Ciara Citadel City, Eisenhiem Kingdom’s New Capital

“We’re the 21st recon team, requesting permission to enter the city…”the captain of the recon team yelled as he stood in front of the closed gate.

*GRGRGRGRGR*

The gate opened gradually, revealing the guards who were standing behind it; who were holding a spear in their hands.

“How was the view outside… my friend?”A handsome tall man, wearing chainmail armor yelled; he had a long face that was further highlighted by his short brown hair.

“Scenic…” the captain replied coldly.

“Don’t be so cold with your old friend… here have some ale… it’ll help you.” the man replied cheerfully.

“I don’t drink on duty.” The captain now replied with an angry face.

“Hey hey… don’t refuse a drink at times like these… you may not get another chance to do so...” the man replied with a sad smile on his face.

“Let’s have a drink… after I report our findings to my superior.” The captain replied waving his hand as he walked away.

“At least tell me what you found?” the man yelled.

“Nothing…” the captain replied.

“Nothing?” the man murmured while he looked towards the captain.

“Maw…”

“Huh! Hey kitty, want to have some ale with me?” the man asked the cat who was currently staring at him.

“Meow!” the cat replied.

“Ok here… oops! it seems like the mug is empty…” the man replied as he tilted his empty mug and saw a few drops of ale that fell on the ground.

“Sir… erm… the cat doesn’t wants your ale, it wants the meat… that you are eating with it.” Alan told the man.

“Oh, if it isn’t Alan… what’s going on? Is this your cat?” the man spoke to Alan, while giving a piece of meat to the cat.

“Ah… no… we found this cat drowning on the moat, I saved him and he is following me since then.” Alan replied.

“Wow you’re so brave… jumping in the enchanted moat, just to save a drowning kitty.” The man praised Alan, who got flustered by a little compliment.

“Ah ha-ha...no… I didn’t jump into the moat… I just pulled him out by my spell.” Alan replied while scratching the back of his head.

“Hmm… an intelligent decision… you knew that those waters were enchanted, so you pulled him out instead of jumping in yourself… hmm.” The man spoke while nodding his head.

“Who would you save if a cat and a woman both are drowning in the moat at the same time?” the man asked Alan in curiosity.

“I would try to save both…” Alan replied with a puzzled look on his face.

“What if you don’t have enough mana and you could save only one of them?”

“Well, then I would save the woman first…” Alan replied in a stressed-out tone.

“Really! You won’t save the cat?”The man asked Alan with an astonished look on his face.

“Yeah…” Alan replied slowly.

“What if you find out that the woman you saved is a dwarf?” the man chuckled.

“Sir…”

“Ah ha ha ha! Sorry… my bad, my bad; hope you find a nice girl, who love kitties just like you… and is not a dwarf, or a giant!” the man laughed as he patted Alan’s slightly bent back.

“By the way you guys are too tensed try to take a breather… come to the pub tonight… with the captain.” The man replied as he waved off the men from the 21st recon team.

“Ha ha… yeah… with the captain…” all the men replied in a dead tone, as they thought about their captain in a pub, after getting drunk…

“Oh boy! It seems like I forgot about the last time… and invited him to the pub tonight! Hope that the owner lets him in…” the man shivered as a cold sweat ran down his cheek.

Soon, the men of the recon team approached a big gate tagged as Gate no. 4 , which lead to a giant old building made up of stones that looked like a castle; adjacent to that building was a big stable which contained various kinds of mounts and another building having a 30 meter tall tower which was known to be the mage’s headquarters, in front of these buildings was a giant field that was used as a mock battleground or to practice drills, besides these buildings the facility also had 30 dormitories, a few houses, a church, a siege workshop, an alchemy lab, a library, and a giant cafeteria. The whole place was surrounded by 10 meter tall walls which enclosed the entire facility that spanned over 2 square kilometers. This facility was earlier known as the military barracks; even though it was a fully fledged military facility, and was this town’s one of the major cause of employment and stability. It was now renamed as “Eisenhiem elite military academy” because of the following reason: It was the only military facility left in the Eisenhiem kingdom, as all the other military facilities were destroyed by the demon army, while they conquered more than 3/4th portion of the kingdom.

“Maw…” the cat meowed as he followed Alan into the facility.

“Hey, you there… No stray animals or monsters are allowed here inside this facility!” a guard yelled at Alan.

“But, last time I checked…pets were allowed here.” Alan replied.

“Yeah...Pets are still allowed here…but I know that, this cat here is clearly not your pet…” the guard replied.

“Who said that?” Alan yelled.

“Your captain…he ordered us to stop you from bringing any more animals into the academy.” the guard replied.

“He said that you have a habit of adopting stray cats… and you probably have 20 of them in your room…” the guard chuckled.

“No! I have 21 cats in my room…” Alan replied angrily.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t allow you to bring this cat in the academy.” The guard argued.

Alan begged and pleaded the guard to let the cat enter the academy with him, he even tried to bribe him but the guard didn’t waver from the decision that he made earlier.

“Rules are Rules… I’m sorry but you’ll have to leave him here at the gate.” the guard told Alan.

Watching all the fuss, the cat decided not to enter the academy and turned towards the direction of the bazaar*. He then meowed while looking back at Alan as if he was saying thank you and goodbye; and then gently ran away.

“Noooo… kitty… don’t goo…” Alan cried as he saw the cat running towards the bazaar.

The cat, after leaving Alan behind now ran towards bazaar. A faint smell of tuna was coming from the direction where he was heading… and eating all the tuna as much as he could get, was his one and only ambition.

He soon reached the bazaar, which was located on the southern part of the city and tried to sniff out the location from where the smell of tuna was coming… he walked as he slowly observed the condition of the bazaar. Most of the shops in the bazaar were closed; the shops that were open had little merchandise to sell, there were one or two people who were shopping or walking around, most of the people had locked themselves up in their homes and were too scared to come out. The whole situation looked as if an order of curfew had been imposed on the city.

*SNIFF**SNIFF*

The cat sniffed as it located a small shop that was selling dried fish and carefully treaded towards it.

The owner of the shop looked at the cat, in a way as if he had identified a robber and took out his knife that he used to cut the fish. He then tried to scare away the cat, by posing as if he was about to throw his knife at him.

“Meow!” the cat tried to ask the shopkeeper for a piece of tuna.

“Shoo…Shoo… Go away… I don’t have anything to give to you.” The shopkeeper tried to shoo away the cat.

“Meow…” the cat took a step forward, after it looked at the biggest tuna that was impaled on a hook.

“That’s it…” the shopkeeper yelled as he stood up and threw the knife at the approaching cat.

“Hiss...” the cat hissed as it dodged the knife that was thrown at him.

The shopkeeper at the moment didn’t comprehend; that he was messing up with the wrong person cat, and would have to pay dearly for it…