The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

Drake contemplated my question regarding spirits. "Personally? No," Drake said. "The humans-" he began before remembering who he was talking to. "I mean, the humans of this city seem to think that all the spirits, at least most of them, left the mortal realm when Goddess Serragnin ascended thousands of years ago and ascended with her. Only the evil or malevolent ones were left behind - my people think differently; everything has a spirit, you know. Any concept can have a spirit - whether it be rivers, deserts, mountains, or even cities. You'll occasionally hear stories of people getting lost in the mountains when a young girl suddenly appears out of nowhere and tells them where they need to go to get to safety before vanishing the moment they turn their backs. Was that a hallucination? Or a friendly forest or mountain spirit helping them out? But no, I've never seen one and never met anyone firsthand who claims to have seen one. At least, no one who's account I trust."

I thought of bringing up how the lizardmen and humans viewed the reverse waterfall differently, but then decided against it. I didn't know if it was a touchy cultural point for the lizardmen being they had a famous epic surrounding the place - while it seemed little more than a tourist spot from the human perspective. As it was, it ultimately mattered little to me whether one side was right or not. I already had a feeling regarding who Drake would side with if I asked him.

Our conversation moved to more mundane topics - Drake offered me some more wine which at this point I had to say 'no' to as I was pretty sure that I would fall asleep if I had another glass. The blanket was making me a bit too comfortable… and the urge to just bury myself into it instead of just having it wrapped around myself and then falling asleep was almost overpowering…

"Master Stefan?" he asked, forgetting what I had asked him at the beginning. Likely these manners had been drilled into him since birth and he found it hard to break them.

"Yes…?"

"What are you aiming for in life?"

"…" That was an odd question to spring on someone, but given that it was nearly midnight, I guessed, and nothing was happening, as if time was frozen in this tiny corner of the world, weird questions were expected. "Not sure. Why do you ask?"

"I'm just saying," Drake said. "You told me you were still living in a rented room, right? Or sleeping in your office more nights than not from what the guards tell me. But you've been a Rank Three Liberomancer for some time now. A normal man would've bought a house by now, and would be looking for someone to settle down with. Started a business that would start to bring in reliable income with minimal input from himself, had a few children to inherit those businesses, all those sorts of things. But you haven't done any of those things. At first I thought it was because you loved Liberomancy so much that you didn't care about anything in the world other than making new grimoires… but I have a feeling that that isn't true."

"Well you're right, I do like Liberomancy, but not that much. I kind of don't see the point in doing those things or moving out of my rented house," I told him. "I was planning on hitching a ride on the merchant caravan and leaving Chipker this year, but look where we are now…"

"Ah, it looks like you sailed right into a storm then. If you were planning on leaving why didn't you just go last year?"

"I was waiting for something, but…" I wasn't sure how to preface what I was going to say next. Drake seemed to have suddenly taken far more interest in the topic now though.

"For something? What were you waiting for?"

"Someone from my country… was supposed to meet up with me. Or at least, I thought that they would. It doesn't matter, because they never came," I said. "I'll just have to see if I can find such a person myself somewhere out there in the world."

Drake seemed to be expecting more elaboration on that, but I didn't give it to him and he didn't press me any further. "How about you?" I asked, instead hoping to turn the question on him.

"Well," he began. "The obvious thing was that I was expected to inherit my father's position - though my brother seems to be the choice for that, not me."

It was so obvious that was the case I didn't even bother trying to reassure him that no, perhaps he still had a chance at winning that spot.

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He knew it too - unless his older brother died or got kidnapped by aliens, he wasn't getting that spot. And hey - that was also important to know that there was a backup in case the current heir died or not. Also, because there was a clear line of succession, it could grant some protection to the current heir. Anyone who wanted to assassinate Zeke would have to bear in mind that Drake would inherit the position afterwards, and the thought of what that might lead to could be deterrent enough against an assassination.

That was one of the main utilities of having a vice-president back home, after all.

"Now though," he said. "I guess I just have to support him. And work for the city - even if I can't become governor, I do want to show people that I am as capable as him… at least in some aspects…"

I turned towards him - he was definitely significantly drunk, else he wouldn't be blabbing about these things.

"Hey - don't be so down on yourself," I said. His voice sounded somewhat melancholic, which is why I felt like I needed to say at least something to cheer him up. "You've gotten further than most people ever will. And I'm sure your time will come eventually." Everything in his life had basically been set up for him - which was a blessing in that he had gotten further than most people ever would've while putting in only a fraction of the effort. At the same time though, it could be seen as a curse. He had been expected to follow the path carved out for him with little room for him to deviate from it. It was a gilded prison - but a prison nonetheless.

Of course, most people would consider it an excellent deal - there were so many people who had to trudge every single day of their lives in order to make a living who would've gladly swapped places with Drake.

But, that would do little to cheer him up. What made it worse was that the goal which he was being led towards was no longer attainable - he had been trained to become governor much like his brother, but he would not realize that dream. Sure, he would still have more than a comfortable life, but that hadn't been why so many resources had been invested into him now then was it?

It must feel terrible to have been groomed your entire life for a singular goal - for that goal to be everything and your only aspiration, only to be told much later that there was no chance of actually attaining it.

He still had a function of course - to be the 'spare' so to speak in case anything happened to Zeke - but what happened to the spare when he was no longer needed? When Zeke would have his own children?

I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He was not in an easy position - and if he spiraled down further, he might end up an alcoholic, given he was already about a quarter of the way there.

He nodded. "You think so?"

"Yeah, the future's not written in stone - who says you won't get your heroic moment sometime in the future?"

The night went on, and finally the sky started to lighten up as our watch ended. Things were not done though, we were expected to stay on the wall until around noon simply because an attack was more likely at this time and they wanted more hands on deck - I just wished they could give us some time, maybe just two or three hours, to get some shut-eye before then.

Then again, I was sure that if there was an attack, all the fatigue would vanish and be quickly replaced by the adrenaline of battle. Still, it was probably not a good idea to have sleep-deprived people who could function as human rocket launchers in charge of your defense.

Even when it was past noon, my job still wasn't done as I had been called to some other section of the wall as a fight had erupted between a group of lizardmen and humans, all of them draftsmen.

I was afraid it would turn into yet another situation which had caused all this problem in the first place - though thankfully it had been nothing more than a small brawl and the matter didn't spill over.

The moment I arrived, and they saw a Liberomancer, both sides calmed down immediately.

I listened to both sides, and really came to the conclusion that they had both overreacted, fined both of them, ordered some healers to heal what minor injuries they had - and then told everyone to go back to what they were doing.

After this, nothing else happened to interrupt my sleep, and I ended up sleeping straight from the afternoon to early next morning - I would've guessed it was around four in the morning when I woke up because the sky was just beginning to lighten up.

I went to my office - it looked like there was some paperwork stacked on top of it from last afternoon, but most of it must have been non-urgent as no one had woken me up for it.

I looked through it all, and wanting to get an early start on the day, signed them all where indicated.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that without reading them, but I couldn't read them as is - I'd need to wait for my secretary to get here to read them aloud for me, and she could do that after I had signed them too. If it was something I didn't want to sign, I'd just shred it.

The next few days fell into the same routine, with nothing much happening regarding the siege aside from some very small skirmishes.

My next night watch was also unremarkable, until dawn began to break.

The sky was a bit lighter, but still a few hours away from a proper sunrise when I noticed something on the horizon.

I found a small stack of crates to stand atop of while I strained my eyes to make sure I wasn't just seeing things - I wished I could fly to get a better look at things, as well as for a whole different variety of reasons.

"Everyone! Wake up! There's some sort of odd movement on the enemy side!"