The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 391 – Artist Silent and Artist Loud

The Noble War. It sounds like a fantastic idea, does it not? Mortal children seem to possess it intuitively. Two boys will play fight, beat each other into the ground, as the audience cheers and watches. I really do believe that people are born with nobility in their hearts in this regard. The two fighting participants will be cheered for and then, they will pick each other up, they’ll shake hands, they’ll laugh. They’ll find community in the fact they are scolded by their parents.

A similar phenomena existed from the Era of Worldbreaking to the conflict that is typically referred to as the Great War. This span of time, I would refer to as the Golden Age of Warfare. The concept of chivalry, inspired by pre-Worldbreaking Heroes, came into fruition. Battlefields were actual fields designated for battle. Two armies would meet, swing swords, and a victor would be decided. Divines would even be called upon to watch and oversee and make sure the consequences of the battle would be carried out. Warfare was truly a game for nobles, for their volunteer levies and for mercenaries. It was by no means the most peaceful time in the history of Arda, but if a man did not want to even touch a sword, he could live in a city and know that war was happening simply because of the fact his ruler would change every decade or so. War was Noble. War was outdated. War had to be opened up. Arascus came to me and Arascus gave me a simple mission: to tear warfare from its gatekeepers. I did. I went above and beyond. I revolutionized warfare so greatly that Kassandora could only weep at what I did to her field.

I killed Nobility in Warfare.

Not Kassandora. Not Fortia. Not Irinika or Allasaria. Not even Arascus. Not Helenna. It was me. It was Malam that can be thanked for the Great War. No one else. Arascus laid the foundation for the Divine Conflict, but it is because of me that Kassandora had armies to wield. It is because of me that mortals walked shoulder-to-shoulder with beastmen. It is because of me that the idea of a school of sorcery came about. And I was not done.

The Noble War was noble because, like real nobility, it was exclusionary. It was a thing for the elite. I opened up warfare. I destroyed these old concepts of nobility: training men for killing was spat upon. Only the dregs that would become mercenaries would waste their own life learning how to end the lives of others; the heroic, self-sacrificial army replaced the mercenary. The battlefield was replaced by the city and the castle. After all, we were no longer playing around at Noble War, we were fighting to win. And volunteer levies? Please, do not make me laugh. Everyone could fight, everyone should fight! What better way to prove one’s worth than that? The old aristocracy of blood was outdated. It was unfair that men benefit from the achievements of their ancestors. They had to once again prove their worth. And there was only one field in which everyone could compete.

War was no longer noble because I made war meritocratic.

- Excerpt from ‘A Goddess and an Idea’, written by Goddess Malam, of Hatred.

When Olephia got the letter from Arascus that she was needed in Epa, Olephia had assumed it was another job for her power. She should arrive, she should blow something up. And that would be it. But it wasn’t that whatsoever. When Raptor One had brought her from Kirinyaa to Epa, she had stepped out of the huge cargo hold in the back and found herself looking at Helenna.

“He sent you?” Helenna asked, first impressions were important and Helenna had one hell of a first impression. In that black uniform, with her cap and black, knee-high boots and the coat that fell to her calves, the Goddess of Love looked like a proper officer in the army. Olephia made a theatrical motion with her arms, as if to present herself. She had come in a brown coat over a purple dress and felt horrendously under-dressed.

Behind Helenna, a mile off in the distance was the frontline to Rancais. Captain Douglas had told her about it on the way here. It was lines of tents and parked vehicles. Obviously it was an army preparing for war, but right now, it was silent. Olephia had arrived here thinking she was going to help them out. But if Helenna was here? Olephia quickly pulled out her notebook and started to write. She tore off a piece of paper and handed it to Helenna. ‘I have recently finished with Uriamel. I am sure you know about that situation. I have no clue what I am doing. I thought I was brought in to assist in a fight.’

Helenna’s hair went a disappointed grey. Olephia wasn’t even annoyed, every Divine should have hair like that. It was much easier to read the woman when her emotional state was always on full display. “Ah…” Helenna said with a sigh. “Apologies for…” Helenna nodded to Raptor One, a small truck was coming to hook the vehicle’s front leg and tow it away. “Well, I expected Anassa.”

‘I don’t know what we’re doing.’ Olephia wrote down. ‘I’m ready to do anything though. But what, I do not know. If something has to be destroyed, then I’m here for it.’ Was it annoying? Olephia didn’t really think so. Her talent was in destroying things, so of course she would be called to destroy them. If she let it get her down, then it would be like a fish being sad that it could swim, or a bird not wanting to fly.

“We’re not here to destroy anything.” Helenna said and Olephia could not contain her smile as she followed Helenna towards the exit of this small airfield. Ahead of them, a pair of helicopters flew above the tents, north to south as the wind rolled in. It was a nice day though, maybe slightly too warm. The sun was overhead and Olephia pulled her sleeves up. Flying across the ocean with Elassa had given her a light tan.

‘So what are we doing? I am up for anything, like I said.’ Destroying things was expected, but Olephia relished the opportunity whenever she got to do something else that wasn’t destroying things. Helenna sighed heavily as she read through the note Olephia just wrote. From the corner of her eye, Olephia decided that Helenna was indeed cute. She measured up only to Olephia’s chest, but that still meant she stood half-again the height of a man.

“And you don’t know anything?” Helenna asked. Olephia got her reply down almost immediately as they walked through an open gate. A pair of soldiers in the control box saluted the Goddesses as they walked out.

‘I know a lot, but nothing useful I don’t think.’ She handed it off with a smiley face drawn at the end. Helenna took the note and giggled at it.

“You write fast.”

‘You talk fast.’ Olephia replied almost instantly and Helenna laughed again.

“I suppose I do, I suppose I do.” Helenna said with a sigh. “So what I’m running is a propaganda campaign for Arascus’ new toys.” Olephia listened in as Helenna talked and explained the plan. It took maybe twenty of walking at a brisk pace before Helenna finally shut up, but the Goddess of Love covered all the most important aspects of the mission. Arascus had robots, he wanted to publicize the robots and make them into a symbol of the military’s untouchability. A machine could be destroyed, but the man operating it from a mile behind would be fine, if a man was operating it whatsoever. Something like that would definitely be good for moral. Olephia had no doubt.

But there was something else to it too. Olephia had seen this sort of stunt before, back when Arascus had killed Estus. Everyone had thought the man was crazy for having a propaganda campaign featuring the sword itself at the centre. Olephia had merely been curious. When Aslana incarnated in the centre of Rhomaion, the world had recoiled. Everyone went ahead and tried to forge their own weapon Divines. And it turned out that everyone had been ten steps behind. Labrys and Pridwen and the rest had appeared.

Olephia wrote down her thoughts as Helenna turned down another road in the military camp. It was a sight, on one hand, the full might of organised Imperial Army, with trench and tent and emplacement, with tank driven into fortified dugout and with men in tall towers watching over the battered fields in the west. Then, on the other side, a Doschia so peaceful it may as well have been picturesque. Farmers were driving tractors and children were sat on trees. The nearby city had not been evacuated and life went on, the only difference for the people in there was a change of decoration on the horizon.

Olephia would paint it later. She quickly recorded the image in her mind as her hand idly scribbled beautiful calligraphy in response. Olephia didn’t even need to look at the paper as she wrote. ‘You’re mythologizing robots.’

“That’s one way to put it.” Helenna said, she looked Olephia up and down. “I wanted a Divine to showcase with them. I think they’ll look better on the pictures if we can have a person, a drone and a Divine together.”

‘So you called Dad?’ Olephia said. She could see the woman uneasy about the fact Olephia called Arascus dad. Olephia smiled at that, life wasn’t made to be easy after all.

“I did.” Helenna finally said. “I didn’t give a name. I just asked for a Divine.”

‘Tut-Tut.’ Olephia wrote the words with another smiley face. ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’

“So what should I have done?” Helenna asked, her hair becoming slightly yellow. Surprise? Curiosity? Happiness? Actually, coloured hair wasn’t so easy to tell. Maybe Olephia was simply overthinking it though. They came to a stop before a huge tent. Around the outside, it was protected by a tall iron with four of Kassie’s soldiers guarding it. Tall men, good looking Olephia decided. This was the sort you could out on a parade. They had automatic rifles in their hands. “This is my tent.” Helenna said. “Come.”

‘You should have asked for a name.’ Olephia wrote back.

“I can’t do that!” Helenna sounded scandalized, her hair changed colours to a bright-pinkish red. That was a nice shade. Strawberry ice cream. That was the colour. Olephia put the thought of ice cream out of her mind, now she wanted some.

‘Why not?’ Wasn’t Helenna the Goddess of Love? Shouldn’t this be her demesne exactly? Olephia looked the Goddess of Love up and down again. She couldn’t be this childish, could she? It was obvious she had a crush on Arascus, but she couldn’t just… No…

“I just can’t.” Helenna said. “I don’t… It’s not for me to go and pester him more. He gave me this job.” Olephia was writing out a reply as Helenna stood aside and held the cloth which served as a door to her tent to the side. The Goddess of Chaos didn’t even look inside. She stopped and quickly scribbled a reply to Helenna.

‘I didn’t know we were children in school. Will you catch cooties from him too?’ Helenna read the message once. Her hair turned pink. She read it again. It turned as red as her cheeks. Olephia gave the next piece of paper to the woman. ‘I won’t catch anything from you will I?’ She tapped the woman’s shoulder. ‘Don’t worry Helenna, you got me. If you wanted Anassa, you should have asked, but now you’re stuck with me.’

Olephia finally walked past Helenna and into the woman’s tent. It was much like the tents of Divines in the Great War. Olephia had expected Helenna to be gaudier. For there to be more… Sweets? Indulgences? For there to be flowers? Frankly, Kassandora’s favourite elf could have lived here if only the man wasn’t famously untidy. The most mess was one table with papers strewn over it. One had fallen off. There was a couch, a small coffee table with chair to sit around. A small fridge. That was it. Olephia was impressed. “Sorry for the mess.” Helenna immediately went to pick up the one piece of paper that had slid off her table.

‘This isn’t even dirty Helenna.’ She looked around impressed.

“Do you want wine or anything whilst I explain everything? I have a full cabinet.”

‘I like sweets or vodka.’ Olephia wrote back.

“I have chocolates!” Helenna quickly answered and scurried off. Olephia was honestly impressed. Usually most Divines only had alcohol and nothing else. Although… She looked at Helenna scurry around in that black uniform; one didn’t fit the other. And the woman was the Goddess of Love, if there was anyone who would always be stacked with chocolates, wouldn’t it be her?

As Helenna escaped to another section of the tent, Olephia looked through the pictures on the desk. Those had to be the robots. They were small boxes with legs attach, or boxes with rotors. She wished that there was a better way to describe them. Elongated cubes? Pixelated dogs? Olephia started to think, her hands started to draw.

A robot stood by her side. The image would have to be with her far away, to make her smaller and the machine bigger. Helenna would think up of some slogan to add to that. If not her, then Olephia would text Malam. Then another one, with the machine standing over a fallen body. That would be a good one. If the colours were right, then it could either be that the machine was helping the man on the ground, or it had just defeated him, depending on which way Helenna wanted to go. Then another, of the explosion Olephia could produce with her voice. If Helenna wanted to go so extreme, then they could find a field and take the picture. They were quick sketches with only trace amounts of shading from the pen. Helenna was starting to get annoying with how long she was taking. Olephia wished she could shout.

Just as Olephia was about to follow Helenna, the Goddess of Love reappeared. Another black uniform in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other. She held out the clothes. “I thought you should change. That dress doesn’t look good. This will look better in pictures I think.” And then the chocolates. “They’re with wine, just so you know. I don’t have non-alcoholic ones.”

That didn’t matter. Olephia handed the paper off to Helenna. The Goddess of Love put the clothes down on the couch and took the paper as Olephia began inspecting the sweets. They were good! “You know what?” Helenna said. Olephia replied by drawing a big question on her piece of paper and showing it off to Helenna. “When you came here, I honestly thought you’d be a lot of trouble.” Olephia smiled, made a stupid face and a huge theatrical shrug at Helenna. “Honestly though, you’re nowhere near as bad I thought you’d be.”

‘I write fast.’ Olephia quickly wrote down and Helenna shook her head.

“Not that Olephia. I thought you’d be…” She trailed off. “Well, excuse me for saying this, but like any of your sisters.” It took almost all of Olephia’s willpower to not burst out in laughter right there and then. To think she would get a compliment this high and mighty!