5 Chapter 4 - A Head Start

Mere moments were all that it took for the chaotic atmosphere of the large conference room to settle down. It was not until the Queen curtseyed that everyone else took notice of the four that had entered. Clearing out, at the signal of the Queen, only the five of them remained in the now eerily quiet chamber.

Sweeping her left arm in an arc, gesturing at the still covered mahogany table, she spoke to the group, "Please, have a seat. We have much to talk about." Leaving it at that, she eased herself into the seat at the head of the table, where she was already sitting before. A clear difference in her demeanor could be noticed, even by Diana who she was meeting for the first time.

Not having any knowledge about etiquette, Diane plopped immediately into a vacant seat, glad to sit on something that did not feel like it was shaking itself, along with her sore posterior, to pieces. The cushion lined chair was extremely comfortable, but it made her feel embarrassed – as she could not reach the ground with her feet.

In succession, the others followed suit, in what had to be assigned seats in the way that they were spread about. There were a pair of matching ornate high-backed chairs at either end of the table, while two-dozen simple, by comparison, chairs lined the table's sides. Gertram, the queen's aid, sat on the Queen's immediate right, while Tobian, the high priest, sat on what would have been the King's immediate right. Dominic stayed near the hero but was none-the-less seated closer to the Queen.

No amount of favoritism changed their personal roles. Seeing everyone being seated as a sign to begin, Beatrix clapped her hands together before a smile shattered the stern mask that she was wearing since before. But the differences between a business smile and genuine one was not lost on Diane.

"Lord Arte, your arrival in the kingdom is a welcomed, albeit surprising, event." Queen Vermillion's voice was as welcoming as it was beautiful when she wanted it to be – she had a mezzo soprano voice, and rather than simply speaking her words came out almost as if in song. Diane blushed a little in response, as the queen sounded almost exactly like her favorite metal singer back home – when they were not screaming anyways. "Alas, how you have come to grace us with your presence seems to have baffled everyone. Evidenced by everything you see laid out before you." Nodding to the mess of opened and rolled up papyrus scrolls.

Gertram perked up considerably at the immediate mention of Arte's curious arrival in the royal crypts. The hero's body was never found after the defeat of the Vajra king, but much of his personal affections were stored all over the kingdom during his travels. After his death, a memorial was constructed in his memory in the city of Victus – the large golden statue that greeted Diane when she stepped out of the carriage from before. They chose this city as it was also the site of the largest battle in the Vajra kings conquest and was also the place that Arte made his first appearance in the war.

Before Diane had a chance to reply, though, the Queen held up her hand as a sign that she was not finished. "However, be that as it may, how you arrived here is currently of little import." Beatrix's follow up caught everyone else off guard – especially her aid was more than curious. "You must be very confused at the moment, so you will be allowed time enough to sort out your thoughts. After all, no one more than you would be curious about how you were revived."

Arte's head dropped in silent contemplation, an obvious crease appearing between his blonde brows. The Queen was correct. How could Diane not be confused right now? After all, everything that she thought she knew had been flipped entirely on its head. What was real and what was a dream? Now or before? She really had no idea on where to begin, having never even left square one in the first place.

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About a month's travel distance, north of the capital city of Victus, while Diane was having a crisis of self, a certain despised man was trapsing his way from village to village with three others in tow. Doubtfully intentionally, Scarlet, the name of the soul that currently inhabited Victor Steins body, had managed to stay within Divinum's borders.

Wearing a long white robe, that looked to be modeled after a modern-day lab coat, he moved from village to village to treat their sick and injured. Luckily, it would seem that either he was far enough away from a city that people did not recognize him, or people simply had no idea what he looked like in the first place.

He had originally planned to follow in the footsteps of the plethora of MC's in the multitude of online novels he had read throughout the years and attempt bringing modern technology to this world, but gave up quickly. When he actually sat down and tried to re-invent things from his world, Scarlet figured out, much to his disappointment, that he actually did not understand where to even begin. Sure, he used modern conveniences every single day, back home, but that did not mean that he knew how they worked.

With that unfortunate revelation, he chose to stick to the things that he did understand. But, even in that he turned out to understand less than the Homunculus that populated the underground base – who, begrudgingly, slowly helped him to understand magic.

Magic, that was another thing that the former resident was struggling to wrap his head around. The artificial life forms that he was surrounded by on a regular basis seemed to be manifestations of magic made physical, at least that was how they explained it. Strangely enough though, they were still very similar to the humans that he was familiar with – they had bodies of flesh and blood, but instead of a heart they had a fist sized purple crystal that, somehow, served the same purpose.

What they called Liquid Mana served a similar purpose to blood for the Homunculus – because of this, they were extremely adept at magic, which had been extremely helpful in Scarlet's learning of simple spells. Despite being a prior unknown to him, he was picking up on sensing and manipulating mana at a very quick pace. He had already managed to learn the basics of magic.

While many still used incantations, or in some cases just the name of the spell, neither was actually a requirement. Rather, they served the purpose of assisting the casters memory. As all spells, even the simplest of them, were explained, and understood, through magical theorems – which were surprisingly similar to modern-day mathematical diagrams. What the mundane called a magical circle was nothing more than a graphical illustration, depicting a spells guidelines and effects. As it was, rather unsurprisingly, difficult for people to just memorize it completely with no need for trigger words or phrases, of which they relied on completely.

Scarlet compared them to training wheels. They were delightfully useful at first. But as the Homunculus demonstrated on a constant basis, relying on words only slowed the caster down exponentially. But there was one area that he excelled at – Recovery magic, which Scarlet seen as unsurprising. While he did still struggle with the introductory spells for recovery magic, it did not require any effort at all to understand the higher tier spells. Already having a very firm grasp on the body, and its natural healing process, he had already succeeded at silent casting powerful spells, like regeneration and Area Full Heal.

His lop-sided learning curve for magic was a point of frustration for the Homunculus. However, they believed his grasp of the higher tier spells probably came, in part, by the body he was currently using – its original user having been one of the most prolific mages in history. Rather, they stressed that part quite strongly.

To experiment with magic more, and having a complete lack of willing participants, he started travelling. As the Homunculus, collectively, did not trust him on his own, they sent three of their sisters to follow him around, and to drag him back if necessary. In this way he was able to practice the lower tier spells in the field, and better study their effects. He had already come across one such case though, that required the immediate use the Regeneration spell, drawing quite a bit of attention to him – even if they were not personally familiar with magic, it did turn out, however, that spells such as Regeneration were seen as stuff of legends.

With the sun neared its descent below the horizon, the four of them decided to stay the night in the village that they were currently in. Set fairly close to the side of a mountain, where the river flowed out of it, the village was spread around its base. A long, and tall, fence line circled the entire village, while a palisade wall surrounded the village center. Comprised of a few of the villages more important buildings.

After witnessing them heal some of the villagers the local landlord chose to let them stay in his residence, the largest of the structures in the walled off village center. As Scarlet prepared for bed, the tallest of the Homunculus spoke up, "Your understanding of magic never ceases to amaze me." She clearly did not mean it as a compliment, noticeable by the undisguised scowl present on her, otherwise pretty, face. "How is it that you still need to focus so hard on a simple application of recovery magic?"

Having grown used to their constant ridicule, he chose to ignore the blatant mockery. "I explained this already." With his face now, rather exaggeratedly, placed in his palm, he continued, "It's like I am working with too much pressure. The higher tier spells don't cause any strain, like a wide pipe allowing as much pressure as I can muster." He let his arm fall back to his side now. "The lower tier spells feel too constrained. The pipe is too narrow, and for some reason it makes my thoughts all staticky and jumbled. It's weird."

"I would not understand." Staring at him, now with a blank and emotionless face, she shrugged. Finding an out of the way place the stand, the three Homunculus moved to separate corners of the room for a wider view. Taking that as his cue that no more answers would be given tonight, he curled up in one of the two beds.

'She would be cute if only she wasn't so absolutely fucking terrifying! Why do they keep up such a nice atmosphere when we're around others? It's not fair!'