The Crimson Warlock

by Paulo Meireles Junior

  I got out of bed and moved for a bit to stretch, I could feel that my mana was full, and I used 『Arcane Shield』 along with 『Improve』 to test my regenerative rate, nothing was out of the ordinary, except for Mega’s voice greeting me in the morning, he sacrificed himself for me and that wound wouldn’t heal soon but I vowed to myself to follow god’s suggestion, in time I would be fully happy. I deactivated both spells after being satisfied with the result of my test.

  Getting my mantle, I saw the big cut, the result of a direct hit from the Reaper, I used my mana to regenerate the fabric and in a few seconds the mantle was in a new state again. Going to the window, I looked outside and I could see the sun high in the sky, indicating that this was not the same day than the one that I fought the Reaper.

  I looked at the birds in the sky and hoped that the following days would be peaceful. I wanted to travel and meet new people, help the guild and see new places. I felt something in my pant’s pocket so I reached and removed the small object that was inside. It was the stone that god gave me, I now had another objective to do in the long run. I would eventually find this base to see for myself what that other hero left behind.

  I was so lost in thoughts that I didn’t notice the door opening and the footsteps that accompanied it. Turning around I saw a few people get inside the room. Lorelai was looking at me like she was seeing a ghost, behind her the royal doctor, Stewart, was trying to get around her. Princess Alexis, Yuna and Queen Jeanne were also between my visitors.

  “Hello there” I said “how long was I out cold?” I asked. No one responded, what is wrong with these people?

  Lorelai suddenly ran to me and gave me a bone crushing hug, she had tears in her eyes and I frowned, was I in that bed for a long time? Why is she crying? I returned the hug and whispered that it was okay, everything was fine. When she stepped back, she wiped her tears and smiled.

  “You idiot, I was worried about you” I reached for my hair to mess with it in discomfort and looked behind her to the other people in the room, they all nodded.

  “I’m sorry, but you know that I needed to continue my mission” I said crossing my arms “the good thing is: I’ve completed my mission” I smiled “so, how long was I out?” I looked at them all.

  “Two days” said the doctor “I need to examine you to make sure you are all right” he complemented.

  “That is not necessa-” I was about to say when I looked at the faces of the women in the room, I immediately shut up and let the doctor poke me. I knew when to stay quiet and with four women looking at me like that, I wasn’t about to protest being checked by the doctor so I suffered through it.

  After a few examinations, he confirmed that I was in good health and the sighs of relief were audible, they were all really worried about me. It was in that moment that I realized that I wouldn’t be telling them that my intention was to sacrifice myself to save the civilians of Sunnara.

  “See? Nothing to worry about, I just needed sleep” I smiled. They glared at me, what is going on here? Did they rehearsed this? I looked at the doctor and he shook his head clearly indicating that I was alone in that battle.

  “I think we need to talk with you for a bit, James” Yuna mentioned shaking her head “we were all worried about you, and don’t give me that ‘I’m fine’ routine, you were in that bed for two days straight!” holy mother of god. It was better to stay quiet.

  Lorelai and Yuna took turns lecturing me while the Princess nodded and commented that everyone was really worried about me. Apparently I fell from the sky when the palace vanished and Lorelai broke my fall using wind magic; according to the doctor, for a while my condition indicated that I was in a coma, so I finally understood what they were saying.

  “Okay, I’m sorry I worried you all” I looked at each of them “I won’t overdo it again, and I promise that I will take better care of myself” that was a promise I could make. That seemed to make them happy.

  “All right, you must be hungry” the Queen said smiling “I shall order a banquet” she remarked, I nodded.

  “Actually, I need a bath” I mentioned.

  “That can be arranged” the doctor responded “that door over there, inside there is a bathroom, I will ask a maid to prepare a bath for you” he then left the room and returned moments later with a maid in tow.

  “Do you need extra clothes?” Lorelai asked.

  “No, I can clean my current clothes with water and magic, also, my mantle never gets dirty because of the 『Protection』 spell” I answered.

  “James” the princess got my attention “thank you. You saved this capital, no, this world” she bowed “I am very glad that we got to meet such a selfless hero” she finished.

  “I agree, your actions were heroic from the moment we met you” the Queen interjected “this world is truly lucky to have you”.

  “You’re welcome” I smiled, looking at Lorelai I directed my next words “so, you saved me. I guess I owe you my life then” I commented. She hit me in the arm and laughed.

  “You bastard! You’re not allowed to die” she softened her expression “what do you want to do now?”

  “I have to find a place to live” I said “I will of course be hanging around the capital because I like to pester Yuna” she only shook her head to that “in all seriousness. I had a conversation with god” that got their attention.

  “What? What did you talk about?” Lorelai shook me.

  “Something called ‘The Order of Sapphire’” I mentioned “he said I would be interested in seeking their base, apparently the founding member was a hero” I shrugged.

  “I have heard of them” the Princess commented “someone showed me a book that had a story about them, a group of valiant adventurers...” she frowned “I thought it was a legend”.

  “Not according to god, he says they were real. Although, history can be told wrong, I have no idea if what you read about them is true” she nodded.

  “The guild has used them to promote itself before” Yuna said “I have a book about them, I can lend it to you” I nodded in agreement.

  “So, how are you going to seek their base?” Lorelai asked.

  “I have this” I showed them the stone “This supposedly is going to guide me. But I have more pressing matters at the moment… I also want to explore the world” she nodded to my last comment.

  With that I insisted that I needed to take my bath before getting out, the bathtub in the bathroom was way better than the one in the inn but that didn’t surprise me. My bath was great and I cleaned my clothes afterwards quickly using magic before getting outside of the bathroom, a maid was waiting for me and told me she was going to escort me to the dining hall.

  Arriving there I was received with applause, the entire royal family was present, Sir Freed and Emilia were among them, Yuna was also sitting on one of the chairs, His Majesty got off of his chair to shake my hand and personally thank me.

  “Venerable guests, we are gathered here today in honor of James, whose bravery rid this world of a nefarious creature saving our people and our world in the process. Thank you my friend, may you always walk in god’s light. To James!” the King offered a speech before toasting.

  I talked and laughed along with the royals, offering the story of how I defeated the Reaper, skipping a few details, of course, and listening to their summary of the events that happened. The guild had gathered almost twenty mages to help with the defense, apparently the citizens were aware that ‘The Crimson Warlock’ was the one that defeated the nefarious creature that was powerful and bold enough to attack the capital of Heryan. I was just thankful that the Reaper chose to work alone, that saved me time dealing with minions. They would have died fast, but not having to kill them was faster.

  When I got out on one of the balconies of the castle so I could speak with Lorelai about the future, I saw the amount of snow that had fallen upon the capital and I wished everyone of its citizens a happy life, I knew that my work here was not done, but this chapter
was closed and I looked forward to discovering what the next chapters of my story held in store for me.

  AFTERWORD

  Hello there, my name is Paulo Meireles Junior and I’m the author of this book, I hope you liked reading it. I need to tell you a little bit about this project of mine. The primary reason I wrote this book was to practice my English (which is not my primary language) and to develop this universe I created. I’m a big fan of storytelling and I particularly enjoy fantasy settings, which prompted me to create a story like this, but I wanted to involve Earth and gods in the midst of it. And so this little mythology was created, lol.

  My objective with this series is to take James to new locations and I plan on describing more and more different towns, cities and locales in the next book, for now I wanted a relatively enclosed story and I think I achieved that.

  The Order of Sapphire series will take you on a journey to discover new places and meet new allies while James tries to adjust in this new world, you will learn about gods and mortals, about summons and different creatures, about food and the different races, perhaps even about love…

  As you can tell, I structured my story to work with chapters and interludes. While the main chapters of this series will follow James’s point of view, the interludes will also follow other characters such as Lorelai, like in this book. I want to develop more of other characters and using interludes can help me achieve that, what do you think?

  I must say that as a fan of fantasy settings, this book draws inspiration from Isekai titles such as Log Horizon and Death March that are favorites of mine, as well as games like Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy or even Dungeons & Dragons. I wholeheartedly recommend you to check those out for yourself. I also wanted to say that my books are written in a light novel fashion because I am accustomed to that style of writing since I read a lot of light novels of varied genres.

  I need to thank the people that made this book possible: mom, you inspired me to write about the random stuff that I thought. The people that watch my YouTube videos on Guild Wars 2, you guys always enjoyed how I talked about the game’s story and are always prompting me to make more videos discussing it. I also need to thank you, dear reader, for reading this book. Please rate it on the site you bought, it helps me tremendously. If you really like it, please refer it to a friend of yours, that way I can pay my bills, hahah.

  If you want to know more about future projects of mine, including the sequel to this book, you can always:

  * Visit my site: https://www.mrpaulojunior.com

  * Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/mrpaulojunior

  * Read my blog: https://www.medium.com/@mrpaulojunior

  COPYRIGHT

  Order of Sapphire series: The Crimson Warlock by Paulo Meireles Junior

  This book is a work of fiction, All of the characters, names, places and the events that happen in the book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to locales, actual events, persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © Paulo Meireles Junior

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the author or his publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

  Cover illustrated and provided by Bobooks.