Chapter 94: Young Masters

Ravenclaws' Home, North of Scotland

May 30th, 1060

–

It turns out that the attack had not been premeditated by any third party. It was just a small group of young Vampires that knew nothing about the world and felt that they were the top power in it. The member of the group that revealed that to them didn't have a good time. He was thoroughly searched by Erik and Selena with the use of the mind arts. As a reward for his cooperation, Selena had given the poor sod a quick death. It was a reward in Erik and Selena's eyes if compared to what Helena and Robert wanted us to do with him. Let's just say that even as ghosts the duo was very creative in describing ways to keep a vampire alive. It had given their Vampire 'guest' the chills and he begged Erik and Selena to be quick with his death.

But one thing did bring concerns to Erik and Selena and it was from where the group of Vampires had gotten the Necromantic knowledge. A Devil. The group had met with a young Devil that was 'chilling out' in the human world because the tensions were high in the underworld and managed to kill him through backstabbing and looting the Devil's belongings. Between it was a collection of three books that contained the Necromantic knowledge that the group had used to amass their undead army. And for the corpses needed for it, they had raided some dozens of small villages and used the bodies of the villagers, so no fights were coming from Selena and Erik's side to keep the 'guest' alive when his usefulness had reached its end.

Erik and Selena had spent a whole week going through the knowledge of the three books, after Erik had spent a week cleansing the charred field from the corrupted magic that seeped out of the army of the dead, and agreed that the knowledge in it should not be passed forward. The three books were stored inside their family's most secure vault. One designed specially to keep this kind of thing out of the reach of anyone. And it was not the first book that the couple had too stored away. During their life and travels, they would occasionally find books with such knowledge and would store them away in the vault. Of course, some of the knowledge in the books were very useful and not harmful so Erik or Selena would transcribe those parts to a new book and store those in their libraries. The three books in Necromancy had such knowledge about anatomy and it was much more detailed in comparison with the books available nowadays. They had even sent a couple of copies to be available at Hogwarts' library.

Erik was sitting in the lounge room of their house thinking about the situation when Selena entered the room and took his lap as her seat. Erik smiled at her and passed his hands around her waistline.

"What got you in such a mood?"

Selena asked Erik.

"Something that the Vampire had said is bothering me."

Erik said to Selena while adopting a thoughtful look.

"About what?"

Selena asked Erik.

"About the Devil that they had met. He said that the Devil was here on the human world to 'chill out."

Erik said, informing Selena of what part of the information that they had got was the one that got him thinking.

"And?"

Selena asked again, not really getting why that would be any reason for concern from Erik.

"Being creatures of sin, don't you think that they would have a place to do that inside the Underworld?"

Erik asked Selena, who went into thinking mode. Soon enough she was out of it.

"Yes, it makes sense. Your point?"

Selena said slowly.

"I think that something is happening in Underworld that is making even the Devils to be on their toes. And it is grave enough that a Devil would risk a 'chill out' trip to the human world to relax."

Erik said, explaining to Selena where he was going with his line of thoughts. He knew from his past knowledge that the Devils had a big civil war sometime after the Great War but he didn't know when it would happen, and he couldn't say that to Selena. She frowned after hearing that.

"Maybe another Great War is brewing? Have you got anything relevant with your spy monsters in Rome?"

Selena commented and asked Erik. Her husband had left spy monsters cells in each important place that they have visited, and Rome had a lot of them.

"They are not spying monsters. They are surveillance monsters."

Erik said, making Selena roll her eyes at him.

"How do you say it again? Potato, Potato. Same thing. The point is, did you get anything from them?"

Selena said again. The expression that she used was something that Erik used a lot during their years at Hogwarts. She didn't know what it meant in the beginning, but after having him explain to her, she liked it. Two ways of saying the same thing, with the same result. While not useful in magic, which required the right pronunciation of the spells until you managed to do them silently, it was very useful for their day-to-day lives.

"In this case it is different. A spy would go after the information, while someone doing surveillance would wait for the information to go where they were."

Erik said, making Selena roll her eyes again.

"And no. They didn't report anything unusual. Just the usual Church's shenanigans."

Erik said to Selena, who took another thoughtful pose on Erik's lap.

"So if it is not a conflict brewing with Heaven, then it is with another faction."

Selena concluded.

"Or, it could something internal. Some rift between the Devils. Something that would let a young Devil think that the Underworld was not a safe place to relax anymore."

Erik said. By the way that things were going, the Devil's civil war was going to start. And it was the war that brought up four brand new Satans for the Devil race.

"If I at least had some surveillance in the Underworld…"

Erik mumbled, making Selena pinch his waist with strength.

"Ouch."

Erik said while looking hurt at his wife.

"Too dangerous. We are strong, but not strong enough."

Selena said to Erik, giving him her angry face. Erik let out a sigh after that.

*sigh*

"Agreed."

Erik said shortly. He had to agree with his wife. He was strong, but not that strong.

'Yet.'

Erik thought. Magically speaking, his strength could be classified in the middle to high Ultimate class of power, but his body was going up slowly. If he had to classify it, his body would be of High-class power.

'Touki. Touki is the answer.'

Erik thought again. If he learned how to control his vitality energy, also known as his touki, he could bet that his body's power would get a huge boost. But for that, he would have to get his hands in reading material about it or get someone to teach him about it.

"So, Vacation?"

Erik said after a time of thinking, changing the subject of their talk. Selena smiled at him.

"Vacation. Where to?"

She asked Erik. Europe had not much to be seen right now and they had already traveled a good part of Africa.

"I was thinking that we could go to the East."

Erik said. If there was a place where he could learn about touki, it would be in the east.

"The Orient, huh?"

Selena said while thinking about the idea. She had read a lot of histories about the east and their methods of using magic and she had to admit: she was very curious about it. Erik nodded at her.

"Ok, love. I'm buying it. But why do you want to go to the East?"

Selena said. After years of friendship and marriage, she could tell when Erik was trying to lead her to something.

"I want to learn how to manipulate my life energy, in other words-"

Erik replied promptly to Selena before being cut by her.

"In other words, you want to learn touki. And the best information about it is in the East."

Selena said and Erik nodded his head, agreeing with her.

"Exactly."

Erik said shortly. Selena thought a little about it before replying.

"To the East, it is then."

Selena said and Erik beamed a smile at her.

"We just have to decide one thing before: we go there through sea or land?"

–

In the end, the couple decided to go there by land. That way they would see more scenarios and met new people, even if the trip would take much more time.

And time it took. Five years to be more exact. But it was not because the route was bad or anything like that. It was because the couple had taken their time in seeing everything that had to be seen on the way there. Sometimes they would stay in big cities for weeks, and other times they would diverge from the route to do their own exploration, which resulted in their greenhouses having to be expanded due to the high number of different seeds and seedlings that they had picked up, most of them of magical origin.

And goddess blesses the house-elves for existing. Without a small group of them to take care of their house and greenhouses, they would not have time for their travel. In the beginning, Erik had a foot back with the 'servant' state of the house-elves, like every normal person that had lived in the twenty-first century, but after some heavy research, he had learned where the little race of magical beings that were eager to serve had come from. They were descendants of Elves that had been banned from their realm, Alfheim, for some crime that they had done. Without the magic of their land to nurture them, their fate was to die slowly. But some Elves managed to survive enough to procreate with other survivors. With time and a lot of inbreeding, a new race of little deformed elves was born but they still couldn't use magic. It was then that they discovered how to have access again to magic: they would ask to take a little of it from another magical being that was compatible with them. And in Midgard, also known as the Human World, it was humans. But the humans that had magic would not give it for free and it was then that the first house-elves came to be. They would trade their service for a little of the magic from their masters. In some generations' time, their mentality changed to the devoted one that could now be found in every big magical family's house.

But the travel had been worth it.

After arriving in the area that would one day be known as the People's Republic of China and the Koreas, the couple found an area divided into a lot of dynasties and kingdoms. Due to the chaos in the area, and some well-applied illusion magic, the couple explored the area without many problems. The only thing that had 'tickled their internal dragons' was the entitled pieces of excrement that the couple would occasionally meet. Or like Erik liked to call them, the young masters. They were usually the son's, nephew's, grandson's, or brother's of someone important in the region and were raised with a gold spoon in their mouths, Because of that and the abnormal quantity of servants that followed them through everywhere ready to do anything for them, they walked through the place as they owned it. Erik had to put some sense in half a dozen of the type, while Selena had been more… thoroughly with her punishments for the ones that tried to touch her. Let's just say that they would not be passing their genes to the next generation, and if they ever had one, it would because of a green hat that they got from their wives.

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