A history lesson

[Darx Point-of-view]

It is quite odd to be walking through my old training grounds. In a way, it’s interesting to share it with Ryul and my new friends, but we are all adventurers now. Before I had my awakening, some of these monsters here were quite challenging. I needed Amelia and Oliver with me to take them on. Now that I am an A rank, I can easily take them on by myself. I remember how the first time I had to fight a carnivorous plant here, we almost lost. Now I could take one on myself without breaking a sweat. It difference in difficulty is quite disorienting, really. This place that I know I used to train at, it just doesn’t feel like it any more.

The trackers in our team have a hard time finding any wolf tracks at first, so we keep going further into the forest. I finally get to go further than I ever have before. When we get close to the abandoned mine Craig finally finds some tracks. Kenji confirms they are indeed wolf tracks and we chase after them. Eventually, we find a pack. 4 of them and they are surrounding a carcass. The body no longer has any flesh on it and the wolves are now knowing on the bones. I am not sure if these are the bones of one of the villagers of Merton, but it may very well be. Because of this, my determination to kill these wolves is greater than ever. After a short battle the wolves are dead and we bring their bodies all the way back to the lake where our camp has been set up. Cal and Rachel have also returned and are helping with breaking up camp.

When we get there, the girls are still busy breaking up camp. We take our game to the side and clean up the bodies over there. I haven’t done that before, but Craig seems to know what to do. First he tells us to remove the heads, as they can be quite cumbersome. Then he shows us how to strip the fur off. We can take those with us and sell them at some tailors in Riledo. But we better first wash the blood off of them. Cal volunteers for that and takes the furs to the lake.

Craig then shows us how to get the organs out of the bodies. We leave those out for carrion birds to feed from. Finally, we hang the carcasses upside down from a thick tree branch to let the blood drip out.

At around noon, the tents are broken down and we have 4 campfires ready. We roast all 4 wolf bodies at once, since roasted meat preserves longer then raw. The 21 of us then try to eat as much meat as we can. The rest gets cut up and disappears into your bags of holding. After that we finally begin our long trek back home. When I get to the edge of the village, I look back one more time.

“This time, we are actually leaving forever.” I tell Amelia.

Amelia hugs my arm and rest her head against my shoulder; “Who knows. Maybe one day, you and I will come back here and rebuild.”

“Yeah. That’s a possibility.” I admit. “But life can sometimes make strange twists and turns. I guess we’ll just have to move on and see where it takes us.”

“Darx, that’s such a nice way to put it. You’re so cute.” Amelia says, which she follows up with a kiss on my lips. Then both of us turn our back on Merton. Though despite a possibility for return, I still feel I am doing it with a certain sense of finality.

We travel all the way back to the village where the royal guard is keeping our carts safe. This is where Cal and Rachel split up from us. They are going to return to the rest of the Knights Hospitaler they came with. Mia’s group and ours separate and get to our carts, but we stick together as we are traveling back to Riledo. It would be best if we both visit Enzo together and return his belongings to him all at once. At any rate, this finally gives me the chance to read this book on “The Princess of Calamity”. Such an ominous sounding title. I wonder what it’s all about.

The book starts with a foreword, that it is based on hard evidence, carefully collected over several years and that all documents have been verified. It seems like the author put a lot of effort and making certain his facts are straight. After the foreword, the book introduces the person it is talking about as Princess Layla Imrisblood, daughter to King Robert Imrisblood and Queen Joan Mellworth. It then goes into Layla’s upbringing and describes how she was able to read and count at a higher level than children her age, revealing that she was a person gifted with great intellect. As Layla grew older, she took an interest in economics, regularly asking her father why things cost the way they do. She had a rough patch when her mother died in childbirth, together with a brother she was supposed to have, possibly sparking a desire to be more responsible. For at age 15, she requested her father to give her the authority to go to a province that had failing farms and try to get those farms back up and running. Robert gave permission, under the condition that she was accompanied by several high ranking royal guards, as well as the crown’s most accomplished druid. Once there, Layla discovered the main problem the province had was underdeveloped irrigation. With the help of the druid and several local earth mages, they worked at constructing an artificial lake. To collect rainwater that otherwise would go to waste. Then they developed canals to go from the lake to the farmlands, thus providing the locals with easy access to water for both their farms and personal use.

What I am reading here so far is glowing praise for what seems to be a soon to be beloved queen. Not quite someone who would be thought of as a person that brings calamity. I should read on.

When Layla reached the age of 17, she got betrothed to Eldrin of Dackon. Another red eyed individual with whom Layla could continue Imris’ lineage. The book then goes into an explanation that when a red eyed descendant of Imris reproduces with a human that doesn’t have the red eyes trait, there is no certainty of the red eyes being passed on. Only a chance. But if they mate with another red eyed descendant of Imris, it is certain for their children to have the red eyes as well. Hence why the women of the Zrephian bloodline were motivated to reproduce only with red eyed men. Meanwhile, the red eyed men, whether they be in line for the throne or not, were motivated to take several concubines and have as many children with those as possible, in the hopes of getting a few red eyed bastards. These children were typically expected to join the royal guard or royal administration and would be well respected, while those bastards that have the red eyes would be married off to the nobility.

Then the book discloses that in order to keep the royal line strong, Zrephia had set up a system to avoid inbreeding. Basically, the king’s red eyed bastard children are forbidden to mate with the king’s legitimate offspring. The will instead be married to nobles outside the royal family. That not only grant the royals to have a strong alliance with the nobility, but said nobles can introduce new blood to the Zrephian bloodline. But even the children of the bastard can’t marry the king’s grandchildren, as that would be a union between cousins, making the bloodline too closely related. The Zrephian princes and princesses would have to wait until they can get married to a second cousin. Due to Eldrin being Layla’s only male second cousin around, he was the only one for her to get married to and ensure the next generation of the Zrephian lineage with.

This is very interesting to me. I always wondered how the Zrephians made it so they always had a king or queen with red eyes. Turns out it is because they had implemented a breeding program. And just as I think about it, I am starting to feel bad about humans being selected for breeding. I mean, the red eyes are a rare trait, no doubt about it. I myself am the only one left and nobody can figure out why I have them. If I had lived back then, sure, I would have been permitted to stay with Kiara and Amelia, probably also some others, but they would have been treated like broodmares. That honestly makes me feel quite disgusted. Meanwhile, I would have been **** to marry my second cousin. I mean, yeah, it would be less incestuous then marrying my first cousin, but still … and all to make certain the red eyes remain among us. Not wanting to be further creeped out, I decide to push those ideas to the back of my mind and continue reading.

So, some time before after Layla’s betrothal to Eldrin, the Demon King at that time had been corresponding to King Robert with the intent to forming an alliance between the nations. But then King Robert got assassinated by a man who resented him for taking his wife as a royal concubine. Which left and underaged Layla as the de facto queen of the kingdom. The royal court wizard was appointed as her regent until she became 18 years old. Yet, Layla’s sense of responsibility made her want to act like queen right away, and the court wizard was all too happy to let her, only countermanding her orders when he felt she was making a mistake. As such, Layla took over corresponding with Demon King Akon, until eventually she made the mistake of inviting him to the royal palace.

There are a lot of confusing things in this segment. Zrephia was trying to make an alliance with the demons? But we know that Zrephia was destroyed in a war with the demons. Did the negotiations go wrong in some way? Or was it a trick? A deception?

Supposedly, the Demon King came to Zrephia and apparently, that is when things go south. The book says Layla started to change the more she interacted with the Demon King. Almost suggesting he was corrupting her. She started to forsake her responsibilities, take his suggestions over those of the court wizard. And when the court wizard’s regency ended at Layla’s 18th birthday, Layla broke off her engagement to Eldrin.

I see. So, Layla decided to go against tradition. Not just in general, but the very tradition meant to make certain there are always royals with red eyes. That must have been a big deal. But not something worthy of her being named “The princess of calamity”. There must be more to it.

The next section goes into Layla desiring more control over the kingdom. She apparently invited the dukes of the surrounding provinces and their families for a banquet, then arrested them and had them charged with treason, after which she had their ducal titles stripped from them and took them for herself. She followed this up by sending some squads of royal guards to the ducal palaces and subjugate the regions. Having the royal guard so spread out left the capital fairly undefended when Demon King Akon returned with a legion. Princess Layla, rather than defend the city from the demon invasion, commanded for the gates to be opened and welcome the demons as friends. That is then when the captain of the royal guard finally understood Layla had been corrupted and he arrested her. After taking command, the captain sent out a message to all the guilds, letting them know that martial law was now in effect and would thus take control of all adventurers as long as the siege of the city was ongoing. The siege of Zrephia lasted many weeks and kept worsening as time went on. The expectation was for the elves, dwarves, beast-kind and dark elves to send their armies and break the siege. Zrephia just had to hold out long enough for them to arrive. The armies were being gathered, and they were on their way to Zrephia, but at the same time, the demons had sent for more legions. Despite the city defending itself against 3 legions and nearly falling, they somehow managed to kill the Demon King in combat. Following his defeat, the demon legions gave up and fled. But when Layla was informed that Akon had been slain, she was so enraged that she cast a powerful. One that unleashed a magical storm which lasted for days, ravaging the city and everyone in it. Thus bringing an end to Zrephia and earning her the moniker “Princess of Calamity”.

Well then. I already knew the city had fallen, like everyone else. But now at least I know how. By the corruption of a descendant of Imris. Despite the foreword describing this book having been put together with a large amount of facts, I don’t recall it ever describing Layla as being an S rank. Maybe back then the royals were so expected to always be S-ranks that it was deemed not necessary to write that down? Kinda like books never specify human characters as having only one head, because it is so obvious for them to do. It did often refer to Layla as being a powerful mage. If all the previous red eyed people could choose their skills like myself and also get rank upgrades like I do, I can see how they would be some of the most powerful people around. That would explain Layla being able to cast such a powerful spell. But to think she would end up using such power against her own people. It is truly sad that Layla was corrupted in such a way. She had such a promising youth and could have been a really great queen had it not been for the Demon King’s interference.

At night, when we are eating at the campfire, I share the story with my friends. Just like me, none of them had learned how Zrephia fell, only that it was lost to the demons. After some discussion, they all agreed that demons were not to be trusted. Not back then, and with them building up their forces at our border, also not today.