Sins of the Forefathers: A LitRPG Fantasy Isekai

It had been nearly a week since Azarus and I had arrived in Rhoscara at this point, and we were leaving soon. The other day, Azarus had joined Elysael and I for dinner and told us that he had finished his business in the city. It was time to leave.

The morning of our departure from Rhoscara found me leaning up against a tree in the gardens, contemplating the horizon. I hadn’t slept well the night before, and so I’d given it up as a lost cause and came out here for some peace and quiet. Somehow, I had managed to wake up after sunrise every day since I had arrived on this planet, and I was interested to see if it was any different.

It had been a…strange week for me.

After that hectic first day, the rest of my stay in Rhoscara had been completely uneventful. I had spent most of my time either wandering the castle or holed up in the surprisingly public library that it housed. Once I had realized that Language Adaptation also extended to full-length books, I had been incredibly relieved. In retrospect, kind of obvious if I could read the basic signs I’d seen since I arrived on this planet.

The library wasn’t some huge, sprawling complex like I had first thought it would be upon hearing about it. Rather, it was a small series of interconnected rooms that reminded me of a local bookshop from back home. Cozy, rather than colossal. I’d tried to use my time in there to good use. I’d been getting sick of wandering around like a clueless tourist, needing to have basic things explained to me like I was a child. I’d skimmed through a variety of books in the limited amount of time that I had, to the best of my ability. I felt like I had, at the very least, a better grasp on Velancia, Herztal, and the basics of the System.

Herztal…

From what little I’d read, the human kingdom seemed incredibly fractious. It seemed to be divided into numerous little fiefdoms and territories, each with its own ruling noble of some kind. Small disputes and infighting were not uncommon between them, oftentimes verging on outright battle. However, the kingdom was set up in such a way that they all owed their allegiance to a High King, which was advised by a House of Lords. Supposedly, this style of governance was enough to curtail outright war within the Kingdom, but I had my doubts it worked perfectly. Reading between the lines of the treatise I had found, it sounded to me like the House of Lords did most of the actual governing, while the High King made the final decisions. Apparently, the current High King was Otto III, of the Eisenherz dynasty. The book hadn’t been new enough to tell me much about him, however.

Other than burying myself in books or wandering, I’d been able to spend a surprising amount of time with Elysael. I’d found her to be a startlingly down-to-earth person, despite her position. She’d seen how clueless I was in regard to most facets of Velancian society and had taken it upon herself to educate me. Most of the time, those conversations would veer into the direction of history, dwarven or otherwise. She had quite the passion for the subject, it seemed. At the very least, I was never bored when I was essentially hanging out with her. In return, I opened up to her about Earth, which she had been intensely curious about. Strangely, she had been fairly disinterested in my tales of technology from my homelands, while deriving more enjoyment from the society instead. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that someone who was essentially a politician was more interested in that.

In between her duties, we’d taken almost all of our meals together, sans Azarus. I had seen little of him until the other day. We hadn’t even really had much of an opportunity to speak to each other. The one time that I had managed to corner him in order to speak about the developments with my Professions, he’d shushed me and said we shouldn’t talk about anything in Rhoscara. Honestly, I think he was being a little paranoid. It’s not like there were people watching us all the time, or something.

I was snapped out of my contemplation by the sunrise starting in front of me. I have to say, I didn’t expect it to look like it did. Everything else fled from my mind as I watched, entranced.

It was green.

Rather than the typical progression of cool blue night giving way to warm yellow sunlight like back home, the light was green. Slowly, as the sun began to creep over the horizon, emerald green light spilled forth over the curvature of Vereden. It was almost as if the blue of the night sky was mixing with yellow of the sunlight. God, even Vereden’s star looked green as it began to show itself. It was beautiful and fascinating and incredible all at once. It was also entirely alien, to my Terran sensibilities. I couldn’t help a small chill from racing down my spine.

Over the next fifteen minutes, I watched as the sunrise progressed. Slowly, the green tint to the light began to fade, shifting into the more familiar yellow shade of sunlight I’d spent my whole life beneath. I had no idea what had caused that green light. Atmospheric conditions? Was the star itself just weird? Actually just magic? Who knows. Before long, the star had fully cleared the horizon, to cast warm morning rays down upon the planet.

I was snapped out of my sunrise viewing by the sound of boots behind me. Turning around, I saw that Azarus had snuck up on me while holding two mugs of steaming hot liquid. “Hey.” He said to me tiredly, while handing me one of the mugs.

I took it, nodding gratefully to him. Taste-testing it, I found that it was a local blend of tea. I’d gotten familiar with it over the last week and had grown a small taste for it. In the absence of coffee, it was the best I could do.

I decided not to ask Azarus about the sunrise. I somehow doubted that, even if he had answers for me, he would be willing to talk about it while we were still within city limits.

We sat and stood around in silence, respectively, for a few moments before I broke it. “Time yet?” I asked Azarus shortly.

Azarus grunted and shotgunned whatever was left in his mug. “Yeah. Time to get goin’.”

……………………………………..

First, though, we had to say our goodbyes. Azarus had already collected our meager belongings and loaded them into whatever cart we were using to get home. I walked with Azarus through the halls of the palace until we reached the same office where I had first been introduced to Elysael.

You know, the one we trashed.

Miraculously, upon opening the door, it had been completely restored to its former state. To the best of my memory, it looked the exact same as it had before it had been destroyed. Guess that was the power of fuck-off royalty money.

Elysael herself was sitting behind her desk, already knee-deep in reports when Azarus and I entered her office. She must have woken up far before either of us, because there were the remains of a breakfast resting upon a platter off to the side and a cup of tea to her right. At our entrance, she lifted her head and gave the two of us a tired smile.

“Ah, Azarus, Nathan.” She greeted us, rising. “Is it that time already?”

Azarus nodded at her. “Yeah, it is. I want to hit the road early.”

Elysael nodded back at him, understanding. “I see.” She answered quietly. “Well. I wish you, both of you, safe travels. My understanding is that the scouts have reported no undue monster presence between here and Addersfield. It should be an uneventful trip.”

Azarus grunted. For a moment, an almost uncomfortable silence ruled the office. I was both surprised and a little confused, honestly. But thinking on, perhaps I shouldn’t be. Maybe Azarus’d had business in the city during our stay, but that didn’t fully explain his nearly complete absence from the palace. I had barely seen him at all. Perhaps there was some unresolved tension between them?

Probably not my business.

I cleared my throat uncomfortably, causing Elysael's eyes to shift my way. I smiled at her. “Thanks for, you know, everything. I appreciate you letting me stay in the palace during our stay. I honestly enjoyed my time here.”

Elysael’s smile grew a touch more genuine. “It was no problem at all, Nathan. I, too, found myself enjoying your stay. I found our conversations most enlightening.” She stretched one of her hands in my direction. “I truly hope we can meet again, one day. Perhaps after you’ve solved the issue of your current circumstances?”

I stared at her hand for a moment before something I had read this week clicked in my brain. Recalling the book on dwarven customs, I stepped up to Elysael's desk and reached out myself. I firmly grasped Elysa's forearm while she did the same for me. The both of us gave a quick squeeze, before dropping our arms. I stepped back.

“Goodbye, Nathan. May we meet again.” Elysael said, giving me a somewhat melancholy smile and inclining her head.

“I’ll see you around…Ely.” I replied, returning the smile. Her smile widened slightly.

Azarus stepped up then and gruffly stuck his arm out too. Elysael gripped it as well and then repeated the ritual.

“Goodbye, cousin. I hope you find a…way out of your current circumstances as well.” Elysael said evenly.

Azarus’s brow furrowed slightly. “Ah, thanks. See you later, then?” With a final nod to each other, Elysael sat back down while Azarus turned around and strode to the door. Opening it, he stepped outside. I followed him, and with one final look back at Elysael, I shut the door behind us.

Turning in place, I found myself facing Azarus. He was giving me a weird look, with a raised eyebrow.

“What?” I asked him, baffled. He just rolled his eyes at me and shook his head. Pivoting in place, he strode down the hall without answering me. I hurried to catch up to him. “No, seriously, what?”

He didn’t say anything.

……………………………………...

With a grunt, Azarus finished securing the last of the cargo in the cart he had rented. He had explained to me that Gren had already left Rhoscara, and probably wasn’t even back in Addersfield either. As a traveling trader, he could be anywhere in the Principality right now. Azarus had told me that Gren was one of the few people with a wagon that he trusted, and so he had decided to just drive us back to Addersfield himself. The cart he had chosen wasn’t as nice as the one we had taken here either. It wasn’t as big and didn’t have a canvas-covered roof like Gren’s. It was only a two-horse cart as well, so Azarus had told me to expect the trip back to take slightly longer. I was going to be riding up front with him, this time.

Currently, Azarus and I were at the same inspection station that we had gotten off at when we arrived at the city. We had pretty much made a beeline through the city, taking a much shorter and more direct route to the gates than the scenic one a week ago.

Azarus had waved me off when I had offered to him help with the final checks to the cart. Which, you know, I suppose was fair. It’s not like I knew anything about the cargo he was hauling back to Addersfield.

Hearing the crunch of metal-clad boots to my rear, I was surprised to recognize who was approaching me. It was the dwarven captain I had met and come up with the disgraced noble plan before we entered the city. Gastone, I think. He looked just as tired as last time and was carrying a steaming cup of tea, in a mirror of Azarus from earlier. Seeing that I noticed him, he nodded at me.

“Taking off, are you?” He asked me casually.

“Ah, yeah. Heading back to Azarus’s place.” I answered him.

“Hmm.” Gastone took a sip of his tea. “You know, that stunt you pulled in court really got the city whispering. Even started a bit of a trend with the younger, more romantic sorts.”

I was taken aback by that. “What? How?” I asked him, startled.

The captain smirked slightly at my confusion. “Well, some of them started prancing about with decorative collars around their necks and going on about ‘undying loyalty’. Well,” He paused. “Until their parents caught wind of them. They stopped that right quick.”

I could feel my face go red at his words. “Ah,” I said weakly. “That’s…good. That they were stopped.”

He took another sip and grinned at me. “Yeah, you could say that.” He sobered then. “It’s not really something to joke about.”

Turning away from him to watch Azarus, I just nodded wordlessly. Now that I thought about it, this guy was the only other person than Ely that knew I was actually a slave.

“Thanks for your advice,” I said, without turning to face him. “It…worked out. I got what I needed.”

He was silent for a moment. “That’s good.” He said softly. “I’m glad it worked out.”

The both of us grew silent then.

Before long, Azarus had finished with his checks and walked over to the two of us. “Enzo.” He greeted the captain with audibly more enthusiasm in his tone than he’d had with Elysael. He thrust an arm in Gastone’s direction. The captain nodded back at him with a smile and they squeezed forearms once before dropping them. “What brings you out here?”

“Oh, just seeing you off. All of your paperwork is in order, so you can leave at any time.” Captain Gastone answered.

Azarus nodded back at him before sighing. He shifted his shoulders. “Well, that time is now. It was good seeing ya, Enzo. Take care of yourself, yeah?”

“The same to you, my friend. Watch your back.” Gastone replied, with a small note of warning in his voice.

“Hmm,” Azarus said, noncommittedly. With one final pair of goodbyes from the two of them, Azarus walked over to the cart and jumped up into the driver's seat.

“Goodbye, Captain,” I said to him, turning to follow Azarus. I was stopped by the Captain speaking again.

“You should watch your back too, Mr. Hart.” I heard him say. Turning back to him, I saw a serious look on his face. “It’s a dangerous world.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just nodded back at him and finished walking over to the cart. Climbing into the passenger’s seat, I was startled when Azarus handed me a wide-brimmed straw hat. Taking it, I looked at him questioningly.

Azarus smirked back at me. “No fancy roof for you, this time. You’re gonna have to rough it out in the sun with the rest of us.” He pulled out an equally flopped straw hat and jammed it onto his head.

I rolled my eyes at him but put the hat on anyway. I didn’t know if you could still get sunburns with an active Status, but there was no use tempting fate.

With a shout and a snap of his reigns, Azarus got the wagon underway. As we left the city, I turned around one last time to take in the view of Rhoscara.

It really was a beautiful place.