Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

“Welcome to Acacia Village.” I read. I turned to my companion, Hermes and gave him a questioning look. “Any thoughts why the village is named after a tree?”

He shrugged and said; “No idea. They were the ones who named the village. We tend to not intervene with them and look after them from afar.”

-Right.

The two of us, dressed in incognito, headed inside the village. I couldn’t help but marvel at the scene before me. The village was a breath of fresh air. Sure, there were people crowding the road, but the place was not as big, nor as crowded, as Azte City.

Definitely a breath of fresh air.

“What do you think Nyxtriel?” Hermes asked his mouth in a proud smile.

Right. They have settled in calling me Nyxtriel again instead of Luna. They said it would be safe to use the name as long as I was with one of the foreign gods. Since they were close to me and Elthesia, it would not be suspicious if they invoke my name, and would not draw the celestials’ attention.

To be honest, it was quite refreshing. I missed being called by my original name despite living as Luna Hysi for the last eight years. Of course, the name Luna also had a place in my heart since most of my current friends knew me by that name.

Later on, I decided to pick a name that mixed up my two names once I was ready to leave Avalon Isles.

Anyway…

“Wow. Your kids are quite something.” I commented and darted my eyes around. We were in the part of the village that seems to be the marketplace.

I couldn’t help but check out the stalls since it had an abundance of fresh produce!

“Most of them are battle oriented you know, so seeing something like this is really something.” Hermes replied after buying an apple from a stall. “But of course, none of them were really told of the origins of their ancestors so they’re more accustomed to the ways of Afasia, especially in the ways of survival. Not to mention local residents of this world has mixed with them over the years.”

“They were never told?”

I was curious and quite sad at the fact that the people in the island were technically descendants of those that sought refuge from their dying world, yet they were not informed of it. Of course, Athena once discussed the pros and cons of letting their current descendants know of their dead world.

“It will be a disaster.” she once told me.

Hermes and I continued our tour without much worry. I was wondering why no one seemed to bat an eye at us despite being not from there, so I asked Hermes about it.

“They’re used to it.” he replied with a shrug. “This island is used to having visitors every now and then, being a sizeable island, you know? It sits northeast of the Central Continent and we’re in the path of any ships that travel on the Northern, Central and Eastern Continents. They get lots of visitors. Well used to.”

“Used to?”

“Stuff happened, like pirates and conquerors and stuff. At the moment, the entire island is under the rule of someone who claims to be a descendant of the Afasian gods.” I raised an eyebrow at such claims.

“That’s impossible. Afasian gods don’t procreate with the residents of the human realm. It’s below them.” I retorted. “At most they bless someone, or they temporarily live mortal lives due to a trial, or someone from the human realm become so powerful they could live as one of the celestials. But half-bloods like you guys do? That’s unheard of. And even if one does try, the child is guaranteed to not survive since it is what’s stated in the Ancient Laws.”

At the mention of the Ancient Laws, an image suddenly popped up inside my head. The image of a familiar looking fox in the lap of a huge woman with multicolored hair and kaleidoscopic eyes popped up in my mind. I got dizzy for a second and clutched my head at the sudden pulsing pain.

“Nyxtriel?” I heard Hermes call out worriedly. “Are you alright?”

I shook my head. The image became fuzzy and then vanished, becoming unreachable all of a sudden.

-What was that about?

“I’m fine.” I answered after regaining my bearing. “Just a memory. I’m talking about the Celestials in a bad light and even mentioned the Ancient Laws so it probably brought back some memories.”

“Probably?”

“I got memories worth thousands of years Hermes. You should know yourself it’s not easy to remember really old memories.”

-I think that image is an old memory of mine. Oh well.

“So… about this supposedly descendant of a celestial?”

“Right…” Hermes looked at me suspiciously but I just shrugged and we continued walking. “Well, he’s bad news. He has the bandits and most of the pirates in the island under his wing. Those who are not steer clear of them. Regular citizens of this island are afraid of him and his men, so they’re quite careful. Other than the monthly raids they do in villages, they’re doing okay, I guess.”

I gasped at such a news. No matter how I looked at it, it was a very bad situation!

“And you’re not doing anything? These are your people!” I exclaimed. I suddenly blushed seeing everyone’s eyes on me.

Hermes dragged me to an empty alley so we could continue with our conversation.

“You know we cannot directly interfere with mortal affairs.” he hissed. “We may have lost our world, our universe, but that mentality, that idealism, is in our heads and habits. And it’s also one of the conditions we agreed upon when we chose to live in this world.”

I sighed and tapped his shoulder, calming him down.

“Sorry. I was just- Okay. Never mind then. I guess they have to do something themselves to get out of this situation. That’s what it means to be a citizen of the human realm.”

He seemed to have relaxed which I was glad.

“Yeah. It would be nice if some hero shows up, defeats that guy, kick him and his gang out and save the island, right?”

Somehow, Hermes was giving me that knowing look. As if trying to say I should try and save the island or something.

-Is he trying to say I should fight the guy? He’s not serious, is he?

All of a sudden, I heard screams and thunderous laughs. I peeked from the alley Hermes and I were in and was shocked to see men in horses with swords and bows.

“Hermes?”

“Oh yeah, today is the date of the monthly raid.”

I was ready to lash out at the mischievous god of travels and thieves, but then I stopped and thought the lives of people are more important than beating up an immortal man.

“Surprise!”

I could only stare at him with a shake of my head. I peeked at the ongoing raid again and couldn’t help but gasp when one of the raiders struck a man with a sword.

“I thought your people are warriors!” I hissed at Hermes who was only looking at me apologetically.

“They are! It’s in their blood! But they haven’t really been warriors for a long time so they only have reflexes now rather than experience.”

I could only shake my head and got ready to charge. But before I could even exit the alley, Hermes held me back.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying to help. Now let go of me.”

“No! Are you kidding?! Thar guy who claims he’s the descendant of one of your gods? He’s not kidding about his powers! If you go against him now, he’ll make you eat dust!”

“So we just let these people suffer? They’re your people, if you suddenly forgot.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

He grabbed my waist and pulled me closer to him. We were suddenly engulfed in light that I had to close my eyes because of the brightness. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in Avalon Isles, in front of my cabin.

“HERMES!”