Upon returning to the room, Henry found Rayne standing over the hero, who was lying on the ground with a bnk expression. The hero’s dead-like appearance was not what drew Henry’s curiosity. That was only to be expected after what was done to him. What stoked his curiosity of the scene was the fact that the hero was sprawled on the ground and the chair he was originally bound to was in pieces.

  Vishara entered the room not long after Henry did. She, too, had an intrigued gaze.

  “What happened?” Henry asked.

  “Our pn failed,” Rayne answered.

  “I’m sorry…” Ani apologised.

  “Slow down there. What happened? What failed? How did it fail?”

  “The hero’s useless now. I’m not even sure if we can keep calling him the hero.”

  Henry raised an eyebrow. “You can’t possibly mean—”

  Rayne nodded. “He’s no longer the hero.”

  “How do you know that? Just tell me what happened.”

  “Just shortly after you left, lights shone from within the hero. It surprised us both. I thought it was some kind of unconscious defensive retaliation of the hero, so I kicked him away. But then, the lights went out. When I checked up on him, he was… weakened. He barely has any Murux in him now. Whatever those lights were supposed to be, he is now as frail as a normal human or even frailer.”

  Vishara snorted, loudly. “The god has abandoned their champion. No, they discarded him, would be more suitable to say. They just tossed him away when they realised he had become useless. Some god they are. And there goes your wonderful pn, Henry. All this hard work for nothing.”

  Henry sighed exasperatedly. “It’s not all bad.”

  “Is it truly so? Enlighten me, then, of what you have learned from your failure.”

  “We now know the hero is nothing more than a disposable pawn of the gods.”

  “As if we don’t already know that.”

  “But now we are sure. And one more thing, the gods didn’t immediately abandon the hero when his mind was… broken. It was only when we tried to turn him into our puppet that they revoked the hero’s powers.”

  “That could mean a lot of things.”

  “It ascertains the value the gods pce on their pawn. Moving forward, we don’t need to be delicate with the heroes. They are special but not that special.”

  “But in the end, it changes nothing. We are just wasting our time here.”

  Then, there was a thump on the door. It was muffled but that was a given considering a spell was cast on the room to prevent any sound from leaking out.

  After Vishara gave her permission telepathically, a maidservant came rushing in. She ran straight for Vishara and whispered something into her ear. After her message was conveyed, she left as hurriedly as she had come in.

  Vishara’s mood had been terrible and the message had only worsened it. Whatever the message might have been, Henry was reted to it as she cast a gre at him that would swallow him up.

  Henry frowned. “I’m guessing it has something to do with me?”

  “My spies in the royal capital caught wind of a new advisor being appointed to the king. This advisor came from nowhere and he supposedly brought with him knowledge of otherworlds.”

  “Oh… That’s not good.”

  “It isn’t.”

  Rayne and Ani wanted to interject but the strange mood had taken hold of their voices.

  “As I just said, we have bigger problems to worry about. You of all people should know best. We have been through this together once. This is just like that time but the only difference is that they are in our world and they are significantly more difficult to deal with than the savages.”

  “So it is. It would seem my doubts are mispced.” Her expression softened. “We have much to discuss. Please, join me for lunch if you will after you have cleaned yourself,” Vishara said and promptly left the room.

  “What was that about?” asked Rayne.

  Henry sighed.

  “It’s complicated.”

  Rayne crossed her arms. “We got time. Or is there some other reason that you can’t tell us?”

  “I can’t tell you because… Well, because I’m afraid of what you would think of me.”

  “Couldn’t be any less than what I thought of you before.”

  Henry chuckled wryly. “I doubt that.”

  “We all have secrets, Henry,” Ani said with a smile that exuded more warmth than the torches in the room. “And I must confess that… Yu and Sarynn had told me a few things.”

  “They did?”

  Ani nodded. “I didn’t believe them at first because… it all sounds too absurd. But then, I’ll watch you close. The way you acted. The way you spoke. I wasn’t fully convinced but I know that you were… different.”

  “R-really?”

  Rayne groaned. “Oh, enough of all this mencholia. What we’re trying to say is that we know more about you than you realise, Henry.”

  “Such as?”

  “You were not born as a dragon.”

  “Actually, I was but… I also wasn’t.”

  “You have memories from your past life then.”

  “W-well, that is true.”

  “And in your past life, you were a Sapient, not some mindless animal.”

  “Yes…”

  “Whoever turned you into a dragon, they are now your master and you do their bidding.”

  Henry almost choked upon hearing this. “Um… close but no. I do perform whatever task they give me but they are not my master.”

  “Are they perhaps… a god?” Ani asked.

  “Yes,” Henry answered without hesitation.

  “That’s easy to figure out,” said Rayne. “You weren’t exactly secretive about that. However, there is something about you that I just can’t quite figure out.”

  “Indeed, there is,” Ani added.

  Henry turned to Ani. “Did Yu tell you?”

  “She did hint at it but she said it was not her pce to tell me. Your biggest secret, she calls it.”

  “Hmm… Considering all that I have seen of this world, this one certainly seems to be the most…. dire of all secrets.”

  “Just spill it.”

  “I came from another world and I don’t just mean another continent. I mean a different dimension. A world without… Murux, dragons, demons, and a lot of other… things. There are a lot of different worlds out there.”

  Rayne frowned. “So… all those times that you just… disappeared… you went to another world?”

  “Well, not all the time, but yes.”

  “Huh… a different world… How is that possible?” Rayne mused, seemingly lost in thought.

  “That is… h-huge,” Ani stammered. “I-I don’t know what to say…”

  Henry had no idea what to say either. The concept of there being multiple universes would be most bizarre for the residents of this world, unlike Henry who came from the twenty-first century, a time and world where the most bizarre of imagination and fiction had all been imprinted into the minds of those who consumed too much junk media. There was no use for further expnation. It would only make them all the more confused.

  ****

  “The idea of peace talks will be put on hold,” Vishara announced.

  Her words drew the attention of all the attendants. Her voice echoed far across the entire room.

  They had just finished their lunch in the dining hall. As soon as the empty ptes and cutleries were cleared away, Vishara wasted no time in getting down to business.

  The others were there. The others being Vishara’s advisors. It was the usual two and a few others that Henry had only vague memories of. The usual two were Lionel and Samira. They sat beside Vishara at the table, one on each side.

  “As you all have already heard, the kingdom has a fortuitous encounter with an individual of another world, bearing knowledge could change everything as we know. A warlock, the human called this… individual.”

  “Absurd…” Lionel snarled under his breath, though everyone in the room caught it.

  “Absurd or not, it matters not. What does matter is that this warlock is no sham. His promise of power and his wealth of knowledge is a threat to anyone who isn’t under the kingdom’s rule. We all know this day will come but not like this. If the kingdom is given time to build its strength and learn the warlock’s secrets, we will lose.”

  The hall fell silent.

  “But it will not come to that. I will not allow it. If it’s a war they want, it’s a war they will get.”

  The hall immediately erupted into a thundering cheer and cmour. Some smmed the table in agreement. Some made a toast. Some rose from their seats and shouted their eternal servitude to Vishara.

  Amidst the overly optimistic cheer and overwhelming excitement, Henry raised his hand. The crowd fell silent once again but not completely. There were grunts and groans, clear dissatisfaction towards Henry of whatever opinion he had of their sovereign.

  “Yes, Henry, what is it?”

  “If it comes to war, you will lose.”

  Before the hall could erupt into cries of outrage, Vishara silenced them with a light thump on the table. That soft hit was more deafening than the cheer before. “Do you doubt me?”

  “I don’t doubt you. I doubt… everyone and everything else but you. I have no apprehension or any kind of unease that you will triumph in this war but only you alone will be the victor. You will become a ruler over ashes and death.”

  “How dare you…!” Lionel growled. “You—”

  Vishara silenced him with a wave of her hand. “Speak not another word until I allow you to.”

  Reluctantly, Lionel nodded and withdrew his hostility, though he didn’t lose it.

  “I understand your view, Henry. I concur. We will lose if we fight the war, yes, no doubt. However, that is if we fought on the kingdom’s terms. We will not be doing that.”

  Henry shifted slightly in his seat but ultimately, remained unperturbed by Vishara’s crification. “Then, how will you be doing it?”

  “A war doesn’t always need to be fought on the field or on open grounds. In fact, it doesn’t even need to be fought with your own people. A war within is far more effective than your conventional warfare.”

  “I’m still not hearing an answer.”

  “I will make the kingdom destroy itself from within.”

  “And how will you do that?”

  “By exploiting their greed. By tempting them with the same kind of promise the warlock had made with them. And of course, there will be colteral and I have no guarantees that Ulrum wouldn’t be one of it. I sincerely hope that you will not stop me this time.”

  “Why would I? You are now my best chance at stopping this… warlock threat. Even if I don’t like it, I have to agree with you.”

  Vishara smiled. “I’m gd that we can come to a new understanding so quickly.”

  Henry rose from his seat. Rayne and Ani followed suit. “Since a war is inevitable, I will have to take my leave now. Ulrum needs to prepare.”

  “Of course, I understand.” Vishara turned to Samira. “Give him the cube.”

  Samira blinked. “Pardon, Mistress?” she asked as if she couldn’t believe what she heard.

  “Give him the cube,” Vishara repeated.

  Although seemingly disinclined, Samira stood up from his chair and walked over to Henry. She then handed him a cube that was as rge as one’s palm. The cube was made of some kind of organic yet metallic material.

  “What is this?” Henry inquired. This was the first time he had seen such an item but he could roughly guess what this item was supposed to be. A faint trace of Murux flowed to and from between the cube and Vishara.

  “It’s a precious tool made by the Mistress herself. Regardless of distance and time, as long as Murux is present and the Mistress is willing, you are able to speak with the Mistress through this tool.”

  “A phone, basically.” Henry wanted to act impressed but he couldn’t. Such a tool might be a thing of absolute wonder to the people of this world but to him, it was a device that he could easily y his hand on in his past life.

  Samira promptly returned to her seat after finishing her expnation.

  “Fare thee well, Henry. It’s been a short time but I’m gd that we are not parting as enemies.”

  “Not yet, at least,” Henry muttered in his heart as he left the hall with Rayne and Ani.