Isekai: The Eight Soul Fragments

After the audience with the king Oscar, the five of them went into a large room and sat on the sofa. Serkyrio, Arlesk, Remuel, and Draxus sat on one couch while they faced the King, Queen, first Prince, and second Princess. There were two small sofas on each end of the table which were occupied by Ulysses, and Begona. Each of them were served tea by the maids that came up to the room. They drank a bit of the tea while King Oscar began explaining the history of the world.

"This world, has a great mystery, each country had gone through wars, and alliances, but many countries have been destroyed over the course of thousands of years. However, every bit of information that came from seven thousand years ago, was completely shrouded. As if it's been wiped out from memory. It may be true that time will eventually make us forget the events that occurred in the past, but during the war against the Kitrixia Empire, the records that we held over the legacy of seven thousand years had disappeared. It was on a place that was proven to be impossible to be stolen. But for it to suddenly disappear was tough. Which is why we summoned you all here to help us solve that mystery of disappearing history. The disappearing history not only occurred in Quisterion kingdom, but to every single country in this world." All five of them were listening carefully to the history as it could bring them the answers. Draxus replied while pondering. "Is there something that you at least remember beyond the lost years?" The king shook his head slowly and gave a response. "None, but each country has summoned a hero. Ulysses here is one of them, most of his memories are cleared up because once a hero dies in the country, their abilities will be inherited by someone within the kingdom. Once the new hero fights against a different hero, then he will vaguely remember some of his memories from his past lives." The king turned his gaze to Ulysses and he gave out some information. "From the battle against my fellow hero Illyoda Bohater. I remembered something strange. A great war that happened many years ago. It was stopped when we were summoned for the very first time. It was a completely ruined world with many people dying. The world was nearing its extinction and the sky was extremely dark even on daytime. I apologize, that's all that I can remember." Serkyrio waved his hand as if to not worry about it and gave a question. "What happened to the heroes once their country is destroyed?" The king gave an answer to Serkyrio's question while explaining more things. "Once a country is destroyed, the hero will lose control of his power and must be killed for it. The soul of the hero will be kept on the spirit world until a new country has formed. Once there's a new country, that soul of a hero will move to that country and stay there." Arlesk, who was pondering while listening, asked a question to the king. "How many countries are there right now?" The king took out a map from below the table and called two maids to show the map to them. Looking at the map, all five of them found fifteen countries in the map. The king then explained something to them while pointing. "The northern part up here, is a dangerous mountain filled with extremely treacherous monsters and deadly beasts. Not just them, that land has three parts which going down from the mountains. To its north is a tundra with extreme weather conditions. The west is a holy area with colorful scenery, but it's filled with holy beasts and mythical things. The east of the mountain has a heavily thick atmosphere of mana. Monsters there have mutated into unknown powerful abominations. There are rumors that the monsters that are hunted within the northern area are very delicious. Many people tried to form a country in those areas before due to the rich resources but the risk had caused them to be destroyed before it even began. The Kitrixia Empire once attempted to subjugate and claim the areas to the north but they suffered heavy losses within weeks. By the way, as you can see here there are fifteen countries. Not one of them has two heroes in a single country. And according to Ulysses, there are no heroic spirits in the spirit realm. So if one was to form a country, there was no benefit because there is no hero in it." Remuel asked the king about the specialties of each country. However, the king didn't give him sufficient information. "My kingdom, Quisterion, specializes in making various technological tools. As for the others, I apologize but I do not know." Remuel smiled and told him to not worry about it while having a different thought. "What about the strength of each hero?" The king calmly responded by handing the question to Ulysses instead. "Ulysses, this question is better asked to you." Ulysses nodded and turned his gaze to Remuel. "As far as I know, most of us are almost equal. My title is [Heroic Battle Instinct], so if I have to say a hero that is the strongest. Among the four heroes I have fought so far then it would be against the hero of the country that's allied to Kitrixia. His title is [Heroic Jack of All Trades]. In my opinion, Draxus would be a good match against him." The king who heard Ulysses's remark had his eyes wide open. He turned his gaze on Draxus and asked him a question. "What does he mean by that?" Draxus couldn't really say anything so Ulysses answered the question for him. "Lord, we got bored while waiting for the people to finish preparation so we had a mock battle." The king crossed his hands while pondering for a little bit. "Oswald, how did the battle go?" Oswald smiled and gave a confident answer to his father. "Even with the heroic card, Ulysses couldn't defeat Draxus." The king turned his gaze to Ulysses in shock which made Ulysses smile a little while adding more information. "In fact, Draxus forcefully ended the battle in a draw after encasing me in ice." The king's shock had shot through the roof and returned his gaze to Draxus. "You... You introduced yourself as Serkyrio's disciple correct...?" Draxus, kept his composure and gave a clear answer to the king. "Yes, if you ask me to compare my strength to them then I'm mostly equal to Remuel and Arlesk. But I am far inferior to our master Serkyrio. We once tried to fight him with all three of us at once, and lost." The royal family and the hero Ulysses, were shocked beyond belief to the indirect proclamation of Draxus that all the heroes will be losing against Serkyrio in a battle. "I-It seems that we're lucky to have summoned reassuring and powerful people..." Serkyrio who had the king bow down told the king to raise his head. "There's no need to worry, as I said on the throne room, I will gladly take your request to make the entire world live in piece. You gave us the information we needed after all." The king felt relieved while explaining the rest of the history to them.

Many wars had occurred between countries, and within countries. The king, prince, and hero had given them the explanations for the cause and the effect of the wars. Ulysses provided them with more information about the heroes that he had fought against in mock battles and wars. Only Quisterion was the country that tried to be peaceful actively. After a long time of explaining, the group was about to leave the castle. The king asked the five of them regarding their plans. Begona explained that her side will be dispersing into various groups and lodging on the inns. The king gave them one thousand and six hundred gold coins and four thousand silver coins in multiple pouches. Remuel, with dead fish eyes took fifty of his silver coins and gave it to Arlesk who made a fake cough while saying fifty silver and glancing at him. The king who noticed that was a little curious. his daughter gave him the explanation about Remuel and Arlesk's bet while watching the mock battle. Serkyrio who is in turn to explain gave a similar expression to the king.

"Just like Begona's side, we will be dispersing into groups. However, either of us five may come around to make a report from time to time. I'd mainly let Draxus deal with it though but since he's going solo for the training regime, you may find one of us five wandering around in the castle requesting to meet you. I don't know about Begona but if it's the four of us, it's random." The royal family then greeted them a temporary goodbye as they returned to their group.

Draxus, had his sleeve tugged by Olivia who asked him to visit often. Thinking that she'll be mostly bored, Draxus accepted Olivia's request with a smile. The king noticed the kind of atmosphere between them and started thinking deeply. Remuel on the other hand took out his phone once more and took a picture of the two.

Now, most of the members had completely dispersed from each other and went to various inns. Many failing inns started to get their business back due to the sudden increase of customers. Serkyrio, Arlesk, Remuel, and Draxus met on the fountain of the capital town and had a final discussion. "Now then, each one of you will be exploring towns right?" Arlesk, Remuel, and Draxus nodded to Serkyrio's question. "Make sure to never forget your regime, and feel free to call whenever you need something to discuss." Each of them will be moving to a different direction which was decided immediately. "Remuel, you got the info about the magic circle right?" Remuel who was asked first made a smile while responding. "Yep, leave the research to us!" Serkyrio turned his gaze to Arlesk and gave his words. "Don't get too famous now Arlesk." Arlesk laughed and gave a light response. "I can't help it! Ahaha~!" Serkyrio moved his gaze to Draxus and reminded him. "Draxus, don't play too much Genshin and forget your training ya hear me?" Draxus turned his face away but moved it back to Serkyrio to respond. "Of course sire!" Serkyrio then tapped the right shoulder of the Arlesk, Remuel, and Draxus before giving them an order. "Move out!"