Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘Soar?’ Jemario’s crew was actually all in, and Alicey saw a moony Soarame from the window. ‘Come on in!’

  ‘Look, who’s here!’ Catheray cheered up as she opened the door for Soarame. ‘We were just talking about you!’

  ‘And I won!’ Vivarin smiled at Jemario. ‘Told you he’d arrive any time.’

  ‘Soar.’ Jemario smiled. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Jem…’ Soarame’s palms were sweating. He didn’t know how to start.

  ‘Oh god.’ Jemario was so alerted, as always. As she fell silence, everyone stopped teasing and chuckling.

  ‘What’s going on, Soar?’ Dileys walked to the boy. ‘Just tell us.’

  ‘I say we leave them alone for a bit.’ Catheray suggested. ‘Jem, can we go to your bedroom?’

  ‘It’s okay, it’s more spacious here.’ Jemario looked pale. ‘Soar, let’s go upstairs.’

  ‘Oh my…’ Vivarin murmured. ‘It looks real.’

  The girls lowered their voices for a private discussion, surprised — Jemario had never invited Soarame to her bedroom alone. The clock suddenly felt as if it was going slower and slower, as their strong curiosities were killing them for not peeking. Luckily, it didn’t take too long for the two to come back down, and they looked more or less normal — although there seemed to be some vague signs of redness around Jemario’s eyes.

  ‘Everyone, the school has forced Soar to graduate.’ Jemario didn’t try her friends’ patience. ‘So he’s leaving.’

  ‘When?’ Their eyes widened.

  ‘Sooner than I had planned.’ Soarame had to confess his levelling up to Expert and all that.

  ‘But when?’ They asked again. ‘When are you leaving?’

  ‘Err…’ Soarame was sweating again. ‘Sooner than you think.’

  ‘WHEN???’ The girls were mad. ‘If you dare to say something like “tomorrow”, you’d better be prepared!’

  ‘Err… this weekend then.’ Soarame hurriedly made a risk assessment and decided to postpone it. ‘But I’ll come back to visit you soon, after I report to Sunrise Alliance.’

  ‘Soar?! You are serious?’ Vivarin approached Soarame with threatening eyes. ‘Since when have you become such a wretch? Have you ever considered Jem’s feelings?’

  ‘Viv, don’t.’ Jemario hurriedly stopped her. ‘You heard him, it’s an accident.’

  ‘A BIG accident.’ Catheray stared at Soarame too. ‘A little too big! Don’t you think?’

  ‘Yes, but Soar didn’t expect that either — right, Soar?’ Alicey was trying to speak for Soarame. ‘I can’t believe the school asked you to leave just like that!’

  ‘Alicey is right. Soar didn’t ask for this.’ Dileys bit her lips. ‘He’s different from Rodka.’

  Everyone silenced. Two years ago, Rodka had left the crew to pursue his dream of becoming a powerful wizard. Unfortunately, it had turned out to be a disaster. Right now, Soarame was leaving too…

  ‘No! Soar, you can’t!’ Jemario was suddenly aroused. ‘It’s too dangerous!’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Soarame hurriedly cuddled Jemario to pacify her. ‘I’ve got the badge from Sunrise Alliance, you see? I can summon help and it’ll keep me safe.’

  ‘No, it’s not okay!’ Jemario was anxious. ‘Summon it now! Prove it to us!’

  Soarame was speechless. Truthfully, he could, but playing the Alliance like that was certainly not a good idea. So the quarrel started, and Soarame had to exhaust himself in comforting Jemario and her friends. Soon the boys all arrived, but it didn’t really help.

  ‘Soar, give them some time.’ Kardiac whispered. ‘Trust me, I’m always right on girls.’

  ‘…’ Soarame didn’t want to listen at first, but then he thought about Jemario’s kiss and the rest of their story so far — it had actually followed Kardy’s predictions. So after a bit of hesitation, Soarame nodded. ‘Okay, what now?’

  ‘Tell her you will think about it, then get a bunch of roses and come back tomorrow.’ Kardiac whispered. ‘Let Jemario know that you are with her, although you are leaving.’

  ‘You are not messing with me, are you?’ Soarame stared at Kardiac. ‘Or do you think she’s stupid?’

  ‘She’s smarter than anyone else here.’ Kardiac hurriedly explained. ‘That’s why she will understand your difficulties. Then the next thing you need to do is to come back fast — as you said, right after reporting to Sunrise Alliance.’

  ‘I see.’ Soarame nodded and walked to Jemario. ‘Jem, let me think it over, okay? At least give me a day for this, please!’

  ‘You will?’ Jemario was suddenly overjoyed; hope was welling up her watering eyes. ‘Of course! I’ll visit you tomorrow then? Same time?’

  ‘Deal!’ Soarame nodded. That meant dinner time, when Snower usually woke up. Thumbing up to the triumphant Kardiac, Soarame left with the boys to go back to his dorm for “men’s talk”.

  ****

  The next morning, when everyone else was having classes, Soarame was walking in Cylone City, alone. However, the boy wasn’t there just to enjoy his graduation privilege; he needed to think things over in the fresh air, and buy some roses by the way. Of course, Soarame had to hide his Libral Emblem, so that he wouldn’t be surrounded and watched by people as he was the last time he came out.

  It had been so long since Soarame had been out that he’d almost forgotten how amazingly beautiful and fascinating Cylone City was. However, there was nothing but anxiety in the young heart right now. Ever since Rodka’s incident, Soarame had rarely had a chance to enjoy his inner peace. Now Naclad had caused such a big mess, Soarame just couldn’t stop blaming himself for Aertiuno and Sandoray. Then, he had been such a “reliable” knight for Jemario, to have repeatedly told her things that always, later, proved to be otherwise. Next, leaving Ecrif’s mystery and Halgon’s pending problems aside for a bit, he thought about something in the nearer future — how has Sachastain been so far?

  As Soarame was roaming around with all the questions in his mind, he vaguely heard a voice. ‘We need a couple more players for the game, come on guys!’

  ‘Ahh, Filton… At least you are doing well.’ Soarame muttered and smiled slightly, as he was reminded of the game that he played together with Filton years ago. He then quickly walked towards the voice, and located a familiar figure in the middle of the crowd.

  ‘Hi my friend, you look lucky today!’ The street performer turned around to see Soarame. ‘I bet you can win this game, why not give it a shot?’

  ‘Sure.’ Soarame smiled at the same performer as the last time. ‘Ringtoss this time?’

  ‘Aye! Easy and fun!’ The performer clapped his hands. ‘Only 30 silver coins to enter.’

  ‘The fee increased by 50%?’ Soarame handed over a gold coin. ‘Whatever… keep the change.’

  ‘You’re a gentleman!’ The performer started the game happily. Soarame randomly threw some rings for fun, as he was immersing himself into his memories of Filton.

  ‘Hmm, looks like this game was just a bit too hard?’ The performer walked to Soarame after the game. ‘Wanna try an easier one? How about a beer game?’

  ‘A beer game?’ Soarame chuckled as he recalled the game years ago. ‘What’s your extra prize nowadays? 15 gold coins, or still 10?’

  ‘10.’ The performer frowned. ‘Sounds like you’ve played before. Wait a minute…’

  ‘You are the kid that took the extra prize years ago?’ The performer suddenly recognized Soarame. ‘With an old freak?’

  ‘Watch your mouth!’ Soarame’s face instantly darkened.

  ‘You freaking come back, with one of the coins you stole from me, and I thanked you for being generous?’ The performer scowled at Soarame. ‘You want me to stop calling him names? Easy. Pay me 20 gold coins, for the interest!’

  ‘You’d better apologize.’ Soarame was turning red. He walked to the performer and stood face-to-face with him. ‘Now!’

  ‘Oh yeah? Sure… I’m sorry for your papa’s bad luck.’ The perform
er sneered. ‘How did you feel about losing him?’

  ‘He’s not my dad, and I’m not losing him.’ Soarame was sensing something odd all of a sudden. ‘What do you mean “bad luck”?’

  ‘Ahh, you didn’t know he got his butt locked up?’ The performer frowned a bit. ‘That’s right, since he’s not your papa.’

  ‘What are you talking about?!’ Soarame became nervous. ‘What do you mean “locked up”?! Are we talking about the same person?’ With that, Soarame took out his mind painting of Filton. ‘Is it this man?’

  ‘What else would a loser look like?’ The performer sneered at Filton’s picture. ‘He was taken by force right after you two tricked me together. I’m sure he’s been enjoying the treatment…’

  ‘WHAT DID YOU SAY?!’ Soarame was taken by an overwhelming wave of anxiousness — he just received Filton’s letter days ago and the letter said that the old man was all well, but he had been taken by force in the first place? He grabbed the man’s collar out of control. ‘WHO TOOK HIM? WHAT HAPPENED? TELL ME!’

  ‘Let go, damn kid!’ The performer was startled. He tried to punch Soarame, but suddenly felt sharp coldness — a layer of ice emerged and froze his arms. Before he could understand what had happened, a hard punch on the tummy bent him double. The next second, screams sounded from the crowd, and people hurriedly stepped away from the two —

  ‘Oh my god, is he flying?’ They screamed as the two rose into the air. ‘Wizard! The young man is a wizard!’

  ‘City force! What’s going on?’ Cylone City was known to be one of the safest cities for a reason. The city force was normally very swift to react, but they were startled now, too.

  ‘TELL ME EVERYTHING, NOW!’ In the air, Soarame grabbed the performer’s shirt and lifted him up, ignoring the city force. ‘Or I’ll make you suffer!’

  ‘What are you looking at?! HELP!!!’ The confounded performer yelled at the transfixed city force. He was too busy to realize he was actually in the air, until seconds later. ‘Cuff him up and… WHAT. THE. HELL?!’

  ‘Your Honour, please take it easy!’ The captain of the city force had to toughen his scalp for a word. ‘This is Cylone City, please don’t…’

  ‘I won’t hurt anyone else. Now silence!’ Soarame told him, and turned back to the crying man in his hands. ‘You seem to be aware of your situation now; good. Here’s your final chance — tell me all you know, or I’ll let go of you from here, as you wish.’

  ‘No! Don’t! I’m sorry… Your… Honour?!’ Feeling the chilly wind in the air, the performer was no longer himself. He had to tell the story in the air, while the crowd was watching and screaming, totally chaotic. According to the performer, some kind of mercenaries seemed to have locked Filton in a carriage and transported him somewhere. The performer had only caught a glimpse at a distance, when Filton was trying to break out and showed his face by the window — it was a very brief moment — then he was dragged back in and the carriage left quickly.

  ‘If you lie to me, you’ll regret it that you were ever born!’ Soarame’s eyes reddened. ‘Whose carriage was that?’

  ‘How do I know that?’ The performer was crying. ‘I swear that’s all I know!’

  ‘Is it?’ Soarame gritted. ‘What if I give you 20 gold coins? Will you know more?’

  ‘Excuse me!’ A voice called from a little way away — a wizard was flying towards Soarame. ‘Kevin, Sunrise Alliance in Cylone. Please don’t abuse your privileges as a wizard! Thousands are watching down there!’

  ‘Help me, Your Honour!’ The performer screamed at once. ‘Don’t let him kill me!’

  ‘I’m not killing him, but I am taking him.’ Soarame had made up his mind, because he believed there was a way to get more info from the performer.

  ‘You can’t, unless you give me a good reason.’ Kevin was floating in front of Soarame, blocking his way.

  ‘You wanna stop me?’ Soarame couldn’t help letting out his anger. He had enough depression and discontent so far, and couldn’t do anything about it. This time, he would not allow anyone to get in his way in his search for Filton. With that, the air around Soarame started to cool down drastically, with snowflakes emerging out of nowhere!

  ‘Don’t, Soarame!’ Startled at the boy’s power, Kevin had suddenly recognized his face. ‘Lots of people know you now, so do yourself a favour!’

  Kevin’s words alerted Soarame. The boy bent his head to think, making the performer rejoice and hope for his escape. However, seconds later, Soarame took out a badge and showed it to Kevin. ‘Is this a good enough reason?’

  ‘This is…’ Kevin was stunned to see the badge. He made up his mind soon enough. ‘Yes, sir. Sorry to bother you.’ With that, he bowed and flew back off.

  ‘What?!’ The performer was deadly pale and still floating high in the sky. He didn’t know what Soarame was going to do to him, but he knew it wasn’t going to be enjoyable. Feeling the cold breeze in the air, all that he could do was to screech miserably while leaving with Soarame.

  ‘Sunrise Alliance on duty! Dismiss yourself please!’ Watching Soarame off, Kevin made a loud announcement to the marvelling crowd underneath. Unexpectedly, the crowd cheered up at hearing this — an undercover wizard had been hiding among them, to capture a bad man of some sort! What an indelible experience today!

  ‘Hypnosis?’ Gazbell frowned at Soarame’s request. ‘Are you sure it’s worthy?’

  ‘I beg you, sir!’ Soarame was anxious. ‘The whole thing feels very weird, so I must find out what’s going on! And he’s the only hope!’

  ‘You are lucky, boy. If you hadn’t broken MagiMax, we wouldn’t have Max’s hypnosis gears, and I wouldn’t be able to do it today.’ Gazbell sighed as he slowly stood up. ‘Now that fate is on your side, who am I to say no to you? However, that man is not a wizard, so his mind power is almost zero.’ Gazbell stopped Soarame’s ongoing gratitude. ‘If we do this to him, he will have brain damage, and possibly become a plant man. Are you still sure about this?’

  ‘It’s that bad?’ Soarame was surprised.

  ‘Take your time.’ Gazbell patted Soarame’s shoulders. ‘It’s a hard call, I know.’

  ‘It would be if he were a nice guy. But if he were, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.’ Soarame suddenly raised his head. ‘Let’s do it. I don’t have time to waste!’

  Gazbell thought for a few seconds before nodding with a slight sigh. As the hypnosis went on, the performer’s memory showed up in the crystal balls around him — in the slightly blurred scene, a carriage passed by and the curtain was suddenly lifted, showing a familiar face behind it. The man’s mouth was sealed up so that he couldn’t yell for help, thus few had even noticed him. The next second, the man was dragged back down and another face behind him flashed by before the curtain was shut again —

  ‘Deltaley?!’ Soarame exhausted himself to think up the name of that familiar face. ‘Atlantos?!’

  It had been such a long time; Soarame could barely remember what had happened between them. Deltaley didn’t get to visit Libral because of me… so he took Filton as vengeance?!

  Thinking of this, Soarame heard a BOOM in his head. He suddenly recalled the weird dream he had — during his first night in the school. In the dream, Soarame saw Deltaley and Filton in Atlantos’ carriage, and some spearmen attacked the carriage after Deltaley stepped out of it!

  The dream was real?! Soarame was feeling like drowning. Filton… was dead?!

  ‘Atlantos?’ Standing beside Soarame, Gazbell frowned. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘HOW DARE YOU! ATLANTOS!’ Soarame was howling like a wild beast. ‘HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU!!!’

  ‘Let me check with Sunrise Alliance first!’ Gazbell hurriedly held Soarame back. ‘Three years ago in Cylone City, right?’

  ‘But Atlantos is on the Snowhill Continent…’ Soarame fell down into his chair, helpless. ‘Can the Alliance reach there?’

  ‘The Alliance can reach anywhere. Don’t worry.’ Gazbell was thinking as he spok
e. ‘But didn’t you once mention that Filton sent you letters?’

  ‘Oh god, that’s right!’ Soarame smacked his head hard — he was taken by the sudden fear and thus lost his senses. He waved his head from side to side, as if he was trying to get rid of the disturbance inside it, so that he could regain the logical thinking. ‘He has sent me three letters! If Deltaley got him right after we left each other, why would he allow him to do that?’

  ‘Perhaps Filton has been set free soon after that?’ Gazbell tried to comfort the boy. ‘When did you receive his letters? And where from?’

  ‘Roughly one letter per year since I came here. All the letters were short. According to the sending addresses, he had been going all the way west; Atlantos is to our south.’ Soarame frowned hard as he became worried again. ‘The strange thing was that he never mentioned anything about being taken. That’s not his style!’

  ‘Maybe he didn’t want you to worry about it.’ Gazbell pondered a bit and said. ‘Especially if he had regained his freedom.’

  Hearing that, Soarame subconsciously nodded with hope — at least Filton sent letters; Rodka had never done that. But the next second, he suddenly denied it. ‘No. Filton doesn’t keep secret like that! He’s outgoing and talkative, and he writes long letters!’ With great concentration, Soarame started to pick up details that he had been neglecting. ‘Trust me, I’ve been living with him since I was born! Something is wrong… something is wrong!’

  ‘Soarame, calm down. Let me check with the Alliance first anyway.’ Seeing this, Gazbell became less optimistic too. ‘Meanwhile, you should report to the Alliance and get registered. When you get there, we may have an update on this.’

  ‘My master!’ Soarame suddenly raised his head. ‘Can you contact my master now? Do it now, please!’