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11 – Daon

Kain’s POV

Late May. 4029. Servants quarter of Cohen Mansion.

“Leila” was first word to come out of my mouth as soon as I regained consciousness, leaving world of dreams. She was by my side, and tears were flowing out of her eyes and dropping on my left arm. “Mom” I whispered again. “I won’t let you leave my side again” she murmured crying. “Mom” I repeated. “Sorry, I have made you worry, but there is nothing wrong.. I just” Destrian cut in “Didn’t control output of mana”.

Leila turned back to see sir Destrian standing by the door, Vurm and Jon besides him. My mother was startled by their appearance. “We have to check him out. He is the best candidate you know” Vurm talked. “I have changed my mind. I want him to be a lumberjack when he grows up.. No more scribe, mage or warrior games” Leila insisted. Vurm closed distance between us and talked in threatening tone “He is my disciple now.. I will...”. “I’ll see you tomorrow Vurm” I cut in without letting him finish his sentence. I knew he was kinda crazy, although not as much as me. They left the room leaving Leila and me alone.

“Mom, I choose this path not because you wanted me to be who I am. It was because I wanted to follow this path..” I stopped to breathe “I know its dangerous and fatal path.. But this is what I want to be. So please do not stand on my way... If you do, I will not go.. I love you more than anything and anybody. But I will not be happy, living life of minor servant, lumberjack, baker or anything else..Try to understand and respect my choice” I finished and hugged her.

Early June. 4029. Barracks near Cohen Mansion

Vurm, Leo and Nigel will be leaders of 3 squads which in total make Destrian’s platoon. Nigel was the youngest one so Destrian was going to stay by his side while two other squad’s will be monitoring areas near forest where potential monsters or animals capable of threatening humans could emerge.

Jon was going to stay at Cohen Mansion because Riley Cohen was of old age, and experienced healer such as Jon was needed in manor at all times.

All of the forests in between mountains and human population within Cohen House territories were referred as Alpine Cypress Grove. Our squad was going to go up all the way to north by ship and use horses to walk back to center to meet Destrian and Nigel while Leo’s squad will go to south to ride up to center.

Plan seemed easy, but it will take another 3-4 years of travel at least.

Mid December. 4029. Boulder Bay

Our ship boarded the port on Daon Island in Boulder Bay. There were 8 islands inside Boulder Bay and Daon was the most suitable one to land before continuing the trip. It was at meeting point of waters of Boulder Bay with Crystal Abyss Ocean.

Daon City was covering all of island. It had heavily fortified wall of 8 kms or more surrounding it. City was divided into two parts. The High town to the west and the lower town towards east-south-east. Originally divided by walls within Daon, the high town was occupied by ruling family of island, families of knights and courtesans, wealthy merchants, merchant guilds, Court of Commerce, the Archbishop’s Palace and so on. Great Hospital of Daon was bordering two parts of city. In opposite side, at the lower town port, inns, police station, Holy Church, bazaars and so on were located.

We were greeted by Chief of Police Noe di Mattia as soon as our ship docked the port. Local police chief acted way to much polite with Vurm and welcomed all of us in great respect. He talked about pirates being overly active near Daon and he wanted our help in interrogating few of them.

“Sir Vurm, we have captured 3 pirates trying to get into city as merchants, but none of them are talking about anything...” Noe began to speak. “Where are they?” Vurm replied in aggressive manner. “In Jail... Follow me please.” Without rest, we went into underground jail beneath police station. Torches were lighting our path through the underground jail. We reached jail room enclosed with metallic bars and there were three pirates sitting side by side.

“Kiddo, you want to know what brotherly love is?” a pirate with few golden tooth grinned at me. “Do you want to interrogate them?” Vurm asked me. “Yeah, why not!” I responded.

Vurm nodded and few of our comrades went inside and used ropes to bind them to three different stools. Hands and legs of pirates were bound with pre-chanted anti-magic iron shackles. Vurm took out a knife and gave it to me. “Brotherly love, ha?” I smiled talking.

Knife at my hand I walked towards first pirate who had golden teeth. “I assume you won't talk” I told. Without waiting to reply, I grabbed his right hand and cutted his pinky finger off bluntly. He began to scream while I was still trying to chop it off. “Hey, come on! We just begun!” I talked and continued. Blood was spurting out of his hand while I brought knife up to his chin and told him “I like your ears..”. I moved to back side of stool he was sitting on and asked “Vurm which one do you think I should cut? Right or left?”. Vurm was smiling. I knew he was a psycho.

“Right one!” he talked. I cut pirate’s left ear in one fast move. “I told you right ear..” Vurm talked in commanding voice. “Wasn’t that right ear from your perspective? Never-mind, better without any ears.” I swiftly cut his right ear off. He was screaming in horror. “do we have axe in here?” I looked at police chief. He was startled. “I will order to-to-too bring one” he replied anxiously. I stabbed knife into eye-socket of pirate. He died in pain.

I walked towards other two and checked their teeth. “I do not like people with gold tooth, you know!” I spoke. “Now tell us everything that we need to know, or else your deaths will not be as easy as that one... I will use axe to chop you to pieces.” They may be pirates. But at the end of day they are humans. If you scare them enough, they will tell you everything that you need to know.

“If we can fire three torches tonight from northern room of Great Hospital of Daon, our comrades will attack in two days. There are totally 2 ships and 70 pirates including us. Original plan was to pillage and leave city same night” both of them told the same thing after we took them to different rooms. I killed both of them as they were of no value to us anymore.

We tricked pirates to attack. Torches were fired as signal for them. After two days, at night city guards opened doors for pirate ships to enter the port. Our squad was hiding for ships to dock. Vurm was going to attack one of ships alone while others were going to attack second one.

As ships docked, everyone run and jumped to ships. They were fighting while according to Vurm’s earlier decision I had to stay back.

I was not going to watch. I stood opposite to ship which Vurm had jumped to. Katana over my head held by both hands, I was at jodan-no-kamae stance. I didn’t have to meditate anymore. In last few months, I had learnt to draw out mana as naturally as moving my hand or leg. Huge amount of royal blue mana was flowing from my body into katana. As if vertically cutting the ship, I screamed “Falcon’s Beak”. Huge wave of wind infused and created by mana hit the ship and cracked it into two. It began to sink while Vurm fall into water with other pirates.

Comrades on other ship had already killed everyone and were laughing at Vurm who was trying his best not to drown. He came up to shore and scream at me “I told you to stay back!”. “Vurm I was not on ship” I replied which made him go literally crazy. Hitting his own head, he went away...

P.S: If you see any grammar or spelling mistakes, let me know!

Next: 12 - Spirit Rose