When afternoon came, Richard busied himself in the workshop which he had built by hand using the magic he learned.

Usually he would come to this "secret spot" alone or with Ragnar in tow as the women were all too focused on their own things. Cindy herself built her own workshop but since Richard "kinda" graduated from his rookie mage status earlier, the ladies seemed to have taken an interest in his workshop.

It also didn’t help that Kyla’s appearance made Richard bring her along with him as he had to deal with the issue of the brass knuckles.

The workshop he made was quite a distance from the house and needed the enhancement of magic to reach it quickly.

Fortunately for the ladies, the Goddess tagged along and used her teleportation to bring them quickly to the workshop.

"When I ask for help you ignore me but when Cindy and the others come along you use the teleportation magic without being asked?"

<The short hike to this place is good for your health and training>

The goddess responded to Richard with complete apathy leaving a bitter taste in his mouth but complaining any more would do nothing but waste his time.

He led the group into his workshop, a "small" log cabin in the middle of the woods.

"This is small?"

Cindy asked while staring at the two storey tall cabin, it lacked glass for windows the way the wooden windows were made gave a rather "rustic" appeal to the whole build.

It was a mix of modern day and olden aesthetics.

"Ragnar did most of the work"

Richard said as he opened the door revealing an interior that was strangely bright despite having no glass windows or any electrical lighting. The fireplace was not lit up and there weren’t any torches yet the whole interior still had a rather "mystical light".

"The Fae in these lands are few but they are powerful, all that we needed to do was capture a few wandering souls and use them as power sources"

Cindy turned to Richard, she knew of Richard’s personality and didn’t believe that he would willingly use the souls of the dead for such an endeavour.

Seeing her reaction, Richard shook his head as he answered her curiosity.

"The souls likely came from the civil war, they had nearly lost all semblance of their original personality but the uniforms they wore was still retained"

<Souls are fragile, within two to five years, wandering souls would lose their sense of self unless their loved ones bury them, keeping their memories alive.>

The goddess added the explanation, Richard did not need to say anymore after that.

The souls had lost their identity, who they were, who was their family... America had already been through countless generations, lost countless men and the memories of the civil war were only embodied in the famous generals and politicians who left their marks in history.

A few soldiers would be remembered but the souls Richard found were nothing more than empty vessels remembered as "Confederate" or "Union" soldiers.

Throughout the world, many tombs are dedicated to what is commonly known as the "unknown soldier".

Not all soldiers have families, some are orphans others were separated or cut off by their loved ones. But whether their death is mourned for or not, a soldier’s death is a sacrifice to the nation they served.

As such, monuments for the "unknown soldier" are erected throughout the world in various forms.

The blank canvas souls that Richard and Ragnar used were the products of such practices.

Soldiers remembered not as who they were in life but as the "soldier who died for his nation".

Initially, Richard didn’t want to use these wandering souls, he didn’t want to turn people who gave up their life for their nation into batteries or cogs in a twisted magical formation.

But the wandering spirits were not a product born solely from the memory of an "unknown soldier".

Belief exists to funnel spirits towards larger systems of power, but what of those that perish without faith?

What becomes of their soul?

In the "age of paganism", when people did not believe in God’s or greater powers and simply focused on their own mysticism.

Ghosts, monsters and supernatural aberrations took form, born from the crazy ravings of the living and powered by the souls of the departed.

The system of belief started by mystical beings reduced the number of such monstrosities.

Merlin’s take over of that system and perfection of it to suit non-mystics completed the slow erasure of such beings from reality.

It was a system that ensured that all souls would either end up in a paradise created through belief, their afterlife becoming the power source for mystics until their souls truly perished and returned to the world as blank slates.

But unlike the blank slates which is the eventual reset of souls, the wandering spirits who end up as blank slates are unlikely to truly return to the earth.

These are the souls that need to be exorcised to return to nature lest they become aberrations born from a single monstrous idea.

Many of these souls simply wander around, but whenever a strong enough thought, emotion or idea is made, they could get influenced.

That is why monsters appear in the dark, they don’t manifest in the day or in crowded streets. While some do due to the nature of fear, most monsters were simply by products of powerful thoughts influencing a wandering spirit.

Still, it was unlikely for a normal human to influence a wandering spirit but-

Richard was anything but a normal human.

One wrong thought and a wandering soul could become a horrid beast.

Richard’s use of the wandering souls were both for his own benefit and to ensure that he doesn’t create a new urban legend.

Letting out a sigh, Richard led the group to his workbench where a bunch of bronze, iron and steel items were scattered about.

Richard did not touch any of them and pulled at a drawer, he reached into it and got a pair of pristine brass knuckles.

He casually tossed them to Kyla who caught them easily.

"You’re just going to give it away?"

Cindy asked, the pair of brass knuckles had quite a number of spirits. Destroying the artifact would let loose a huge horde that could turn into a literal swarm of angry ghosts.

Richard wouldn’t want to turn those souls into dangerous spirits right?

So she was sure that Richard won’t destroy them, the brass knuckles existence was supposed to be a temptation for Richard. It was supposed to act as the sugary sweets that he left on the counter- a jar of delicacies he refused to eat but would unintentionally reach for when he had to.

Yet, he passed them on casually as if it was worthless.

"The only reason I kept it was to have Kellin teach me a bit of magic. Taking care of Kyla was going to be my payment and bargaining chip to force Kellin to teach me magic. But the Goddess gave me a better teacher so I currently have no use for it"

Richard explained his reasoning but his words caused a stir-

"So... will I be fired?"

Kyla asked immediately, she got a gist of the story and when she heard Richard’s explanation. It was apparent that her value had already disappeared.

Fortunately for her, Richard was not going to just abandon her.

"Although I have no use for you, I still promised Kellin and Yarah to take care of you. Moreover, these two basically pressured you into coming here. I can’t shove you back into hellish life after all that you said right?"

Kyla blanked out, she didn’t know what Richard was talking about but the young man answered her curiosity.

"The Goddess told me about your plight, sorry about how I acted a while ago. I tried to be more casual but that seemed to have caused you to recall some... bad memories" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

It snapped in place, Kyla was already informed of the connection Richard had with the Goddess and she even saw its effects first hand.

It wasn’t a stretch to think that the Goddess would just tell Richard about everything she knew about Kyla through their telepathic link. After all, the Goddess was able to project her own memories and read Richard’s mind.

Those two abilities were far more unbelievable than a "telepathic link"... well, it was more like knowing of such abilities made it easier to believe that the Goddess and Richard had a telepathic link that allowed them to communicate without anyone knowing.

"I see, but what job do you have for me?"

Kyla asked, she wanted to ensure that she won’t be given any random task in the future.

While she was thankful that Richard was "kind of" a good man. She won’t be able to calm down unless the details of her employment- or at least, what they expect of her was ironed out.

"Job? Dunno, ask them, I don’t particularly need your help for anything"

Richard said as he turned around and completely focused on the materials before him.

While Kyla wanted to pull Richard back and ask him nicely to properly write down the details of her tasks-

"Don’t mind him, if he tries to force you to do anything, come to me. For now, you’ll be my assistant"

Cindy approached her with a smile assuring her that she was safe.

But Richard who heard the young witch’s words quietly prayed for Kyla.

He wanted to warn her but he knew that Cindy wouldn’t use her for an experiment... right?

<She won’t, but I don’t know about the artifact>

Hearing the assurance from the Goddess, Richard was able to calm down and ignore the group behind him.

While he didn’t really like dealing with tortured souls, that didn’t mean that he’d tell others not to. Moreover, he himself had started using souls in his own endeavors.

He can’t really be a hypocrite now can he?

All he could do was be "selective" of the method and souls that he would be using.

"Well, how they use that artifact is up to them, I’ll focus on making my own"

His mutterings were heard by Cindy who quickly got behind him, the young witch stopped her talks with Kyla as she focused her eyes on the items on the workbench.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Stop, you’re not a kid"

"It’s not summer"

"..."