Chapter 280: Meeting with the Count
"...Two of them seem to be of a race with wings so they are capable of flight."
"Really? They look no different than regular humans to me..."
Count Vako was lightly surprised upon being told this as other non-human races were seen as rare on Gade.
"All right.
Now then, I think this is the part where we introduce ourselves is it not?
I’m Layla, and this is Nicole."
Layal walked up to the Count as she spoke, before turning lightly and pointing to Esna and Edward as she continued.
"The girl there is Esna, and he’s Edward."
After having their attention turned towards Edward, the knights and adventurers inadvertently remembered the scene of him creating a large fissure in the ground with just the tip of his sword.
"Huh? Why’re y’all looking at me like that? I’m not even the strongest one in the group. The two of them can beat the shit out of me with ease!"
Edward spoke out after noticing the weird gazes he was getting, gesturing towards Layla and Nicole, something that somehow ended up pissing Esna off.
"What’s that supposed to mean, that you can beat me in a fight? Let’s find out how true that is now, shall we?"
"I fail to understand what part about my objective analysis pisses you off..."
Layla ignored Edward pouring fuel into the fire he was already in, turning back to the Count and saying.
"Now that introductions are out of the way, how about we go somewhere more suitable to talk?
Also, so the knights here can have proper rest."
"Hmm? Oh...that’s true.
The knights can rest in my knight’s quarters, while you four follow me."
ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ
After getting the recovering knights and adventurers to rest, as well as assuring the citizens that the monsters had been repelled, the Count finally had time to settle down and talk with the quartet.
Also in attendance at this little meeting, was Lord Ady, the aged grandmaster, one of the top-level Adventurers, the guild master, the knight captain and the city’s police commander.
When Count Vako sat down, he noticed that Ady kept looking around like he was searching for someone or something, prompting him to ask the old man about it.
"Um...I was wondering where your other companion was..."
"Hmm? Oh, you mean Undine. She’s on Nicole’s shoulder."
"Huh?"
It was then that Ady finally noticed the spirit he was looking for, waving at him from the shoulder of the indigo-purple-eyed girl.
"how...?"
It was quite strange considering that he had looked toward Nicole before but did not notice the spirit, however, Layla simply explained that Undine used magic that altered perception to prevent herself from being noticed.
"Anyway, that’s not important.
Learning more about these monsters is the real reason we came over here in the first place, but I’m thinking Old Man Ady over here should inform you of the current state of things in your capital."
"Ah...that’s true."
And like so, the others in the room were told the exact same story Layla’s group heard earlier, with them expressing various degrees of shock upon hearing that many powerful grandmasters of the capital had disappeared one after the other.
"Even the Imperial Guard Captain!"
This Imperial Guard Captain was a very powerful superior stage grandmaster, and the only one who was very close to touching the Epic realm above it, however, he had gone missing after the large ominous portal had suddenly opened up in the capital city.
"Even a half-step Epic got caught up? This might be a lot more serious than we thought."
"From the moment we discovered that there was at least a Legendary realm existence behind this, it was already way above our league.
Even if we all go out, we can’t beat even 1 legendary realm dude."
Edward replied to Esna’s words with a shrug, citing the fact that the four of them were indeed not capable of battling a Legendary realm existence, one who was capable of using universal laws.
"Let’s understand everything first before we make a decision. ’Cus I’m honestly kinda pissed that whoever is behind this just started targeting us out of nowhere when all we did was just get lost."
"Get lost?
It’s a little late to have not asked this yet but just where are the four of you from?"
Hearing Ady’s question, Layla looked at the others who only shrugged their shoulders lightly in response, indirectly stating they could not care less if it was discovered they were Aliens.
"For starters...we’re beings from other worlds."
Layla’s light-hearted reply had the jaws of all the indigenous people of Gade in the room drop in shock as the notion of beings coming from another world besides theirs was unheard of.
The teenager in question, however, ignored their collective shock as she continued speaking.
"Nicole and I are from Aeturn...Edward’s from Onerth, and Esna’s from Viotis.
All four of us met up on Aeturn, before we moved over to Kreiz, and then ended up here through a little accident."
"Um, Layla. I don’t think they understand what you’re saying..."
Esna pointed out to Layla after noticing the looks of confusion that were being directed in the girl’s direction.
"They asked, I answered. Whether they understand the answer is their problem, not mine."
Gade was a world where they considered grandmaster realms to be ’strong’. It was obviously impossible for them to comprehend the workings of other worlds, interstellar travel and the like.
"Just take it that we’re beings from another world. We were travelling somewhere but due to an accident, we got separated from one of our companions and we ’fell’ into this world.
It’s as simple as that."
"Another world...that’s a lot to take in at once."
Count Vako spoke with a sigh as he pressed his fingers to his temple, while the top adventurer asked just how different their world was from Gade’s.
"Well...it’s a place where being a grandmaster isn’t that really a big deal?
A random adult you can bump into on the street could turn out to be a Peak Epic Realm existence...you guys know about the Epic realm, right? It’s the one right above the grandmaster realm."
"That’s the realm of demigods..."
"Demigods?
I’m sorry but your ’demigods’ are just random people on the street where I’m from. If real demigod realm existences ever heard you say this, they might kill you for insulting them."
Esna’s words brought down the cold reality of how weak the inhabitants of Gade were, inadvertently silencing everyone listening as they looked on in disbelief.
Then again, this much was expected.
All their lives, they had known that anything above the grandmaster realm was nigh godly, so being told that these ’nigh godly’ existences could be found randomly on the street in another world was hard to take in.
"I mean, look at us. We’re superior-stage grandmasters, and we’re just in our mid-teens.
I for one would have been a lot higher if I just focused on speed running my realm, but I spent a lot of time focusing on my foundations.
Well...it was just two years, but anyway, it ended up stunting my realm growth a little bit."
"Layla, you’re sounding too much like Arthur now."
Edward called Layla out with a chuckle, saying something that Esna could not help but agree with.
"Really? But think about it, I became a superior stage at 14...by all rights, I should have reached the intermediate Epic Realm by now.
But Lady Aurora forbade us from increasing our realms and made us train our foundations over and over again to make them as ’sturdy’ as possible."
"There it is, casually talking about how she’s supposed to be two stages higher in less than two years."
The only two people from slightly ’normal’ worlds facepalmed and shook their heads upon hearing Layla’s words.
"Anyway, that’s all about us.
We ’fell’ here and we were attacked by a bunch of monsters in the first forest we got stuck in.
After we left, we got attacked again by a group of parasite-infested monsters, but we blew them away completely so we didn’t notice the parasites at first."
Edward paused his speech, before slamming his fist on his palm as a look of remembrance flashed across his eyes.
"Oh yeah, these monsters seem to have it out for us or something.
Like just now when they were attacking your city with so much fervour, only to suddenly turn around and charge at us the moment we arrived."
"Yeah...for some reason, these monsters are targeting us, and we want to know the reason why."
Esna concurred with Edward’s statement before stating one of the reasons why they hadn’t gotten Number One to take them out of this world already.
However, before the Count could even say anything in response, a voice rang out from behind the door in reply to Esna’s words.
"The reason is that fate has deemed it that you four would be the key to their master’s defeat."
"Huh?!"
