Clang! Clang! Clang!
Rythmic ringing of the bells echoed throughout the city along with the bustling noise of the streets. The ringing of the bells signalled the people that it was already noon, some prayed at the Goddess Elunia they believed in, some took a break from doing their work, but for William and Rowan along the other five men it was the start of their trial.
Rowan and his companions were a bit nervous about the situation they were in while William calmly observed the surroundings.
It was his first time entering the Judgement Hall of the city of Balian. This is where they hand out the punishment for different crimes that occured in their territory. It was located near the house of the city lord, the reason for this is for the lord to access the hall whenever he was needed.
The hall was large enough to handle about a hundred people at once, at the center of the hall there stood a platform where important personality were seated. The opposing parties were located at the left and right side of the hall facing each other to prevent unneccessary actions like brawling.
Fifteen guards were situated inside the hall along with two mages to prevent certain actions of the participants in the trial.
'Damn, this might be my last time seeing the outside world.'
'Are we gonna get imprisoned?'
'Ahh I already miss the smell of freedom.'
Cold sweat ran thru the spines of Rowan and others after they learned that they messed up a son of a noble from the capital.
"Old man why are you so silent today? Don't tell me that you are also scared?"
"I know we screwed up big time. But it's strange for you to be like this."
William did not respond at Rowan.
Rowan then started to become restless and started to squabble along the others.
Fredigar started to glare accross the hall with such hatred within his eyes especially at the old man who sat there comfortably without paying attention to him.
They were all fully healed after spending a day at the healing center of the city. Even broken bones were mended as if it was never broken. This is one of the wonders of having a talent in mana manipulation.
"Just you wait! I will make sure you will taste hell after this!"
Fredigar spat out words not befitting a noble due to his hatred against the old man.
The other ten were seated behind the angry Fredigar.
'This stupid noble.'
'Ignorant fool.'
'I shouldn't have joined this man. If not only for money I would have abandoned him before we were dragged because of his foolish action.'
But such thoughts were just kept at the back of their minds, even they scorned him so much.
"Fuck!"
Fredigar punched of his men.
"Rise! Count Wyke Glandias is entering the judgement hall."
Everyone rose to their seats waiting for the count to signal them to be seated.
"Be seated."
"We will now start the trial."
Count Wyke initiated the trial.
"As investigated, the group of Mr. Fredigar Eginhardt entered the tavern called Gatekeepers Tavern near the eastern city gates in the afternoon. After entering the tavern Mr. Fredigar threw a child thus started the commotion."
"I would like to hear the opinion of the tavern owner."
"Yes my lord. Mr. Fredigar threw a child which was staying at our tavern after his father left him for work. I was agitated at the scene before my eyes and took action to protect the child."
"How about the others?"
"We also felt the same way as William my lord."
Rowan replied with a freezing voice because of fear.
"Thank you Mr. William."
"Now I would like to hear the opinion of Mr. Fredigar Eginhardt."
"Yes count Wyke. That is not true! I just merely gave the child a light tap. It was them who sullied my expensive armor! I think they purposely sent that child to humiliate me!"
"Didn't you know that im the heir to the Eginhardt house at the capital?! Huh?!"
"Even torture will not be enough to pay for the crimes that you did to me! You humiliated me in everyones ones!"
Fredigar shouted inside the hall making the city lord to touch his forehead.
"Silence."
It was a normal tone but carried a lot of weight. Fredigar immediately went silent before going back to his seat.
"True that you suffered humiliations caused by the people from the tavern. But you will not be the one to decide the punishment!"
Rowan and the others frowned at the shocking news that their enemy was a heir from a noble family. Now the seeds of fear grew into panic in their hearts.
The crowd went into silence.
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"I will now hand out the punishment for this trial."
"My lord may I be permitted to present something in this hall?"
William asked the city lord.
The count just waved his hand in agreement.
"Thank you my lord."
William then brought out a golden necklace embeded by twelve different gems of different colors. Engraved with different symbols that only high ranking inviduals know of its value.
The city lord frowned at object William presented before him. He panicked for a while and stood from where he was seated making chair to go down.
He immediately kneeled before William. The audience and the guards were shocked at the city lord's actions.
"What is the meaning of this?!"
Fredigar shouted.
"You ignorant fool! This is the crest of the twelve heroes! Given by the king! Just by it's appearance it was the king itself!"
Count Wyke shouted while in nobles kneeling position.
Everyone panicked then kneeled one after the other, even the companions of Fredigar immediately knelt before the crest.
"Mr. Fredigar of Eginhardt, you dare to feign ignorance after what you did at Eisen? Who we treated like a member of a family. My lord, I think I have spoken too much. I believe that you still have to hand down the judgement for this trial."
Count Wyke immediately stood up and faced the kneeling Fredigar.
"Mr. Fredigar Eginhardt you are guilty for hurting a child and destroying a private property and disturbing public order in my city. Therefore I sentence you to pay all the damage incurred within the city and pay up for the repairs for the tavern. You are also banned to enter the city for five years."
"Wha..?!"
Fredigar stopped his words and bit his tongue due to frustration.
'FUCK! I didn't expected that crest of heroes! Your time will come too! I'll make sure for you to pay for it!'
"As for you William and the others you are now free to go."
"Thank you my lord."
"Whoohoooo!! Yeah!!"
Rowan and the others were so happy that they wouldn't be imprisoned anymore.
The trial ended immediately and everyone went back to their usual business. There's still much work to do, they will have to rebuild the tavern.
"You won't ask me why I have those?"
Asked William to Rowan and the others.
"No, I'm interested but I do respect the secrets of other's and I know you will tell us at a different time. I think you owe us a drink."
"Ha ha ha"
William laughed, he was back at his old self. Not a trace of angered William remained in his face, rather it was an innocent look of an ordinary old man.
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Count Wyke POV
"Bring me some tea at my room."
He ordered one of his servants.
'I still couldn't believe it. For me to lay eyes to such a relic. What is his connection to the twelve heroes?'
Endless thoughts pestered the city lord after the trial.
Knock Knock
"My lord, the tea is her."
"Come in, place it in the table then you can leave."
The servant bowed at the lord.
While sipping his tea, he suddenly remembered something.
"William... William... Ahhhhh Don't tell me?! He's the mad master William!"
He dropped the cup of tea he was holding.
'Who would have thought that one of the legendary twelve heroes would reside in my city.'
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Eight days passed after the incident. Everything is back to normal. Eisen lively helped out at the tavern.
A familiar figure entered the tavern.
"Eisen you in here? Where are you my boy?"
"I'm here pops."
"Whaa.."
"Old bone! What happened to my sweet innocent child?!"
"Ha ha ha I don't know."
"Bring me a cup of booze."
William and Cain talked about what happened while he was gone, at first he was mad but immediately calmed down.
"I'm sorry for bringing you trouble."
"Don't be, we are happy that we are taking care of Eisen. He's like a grandson to me."
Cain stayed for another two days before going back to his duty, he is always assigned as a scout because he was a former hunter.
"Gramps I'll stroll at the plaza for a bit."
"Be careful, be sure to be back before dinner."
Eisen walked towards the plaza taking the shortest route possible by going into the corners of the streets, he first strolled at the market where merchants of different nations gathered. A dark skinned man, buffed up dwarf, different type of demi humans also mixed in. From meat, herbs, weapons, armors, artifacts to scrolls everything converge their products here hoping for a good day sale.
"Whoa! What a big sword! I would like to use that one time!"
His eyes glistened at the items displayed at market. He often visited the weapon and armor shop at these area especially the skill scroll area.
Skill scroll, a scroll contained a single skill that can be engraved to a person to use, but the scroll is quite expensive especially rare to epic grade skills. Mostly nobles and royalty could own scrolls like these.
Eisen day-dreamed as he dazed around the scrolls imagining himself fighting monsters wearing armors, swords and using magic.
The shop owner noticed Eisen and scowled at him.
"Shoo! Shoo!"
"Get out of here poor brat! You will ruin my business! Go home and steal somewhere else!"
This usually happens whenever he stand in front of the shops. But he wasn't disheartened by this kind of words.
"Someday, I will be."
He then heared screams and cheers at the plaza. Intrigued, he rushed at where the plaza is. There he saw a parade, people cleared the streets. All the citizens were line up at the sidewalks.
Cheers became louder and louder as the group of three people came riding a dark walker horse.
It is a horse lived at the shadow valley, they feed on magical energy to sustain their life. It is said that it was very hard to tame a dark walker, most of the tamers died by attempting to tame one. Only high levelled adventurers are able to tame this wild one.
Majestic black fur, smoke rising to it's feet, eyes as red as an apple. Truly a sight to behold but there is than the horse. It is the riders of the dark walker. At the center a very handsome man with well groomed brown hair, a pair of hazel eyes and a sharp chin. He wore a full plate armor fitted his beautifully carved body. Beautiful emerald broadsword strapped at his back and long red cape with a dragon drawn within it.
The other two were slightly behind him, a male and a female. The male wore leather armor with a bow at his back, he wore a hood and covered half of his face. The female wore a robe but it doesn't look like a robe because of its design, it was fitted against her, outlining the feminine figure of her body and supple round chests that shook at every step of the dark walker. She had a short blonde hair paired with beautiful green eyes.
"Hooray! Its the Hero Prince!"
"Prince Lysander please look at me!"
"High Mage Leena please wave this way!"
"Bow Master Redge is so cool!"
Countless cheers filled up the plaza. Some of the people started praying at Goddess Elunia, others were crying at the scene. It was a very rare scene to see the party of the hero prince so the people were very happy at this moment.
Eisen who crawled at the feet of the people just to the heroes stopped at the moment he laid his eyes in the street.
Everything paused for a moment, he felt a surging unexplainable feeling in his heart. It was very hot, a burning sensation that stayed in chest.
'I know what I will be in the future!'
"I will become a hero! Admired by all like the prince."
That night he couldn't get even a wink of sleep.
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City lord's house
"Count Wyke, we have received your reports. We decided to check upon it before we proceed to our next mission. Strange things are already happening all around the kingdom. The king is worried about so he quickly dispatched us and the other elites to ivestigate this kind of matter."
"I thank you for your quick response Prince Lysander. It was pretty alarming, it started three months ago when some of the citizens that went outside suddenly vanished. After a few days we sent a search party at a nearby forest then found the mutilated bodies of the citizens."
"Last month a caravan was also attacked but the bodies were left behind, I am worried for the safety of my citizens. The attacks are becoming more frequent these days. Around 100 people were already killed."
"Leave it to us Count Wyke. We will depart at dawn and start investigating nearby villages."
"Thank you Prince Lysander. Please have some rest I feel that you must be tired from the journey."
"Okay Count Wyke I will be retiring for now. Goodnight."
"Goodnight Prince Lysander."
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The sleepless Eisen decided to sneak outside the tavern after packing up some meat jerky and water. He planned to wait for the hero's party to depart and intended to follow them.
He hid into a nearby wagon and waited patiently, looking around, inspecting the area for signs of the hero's party. His patience bore fruit as he saw the silhouette of the hero followed by two more people. He waited before they passed outside the gate before sneaking out to follow them.
Prince Lysander noticed the presence of the child, he wanted to stop the child but abandoned the idea because the child might be heading to a different village.
Thus the first adventure of Eisen outside the city walls started.