The Secret of the Lords:

Neji had never seen Vaani with such a sad expression; rather than sad, it might be more appropriate to say that she looked desperate. She wasn’t desperate for anything or anyone; she looked like she was desperate to escape from herself. A kind of pain that he couldn’t imagine haunted her, and he would never know the reason behind it unless she believes in him. Neji knew what he had to do, but he didn’t know where to start.

Seeing her, Neji remembered the events of the last night. A casual party by the Emperor and as the Prince, he was expected to attend it. But, Neji was never one to follow the rules, and it was boring to deal with greedy nobles and their greedier daughters, so he escaped from the eyes of his attendants and went incognito in the clothes of an ordinary servant.

It wasn’t his first time slipping away without notice, but Nolan did somehow manage to find him. Scared of Neji, he, however, stood at a distance and discreetly observed his actions to make sure that he wasn’t going to do anything dangerous or atrocious. That was when Neji first glanced at a girl standing right opposite him, on the other side of the hall.

She looked a little older than him, but her figure was slender, and her face was too innocent so she could easily pass off as a sixteen-year-old. As a passing attraction, Neji started studying her from the other side; he had nothing important to do so why not this? Her big, round eyes weren’t really the symbol of conventional beauty; the capital had many girls with sexy half-moon eyes. Neither was her bosom well endowed, but she did look beautiful or rather pretty adorable.

Smiling to himself, Neji leaned on the pillar and began to observe her seriously. Over the course of the next two hours, she looked like a startled rabbit when someone called her, like a lioness when she was daydreaming. Her eyes envied the noble women and their wealth, but they didn't enamor her, but merely attracted some of her attention. Those eyes knew her position, and that she wouldn’t live a happy life if she dreamed of wealth beyond her station.

Attracted by her personality, or rather by her, Neji went to greet her. He was a prince, and when he asks for someone’s attention, the result is always according to his wishes. But, this girl is such a fool that she didn’t even recognize him. Who doesn’t recognize the members of the royal family while working in the imperial palace? Well, Neji just met one of those rare breeds.

The more he talked to her, the more he found her charming. She rejected him, warned him to respect her because apparently, she was older than him. But, besides all her rejection, she couldn’t hide the fact that she was fascinated by his looks. She tried her level best, but she was a poor actor. So Neji decided to indulge himself and asked her out on a date.

Her reaction was so cute. Like a puppy; she obviously wanted to come but also didn’t want to. Neji was looking forward to meeting her and know more about her. But, as Neji stood there facing her unreadable expression, a dark feeling rose deep inside his heart. Perhaps he was too naive; her charming, bubbly appearance may not be what she truly is. She was much more than a happy little girl, and she had secrets she didn’t want to share.

Neji wasn’t angry or infuriated; he was rather ashamed of himself. Why did he think that she was just a happy go girl? He should have been keener, more observant than he was. So he decided to find about everything about her. But, he will have to wait. To truly gain her confidence, Neji will wait for her to believe in him.

Vaani looked at Neji, and unconsciously a smile bloomed on her face. “Let’s go,” she said. Neji looked her back and followed her with a sigh.

She dodged his request, and he couldn’t blame her. Her life was her domain; he didn’t have any right to probe her secrets. He couldn’t blame her for hiding them, wasn’t he like her? Only with darker, and more dangerous secrets. Neji glanced back at the palace, and his senses picked up at least three pairs of eyes keeping an eye on him.

The royal family wasn’t so easy going. Everyone believed in others, or that’s how they always act like but beneath their smiles were their real intentions. Having lived for sixteen years in such a place, Neji understood one thing early on. Even if it were his grandfather or his father, they would only have his back as long as he didn’t turn against them.

Two people, a prince and a maid soon entered the busy roads of the capital. An extremely unlikely combination will lead them to a situation which will change the trajectory of their lives.

………..

Lilin stood beside a corpse and stared at the dying flames before her. A frown formed on her face as she saw the clean wound on the corpse of Milad, there were no signs of injury, and there were no signs of struggle on his body, but there were signs of a fight before her. She couldn’t piece together the flow of the fight but finally concluded that the person who struck Milad dead was a level or two above him.

She looked back to the road which leads towards Ashfield and imagined that whoever was coming here had changed their destination, but to where? Thinking back to the information she obtained from the spies, the only regiment in the surrounding area belonged to Knight Darren. Although it didn’t make sense why he would suddenly move to Ashfield, however, that was now irrelevant.

Darren was obviously not capable of killing Milad. There were only a dozen or so persons in the entire empire who can suppress Milad to such an extent. And, not one of them was around this area. So a new variable had come into the scene. Lilin glanced at the almost dying flames and waved her hand.

A small wind arose from her sleeve and then the flames were extinguished the next second. “I would rather deal with the aftermath than this guy,” she muttered to herself and glanced back at the southern skies.

The sun was almost setting and at a distance, she could see a smoke trail. It was faint, almost invisible, but she could see it. Having made her decision, her figure disappeared along with the corpse of Milad Weiss.

…………………..

The lands of Neptune were divided into four major territories. The northeast was occupied by the Moguls while the southwest was under the control of the Vedans. Between the two, separating them from each other was a narrow strip of mountains and forests which is nothing but the vestiges of the Cimmerian forests which occupy the whole Northwestern part of the continent.

The Cimmerian forests were an enigma to the rulers of the Neptune. Since the beginning of the Hoinbo era, many kings tried to conquer the lands and failed each time due to the presence of various tribal clans who worshiped the forest and the land. They called themselves the Cimmerian tribes, taking the name from an old legend rather than from the forests.

It was unknown to many that the legend wasn’t named after the forests but it was the other way around; the woods were named after the legend. Humankind is fickle in its nature; after a millennium of peace and prosperity, they forgot many, if not all warnings of their ancestors and only a few believed or even know the story behind the legend.

The unconquerable Cimmerian tribes however never forgot their roots. They remembered their pasts, and they never breached the rule laid out by the ancestors who found their tribes.

All humans were prohibited to go anywhere near the frozen plains in the deep north. Humanity didn’t know the existence of this; the Lords of Cimmerian tribes protected this secret for a millennium.

Standing on the edge of a mountain, Berthelot stared down with a frown. He glanced back to see an endless stretch of forests. Finally, he glanced at his master who was staring ahead with a pained expression.

“What is this, Rhilan?” Berthelot asked. He knew the answer, but he wanted to confirm that he wasn’t dreaming.

“The truth; as your mentor and the previous Lord, it is my duty to pass on the secret of the Lords to the heir,” Rhilan said in a calm voice. However, contained within it was a dread which couldn’t be explained in words.

Berthelot didn’t ask anymore; he looked at the empty space before him. A tens of kilometers deep nothingness lay before him and at the far end of his sight was a snowy field. An incomparably vast mountain range was cut in the middle separating the forests from the white plains along its entire length which stretched to the ends of the continent.

Unless one can fly, no one can reach the snowy plains; but Berthelot wasn’t thinking of the icy plains, he was thinking of the mountain edge beneath his feet. It was cleanly cut without an edge or a hold as if a sword cut it.

Nothingness. Whatever laid beyond the Cimmerian forests was known as nothingness which engulfs everything into oblivion. Berthelot now knew that it was true. No man can reach the bottom of this hellhole which was tens of kilometers deep and travel across the nothingness only to climb the steep mountain on the another side to reach the frigid white plains.

And, for some reason, Berthelot knew that even if one can fly, they can never reach the other side. The darkness underneath him told him so. It was as if something in there was waiting for him to take a step forward. It was truly the end, nothingness in its true meaning. There was no way to reach the other side.

“This is man-made?” Berthelot finally asked in a trembling voice. Rhilan looked at the skies and the distant, unreachable snowy fields and said in a small voice, “Yes.”

*****

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