A brown-haired handsome young man could be seen standing next to the window of a spaceship. His eyes were reading a letter he had been holding for a while, before a wisp of flame emerged from the tip of his finger and burnt the paper to ashes.
"You go and save them, Emery. I will prepare the rest for all of us."Follow current s on (f)ire
The young man was Julian, the only one from the five Earth acolytes who managed to return home after graduation.
The spaceship changed three times until finally on the third day, he boarded a small ship headed to a blue planet. Looking at the familiar sight, he couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia.
"You have arrived at your destination."
[Planet 1002 - Earth]
[M - class planet - lower realm]
[Sovereign - Nephilim faction]
As Earth was considered a lower realm planet, no spaceship was allowed to enter the planet and its surrounding airspace. Instead, the ship headed towards the moon satellite that orbited the planet.
When the ship got closer to the satellite, Julian clearly saw a huge mountain-like construct camouflaged amidst the rocks, where a gate was opened for the ship to enter. After it made its landing, Julian walked out of his transport with a confident gait. Awaiting him were two magus figures dressed in long gray robes.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Ahh, I see one of you actually made it back," one of the figures said, a wicked smile clear on their face.
Despite the mocking, Julian responded with respectful demeanor to the two. After performing a slight bow, he straightened his back and looked at the two figures saying, "Thank you for the reception, Senior Hades, Senior Hermes. I am Julian, glad to be back."
Seeing the young acolyte apparently knew of their names, gave some surprise to the two magus.
"What a good junior we have here." Hades said, smiling wickedly at the young acolyte.
As if he didn't hear the sarcastic remark, Julian remained completely calm and followed the two as they left the hangar.
When they entered the main building, Julian began to talk in a casual manner, while also carefully observing the place. He talked about his first impression meeting Magus Hermes at the Holy Harvest ritual two years ago and how he has heard of the Magus' famous name from songs and tales, about the eloquence of the god of travel.
As for Hades, Julian decided to ignore him completely, making the magus turn even more irritated at his blatant indifferent attitude. On the other hand, Julian's friendly and respectful attitude, brought a good impression from Harmes as he began to explain the current situation.
"I am the one in charge of taking you back to Earth, but before you leave, the family would like to see you."
Julian nodded his head and calmly said, "Likewise."
He was taken to what appeared to be a dining hall, where three other individuals were present. The first to catch his attention was a large man with a muscular build and long braided hair that fell down his back.
The man was none other than the renowned god of war Ares, who was a Full Moon magus. As for the person next to him, the strikingly beautiful woman clad in a flowing white dress was the goddess of the hunt Artemis, a Half Moon magus.
Last but not least, the person sitting at the end of the table was a middle-aged man with a trimmed beard, the oldest of them all, the famous all-powerful in the myth, god of the sky: Zeus. As for the faction leader Kronos, apparently the man was currently away.
Right in front of him right now were five of the 12 magus of the Kronos factions, the individuals that he or any of his friends had to face in 20 years. Although he read enough data about them, seeing them in person gave a much clearer picture of who they were.
Making use of his charms that he honed during his time at the academy, Julian managed to make a bit of acquaintance with all five of the magus, allowing him to become aware of some of their characters.
Nevertheless, Hades was still very emotional when it came to the Earth's acolytes.
Julian, however, was unfazed by the intense gaze of the man. He still calmly talked about his personal experiences, about the time he spent in the main faction of the Nephilim, and how he understood the job they had been doing for the faction and the people of Earth.
His attitude ended up blowing up the volcano that was Hades, who found his actions very hypocritical.
"Cut out all the acts! Stop pretending that you don't hate us!"
Outwardly Julian was still unperturbed, while inwardly he tried his best to remain calm. Taking a nearby glass of drink, he took a sip and spoke calmly as he put the glass down.
"You're right. I don't like you and to be honest I would very much like to take the caretaker position out of your hands." He paused. "However, I'm sure all of you knew what just happened in the academy, with such tragedy, winning the duel is just a dream right now."
The bitter fact was that only one out of five acolytes managed to return, on top of that, the figure who in the Kronos faction's eyes considered the most annoying adversary – Lord Izta – had died in the Bloody Incursion. To put it simply, the Earth faction was greatly, if not completely, crippled by the incident.
Julian continued on, "We are on the same side now, the Nephilim side." Staring at the five, he said, "I've spent the last six months with the main faction to understand what the Nephilim really want with Earth. If we work together, we can reach that goal faster and be benefited by it."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe then followed by his explanation of what he planned to do on Earth. Thanks to his identity as a native born of the planet, Julian had the freedom to do many things that the Kronos faction could not.
"The faction's interests are above all else, so can we reach an agreement on this matter?"
Those words made Zeus smile as he asked, "What kind of cooperation do you want?"
Without missing a beat, Julian calmly said, "I only wish that none of your hidden agents on Earth messing with my plan."
Instantly, a loud shout reverberated through the air.
"Why the hell should we listen to you!?"
Turning his head to said person, Julian indifferently answered, "Well unless you plan to do something against what the main faction want, you have no reason not to."
Julian closed his words with a reminder about the agreement they had for not disturbing him or anyone on Earth for the next 20 years and he assured them he had a way to report the head faction, if the Kronos were ever trying to break any of the rules.
The threat only made Hades turn mad once again, however the other four magus, including Zeus the oldest, had no reason to reject such a request.
Seeing their positive response, Julian raised the glass for a toast as to seal the agreement.
The truth was Julian didn't trust the Kronos to respect their end of the deal, but such words still needed to be said, and hopefully, they would buy him a few years of peace.
"Thank you for your hospitality, I would very much like to get back home now"
Soon after, Hermes sent him back to Earth, landing on a hill near one of the Roman occupied towns located in Southern Britannia, the territory previously known as the Cantiaci Kingdom.
Looking at the familiar surroundings, Julian closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"I am back."