NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: The report
An old man with messy hair was reading through a report. His mind was concerned, twisting between expressions of bewilderment, shock, and confusion.
"...this."
"Teacher Julius, can you help me prepare that paper?"
"Give me some time to read this. Another paper of an unexplored region? It sounds splendid."
Sunny completed his report on whatever he explored in the Tomb of Ariel. He revealed it's a structure made of the body of Unholy Titan, the culture of Riverpeople, Wind Flower Island nature, Sybils, existence of an ancient civilization that entered the Nightmare hoping to form an army of Transcendents, also the fact that in the Estuary of the Great River there's a source of corruption, defilement. He also described the horrifying swarm of Dark Butterflies sleeping on walls of the Tomb.
On top of that he also revealed his guesses on how to reach the real Tomb of Ariel: Going through an army of ancient undead warriors at night, every single one strong enough to defeat a Saint. Still he didn't mention the Forgotten God.
He wanted to prevent the Great Clans from trying to reach the Tomb of Ariel. The whole conflict between Valor, and Song started because the Chain of Nightmares promised an opportunity to conquer it, and give an advantage to one of the clans over the other.
But what if the Tomb of Ariel cannot be conquered?
The clans will be forced to abandon the war, at least for some time. That will give the Government and the Great Clans time to save more civilians. And also he loved to see the face of Teacher Julius even if he couldn't remember him.
"I absolutely will help you to publish this, young man. The amount of the contribution points you will earn will be very huge. If we had more explorers like you, the world would be a better place."
"Oh, no, teacher. You won't like this part... Here's the problem I want to talk to you about. I don't want to be known for publishing this paper."
Teacher Julius looked at him and started to smile widely.
"An explorer that doesn't want any money. You are really making my day. What a pure dedication..."
"Oh, not this shit again." Sunny interrupted, and continued in a less pleased tone.
"Maybe you are right, but listen closely. If you think it's sweet that I don't want any money, better think what would happen if this paper was published."
"It would refute many theories about the nature of Daemons, bring us closer to understanding how gods died... You could bath in fame, and become a well respected professor..."
"I don't think you want to be known for something like this either. I like money, if I could earn money through this I would gladly take it. However, I don't want to throw away my life just for a bit of credits, and fame. The Great Clans won't be happy. Also no, thanks. I was a professor once."
In the end Sunny convinced Teacher Julius to help him prepare the report to be published without any authors mentioned. The old man appeared to be somewhat refracted about their talk.
Actually they both felt like this was going against their principles. First money, and fame, then honest dedication, and the truth. But it was Sunny who felt weirder about Teacher Julius helping.
Like everyone he didn't remember Sunny, which was depressing, but he knew him well enough to trust him. Julius was just confused like everyone. He remembered helping someone with papers about the Forgotten Shore, and the Kingdom of Hope, but that was it.
Just someone, a wonderful student for which he didn't have any recollection. Sunny was being constantly reminded about the burden of freedom.
He looked forward to publishing the report as fast as possible. The conflict in Antarctica has to end. Lately he heard about the five new Saints taking the battlefield of Antarctica, and each of them was a really powerful one. Among them there was Nephis.
Nephis was regarded as the one that killed Dire Fang as a Master. Because now she's a Saint, her ability to kill Saints was considered more than obvious, and more unquestionable. No Saint could win against her.
On top of that she wielded the Crown of Dawn, an insanely powerful Memory that could empower most Memories by one grade. The enchantment didn't know any sides. Regardless of the wielder of the Memory it would be empowered. That turned Nephis into a force that went solely against the Nightmare Creatures. She could enjoy both benefits of being a member of the Valor family, and fight for the sake of humanity.
'With this we could slay them all.'
Unfortunately she can't stop the conflict between the Valor, and Song. What's worse, knowing her well she doesn't even have the desire to stop it. She wants mutual destruction, because that's what brings her step closer to killing the Sovereigns. He left four shadows there assuming the identity of Mongrel to help a bit here, and there, but there wasn't that much to do. Or rather he couldn't do anything meaningful.
He also resigned from the army. If decided to return he would be just an envoy in the war between the clans. Revealing being a Saint would change nothing.
They took his resignation with a huge surprise, because they couldn't remember him. The best addition to the shock was the sheer number of contributions. That mysterious man received the Order of Humanity, and Transcendent Star of Valor. How were they supposed to tell Saint Cor, that the special envoy he didn't remember, but served directly under him, resigned, and was officially a hero? Yes, they were.
Sunny couldn't help, but laugh at their misery.
After that Sunny's shadows departed. Haughty, Creepy, Crazy, and Gloomy were sent into the Antarctic Center looking for the blizzard...