-Callen-

  Never would I have expected Lexia to go out and bring in a stray like she did. However, now I have to figure out how to navigate the circumstances of dealing with the elf child. As someone who had heard all the stories about our less than pleasant neighbors to the north and experienced the fallout of having my sister shot from the sky, I knew all about the kind of trouble this could mean. Callia was off on her mission to make a new friend of our probably crazy acquaintance Lexia, and Mayor Hew was busy in his office. He didn’t explain exactly what was going on, but in the meantime I was filling in for just about all of his regular duties.

  Which happened to include deciding what we should do with the elf child, who was now explaining that she needed an army to invade her homeland. For some reason she thought Lexia was the answer to that issue, but I’m not even going to worry about that. Instead, I’m more concerned about how the elves will respond when they track the girl to our town. It wasn’t like we had established communications to peacefully return the child, and any human seen near her would undoubtedly be shot. The only realistic option would be to escort her to the edge of the Fallen Forest and hope she finds her way home. However, if she fails and dies on the way home, the elves would blame us anyway.

  To make matters worse, the girl was talking about how the elves were already considering an invasion regardless! In which case returning the girl unsatisfied from her visit would be just as likely to spark some kind of action against us. The best way out I saw was to hope she was an exile for wanting to bring an army to invade sacred grounds. In which case the best option would be to contact the elvish community in the capital so they could recover her, but the only road from our corner of the kingdom still hadn’t been cleaned up. In fact, reports suggested the hive worm was beginning to test the neighboring towns. We had temporarily left Sir Fullart in Porten along with a reasonable number of guards to monitor the situation.

  Therefore, with no other options available, we were left with no choice but to go along with Lexia on how we treated the young elf. For now I decided to leave our little visitor in the care of Mayor Hew and arrange for her to join the children training with Grandpa. With the decision made, I went back to town hall to make sure to alert citizens that we would temporarily have a small elf child residing in our village until the roads are clear enough to send her to her less crazy kin in the capital.

  As I walked in, a big banner dropped from the roof, and people jumped out shouting congratulations and waving small fabric flags with my face painted on them. My brain stalled as I tried to understand what was going on, and eventually I managed to process the words on the banner.

  “Announcing the new Mayor Callen the Architect!” He took advantage of my stunned silence to rush over to me and forcefully pass off the badge of office into my hand, raising it high for everyone in the market to witness. A crowd formed around the building almost as if they had been placed in advance for the ceremony that I still didn’t comprehend was underway.

  “For nearly 124 years I have had the burden of leading our town! Now in my old age I pass down the role into the well-trusted hands of Callen. The same Callen who took the lead in restoring our town, in devising and implementing strategy to resist the villainous baron, and the son of the hero Sir Marek. For the past weeks I have entrusted him with leading our town and watched as we have prospered. The only fault I can find is the boy might be a bit too trusting.” He looks me in the eye and winks audaciously before continuing his speech. “He’s spent time with many of you and knows what kind of work you do, and I will of course remain by his side sharing my wisdom. I suspect the years to come may be some of the most challenging and yet prosperous as bold new ideas are brought by a young and inspired mind.”

  He took a deep breath as the crowd broke out into applause. Finally the dumb look of shock faded, and I held a stiff smile to the crowd while whispering to the old man.

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  “Hew, I think you might’ve made a mistake. It seems that I might need to offload all my work on a ‘wise’ old man, and now that I’m apparently the boss, I don’t think you can say no.” At my comment I felt Hew stiffen next to me, and like an attempt to parry my idea, whispers came back.

  “I’m so old, it’s time for me to retire! You wouldn’t make an old man suffer, would you?” However, it has little effect as I pushed on.

  “Well, it’s mainly paperwork. I’m sure you are more than able. After all, I'm going to be busy implementing all my young and inspired ideas. You’ve dug your own grave, so it's time to lie down in it.” The resigned groan from the old man signals my victory for now, but I suspect in the coming days he’ll try any means to shirk the work I’m going to dump on him.

  I quickly wrap up the announcement and gently pull the elf child along while leading her back into the office so I can sort out her new arrangements. Turns out being made the boss of what looked like countless people had thoroughly impressed the little elf. She had gone from suspicious and slightly hostile of a low rank peon to energetic and curious about my new authority. From her words she seemed to be equating me to the chieftains of the big tribes, but those roles were more similar to a high-rank noble in human communities, whereas I was just the chosen heir of a role with no official requirements or standards other than public acceptance.

  I tried to calm her down to explain my position when she boldly pointed at me, declaring.

  “View Status!” Much to my surprise and incomprehension, my status visibly popped out. Just like when I had shared my status with Grandpa so many years ago. The next moment a notification from the system popped up in my vision.

  Why was this small elvish child a moderator? What even was a moderator? How, What, Why, Huh?! My voice cracked in confusion as the child read through my status like it was the most natural thing in the world. Reading my traits seemed to excite her greatly as she jumped onto my waist, hugging me and begging.

  “Mr. Introduce me to God, please. I need to save my people!” Her face was like a puppy begging for a treat, it was a struggle to calm her down enough so she could share her story in a semi-coherent manner. Everything from the Witch of Illusion to the slow death of her people and how she started her quest to save her mom. Lots of emotion with tears and snot, but I learned some secrets about the world I never would’ve imagined. It was also a big deal both the ring and the crisis she was describing. If dealt with properly, it might be the first step to ending the hostilities with the tribes of the Fallen Forest. However, I didn’t have any immediate solutions, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t later. The girl seemed frustrated and disapointed as I shared the story of how I got my trait and my inability to arrange a meeting with God for her.

  Replacement Issues

  Duke Harlanou looked down at the ravenous, thoughtless animal that was one of his potential heirs. This one was the most promising of those that remained, but it lacked the cunning and thought that Lexia had prominently displayed. It would be much harder to train, and sending it off to acquire a companion like Lexia would be an act of futility.

  He had sent men to double-check that Lexia hadn’t returned from the northeastern corner of the territory, and after several weeks of waiting, no news had come. The scouts didn’t cross the Hive Worm’s territory, but if Lexia had survived passing them, it was unlikely her return would’ve taken such a long time. It’s not like she would struggle to restrain and impress the selected companions. Therefore Duke Harlanou accepted that he would have to rely on the swollen brute monster that was his next best candidate.

  His disappointment in the comparison was easily visible, but the one benefit would be an easier process for creating new heirs when the time came. Lexia wouldn’t have had the time to create as many heirs as a male. None of the male candidates showed enough cunning to be promising as heirs. He would’ve prioritized them, but when abandoning children into the wild and forcing them to fight monsters repeatedly, the weak are culled. Most of the children who lacked a talent for brute force combat didn't usually survive except for a select few.

  This new heir would receive the same year to be “civilized,” but once that was done, he was done waiting for the perfect heir to take charge of his ambition. After all, the important point was that the children would be fighting. He could assign competent commanders to organize and lead the children, and his brute of a boy would naturally rise into leadership as others learn to obey. In the meantime he penned up notices to the neighboring viscounts Nox and Gilbert. Between the baronial branches of the Gilberts and the quality training of House Nox, they should be able to assemble a hunting party sufficient to wipe out the Hive Worms. Ideally they will finish well before his son Bracken is a functional human and with enough time to implement his order to gather an army of children.