VIIIth Century, year 63, Brumáire. Day 19. In the Florenz Royal Place.

It had been a day since Ashkan's appointment to succession, his father along with his sons and most of the wealthier nobles sought shelter in neighboring Kingdoms.

Nominating Ashkan as regent, abandoning him and then waiting for a reasonable peace settlement was a jaw-dropping strategy.

Knowing this Ashkan locked himself in his room, only opening the door when necessary or when there was a special order.

The battle reports came every hour, and was piled up in front of his bedroom door. There were times he would take a few and draw up an order on top of that report, other times he would simply let the report fly with the wind that freshened around the palace.

"Shit, shit, shit!!" Ashkan scratched his head furiously, he forces his mind to work on an answer, but the answer would not come.

"How the hell could anyone have created such a difficult rune based inscription?!"

Further into Ashkan's room were piles and piles of information about runes, magic circles and even some about forbidden magic.

"Knock, Knock" A fragile sound echoed from the door to the room, however the knock ceased as no answer was received.

On the other side, the maids didn't dare interrupt his majesty. They knew that the Kingdom's situation possessed no solution, and only awaited the eventual defeat.

"Knock, your majesty!" This time a warrior, with white armor covering her body, a bronze necklace on her neck identified her as a Knight of the bronze order, those who are in the front line, in the real combat. But what was she doing here. For a member of the frontline to seek such a hasty meeting with His Majesty showed that the situation on the battlefield was no easy.

"Stop, you can't interrupt your majesty" One of the maids was trying to interrupt there, but without success.

"What the hell are you doing in there? While, your men are giving their lives, our majesty is not even able to read the Reports that we send?"

Even with the hopeless situation, there were people who tried to change fate with their own strength, they couldn't just hand over their families, friends and their loved ones. These were people who had nowhere else to run, who had no gigantic prestige to their names and could be welcomed into another nation.

Tears flowed from her eyes as she slowly leaned her head against the door, no one dared to stop there this time. Everyone wanted to say those words, but no one had had the courage until now, because of this everybody understood her pain. Unfortunately there was no answer came from Ashkan's room.

"Please, please, our Kingdom, our people... There must, m-must be something important that you wanna p-protect"

However, his frustrations have been put to rest.

"Make way, Make way, urgent report about Masmahati's prison."

The messenger voice reached in front of the door of Ashkan's room and uttered.

"As ordered, urgent level report being delivered to your majesty.

Archemis Ieda, unfortunately is dead!"

Ashkan's body went cold, his hand trembling. His dry mouth was trying to dryly swallow his last hope.

"What now, what now?" His mind collapsed there was no one nearby who could read ancient runes.

"But there is a girl inside the prison who claimed to be your apprentice"

When the message has finished, the door to Ashkan's room opened quickly. Ashkan ran out of his room past everyone towards the messenger.

"Where, where is she!!"

his pale face did not match Ashkan's appearance, his fingernail was totally fragmented from gnawing so much due to anxiety. He held the messenger's shoulders so tightly, waiting quickly for the answer to his question.

"S-she's in the waiting room of the Royal palace"

Ashkan didn't wait, and again walked out towards the waiting room, even though his mouth was dry and his body needed water, this feeling could be put on a wait.

"Hey! Girl, vice leader of the bronze order. Trust me, just once, trust me!"

Shouted Ashkan as he ran, his voice echoed in the hall, the few people present heard, heard so well that no one could hold back their tears.

This was the first time he had been so assertive in his life, even though he didn't possess many qualities to be a worthy ruler, at that moment his confidence exuded hope.

"Just one drop of hope we needed. Just that... A drop of hope that we could hold on." Whispered the vice leader of the bronze order to the wind.

"We will wait for your majesty. In the name of the Bronze Order, we will keep fighting, for our Majesty." Shouted the vice leader, trying to maintain her military composure.

As he walked to the waiting room, his mind balanced the situation, was there something in those runes, something that could at least spare the lives of many?

he didn't know what it could be, an extremely strong magic, or a key to some ancient weapon.

And if there was none of that, what would be the strategy to escape this situation. Contrasting his optimism with his pessimism, he was moving towards the answer.