8 The World of Ullan (1) (Edited)
3 years had passed since Ben, and everyone had arrived at Alynthn and settled down.
During that time, Ben had been training under Kage, his original goal to accomplish the mission as soon as possible so he could update the system.
However, those plans were thrown out the window the first time Ben tried to manipulate the Shadow Energy.
He wanted to understand how the shadows were able to control a person, whether it was some kind of undead revival or something similar in practise on a dead animal or beast.
Funnily enough, when Kage unsummoned the undead Shadow Guards, they returned to his own body's' shadow, including their armour, weapons and bodies entirely.
They were all humanoid forms created by the Shadow Energy.
Ben understood that they were made to be humanoid formed beings from what he'd learnt from Kage, leading him to believe they could be made to take shape as freely and creatively as the user pleases.
From what little information Kage briefly explained to him after he nonstop badgered him to no end, was that the bodies would become a form of energy that could be manipulated and control just like the shadows of any body.
In this instance, the bodies were constructed of Shadow Energy, therefore it would return to the shadows once it was required utilised to the practitioners' capabilities.
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Ben became obsessed with creating his own Shadow Force rather than training with Kages Shadow Forces instead.
It dawned on Ben's mind, he would need to train all aspects of his own Shadow Energy, which was vital to equipping the Special Forces to his aid, making it difficult for Ben to act his revised immediate plans including the Shadow Forces.
It would be instrumental in his growth and for the completion of the mission, more so in the long run.
He understood now why the System recommended he summon the Master of Shadows, even though there might have been other options available that could benefit him immediately.
This skill was something far more terrifying and dangerous than most people expected but most of all, its endless application of uses would be key factor for his future growth.
As Ben showed more and more interest in training his skills and in learning, he often ended up being caught crawling towards the library in the mansion.
Other times, he would be found accidently destroying furniture and other household goods while summoning the small amount of Shadows Energy around himself that he thought he could control, making the servants of the Estate freak out at the actions of their young Lord.
In the end, after Liz was blindside by his power one day while feeding Ben one morning, she gathered everyone who served the young Prince.
During her meeting, Liz announced to everyone that Ben would begin his formal training and education, as a way to keep Ben busy and occupied, but to also help his control over the strange powers in his body.
Whether it was combat training to general education, he would be taught everything possible to satiate Bens curiosity, before they could further provide him something to take up his ample free time.
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Within weeks of starting his training and education at Liz behest, everyone saw the astonishing growth rate of Ben, surprising all his teachers and mentors who thought he was absurdly smart and annoying for his age.
Some of Bens teachers went ahead and spoke with his mother, informing her that trouble may come to haunt them all if Ben was left unchecked and left to do as he pleased.
Not wanting to be caught up any further in the chaos of Bens making, most of the teachers and mentors to the young Prince made a tough decision.
They thoroughly explained to the City Lord they would be leaving their positions, since they did not want to be caught up in the trouble that could soon befall Ben and the people closely around him.
There were cases throughout the Empires and Kingdoms of gifted children being abducted, never to be seen or heard of again and those that use to teach him or had a hand in their education would be killed or also abducted.
Not even their families would be spared.
That ended up being a warning call, loud enough to wake up everyone on the dangers they were facing, as they had pushed all thoughts of the Bandit Kings to the back of their minds.
They were praying no trouble came to haunt them, but His Highness was attracting too much attention already at his young age among his teachers.
They decided to only let close members or people who had sworn loyalty to His Highness to partake in Ben's education, since there was too much danger to bring in an outsider.
Funnily enough, everyone pushed their duties onto Alfred and Kage as they both were nobleman and received higher education than the rest.
They knew of Alfreds noble family, however the group only assumed Kage was a nobleman from his temperament, and behaviour that appeared similar to noblemen of high society.
Alfred became the obvious choice in many members eyes, as he could teach swordsmanship and noble etiquette to Ben while Kage would teach the young Prince how to master his control over the shadows.
The remaining education was pushed onto Kaz who ended up asking his wife and her family, a small to medium size Baron Household of the Kros Empire, if they could help with His Highness education, explaining the prince's obsession for books and knowledge, above all else.
He was hoping to appeal to his wife's unhealthy fascination for books, so he expected her to rush on over and begin his Highness formal education.
What surprised and terrified him was how overboard his dear wife had gone when she heard that she would oversee the Princes education.
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Not long after Kaz had sent his request to his wife, a fleet of carriages appeared in Alynthn filled with books covering all types of genres.
Lady Gloria Byazan sent scholars of the Household along as well to follow the carriages with their notes and experiments since the Byazan Household was known for its passion for knowledge.
It turned out once his wife heard the Prince did not face any complications from his time in a coma since birth, in fact he was accomplishing tasks that were far beyond the capability of children his age, which was unseen and unheard of throughout the continent.
She decided there was no better a person than herself to personally teach his Highness.
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In short, the Baron Byazan Household of the Kros Empire, which were the only noble household to remain in Alynthn, were completely supporting His Highness and absconded from the Kros Empires rule and noble society of the Capital.
At the beginning Kaz had fiercely opposed his wife's decision as he believed she was endangering their family and Household, but as Gloria said it "Byazan Noble Household has long been forgotten in the Capital.
We have no strength there and even if we had a little bit let to survive against the other nobles, there is no point fighting against tigers, when we are just small hares in comparison.
Just like the forgotten prince, we will bide our time and come back stronger by His Highness side.
Drive one sword into the belly of the beast… when they least suspect it…''
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Once Gloria arrived at Alynthn, she'd taken the role of being the third teacher and mentor of Ben, after Kage and Alfred.
Glorias task was to teach Ben about the world, noble education, and most importantly, about his fief.
It did not take long for Ben to absorb what he was taught and boy, all he had to say was 'this world is fucked up'.
By the accounts retold by Gloria and the thousands of books scattered throughout the library, the world was called Ullan and it had 4 discovered continents so far, each containing numerous kingdoms and Empires that ranged in vast sizes and powers.
Ben was currently on the continent Merahs, which had the Empires of Abylon, Viniesia, Kros and Deiora.
Each Empire had roughly 11 major cities, 26 minor cities and a vast number of small towns and villages, expect for the Deiora Empire which had bordered themselves off from the rest of the world some 500 years ago.
Due to this, there weren't any conclusive records about the state of Deiora Empire.
Each of the Empires on the four continents had Kingdoms that served them as well, known as Nation-States or Kingdom-States.
The Kings from those States would swear their allegiance to the Empire, providing their assistance to the Emperor whenever called upon.
A weird piece of information Ben stumbled upon was the stark number of people living within cities according to the records.
Gloria told Ben most city populations were estimations made to seem more than they were.
This was done in an attempt to receive more resources and help from the Royals who ruled their lands.
Places considered Minor Cities would have tens of thousands at the very most, but only the Major Cities could reach above a hundred thousand citizens, rarely, however.
It depended on infrastructure of the cities and their ability to receive a constant supply of resources at reasonable prices if they weren't able to reply on the Capitals of their Empires for support.
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According to what Gloria had taught him, the foundations of these Empires were all built on the hard work and sacrifice of commoners and peasants.
It's just the ones that were chosen to become nobles did not wish for the others to have any chance to steal what was 'theirs'.
The new declared nobles demanded the founding Emperors and Kings to ensure the foundations of their noble families and households for future generations, therefore enacted laws restricting the commoner's abilities for work, education and so on.
Jobs that required reading and writing were only given to nobles, while anything requiring hard labour or harsh environment were given to commoners.
On top of the harsh conditions, they faced constant injustices, where families would be kidnapped, killed, burned, or sold at the whim on the nobles and the commoners could only sit and watch.
Gloria one day explained how she had lost a dear friend who was a commoner.
Her friend had left Glorias home after playing and was caught by some travelling noble hoping to have some fun.
Surprisingly, the little girl had been taught by Gloria how to fight and she was able to handle the handsy noble and get away.
By the time she was able to escape and return home without being caught again or followed, the noble had sent someone to find her family and slaughter them all, leaving their corpses strung outside their family home.
When the little girl returned home, she cried and shouted in grief, blaming herself for causing her family to be killed in such a despicable manner after she figured out that nobody could have saved her loved ones the moment she escaped from the nobles grasp.
She ended her own life soon after realising that fact.
By the time Gloria was informed about what happened, the nobleman had already passed through their region.
She understood after that the power nobles wielded and how they abused it without any care of the consequences.
Nobles had the authority for eons now and there was a clear difference between the two.
One had all the power, while the other could only suffer.
She swore on that very day she would never become like that or let her Household allow injustices of those manner to occur within their ranks or within their region of influence and control.
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Ben heard of the failed wars which came to form only once commoners and peasants had enough of the brutal injustices their kind faced every day.
They were even restricted on the types of materials purchased, including the instruments that could be forged, all done to stop the advancement of commoners and peasants.
The last war happened a century ago, leading to some small changes in the favour of the commoners and peasant, allowing them to finally purchase meats, even though it was at an inflated price.
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Even after learning all that, there were far worse things occurring throughout the world of Ullan.
The injustices of commoners and peasants were just a small piece of the pie.
In the past, the world of Ullan was inhabited by many different races throughout the planet.
Some continents were filled with these races that were highly developed and constantly expanding.
Some had Empires far grandiose and elegant than any of the current Empires or Kingdoms of humankind that existed.
It was considered the Golden Age of Ullan, where the cooperation between races and development was the unified goal for everyone.
It was a period of collective understanding, development, and peace of the world.
But there is only so much one is willing to share and do for another before they feel the greed and desire to move above the collective and become the one to lead above the rest.
In this case, the human race, which were weaker in strength but larger in numbers, began to massacre the other races in hopes of stealing and incorporating the other races technology as their own.
They were inferior in many fields compared to the other races and therefore weren't as respected by the other races.
Even though the human race had the largest population number compared to the various races, their contribution within the collective races wasn't ever acknowledge or considered.
They should have been known for their laborious work in creating some of the worlds great wonders however they weren't ever given credit.
Therefore, humans rose up and took the power they 'believed' they 'deserved'.
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In the end, a world that had endless possibilities and growth collapsed to greed and ambition, regressing from a period that contained the greatest era of intellectual beings to an era of court jesters and puppet leaders.
There were no records of what types of species were present.
As the book's notations implied, all races other than humans were considered as 'devils'.
This made it difficult to distinguish their unique features from the available information in the world.
However, Ben learnt from some books and scrolls, there were reports of beings with human features with shorter statures or longer ears and heavenly beauty appearing in the vast regions of the 'Endless Sea of Forests'.
A place just outside of borders of Alynthn.
Adventurers who had travelled deep into the forest had returned and explained their sightings of unique species, beings, and creatures they had spotted from distances, if they were lucky enough to survive in the depths of the dangerous forest.
Some said they were fortunate to interact with them, but they were typically looking to haggle some poor idiot along into the forest and take their things or worse.
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After sending numerous groups to investigate over the countless years, no information was ever found that could prove those stories true.
Ben still wanted to travel and explore the Endless Sea of Forests regardless, since he hoped he would be fortunate enough to discover another race on his own.
He had been cooped up studying and learning in the mansion grounds for a couple of years straight at this point, quickly leading him to be annoyed by the lack of tasks available he could conduct freely.
He never had a chance to explore beyond the confines of the Estate.
Ben was close to reaching his breaking point from the pent-up stress of not being able to move around as he pleased.
He always let his frustrations out on the System for his fate as a child, unable to do anything without dozens of eyes watching his every move.
Taking this time to set himself further apart from the rest, Ben would drown his mind into the knowledge contained within the books scattered throughout the library of the manor.
He realised if he drowned himself in the mountain of books right now, when the time came that people knew of his accomplishments, they would associate it to the time he spent cooped up with books.
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Just the countless stories of injustices the commoners faced and experienced daily hurt deep down within Bens very fibre of being.
It felt as if each time he heard of someone experiencing those injustices and punishments, he felt responsible to do something, like it was his duty to interfere and stop it.
Every time he heard a new story from Gloria or the servants who worked on the Estate, regarding the pains of the commoners and peasants, Ben felt as if their struggles were his own.
His heart would ache day by day as more stories and rumours filled his heart and mind.
The guilt was getting to him, and without an answer from the System to help deal with the turmoil of emotions pent up in his body, Ben could only use his time during practical training to let out his aggression.
In time he'd come to understand why his emotions weren't ever truly in his control to start with, but for now, Ben knew nothing of the sort.
Bens time with Alfred and Kage heavily increased, with the young Prince spending most of the time he had passionately fighting against his two teachers, regardless of his continuous losses.
If he ever got the chance, he would get to beat up the members of the Withering Rose party to justify his strength was increasing, but it was rare.
They all preferred telling Ben pointers and tips they had gained during their time as adventurers and retelling stories about their younger days instead of battling the young Prince.
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