Homesteading in a fantasy world

Was I being too paranoid? Was there really a reason to get everyone up? These unfortunate coincidences could just be that. I didn’t even know if holy power could work like that; I barely knew anything about it. Just assuming an entire nation was planning something nefarious was a bit over the top.

It didn’t take them long to eat their food and for us to start walking towards my office. They were still not sure what was going on and my uncertain face certainly wasn’t helping "Take a seat, both of you. What do you guys know about holy power and how it works?"

There was a bit of silence before Omar started to speak, and Mirhit just shrugged his shoulders, not knowing anything. "It has always been a niche type of power, a lot rarer than mana. But there are a few places where it's used constantly, and not even the people who use it know that they are using it. A perfect example is actually this nation and your surveillance system. It runs on the belief of the nation." I was totally confused about this, and I guess it showed on my face.

"I believe I had the same face when I found that one out. Every nation uses something similar. The Kingdom before this used the same belief in keeping people subservient to the nobles, so whenever laws were broken against them, it was quite easy to track that person down.”

“Many believe that it’s the achievement page that gives that, but it isn’t. It's the people of the nation itself. That’s why if a nation is run poorly, they have less of that belief, which will weaken whatever system they have," Omar explained, and I started to feel out the nations surveillance system to see if it was true.

I couldn’t directly feel holy power, but I could make a pretty good guess as to where it’s being used simply by the absence of my ability to sense it. Sensing the city and the nation’s land as a whole, I felt how it worked, quite similar to the way I could see things on my own land. But I had never delved deeper to try to figure out what made it work.

There was definitely a lot of energy and some mana that came from the land itself that made this entire thing work, but it wasn't the complete picture. There were parts that remained cloudy for me, and that was the part that was coming from people themselves. That must be holy power, even if I can't completely confirm it.

"Sorry about that, I just had to make sure," I told them both. "That was so freaking cool! I haven’t had the ability to see energy for a long time, but whatever you did, it was so complex I was simply mesmerised," Mirhit said, looking at me a bit creepily.

Omar looked more composed, but I could see how his political mind was working behind his eyes. "Unfortunately, that didn't help at all, and now I think I’m even more worried." My words sobered them up, and they refocused on our current discussion.

"I know a lot less about individuals who use holy power, but I do know it can be quite unconventional. The most famous one I knew could make himself completely invulnerable for a little while, but that's about it," Omar finished his explanation of what he knew about holy power.

"Let me explain to you guys what has me worried. Lately, churches dedicated to different gods have been appearing, and from my understanding, they are somewhat close to religions from stories from my home world. That's a problem because gods usually have a gimmick, like they are really good at fighting, so whoever believes in them will have benefits belonging to that domain."

"What I am currently afraid of is that the nation we can’t contact is planning some bad things. They’re using a lot of holy power to make unlucky things happen to keep their secrets. If they have such power, doing anything against them or even fighting them is going to be a nightmare."

They both immediately understood the implications, but Omar also understood how far-fetched they were. "Do you really think we need to worry about this? It's highly unlikely that anything like that is going on."

"If I was a normal citizen, I would agree with you and leave it at that. But I’m not just a regular citizen. Unfortunately, I’m the person in charge of security for not only this nation but two others. And if there's even a 0.1% chance that this kind of threat is close to our borders, I can’t let it go." After my words, we took some time to think before Mirhit got up. "I’ll go wake everyone else up, then we’ll have a proper meeting."

He was able to take two steps before I called out, "No, wait, we need to think a bit more about this. You know, they built a sauna here just a little while ago. Let's go there, but I feel like we need a fourth. Everyone else is probably soon going to sleep, but David will probably still be in his office. Let's go see and then invite him as well."

I stood up and started to walk towards the door, but the other two were frozen. Before I opened the door, I spoke up, "Unpredictability kind of goes against luck, and besides that, I actually do want to go to a sauna right now."

I started to walk down the left hallway but stopped as I tried to remember the new location of David’s office. I think I made the correct choice and continued to walk down the corridor. It didn’t take long for the other two to catch up with me, and they still seemed a bit unsure about the whole thing.

"If you had five cats, three dogs, and one turtle, who would you feed first every morning?" A little smile came to my face as Omar missed a step and almost face-planted, but Mirhit was a bit more composed and answered immediately.

"One of the dogs, as he would be sleeping next to me." I actually hadn’t expected anyone to answer that as it was a completely nonsensical question, but I wanted to be a bit chaotic right now. I just had a feeling it would be a good idea, so why not go with it?

I knocked three times on David’s door and then walked in. I had been correct; he was fully awake, and it looked like he was about to call out. His mouth was open, but me opening the door seemed to short-circuit him a bit.

Next to him was the representation of the owlbear, who looked quite regal, and to whom I gave an elegant bow. It took a moment for him to do the same, and I could see the confusion in his eyes. "David, I see you’re working hard, but it’s time for a break. Let’s go and visit the sauna."

"What? It's almost two hours to midnight, and I have a lot of work still to do. There really isn’t much time for fun." But David’s words didn’t really have any strength behind them by the end, and ‘fun’ sounded so hollow. I actually wondered how he was able to produce that kind of a sound.

"Perhaps, but this is what we're doing. And bring the owlbear as well. What else could we do? We need food, drinks, and perhaps some tobacco for some of you?" I asked in a questioning tone, to which Omar and David nodded.

"OK, let's split up then. Mirhit, you get the food and drinks. David, the tobacco. And Omar will come with me because he’s a guest here, and we can't have a guest going out and doing things in our home."