About the same time as Danh watching the world from above
3rd person POV
Descenium is the capital of the Empire under Heaven. Here, a million souls go about their daily lives. Normally, with such an immense size, there's just about something happening anywhere and everywhere you bother to look. There's always trades, discussions, gossip, brawls and all other such things to be seen in a city. Not even the night can end the busy streets, for the city is always bathed in the light of the Goddess.
The empire's name is literal. An entrance into Rewardia eternally shines its light upon the city, only weakening at night. Through this entrance, the Goddess holds authority as the Empress of the empire, sending her angels and edicts into Wanarion. However, the Goddess is always busy, responsible for many worlds. As such, day to day responsibilities lay in the hands of the Pope, elected by the Cardinals and, almost always, from the Cardinals. The many institutions of the empire ensure its growth, stability and standing as the world's greatest power.
Today is an exception. Most of the city is deserted, save for patrols of soldiers and policemen, both of whom are paid several times their salaries on this day. They have to watch the grand event from the dozens of projections on the sky. Meanwhile the rest of the garrisoned soldiers and policemen are doing their best to maintain the order in the Light Highway.
The Light Highway, named after the Goddess, leads straight to the Eternal Palace, the imperial government building. It's a vast road, so large that entire war games between armies can be played on. Such is its vastness that not even one day passes without someone wondering why waste such a large space for a street. Now, there is no one asking such questions because it has finally become crowded after centuries of existence.
5 million, that's how many people here. The police and military can barely keep them in line as well as reserving good locations for the more important people. Not only the highway or the sides of it, people have already scaled the buildings to get a good view. In fact, many people are watching from the projections, they are just here for the experience of a bustling crowd. Makeshift shops have been opened by the more perceptive residents on just about every floor. Selling overpriced items would be the obvious choice, except that they don't have the certification for it or are paying taxes. Not to mention the flybys of wyverns and the riders makes for a good warning that the government is aware of them, but let it pass for today.
Just yesterday, the voice of the Goddess of Light sounded out from the heads of every follower. She spoke of a Dark Lord, chosen of the Dark One, who will soon enter the world to attempt to conquer it once more. Then she spoke of her chosen 2 heroes, a duo who will vanquish the darkness and protect the world like the great hero of old. She gave the location of the entrance in Descenium before staying silent once again. Quickly, the words spread across the world. Anyone with enough money made their way to Descenium in whatever way they could.
A day, even for the world's greatest empire, was far from enough to prepare. The empire's officials pushed themselves to the limits and then some more with any magical aids they could find. After a long 20-hour shift with every possible corner cut, they dumped the rest of the work for everyone else to deal with and went to sleep. However, enough had been done, the VIPs spots had been prepared, the weather had been controlled to perfection and the best soldiers of the empire had been gathered.
Now, all 5 million people are here with even more pushing their way in. There are the citizens of the city, the surrounding countryside who rushed here barely after sunrise or stayed overnight. There are emissaries, diplomats and sovereigns from countless nations of the world, seated in comfortable chairs with attendants serving them, their flags raised high. Holding their own banners and symbols are priests and followers of other gods and goddesses. Hidden in the crowd are countless spies, eyes focused to ensure the most accurate information gathered. From orcs to elves to vampires, just about every species can be found. Some hide their traits, wearing thick clothes, ignoring the odd sights by others, most wear their best clothes they could prepare.
All 5 million are the same in their purposes, awaiting the heroes' arrival.
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In the small courtyard
3rd person POV
Behind the gigantic gate of the Eternal Palace, behind the grand hall where elite soldiers in shining armor stand in formation, behind the council where the Cardinals are waiting for the heroes is a small courtyard. There sit the Pope, his trusted friends and some other promising people who are brought along. His bodyguards stand a distance away, blocking the entrances. Nearly everyone is staring at the sky, waiting for the heroes' arrival. Except the Pope, who is calmly reading a book, for he is given far more detailed information than everyone else.
While the general message to the followers was rather short, the message he received detailed the heroes he was to expect. Apparently, they are just young adults, a couple at a university. To put it very lightly, he would question the sanity behind the chain of thoughts required to think that summoning two young adults is better than some great warrior…if he can. Unfortunately, he can't, his communication with the Goddess is one-way only.
Of course, he needed to prepare a welcome fitting for them as well as fitting to what others believed to be a fitting welcome to them. As impressive a grand display of strength and wealth would be, it would also be too overwhelming for two young adults suddenly torn from their world, based on his memory of the first time stepping into this city. However, not showing off the empire's wealth and strength would be too unfitting for the empire's ambition of being the head of the war against the Dark Lord. So, he made a compromise.
While the event would still show off the might and influence of the empire and, by extension, of the Goddess, the heroes would first appear in a more humble place. Then he met the issue that there was no humble place inside the Eternal Palace. Designed to awe anyone and everyone into submission, there is very little area that doesn't cost more than a whole castle with the entire palace valued equivalent to whole nations and that without even counting its influence.
With one exception. To the right of the centermost part of the palace is a tiny courtyard that has been left untouched for centuries. This courtyard is said to be the place where the Goddess found her first believer and built the city so long ago. He has doubts about the validity of the story, seeing that the entrance to Rewardia is at the center of the palace, not here. However, he has no doubt that it has been left alone, seeing how bad it looks compared to the rest of the palace.
With only his friends and certain promising talents of the new generation here, he hopes to give the heroes a calm welcome and to show them the potential allies and friends they will have in their future journey.
A bright light shines into the center of the courtyard from the entrance to Rewardia. All 5 million souls hold their breath as they watch 3 pure white blobs slowly descending to the courtyard. Soon afterwards, they release their breath because the blobs descend surprisingly slow before stopping entirely just a few meters atop the peak of the palace. As the crowd watches on in anticipation and increasing unrest, the blobs remain in place. Even the Pope himself, originally looked on in calmness, now is starting to wonder about the odd delay.
Then, he blinks. It is a normal action which happens every once in a while without the person themselves noticing, unless somebody brought their attention to it like right now. However, instead of the courtyard filled with his friends and the youngsters he has brought along, he opens his eyes to a white place. Confused, he looks down to see the whole world visible beneath his feet. Suddenly remembering something, he focuses his thoughts to that of yesterday when he re-read the public version of the hero's diary. There, the hero had written that he first met the Goddess, a feminine blob of light if he had even been remembering correctly, in a white plane, overseeing the whole world.
There were multiple interpretations, going as far as to suggest the hero was nearly blinded by the greatness of the Goddess and could only see his goal. Apparently the most literal interpretation was the right one as he can still see normally and he is hearing some people talking, one of the voices is particularly similar to the one the Goddess used when she told him about the heroes.
"Hey, snap back to it already and help me out here." That voice said.
He turns his neck over and sees a woman-shaped blob of white light standing next to two young men and a young woman. They seem surprised to see him here, but more than that, one of the boys seems angry while the other two are just bewildered. Deciding to learn more about the situation, he asks the Goddess:
"May I know why has your Grace brought me here?"
The Goddess begins to explain: "Yes, I need help convincing them of"
"No, we will not risk our life fighting for you guys against your 'Dark Lord'. We were university students on our way home. What rights do you have to kidnap us for your war?!" The angry man interrupted, barely restraining from shouting.
His friends try to calm him down, "Don't be so mad, we can have great adventures"
"And probably die." He interrupted again.
While both of his friends are doing their best, and failing, to calm him down, the Pope asks the Goddess an important question: "Well, first, did you?"
The Goddess answers: "Did I accidentally grab another guy alongside the two heroes? Yes, it was a rush job. Though the Dark One seemed to also grab a guy nearly at random, so it should be fine."
The Pope clarifies: "No, I was going to ask whether you did kidnap them or not."
The Goddess pauses to think for a moment: "Well, I just summoned them…without their consent. BUT, it will be fine."
The Pope can feel a headache approaching so he massages his temple and mutters: "Why has the hero of old been chosen so well and not these ones?"
The Goddess, hearing the mutterings, answers: "Oh, he had been chosen the same way. I think your predecessors thought the part that the hero wrote about how he was also a university student and was kidnapped here was not important enough to preserve."
The Pope just stares blankly forward, "But I have to memorize the hero's very important taste in women for my graduation, why was that preserved?!"
The Pope then pauses for a moment and mutters: "Though he did have good taste."
Straighten back up, he turns his attention back to the heroes. He asks the Goddess: "Have you told them about the powers they will immediately gain after descending and the potential powers that they will have?"
"I manage to speak of the powers they will receive after entering Wanarion. Then that guy interrupted me before I could talk about the potential for growth." The Goddess answered, glancing back at the, sufficiently, calmed man.
The Pope decides to start by introducing himself, "I am called Ulwis, the Pope of the Goddess that you are talking to right now. May I know your names?"
The man glares at Ulwis until his friends elbow him. Finally, he introduces himself, "I am Philip, one of the three people your Goddess kidnapped."
Pope Ulwis turns his head to the other two. The woman speaks up first: "My name is Olivia. It's good to meet you."
The Pope nods and waits for the last introduction. The other man begins: "Yes, um, you can call me John. Good to meet you."
Pope Ulwis nods, smiles lightly and begins to negotiate a compromise: "Now, I know that you three are extremely upset because of her actions. We offer our deepest apologies for that. However, we cannot send you back. Can we?"
The Pope glances at the Goddess after that question, who answers: "Not right now at least. A few more centuries at least or after this world comes fully under my control."
Ulwis nods and continues: "So, you can either choose to wait centuries or hope that we can deal with the Dark Lord without your aid."
Before anyone else can do anything, Philip immediately retorts: "How can we trust you guys? How do we know that you will keep your words or that is the only way home for us? For all we know, it may not be possible for us to go home and you are just hoping that we will get attached to your world."
His two companions' eyes widen, seemingly not yet considering such possibilities. Pope Ulwis calmly draws on his experience and knowledge and answers: "You don't and you can't."
Philip's anger seems to pause as he hears the answer, surprised. The Pope continues: "You know just as well as me that there's no way for me to definitively prove to you that I am saying the truth. Not only were you dragged away from your life by forces you can't understand, but I actually also can't know if she was telling the truth or not."
Philip stammers: "But, but, you are her Pope, aren't you?"
Ulwis replies, "Technically yes, but she is very hands-off in her style of management. In fact, I have only just met her in person today."
Ulwis leaves them to discuss their future among themselves, whispering to the Goddess: "By the way, was that the truth, your Grace?"
The Goddess whispers back: "Unfortunately, yes. They will either be stuck here for a few centuries or until Wanarion is under my rule."
Then Olivia opens her mouth, about to say something before her two friends stop her. The Pope says: "Make your decision carefully. It's better to do something that you won't regret. After all, we have all the time in the world here."
The Goddess interjects: "We actually don't have much time left. Already all of your old friends are in chaos as your body falls over unconscious. I'd say we have about half an hour until the rest of the palace goes on lockdown."
Ulwis changes his words: "You have about an hour then. Think carefully…and, preferably, quickly."
The three stare at each other. Olivia immediately answers, eyes bright as if she is, and probably actually is, happy to not have to argue with the other two anymore: "We would be glad to help defeat the Dark Lord and save your world."
Philip jumps in: "But you need to provide accommodations, training, good quality equipment and…"
Pope Ulwis finally runs out of patience: "Deal, we can discuss the details when we meet again on Wanarion. The sooner we get back, the less issues I have to resolve."
Then he opens his eyes to the familiar ceiling of the palace hallway. Which part of the hallway, he has no idea. However, he does recognize the voices around him.
"What do you mean you have no idea what is happening to him? We have spells to revive the dead!"
"I have no solution! He has no sign of being dead or having any diseases either."
"We don't have enough time to vote for a new Pope. Can his friends replace him temporarily?"
The Pope speaks out: "Hey, I haven't died yet!"
"Aww"
"What do you mean 'aww'?!" The Pope sits back up to see that he is right next to the courtyard with his friends surrounding him. Used to their antics, he simply stands up and waits for the heroes to arrive.
The blobs of light finally continue their descent. With a tense silence, the blobs land onto the courtyard and slowly turn into a human form. Then the 3 heroes appear as the light dissipates away. They stand still, surprised, for a moment. Then they notice the Pope, the only face that they recognize and look to him.
The others are quick to take notice of the heroes' reactions, but choose to ask it later. For now, they follow the Pope's instructions.
Ulwis quickly walks to the heroes, "Welcome to Wanarion, chosen ones. We are extremely grateful for your choice to stand with us against the terrible Dark Lord."
Olivia smiles brightly as she turns to look around at everyone else standing behind the Pope. John, on the other hand, seemingly doesn't care about Ulwis' welcome and is looking around at the courtyard. As for Philip, he is making a face that can only be described as cringe.
Ignoring that, the Pope continues to show his welcome to the heroes, "Now, I know this sudden change must be rather shocking to you, so I will let you stay here for a moment to acclimate yourselves."
Olivia quickly runs off to introduce herself to everyone, seemingly happy with the situation. Philip whispers to the Pope: "This place seems rather, um, rundown, for a cathedral, isn't it? Apologies for my directness."
Ulwis whispers back: "This is only the area left untouched for religious or historical, depending on your view, reasons. The rest of the palace will be significantly more luxurious, from my perspective at least. I don't know anything about your world."
Philip nods and looks at Olivia, who's excitedly talking to everyone: "I am a bit surprised your major nobles are this few."
Ulwis answers: "No, these are only the people who I want you guys to meet first. On that note, you seem to have surprisingly many assumptions despite being so opposed to being dragged here."
Philip shakes his head, "I don't want to be kidnapped only. To be honest, being a hero sounds pretty fun, but I prefer knowing of the situation before being a hero. In fact, I enjoy watching, I mean, reading stories about being a hero in another world."
Ulwis asks: "You mean like anime and light novels?"
Philip abruptly turns to look at the Pope: "Wha, How do you know about that? I didn't expect his world to have such things."
Ulwis shrugs: "We don't. The previous hero told us of such things. However, he, and the world, failed to recreate many of the things he spoke of. We have no idea how to create the, uh, 'television', nor produce enough papers for such a large amount of books."
Philip falls silent with the new knowledge that he and his friends aren't the first heroes here. Ulwis suddenly remembers the other hero, John, and looks around to search for him. Unable to locate him, Ulwis asks Philip:
"By the way, where's your friend? I can't seem to find him."
Philip replies: "Don't worry, he sometimes disappears without notice like that. He shouldn't be in any problematic places though."
Then the sound of a massive uproar appears from the direction of the Cardinal Chamber. As everyone's attention turns towards it, Ulwis can feel that Philip's words were not exactly correct.
Quickly rushing into the hallway, Pope Ulwis goes first as everyone follows along. The guards walk to him, "Our apologies, we were distracted talking to Olivia. We accept any punishment."
The Pope replies: "I'll let your captain deal with it."
The guards nod and walk alongside him.
Getting close to the chamber, he hears dozens of voices talking over each other. Then it slowly reduces as he walks ever closer. By the time he enters the chamber, he only sees a cardinal talking to John. The rest of the cardinals seem to physically lower their heads down to hear the sounds coming from the runes on the table better.
Ulwis walks to a nearby table and increases the volume using a circular slider around the rune. As Ulwis is listening to John and the cardinal talking, Philip looks at the oddly modern speaker system and begins to search for more.
He quickly finds the lights shining brightly from runes on the ceiling which are connected by lines glowing blueish. Following the lines, he sees a central control panel consisting of switches not too dissimilar from the equivalent electrical system.
At that point, Ulwis sighs in relief and says: "Good, he just wandered into here and surprised the cardinals because I was supposed to lead you guys in."
Philip asks: "Say, were these systems also made by that hero?"
Ulwis looks around and answers: "I think he made the lightning. The rest were inspired from his descriptions of similar systems in his world."
Philip wonders: "Despite all of these, you can't have television?"
Ulwis responds: "Yes, despite having projections similar to what he called 'hologram', we are still unable to miniaturize them further or make them en masse. All these magical lines and internal pieces are too delicate to make by machines and we can't make them smaller by hand."
While Philip is muttering about hologram, Ulwis walks over to the table where John and the cardinal are talking to each other. The cardinal is currently excitedly explaining to John about the deeds of the previous hero. As he notices Ulwis, he stands up and says goodbye to John.
The moment the cardinal passes by Ulwis, the cardinal slows down and whispers: "I will send a report of his interests to your office."
Ulwis, after just that moment of slowing down to listen, continues to walk with the same pace. He walks to John and gathers him and his friends together to properly announce their arrival before the cardinals.
As the Pope introduces the heroes, the cardinals give them an applause alongside words of encouragement. Naturally, every cardinal notices that there are three heroes, not two. However, none of them wishes to alienate any of the three, in case they are unlucky enough to alienate one of the heroes or the Goddess changed something, so they keep quiet and choose to ask the Pope later.
Then they are led through the main hallway, a massive and luxurious passage designed to awe visitors walking inward. In today's case, it is even more decorated than usual.
Guards in gold-plated ceremonial armor line both sides of the hallway. The floor is plated in gold, so is the wall, ceiling and the pillars. In fact, even the decorations are either gold-plated or made out of gold. The flowers and the vase holding them are made out of gold. The water inside those vases have gold dust sprinkled on. The paintings have frames of gold and their own color themes focused on gold. Even the lighting is golden in color and shines as brightly as possible to ensure everything in the hallway is gleaming golden.
Why is everything being pushed to such an extreme level? Because the diary of the previous hero recorded how much he loved gold. The current popular interpretation is that the hero simply loved gold. Though Ulwis had a suspicion that the hero loved gold because of its rarity and thus the careful consideration of its uses, he accepted the modifications of this hallway according to popular belief.
And so, despite an encroaching headache from everything being bright gold, he still maintains a comfortable face. Turning to check on the heroes, he finds that they are also uncomfortable with this much gold and light, grimacing and raising their hands to block the light. Unlucky for all the artisans who have worked hard to build this hallway. Lucky for him and everyone else who have to actually live and work here that he can demolish the whole thing tomorrow.
The walk is quick as no one wants to spend a second longer in this area than they need to. Soon, they arrive at the great doors. Ulwis turns around, barely making out the shapes of the heroes and the bodyguards following him in the shining light of the golden hallway. He says:
"Through this entrance is the Light Highway, the city's central road. We are going to enter a large carriage for a parade to the city's main gate. Then we will return back here for lunch."
As everyone nods, Philip asks the question on everybody's mind: "Why haven't we gone out yet?"
To that, Ulwis replies: "We still need to wait for the announcement of your descent to finish first. Then we can get outta here."
And so the group waits. And wait. And wait. Then the entrance finally creaks open. While Pope Ulwis has the patience of age and experience, he still has a limit, especially when not enough civilians are looking. As such, he pushes the doors outward.
With a speed unexpected for such a large structure, the doors swing open, shocking everyone outside as they scramble out of the way. As Ulwis quickly goes outside, his bodyguards follow along. The heroes are surprised just for a moment before also walking behind him.
As John checks either side of the doors, he can't see anyone behind as it closes on its own. Ulwis pauses and explains to him: "The doors can open and close on their own."
Philip asks as the group continues to walk: "Can't they be faster so that you don't have to push them every time you want it to go fast?"
Ulwis replies as the group enters the palace's front yard: "The speed is changeable. However, it's usually set low to give the impression of a grand hallway opening. That and the doors are actually very heavy and have caused injuries when it's opened too fast before."
Philip points out: "You have pushed it open by yourself alone. How heavy are they?"
Ulwis simply glances at Philip, who quickly realizes he asked the wrong question. Philip asks again: "How strong are you?!"
Ulwis shakes his head: "Considering how we still need you three, far from enough unfortunately."
As Philip ponders about this thought, he sees that the rest of the parade is waiting for their arrival. It is a great host of tens of thousands of people. As he passes by them, he can see soldiers in gleaming full plate armor, not too dissimilar from those in the museum. What marks them out as different is the strange glow from the odd lines on them. Philip can only assume that's some kind of rune.
Taking a look at his friend John to make sure he hasn't disappeared again, Philip checks the soldiers' weapons. Most of the soldiers carry halberds with a few units carrying pikes, though those are positioned all the way at the back to not block anyone's view. Alongside them are mounted troops with lances, maces and halberds.
As the group near the massive carriage, Philip can see multiple soldiers with crossbows and ginormous metal statues kneeling. With them being blocked from outside view, the crossbowmen are most likely placed to guard the carriage. As for the statues, he can guess that those are golems, because from all the inventions that he has seen, making golems is probably the least surprising thing this world has.
While it is impressive, the words of the Pope make Philip even more worried. After all, they are this strong, why do they need the heroes? None of the answers he can think of immediately is even remotely acceptable.
Looking over at where he remembers John to be, he quickly realizes that John has disappeared again. Fortunately, there is a bodyguard who's now specifically assigned to keep an eye on him after what happened a few minutes ago, who points to John. He is taking a look below the cloth skirt of the carriage, next to the, also massive, back wheels.
Both Philip and Olivia walk up to John to see what he's looking at. Behind the skirt are half a dozen stone statues kneeling next to metal beams connected to the carriage. Ulwis leans down and explains:
"Golems, as you guys can probably guess already. These ones are for labor pushing the carriage, unlike the ones you see around it. The previous hero called them 'magical mecha', if I recall correctly. We use them for just about everything that needs strength."
As the group turns around and climbs the stairs onto the carriage, Philip asks: "I assume there's a person controlling them? What's the difference between the kind for labor and war?"
Ulwis responds: "Yes, there is a person controlling them from the inside. The labor kind is very mana efficient, lighter to move around using other golems, decently strong over long periods, simple to fix and, most importantly, cheap to make. On the other hand, the war kind is faster, better armoured, great for short bursts of immense power and more responsive to controls."
As Philip, walking just behind Ulwis and one of his bodyguards, steps into the carriage, he sees what can best be described as a luxurious bus. There's comfortable seats for everybody next to the windows. Along the seats are several dishes of fruits, snacks and bottles of wine, water and…Pepsi? Apparently yes, there are bottles with a slightly different picture of Pepsi on them.
When the heroes sit down, they glance around more closely and quickly realize that this place was also made in the same style as the previous hallway. As in, everything is plated in gold. In fact, the preparation time was spent hiding the golden parts. The floor is covered in red carpet, the walls are filled with paintings. Even the seats have red pillows to hide the gold.
Then the carriage lurches forward. As it begins to move, Philip realizes: "Wait, why do you still need golems to push this thing and not just make it move on its own?"
Ulwis replies: "Some complicated reasons that I can't explain right now because it requires more time than we have before the parade arrives before the people."
At that point, the carriage passes through the grand gate of the palace. The cheers of the watching crowd soon reach the heroes' ears as they glance outside. There's nothing directly to both sides of the path, because the area some hundreds of meters away from the palace's walls is blocked off from any unimportant people. After all, the weakest moment, or at least certainly the weakest, of the heroes is right after their arrival.
It is the right choice as the heroes are unaware and unused to their powers. In fact, there's a team of a dozen high devils here for that specific reason. Of course, they had already walked around the entire perimeter to search for weak points before the people started to gather. With no gaps found, they gave up and are now watching the procession. Observation is the job of another team that's more trained and equipped for that task.
Back to the carriage, the heroes are led to the top where the average people can barely make out their body shapes. In contrast, the wealthy can make out the color of their clothes…and of the mostly still golden carriage. Then there's the kings, emperors, queens, empresses, head councilors and all other sorts of state representatives. With power comes benefits to have the best sights to everything as well as responsibilities to keep an eye on everything.
They are here to have the be one of the firsts to see the heroes and, more importantly, to ensure that's actually the heroes and not some random teenagers. For that purpose, they utilize their social and observation skills, formed from experiences and training of political maneuvering to get to their positions in the first place. Oh and the mages with excellent appraisal skills, that probably should have been mentioned first as well as the part doing most of the heavy lifting and concrete proofs. The representatives act as guarantors that the mages will not do anything beyond this very specific purpose.
As for the heroes, they look back from the top of the carriage. Unmoving, they're overwhelmed from the attention. While they have known of cities with populations far larger than this crowd, seeing is more than hearing. That and with so many eyes on them, they are unable to think straight or at all for that matter.
Just as Ulwis is beginning to contemplate dragging them back in, Olivia finishes her train of thought. Smiling genuinely happily, she waves her hand and shouts: "Hello everyone, I am Olivia. Thank you for your trust. I will do my best to protect everyone!"
Naturally, no one can hear her from so far away, so the magic circle below their feet transmits the sound to control stations which amplify the sounds. As her words spread, the cheers followed as the people are overjoyed hearing the voice of a chosen hero.
Philip speaks next: "Hello, my name's Philip. I will protect this world to the best of my ability. Any and all support is greatly welcomed."
Ulwis breathes a sigh of relief as he takes his hand off the flagpole where the control for the magic circle is hidden. He hasn't forgotten the disagreement between Philip and the Goddess. As such, he has kept a careful ear on Philip's words. Fortunately, he only has needed to block off the part "to the best of my ability" and "greatly".
The control stations do the rest of the work to seamlessly combine the separate parts. While the people still cheer to the short speech of Philip, the elites manage to notice the irregularities in the tone. With confirmation from their mages monitoring the carriage and their own observations of Ulwis's hand, they can guess that a part of Philip's words is censored, albeit only little.
After that, they wait for Ulwis's speech to begin, also when they can stop caring and do something else to pass the time. Which is why they are surprised when John begins: "Hello, I am John. I will protect you all."
The awkward organization and the long silence between Philip and John allow the elites to realize that the speech is heavily censored. Looking to the carriage, they see Ulwis's hand still on the flagpole and John's mouth still moving with Olivia and Philip talking to him on both sides. As fast as they can, they read John's lips to figure out what's being censored.
From all of their experiences and skills working with careful wording and political intrigue, they successfully conclude that John is, in fact, stuttering. Then John almost drops down to the ground before his friends catch him and drag him back into the carriage.
The people also cheer for the speech, though smaller and stop quicker as they remember that there were supposed to only be two heroes. Pope Ulwis steps in right afterward and explains that the Goddess, due to everyone's hard work at maintaining the order and peace, had seen it fit to grant them another hero to protect them. No matter how many people actually believe that, enough people applaud and cheer that the rest follows suit.
Meanwhile, in the seatings of the wealthy, a beautiful woman watches as the parade continues as normal with Ulwis holding a speech and the heroes resting inside the carriage. Wearing clothes expensive enough to attract attention even without her beauty, yet without the amount of servants and guards expected of a powerful person, she seems just that, a wealthy, beautiful woman. She herself doesn't want to be seen as nothing more than a wealthy woman. In fact, she is only a wealthy woman because getting a good view as a commoner is a pain in the ass.
Then a rich handsome man approaches her in such casualness through the crowd that most would believe him to just be her fate or husband. He hands her an unsealed pretty envelope. She responds with a smile and turns around to open it. The paper inside itself is a love letter, which the woman opens to look at. The content is among the most dearest and heartfelt confessions of love, which is promptly ignored because it's not what the woman is reading and the author writing this doesn't know how to write a love letter. What she is focusing on is what is on the inside of the envelope.
To the average person, it's nothing more than some wriggling lines. To a mage with some basic knowledge about magic, tracing the lines with mana produces sounds in their mind. For her, she hears the unpolished version of the heroes' words. The carefulness of the empire, to place the censorship on the carriage and separated from the stations, ensures that the full content of the speeches remain unrecoverable. Even her spies can only bring her the censored version with gaps and awkward tonation within.
No matter, to depend on a single source is never a good idea. So the rest of her information network will deliver their own parts soon. With all of that, she can form a guess of the heroes' personalities and stances.
Who is she to have ears so deep in the empire? Who is she to care so much about the heroes? Will the author stop asking unnecessary questions to pad out the word count for no reason? The answer to that last question is yes. The answer to the other two is that she is Sylenia, the Succubus Queen. Collecting information is both a duty and a privilege. It's a duty because the information goes straight to Lucy and the Dark One. It's a privilege because, while she is completely subservient to the Dark One out of fear and thankfulness, there's little stopping her from controlling the information to Lucy.
With her near perfect power to shapeshift, owing to her rank and species as a high devil, she's completely indistinguishable from other humans. She comes here both to collect and confirm the information of the subordinates as well as watching the parade for some entertainment.
Then she feels it, the man beside as well, a vibration in the ambient mana of the world. It's a near imperceptible feeling, only recognized by the most powerful of magic users and the magical creatures. Though, just like the message of the Goddess to her believers, it's also a message to the hellspawns, creatures of mana who, even the weakest, can feel. The Dark Lord has also arrived.