Conspiracy

"We need to have a few words with you. I assume you are one of the rumored summoned heroes, is that correct?"

One of the men took the lead in talking with me, so I just started to assume he was their leader. I was also distracted for a second when one of the other men walked up to the dinosaur monster and patted its body as if it were a dog. I guess anything was possible with enough power.

"That's right, but who are you guys?"

"I guess you could say that we are enemies of the Aros Kingdom. I heard you earlier say that the whole kingdom was against you from the start. Can I take that to mean you are also their enemy?"

"Well, since you all control my life or death in this scenario I won't lie. Yes, they are my enemy. I came to this world with a desire to learn magic but they all but forced me down another path. And the best part about it is that I was the only one treated like that. All the other heroes got to focus on whatever path they were talented in."

"Hmmm, and how many other heroes are there then?"

"Four of them, all much younger and apparently more important than me."

"Well that explains why you decided to go down the path of blood. I commend your resilience, but it's also such a shame. I doubt you are aware, but that path is considered something of a taboo in this world. Only the three pillars of body, mind and soul are excepted as proper paths. There is some wiggle room for unique paths as long as it falls into one of those three, but overall, most other paths are considered heretic paths."

If that was the case, I really would have to be careful in the future. I still wasn't sure if I could trust these people, but for now they seemed to have an incredible amount of information that would be useful to me.

"I find it difficult to believe that there are only three acceptable paths in this world. Does that mean literally everybody is either a muscle-bound warrior or some kind of magician?"

The man smiled at my words.

"You are much too shortsighted I'm afraid. The three pillars only really apply to the initial stage. When a person first introduces mana into their body, they also set up something called their mana centers. After breaking through and creating their mana center, a person official enters the initial stage. The mana center is where your mana will naturally settle into and also determines what kind of path you need to take to improve even further. The three pillars are established as acceptable because the path forward does not involve anything too unique. It's much better for those in power if everybody follows a predictable trajectory when gaining their own strength. Well, I guess it also helps that almost all of the most powerful people in this world follow one of those three paths."

For the first time since being summoned, I felt like I had an actual teacher. If they bothered to save my life, they undoubtable were trying to use me, but I was still grateful that they would actually take the time to teach me some basics.

"What about beyond the initial stage then?"

"Well, it becomes fairly obvious as a person progresses, but by the time a person has worked through the initial stage and reached the adept stage, they will have complete control over their mana. They can then directly use the mana to strengthen any concept that they can think about. For a mage, this typically means understanding specific types of magic."

After getting to this point, the man looked a bit sad.

"That is assuming though that you will ever get to the adept stage. The path of blood has long died out, not only because it is persecuted as a heretic path, but also because nobody has ever been known to take the path further. Everybody always ends up killing themselves to blood loss before they reach the adept stage."

I couldn't help but get nervous after hearing his words. Was my path actually certain doom? I didn't even try to improve my blood further ever since I had my breakthrough, but wait a second. In my fight with the other trainees, didn't I use up all my mana to improve my blood even further? I decided to keep that thought to myself while continuing the conversation.

"Thank you. Your information has helped me quite a bit, but let's get on to the actual point. There has to be a reason that you guys decided to save a man who can't get stronger without killing himself right?"

"I'm glad you caught on friend. Our help will not come cheap, but then again, we could also think of this as working together. After all, you also have a grudge of your own with the Aros Kingdom. I'll be straightforward. I want you to help us sabotage the kingdom."

"What could I possibly do for you though? I'm only an initial stage and its not like the blood path gives me all that much power at this point."

"You won't be needing your own power at all for this to succeed. Just by being allowed inside of the kingdom gives you a great enough advantage. We can also help you avoid detection for when the Red Eyes inevitably figure out how to see through you."

Now they had my attention. Sabotage was a very risky business. Although our interests aligned and I held goodwill towards them, there was no way I would put myself at risk without any other benefits. However, further protection was a very tempting offer.

"What do you have in mind?"

"It's fairly simple. We will start off with imbedding two summoning circles within your mind. I'm sure you would be wary of this, but believe me, their only use is for you to be able to perfectly remember how to draw them when the time comes. Following that, we will cover up this whole area to make it look like a high-level monster came and wiped out everybody. Then you will continue on your mission and report that you escaped from this high-level monster."

"I'm not sure if you know this, but I'm not held in very high regard. Pretty much all of my superiors would be suspicious of me if I came back alone like that."

"Yes, but that is the point of the cover up. They will be forced to look further into what happened because the adept knight assigned to you also ended up dying. We are professionals at what we do, so there is no way they will be able to see through the cover up. If you just stick to the story and tell everybody that you ran away from all the trouble, nobody will be able to doubt you."

"What about my appearance? My body might be fine now, but with all this blood and holes in my clothes, it doesn't look like I ran away unscathed."

The leader signaled to one of the other men who then came in front of me. He held out his hands at which point I could barely make out a steady stream of mana. Looking down, my clothes repaired themselves one stitch at a time while the dried blood lifted out of the fabric and simply disappeared. I looked back at the group in shock.

"It's a type of memory magic. A unique path of the mind."

Magic always made me feel like I was truly in a fantasy world.

"Alright so what then? I just place these summoning circles somewhere in the capital?"

"Yes and no. Don't just draw the circles in any random place and you won't want to draw them right away. Wait for another month until the night before your next practical training, then draw them where nobody would see them. After that, you will want to leave the area as fast as possible. Very few people will survive the fight that will take place there."

This whole thing was starting to sound like a huge conspiracy. I wasn't sure what I would end up summoning with those circles, but it was definitely going to be devastating to the whole city.

"And what about that protection that you promised me? What is that all about?"

He made a signal to one of the other people there and was quickly given a small piece of paper. I looked at him in confusion, but he soon explained.

"This here is called a talisman. I won't go into detail, but making these involves a very unique and difficult path. This talisman holds a highly confidential spell that will swap the mana signatures of the user and whoever the user desires. I suggest you use this on one of the other heroes otherwise you might still be implicated. When the Red Eyes are finally able to look into your souls, they will see the path of blood on whoever you use this talisman on instead of you."

He handed over the talisman and I felt a weight in my heart while looking down on it. This was indeed the protection that they promised, but this would also most likely cause the death of one of the other heroes. I felt anguish knowing that they were all only kids.

"In your case, you will have to spill a bit of blood on that talisman before using it. After activating it with your blood, simply press it against whoever you decided on and it will disappear. The effects will only last for a month regardless if the target dies, but you won't have to worry about that after using the summoning circles."

They had me pinned down on all angles. I would expect nothing less of this world's equivalent of spies. I would have to think a lot about my plan to get through this whole thing.

"Alright, it is about time for you to go. Any longer and people would get suspicious about your cover story. If you don't have any other questions then we will plant the summoning circles in your mind at which point you should be on your way."

"Just one more question. Is the path of blood also considered a heretic path where you are from?"

The man smiled at my words.

"It is considered a heretic path everywhere in the world. A while back there was a cult full of blood path that thought the way to the adept stage was sacrifices. I'm sure you know what that resulted in; but it's just not my place to enforce the rules on a man from another kingdom, especially when we have so much to gain from the situation. You face a hard future my friend, I wish you luck."

The memory magician came forward once again and sent a wave of mana towards my head. Shortly after, I could clearly see every detail of very complicated looking summoning circles. They seemed fairly similar to the circle that summoned the other heroes and me, but I wasn't able to tell the differences.

When that was done, I turned my back to them and once again started running down the road. I had no doubt that I really would have a difficult future.