“But sir, I - !”

“No! That is my final answer. Dismissed!” A greying commander turned away from a youthful boy and left through the exit from the barracks. The boy clenched his fists at his sides, then turned away toward his bunk.

Ever since the news that Princess Rikia would never return home again had reached his ears, young Taurik Dwon had pressed his commander to let him take a small group of soldiers to search for her. When that failed, he then insisted on being allowed to hire a small group of adventurers from the guild to do so. That is when the older man had shared with him the details of her demise.

The report said that a slime monster had consumed her entirely, leaving nothing behind. When Taurik had said that this group would hunt down the creature for the sake of her father, his commanding officer told that Captain Gheit had already disposed of it. Once the young man had heard that, he then said that he would go and find something, anything, proving that.

Sure, Captain Axis Gheit was a renowned warrior and hunter, in service to the King and his advisors. But, if the Captain had truly been there, she should not have even been in danger. While he did not have the report in front of him, he could not believe that all was as it seemed. For there were… other facts that did not quite connect.

Taurik had worked with the hunter during a few missions in the field, back when he had first joined the royal soldiers. The man was… scarily efficient. And if there was any one thing that the soldier knew about Gheit, it was that he would complete his orders, at any cost. That left him with a feeling that something was amiss.

Maybe this was the hope of a young man in service to the royal family that another tragedy did not fall upon this Kingdom. Or maybe it was because that very same young man had been, up until a couple weeks ago, the Princess’ personal guard. And knowing that he had been temporarily reassigned right before she had left on her trip that she would not be returning from left him furious.

Taurik Dwon was a Paladin in service to the Deity of Light, Somnus. Just as his father was before him. And his grandfather. All of them were trained from youth to serve the monarch for the entirety of their life. At least, that had been the case since the founding of the Kingdom of Philores three hundred years ago. Taurik was the oldest child in a long line of individuals that served the King or Queen directly. And never in all those years had a tragedy such as this occurred.

His father, if he were still alive, would have cast the youth from his presence, and likely from the Kingdom itself. The paladin would not stand by and do nothing. If his superiors would not let him go with an official group to find the truth, then he would just have to go unofficially. Taurik knelt by his trunk and started preparing. He would have to leave immediately, before anyone became suspicious that he was going AWOL.

But at that moment, it was not about what others would think. It was about the future of the royal family of Philores…

Making it out of the castle was easy enough, if one knew which direction they were going. Since Taurik had often accompanied his charge on her ‘adventures’, he knew where he would need to go, and who he would need to avoid. Who would have guessed that all that sneaking out as children helped prepare a man to rescue the very one who caused all the mischief to begin with?

The ex-soldier slid out of the kitchen doors and entered the small cold-storage area. Behind a few barrels, he found a locked door. This was the entrance to a hidden tunnel that would lead to a small forested area about one-hundred meters from the moat. He now knew that this would be an escape route for the King and his family should any invading forces breach the castle walls. Or one of them, at least.

He unlocked the door and stepped in, feeling the stale air upon his face for a brief moment. He then closed and locked the door behind him before bringing out a small lightstone and making his way onward. About halfway through, he stopped and leaned down to place a hand on a hidden rune. He muttered the passphrase, and felt the magic field in front of him recede. Hurriedly, the paladin rushed to the other end of the tunnel, feeling the alarm field snap back into place as he started up the stairs to the exit door.

Taurik repeated the process of unlocking the exit door and stepping out of a rockface into the trees. No one from the castle would see him here. There was a time that this area was under guard, but worrying that having active soldiers in the area would arouse suspicion, the court mage from seven years ago developed a secure warning system. It had essentially two functions.

One, it would alert the court of any intruder that actually found the entrance. And two, it would trap the intruders under several hundred kilograms of rock. The past King had determined that a guard was therefore unnecessary. This trap had the ability to be reset, after all.

After making sure that the hidden door was fully shut and locked, Taurik made his way to the forest path. From there, it was a simple hike towards the river. All in all, the escape from the castle had taken about an hour.

As the tops of boats and a roof came into sight, the youth checked his outfit. While he still wore his armor, all his royal family emblems were removed from his attire, and his sigil that marked his relationship with them was safely stowed in his bag. As for the rest, he wore a pair of dark pants, an unmarked tunic beneath his armor crested with the symbol of Somnus, his well-used travel boots, and a dark cloak over the top of everything. His one-handed sword was stowed in its sheath at his side.

He walked into the small outpost, seeing several town guards and many sailors going about their business. Since he did not head out this way often, the odds that someone knew who he was were fairly low. But Taurik was cautious, knowing that there could still be someone around that would recognize his white hair and teal-blue eyes. Without wasting any time, he went to the ticket counters, intending to pay for passage across the river on the ferry.

He watched the townsfolk meander to and fro in their day to day tasks, whether it be for their wages, to purchase the day’s catch, or any number of other things. A young woman glanced his way for a long moment, giggling to her companion, an older woman who looked similar to the girl. Most likely a mother and her now-of-marrying age daughter… Taurik sighed to himself. He wondered why the girls liked to swoon at him.

“Destination, sir?” A gruff voice called his attention to the counter that he was now standing at. An old sailor stood eying him as Taurik composed himself. In order to properly begin his investigation, he would first need to put a Party together, one that could be trusted further than just the next pay day. That would mean he would need to contact a few friends from back in the day. And the first would be someone who could track down the location of the inevitable last stand of his charge.

That meant that his first destination was simple. A place that would be similar to walking into a den of thieves. “Yes,” the young man responded, sliding the four silver coins across to the man, “I need a one-way ticket to Alibose…”

*************

“Darkness… I feel so… weightless. Have I been here long? Is this what death is like? From the stories, I thought there would be more light. Or that there would be anything at all… Oh well. I hope that my death, at least, benefitted something other than the man-shaped monster that betrayed my family. I hope that slime made him pay for his arrogance!”

“... I see that you are finally awake.”

“Ahh! Who’s there?!”

“No need to be alarmed, young one. I will not hurt you.”

“... I did not think that one could be harmed any more after death… unless…”

“As you may have guessed, no, you are not dead. Not yet.”

“What do you mean by ‘yet’?”

“You were mercifully saved from death by being stored away from the material world. And if we do not act fast, someone dear to me, and the one that saved your pitiful life, will die, leaving you with no way to escape this place. And that means that you would be lost to the flows of Mana, doomed to live in an ‘in between’. There, your life would lose all meaning, and your soul would be trapped, never to return to the circle of rebirth, a fate worse than death. You would be neither alive nor dead, only stuck for all eternity.”

“... Alright, mysterious voice. You have my attention. But, if this ‘someone’ you hold dear holds my fate in their life or death, what can I do?”

“It seems that you are in luck. My friend has arrived in an area with enough ambient energy that I am able to weave a power that is capable of altering your own fate. Once.”

“Why do you not use that energy to save your friend? Then they would surely be able to -”

“The rules of this world, of Creation, are absolute. The actions of your ‘friend’ have severed my bond with them. That means that I am unable to act directly upon them, otherwise I would have already done so.”

“Oh, you mean… him… So that means that your ‘friend’ is…?”

“Yes. And they are very important to me.”

“... I did not see anyone else nearby… And what do you mean by ‘bond’”

“We do not have the time for me to explain everything to you, child. Any minute, a creature could come for them, and everything will come to an end, for both of us.”

“... I see. What will you do?”

“I will grant you your freedom from this place. And in return, you will accept the responsibility of protecting my friend and I.”

“But… I am merely a Level 5 Priestess! I have almost no combat experience, and my stats are too low to survive a high Energy environment! The monsters will slaughter me, then you and your friend… How can I protect anyone when I could not even protect myself?”

“Dear child, I will grant you that power. You will not be the weak creature you were before. That is our gift to you.”

“... Apologies for not accepting this at its face value. What is the cost to me? You said you would free me so that I can protect your friend, an individual who is far more powerful than myself. And then you offer me power? I almost feel like I would be selling my soul by making a pack with a devil…”

“... In a manner of speaking, you would be. Only, I am not one of the fallen souls. I am merely attempting to return the gesture of saving the life of the one who saved my own.”

“So… I really would be selling my soul for this?”

“Souls are a currency not used here. You would retain your soul. But, you would be indebted to us.”

“Does that mean I would be your slave?”

“Mine? No. You would be bound to my friend. In the condition that I find myself in, I could not bind anyone to me. After all, I am bound to them already.”

“...”

“They will not kill you. And this creature that I call my friend has more humanity in their body than that thing you call a ‘man’ ever did. Of that, I am certain.”

“...”

“As I said before, we do not have that much time. The more time we waste here, the more likely some truly horrible monster will gobble us all up.”

“... Alright. I accept your offer… on one condition.”

“And that is?”

“Revenge.”

“I believe that can be arranged…”