Chapter 3: Aegis

The Sol clan hailed from the Emerald kingdom and were the right hands of its king. They achieved that position by monopolizing trade in the kingdom. The biggest contributor to their success though was the slave trade conducted on the Knoll river in front of them. It flowed through the Knoll forest and this was the excuse they were using to pursue the treasure.

This river led to the great Clear Sapphire ocean and they often provided slaves to the Island lords in exchange for their specialty goods. The Clear Sapphire islands were lawless and often the lords were in need of manpower through any means necessary, a fact the Sol clan loved to exploit.

They often enslaved small clans in their neighboring kingdoms through various unsavory means, but kept an air of righteousness by claiming the slaves all came from battles with the foreign and uncivilized tribes that surrounded the four kingdoms. Of course this could only fool the common people and those in power often scolded the hypocrisy behind closed doors. Despite their holier than though attitudes and empty talks of justice on the subject. They all knew while they were called the four Kingdoms and had vast power in the kingdoms, the true power was the Holy Raiment Empire they belonged to, and causing a war between them over mere slaves was not worth it.

As such despite their disdain, the Sol clan was left to operate as is by the surrounding powers. Of course not entirely, the unspoken agreement with the Sol clans conduct was that they absolutely would not touch any of the ruling powers people, and everyone would simply close their eyes to the situation.

So old Sol Rhee was sweating by the buckets at the accusation pointed at him using this child by Lady Lu. Should Lady Lu pursue this, it would cause an investigation of their clan by the various kings or even worse a plea with the Emperor. Should a decree come down for the Imperial investigators to see if the Sol clan was enslaving nobles or citizens of the Holy Raiment Empire, even the Emerald King they relied on, would turn on them to keep his hands clean. Old Sol Rhee couldn't even blame his Highness for it, as while the king knew of their unsavory methods and even married one of the Sol clans esteemed beauties to receive some of the benefits. The good old king was blissfully unaware the Sol clan really dared to break the unspoken agreement.

The Sol clan recently kidnapped a princess from an allied kingdom outside the area of influence of the Knoll Forest for an island lord. He absolutely could not let this accusation tread more water.

Hastily Old Rhee said" Please don't misunderstand Lady Lu the trade ship in question was headed towards Holy Raiment city, no slaves were on board. If your branch family members were harmed due to our negligence we will definitely compensate you."

As Lady Lu looked at old Rhee her look of rage slowly calmed but still had a scowl on her face as she approached her husband and said "Let us go husband I'm no longer in the mood for this picnic. We must locate the child's family records with the ancestral halls help." She then turned to old Rhee and icily said " At that time your ship manifests better be clear old Rhee... my Lu clan is known as fearless for a reason."

The other two forces leaders by the side were reduced to audience members watching this great play in front of them and couldn't tell what was true and false.

The masked woman simply said " Our Misty leaf army will continue it's patrol and turn over information to the Lu clan regarding any traces of the ship in question."

The big human bear near her also spoke " Us blood warriors will search for the Heavenly Wolf King it must have the treasure, it may have even attacked this ship for it. I suggest the ship manifest be turned over to all present forces we'd hate to be pursuing a treasure headed to Holy Raiment city."

Old Rhee could only think "The bear doesn't have meat for brains clearly he's saying we have the treasure or this little play with lady Lu is a farce, but bears are still too dumb to play with us humans" at this thought old Rhee reached into his coat pocket and brought out a couple of cargo manifest copies. "Here is the manifest my friends, for any news regarding the items or the ship, our Sol clan will definitely provide heavy rewards. As for the passenger list please forgive me Lady Lu, but I will definitely send our records to your esteemed family when I return to Emerald city . "

After the cargo manifest was circulated and a few empty pleasantries were done being exchanged the four forces split and went their respective ways. The news quickly circulated and the common peoples search for a phantom ship carrying great treasures began.

Through out this entire event no one noticed the small child being carried by Lady Lu had an odd look on his face that should not be on a small child his age.

He had a stunned pensive look and internally thought:

Is everyone on this planet so good at spouting bull shit? What is this Lu branch family nonsense? This lady clearly touched my forehead earlier but even I started to believe her. Plus where did the big dog go? Also since when could I understand these bullshitter's words.

As these thoughts were raging on. He heard a cold feminine voice in his mind that wasn't his own.

Aegis log Star calendar 5xxx.

Substance X bonded to human host.

Aegis identifies bonded human as Number 003. Inherited number. Birth: Area 2NA. Agricultural worker. Known age: 250 years. Spouse: none.

Unable to acquire plant based host.

Experiment failure.

Central intelligence unable to eliminate human consciousness.

Warning!

Physical body compromised.

Switching to survival protocols. Protecting human specimen for research department collection.

Error!

Temporal anomaly detected.

Warning!

Aegis System. Critical Failure. Network connection lost.

Error!

Forced attachment to new body for host.

Warning!

Unknown entity resembling wolf attacking host. Stimulating substance X for absorption.

Error!

Unknown consciousness merging with User.

Error!

Unknown energy mass forming in host's new physical body.

Determining next action after reviewing new consciousness memory.

Please hold.

Poor 003 could only think:

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?