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Wizard! Chapter 561
Arriving late for an interplanetary trip was a terrible idea. If you missed your flight, you would have to wait days or weeks for the next shuttle… depending on where you were going. Most people stayed overnight at a hotel nearby a spaceport, unless they lived nearby. Then they tried to arrive a couple hours early, because a bit of standing or sitting around waiting was better than wasting an expensive ticket. Very occasionally, it led to interesting conversations between strangers.
“Sooo… you ever hear about the shadow king?” one bored person asked another innocent.
“No.” They said flatly.
“Well it’s-”
“I didn’t mean ‘no’, I haven’t heard it. That was a no, I don’t want to talk about crazy conspiracy theories involving long dead kings.”
“But he’s not dead!”
“Of course he is. There hasn’t been any news on him since like, a dozen years after he stepped down as king. He was probably already dying then and didn’t want to be public about it.”
“How come there’s no record of his death, then?” The conspiracy fan raised his eyebrows.
“People die alone all the time and slip through the cracks.”
“Nah, listen, I have a cousin who works at the census bureau… they work real hard to maintain good records.”
“They can still miss one. Besides, has this cousin of yours actually looked at the record for that guy?”
“Well… not exactly. That’s the thing, it’s kinda private information.”
“So he’d dead and nobody wants to admit it. Or they forgot to change the status. Besides even if he isn’t marked dead that doesn’t mean he’s alive. Do you know how long it’s been?”
“So? People can live for a long time. Besides, if you’re asking that… You know Theo Chaves?”
“… The spaceship guy?”
“Yeah! He invented like, half of modern ship tech, and is semi-responsible for most of the other half. Anyway, he was on TV the other day.”
“So…?”
“So he is married to the sister of the shadow king, and he doesn’t look a day over thirty.”
“Yeah, right.”
“No really, look at this picture.”
“Yeah he looks young, I meant the marriage thing.”
“No no look here.”
“… online encyclopedias aren’t really reliable sources.”
“Yeah but if you look at the backlogs that information has been there forever. Since the page was first made.”
“Let’s say that information is true- which I doubt. How does that mean the shadow king is alive, and why does it matter?”
“It matters because he was super strong and amazing and dangerous. Did you know he once took out an entire platoon with his bare hands? Just flattened them on the ground. But anyway, after he stepped down as king he started working black ops for the World Council, going around blowing up people’s souls! Well, or just killing them. Details on that aren’t clear.”
“Nobody’s destroyed any souls since New Eclea.”
“Not that we hear about. That’s because they get taken out in secret!”
“Ah, so that’s what we’re doing is it?” the doubter shook her head, glancing over at another person standing nearby. “Hey, you’re gevai. Are you from Cruonia? Can you believe this stuff?”
“Sure. It’s all more or less true. Sometimes less. I mean, he was a ki cultivator, right? So fighting unarmed didn’t really mean anything. Oh, time to board.”
The doubter sighed, “I can’t believe some random person backed you up.” She looked over at the conspiracy fan, “What? Why are you just standing there slackjawed?”
He just stood still for a few more seconds, one hand fiddling with his handheld computer. He held it up, “Look at this.”
“It’s… a picture of a dude.”
“It’s a picture of that guy!” the conspiracy fan scrolled through other pictures in the folder, “All of these are pictures of the shadow king!”
“… huh. I guess there’s really random people who look the same out there. The guy getting on the shuttle is missing the crown and robes though. And we’ll be missing the shuttle if we don’t hurry.”
—–
William found that the most useful innovation for space exploration came from the dwarves. Since they lived underground, they were well suited for moving to new planets without atmospheres. Of course, they still had to modify their air recycling methods to not involve the outside at all, but they had a good starting point. By constructing the first colonies on the moon underground, they also required less materials to build their structures.
William was surprised at how quickly colonization of the system took off, though except for the moon and one other planet, most planets mostly had orbital space stations and no real colonies. However, stopping by gas giants allowed both refilling some sources of fuel as well as mana. As for where they might go after that… well, William wasn’t quite sure. There were several nearby systems that seemed to be good candidates, but the technology to get there in a reasonable amount of time was still in development. With Theo’s help, they would certainly get there but unfortunately he didn’t manage to bring detailed blueprints and manufacturing processes with him. At the current time they could get there without Theo, or even without all the designs he had already published… but it would take several times as long.
Overall, William had an optimistic view of the future. Wars were infrequent and relatively small, though only through continuous work by a large number of people. Overall, poverty was low and education high. William rarely had to investigate into anything involving soul destructions or even anything closely related. Most people had forgotten him as well, except as a general figure. He preferred that, because he liked to have the freedom to do what he wanted without everyone watching and judging him. Sometimes that was a vacation, but more often than not it was helping Lorelei study whatever interesting thing she had latched onto at the moment. Maybe one day they would run out of things to study… and pass on. However, the universe was big, so William doubted it would be soon.
Author’s note:
This is the final chapter. It’s weird to see my longest running series end. Let’s hope for more good series in the future.
Thanks for this great series and the work you put into it.
Thanks for this great series and your hard work.
This was such a brilliant story I am really grateful for the work you put into this
You forgot to mention if he’s still walking around with Chris… or maybe the crystalis something akin the core for one of main magical-internet? Or he got himself some other interesting job?
I’ve been following this story for a long time. I’m sad to see it go, but all things must end eventually. It was a good story that I enjoyed immensely….though, now that i think about it….I can kind of imagine a story about a demon king in space and creating an instellar empire. I guess I’m just too attached to William. He’s my favorite of your characters so far. I’ll miss you William!
Many thanks to the author; I looked forward to reading chapters every day. I’ll miss this story.
But what happened to each of the countries? I’m interested in Ostana as that was where he was born on this planet, right? And what about Tiburcio? He still around? What of his brother?
Maybe it was already addressed, but was it because the old Demon King was destroying souls that he and others were pulled to this planet? Are no others from outside being pulled here currently?
Wasn’t he gonna write a book? I had thought he was gonna explain his life and what happened in it. That mustn’t have happened as those people were still speculating about him. What was the book about then? Or maybe people feel that over the passage of time that the book isn’t credible anymore?
And as the previous guy said, where is Chris? They wouldn’t want to be separated. And if anyone could eventually try and put Chris into a real body, it’d be the MC. Not that he’d want to, but maybe eventually he feels he’s strong enough and has enough experience to try. Maybe a gevai dies young and they have a body. . .
Anyway, thanks for the story!
This sounds like it could legitimately be a prequel to your space story!
Thanks for the chapters! I really look forward to your next work that’s coming and the extra chapters for Berserker!
Good job. Sad as I am to see this go, its nice to see an author actually finish a novel on a relatively final note. Congrats.
Ahhhh… Wow. I’m a bit out of words. So it ends. That left an interesting setting behind with underground dwarf moonbases, unexplored depths of the sea full of monsters, magic and science. Reminds me in a good way about Wizardry or Star Wars ep 4 – ep 6 / SW:KOTOR.
Dwarves, elves, gevai and humans all had their racial quirks regarding mana manipulation. Maybe there is or will be a race which is good with magic in space.
Heh, and I think shadow king’s would be fun with conspiracy theory fan on the same ship.
I liked this book.