Spending My Retirement In A Game

Even Eisen found himself getting distracted whenever he started doing some work at the end of each day, though probably for different reasons to the others. He had been feeling a creeping sense of dread and uneasiness the closer they came to the capital.

The 'God of the Mountain' staring down at him, as though it was scared of his approach, as though that truly giant man saw a calamity being dragged alongside with him. The fear in that statue's eyes was a fear of death, the fear that one showed after realizing that there was nothing you could do anymore. That there was no way to be saved any longer.

Luckily though, the path to the capital city was one filled with ravines and mountainous terrain the closer they got, so for much of the remaining trip since they first laid eyes on the statue, it had been obscured.

'Out of sight, out of mind', that was exactly what Eisen was trying to live by for as long as he could, though he had no idea why it was that he had been wanting to stop thinking about it. Its sight wasn't even triggering any memories or nostalgia to pop up in his mind or heart, just that sense of utter uneasiness.

At least now they had gotten close enough that it would be harder to look into the statue's eyes than not. The city was built behind the statue's back, with towers stretching out from both the bottom and top of that unnaturally large cave, as though they were stalactites and stalacmites trying to reach out to each other from opposite ends.

While the nomads set up their camp, Eisen approached the chieftain's tent, and stepped inside. Madr was sitting there quietly, still as though she were a statue herself.

"Madr," the old man said in a quiet tone, and the elderly woman slowly opened her eyes, looking back at him with a smile, "How can I help you?"

The old man knelt down as well, "I wanted to thank you for letting us travel alongside you this whole time. But now that we've reached the capital, we're going to go on our way to meet with the King before the council meeting begins."

"Of course, I will also follow as soon as we have finished with our work here. It was truly a pleasure to have you all accompany us. Your people have become dear to ours, truly," Madr said with a soft voice, looking out from the entrance of her tent at some children who were passing by, with their new golem toys in tow to help them carry things around and do their share of the work.

Eisen nodded his head, "I can only return the same to you. This is something that is open to all people of this country of course, but I just want to tell you in particular. If any of your people wish to travel outside of the tribe's already quite far-stretching constraints, you are always welcome in our country. Whether we can prevent this war, or not."

The old woman laughed quietly, "I was about to offer you the same. Your people are always welcome if they wish to stretch their legs to become part of our tribe for a while," she said, as she slowly pushed herself off the ground. She was shaking a bit, but she still did it with quite some speed. While she was old, she was still a Giant, so Eisen knew he didn't need to worry about her health too much.

Madr waved her hand as if shooing Eisen out of the tent, "Now, now, give me some privacy please. I need to prepare myself as well. I will see you again at the council meeting in three days."

"I will see you then. Should anything happen, I will be sure to be there to help out. Don't hesitate to call for me," the old man said as he stood up and left the tent, giving Madr one more nod before he left. He walked by the people of the nomad clan and waved at them as they worked.

He did get caught up in smalltalk a few times, but luckily he was able to get through the hustle and bustle soon enough.

And then, it was time for Eisen to really get himself ready. He stepped into the dungeon and changed out of his regular, more relaxing outfit, into his royal suit of armor. That which he was supposed to wear on official matters. And his entry into the capital city was one of those official matter.

Later on he could relax a bit and make his way through the city on his own terms, but at least for this, there would be quite a lot of eyes on him. After all, the people of the capital were sure to know that a council meeting had been called, since as far as Eisen was aware, his group wasn't the first to arrive here.

That was why he had to make sure he showed his status properly, since after all, this was still a diplomatic journey at the end of the day.

The old man looked into the mirror in front of him as he braided his beard into the golden rings that would decorate it. It would all come down to the council meeting in three days. He had done all he could in regard to preparing the different chieftains and trying to get him on his side, with some being more successful than with others.

He hadn't even been able to convince all of them of his identity yet, though once the council meeting began, that would hopefully change when the others vouched for him. But the last thing he now had to do was meet with the king before the meeting started, so that he could convince him of his identity as well.

If even the king believed Eisen, then the others should be convinced a lot more easily as well.

"Are you nervous?" Kirisho asked, stepping out of the cloud of mist emanating from her pendant, as the mist itself started to drag around her like a veiled dress. The old man looked toward her and nodded, "How could I not be? I'm here to prevent a war, after all. Yeah, it's not the craziest thing I've done, but... if I don't succeed, then so many people might suffer from it."

"But even if that is so, it will not be your fault. You know that, right?"

Eisen silently looked at Kirisho's face through the mirror. He wasn't confident enough to agree with her in this, "Everything here is my fault. I am responsible for so many horrors of this world."

The spirit placed her hand onto Eisen's shoulder, trying to comfort him. He reached out to her hand, holding it tightly, "Worst of all... Samuel is still causing issues," the old man pointed out, "I don't know what he's planning on doing... I'm sure he's going to be busy dealing with the aftereffects of going against the 'promise' we formed.

The promise not to interfere with us in the other world, but... I don't even know how he went against it in the first place."

Eisen was still bothered by this. Samuel had taken over one of the nomad giants' bodies, and at the same time, called for a direct attack of Eisen's home on earth. However, not even too long ago, they had formed a promise, in front of the people of this world as well as the numerous players that had gathered nearby at the time.

A promise that Samuel wouldn't use his power and influence on earth to attack Eisen and the others anymore, and it was a contract supported by a power that even Samuel shouldn't have been able to go against. Though of course, since Eisen still didn't know the full extent of Samuel's powers in this world, he didn't know if there might have been ways for Samuel to protect himself after all.

Nor did he know why Samuel with his fragile ego would even stoop down to doing this in the first place.

There was only one thing that Eisen truly knew. With how important that council meeting was for the future of this world and the 'game', and knowing Samuel's track record so far, there was no way that things would go by smoothly. That he was sure of.