Hughes came to Tir for two reasons: to see if Soppio was lying to him and his kingdom of Noin; and to gather information on the escaped slave.

The only slave to ever escape Noin in all of history, Joáo Machado.

While he hadn’t made any progress finding the slave that was rightfully his, he did uncover the truth of Soppio.

Soppio was lying, they had no treaty or contract with Tir. When the mayor of Soppio came to Noin they had told Hughes and the others of a protection contract that Tir had with them.

They even showed them a copy of the official document signed by the high prince of Tir, whose name holds the same strength as his father the King.

Just that document alone would have stopped Noin from pillaging, kidnapping, and extorting Soppio.

Which is why Hughes found it incredibly strange the mayor had another contract prepared to make a deal with Noin.

If there was one thing Huges hated, it was dishonesty. He wouldn’t have cared if Soppio did have the protection from Tir and wanted to work with Noin to boost their aurums.

It was a solid deal and the weapons and armor they produced were phenomenal. Honestly, the deal was way more favorable to Noin.

But to lie? To lie to Hughes? That was a true crime. He rallied the strongest and remaining forces he had left in Tir.

These men and women had scattered about, waiting for Hughes’ command. Hughes met with them and gave the order they’ve been waiting for.

“Destroy Soppio.”

One of the men, another tall snow elf who had pale white skin, whose face was covered in the traditional snow elf tattoos and had a shaven head, waited after the command was given with his right hand resting on the handle of his sword.

He had a slave collar on and a stoic demeanor to him.

“Dan, be careful… something’s not right with that town. Bring me the head of the mayor but only if you can. I can’t lose you just yet, we need to find that slave, Joáo, so retreat if you must.”

Dan nodded and darted with the other men…. towards Soppio.

///

???

A figure floated in a miasmatic ather energy, it was a strange place almost like a cocoon or sphere that contained the figure inside.

The ather was like magma, with hues of crimson and orange.

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“I sense something.”

The figure shouted in his mind, as if trying to telepathically reach something or someone.

But there was no response, the figure waited for a few more moments becoming more and more irritable as time moved.

“Damn it! Let me break out of here, Lord Ra! I’m telling you something isn’t right.”

This time the figure got a response back.

“Not yet, I told you our plan. We will not deviate,” Ra said with a strong authority in his voice.

The figure sucked his teeth in frustration. Then, he started to worry.

“I need you to listen to me, I can sense them. I can sense the other retainers in this world. I should only be able to sense seven people.”

The figure paused and shifted around in the magma, he was not able to see but he could sense the world and locations around him like a sonar.

“But I sense ten… Ten souls entered the fantasia world with me.”

Ra wanted to dismiss the boy and his paranoia. After all, how could anything or anyone else enter the holy grounds of the Fantasia world.

Then, he remembered the shocking revelation, the one Lugh had dropped during his battle with Nuada.

Lucifer was out of his seal.

“Stay the course but if we must, we will intervene without giving away our position. I’ll speak with Osiris.”

The figure smiled in the magma. “Yes, my lord.”

///

Inhuman speed.

Dan was one of the slaves Alessandro had scouted out to be his potential sub-retainer.

This was just another slave the Trinity had blocked from leaving Noin. Hughes had a fondness for slaves of his race and usually kept those as part of his personal army and guard.

Dan was one of the strongest, he was ahead of most of the other men. Jumping through the forest with an inhuman speed, almost like that of a retainer himself.

Soppio was just in reach when Dan stopped. He pulled out a small pair of binoculars out from one of the pouches tied around his belt. He waited for his fellow warriors to position themselves. Using the binoculars he looked around the town, assessing Soppio.

He saw three guards who looked weak to him. He then saw a few children playing outside near one of the houses. How careless of these children to be out at night.

He barely saw anyone else, but that would make sense, as it was nighttime. He moved towards what looked like the inn and the tavern of the town.

The lights of both buildings were on, music and the sounds of tomfoolery were also lightly heard from the direction of the tavern.

He finally looked towards the big building on the opposite side of town. Smoke was coming out the chimneys and the light illuminated from every floor and every window.

Dan returned the binoculars to his pouch. That building had to be the smithy.

Suddenly, he picked up a shuffling of leaves coming from somewhere on the ground.

He grabbed the hilt of his sword and looked towards the sound. A fox, a very cute looking fox that looked like he walked on two legs stood frozen in place, with its back against a tree.

Dan’s face changed into an expression of annoyance and shooed the animal away. The fox exhaled a long breath, as if it was holding in its breath to not be heard.

The fox scurried away. In that time, the rest of Hughes' men had finally arrived. Dan quickly snapped his fingers three times in succession.

They all understood what that meant: it was time to attack.

Hughes’ men pounced onto Soppio, a cry was heard from one of the townsfolk as Hughes’ men ran, some of them took out torches and lit them.

They threw the lit torches toward the first buildings and homes they could see. The pillage had begun. Some of the men made a bee line towards the three guards, these men screamed and threw their lit torches towards them.

The guards ran the opposite way. Dan couldn’t believe the cowardice, and he turned towards where the child he saw playing were. They were gone as well.

Now that he was here in the town proper, he looked all over and found no other human being anywhere.

That’s when he finally realized what had happened; they all evacuated already. One of Dan’s subordinates pointed towards the tavern.

“High slave Dan, the kids ran to the tavern the moment we came out of the trees!”

Dan pointed towards the tavern and motioned to his men to attack. The closest men to the tavern pulled out torches once again and began to light them.

Only this time, before some of them could even lift their arms up, before some of them could even light the damn torches, a slice of energy cut through the air from the shadow of the night, three times. It cut the hands off and killed the men that held their torches.

They were all shocked, Dan moved forward with his sword drawn out towards the darkness.

The closer he got the more he could see the dark shine of a black katana blade.

The person holding that blade walked forward. It was a young man, wearing a haori, a traditional Japanese jacket, which ended at his thighs.

The haori was a beautiful light blue, known as Asagi blue, and on the sleeves were patterns in the shape of white mountains. It was the traditional design and color of a Shinsengumi member’s jacket back on Earth.

The young man smiled at Dan, really, he smiled at every one of the attackers currently in Soppio.

“Welcome, I’m this town’s defender. Sanosuke.”

He was calm and confident, which made Dan smile a twisted smile.

“You… are strong,” Dan declared.

He rushed towards Sanosuke, and this surprised the retainer. So far the enemies he faced were comparatively weaker than him and even scared to fight. This man wasn’t.

As their blades clashed, Sanosuke felt the true rush of one on one combat against a worthy adversary.

Was this man a retainer?