The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

"Do you know what the plan is to deal with the dryads?" I asked. No matter how tired I was, I wanted to at least be in on that part. The dryad horde, though broken in discipline, had not been completely annihilated.

Zeke answered, "The capital will have its forces ready soon, and with their forces cut in half, I think we will be riding forth in about a week or so to eradicate what remains of their army. I don't think they are dumb enough to try to attack again, but if so, we are more than prepared to repel them. With their numbers whittled down now, they have no chance of breaching the walls."

"Good," I said.

"Before you leave," Drake said, "please give me a moment to express my sincerest apologies."

"For what? Oh, if you mean that incident back in that restaurant, I've already pretty much forgotten about it already you don't have to-"

"No, not that," Drake said. He looked askance at his brother as if contemplating whether or not he should continue before saying, "I- we, were suspecting you of being a demonic Liberomancer."

"Brother, you don't need to-" Zeke began.

"-no, I think I should," Drake said. "We thought it was rather suspicious that you so coincidentally knew about the two before they were killed off earlier last year, and you just so happened to decide to use that demonic grimoire. I… thought with the other things that were off about you that this had been something cleverly orchestrated by you, so that you'd have an alibi as to why you had a demonic grimoire."

"Huh, your father didn't mention that earlier," I said. The two of them started a bit when I mentioned him. "Oh, nothing major - he just wanted to know what was going on and stuff - I told him the same thing I told you Drake."

Zeke was still lost, but I reassured him that it was nothing urgent. If he wanted to, I'd tell him everything myself just so that there was no confusion.

Because right then, I felt like I was going to fall asleep right where I was standing.

I wandered off, found my carriage, and took it back to the palace where there was a room for me. All the work that had piled up till this point - well, I would deal with it later.

I went to sleep almost immediately, and then woke up at some point late in the evening, feeling hungry.

The amount of fish that [Fish Haul] made was dependent on your Luck stat, which is how I ended up making far more than I needed given my investment into Luck before. Whatever - I'd given them off to someone, there were likely still many people on half-filled stomachs in Arconia.

I prepared it myself in the kitchen - I got a few strange looks but no one stopped me. Once I was finished eating and distributed what remained, I went back to sleep.

I felt leagues better when I woke up the next day.

The work that had piled up wasn't as much as I'd initially feared, thankfully enough - and my new position would likely be dissolved as I didn't really think it was needed anymore.

The city was indeed planning to go after the dryads, who by now were basically nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

They had asked me to remain behind in the city, not including me as a part of the raiding force. Either they trusted me a lot and wanted me to guard the city as they didn't want to risk one of their new 'heroes' dying out on the field; or that spiel I had given to Lance made him think I was insane or not trustworthy in the open field. It was one thing to be manning the walls as we were all in the same boat if the walls were breached - maybe he felt I might try something out in the open field?

I had watched the force that was assembled to take out the remaining dryads leave the city - it consisted of twenty thousand ordinary soldiers and about sixty percent of the city's Liberomancers.

The force seemed rather small, at least I thought so, though I was told that the force from the capital was larger simply because the dryad army was closer to the capital right now.

"Ah, I think it's better if you stay," Drake explained before heading out when I asked him why they weren't taking me along. Noticeably, Zeke was not with him. If I had to wager, Lance didn't want to send both of his sons out to battle at the same time. "The dryads seem to fear your spider combo, and my brother hasn't mastered it yet. Having so many of the city's Liberomancers leave might lead to some of our residents feeling unsafe. The people will sleep far more soundly knowing that someone like you is still in the city to watch over them. With both you and my father here, the remaining dryads have no chance of seizing the city."

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"Alright then, fine," I said.

"Ah - I didn't think that you would agree that quickly. I thought that you might protest more and challenge me to a duel in order to come with us!" Drake placed a hand over his chest in mock shock.

I shrugged. "I don't go looking for danger, you know. If I can be safe here, so be it." Not to mention he had a point - there were lots of civilians in Arconia who needed to be watched over and reassured that they were still being guarded. Such as Granny Qi. It would do no one any good if the raiding party left only to find the city had been taken while they were away.

Drake chuckled. "Well, stay safe then, my friend!"

"I should be the one saying that," I said, praying that he would come back safe. "I'm amazed your father is letting you go knowing… well, you know, what happened."

Drake shook his head. "Ah, danger is inherent to being a ruler. This is a chance to prove myself, and I wanted to take it. Even if I die, my father still has Zeke with him to carry on the family line…" he trailed off with a hint of melancholy in his voice. "...ah, but don't you worry, we are sallying out with a large force, and I will have walls of soldiers to guard my back and front. We will catch them off-guard and return back without losing a single soldier!"

I doubted that was possible, but I nodded and wished him luck once again.

I revisited that memory as time stretched on and we waited for the army to return.

Meanwhile, there was still a lot of work that had to be done within the city.

One thing that made me quite happy was to know that the casualty figures were on the lower side - slightly over nine hundred were dead.

At first, I hadn't believed those numbers.

Don't get me wrong, I was glad that casualty numbers had remained so low despite the scale of the fighting, it was just that it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that in a battle involving nearly a hundred thousand on the enemy side, and thirty thousand on ours, that there had been little under a thousand in casualties.

Every death was of course, a tragedy - the main reason that so many of us had survived was because thanks to healing magic many men who would've died lived, and that most of the killing was done by Liberomancers at a distance.

By now, the city had entered somewhat of a festive mood. The enemy wasn't fully gone and the people who came couldn't return to their homes - yet, but the bulk of the fighting was over and life would hopefully return to normal soon enough.

It could potentially take decades for some of the rural areas to recover and rebuild, but the first steps towards recovery would begin once it was deemed safe enough for people to finally return to their villages.

The dryad army had not retreated as one large mass - most of them had gone as far away as possible, but a few of them had broken off from the main herd and were likely lurking around the city. They would need to be stamped out before people could start to leave.

Two days later, there was a funeral for all who had died during the fighting. The number had seemed small before, but upon seeing so many funeral services, I couldn't really continue to think so without feeling like an immense amount of guilt within myself.

The humans cremated their dead, while the lizardmen let the bodies drift off into the ocean.

There were two separate large funeral services for the species, though people from both sides attended both of them. I was one of the people who saw both - the families burning their dead, and others pushing them out into the sea. Both services were filled with the tears and lamentations of family members who had lost their loved ones.

Most of the people who had died had been ordinary people - not Liberomancers, even when accounting for the fact that Liberomancers made a proportionately smaller portion of the population.

The casualties among Liberomancers were barely above double digits - because they had not occupied the most dangerous positions during the fight, because they had defensive and healing abilities, and because they had access to better defensive equipment.

If I was in a normal person's shoes, I might've felt quite a bit of resentment at the Liberomancers for such a thing. For one, they exploited the normal people economically in various subtle ways, justifying it as necessary so that they could work for the welfare of the people in case any kind of catastrophe occurred. And yet, when such a catastrophe had occurred, they had been the ones who had lost the least!

And yet, I encountered nothing of the sort whenever I roamed the streets of the city.

I had already been somewhat famous within Arconia - being the youngest Master Liberomancer in the city's history, having a demonic spell legally, and being a foreigner to boot - but now, I was something of a war hero on top of that.

Everywhere I went, people approached me with awe and respect - two things that I did not feel I deserved nor something I had thought I had earned.

Speaking of things I hadn't earned - Lance had not done anything up till now to revoke my title of Master Liberomancer despite what I had told him. I could think of a few reasons why he wouldn't.

One was simply because, in a way, I was not lying. As far as anyone knew - the grimoires I had written were new to this world, so what did it matter if they were based off stories from back on Earth?

How you wrote something was what made writing stand out of course - that was why reading the synopsis of a novel was not the same as reading the novel. If, for example, there was a well-known epic tale that was being passed around, some people might try to make it into a grimoire - like they had done with the story of Lady Ansoon.

But only one of them might succeed- perhaps his prose or other skills were better than the others. Such a person would still be considered to have written an entirely new grimoire, and worthy of the title of Master Liberomancer if it had been a Rank Three one.

Or maybe Lance just hadn't believed what I had told him, but had no real explanation to give to the guild that wouldn't sound crazy.

He could also simply be trying to save face given he had openly supported me earlier and wouldn't want people knowing about this as it could tarnish his own image. I had saved his son's life, so I suspected that might have factored into him just ignoring things and letting me continue to keep my title.

Overall, I think he was just happy to know that I would soon be leaving the city and would not be his problem anymore - so long as I didn't cause any trouble, of course.