Before I realized it, two years passed by. The Hundred Days War shook Liberl to its core, and I watched all of it through my shared senses with my Familiar, Tamamo. While I'm stuck here inside the Cult, I can see what is still happening in the outside world through her. It allows me to keep up with current events and such. Many things have started to change since the war ended.
Things took a turn when Liberl demanded more reparation costs as a result of agreeing to the ceasefire, and surprisingly, Erebonia agreed. They were far worse with the amount of money they had to pay, but the Erebonian Empire was several times as large than Liberl is. They could afford it, so they did, and paid the required costs to start the reconstruction of Liberl's lost lands. On top of that, an official apology was given. Most of this money came right out of the nobles' pockets, as they were the ones who instigated the entire war through Hamel.
Let's just say many heads were rolled on that day, courtesy of His Imperial Majesty. I was not there in person to see it nor Tamamo considering her placement in Liberl, but no doubt I think Father attended that capital punishment. The Hamel Tragedy, in turn, was put behind them all, never to be spoken of again.
One of these heads, I will say, belonged to that of Lechter Arundel's father, and soon became head of the family, only to leave it entirely. That was because he met none other than my Father, Giliath Osborne, for the very first time...
I did not bring it up much before this happened, as I had little reason to. The Ironbloods, that is. Giliath was quick to notice Lechter's quick wits, his intellect, and above all, his special ability he had developed, the gut he always trusts. Whatever Lechter feels at the time always comes to happen. He's like a walking magic eight ball, haha!
I did mention it was now S1194, right? This meant that Father likely got in contact with the very first Ironblood, Rufus Albarea!
While this happened in secret thanks to Rufus himself no less, on the outside, the story of the Hundred Days War reached throughout the continent, thanks to a certain famous blind reporter.
My Familiar Tamamo did not remain idle during this passage of time. To begin with, she saved Mischa Crosner, Agate's younger sister. This was something I decided on. I do not know if it will have a big implication on Agate's growth, as he will likely still develop his hatred for losing his village. If anything, his drive might not be as big as it is in the games. Loewe likes to comment on his hatred during their battling, so we'll see how Agate develops from here.
I had Tamamo check in on Ouroboros once more to see how things were developing on that front. Just like in the games, Loewe proceeded to hand custody of Joshua Astray over to The Faceless, and afterward, Loewe himself joined Ouroboros as Enforcer No. 1, who would eventually become Leonhardt the Bladelord.
The biggest surprise might not have come from Liberl, nor Ouroboros. No, it came from Erebonia. General Osborne officially decided to step down from the Imperial Army, and retired his rank of Brigadier General. It was one of the highest ranks you could achieve in the Imperial Army. Not the highest, though. General Vandyck was the one who held onto that rank. This brought in huge surprise not only to His Imperial Majesty, but to all of Erebonia. And most of all, the nobles! They had wanted to get rid of General Osborne, but they didn't expect Father's next move.
Father used this retirement as a ploy to become the one and only, Blood and Iron Chancellor! From here, Father would oversee all of Erebonia's governmental affairs at its highest seat!
At the same time, Liberl went through its own shift of personnel.
The acting Commander who brought the end, with help of his many friends and allies, Commander Bright, officially stepped down from the Royal Army, and retired as Colonel. In turn, Captain Richard was promoted into Colonel Richard, and took his spot, becoming the Royal Army's newfound leader. There were still other figures like General Morgan, but Colonel Richard would now be in charge of most operations.
From there, Cassius Bright decided to spend more time with his remaining family, his only daughter Estelle Bright. During this time, he joined the Bracer Guild to help secure peace during the reconstruction period. Lots and lots of different kinds of construction material were used during the process, which included refined Septium. Due to such a high amount of it, this attracted monsters from all sides of the land. There were an endless amount of requests to hunt named monsters during this time, and honestly, I wanted to participate in that. Sadly, I couldn't!
As for the newfound Chancellor Osborne, he did not waste his time. He now has a new office in Erebonia's capital Heimdallr, inside Valflame Palace no less. The very same office you'd see him operate out of during Cold Steel.
He created a brand new division whose sole purpose was to gather intelligence, all for the benefit of promoting Erebonia's future.
The Intelligence Division.
Rufus Albarea was the first to join, in secrecy of course. The one who actually became the Intelligence Division's first member was none other than Lechter Arundel. As for those damned nobles, they received a huge slap in the face once Chancellor Osborne assumed his new position.
At the top of these pro-war nobles actually stood Duke Albarea, who I had the pleasure of meeting during His Imperial Majesty's enthronement. Before Rufus joined, he spearheaded an operation to try and assassinate my Father. All but one person perished in that slaughter. A guy who would later call himself V.
This caused Rufus to meet Giliath, and thereafter, the formation of the Ironbloods. While Lechter might be the Intelligence Division's first member, Rufus was technically the first to join the Ironbloods, with Lechter joining shortly after.
Around that time, Father started to eye the autonomous state of Jurai to the northwest...
So yeah, all of that happened during these couple of years. I mean, that wasn't everything. Zemuria's a huge place after all, and I'm only bringing up items that happened on the western half. Countries like Calvard and Arteria are out of my grasp right now, so there's little reason to talk about them. Tamamo is still doing her assigned missions and with Vita's help, has been hunting monsters here and there. The Gamer System was kind enough to give me an ability to share our experience pools together. Whenever Tamamo levels up, so do I. Thanks to that, I've grown quite a bit in these two years!
Not just through stats either. Even though I'm still only eight, I'm already approaching five feet tall. Seriously, what is this body of mine made of? I will likely even become taller than Giliath during his prime. Perhaps closer to seven to eight feet? I guess only time will tell for that, haha!
Apart from this news, I will say one more thing. Ouroboros grew. My acceptance is still pending, but they've acquired a few members during this time.
Enforcer No. II, Leonhardt the Bladelord.
Enforcer No. VI, Luciola the Bewitching Bell.
Enforcer No. IX, Kreuger the Severing Chains.
Enforcer No. XIII, The Black Fang.
I do not know if I will join them permanently, or will it be more of a collaborative effort, considering that I'm part of Liberl's Royal Family and all. Perhaps being an Enforcer will suit me best, as they still have freedom to go around and do whatever they want outside of missions.
Knowing that, I continued to reside in this dark cell. The first unlucky child to meet me came from one of the side games of the Trailsverse, Sherryl Sky. After that came an ex-assassin who used to belong to a secretive group of arms for hire who called themselves the Order of the Moonlight Horse. Now she I was more familiar with, an older girl who called herself Ennea. Now, Sherryl is seven, a year younger than me. Ennea, on the other hand, is two years older than me, making her ten.
It did not take long to hear a soft whisper reach my ears, who lodged a complaint at me.
"Big Brother, I hate it here. It is too dark and stuffy. The air is too damp, and sometimes it makes it hard to breathe. Each day hurts...", A painful voice said, refusing to recall the days she has spent here so far. I saw a lilac-haired girl curled up beside me, shivering.
There is no bedding around us. No pillows. Just a dark and cold slab of stone with a raised protrusion that is supposed to be a pillow. The only problem, that it too was made of stone. Its only purpose was to elevate one's head as they rest. That is, if one could rest here. All we received was stale bread, enough to keep our bodies nourished so we wouldn't die from malnutrition.
The times when we ate is when we would see a bunch of hooded guys come in and administer the Gnosis drug. I'll go into that detail later. I actually received some surprising benefits from it. The Gamer System reacted to Gnosis. Receiving Gnosis places extreme stress on a person's body in an attempt to adapt to it, gaining unparalleled knowledge and other benefits, all so these cult fanatics can connect with their one true god and reject the Goddess Aidios.
Sherryl started to see an improvement in her blood flow. Not by itself. No, Sherryl could physically enhance any part of her body at will by increasing the flow of her blood, allowing more nutrients to get absorbed into it. See where I'm going with this? Sherryl's body became very similar to a certain straw-hat pirate from One Piece. She'll be able to strengthen her body and grow rapidly from now on, allowing her to become much more powerful and faster than other people.
Ennea also reacted to Gnosis in a different way to Sherryl. Her already-honed perception received even a bigger boost, and her depth of field increased. She can easily scope things out well beyond an average person now. And like I said for me, I too received an unexpected benefit from Gnosis, to which will go into later once I decide to review my Stat Preview again.
All of this has been going on for these last two years. It was shorter for Sherryl and Ennea, as they had come here later than I did. No matter how many times these hooded bastards injected me with Gnosis, they became baffled at my progress. To them, the Gamer System filtered it all. At the start, the effects were quite good, and before long, became diminished over time. I didn't seem to advance a day since I came here. Suspicions started to rise, but for whatever reason, that High Priest bastard Joachim saw things differently, and even marveled at my body. From his eyes, he believed that my body "rejected" Gnosis, making him believe that I was even more a perfect vessel for their false god, whatever that meant.
Still, it was time to shake things up a bit. I turned on my Gamer System, and chose an option.
[Ding! Gamer Naoto has equipped the True Dhampir Occupation.]
Following that, my normal golden eyes soon turned a bloody red. My pupils became two long slits. I then grinned, observing the shivering girl beside me.
"It sure is a stuffy place, isn't it, Sherryl? Why don't we move elsewhere?", I decided to ask.
"...To where, Big Brother? I do not have a lot of energy to move...", Sherryl said, complaining. She struggled, but slowly shifted her eyes, only to blink at me. She saw my eyes were now a dark red. "Did you always have those red eyes, Big Brother?"
"...Eyes?", Ennea also asked, calling out to us. She rested against the bedside, placing her back against the cold stone. She glanced upward at me, showing that dead-eyed stare. She also saw the red eyes. I disregarded her behavior, as she was already used to being like this. I simply grew adapted to how Ennea behaves. Instead, I looked toward Sherryl.
"Do you want to see a magic trick, Sherryl?"
"A magic trick?", Sherryl responded.
All of a sudden, I reached my thumb toward my mouth, and bit hard on its skin. Kushaaa!
"Blood Sphere.", I chanted, letting my Mana, or in this case, my EP, run free. It did not cost much at all to create a bloody red sphere, which was now resting at the palm of my hand. Sherryl attempted to raise her eyebrows, gaining interest.
"What is that?", Sherryl asked. I had yet to show Sherryl and Ennea Magic. Of course they'd be surprised to see this.
"Heh. Didn't I tell you? It's a magic trick.", I answered with a playful smile.
As I said that, I let the Blood Sphere seep into the ground. It went past Ennea. She saw the blood move on its own. This was a first, even for her. The blood of the enemies she has slain doesn't particularly move on its own like this. Her eyes traced the moving blood. Its target? The couple of cult goons who resided over the hallways near our cell. There were several of them watching over not only ours, but others as well.
And well, they weren't exactly injured. Blood Magic can seep into injuries quite easily, and I did so with Randy. I now see Randy as a last resort. It isn't exactly my taste, but my magic still resides in his body. I could control him, if I wanted to. He doesn't know that, nor does anyone else. But I plan to do the same here. This time, I have to force my Blood Sphere into these two cultists.
I aimed straight for their eyes. Whoosh!
Following the attack, the two cultists couldn't even react before they felt their eyes get pierced with magic. A brief look of panic appeared, but they couldn't even yell out in pain before their eyes turned dim.
"Hey you two, come here.", I commanded, keeping my voice cold. Sherryl's eyes were now on the door. To her surprise, the two cultists listened, and reached toward the lock, and began to unlock it.
"Yes, Master..."
Seeing the door to our cell now open, even a glint of light streaked across Ennea's dead eyes. But she didn't move from her spot. Instead, I spoke out to the two.
"You are to initiate the paperwork for our transfer. The destination is the Altair Lodge in Calvard.", I declared.
They didn't respond, and simply nodded their heads, complying with my command. To make it look real, they cuffed us, as they always do to the children here when they want to move them from one place to another, with or without consent. We heard cries and yells from the other cells as they brought us toward a certain area...
Before we knew it, they bagged us and blindfolded us. Make it look the part, you know? Down the line, we were placed in what appeared to be a privately-owned orbal car, and they started driving off into the veil of the night...
It was time to see a certain Tio-Tot. Only this time, I wouldn't be alone!