Lemon Tree

Lemon Tree

Year 140

My news about the heroes came mostly through eavesdropping on Stella. After the death of 3 heroes, they called her frequently, they hoped to rely on her for mental support. Which was strange, because I could see Stella struggling, and she turned to alcohols and herbal remedies to cope.

Was I supporting a junkie?

Am I enabling her behavior by giving her things?

Look, Astia. I used her name, I didnt want her to know I was eavesdropping or reading her mind. Ill need you to earn some money. I cant keep supporting you like this, especially if youre not doing much other than mope around all day.

I felt like a dad giving a talk. She nodded. Alright... what can I do? I uh... I can teach, I suppose? Will that work?

No. Did you do any work in your past life? I had to pretend I had no idea whats her background was.

I was uh... an admin assistant.

Alright, then you can do paperwork. The Freshlands Treetiary College needs someone to tabulate results, handle time schedules and manage logistics. Ill have you work on that.

Then my... Uh... bodyguard?

Good point. What sort of paperwork can be done by someone, where they didnt need to interact with others.

Research. Trevor suggested. She may assist with documentation of research results.

I proposed this to Astia and she made a trip to one of the [biolabs]. She quickly noped out of there.

Im not doing this job. That lab is waaaaaaaaaaay too scary. Whats with all the beetle-limbs floating around in various green vats?! Even if Im not afraid, Ill be too nervous to even work.

I mentally sighed. Hows your maths?

Average?

What are you good at?

Computers? They dont exist in this world, do they?

Can you do art?

She paused. I... could?

Then you will do paintings and design. The Valthorns will pass you the materials and requirements, and you can do posters and picture design.

Oh. Okay.

Finally. She was average at the whole painting thing, but it was good enough for the Valthorns posters. She made a We-want-you Poster as part of the regular Valthorn recruitment flyers. At the very least, she would be paid.

-Thê source of this content n/o/v/(el)bi((n))

Miss Stella... Tom was on the magical call again.

Oh hi. Stella was working in a painting studio, working on the next recruitment poster. She quickly put on a smile, instead of her usual resting bitch face.

This demon king thing... its really hard. Tom sounded really depressed and sad. But I keep hearing these voices to tell me to go on. I feel like my bodys not listening to my mind.

Oh dear, that sounds really bad. If that was her attempt at empathy, I think a certain car-show host could do better.

I sometimes keep thinking of them, but somehow, I couldnt remember. Its so weird. Tom cried and wept. Then he looked like he had one of those mind-attacks again.

Stella didnt know how to react. She wasnt good at this kind of thing. So she said nothing.

Tom suddenly woke up as if it never happened, and the conversation went elsewhere. Were all about level 70 to 80 now, but were still not good enough for the demon king. We kept fighting its larger demonic dragons, but so many people are dying.

Stella was silent, almost like a statue.

Were going to try, though. So many people depend on us to slay the demon king. That sounded so familiar. At some point, all these heroes really, really sound the same. I wonder whether Ill ever meet a hero that could resist the influence of the gods. That would be something, I think. The powers of a hero, yet without their influence.

Good luck. Stella forced it out of her mouth, somehow she managed to smile.

Thanks Miss Stella. Hang in there already, well come and get you once we slay the demon king. They somehow turned positive again, as if they were entirely different persons. Stella noticed it of course, but she didnt say a word. In her mind, the first thing wasnt gods influence, but instead, did Tom have bipolar disorder?

-

There were about 10 seagoing kingdoms building new warships, ships that we hoped to use someday, to break the blockade. The Valthorns Naval Academy was new, and though I had the ability to bestow [Captain], [Admiral] or [Pirate] or [Privateer] clases, theres a huge body of knowledge, about navigation, about logistics of a navy, which we took and adapted from the existing maritime kingdoms.

With intercontinental trade absolutely dried up, some of the merchants have turned to piracy. This was especially true in the nations further away, where my eyes are limited. THis created a negative feedback loop, since piracy increased the cost of business, and made the business of merchants even more unviable, which drove even more sailors and captains into piracy.

I met many pirates. More like, Ive spied on many pirates, many of them are just plain criminals. They want money. Some are driven down a path of desperation and couldnt get out of piracy.

The Valthorns were stretched thin, especially the upgraded classers. I had about 100 upgraded classers, but the Central Continent has many more kingdoms. So the Valthorns had to travel from place to place, and I could not focus all of my classers to take out the pirates. It also didnt help that some of the pirates were quite high level, in their level 50s, so they could easily be a match for the younger upgraded classers who got their classes not so long ago.

I needed to strengthen the elite much more.

The commoner students also had some improvement, as I started to give them classes more liberally. [Merchant], [Knight], or [Administrator] basic classes, I gave them out to any commoner who wanted them, since these were common classes anyway. These generic classes helped them to cope with the various topics of administration, trade and warfare.

Also, among the first generation of graduates, they created new trade routes and formed cooperation agreements, spearheaded by the Dwarven Trade Lord. It was, in many ways, what I wanted to see.

An FTC alumni created a network that would only grow with time. This was a necessary step to bypass the old ways of networking and introduction, that relied on royal events, and also religious gatherings.

Most graduates left the college with a favourable view of the Freshlands, and me. That was important, because the initial goal was to strengthen the culture of the Freshlands. I needed the nobles to act as advocates of the Freshlands culture, and I believe they would come into conflict with the incumbent culture of the nobles, carried forward from the days when the temples ruled.

Still, this is the new wave, and the many of the savvy nobles are quick to get on my side. Really, culture is this strange thing, sometimes it can change quickly, sometimes, really slowly. I wanted a cultural change that would stick in the continent as a whole.

The ones who feel the cultural change the most, are the priests, and the Valthorns. They venture everywhere in the Central continent, to spread my cause, to carry out social work, to provide protection for soldiers and traders. They were unknown, then they were scorned, and now they get treated with respect.

As a whole though, the central continent still had their conflicts. In a way, the Freshlands have become the Vatican, and I am both the Pope and the God. The countries fought wars with each other, and Ive ignored them, so long they continue to profess loyalty and faith to the Freshlands. Of course, the Valthorns and our assets are pulled out from the participating countries.

There was no point getting caught in stupid friendly fire.

Countries will have disagreements, and after some discussion with my artificial minds, its fine to let them fight each other, as long as the source of their unhappiness was not me. In fact, it was also the opportunity for the Priests to strengthen their cultural hold, as they stepped in to provide relief to those affected by wars and battles.

If anything, these wars only weaken themselves, and strengthen the Freshlands. Cultural victory in my opinion involved watching others make mistakes and then resist the urge to interrupt them.

-

Weve fought the demon king eight times now. Tom said in a call with Stella. I honestly dont know what were doing wrong. Were using our star mana powers, we are all level 100 plus, all 5 of us. We attacked the demon king, and somehow it managed to either run away, or find a way to hurt us so bad that we retreated.

Keep trying, youll get there.

The people of the Eastern Continent are starting to complain and grumble. Tom said. They didnt say it in our faces directly, but many cities dont even want to host us, often, they would send us a messenger with whatever supplies we needed, and told us to camp outdoors, preferably far away from town. They said its for the safety of the cities. Its not our fault that the demon king attacked us when we are in the cities!

Thats tough.

Any ideas how we should fight it? Sometimes it refused to even attack us, instead fleeing. I totally dont understand this demon king. The gods told us the demon kings are simple-minded creatures! Tom sighed, and at the same time, I felt bad. They were clearly being lied to. The demon kings so far have displayed some intelligence, especially in battlefield intelligence and strategy. It wouldnt be a surprise if they actually are sentient, if they are a step above the demons Ive met.

Stella shrugged. Im not one for violence.

Maybe we should lure it. We need something.

Wave a big stick at it and say come here?

Yeah. Maybe we need a way to lure it. Tom answered his own question. Maybe with a lot of star mana.

Another hero jumped in. How do we do that? Make a big beacon in the sky to tell the demon king were here?

I thought it could already see us, why would it even respond to our lure?

Stella just sat there and waited. The remaining heroes started to talk among themselves. The surviving five were Tom, Jason, Ryder, Adam and Rick. Strangely common names, compared to those that died but I wasnt going to challenge it. Maybe they used a nickname, instead of their real names.

They talked about various strategies, with Stella sitting there. They clearly have a poor sense of information security risk.

Stella got bored at one point, so she intervened. Guys, Ive got something to do, can you kick me out of this conversation? She didnt. She just wanted to have a nap.

Ah sorry Miss Stella. We got carried away in our anti demon-king plan.

-

The year was coming to an end. Did it normally take so long for the heroes to kill the demon king? Didnt they take a year or two?

Then...

[Thomas Ragash died.]

[Jason Stateches died]

[Ryder Flynnish died]

[Adam Eastwest died]

[Ricky Roller died.]

[You received 5 fragments]

Wait.

Did the demon king die?

I waited for 2 days, nothing.

But, but...

Thats a total of 10 heroes died! The demon king lived even though the heroes died? And this is a new batch of heroes!

Does this mean the gods will summon a new set?

What will happen now? The Demon King no longer has any heroes to fear!