5 days later, the knight who had set out to Erelath, returned to the Lirix kingdom just when the sun was about to go down. He came with the news that the trade was approved!

Normally, if regular people would want to journey to Erelath and return, it would take 14 days. Even for a few of the best knights of the Lirix kingdom, it would still take 6 days. But this knight managed to return after only 5 days. The knight tried extra hard so that he would be recognized by the king. The best knights of the Lirix kingdom fell under the category of ‘grand sword masters’. There were extremely few grand sword masters on the whole continent. The small country of Lirix had the highest amount together with the largest other kingdom. There were only around 20 grand sword masters in Lirix. This may not seem like a small amount, but Lirix had a population of twenty million people! The reason Lirix had as much as 20 –the same amount as the largest kingdom, was because of their mentality.

A majority of the population of Lirix lived by the sword, they all admired strength. There were almost no mages, and they were all looked down upon. They were disgusted by the idea of fighting battles from long ranges with magical powers. In other countries, there were names for mages with the same amount of power as grand sword masters, but they still chose to live by the sword. Most of the grand sword masters were part of the Lirix kingdom’s military and were extremely loyal. But there were also a few grand sword masters who were adventurers. They travelled from country to country, in the hope of finding new challenges and adventures. The population of Lirix had a mentality that laid heavy emphasis on personal strength. If you weren’t strong enough, then you had no right to complain.

There is a level above grand sword masters, but this has only been reached by extremely few people. Most of them relied upon a special weapon, like the king of the Lirix kingdom. He was one of the strongest people on the continent, this is also the reason that the small kingdom of Lirix had always been able to support itself. No country wanted to risk war with Lirix, because a single figure would be able to change the whole outcome of the battle. No country wanted to risk losing their top fighters, only because someone from the enemy was wielding an unstoppable weapon.

The knight who had been sent to request the trade was also a grand sword master. This indicated how important Lirix deemed the trade.

Was it because of Keith? Of course not!

The Lirix kingdom wanted to show off its own power by sending a grand sword master on a trivial mission like this. That was the message the Lirix kingdom tried to get across.

The knight had returned with a few books in his hands, and he was now waiting for an audience with the king.

“Enter.” The king’s voice thundered throughout the throne room, right through the small door. The knight didn’t dare delay, so he immediately entered. He hurriedly walked towards the king, and deeply bowed. “I have returned as fast as I could, my king,” the knight said.

Most grand sword masters were extremely arrogant. But a majority would still act humble in front of the king of Lirix. When swordsmen were on the same level, a superior weapon would make all the difference. He knew that the king would be able to use his Emperor’s Sword to cut him down, so he didn’t dare act arrogant.

“Good,” the king said, his voice deeply penetrating the knight’s soul. “I hope that you have successfully closed the deal. If we manage to get our hands on their tactics, we will be able to eventually risk war against Erelath.”

“My king, the trade has been completed with great success!” the knight couldn’t help but stick out his chest. He had returned faster than most, and he had accomplished his task near perfection. “I have returned with 3 volumes. The complete series has 5 books, but Erelath didn’t trust us completely, that’s why they will send the other 2 books when Keith has safely arrived at their territory.”

The Erelath kingdom had trusted Lirix with 3 of their volumes. Now it was Lirix’s turn to trust Erelath that they would send over the remaining 2 volumes when Keith had arrived.

“Just as I thought. They even gave you 3 volumes. I thought that they would only give you 2, and then send the last 3 over later,” the king voiced his thoughts. “I didn’t expect them to trust us so much. That is good, they probably fear us, so they’re using this opportunity to show off. It’s like they’re saying those volumes don’t matter to them at all.” The king was getting furious at the thought of a country full of pathetic mages showing off. He had his throne’s armrest in such a strong grip, that it was starting to shatter.

“All right, it doesn’t matter. Send Little Thirteen over to them as soon possible,” the king said to the ministers behind him. “Also, good work, you returned very quickly. You will be rewarded with an item from the treasury,” the king said, turning to the knight. “Go, you’re dismissed.”

The knight hurriedly gave the volumes to one of the ministers standing behind the king. Then he made his way from the throne room.

***

Keith was merrily walking down the corridor. He had kept himself low profile the previous 5 days. He knew that everyone he saw would just harass him. They would poke fun at him, to make them feel better about themselves. This could be seen as cruel, because adults would harass a 9-year-old kid in a passive aggressive way, but for Keith this was a reality. Such was the cruel world of the king’s princes with low talent.

But nevertheless, Keith looked like he wasn’t bothered by anything at all when he was walking. The last few days the servants hadn’t brought any food to him for some reason, so he had to sneak into the kitchen and get it himself.

He had been successful this time, and eaten his full. He was happily walking from the kitchen to the training room. He had almost never come outside the previous days, only when he went out to get his food. He had been listening to stories from Dillim about mages every day. Therefore, he had been in even higher spirits than normal. Just imagining himself as a powerful wizard with the whole world at his feet gave him Goosebumps.

When Keith neared the throne room, which he had to pass on the way to the training room, he unconsciously fastened his pace. When he saw that the big door to the throne room was closed, he heaved a sigh of relief. Otherwise the king could’ve seen him walking, and he may have called out to Keith. Something he wanted to prevent at this moment with all his might.

When he walked past the big wooden doors, he saw a knight walk out of the throne room from one of the smaller doors, next to the big wooden doors.

‘Oh, it’s Grand Sword Master Reddin,’ Keith thought at this sight. He was afraid of being harassed, so Keith kept walking with his head downwards.

Reddin saw Keith walk towards himself and snorted, “Hmph.” He waved his hand casually outwards, and a huge gust of wind manifested itself.

Keith was blown a few steps backwards and fell on his butt. “You dare to pass right in front of me, without even paying your respects?” Reddin asked. “You might be a prince, but you’re garbage to me, you talentless Thirteen. Get out of my sight before you cause any bad luck.”

Keith was very frustrated inside, but he had gotten used to it long ago. He wouldn’t be able to do anything, so he hurriedly stood up and ran away. When he passed him, Reddin just snorted without doing something. He was a grand sword master, so he wouldn’t lower himself to do anything more.

Keith ran on, eventually reached the training hall without encountering too many people. Dillim would regularly be at the training hall. Even though he wouldn’t train at all, he would just quietly observe while standing in a corner. Keith always wondered why Dillim would waste his time like that, but no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure it out. He also wondered how strong Dillim was after losing his right hand, because he obviously had no way of finding it out.

The training hall was very big. It was big enough to house around 100 soldiers to train at any time, along with some princes and their personal teachers. All the heavenly princes would receive a grand sword master, while the talented princes would receive a sword master as a teacher. Sword masters were evaluated as one rank below grand sword masters.

Keith saw Dillim stand in his usual corner and rushed towards him. There were several other soldiers who were training or idling about. They were probably there to catch a glimpse of some of the heavenly princes who would occasionally come and train in the training hall. The heavenly princes were all celebrities, and in this generation of princes there were three. Surprisingly two of them had the same mother, so she was also the most cherished wife the king had.

“Hey Dillim, we will depart tomorrow, right? I packed all my stuff and I’m ready!” Keith exclaimed happily.

Dillim still looked as stoic as always, but he still replied kindly, “Yeah, tomorrow or the day after. It depends on my mood.”

Keith didn’t know anything about the agreement behind the scenes, so Dillim could only lie. He had to wait until the ministers would contact him, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to leave. But Dillim made it look like he could decide to go whenever he wanted.

“All right, go to bed Young Prince. We will have to travel for quite some days. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow, maybe the day after,” Dillim said, “But it’s better if you’re prepared by going to bed early.”

Keith sulked a little at the news of a possible delay, but he still rushed off towards his room. The window had been fixed in the meantime, so he didn’t sleep in one of the guest rooms any longer.

Dillim watched Keith run away towards his room with a spring in his step. His eyes narrowed kindly, seeing how full of energy the prince was, even with all he had to endure.

Shortly after Keith had left, an important looking figure entered the training room. He was Paroux, the right hand of the minister concerning external affairs. Even though his status wasn’t very high, he was still dressed up like a grandiose person.

Dillim had a feeling that Paroux was looking for him, but instead of walking towards him, he stayed where he was. He took some silent joy in the appearance of Paroux trying to avoid the soldiers training on the sands of the training hall. Paroux knew that Dillim was somewhere in the hall, but he took some time spotting him.

Most of the soldiers didn’t like him, because he acted so arrogantly even without any real status. That’s why they kept on bumping against him, saying it was unintentional.

Eventually Paroux spotted Dillim and came over. “The trade has succeeded! You shall depart tomorrow morning with the 13th Prince,” Paroux said while handing over a small pouch. “There are some Orichalcum coins there, as well as gold and silver coins. You have to provide for the prince and keep him safe,” Paroux lectured. “If the Prince is to die in their Kingdom, then we will lose our bargaining chip and a potential insider with information. If other countries get to know of this deal, they may want to kill the Prince to damage Lirix.”

“It’s unnecessary to say so much,” Dillim cut Paroux short. “I’ll take care of him, we’ll leave tomorrow morning,” Dillim said, already walking away.

***

Very early in the next morning, the storm had finally stopped. It had been going on continuously for five days, but today, it finally stopped. The sunlight was shining through the clouds that still had hints of grey remaining.

Outside of the Royal Palace, two people could be seen standing. They were of course Dillim and Keith. Keith was extremely excited, while Dillim had his usual indifferent demeanor.

Right at that moment, the clouds gave way to the sun, allowing some of the sunrays to pierce the clouds, exactly illuminating Keith and the path in front of him. Almost as if to indicate the start of a new part of his life.