On the other side of the room while Arthur, Adamus, and Claudius were speaking a small group of three very well dressed individuals entered the party. Anyone familiar with the royal family would immediately recognize the king and the queen along with their youngest son. The royal trio chatted amongst themselves about the party and some of the guests while their royal guards were at the ready, each with a halberd in hand just a few meters off to their sides like a wall of metal and flesh.

“What about that young mage that killed those pesky vampires? Is he attending the party? I would certainly like to meet him. Perhaps he would be willing to share some of his knowledge with you Octavius, he is a mage like you are and that is how he killed those dangerous vampires.” Queen Annia turned to her son as she spoke hoping he would consider trying to befriend someone his age like the rest of his siblings.

“But we don’t even know where he is or if he even arrived. How exactly am I meant to find out what he looks like?” Octavius asked hoping he would be allowed to be alone for the rest of the party, however he had a feeling that his parents wouldn’t allow for that.

“I do have access to the archives of all the guests that have arrived.” King Gaius said as he retrieved his personal communication orb. He went through several tabs and eventually found the list of the guests that had their invitations verified at the front doors. Sorting the list alphabetically he didn’t need to scroll very far until he found Arthur.

“It says right here that Arthur the mage has had his invitation verified upon arrival. Odds are he is somewhere around here.” King Gaius said as he turned to his son with a soft smile unaware of how that was the exact opposite that he wanted.

Forcing a smile upon his face Octavius nodded to his father and walked off to ‘look’ for Arthur the vampire slayer as he was known by the upper nobility and the crown.

Looking through the crowds of nobles and other important figures within the kingdom Octavius was half convinced that the famous vampire slayer wasn’t even there. The fact that almost everyone was wearing the same colors and type of clothes didn’t help at all with his search. He was half convinced that his parents just wanted him to speak with someone about something other than magic. ‘That is likely the whole reason why they invited him in the first place, just to try and force me to speak with someone. Why do they even feel the need to intervene in my life in such a way?'

Taking a sigh the young prince took a seat at one of the tables with all sorts of food spread across. Several of the party goers would stop by every so often to grab something to eat or drink before going back to where they were before. For a while Octavius just sat there nodding every once and a while when someone spoke to him without really listening, eventually he noticed an odd group of three walking towards him.

The person in the lead was an old priest of Xardas that the prince recalled seeing in the court on the occasions he was present. The second was a young court mage, and based on the colors of his uniform he was a low ranking member of the alchemy division. The third member of this group was by far the most interesting of the three as he was the only one not wearing a uniform he was familiar with, it might have been a uniform but the prince didn’t recognize it.

This third man was about his age and wearing dark brown pants with a dark brown leather vest and a light coat or cloak over that. Octavius could see that this man had both taste, style, and wealth, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out where the designs originated from. He was about to stand up and ask the man himself when the priest recognized him.

“Ah, Prince Octavius! I didn’t see you there.” Claudius gave a soft smile as he approached the prince. “If we knew you were sitting here we would have come over sooner.” He quickly his two companions over to the young prince.

Prince Octavius stood from his chair and smiled. He recalled this priest from the past being a kind person, but unfortunately he didn’t recall his name. “And it is nice to see you again, I was just a little bored with the party as it was going. Not much to do except eat and make idle and useless small talk with random nobles you don’t recall the names of.”

“A rather unfortunate fact of these parties the crown throws, however there is some good that comes with these parties. It makes for an excellent opportunity to meet up with old friends again every few months.”

Octavius gave a small chuckle and smiled at the last statement. He would have admitted that was a good point and something he might get to look forward to in the future if he ever made nay friends.

As the two finished speaking Arthur and Adamus hand finished picking out something from the table of food to snack on and walked over and stood next to Claudius. In Arthur’s hands was a handful of these small square shaped pieces of food called crackers with a small piece of cheese for each, Adamus on the other hand had a small handful of assorted nuts.

“There you two are, I would like to introduce both Adamus Hiberus and Arthur to you Prince Octavius.” For a moment Octavius’s mind went blank as he heard the name Arthur. He knew that was the name of the mage who defeated the vampires but he certainly wasn’t expecting to just have the man walk right up to him.

“Arthur the vampire slayer?” Octavius looked at the man roughly the same age as him and Claudius nodded. “That is correct. Quite an interesting man if I do say. He managed to kill a proper vampire all on his own after killing all the others that had been turned. He even managed to impress the paladins sent to help with the situation.”

Octavius looked at the well known vampire slayer before him. Unlike all the stories he heard from the various voices of the court the man was far more humble looking and acting than anyone had said. “You fought this vampire and killed him?” Octavius asked outright to Arthur who nodded with a straight face.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I did, it wasn’t by any means an easy fight but I did kill the self proclaimed vampire lord Darius.” Arthur stated quickly before eating one of his crackers with cheese.

“But how exactly did you do it? The rumors said you are a mage. Did you use some powerful spell to cripple his limbs and drag him to the streets to be executed like what everyone was saying?” Octavius stepped forwards with a look of fascination written on his face.

“Um... no. I don’t have access to any spells like that. My favorite type of magic is geomancy at the moment which I used to restrain and then kill the vampires. What you just described sounds something like alteration magic, I do know someone who was able to shatter armor with an alteration spell and weigh the target down though.”

“Alteration magic is capable of such a thing? Who was this and when did they cast such a spell? I would very much like to meet them.”

“Her name is Lyra Vettonius, we were actually in the ruins of the old dwarven city of Dom Badaher. In an underground cavern we discovered below the city we found a demon warlock. It was a very dangerous fight and without that spell the demon would have likely killed several of us that were there before we would have taken it down.”

“Vettonius. That name sounds familiar. I will look into this Lyra Vettonius when I have an opportunity, thank you Arthur.” The young prince smiled at Arthur and gave a small nod before walking off looking far happier than he did before.

“Looks like you left quite the impression on the young prince Arthur.” Claudius said, suddenly popping next to Arthur and placing his hand on his shoulder. “Not many can have such a conversation with someone of royalty and leave them in a good mood. Perhaps your talents are more diverse than anyone expected.”

“It was just a conversation, I don’t really see who that can be as important as you are implying.” Arthur quickly dismissed the idea, he saw himself as a fighter not a speaker.

“Perhaps, perhaps not. The only way to know is to try and have a little faith in yourself.”

********

The party lasted for another few hours with lots of food and drink for all present to enjoy. Arthur also spoke a bit with some of the other party goers making some small talk here and there, but for the most part the remainder of the party was rather simple and boring. The one other highlight was when the king gave a quick speech to everyone present. He started with thanking everyone for coming and spoke a bit in detail about how the unity of the kingdom and everyone present was important in the upcoming years.

He spoke of the empire and their expansionism that resulted in many deaths in the previous war and how he suspected they were readying for another. The speech brought Arthur’s mind back to the days before his first death. Those men in black and their red magic, how they easily destroyed the defenses they had built up and took the survivors hostage.

He didn’t hear much of the speech after that as tried to keep the memory from his focus which he failed to do. ‘The mind has ways of doing things the body doesn’t want.’ Arthur recalled a sentence he had read in one of the restoration books. He didn’t understand what it meant at the time, but now he had an idea.

When the king was done with his speech he quickly disappeared from Arthur’s view, not that Arthur was looking for him. He spent the remainder of the party trying to avoid thinking until the party neared the end. When the other guests started leaving Arthur took his leave as well. Stepping outside he looked at the wealthy nobles and other important leaders of the kingdom stepping into their carriages and riding off into the dark streets of the night.

Looking up at the sky Arthur figured it was around eight o’clock at night and began walking back to his home. Several carriages passed him by as he stepped out of the metal that blocked the only entrance to the castle. His walk was long and dark and during that time he thought about what he was going to do with his time until the war began, then what he would do when it happened.

‘I need to continue learning about restoration magic for starters, that type of knowledge will be useful regardless of what I do with my life. Being able to heal my own wounds or even being paid to heal someone else's wounds is a good thing to have. After that I should get in contact with Henry again and continue learning about enchanting. I still recall the entirety of the journal that belonged to Brexius Sanguine Bane and all the golems he wrote about. If I could create golems like that I could either sell them or use them for my own purposes. The only real problem is when the war with the empire starts I have no idea what I will do then.’

Arthur briefly considered joining the war again but quickly dismissed the idea, he died in a rather terrible way the last time he got involved. The only way he could think of to avoid such a death was to have overwhelming power to destroy the empire's forces or to not be involved at all.

It was an odd thought process to have when you know of your own death and how to avoid it, it left Arthur feeling almost hollow, like he was nothing but a physical shell of who he was, his soul distant and cold to reality.

He had a desire to leave the city and search for bandits which he knew were in the forest, a desire to find and kill them. It dug at the back of his mind like the eye of blood was still there and pushing him to give into his anger. He resided and within moments the feeling faded like it was never there. The exorcism wasn’t perfect but he could feel it helping suppress the force of the eye and keep it out, but the idea wasn’t without merit. The bandits were out there and they were killing people, the only difference was that now everyone knew it was happening.

‘Looks like I have something else to add to my list.’

*********

‘I need to learn more about restoration magic, then I need to help deal with the bandits in the southern forest, then finally I need to continue with learning about enchanting and take that towards golemancy.’ Arthur said in his mind as he wrote down his three current goals on a piece of paper. At the very top lies restoration training which made it the highest priority.

‘The guild should be able to help me find someone to teach restoration magic. I imagine there should be a good portion of people more than willing to teach about restoration magic, I will check with the guild and if I don’t find anyone offering then I will ask around.’

Looking to the second line on the list Arthur thought back to how easy it was to get involved with the southern branch of the city guard. ‘Capturing or bringing some sort of information regarding the movements or actions of the bandits should be enough to help along the investigation to the right outcome. The location of their base of operations should be a good way to surprise the bandits, they won’t even know how the information will have leaked out.’ Arthur gave a small chuckle to himself as he thought of the reactions of the bandit leadership when they are discovered without even a traitor or leak.

‘Henry should be able to help me with golemany and enchanting when I am done with my other two tasks.’ Arthur wasn’t very concerned with getting Henry’s help, all he really needed to do was offer him some money and have an open schedule.