It was now past dawn the next day, and everyone had prepared for the journey ahead. This morning marked a huge shift in their lives, and they knew it. With each of them wearing a small backpack of some sort, they all left the house.
Hina looked at the house one last time as Mikasa placed a hand on her shoulder, understanding the sentiment. They had lived for long in that place that parting ways with it felt sad. But after a deep sigh, she turned around, leaving with the others who were now ahead of her. All six of them headed towards the Ketsuki's territory, with Minato and Hoshino leading the way. They walked for hours and hours without stopping. Their legs ached and their clothes were becoming drenched with sweat, but they pushed on nonetheless. They didn't want to camp until they had to, and that would be by nighttime. When they were hungry, they would eat their rations as they hiked the high paths, each knowing that they hIt had now been a few days since they had left their home in the middle of the woods, and the six of them had walked tirelessly, sleeping for just a few hours each night and resuming their walk just before dawn. They had been walking for a long time, and could each feel their bones and muscles cry out from within their legs for another long period of rest. What seemed strange was that the two Ketsuki who walked ahead of them seemed to be the least tired among them, and barely expressed any form of fatigue until whenever they settled at night to rest until the next day. It seemed they were both excited to get back home, and no stress could get in the way of that. Hina and Aya could only imagine the excitement those outcasts had to reunite with those they had left in Brannuka. Both Ketsuki didn't look like they were afraid of whether the others would accept them back or not, given that they had left the others behind to find a better life out
Multiple centuries ago. In a lost era. It was an age of war, not one among races, but one occuring within a race. It was a time when a long forgotten race once dominated the whole world, while other creatures, though strong or just as intelligent, were regarded as inferior in terms of growth and prosperity. It was a lost age. The lost era of humanity. An era where humanity flourished above all other races despite the odds, and were feared by all. However, unlike other races, they were barely united, and what baffled other sentient beings was how they constantly went to war against one another. It was as if they hated the fact that they were the ones at the top and we're looking for means of making themselves weaker. So there were continual wars and rumors of war. It was an age of recurrent battles and pointless confrontations, an era where a day couldn't pass by without news of conquest f
Vlad, his spy who had led them there, his two generals and their ten companions all got into the secret passageway, while the other soldiers remained at the throne room, gathering as many spoils as they could find. Vald walked behind the spy, who walked ahead of them, looking around with his fiery torch. He was new to this place, as was the rest of them. It was now it occurred to him that this might have been a wrong decision. It might be a trap designed to keep them stranded there, as far fetched as it felt. But it mattered little to him, he wanted to meet the King of this land, he wanted to show him a piece of his mind. Soon, the downward spiralling staircase came to an end, and a linear path was set before them. At this point, they didn't know how deep they had gotten into the ground, as the downward stairs they had taken seemed too long for just descending beneath a wall of sixty feet. It was a lot deeper. Seeing the path
Zaraki knocked on the door of Dracula's room, but all he could hear were maniacal laugh coming from within the room. The butler took a deep breath before opening the door of the room, and the moment he did so, he was greeted with complete darkness. The only thing illuminating the room was a candle set on a table close to the largest window, where Dracula sat, staring at a scroll while laughing hysterically as if reading the script for a stage comedy. "What are you up to this time, Master Dracula?" asked the chief butler as he looked around, squinting his face. "And what is that smell? When was the last time you bathed?" "I've finally found it!" Dracula said excitedly without looking back at the person who had just entered the room without his permission. "What could you have possibly found that excites you better than your father becoming the third Emperor of our race?" asked Zaraki. "Oh, he did? Doesn't matte
The Emperor took his time to explain this horrific method of execution he was about to try out on the unfortunate captive King, who was now terrified. After he had finished explaining everything, the general atmosphere in the royal province changed. The crowd fell silent - not that it wasn't silent before now, but this time, there was not even a whisper. Everyone had fallen silent, not by the order of the Emperor, but by shock from what he had just said. And he wasn't joking either, as executioners had come out with the pole to carry out the harsh execution process. The men that had come out weren't actors by any means, but actual killers who had supervised countless executions in the past. Given their past record, it was unlikely the Emperor would call them out to take part in feigning a brutal execution. They had been briefed by Leonard on what to do and were trusted to do just that despite how grueling it was. They were e
"Well, with everyone patiently waiting inside, I see no reason why we can't have our conversation out here, don't you think?" asked Vlad as he folded his hands with a faint smile on his face. "Alright" Zaraki said, not wanting to ask more from the Emperor. "This execution that just took place, do you really intend to keep enforcing it on people?" Vlad kept quiet for several seconds before replying. "Not in the slightest" he said. "I might have been angry with the captured King enough to order such a heinous execution, but I almost immediately realised that it's not for me. Not even I am merciless enough to repeat something as brutal as this. It was a trail run, never to be done again." Zaraki gave a sigh of relief. "So that means you will no longer impale people like this anymore?" he asked. "This will be the last time something like this happens, right?" "I never said that, Zaraki" Vlad replied, and the butler frowned. "While I don't have the heart of stone to keep doing such a
The meeting with the nobles and senators was a long but productive one. As always, this important meeting lasted for over twelve hours, with the Emperor and everyone taking their time to discuss important issues and properly divide the score among themselves. They also discussed the nomination of new captains, lieutenants, and generals to replace the ones that had passed away from the last battle. The matter which took a huge chunk of their time was the discussion concerning the morality and feasibility of the execution they had witnessed a few hours before. Contrary to the reaction the Emperor thought he would get due to the shocking means through which execution of the captured King, there were a lot more people that he thought who came supporting the notion that it should be kept as a customary punishment for the worst criminals. However, there were still more people in opposition than those who were in favour. So it couldn't be impleme
The travel went on for days, and for the first time, the prince experienced thirst more than ever. The heat was almost unbearable, and the only thing that would make it all worth it was the Philosopher's Stone. He had underestimated the struggles of long travel, and though he has read about it a lot back at the Emperor's home, he still had a lot to know by experience. He had also naively assumed that the merchants had a near-infinite supply of water, but even that too was very limited. And unlike himself, the merchants were used to journeys such as this, so their bodies had adapted in some ways to this climate. Though Dracula know there was a possibility he would spend several years of his life searching for the Philosopher's Stone, as several people who knew far more than he did about alchemy weren't even lucky, it still slightly terrified him that this was the reality which might await him for the rest of his life. And wo