Inside Redmound Keep there was a special room used for a meeting between the council members that ran the Kingdom. It was aptly named The Council Room.
Inside, Sir Arslan sat alone. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. Every day was frustrating and stressful for him with the two factions bickering. But today was even more so.
There were a lot of things in his mind already, but the sudden disappearance of 5 noble families made everything even worse. Not to mention that all those families were in the same faction. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stood up. It was not the right time to contemplate on those things, there was a more urgent matter that needed his attention.
He walked towards the weapon rack next to the exit door. It was forbidden to bring any kind of weapon inside the council room, even for a Royal Guard. He has to put his weapon there every time there was a meeting.
He walked past the weapon rack and extended his arm without looking. It was an everyday activity that already became a reflex for him. But today, his hand did not touch any sword in the weapon rack. He stopped and turned towards it. The rack was empty.
He looked around, there was no one beside him inside that room. He scratched his balding head, wondering. Did he put it somewhere? Did he forget to bring it there? Did his squire pick it up to clean it without his permission? Did his old age make him forgetful?
"Whatever." He said. He said it without any worry, even though his sword was one of the great treasures of the kingdom. He had lost that sword countless times during his time as a soldier, but it always found its ways back home. One way or another.
He walked down the main hall of the castle, heading to his chamber. After walking for a while, he realized something was wrong. Even during the night, there should be some servants, but there was none. Even the usual guard was nowhere to be seen.
His sharpened his sense. There was a few people hiding behind the corner of the hall, some hiding behind the pillars. Normally, he would expect it as a prank by the servants, but it was nowhere near his birthday nor was there any special event happening that has something to do with him.
He changed his course to the kitchen. The kitchen must have some servant all the times no matter what happened. And the head chef was a close friend of his. He could ask them some question.
They were following him. They wore full armor, carried many kinds of weapons, and they emitted a strong killing intent. That was what Sir Arslan could gather after walking towards the kitchen and observing his stalkers.
He was amused and did not know how to react. He expected many people to be targeted by Aria, but him? No way. Trying to kill him using less than the whole Royal Armies was going to be futile. What were his stalkers trying to accomplish?
He entered the kitchen, but no one was there. The food, however, was still on the table, he couldn't ask for more. He picked up a few fruits and chomped it down his throat.
His stalkers were ready outside with their weapon unsheathed. He could attack them from behind the wall, but that would damage it and he didn't want that. He picked up a dinner knife. The door suddenly opened and five people entered the kitchen. He did not expect that. "Sir. Princess Aria is calling you."
"Is something wrong?"
They were heavily armored soldiers. They wore an almost perfect replica of the castle guard's armor. But an 'almost perfect' couldn't fool Sir Arslan. "Just come with us, Sir."
"Sure." As soon as he walked near them, they swung their sword at him. Their movement was fast and precise, much more refined than most soldier's.
Sir Arslan sighed. The five people that attacked him fell to the ground with their throat cut open. They couldn't even see the attack coming.
Then, he realized his mistake. Aria was smart, there was no way she would try to kill him. Not with this kind of people at least. That meant the attack was only a distraction. "Princess Ana."
He took one of the attacker swords and ran outside. He moved so fast and so swift, that the attackers waiting outside the kitchen did not know he was gone until they looked inside.
"Princess!" He slammed the door to her chamber open.
The princess jumped in surprise at the sudden loud noise. "S-Sir Arslan." She asked.
Sir Arslan's gaze moved from her to the woman next to her. She was a lean woman with short brown hair. On her body was a similar armor to his. "Greci." He said. There was guilt and regret behind his voice.
"Sir Arslan." She replied. "If you worried about Ana being attacked by Aria's men, I have taken care of that."
"'Princess' Ana. You are on duty, Greci. You must realize your position as her guard." He corrected her.
"We're in a bad time like this, and that is the first thing you notice about me?" She turned her face away from him. "At least you believe I'm not on Aria's side."
"About that, I believe you."
She sighed. "Forget it. Sir, you are the King's personal guard. Shouldn't you worry about the King's safety before all else?" She said without looking at his face.
"Yes." Sir Arslan nodded. "Yes, you are right. I'm sorry to scare you, princess." He closed the door and walked away.
Sir Arslan walked slowly, his feet heavy with guilt and regret. It was the first conversation he had with his daughter in the last few months outside of the Royal Guard meeting. And the first thing he did was reprimanding her.
"Sir Arslan." A voice called him. It was a familiar voice that raised his spirit and refocused his attention.
He looked towards the source and smiled. "Sir Theo."
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Theo and Sir Arslan strolled toward the King's personal chamber. They had caught Sir Arslan attackers and checked Aria's and Alvaro's safety. As unlikely as it might be, there was still a chance that the attack has nothing to do with Aria, and Sir Arslan has to check it.
despite the graveness of the situation, Sir Arslan urged him to stay calm. He said nothing bad will happen to the king, nothing worse than his current condition. "So you were attacked by Aria's spy?" Sir Arslan asked.
"Yes, Sir. I'm able to defeat her and hold her in my room. She's under the supervision of my friends right now. I ran here as fast as I could after that." Theo looked at Sir Arslan sword. "Sir, that is not Blood Rite, right?"
"No. Someone hid it, or stole it." He said it as if it was a normal thing.
Theo's eyes went wide. "WHAT? Ho-how?"
"Relax, Sir Theo. Unlike your Panes or Alex's Forlorn, Blood Rite is my sword, my flesh, my bone, and my blood. He will return to me. One way or another."
Theo heard the story once. Unlike many Unique Tier swords, Blood Rite was originally a simple common steel sword. But after being used to kill thousands of demon in the Great War by Sir Arslan, the sword evolved and developed a sentience of its own. It was said that no matter how far apart they were separated, they will reunite not long after.
A scream erupted from the King's chamber, but the scream was not his. Sir Arslan opened the door slowly.
It was bizarre. The room was covered with blood. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, and all the furniture was covered in blood. And there were some ashes on the floor.
The King was sitting in his usual chair with another man kneeling before him. The kneeling man was not the guard or anyone that should be there, it was the attacker. He was kneeling with blood pouring out from his mouth and tears flowing non-stop from his eyes. His mouth trembled. "Please. Please. No more. Spare me."
"It doesn't matter." The King spoke. The King grabbed the man's neck.
The man's eyes glowed bright like a torch.
Sir Arslan pushed Theo out of the room and slammed the door shut. A splattering sound followed soon after.
"Arslan!" The King called.
"Yes, Your Majesty." He opened the door again. The man from before disappeared, leaving only a pile of ashes behind.
"Clean this all up." The King stood up from his chair and turned towards the door, towards Theo. Swords, lances, and knives, stabbed his body from all angle. Some even directly stabbed his heart.
He pulled them all out one by one. Blood spurted out for a few second before stopping completely as if there was never a wound to begin with. The King himself showed no sign of pain or displeasure. "Foolish men, foolish Prince. Blinded by...fuck, Why did I sing that?" The King mumbled.
Sir Arslan closed the door again. "Sorry Theo, for you to see such an unpleasant thing. That's the reason I said The King doesn't need a guard."
Theo stood up and chuckled. "If that's the definition of strange for you Sir Arslan, I have seen much worse. Much, much worse."
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Somewhere in the Kingdom, there was a small room. It was a secret room that only a few people in the Kingdom knew about, and fewer had access to. Inside the room was a round stone table. Six chairs surrounded the table, but only five were filled. One was empty.
The five people were arguing, almost fighting, over what to do about the disappearance of the sixth person. They were the Greed Kings, the leaders of Amaryn's criminal underground. Count Cobra, one of them, has been missing for a few days. Not only him, his families and right-hand man were also missing. And without them, there was no one checking the spy corps and the secret police activities.
Suddenly, the main door flung open. The steel lock was bent and broken by force even though it was designed to be impossible to break. From it, a huge man appeared. He was bald and muscular with tattoos covering most of his skin. The Greed Kings stood up in surprise. They didn't know who that man was, only that he wasn't supposed to be there. "Guards!" One of them called, but no one answered.
"Do not bother." The huge man said while signalling them to sit down. "My men have taken care of your guards. No matter how hard you scream or shout for help here, no one is going to help you." He took Count Cobra's seat and sat on it. "I'm Wrath. I come here to give you an offer, a very generous offer."
"fool. Do you think you can barge in here?" One of them shouted and grabbed the person behind him. "Kill that man!"
Standing behind each Greed King were three people, one of them being their personal guard. They approached the huge man with their weapon drawn.
They were strong and battle-hardened. They have protected their boss from many dangers for many years. Even the weakest of them has a Class 3 talent and a level of 25. But they were not stupid to let their arrogance get the better of them. Their enemy was able to get inside the room after all.
The room was small, there was not much room for a fight. Only two of them could engage with the huge man at once. Two of them attacked Wrath at once from each side. Wrath only moved his body a little to dodge their weapon.
He grabbed the head of both his attackers and slammed them to the stone table, causing it to crack. Then he twisted their head, breaking their neck and killing them instantly.
The other guards hesitated to move. Wrath killed two of them at once. "Stand down. That is your last warning." Wrath gave another warning.The guards stand down and returned to their original position behind their boss. "Good."
Wrath raised one of his hand and signaled his men outside to come in. The eyes of the people inside the room went wide open as they saw who entered it. It was a lean man with sickly pale skin. His whole body was shaking and sweating profusely. On his hand was a bloody bag.
Wrath stood up and let the man sat on his chair. The man shook his head at first, but with a gentle tap on the shoulder, the man yelped and followed his order.
"I believe you all know who this is." Of course, everybody there knew. He was Count Cobra's right-hand man, Harv. "From today, dear Harv will take over Count Cobra's business and work under me. You will all work under me."
"What?!" One of the Greed King stood up and slammed his hand on the table.
Wrath raised a finger, telling him to sit down. His other hand rested on Harv's shoulder, causing him to tremble like crazy. "Show them."
Harv put the bag on the table and opened it. The severed head of Count Cobra rolled out, everyone gasped in surprise.
"A few days ago, my men kidnapped Count Cobra and his whole family along with Harv and his. Stupid, for someone like you to have a family and loved ones. "He patted Harv's head. "I gave Harv a knife and gave him an option. He must kill Cobra's family or he will witness Cobra kill his family." Wrath extended his arm outward. "Now I will give you a more generous offer. You will join me, or those people behind you, your trusted beloved underling, will slit your throat and take over your business. Your call."