Chapter 33. Prophecy

"Heroes, welcome to my palace!"

The Sultan greeted us with a smile while opening his arms.

"I'm sure you must've been surprised by the sudden invitation to the palace. But when I first heard about the miracle I was pleasantly shocked, and not only me but my friend the pope as well. He was so shocked that he wanted to meet you two as soon as possible."

Once he said that, another person came from behind one of the big pillars. He was an old man with a long white beard and a heavily decorated white robe.

He looked at us with eyes full of wisdom and peace.

"It's a good day to meet the person chosen by the system. I've recently had a vision where a calamity shall fall over this world. Hoards of zombies would attack nations all around the world, all of it led by a zombie leader that would not be affected even by the sun, like in the times of the great war. But do not lose hope, a hero shall arrive to defeat the calamity and save us all!"

The old man said in a mysterious voice.

But this was not what caught my attention, there is a monster Lord that will come to this world to wreak havoc, and there will be heroes as well.

"Classic demon Lord and hero story."

I whispered to myself.

This made me think if I was the chosen hero and if this was the reason I was summoned to this world.

"Do you think we are the heroes that would fight against the calamity?"

Fortunately Froggy asked the question instead of me.

"Don't think so my son. The hero would be out of this world and from what I understood it's not here yet. The time should be close to the beginning of the next year."

So I wasn't the chosen hero? I don't know if I should feel disappointed or relieved that I won't have to shoulder such a big responsibility.

But if I'm not the chosen one, not Froggy, why are we here in the first place?

"Why did you bring us here then your Hollyness? "

"I heard you two can make miracles and bring back an infected person to life. I want you two to help the hero defeat the enemy or at least alleviate the casualties of the upcoming hoard."

This made us both confused.

"But before we'll help you two grow, we want to see the miracle in person. To the deep chambers!"

We didn't manage to stay confused for too long before the king Intreputed us to a new order which the soldiers were kind enough to follow.

They took us by our arms and dragged us to the basement of the palace.

What is with this country and them being so forceful with everything? I've just been here for a few days and I went to an underground prison twice.

Is there something that I'm missing?

Fortunately, the guards didn't drag us the whole time. Once they understood that we knew how to walk on our own two feet they just let us to walk by ourselves.

We walked for a few minutes, where we passed a few cells with villagers that seemed to have lost all hope in their eyes.

The further we walked the weirder it got. At first, it was cells with humans and then it changed to cells filled with monsters.

Zombies, Skeletons even a creeper were being kept behind iron bars.

"Isn't this frowned upon?"

I asked in worry as we kept walking along the stone hallway.

But nobody seemed too eager to answer my question.

Finally, we arrived before an iron door at the end of the hallway, where a lever was pulled down which opened it.

Inside the room was a zombie villager that stood in an iron cage, the rest of the room was filled with chests, furnaces, and even a brewing station.

"Is this a resource facility?"

"Yes, this is the room where we try to see if we could change the monsters back to normal or tame them. Unfortunately, nothing gave us good results.

Finally responded to my question, and it was the old pope, which now looked more like a mad scientist than a friendly old man.

"Now, what do you need to be able to perform the miracle young souls?"

"Uhh, we need a weakness potion and a golden apple."

Froggy responded.

"Golden apple you say, we did try that a few experiments ago but the subject just died like it ate positions, are you sure about that?"

"Very much your Hollyness. I could make the potion but I don't have the apple to complete the transformation."

"We can give you that without a worry, just do your brewing Witch."

The old man said with a trace of spite in his voice.

But Froggy either chose to ignore that or didn't hear it since he started to make the potion already.

We all watched intensely as he finished the potion which he quickly gave to me.

"Let's do a miracle again Trader."

I got the potion while wondering how I got this name again.

At this point, I suspected that this world refused to hear my name.

But I had a task to do now, so I threw the potion at the zombie villager while Froggy shoved the magical apple in its mouth.

The zombie stopped growling at us and started to scream in pain while trying to get out of the cage.

"We got a similar reaction when we just used the apple last time. Are you sure this is working witch?"

"This is what we did last time and it worked. It's the same reaction and in a few minutes the green skin should change its color back to normal."

The old man narrowed his eyes but chose to observe the transformed.

And as promised, after a few minutes of the zombie struggling in pain we could finally see the change appearing.

The skin started getting lighter which brought the pope closer to inspect the change.

"Fascinating! It's working, a miracle is happening in front of us! You have proven yourself, rejoice and accept our teachings."

The old man then quickly turned towards us with his arms open like he just gave us a blessing.

"Sorry your Hollyness, but this is too sudden for us to react, we need some time to decide on what to do."

The Pope froze in his place but then quickly got himself back.

"Of course, I understand that it's so much to get understand in such short notice so we will leave this room so you two can talk in privacy."

A howl of pain was coming from the zombie's cage.

"Mostly alone."

He smiled at us and went outside with the guards, leaving me, Froggy, and the transforming villager alone.

"What is happening here? They are keeping monsters under the palace, they seemed to want to control them and I think some of their experiments involve humans."

I said that while starting to wonder what I got myself involved in which made me more worried.

"Trader! Calm yourself down."

Froggy tried to reason with me.

"We have to decide now what to do. I think they're more interested in me than you, I think the only reason they brought you here at all is that you're my friend, and that's a weakness that they can exploit."

Once he finished saying that it made me think.

Froggy's whole village was destroyed and I don't think he managed to make a new friend with his new look, that's why the nobles couldn't actually force him anywhere.

Now he's here with me as a friend, this was an opportunity that the Sultan had to take advantage of and get a hold of Froggy the witch.

This made me more relieved since I would be kept safe for leverage against the witch, but it also made me very angry since I'm being used as blackmail against my savior and friend.

"What should we do then? I don't think they'll let me get out easily if I tell them that I'm not interested. And even if I accept their offer, when the hero will come for sure they won't let me go on a journey with the chosen one."

"That's true, we have to gather more information since we are not sure what is really happening. Why is the pope so interested in me, is the prophecy true, and what are they even trying to teach us?"

"So we will have to accept their offer and look for an opportunity to escape from here. And even if we manage to escape will most likely have to leave the whole country."

I tried to summarize the plan.

"Exactly so. By the way, I'll call you Trader from now on since it's not a good idea for them to know your real name."

"Your not the only one that calls me that."

I sighed in exasperation.

"What do you-"

Froggy was Interrupted by the heavy knock on the iron door.

"Have you two decided yet? I know it's not a good idea to rush such an important decision but the Sultan would like the know the answer as soon as possible."

The old man screamed from the other side.

We looked at each other one more time before nodding our heads in understanding and opening the door.

"We made our decisions and were ready to meet the Sultan to shear it."

The old man's face lit up once he heard that. He then proceeds to quickly guide us back to the throne room where the Sultan greets us again.

"I'm blessed to have such hero's in my kingdom. Are you two also willing to pick up the mantle of saviors for this world? "

"Yes, Sultan! We decided to join the training program."

"I'm glad to hear that! You two shall start as soon as possible. Do you have any requests?"

I then raised my hand to get Sultan's attention.

"I would like to have access to the palace library if possible."

The Sultan didn't look too happy to talk with me, which furthered the theory that I'm only here as a liability for my friend.

"I guess we could arrange that."

The Sultan finally agreed after some thinking.

"I thank you for your generosity, almighty Sultan."

This was a perfect opportunity to gather more information about our surroundings, with this I could start to plan my actual revenge for imprisoning me and Froggy.

And maybe there's a chance that I would actually find some Information about my main goal.

A way to get back home.

Not long after we gave our response they decided to lead us to our own rooms where we could stay for the rest our staying.

Fortunately, we weren't too far away from each other, but our rooms were huge, to say the least.

I had a double bed with a huge frame, a cauldron with water to wash, a fireplace with a big couch, yellow carpet on the ground and it even had a balcony that showed the beauty of the city below us.

Froggy's room was similar to mine, and once we finally saw our rooms a servant took Froggy right towards the brewing room leaving me alone and confused.

"They are really eagered to have him."

I said to myself.

I then started to study my room in more details, could I hide somewhere in here, could I jump out from here?

And after a few minutes of searching, I found out that we are on the third floor, with guards constantly patrolling under us, on the walls there were archers and I don't think there was something hidden there.

"Looks like we can't escape through here. Let's go to the library then."

I said that and went towards the closest villager that I could find and asked him to guide me.

And after a few minutes, I was in front of a huge doorway that lead to the biggest library I have ever seen.

It was like I was living in a movie, with walls filled with books and there were multiple floors filled with full bookshelves.

Everything was illuminated by lanterns and at the ceiling, there was glass that let the sunlight to come in.

"Well, it's time for research."