Legacy of the Betelgeuse

Ivonna and I logged out of the game earlier than the others since we are so tired after everything that happened, and we already have a plan to have a conference online with all the Ophiuchus to talk about their progress and encounter with the subjects. I heard that everyone has fought the subjects, but I haven't heard the details.

We are eating our dinner and Ivonna is looking at her food like she doesn't have the appetite to eat. I raise my eyebrows and tilt my head.

"I thought you're hungry?"

Ivonna is startled and looks at me while slightly smiling.

"Oh, no. It's just I'm just thinking that I never thought they managed to infiltrate the Holy Temple, that's all. It was the right decision to check all the Holy Temple's people, if we didn't check them, the Saintess might be in danger and would be killed in her sleep."

I'm cutting the steak and nod in agreement.

"Yeah, not to mention that they're the survivors during the invasion. That means they were running away and hiding just to save themselves. At that moment, Saintess Aria was shocked and devastated when she knows they let the others die and didn't protect them even though their level was 700 and they could easily kill the monsters. I mean, they were brainwashed and we both know that so I guess it's not a surprise."

Ivonna is humming in agreement. She sighs and then looks at me.

"So, how is Avriel?"

I tilt my head while raising my eyebrows.

"She's doing fine. I stayed for a while to comfort her, but I guess she didn't it and she was preparing to move to the Hebraum Kingdom and make the Palace their new base. With her around the Palace, I don't think anything bad will happen."

I look at her and nod up.

"What about you? What's the progress in the Palace?"

Ivonna is nodding.

"Nothing much, we just had a small discussion and I asked Rodwane's opinions about King Jasvah Truman from the Eynhildr Kingdom since he's the King that I served. Thanks to what happened and the information you gave me, I become a bit skeptical about all the rulers of the Alliance Kingdoms, but thankfully, Rodwane told me that Jasvah isn't like any other and he said that Jasvah is a great King. So I asked Rodwane if it's alright to bring him in, and he told me it would be great, but I have to be the one who brings him in and convince him to be on our side."

Ivonna starts to grab her fork and knife. I'm nodding with understanding.

"Well, Jasvah is okay, but others than him, you should avoid the rest of the rulers, not even the Acuria Kingdom where the Saintess is at, and especially King Lionel Sephar from the Maryoca Kingdom. You know the reason, right? It's true that the Eynhildr Kingdom is one of the strongest kingdoms, but they're strong because of the help from the other kingdoms since the Eynhildr Kingdom is the frontline of the Alliance Kingdoms and they're the first one to handle any kind of danger. The Maryoca Kingdom is on top with the rest of the Alliance Kingdoms standing behind it, including the Hebraum Kingdom."

Ivonna is furrowing her forehead and looks at me with confusion.

"Why can't I bring the Maryoca Kingdom?"

I shake my head.

"Don't bother, you will only bring problems if you bring them with us. Do you remember the kid from the Sarkh Village? The kid that one of the tutorial NPCs?"

Ivonna nods and I raise my eyebrows.

"His father should be crowned as the King of the Maryoca Kingdom, and you know the history of the Maryoca Kingdom, right? In the book that you read or the story you heard, there was a rebellion from the crown prince by trying to secure his place on the throne while the second prince faction received support from the nobles and helped him and to bring down the madness of the crown prince. Those are all lies, it wasn't that complicated because the second prince was the one who schemed and made the crown prince lost his place in the royal family and his throne."

Ivonna is surprised.

"What? That kid? What was his name? Gervase?"

I nod, Ivonna then leans forward and looks at me with curiosity.

"Then, if that's true, we can bring him back to the Alliance Kingdom, right? I have the heirloom from him. Maybe I can help him take back what should be his, right? This is the perfect opportunity for that and I don't think there will be another chance like this."

I chuckle and shrug.

"Well, do what you think is the best for the Alliance Kingdoms. As I said earlier, do what you must and I will not interfere with that as long as it doesn't affect the plan. I left the Alliance Kingdoms to you and I really mean it. You have to bring the Alliance Kingdoms to its glory day and be a place that's perfect for the players to live in while I'm doing the dirty work."

Ivonna is nodding and smiling.

"Okay, will do. But, how can I bring Gervase back to the Alliance Kingdom?"

I scoff and raise my eyebrow.

"You're the Hero from the Alliance Kingdom and with the help of King Crafnell and Avriel, you can ask them to escort him to the Hebraum Kingdom, right?"

Ivonna aahing with understanding and then she nods happily. I just chuckle and nod at her food.

"You better hurry up and eat your dinner, we are going to have a conference online with Kingstar and the others soon, right? Don't make them wait just for us."

Ivonna nods with understanding and we both then eat our dinner.

We both are inside the conference room that has never been used before. We were planning to use this room to hang out but in the end, they're using my room as our hangout place, but now this room will not go to waste since from now on we will be using this room to have an IRL conference with the other clans.

I turn on the laptop and use the projector to project on the screen. Everyone is already in the room and waiting for us, then we get into the server room and everyone is looking at us. Everyone is surprised when they see me, especially Queenstar.

I raise my eyebrows.

"What?"

Kingstar is shaking his head.

"No, nothing."

I look at the others and this is the first time I see their faces IRL except for a few people that I already know when I do my research. Diamond, Boschwell, Aeris, Edmondo, Madhan, Cho Ahn, Sigryd, but I don't see Lothair here, so there are only 13 of us here. Diamond is looking at Kingstar while giggling.

"You owe us $100 Kingstar."

Everyone else is laughing and chuckling, but I have no idea what they're talking about. I guess it has something to do with me. Ivonna looks at Queenstar and raises her eyebrows.

"What's going on?"

Queenstar shakes her head.

"Well, Schneider said that Trevor would look like an ugly-looking dude, and he made a bet that Trevor is different IRL and would pay $100 if he's wrong to anyone here. Everyone accepted it and here we are."

Ivonna is chuckling.

"Well, I thought Trevor's real face would be different, but I guess we are wrong."

Kingstar is looking at Queenstar who's sitting next to him and clicking his tongue.

"Come on, you don't have to tell her."

We are chuckling at him. Kingstar sighs and looks at the camera.

"So, let's listen to everyone's report. I will go first."

Queenstar is giving him a notebook and he grabs it while reading it.

"We found one of them during our search, but it turns out that he wasn't alone. We were ambushed but we managed to handle them and their bodies are currently in our base to be examined. We haven't gotten any information, but all we do know is they're crazy strong even though we had more than 200 players with us during the search, they managed to kill more than half of my men. We do have one that's still alive, and currently, we are interrogating him to get some information to him, but right now he hasn't opened his mouth."

We are humming with understanding, Ivonna then pointing her finger up.

"Of course he doesn't want to open his mouth since he got brainwashed and I don't think you will get anything from him. It's better to take care of him."

Kingstar nods in agreement.

"Yeah, I know. We just want to at least try to get something from him for the next 2 days."

We nod with understanding. I look at Diamond and nod up.

"Diamond, where's Lothair?"

Diamond looks at the camera and takes a deep breath.

"Yeah, I want to talk about it to you guys. There's something going on in the Eluna Empire, something that's quite out of place? I suppose?"

We are furrowing our foreheads and I tilt my head while looking at him.

"What do you mean?"

Diamond is raising his eyebrows.

"Well, the bells are ringing right now in the capital city for almost a day now, and a bunch of NPCs is saying that the Eluna Empire will be celebrating their glory day. I have no idea what that means, and not just me but, all the players from the Eluna Empire's faction."

I'm surprised and look at Ivonna. I lean toward her and whisper into her ear.

"This is bad... I never thought it would start this early."

Ivonna looks at me with confusion.

"What is?"

I'm gulping and raising my eyebrows.

"Back then, that bells ringing indicates that they're going to go to war. I know it would start after the first invasion, but it shouldn't be this early. Something is wrong here."

Ivonna is furrowing her forehead.

"What? War? Against who?"

I take a deep breath and nod.

"Against the Aarus Empire and the Alliance Kingdoms."