“So who am I?”, Azzard asked.

“Well, the truth is that you are Azzard at the same time you are not. I will explain.”

“Just at the moment that the two forbidden spells were released, I thought that my master had died but it was not so. The old Master Azzard appeared before me but he was just a spirit. He had instructed me to wait for him because he said that he would return.”

“Return? How?”, Azzard wondered.

“Reincarnation.”, Gerard replied. “The previous Master Azzard said that he would reincarnate in the future and that I would be the one to guide him.”

“I will become your teacher and I will teach you all of the old master’s skills and magic.”

This day was too eventful for Azzard. He just found out that he was the reincarnation of Brogart Azzard, humanity’s hero 1000 years ago. A normal person might find this situation as ludicrous but this was a world of magic. There might be some spells that allows a departed soul to come back to the living. What did this mean for the current Azzard? Since the the previous Azzard had died and reincarnated himself  in him, he was to finish the mission that the previous Azzard left uncompleted. This is what Azzard was able to hypothesize from the story of his past.

“So you will teach me all about magic and I will have to stop the Demon lord?” Azzard asked.

“Correct but the Demon lord is already dead. You will have to investigate what truly happened in the past. Who was the dark figure that controlled the Demon lord- that is your most important question. You must find out the truth that was covered from the lies.”

While Azzard and Gerard were both discussing, they were unable to notice that someone had slowly neared the old house. “Darshee!” Both of them were alarmed to hear a voice calling out to someone. Azzard quickly dashed into a corner while Gerard morphed back into a necklace. Azzard picked up the necklace from the floor and listened intently to the voice outside the house.

“Where could she be? It’s been a month since I last saw her. Some of the villagers said that they saw her going into the forest but I have searched this entire forest every day and I still wasn’t able to find any clue on him.” the voice said. When Azzard heard the voice speak again, he was able to discern that it was a girl who stood outside the old house. He peeked through the broken window and saw a young woman who looked to be around 20 years of age. He was also able to see that the young man had long pointy ears. From then he figured out that the young woman was an elf. Azzard changed his position to get a clearer  look at the elf but in turn he nudged a piece of cutlery. It made a “clang” sound and the elf immediately snapped her head towards the direction of the sound.

“Who’s there? You better come out or I’ll cast a spell that will burn the entire house down.” Her voice seemed to be tense and alert. Whether she was bluffing or not, Azzard did not want to find out.

“I’m coming out but I’m not here to hurt you”, Azzard replied. The door slowly opened from the inside and the elf could see that it was young human male that came out from the house. Right after seeing the human, a terrified expression formed on the face of the elf. Tears were pouring from her eyes and she knelt on the ground. She grabbed a dagger out from her waist and stuck it out towards Azzard. “Don’t come near me. I beg you, I don’t want to become a slave.” Her voice was trembling as she spoke. It was evident that she was terrified of Azzard.

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“I won’t turn you into a slave; I’m not that kind of person. Like I said I’m not here to hurt you.” Azzard explained in a soft voice. He didn’t want to further  frighten the girl. The elf made no changes in her posture or position as to what it was awhile ago. Azzard made a slow step towards the elf but she immediately backed away while still holding out the dagger.

In an attempt to convince the elf that he was not there to harm her, he removed his robe. “See I don’t have any weapons on me that could hurt you. I’m defenseless against you so if you think that I’m lying you can thrust that dagger and kill me.” Now the girl looked up to Azzard, her face looked pitiful. “She must have had a bad experience with slavers and was probably traumatized because of it.”, Azzard thought.

The elf could feel Azzard’s sincerity in his words so she decided to take a risk and trust the man’s words. She slowly relaxed and her crying ceased. “Who are you?”, the elf asked.

“My name is Azzard. It was by chance that I was here and I don’t have any ill intent towards you.”, Azzard answered. The elf slowly stood up and put away the dagger. She introduced herself, “My name is Viashna Biafyndar. I’m an elf.” When Gerard had heard her name, he immediately notified Azzard telepathically, ‘Master, the elf has the same surname as your companion from 1000 years ago. She may be his relative and I suggest that you ask her about Orym.” Azzard followed Gerard’s suggestion and asked Viashna, “Do you know an elf by the name of Orym Biafyndar?”

“....” Viashana did not respond to Azzard’s question. From what Azzard could see, Viashna was in deep thought. “How does he know about grandfather? Humans should not know about grandfather since we live deep in the forests.”

After a few seconds, Viashna decided to speak once more. “I may have heard that name before but I’m not quite sure. Anyway, why do you ask? Who is he to you?”

“I was just wondering if you knew him since you both have the same surname. I thought that maybe he was your relative or something. I guess that it is by coincidence that you have the same surname with Orym, who was with  hero of the world, 1000 years ago.”, Azzard replied.

“How did you-” Now, Viashna was shocked to find out that Azzard knew something about the past which was supposedly erased. She had heard stories from his grandfather that he accompanied the hero of 1000 years ago but whether he was lying or not; no one could tell because history does not mention that the hero of 1000 years ago had any companions.

“How did I what?”, Azzard spoke to her. This broke Viashna from her thoughts and immediately recovered from the shock. “Nothing, It was nothing. Don’t pay any attention to what I said.” Azzard said nothing in reply.

“Well, it was nice meeting you but I still have something to do..”, Viashna said her farewell to Azzard. “I won’t keep you so this is goodbye. I hope you find that person you were looking for but I’m sure that she’ll be fine.” Viashna was happy to hear those words because it comforted her.

As they said their farewells, a loud scream could be heard from the forest “KYYAAAA! HELP ME!!” Viashna recognized that voice, it was her sister’s. The screams came closer and closer to Azzard and Viashna’s location. From their east, an elf girl was running towards them and from behind a group of humans chased her. Azzard immediately knew what they were; slave traders.