19 Evan’s Thoughts

Eris Main Residence, Gerfast

Great Western Empire

April 1st

Year 1051

The Great Western Empire!

That was the name of the empire that I started with whenever I picked the 'Second' of the 'Seven Heroes' as my playable character.

The ability to mimic the skills of other characters and enemies was the one reason I picked the 'Second', 90% of the time I reset my account.

But to think that the game I enjoyed playing so much, 'Aidos Online', was actually the simulation of what would have happened in another world somewhere in the universe.

I never would have expected such a thing to happen even in a million years…provided I could live that long.

Frankly, when I woke up and met the goddess, I was scared shitless.

I mean, who would not be if they were suddenly whisked out of their home and tossed into some random space with a god?

An actual deity that rules over who knows how many worlds!

Although I feigned being calm, given the fact that she could read my thoughts, she probably figured that out.

As for learning that 'Aidos' actually existed and what the goddess wanted from me, I had mixed feelings about it.

Part of me was happy that my favourite game was becoming reality, while part of me was scared of the worst-case scenarios.

What if I got killed by some random monster?

What If the goddess went back on her word?

What if the other god who's on the demon's side just decides to nuke this one?

Such questions instantly plagued my mind but I still agreed to come here.

The reason was quite simple, I feared the possibility that even if I had refused, the goddess could just toss me in here regardless.

In that case, my task may have been the same, but I might have not gotten any special powers or abilities.

Hopefully, whatever goals she has would not be detrimental to me when she moves to achieve them.

◇ ◇ ◇

Ever since I was but a little boy, I've always felt that there was something significant about my name. I don't know when it started but at one point in time, I began feeling that way.

After coming to this world, Aidos, and possessing the body of someone with the same name, that feeling became stronger than ever.

There was no way in hell that it was a coincidence. That a kid named 'Evan' just happened to have a body open for possession at the time when I was to be sent into this world.

Such coincidences don't happen that easily.

Then there was my race, a race that obviously wasn't what I originally was, a human.

At first, I thought it was 'Evan Del Eris', the original owner of this body who was not human, but the information I accessed from the system's archive proved me wrong.

Up to the point of his death, 'Evan Del Eris', was indeed a human.

That meant that right from the very beginning, 'I' was never a human in the first place.

This brought me to think about my parents back in my home world, if they were not human just like me but they were.

I didn't have any basis for this, but I was sure of it.

I opened my status board and darted my gaze to the censored title on it. Whatever I really was, whatever my soul really was, it had to do with that hidden title.

As for asking Artemisia what race I was, that was futile.

After all, if she wanted me to know, she would not have censored it in the first place!

◇ ◇ ◇

Looking at myself in the mirror with the maid 'Rei' behind me, I heaved a sigh once more as I thought about the fact that I had to attend another one of the parties that I detested.

Well, saying I detested them was a bit much but it didn't change the fact that I didn't really like going to those parties.

Especially due to the fact that the body I was now in, was that of one of the highest-ranking nobles in the Great Western Empire, a global superpower that could be compared to a certain United Group of states in some northern continent of my old world.

'Or maybe we are the guys right next to them who had a country spanning two continents? Or the ones who started the second world war about a century ago?'

I kept on thinking about random stuff while I was waiting for the butler to come to call me up when the carriage was ready.

Taking a seat, I reviewed the plans I had for when Laurene, Ralphie and I returned from the Graveyard of the Arrogant.

With the way the Duke and the Emperor were acting, it was quite hard to say that they would let Laurene and I go on weekly dungeon expeditions.

One might think that as the son of a Duke, it should be easy for me to go to whatever dungeon I want and I should have easier access to more resources for growth but that's not the case at all.

My 'father', Roger Del Eris, is the Prime Minister of one of the most powerful countries in not only the Alpha continent but also in the entire world of Aidos.

There's no way that the successor to such a person which is me in this case, would have the time to go around entering different dungeons weekly, or fighting monsters when I want.

Even if I somehow had the time, it would definitely not be as much as I would want and need to.

Take the Duke himself, for example, he succeeded his father, the previous Duke when his father retired.

First of all, it should be taken note that the Duke was 25 years old at the time, and that was the year he married his wife, Patricia.

Now, he has been married long enough to have a fifteen-year-old kid, his elder son, Arnold, making him at the very least, 40 years old.

And yet, someone of his age was just level 234, despite being in the position of a 'Duke', the highest rank of nobility who should be able to access all the resources he wants and go to all the dungeons he wants and kill all the monsters he wants, whenever he feels like.

The reason for this is quite simple.

The Duke was too busy with his job as the Prime Minister of a country, of a freakin' empire, to find time to think about going to actively hunt monsters for the sake of levelling up.

In fact, from what I gathered over the past seven months, the reason why he was even able to reach such a high level was because of a war that happened nearly twenty years ago, right after an undead disaster that I believe was the doing of the Demonic Hand.

A neighbouring country and some smaller allied states, joined hands to make an attempt to annex a part of the Great Western Empire.

At that time, the young Duke who was in his early twenties was sent out to the front lines alongside the current Emperor who was the crown prince at the time.

They were sent there by their respective parents to experience the harshness of real war, and the deaths and destruction left in its wake.

It was during that war that the Duke earned his title of 'Juvenile Blood Duke' (later becoming just 'Blood Duke') and the Emperor earned his 'One Flash Sword Master'.

Sure, the current Duke is still skilled, and his power hasn't waned in the slightest as the body of Master level existence was not one that would be weakened after a measly twenty years.

But it doesn't change the fact that the Duke has little to no chances to actively improve his strength.

One needs to think about how many documents and things need to pass through the hands of the Prime Minister daily.

'Running a small country is a lot of work. Running an Empire, one on the level of a World Power, is a whole different ball game altogether.

And the Duke is one of the people who are in charge of running said empire, so the amount of work he is swamped with on a daily basis is something I doubt I can understand.

Naturally, as his successor, the amount of work I'd be swamped with would although not obviously be on his level, would still be great nonetheless.'

Even Arnold who has been deprived of the right to become the successor to the Dukedom would still end up managing nearly half of it when he comes of age. He would be given a title just one level lower than that of Duke and be given his own territories to manage.

Bottom line is, there is no freedom anywhere!

The freedom that I need to actively level up fast enough to face the eventual demon invasion, is not something I can get by remaining in the dukedom where I'd have work to do.

Of course, all this would not be a problem if I could simply tell them that I was a hero and I needed to be strong enough to face the demons. If I could explain to them that the invaders from a thousand years ago would return soon and I needed help in finding the other heroes while improving my strength, then there would be no problem at all.

Unfortunately, I can't do that.

The restrictions applied on the current seven heroes due to the flawed reincarnation magic of the previous seven, prevent me from doing so.

Now, it would be fine if they discover this themselves, but I can't take the initiative myself to tell them.

Thus, I am unable to give the Duke a valid reason why my going into dungeons weekly and spending the majority of my time hunting monsters is more important than training to be his successor.

Any excuse I could come up with would just seem silly in the face of the man who holds the second highest authority in the country.

'Well, there's also the alternative plan to direct their attention to the bases of operations, used by the previous seven heroes, or some of their private bases/residences, where they would most definitely find out the information about the dimensional rifts and the invaders themselves.

After all, even if the previous seven's leader said to get rid of the information, they didn't get rid of their own personal information banks and only got rid of what others possessed.

However, there's one crucial flaw to this plan...'

The Crucial flaw was that the bases of the seven heroes that hold the major information about the Invaders and not just talk about dimensional rifts and other potential world-ending threats, cannot be unlocked without the presence of one of the 'Seven Heroes'.

Any attempts at forceful entry are futile due to the absurd defences of these bases that allowed them to stand strong for an entire millennium. And if the forceful/unauthorized entry looked like it was going to succeed, there was a 99% of the base self-destructing.

I don't know about the others but according to the memories I inherited, if the base belonging to the previous 'Second' self-destructs, even a level 700 being might not be safe from the resulting explosion.

'That's a peak Epic level existence...'

If I told the Duke and the Emperor about this base and the conditions to open it, it would lead to a whole new set of problems entirely.

They would definitely ask where I got the information on the existence of the base from, and how it is that I am able to unlock it and it is definitely impossible for me to answer those.

The reason I know about them is because of the memories I have, memories I gained because of my mystic eyes, eyes which I have because I am one of the new-gen seven heroes, and are also the reason I can unlock the base.

The problem here, however, is that I can't even tell them that I have mystic eyes in the first place.

Heck, even if I achieve stage one and the crest appears in my eyes, I still can't tell them about it unless they have prior information on its existence, something which is very unlikely as the previous seven wiped out most of the records of their mystic eyes since they didn't want anyone finding about their abilities and developing counters for them.

The only things known about the mystic eyes in the current times are the symbols and their meanings. And the amount of people who know the meanings of the ancient letters that are the symbol of the previous seven heroes is VERY FEW.

'I guess I'm going with the plan to run away and go dungeon diving myself. But this is a Ducal estate I'm tryna run from, it won't be easy. I'd have to pick the timing right, maybe even borrow help from others.

The problem is who to get help from...'

|Connection Initiated|

|Connection Confirmed|

"Huh?"

A blue notice box suddenly appeared in front of me, causing me to let out a surprised voice.

"Is there a problem, young duke?"

"…No, leave me be for now."

I told 'Rei' to leave and she bowed before exiting the room, allowing me to take my time to understand what was happening now.

'It says 'Connection Confirmed'

Connection to who?'

[The 'goddess Artemisia' says it is a connection to herself.]

'Artemisia?'

[The 'goddess Artemisia' says that is indeed her name.]

'…'

[The 'goddess Artemisia' says that you should not forget you have a party to attend in less than ten minutes.]

I stared at the floating letters in shock for a few moments before another message popped up, reminding me of the nuisance I had to deal with soon.

'Why?'

[The goddess Artemisia says that if by 'Why?', you mean 'Why she decided to contact you?', then the answer is simple.

She says she wishes to provide you with assistance as whatever plan you are cooking up in your head would fail without her assistance.

She also feels like you would need her help in a few other situations so she decided to create a connection between you two so she can provide assistance, when and only when she considers it 'Necessary'.]

'…That was one lengthy explanation, but then again I can see why you'd do that.'

**KNOCK KNOCK!!

I wished to chat with Artemisia more, but the knock on the door reminded me once more of the party I was to attend.

I looked at the appearance of the 5 feet tall twelve-year-old with dark hair and dark grey eyes in the mirror before heaving a sigh and walking out of the room.

'Let's do this!'

◇ ◇ ◇

'Let's NOT do this!!'

Although I really didn't like these parties, I could somehow bear with them. The influence of the memories of the original 'Evan' who grew up seeing these as normal also helped.

However, this situation is entirely different!

Here I was, an hour after thinking I could deal with this party and be done with it in quickly, with my left hand on Laurene's waist and my right hand entwined with hers as the two of us danced a slow waltz on the ballroom floor.

Around us were dozens of other noblemen and women, dancing along with the music, and even though I really didn't understand classical music, I had to admit that the song was beautiful.

It would all have been perfect, if I didn't have to deal with the death glare that was coming from the blonde-haired, green-eyed teenager who was dancing with his fiancée no more than five metres away from Laurene and me.

"Pfft."

The fact that both Laurene and his fiancée noticed his actions and found it funny didn't make the situation any better.

Somehow, he was able to prevent everyone else on the dance floor, save the two girls, from noticing his actions while giving me a glare that could kill me ten times over if glares could kill.

Staring at the bright lights hanging from the ceiling of the ballroom, I thought about how the party began and how things got to this stage.