I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

Cling!

My steel sword bounced off of the titanium puppet’s arm; the vibrations sent a shiver up my arm, yet I strengthened my grip and channeled the sword’s momentum into a sweep at the puppet’s side.

Cling!

It was another successful block as its arm adjusted back down, perfectly guarding its side. With the puppet’s stance focused on stopping the sword, I shifted my footing and sent out a sharp kick toward the puppet’s leg.

Crack!

My foot, which had a slight golden glow, succeeded in making a small crack in its titanium alloy knee joint, yet I only clicked my tongue and retreated back a few steps after seeing the result.

It’s still not enough.

With a sigh, I removed the small mana stone from the hilt of my sword, causing the puppet to immediately relax its stance.

The runes are cool, but they’re really not a replacement for Mr. Flippers.

The titanium-alloy puppet I just finished sparring against was modified to house a few runes that Tatton gifted me in exchange for Mr. Flippers’ help on his research throughout this battle phase.

Runes are simple in nature, only acting as a way to channel mana into pre-determined actions through engraved patterns. Based on what Tatton explained to me, it would take thousands of runes to have a puppet that could mirror a real combatant. Their use in autonomous battle was very limited because of this.

Even the puppet I was sparring against had about a dozen of these runes infused throughout it, yet it only somewhat worked as a sparring partner due to the sword I was holding also having a rune embedded inside it.

Honestly, it was a pretty interesting setup. Runes were placed at various points that would typically be considered vital, such as the head, kidneys, and heart, which would react whenever the specific mana signature in my sword’s rune approached it. These detection runes would then send a signal to a movement rune to position things like its arms or legs to block my attack.

The training was fairly basic, since the puppet had no way to counter-attack, so I could really only use it to focus on my fundamentals.

Of course, I also have to use a weaker sword so I don’t accidentally destroy the runes while I’m training.

Kicking the puppet was slightly underhanded since the puppet couldn’t even detect my foot, but I was trying to simulate how I’d act in actual combat where rules wouldn’t apply.

The puppet reacts faster than I can move, anyway. I can’t even hit its body without throwing it off in some way.

I imagined it was similar to flipping a light switch and trying to whack a light before it started to shine. It’s just not possible to move faster than an instantaneous process.

“It’s not all a waste, though,” I muttered while kneeling down to repair the crack in the puppets’ joint.

Not having Mr. Flippers really limited my training in more realistic combat environments. There was no way a nearly still puppet could compete with a swarm of titanium soldiers on strings controlled by a penguin with enough luck to bankrupt all of the casinos on Earth in a single night.

Even so, this more relaxed approach allowed me to focus on training an area I had been significantly lacking in: utilizing my divinity in combat.

Although I had plenty of experience using my divinity for things like domain creation, that was practically the extent of my exertion.

In the last class, Sky definitely said that divinity could be used to enhance things. Doesn’t that mean I could use it to make my own body temporarily stronger?

It was with that thought process, along with several threads that Tatton left me, that I brought up that very question during our time in his laboratory. I was only met with a smirk and the words ‘you should test it when you return to your domain’.

The result of my most recent attempt at it was currently at my fingertips as I repaired the cracked puppet from my divinity-enhanced kick.

It works in concept, but it’s not very easy to do in practice.

One of the apparent downsides of using divinity instead of mana is that divinity requires a lot more focus to make use of. Up until recently, I had to close my eyes and concentrate just to use domain creation.

Oddly enough, all of the training I've been doing in the last battle phase seemed to make it a bit easier to use domain creation. There’s no way I would’ve been able to use it on a kick before I started.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I reflected on the current situation.

“It’s not a problem of how much divinity I have… I can feel I have a ton in my body. It’s being able to actually infuse and use as much of it as I want into my kicks that’s the difficult part.”

I stood up with this grumble and began inspecting the puppet for any other chips or damage from our spar.

It wasn’t enough to just shove divinity into my foot and call it a day; I had to instill intent into the divinity. The best way I could describe it would be issuing an attack with the divinity and using my foot as a medium.

I didn’t even need to say how difficult it was to think of an attack, propagate my divinity, focus enough on what I wanted the divinity to do, and then move my body in a way that mirrored my imagination, all within a fraction of a second.

That was the limit of my understanding of it at this point, but I was just happy that I finally had a grasp on what I needed to work on.

“That’s good enough for now,” I nodded to myself after checking over the puppet and turning my attention to the giant screen illuminating my domain.

A small smile appeared on my face as I watched the tiny buggy boys crawling across a towering swamp vine on the screen.

My humans really are amazing.

The swamp vines that were on display weren't in the infamous Buggy Bog south of my plateau; rather, they were in a lake in the mudflats of my realm’s western continent. It took me a bit longer than I wanted to admit to even discover that my humans had managed to bring my plan to fruition, yet that didn’t make me any less ecstatic to see that the buggy boys and swamp vines had another region to thrive in.

“That area of my realm really has everything, doesn’t it?”

Nearly everything in my realm could now be found in the mudflats of the western continent. The popcorn plants, looms, cloth, buggy boys, swamp vines, tall grass, and they apparently even managed to bring over some quasi-ducks from the eastern gulf. That’s not even mentioning the giant chickens, poisonous mushrooms, and abundant clay that were already native to the area.

Whenever the Claymore region condenses into a proper state, they’re really going to be a dominant force in my realm.

Their collection was undoubtedly due to the Mergos- a huge merchant group in my realm. After some investigation with the help of my new priest, I came to learn a brief history of the group and about their founder and namesake: Mergo.

Usually it’s my Oracles who make the most advancements in my realm… but the impact that Mergo guy had on my realm might put them to shame. At least in the advancements area, that is.

My chest tingled a bit as I looked over a settlement in the mudflats that resembled something closer to a town than a village through sheer size and clay brick infrastructure.

Enveloped in the proud yet bittersweet feeling, I couldn’t help but lament the fact that I never had the chance to meet my human who had become so influential.

I guess if I’m at the Academy for two-thirds of the time, it only makes sense for me to meet just one-third of my greatest humans.

I leaned back in my chair and began moving the screen back toward my temple.

He did an amazing job building up my realm, so now it’s my turn to take the steps to protect it.

With those thoughts in mind, I quickly located my priest, who, despite being new in my eyes, had already been blasted by golden light shot through my statue’s fingertip over a decade ago.

When I found him, he was handing two young men some cloth pouches stuffed with various supplies on the temple’s steps.

“Remember, you two are free to travel with each other until you reach the river, but you need to move separately once you cross. From what I have heard, the relationship between Ohm and Mich is… complicated. It is best to avoid any unnecessary suspicions that would come from seeing you two messengers together.”

""Yes, Priest Brog!””

I gave him a moment to say the last of his fair wells to the two messengers before speaking as he watched them vanish into the crowded paths of Rygard.

“You know, managing all of these conflicts is a first for me. The world really changed a lot while I was gone, hasn’t it?”

The priest flinched at my sudden words before showing a small smile, “I did not know you were watching, creator of the world. It is hard for me to say. After all, I have only been on this world for about forty years, compared to you who has been here since its creation. With that said, there was indeed no mention of these difficulties in the stories passed down from Priest Brung.”

“That’s good, because any stories of that would just be made up. I did work Brung hard enough to make up for how easy sending messengers and scouts was, of course.”

I couldn’t help but smirk as I reflected on my late priest from the previous invasion.

He really was a good man.

Shaking off the recollection, I continued speaking.

“I know you’re busy sending messengers to tell people I returned, but I’d much rather you focus on stopping all of the fighting going on in the region between Rynntara and the Buggy Bog.”

A forced smile appeared on my priest’s face from my nagging.

“It is not as simple to get done as you make it seem, creator of the world. That was a mission I inherited from my father, long before you returned.”

“Well yes, but unlike before, now that mission you somehow got tasked with managing has an urgency to be completed. I can’t have internal chaos when our world is facing an external threat. I doubt this invasion is going to be like last time…. we’re going to need everyone to work together to get through this one.”

Priest Brog sighed at my comments, “Then how do you think we can stop them from fighting? It is not as though we can watch every village and intervene the second they start throwing spears.”

“Why not?”

“… There are hundreds, no- thousands, of villages in that area. Rygard does not possibly have enough men for that.”

“Why not?” I asked again.

“Well… we need men to take care of daily life here. Between the volunteers I already stationed in the feistiest villages and those I sent out as messengers, we are running out of men to use.”

“Then hold off on the messengers for now. There’s plenty of time before we need to start sending scouts- the next Oracle will likely be someone from the next generation to be born from those who are currently babies. The rumors of my return should spread quickly… especially with the new amazing tool our world has acquired while I was away.”

The priest tilted his head, “A new tool?”

“Mhm. There’s now a certain group of people who already travel around the world and visit villages all on their own, isn’t there?”

Priest Brog’s eyes widened as his mouth gaped.

“How have I not thought of that before!? I am sure the Mergos would not mind spreading the news as they travel!”

There we go! He finally got it!

I pumped my fist with a relieved breath. I had been waiting for him to consider using the Mergos as messengers for the last couple of years, since I was worried about the Academy possibly throwing a fit if I outright told him to do it. After all, despite messengers being a thing and traveling merchants popping up, my realm had yet to combine the two to make an informational transitway.

It probably would have been fine to say, but I figured there wasn't a point in risking it when I was confident Brog would get it with a small nudge.

As for why I didn't give that nudge earlier...

Theres still eight years left until it's even possible to select an Oracle. I think my original plan of waiting until closer to the portal opens to select one should still be fine, so that gives us roughly forty years to prepare. We have plenty of time left, but now we're getting to the point where I want to start the initial preparations.

And the first step of that was, as we had just discussed, putting out the fires of conflict that were already smothering the most populated regions of my realm.

"Yeah, I really doubt that the Mergos would mind, especially if you tell them it's a request from me. They agreed so easily to my request to bring some bows from the gulf, too. So until it's time to send scouts for the Oracle selection, please just put all the men you can get toward stopping the fighting. Speaking of which, there's probably a ton of people in those villages who are fed up with the constant skirmishes; I'm sure you can recruit a ton of them so you're not fully reliant on people from Rynntara. Just think of it as a first wave of recruitment for the invasion defense preparation... I mean, that's pretty much what this is- we're getting the world united and ready to defend," I reiterated.

Priest Brog nodded, "I will do just that, creator of the world. The Mergos usually come to Rygard once a season, so it should not be long before they return. I will ask their forerunners to deliver your message once they arrive."

"That's perfect, thank you."

The mention of forerunners subconsciously made me let out a sigh.

I really screwed up with designing the plateau, didn't I?

Back when I first made the plateau, I designed it as a natural fortress with nearly flat cliffs in the shape of a giant star that extended thousands of feet into the air. Since I wanted it to be an absolute nightmare for invaders, I only made two entrances in the form of natural-looking staircases in the north and south of the plateau. While the northern entrance eroded into a mess during the over 350,000-year gap before my humans were added to the realm, the southern staircase remained mostly intact. Despite it being an intense workout, this staircase was good enough to allow my humans to travel to and from my temple.

It's good enough for walking, but there's no chance those merchant carts can get up there. I was so proud of the design, too... who would've thought it would absolutely cripple my realm's trade economy this far down the line?

Until I got more resource points to potentially fix this issue, my humans were stuck carrying all of their goods up and down that giant southern staircase. Since this was an enormous amount of work, the Mergos decided to simply send up some men to get a gauge on the demand for items so they knew exactly what they needed to carry up there.

"Ah- speaking of which, can you give the forerunners another message for me? Tell them to ask the northern hunting tribes to start stockpiling some of their mountain chicken hides for the upcoming invasion. I think ten percent of their annual hides should be good enough."

"Ha! That is funny, creator of the world."

"I wasn't joking, Brog..."

The priest froze for a second with his mouth going slightly agape.

"... You think the northern tribes would agree to put aside their mountain chicken hides? The hunters who even the Mergos struggle to get a cart full of hide from? The people who will chase out anyone not from their village who even tries to get a hide for himself? You mean those tribes?"

"They sound... a little bit greedier than even I remember, but yes, those hunting tribes. It's for the invasion preparation- it would be a disgrace to their lineage if they didn't donate them, considering how two of my Oracles were from there."

Priest Brog paused for a moment.

"... I was always told that Oracle Ruglace was from Woodwrath."

"Huh? Yeah, that's right. I was talking about my other two Oracles."

"Your other... two Oracles?" Priest Brog questioned.

"Yes. Uunga and Rynn- they were both actually from the same northern tribe, but well, I'm sure it changed a lot between when Uunga left it and when Rynn was born there."

At this point, my Priest was wide-eyed as if struggling to process my words. A vague feeling of unease washed over me, quickly justified by Brog's next mutter.

"That... can not be true. Oracle Rynn- the first Oracle. Are you saying that there was one before him!?"

God dangit!

SLAM!

My clenched fist hit my desk before I slowly raised it up to press it against my forehead as I leaned back in my chair.

How did my realm forget him!? I even told my last Priest to spread the story of Uunga before I went back to the Academy!

At the end of the last battle phase, I chose one final priest following Ruglace's passing. It was during a conversation with that priest that I realized that he hardly even knew of Uunga's existence, just vaguely remembering hearing about an Oracle before Rynn.

Obviously, that revelation meant that one of my fears from the moment the Tree of Victory was named was coming true. I, of course, told the priest to spread Uunga's story after I recounted it to him, but it appeared that effort wasn't enough to safeguard his memory.

Did he even do it? If he did, why would the stories stop spreading?

I took a moment to calm my head before answering.

"Yes... Uunga was my first Oracle. Unlike Rynn, he had no support... he single-handedly stopped an invasion and even went through the portal by himself to make sure the invading Oracle was slain. Without him, my world may have been destroyed before Rynn was ever born," I sighed, "That torch tree outside the temple was meant to be a memorial for him before it got renamed to the Tree of Victory after Rynn's battle. He was the one who brought torch trees to this world... it only made sense that a symbol of his triumph would be planted in a city he designed."

I knew that stories about Uunga were getting less and less common even in the last battle phase... but for even my priests to forget him.

Honestly, I was beyond disappointed- especially since I explicitly asked for my priest to keep the stories of him alive before I went back to the Academy.

Priest Brog, who was apparently hearing news of my heroic Oracle was clearly still trying to process what I had said. Soon enough, he stumbled back as if retreating toward the temple and stammered out another question.

"The city he designed.... are you saying that he was 'the man who shaped the village'!?"

"... So that title is still around, but not the fact that he was my Oracle," I groaned.

Geez Uunga? I know I skipped time often back then, but just how much did you traumatize them for that story to still be passed down?

"The tree thrower! It all makes sense; how have I not connected that sooner!?" the Priest rambled on with shaking eyes, "That legend of the man who designed Rygard- the stories of how he would throw a tree at anyone who even slightly messed up his paths or built a home in them! I thought it was just a story to keep Rygard organized, but if it is true, of course one would need the strength of an Oracle to do such a thing!"

"He... really wasn't as harsh as you made him out to be," I muttered.

Priest Brog ignored my mumble and continued, "You said you told your past priest to continue telling his story, but I can see how it may have been lost. Knowing that the one who shaped the village was an Oracle... could have made some people from Rygard hesitant to support another one."

I completely stood up from my chair at that comment.

"Oi! I'm not just going to let you trash on Uunga like that-!"

"Wait a moment, creator of the world. That is not my own opinion, it is just what I think is an explanation for your past priest's decision."

Haah...

I let out a breath and lowered myself back onto my seat.

"Just please tell the Mergos to spread the word of Uunga, too. He is far too important to be forgotten like this."

The Priest took a moment to respond, "I will tell the Mergos. That might make the northern tribes more likely to put aside mountain chicken hides, but..."

"... But?"

"I... think it might be best if we hold off on spreading the word in Rygard for now."

"Brog..."

I was too disappointed in his suggestion that I could only let out a sigh.

"Let me explain," he started as we walked back into the temple, "There is already a lot we need to manage here to prepare for the invasion and to stop the fighting to the south. The belief that Rynn was the first Oracle is not something that will be shaken so easily... and I do not think that him being the one who shaped the village will be any easier for many here to process."

"So you want to just let his memory die?" I bit my cheek.

"No, of course not. I just think it would be better to wait until after the next Oracle is chosen to announce such a reveal. If this invasion is as tough as you predict, surely the preparations take priority."

Another breath escaped my lips.

Deep down, I knew he was somewhat right. I had just gotten done stressing how my realm needed to start focusing on this battle phase. As emotional as I still got over my first Oracle, it was true that throwing a wrench in my humans' apparent belief in my Oracle history would definitely be an unneeded distraction.

But that doesn't change how I feel or what I know is morally right.

"... After the conflicts in the southern villages are settled and I pick a new Oracle, I want you to spread the stories I'll share with you."

Finally, my priest gave a small grin, "I will make sure I do, creator of the world."

With my composure still weak, I moved my screen away from my temple and looked up to the roof of my domain.

"I'm sorry, Uunga... I should've tried something else before I let it get this bad. I really thought my priests would be more reliable than this."

That was the problem with the gaps between the battle phases. Without any form of writing, sharing stories was like a game of generational telephone where it only required one faulty transition to lose the message.

There were thousands of people who fought alongside Rynn against Ferguson's army. That battle was the pride of my humans... It's no wonder their descendants still talk about him.

As I thought deeper about it, I could easily see the possible reason why his name faded into obscurity. Not only did Rynn coincidentally inherit his largest physical mementos like his village and the Tree of Victory, but my humans also seemingly had no motivation to continue sharing the story of Uunga.

There were no witnesses to his valor. There were no spectators to his bravery. Only I, who was watching his bloodied body on my screen, had seen his sacrifice.

My humans continued sharing stories of Rynn because they can connect to it... having an ancestor who fought beside him is an honor in their eyes.

But just because greatness is unseen, doesn't mean it shouldn't be acknowledged or appreciated.

I thought about the founder of a certain merchant group currently exploring my realm.

If even Uunga's story could fade this much, how many more will fade with his? How many stories in my realm have I never even heard about?

I was sure there was plenty. Whoever created the loom, the first person to deliver corn across the river to the western half of the continent, the people who discovered how to nixtamalize the corn my humans were munching on... there were so many stories that would inevitably be lost to time.

Even if I won't be able to hear all of them, I can at least try to save the ones I know about. Just you wait, Uunga- after I choose a new Oracle, I'll tell my humans- your descendants- everything you did for them.

My mind finally began calming down, and I reflected on my own thoughts.

"A new Oracle, huh?" I mumbled.

As I mentioned, it would still likely be around another forty years before I selected one, despite the eligibility beginning roughly eight years from now. I just didn't want to waste my Oracle's time when the portal wouldn't open for another half a century. I learned how hard the waves of passing time could hit my humans after watching my last Oracle, who was nearly washed away by them while waiting for the toads to attack.

"Ah- right. You wanted me to pick a girl Oracle this time, right, Mr. Flippers?" I asked, turning around.

Oh, right. No penguin...

I clicked my tongue and looked back toward my screen.

"Well, no penguin means no witnesses~ I can pick whoever I want!"

Despite my pouting, I actually had no hesitation about making such a pick, especially considering how the best archer I knew was an elven woman.

I really don't care about the gender- as long as my Oracle is the best at using a bow, I'll be happy. I need to have a perfect counter for their Oracle, after all~.

A smug smile appeared as I watched a caravan of Mergos heading toward a village on the northern Gulf Coast on my screen.

They have about another week before they get there, but once they do, I can finally start the bow training in my realm! It looks like I'll have a lot of people to choose from in forty years~

Now in a much better mood, my eyes glanced over to the blue crystal ball on my desk.

I wonder what my favorite archer is doing right now?