The God of Jesters
Chapter 478 - 7.22.6 Weird man.

Chapter 478: 7.22.6 Weird man.

There was a certain story about Duke Wortham that the world didn’t know about.

A story that had made his actions so cruel and random at times.

But this was not the time for that story. What you need to know is that something’s happened and the Duke came to learn that the only way out for him is the world of Dreams.

It was his only refuge in the trouble that he would face in the future and hence he sought the knowledge over the world of dreams.

But to his horror, he soon came to learn that besides a few books that mention certain figures in the past, there was nothing else.

The nightmares were Taboo subjects that were treated with fear among those who understood, while those that didn’t, never even bothered to touch it out of ignorance.

It’s like they never even considered it a venue of exploration, they stopped at the junction of dreams being an amalgamation of memories and experiences formed under random synapses lighting up during sleep.

And nothing more.

This troubled the Duke who could never even find a single line of text about the dream world or how it truly worked.

Well, that was until the discovery of Jester and his servants. "Speaking through dreams." The odd man named Karp, who seemed to have the intelligence of a Child appeared harmless on the surface, and besides using the curses in his experiments, the Duke never actually bothered with him.

In his eyes, even if his Master might be one of those legendary Nightmares, the servant himself was nothing more than a unique curse user whose soul was next to impossible to read due to the odd defenses that were set up on it.

But things changed after Anna and Kassandra brought with them a Trace of Jester’s soul. A clone of his that might have lost its personality, but it didn’t lose memory, which the Duke Savored carefully.

"Karp is it?" It was also through this he learned something interesting about the boy and the means his master used to communicate with his men.

But nothing else, he still didn’t know on how to access the dream world, and even if he could, his strength wouldn’t carry over to that world, it would be foolish to go in blindly even if he finds a way in.

So he needed someone who did understand the world of Dream, he needed Jester.

And from the looks of it, the needs he had could only be fulfilled by Jester.

’Lies or distraction.’ The Duke can’t confirm Jester’s words.

The Story about the Daemon of Nightmares, a being that was banished in the past was back and causing havoc. While none of the churches acted even a little bit?

That was odd.

But what was odder was the strength of this dead Daemon, he is already capable of opening holes into reality to the world of nightmares anywhere in the world through his will alone. Such strength was odd for a Daemon, as the moment they fall, they can’t walk the old path they walked once before.

’Lies, some are definitely lies... but not the rest.’

At the end of the whole story, the Duke has come to understand one thing clearly.

Unless he wishes to expose himself to the annoying churches in his search for the forbidden knowledge, he can’t help but accept Jester’s offer.

A verbal offer that held no binding contract, as beings of their level would never do something so stupid unless they wish to limit themselves in the future, a nod was enough.

"Duke, I would say, I thought you were a scary man who didn’t listen to reason. But I guess my thought was wrong." Jester laughed while the Duke ignored him, his purpose was still incomplete, and he was forced to depend on the goodwill of an enemy.

Such a defeat was not something the Duke preferred. If not for his need, he would have done his best to leave a strong injury on Jester’s body at least. But he held it back at the moment.

"This is our private matter, nothing else changes between us on the battlefield." His words were easy to understand. He might have given up for now, but it didn’t mean he would do anything to stop the war.

That was his duty as the leader of this country, he had to suppress all opposition on his border while keeping the Royal Family on edge so that they don’t turn arrogant like they did during his generation.

And besides, this war started because of Yethel, they were the primary instigator multiple times.

From their attack on Luthanza to exploiting the Ghoul stampede to their advantage. All of it was done by then, and this time, for the first time in twenty years, it was Cynark that was the defending party. Which really put Jester in a tough position. "I am just a servant of my nation, I don’t hold as much power as you might think Duke."

"You are an odd fellow, did anyone tell you this?" At the sudden question, Jester was left speechless. The cold fellow who didn’t listen to his words was gone and replaced with a casual young boy.

But Jester never looked down on this casual smile, he just smiled and nodded. "Many have said the same, and I treat it as a compliment.... So thank you, Duke Wortham."

*****

The arrival of the Duke was a bit unexpected.

From the time and way he appeared, it can be seen that he might be overlooking the form of the distance, and I just messed by casting a powerful Hex while he was in such a close vicinity. ’Or he is here for his Grandson or Farhad.’

For the Grandson, he didn’t think too hard. Amir was special, but not special enough to earn Duke Wortham’s interest.

While Farhad, now is a unique flower that might interest the Duke.

’The son of his hunting dog disappeared, of course, he would be worried.’ Although I didn’t know the real reason, I can always speculate and in turn, come to understand the nature of this anomaly of a duke.

’He holds interest in Farhad, the battle and nightmares. His priority is still nightmares, and from the diverse set of facial expressions he made while devouring the nightmares... they are important to him.’

Devouring the Nightmares, was not something even I could accomplish, that was only for madmen, as the Nightmares were dark emotions, fear, and urges given form under some mysterious power. Devouring them is no different from poisoning oneself.

Even a powerful mage might go crazy by devouring even the weakest of the nightmare, so why was the Duke so happy?

"He is odd... even with intent to capture me, I could barely discern any malice from him. An odd one, a really odd one." With the things I did in this land, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the Duke didn’t hate me.

But he didn’t, instead, he didn’t even mention the dream disaster of Durum or my assassination of one of the Princes of Cynark.

He didn’t even bother to ask me about the talisman hidden in my stomach. Something which was easy to discern for a man of his caliber. But he never asked me to take it out or explain what it was.

"Well Duke, you have my attention."

It seems that I need to up the game a bit. Which can be started by overturning the board where the war was taking place.

*****

"Commence Order 55." It was the message I sent to all my men.

The state of the border was under fine control, Yethel’s main goal was never to push the battle line, they always maintained a tight grip over the battle and focused on killing as many enemies as possible during the war.

They had chosen to fight a war of attrition where the victor would depend on the resources of the two sides. Which included human resources.

And from what he had heard recently after the initial attack which caused massive damage to Cynark’s military, the current state of the border was somewhat stable, but Yethel still had an edge considering their losses were minuscule in comparison to Cynark.

With Cynark’s size, it was easy for them to burn through countless lives without feeling a single bit of loss. And if things kept going the way they were, the Army of Yethel wouldn’t be able to keep up and fall.

That’s where the Order 55 came into play.

An order that I had always treated as the last resort in case something odd did happen as you never know what can happen during the war.

’I never expected that old guy to move.’ And with the Duke being here, things did change a bit.

I can’t go to the mage institute anymore, not after being found out by the Duke.

"Hope we are not put under scrutiny after this."