The sun was high in the sky in the slums of the Arcadian capital, so high in fact that it heated the bone white tiled floor to the point of scorching one’s barefoot. A young lad of short messy brown hair and deep blue eyes was staring at the fruits being sold on a makeshift stall raised on the side of the wide street by two wooden planks on each edge of the wooden roof. It was a busy day bustling with people working or looking for work in the central square of the slums, it was a monthly occurrence there, most folks would set up stalls to sell whatever they hunted, gathered, or even stole, most didn’t seem too worried about being arrested but not because they were quick or cunning to hide their goods, but instead it was just the city guards that would not even bother going there.

“John, how are we doing this?”

Another kid approached young Jonathan with a small hemp sack, large enough to fit maybe ten apples. He wore a tattered shirt and a hemp sack with holes for trousers. His hair was a lighter toned brown with his right eye being hazel and the other one brown.

“Grab ‘n’ leave. Meet ya in the alley, shoulda be easy enough with the two of us.”

The kid nodded.

“Right. Be right behind ya.”

Young Jonathan took the lead zig-zagging through the crowd like he did it many times before. The fruit stall was manned by a bald man in his forties, grumpy old looking fella with a crude lit cigar stuck to the side of his cracked mouth. His blonde eyebrows were mostly thin due to previously working in the smelters, such heat would often cause facial hair to burn.

He was preoccupied with a long dark red haired young woman seemingly disinterested about the apples he was trying to sell.

“Jake.”

Jonathan called the other kid and discreetly grabbed the hemp sack before stuffing it into his own pants. He looked around before continuing to explain the plan.

“I’mma grab a few of those apples ‘n’ some other fruits but if he seems like he’ll turn around just go and kick the plank down.

“Got it.”

He nodded before wandering near the young woman who was still trying to shake the old man off her skirt. Meanwhile Jonathan hung around the other side of the stall for a couple of more minutes before carefully slipping a few red apples and black round berries from wooden crates into the hemp sack that was still inside his pants. He would often look around for any gazes before grabbing another fruit he could lay his hands on and jam it inside his pants.

“Bah piss off my arse.”

A male voice coming from his right made Jonathan’s eyes peek through the edge of his vision without turning his head as the young woman seemed to leave the man talking by himself. The man sighed before turning his attention to the young possible customer standing right in front of him, puffing a thick white smoke cloud.

“Ya buyin’ anything lad?”

“Ah… I’m so hungry. Would you not leave some scraps for me, old man?”

Jake begged for food with dirty small hands out in front of him but instead of food he got a wooden stick beaten to the palms of his hand.

“Bugger off ya beggar. Go stain someone else's stall.”

He winced in pain and started to walk away clutching his stomach. The man moved his cigar from side to side before puffing another cloud of smoke.

“Beggars… should die all of ‘em. Hm?”

He looked at the few irregular holes in the merchandise on the left-most crates and raised an eyebrow. His eyes darted around the wide street before seeing a young boy walking away from his stall leaning forward. The cigar was crushed by his teeth before he spewed it out and started to stomp his way towards the boy.

“Oi. Whatchu carrying there?”

He angrily grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. The boy’s weak deep blue eyes stared right back at the merchant, he was clutching his belly seemingly hungry.

“Hmph.”

The man shoved Jonathan back, who almost fell on the ground. Behind him a crash noise accompanied by startled screams made the merchant take his eyes over to his stall which was now toppled over its own roof.

“Ah! Ma stall! Who was the little sh-”

Jonathan took a few steps away before dashing to the left between the crowd, vanishing almost instantly amidst the bustling street. A smirk came across his face as he pulled the hemp sack from inside his pants the moment he stepped out of sight of the main street. It took a few more minutes walking through other narrow streets before he reached the alleyway they agreed to meet.

“Ah… there he is.”

Jake, who seemed tired from running, was sitting on a large wooden crate with a young girl of silver colored hair and deep purple eyes right beside him, her hands were grasping what seemed to be a stuffed owl with buttons for eyes, part of the toy’s left ear was missing. She wore a dirt stained white frilly dress with long white sleeves also frilled near the wrists, if her clothing was cleaner she could be mistaken for a noble young girl.

“Hey. I brought us some food.”

Jonathan set the sack on top of the crate between the two. He took an apple out and handed it to the girl first.

“Mmmm, thank you John.”

She thanked him before holding it and taking it towards her mouth, she took a bite out of it and some of its juice trickled down to her chin.

“Ah. Alisa, ya need to eat less messily.”

Jonathan reached for the side of her face with his right hand and cleaned the juice with his thumb. A weak smile surged from his face as he took care of the girl. Jake reached for one of the apples and started to eat as well.

“Oi punks.”

The two young boys slowly turned to the other end of the alleyway, a trio of male teenagers approached, the two in front were younger ones with wooden planks wearing pieces of cloth as a turban around their faces, the older one in the back wore a tattered leather jacket and wielded what seemed to be a broken dagger.

“Give us that sack.”

The one in the back raised the dagger towards the two of them, Jake hopped off the crate and lifted Alisa down to the ground behind him, she grabbed the edge of his clothing seemingly afraid of what was happening. Jonathan took the sack and threw it to the one on the front left, he grabbed it mid air and flipped the bag over his left shoulder.

Jonathan motioned with his hand slowly to Jake to back away, but the young man in the middle noticed the little girl with a half eaten apple, motioning the dagger up and down towards them he said.

“Leave that on the crate. Or I’ll gut y’all.”

“Jake, take Alisa and run!”

Jonathan’s shout made the other young boy spring into action, lifting the girl on his arms and sprinting away from the alley. Jonathan on the other hand grabbed what seemed to be a loose broken brick from the ground and started to run in the same direction the two had run.

“What the hell are ya two waiting for?! Get ‘em!”

They started to sprint towards them with planks in hand. Jake turned a sharp left on the next corner and Jonathan followed suit, but instead of running along with him he stopped and turned with the brick in hand.

“Catch them before he guts us too!”

He heard their voices approaching but didn’t flinch, instead he listened closely to the footsteps before timing when to throw the brick.

“They are just kids, they can’t have gone too far.”

The moment Jonathan saw a foot peeking the corner he threw the stone brick at the height of one’s head would be.

“Ack!”

A brick flying to his face was not expected in the least as the young man stumbled to his right before tumbling on the ground and letting all the food spill out of the sack, Jonathan started to run across the street away from where Jake had run off to. The young man who was knocked down wasn’t getting up but the one behind him started to give chase, Jonathan led him to another alley but this one was even more narrow with barely enough space to fit two adult men side to side. He was now cornered by his pursuer who was now mocking him as he approached with the weapon ready.

“Give it up kiddo, ya getting beaten one way or another now.”

The young boy smirked as he started to climb the ledges of the window, jumping from wall to wall climbing up the alley.

“What the hell?!”

“Tough being dumb eh?”

Jonathan mocked too soon, as he turned to look at their faces the selfsame brick came flying towards his chest, the loud thud against the boy’s chest showed how violently the object had been thrown. He fell down on his back with a dry thump as the one he had knocked down with the brick was stomping towards him readying the wooden plank, now both of his attackers were there with him in the narrow alley.

“Ya piece of shit gonna learn ya lesson now!”

He struck the boy without remorse, at first hitting with the flat surface of the plank but then the other joined using the edge of the irregular plank, each strike drawing blood from the poor young boy. Seconds, minutes went by as his attackers were growing tired of beating him. Jonathan had both of his arms crippled and a few broken ribs, but he endured without letting out a sound.

“Aight, aight, enough of this sack o’ garbage, let me finish this.”

The third one in the back was tired of waiting and was flipping his dagger before approaching the boy laying on his own blood on the ground.

“If ya only gave us all what we wanted.”

He lifted the blade but for some reason remained there with his arm apparently stuck mid-air.

“My arm-!”

In a split second his face and upper body became mangled as an invisible force seemed to torn him apart, blood spewed out everywhere and the two accomplices screamed in terror of what just had happened in front of them.

“Wha-! What the hell?!”

“Too loud.”

A muffled female voice came from behind the mangled body in front of Jonathan. Before the other two could do anything, daggers seemed to be sticking out of their throats as the other two also fell dead on the ground, a beautiful flaming red haired woman was the last thing Jonathan saw before passing out with the relief that those three had died.

“I’ll only say this once, Minerva is my name and from today onwards you’ll be working under me. Boy.”

Jonathan sprung up awake. The cavern entrance was dimly lit by the early morning sun, chirping of the birds could be heard in the distance as the thief slowly stood up. He reached for both of his ears to check if he was indeed hearing, fortunately for him the faint chirps filled his eardrums the moment a flock flew by the cave. His eyes naturally wandered to Neiliel who was still asleep lying awkwardly against Laura’s left arm in the far corner of the cave.

The thief, for the first time in the journey, smiled sincerely. He took his cloak off and used it to cover the priestess’ upper body. Her face twitched at first, making him recoil instinctively, but he eventually laid the fabric on her.

“Thank you.”

He whispered before turning around to take a look at the surroundings. Most of the party was asleep, save for a muscular young man clutching the scabbard of his greatsword against his chest. Sitting on the right side of the cavern entrance, Krieg was looking out towards the rising sun in the horizon.

“Good morning sir Krieg.”

Jonathan’s voice prompted the knight’s eyes to shift to his direction, seemingly unsurprised by the thief being awake at that time.

“Good morning. Were you able to rest well?”

“Why yes, thank you for asking. Mind if I stay here?”

He motioned on the other side of the entrance and Krieg nodded before shifting his attention back to the forest outside. Jonathan took a seat leaving his right leg extended while having the other one folded near his body, now without his usual white washed cloak it was possible to see two shortswords bound to his hip belt, one in each side. Without paying much mind at first he just pulled a dagger from the scabbard on the side of his vest and started to inspect the blade’s condition, though it didn’t take long for him to complete the usual checkup on his weapons and clothing, especially the boots.

Somewhat bored, the thief instead took his time observing the knight’s build, it was hard to believe he was just a personal knight, even if Leona’s family was an influential one back in the capital, Krieg looked more like a captain than your run-of-the-mill knight. Muscle strength wasn’t only built from intensive training, it was also from what you could eat and the quality of such food. Jonathan would be more than familiar with such concepts, only after he started training under his mentor was when his body and mind started to develop.

‘I wonder how she is…’

His mind wandered as memories of his mentor started to come to his mind once again. She was strict, unforgiving and rude, but was also caring and understandable with her pupils. While there were many others, Jake, Alisa and Jonathan were the ones she paid more attention to and as result, were also the ones most pushed to the limit.

‘Stop slacking off on your training!’

Her words were still clear as day even though it had been years since they met. Though said memories would also bring darker ones as they had only one job and that was taking lives.

The King Slayer group was mainly formed from the poor and downtrodden, some that would naturally hold a grudge against nobility, their creation was founded on the idea of getting rid of the corrupted nobles in power to better cleanse the kingdom, but somewhere along the road they defected from being righteous blades for the weak to a deadly guild of assassins for hire.

Shame coursed through him, he fought so long to escape poverty and find himself a place to call home, but his actions would bring an end to many children’s lives, just thinking about it made him feel a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Jonathan, wasn’t it?”

His eyes perked up as the knight called out for him, though the crimson eyes were still staring at the distant forest line. Unsure whether or not it was his imagination, he decided to answer half-heartedly.

“Yeah?”

“Can you tell me about your group? I barely know Phoebe but the way she spoke about you all, seems to me that you are a close knitted band.”

“Ah… well… it's a long story.”

“I don’t mind hearing it.”

The thief nodded slowly as he thought where to start from and what he could tell him.

“It all started with Pho about five years ago. I was a former assassin from a group called King Slayer, I came across her in one of my missions, oddly enough we were hunting the same person, but that being said, it wasn’t all easy at first. She would often argue with me about how I approached the task was foolish or unnecessary.”

Seemingly how invested he was in telling the story, Krieg decided to shift half of his attention to actually listen to what he said and started to look him through the corner of his eyes.

“We stayed together for a while, meeting Laura and Neil further west in the goddess’ temple in the Empyrean mountain ranges. From there we traveled east to Windia through the salt lakes, before meeting both Laslow and Luke. Those two were a close bond even before we met them.”

“And you have been working together for all this time?”

“We had our fall outs here and there but never abandoned each other.”

Krieg nodded, knowing how close they were was reassuring, to the knight, nothing other than keeping his liege safe was more important, even if he had to deal with people like Laslow.

“Hm?”

Jonathan shifted his head towards the inside of the cave, some hustling from bags caught his attention. The first to wake up was Leona, she scratched her eyes and apparently had a good sleep since the bags under her eyes were gone.

“Ah, good morning Krieg, good morning Jonathan.”

She bowed slightly. The knight had a faint smile on his face before he answered.

“Good morning Leona.”

The thief raised his hand to greet her.

“Mornin’ Princess.”

“What are you two doing this early in the morning?”

Both men looked at each other before Jonathan motioned with his hand towards Krieg as if saying ‘go ahead’. The knight turned back to her.

“I was keeping watch, but Jonathan here kept me company while he told me about how he met Phoebe and the others.”

Leona was pleasantly surprised to see Krieg interact with others, even if only for listening to their stories, she sat down near the knight as she turned to ask the thief.

“Ah I see. Mind telling me as well?”

“Huh? Ah, yes I can.”

While she listened to Jonathan’s rehearsal of the previously told tale, she twirled sharp pieces of ice around her palm with wind magic while also trying to add water into said ice spikes to make them larger.

It was the first time Krieg witnessed her practice magic ever since she left the castle, she would usually be relentlessly going through the various books and tomes about military strategy in her father’s study. After her mother passed away, reading was what brought her peace, it was what her mother used to do for her after all. Spending time reading in the quiet atheneum was how she went through her days. Those memories made him grasp the scabbard tighter, surely if there had been a way to prevent all of that, he would’ve done so, even if it cost him greatly.

“Hmm… that’s some very accurate control of magic, Princess Leona.”

A familiar haunty voice came from her left, Laslow had just woken up, his usually hidden features could be seen with the morning sunshine hitting directly on his wincing expression. Blonde short hair, messily cut with a dagger and serious light blue eyes that were intently looking at the training the Princess was doing. Though he didn’t show much care for what his friend was saying about the past and instead continued to talk to Leona.

“A triple elemental mage with such control at your age is unprecedented, where most struggle to wield basic magic, you excel both in control and creation, marvelous indeed.”

Leona was taken aback how much his behavior had changed in the past couple of days, before he would not bat an eye to her, but now he was full of curiosity.

“Ah, thank you Laslow.”

He grasped his chin while looking attentively at her manipulation of the three elements simultaneously.

“But I have to say… are you not adept at fire magic?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. She slightly frowned her eyebrows while looking away, the memory was too painful.

Fire, an element of most importance to humans and demons alike, useful on the right hands, dangerous on the wrong ones. She knew first hand what was to wield it irresponsibly as it almost cost her friend’s life.

“...no I’m not.”

“Usually, great control over wind magic comes along with the potential of fire magic, unless-”

She turned to him, her eyes void of emotion as she spoke.

“I am no fire mage, Laslow. If anything, I’m a failure at controlling fire.”

She unceremoniously stood up before taking her leave from the cave, turning to Krieg on her way out.

“Can you accompany me? I want to take a breath of fresh air.”

The knight silently nodded as he also stood up to follow behind her. As the two left Jonathan hit Laslow’s ankle with a kick.

“Ow, what are you doing?”

“What the hell are you doing? Didn’t Phoebe tell you to keep quiet about that stuff?”

“How is she supposed to improve if she stays stagnated with fear? Fire is just about the best element for offensive magic, if not the best. If we are indeed fighting against Alex, this is the bare minimum to do.”

The thief clicked his tongue as he looked away. Laslow’s pragmatism was not without reasoning, Jonathan knew first-hand how ruthless and calculating the man was, if anything, whatever they had prepared for up until now could all have been a waste of time on their end.

Facing a ruler of a kingdom was what the thief had trained for under his master’s watchful eye, but something just spelled danger about Alexander. Jonathan hit his closed fist on his thigh.

“Dammit.”

Approaching behind Laslow, Luke was scratching his eyes trying to shake off the drowsiness.

“Good morning… wait… where did Leo go?”

In the forest outside, but not too far from the cave, Leona stopped to look at the trees that were untouched by the roaring flames from the day before. A sense of peace came to her as leaves fell with the gentle breeze on her body.

“Krieg. Am I a coward? All this time, I have been running away but everything seems to just come back no matter how far I run.”

She extended both of her hands out as more leaves fell on her hand, some were new, some others old and eaten away. Her eyes continued to gaze at the tree above her as she kept speaking.

“Are you afraid of what you became?”

“Huh?”

She turned around to face him leaving the leaves to fall on the ground, his eyes were serious, his expression was a mix of bitterness and sadness.

“Power comes with a price, the way you wield it is your responsibility. To fear the power you yourself obtained is to deny your own existence.”

He unsheathed the greatsword and the metal was polished to the point of Leona being able to see her own reflection. He raised the blade above his head and looked at the fine sharpened edge before looking at her again, continuing to explain.

“With my skills with the sword I have taken countless lives of demons and humans alike, yet, I am willing to risk life and limb for you because I believe it is right. Loyalty and trust doesn’t come with the oaths we made, but the bonds we share. Same can be said about power.”

She could feel her chest ache, her inability to wield the flames that once served her wasn’t because she had grown weak. It was of her own fear of hurting the people she loved and cared for.

“Krieg, I... “

She looked to her feet before looking at him.

“I’m sorry, I made you worry.”

Her small slender hands grasped the pendant close to her chest, being the first magic she was taught from her mother, it was a fond memory of being able to control the flames. Though happy memories weren’t the only thing it reminded her of, from her recklessness and misuse of the powers that were entrusted to her, she had almost taken the life of her first friend. She grasped the prismatic star as she fell on her knees.

“I… I’m sorry Luke.”

“It’s okay.”

Luke’s voice came from behind her, the young man was standing there with a bittersweet expression on his face. Seemingly winded from running all the way there, he had a trickle of sweat on his brow as he continued while trying his best to not interrupt himself in order to breathe.

“I don’t resent you Leo. You were the first person to ever come to my aid like that. I was and still am grateful from the bottom of my heart.

Still, she didn’t turn around to face him as she painfully started to speak.

”What if I hurt someone again? Am I allowed to even have this power when all it does is to hurt others?”

Luke approached and held her right shoulder before kneeling beside her. She looked at him, her eyes full to the brim with tears.

“If that happens I’ll protect them until you can control it. Don’t forsake what you fought so hard to obtain. Mister Krieg, I and everyone else will be here by your side, so… don’t be afraid to use it.”

She sniffed a few times before closing her eyes and nodding slowly.

“I… I’ll try…”

“Come on now, let’s go back to the cave, Phoebe is probably making something for us to eat.”

He helped her get up before taking her to the camp, on the way back he nodded to Krieg who also gave him a nod back in acknowledgement. The knight sheathed his sword before taking a last look around the forest as he headed back.

“Do we have no more firesteel? Which is the bag with it?”

Phoebe was asking around everyone while rummaging through different bags.

“It's usually in Neil’s bag isn’t it?”

Jonathan shouted from the entrance of the cave.

“She’s sleeping on her bag, I can’t just yank it out from underneath her head.”

“Ah well… can’t you do without soup in the morning?”

“That bread is too hard to eat without something to dip it in.”

“Damn elves and their brittle teeth.”

Jonathan cursed as he got up.

“I heard that you halfwit!”

She shouted back.

“Seven hells with you Pho...”

He silently swore before standing up to help her. Laslow was on his way inside as well before he saw the trio coming from the forest below and instead decided to stay where he was, albeit with a faint smile on his face. He greeted them as they passed by him.

“Welcome back.”

Luke nodded while she brought Leona with his arm around her shoulder.

“Is it ready yet Pho?”

The young man asked but instead of answering, the elf gave him a stinky eye when she motioned with her open palm to the flameless stone pit.

“Do you see the wood burning?”

“Ouch, no need to be so rude first thing in the morning.”

“Should I… light it?”

Leona looked at Phoebe who turned her head slightly as she heard her.

“Huh, yeah go right ahead Leona.”

The Princess extended her right hand slowly and started to concentrate on the center of the palm of her hand. She took a deep breath as she focused on all her memories, from failure to acceptance, from happiness to despair, she concentrated all those emotions into one small point, as she exhaled a small blue flame flickered into existence. She held her hand out on top of the pile of wood and let the blue flame slowly travel down to the firewood.

For a moment Phoebe doubted such a small flame could have any impact in lightning up the stack of wood without proper kindling. It took less than a second, as the flame hit the wood a vicious orange flame bursted from where the small flame had touched, the flames were consuming the wood as if it had been lit for a while. The elf recoiled from the sudden appearance of the flames.

“Woah… that’s amazing Leona.”

Phoebe was mesmerized by how well it was burning. The Princess smiled faintly as she gazed into the fire.

“T-thank you. My mother taught me how to use magic like this.”

The elf approached her before giving a light hug from the side, which surprised her.

“Be proud of it, I’ll make you some good breakfast soup as a token of my gratitude.”

“Then… I’ll take up your offer Phoebe.”

After preparing breakfast, which was mainly composed of vegetable soup, hard bread and some dried meat, they headed out in the direction of Karna, the village Krieg, Leona and Phoebe came upon first in the beginning of their journey. It had been quite a while since the last time they were there.

“Hmm…”

Laslow was walking in the middle of the group as he inspected the weather, his eyes narrowed between the cloth turban. It was cloudy, most of the white fluffy clouds were blocking the scorching sun rays of spring.

“Interesting, it seems it’ll rain for the next three or four days if this continues on.”

Phoebe, who was in the front of the group along with Krieg, glanced at the wizard with a puzzled look on her face.

“I still don’t get how you can know just by looking at the clouds.”

“It’s all about temperature, it’s dropping, slowly but steadily. If you ever learn about fire magic you’ll be able to sense it.”

She raised an eyebrow before shifting her attention towards the young man right beside Laslow.

“Oh really? Luke, can you sense it as well?”

“I huh… I’m not certain to be frank, I’m more of an earth mage myself.”

Phoebe raised her shoulders, disappointed. Behind Laslow and Luke, Laura and Jonathan were keeping an eye out for anything suspicious while taking care not to allow anything or anyone to flank the group.

“Do you think he’ll listen to you Laura?”

Jonathan had a worried expression as he questioned the barbarian beside him. Her eyes seemed to be locked in place somewhere in the group as she replied.

“I believe so, he’s not a bad guy, just a misunderstood one, besides. He’s smart enough to understand my reasons behind it.”

“Hmm… I just hope that is the case.”

Suddenly Phoebe raised her hand into a fist, halting the group. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver and knocked on the string of her longbow.

“I hear voices in the distance, probably a few hundred meters ahead.”

Leona looked surprised at Neiliel who was beside her. The priestess started to whisper to her.

“She knows a wind spell that allows you to heighten your hearing. Though it’s tricky to use.”

Phoebe was fully focused on the sounds she heard, she had to kneel down with her eyes closed.

“There’s also some horses and… apparently, some armored soldiers… they are coming this way.”