Chapter 09: Of Boys and Men (Part 1)

“The Kingdom of Elsigardia.

Also known in some literature as the Kingdom of the Free Men.

For historians and lore enthusiasts, the Kingdom of Elsigardia was also previously known as the Kingdom of Raiverune.

Before Elsigardia came into existence, around 500 years ago in 3547AD, this land was engulfed in a civil war for more than 35 years. Eight noble houses were fighting each other to claim the throne of this Kingdom after the death of its previous king, King Elric “Thunderfist” Raidemar of Raiverune, who left no direct heir to the throne.

At that time, only a prince could inherit the title of the King directly, but the late King Elric had no prince. His only child was Princess Elianor, who during the course of the civil war, died of certain mysterious illness.

Because of that, the noble houses at that time took this opportunity to claim, one over another, over the rights to the throne. Leading the claim was the Noble House of Brackheim and the Noble House of Elmsdor, the two oldest noble houses in the Kingdom.

After 35 years of war, with so many death, nobles and commoners alike, and not to mention what a civil war would do to commerce and trade, finally the House of Elmsdor emerged victorious and thus claimed the throne. It’s house ruler at that time, Lord Titus Valientine of Elmsdor, took the name of King Titus the First and renamed the kingdom into the Kingdom of Elsigardia, which was literally translate into The Kingdom of the Free Men.

All the old noble houses have been abolished and new noble houses, which were consisted of his allies and friends and the minor noble houses that supported him during his ascension to the throne, were given new titles and the ranking of the new Noble Houses. The two noble houses, other than the Noble House of Elmsdor, which had the most power in the current age of Elsigardia, was the Godfrey and the Byrnhildr.

Elsivier, which used to be King Titus the First’s hometown, replaced the old capital, Rainon as Elsigardia’s capital city, and since then has enjoyed unprecedented growth.

Not just because of the peace that reigned throughout the time which was overseen by the King and the Noble Houses, but also because Elsigardia was a fertile kingdom, with vast richness in both land and sea produce coupled with strategic location. One of the most famous of Elsigardia’s produce was its famous berry, the Elsiberry, which used to be a wild plant but now cultivated as a major crop. Elsiberry’s farm can be found throughout the land and it was used in making wines, ales, sweet condiments and potions. It’s extremely sweet but with tangy properties made it a highly sought as both sweetening and preservative materials. Other than salt, Elsiberry was the main preservative ingredients in most foods and drinks that were being consumed.

The Kingdom of Elsigardia was strategically situated on this continent which we called the Astral Continent and surrounded by The Kingdom of Melodia to its south and Kingdom of Zestra-Vashana, the Old Kingdom to its west. Between The Kingdom of Elsigardia and the Old Kingdom of Zestra-Vashana, we were separated by a mountain range of no less than 5000 miles long and a thousand miles wide. We call this the Great Mountain Range of Zestra-Astral. The highest peak of this great mountain range was called the Celestia Mountain, standing proudly at 7500 meters from the flat land.

To the east, lies the great ocean, the Atlantis (or Atlantynn) Great Ocean and across the sea, was the other part of Astral Continent, the Kingdom of Beastlands and The Kingdom of Darklands. The Ocean was at least 20,000 miles in width. Because of the distance, travel between the two side of the same continent, West Astral and East Astral, by ship was considered to be nearly impossible.

Because of its location, Elsivier, as the capital city of Elsigardia was regarded as this continent’s major commerce hub. People from every corner of the known world would come here and trade.

And not only that, those who seek fortune, richness, fame and recognition or even those few who wanted to try their luck in politics would transverse here, in Elsivier. Thus, you can see many people with various sort of backgrounds walking in and out of Elsivier.

Who knows the one that walked past you today, could be a hero tomorrow. Or perhaps a wanted villain.

Either way, Elsivier was where everyone can be anyone, make whatever their dreams come true.

And I believe so would all of you. Your dreams that you have right now, might come true in near future, with Elsivier being your nearest destination worthy of the fame and fortune. Only by strictly following the ethos of the Brotherhood, I know, that all of you too could make your dreams come true, and not just in Elsivier or the Kingdom of Elsigardia.

With that, the class is dismissed and I shall see you in next Lore and History class.”

As soon as he finished his lesson, Blizzard Hawk looked at an empty seat at the back of the class and said to himself,

“I wonder what dreams of yours that you will realize in Elsivier, Hasty One?”

He gave a smile, closed his book and once more, before he exited through the door, looked at the empty seat.

“And perhaps, what sort of adventures are you having right now? The class is not the same without you, young man.”

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I’m being surrounded a group of people, perhaps no less than 20 of them. All mean looking ones, both males and females. Tall, short, thin, or fat with various hair colours and styles but all with the same mean face were gathered here. I could see men with scars and women with weird gothic makeups. One guy had a spiky green hair with a piercing on his tongue and even weirder set of pointy teeth. He took a few step forward, looked at me while waving his dagger around and then licking its blade. He looked more like a lizard than a man.

However, no matter what all of them looked like, I was the focus of their attention. And all of them were looking at me without blinking even an eyelid. I sweat a bucket load of what was happening right around me.

“You have some balls coming right into our home ehh, kid?” The spiky green-haired lizard lookalike was the first to break the awkward silence.

“Some really big balls you have of which will surely depart from you now. Haha!” A female voice then came immediately after.

Then a chorus of laughter followed.

“No one leaves this place alive.” Out came another male voice. All of these voices I heard were nothing but threats. A real dangerous threat. I could not hope to beat them all. Some, yes, but all, no.

“Yeah!!! Yeah!!! No one leaves this place alive!” The rest of the group seemed to agree with what being said by the earlier ones.

“Show him what we meant by respect here!! He should not live with his skin intact!”

“Errr, guys? Guys?? Wait a moment, please. I’m not…”

Suddenly, a dagger flew towards me. However, it missed me as it flew right to the top of my head. The dagger was lodged deep into the wooden wall behind but not without leaving me unscratched. My cheek was now bleeding. I knew the first dagger missed me by a thread but was there a second dagger that struck me? I could not even see any of it, and the first one was barely noticeable, especially in this dimly lighted area.

“Shut yer trap kid, before I lodge this next dagger through your throat. And this time, I won’t intentionally miss the mark.”

A chorus of even louder laughter filled the room.

I’m now in mega trouble of epic proportion. My palms were all sweaty and I could feel that my legs were trembling. I fell on my ass as my leg finally gave way.

How did I ever end up here? My eyes darted to the back of the room, to a certain figure. It's him.

It was all because of him.