Balin’s anger didn’t vanish for the rest of the day. When he was back at the inn he just quietly went to bed without talking to anyone. He hoped that Epidex would reappear, he wanted to talk with that guy. He wanted to ask him a few things. Balin had trouble falling asleep but after a while he found himself back in the by now familiar abyss.

“You knew he was here, didn’t you?”

Balin asked the levitating man but he didn’t get an answer. Balin got furious again.

“Answer me!”

“So, what if I knew? Would that have made a difference?”

“So, you did know? What else? What else didn’t you tell me?”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know? Maybe it turns out that there are other people who left the Rivervally to die, or maybe my family is still alive, and I didn’t know. You knew he was here, you told me to come here. You knew it would turn out like this.”

“Would it have made a difference?”

“I am asking the questions here. You owe it to me.”

“Firstly, I don’t owe you nothing.”

Balin wanted to protest but he was unable to make a sound. Epidex was using his powers to shut him up.

“Secondly answer me. Would it have made a difference?”

Balin was released of his muteness.

“Would what have made a difference?”

“If I hadn’t told you to come here. Would Sir Egbert of the Rivervally still be alive or your anger rekindled?”

“Of course, it would have. Why wouldn’t it?”

“All I told you was that you’d have to go through Woodquarry. Nothing else. If I hadn’t mentioned it, you would have left the next day anyways towards the capital. You would still pass through Woodquarry and meet your old mentor and the result would have been the same. At most you would have left one or two days later, not much else would have changed.”

“But you still knew what this would happen, and you know more. Please tell me!”

Again, Balin got no answer. Defeated and tried to at least find something else out.

“Why are you making me do this?”

Somehow this enraged the Epidex. With his mood the whole world changed into an intimidating red and Epidexes voice echoed through the whole room.

“I’ll only tell you this one time, because I assumed you’d know this already. But I am not making you do anything. You can not shove the responsibility of your actions over to me. Everything you do is your choice and your pain is yours alone.”

The next thing Balin knew was that he woke up drenched in sweat. It was obvious that Epidex didn’t feel like talking anymore and just threw him out of where ever that was. For the rest of the day Balin stayed in his room only coming out to get something to eat. He didn’t want to meet anyone until he had to leave.

For the next week not much happened. Balin made his way towards the capital without any incidents to slow him down. He knew the Hero of three front was living there and attacking him would be easy once he found out where he lived but Balin felt like it would be better to learn about his prey’s exploits. The title Hero isn’t given to just anyone after all and Balin wasn’t dumb enough to just assault someone who became a legend while still being alive. Therefor whenever he had time or the chance he asked people about the man. Usually the people he approached weren’t too well informed about that specific subject but during one conversation he was able to learn a few things about the man. Balin was having listening to a minstrel’s song in the inn of an unnamed village when a woman in her late twenties approached him.

“Hey cutie. You are looking lonely. Would you like to have a good time?”

“I am sorry mam. But I don’t think I could afford it even if wanted.”

Balin faked poverty hoping to be left alone by the prostitute but she didn’t leave after that statement.

“I understand. It happens. Believe me when I say I know how it is to be short on coin.”

She sat down on the bench next to him and continued anyways.

“So, where are you going pretty boy?”

“I know you are just trying to be nice and all, but I already told you that I am not interested.”

“And I understood what you said. It’s just that it is still early into the night and not many potential customers are drunk enough to consider cheating on their wives yet. So, I might as well try to kill some time while keeping you some company.”

Balin knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to seduce him over the span of the evening so that he would try her services anyways. It’s not that Balin wasn’t interested in her, since she was pretty, but he was still trying to keep his unique body hidden.

“So, tell me! Where are you going?”

“I am on my way to Kings Hold. I have a job to do there.”

“Many people pass through here on the Kings Hold.”

Realizing that he couldn’t get rid of her Balin attempted to ask her about the Hero of three front to at least get something out of this conversation.

“I have heard the Hero for three front lives there. Is that true?”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t met him. Why are you interested in him?”

“I was just wondering. Because I wonder what he did to be called a hero? Most heroes died in the line of duty. So just want to know what makes him so special.”

“You got me curious as well. Wait a minute! You got me curious as well.”

She turned around and asked the minstrel who was finishing a comedic song about an old and greedy man who was digging his own grave to save on burial costs.

“Hey Burt. What do you know about the Hero of three front?”

“What?”

“Hero of three front. What can you tell us about him?”

“I know one or two things. Give me a second!”

The traveling singer took a sip of water from a cup that was next to him and started to tell his tale while underlining the atmosphere with his lute.

“The hero of three front. I am sure that many people have heard that name. But not many know where he is from or how he got that famous title. Well let me take you back about thirty-five years ago. That is then Aubrey the elder, cousin to the house of kings came back successfully from the half year war against the hommes in the east. Aubrey had many children with many women. Ema the first one he married, and his main wife birthed him a son and a daughter, Stella the younger sister of Ema who he wedded only two years after, she birthed him a son and Rita his last concubine, who birthed him two sons. Now for this specific tale is about Rita’s elder son. He is the kid who would later become the Hero of three front. She named him Bernhard Xavior son of Aubrey the elder. Quite the mouthful doesn’t you all agree?”

The minstrel took a sip of water once again and continued.

“Being the son of the third wife he had barely any right for inheritance, still he was of noble birth, so it was early decided that he would join the military where his status alone would have given him a comfortable position. But no one could have expected how talented he turned out to be. Aside from the fact that it turned out that he could use magic, he was also a natural with the sword and a genius tactician. He was able to work his way up to the title of centurion and he commanded his own cohort. Now all of that would be impressive in theory but at that point he still didn’t have the big victory to his name that would make him a living legend. The war that made him a legend was three years ago when the hommes came back to take revenge for the humiliating defeat in the half year war. The promising young centurion was send out with his unit of almost 400 men to defend the northern borders. What the generals didn’t expect was that the hommes tried to send a 1500 men strong army to flank with the goal to split our forces. A collision between those two groups was inevitable. Yet under his command the army of Bernhard were able to repel and crush the invasion force.”

The minstrel took another sip.

“If they didn’t win the war on that front it would have been likely that big parts of our country could now live under foreign rule. But that wasn’t all. I once talked with a man who served with the hero in that fight and he claimed to have seen how Bernhard killed over 20 enemy soldiers by himself. It is being speculated that he has killed at least 45 people in that fight demoralizing our enemies and strengthening the moral of our people. After all that the king himself proclaimed Bernhard to be known as the Hero of three front. The name coming from the fact that they were attacked from three fronts and that they were outnumbered three to one. And that is the story of how the Hero of three front came to be. While he has retired from active duty in the military he is still helping people to this day by slaying monsters and defending villages.”

Out of breath the bard ended his story and took a deep gulp from his cup. The people who were sitting around and listening to his tale applauded his performance and some even gave him some coins as a reward for the entertainment he provided. Balin on the other hand was trying to come up with a battle plan for his confrontation with the hero of the tale. While most of the information didn’t really matter to him, he did get two pieces of information out of the traveling singer. Firstly: the hero is trained in both magic and sword play. And secondly: he is skilled enough to kill almost 50 people in a single fight. While Balin had amassed an impressive body count himself by now, he never fought more then four people at once. Even when he killed the mercenaries he scattered them and picked them of in smaller groups. This could be a problem. Balin looked at his gloved hand and wondered. Could he even be beaten? By now every major injury that he suffered was healed by Epidexes powers and made him stronger in return. Balin left the establishment in deep thought, ignoring the whore who was still trying to pull him back and seduce him. Balin walked out to a few trees. He remembered when he first tested the power of his artificial parts on a similar tree a few months ago. Looking behind him to reassure that he was alone Balin repeated the test he did back then. As expected he got similar results, a small hole was punched into the tree with splinters flying of in all directions. One of the splinters even hit Balin in the face. Reminding him that he should get a mask for the next murder. Since he probably will be stuck in a well populated city hiding his face would become more important. After a few more experiments to test his abilities including throwing a heavy rock with ease and kicking it to dust Balin decided to call it a night. After all he had something big planned for when he arrived in the capital.