23 Raid (1/2)
Didn't take too long for them to arrive, the place was known for its good food and drinking. The tavern called ”The Drinking Bear” was full of customers as usual. Stepping inside Riou walked to the counter near the kitchen, followed by a suspicious and yet curious princess who kept throwing sneaky glances at everything around her.
Syldis was leaving the kitchen with a customer request when she saw Riou.
•”Riou! Come in my boy, take a seat and I will get you the special in a moment!” Said the smiling woman with her golden braids swinging while she walked.
•”Make it two, Syldis! I have a guest with me” said Riou showing the approaching Eileen.
Riou thought that Syldis looked serious for a second, but at a second glance her usual big smile was already filling her face and in a joyous mood she replied – ”Take a seat and I will bring you both something in a moment!” – She said looking at Eileen.
The princess looked at the owner of the Drinking Bear as if seeing a ghost. She didn't express anything but Riou noticed that she was acting weird around her. The princess clearly knew her reputation.
They went in search of a table when Riou found a few known faces amongst the customers.
•”If it's not our friend, I thought you'd be hiding or be dead by now…” Said a big man with his trademark smirk looking at the girl following Riou.
The mercenary leader Viktor was accompanied by Levi and Judeau.
•”A few things happened…” Said the boy scratching his head –”But how are the brothers recovering
•”They are stubborn, it will take more than a Dracar to kill them, a day or two more and they will be up on their feet once again… but what I really want to know is why are you holding so many swords? Are you having a change of heart?” Asked the smirking mercenary changing his glance to Eileen with curiosity - ”I've never seen you around before… and what a fine sword you are holding there…” Said the mercenary leader looking at the rapier on her waist.
Riou had forgotten the bad attitude that Viktor had when he was outside a mission and sighed.
•”This is Eileen, she is a friend of mine… These are Judeau, Levi and the one with the big mouth here is Viktor.” He said introducing the mercenaries to the princess who nodded complimented them as Riou continued – ”we just came from the blacksmith, and we are taking these swords to the castle… I will be taking classes on sword fighting there.” Said the boy to the mercenary
Viktor squinted his eyes for a moment - ”The castle was hiring a sword master to teach the prince, they came asking for me to come in but I refused. If I had known you would be taking the classes as well I might have considered the offer. You learning the sword that would be a sight to see” he said laughing.
•”Enough with your tasteless jokes, Viktor” Said Levi ashamed by the mercenary leader's behavior, while Judeau just listened drinking his spirit.
•”Alright, alright… we are just having some fun with our good friend here” he said losing his smile and getting serious –”Kid, it has been a long time since I had such a good time fighting, if you ever need me again all you need to do is ask” said Viktor bringing his mug up, cheering for the boy.
Riou smiled and thanked the mercenary with a nod - ”I will hold you to that” Said Riou raising his eyebrows looking directly at the mercenary leader.
Riou and Eileen took a table near the end of the tavern; they were sitting down facing each other, soon after Syldis came with the food.
She put the plate down on the table filled with bowls and mugs. She served a bowl of stew each with another bowl of pieces of bread. It was meat cooked in a vegetable soup, the meat boiled for hours inside the broth creating a strong flavor and a very soft meat.
After serving the food Syldis sat down beside Eileen surprising them both.
•”So, why is she following you around?” Asked the big woman with a serious tone despite looking at them both with a big smile
Eileen froze for a second.
•”This is Eileen, we will be training swordsmanship together at the castle” Answered the boy.
•”I know who she is… what I want to know is why she is following you around without an escort” repeated the owner of the tavern in a more serious tone.
Riou sighed, she knew Eileen was the princess… ”It will get tricky now…”
The princess recovered from the initial shock and promptly answered in his regard – ”He is my sword master” she said in a serious tone.
Riou was taken aback in surprise… ”Wasn't that supposed to be a secret?” he thought to himself surprised
Syldis widened her eyes. She knew what that meant and it surely explained why she was following him. But still she couldn't conceive the idea of the boy being a sword master and began to laugh loudly
•”Hahahaa!”
Riou hid his face behind his hand, ashamed by the consideration that Syldis had towards him, or the lack of it.
•”My poor girl, you must be desperate… I heard the stories: you chose the path of the North Rites, and how you feared that teachers stronger than you would use the opportunity to propose a challenge you walked the path alone, as a true North Woman I must say...” She paused for a moment after complimenting the princess and then returning to her serious tone – ”But to use him as a means to gain freedom outside the castle walls is not right, my dear…I don't know how you got the king to consent with this nonsense… But I must say, if someone recognizes you and wants to take advantage of you, you will be putting this boy at risk. You may be able to protect yourself, but his life will be in danger as well”
Eileen looked terrified at Riou who was still covering his face, upon noticing the princess' look he just shrugged, unable to reply to that statement.
•”I was put in charge of this boy's safety, so please understand my concern” Said Syldis to the princess
The princess was very confused and instinctively nodded vigorously in agreement at her.Seeing the princess' prompt response, Syldis smiled.
•”You are a good girl, so please treat this boy well.” She said once again smiling.
Recovering from the lack of consideration demonstrated towards him and all the condescending tone, Riou was uneasy to ask about Max and Eleanor, but he wanted to know what happened to them.
•”About your guests? Are they gone already?” asked the boy
•”Yes, they went traveling together, it was a good sight to see, and they were getting along very well I must say, that was not usual.”
Riou smiled – ”That's good to hear”
Syldis stood up, - ”I took too much of your time already, please eat and feel at home, if you need anything let me know” She smiled and patted the boy's head before leaving.
Now that Syldis was gone, Eileen looked at Riou eagerly expecting an explanation to what just happened.
Riou smile wryly - ”What can I say? I'm a poor, innocent and defenseless victim of the circumstances… it seems that I was terribly abused by the evil princess” He said sarcastically before pausing, soon after he added – ”I had no idea you were such a scoundrel”
•”Pft… Hahahaha!” Unable to contain herself, laughter burst out of the princess to the point of tears rolling down her face…
Riou laughed together with her, it had been a while since the last time he was having such a good time. Perhaps it was the first time since coming to this world, so he looked to the princess with tenderness and smiled.
•”You know, I thought you shouldn't say I was your master… why did you do it?” the boy asked intrigued
•”You should never lie to a bear…” She answered.
•”I heard that before… so you know about Syldis past?” Asked the surprised boy already digging in.
•”Yes, she was one of the few humans to be recognized by the Beastmen, she is also a woman of the north, so I know all her stories.” The princess answered while watching the boy.
•”I'd like to hear these stories sometime …” Noticing that the princess was not eating he tried to help – ”You should eat before it gets cold.”
•”Tell me, those were the mercenaries that helped you when you were looking for Maximilian right? Did you fight against a Dracar at that time?” Asked the Princess with curiosity, picking up her soup and a few pieces of bread.
•”It kinda happened…Why do you ask?” Riou replied dismissively…
•”Because you asked how someone was, and they mentioned that a Dracar would not be enough to kill them… So you met a Dracar?” she asked inquisitively…
•”Yeah… but it was a small one, and the Mercenaries took a hit, but quickly took care of it… they were really good fighters.” Riou said to appease the princess curiosity.
Unconvinced that was the whole truth, the princess let it slide for the moment, but the memory notes she was taking already had a few pages… ”Called master by a Head Blacksmith inside his own shop for teaching them how to craft legendary living metal swords, has not one but 6 blades of its metal, and let me hold to one of them as if it was nothing but a tool… He quickly grew a friendship with the great Magus who is known to not like people, the Mercenary Leader treats him as a friend for some strange reason. He is protected by the Bear Syldis probably by the Magus request… he is stronger than a master swordsman at the early age of 15 and easily won against advanced ranked magicians in a 1 on 1 combat… but no one seems to know it… Why? And despite all that he affirmed that he had some magical knowledge but never used it… So it is safe to assume that if he knew how to properly use magic he'd have taken advantage of it against the mages that attacked the castle. The fact he didn't, indicates he does not have much power in that regard… at least there is one aspect in which he seems to be normal.”
She thought for a moment lost in her mind while she tried to follow his way of eating… without a spoon or a fork, she didn't know how to properly do it. With much resistance she tried to eat directly from the bowl like he was.
To her surprise the food was excellent, the taste was rich and the peculiar way of eating had its charms.
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In a vast windowless dark room, filled with smooth plane rock blocks in the walls and ceiling, which had no natural light, just a few torches far away from each other at the walls near some corridor that showed no end, a sinister figure sat down upon a stone throne in the very center of the room.
Only what seemed to be a dark cloak could be identified covering what seemed to be a person sitting down on the throne. The shape that could be identified was only the top of the head. Everything beneath that point was hidden in the dark, no face or members could be seen.
Another man covered in a black hooded robe entered the room in a very respectful manner, and ended up kneeling before the figure just a few steps from the stone throne.
-”The failure to kidnap the princess and queen has been reverted to our advantage, the king's court mages were send to investigate the mine… the ritual is being performed as we speak to ensure they are properly dealt with.” the dark capped man said slowly without looking up.
The sinister figure on the throne slightly moved its head, a voice that no living creature could create soon followed
-”What else have you learned?” It said in a heavy, rough, threatening tone
-”A powerful mage remained hidden at the castle my lord, our spies gathered information that the story disclosed to the guards was that a servant boy was able to defeat two of our members. As you know, one of them died and the other was rescued by us and interrogated. He said that the boy was indeed there, but he was protected against his magic. Before he knew what happened he was already unconscious with broken bones, bound by a magic that we have never seen before” The man paused as he heard the figure slightly moving, the sound of cloth being pressed against the stone made his blood freeze. His eyes never went up to directly look towards the throne, his fear from the figure wouldn`t allow him to do so. After a moment of silence, since no words came from it he continued
-”The magic is being researched, but to no avail so far….it is probably a secret spell from one of the Allard noble houses. And that's precisely why we believe that this boy was credited just to maintain this mage's hidden identity.
-”You may proceed… we will weaken Allard… one way or another…” the sinister voice once again echoed through the walls. Without saying another word the man respectfully stood up and turned around, vanishing into the dark corridor.
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As soon as Riou and Eileen arrived at the castle the princess began to unstrap the swords to hand them over to Riou… The boy looking at her brought his hand up signaling her to stop
•”You can hold on to them a while longer, use them to train” Said the boy to the princess who nodded at him.
There were two days left until the expedition to the mines. Riou had some time to spare and they both used it to improve Eileen's skills.
Riou taught her different techniques and guard stances than the ones she was used to. He showed her the importance of good feints and locations to aim for to completely disarm an enemy.
But most importantly, in these two days he showed her that it was possible to use mana to improve physical abilities which allowed the creation of new sword skills and techniques. Riou discovered that in that world that was not very common.
So as it was expected she did have some difficulty to understand the concept. And was unable to use it at that point.
But still, they trained all day long during this two day period, both of them got used to the weapons that were crafted as well as creating muscle memory of the new techniques Riou taught the princess.
Eileen could easily see how powerful the steel weapons were compared to normal iron weapons. She adapted so well to them that Riou began to feel guilty to ask them back.
The princess' abilities grew greatly while training with Riou, but despite her improvement, she still was nowhere near the boy's ability.
It was the end of the last training session before the incursion to the mines on the next day… they both were tired and the princess was restless for some reason.
•”Eileen!” Called the boy approaching the princess who was already turning around towards him.
•”Regarding tomorrow…” Riou's tone went serious and his expression was preoccupied. He continued:
•”For the next days during the incursion into the mine, be watchful, I have reasons to believe that there are spies in the court… they might use the opportunity to strike once again. Don't trust anyone… especially the yellow caped knight and his men.”
•”Rodrick?” Exclaimed the princess in surprise.
Riou nodded.
•”Keep the rapier always near and at the ready… remember what I told you and what we trained.”
The princess nodded… that information was heavy, and deeply concerned the princess. She never would have suspected any of the court members… but at that point she knew that Riou knew much more than he let her know, so it would not be wise to dismiss the boy's words and recommendation.
--------------------Few moments later
Once more Eileen went to the study room where she knew she'd find her parents following their usual routine.
•”Eileen… if you came here to talk about that subject again, don't even start, this is the third time already, and you know my position, you will not go.” Said the king clearly angered
•”I know Father, I was just wondering… who will be taking care of the castle defenses once Bhalrom and the mages are on their way…” Asked the princess…
The king was not expecting such a question… and answered suspiciously – ”Rodrick and Rottcher requested to take care of the castle defenses… the blue and red banners will be patrolling the city with the rest of first army while Bhalrom is on the mission.”
The princess stopped for a moment, pondering his words…
•”Can you please reassign the men of the First Army to protect the royal wing instead?” She requested with a serious expression.
Finding it very suspicious the king questioned – ”Why do you think that's necessary?”
The princess replied – ”I'd feel safer knowing that the First Army is protecting the royal wing”
The king lowered his head thinking, a wry smile formed on his face and as if talking to himself he muttered something that came to his mind – ”Snakes in my grass hum...”
Raising his head once again he looked to the princess with a smile – ”Very well, if that will make you feel safer…it will be done”
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The next morning came and the preparations were finished. The sun was shining early in the morning and the horses were prepared for them for a quick journey. The mages and Bhalrom were in front while Riou was riding with the cavalry. About 30 men were ready to ride, while the rest of the infantry would follow at march speed later on. There were about a hundred men total behind the mages and Bhalrom, from which most of them were already friends with the boy.
Without delay, everyone was ready and they departed towards the mountains in the north. Riou thought that he'd have some difficulty because it was his first time riding a horse. But strangely enough it felt like second nature to him, ”All those games riding horses seemed to have a good effect on the real skill” he thought to himself.
They passed beside the big plateau where the castle was built, from down there the castle seemed even bigger and impenetrable. Looking from that point Riou regarded the enemy in a much higher position, as it was no easy task to assault the castle from that side.
They rode fast, straight towards the Deadwind passage; it took almost the whole morning of riding at fast speed to reach the mountain passage. Seeing it for the first time, Riou could clearly see it led towards the rocky peaks in a winding trail that vanished from sight just to come back again far away, the lack of use caused the trail to be precarious, and the rocky terrain didn't help either, it was narrow, allowing only one person at a time to go through.
The soldiers made camp at the entrance of the passage and the horses were resting at the green vegetation far to the south, but still within eyesight, it was the only place where the rocky terrain didn't reach.
Riou stood in front of the path, he looked at the rocks and tried to estimate the distance they probably would have to go across it, the trial was slippery as the loosened rocks and dirt could easily take someone's balance with a misplaced step. The path went straight up towards the mountain, so a slip there would be fatal. The gray rock path extended beyond the boy's sight, it went up and down following the mountain to the next, no signal of any entrance could be seen… Riou calculated that the path itself was dangerous enough and there were no other option to it, the mountain was too steep and the lack of vegetation didn't help either. The terrain was so bad that there were no other paths, the only way was the Deadwind trail …if anything were to happen wherever this mine was, the return with injured people would prove disastrous, if not impossible ”If I had my doubts before… now I'm certain... this is a trap” concluded the boy.
The first patrol was formed, the first army would send a group of 5 in front with trackers on it, followed by another group of 5. The mages would be next with Bhalrom and Riou, guarded by another group of 10 soldiers, the rest of the soldiers would wait for further instructions and guard the encampment until the rest of the army arrived. The objective was to locate and secure the mine entrance while protecting the encampment below from any attack. They would be an easy prey, trapped on the mountain without resources and a way to come back if the encampment was taken over by the enemy.
The first two groups had already departed, all the mages were together inside a tent probably discussing their tactics. Bhalrom was outside coordinating the soldiers and waiting for a massager to return.
It took over three hours for the messenger to return with information that they had found the entrance of the mine and no activity was seen. It was safe to approach.
Bhalrom went to gather the mages and the guards to begin the incursion.