Dawn- An age of Darkness

My eyes fluttered open. Usually, when I pass out from stuff like this, I wake up in bed or at least a prison. This time, I woke up straight in the middle of the city, with a hole the size of a small whale behind me, and surrounded by people all around me. 

And then I realized, I was being carried like a princess by Ve. 

When she noticed that I\'d woken, she gradually lowered me and started screaming. "ALL HAIL THE DUKE OF HELSING AND THE ARCHDUKE OF ALFEIME EMPIRE! DAARC GREEN"

My ears kind of rung. This girl could scream! And not to mention her scream was manlier than mine and Dick\'s voice combined. 

Holy, what the hell!?

And the way she said it, made me want to crawl into a hole. 

Everyone bowed, even the people around me- my companions. I was basically the epicenter. 

My vision was still kind of funny but as I looked back and forth, I realized three things. 

One, we were right in front of a large crater, probably the one we crawled out of. Two, there were the unconscious people mixed in the crowd- they were very conscious this time. And three, Ve was actually partially transformed while Alisa was letting off mist. 

\'This can\'t be good.\'

And not to mention I was lacking an arm. \'Where the hell is my sword?\'

But since my companions weren\'t panicking, I didn\'t either. I didn\'t see Servesta anywhere though. 

"Raise your heads." I raised my voice a little. I looked back. \'What am I supposed to do now?\' I glared both at Ve and Alisa. 

Both of them were signaling me to play along. But what the hell was I supposed to be playing along for? I didn\'t even know what was going on? Were we saved? Was the goblin thing public? Did something other than that happen? I didn\'t know!

Meanwhile, Dick just giggled and I could hear that through everything. 

I cleared my throat. "I\'m on a journey across the world, to rid this world of evil. I happened to be in this town at the right time and you can see the rest." I kind of wanted to laugh at myself for saying all this but there was no choice. "Of course, I\'m not doing this out of the goodwill of my heart. But the price isn\'t that great either. All I ask is the goodwill between our people: let there be peace. " I tried sounding a little nice and acting like everything was done for the good of the people, but honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And I kind of wanted to hide in a hole out of the sheer embarrassment. 

"Marvelous!" A man started clapping. I recognized him. He was by the gates when we\'d entered. "Truly, marvelous. Such dedication for the people!" He was in tears. 

Following him, everyone started to clap. And sing my praises. 

Apparently, I was famous. Very famous. 

"Well, that was something." Dick chuckled and stood next to me. "Oh, and I have your stuff in my cup."

I was missing my arm as usual but it didn\'t feel unnatural. I kind of really wanted an arm though. 

I did still have my pendant and the rock hanging on my waist. The rock was in a small pouch. I guess this was either Dick\'s or Alisa\'s doing. 

"Sorry, but they saw me transform and the only way to get out of it was to make them know who you were," Ve whispered. "Otherwise we could have been kicked out of the country."

Sigh.  "What happened afterward?" 

"The goblin\'s nest was right below the city, so we-" Alisa attempted. 

But the decorated soldier- the guy who was shedding tears just moments ago approached us. This was probably just an act. "Lord Daarc!" He bowed on one knee. "I beseech you, o\' kind lord. Please follow me, please grace our lord with your presence!" Was this guy for real?

"Umm- look I-" I just wanted to get out of here.

"That won\'t be necessary." A stout voice came from the crowd. A man walked towards us, judging by the air, he was definitely a noble. He bowed fiercely, just like the man. "Forgive me, my lord, for I had failed to come earlier."

\'Who the hell are you?\'

I couldn\'t say it out loud, but that was definitely written on my face. And what the hell was going on? I was definitely a highly reputed person in Helsing and Alfeime, but that had nothing to do with this country, right?

"I am Venin Dwaran. The Earl of Saram." I guess he could read faces. "ON behalf of the whole kingdom I thank you, kind lord!" 

This was cool and all, but I wanted to get out of here. "Please stand up, there\'s no need for such formality." I helped him get up. I felt stupid when people were bowing like that. 

And I just wanted to get this over with and get out of here. I still had to catch those merchants who scammed the rabbits and took all our stuff. 

And not to mention I came here to learn one-handed swordplay from a certain friend of the geezer. 

"My lord." He looked at me with gratitude and relief. I had no idea why I was being treated like this. He controlled himself and a second later took a serious look. I guess I knew where this was going. "Please save us!"

Okay, maybe I didn\'t expect that. I was expecting something more in the lines of \'please ally yourselves with us, or please sign a treaty.\' But not this. 

I wasn\'t surprised, I was flabbergasted. Didn\'t I save them already? "What do you mean?"

"As you already know-" Nope, I didn\'t know anything. "We are going to war with the humans-" Wait, what? Who was warring who? Excuse me!" You alone are powerful enough to defeat a goblin king, and your comrades are capable too. We just want you to act as a threat to the humans, so this mighty battle can be avoided."

My exploits already reached the town noble? It was still night, so I couldn\'t be sure how long it had been. But what was this guy even saying? Gorgon had said something about a war brewing but I\'d just assumed it was between men and Elves. I never thought dwarves were a part of this!

"MY LORD!" The decorated soldier, however, rebuked just hearing those words. "If your father hears what you just said-" He hissed. 

"Screw that geezer, all he wants is power." I actually didn\'t expect the Earl to say that. Honestly, this was way too random for my taste. He noticed my stare and promptly bowed his head. "Pardon me for such words, but my father is drunk on power and will continue to war with the humans unless our demands are met. I\'m afraid this will be the destruction of my city as we are the border between the three great countries. So in order to live, we must refuse, and stop the war, or we\'ll be decimated."

I just stood silent looking like a fool. "I\'m actually traveling the world for-"

"We know." the man again, bowed on the floor. "You wish to help all the people. We know. And that\'s why, please save my people. I will gladly serve under you and help you in your cause.  Please!"

Now even the people around us bowed. My eyes twitched. This wasn\'t good. 

I looked back, Ve and Alisa sighed while Dick just giggled. "Don\'t look at me, you\'re the one who showed off, Hero." He put extra emphasis on hero and rolled his tongue, giggling a second later. 

I so wanted to punch him.

"PLEASE!" the crowd cried out in unison. They were crying and some were even wailing. 

\'Why the hell does it always have to be like this?\' Honestly, I wanted to cry too. If this was an act, they were really good. 

Ve came close. "Maybe this isn\'t bad an offer," She whispered. "He is from the Dwaran family, meaning he is a prince. So assuming he can ascend to the throne, we can just ask for the strongest weapons of the country."

"Besides," Now Alisa started whispering. "There\'s a rumor that this country hosts two mystic equipment. Are you sure you can let this chance pass? And if you don\'t act now, there won\'t be a country and countless will die." 

Why the hell did these two morons always have to complicate everything?

But they were kind of right. After all, I was looking for ways to get stronger. And I just got comprehensive proof that having multiple mystic equips could be very beneficial for me. 

I sighed. "Fine. But I have some conditions. Let\'s talk somewhere private." I looked straight at the man on the floor. 

"My lord!"  He looked up. 

The people around us started cheering and celebrating. 

All this my lord stuff was kind of getting on my nerves. "Just call me Daarc. Let\'s go."

"Yes, lord Daarc."

How was that better?

Soldiers made the crowd part and as I started to walk out, I kind of noticed a certain harpy looking our way: she was all smiles. 

I went towards her and pulled the sword out of my ring. Since the people already knew who I was, I didn\'t hold anything back. 

"Here." I gave her back the sword. 

For a second she was surprised but she gave me a smile anyway. "Thank you and thanks for avenging my husband and also thank you for rescuing her."

There was a girl right next to her. And now that I looked carefully, the girl did have some feathers here and there but I never noticed it when I fought back in the cave. Yes, she was the same girl I\'d jumped two stories to save and I didn\'t have any regrets regarding that. 

No wonder the Harpy had given me the sword. She\'d hoped I\'d be able to do something with it. Fortunately, I didn\'t disappoint. Though I came close to it a dozen times. Just thinking about it kind of made me shiver a little. 

"You\'re welcome." I smile and kept on walking. 

Both of them waved.

***

"That girl would grow up to a beauty one day," Dick smirked as we kept on walking. 

"You didn\'t try anything funny did you?" I raised a brow.

The crowd was going crazy to see my face even in the dead of night like this. But now that I looked at the sky, it wasn\'t actually night, rather it\'d be dawn soon. 

"Hey, I\'m not a pervert! I\'d never touch a kid!" Dick glared at me with discontent. 

Well, at least he had some honor. "Anyway, I don\'t see Servesta anywhere."

"The thing is-" He came close to me and started whispering. "Remember that guy I told you about? Well, he was here and Servesta left with him since people already saw that he was a demon. The people down there did promise that they wouldn\'t say anything about it though, but I don\'t trust them. I stayed just to say goodbye."

I sighed. "When are you leaving?"

The line of the crowd just went on and on. The soldiers were kind of overworking to maintain them. 

"Right after I get my things." He gave me a smug smile. 

"Oh yeah, hand me over my stuff!" 

He pouted. "You don\'t trust me?"

"Who the hell do you think I went all that trouble for!? If I didn\'t trust you, you\'d be in the goblin\'s nest right now."

He smirked again. This guy was really annoying. "Fair enough."

We had arrived.