Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

The arduous task of anxiously waiting for the next customer to walk through the doors of his store was more exhausting for Kaizen than facing the difficult battles against monsters in Rise Online. He felt that as time passed his face withered and gradually his hope disappeared.

Every ten minutes he would come out from behind the counter and carefully tidy up the store, organizing the merchandise with great attention. He looked at the clock on the game interface, counting the minutes, waiting for someone to come in. And when he finally heard the classic click of the door opening again, he cracked a huge smile.

As he turned to attend to his new customer, he was met with a stranger visitor than normally expected. A small orange cat was the one who pushed open the door and entered the store, not a person. On the cat's back was a kind of backpack with a small pocket.

"What is that?" Kaizen wondered.

The furry and quite healthy looking cat meowed as it approached Psyker and sat down, as if expecting something.

Kaizen didn't know what to do for a few moments, but soon realized that that kitty was there to deliver something to him. So he bent down, opened the small pouch on the cat's back, and saw a small piece of parchment rolled up inside. Logically, Kaizen took this paper and opened it. On it, there was a message written.

[Good morning, everything is fine, we hope so.

Please come to the appointed place when the sun is high in the sky.

- Signed by 'The Sisters'].

To Psyker there was no mystery who this letter was from. He was not an idiot. That message was definitely from the Spelloyal Princesses, Ravastine and Lydia. Still, the game made a point of warning him about it.

[The 'Botanical Garden' Story Mission has been updated].

[Mission Name: Botanical Garden

You saved Lidia Spelloyal from marrying someone she didn't want, but it's not all over yet. The sisters have something to tell you, a secret, but that can wait for now.

Meet them in the Botanical Garden today at noon (Warning: failure to meet them will result in mission failure).

Rewards for completing this Quest:

- Find out what Ravastine and Lidia Spelloyal have to tell.

- +5000 XP]

Kaizen found the sudden message strange, because he was thinking that the mission could be done at any time of the day, but there was no one to complain to about it.

He put the paper in his pocket, and when he looked down at his feet again, the cat was gone.

That being the case, the Psyker put on a large black cloak to cover himself from head to toe and shouted to Og'tharoz:

"OG, I need to make an urgent visit to some friends, take care of the store for me until I get back!"

The demon immediately crossed his head from the second to the second floor. "What? I-I can't! I'm a demon, I'll scare the customers with my appearance! And talking...to other humans is something I..."

"Nah! Be more confident, you look nice. Just throw some water on your face and show the equipment in case there are customers, it's not too hard. I'm trusting you! See you!" Kaizen left the store in a hurry.

Og'tharoz's expression was one of pure shock after the Psyker left. He definitely wasn't expecting something like this so suddenly.

After walking for a few minutes, Kaizen arrived in the most frequented part of the Commercial District and picked up Black Cloud from the stall he normally stayed in.

The place agreed upon between him and the princesses was on the other side of town and considering the current position of the sun, he had less than twenty minutes to get there.

With the help of his mare, Kaizen arrived at the Botanical Gardens at the agreed time. Unlike other parts of the Royal City, such as the Lower District and the other urbanized districts, the area where the Botanical Garden was located was very beautiful, full of leafy trees, flowers of all colors, and bird species singing above them.

When he got close to a large glass greenhouse, which was less than a hundred meters from the river that washed the entire west of the Royal City, Kaizen dismounted from Black Cloud and looked around, but did not see any of the Spelloyal sisters.

'Have I misplaced them? Or maybe they are not here yet?'

Kaizen left Black Cloud in the care of a small local stable and waited for a few minutes. Soon, he noticed someone approaching his position.

This someone was a black man who had long braided hair. His clothes were as discreet as Kaizen's and he had a few light gray hairs in his beard. Above his head was a name, Davster Herond, an NPC.

When Davster Herond approached Kaizen, he asked without taking off his hood:

"Are you the man who was supposed to meet The Sisters here?"

The Psyker noticed at the same moment that the reason Davster was wearing a long cloak was not only to hide just his identity, but also to hide that one of his hands was holding the handle of a dagger at his waist.

Therefore, Kaizen showed the same caution, after all he did not know him.

"Who are you?" inquired Kaizen.

"Black hair, tall stature, infamous look, attentive posture.... Yes, I believe you are who I am looking for. Kaizen, isn't it?" The black man said and took his hand off the handle of his dagger. "They tell me that you are new in town, so I will introduce myself. My name is Davster Herond, I am a former Soldier of the Kingsguard. I came here to make sure that you were not followed or that you were not accompanied. Now, if I may, I will guide you to meet the sisters."

Kaizen nodded still a little suspicious.

Together they walked through the entire Botanical Garden, the greenhouse and even a living labyrinth, to finally reach a more secluded part of the area, a grove where there was a small clearing with a large parasol surrounded by chairs in the center.

From a distance Kaizen spotted the two Spelloyal Princesses, having tea and cookies. Beside them was Petril Wyvernjack, the butler.

They were both very happy when they saw two hooded figures emerging from the other side of the clearing, because they were Davster and Kaizen.

"Kaizen! You have arrived!" Ravastine rose from his chair. "We were beginning to wonder if you and Davster had become too suspicious of each other."

"Yeah, that almost happened." Kaizen admitted. "Anyway, I'm here. Why so much discretion and at the same time none at all? Even your butler is here."

Lidia got up from her chair, approached Psyker and began to pull him by the hand to where the chairs were. "Sit down first, I bet you're a little thirsty and full of questions."

"Precisely." Kaizen let himself be guided by the beautiful woman and sat down.

Lidia sat down next to him and began to personally pour some tea. "We arranged this meeting in a place so far away because we don't want unnecessary attention. We are here to tell you about something that is very important and needs to be kept secret."

"What is it?" Kaizen asked.

"We may or may not be wrong, but..." Ravastine began to speak, sitting with a downcast look in the direction of the alb. We are sure that there is something very wrong going on right before our eyes in this realm.

"Something wrong? What do you mean?"

"I believe the first to think that was Davster a few months ago, so he may be the best one to explain it."

Davster approached the table and sat down as well. "Yes, ever since I was a child I was accurate in my hunches. That is, if there's one thing I trust, it's my intuition. And the fact that King Spelloyal, who used to be such a vigorous, cheerful and powerful man, is afflicted with an illness so strong that it doesn't allow him to be healthy enough to even make it out of his chambers.... that was, and still is, something I cannot find normal."

"You are right, Davster." Lidia stated. "It took me a little longer to figure all that out. I was naive... Since no one could, or can, have contact with our father, other than the Queen and the Court Mages, I became suspicious after a while... The mages' final medical diagnosis was that my father is suffering from a degenerative magical core disease, which causes him to absorb large amounts of mana from everyone who comes near him."

Kaizen wrinkled his forehead, finding this explanation strange. "Wait. Even if that's the case, you guys should still be able to visit your father sometimes, no? Absorbing just a little wouldn't be a problem for people with large amounts of mana like you nobles."

Literally everyone at the table nodded, however, as if this was an obvious logical thought, Lydia stated:

"You are right. Still, the mages insisted that visits were not safe, because if there was a sudden worsening of the medical condition, our father could absorb all of our mana and then our life force. It would be very risky to allow something like that, because we are the only ones in the line of succession to the crown."

"That's fine. There is logic in that." Kaizen had to admit.

"The real problem starts exactly in those lies washed with medical terms." Davster stated, gritting his teeth. "When I left the Kingsguard and the Palace, I let Petril know only what I really had in mind. He did not agree or disagree with me, yet I trusted him not to tell anyone else about my intentions. After this, I traveled to other cities and other human realms, talked to many people, many wizards... And finally I found out that nobody had ever heard about a 'degenerative disease of the magical core'. The only existing case in history was of King Spelloyal."

At that moment, Kaizen put a hand on his chin and thought seriously about it.

"Basically, that means that either your father has an extremely rare disease or it's all a lie from the Queen and the Magi..."

Everyone at the table nodded once again. This was exactly the point they wanted to make.

When Kaizen saved Ravastine from Leohorn and then from Taznaar, he didn't even realize that he was putting himself on an endless story path. Finally, Psyker understood this now and couldn't be more excited.

The possibility of the Queen of Tretidian herself being part of a major coup to take over power was real and if Kaizen could prevent that, he had no doubt that great rewards awaited him at the end of this mission.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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