Knowledge (part 1)

Ch. V - Knowledge (Rake)

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After his highness gave the holy mission, everyone in the room turned frozen.

To take down a kingdom's defenses from the inside… that is no easy feat.

After all, this is one of the largest kingdoms we are talking about. The Velborn kingdom, with a territory smaller only to our Ardjestyn kingdom. They are the second largest kingdom in the continent, and there are over fifteen kingdoms in the continent.

If one looks at the history, the ethelen kingdom known as Velborn has been in a long term violent relationship with Ardjestyn. Many battles in the past just to win over a certain area of territory, mostly in the shape of villages or certain landmarks like mountains or lakes. 

After all, we are only right next to each other. With Ardjestyn on the north, and Velborn on the south, the two largest kingdoms have been going at each other's throats for many centuries.

Recently, things have been going rather hot. It started about ten years ago, when a battle finally occurred after a long twenty years of cold air filled with no disputes. The sudden battle completely removes the peace that was obtained for twenty years completely, and the two largest kingdoms began to fight against one another once again.

The Eleven Heroes of Ardjestyn was actually made to solve many issues, including the mess with Velborn. While it is indeed impossible for just eleven heroes to deal with an entire kingdom, it is still their duty to do so.

So to give this very dumb mission to just one person… even if he is the greatest out of the eleven strongest warriors of Ardjestyn… is still unthinkable.

That is why this mission is a Holy Mission. A nearly impossible mission that was issued by the king, not given because it was rewarding, but because it was what the kingdom, the church, and the people needed.

I understood that. I know that the kingdom needed this. I know that if the ethelens continue to be a pain to us, many more lives on our side will be lost.

I can understand why the king wants to send me. I can see what things will be solved if I succeed, and I can even see the way to solve it.

After all, I am confident that I am capable.

Fighting against the legendary one thousand year old dragon, that was easy. We took it down in just two minutes. Hell, even without five others helping me, I would have been able to kill it all by myself in under thirty minutes.

In the end, I am strong. I am unstoppable. Only I can deal with this holy mission, and nobody else.

And my father… will finally…

"Yes, your majesty!!"

I said without a single bit of hesitation, surprising every single person in the room.

The said mission was supposed to be impossible. Infiltrating a kingdom that has been going around for many centuries, with size second only to our kingdom, and strength possibly much larger than ours? It is unthinkable to even imagine such a mission can exist, let alone actually doing it.

In that case… think of how father would react… when he found out I succeeded.

I will… take down Velborn's defenses.

I will… get his attention.

Without realizing, a greedy grin formed on my face.

The meeting was concluded, with a new holy mission issued by the king. For me, the strongest of the Eleven Heroes of Ardjestyn, to lead the battle against Velborn.

The fact that I have to infiltrate has been kept secret by everyone in the room, and more about the mission details will be written on a piece of paper so that I will easily note it later on. The king himself will be the one writing it, and I will receive the contents be it today or tomorrow.

So until then… I need to learn more about Velborn.

After we left the White Cathedral, everyone parted ways. It was already pretty late, the sun was already getting down as well, everyone was tired.

Arthur went with the vice general to go to the knight's headquarters at the back of the building to talk more about his sentence. He didn't even get the chance to say anything to me because the vice general immediately pulled him away. 

Everyone else went back home, and I had to actually smack Jack away so that he would stop clinging to me. I just received an impossible mission, and he is rather worried that I might just send myself to death, that I will die.

I won't, and I'm not. He was just being annoying with it.

Now that there is nothing left for me to do, I decided that I will go ahead and start my preparations immediately.

As always, I took a mask out from my storage bracelet and wore it. This way, nobody will recognize me.

Wearing a mask in public is completely normal. Lots of people do that, it's just that people would become more wary of you. You still have to take it off when entering a rather important spot, like the knight's headquarters or the White Cathedral.

But if it's just the public library, you can wear it just fine.

"Mask, huh…? Fine. Don't damage anything."

The young librarian said right after he saw me enter. He was at the front desk, right in front of the entrance. He can see anyone who walks in, and people will have to go to him if they wish to borrow a book.

"I will not."

I said to him as I walked, and I entered the library through the hall on his left.

I have been to many libraries in the past, including this one. I memorized which library has what kind of contents, and I learned every single detail that I needed to know regarding them. Including, at which library that I can find a certain topic.

This library is a rather small one, but it has the topic that I truly needed to know right now.

The knowledge about Velborn, the kingdom of ethelens.

I traversed the bookshelves, gathering the necessary books that I will be needing to enhance my knowledge regarding the Velborn kingdom. I spent the rest of the evening there, just reading about ethelens and Velborn in general. 

All of these books are public knowledge, which isn't actually what I truly need if I want to take down a whole kingdom from the inside. But all the private information is kept by the knights, and they will probably brief me regarding them later on.

So for now, what I need to know is the public knowledge first.

Ethelen is a race. Just like us humans, there are many other races out there such as elves, dwarves, vampires, even orcs. Ethelen, is one of them.

Their skin resembles us humans, dwarves, and elves, but they have a horn on their head similar to a demon race. Their ears are long, just like elves. Their bodies aren't short like dwarves, more like us humans, and it's not stupidly tall like elves. 

There really isn't much differentiating them and us humans, aside from the ears and horns. Unlike elves that has stupidly long age or dwarves with their short bodies, there really isn't much of uniqueness to ethelens. The only thing noticeable is their horns and ears. They are very similar to humans, genetically.

There is only one ethelen kingdom in the continent. Unlike humans that have three, ethelens lived very closely with one another. They only have one single kingdom with size so much larger than any other kingdom, aside from ours of course.

And anyone with the right mind can expect this kingdom to have a powerful military. After all, their size is second only to ours, and we are proud to call ourselves the strongest military kingdom.

Velborn kingdom, led by the royal family of Velborn. Their kingdom has been around for many centuries, even a millennia, possibly even older than the dragon we just defeated.

It is actually much older than our kingdom that has been around only for about four hundred years. Their foundation should've been so much more powerful than ours.

The center of their military is their knights and mages. It was mentioned from time to time, during the many disputes between Ardjestyn and Velborn, that the biggest problems Ardjestyn always met in battle against Velborn, is with their weird battle tactics and abilities.

It was unknown as to what kind of magic that the mages of Velborn use, and it was unknown as to what kind of fighting style that their knights use. For many decades, after many battles, the people of Ardjestyn just couldn't tell.

Their strengths… huh?

Many decades of knowledge, many brilliant minds of the kingdom, all have placed their knowledge into books. Until finally, a boy with high curiosity, a genius mind, and a great wish to please his father came across those books and memorized them.

Me.

Many books have been read, many battle tactics, and knowledge over magic. I stood at the top thanks to this knowledge, and I take pride in them. And with that pride, I can say something that has been said many times in many war-related books.

Know your enemy, and know yourself, and victory will not stand in doubt.

And so, I continued reading. I learned all of the available public knowledge, such as their territory, their traditions, their people's taste, their habits.

Velborn is a very strong opponent, the one enemy that our kingdom has not been able to win over for many centuries.

I shall be the one… to create the first victory.