Chapter 53

The awkward silence lasted for a few seconds. Alexander scratched his head in confusion, still weirded out by all the stares. The empress shook her head in disappointment while Aurelia just sighed. Adriel only glanced at the man in disgust, before turning away and going back to her regular cold demeanour.

“The prince was kidnapped two months ago,” Aurelia began to explain. “He was transported to the north and sold as a slave to the Demon Lord of Lust.”

“The Demon Lord of Lust? Isn’t she into women though? I remember her being quite cultured in various…things when we talk— fought during the last crusade. Or am I thinking of the previous lust?” The wizard asked as he stroked his beard, fondly remembering his times with Lilith. They were basically two pees in a pod.

“No, that should be the current one you’re thinking of…”

“Hmm.” Alexander turned his head towards the empress. “And you’re just sitting here calmly? Why did you never tell me? I would’ve helped you if I knew your son was kidnapped!”

The empress gave him an annoyed look back. “I tried contacting you a few times but you never responded and you weren’t at the academy. Where the hell were you anyway?”

The old wizard raised his hands in defence. “I was on important business.”

“A few of his ex-wives had teamed up together and were hunting him down,” his apprentice interjected.

““…””

“Anyway, instead of waiting for you, my mother decided to summon the nine heroes and start a crusade against the north,” Aurelia said.

“Oh well, that isn’t so bad— WAIT WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!” Alexander slammed his palms down on the table as he stared at the empress in both shock and fury.

“What’s the big deal? The other empires all agreed.” The empress shrugged as she ate another spoonful of her soup.

“Y-y-you…y-you really summoned them?” He asked as he stared at the empress, completely dumbfounded by her nonchalant answer.

“Of course. It took a while for the church to agree, until I beat the pope into submission.” The empress laughed as she downed another sip of her wine.

The old wizard slumped back in his chair, defeated. For the first time since I met him, he actually looked a little scared, completely different from his normal extravagance. He was mumbling something, but even with my good ears I couldn’t make it out.

“So, what went wrong then?” The wizard finally said, slowly returning to his senses.

“How do you know something went wrong?” Aurelia asked.

“You are not the first to want to summon the heroes earlier than the four-hundred-year deadline. Five hundred years ago, me and some other wizards tried looking the ritual itself to see if we could speed it up. Its not something you kids would understand. Heroes are important. They are the reason we haven’t been conquered by the north yet. So it was only natural that we began to research how to enhance the ritual, despite the church’s protests that we were defiling a gift from the gods.”

“Wait, why are the heroes so important? Sure, they might rank up faster, but when you can only summon them every four hundred years…” Aurelia said.

“It is because with them, we have the ability to kill demon lords. Think about it. Nine individuals that will become even stronger than your mother and I in less than a decade, and on top of that they have their powerful aspects. Although they might not be able to contend with the Demon Lord of Pride or Sloth, as long as they kill the rest of the demon lords, they won’t have a chance to grow. Unfortunately, over a thousand years ago they failed with the Demon lord of Greed, and now the north has three great threats instead of two. If even one of the other four demon lords survive, we will have a really big problem on our hands.”

So the heroes were summoned to kill the weakest of the demon lord? We weren’t even supposed to be able to defeat the stronger ones? But then why didn’t the southern empires and the church let us rank up further before sending us into a crusade? It was obvious that we progressed at an unfathomably quick rate, far quicker than even the demon lords. If we were kept alive, wouldn’t we eventually surpass even the Demon Lord of Pride?

And yet they still sent us to die…

“I see. So what did you find out about the ritual?” Aurelia asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.

Alexander began explaining his research into the summoning. To tell you the truth, I didn’t understand half of it. But from what I could tell, his team was looking into a way to supply the ritual with magic to summon the heroes themselves, without the aid of the gods.

But from their research, they found that the ritual did not use magic at all. In fact, despite decades of effort, they weren’t able to figure out what actually powered the ritual. But it was certainly not something that they knew about.

“So, I’m guessing something big went wrong. The gods definitely set the ritual to happen every four hundred years for a reason.”

Aurelia sighed. “You were right. Only six heroes were successfully summoned.”

Alexander winced. “And which three didn’t show up?”

“Courage, Love and Purity.”

“Could be worse, I suppose. The hero of courage can be quite strong, but from what I know they usually die before their aspect becomes powerful enough to make a difference. And the hero of love doesn’t even have an aspect that I know of. Purity though…well at least it wasn’t the hero of justice or mercy.”

Wait, the hero of love didn’t have an aspect? But I was clearly able to use the aspect of love to share skills and traits between me and Elaina. Was there something I did differently than the past heroes?

“Aviana, could you take me to the heroes. I would like to meet them.” Alexander’s face was completely serious, devoid of his previous lightheartedness.

“Sure, but we only have half of them here. The other three are in Anos. And didn’t you come here to talk to the high elf?”

“We can do that later. I’d like to meet these heroes, especially since they will be attending my own academy.”

“Alright, Aurelia can take you. They should be eating their own dinner right now.”

And with that, the old wizard and Aurelia left the table, leaving only the five of us in an awkward silence.

“So, what’s it like having that guy as your grandfather?” Elaina finally asked.

“Could be worse, I guess. At least he won’t try hitting on me since I’m related to him. Even if I have to deal with his excessive flirtations towards other women.” Mica said, less shy now that her grandfather was gone.

“Yeah, I suppose that is a benefit.” Elaina nodded her head, before thinking for a few moments. “So you’re a high elf too?” She finally asked.

The apprentice shook her head, the point of her hat flopping from side to side. “No, I’m a wood elf like my father and mother. I actually haven’t met any other high elves outside of my grandfather, but I also haven’t met more than a fraction of his children and grandchildren.”

“Oh, so what’s it like being a wood elf?”

“Fine, I suppose. We get longer lives than beastkin and humans, but not by much. At most I can live two hundred years.”

“That’s cool. Honestly, I’m not stoked about the whole immortal thing. I would rather not live forever, it’s a little scary.”

“Umm…mother?” I whispered into the empress’ ear while tugging her shoulder sleeve to avoid interrupting the two elves.

“Yes dear?”

“Where is the bathroom?”

The empress sighed. “Sweetie, you should have went before the banquet.”

That would have been a great idea, but I had been too nervous before to remember…

“Adriel, can you show Adrianna to the private bathroom?” The empress asked the silent princess.

Adriel only nodded coldly before standing up. She stared at me with a cold glare, waiting for me to come. Her hands were folded across her chest, as she stood there intimidatingly.

I looked towards the empress, but she only smiled, giving me a soft pat on the head. The head pat was nice, but it barely distracted me from the fact that I was being sent to my death. She probably wanted us to go together so we could warm up to each other. But how was I supposed to befriend someone who wanted me dead?

My eyes moved to Elaina, but she was too engrossed in her conversation with Mica. What was all that about loving me? She was clearly ignoring me!

Finally, I sighed and stood up. Adriel saw my actions and turned to leave the hall without a word. With one last look back the table, I saw the empress give me a wave. I gathered my nerves and followed after the cold princess before she left me in the dust.