“Get behind me. If I tell you to run, run without looking back. Your old man might be old but I can hold them off for a bit.” Gilles said to Morgan with a serious expression.

Just then Roland came out of the forest with the three simpletons in tow. Roland immediately was shocked when he saw Gilles’s face.

“Back off into the forest for now. You three will scared the kid, lemme handle this.” Roland said to the three grunts with a voice out of earshot of Gilles and Morgan.

As the three grunts looked at each other and then walked off into the forest. Roland slowly approached Gilles with both hands up.

“I do not mean to disturb your journey Reverend Father, I sincerely hope you would excuse my impoliteness.” Roland said as he genuflected before Gilles.

Gilles winced at being called Reverend Father and bitterly replied: “That is no longer who I am. I left the Temple long ago.”.

“Then excuse me.” Roland said as he rose and inquired, “If I may be impudent, may I inquire if Rever- *cough*, if Fath-, your hon-...” Roland stuttered as he tried to figure out what to address Gilles as.

“Stop, just Gilles is fine. Also please talk casually. You are The Hawk I presume?” Gilles said monotonously.

“Currently The Hawk of Emperium.” Roland said with a shrug.

“What did Alfred offer to tie someone like The Hawk down. Who is known for being the most free spirited bird of the land.” Gilles said amusingly.

“I’m honored you’ve heard about me, well His Imperial pain-in-the-ass offered me maps to locations known to be myths. But I digress, I’m wondering if the kind gentleman has the artifact I been sent to retrieve.”

“It’s no longer in my possession” Gilles replied coldly.

Seeing the cold Gilles, Roland quickly replied “Whoa, between you and me I’m not too eager to retrieved the artifact, I’m just the hunting bird. Shoot the commander not the commanded.” Roland quickly put his hands up in surrender.

Roland realized why His Imperial Tyrant made him come on this expedition and even issued an imperial decree to force him and why the High Priest-hag forced the three idiots with him. They must have realized they were sending me to the gallows and didn’t want anybody valuable to join me.

“Leave us alone and return. Tell the Temple you couldn’t find the artifact and let the issue rest.” Gilles said as he narrows his eyes and was about to put his hand on his sword.

Before Gilles completely finished his sentence Roland was already in a full sprint running away yelling “As you wish humble sir!”. As Gilles ran past the three idiots in the woods, the idiots gawked and quickly followed.

“What happened?” Bron asked while running alongside Roland.

“Nothing happened. Found nothing. Nothing to worry about. Going home.” Roland said while running.

“I knew the people we were tracking might not have the artifact!” Bron said smugly.

Roland looked at Bron then Bron’s brothers and was sincerely grateful that the High Hag-test lent him the three morons. If it was some other keen paladin, perhaps all of them would no longer have heads.

Morgan showed a curious expression at the sight of the hawkish looking man running back into the woods.

Gilles noticed Morgan’s curiosity and explained: “the man was The Hawk, famous explorer, never met him in person but heard stories about him here and there.”

“Hawk? His face?” Morgan further inquired.

“No not just that, they call him The Hawk because he’s known for always being alone and he always had incredibly keen eyesight even before he got a Blessing from the Goddess.” Gilles said with a smile.

“Blessing?” Morgan asked as his curiosity peaked.

“The Goddess can lend her abilities to humans although the abilities will be much less effective when a person uses it; nevertheless, you can assume Blessings of the Goddess to be cheat like abilities. The Goddess however also loses some of her abilities when she hands out Blessings so she seldomly does it.” Gilles explained with a good mood as it seems like both and his son had recovered their mood a little.

“Why?” Morgan inquired again.

“I’ll explain as we return back to Elrantel. It’s a long journey after all.”

The journey back was long but fruitful for Morgan as he got a lot of information about the Temple and the Goddess. Gilles nevered wanted to talk about the Temple and the Goddess to Morgan previously but ever since the short sword was disposed off it seemed like Gilles has opened up to Morgan about the topic.

Morgan organized his thoughts as he reviewed over what Gilles has said in his mind.

The Temple is the religion that worships the Goddess. The Temple was founded directly after the Age of Gods ended. The Age of Gods was a time where many gods were alive and fought for power. The Goddess manage to kill all other gods and became the strongest as she was the last divine. The Goddess brought mercy and justice for mankind by giving them freedom and autonomy from the gods, Mankind started to worship the Goddess for her kindness. The Temple were the real ruling force of the Emperium Empire because they had the Goddess behind them. It is strange that father shows a face of displeasure whenever he praised the Goddess. This seems weird because Mr. Hawk’s conversation with father suggests father was important at the Temple. Reverend Father huh.

Morgan was confused by his father’s stance on the Temple. Father seems to dislike the Temple, but he never says anything bad about the Temple. This made Morgan think his father truly did have a complicated relationship with The Temple.

Gilles noticed Morgan’s brooding but said nothing about it. He is used to Morgan being at times in deep thought. Gilles sometimes wondered if his son is too smart for his own good.

The father and son soon arrived at the entrance of Elrantel. Elrantel was a frontier city made with extremely sturdy and thick walls with beautiful masonry constructed undoubtedly with the use of magic and virtuous labour. The castle gateway consisted of a large wooden gates reinforced with iron and a metal portcullis in front inscribed with defensive runes to sturdy the gate from magical and physical attacks. If one looked closely at the city walls the same defensive runes could be seen spread at cross at same distance intervals. The defensive runes were the result of meritorious efforts from the Hall of Magic. The walls of Elrantel were almost completely indestructible if well manned and maintained.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Morgan looked at the city walls with wonder as they waited in line to pass through the gate.

“You’re staring as much as the first time.” Gilles said with amusement.

“Different reason.” Morgan answered as his gaze moved from one rune to another.

Gilles observed Morgan’s counting. “I didn’t tell you last time we pass by the gates, but did you know if you listen carefully you can hear something special?” Gilles ask as if recalling something humorous.

“What?” Morgan asks as he closed his eyes trying to hear the walls.

“Curses.” Gilles said while holding his grin.

Morgan looked puzzled and slightly scared.

“The curses of the runescribers forced to etched the runes sober. Complaining about being underpaid and overworked.” Gilles said while chuckling. “Look way left see there right next to that rune there I’m pointing to.” Gilles said while pointing to a brick on the wall with a slight chip. “That chip right there was from the head runescriber, he smashed his hammer on the wall after being told he couldn’t drink alcohol until the runes were done by the Archmage.” Guile said musingly.

Morgan glaces at the rune and while chuckling and shot Gilles another curious glance seeming inquiring how Gilles obtained this knowledge.

“Been here when it was being constructed.” Gilles said proudly.

But that was around Morgan started counting with his fingers and then gasped staring daggers at Gilles before muttering “not dead?”.

Gilles almost choked on his own spit. “Can you not curse your father to an early grave?”.

“Overdue.” Morgan said silently while grinning.

Gilles knocked Morgan on the head lightly. “Don’t be so rude. I have no idea where you learned all that sass from.” Gilles said while shaking his head.

Inside the city at a small inn called Fat Maidens, Gilles was chatting with the barista and inn owner Hilda. Hilda was a kind middle-aged looking lady who had twin pigtails, friendly looking face, and slightly overweight donning a brown headband and apron. She also had an accent that was from somewhere in the northern islands.

“Thought ya would look lot worse. Thought ya be missing at least an arm when you gone into that forest for long.” Hilda said seemingly uninterested as she cleaned a beer mug with a rag.

“Thought I would get a warm welcome at least.” Gilles said while frowning.

“Did ya pay for dinner?” Hilda stopped cleaning for a moment.

“I retract my earlier statement.” Gilles quickly took a chug from the beer in his hands to avoid awkwardness.

“I thought ya were crazy to take ya boy with ya into the woods. It’s no place for a boy.” Hilda said with a tinge of anger.

“I can’t leave him here, it’s too dangerous.”

“I would’ve took good care of him, made him do some busy work and fed him well. The boys too much bones he needs to eat more.” Hilda said with a concerned look.

“He eats enough. I wish I could protect him forever, but I need to train him to be independent.” Gilles responded looking a bit sad.

“What use is strength anyways, it’s much better to have a good head on your shoulders.” Hilda rebuked.

“You need strength to really live, I can’t always be there to protect Morgan, I want him to be able to protect himself.”

“Ya just wanna pass down ya swordsmanship, ya would brag about it when ya get real drunk.” Hilda said with disdain.

Gilles blushed a little with embarrassment and took another glug before Hilda nagged again.

“What if he’s no good at swords, what if he’s better with the wands, what if he’s better with a bow, what if he’s -” Hilda asks with fever before Gilles cut her off.

“Then I’ll find him a good place to learn those. I’m not a stubborn as you believe.”

“And I’m just a young lady from a noble family.” Hilda said with a mocking tone dropping her accent and imitating a young lady’s.

Gilles shivered. Hilda’s impersonations always gave him chills.

“Ya look old but ya heart still young. Only acting old around ya boy.” Hilda said with a slight warmth.

“Got to look fatherly in front of the boy.” Gilles chuckled and then finished his beer. Getting up and about to walk upstairs to rest.

“Coin.” Hilda said before holding out her hand looking at Gilles extremely coldly.

“Put it on my tab!” Gilles said while skittering away upstairs.

“Righteous man me ass.” Hilda scoffed and picked up another mug to clean.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully and a new day began.

When Morgan awoken he found the bed beside him empty and thought that Gilles went out extremely early in the morning. He quickly got dressed and went downstairs to his old spot at the counter and started eating the pre-prepared breakfast on the counter. Hilda quickly noticed the boy and started making small talk with the boy with occassion questions about events in the forest. Simple responses such as “Widow Spider”, “Hawk”, and “Blessing” came from Morgan. Hilda tried to pry for explanations but Morgan’s responses were only short and vague.

A question then suddenly came to Morgan mind. “Reverend Father who?”

Hilda was surprised by the question and simply pretended not to hear.

Morgan was frustrated by the lack of response and was about to ask again when Gilles walked in clearly in a good mood. Gilles was holding two wooden short swords in his hand and hung two wooden long swords on his back while humming a little to himself.

Seeing Gilles return and so happy Hilda mockingly inquired “Looking real happy since ya got rid of ya lover. Did ya bed some wretch this early?”

“No coin.” Morgan said as if he was stating a fact.

“True, with that mug they’ll charge him at least triple.” Hilda laughed.

“Don’t talk such vulgarity in front of the boy Hilda.” Gilles said with a slight frown.

“I stop when ya pay ya tab. Ya owe me so much coin I could buy me self another inn when ya pay.” Hilda said while narrowing her eyes.

“Do I look like I have the coin on me.” Gilles said pleadingly.

“Ye, ya do look like a bandit. Surprised no guards stop ya for questioning.” Hilda scoffed.

“Bum.” Morgan egged on.

Gilles hit Morgan’s head a little harder than usual. “Come on, let's go to the forest I’ll impart some swordsmanship on to you today. I can’t stand being insulted on two fronts.” Gilles said to Morgan.

“Have fun, don’t get interrogated by a guard on ya way!” Hilda waved the father and son goodbye.

The father and son arrive at a small clearing in the forest north of Elrantel. The spot was in a place few would pass and close enough to the city that if anything happens they could make it back without too much trouble.

“Your father back in the day was the best with the short sword and shield, but the long sword is also worth learning.” Gilles said while being a bit smug.

Morgan was very focused and serious as he already had a goal for himself to become strong.

Gilles demonstrated the basic styles of long sword and then short sword with great precision. His movements were slow in order for Morgan to observe and comprehend. The swordsmanship style was a modified version of the standard swordsmanship style of the Temple but Morgan would not realize that fact for a long time.

Morgan practiced the sword movements while Gilles instructed and corrected mistakes. Morgan’s talent for swordsmanship wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad. It was better than average but nothing exceptional or noteworthy.

This continued until late evening, both Morgan and Gilles forgot about lunch and only started heading back when the sky was darkening and both of them started to feel hungry.

“Why do you want to become strong?” Gilles asked as the duo walked back to the inn.

“Justice.” Morgan replied honestly.

“You think just like me when I was younger.” Gilles laughed heartily. “What if to achieve true justice you had to become unjust and step on the weak.”

“If I have to harm the weak to achieve justice then I have achieved no real justice.” Morgan replied in a long sentence, a rare occurrence, implying his seriousness.

Gilles was a bit surprised at Morgan’s seriousness, Gilles agreed in his heart. He hoped his son could stay true to this idea even when he himself is long gone.

After hearing Morgan’s words the last doubts in Gilles heart was washed away and he believed himself to have made the right choice in leaving the Temple.