First Contact

"Honestly, I still cannot understand your logic back then," Helen complained to someone. "What were you thinking back then?" 

"I apologise for my lack of critical thinking." a voice answered. 

"You... ugh. Whatever." she snapped back. 

After being gone for over a decade, Helen, Averill's mother finally returned. And with her, was a new face. 

Rather than the Ezhil Clan's usual moonlight-coloured hair and red eyes, the person instead has almost shiny and reflective silver hair with a soft overlay of green. Her hair is long and silky, in the form of a normal ponytail. She has a reflective pair of round glasses with a thin dark gold-coloured frame that hides her eyes. 

Wearing nothing more than a fully buttoned-up overcoat that belonged to Chlas, she awkwardly walked by Helen's side. 

"Helen! Welcome back." Chlas said to them. 

"Oh, dear. Yes, I have returned." 

Her husband, Chlas was walking towards them. He sensed his wife's aura and made his way to the entrance of the mansion. 

"And who is this if I may ask?" he turned over to the woman. 

"Right dear, this is Lucy Eien Azwith," 

"Greetings." she said. 

"And Lucy, this is my husband, and current head of the Ezhil Clan, Chlas Ezhil Nieun." 

"It is a pleasure to meet you, guest from the Eien Clan." 

"Same here, Head of the Ezhil Clan." 

Despite their 'kind' words to each other, anyone could tell they weren't on good terms. They were like oil and water with Helen being the pan that holds them together. 

"Now, now," she stepped in, "Treat her with care, okay dear? She is a guest from the Eien Clan after all." 

"If you say so, dear." Chlas regained his formal posture and aura. He didn't bat an eye when he saw Lucy in his overcoat, as he trusted his wife enough to not question her actions much. "Shall I call the rest of our family to greet her?" 

"We can do that later at dinner," she turns her attention to Lucy. "And speaking of which, Lucy, why not join us? It just so happens that today's dinner is a rare type of blood that you would love." 

A small drop of saliva formed and hung on the corner of her mouth. Wiping it away,

"No, I could never!" she replies. "I am fine with a normal dinner course, but there is no need to offer me expensive and rare blood!" 

"He-he. Is that so? Then it is quite unfortunate that you won't join us for dinner." Helen looked down. Realising that she just made Helen sad, Lucy decided she had no choice but to accept her offer of a meal. 

"Since you will be joining us for dinner today, why not go and relax? Maybe introduce yourself to one of our sons? Mmm?" 

"S-sure... I will do that..." 

As Helen and Chlas left to get things ready for the dinner course for their family and Lucy, the latter stood there in conflict over what to do. 

As Lucy conflicted with herself, meanwhile deeper in the mansion of the Ezhil Clan,

"Too slow! You're lacking power and strength when using magic!" Naven shouted out to Averill. 

"Then what should I do?" he shouted out in reply. 

"Good question. I got no idea!" 

"Seriously?" Averill stopped. The two of them were sparing with each other with the intention of training. Naven was Averill's melee teacher and Caca was his magic teacher. Laruca has the skills of both melee and magic so she was his assistant teacher, pointing out his weak points and what he could do to improve.

"Caca, what do you think?" Averill asks his older sister. 

"It is true that you are lacking in power when using your magic, but power isn't all. I think you are focusing too much on the speed of your attacks and neglecting the power of them. Maybe try lowering the speed and start putting in more mana into your spells." 

"Oh. That is good to know."

(More mana and less speed? I could try and do that... Tier 7 magic should be perfect for this experiment then...)

"Can I add something as well?" Laruca said. 

"Sure. Any feedback would be great." 

"Why not just create original magic spells that suit your build?" she bluntly said. 

"Huh?" Averill accidently said. 

Caca and Naven were covering their faces and shaking their heads in disappointment. 

"Sigh... Laruca," Naven started, "You... never mind." 

"What?" 

"It doesn't work like that you know?" Caca answered. "Creating original magic is extremely hard to do, as you must come up with the effects of the spell, what it would do and things such as that. Not to mention you then must put those ideas into Magic Language before converting the Magic Language into Casting Spells, and finally after all that, there is less than 0.001% of the spell to actually work. If not, you must restart all over again." 

"Yeah, I know about that. The conversion from ideas to Magic Language isn't hard, nor is the following step. It's just the rare chance of it to successfully bond together and form the spell right? Then why not use a Luck Buff effect? Tier 14 magic [Gambler's Irony] should buff your luck by around a hundred times. Then it's only 0.1%, so only a thousand or so times right?" 

Everyone was stunned. 

"Y-y-you are a genius!" cried Caca. "Why didn't I think of that earlier? 

"I must admit, I see no clear flaw in her logic. But the question is, can we stack those Luck Buff effects to have a guaranteed chance of creating original magic?" Naven added. 

"Ohhhh!!" Caca being the magic-devouring person she is, racked her brain for answers and new experiments to test out. 

"Well then, I shall leave this to you three," Averill said as he was leaving. "I shall now retreat and get some rest." 

"Come back here! This is for your cause!" Naven said. But no answer came back. "He really doesn't like group activities huh." 

"Leave him be." Caca told Naven. 

"You sure? Since this will prove very beneficial towards him." 

"Yeah. He's already grown-up already." 

"Grown-up?" Naven repeats. "Really?" 

"I mean, his personality sure is." 

"Hah-ha. I get what you mean." 

"Nevermind him, Naven!" Caca cheerfully said. "If we can use Luck Buff effects to boost the success rate for making original magic, then the entire world's way of combat would undoubtedly change!" 

"Alright then. I trust your words, Caca."

Averill retreated to his room. He was planning to make use of his free time to do a little more experimenting, but his mother suddenly showed up.

"Eh?! Mother? When did you get back?" he cried out. 

"Just a moment ago." she answers. 

"Should I go and bring us some tea?" 

"Thank you for the thought, but no worries. I just want a small chat with you." 

"A-alright then." he sat down on the sofa made out of silk sourced from the far eastern regions of their territory, Olette Island, and his mother sat down next to him. 

"So, mother? What did you want to talk about?"

"Nothing much. Perhaps about a possible marriage partner?" 

Averill wasn't surprised. His mother was the most cunning, self-centred and selfish person he knew. She will take advantage of whatever situation she has an upper hand on to get something extra for herself or her family.

(This time... did she take advantage of someone to give up their daughter?) 

"A marriage partner? Like who? I doubt it is a human or a low-ranking vampire."

Helen looked awfully proud. 

"Heh-heh! Listen closely, Averill. I have managed to convince the Head of the Eien Clan... well actually not really, I was aiming for something else, but anyway, the second daughter of the Eien Clan has been granted permission to stay at our place for three years as a part of an apology and a token as friends."

"An apology? Then..." 

"Correct, my dear. The Eien Clan were the ones responsible for the Divine Spirit and Crystal Dragon that showed up in our territory," she sighed, sounding exhausted. "It was their fifth born who actually caused the mess. Of course, I believed that Naven had no trouble dealing with them both, but still, it was an action that required an apology." 

"So you decided to take advantage of the situation?" 

"Wow! You know me so well, Averill! You truly are my son." 

"Thank you." 

"In any case, please look out for her. Her name is Lucy, Lucy Eien Azwith. She has greenish hair and wears glasses. I'm sure you could recognise her almost immediately," she stood up. "That is all. See you at dinner!" she left the room. 

(Why?! I don't want to deal with her! I just want to hole up myself in my room and experiment with my magic! That is all I want!)

Averill went into a state of mild panic. He was sure that his mother had good intentions for him when she was taking advantage of the Eien Clan, but it was too much.

(A possible marriage partner, huh... I'm not against marriage but at least have me voice my opinions.) he complained. 

"Hey, bro!" Eliva said. She leapt from the ground and landed right next to her older brother. "Were just talking with mother a moment ago?" 

"Hm? Eliva? Yeah, I was." 

"Aww. Lucky. I wanted to talk to her as well!" 

"Maybe at dinner time today. And besides, from what mother just told us, we got a guest for the next three years." 

Her eyes lit up.

"A guest? Who? Who?" she excitedly jumped around. 

"A girl from a fellow Clan." 

"Hm? Which Clan?"

"The Eien Clan." 

She flinched when she heard Averill's response. 

"What's wrong, Eliva? Scared of the Eien Clan are you?" 

"N-no... I-I'm not scared of some... I am." 

"Ha-ha-ha. I figured. Heard some nasty rumours about them, right?" 

She nodded her head. 

"Oh right! Brother, when is the field trip going to take place? I have been waiting for weeks, but still no news!" 

"The trip... I have completely forgotten about that..." Averill mumbled. "Well, why not call Avile here as well and we go and ask Naven together?" 

"Uhm!" she responded, running to get her twin sister. 

...

<Outskirts of Deplan City, Xvan Republic>

It was calm weather all week. No signs of rain, snow or hail anytime soon. 

The Xvan Republic has been shifting into a military mode for nearly two decades by this point. All men between the ages of fifteen and thirty must complete compulsory military training for two or more years depending on the role, and all men between the ages of thirty-one and fifty must complete compulsory military training for half a year at least. Out of the one billion humans, the Xvan Republic has a very impressive one hundred million population. Seventy-five per cent, or seventy-five million are below the age of forty and sixty per cent are below the age of twenty-five. This means out of the one hundred million population that the Xvan Republic has, forty million of them are in keen condition to fight a war and an additional fifteen million as reserve troops.

Of course, no sane ruler would ever allow that large amount of troops to be deployed at once, but at maximum capacity, the Xvan Republic could deploy up to forty thousand immediately and up to two million at any given time without affecting their logistic speeds and efficiency. 

As any other normal twenty-year-old man, Ryan is an average person, living out his life just on the outskirts of a major trading hub, Deplan City. He already has a wife and three children and is currently working as a soldier in the barracks. He is a Captain rank soldier, recently promoted from Rearguard Captain. 

The ranks of the Xvan Republic's military are used throughout most of the world with some exceptions. From highest to lowest, the ranks are:

- General of Captains/Commander of the Military (General)

- Vice-Captain General (Lieutenant General) 

- Frontline Captain (Major General) 

- Head of the Guards (Brigadier General) 

- Captain (Colonel)

- Rearguard Captain (Lieutenant Colonel)

- Commanding Soldier (Major)

- Frontline Soldier (Captain)

- Soldier (Lieutenant)

- Enlisted Soldier (Second Lieutenant) 

As a Captain-ranked soldier, he was the second-in-command of the entire defence force for Deplan City. There was a Head of the Guards (also known as 'Head Guard') ranked soldier acting as the commander but he was sick, so Ryan was in temporary command. 

The soldiers actually preferred Ryan as their leader and not the Head Guard as he was selfish, greedy and had a very large lust for women. He had no actual commanding skills and was only of that rank because he used his family's connections.

Meanwhile, Ryan on the other hand, was an honest, kind but still strict person who has great commanding abilities and achievements. The soldiers look up to him and respect him a lot. 

"Oh? Isn't that Sir Ryan over there?" a soldier said to his friend. Turning around to see where his friend was looking at, he saw a tall man with black hair, a kind but scary-looking face and a very well-built body. 

"That is Sir Ryan! Quickly, pay your respects!" he said, bowing and forcing his friend to bow as well. 

"Ha-ha-ha! No need for all this formality you guys," Ryan replied to them. "I'm only a mere Captain. There are many Captain-ranked people in this country, let alone the world. I'm not that special." 

"No, no! You are too humble Sir Ryan! You deserve a higher rank I say so myself." 

"Uhm. I agree." 

"Aww. Thank you for the nice words. Well then, I'll be on my way to the barracks. Find me there if you need anything." 

"Yes sir! Have a nice day too!" they both said in unison. 

Waving to them as he walked away, Ryan walked on the rough stone road that desperately needed repairs. As a major trading hub in the Xvan Republic, there was naturally going to be attention both good and bad towards the city. 

Deplan City was a port city, one of the largest in the entire country and one of the seven most important cities for trade in the world. Being such an important city meant that Ryan had several Rearguard Captain-ranked personnel under his command and several warships to deal with threats and for the city's defence. There was also a minimum of three thousand soldiers stationed at the city at all times of the year, making an invasion via the sea or the land almost impossible. 

The reason for the staggering amount of defence is of course protecting the city, but that's only a secondary objective. The main objective or goal is to prevent or discourage any attacks from nearby Olette Island, the territory of the most dangerous vampire clan, the Ezhil Clan. A single Tier 9 or 10 spell would most certainly destroy seventy per cent or more of the city and officials of the Xvan Republic would like to at least have a battle for control of the city instead of being wiped on the floor as usual. 

(Though I'm fine if it's just me being cannon fodder against the Ezhil Clan but for those young and inexperienced men, ordering them to go to their deaths would certainly haunt me for the rest of my life.) he thought. Navigating the roads towards the western city gates to do his job, he couldn't help himself and wondered why vampires existed anyway. He had pondered the answer to this question many times but without success.

Are they an invasive species from another world? Are they creations of a god, a divine being? Or are they something else entirely? The questions are endless and there is not enough information to confirm or deny these questions. 

"Never mind those questions..." he mumbled. "Just think of your daughter and sons' smiling faces... oh yeah. I wish I could retire and spend more time with my family..." 

Still continuing to walk towards the western city gates, more and more soldiers patrolling the area noticed and paid their respects to Ryan which made him go into his work mode, being all serious and all that. 

"Mornin' sir." a soldier addressed him casually. The soldier in question was wearing heavy-plated armour made out of lightweight iron with a coloured feather sticking out of the visor. 

"Morning Kela. Sleepy are you?" he asks with a chuckle. 

Kela nods back in reply. 

"Woke up at the crack of dawn today... don't know why, but I did." 

"Ehh, really? Dawn? You?" Ryan bursted out laughing. "Hah-hah-ha-ha! Do you think I'm stupid or something? There's no way I believe that!" he continued laughing in her face. 

"Well, I can't blame you, Ryan. We've been friends for over fifteen years up to this point and this is the first time I had woken up before noonish," she replied, out of energy. "My eyes- no, my entire body feels dead." 

"Yeah, I get that," Ryan replied. He plucked out the feather sticking out of Kela's visor and chucked it away. "Even so, you must take care of yourself and be on alert. Should I demote you to a Commanding Soldier? Then your workload should be smaller, thus more free time." 

"No thank you. I'm fine with the workload of a Rearguard Captain." she answers. 

"If you say so..." 

He continued to walk to the barracks, with Kela slumping behind him. With no other choice, Ryan supported Kela's body and walked with her. Once the barracks were in view, four soldiers rushed out of the main building and came to help Ryan. They then carried Kela's body to a bed so she could rest. 

"Thanks, everyone," he said. "I'll treat you all to a meal later as a thank you." 

"No need to be that generous, sir. A simple 'thank you' is more than enough." 

"No, no, I insist. I'm well-off anyway, so a meal is nothing to worry about." 

"If you say so..." the soldier sounded uncertain. It was an honour to have a meal with your seniors, but a meal as thanks for something so insignificant? No way. It made the soldier feel guilty about it. 

Ryan by this point already had left to get his work done, going through paperwork, approving or rejecting proposals for the city's military and more.

Deplan City was a city built upon the ideas of its citizens and not the country. The city has changed hands a few times during its six-hundred-year-long history making it culturally diverse and has a low racist population compared to other cities nearby. Meaning Ryan's job was extremely important. He and the city mayor go through requests or demands from the citizens and choose whether to approve it or reject it. 

This system of allowing the citizens to have a voice in their public services, infrastructure and the city as a whole, works extremely well. The people know what the people want much better than a singular person after all. 

Taking a small break from all his work, Ryan looked out the window just beside his desk. From there, he could see the calm sea with Model-18 warships and Model-20 warships, which are both made out of metal instead of wood, sailing on it. No clouds were in sight and in the distant horizon were the flat, rolling beaches and tall rugged mountains of Olette Island's western shores. 

Ryan burnt the scene into his memory before turning to his work in a small, damp and cold room at the top of the barrack's tower. 

From the afternoon onwards, or whenever Ryan finished his mandatory paperwork for the day, it was time for lunch. Inviting the same soldiers from earlier in the day as promised and Kela joined in as well, they went to a nearby pub where Ryan was a regular. Ordering whatever they liked, Ryan ordered the seafood set, which is a meal consisting of fresh fish, warm soup, bread and a beer. Not much, but considering its price of only five WD, it was almost a steal. 

Kela followed Ryan's footsteps and also ordered the seafood set, while the four other soldiers either had the lamb set or the beef set. Same thing as the seafood set, but rather than fish, it was lamb or beef. 

An hour later, after they finished their lunch and their break was over, Ryan took up guard duty at the western city gates and started personally dealing with merchants or travellers trying to enter the city. Nothing too out of the ordinary as usual, but he had caught six men trying to smuggle illegal goods into the city. 

When questioned, Ryan found out that the illegal goods were highly addictive drugs and they intended to smuggle them to the only city that humanity has control over on Olette Island, Gyana for large profits. 

"Request two rooms over at the Central Prison. For now, until they can prepare to welcome these smugglers, lock them up in Deplan Prison." he said to a team of five soldiers. 

"Roger." they replied. Soon after, the soldiers started to escort the six smugglers to Deplan Prison. 

After dealing with the smugglers, he returned to guard duty where he welcomed four mysterious people into the city. Two of them were the same height, probably children, while another was a bit taller. Ryan guessed that person was a teen, probably fourteen or fifteen, while the tallest and oldest was their dad or their caretaker. 

They were riding a wooden cart pulled by a horse, nothing out of the ordinary, but the clothing they wore looked to be extremely expensive from a quick glance under their cloaks. He only saw half the face of the eldest member of the group, but to say that he got a cold sweat is an understatement. 

"Thank you." the eldest person said to Ryan as he let them into the city. His voice was smoothing, one that could easily make anyone feel relaxed. But for Ryan, it caused him to sweat even harder. 

As the mysterious group of four passed and entered the city, Ryan literally collapsed onto the floor with several surrounding soldiers panicking at the sight of a fallen Ryan. 

"Sir?!" one soldier cried out. "Are you okay?! What happened?!" 

Ryan was visibly dazed by the encounter. No response came from him so the soldiers carried him to the hospital bay on one of the nearby docked ships so he could get treated. 

"What was that thing...? No... that person... is dangerous. Extremely dangerous," Ryan recalled. "Even though his voice and body language showed no signs of any hostility, my body still reacted the way it did." 

"Maybe it was a powerful adventurer? After all, I heard rumours that adventurers ranked Tier 10 or above would usually have something like a 'feeling' that people around them would feel and experience. If the person is too weak to handle that 'feeling' then they would show the signs that Sir Ryan had experienced." 

"I see, Michael... thank you for this information. Your answer might be correct actually." Ryan said to him. 

"No problem! Happy to be of use, Sir Ryan." he replied. 

"Now could you all please leave the room? I would like to get some rest." 

"Of course! We'll be on guard duty right outside the door. Don't hesitate and call us for something." 

"Will do." 

Ryan saw the soldiers all leave the room but he didn't pay them any attention as they were doing so. His room was painted white, with a white bed, white pillows, a white blanket and everything all white, white, white. The only other source of colour other than white was the green stem of the white flowers placed on the nightstand next to his bed and the fleeing colours of sunset entered the room through a window as the night slowly crept over the skies. 

He watched the sun go down completely from his window and it made him melancholy for a reason he couldn't explain. 

He waited. He waited and waited. He waited until he was tired and ready to go to sleep but he felt no fatigue. He looked out of the window again and saw the skies now full of colour, the stars glittering like a huge box of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and all the world's precious gemstones hung from the sky. 

"Such a beautiful view..." he remarked. But the beautiful view of the sky wasn't the only reason why Ryan remembered this day so completely and vividly. 

...