Few days passed and we finally arrived at the main city of the kingdom. We walked towards the castle at the center of the city. The city is shaped like an octagon with high walls surrounding the whole city and even higher walls surrounding the castle with wide water ways on the base and a draw bridge serving as the entrance to the castle.

There are no messengers that greeted us nor would any citizen seem to be curious about our arrival. Those you can see are mostly elderly and women with their children, faces covered in despair and some houses that seemed empty.

Yes these are the faces that have lost their loved ones, lost all hope of them ever coming back, fear that a day will come that they have to face death.

We arrived at the castle gates and the guards greeted us. The commanding officer of the army Sir Jerome talked to them. One of the guards left his post and rush towards the castle, after a few minutes’ he returned and let only Sir Jerome and some of the knights to go in.

Jerome then gave a command to camp outside the city and wait for their return.

The whole army do as their told, every one followed except me of course. I need to investigate and this is a great time to start.

I am quite confident in my skills in terms of sneaking around, during this ten years my perverted master drag me along to several bath house and other private ones. At first I was disgusted thinking ‘what the heck is wrong with this pervert dragging along a minor with him’ but in the end I end up on mastering hiding skills and removing my presence is as easy as drinking a glass of water.

The proof of it is when those idiots drag me along; of course I used my hiding capabilities so I won’t get caught. I admit I had an eyeful view of those female knights and some maids in baby suit but I did not enjoy it that much since I always think doing so is a waste of time.

I mean admiring a beauty is good but the feeling of not being able to do something to achieve or grab that precious gem and seeing others take them for themselves will only result in envy and jealousy that will destroy the balance of my ‘Ki’ which is quite unstable if I lose myself to negative emotions.

Yes it’s a fragile thing since I’m not only a dual element user which is hard to balance out but having the capability to muster the power of all elements then destroying its balance is asking for death.

As the army move along, I slowly erase my presence and walk on the side hiding myself on a building.

Now separated to the whole army I observe the whole castle. There are guards stationed on every corner of the wall, two more on the castle gates on each side of the draw bridge, ten guards all in all.

“Now how do I get in without being seen? Waiting to get dark will be a bad idea since someone might notice my sudden disappearance and turn into suspicion”

While thinking, a wagon came into view numbered about ten and heading towards the castle containing some raw food materials. An idea came into mind and before they manage to get too close to the castle I hid my sword and tried to get close to them.

“Hey you” I stopped my movements and look behind me

An old man is yelling towards me ‘did I get caught?’

I raised my right hand and pointed myself as if asking the old man if he is talking to me.

“Yes you come here” the old man said

I walk towards the old man, having a poker innocent face I asked him.

“Can I do something for you sir?”

“Are you from around here kid?”

“Ah no sir I came with the army that has just arrived”

“You’re a soldier?”

Aw damn wrong answer again. I tried to think of a way so that I will get less suspicious.

“No sir I’m only an errand boy and I’m looking for some vegetables and some spices for food”

“And how did it go?”

“Ah I’m having a rough time since I can’t find a good store and accidentally wandered here when I saw the carts thinking I might be able to buy something”

“Hmm so the market really fell, well I can tell that most of the people left here already consider themselves dead”

“I also noticed that sir the eyes of the people here are dead”

“Well you’re in luck, I am the head here and I need some help, how about you work for me and I’ll give you anything you need as the payment for your work?”

Thinking that this is a good opportunity I grab it but just for being more cautious I asked more questions.

“Sir may I know what are those supplies for?”

“Those are goods bought from us by the palace, so what is your decision?”

“Yes sir I’ll gladly help since what you are offering will benefit me too and I might be able to keep the money they gave me for the food”

“Hahahaha I like you kid, being a merchant is to how to make a profit out of everything you do and having that kind of mentality isn’t bad at all”

“Thank you sir”

This really is a good opportunity and a great excuse in all levels. First I can enter the castle worry free and have an excuse to leave the castle and even if someone noticed that I’m missing I can just have the excuse of buying some food.

I became part of their company and entered the castle without any problems.

Time is my greatest enemy so while doing some lifting and carrying some goods I used my earth and wind element ‘Ki’ to make a mental map out of the castle. It has a great difficulty but my training on the waterfalls paid off.

Earth element is to feel the vibrations on the earth and walking people inside the castle play a good role.

The wind element is used for picking up human presence and with the earth element finding hidden doors and passages is like a walk in the park.

I gave an excuse to go to the bathroom in order to fully submerge myself into investigation.

With the mental map I sneak further inside the castle.

I found the location of the knights and Jerome; it seems they are waiting inside a room. Well it’s not really my concern but something else.

After a few hours of investigation, even though the castle is huge I manage to investigate every corner.

The underground prison that has a secret passage which is connected to the city sewers that leads outside the city, the throne room have a huge chair with golden outline but have a small passage to another room which I did not know what but I can’t sense anything inside, no smell of blood nor any kind. From the vibrations it seems that it is an empty room maybe it’s intended to hide the king if anything wrong happened.

Next is the huge dining hall full of expensive decorations, another one I noticed is the treasury. I find it weird since I found two of them and one of which is concealed in a very weird way.

The treasury have no guards and you can easily access it, that is if you notice that the entrance is a normal looking wall at the corner of a certain hall with lots of broken tables and chairs.

I entered the treasury and from there and what I saw amazed me. Lots of web on the walls, dust is accumulating for about inches on the floor and most off all the untouched treasures before my eyes.

The treasury is like a hall with a pathway in the middle and treasures like gold and precious gems on the left and right.

“It seems that no one entered this place for so long and this place might be forgotten in decades if not centuries”

I walk towards the end of the hall, there lies a single chest. I tried to open it but I can’t but the weird part is the chest doesn't have a lock.

“Well that’s weird; hmm ok let’s force it open”

I summoned one of my daggers and sliced off the top portion of the chest then put it back.

Inside the chest is a single arm-guard, plain and old not even a single engraving on it and the material seems to be that of an ordinary iron.

I picked it up and tried to fit it on my left arm.

“Well it fits perfectly though it looks really plain, hmmm wait what the”

For a moment I felt that my energy is being sucked in I tried to remove it but I can’t and it continue to absorb my energy.

“gaah damn it why can’t I remove it”

At this rate I might collapse even though I have a huge capacity of energy the arm guard feels like eating me whole.

Few minute’s passed and I’m still unable to remove it. Suddenly the arm guard change its appearance and turn into crimson with some spikes like a crocodiles back.

The chest began to glow and a small image of an old man appeared on the box.

“Greetings my friend”

“Who are you?” I asked

“Who am I is not the issue at hand but what you obtained is more of the pressing matters you must know”

“Yeah I know but what are you anyway”

“I am the previous owner of that item and the first king of this kingdom”

“First king? Wha- how?”

“I know you are confused but for a brief explanation before I died I infused some part of my soul into this chest to test anyone worthy of that item. My time dates back into the world war where ancient methods are used to turn the tides of the war. All of those methods if not lost its destroyed but to have an heirloom something to pass on to my descendants is something I desire so using a forbidden technique I manage to create that item”

“Sorry to burst your bubble but I am not one of your descendants”

“I know that’s why I tested you since that item requires a lot of energy to personalize that is if the user is not related to me by blood. Surely a normal person will die before they manage to do that. It’s a counter measure for those who want it for themselves”

“hmp so what is this that you fear most will seal it away?”

“It’s an item created to open a dimensional rift to store unlimited amount of items. Just think of what is inside of it and a list of items will pop on your head”

I tried what he said and nothing happened, I told him about it and called him a liar.

“hahahaha of course nothing will happen its empty , now get that golden cup over there and imagine a door in front of you then toss that cup inside”

I did what he told me and really a night like sky semi-circular hole appeared in front of me so I toss the cup inside.

“Now imagine it closed and think of what is inside of the armguard”

To my amazement it really gave me the list of the item inside.

“To retrieve it just think about the item appearing on your hand”

And the golden cup suddenly appeared on my hand.

“This thing is pretty handy” I said

“Yes and it is indestructible too”

“You mean I can use this as a real arm guard?”

“Yes it’s indestructible”

“And you said that the capacity is unlimited right?”

“Yes”

Awesome so I can literally bring all the treasures on this room. Since it’s an abandoned room I think no one will notice if I take them all.

“Wait you’re ok about me having this item?”

“Yes, you might not be my descendant but it’s better to hand it over since you already personalize it and it has been years since a living thing appeared here. You are more than worthy than those bastards not even a single care about their ancestor”

He said with an angry tone of voice.

“You said personalize meaning I can also hide this into my body?”

“Hmm so you know about things like this”

“Well I have my share of experience”

“I see” he paused and his image began to flicker

“It seems that my time is up and I’m about to disappear any moment now so I’m entrusting everything in this room to you and hope you will find a good use for it farewell”

“Thank you very much you can rest assure that I will put it in a good use”

He then disappears. With the arm guard on me I started to ransack the whole area

“Well I dint think I’ll end up with mountains of treasure” looking at the treasures

*sigh* “This will take a lot of time let’s use wind element to toss everything into the air then ill create a storage hole under them”

An hour passed and I manage to finish, with my strength now low I continued my search

After investigating I came up with the conclusion that nothing is in this castle.

‘Perhaps the king put his notorious work on another place but where exactly?’ I muttered

I noticed that Sir Jerome’s group began to move towards the throne room. Out of curiosity I sneak in and listened to their conversations.

The king is now seated at the throne and there is an exchange of formal greetings ‘heh noble stuff’.

The king is about 40-50 years of age based on his appearance beside him are two attendants on the left is the prime minister of the royal court and on the right is the royal adviser.

The meeting was only for show and not to offend the king.

After a few exchange of words regarding the defense of the fort a about the demons the knights were sent off and the king wish them luck on the upcoming battle

‘Kind of boring, but I can sense some malicious intent on those three’

After the knight have left I plan to leave immediately but.

“What should we do about that?” said the king

“Your highness you do not have to worry it does not matter if they succeed or fail” said the man in the left

“Yes he is right your majesty. If they succeed they won’t be able to notice a thing since they will be fully occupied on the fight. And if they fail the chance that it will remain intact is close to nothing as if destroying the evidence for us” said the right

“Do you think those knights are sent to spy on us?” the king said

“Yes your majesty, that’s why I sent some men to look after their action and if ever they tried to dig upon something I ordered them to kill” said the left

“You don’t have to worry about anything your majesty everything is turning into our favor”

I left after hearing those conversations. It means that the thing I’m looking for is in if not near the fort.

I hurried back to the merchant to get my payment.

“Where have you been kid?” the old man said waiting in the kitchen

“Ugh sorry sir the place is too big and I dint know you will stay here in the kitchen I thought you will be with the wagons”

“hahahaha yes it’s easy to get lost on such unfamiliar place. Here this is your payment”

He gave me a huge box full of vegetables and some meat.

“Um sir isn’t this too much?”

“Its fine its fine since we made a huge profit, think of it as a bonus”

“Well I won’t refuse such amazing offer”

I left and gave thanks to the old man. I left the castle without being questioned by the guards. It seems that they don’t really care about someone like me.

I retrieve my sword and head towards the camp.

It’s already night time and when I arrived.

“Ooh so that’s why you’re missing” a female voice greeted me and a lot of eyes fall upon me

“heh I got a good deal so, huh? For you to look for me do you have anything against me again? Looking for an opportunity to strike me eh?”

The female voice came from Beatrice. Why is she always looking for trouble cant she leaves me alone?

“Idiot” after saying that, she left. Well it’s all good that I don’t have to worry about having an argument with her.

I proceed to the cook in the army responsible for our food and gave him my haul

“Boy where did you get this stuff?” the cook asked me

“nah to cut the story short I was hired and this is the payment”

“hmm not bad though with this amount it’s like you work hard, ok ill cook some good food for ya”

“thank you sir I’m pretty starving from all the work I did”

“hahahaha just sit there kid and you will taste the best vegetable cuisine you ever tasted”

Waiting for about an hour paid off and the food is really good. I give thanks to the cook and find a place to sleep.

It’s going to be a long long day ahead of us.