2025-02-06 03:16:05“What do you think you are doing?!” A man’s stern voice cut through the quiet night, he adjusted his stance and moonlight flashed on the steel of his unsheathed enchanted sword.
“What else?” One of the men standing opposite him said, it wasn't a question, it was quite obvious what they were all up to.
“It is time for him to die! All of his misdeeds are out in the open, there's no use in hiding behind the closure of this big house!” Another voice followed the first, spurred to bravery by the first speaker’s mockery.
“There’s no need for you to try, even if you wanted to protect your master like the loyal dog you are, he can't escape this one, lackey Rex!” The burly guy who spoke next, took a step forward and the men behind him also followed him, their weapons ready in their hands– they had all sorts, ranging from swords, sabers to spears and machetes.
Rex's eyes went over everyone in the courtyard and exhaled silently, even if he wanted to protect his Lord, there's simply no way he would go though the men in the yard at that moment, they were simply too many— he could count at least thirty men standing in the yard. It won't be easy on his mind if he killed them all.
“Escape what exactly? You are the ones walking to your own death! Do you see him hiding from you?! You can't possibly be this stupid!” Rex’s voice was heavy. “You braved through this harsh weather to come and deal with a guy that you hold no power to? Don't kid yourself!”
“You are the one who shouldn't kid yourself! Lackey Rex, we are telling you, get out of the way or you would feel the brunt of our anger! Where's your sense of justice? This man killed his parents and siblings, detained his friends and sent his extended family on exile. That's not enough for us to kill him off?!” The owner of the voice kept swinging his dagger in the air.
“Don't talk as if we were some good activists! His family can go rot in hell, it is their fault for giving birth to an asshole like him! And his friends are the idiots for befriending him!
The main matter is that this fucker cut short all manner of relief that was supposed to help the people who got caught up in the natural disasters! If he hated his family and friends, it is alright, why include the civilians in his schemes? I lost my sweet daughter and wife because of him! And you tell me not to kill him? Over your dead body!”
The man's anger was visible on his face as he spittled all over the place.
“The darn man also refused the King’s order, he gathered some aristocrats all over the town and tried to rebel, marched into the city with two thousand soldiers and two hundred elite Arcaners, that cost a lot of lives of the civilians!”
“The aristocrats weren't spared! He murdered a lot of those greedy people too, he’s a cold-blooded criminal!”
“Criminal is an understatement, that man is a crazy tyrant!”
“Thankfully, his fiancee was smart enough to team up with the second prince, or else, would that poor woman have survived?”
“For a man who is supposed to be a premium Arcaner, Rex, you sure listen to nonsense a lot!” A breezy voice came from above and a figure jumped from the roof of another building before landing next to Rex, claded in the same black with golden stripe outfit as Rex.
It was obvious that they belonged to the same level–a premium Arcaner, the top position a person can get in the Arcane Hall.
“What Premium Arcaner? That's just a fancy name for a shadow assassin! In fact, the whole establishment must be some sort of shady shits. We don't care if you two are seasoned killers, we civilians spent a lot of time training before approaching this Mansion, we won't back down too!” Another protest ran out through the crowd and the new man scoffed.
“Seems like you all aren't ready to listen the easy way,” He said nonchalantly and the other man's face twisted.
“Right back at you!”
The new man unsheathed his sword then radiated a cold blue glare, bouncing off the coldness of the night and approached the men quickly, Rex tried to stop him. He wasn't quick enough but someone else was, in a blink, there was a big blur among the people.
A moment later, their Lord stood before them, several dead men laid behind him.
“Young Lord!” Rex exclaimed in horror.
“Rex, Oliver,” The man regarded with a glance in their direction before he faced forward, Oliver nodded while Rex sighed.
“Those men are civilians! Why did you kill them off?!”
Oliver shrugged. “They wanted to kill him, should he sit and beg them?”
“But still!”
“It only adds to the unending list of wicked things that I have done, this would hardly make it to the top ten,” The Young Lord's voice was authoritative and gentle at the same time.
“No, it won't. ‘His Majesty and Royal Highness’ made sure of that,” Oliver's voice didn't hide the malice in his words.
“Don't encourage him! At this rate, there would be nothing more to do than submit to them!” Rex chided him and he rolled his eyes.
“Haven't we though?” The Young Lord's voice was lifeless and resigned which made the other men stare at him in concern.
It was only then that they noticed that his usually prim and proper dark hair was matted to his forehead and tiny cuts decorated his face with blue eyes tinged with redness, his hands were bleeding profusely and soaking through his sleeves, there were also splashes of blood which were obviously from other people all over his torn clothes.
Rex's and Oliver's eyes widened in disbelief, the young lord of Arcane Mansion never wore torn clothes and heaven forbids that at any time of the day, he didn't look like he just dressed up.
“What the hell happened to you?!” Oliver asked, squeezing his arms which made him winced and Oliver quickly removed his hand which was now stained with blood.
The Young Lord ignored his question.
“Prince Kadel killed my parents and siblings, I had to detain my loyal friends and send my family on exile because that was the only way to protect them, His Majesty ordered me to wage war against all neighboring cities and remain at the forefront– there was no need for war, we were perfectly at peace.
I declined and brought back the soldiers he secretly sent me and somehow, they ended up dead because I brought them to revolt against the king and I managed to seize the relief brought to the civilians while I was at it too?” He coughed and brought his hand to cover his mouth.
Both guards stared at him wordlessly, there was really nothing to say, it was the reality they were all forced to face.
They could only watch as everyone in the country continued to curse the Arcane Establishment, believe the lies they were fed and spit over their Young Lord, without being able to do anything.
“The other friends I thought were loyal would rather let themselves be suspected as my accomplices for rebellion rather than help me clear my name.
My ‘fiance’, who my family helped her family from scratch, raced into the arms of the second prince and told all the secrets about the Arcane Establishment because I refused to let her family be key members of the whole thing.” He scoffed and both guards ball their hands into fist tightly as they remembered the events, death, and humiliations they have witnessed in the past few days.
“The King that I spent my entire youth being loyal to ended up being nothing more than a tyrant who was greedy and suspicious of me. He wanted me gone because I was a threat to his throne, because of the numbers of enemy territories I had captured in his name.”
The Young Lord laughed sorrowfully, the sound carried deep melancholy and extreme regret which made any listener's heart squeeze in pain and distress.
“What a joke! I should have listened to my father and stayed loyal to Arcane Hall, I shouldn't have ventured to be a soldier, talk less of becoming a general that commanded a lot of soldiers– soldiers that I buried with my own hand than I commanded with my voices.
If I had stayed home, they wouldn't have lost their lives carelessly to assassins, my parents would be here and I would have caught wind of what my fiance was up to with the second prince when I was at the war front.” He shrugged, but the deep regrets and heavy sorrow in his gaze betrayed his nonchalance.
“It's too late to regret now, it won't do anybody any good,” he seemed to be convincing himself of that.
“You are right!” They heard behind them and they turned at the same time a figure entered through the front gate, behind him were a lot of swordsmen and he had also stationed a lot of archers all over the roof. “There's no good in regretting now, you are going to die tonight.”
It was Prince Malek.
The second prince of Visteria and his fiancee’s new husband.
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“Intermediate Level.” The judge added and Ashton, along with some other students turned to look at him in surprise.“How on earth did you know that?” Ashton asked, glancing at Lila who was already walking away with a sad expression, Elaris just looked away.“Tarex Cald,” One of the judges called.“Look, Tarex is next!”“It is obvious that he would be the one that would be the topper of this exam.”“Yeah, his siblings have always won—no matter what competition they were in. I must say that Lord Cald is truly blessed.”Chatters ensued as the boy’s name was called, all eyes fixed on the young man who was walking to the judges, taking his good time.He was dressed in the finest material made from cottens that were imported into Astrad from Embrayl, his shirt and trouser suited him perfectly well and the green color e chose greatly enhanced his skin color.“Look, who’s next? He is the third child of Lord Cald, who just happened to be our first city lord,” Ashton began to explain to Elaris.
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“Good, serve him right, his question is the trickiest today,” Dax said with a victorious nod.“I can’t imagine him entering the Academy with us,” One of his two friends who had challenged Elaris earlier said.“There’s no need for you to imagine it. He is not going to enter with us.” Another agreed.Just ten seats away from them, a man sitting beside Tarex turned to him.“What do you think, Tarex?”He was dressed in a white material that wasn't as smooth as Tarex’s but it was not inferior in matters of quality. The difference in color just made their similarities in features prominent.The same brown eyes and brown hair was enough pointer that they were related.“I don’t know brother,” he replied. “The guy is too weird. I heard that he predicted Lila’s grade and also said that my question was the simplest of all.He might win it but I am sure that he is not going to top my score, Lan!”“Topping your score is hard, your result is Master level,” Lan said and Tarex nodded before they turne
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Every one of them stood closer to themselves as Max approached, a small smile that disgusted Ashton to no end hanging on his lips.“Elaris, Caden, Ashton, you are here,” Max said and Caden just nodded while Ashton couldn’t resist the urge to scoff.“Of course, we are here, where else were we supposed to be? In your room?” Ashton asked fiercely but Max only chuckled.“I didn’t know that you have some sort of vendetta against me,” Max said. “I am only here to see my step brother and ask how it is going with the treatment of his eyes.After all, you, young master Ashton, provided him with medicine that would speed up the healing.”Max’s voice was smooth and gentle, there was no trace of malice in it but even a tinge of concern laced his words, he looked like he was genuinely concerned about Elaris.“I was just coming from Arcane branch, and heard noise at the yard so I figured why don’t I stop by,” He continued. It was then that all of them noticed that he was still wearing the red and c
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“You should have been there, Caden! I am sure that you would be as stunned as everyone there!” Ashton exclaimed and Caden raised a brow at him in surprise before he turned to look at Elaris who was sitting quietly on the bed with his eyes closed and back against the wall.They have finally settled down in Caden’s room after moving their stuff from their old place to each of their respective rooms, every one of them had to admit that it was better to live inside the mansion which wasn’t as hot as the former almost-ruined house because of the weather.Both Caden and Elaris were definitely going to have a good night's sleep.“Are you sure that you aren’t saying this because you are ‘supporting’ him or something?” Caden asked, still in doubt.“Unless the whole audience and dean suddenly wanted to ‘support’ him, there was no way they would have given him the highest score and said that his result was supreme level, would they?”“But—”“No buts, Caden. Believe me as I say it, your brother w
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“Seriously! I can’t believe that you were able to do that?! How was it even possible? Normally, with a single arrow, I wouldn’t be so shocked, but what? All of them at once? Have you always been a genius and didn’t let me know? Then why the hell did you continue to perform when you had such amazing skills? No matter how much I think of it, it doesn’t make any sense! You couldn’t even throw a stone at a target that was right in front of you, you were so weak that I would normally kidnap you away and carry you over my shoulder to make sure that you spend the whole day with me. How is this possible?!”Ashton ranted without taking any break, he continued to talk and for once, not reveling and minding the glances and stares that followed them as they walked away. In fact, his rant garnered more attention too.Elaris face palmed multiple times, willing himself not to just snap at him to keep his mouth shut.He really didn’t need a headache.“How am I even supposed to know? Your brother sti
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The sound of the arrow racing in the air was loud in the suddenly quiet hall, it sounded almost through prolonged.Every eyes remained wide and ears remained open, a needle clattered on the floor somewhere and everyone present heard it. Even when everyone agreed that he had lost the round, they were enraptured by what the result of the action could be.It seemed so slow and hit so fast at the same time but when it finally landed on the target, everyone's eyes opened wide in shock and the speechlessness was jointly agreed on.It had hit the bull’s eye on each target!Ashton continued to stare at the man in front of him with mouth agape, he couldn’t fathom how he was able to achieve it, there was just no way it was possible. He would even argue it but the evidence laid right in front of his eyes.“Ashton, guns,” he asked and Aston quickly brought it to him, he only obeyed because he recognized it as a command, his brain was still stunned.Elaris turned and loaded the gun before he shot
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“I heard that he passed, would you look at that?”Whispers started all around as Ashton took him to walk around the academy to get fresh air.“Maybe he managed to muddle through, I guess that the entrance exam is getting easier.”“Easier?” The person scoffed. “Obviously, you didn’t hear the question. I doubt that some students of the Academy would be able to answer it at all.”“Are you saying that he is smart? I have seen him, all he knows is how to behave like a clown.”“It is like a change overnight!”Ashton snickered beside Elaris who just remained peaceful as if he heard nothing they were saying.“You have become a star, everyone knows you now.”“It only means that there are many people waiting for me to fail,”“Can you be less pessimistic in some situations?” Ashton grumbled.“What’s the issue with my brother’s military prowess?” Elaris asked instead.Ashton looked thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t know if I should tell you this but I am just going to go ahead since you have chan
