"By the way, did a young girl came went I was absent?" Asked Alfonso."Oh, you are talking about Hygieia? Yeah, she can with a letter sign by you, she is temporally resting in the manor as per your orders" Said Ribeiro.
"Good, it seems that everything is going according to plan" Said Alfonso with satisfaction.
"Well, actually… there is… an issue that requires your highness attention" Said Ribeiro.
"Issue? What happen?" Asked Alfonso.
Ribeiro turned to his right and signaled Deferio.
"Your highness, actually the thing is like this, about a week after you were gone, two visitors came to Wasteland Valley" Said Deferio.
"Visitors?" Asked Alfonso.
"Yeah, and there is more, they actually came… from the Jubila forest!" Said Deferio.
"What!?" Asked Alfonso in surprise.
"Yeah, they said to be from the only tribe on the Jubila forest, they call themselves "Amazon", they make a request to see the Lord of this place, however, seeing that you werent here, they came to me and Ribeiro, they wanted to ask for cooperation" Said Deferio.
"Cooperation? What kind of cooperation?" Asked Alfonso.
"They didn"t want to said it, they told me that they will only talk to the one in charge, so they talked to Hephaestus, I don"t know what they said to him, but he agreed to follow one of them back to their tribe in the Jubila forest, one of them stayed here so she could wait for you, she is waiting in the manor" Said Deferio.
"They convinced Hephaestus to leave the forge? This is very interesting" Though Alfonso.
"Ok, let"s go talk to this friend, by the way, how do they look like?" Asked Alfonso.
"Well…" Deferio hesitated before saying
"They looked like humans, but I have my doubts, its better if you seem him yourself, your highness" Said Deferio.
"?" Alfonso didn"t understand what Deferio meant.
............
"Nice to meet you, my name is Antiope, nice to meet you, lord of the snow land" Said a tall girl to Alfonso and the rest.
"Well, I now get what Deferio mean" Though Alfonso.
The woman in front of him was huge, she was roughly one and a half heads taller than Alfonso.
"At least two and twenty centimeters, wow" Though Alfonso.
Alfonso was fairly tall in this new body; however, he couldn"t help but feel tiny in front of this woman, that wasn"t all though, this girl wore an arrow and a arc in her back and was tanned skin. She wore a pair of sandals and a set of clothes made of fur that was obviously made with the idea of making the body as agile as possible, her hair was long and dark hair and black eyes.
"Nice to meet you Antiope, my name is Alfonso Lockheart, lord of Wasteland Valley, may I know what brings you here?" Asked Alfonso.
Antiope took a deep breath and then kneeled towards Alfonso and the others.
"I came here by the others of our leader, Lisipe, to request for help, the lakshets has invaded our territory, please we beg sir to show mercy and help us" Said Antiope.
Alfonso listen with detail every word Antiope said, he made a gesture to Antiope to stood up, she though for some time and then said.
"I have more questions for you, as to whatever I will help or not, we will see, everyone abandoned this room, Artemis, you stay back" Said Alfonso.
"As your order, your highness" Said Everyone and then they left except for Artemis.
Now in the room were only Artemis, Alfonso and Antiope.
Alfonso looked at Antiope for some time.
"Antiope, I only have two questions for you" Said Alfonso.
"Yes?"
Alfonso took out a map from the desk and put in in the table.
"Where exactly is your tribe, signaled here please" Said Alfonso.
Antiope hesitated for some time, she looked back at Alfonso and then at Artemis, who was looking at her without blinking, she took her finger and signaled in the map.
"At the border between the inner part and the outer part?" Said Alfonso.
"That"s right. Us Amazons have leave there since the beginning" Said Antiope.
Alfonso only nodded and put back the map.
"My final question is, how did you convinced Hephaestus to go there, what did you say to him?" Asked Alfonso.
"My sister… Mirina, she is the one who convinced your friend, as for the details, I don"t know, but maybe…"
"Maybe…?" Asked Alfonso.
"Maybe she mentioned the legend" Said Antiope.
"Legend? What legend?" Asked Alfonso.
"Its… in a fairy tale in our homeland, apparently, in some place near here, our ancestor, the sword G.o.ddess had a suitor who carried one of the seven words, the flame sword, ignite , our ancestor and the man fight for the hand of our ancestor, but, at the end, our ancestor won the fight and ignite was destroyed, however, its nucleus was lose in the battle, some people said that it nucleus was made by the G.o.d of fire using one of his two hearts, they said that, once you touch the flame, it will never blow out, not even if the G.o.ddess of water herself came in" Said Antiope.
"The seven swords again? I have been hearing about these swords lately" Though Alfonso.
"Okay, that"s all I guess" Said Alfonso.
Antiope was about to talk but Alfonso stop her.
"I know what you want to say, however, I can"t think of a good reason to help you, I know that it sounds cruel, believe me, if I had more tools or people by my side I will think about it, but, as you see, there is only a handful of people who can fight in this Valley, and we just came from a huge war that almost cost my life as well as the rest of my friends, I won"t put them in danger again, not for this at least, I can give you another solution though" Said Alfonso.
"What- what other solution?" Asked Antiope.
"Bring your tribe here, we won"t close our doors, we will gladly accept you and your tribe, this is the best I can do for you and your tribe" Said Alfonso.
Antiope seemed to be troubled, she though for some time, before seeing at Alfonso once more.
"At least… can you come with me to convince our leader? I can"t make a decision like this on my own and our land is where we grow up, we can just give our back to them, but, if is what is needed to do to safe my family, then I am willing, please, accept this selfish request of mine" Said Antiope.
Alfonso looked at her and then looked back at Artemis, her face was cold and expressionless as always however, she looked down and saw Alfonso looking at her, they didn"t say anything, there wasn"t any need to, Alfonso made a small sigh and smiled towards antiope.
"This request, I accept it" Said Alfonso.
"DING!
Host Alfonso Lockheart had triggered the side mission
[A helping Hand!]"