'T SAY, COZY. YOU'RE THE AUTHOR, FOR THE SAKE OF FUC- *

R : "No, I- !" (Wh- What?)

A strange sensation filled her body. She stopped resisting altogether, and the energy in her right arm was draining away rapidly.

R : (What... What? What's going on? I can't move my body? What's happening?)

"好吧, 我們一起走吧."

R : (Why... Why are my feet moving? Why am I walking that way? I don't want to follow the stinky old creep and his slimy paws! Why can't I move?! Help! Katachi! Somebody! Help me!!!)

Struggle as she may, her body was no longer listening to her mind any longer.

It simply cooperated with the commands issued, and did as the fat man instructed it to.

*** ***

K : (Where, oh where could she have gone?)

Katachi placed the nicely-folded groundsheet above his bag, and fastened it with a strap.

K : (To think that she just walked and left, and took my gold pouch, too. But she left her Band of Approval behind, so she couldn't have gone far.)

He glanced into one of the stores where people were chatting merrily while sitting on square wooden stools, and looked at the clock. On it, strange Anikan characters were displayed, and he couldn't make out exactly what time it was. It looked like it was about 4 in the morning, but the sun had just risen. That wasn't possible, unless he's perceiving the clock in a wrong fashion.

*Cozy's Notes : History time with Cozy! Yay. What Katachi had been looking at was a Chinese Zodiac clock. These things are all the rage in the past. They had 12 figures that represented the Zodiac, and they replaced the 1 ~ 12 numbers on our standard mechanical analogue clocks. Where our clock was divided into 12 and the segment between them was represented as one hour, theirs was a 24-hour clock divided into 12 and the segment between the zodiacs are represented as two hours.

In Katachi's case, instead of displaying the symbols of the animals in the Chinese zodiac, it was showing the characters that represented the zodiac animals. In the place of the animals were the characters 子 丑 寅 卯 辰 巳 午 未 申 酉 戌 and 亥. Of course, Katachi has no way of knowing that, he only knows that there are weird Chinese- I mean, Akinan- ANIKAN, symbols on it. My god, my butterfingers.*

K : (... I don't see her hair or anything red...)

He glanced about once more, and continued walking down the street.

*** ***

"旺估大爺,你回來啦!"

A fat man walked through the door, with a red-haired girl following behind him. Greeting him was a middle-aged lady who stood at the counter, wearing a tight-fit dress with a plastered smile on her face that couldn't look any more dishonest.

"把這丫頭帶到後倉庫去."

He issued a swift instruction, and the lady gave a confident nod with a respectful bow before pulling the red-haired girl by her collar to the back.

*** ***

He had spent a couple of hours looking for her, with fruitless results. But he wasn't surprised. Rather, Katachi was quite convinced that Roberia had simply found somewhere more secluded to rest at. Perhaps she was resting under some shady tree, along a small path out of town. Perhaps she had found a comfortable alley somewhere in this small village and sat atop a box, a gentle breeze tickling and brushing against her body.

His meticulous, unfaltering search for Roberia, however, proves to be of no avail. He had seen a carriage with what appears to be a nobleman in a very formal garb stopping by various places in the village, and he had seen mainly children playing with a strange wooden toy that spins on the ground.

As he turned his head right to look through another store, his body naturally swayed and oriented his trajectory towards his left, and he bumped into someone.

"哇呀呀!!"

He freaked out, and raised his hands to guard his face from nothing, while falling backwards and landing on his bottom. The damp sand soiled his pants and he got up, with a frustrated look on his face and wagging his finger at Katachi.

"啊! 你看你看你, 這怎麼搞的, 走路不長眼睛! 還弄髒了我的新衣!!"

K : "Ah, I'm sorry..."

The fat man then grabbed his wrist with his sweaty palms, and tugged him along.

"臭小子, 休想逃! 跟我来!!"

K : "Ah- Wha- What?" (What is he doing? And... Ew, his palm is really sweaty and slimy...)

*** ***

It didn't take long for Katachi to figure out what the man intended for him to do. The man took off his cloth vest and pants, and tossed it into a wooden bucket with metal bands reinforced unto it.

"給我洗過, 洗的干淨點!"

K : (A washing board...)

The man had pulled him into a sort of inn, and released his grasp when they had entered what seems to be a laundry room. With his arms folded, he exhaled from his nostrils loudly and left the room.

K : (Of course. I made his clothes dirty, so I have to take responsibility and see to it that it is cleaned. Fair enough, I guess.)

Katachi put down his luggage onto a side and began rubbing the clothes together, to remove the stain on the pouchy pants. He scrubbed and rinsed, and flipped and tossed the wet fabric about while squatting on the wet floor. Outside, he heard the busy sounds of the market with people yelling things he didn't understand, and many footsteps of different depths and sounds. It hadn't been this noisy when he walked about the streets, so he could only guess that wherever this was, it was near a very crowded area.

After a good while, he was finished. He hung the clothes up on a rack with bamboo sticks improvised as clothes hangers, and pushed open the door with strange, wooden hooks on it, to look for the fat man.

He left the laundry room and entered a corridor. To his immediate left and before him were two open doors with brightly lit areas, but to his right, down the corridor, was a dark hallway with a closed wooden door. He peered into the room before him, and saw a couple of what could be made out as chefs preparing many, many plates of food. Strange, exotic and pleasant smells of tasty foods lingered about the air. He didn't recognize the smells, but seeing how they were in Anik, being unfamiliar with the herbs used locally is a given.

To his immediate left was another hallway, one that led to stairs and some wide, open space with a counter. That was probably where the fat man who dragged him into this place could have gone.

As he turned left, Katachi felt something... Odd.

Something was off.

He couldn't put a finger on it quite yet, but something about the air feels strange.

He turned around, and looked at the dark hallway leading to the closed door. There was something about it that was more alluring than the bright light outside the inn. Something that overpowered his senses, in comparison to the fragrance leaking from the kitchen area. Something... Ominous.

A warning, a foreboding that he would do good not to ignore.

His eyes widened with a strange, purple sigil. Katachi could not see what he looked like, but the walls next to him glowed a faint purple, strange enough. It was gone soon enough, but that was enough of a premonition to urge him to step forth.

*Cozy's Notes : How many more 'enough's does it take before it's finally enough? I dunno. Just felt like making a paragraph full of and enough of that word. There I go again, ain't I satisfied enough? Apparently not enough of enough was used enough. Enough. Enough, Cozy. God, I've had enough of this enough bullshit.*

He took one step, and froze immediately to a loud noise.

He still had his sabots on, and alerting everybody around him to his presence was certainly not the first thing that comes to his mind. Katachi slipped his feet out of the sabots and held them in his left hand, before slowly tiptoeing over to the door at the end.

*Cozy's Notes : In case you were wondering, yes, his belongings are still inside the laundry room. It plays a vital part in the following chapter, really, it does. Besides, it's his fortune he wasn't encumbered by his bulky stuff from this point on.*

He pushed it open gently...

"Aaahhh~!"

A strange voice rasped out as he did. He could hear moans, cries, the sounds of women coming from somewhere. He couldn't make out where exactly, but this was too shady to ignore. Katachi closed the door behind him, and sneaked his way over.

The sounds got louder and louder the deeper he walked down the corridor. It was a straight, linear path, and the only things that distracted him in the passage was the sound of the creaking wood he was stepping on. The cries sounded weird to Katachi. It sounded like the women were being tortured, but it didn't seem to be painful. Rather, the cries sounded more like the grunts and cries of animals, instead.

He reached the final door, and the sounds were really loud now. They were muffled by the door, but from how loud they are and how they seem to echo about, Katachi was certain that whatever beyond this door was some sort warehouse, or large space. Perhaps it was a torture chamber, forcing women to labor against their own will or something. Or perhaps it was some slaughterhouse for an animal he has never met before in his life. His head pondered with many questions, but the uneasy feeling in his heart pressed on.

He pushed the doors ajar, and peeked through the slit, to see a sight he had not expected.

Women. Naked women were all about in the warehouse, and sprawled across the floor, crawling and doing obscene things.

Ladies of many types, of many heights and sizes, were all about the entire warehouse. They were tied up, and forced into each other by rope, restraint devices, and some were isolated in corners with deterrents like spikes on the floors to stop them from escaping. They touched each other in sensitive spots, and these women, by the dozens, were all groping and pleasuring one another uncontrollably.

He pushed the door open fully, and took two steps into the room. It smelled sick. The stench of sweat, feces and something foul blanketed the air like a miasma. He felt, with every breath taken into his lungs, a revolting sensation that regurgitated the acids in his stomach. His lungs burned and his eyes squinted, trying not to look as much as he could. The smell alone was unbearable, let alone the sight of it.

"你?! 你怎麼在這兒?!"

A middle-aged woman wearing a tight-fit dress glared at him with a shocked expression. Next to her...

... Was Roberia, whom was standing there, with eyes half-closed and her shirt half taken off.

K : (Roberia?! She's here, in this place?!)

But, looking harder, he could clearly see that Roberia was not herself. She seemed to have been put into a daze, lazily standing about and swaying to her sides gently, like a piece of grass rustling in the gentle breeze.

K : (No... She's not herself! Something happened to her... They did something to her!!)

"這兒只有客人才能進來的!! 去去去, 快出去!!!"

Katachi clenched his fists tight, and his face frowned into a frightening, fearsome expression that Roberia, and possibly not even Mother Rinnesfeld has ever seen before.

K : "UNHAND MY WIFE, THIS INSTANT!!!!!"

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Messiah 15 : Language_Gap

After a long journey, they finally reached the borter.

"停!"

The guard standing at the borter, holding a spear with a red plume, held his hand out towards Katachi and Roberia.

K R : "What dd he say?"

With confused looks, they looked at each other briefly, dumbfounded. They weren't versed with the knowledge of speaking Anikan, but looking to each other for answers wasn't helping neither.

"您贵姓?"

K : "I'm sorry?"
R : "What does that mean?

"听不懂吗?你是何方人?"

The officer then withdrew a wooden board with papyrus on it, and took out a sort of brush pen. He eyed at the two of them, with a suspicious look. The two of them, with absolutely no idea what he's talking about, could only assume that he was talking about something related to them wanting to pass.

*Cozy's Notes : It's a calligraphy brush. Those brushes people of the old use to draw and stylise their words and letterings. There's a bunch of styles, but in this case, it refers to Chinese calligraphy. D'oh, they're in China- I mean, Anik.*

K : "... Uhm... What?"

"你们不会说安尼话吗?... 来人!"

"在!"

The guard next to him lowered his head while hugging his left arm around his stomach, and answered.

"去找幹尔弗利来和他们对话!"

And with a confident nod, the guard started running towards the borter's interor.

K : "... Uhm..."

"你们在这儿等一会儿."

The guard signaled for them to stay put.

K : (I wish I understood what he's talking about...)
R : "Is there a translator around here?"

He held his hand out and patted downwards again, telling the two to stay put.

K : (If only there were some way to convey my thoughts... Ah! Someone's coming!)
R : (Who's that?)

From the borter walked out a man with a grey beard and wrinkled eyes.

"You two. Are you looking to pass into Anik?"

K R : "Yes!"

His entrance had been a welcoming one - Finally, there was somebody whom spoke the same tongue.

G : "I am Gänfre. I come from Auser, and I serve as a linguist."

R : (An Auseri. Interesting.) "I see."

G : "Well, introductions aside, show me your Band of Approval."

Katachi raised his right hand, and showed the bracer on his wrist, while Roberia pointed at her hairband. It didn't take long for him to ascertain that they had the correct bands.

G : "Good."

They relaxed their shoulders upon hearing the good news.

K : (That's a relief. We can pass, then... ! Ah! Of course!) "Excuse me, Mister Gänfre!"

G : "What is it?"

Katachi, with much effort, quickly withdrew the thousand-paged book from the sling with his right hand, and flipped a couple of pages while leaning it against his thigh. Since his left arm was in a sling, he struggled with a small action like so.

K : "Uhm, would you... Would you happen to know this character?"

Katachi showed the  to him.

G : (A Word of Power?) "Why would you need to know?"

K : "Please. If you know anything about this, just anything, it would be of much help.

G : (I can't let his knowledge of that increase.) "... I've only seen that a couple of times, to be honest. A word like that isn't frequent in everyday speech."

The light in his eyes lost its luster for a bit.

G : "... To be frank, seeing that word reminds me of a poem I read about not too long ago.

凝望明月悔痴情,
欺人太盛休仁德。
凡事放下再放下,
舍身修道义君则。

It's a nice poem, written by an 8-year-old girl. It talks about moving on from the past, and striving to improve yourself every day."

K : (I only wish I understood whatever he just said...)

G : (He probably doesn't know what I just said. All the better - His precedence level with it won't be getting any higher.) "Well, other than the fact that it's pronounced ning, there's not much else I know about it. Sorry. That's as far as I can help with."

K : "... Thank you..."

G : "I've been meaning to ask this, though - How are you two going to survive in Anik without knowing how to speak their tongue?"

The two of them looked at each other, and back at Gänfre.

R : "I don't know, maybe try to communicate with body language, I guess."
K : "We can try signaling and stuff, or maybe get another linguist."

G : "... I figured as much... You two have no plans?"

K R :"... No."

G : "Well, look for this person."

Gänfre used the brush to draw a couple of strokes on the papyrus, and handed it to them.

G : "Ask the natives about for him. He speaks a couple of languages, so having him guide you would be a good start."

K R : "Thank you."

*** ***

It didn't take long for them to reach a small village. The scent of braised duck and herbs filled the air as they walked past a shop.

R : "I'm getting hungry just smelling this..."

K : "No. We can't afford to eat. We have to save our coin."

R : "But I'm really hungry, though. Please, Katachi. Just one piece?"

K : "No. You've already had enough from drinking at that bar back in Eliasbury! Besides, even if I wanted to buy that, I'm not even sure if they would accept our coin to begin with." (... To think she would do something like dining and dashing...)

Roberia pouted at Katachi's rebuttal, and used her knee to force Katachi into a kneeling position.

K : "!?"

And without warning, she clung onto him, and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist..

K : "What are you-"
R : "In that case, you have the honor to carry me then."

K : "..." (It's not as if she's the only person who's hungry. This is rather unfair...)

Katachi did his best to stand up, and planted his feet onto the ground solidly. Roberia's additional weight wasn't something Katachi was used to, despite the fact that she was slender and light.

R : "Start walking, Katachi! I'm not that heavy!"

K : (... Urrgh... I can't balance that well with her on me...)

Step by step, he slowly began to grow accustomed to her weight. But the deprivation of food meant this could not last long. His steps became slower, and heavier, as he heaved and tried to walk.

Eventually, he fell forward, but his body was caught by Roberia before they hit the ground. She had apparently stretched her legs outward such that she caught herself, and her arms tugged at his throat to catch him.

R : "You're hopeless, Katachi." (A person like him who's stronger than me can't even take a hundred steps? Is he really that weak without the Words of Power?)

Roberia hauled his body onto her shoulder, and started walking.

*** ***

R : "Excuse me, do you know who this person is?"

Roberia handed the piece of papyrus to a store owner with her free, left hand. She mained her right hand most of the time, but it was now preoccupied with holding Katachi on her shoulder.

"啊, 往那边走就是了."

The store owner pointed at the direction further down a street, towards a road. With that, she thanked the stranger, and continued on her way.

Sunday 5 January 2014

Deku Up! 5

As Deku mopped up the bits of gruel on the floor, somebody had come in from the door. It was a boy of about 11, with a short, blonde bowl-cut holding onto an assignment book and a piece of papyrus.

"Hey, are you Deku? I heard from Senior Aldia that I could consult you?"

D : "Yeah, I am."
T : "Mushroom head!"

And Totta, taking advantage of Deku's current disposition, quickly leapt towards the boy, and hugged his torso like a koala.

"Wh- Wha?!"
D : "Totta! Get off him this instant!"

T : "I don't wanna~"

Deku apologetically looked at the boy as he wrapped his hands around her waist and tugged her off his body gently.

D : "Sorry about that. She's... She's just excited. I think."

"... Okay... Maybe I should introduce myself first?"

The boy placed his items onto a counter top and bowed politely towards Deku.

Z : "I am Zelkova. I'm here to learn from you. Please bear with me."

*Cozy's Notes : Shoutout to Zelkova from MochisGuides. Maplestory the game is dead to me, but he's still trying to bring it alive, so... Yeah.*

D : "Oh, don't be. Have a seat, Zelkova."

Deku awkwardly pointed at a stone chair and table set, which he had supposedly made using his Conduit Imbue. Though a strange decision, the rock it had been carved from is smooth, and slippery, and reflective. It was probably made in that fashion specifically to stop the two playful children in the room from climbing atop - A smart decision, to prevent them from hurting themselves.

Z : "Ah, thank you."

He took a seat on the smooth rock, and leaned his elbows on the table.

Deku took out a small piece of what seemed to be a square-shaped candy, and gave it to Totta.

D : "Chew slowly, okay?"

The young girl looked at it with a strange, curious light in her eyes, and quickly stuffed it into her mouth, chewing and biting on it happily. No sooner had she done so did she regret that decision.

T : "!!! What is this?!"

D : "Ginger candy. Suckle on it to let the flavor seep out slowly. Be careful, it's spicy."

Deku then took a seat on the opposing stool, as Totta placed her hands over her mouth, with tears in her eyes.

T ; (So... So spicy...)
D : "Alright then, you had a question?"

Z : "Ah, yes. Just let me..."

Zelkova reached his hand out towards the counter top, and the book quickly poofed into his hands.

D : (An Axia follower, huh. Rare.)
Z : "Okay, let me see... Which page did Madame Leia say it was? Hmm..."

He pondered over the book, flipping through it quickly. With the amount of carvings and notes on the book, it was a nice change for Deku to see a hardworking student like himself consulting a caretaker like him for something proper.

Z : "Ahh. Here we go. Madame Leia wanted us to research on the differences between a... God, and a Witch. Or, you know, warlock."

D : "Ahh. A textbook question. How far have you read the chapter?"

Z : "I... I don't know, I've only finished the chapter on Image Power, so... I guess the next lesson is about basic runes?"

D : "... That question's a bit too far ahead for you then. You'd normally learn something like that in about two years' time, assuming you're a first-year at the Magus Essentials class."

Z : "Yeah, I am a first-year at the Magus Essentials."

D : "I'm not surprised, though. You're in Madame Leia's class? That old hag's always been crazy with her assignments. If you think this assignment's tough, wait till you reach her final year - She'll give questions so tough, you'd have to consult someone Sorceror-class and above, like the principal himself."

Z : "... That sucks..."

D : "... You've come to the right person for this, at least. Right then, let's start with how much you know. What defines a 'God'?"

Zelkova frowned and scratched his head a bit as he tried to recall what the definition was.

Z : "... I've read this from books outside, but... I think a God is someone who has ascended from... Learning magic?"

D : "Half-correct. A 'God' is a person who has ascended from our realm by mastering what one would call 'Arts'."

Z : "Arts?"

D : "Okay... How about this for starters?"

Deku held his fist out, and it glowed a brilliant, radiant yellow. The air about it seemed to have been sucked into the hand, and before long, the yellow expanded and enveloped his arm, before it faded off to reveal a sort of wind armor about his arm, howling loudly in the room and causing the plant nearby to shake from it.

D : 'This is a magic knows as Conduit Imbue. This magic, is one portion of a two-part combination known as the Gatherer's Golem, which is this wind armor about my arm."

The focused wind faded off, and the room was quiet again.

D : "But, the Conduit Imbue magic can be omitted completely, and the same effect can occur as well."

The wind spun and rotated about his arm once again, before dispelling for good.

D : "Of course, with much difficulty."

Z : "What... What does that have to do with what an Art and Magic is?"

D : "You should remember the fundamentals to using magic - Image Power. With image power, you can create the image of the magic in your head, and it can be brought to life."

Z : "... Yeah?"

Zelkova continued his train of thought while giving Deku a suspicious look.

D : "But, an Art does not need image power at all. In fact, it can be cast at any time, and it does not need image power. It can be reinforced or weakened with image power, but that is not always necessary."

Z : "Aha... So the 'Gods' are people whom have mastered 'Arts'?"

D : "Well, 'Arts' come in many forms and such, but those whom have mastered a specific class of 'Arts' are allowed to become a God."

Z : "So, what makes them different from Witches or Warlocks?"

D : "A Witch, or Warlock if male, is a person who is aspiring to become a God. Like how a God can be referred to as a proper steel sword, a Warlock is a piece of metal that has yet become a proper sword."

Z : "... I see. So, one is a complete version, and the other is slowly becoming one?"

D : "Exactly. Do you know the titles of some of these Gods?"

Z : "?... Well..."

He gave a pondering look, before answering to the best of his abilities.

Z : "I know that Dardicel is the God of Trials, Croxa is the God of Weather, Sharyu Zuku the foreign Ohdean God is the Goddess of Rain, Ilpoh is the God of Battles... I think."

D : "Good. There's also Vithrolu, the God of Death and Decay. You probably didn't also know that Soltak is actually the Sunkeeper, the God of Light. Phronia, the Lady of the Tundra, is also the Goddess of Limits, though, she was believed to have been slain by Kavnel, so I'm not sure if mentioning her is a good example or not."

Z : "!! Slain, by Kavnel?! Who's Kavnel?!"

D : "I don't know how or why, but apparently Gods can be slain too. Well, it's probably a really old, ancient technique, since it's Kavnel who killed her. We don't even know much about Kavnel, the last 'Old God'. We're talking about an Old God who's around long enough to see all the Gods we now know rise to their current status."

Z : "Why haven't I heard of Kavnel then?"

D : "Apparently Kavnel is mute, so he cannot reincarnate using the Reincarnation Cauldron that allows Gods to reincarnate as people once more."

Z : "!! Reincarnation Cauldron?" (This is getting interesting. Coming to ask him is the right option after all! I'm learning all sorts of things I've never even heard of!)

D : "Vithrolu's reincarnate, Chitone, and Soltak's reincarnate, Astora, only mentioned Kavnel and the Reincarnation Cauldron in passing, though, so nobody can be too sure. But those two are the older Gods amongst most of them, so I believe them. That, or they're pulling a co-ordinated, sick prank just to fool us in circles, but I don't really care. It's nice to know these things, I guess."

Z : "That is amazing..."

D : "Yeah. I was taken aback too when I first read about it. You can find the excerpts on these books - Knocking on Death's Door, and Praise the Sun : An Autobiography. They will cite these sources, so Madame Leia won't berate you for having baseless information."

Z : "Thank you! Thank you so much, Deku! This whole thing just turned interesting somehow!... Say, where do these 'Arts' come from?"

...

The only thing heard from the room was Totta fumbling on the floor over the spicy ginger candy.

D : "... Who knows? You'd have to ask an actual warlock for that."

Z : "... Huh. Are there any speculations or stuff for me to start with?"

D : "... Well, most Warlocks and Witches are pretty secretive, and reclused. Getting one to talk is hard. But, well, I can make guesses, I suppose. Have you read the story of Diehl, the Lifesunder?"

Z : "The one about Diehl and Urdythari?"

D : "No, no, that's the part of their life further on. I meant the start of the legend Diehl. Well, in the beginning, Diehl's real name was Ufel, and his family was in feud with another family. When the feud ended with the two lovebirds Marco Poliez and Tabitha Schroez committing a double suicide, leaving only him as the sole survivor, he made a pact with a witch, supposedly."

Z : "I... I haven't read that."

D : "Ufel supposedly formed a pact, a geis with a witch named Cerule, the Azure Witch of the Wealth Well. What I'm guessing at, is that the 'Arts' are somewhat connected to... Some sort of element or... Thing."

Z : "... Huh?"

D : "Think about it this way. Vithrolu, Soltak, Sharyu Zuku. Death, Light, Rain. Each of them are associated with a sort of element, or something. Cerule was the Azure Witch, and she was capable of controlling water and ice magic. Or, if I'm not wrong, she was actually using an 'Art' that would look similar to magic."

Z : "Hmm..."

D : "What I'm guessing at is that these 'Arts' are somehow related to the elements we face every day. Dardicel mastered the Trial 'Arts', Phronia mastered the Limit 'Arts', Croxa mastered the Weather 'Arts', and if my memory doesn't fail me, Sha'Koth, the Trickster Legend, posed as the master of the 'Manipulation' Arts. I'm guessing the 'Arts' themselves have a sort of... Condition or something."

Zelkova gave a slightly depressed look. he had likely expected a solid, clear answer, not something like this.

D : "Don't be too down. Maybe that's for the best. If you'd think about it from a more logical perspective, it was supposed to be unclear.If it was something easily known, then everyone would have become a God by now, wouldn't they?"

Z : "... I... I guess that makes sense..."

D : "Yeah. Don't be so glum. I think something, or someone is purposely concealing this information from all of us. It's a hard topic to research on, with many questions to be asked, and many answers that only give rise to more questions. Just take it slow."

Z : "... Okay."

*** ***

Seiene climbed atop Totta and lay his stomach on her waist, and rested peacefully.

Z : "Thank you for all your help. This assignment would have been much tougher without your help."

D : "You're welcome. I hope you get a good grade for this."

Z : "I hope so too. Here, have this. This is from an assignment from another class."

Zelkova handed him a small, red leaf.

D : "... This is..."

Z : "A compass and astral map. Axia used a lone maple tree in a forest to mark his bearings. This is created from a spell revolved around that, and well, I thought it would be useful to you, or the kids if they get lost."

D : "Why, thank you. This must have been hard to make."

Z : "It is. Please take good care of my treasure."

With that, the bowl-cut head left through the door, with his assignment book in hand.

D : "... ?? What's this?"

On the counter top next to the door lay a piece of papyrus. Deku picked it up to examine the news, and read the content out aloud.

D : "... 'Rugnid Princess in Affair'? 'A civilian was reported to have sighted the soon-to-be Empress of Rugnud, Matalpal-something Roberia, with a boy of presumably Ohdean descent. Further inquiries have been pursed, and subject 'Kozuba Katachi' is now the cause of great alarm in Rugnud. The ministers of Rugnud have-' ?!... Katachi?..."

Deku's eyes widened in astonishment.

D : "... He's in an affair with this Roberia princess?"