Home is Where the Heart is

"That was way too close for comfort..." Muttering to himself with trembling, blood-tainted hands, the former hero unsteadily rested his back against the wall of the back alley and slid down to sit on his backside.
The most unsettling thing about this isn't even that I almost lost my life to these guys, it's the fact that I failed to anticipate they might still come after me, even though it has not even been a year..

Slapping his own cheek to clear his head and shed off the lingering innocence he seemed to have never really left behind, Taiyo got to his feet and made his way to the inn where his disciples were having breakfast.

"If you can't even tell us what or who we should be careful of, how do you expect us to react ?"

Judis was right. It was one thing to learn about a threat, but if the information about said danger could not be disclosed, there was hardly any reason for them to flee from it. Danger could come knocking at your door whenever, and wherever you were in the world after all. 

"Fine, I'll tell you.. but promise me to reconsider once you've heard it all."

Telling the kids about his past in Ispron while omitting the part about his summoning, Taiyo explained how the power in place back then had operated, and how he and his allies had ultimately managed to overturn that situation, seizing back control over the country.

"The assassins I encountered yesterday are mercenaries hired from the fiefdom we raided, and now that I've fought them twice I can tell you, they are beyond just dangerous."

"'So please go back to the countryside and live a quiet life out of harm's way', is that it ?" Inquired Judis. And Taiyo nodded.

"So you failed to anticipate there would be some kind of last ditch effort to take you down after you faked your death and changed your appearance a little, and now you're asking us who you have put into danger to meekly nod and give up on the ambition we work so hard to fulfill ?"

The former hero was speechless. Behind his airs of carefree, slightly childish boy, his disciple, Judis, was well and truly a man. Not only that, but that same man was also the proud leader of a party of rookie adventurers. Of course he had the capacity to sit back and analyze a situation coldly. He continued.

"You managed to take them all out right ? Then I only see two options to resolve this situation." He assured. "Either you stay around and make sure to guard us to the best of your abilities until you find a way to trace the source of this assault and put an end to it. Or, you go away."

"Who do you–" Before he could voice his rebuttal, Taiyo noticed something about Judis. The young man was clenching his fists so hard the tip of his fingers had turned a bright red. This wasn't an easy thing to say as a disciple and admirer to his master and role model after all.
No, he's right. I can't simply talk about their dream like it's no big deal and close my eyes to the efforts they have put into their pursuit, especially when I myself, have supported their endeavor.

"You're absolutely right." He conceeded. "You have a good head on your shoulders, I shouldn't be so worried about you. And you're not alone either... fine, I'll be the one to leave then. To be honest I had some business to attend in another country anyway, so this works out well I imagine."

Bidding his farewell to the young bunch who stood there with both resolve and tears in their eyes, Taiyo opened the door of the inn.

"We'll be fine here so.." Shouted Judis. "...so make sure you come back !"

Lifting only a hand in response without turning back, Taiyo exited the inn and made to grab his stuff from the guild-affiliated dormitories before he left the city entirely.

From that point on, this former hero's story would turn quite hectic again. Doning his –soon-to-be–signature black and golden gear, the start of a brand new legend born from his deeds, albeit under a different moniker, would soon enter it's first stage.
                                                                         
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"We'll look forward to your return." 

"Come back with plenty of tales for your little sister, got it ?" The woman said, patting her swollen belly.

"I'll make sure to have plenty of them for when I'm back. So please stay safe in the meantime."

Leaving behind those who, in the span of a measly eight months had managed to fill the role of foster parents for this trespasser, the moment had come for him to hit the road again. 

"Hop on Sonemi, we have a pretty long road ahead of us." Acting on his prodding, the young girl, the automaton with the looks of one, swiftly jumped into the small carriage and sat hugging her knees to make herself as small as possible under her already large, hooded robe.


After spending a few months on the run, felling the multiple assassins and mercenaries sent his way, Taiyo had finally received news of Richard finding the nest of the comissioner of those acts. And with how resounding he had made the public execution of that former noble from Ispron, it was basically guaranteed no more attempt at his life would follow. 
So then, with his mind at ease, Taiyo decided to head to the city-state and oldest human city, Matrio. Having bought a brand new carriage to transport both his luggage, and the automaton he had recovered from the bunker, his objective then had been to find an artisan who would be able to teach him more about the old civilization and hopefully help repair the doll.

As expected of a human-supremacist state with centuries of history, the search for a craftsman specialized in those old pieces of junk proved fairly easy. Out of fear of the cleaning protocol, it was usually considered taboo to dabble in those kinds of technologies. That being said, there would always be people who felt a certain thrill from this kind of endeavor, or so he'd expected. The reality was that most people he was referred to ended up being black market resellers and bandits. At least until he heard about a famous weirdo.

The man in question was a pyrotechnician. He ran a worshop with his wife who had been pregnant for about a month when Taiyo met them. Their business being the most lucrative when there were celebrations and national holidays, the rest of the year he worked as a magic tool repairman.

"Now that's quite the finding you got there mister." He'd said when Taiyo presented him with the damaged automaton. "That' said, as much as I'd love to put my heart and soul into restoring this masterpiece of lost human technology, my wife would actually kill me if I did so."

From then, the man who appeared to be in his fifties by Taiyo's standards, revealed the reason for his refusal.
Initially he had been a rascal roaming around the first layer of Matrio. Unlike his peers however, his obsession had not been to steal and resell stuff but to mess around with gadgets and magic tools of all sorts, the likes that had been discarded and thrown into this part of the city. 

Some day however, he himself had found an automaton. It was a robotic dog the size of a yorkshire and the very reason he would go on to become obsessed with lost technology and machinery from the science era.
However, once he ultimately got married and managed to turn his hobby into his profession, allowing him to move up to the second layer and open his own shop, his wife quickly understood how dangerous his pursuit of said obsession was, and where that could lead them.
Indeed, the stares and comtempt directed at them because of what he tended to work on was one thing, but the man was also prone to neglect his health, his wife, and arguably more important, the work that was the source of his income. As such, she banned him from dabbling into these technologies unless they received a direct commission from some wealthy individuals. Which happened on occasion.

"I don't know why your wife forbids you from following your heart, but the one thing I can guarantee you if you access to my demands, is a fine compensation." The former hero said, producing a large leather pouch full of golden coins from his briefcase.

The amount of money Taiyo offered was the equivalent of six months worth of festivities for the pyrotechnician. Which meant he had virtually no reason to refuse the deal.

"Your wife is pregnant, isn't she ?" Taiyo pressed further. "This should cover the days when you'd rather close up shop and tend to her needs." 

That was checkmate. It seemed the young man before him had thoroughly investigated the place before making his offer. And although the craftsman, Icares, was still worried about his dear, Feiya's reaction, he ultimately decided he could not pass up such an opportunity and agreed.

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"I've put the suggestion core inside her as you wanted, but I can still swap it to the obedience jewel at this stage so, which will it be ?"

"I won't change my mind, keep the core please."

To act as a power source, an automaton needed a core. Usually a jewel the form of a star, it was basically both the automaton's heart and its brain at the same time. To prepare a jewel, one needed two things, a monster's magic stone in good condition and, either a scroll, a grimoire, or a magic user proficient in dark magic.

The monster core, devoid of its previous owner's life force, would serve as the catalyst, and the usage of dark magic served to inscribe the orders and, or, guidelines that would be sealed inside of it and thus allowed the creation of a manufactured soul for an inanimate object.
This process was the same you would find for any given magic tool, with the difference lying in the orders given to either object. A lighter for example, only had a small core in which was inscribed the spell ignite with the order to activate only when the lighter's cap was lifted. As for automatons –which were still a thing around the world, albeit only to replace servants or waiters and waitresses– the orders inscribed into their cores were usually the likes of "listen to your registered master's every command" and "learn by mimicking."

Now, what Taiyo had Icares put inside the automaton he'd retrived from the bunker, was the product of a failed marketing campaign which had aimed at selling the people this masterpiece of craftsmanship that allowed their automaton to develop a will and mind of their own. The suggestion core.

"It'll be like having your own child you know ?" Icares had warned him. "Since you'll be traveling, this could cause some issues down the line. Especially when it comes to taking care of her. I gave you a bunch of tools to maintain her in great condition, but those are not brand new. Not to mention practically impossible to find on the market."

Quite frankly, coming from the same man who had spent the last eight months frantically working on restoring the doll, so much that he took to refer to it as her, it was far from convincing.
That being said, Taiyo appreciated the warning. This meant that man, he who had proclaimed himself a foster parent to Taiyo after having learnt of his story and spent almost a year under the same roof, truly considered him something like his son. Which warmed the insecure heart of the former hero with a gentle heat.

And so, after exchanging farewells for the third time with people important to him, Taiyo departed on the journey he had meant to go on when he left Ispron. His first destination would be Fuyanagi, the capital city of the country of the same name, and then he planned to visit Baravia, a land of faith.