Simple man with his overpowered army

Chapter 80: Strange culture of Nous empire

At the training grounds, Lud is training his skills with Li. From an outsider’s point of view, it seems that the training is for the king himself, but the truth is far more complicated than that.

Before the training began, Lud had nightmares of Sarah coming to him and asking him with a bloodied face "Why didn’t you save me?" "Why did you do nothing?" "Why did I even marry you?"

Those words dug deep in Lud’s soul. Even if they were just nightmares, he couldn’t help but feel anxious about the whole mess. The questions came to Lud one after another "How could I have prevented this?" "Was there really no other choice?" "Even with all the power I now wield, I failed to protect a person close, perhaps even closest to me. I’m a failure. I must improve."

So the image of Li came to Lud’s head. Not only to improve his own skills, but when he remembered the face Li made during the meeting, he felt like that if he did nothing, then there was a chance Li might do something stupid.

Though thoughts came to Lud’s mind, "But this is Li we are talking about. He has lived so long and still carried on. He wouldn’t do something foolish to himself just like that." But then he remembered the one fact that Ill said back then. The fact that Li would willingly sacrifice himself so that Sarah might have a chance to meet her mother once more. He was willing to bury the fact that he was Sarah’s father, so even then, he would do it.

"Would he have done it later if Sarah was still alive? Did he think it would be possible? Maybe... maybe if there was a sliver of chance... for a man who has suffered for so... so long, any form of relief would undoubtedly..." And it was then that Lud made up his mind. He would spend more time with Li, so that he wouldn’t feel as lonely as he would otherwise. By training with him, Lud could keep an eye on Li’s well being, and with that, he might avert another tragedy.

Of course, piles upon piles of paperwork had to be done in order to have that chance of training, but even still, Lud would make sure to make up time with Li.

And so the training commenced. Of course, Lud was no match for Li’s mastery of martial arts, but Lud would not waver. He would push himself so that he could stand and carry the weight with Li so that Li didn’t have to carry it all alone.

Li would train Lud tirelessly, and with Lud being a demigod, his body could keep up with Li’s relentless training regiment.

But even with all that training, Lud could barely see a real smile form on Li’s face. All the smiles Li would give his liege were empty. To make a facade in an attempt to make Lud feel more at ease. But Lud could see past the mask. The mask of someone who has closed himself deep inside.

To make sure Li wouldn’t feel alone, he asked Sisu to keep Li company while Lud was busy with the paperwork, to which Sisu replied "I would have done so even if you didn’t ask. Me and Serene are worried about his well being as well."

Lud thanked Sisu profusely, to which Sisu bowed in response. She even made a comment when she was alone with Serene "He might be a bit slow, but he cares for his people." To this, Serene nodded in response.

In a dream, this time Lud heard an unknown voice. A voice of a man that vibrated like something was trying to block it unsuccessfully.

The voice said "You who fear death and loss... be not afraid... The king who makes mistakes is but a mortal. The king who makes mistakes and learns from them can ascend to become more. You who have done it once, can do it again. Create that miracle. Bring back what once was lost. For you are that which cannot end here. Dream... For you are... For you were... I declare... As The Demon of Death. Use that title... Calm the ever repeating dream... You who will... And then... Or you will... over and over."

With the end of heart beating once more, Lud wakes up sweating. He holds his head as he tries to recall more of the dream, but in the end, he can’t get more out of it.

Lud mutters to himself as he gets up from his bed "The Demon of Death. That is the only lead I have."

Then Lud realizes something obscure "Lead? Why do I think that that dream leads somewhere? Have I... Done so before? Have I..."

Lud’s head begins to hurt like a whole city’s worth of drums are being played, condensed inside his head. He stumbles a bit as it hurts like hell, but it is nothing Lud isn’t used to. He mutters "I guess ever since coming to Lutah, I have gained the habit of having headaches more than I did when I was on earth."

Lud gets back up and mutters to himself "I’ll ask Li when I train with him today if he knows anything about the so-called Demon of Death."

And as the morning chores were done, Lud went to train with Li as per their current routine. During it, Li noticed that Lud’s mind was elsewhere, so he asked "What is troubling you, my lord? Your mind seems to be elsewhere."

Lud says, still heavily sweating from the training, "I... I had a dream last night."

Li asks "What kind of dream?" To which Lud answers with "I can’t really describe it well. It was... more like a bunch of words came to my head during the dream with no images."

Li asks "What kinds of words did you hear?" To which Lud answers "My memory of it is foggy, but the thing I remember best is the mention of The Demon of Death."

Li repeats what Lud said "’The Demon of Death’, you say?" This makes him ponder for a moment.

Lud says to Li "Since death is mentioned, I thought that maybe Thews would know something about it."

Li says "That is true. If anyone would know anything about someone known as ’The Demon of Death’ then I’d bet on Mr. Witsur."

Lud then says "I was wondering if I could somehow contact him, but due to my current constitution and the absence of Toki, I’m not sure if I can just enter the afterlife without consequence."

Li says "That is also something I’d be concerned about. I’d say that we should leave this thing be for now, since it was just something you heard from a dream, but since this is you we are talking about, I’ll start investigating if there is such a thing as The Demon of Death in this world after we have concluded today’s training."

Lud says to Li "Thanks. I’d appreciate it if you would do that." But as soon as Lud was done thanking Li, Li said to him "That is enough for a break, time to continue your training."

As Li finishes his words, Lud had but one breath to respond to incoming attack from Li. And so the training continued for a while, until it was time for Lud to get back to handling some more paperwork that needed doing.

As Lud was doing the evening paperwork, Zenith reminded Lud that "I probably should remind you that you made a promise that you’d talk some business with the Empress of Nous, her majesty Tiara Culling today."

Lud says in a surprised voice "That was today? I’ve completely forgotten about it. When was it going to happen?"

Zenith told Lud that "It should start in ten minutes. She has already entered the castle and is being attended for. Ms. Tifa said she’d entertain her before you were ready to meet her majesty Tiara Culling."

Lud sighs, rubs his head and says "So there was more work than I initially thought, huh." Then Lud asks "Why didn’t you tell me earlier?"

Zenith responds with a kind smile as she says "I didn’t want to worry my lord as the paperwork seemed quite mighty today as well."

Lud smiles back and says "Well, while I appreciate the thought, I would have liked it if I had more time to mentally prepare for a meeting with someone like Tiara."

Zenith bows gently and says "I’ll take that under advicement, but need I remind you that you are close enough to her to just call her by her first name?"

Lud says "Yeah, but even if we are friendly enough for idle chatter, she still has that air that I find hard to deal with."

Zenith comments "For me, talking to Ms. Tifa and Ms. Mercy is far more taxing than talking to her majesty."

Lud chuckles a bit and says "My condolences." and finishes a couple more papers before heading to the meeting room where Tiara and Tifa are already waiting.

Tiara said "Took you long enough. Here we have talked about a bunch of things why our respected men are the better choice to the other. It was getting quite heated, I must say."

Tifa says "Hmph... If you wouldn’t have pointed out the things that my darling lacks then I wouldn’t have needed to get more serious."

Tiara laughs and says "I think it is fine to have a few things lacking. My Roman for example, he is a downtrodden workaholic. If he’d be willing to spend more time with me, I’m sure that we would have a biological child already, but no. He likes to spend time in that academy and redraw all of his lessons from the ground up if he gets even a single critique."

Tifa comments "I mean, my darling is a bit of a workaholic himself as well. At least we’ve had time to spend some quality time in the past, but at the moment though..."

Lud coffs and says "I think that is enough about that. Let’s get the discussion on the right track for now."

Tiara says "Right, let’s start with..."

The three of them have a deep conversation about a few political things, but Tiara senses that Lud’s mind isn’t really focusing on the matter as much as he has been in previous discussions, she comments "There seems to be something else in your mind, King Faust. Why don’t you share some of those thoughts with us so that we can focus more on politics?"

Lud is hesitant to answer at first, but Tifa says to him "It is okay. I also think that you shouldn’t bottle everything up."

Then Lud answers "I already shared it with Li, but fine. I had a dream that somehow won’t let my mind focus."

Tifa asks "What kind of dream?"

Lud explains "There were words of someone circling around my head. The only words I can clearly remember is something called "The Demon of Death". Li didn’t know anything called that, so he promised to search for clues by contacting some gods later."

Tifa says "Isn’t the Demon of Death..." as she stares at Tiara, who in turn says "Right. It has to be the same guy I’m thinking of."

Lud asks "So do you know someone who is called the demon of death?"

Tiara says "Know? My dear sir, he is considered one of the most important figures in human history. His real name is Kuo Lemansa, and he is the reason why the Nous Empire has this bizarre viewpoint with necromancy and its practitioners."

Lud says "Bizarre viewpoint with necromancy? Why is this the first time I heard of it?"

Tifa makes a conjecture "It is probably because it is one of the things that don’t get openly discussed with other countries, but is heavily ingrained in the Empire’s culture."

Lud says "Now I’m intrigued, care to explain it for me a bit?"

Tiara smiles and says "Gladly. You see, necromancy isn’t illegal in itself, but there are some minor details of it that, if you get caught red handed, there are some legal consequences depending on the way the necromancers acquire their materials. For example, desecrating a grave or tomb for the riches that they may hold is considered a crime, but in pursuit of necromancy, as long as the practitioner doesn’t get caught in the act, it is most often accepted as fair game."

Lud asks "Fair game? So if I became a necromancer, I could just steal a corpse from the graveyard in the Empire?"

Tiara explains "As long as you aren’t caught. But in the empire, we take protecting graveyards and tombs as something serious. If you get caught acquiring a corpse, then you will be charged with the accordance of the law. The empire sees that if the person is skilled enough to acquire a corpse without being caught in the act, then that corpse is theirs when they take the corpse out of the graveyard of the tomb. Granted, if the necromancer raises the body at the site and gets caught before getting out, then they would be charged with a crime."

Lud says "You weren’t kidding when you said a bizarre relationship with necromancy. But let me get this straight. People are fine having their relatives’ corpses stolen, but they aren’t fine with a simple graverobbery where the corpse isn’t raised afterwards?"

Tiara says "Necromancy is a respected field due to the history with Kuo Lemansa. He was a supreme necromancer who saved a certain country from a brink of destruction by aiding it with his necromancy. That country was quite small and it is already a small part of the empire, but the act of winning in those circumstances made a huge impact. The title "Demon of Death" was something that the enemies that faced Kuo Lemansa made for him. I mean he was a demon as well, but a demon in the title is something to be admired and feared."

Tifa says "I think it is also fun for those families who lose a loved one to gear up their dead relative with powerful gear just in case a necromancer comes around to raise their dead relative."

Tiara nods in satisfaction and says "Indeed. In the empire’s culture, seeing a raised corpse with barely any gear for battle is considered great shame for the family whose relative was raised. It is a common saying in the empire that ’Better to have an undead relative kitted out to kill you rather than neighbors laughing at your undead relative using a walking stick as their weapon.’ It is bizarre, yes, most people of the empire follow this way of thinking."

Lud asks "What if I, as a necromancer, would spend gold to acquire a corpse for my undead army?"

Tiara says "It isn’t illegal, but it is highly frowned upon to try to do it or accept such an offer."

Lud then says "In any case, what does this guy have to do with the dream that I have?"

Tiara responds with "I don’t know. Maybe his undead body is about to break out of its tomb. Maybe he is asking you to meet him in the afterlife. Maybe you just happened to dream about something that mentioned an idea of The Demon of Death and it means nothing."

Lud asks "What do you mean that his body is about to break out of its tomb? Should we be worried about it?"

Tiara says "It is highly unlikely, since there are multiple layers of protection that keep the reassembling of the body quite unlikely."

Lud says "I feel like I don’t want to meet the guy in the afterlife if the body had to be locked away in some sort of prison."

Tifa says "You needn’t worry about the one who is in the afterlife right now. Kuo himself is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. It is his body’s constitution that is the issue."

Lud digs deeper by saying "Meaning?"

Tifa explains "Kuo’s body was born with an unnaturally high constitution for undeath. This made him the most powerful necromancer to ever live and each of his body parts would be highly valuable for anyone experimenting with necromancy. Even strands of his hair that were left later in his life are now highly powerful mediums for necromancy spells. The man himself never wanted to hurt anybody and only used his necromantic proves when the other party was willing."

Tiara explains further "Those who Kuo raised as undead now guard his tomb from anyone unwise enough to try to free the current, restless undead body of his. The undead guards who eternally guard the tomb from intruders allow only those who have no constitution for necromantic practices to enter and maintain the tomb so that it doesn’t fall on itself by accident. It is very sturdy, and only requires maintenance every quarter of millenia."

Lud gets curious and asks "In what way is Kou’s body protected?"

Tiara says "Even I don’t know the full details, since I’m not from the church. What public knowledge there is, says that the entrance to the tomb only leads to a portal, which then leads to a hall of more portals that lead to individual parts of Kuo’s body. The number of separate parts is confidential, but no matter how many there are, the physical locations of where the parts are stored is unknown even to gods for the Ashen one has erased all memory of their locations."

Tifa explains further "What I have gathered, most of the body parts locked away in some sort of highly durable stone and the halls where the coffins are, are filled to the brim with holy water of highest quality. The head in particular has much more countermeasures so that the head doesn’t have an ounce of success in escape. The head still rages in that stone box to this day. It doesn’t have any other will but the base instincts of an undead, which is to spread undead blight to all corners of the world."

Lud finds everything he hears about Kuo fascinating, but just as he is about to continue with the actual politics, Li telepathically contacts him. "My lord. There is something that requires your utmost attention at this moment. The same goes to Ms. Ilumnos."

Lud replies "I’m with Tifa now, currently talking politics with Tiara. What is it? Is it more important than maintaining a relationship with the Nous Empire?"

Li says "The young lady has returned... with children."

Lud is surprised and says out right "Children? What do you..." Then he realizes that he blurted it out loud and apologizes to Tiara.

Lud asks Li "Whose children are they?" To which Li answers with "They are her own flesh and blood apparently, my lord."

Lud thinks for a moment and says to Tiara "I’m sorry, but a situation has arisen that needs my and Tifa’s immediate attention. Would it be okay if we postpone this meeting a bit?"

Tiara says "While I’m not pleased, it sounds like it is something urgent, so go ahead."

Lud thanks Tiara, grabs Tifa’s hand and says "Let’s go."

On their way to Lud’s office, Tifa asks "What has gotten into you? Did somebody die?"

Lud explains to Tifa "Toki has returned... with two kids of his own."

Tifa is baffled, but understands why Lud is so worked up about it, so she let’s him guide her by holding her hand.

When the two enter the office, they see Toki sitting on a couch with two black children beside her.

Lud asks "Are... are those..."

Toki replies "Yes. These two... are my own flesh and blood children. Kaina, Mara, introduce yourselves to your grandparents."

The two kids that look no older than 5 year old humans get off the couch and introduce themselves. The one with ashen hair, heterochromia with left eye red and right eye violet, says "My name is Kaina Ilumnos. The older twin.

Then the other with black hair, blackened eyes with white rings and glowing white tattoo-like markings all over her body "My name is Mara Ilumnos. The younger twin."

The girls were identical at birth, but each grew in a different way, making the colours a bit different. Mara’s skin was as black as black could go and Kaina’s skin was a black, but clearly a little lighter.

Toki explains "I’ve given birth to the two in abyssal Elysium and raised them for a while until I decided to come and let them experience the world. I’m sorry I kept this a secret from you, but there are circumstances that made it difficult for me to tell you earlier."

Lud says "I see. Well, as long as you all are alright."

Tifa doesn’t beat around the bush and asks "Who is the father?"

This takes a toll on Toki and Lud notices this. Lud says to Tifa "Tifa. Now is not the time to ask such things."

Tifa replies "Then when is it? Are we just gonna assume that our child gave a virgin birth out of nowhere until she tells who the baby daddy is?"

Lud says "Clearly she kept all this a secret from us for a reason. It must have taken a toll on her to even come here."

Tifa ignores Lud and asks again "So who is it?"

Toki says meekly "I... cannot say."

Tifa says, half jokingly "What? You have so many partners that you can’t remember?"

Lud raises his voice a little "Tifa!" To which Tifa says "What? That is what she could mean."

Toki explains "The... father doesn’t want to be in the picture, so... I’d rather you don’t ask too many questions."

Tifa says "So it is like that. Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, huh."

Lud asks "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Tifa explains "It reminds me of how my parents abandoned me to Africa. That is what I meant."

Lud says "Ah, that. I had completely forgotten about it by now."

Tifa retorts "Not surprising." To which Lud comments "Ouch. That hurt a little." And Tifa jabs back "You know I say that cause I love you." And Lud replies "Yeah, but anyways."

Toki, Kaina and Mara look at Tifa and Lud bantering. Then Toki says "Why don’t you introduce these two to the rest of the Elysium, mom and dad?"

Lud and Tifa look at Toki and the two kids, then at each other and then back again. Then Lud says "I mean sure, but why don’t you come along?"

Toki says "I want these two to learn to live without me at times. We have been together for who knows how long in the abyss, so it is about time they learn to live without me."

Kaina grabs Toki’s sleeve and says "I don’t want to be without mom." And Mara said to Kaina as she grabbed her hand "Come on big sis, we need to learn a little independence."

Kaina didn’t want to let go of Toki’s sleeve, but eventually, after looking at Toki’s eyes for a moment and then at Mara’s eyes, she let go of the sleeve.

Then Kaina said "I... I need to be brave. I’m the big sister. Let’s go Mara. To... grandpa and grandma."

Both walk to Lud and Tifa and Kaina takes a hold of Lud’s hand while Mara takes a hold of Tifa’s. The two twins still hold each other’s hands and make up a chain.

Lud says "I guess we... will go then. But are you sure Toki?"

Toki nods without saying a word and Lud responds "Ok. Let’s go, Kaina, Mara. Let’s go meet the people who will also take care of you."

Kaina and Mara nod and the four of them leave to introduce the two kids.

As the four walk away, Toki looks from the window and feels a little uneasy. The unease gets worse as a familiar voice says to her "So those are the two spawns that came out. Interesting."

Toki says to Perkele, who is standing behind her "Why did you come here? To torment me more?"

Perkele shrugs and says "Who knows. I don’t mind if that is what you think, though, I could make you want to think that way if I wanted to. You’ll never be able to have the feeling of being free of my influence."

Perkele grabs a hold of Toki’s shoulder and Toki, while disgusted from head to toe, doesn’t dare to remove Perkele’s hand.

Perkele then says as he looks at the window "Now then... I wonder when I should defile those two. When they are young or when they are older."

Toki pleads "Please let the two of them have a normal childhood."

Perkele makes a small laugh and says "Oh? You want to protect them? You sure that is what you really think?"

Toki says in an annoyed tone "Shut up."

Perkele then grabs Toki’s chin, turns her head towards him and says while looking deep within her eyes "What would you do in exchange for me letting those kids be?"

Toki is silent for a moment before saying "Anything at all."

Perkele smirks and says "Anything? You sure? I can make it more of a hell for you than it already is."

Toki doesn’t say a word and Perkele eventually lets go of her chin. Then Perkele walks away and says to Toki "I’m not currently in the mood to fuck some kids, let alone spawns of mine, though, you never know if I change my mind. If I feel the urge, I’ll come to you and... perhaps... distract my attention to... someone else."

With that, Perkele disappears as quickly as he appeared and Toki’s knees give out and she collapses. She is breathing heavily from the anxiety these few moments put her through and her mind was a mess.