小嫂子的味道

The atmosphere was filled with mana, way more than what it is now. The world was divided into two parts—one where the land rose, reaching the peaks of the sky, vast mountains of never-ending slopes; they were called the Devil\'s Mountains/

They were the mountains where the dragons lived, but the most feared of them all were the klauths. They nested their homes on the peaks that were above the clouds, and they were only seen on the rare cases when they came down to hunt.

The sky there was black due to the smoke released by the mountains that have turned into volcanos. Thunder and lighting ruled the sky all the days in the year. At the peak of the mountains the wind blew as fast as to tear a man in two.

No man dared to go there. No king was brave enough, no warrior was strong enough, no wizard was wise enough. If someone went there, they were either marked as a hero or a fool. Even the strongest of the five kingdoms didn\'t dare to conquer the Devil\'s Mountains.

On the other side of the world was the great slope. A slanting piece of charred land that connected into the second wonder of the world: the Eternal Ocean.

The Eternal Ocean was also called the end of the world, as no man had ever seen what was on the other side of it, let alone cross the ocean.

It was said that the Eternal Ocean was as deep as high were the Devil\'s Mountains; folks said that the depths of the ocean ran down till it reached hell.

The Eternal Ocean started when a large slope of land, charred and black, where stones replaced soil, went down in a smooth downhill and entered the water. The point was called the Great Slope.

There were no trees, no houses, no flowers, not a single hint of civilization near this place. No one knew why, and they weren\'t eager to know. When the slope ended, the ocean started.

It was shallow at first but with the passing distance the deepness grew enteranlly.

The waters were dangerous. There were stories of monsters lurking deep within the oceans, and while no one talked about it, they knew that it was more than just a story.

No one had ever seen them—unlike the dragons that lived on the mountains—but that just made it even more terrifying. Because they knew that there was something out there, but didn\'t know what.

No one had ever crossed the edge of the Eternal Ocean; the Great Slope was as far as they went. There indeed were a few brave men—or fools, according to the folk—who set their sails against the way of the world and set out to challenge the waters, but their ships never returned.

These were the two sides that made up the world a thousand years ago; the Devil\'s Mountains and the Eternal Ocean.

"So, have you ever crossed the ocean or tried to climb the mountain," Zero asked, interrupting Req in her explanation.

She seemed disturbed by this, as does every storyteller when they were stopped in the midst of something. But her hesitation and the slight sprinkle of anger soon faded away.

"I can\'t say I haven\'t tried, and while I never got the chance to visit the waters I did climb halfway through the mountains," she replied with a sense of pride.

"Were they really the mountains with \'never ending peaks\'?" he appealed.

"Nah, that was just something the people of that time made up because they couldn\'t see the top. In reality, the peak was covered and hidden by the thunder clouds and the smoke from the volcanos, that\'s why it was not visible from the ground," she explained.

"Ah, so it\'s nothing but folklore," Zero mumbled. "But what about the five kingdoms you are talking about? You haven\'t even mentioned them in your…story?" he asked.

Req drew in an irritated breath as she stared at Zero with her furiously narrowed eyes. "I was going to get to that eventually, until a certain someone interrupted me in the middle," she grumbled.

"Well, I wanted to confirm a few things. But hey you have your time now, so continue," Zero replied. He probably meant that as an apology but his blank expression combined with his expressionless voice made it not even remotely similar to an apology.

Req humped and glared at him intently for a while, though Zero gave no response or made another failed attempt for an apology, she gave up. With a sigh, she loaded her fill of words again and continued.

As she spoke her expression grew distant and her eyes seemed far away with the passing of time when she recalled the memories of the past, but that did not stop the words from coming out of her mouth.

"The five kingdoms, huh? That\'s actually the heart of my story, but along with that they were the heart of human civilization too, a thousand years ago…"

The world of humans was divided into five parts, and they were known as \'The Five Kingdoms\'.

The kingdom of Acreyvania, the kingdom of Swuisten, the kingdom of Ustrington, the kingdom of Xaswurhiel, and the kingdom of Askington were the pillars of humanity.

The cities weren\'t that developed but the power those kingdoms and their armies contained and thrived in was immense.

Each kingdom was ruled by a king, and each of them was powerful enough to bring entire cities to ruin single handedly. They were so strong that their mere presence could trample a normal man.

But things weren\'t so peaceful. As far as I know, and as far as you could trace back history, the five kingdoms had always fought. The world was plunged and burned into the flames of a never ending war.

These kings fought. Ever since the beginning they fought each other, lusting for blood. But it was not blood they wanted, it was power. Each of them was immensely powerful on their own, but that just increased their thirst for more.

\'So much power can blind a man,\' it is not merely a quote, these words have been proven true multiple times throughout history. Once you taste what pleasure having great power can bring, you thrive for more. So was the case with the kings.

Each king\'s power was stored in an item he valued more than his life, and if the other king—or any other person—took and broke the item in their hands, the power would change its owner and belong to the person who destroyed the item.

They tried to keep it a secret for a long while, but eventually the world got out. Later they found out that every king had similar items that contained their powers. Thus began the war to obtain the other king\'s item and steal their power.

Each wanted to kill the other four and then through the combined power of all five of them, become the only ruler of the world.

Endless wars were fought, blood stained the soil red, the rivers turned scarlet, the sky was dyed in the agony of the innocents who were caught up in the power struggle. Whenever the king\'s set foot in battle, the earth cried with pain and the sky weeped with thunder.

The war…

"The war continued for many, many years. Countless cities were destroyed, houses burned, innocents killed. A vast majority of people who died consisted not of the soldiers but of normal citizens, as whenever one of the kings directly launched an attack, multiple cities were brought to ruin in the blink of an eye..."

All of a sudden Req stopped, at first Zero ignored it as a pause she\'d taken for effect but the silence seemed to stretch on for too long that he couldn\'t but interrupt again.

"And?" he said

This snapped her back to reality and her eyes that were seeming to lost their colors, lit up with her usual cheerfulness as she grew aware of her surroundings, and where she was…grew aware of in what time she was.

"How does this all connect with you? I know you were giving me a background of how the world was back then but none of it connects with you, at least not from what you\'ve told until now," he protested.

Req passed him a knowing smile, and for the first time it wasn\'t her usual childish smile. It was like the smile of someone older, someone who had gone through a lot and had experienced many things. For the first time in a while, it was the smile of a girl who was truly a thousand years old.

"I\'m getting to that. Gosh, why can\'t you just shut up and sit quiet for once! You needed to know all this in order to grasp what I\'m going to say next, so just shut that damn mouth and listen!" she said in a half-irritated, half-teasing tone.