A red sun shone brightly in the sky, lighting up the afternoon sky as the inhabitants of this world went about their daily activities like always.
Below the sun, a verdant green field stretched out as far as the eye could see, the only other things on this field besides the grasses and the occasional birds being the large imposing castle that stood right in the middle.
The castle's structure was quite complicated, having multiple walls and gates, with various kinds of defensive mechanisms surrounding the main buildings.
From afar, one could see eight skinny, square towers dwarfing everything below them, connected to each other by solid walls made of a dark brown stone.
Tall, wide windows were scattered thinly across the walls in an asymmetric pattern, along with the overhanging crenelations for archers and artillery.
A sizable gate with tall metal doors, guard the structures within as it was the only way inside, at least without taking down the castle's outer walls.
Sitting atop one of these walls, was a man dressed in a long black overcoat adorned with many medals and insignias.
Underneath this overcoat was a military uniform that showed his rank and more of his honours, something he was very proud to wear.
He had the typical look of an old man having a white hair and a long silver beard that over reached his neck.
Big, round amber eyes, set wickedly within their sockets, calmly watched the grasses as they swayed in the wind.
*DING!
There was a sound as his brows twitched for a moment, his hands moving down to the pocket of his overcoat in the next and pulling out a small pocket watch.
"What is it?"
He pushed a button on the side of the watch and spoke up, his voice showing his irritation at having his free time disturbed.
[Sir. The scouts have returned.]
A voice replied to him, causing his eyes to widen as he replied immediately.
"Send them to my office, I'd be there soon."
[Yes Sir.]
He pushed another button on the side of the pocket watch and cut off the connection, before standing up and turning around, jumping down the enormous walls.
**WHOOSH!!
His overcoat flapped in the wind as he descended to the ground, opening up enough for one to see the name on the tag right above his breast pocket.
[Felix Gillet]
Written in cursive on the gold-plated name tag was the name of this old-looking military officer.
Despite jumping off a height that most would not even dare to think of doing, his momentum vanished right before he hit the ground, allowing him to land softly without damaging the stone floor.
"Huh?"
"Who?!"
"Oh!"
"General!"
The surprised voices of the other people who were working in the area of the castle's outer walls rang out upon suddenly seeing someone drop from the sky.
One of the voices recognized this man and called out his title, allowing the others to instantly figure out who he was as they dropped whatever they were doing and lined up before saluting.
The man, General Felix Gillet, nodded as he walked through the lines of saluting military personnel, his eyes darting around as he looked at the inner gates of the castle.
Huge statues of heroes and kings decorated the outer section of the second walls (inner wall), memories of glories of the past.
This castle has stood the test of time and despite knowing some very rough times, the castle still stands and it looks like it will do so for many years to come.
He walked in through the vast gate with great metal doors and strong defences that guarded the fairly low, heavy walls made of light grey stone.
After getting in to through the castle's second walls, a similar situation occurred as the personnel within these walls dropped their activities and gave him a salute.
Acknowledging them with a nod, he walked towards the main castle building that was showing signs of expansion as some parts were clearly built more recently than others, the inhabitants are already working on another part and hoping to keep expanding.
'The walls have to expand to or it'd get cramped in here.'
He had this offhand thought as he walked into the main building, swiftly walking through the long hallways and arriving at his office which was located at the very end of the top floor in record time.
Opening the door, he was met with the sight of four young men dressed in military uniforms, standing and saluting right in front of his desk.
A lilac rug splits the entire office room in half and was matched by the thinner ones on either side of the hall while square dag banners with emblazoned quilting drooped from the walls.
His feet glided across the rug as he reached his mahogany desk and took a seat on the slightly pulled-back chair right in front of it.
He placed his right hand on the chair's armrest and propped his chin on his palm, gazing at the four in front of him with his amber eyes in silence for nearly ten minutes.
Just when the four scouts were beginning to feel cold sweat from this general's heavy gaze, his lips opened as he questioned them.
"Where is the fifth?"
The four of them looked among each other before one of them volunteered to speak for the entire group, not daring to delay as he gave the general the answer he wanted.
"Unknown.
We lost contact with him in the last week we were posted there."
Hearing of the missing state of one of the scouts he had sent over to his race's next target, the general's eyes narrowed in displeasure.
'Come to think of it, I haven't checked his soul board. I'd do that later.
For now, Let's hear their reports.'
As he thought that, he pointed to the scout who answered him and ordered.
"State your location of posting and give your report."
"Yes Sir.
I was posted to the Elven Empire on the Aidos world's Beta Continent and I was there with the identity of 'A Rich Merchant's First Son' who was sent to the capital city, Lustea by his father to learn the trade."
The words he spoke revealed the location he was posted to and the hidden identity he had while he was there.
This also, in turn, revealed his true identity.
He was a spy!
A spy who was sent into Aidos to scout the situation there and report back to his superior, just as he was doing now.
And one didn't need to be a genius to find out exactly where he was sent from. There was currently only one other place that could consider sending spies into Aidos to scout the world's situation.
The man kept on talking about the five years he spent there and all the information he was able to gather.
He spoke about the Beta Continent's great powers, the Elven Empire, the Dwarf Kingdom, the Aelum Kingdom and the Holy Empire.
"The 'Holy Empire' has their main source of power coming from the fact that they are the capital of the 'Church of Artemisia', the predominant religion on Aidos that worships the goddess 'Artemisia'."
Hearing that, General Felix scoffed loudly before telling the scout to carry on.
"...Also, the Holy Empire has a lot of artifacts and treasures that would be detrimental to our race, they have so many to spare that even countryside bishops possess at least one artifact containing high levels of 'Holy Magic'."
"Holy magic? That damned thing still exists?"
The aged general interrupted the scout as he spoke up with a voice tinged with annoyance. The young scout could only swallow his saliva before answering.
"y-y-yes...the le-level is also h-higher."
He stammered a bit but the general didn't really care about that, he still remembers the reason he almost had an early retirement a thousand years ago.
He had battled one of the paladins of the 'Church of Artemisia' and although he ultimately won, the Paladin made sure he could no longer participate in the war.
'That paladin had absurd levels of holy magic and he was only a low-ranking one...'
If a low-ranking paladin of a thousand years ago had that much holy magic, then how did the current ones fare?
'Although I had killed hundreds of those paladins, they were all close fights as I had to watch out for their absurd energy levels and potent magic power.'
Felix relaxed on his chair and thought about the blow that his world suffered due to their loss against Aidos.
'No, I don't think that they would have that many paladins left. Although it would be the height of folly to underestimate them, it is not a wrong assumption that they definitely lost a lot of talents, reducing the amount of people that can pass down their skills to the next generations.
The ones who were strong enough to survive that war would have also died out, except they are from a long-lived race like Elves and Dwarves.
The beastmen of that world can live a few centuries but that's about it, they cannot survive up to a thousand years unless they are 'Legendary Level' existences.
As for the Dragons....'
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢