858 F.R

Kingdom of Elena

Alessandro yawned and rubbed his eyes. He had just woken up in his royal chambers. He wandered over to a mirror and noticed he looked to be in his thirties. He had missed having strong youthful hair and was taken advantage of it. To his right on his bed he saw the maid that laid in his bed.

He shoved her and told her it was time to leave. She quickly grabbed her things, bowed, and left. Alessandro walked to his curtains and opened them to show the bright morning sun.

“Ahhhh,” he sighed contentedly.

“Having fun?”

Minerva appeared next them, also looking out at the window at the early morning sun. Alessandro turned and smiled at her deity. “My lady, how are you this fine check-in?”

“You haven’t been doing anything lately in preparation for the Tryfing.”

Alessandro mockingly looked surprised and shocked. “My lady, whatever do you mean?” He walked to his dresser and pulled out his pocket notebook. “I have been gaining info on all my enemies, political ones as well. You remember that noble I told you about the last time? Kenneth? I got him doing unthinkable acts to the children of Elena. I own him now.” He laughed and passed the book to his deity.

“During the summit meeting between Kingdoms, the talk of war against Noin was a hot topic. I know you have been harping me to gather more of my chosen warriors but I just haven’t found anyone else like Radcliffe yet.”

“What does Noin have to do with this?”

“With my connections and blackmailing of Kenneth I was able to make sure any ideas of war against Noin could never happen in the next few years. I need warriors I can control like the slow witted man that is Radcliffe. I have yet to find any suitable slaves in my visits to Noin yet.”

Minerva rolled her eyes. “You are wasting time. You know the warriors you pick need time to bond with my godsends to use them effectively. Radcliffe has Ancile the unbreakable shield; it took him ten years to attune to it. What about that boy you told me about? The one from last year you were there?”

“Boy?...Boy… ahh! Yes, that young tan one; he was quite strong. I went to try and buy him from one of the Trinity but they didn’t want to sell him. Something about him being an amazing miner for them. He was stronger than Radcliffe, but unfortunately when I saw him again, he had his hand chopped off. Of course, now they wanted to sell him to me. For now trust me my lady, I have a good eye for this. I promise you next time I go to Noin, I’ll find a suitable warrior.”

Minerva lifted one of her eyebrows. “Are you saying I don't?” Alessandro sighed knowing he fell right into that one. A messenger bird flew to his window and waited for Alessandro to open the window. He was happy the bird was here, so he could quickly change the subject.

He opened the message and read it. He was quite surprised. “What the hell?” He paced around his royal room, continuing to read it as Minerva waited impatiently

“Alessandro.” No response, he was still lost in the message. “Alessandro!” Minerva was starting to fume; she did not like being ignored.

“ALESSANDRO!” she shouted, her face bright red and her helm slightly crooked. Alessandro turned to her and smiled. She quickly fixed her helm and demanded to know what the message said.

“This is from one of my spies I placed in Noin. Apparently, a small army attacked Noin to retrieve some noble child. It’s unbelievable… They were successful! That could be a retainer, my lady!” He ran to his desk and started to write into his pocket book. “I’m going to send my spies to find this army and their noble.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Minerva slightly smiled. “So, you weren’t goofing off the last few years?” Alessandro laughed and ripped one of the notebooks paper. He then tied it around the bird and sent it on its way.

“You wound me, my lady. My life and Elena's life's are on the line. The amount of connections I built playing noblemen have made me unstoppable in this information battle. For example, the star ring child has fallen from the stars; that must also be a retainer. Of course, I need to verify it before anything but I can confidently say I found two retainers already.”

Alessandro was in his element, planning and scheming his way to victory for Minerva.

///

Fantasia World

“I need the best.”

Four men were located in a shady small room, one of the men looked to be wearing noble clothes. He was the one asking for the best. The other man, the one sitting across from him, counted the aurum coins the noble men placed on the counter. He had an eye patch on his face and looked to be quite old.

“All accounted for.”

He put the coins back in the bag and handed them to the man that stood behind him.

The eye-patched man took out a pen and paper and started to draw and write words out on it. He then looked up at the noble man.

“So, what’s the name of the lady?”

The noble shifted in his seat, he was quite nervous about being here in front of the eye patched man.

“ Sylvia…. Sylvia Goturix.”

The eye-patched man didn’t look up, instead just kept writing on the paper. “Hmm and why are we killing her?”

The noble gulped loudly. He was also sweating profusely. “I have worked with her before. She’s a commoner trying to raise her stock with the nobles. N-not only traffics little girls to Noin but has been stealing aurum off the ledgers of a business we own underground a royal house. I-I… I think she is going to try and pin the blame on me and tell our superiors!”

The eye-patched man kept writing murmuring himself. “Ah, so you need her to die before you get caught. Got it.”

The man was pouring sweat. “C-caught?!” The eye-patched man chuckled, as he finally looked up at the soaked man’s face.

“Don’t worry, here it’s all about customer confidentiality. Sign here and I’ll get one of my men on the job.”

The noble man grabbed the pen and then signed his name on the paper. The paper glowed as he finished writing, and he felt a stinging sensation on his arm when he had finished.

The eye-patched man whispered to the man behind him, and then the men opened a small wooden window cover. He yelled something in a completely different language.

A figure appeared next to the noble man, who freaked out; he fell out of his chair and stared at the person who made no noise.

It was a young girl, with silver blonde hair and purple highlights. Her long, pointy ears and pale skin told him she was a Norse elf, a dying breed.

She had a cloak with feathers around her neck and her eyes shone with murderous intent. He knew who this little girl was.

“The Norse shinobi.”

The eye-patched man took out his pipe and started to smoke. “You wanted the best of our assassins for this job. She is one of our best. She’ll get the job done.”

Charlotte shifted her cold eyes to the noble man. She looked quite young and remarkably cute, the final thoughts her targets had before they died.

She grabbed the contract paper and signed it herself and took it with her. Looking back at the men she smiled

“Charlotte Wilson, moving out! Oh, but if you want, you can call me Charlie.”

///

Charlie jumped from rooftop to rooftop. It was currently night, and she was ready to end this stupid charade.

“Lady Freya, this sucks! I’m stuck doing jobs for these bad guys.”

Charlie was currently eight; she had entered the Fantasia world at birth to give her some time to enjoy herself.

Freya had lied to Inari about when her retainer was entering the Fantasia world, so she was just pretending to wait around.

It was only because of what had happened back in Elysium that Freya decided to reconnect with Charlie a bit earlier than planned. Charlie was a part of an assassin guild, and thanks to Lady Freya’s powers, was a rising star in the underbelly of Tir, the kingdom she was currently living in.

Charlie had barely any time to enjoy her new life as the guild quickly learned of her skill and genius level talent, employing her at a young age.

“Just suck it up for now, Charlie. What year is it currently?”

Charlie was still hopping from rooftop to rooftop but she looked down at her bracer and opened the menu.

“It says 859 F.R.”

Freya pondered. “Sixteen years left, huh… We really need to get you out of here and look for Inari’s retainer.”

Charlie shook her head in agreement and then the static voice she had heard during Freyr’s training spoke in her mind.

“Ju…st… kill… them… the…bad… guys.”

Charlie grabbed her head in pain, but she continued to run. Freya asked her if she was okay.

“Yeah, I just been… I've been hearing a weird voice in my head lately. I have also been seeing dreams of someone, like I’m seeing the dream through their eyes. And whoever it is, is fighting Freyr.”

It was a common dream that Charlie had every other night. But the dream was never the same; every training session with Freyr was different. Charlie just thought it was her body remembering the day she had trained under him.

But it still wasn’t right. After all, the person Charlie was in the dream was using a great sword, like Freyr. As Freya was about to say something, Charlie stopped and then hid behind on the roof, looking down he saw the dock warehouse her target was currently managing.

“We’ll talk later about it, Charlie, go earn your paycheck.” She laughed, annoying Charlie.

“I don’t get paid at all! These lowlifes stole me from my parents.” Maybe she should just kill all of the guild, like the voice said. It reminded her of a key story in a show she watched. She started to stretch her arms and legs.

“Well… time to get to work!”