HARMONY [LITRPG / ISEKAI / PROGRESSION / OP MC]

It should make sense that Aidan would be put to work right away the moment he got his limbs back. At this point, he was so far away from how he once was in his old world in terms of mentality that he might as well be a completely different person.

But he was fine with that. He was also fine being put to work in order to fulfill Nina’s purposes. He sometimes questioned whether it was necessary to continue the farce of being under her control, considering that he knew his way around the world for a while now.

But like always, the idea of separating from Nina didn’t appeal to him. He kept wondering just how far she would go, and her soul always took his attention, making him more aware of it as time moved on. His thoughts whirled around this strange feeling, whether it would lean toward affection or something else entirely, as he and his fellow worker traveled to the Grim Corner.

It was to clean up the place, to make better use of the space for the new future of Forontia.

“I never would’ve imagined that the Grim Corner would look like this.”

Van, his clean up buddy, looked astonished at the current state of the Grim Corner. There were guards that protected the entrance, but Aidan and Van stepped in without any problems as Nina’s entourage. The reason for the protection was simple enough.

The entire place was completely destroyed, rubble and debris covering every portion they could see, but there was more danger than that. There were reports that when someone entered, they were met with creatures that somehow still lived in the city. The barrier that protected the city from the outside monsters should be active, but it didn’t do anything to the monsters currently within the Grim Corner. There was also the little problem of the portion of the barrier connecting to the Grim Corner being damaged, possibly allowing more creatures to enter inside. As such, anyone with some common sense had already vacated the corner, leaving it as the truly dangerous location it always was, just with monsters inside.

It was mostly left alone and barricaded so that the city could focus on recovering its own priorities, even though monsters were literally infesting their city. That was because it was fairly easy to contain the creatures as the Grim Corner had always been easy to restrict access into, as well as leaving it. But right now, their job was to clean up the place so that it could be properly used for the sake of the city.

“It sure looks worse than before,” Aidan said. “Though somehow better than before? I guess it’s because there aren’t any ill intentions stinking up the place.”

“You can really sense that kind of thing, right?” Van asked as the two kept walking forward through the street.

“I can, and it really leaves its presence if you know what I mean,” Aidan shook his head. “But there are loads of other things here. Monsters, definitely. Are they the same horrors?”

“According to reports, they aren’t horrors, but they look like them,” Van said, picking up a set of documents, the reports that contained eye-witness statements sent to them. “They attack anyone on sight, just like the horrors. But they’re weaker than the horrors and their levels are low too.”

“So they’re mostly just hiding,” Aidan said, pursing his lips.

“Hey, Aidan, why am I even here?” Van asked. “I don’t mind helping you, but I wonder why Nina sent me here with you when you alone are enough to handle this.”

“Company?” Aidan shrugged. “I don’t mind at all. Or maybe she wants you to get some more experience?”

“You think so?”

“Well, yeah. You know how I can read emotions, right? From what I can tell, Nina changed her opinion on you in a better light. So maybe she wants you to get strong enough to be of use to her. I’m also betting she wants you to get stronger since you don’t have a talent to back you up like me and your sister.”

“Huh…” Van muttered. “I guess that’s a good point. It’ll be easy for me to look out for Haley too.”

“That’s the plan,” Aidan said. “Knowing her, I can’t always be around to help Haley when Nina’s got plans for me, so it makes sense she wants you to guard Haley better with higher levels.”

“...It feels weird to be thankful to her,” Van admitted. “Even now, I can’t believe she actually became an active governor of Forontia. If it was before, I would be horrified and consider moving out of the city with Haley.”

“And now you’re part of her team,” Aidan grinned.

“I can’t say I’m happy to hear that.”

“Eh, what can you do about life?”

Aidan really did try to sympathize with Van, but in all honesty, he was better off following Nina’s demands, as in the end, they get nothing but good fortune out of it. Van decided to leave it at that, knowing that complaining about her past was pointless considering the bright future she might bring in.

They also weren’t just walking and talking shit together either. Aidan was actually heading towards the very center of the Grim Corner, or at least as close to the center as possible for his next plan of action. He still had that period of weakness, his stats heavily affected, but even he knew he could at least fight decently. It was also possible that Van was there for the purpose of keeping Aidan protected, something Van knew instantly.  Even though they were just casually talking, Van kept his stance stable so that if an attack occurred, he could protect Aidan.

Even if Aidan didn’t really need to be protected, he was still thankful for that. There was also that sense of calmness that was brought in knowing that someone was watching your back.

Eventually they reached the part Aidan chose which would be perfect for their plan. Van stayed by his side as Aidan stood still, his eyes closed while his Sense Vibrations, along with his swords, flowed around the area. He had already sent his swords out into the air to act as relays for his skill, allowing him better perception across an entire area.

“You ready?” Aidan asked. “Once I start, we’re gonna have loads of fun times ahead.”

“Ready when you are,” Van nodded assuredly. He pulled his sword out, ready to attack at any moment.

“Okay, here goes.”

He closed his eyes, letting the skill send its pulse throughout the district. Several pings hit off immediately, surprising him with the number. It was approaching several dozens, perhaps reaching near a hundred of these creatures infesting their city.

“Oof, there’s a lot of them just around here,” Aidan winced, which was followed by Van’s slight groan at the reveal. “I’m gonna call them forward by groups. I’ll take care of the more annoying ones.”

“How are you gonna do that?” Van rightfully asked.

Aidan only grinned at him before he let out Area Field, expanding his spells’ range. Then he crafted the earth right where the creatures were staying.

In an instant, several sharp yells and howls resounded in the air, sounding like a faint symphony of pained cries before a clatter of footsteps soon dominated the air. In a few seconds after, he could already spot several of these creatures coming at them in full force.

They looked similar to the horrors that infested the city once, but upon closer inspection, they were just like Aidan when he got infected. These creatures were hit hard with the residual demonic energy left behind by the horrors, turning them into these strange amalgamations of monsters with a mixture of dark curses and fury.

Cursed Horned Wolf, Level 23.

Cursed Horned Wolf, Level 18.

Cursed Horned Wolf, Level 20.

These looked extremely similar to the wolves Aidan once faced, except slightly stronger according to the level ranges displayed here. They also looked like they were caught by an intense bout of rabies, their mouths opened wide and their tongues flapping about, saliva bubbling up near the corner of their mouths.

“Incoming!”

Aidan shouted, but he didn’t have to do anything else as Van rushed in to take the wolves out himself. His sword practice came into view as he sliced up and countered the wolves that were increasing in number. While it looked rather dangerous from the outside, Van was handling things extremely well, instantly killing a wolf before aiming to take down two at once. His own skill with the sword improved thanks to his training with Ander and Aidan, allowing him to take on multiple monsters at once with the expertise of a veteran.

Seeing him handle these monsters well, Aidan continued with his Area Field control, crafting the earth and giving the monsters a very unpleasant surprise. From his view, he crafted spikes that pierced the monsters from where they hid, and some did die on impact, but others were called out again and tried to run away, only to find themselves cornered by the spikes that kept appearing around them.

Due to that, they ran into the direction where the source of the ambushes was at, only landing themselves straight into Van’s clutches, his slashes and swipes taking each one out as quickly as they came.

The entire event went on like this for a while, eventually reducing the numbers down quite a bit in their general area. Aidan, of course, didn’t continue calling the monsters further when he noticed Van breathing frantically, sweat dripping off his brow.

“Hah… How many are left?” Van asked, wiping the sweat off his forehead. His sword dripped blood from the many horned wolves around him which Aidan crafted into resource balls for later use.

“Plenty still. This is gonna take a while,” Aidan mused. “Any levels?”

“Just one,” Van said. “My level’s pretty high, so I guess I should be thankful for that, at least.”

“Hey, at least you’re getting some practice in,” Aidan comforted.

“And you?”

“My stats are still shot, so this is the best I can do,” Aidan answered. “Let’s take a quick break before we continue again.”

“Roger that.”

Taking the chance, Van slumped down on the ground, letting out a heavy breath as the two rested.

They had the entire day, or perhaps several days to pull this off. So there was nothing wrong with taking some breaks here and there. As for Aidan, he decided to use this time to experiment with a little idea he had in mind.

…..

Everyone in the city knew that the Grim Corner was dangerous. And now, it had become even more dangerous than before thanks to the monsters living there.

So Nina decided to finally make use of the Grim Corner and turn it into something much more profitable than just having it be a filthy base for gang members to use. That was why she sent Aidan and Van there to clean up the place. Using Aidan’s abilities, she knew he would target each and every monster there and truly clear the place up for the future.

As for her plans for the former Grim Corner? It was going to transform into a red district, or in this case, the Red Corner.

She intended on turning it into an entertainment district strictly for adults. One would normally question why a governor, a female one at that, would be alright with installing such scandalous businesses in her city. But to Nina, it was extremely obvious.

Sex brought money, and she wanted money. It truly was nothing more than that.

Not to mention that whatever business that usually handled such matters in Forontia before had never truly taken it beyond just a mere dump that men used to relieve themselves. The women were treated as nothing more than cattle, barely getting paid and even bathed at that point. While they could easily gain levels and equipment that would help them on these matters, the city’s treatment of these businesses have always been toxic at best.

That was why these women often resorted to coming over to the Grim Corner to make ends meet, risking everything just to be able to feed themselves as the garbage managers that lead the businesses end up taking nearly all the money from their services. After the attack, the buildings used for these services were destroyed and everyone was left out of the job.

That was when Nina took the time to converse and convince each woman who had worked there for a better deal than what they previously had. Of course, they knew of her before and were rightly concerned, but it was as if they could see themselves in Nina as she proudly exclaimed that she wanted a better life for them.

And Nina didn’t just sympathize with them just to get them to work under her. She truly believed that they were just too underutilized from their fullest potential, even if said potential was just being a sex worker in layman’s terms.

No, she would tell them that the sex business would be as powerful as a mighty kingdom, as long as they were led properly and coordinated well. And what better way to make this business prosper than to use the entire size of the Grim Corner for the business?

But as usual, there were always some obstacles that stood in her way. It wasn’t any of the wealthier citizens that spoke up against such a business. In fact, some of them were clearly eager for it. It was another crucial obstacle that made things difficult for Nina to create her dream business that would, in her estimation, drown the city in gold.

The church, or more accurate, the Church of The One.

The church had also been in Forontia for as long as it was around, though it had a very faint presence within the city. There have certainly been followers that visit the church, but not many usually go there, or at least as much as the church wanted to, considering that Forontia was a frontier city. Not many devout followers would go to such a city if they could instead live somewhere closer to the capital where the main presence of the religion resided there.

The church still has its presence within the city, and it was starting to gain more traction after the demon attack. Some of the priests were insistent on gaining more followers, believing that it was due to lack of faith that a demon attack occurred in the first place. They were starting to become more aggressive, pleading and even guilt-tripping people to join the church, if not for themselves, then for their loved ones.

And of course, they were less than eager to have Nina as the new governor of Forontia. Though no matter how much they complained, whined, and tried to make people see their way and have faith in them, Nina wasn’t that worried about them. Because they have already shown their worth long before the demon attack occurred.

When the followers had nowhere to go, their homes destroyed and found themselves at the hands of the horrific demons that ate their loved ones, the church closed their doors and kept them closed, ignoring the people who were once their faithful followers. It wasn’t that surprising. The church was small and they barely had any combatants worth using against the fight, but one would think that the church would try and at least give their most devout followers some reprieve.

Even after the attack, despite having healers at their demand, they would only send the healers out for the ones who had the money to offer for the services. Perhaps recognizing the potential loss in donations, the church tried to reinvigorate itself to have more people by their side.

As for why Nina considered them to be an obstacle for her great Red Corner business? It was because they refused to treat the women who had worked in the sex business. It was a lot to handle for Nina, even with her vast wealth, as there were plenty of women that were injured during the attack, and worse, been afflicted with some serious status debuffs.

It wasn’t that surprising that these horrors came with their own potential diseases, as Aidan himself was afflicted with what he named demonic energy. For Aidan, it was just an inconvenient debuff that lasted longer due to his weakened state and missing limbs, which he couldn’t heal properly even with his own healing power.

But for the people of Forontia, it was either an instant death, or a serious affliction that forced them to stay bedridden. Thankfully it wasn’t infectious enough and the people that had been afflicted wouldn’t affect the others that weren’t. That still didn’t stop the church from believing that such a thing could easily be passed around.

So Nina decided to treat these women as much as she could, and perhaps figure out a way to use the church for later use when their power would eventually wane due to their unpopular methods. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to use her wealth to get the medicine she procured for Aidan for every woman there, but their afflictions weren’t as bad as Aidan’s, to some degree.

Normally, it would make sense if she could just have Aidan come and heal them. And she was certain he could do so with no issues, but there was one problem. If the church found out that Aidan could heal, they would surely figure out some annoying methods to assume that Aidan was actually someone belonging to the church, and that they were the ones that lent Nina a hand in saving the city. They would spin whatever tale they could to make it believable.

That was the last thing she wanted to happen. Normally, humans aren’t able to learn how to heal unless they belong to the church or have studied profusely under a doctor, which normally came from the capital that worked closely with the church itself. So if people found out that Aidan could heal, they would just assume the church was involved, and all sorts of rumors would be flung about.

Thankfully, that depiction is only toward humans, and not the other races.

“Ooh… I feel so much better now,” The kindly old lady said in a mesmerized tone, her face the depiction of peace washing over a fatigued land. “Thank you so much, Mistress Elf.”

“It is my pleasure,” Yin said in a smooth, gentle voice, rubbing the old lady’s naked back as energy traveled through her skin.

Nina watched the scene contentedly as her high elf companion worked on removing the demonic energy from the people afflicted. It was the sort of energy that she could believe only came from Aidan, but to a much lesser degree.

Again, this begged the question as to why Yin couldn’t heal the curse herself to help Aidan rather than use the expensive panacea. That was what Nina asked as well, only to receive a rather expected, but still illuminating response.

“My powers are nowhere near as interconnected with the harmony as Aidan’s. I’m also afraid that the curse that affected him is stronger and more potent than any of the humans afflicted here. If it was not Aidan and instead some other person, they would immediately lose themselves in that foul power, turning them into wild beasts with no thought or personality behind them.”

It only made more sense that Aidan had it the worst considering he fought the main source of the demonic energy by himself. Her darkest thoughts revealed just how bad the situation would be if Aidan wasn’t strong enough to handle the demonic energy himself, ending up as that wild beast Yin mentioned. Was that the same for the Matriarch as well?

Thankfully her dark thoughts stopped there. And despite this, Yin was plenty confident in getting rid of the foul energy affecting the people here. And for the reason why Nina was fine with showing off Yin to the world was simple enough. High elves were famous for wielding many kinds of magic, and someone with a Druid class is naturally one who might have healing spells capable of fixing everything.

It was already well-known that Nina had a high elf working for her, and more importantly, due to her spiritual loyalty to Aidan, she didn’t have to wear anything resembling slavery, showing that Yin was naturally working under Nina. What was better than that was that the church couldn’t say anything about having Yin naturally part of the church as the church primarily dealt with humans, barely having any other humanoids in their environment, much less the ever rare high elf.

Yin finished the healing and said her goodbye to the now healed old woman, bringing in another woman, this one actually one of the sex workers that Nina planned on recruiting. Despite her blotchy dark skin affecting part of her shoulder and neck, she still decided to let the old woman go first as it was clear she was suffering the most.

“Please, take off your top and lay yourself bare to me. I promise, we are completely safe here.”

“I trust you, Mistress Elf,” The lady said, gladly following her orders and taking off her top.

There was also another thing. Due to Yin making her rounds in the city helping the people, they started calling her Mistress Elf, with the elf part fairly obvious, but the mistress part was due to her kind demeanor yet stoic personality that made others want to respect her.

Honestly, Nina was fine with that. In fact, having more people around her to make themselves known in the city was only beneficial. With Yin beginning her work, Nina decided to step in to make her business.

“If it’s alright with you,” Nina said, pulling off her usual business smile. “I would like to discuss a proposition for you…”

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