It was the day Leon the silver knight perished.

In the Kingdom of Zaxony, there was a grand city. Its buildings were tall and sturdy, many old, some less so. Beyond the walls that surrounded it was farmland stretching afar, only stopping at the endless woods that covered the region. In the center of the city was a gray palace, towering above the walls and the dull wood and stone structures that surrounded it.

"This is stupid..." A boy inside the palace said, in a room in one of the upper floors, curtains shut. An expensive bed nearby. He sat at a desk. Several open notebooks strewn on top, pages full of messy writing. A quill pen was on his hand

With an oil lamp on the side, he read a book titled "Origin of the Zaxon Family." And wrote relevant information he understood in one of his several notebooks.

The boy looked frustrated. He scanned through the pages, and soon realized he would not find what he was looking for.

He wrote something incomprehensible on his notes, took and closed the history book before tossing it under the bed.

He rose to his feet and moved to a standing mirror.

He looked at his reflection, he was nearing adulthood. White skin, silver hair and magenta eyes. The book never explained anything, only claiming the Zaxons are of divine blood.

He was against the thought. Can the color of his hair and eyes be so easily explained as just "God's blessing?" as the book imposed?

Unlikely, his ancestors all had the same hair and eyes, but in his books he could easily find all the foolish old kings of his dynasty. What is so divine in his blood? For all he knew, it could be a disease or curse. Would it even be a blessing when all it has done is make the unintelligent feel special?

Damn it, he cursed in his mind, he's so tired of getting unreliable information. Why were the previous Zaxon kings so obsessed with paying everyone to make themselves look better? He thought. Perhaps it's because they have never achieved anything worth remembering.

Leon must know something, he thought. He's lived for hundreds of years, met five generations of kings. Surely the half-elf knight knew a thing or two.

His heart skipped a beat when someone knocked on the door.

He can usually guess who it is from how they knock.

He opened the door, it was just a servant, the boy's eyes lit up. "A-are they back?"

The servant's face had an expression he couldn't understand.

...

The servant broke the news.

"L-leon is dead?!"

-

-

-

With his head down, he moved quickly through the halls, passing by several doors until he stopped in front of another one, bigger than the other entrances.

He looked up, unsure, he gulped. His hand reached for the knob, but he hesitated. The door opened before he could grab it. A man, well dressed in nobleman clothing, with a sheathed sword on his side. He didn't seem surprised to see the boy.

He bowed his head. "Your highness, you're just in time. You must've heard?"

"I-is it true?"

"Unfortunately, it is. Though he was half-monster, he had done more than most humans, he was a good person."

The boy gripped his pants. "T-this is... not possible... I thought he was..." he silenced, unable to continue with his words.

"Invincible?" He finished the prince's sentence. "Well yes, I'm sure everyone else thought so too. A prodigy among prodigies. We will never see anyone like him in a hundred centuries ever again."

They were in the king's court. Spacious, several courtiers stood around, whispering among each other. An aged man sat on a gray throne, long haired and silver bearded, wearing a crown and a purple royal mantle. The King of Zaxony and the boy’s father.

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Before the king was Lyrei and Taghai, also known as the cloaked adventurer and the bird masked one. They bowed on one knee. Their faces, allowed to remain masked or hooded.

"What happened?" The king asked calmly, but the prince saw differently. The slightly clenched jaws, deepening breaths, and his eyes, there was something in his eyes especially. The boy knew what his father was truly feeling, a numbing rage.

"Your majesty..." Lyrei spoke. "as the reports say, the demon... was much stronger than we thought..."

"How? HOW?!" The king resisted the urge to stand up and sling the throne at her. "What about the artifact? What happened to it? Don't tell me it didn't work."

"We activated it, but the demon was unaffected. It must've been an archdemon, which means it is probably long gone already."

The monarch stood up, gritting his teeth. He noticed the gazes of his courtiers and advisors. they looked at him with worry, disappointment, or amusement. He saw the prince's blank expression. The king realized he was making a fool of himself. He rubbed his forehead and sat back down.

Leon, his greatest weapon, the strongest adventurer in the whole continent is gone, all because of some demon hunting quest by the church. If he had the power to, he'd burn the entire institution down!

The young prince could understand his father's desperate anger. The Kingdom of Zaxony was a vassal state, controlled by the Emperor of Taldony. The Zaxons' only pride was their adventurers. With this major blow upon their adventuring monopoly, the Emperor of Taldony will surely take advantage of this to strike the Zaxons' remaining autonomy.

"With Leon gone, the contract can no longer be fulfilled. It was a pleasure serving under your royal highness." Lyrei said.

The king's eyes widened in realization. There was truly no hope. The last competent adventurers he had were leaving, he was sure the rest would follow. Traitors... all of them... Why did Leon have to die?

"Everyone..." The standing monarch began to waver. "Everyone leave." On his face was an empty expression. His order included the prince, courtiers, and guards. He didn't care about appearances anymore, he just wanted everything to be quiet. With some pause, everyone had left, leaving him alone to grieve on his throne.

It was all his fault, he thought, he shouldn't've depended all his plans on one individual.

No, he couldn't accept it, none of this was his fault, this was all because of those Taldon scum, and all the fools who let them invade this land! He realized something, the church was installed by the Emperor, then what if... *The church knew it was an archdemon, and purposely killed Leon?*

Outside, the boy was next to the well dressed nobleman. He noticed the prince's uncertainty.

"Your highness, they're readying to leave. Perhaps you would want to meet them, you don't know when you'll see them again."

"R-right... yes... you're right."

Moments later.

The two adventurers were leaving the palace, and the prince intercepted them.

"H-hey... wait..."

Lyrei looked at him for a moment.

"What are you two... going to do now?" He asked, eyes down.

"We're leaving." She said. "To the Taldons, their guilds pay more and are more reliable."

The boy seemed disappointed. "What about the demon...? Are you just going to let it go?"

She was silent.

"Aren't you going to avenge them?"

"They're just strangers-"

"What about Leon?"

"What about him?"

"What do you mean? You can do something! You're an adventurer, you're supposed to do something."

Something snapped with her. She looked at him. "You wanna be an adventurer don't ya?"

His eyes widened. He remembered saying something like that, but that was long ago. His face flushed...

"Well guess what. You wanna live every day putting your life at risk? You wanna die because of a stupid teammate? Have a cave fall on you for no reason? Have decades of experience turned worthless because of some shitty roll of the dice? Be an adventurer then if you want all of them or even more… look at Leon. He's the best of the best, ain't he? Now, he's dead, wanna know why? Because he's a suicidal idiot, just like all the rest of us. And I'm tired of it. I'm not going to die for the most foolish of things. If you wanna die for us, or some random strangers, then go ahead. I won’t stay to watch."

The boy was aghast. "Y-you... he..." His heart began to race. "How could you say that about Leon? What if he could hear you right now!"

"So? Am I wrong?"

"Leon helped so many people, helped Zaxony so much. I always learned so many things from him, he's wise... and strategic too! He's a military genius!"

"Aha, so that's all it's about eh? He helped you. That's what you all only care about. He’s really useful ain’t he? Toying him... no... all of us around, and when we get hurt because of it, you don't care even a little. Tell me, Alaric, why’s the first thing on your mind revenge? Do you even care about all those people who just died?"

The boy was quiet. Taghai tried to calm down Lyrei but she pushed him away.

"Of course not, I bet you don’t care at all, oh~ the high and mighty your highness. Living peacefully in luxury, while everyone else's living in life and death. Who are you to tell me to risk my life, to kill the unkillable that's probably left for hell already! Why don't you be the one to do something about it? Oh wait, you can't, you're magicless, and even worse, not even the heir to the throne. Shame isn't it? *You can't do anything.*"

The boy couldn't say anything.

But he wasn't in the wrong, surely.

No, he knew he was right.

She was just being unreasonable. So unreasonable that it angered him.

"Bow." He demanded. "Down to your knee."

Her eyes widened, she and Taghai were in disbelief.

"What are you waiting for?"

She looked around, there were a few guards on their posts. Breaking her hesitation, she reluctantly lowered to her left knee and bowed. Her eyes burned with fury, but she could not do anything but restrain it. Taghai was about to do so as well but the prince interrupted him. "You remain standing."

"But for you, lower."

She grit her teeth and bowed lower.

"Down."

Both knees down, her head touched the floor, her hood hiding her face.

The prince turned and stormed out the room.

Taghai looked concerned, but wasn't sure what to do. "A-are you okay?" he asked.

She did not respond.

She stood up, and dusted her cloak. "Let's go." her voice quieter than usual.