"You know, when I imagined an assassination attempt on my life, I imagined something, well, more exciting."

The one who said it was a young man with fair skin and, surprisingly enough, blue hair, whose upper face was covered by a mask, resembling a blue maple leaf. His clothing choice consisted of a sea blue coat with ivory buttons, sky blue pants, and long white boots that almost reached his knees. He also possessed a pair of gloves in the same color as his boots.

This young man was Merovech of Rivaz, the heir to these lands, or more precisely, the new ruler of them, since his father was currently laying on the ground a hundred feet from his son with a hole big enough in his chest that would make most people assume that he might not make it.

Anyhow, back to the story, the young duke's day of festivities was okay, if not somewhat boring. He had great plans for today and, due to that, he had even added a little something extra to his father's food to "spice up" the old sea devil's day.

Unfortunately, it was all "technically" ruined when their little festivities next to the river were interrupted by an assassin garbed in black, appearing and challenging his old man to a duel. The cocky fool admitted, and despite being far more powerful than their "guest," fell for an easy trick by letting his guard down and then getting his chest impaled by a spike made out of some dark mass.

The next moment, all of their guests fled like cowards, even though with their powers they could easily outnumber this assassin, while the peasant guards had either done the same or were dead, as much use as they'd been in this situation. Which left him, the de facto new duke of this land, responsible for dealing with this mess and avenging his father.

After a while of fighting, Duke Merovech was standing opposite the defeated assassin in the midst of the place where the festivities had happened, which now was thoroughly wrecked due to their battle.

Ironically, the meal that Merovech had prepared for his dear old father, porpoise soup if you were curious, stood there unharmed on the only part of the table that wasn't decimated from the conflict. Merovech felt that it was mocking him.

Nevertheless, it was obvious during their whole fight that he was winning. It was his home turf, after all, meaning that his powers were more potent next to the river and the lands around it, and he wasn't dumb enough to let his guard down and die like his father. Meanwhile, the assassin, a lady younger than him with dark violet hair and pale skin, was kneeling on the ground while being obviously exhausted.

Her choice of clothing consisted of some kind of black armor that seemed to be made of glass together with a black cape with a collar made out of black swan feathers. Just like the duke, her upper face was covered by a black nondescript mask with golden accents. While her lips were colored purple to match her hair.

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However, the crown to it all was... well, the crown that rested upon her head. Usually, the act of wearing a crown in these lands, unless you were the king or queen, for example, could lead to your untimely death, so Merovech would consider anyone that would dare to wear such a thing a moron. Nevertheless, in this case, he had a suspicion that it was more than a poor aesthetic choice.

It was black and seemed to be made out of sharpened pieces of magnetite that were shaped like laurel wreaths that one could find in ceremonies if they ever visited the Republic of Latium.

Frankly, the thing looked ghoulishly awful, and Merovech wouldn't be caught dead wearing such a thing. But, there was a single thing that made the piece of artistic mistakes valuable in his eyes.

There was a black gem that stood in the center of that vulgar head contraption, which obviously emanated power. The young duke wasn't sure what it was meant for; however, he suspected that its purpose was to store more power so a mage wouldn't exhaust quicker when outside their territory. However, if it indeed was the case, then why was this assassin already so low on energy when they attacked? Ah, who cares. Merovech will learn it soon enough, once he pries it off her head.

"Now then, how about we follow the usual procedure, and you surrender and tell me your family name so I would know where to pawn you off," Merovech explained, calm and collected.

The young woman clenched her teeth and stood up.

"Cease thy foolishness; I am not slain yet," she declared in an exhausted voice.

Merovech found it quite amusing. What was even more amusing was the fact that she was quite small in size, which didn't help her to seem intimidating at all. Nevertheless, the young duke's inclination for comedy had just run thin tonight, and now he craved some much-needed seriousness.

He extended a finger, where a small ball of water formed, roughly the size of a hen's egg. With a command, the ball was launched at speeds undetectable to the human eye, tearing a four-meter straight line in the grass right next to the assassin.

"The next one will go through your leg if you don't tell me what I want," the young duke said with his finger extended while keeping a serious expression.

"Consider yourself adequately warned."

As he expected, the lady's defiant expression paled after that. However, as quickly as it was gone, it reappeared as they could hear the sound of rumbling and screams coming from afar.

Curious, Merovech turned to see what that was, which, in hindsight, wasn't a good idea.

The assassin used the opportunity to trigger a purple explosion in the vicinity of Merovech's face. It went off, creating a lot of smoke. However, once the air was cleared, it was revealed that Merovech was unharmed due to a translucent water sphere that surrounded his body.

"Please," Merovech responded while giving the young woman an unimpressed look. "You are hardly an annoyance, much less a threat."

At that moment, the source of the sound appeared. A giant brutish creature that looked to be made out of muscles and armor stormed through the wall separating the center of Rinaz and the rest of the city, as if it was made out of sand and made a loud and terrifying roar.

The young baron had to admit that however could count as a threat.