“Look! It’s the high priest!”

“Long live high priest!”

“May God Bless you!”

A lot of voices rise from the crowd as they make a way for the high priest, Nevi. It looks like we’re in a middle of a parade and the carriage is the caravan. The carriage walks slowly in the front with Nevi standing on top of it. Waving her hand and smiling. I walk behind the carriage with a metal string tied every bandit we caught in my left hand and my right hand shouldering the Pair of Dragon and Phoenix.

It’s much more complex when we entered the gate. When we’re in the middle of our journey, we simply tied all the bandits in top of the carriage. But when we almost reach the gate, they have to walk and I keep them tied in front of them.

In the front most of the bandits, Xiel is walking while staring hard at me. For the past few days, she didn’t let out a single word out of her except if I talk to her. Even if this convenient as she won’t unveil my identity, but on the other hand it’s such a pain as Reis and Nevi thought I’ve fallen for her.

We reach the palace while the army take control of the bandits and bring them to the prison.

“Please, come. The king has been waiting for you.” A woman human welcome us.

We walk following Nevi in front of us. This palace is not the highest place apparently. Some building is higher.

“Mada, we’re greeting the king. I’d like you to behave.” Nevi talks to me.

“I’ll try.”

I’ve only set my foot in this place one time one year ago to do some business. Other than that, never.

We reach the palace. You can see a lot of knights standing in line at the left and the right of the hall. In front of us, a red carpet has been set to welcome the high priest. I look into the throne and see a beast man type dragon sitting. In his right side, a woman beast man also type dragon is sitting. Judging from the crown, the man is the king and the woman beside him is the queen. They look so bright with the stained glass behind them let the light from the outside to come in.

We walk inside and not so far from the throne, we kneel and give our respect to the king.

“Long live Your Highness. High priest Nevi came from the negotiation with the new government of Ul Thadur with some companion.” Nevi greet the king.

I manage to guide Erfia how to do it while putting my Pair of Dragon and Phoenix in the ground. I put my left hand on her head to show her that we’re not allowed to stand or stop bowing before the king allows us.

“Stand, high priest Nevi and the companion.” The king finally allows us to stand.

“Thank you, your highness.” Nevi respond to the king’s words.

I let go of my hand from Erfia’s head and all of us stand. I grab the Pair of Dragon and Phoenix back in my right hand.

“Nevi, may I know who’s the leader of your companion?”

“Yes your highness. His name is Mada Jeian of the Vorks. Also known as Mada the Black Trader.” Nevi introduces me while I take a step to stand beside her. “He’s an old friend of mine and he’s also the one that captured Mada the Great Raider.”

“Ohh, so Nevi is befriended Mada the Black Trader? That’s something I didn’t expect.” The king stroke his long beard below his long mouth. “Tell me, Mada the Black Trader. What kind of item do you sell?”

“Anything, my lord. Just say it with an appropriate price and I’ll get it for you.” I answer the king easily.

“Don’t you bring any of your goods?” The queen enters the conversation.

“Unfortunately, I never bring it. I do my trade by order. I did it to avoid any unnecessary battle or raid along the way.”

“Hooh, that’s unusual. So, Mada, you’ve got some interesting party right there. A party consists of human, beast man, and a half elf half beast man. You’ll fit perfectly in my kingdom. Tell me, would you like to stay at my kingdom as my security supervisor? It will suite you perfectly as you have proven yourself by capturing Mada the Great Raider. I could even change your title from two words nobody into one word hero.”

“I’m afraid I can’t take your humble offer, my lord. Right now we’re on a journey to the Demon’s Realm to look for our old friend. I deeply sorry, my lord.” I lower my head as I reject his offer.

“You’ve got a friends in Demon’s Realm? Tell me, is that person a demon or from another race?” The king puts interest on me.

“The person we’re looking for is a beast man, and the other one is a demon, my lord.”

Okay, I’m tired will all of these formalities. Can we end it as soon as possible?

“Hooh, that’s something you rarely see.” King let out a praise to me. “Shiba, Frea, make sure our guest got the best service when he’s staying in my kingdom and reward him with a few thousand gold coins.”

“Yes sir.” Shiba and Frea answer the king at the same time.

“Good. You may leave.”

“Thank you your highness.” All of us respond to the king at the same time

~~~

“I’ll take a look at Xiel. Something’s bothering me.” I tell everybody in the room right after Nevi and her guards left.

“So, you feel it too?” Eri responds to my words.

“What? What do you mean?” Reis asks me.

“I’m not so sure. That’s why I’ll check it out.” I walk toward the door and open it. “And, don’t abandon the dance lesson. Okay?”

“Okay,” Erfia, Reis, and Eri answer me.

I left the inn and take a walk.

First, I’m still thinking about the king offer this afternoon. It’s so strange to offer some unknown person like me a high position like the security supervisor. Second, I see no despise in the people’s eyes when they see the bandit. Normally people that see a band of bandit would scream at them and even throw something at them.

I need to get some information. The only person I know is Nevi and Xiel. Nevi is out of question since she’s already part of this place. It left me with Xiel. I ask anybody I met on the street about the location of the prison. But no one knows where is it. That’s weird. I try to look the city guards or some soldier, but I can’t seem to find one. Something really is strange about this place.

Finally I decide to search for the cathedral to find Nevi. I manage to find the cathedral easily. But when I found it, I’m not sure I want to enter it. My instinct tells me some kind of magic barrier has been placed around the cathedral. If I enter it carelessly, I feel like someone or something will appear out of nowhere.

I walk back and left the cathedral. I walk into the alley around the cathedral to find out some way in. But as I look around, I can’t seem to find one. One more thing, this kingdom should be a big and crowded place, but I just realized the area around the cathedral unusually quiet. Very quiet.

It seems I’ve got no choice but to enter the cathedral. I take a robe out of the Keeper and put it. This robe is a special robe that allows me to enter any magic barrier without being detected. I hate this robe because the size is way too big and too long. When I wear it, it’s like I’m a woman bride of some wedding. I coil it around my body and my face so it won’t hindrance my movement and cover my face.

I jump to the cathedral roof from the nearby building. Fortunately the window is not locked, and it manages to let me in. It seems they have put it all in the magic barrier. As I enter the cathedral, I’ve seen nothing but empty seats and some statue in front of it. I land and take a better look into the statue. Suddenly I see a movement on the statue. The statue is moving to the side. It is a door.

I’m looking for a place to hide but I can’t find it anywhere. Then, I have to enter it. I lower my body in front of the statue, trying to hide my body by using the statue figure. A couple of guards is coming out of the statue and walk to the right of the statue. I quickly go to the left of the statue, behind of them. Before they turn their back and the statue move back into its place, I enter it. I can hear the statue slam the wall showing that it has been closed completely.

I enter a room of darkness. Total darkness.

~O the almighty watcher, I wish you to grant this selfish wish of mine and let me borrow those touches of yours, the hand of the creator.~

By using the hand of the creator, I manage to feel the air pressure, flow, and temperature around my body. By using the hand of creator like this, I feel like I’m some kind of sonar. The difference is I’m not emitting the signal, I only accept the air pressure and flow and it lets me picture the room I’m in.

Right now I’m walking in some corridor with a stair went down. I take the stairs and step down. I walk by only using my toe to ensure no sound is coming from my steps. After a few minutes of walking down the stairs, finally I reached some underground dungeon. As this place has a torch along the way, I dispel my hand of the creator.

~The Almighty Watcher is being too kind.~

At a glance, this place looks like your typical dungeon with a prison. But as I walk through it, I know this not your typical dungeon at all. Behind the bar, I can see a body without leg and arm is being bounded by some kind of root. The root is growing out of their body. It is not a normal root, the root is full of thorn and I can see some kind of liquid is coming out of the thorn. It’s a poison. Around the body, I can see a magic sigil is drawn. The magic is a healing magic that will activate forever. It’s a dark healing magic. The magic being fueled by the pain felt by the body. It will only stop when the body stops feeling pain. In other words, death.

Even if my place was rather different, but I can recognize this place very well. This place is a place to torture the arrested one word fugitive. But I recognize none of the people in this place. I take a closer look into the bar and find something written on the ground.

Hoan the Soul Mage

Wait a minute, this person is just a two words titled? This is totally wrong.

I continue to walk to the end of the hall. In the end of it, I find a door leads to another room. I put my ear on it and I could hear a voice of a woman. Screaming in pain.

I’ve got no use of some stealth anymore, so I put the magic robe back to the Keeper and put my mask on. I take a pair of iron gauntlets out of the Keeper and wear it. It’s been a long time since I take this weapon of mine. I pull a long weapon out of the Keeper. A halberd with a length of 2 meters. It got a blue feather on its blade. The blade is made of ornament of a tiger head with a gold line. The Roaring Tiger.

I swing the halberd to the door and break through. As I enter the room, I can see the place is full of torch and a lot of people wearing a white cloth covering their whole body but their head. The screaming woman is in the middle of the room being swarmed by thorny root that’s trying to enter her body. I can clearly the see woman is Xiel.

I swing my halberd to the ground and it makes the ground shaking. As the ground shaking, the people in white can’t get their balance. I cut the root that’s trying to enter the woman body and took her with me. I look into her and let out a little of relief breath as her leg and hand is still intact.

“This is going to hurt.” I whisper to Xiel.

“AAHHHHHH”

I pull all of the poisonous thorny root out of her body. She’s screaming harder than before when I do it. The iron gauntlet I wear is preventing my hand from touching it. I did it so fast, I’m sure she felt a lot more pain than before. But after I did it, she’s becoming unconscious. I take a stance with Xiel in my left hand and Roaring Tiger in my right hand.

“Oh, Mada, why would you do that?”