XIII

"Yes, my Lord," Viktor replied, feeling discontent with himself for disappointing his master.

"It doesn't matter; at least we now know that we have a threat somewhere in the south." Tomorrow we will gather more information. You can sleep in any of the many rooms in this castle; I'm going to bed," Kingsley said, obviously disappointed with the lack of information and incredibly exhausted from everything that happened today. He didn't exactly know where he was going, but for some reason, he felt like he knew where everything was in the house.

He may not have done any physical labor, but he was still mentally exhausted. If things were this intense for him, then he wondered how it would be for the others; he wondered if they even had anything to eat that night.

"Good night, sir," Viktor replied with a small bow in the direction of the hallway in which Kingsley had gone.

"Night!" Kingsley shouted in reply as he continued on to his destination.

Viktor, standing all alone in the massive building, immediately decided to get himself familiar with his new environment. To serve his master better, he had to be well acquainted with his surroundings, so he left the dining hall to complete his new mission.

Kingsley, on the other hand, was now lying on an incredibly soft bed—even he was surprised at how soft the bed was. As soon as he touched the bed, he immediately started feeling drowsy and soon fell asleep. As soon as he fell asleep, the sound of guns firing multiple times in multiple areas around the manor could be heard.

"He's asleep," a voice suddenly said out of nowhere, covering up the commotion caused by the gunfire.

As soon as the voice appeared, all the noise disappeared and was never heard again as the room descended into a peaceful silence and Kingsley fell into a deep sleep. 

Meanwhile, on the castle's walls, Viktor slowly faded into existence as he overlooked what was happening beyond it. He had also heard the sudden gunshots and came to check on them after all the sentry guns being in use meant that an enemy was close to the manor.

"Are those Orcs? Since when did Orcs come around these parts?" Viktor asked himself in surprise; he had no memory of Orcs existing in this area.

If the Orcs had a base anywhere around here, then the Goblins would never have settled down nearby. He didn't understand what was happening; apart from the Orcs, he could see several goblin corpses along with some undead and some other creatures of the forest, but he understood their presence here. The orcs were completely unexplained and meant that they probably had a base here somewhere that they hadn't looked, and everything in him was telling him to immediately eliminate them.

According to the memories obtained from the past Goblin Emperors, Orcs were like Goblins in some ways. They were incredibly fertile and just as vile, but unlike goblins, they were smarter and way stronger than normal goblins could ever be.

"Don't worry, they would never be able to harm the master," a voice suddenly said from nowhere, and Viktor immediately became alert. 

Since he and his master walked into the manor, he hadn't sensed the presence of anything, and for his master to remain just as casual meant that there were no intruders, and from the being's words, he could infer that the being was on their side, but it didn't mean that he should be casual about it.

"Who are you?" Viktor questioned

"Ohh…. "I don't have a name yet; you see, I was just born, and I haven't met the master yet," the voice replied.

"You are the spirit of these weapons." Viktor asked after going through the memories of the past emperors.

They had seen or heard about artifacts that began to develop sentience after handling mana for a certain period of time. This period of time, however, has been a point of argument between people, as no one knew exactly how long it took for said sentience to develop.