Duke Mikro Nista

Nista strode into the palace. He had been summomed by his closest friend and ally Duke Mikro Albai. Both of them were nobles of the Mikrom royal family.

He strode to the Dukes' quarters directly, not sparing the rest of the palace a glance.

The guard outside the door simply stepped aside and let him in.

Duke Albai was pacing back and forth in the office, sweating cups.

"Is it true?" Nista asked.

"It is true." Albai nodded. "The damn Duchess has broken the force field and is currently in the city."

"We have her soul signature and her Djinn's.. How the hell did she come back here without being noticed? And how the hell did she even bypass that force field?" Nista asked.

"Those are the real questions. Forget about the force field, we can't detect her aura even now that she is standing in front of us."

"Did she learn some mysterious spell or something? Imagine answering to that bitch!"

"I don't think it's her. Reports said she was still unconscious when she came back. She was brought back by a stranger who found her in the force field. This same stranger was able to summon the Daikirin Protector outside the city, just like her."

"A stranger? Who the hell is he to summon the Protector? Where is he now? We have to deal with this before its too late."

"Hold your horses, cousin. The situation is bad, but that's why we need to be calm."

Seith was one of the three major cities on the Fifth World, northern hemisphere. It was the kind of big city that was popular across the worlds. It and two other cities formed the core of the Mikrom empire.

The king of this city was the second son of emperor Mikrom. He was occupied with the politics of the capital and secluded meditations such that the affairs of the city were mostly handled by the two Dukes and the Duchess. It was a nice excuse to pass on responsibilities but important decisions were often delayed, mainly because the two Dukes and the Duchess had the same rank. If a decision didn't favor one of them, they might as well refuse to vote on it. It became troublesome recently because of a certain event.

The king decided to end this by creating a simple competition for the three. Whoever won would be named Archduke or Archduchess, and their authority would be second only to the king's.

The competition started a year ago. Duke Nista, Duke Albai and the Duchess faced off against each other in a series of exams that ended up six months ago with the Duchess winning. The Duchess would have been named the Archduchess but she wasn't a noble, just an Official who was born with a talent. On the other hand, the two Dukes were nobles who could pull strings behind the scenes and make things happen.

Somehow, the king changed his mind and decided to give the Duchess another test before she was appointed as the Archduchess. Well, the Duchess passed this second test as well but she got on her way home. Reports said she died, some said she was murdered and a very few said she would be back. That was a year ago. Since then, the king had sent several expedition teams to search for the Duchess but to no avail.

However, a few hours ago, the king was notified that the Duchess was standing in front of the city gates. Even now, the king and his parliament were discussing ways to honor the Duchess. In all likelihood, she would become the first Archduchess.

Duke Nista and Duke Albai were pressed against the wall. In fact, their situation was so bad they couldn't even target the Duchess anymore.

"Did you know the king has already sent a royal envoy to welcome the bitch? Dammit, I feel like she is already the Archduchess." Nista complained.

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Albai clenched his fist. "There must be something we can do. I don't believe it's already over. We have worked so hard for this."

Nista sat at the edge of the table and put both hands on his head in surrender. "This is totally not the kind of situation where you send villains to kill the target before the appointment. Unless if you want us to get killed."

"I know we can't do that, but there must be something we can do. We can at least delay the appointment, that would give us time to think."

"How?"

"I might have an idea. You are responsible for the upcoming Jinzidal, right?"

Nista nodded. "I am, but... how would that help?"

"What if you willingly hand over that responsibility to her? You can afford to lose the match bonus in exchange for taking her down."

"The competition is in two months... she can refuse it and there's nothing we can do."

"Well then, we just have to make sure she doesn't."

A few hours earlier...

Armad had an uneventful first day. Hopefully, his second day would be just fine.

I doubt that.. Armad mused. The same black owl had been following him from the moment he left Shid. The owl carefully kept its distance but he could see it clearly. His first guess was someone from Shid, probably the guy who gave him the map.

Armad remained on guard. He intended to drop Aish at Seith and go back to the Fourth World.

His fears were relieved when he finally caught sight of Seith. Its walls shining brightly like an ice. The commotion of people entering the city echoed even in the distance.

Armad galloped to the gates and stood on the line. His feminine robe was dusty and his horse was tired from carrying extra load. To top it off, Aish was still unconscious.

Armad had considered dropping the woman in the forest and running off, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He would just find any orphanage and leave her there.

Seith had two gates: one for commoners and the other for the royalty and Officials. Both gates had the same size and design. Even the color was the same. The only apparent difference was a line of statues sanding in front of the noble gate. Six statues, each with a unique appearance and dress. One of them even had a sword, pointing at the sky.

Armad sighed softly. He respected the culture of every city but why would anyone think it was a good idea to put statues in front of a gate? If you want to honor the people represented by the statues you should go all out and put the statues inside the city, or build them into the walls of the city. You could even find the highest building in the city to put them..

Something just landed on his shoulders. It was the black owl that had been following him.

Armad fidgeted for a moment before he grabbed the owl - or at least he thought he had grabbed it, but what he grabbed was a single feather.

"You are pretty fast for a level 54 Lightning Elementalist." A voice said.

Armad turned around to find two men standing behind him. One was as fat as Armad could ever hoped to be, while the other was just a normal looking teenager like him.

But, he couldn't see their levels.

Trouble already.

The owl flew back and rested on the shoulder of the normal looking teenager.

"Who the hell are you?" Armad asked, turning his horse around. Some of the people on the line had noticed and were now paying attention to them.

"Um... isn't that lord Iliyasis, the younger brother of the Duchess?" Someone behind Armad shouted.

"The fat... Er... the strong looking one is lord Cokali, her second brother. The Duchess is gone but they still have the authority to enter through the noble gate, why are they on the line?"

As the surrounding people discussed, Armad and these two men gauged each other silently.

"I asked you, what the hell do you want?" Armad repeated, casting another look at the innocent looking owl on the teenager's shoulder.

"Calm down, we are not your enemies." The teenager said, looking at the covered figure of Aish. "I am Iliyasisi and this is my brother Cokali."

"I believe you." Armad said sarcastically.

"Look," the fat one cut in, "we have been following you from the moment you left Shid, if we want to harm you you would already be dead."

Armad smiled wickedly. "And you think you can pull it off, just because you have levels?"

"Cokali, shut up, you are not helping. Look, you are a true friend so I really don't want to harm you. Just follow us through the noble gate and we will explain everything once we are out of earshot."

"You want to be alone? How convenient!" Armad harrumphed.

Cokali sighed. "I told you we should take him out in the forest. What do you want to do now? We are five minutes late already."

"Taking him out in the forest wasn't a wise move. We don't know how powerful he is, we could hurt big sis. I was hoping we could reason with each other better once better we are out of the green. But now I have no choice. Do it."

"Haha... I was waiting for that."

Cokali made a hand gesture and summoned a... book.

Armad just saw a glow and everything went blank.

Cokali lifted the horse carrying Armad and Aish and put it on his shoulders. They walked into the noble gate without sparing the onlookers a glance.

But just when they were about to enter the gate, a blinding light shone from the gate and hit Armad.