Tale Of A Knight

Mekros"s expression could only explained as shamed, his eyes were grim, his face dark, full of dread. "I am very sorry."

"Goodness! I asked you to keep an eye on him, how hard is it to keep track of a single human being?" Sala"s rage knew no bounds.

"The last I saw him was yesterday morning and he didn"t come back since then."

"Why is it always like this? Try to keep track of one thing and you lose track of the next! Next thing you know, there a multiple reports of plant monsters wreaking havoc and right when you think everything is handled, the person who needs to be kept track of disappears! Are you guys trying to send me to an early grave, because you are doing a great job of it so far!?"

"Following your highness"s order is my sworn duty; I would never endanger your well-being as long as I live!" Mekros loyally replied.

"Never mind, just find him, wherever he is, we can"t have him fall into enemy hands!" Although Sala put a contract spell on Bakit, there were still some loopholes in it. If Bakit were to spill his secret, then the entire plan to succeed the crown would be ruined.

"Prince Sala! I received a message that everyone in the supply trip organized by lord of Venlander towards Ashu has been ma.s.sacred; none of the people came back alive. Our men tracked down the caravans; they found all of them dead." Aurelia burst in, bringing dire news.

"All of them dead? How is that possible? How many people were there?"

"Around thirty, I believe. Majority of them were trained knights, but they also coerced local squires to come with them, so the total number might have been higher."

"Thirty knights? How did all of them get killed? Don"t tell me they were ambushed by foreign army, demons, or Divine Lords?" If the Divine Lords were involved, then the situation was dire indeed.

"No, your majesty. From the corpses we found multiple shards of crystals, there is no mistaking the culprits, the Elementals."

"d.a.m.n it! One problem after the next…And now the Elementals have stolen the supplies that were meant for the city on the brink of ruin after a battle."

"There is also a rather bad possibility that the idiot…I mean Bakit, could have been forced to come with the knights under the threat of being executed for treason. Apparently Lord Venlander gave such an authority to his soldiers so that they would have sufficient numbers without expending too much on soldiers."

"That Lord Venlander…Always looking for loopholes. That sly fox."

"What shall we do your majesty?" Aurelia asked.

"We need to focus on the situation first. The knights were attacked by elementals before reaching the city of Ashu, meaning they are very nearby. That is a problem. We need to track them down and destroy their nest before they strike us; otherwise I fear that none inside the city of Aina is safe. Have the troops examine the tracks left by the elementals and track their movements. We might have a lead towards their location. Also…" He paused. "Organize for the soldiers to collect the remains of the deceased. They will be given proper burial. I will write their families letters of condolences. I will also have you deliver a warning to Lord Venlander, his action this time went too far with so many lives lost… Is that clear?"

"Yes, Prince Sala." Aurelia meekly replied and left the room.

"Your majesty, what about my student?"

"Currently the Elementals require priority. I truly hope he was not forced to go with those knights and is just taking his time drinking in some tavern. If he doesn"t come back within a week, then the most likely case is that he has perished. Only time can tell."

"Understood." Mekros grimly replied. Being told that his student might be dead was a rather harsh sentence even for a mighty warrior who had seen death countless times.

* * *

"Say, what"s up with the poster on the table?" Bakit asked, still unable to fully stand up due to pain. He was told that he would need at least half a day to regain his energy. Right now, Rainir was keeping him company.

"Oh, this? It"s the Death Hand." She took the paper and showed it to Bakit. There was a picture of a very scary man, with a large scar on his face, two big horns on his forehead (apparently he wore a horned helmet), and a large goatee that looks like mandibles of a giant roach.

"Death who now?"

"Death Hand, also known as the Hand of Death. Have you not heard of him before?"

"I can"t say that I have."

"The b.a.s.t.a.r.d is very well known around here. He is one of the Divine Lords and the most wanted man in the entire kingdom." Rainir answered with a hint of anger.

"I wonder what he did to make himself so notorious."

"He has killed countless people, n.o.blemen, people of authority, entire families, women, children… he had ma.s.sacred so many innocents. When I get my hands on him I will…" She clenched her fists and Bakit could hear a distinct crack.

"I suppose as a member of Holy Swords you are obligated to bring him to justice, right?" Bakit asked, but now he was face to face with Rainir whose eyes were full of concentrated hatred.

"My brother, Relok Renow and his entire team of adventurers were ma.s.sacred by the Death Hand. All of their bodies had Death Hands signature mark on them. Not only that, Death Hand took my brother"s body with him. My family couldn"t even let him rest in peace, and now there is no telling what happened to his corpse, dishonored even in death. I will slay the Death Hand for what he did to Relok. That is my vow." She put her hand on the sheath of her sword, Bakit could feel a cold pressure radiate inside the room. He immediately recognized it, it was killing intent.

"Well, judging by his picture he is rather easy to spot, so you should have no trouble finding him, right?" Bakit said in order to get rid of the awkward atmosphere.

"Unfortunately it is not that easy. The picture on the bounty poster is not him; of that much I am certain." She said solemnly.

"How can you be sure?"

"The man on the poster is named Ma.s.sacre Bringer, he is a wanted man, but the way he kills is different. He slices his enemies in half. That is his signature move. Death Hand"s signature move is a stab through the heart."

"With a sword?"

"With his bare hand. That is a reason he is known as Death Hand." Rainir explained.

"Just with his hand? How is that possible? Besides, couldn"t the ma.s.sacre bringer have copied the same killing method?"

"That is very unlikely. I examined the bodies of Relok"s party members, members of Undora. Their bodies had a stab mark that was too small to be inflicted by Ma.s.sacre Bringer. You saw how large the Ma.s.sacre Bringer"s arms were, there was no way that such precise and strategic strikes to the heart could have been made by him. If Ma.s.sacre Bringer was the one who struck them then their bodies would have marks proving it, from what I could find from their corpses, I deduced that Death Hand is averaged sized human. But that was all I could find. With that kind of description anyone could be Death Hand."

"That is rather scary to hear" Bakit admitted.

"Indeed. But I know that when I see him I would just know at the spot that it is he who I swore to execute. He shall not escape the fang of my blade!"

Afterwards, she told Bakit some things about herself. How she grew up with her older brother Relok as the members of Renow, a lower ranked n.o.ble family. She told him how both of them admired their uncle, Mekros Renow and aspired to be like him when they grew up. But after the war ten years ago, their uncle came back crippled, unable to walk without crutches. Seeing the sight of their hero so broken made her brother give up the dream of becoming a knight like Mekros and he became an adventurer instead. Relok formed his own team of adventurers, named Undora, where he was known as Relok of Greenbrier, named after a region where he had gained his fame after saving lives of countless people from the werewolves. Before he became an adventurer, her brother had forsaken his family name, much to their father"s displeasure, in order to be free of his family"s obligation to serve the ruler of the realm. What Relok wanted to be was not a knight in shining armor, but a hero. He was born with the blessing of the G.o.ddess of Ice, and when he was a young man he received a blessing of the secondary G.o.d of Light, effectively making him a demiG.o.d. He trained himself tirelessly until he reached a level six as an adventurer, at the young age of twenty one years old. It was a huge achievement, in the adventurers" guild to which he belonged to, there were only three of this generation who have attained level six, and he was the youngest one of them. While there were total of ten levels, none had reached over a level six for a long time. Rainir however was confident that Relok could grow beyond such an obstacle, to become even higher level than six.

Alas, after the entire group of Undora was ma.s.sacred, Rainir fell into extreme depression; her eldest brother had apparently perished. Ever since then she devoted herself to slaying evil being in order to one day avenge her brother"s death.

"It sounds like you truly admired your brother" Bakit remarked.

"If you ever met him then you would have known that he indeed was not ordinary. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to become as strong as he is…" Rainir remarked with fond memories. "What about you? Do you have any siblings?"

"Not that I know of." Bakit solemnly replied. He knew nothing before the time he snuck into Prince Sala"s bed, everything seemed rather hazy to him.

"So you are a lone child then?"

"Not really sure about that either."

"Do you have parents?" She said looking into his eyes.

"What are parents?" Bakit asked with oblivious expression.

"Please don"t tell me…You have never seen or heard of your parents?"

Bakit shook his head.

"Then I guess you had it much rougher than I did. Sorry." She took his bandaged stump and unwrapped the cloth binding it. "It seems that treating your wound with hot iron was successful, the wound had closed away." she had previously cauterized his stump with hot metal, making the skin close, but Bakit ended up pa.s.sing out from pain.

"You know that it hurt like h.e.l.l, right?"

"It was the only way I could make sure the wound did not get infected and you did not bleed to death."

"Thanks for that." Bakit managed to stand up, before falling down. Now cradling floor with his left arm as his legs were numb from lying for too long.

Rainir helped Bakit stand up and sit down on a chair.

There was a gauntlet that Bakit wore previously on top of the table. Bakit tried to reach for it with his right arm but not having an arm he ended up knocking it away instead.

"c.r.a.p. I forgot that I lost my arm." Bakit mumbled before picking the gauntlet from the floor and strapping it to his stump using his left arm.

"Must you hide your injury?"

"Yes." Bakit mumbled before wrapping cloth around the gauntlet, making it appear like a bandaged arm. Then he stood up and proceeded towards the exit.

"Thank you for treating me, Rainir Renow. I will never forget this."

"Say h.e.l.lo to Uncle Mekros for me, will you?" Rainir said casually before her patient exited her house.