“Sir we need to leave, they are coming as we speak”

“Dammit I know Sebastian but I can’t leave without my money! How will I start a life in the Empire if I'm a poor bastard”

“I understand but if we don’t leave immediately you will put the lady and young master's life at risk” the butler responded to his master in a stern yet calm voice not matching the situation at all. His master's family had been deemed heretics by the Eshnar church.

“Fucking bastard set me up, heretic me? Sure I don’t fully believe in religion but I respect it at least!”

“Fuck fuck fuck, fine let's run through the back door I know a secret passage to get us out the city”

“Dad where are we going? Why are we in such a hurry to leave?”

The now ex Duke of the Eshnar kingdom looked down at his only heir with pain in his eyes “I'm sorry son, we need to run far from here, anywhere is better. I don’t have a plan but I'm sure it will work out. We have Sebastian with us after all he was once an A rank adventurer.”

The low sobbing from his wife could be heard echoing in the cold stone tunnel the family was running through to exit the city.

“Should we head towards your territory, sir?”

“No we can’t put my people in danger, also that's the first place the paladins will look once they realize I have fled. My territory has just one city and it's not optimized for defending against a siege from the entire kingdom's forces. My private army only numbers in the hundreds and they are poorly trained.”

“We won’t stand a chance, our only option is to flee to the empire or Frostlands. In fact, I once met with the princess of the Frostlands and left a positive impression with a gift so I'm sure they will take us in.”

Loud footsteps could be heard echoing down the tunnel from behind them

“There they are! Inform the guards!” A paladin shouted.

The family escaped out the end of the tunnel and tried to run under the cover of darkness provided by the night sky.

“Sebastian destroy the tunnel”

“Yes sir”

“Wind that resides in my blade, enhance my range to bring destruction”[Wind Blade]

Sebastian slashed down his short sword and a destructive wave of wind shot out towards the entrance causing it to shake before collapsing.

“SIR GET DOWN”

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While the family was looking at the destroyed tunnel with awe at the display of magic Sebastian shouted a warning as hundreds of arrows rained down on them from the walls of the capital city.

Despite the poor visibility, the archers stationed on the capital cities walls are all elites so there was no way to dodge the arrows.

“Oh wind spirit that resides in this pitiful servants soul, help me protect those I have sworn to protect” [Wind Shield]

Right as a wall of arrows appears in the night sky aiming for them a blast of wind redirects their trajectory back towards the ones that fired them.

“That should buy us sometime lets run my lord”

---------

The family ran for a whole night and day straight without even turning back and the reason was the fear of cavalry knights. Although they blocked the paladins using the same tunnel, knights mounted on horses could be seen in the distance rapidly gaining on their position.

“I guess we will have to hide in the cursed forest,” the Duke says to nobody in particular.

“Dad I'm hungry”

The young master complains for the 100th time about the state of his stomach. The family had escaped without any belongings except for a few gold coins the Duke managed to grab for travel funds.

“We could hunt for food inside the forest” (Sebastian)

The Duchess was simply lying on the floor rubbing her feet while shivering. Although her pride doesn’t allow her to admit to the pain she was in a sorry state. Running for a day straight in heels and a fancy dress when you are a thin noblewoman who had never run before was taking its toll on her body. Huge blisters covered her foot and she was barely staying conscious from the fatigue.

After a quick break the family entered the forest and after around 30 minutes of walking and the young master had complained about how hungry he was for the 200th time they came upon a smooth stone road.

They all stood on the side of the road and looked left and then right, the road was very quiet except for the single carriage coming towards them in the distance.

“Weird there shouldn't be such a well-made road in the middle of the forest,” the Duke said “Let's ask this traveler about this road”.

Once the carriage came into view Sebastian stood in the road to get it to stop. “Greeting traveler would it be okay if we could catch a ride with you?”

The man sitting on the carriage showed a toothy but warm grin “Sure but I'm heading towards Eden is that fine?”

“Anywhere that has an inn and some food is fine,” the Duke said towards the traveler.

“Oh, nobles are we? All rich folk and nobles are welcome in Eden. Come aboard”

Those words confused the family a bit but their hunger and fatigue clouded their judgment. Despite not even knowing what Eden was they still took the man on his offer. Anything was better than mindlessly wandering the forest looking for food and sleeping on the grass.

While traveling the Duke took the opportunity to get some information out of the man by showing him a gold coin but to the duke's surprise, the traveler didn’t seem interested in a gold coin. It would be enough to feed a family for a year and yet he wasn’t interested?

The man simply shook his head “I forgot coins still even existed, you won’t need those where we are going”.

The man's Frostland accent was quite strong so the Duke had a hard time understanding him.

They traveled in silence for the rest of the journey, the Duke felt that the merchant wouldn't answer any of his questions with straight answers that made sense anyway.

While enjoying the scenery the Duke saw the ground open up on the side of the road and a knight in full steel armor emerged from the hole. The knight was wearing armor from head to toe except for a thin slit in the helmet where two red glowing eyes could be seen.

Even though the merchant noticed the armored knight he didn’t seem bothered and was trying to find something in his pocket.

The knight stood in front of the carriage and said in a flat tone that sounded like bones grinding together “Authority level?” the strange knight asked.

Rummaging through his pocket the merchant brought out a black card and presented it to the knight and replied “Black card, Founder level”.

“Authority has been verified, can bring up to 10 people, are these people you’re companions, or do you wish for them to be disposed of”

The whole family held their breath. Authority level? What does that mean? Also, why does the knight speak of disposing of us in such a flat tone?

“No, they are accompanying me to Eden”

“Verified, Shadow has been notified, proceed”

“Thank you” the merchant replied as the knight sunk back into the ground as if he had never been there, to begin with.

Although the Duke tried to hide his amazement the young master was unable to and blurted out “What the hell did I just watch, how did that knight go into the ground!?!”

The merchant just chuckled at the young boy's interest “If you think that's cool you ain't seen nothing yet… Ever met a Dragon or an S rank adventurer? Or that's shadow being… although he's nice he still sends chills down my spine.” The man visibly shuddered from the memory.

“Let me tell you, mister noble no matter how much money or power you think you have it's useless in the face of a demi-god like Victor. So throw away that noble pride or you might not see the sunrise tomorrow…”