Blue Moon Empire

"But… why?"

The duke smiled and then replied. "Because we are.. Asgardians! We are strong and we will become stronger. Arman fear that we will become stronger enough to fight them. They are afraid that someday we will raise a flag against them."

"If they are afraid the Asgard would raise a flag against them when we are strong enough, why would they ask us to join them in the first place? Why didn't they just destroy us back then?" Loki was confused.

"Empire, like men has their weak time. At that time the Empire was attacked from the south and the west. The Empire manpower decrease along the war. Lots of territory was lost. At that chaotic period, in the north, the Salf Kingdom and Rum Kingdom which separated us from the Arman had the intention of rebelling against the Arman.

They Arman would never allow that to happen, so they send envoy here brings some gift and promised to gift the Nahrim Forest to us. And we naturally accepted it. We stabilized the situation in two kingdoms within a year.

A year later, Arman recover some of their strength and reclaim some of its territory. Two years later the war stopped. Arman lost some territory, but Arman was satisfied since they are not destroyed.

And now, Arman has fully recovered. They want to make sure that no one could contend against them in their territory, especially us who has the special privilege." The duke laugh heartedly afterwards.

Loki was in daze, listening the new information from the duke.

"Loki, you don't have to become strong. As a level 5 mage, I could live hundreds of years. I could protect you for the rest of your life. You don't have to be afraid of the Arman or even other nobles. As long as you could marry to several wives and give me many granddaughters and grandsons, I will be very satisfied."

".."

'Why does it sound a little weird? Its sound like you want me to become an offspring making machine.' Loki face become little weird.

The room become silent for several seconds.

Realizing that he had misspoken, the duke quickly said. "Loki, what I actually want to say was that you should not lost your spirit just because you have no aptitude in magic. You should focus on what you have and live your life."

"I understand, Father." Loki answered, after some father and son conversation, Loki left Gerald's study room with a new spirit.

'I never thought that my dukedom was that strong.' Loki was laughing in his heart.

With his new spirit, Loki went to the library to increase his understanding about the world, as well as the dukedom.

To reach Asgard from Arman Empire, the merchant should head to the north and past trough Salf Kingdom and Rum Kingdom. The two kingdoms could be considered small kingdom and their military powers were below of Asgard Dukedom.

A kingdom could be called a small kingdom as long as they have a king and ten nobles. A kingdom with less nobles would be called unofficial kingdom. While an independent territory with a single Duke would be called Dukedom and the Lord domain for the lower caste nobles.

There are 4 stages of kingdom namely, unofficial kingdom, small kingdom, medium kingdom, and large kingdom. A medium kingdom should have at least twenty nobles and one level 6 mage or knight. A large kingdom should have at least 50 nobles and five level 6 mage or knight.

As for an empire, it should have at least two kingdoms as its vassal. 200 nobles including the nobles from its vassal kingdom. One level 7 mage or one level 8 knight.

The difference level of mage and knight to establish an empire because it was widely believed that a mage is stronger than a knight. Which is true in most case, but there surely be some exception.

Mage was those who could absorb spiritual power to enhance their spiritual domain in their body. The stronger spiritual domain a mage has will make a mage stronger.

Mage was divided by their affinity towards elements. The most common element that human and dwarf had affinity with was Fire. Water element commonly found in the mermaid and elf. Earth element commonly found in the orc and goblin.

Wind and lightning elements commonly used by flying beast. Human and other races rarely used any of these elements. Some human might have affinity with other elements beside fire, but such occurrence was rare. At least 70 percent of human mage would be a fire mage.

The same goes for the knight. Most of human knight would be a fire knight. A knight was those who had low aptitude in magic and decided to train their body. Knights also absorb the spiritual power, but they would channel the spiritual power to their weapon, making their weapon stronger.

As for those who don't have aptitude with magic could only become ordinary soldier. There are some cases that a soldier without aptitude for magic could defeat a level 2 or even a level 3 knight. Such soldier would be called a broken knight.

If Loki could not find anything to improve his magic aptitude, the best he could do was becoming a broken knight.

Loki flipped paper by paper, book by book and soon he found what he was looking for. An information about improving ones aptitude.

There is a herb that could improve ones aptitude with magic called Blue Moon Lily. It was believed that this herb would only blossom in full moon, but for the past hundred of years no one has ever found this herb. So, the existence of Blue Moon Lily was doubted by the people.

Loki sitting in his chair immersed in reading the history of Blue Moon Lily. He read the book like his life was depended on it. The book contains records about some people who claimed that they found this herb, as well as records of how to use it.

The most famous person in the book was Rey Reinhart who claimed had found 3 lilies. He claimed that he has low aptitude for magic in the first place. He used the lily to make a seasoning on a certain soup he made because he thought the lilies look delicious, and unexpectedly his aptitude improved drastically.

Then he used the rest of the lilies for the next soup and found that his deduction was correct. The lilies improve his aptitude for magic. Later, Rey Reinhart become a level 7 fire mage and founding an empire that still existed until today, The Blue Moon Empire.

Blue Moon Empire was founded 700 years ago by Rey Reinhart. The Reinhart House of Blue Moon Empire widely discussed in every conversation regarding Blue Moon Lily.