3 The Envoy

"Your majesty, that foreigner killed eight inquisitors. Moreover, it seems like all the priests of the Church are packing their things and plan to leave." said Horman, the man that managed a network of spies with connections in the underworld and also one of a few king's trusted advisors.

He remained loyal to the king even after the recent events when the Church entered their country and did whatever they wanted while figuratively spitting in their faces.

The king turned away from Herman to the man who was by his right hand.

General Zelmir was his old friend and also one of the most powerful living magic knights of the continent. While the king finished the knight training at the Fort Chillgarden together with Zelmir, which was where they met, unlike the general Zelmir who trained every day, the king was far from his best condition, even though he sparred with him occasionally. General Zelmir was the second in command of the army, but practically, he was the one who truly commanded the royal army of eight thousand magic knights, three thousand magic archers and five hundred royal battle-mages.

"We have mobilized a hundred mages, six hundred knights and two hundred archers just in case. Our guest is currently waiting in front of the castle gate for the invitation." said general Zelmir, finally something that made them feel a little bit more at ease.

"Let him in." said the king in response, surprising everyone.

"Your Majesty, I don't think that's the best idea." protested Horman.

"I have to agree with honourable advisor Horman, my king." general Zelmir agreed.

"Even I don't think that it's a good idea. But something unexpected has happened and we still have little to no clue about what it was. And we need to know." the king answered.

There was undeniable truth in his words, they lacked any information and needed it to know what steps should they take next.

"I understand, Your Majesty. I will secure your safety, together with other elite knights, if that's what you decided to do." said general Zelmir, and he called for three other knights, two men and one woman. Together four of them stood in front of the king to protect him.

A few moments later, the young foreign mage was led to the king by the royal guards, who kept their distance from him out of a fear.

The young foreigner, to the surprise of everyone, kneeled in front of the king and gave a respectful bow.

"Your Majesty, King Reginald the Third, I am giving you my regards. My name is Moren Angra and I came to your kingdom as an envoy of magic guild Il'lief to negotiate about establishing a few residences of our guild in your kingdom. Originally, I wanted to arrive sooner, around noon to be precise, but while I was passing through the city, I found a lair of criminal magic users oppressing Your people. As a gesture of goodwill, I decided to expel these pests out of your kingdom." said the young mage, without standing up.

His words were answered with silence. The first one to respond was general Zelmir.

"Criminals?" he asked with a single word.

"It was a group of magic users who called themselves the Church. They extorted your citizens for money and even tried to publicly execute a girl. I tried to avoid bloodshed, but their leader was not very wise. However, you don't have to worry anymore, I doubt they will ever find the courage to return." said young mage.

At that moment, the room was filled with loud laughter. Horman was laughing without any self-control. After he managed to stop, he asked the next question.

"So you attacked the Church since you believed they are just some criminal organization?"

"Yes. Was there some mistake? Was it not a criminal organization?" asked the youth, realizing that he might have been somehow tricked by the blacksmith.

"Well, technically, you could say you are right. The Church really acts like a criminal organization. But at the same time, it's the strongest and most influential magic guild on the continent and they basically have a control over most of the kingdoms and magic guilds. To anger them is to turn the whole continent against us, else we wouldn't tolerate their vile acts. I don't know where have you came from, sir foreigner, but you should have learned this information before coming." Herman explained.

The young foreigner held his head in his hands and started uttering unknown words, rising attention of the knights, who were afraid it might be some sort of spell.

"Pardon?" Horman questioned him, as he fearfully took two steps back.

"Forgive me. I had to swear, so I decided to use my native language." the young man explained, somewhat calming down the tension in the main hall.

At that moment, the king finally decided to speak.

"Well, dear sir envoy, after your actions, it is likely that the Church will decide to completely destroy our kingdom. Since it seemed to entertain you, Horman, could you explain to Us what you find funny about that?"

"Of course, I understand the implications, Your Majesty, but just that thought that the Church would be treated like nothing more but a common criminal organization..."

"A war with the Church and other northern kingdoms - there is nothing funny about that."

"Of course. I apologize. Forgive me, Your Majesty."

The king then looked at the young foreigner. What could they do? Capture him with force and give him to the Church? Impossible, he swiftly killed eight inquisitors like they were mere pests, if they tried to use violence against him, it would likely end in a bloodshed where the young mage would escape anyways.

"Well, young man, I understand you had no bad intention, but you have no idea what kind of problem you caused for us. Pissing off the Church was the last thing we needed." he said.

"Your Majesty, I want to assure you that you have nothing to fear. Our guild shall take full responsibility for this mistake. We shall protect your kingdom from those criminals, no matter how large force they might wield." answered the young man confidently.

"They can rally forces of the continent under their banner. A hundred thousand magic knights, tens of thousands of archers, and thousands of battle-mages. Do you think your magical guild can compare with such a force?" responded the king, trying to explain hopelessness of the situation.

The youth stayed in his thoughts for a moment.

"Yes, it won't be easy, but if that is the size of the force we will have to fight against, I am confident we should be able to deal with it." he said after a while.

King Reginald III. was speechless. He didn't know how to respond to that claim. Horman had a similar reaction. Only sceptical general Zelmir found words to speak.

"Really? And what sort of magic guild do you represent, might I ask?"

If the general was immune to the previous answer, this one took his ability to speak away as well.

"Our guild hails from the distant continent that lies in the seas west of the Green Island and is the largest guild of the Ymarion Empire. It is known as the guild Il'lief, or in your language, the Guild of Life magic and Necromancy." answered the youth.

The whole hall became silent once more.

***

"The Guild of Life magic and… Necromancy?" the king finally dared to ask.

Even if the youth in front of him was a necromancer, he could not afford to anger him since he knew well how powerful the young mage was from Horman's spies who had witnessed what happened in the temple. If he could talk himself out of a fight that would be much better.

"Yes, Your Majesty." answered the youth.

"You mean raising the undead and such?" he asked again.

"Raising the undead? Not really, that is a thing of the past. Our guild found it to be extremely inefficient and barbaric branch of magic and it made many people fear and hate us, so it was mostly abandoned four centuries ago."

The king blinked. If that was true, why would they introduce themselves as a guild of necromancy?

"So you are not using undead." he stated to ensure that he understood the confusing explanation the young envoy was giving him.

"Technically, there are some extremely rare exceptions. It's not really useful magic, so only a few crazier old mages waste their time studying it." explained the young mage.

"So, if your guild's focus is not rising undead, what does your guild do?" asked the king, hoping that this answer would reveal some important truth about this youth that could be used to negotiate.

"Guild Il'lief studies magic of life and death. Healing magic, defence magic, alchemy and creation of beings such as golems or homunculi are our forte. But our ultimate goal is to find a way for the man to become immortal."

King blinked in surprise. That was a pretty wide description. Magic guilds that he knew were much more focused in terms of magic specialization.

"I know what golems are, but I do not know word 'homunculi'. It sounds foreign to me." asked Horman.

"I apologize; I have found no word in your language that would describe what I mean, so I used word of my native language. Homunculus is a man-made magical life form. They serve as assistants or guards of the mage that created them."

"How do they differ from golems?" the king asked, with serious interest.

"Golems are not living beings. They lack emotions and feelings and they only follow orders that were given to them. Unlike them, Homunculi have their own emotions, opinions, values and intelligence. It will be faster to demonstrate." said the young magician, pulling a suspicious small stone out of his pocket.

Three knights and general Zelmir prepared themselves to act if anything happened.

The young mage dropped the stone and it disappeared, while a young man in leather armour with two sheathed short swords by his belt appeared.

The four knights pointed their sword at the man, but he quickly took a few steps back, escaping out of their reach.

"What is this, Moren? More enemies? Do they never learn?" asked the young man, unsheathing two short swords and grinning viciously.

"Calm down, Scarecrow. These are not enemies." said the young mage.

"Then why are they pointing their swords at me?" asked the man called Scarecrow, but he sheathed his swords, showing that he had full trust in the words of the young mage.

The king carefully inspected this swordsman.

"That thing on his head... that's not hair, it's straw!" he exclaimed with disbelief, making others also focus on the young man's head.

"Of course it is straw." answered the young man. "I'm Scarecrow, what do you think I should have on my head? Moss?"

The young mage turned to the king again.

"Scarecrow is a homunculus whose creation was inspired by, as you probably realized already, scarecrows. He controls magic at the level of a higher master and is movement magic specialist. He is one of six homunculi that I created."

Scarecrow laughed slightly.

"You could say that Moren is something like my mother, which I agree, is quite odd since he is a man." he said.

"As you can see, unlike golems, he has his own personality traits, such as disrespect and viciousness." the young mage continued his explanation, ignoring what the straw-haired man said.

"Yes and also very little patience, so, Moren, if you excuse me, I will return to the realm in your amulet. In an hour or so, I have a date with Dreya, and I still have to wash my straw so... see you later." said Scarecrow, before he instantly vanished.

"If you have ever seen a golem, you should understand the difference now." the young mage finished his explanation.

"That thing was really not a human?" asked the king.

"No, it wasn't a human. It was a homunculus." confirmed the foreigner.

"Uh." the king was not sure what to say. From that single demonstration, he could understand that whatever this magic guild really was, he should not underestimate their magic.

"So back to other things my guild studies. Healing and regeneration is most popular specialization. Restoring missing limbs, healing the illnesses..." foreigner started explaining again, but the king interrupted him.

"Illnesses?" he asked as if his life depended on it.

"Of course, if one studies the magic of life and death and seeks immortality, learning about illnesses and how to properly treat them is a necessary product of such studies." answered the young envoy.

"Your majesty, I know it is tempting, but please, do not raise your hopes prematurely." said general Zelmir.

But the king ignored him.

"Young man... no, honourable magic master, please, my wife suffers from a terrible disease. No one knows how to help her. Please, could you perhaps..."

"Of course, Your Majesty. I will do anything that is in my power to help. Please, lead me to her." answered the young mage before the king even finished his sentence.