Goro changed into a special clothing given to him by his father. It would protect him during the battle: a steel breastplate, leg and shoulder covers, and all of it hidden under a thick, black material of the highest quality and the highest endurance: pegasus’ skin – a material reserved for the military, although Delaunay as it’s part had the right to this rarity. The set was completed by a belt, in which the black-haired hid his knives and other „relics” that might help him in a battle. He was alone, waiting for his father’s people that would take him to the base, in which he would wait for information on other players. It wasn’t pleasurable to him, but he decided that it’d be better to be patient. The last thing that he packed was the bottle with infected blood, he smiled seeing it. When he hid it, he heard someone’s footsteps, and saw Hagan, who looked with suspicion at him.

  “I see that you’re taking off somewhere” said the brown-haired and leaned against the wall. Goro giggled quietly.

  “It’s father’s will” he answered.

  “Oh, father’s will. And was letting the Believers of the Light in father’s will too, Goro? I thought that protecting this house and its’ residents was your duty. And yet, they burst in here, and now two people that should be here are gone!”

  “What is your point?” he smiled disgustingly.

  “Don’t play dumb!” shouted out Hagan. “What was Yvon doing there?! How could you let her be there?”

  “The answer is simple, I ordered her” he laughed. Hagan froze. “When I tried to get rid of those fanatics, this hysterical brat was crawling around, disturbing me. So I told her to check on father, since this is the only thing she’s able to do. A And that she got infected? Sad, but it happens.”

  “You bastard… Your own sister…”

  “I don’t care who she is. To me, she’ll always be useless, she’ll be no use to Delaunay clan. It’s the same with you and a lot of other brats, that live here. Neither you nor her are magicians, and you don’t have the birthmark, so you can’t use demonic weapons. You’re like parasites. “

  “And you, you piece of trash? Do you use magic? No. Although you do have the birthmark, I rarely see you using it well. You’re as useless as we are.”

  “Ah, Hagan. At least I did something to be of any use to our family. I trained til I was coughing blood, I learned how to fight when you and your sister did nothing but bring shame to our father. Pity that you wasn’t there then. You could’ve died with your mother and little sister.”

  The brown-haired threw himself at Goro and punched his face with all his strength. The black-haired smiled, and then struck Hagan too, they fought, both of them managed to give each other blows, Goro in one moment moved his hand to his belt and got out a knife, with which he cut Hagan’s cheek, the boy then kicked him in the stomach. Goro hit the wall with a thump.

  “It seems… that I’m not that useless, eh?” Hagan asked mockingly.

  “Still too weak.” Goro got out more knives and was ready to throw them at Hagan. But then into the room walked three men of his father.

  “Master Goro?” asked one of them. The black-haired glanced with disdain at the brown-haired, and put away his knives.

  “No matter, it’s just an average quarrel between… brothers.” He smiled and went outside. He got on a pegasus, that was brought to him, behind him sat Prash. The rest of his convoy sat on normal horses. Hagan turned around and walked away, he was boiling more and more with anger.

  “Heh, he left” mocked Goro. “Where are the others?”

  “They’re waiting for you at our destination, master” answered one of them.

  “Eh, fine. Lead, then, before that idiot decides to follow us.”

~

  “Everything points to Catherine being that infamous cannibal” started Aru. Everyone was sitting next to her, at the place where they said their goodbyes last time.

  “If I saw right, then the pegasus had two pairs of wings… That’s probably why it was able to talk with a human voice. It’s a magical pegasus, right?” asked Edward.

  “Animals talking in human voices is nothing new” answered Kyoko. “Although magical pegasuses, like demonic weapons, don’t have a human form, but speak. Well, the most disturbing thing is that that pegasus is infected with black magic, yet it’s alive, so it can pass the plague to others. If it has infected Catherine, it may explain why she became a cannibal – because of the insanity that the infection causes. On the other hand, if she really was infected, she’d look like that pegasus. I think that the magic she is dealing with affects her, but if so… it seems that Catherine has something on her conscience.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Show me someone that doesn’t” sighed Ed.

  “There’s another thing” Aru spoke. “There’s someone else in this city besides us and Catherine.”

  “A player?”

  “I’m sure of that. I felt it tonight, I think they were walking not far away. Because of so many of us being here, the number of people can increase even more. If so, we have to be careful.”

  “It’d be nice if we had more information on the game...” Ed sighed again.

  “Actually… that’s why we came to the capital” said Lorenzo, who was quiet until now. “There’s a big library here. We planned on finding something on aristocratic clans, who might know something about the game. We tried talking with Delaunay, but... well, they’re not very pleasant. “

  “LORENZO!” Eris screamed out. “DON’T GIVE THE ENEMY ANY TIPS!”

  “But what’d I say?!”

  “THAT SOME ARISTOCRATIC CLANS MIGHT KNOW ABOUT THE DEITY, YOU DUMBASS! AND THAT INFORMATION ABOUT THEM CAN BE IN THE LIBRARY!”

  “Haha!” Ed laughed out loud.

  “What are you laughing at, you trash?!” the black-haired girl barked at him.

  “It just so happens that I have friend in that library. And I’m searching for books like those. The ancient one, to which only the queen and the most important aristocracy has access.”

  “And why are you telling us that?! You’re probably lying!”

  “No.” Edward smiled. “I think that it’s fine if we share information. The finals will happen sooner or later, and I want even my enemy to be informed.”

  “That’s funny” Eris hmphed and turned away.

  “Really?” Aru asked with suspicion.

  “It’s fine if I lose a bit. You don’t seem like a bad person, and I think your wish is also like that. Oh, right, what is it actually?”

  “I prefer... not to say” she answered a bit sadly. “Anyway... what books did you have in mind?”

  “Religious ones, since the Believers of the Light talk about the deity, but if it’s like this… the ones about the most important clans, huh?”

  “It would be most reasonable. Religions are religions, everyone can write them as they wish, and the clans… Well. We can check what kind of clans are there and what information they might have.”

  “I understand, I can go there next, if you don’t have any other requests for me. Since we’re on the topic of religion, do you follow any? I didn’t, but the deity wrecked my worldview.”

  “Hm… he didn’t really, in my case. I believe in Mars, the fiery god of war, you, Gormilians, call him Ares… And that after death the soul goes to another world. But if one was evil, there will be punishment. There must be punishment.”

  “Another world after death, huh? “

  “Yes. I also believe that a lot of things are planned out for every person.”

  “So what about free will?” he asked.

  “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “Well, let’s look at it this way… If according to your beliefs a lot of things are predetermined, it means that a human, no matter what action they’ll take, the result will be as decided by a higher power. But it is known that nothing happens randomly; everything has its beginning in the past, even the tiniest detail affects the future, every smallest decision. And since so many things are planned ahead, it means that people can only make decisions, which will take us on one, predetermined track. It means that our free will is actually controlled, and created in such a way that we’d choose options taking us to what is destined. So we don’t control our lives, but life controls us?”

Aru and her group were speechless. Ed shrugged.

  “You’re a... philosopher?” asked Lorenzo. Edward giggled.

  “No, I’m not. I’m just a crazy guy, whose hobby happens to be philosophy.” “But you just… said everything so…” Aru couldn’t find the right words. “Like philosophers do!”

  “Well, it doesn’t make me a philosopher, I think?”

  “Uh… Maybe. But… It’s hard to describe how I see it. As for me… it is as it is, but doesn’t negate my free will.”

  “As you wish.” Ed smiled. “What now? Me and Kasei will go to the library, and you?”

  “Hm… I think we’re going to search around a little. We’ll come over soon.”

  “Alright, my ally.” He smiled again, and walked away with Kasei. Aru and her group walked in the other direction.