While things went smoothly for William, it was a different story for Albert. He had learned that his daughter was involved with most of the guards in the castle. Moreover, he had learned this directly from his grandson. During a little game, William had said, "My mother is always screaming in her room. The guards try to calm her down, but they can't. I think she's in pain." Those words cut Albert's heart like a knife.
He immediately picked up a dagger and wanted to clear his name by personally killing his own daughter. But he couldn't do it. When he saw his daughter's blue eyes, he couldn't bear it. Thousands of scenes from his memories prevented him from taking another step.
"I can't... I can't... I can't... Frey... Why did you love me so much?" At that moment, he dropped the dagger and slumped into the chair opposite the door in Frieda's room. He sat there paralyzed.
Frieda had only seen him through the mirror when applying her makeup. It was only when he sat in the chair that she realized he was in her room. "What are you doing here?" Her tone was as cold and distant as ever.
Her beautiful face was scowling. She looked at Albert's face in the mirror without even turning around.
When there was no reaction from Albert, she got up and walked to the door. Albert, on the other hand, was completely focused on one point. He couldn't think or hear what was going on around him.
Frieda looked at Albert, shook her head from side to side, and then left the room. Her footsteps echoed in the wide corridors. "I'm going to the garden," she said. There wasn't much else to do. There wasn't much in this city that interested her. Besides, although they were from the royal family, they were extremely poor. The money she had saved up so far was slowly dwindling.
After a long time, Albert got up from where he was sitting and went into the living room. There, William was still absorbed in playing by himself. Albert was teaching him chess, and he had to admit that the child was intelligent. He was already showing signs of being able to beat him, and even when Albert wasn't around, he played by himself. But Albert had seen this as a sign of loneliness, which added to his own grief.
Albert walked over and sat down in front of William. Albert was lost in his deep thoughts, and William, who had come to love this game more than anything else, began their mental battle. This was the first time Albert lost.
Albert didn't even notice William's joy. His confusion, helplessness, and most of all, the feeling of being betrayed, had swept away all the joys of his life.
When he came to his senses and saw William looking at him with a regretful expression, he remembered why he had endured all of this. At that moment, he made a decision. From now on, everything he did would be for the purpose of raising William to be as ambitious as possible so that he could have a comfortable future.
He grabbed William's arm and led him to the training area, presenting him to the captain of the guard.
"The flesh is yours, the bone is mine," he declared.
Matz, a man of great talent, stood over two meters tall and had a dark complexion not commonly seen in the Empire. Since the day Albert had rescued him from the bandits, Matz had sworn his loyalty to Albert. Of the three men Albert trusted most, Matz was one of them.
Matz should have expressed his surprise when he saw William, who was experiencing the fear of the unknown and didn't understand what was happening in front of him. But he was given clear orders. Albert wanted this child to become a warrior capable of defending himself, and he had convinced himself that William would work diligently until he achieved this goal.
Like a puppy, Matz grabbed William from behind and threw him into the middle of Albert's soldier training camp.
"Who wants to spar with a prince?" Matz shouted to all the guards in the training area. Albert had carefully selected the best men for this task, and most of them were at least four times William's height and as strong as Albert himself. Almost all of them had callused hands from training, and their skin was as tanned as Matz's from being out in the hot sun.
Despite their iron will and combat experience, all the guards in the training area stood frozen in confusion and concern, looking first at William and then at Matz.
"From now on, William is your comrade-in-arms, you rascals. You will train him properly!" The last sentence echoed in their ears like the roar of a lion.
"Whoever sees him as a prince must undergo my personal training!" Matz's statement was the last straw. In an instant, soldiers surrounded William and Matz. They were all screaming with excitement, almost begging Matz to be the first.
In the end, Matz couldn't resist the crowd's insistence. "All right, all right. I'll choose." He pointed to one of them, who seemed a little heavier than the others and had a thin line for an eye when he grinned. "Otto! You're up first."
***
The next day, William was bruised all over. Frieda seemed worried for the first time and took William over to Albert, who was looking at parchments in the study.
"What do you think you're doing?" She was like a cunning gypsy, pointing her finger at Albert and insisting that she was right, like a persistent street vendor.
"What?" Albert calmly lifted his head from the parchments and looked at Frieda out of the corner of his eye.
"What? Just what? Look at that boy's face! It's all bruised! What if His Majesty comes? What will we say?" For a moment, Albert felt his daughter's concern and was about to soften, but her words made him shake his head. In truth, she was thinking more of herself than of her son.
"This is my problem. I run the city, and I'm the one who trains William. Mind your own business," he said. Then he motioned with two fingers for her to leave.
Frieda was seething with anger, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn't trust the Imperial Guards, and Albert was both her father and had a tangible military power here. She realized her weakness at that moment. It was best for her to enjoy this life quietly for a long time.
***
Time passed slowly for some and quickly for others. Two weeks later, four people arrived in the city. They all had armored guards, and Albert greeted these individuals at the gate. These people were the teachers Albert had begged for. They immediately went to work and began teaching William, keeping him busy.William had no time to take his mind off his education. Every morning he either endured beatings until he couldn't get up, ran, or lifted weights, followed by lessons from his four teachers. And that wasn't all; in the afternoons, he learned from Albert about the social structure and nobility of the Empire. The few hours of free time he had were not spent playing games, but playing chess with Albert or the other teachers. It wouldn't be wrong to say that these were the only moments when he could truly rest.William worked like a machine until he was exhausted, but he couldn't say a word. Although he wasn't afraid of anyone, he wasn't very optimistic about speaking. That's why he
The crowd went wild when they heard the voice of the old baron. How many years had passed since the Baron had spent time with them? The last time they had been together was when they hunted bandits and visited Sunset City, but for a long time now, the Baron had delegated all tasks and often paid more attention to the affairs of the city.William and Matz both looked at Albert's imposing figure on the balcony. At that moment, Matz noticed a movement of Albert's fingers."He's summoning you," Matz whispered in William's ear.William nodded and, after removing his training armor, handed his swords to one of the servants. Then he followed Matz into the hall of the castle.Albert was sitting alone at a large table. The chair was made of fine leather, and Albert seemed lost in thought. Stacks of parchment lay before him, and every time he looked at them, he wished he were on the battlefield instead.He lifted his head and saw William. William had been the motivation behind his hard work all
Albert followed closely behind William on his horse, reminiscing about the old days. Six or seven years ago, Albert had started reading fairy tale books to keep William interested.William's favorite book was called "The Legend of the Nine Stones". He was particularly fascinated by the story of Tianlong the Dragon and its rider, Yu Sheng. The story still played vividly in his mind whenever he remembered Yu Sheng's story.Yu Sheng, a princess born in the Great Xia in the East, was to be sacrificed to end the incessant rain that had been falling for eight months due to some foolish traditions. During the sacrifice ceremony, luck was on her side as all the water around her was transformed into a magical force that turned into a dragon to save Yu Sheng. Of course, this was only a brief summary, but the legend was built on it. Yu Sheng later gathered enough followers to conquer Great Xia with the power of the dragon. However, these events took place in the second book, and William didn't l
The only sounds were the faint crackling of torches and the shuffling of feet. The already dark interior seemed to grow darker as they descended. The group began to wonder if at some point the torchlight would no longer illuminate the cave.Despite their fear, anxiety, and even the feeling of full bladders, they continued on. As the minutes passed, more and more skeletons appeared, forming small mounds.From the mounds of skeletons, and after another three minutes of walking, they came upon their first fresh corpse. It was a corpse dressed like a mercenary, lying on the ground. He was wearing a green tunic, thin leather armor, and a pointed helmet. His chest had been slashed from top to bottom, and the blood still seemed freshly dried. An expression of disbelief was frozen on his face. Seeing this fresh corpse, Albert grabbed William's wrist.Whispering, he said, "We're going back." He wanted to leave this cursed place as soon as possible, without accepting any reasons. What made them
Matz and the others simply bowed their heads in sadness. They had known William since childhood. Most of them had gray hair on their heads, and the sad streaks in William's hair carried more sorrow than the sorrow on their faces at this moment.William was no longer just a prince to them. He was a brother, a friend, family. Over the years, Albert had added hundreds of new blood to their group, but none of them had the warm blood and sorrowful heart of William. None of them were religious, but they all prayed silently for William from the bottom of their hearts. Matz even gave him his word that he would protect William for the rest of his life. He would work harder and stay by William's side no matter how much William grew in strength.After taking a few steps forward, William approached the armored figure. "I wish to duel with you," he said, crossing his twin cavalry swords in front of him. He was a bit nervous and had begun to sweat. However, the cool air of the cave made his sweat c
The dam in Albert's eyes had already burst. In fact, the wild drops of water coming out of that dam were dripping on William's face as he lay on the ground. "Wake up William...please wake up. What would I do without you..."Matz also leaned over William and listened to his breathing. Like Albert, he tried not to cry. He shouted, showing his excited face to everyone, including Albert, with his trembling lips, as if he was going to cry at any moment. "He's alive!""Thank God." Albert closed himself to William's seemingly lifeless body and continued to give thanks.Matz was the calmest of all in this situation. Even Goar and Otto were constantly trying to vent their anger at their miserable situation by smashing things. Matz's words brought them to their senses."Hurry! Bring water, bring cloth!"Goar heard Matz's words, ran and immediately knelt down beside him. He took a leather flask from his pack and tore off the sleeves of his clothes for a cloth. Matz wasn't very good at first aid
"Loyal ones! Go to the other and wait." At William's command, the ten loyal ones behind the table obeyed his orders and slowly left the room. Albert and the others still couldn't believe what had happened, but since they weren't hurt, they were just worried."What is this? Where is this place? Who is the corpse you are bowing to?" Meanwhile, Albert looked to see if there were any notes left on the table, but all the papers were full of scribbled drawings. Apparently, they were all failed products."That corpse you see is the 'Devil' of the legends." William said calmly. At the same time, he pushed the body aside, cleared the chair, and sat down himself. "But as you can see, he has neither horns nor a body different from ours. He was just the previous owner of the Stone of Wisdom."William shook his head. It looked like a very meaningless gesture, for his face was expressionless. "All the information he has is in my head, and he's definitely not like the stories."William knew more abo
When they arrived in the city of Highrock, they were happy to see that nothing had changed. There had been no one in the city for a few days other than Matt, who could be considered a manager, but fortunately Matt had handled everything well.Matt heard a little about what had happened from Goar, and he immediately cleared the entrance and made a secluded path for the group. In particular, the Imperial Guard had gathered in the backyard under the pretense of a banquet, so there was no one on their way, and they came to the castle hall in a way that could be considered secretive.William examined the people around him in the hall. There was no one he didn't know, and after feeling relieved, he spoke, looking at the people waiting for his orders."If even one word gets out about this event, I will kill that person myself." After placing his hand on the hilt of his sword, he looked each of them in the eye, including Albert. Then, thinking that everyone understood, he continued to speak.