Author: sup guys and gals had a long weekend off decided to write this one so here it be Argh. is that corny I don't care but seriously hope you enjoy the chapter and as always PEACE!!

P.S

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Ch 45

"A reward, what type of reward?"

Brawn himself looked curious at sen's question.

"Eh, I don't really know sen, but I'm sure it'll be quite amazing, you did save the city."

"What about ryyla?"

"Well, her and the lord spoke, but she declined a reward. She said there was nothing of value he could give her. At first the city lord seemed upset but after he found out who ryyla was he understood immediately. It wasn't that she was insulting him, it really was that compared to her his wealth truly was pitiful. At the end all he could do was say his thanks over and over."

"Hehe, that sounds just like teacher, alright, take me there if you will."

Hearing this, brawn said no more, he placed his hand on sen's shoulder and a second later the two melded into the ground. Sen's vision quickly warped and his body felt extremely heavy for an instant before the two appeared right outside the lord's mansion gates. Upon arrival, the guards at the gate were about to cry out in alarm, but they quickly recognized brawn and some even recognized sen as well, one of the guards spoke.

"Brawn, sir."

All of the guards gave a salute. Although brawn wasn't part of the city guards in any way, they still saluted him. To them, he was a true hero and many of them idolized him.

"Please, please, no need to salute, I've just come to see the lord, is he in right now?"

"Yes, of course, I'll escort you right away."

Hearing this, brawn waved away the notion.

"It's not necessary, really, me and sen will just see our way in."

And like that the two walked in. Normally no one could just do what brawn just did, but since it was brawn they wouldn't refuse even if they wanted to and so the two made their way inside, swiftly walking to an office.

"Are we there?"

"This is the lords office he's usually in here conducting business."

Brawn gave a solid knock on the door twice before an answer was heard.

"Who is it. Go away I'm busy."

"Even for me."

"Brawn is that you? why didn't you say earlier come in come in."

The two entered and immediately sen's eyes lit up, on the walls of the room were shelves covered in books; there was easily over a thousand of them. Sen growing up around just three people found a bit of affection for ryyla's library. The stories he would get lost in, a bit of drool started to form at the corner of his mouth before he caught himself.

"Ah brawn welcome, and oh, your sen, come come sit sit, would you like something to drink or something to eat maybe."

"No, I'm fine, what about you sen you want something ? the city lords chef can really cook."

"No I'm good."

"Suit yourself."

After that, there was a bit of an awkward silence before brawn spoke up.

"I don't even need to be here, I'm gonna go."

And like that brawn escaped. Sen and the city lord stared at each other in astonishment at brawn's quick leave before once more an awkward silence filled the room. Finally sen decided to speak up.

"So..."

But before he could start the lord interrupted him. He stood up quickly startling sen a bit, he then rushed over until he was right in front of sen and he gave a long bow.

"Sen, for saving my life as well as the people of my city I thank you from the depths of my heart."

Sen felt very uncomfortable, he didn't like having someone bow to him. It felt unnatural, sen quickly stood up.

"Stop stop, don't bow, please, it was no problem."

But the lord continued to bow anyway.

"No! you saved us and you even came so close to death, this I must at least do this."

*Sigh*

Sen let out long breath, he knew the lord was set on doing this so he eventually just accepted it. After what seemed like forever the lord finally straightened his back and slowly walked back to behind his desk and sat down.

"Sen, for what you have done I am truly grateful, so today I would like to offer you something to show just how grateful I am. So please name it, no matter what it is, if its within my power you will have it. So please tell me what can I give you. Money, nobility, land, anything."

Hearing the lord's offer he kinda didn't know how to answer him. He didn't need land and he didn't want to be a noble. His mother had told him once before of how his grandmother was a noble and how stuck up they were. He didn't want to become something like that. As for money, he could easily get that from the lord, but no matter how much the city lord gave him now sen didn't doubt that he could earn that and more by himself later, then he remembered.

"That spear that the panther had, I took it from him during our fight but when I woke up it was nowhere to be seen, I want that spear."

Sen's mind began to rumble with joy just by thinking about it. With that spear, he could quickly become multitudes stronger. Not just with magic, but maybe his body could transform as well like the panthers, becoming harder than metal. Just as sen's mind was rushing with these excited thoughts the city lord shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but that spear, I can't give it to you."

Hearing this sen's mind snapped out of joy mode and quickly turned to anger. The city lord literally just said he could have anything he wanted and now the lord was being greedy and keeping the spear for himself, sen spoke in an annoyed tone.

"Why can't I have the spear? you just said I could have anything. plus. technically speaking that spear should already belong to me since I took it from the panther."

"I'm not letting you have it because of greed or anything like that sen. The simple truth of the matter is, the spear is gone. You see, when brawn saved you it's true you did indeed have the spear, you were clenching it quite tightly, but just as we came upon you the spear floated out of your hand and vanished."

"What!! Vanished!!"

"Yes sen it vanished. It floated up out of your grip by itself as though it had a will of its own and vanished. We were all left clueless as well as stumped."

Sen gnashed his teeth, to be honest, he had felt a bit of greed swell up inside his heart when he thought of owning that spear. He had it in his grasp only for it to slip away while he was unconscious. It truly made him angry. Imagine having a treasure in your hand that could make you invincible only to have it slip away. Thinking of it like that, many would probably go insane afterward, obsessed over what they simply could not have.

Sen once more sunk into thought before he recalled something else.

"Lord you said for the tournament that you were giving away a magic treasure as the reward, that treasure, can I have it?"

Once again the lord looked as if he were gonna say something upsetting and the news was indeed a disappointment.

"About that, although I can give it to you I'm afraid you won't like it."

"What's wrong now?"

"Well, the magic treasure, it's useless."

Sen was even more annoyed at this point. He wondered if everything the lord had said up til now was nothing more than a lie. The spear was gone and now the city lords magic treasure is useless. Right now sen just wanted to punch the city lord dead in the nose. The city lord himself seemed to understand the annoyance on sen's face and quickly explained.

"You see sen the magic treasure, oh, wait just a moment."

The city lord opened up his desk drawer and pulled out a small ring and quickly tossed it to sen. Sen eyed it questioningly and shouted.

"This is!!"

"Yes sen, that is the magic treasure."

Sen's eyes widened in shock, the city lord just tossed a magic treasure to him as though it were nothing. Sen looked at the ring closely, studying it as though it were a part of him. The ring itself was, well, a ring of course. It was entirely white with a small red line circled around it through the middle. But the odd thing was, it emitted no magic aura what so ever and no mana circulated around it either. As a matter of fact, sen found it to be absolutely unremarkable. He looked back at the city lord and a million questions entered his head, but before he could say anything the city lord was already speaking.

"You're probably wondering why I would just toss a magic treasure to you or why I would keep something so precious in my desk as though it were an ordinary trinket. I'm sure you've already felt it or actually I suppose you felt nothing from it. In all sense of the word it is just a ring."

"Wait, I'm confused. Then why claim it to be a magic treasure? why lie to everyone?"

*Sigh*

"Its not a lie I assure you, it's just that no one knows what it does."

The city lord slowly stood up and walked to one of his book shelf's and began to thumb through the books.

"You see sen, this treasure is actually a family heirloom of mine."

The city lord finally stopped at a certain book and pulled it out. On it a bit of dust fell off. The book was neither too big nor too small, it as well seemed like an ordinary book.

"What I'm about to say doesn't leave this room, do you understand?"

Sen gave a small nod in understanding.

"Sen, my family's history goes back more than 4,000 years and that ring you hold in your hand is a demonic ring."

Sen's heartbeat quickened. When these words left the lords mouth he clenched the ring tightly in his fist with fascination. The city lord followed sen's expression to see if sen actually believed him or not. Since sen wasn't shouting or leaving the lord figured sen believed him and continued.

"A long time ago one of my ancestors stumbled upon this ring. It was said that she had picked it up from a demonic merchant with red eyes. After she had the ring she felt something within her change and her power grew to unfathomable levels. It was said that blades could no longer touch her and magic attacks avoided her. "

"She became very powerful and it was all thanks to that ring. In time, she became incredibly wealthy and owned many lands and kingdoms, but she could not beat age and when the time came death followed. Normally that would be the end of the tale, a great warrior conquering many, becoming a queen and having endless riches and living a long life and dying, but although she was great her children were not."

"Her children, what do you mean?"

"My ancestor, she had lived to be 357 years old. In that time she went through 7 husbands, she herself had 40 children and by the time she died there were several generations of family alive and well. Each one taking over her lands and her wealth after her passing and each one knowing of her ring of power and that's when it all started."

"Your family fought against each other?"

"No sen.......... they warred against each other."

Sen didn't quite understand.

"Warred, but isn't it just a fight between family?"

The city lord slowly shook his head before saying.

"At that point they were already divided into three kingdoms. When my ancestor died the family split into 3 hostile factions. Although my family had many kingdoms under their control after my ancestor died many of them broke away and became independent nations only 3 inherited kingdoms stayed loyal and didn't revolt. With kingdoms my family they fought. 100's of thousands of soldiers fought and died for my family and none knew why they were fighting. Eventually, the real reason was found out and those 3 kingdoms rose up and revolted against the royals and nobles that were my family."

"Nearly all of them were wiped out with only a few of my ancestors managing to escape. In the end my family won out, we were the last to survive and the ring became ours, but our happiness soon grew to depression, because it was found out that no one could use it. The ring was peculiar, it emitted no aura and had no presence of mana around it whatsoever. We had all fought for nothing. Because of greed we had doomed our entire family. Thousands of years later I inherited this ring, but because of it.... because of it...."

The lord paused for a while as though he were struggling to say something.

"Sen, did you know I had a wife?"

Hearing this sen was confused at the abrupt change of topic, but still he gently shook his head no.

"Hehe, I had the most beautiful wife, she was tall with long wavy brown hair, and her eyes were so beautiful, they shined like they were stars. She was the sweetest person I knew. When we first met I was so shy around her but she just brought something out of me that I never knew existed within me. We both quickly fell in love and married, soon after my daughter was born. Sen, I was never happier than at that moment in my life."

" I'm sure you're curious as to why I mention them, why I mention my wife and child. You see, when my daughter was 5, someone broke in and kidnapped her. When I found out me and my wife were shocked, but then the ransom note came and it stunned me even more. On the note they didn't ask for money or jewels. All they wanted was a single ring, the demonic ring. Reading the ransom note, I actually became hopeful. All they wanted was a useless ring in exchange for my precious daughter, of course, I would trade it for her."

"My wife and I had to go to the exchange alone and so we did. The exchange went smoothly and they didn't hurt my daughter whatsoever and for that I was grateful, but when they possessed the ring they immediately found out it was useless. They yelled furiously, said I cheated them and drew their blades. I quickly tried to explain to them that I didn't cheat them, that the ring was truly just a useless piece of junk. I even brought a small fortune with me in a pouch just in case this had happened and I presented it to them, but they just grew angrier."

"They tried to take my daughter back and I jumped in front to protect her. In the exchange, my wife was killed in front of me and in front of my 5-year-old daughter, if it hadn't been for that passing warrior we too would have died that day. Ever since then my daughter blames me for her mothers death, she too thought the ring to be nothing more than a fake and since then she hasn't spoken a word to me."

"I don't understand, why then did you keep it all this time? Every time you look at it, you must feel horrible, why have it around and right in the desk that you work at every day."

*Sigh*

"Truth be told I've tried to get rid of it, but every time I set out to throw it away it I just....i can't. It has a hold of me, it's another reason why my daughter hates me. That's why I offered it up in the tournament, that way I would be obligated to give it up to the winner, but alas the tournament was a disaster. It seems this ring only brings me trouble, it's probably cursed, no, I know it's cursed, it has to be. That is why I'm afraid if I really did give it to someone, dangers would befall them and it would have been my fault my responsibility, therefore, sen, just forget about the ring."

Sen pondered for a bit. He was a smart kid and he didn't believe in curses. It was obvious that the ring was simply just a normal ring and that the city lords ancestor was already powerful before she got hold of this ring. If this ring truly had a power, then in those 4 thousand years someone else should have experienced it besides the lords ancestor and the fact that the abilities of the ring are described vaguely with no real description suggest even more that the ring is just a ring, but seeing the city lord so distraught sen decided to help this man.

Not because he felt pity for him but because no one should be burdened because of something they can not help. It reminded sen of himself and the fact that he was born with red eyes and how he had to hide them constantly. It wasn't his fault he was born this way and he too had wished on occasion not to be burdened with these eyes. He had wondered himself what his childhood would have been had he been born normal. Would he have friends? would he play every day with them? would his parents be happier with a normal life? These questions sometimes plagued sen at night before he went to sleep, what could have been.

"Please allow me to have this ring."

Hearing this the city lords eyes widened. He had just told sen of his tragedy and how the ring was useless and yet the boy still wanted the ring. The city lord felt a bit of warmth in his heart.

"Sen you still want this ring even after everything I've said."

"Yes."

"But, but why?"

"Lord, this ring, your wife, it's not your fault, none of it is. If what you told me is true then you must get rid of it immediately. Now I don't believe in curses, but even so i will take it from here. I know how it feels to have things happen to me and those I love because of circumstances I can't control. You couldn't control what happened but I believe in time I can control my fate. After that fight with the panther, I've realised something. I've understood that the strong make their own paths, make their own destiny's and I to from this day forward will make my own. So you can leave your burden to me. It will be a reminder to me that there are people who can't shape their future so I will strive to make my future exactly how I think it should be.

Hearing this the city lord was overwhelmed with emotion, he couldn't help but shed a tear before quickly wiping it away. he looked at sen seriously and nodded to him .

"Good, then you keep it."

"Thank you, I gladly accept this ring."

A few hours later sen was back at the adventures guild, his mom, dad, ryyla and her sister lyyla were all sitting at a small table discussing something in a hushed manner. As sen walked in he couldn't help notice their secretive behavior and approached them with a smile.

"What's everyone talking about? you know the city lord just gave me some rewards. Anyone want to know what they are?"

As they saw sen approach they all nodded in agreement. Tara was the first to stand up and speak, so she looked at sen and in a serious tone said.

"Sen its time for you to leave."

"Oh ok........................................WAIT WHAT!?"

end of ch 45