After parting with Wolf, Zed slowly walked towards the apothecary hall where Francis could be found.

Grandmaster Francis was a staunch supporter of his liege and could be said to be a part of his faction. A brilliant man who was an apothecary fanatic down to his bones. He understood complex concepts at the back of his hand which people could not begin to comprehend even with the knowledge in front of them.

Zed admired Francis greatly both for his exceptional skill and the type of person he was. Though quite eccentric, he was a loyal man to the boot.

Walking slowly, Zed held his Young Lord as the boy was flailing his arms around, curiously watching his surroundings. Zed soon reached a huge door that was the entrance of the apothecary hall and knocked on it lightly, waiting for Francis to open the door.

A bald lanky man opened the door enough to put his head out and looked towards Zed.

“Grandmaster Francis, I’ll be leaving soon, please get the Young Master marked with his liege’s crest. I’ll be waiting by the balcony. Your hall makes my head hurt.”

Zed spoke as if he was already used to Francis being eccentric

“I’ll get it done in no time, Lord Zed.” Francis replied taking the boy in his arms as he closed the door of the hall behind him.

It was late at night and none of the other apothecary were around. The apothecary hall was huge, filled with enormous cauldrons puffing out all sorts of smells.

Francis carried the little boy by his sides and was walking with the boy in front of him while he made faces at him, trying to make the little boy giggle. Sadly for him, the little boy’s attention was on something much more engaging and that was the light brightly shining on his bald head.

‘Ai… This little lord does not laugh at all… whatever, whatever, let’s just get him marked.’

Francis sighed inwardly as he walked to one of the cauldrons filled to the brim with a dark liquid and placed the boy on the shelf, which was more like a table right above the cauldron and started searching for his tools and the marking solution.

‘I guess I placed them back in the cabinet.’

Francis thought and walked towards the closet to search for them.

While Francis was busy finding the tools, the kid was having his own adventures as he looked down at the viscous liquid in the cauldron not far from his reach. His eyes shining as if he had found the purpose of his little life. The only thing that was left for him to do was reach out and take what was his.

The sound of whistling echoed in the hall as Francis whistled while he searched for his tools and the marking solution in his cabinet. Soon, he found them and came back.

Getting ready, while not paying much attention to the little boy, Francis placed a bottleful of liquid and his tools on the shelf.

After he was ready, Francis pulled the little boy in front of him.

He grabbed the boy’s arm to turn him around, but was bewildered to find that the arm seemed to be a bit sticky. He looked towards the little boy who had his unblinking, misting eyes staring right at him with a pout on his face and then looked at the boy’s arm confused

‘Why is it so bla-’ he thought

*Drip Drip*

He looked down, saw the drippings on the shelf, then towards the cauldron. The realization struck him as he his eyes finally landed on the boy’s face, that pouty teary face, and Francis finally lost it and so did the kid.

“Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

“Wahhhhhh!!!!!!!!”

“Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

“Wahhhhhh!!!!!!!!”

Francis stumbled backwards, falling down, his head hitting another cauldron knocking him out of his shock. He quickly came back to his senses, jumped back on his feet and picked up a piece of cloth from the shelf at lightning speed. He started wiping at the Young Lord’s arm vigorously trying to get the dark liquid off, but subconsciously he already knew that the deed has already been done.

*Thump Thump Thump*

His heart was beating fast as he gave up on removing the dark liquid. Like a thief afraid of being caught, his head moved right to left trying to check if anyone saw him. He ran to the hall’s door with the boy in his hand and pried it open slightly to check if Zed had heard all the ruckus. Finally, realizing that he was alone and Zed had not heard the noises, Francis quickly closed the door and looked at the boy as if he was going to start crying.

‘Done! I’m so done if the mistress finds out about this! I would still be pardoned if his liege saw this and he understood the circumstances, but if mistress sees this, no reasoning would work and I’ll definitely die without a grave. Fuck! I can’t let anyone see this.

My little ancestor, I had just looked away for a second and you had to do this! Did you fucking think that my cauldron was a lake to swim in! Oh God! Why Me! The task was to mark the Young Lord with his liege’s crest not to turn his whole arm black!’

Francis thought as he quickly opened a closet and took out a white roll of bandage and wrapped it around the Young Lord’s left arm which had been turned black.

‘Ai… Such a waste of my precious concoction…

This little ancestor might be the first person to ever use this concoction like this. It’s not even made to be used on people; it is used as a material to permanently stain weapons and equipment when refining them…

Is there even a need to mark him anymore? The Young Lord has his own special signature…’

Francis thought ruefully as he proceeded to quickly mark his liege’s crest on the little boy’s back, using the marking solution that he had brought from the closet. Soon, while fighting to keep the little boy still, Francis traced an intricate crest on the Young Lord’s back.

After the crest had been made, Francis put his hand on top of it. He closed his eyes and started chanting some words upon which the intricate crest dimmed and disappeared from the little boy’s back in about a minute’s time.

This was a special sealing technique that his liege had taught Francis, which could only be used with the marking solution he had given Francis as a medium and could only be unsealed by his liege himself as even Francis did not know the unsealing technique.

After the seal had been placed, Francis opened his eyes and they fell on the little boy’s bandaged arm again, making his bald head start sweating profusely at the thought of his mistress finding out. Still not feeling confident enough, he quickly wrapped the Young Lord in a blanket with only his little head visible.

He took a solution out of his collection box, opened it and made the boy smell it, knocking him out and went to find Zed at the balcony.

“Lord Zed, the Young Lord has been marked. Young Lord had fallen asleep by the time I finished working. I wrapped him in a blanket so that he wouldn’t catch a cold while he travels with you.”

“Thanks for the work Grandmaster and please do take care of your health, you seem to be sweating heavily.

I’ll take my leave for now, maybe after a couple of decades, we’ll meet again.”

Zed said as he started walking out of the castle.

“I’ll wait for your safe arrival, Lord Zed.” Francis said awkwardly

Wiping the sweat from his bald head, Francis watched Zed disappear from in front of him and out of the castle.

Walking out of the castle, Zed stopped and closed his eyes as he moved his hand in front of him.

“It’s time to leave partner.” Zed spoke

Just as he spoke, a gate slowly started materializing in front of his extended hand. The gate was bright reddish-golden in colour with intricate designs of a majestic golden bird on it.

Slowly the gate opened and with a whooshing sound a huge bird flew out of it and took to the sky as it shrieked. The huge bird looked identical to the intricate design that was on the gate. It looked like a huge blazing meteor because of it’s golden-red feathers and had an aura of majesty surrounding it.

“Let’s get going then.” The majestic golden bird spoke to Zed telepathically

Zed jumped and landed on the majestic golden bird’s back with the Young Lord in his hand as the majestic bird flew out of the sight.

----------------------------

||Couple of Days Later in Kingdom of Sunaret||

Sandy. This is the word anyone would use to describe their first impressions of Sunaret. The Kingdom was located in the largest desert of the continent, famous for its gruesome environment, life threatening spiritual beasts, sand bandits and all in all its difficulty of life since the ancient times.

Contrary to the belief that this would make it a wasteland, from these conditions came out a thirst for a good life which resulted in a kingdom that reached the pinnacle in the field of research and development of any and all things known to the sentient living creatures.

In a remote location far away from civilization, Zed was travelling sitting on a majestic golden bird with the Young Lord in one of his hands while a bottle of sake in another.

*Burp Burp*

Zed lifted the bottle over his head trying to drink every last drop of sake in the bottle as he cried, his face full of tears

“G-Gella! Gella! Why did you leave?! You said you would always be there to beat me up if I cry! See I’m crying! who will beat me up now?!”

“Not Again Master Zed…” A sigh could be heard as the majestic golden bird looked up at the sky in defeat.

It had been just a couple of days but with having to keep constant watch for enemies and Zed constantly wallowing, really took a tool on the majestic golden bird.

Zed tossed the empty bottle of sake in the unending desert and rubbed his face on Young lord’s face vigorously as he wallowed in depression.

“Young Lord why did she leave me? You know, don’t you? Yes! Yes! she definitely told you. Tell me! Tell me why did she leave me Young Lord!” Zed stared at the Young Lord right in his eyes.

“Wahhhh!!!” The Young Lord cried out as he struggled in his cocoon like blanket as if trying to get out of it and smash Zed into the sand below.

“Yes, Yes, you’re right… It’s me it’s definitely me… I might have done something to upset her so in her rage she destroyed everything around her, including herself.” Zed lamented sinking deeper and deeper into depression.

A couple of minutes later, a foggy area appeared in front of them. Seeing the fog, the majestic bird kept on flying as fog was quite a regular occurrence around Sunaret and sometimes dense enough that you could cut it with a knife. Zed was feeling extremely intoxicated as they entered the fog so much so that he started feeling extremely detached from the world.

Intoxicated and extremely confused, Zed looked around as he heard a vague voice coming from some distance. Even though it was vague, he felt that it was extremely familiar.

As they flew forward the voice soon became clearer.

“Zed you bastard, where are you?! Even as a ghost I’m not going to let you go! Come out you bastard! I’m going to beat you till all your bones turn to mush! I am going to haunt you till you die!”

It was a feminine voice with a valiant undertone.

A figure soon became clearer. It was a woman with a huge Greatsword on her shoulders walking towards Zed. The woman was wearing a violet-green armor with intricate design all over it. When Zed saw this woman, his eyes popped out in shock. He rubbed his eyes vigorously as he stuttered

“G-G-Gella?!”

“So, bastard you are finally here. Come down here for this lady you runt-”

Gella shouted as she moved her hands motioning for Zed to come down but before she could finish, Zed had already disappeared from the majestic golden bird leaving the Young Lord with the majestic bird.

“ZED YOU DRUNKARD! WAIT! IT CAN’T BE GELLA!”

The majestic bird roared in Zed’s Head but it was as if Zed could not hear him.

Before Gella could understand what is happening, she found that her face had been caught hold of. An extremely alcoholic smell wafted by her nose but before she could say anything or resist, her mouth had been sealed off

*SMOOOOOOOOOOCH!!!*

The scene seemed to have stopped. The dense and heavy fog that had filled the area dispersed in an instant. Not far away from Zed, there were a dozen or so men, standing speechless. Their faces full of air, their teeth biting down on their lips as if they were trying their best to not open their mouths in fear of something.

“Huh? Gella when did your face become so hard and hairy?… Hairy?”