by Brandon Chen
“Out of the way!” a recognizable voice, filled with assertion and authority, boomed. Senna!
Yuri turned and found the gigantic knight’s helmet peeking over the heads of the townsfolk as he shoved them aside, clearing a way for the princess. Around the powerful warrior were a dozen other soldiers, clad in spotless armor that was clearly just polished. These men were just as large as Senna, if not larger, and they towered over the rest of the civilians, who gaped in awe at the massive humans. Their heavy armor clanked as they stomped forward. Dozens of young men, holding boxes of expensive chocolates and bouquets of roses, were being shoved aside by the great knights.
“Senna!” Yuri exclaimed, stumbling in the warrior’s path.
“You…,” Senna growled, glaring at the young man through his visor. “You disappeared last night.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Yuri said, scratching the back of his neck. He could feel the eyes of many spectators burning into him. The marketplace had suddenly fallen silent. He bit his lower lip, feeling uneasy at the attention that he was getting. “What happened to that rowdy guy? You two seemed acquainted somehow.”
“The fool that was spewing nonsense about a werewolf? His name is Archerus. He used to be one of the king’s best knights, before he went insane. He’s been obsessing over werewolves a lot recently, always claiming that the beasts still exist. Now he believes he actually saw one, the maniac. Right now, he’s locked away,” Senna said, tilting his head to the side with a questioning look. “So, why have you stopped me? Is there something you want?”
“I’m here to meet the princess.”
“You’ll see her tonight. Why do you need to meet her now?” Senna snapped.
“Why do I need a reason to want to meet her?” Yuri retorted.
“Because right now we’re in a public area surrounded by hundreds of people! This is simply not a safe place to—”
“Now, now, Senna! Who is this person that wants to meet me? The two of you seem to know each other well. You’re bickering like siblings,” a gentle voice said. The charming men that surrounded the squadron of knights all gasped when they realized that it was the princess that had spoken. “It can’t hurt for us to exchange a few words, no?”
“I-I suppose not,” Senna murmured, bowing his head a bit. “Yuri and I are acquaintances, nothing more. The king assigned me to give him the invitation to have dinner with your family tonight. That was the first time that we met.”
“Is that so? Well, step aside, Senna. Let me see the mighty champion of the Nobles’ Tournament for myself,” Princess Violet said from behind Senna. The knight obeyed, gliding to the side.
Yuri’s eyes widened as he gazed upon Horux’s gorgeous princess, who was even more stunning up close. Her skin was so fair that it looked like it had never been marked in her entire life, and her brunette hair was perfectly straightened and quite long, cascading down to her lower back. Dangling from her neck was a golden locket, which rested just above her breasts. The princess wore a long dress rimmed with gold, its hem brushing diamond slippers that gleamed like starlight. Her attire was the same violet color as her irises. I’ve never seen eyes like those. How beautiful.
Everything about Princess Violet seemed so clean, pure, and affluent.
Yuri swallowed back his nervousness, realizing that he had been speechlessly staring at the princess. He saw that the townsfolk around him were actually all on one knee, bowing before the highborn woman. Yuri, Violet, and the knights were the only ones in the marketplace that were still standing. Gazing over the crowds of groveling civilians, Yuri felt heat rising to his face. He quickly scrambled to one of the obeisant men, who was holding a bouquet of roses, and swiftly plucked out a flower.
“H-Hey!” the man exclaimed, darting Yuri a hostile glare. But he quickly lowered his head again, realizing that he couldn’t act rashly in the princess’s presence.
“What are you doing?” Senna whispered crossly to Yuri.
Yuri stumbled over to the surprised princess and dropped to one knee, as if he were about to propose. He bowed his head like the rest of the townsfolk and held the rose out to her. “For you, milady,” he said, with more confidence than he actually felt.
Senna narrowed his eyes, about to burst out laughing, until he turned and saw that Princess Violet was giggling. The knight raised an eyebrow, surprised that Yuri’s foolish action had produced any positive reaction at all.
“That’s cute,” Princess Violet said, gently taking the rose by the stem. She twirled it in her hands, holding it close to her chest. “Yuri, is it? You fought valiantly in yesterday’s tournament. Though I am afraid that I’d never heard of you prior to yesterday’s event. Where did you receive your training?”
“I trained myself, Your Highness,” Yuri said, his gaze still trained on the ground.
“Is that so? Impressive. Well, I look forward to seeing you at dinner. Perhaps you’ll tell me more of how you’ve become such a grand fighter,” Violet said with a smile. “Are you in need of attire for tonight? If so, I can—”
“Stop!” a man screamed in the crowd.
Yuri turned his head and saw that Terias was leaping over the ocean of bowing civilians with a large sack of fruit slung over his shoulder. Chasing him was a fruit merchant that was wearing a white apron and wielding a broom. That idiot is going to steal right now?
The knights immediately took up formation around Violet, shielding her from sight. Senna glanced at Yuri. “Would you mind—”
“Already on it,” Yuri said, bolting after Terias. “Stay down!” he boomed to the civilians that were still groveling on the ground. If they stood up, he would lose sight of Terias. He grunted, accidently bumping into the fruit merchant, knocking the man to the ground. The young man blinked and reached into his pocket, pulling out the rest of his coins. You need that money to eat! Yuri tossed the currency to the stunned merchant. “That’s for the fruit.” Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
Yuri broke into a dash once again, sprinting through the streets of Horux. However, he’d already lost sight of Terias, and was blindly searching the city for the thief.
Journeying deeper into the Lower District, Yuri found himself near home. Slowing to a stop, he took a moment to catch his breath after nearly an hour of running through the streets. He wandered toward the alleyway near his house, and surely enough, Terias was there. The thief was sitting on the ground, his face ghostly pale. Lying several feet away was a corpse, an ill-fated woman that had tragically died of starvation.
Yuri’s nose twitched as he caught a whiff of the pungent scent of human excrement that was dumped on the streets. Or perhaps it was the rotting corpse that was lying in alleyway. The young man was purposely loud as he walked forward so that Terias would know he was approaching. But he didn’t even look up from the cadaver.
“Hey,” Yuri said, his jammed hands deep into his pockets. He stopped beside Terias. “What are you thinking? I gave you money to buy yourself food, so why did you need to go ahead and steal? And if you’re going to steal, why would you do it while the princess and the king’s royal knights are in the marketplace? If one of them wanted to, they could’ve shot you with an arrow. What would your family think if they heard that you got killed doing something dumb like stealing a sack of apples?”
“They’re dead,” Terias murmured quietly, his sorrowful gaze staring at the ground.
“Huh?”
“I said they’re dead, damn it!” Terias boomed, glaring at Yuri, causing the boy to stagger backwards in surprise. The distraught man reached up and put his head in his hands, sobbing. “Just when I got a job at the docks. My damned boss wasn’t listening to me … he only pays me enough money to feed one person. So, I gave my portions to my family. I’ve been starving myself so that they could live … but it didn’t do shit!” he roared, his lips quivering. “One by one, the members of my family dropped dead, and I couldn’t do a damned thing. At this rate … I’ll be joining them soon.”
“Terias, why didn’t
you tell me? I can help, I didn’t—”
“And then I heard all of this bullshit about you turning down an offer from Asmund and Beo. They offered you half of the damned winnings of the tournament, Yuri! That’s a fortune; it’s enough to buy a home in the Upper District. You’re poor as hell, just like the rest of us, and yet you had the nerve to reject their offer?” Terias yelled, pushing himself to his feet. He rotated his body, preparing to throw a punch right at Yuri. “Everyone in the Lower District would murder anyone for that kind of money!”
Yuri grunted, tilting his head to the side as Terias launched a quick jab straight for his face. “Terias, if I knew that your family was suffering so much, I would’ve taken the money to help you out. I didn’t—”
“You didn’t what? Think that we were in anguish?” Terias barked, unleashing a barrage of rapid punches at Yuri. “Everyone in the Lower District is suffering, you damned idiot!”
Yuri weaved around the attacks with ease, pitifully watching the enraged man as he flailed his arms about. Ducking, Yuri elegantly knocked out Terias’s legs with a sweeping kick.
Terias grunted, immediately losing his foothold. He fell backwards and slammed onto his back, the wind forced from his lungs. He coughed several times, gasping for air. Wincing, he stared up at the afternoon sky as tears filled his eyes. Within moments, they were streaking down his cheeks and dripping onto the cobblestone ground. “Everyone is suffering, Yuri. Everyone.”
Yuri bit his lower lip. Terias was right. Everyone was suffering, his family included. Don’t you care about us? His mother’s words echoed continuously in his mind and he closed his eyes, exhaling shakily through his nose. “I’m sorry, Terias,” he said quietly.
“Shut up.” Terias sniffed and reached up, wiping the salty tears from his moist face. “I can’t wait until that smelly merchant gets his ass over here and cuts me into little bits. End my misery.”
“He’s not coming,” Yuri said. “I gave him the rest of my money to pay for the fruit you stole.”
“You did what?”
“You heard me.”
Terias leaned forward a bit, enough so that he could stare straight at Yuri, gawking in disbelief. That was when a smile cracked across his chapped lips and he crashed back onto the ground, shaking his head. “I have never met a bigger dumbass than you.” He began to chuckle and that gentle laughter soon turned into a boisterous guffaw that shattered the silence of the alleyway. “I cannot believe you, Yuri. Do you not give a single crap about the wellbeing of yourself or your family? You need that money.”
“Of course, I do,” Yuri said with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit back and watch you get executed for stealing a couple of lousy apples.”
“Huh,” Terias murmured, covering his eyes with the back of his hand. “Why are you doing this? You’re helping me even though all I ever do is cause you trouble. Don’t you remember the countless times I beat the crap out of you? Back when you were weak, sometimes I was almost sure that you wouldn’t get back up. And I was okay with that … you never opening your eyes again. But you always did.”
“Yeah,” Yuri said as he took several steps backward and leaned against the wall of the alleyway. “There are a lot of things that I still want to see and do in this world, like marry a princess. I can’t die so early.”
“Ha, still going on about that nonsense? You’re too ambitious.” Terias laughed. “You have a dinner with her tonight too, right? Word spreads fast.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“So, what the hell are you doing here with me while I’m sulking?” Terias said. “Better start getting ready, you’re only going to have one chance to impress the girl of your dreams.”
***
“I’m surprised to hear that you and Terias are finally starting to get along,” Asmund said, with one leg crossed over the other as he sat in a chair. The ostentatiously dressed noble was wearing a bright red shirt, made of the finest material and perfectly-fitted ebony pants. He sank his teeth into a juicy peach and nodded to Yuri, who was having his measurements taken for the clothing that he would need for the royal dinner. “What was it that you wanted to talk about?”
“Don’t worry about it now, that can wait until we are alone,” Yuri said. “Also, I appreciate your help with my attire. It would be a riot if I appeared at tonight’s dinner dressed like a street rat.”
“It’s no problem. You’re practically my brother. I want the best for you and this is a big night! We’re finally going to see if you really are as charming as you boldly claim to be!” Asmund exclaimed, raising his peach into the air as if making a toast. He made eye contact with the servant, who had just finished taking the rest of Yuri’s measurements. The servant dipped his head respectfully and hastily fled the room. Unfolding his legs, Asmund shot Yuri a sly smile. “All right then, let’s hear it. We’re alone now.”
Yuri sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “Fine. Just … no matter how this sounds, know that I mean no disrespect.”
“Of course,” Asmund said, his eyebrows knitting together, now realizing the seriousness of the matter. He had been expecting a jest from his friend, but Yuri’s tone and countenance said otherwise.
“Yesterday as I was walking home from your house, I stopped by a bar to have a pint. Several minutes later, a man named Archerus staggered into the tavern, making claims that he’d seen a … werewolf, underneath Horux. He said that there was an entrance to some catacombs in the forest outside of the city. Look, I know how this sounds—” Yuri said.
“Werewolves? And here I thought it was going to be something serious like your mum’s gotten ill!” Asmund let out a great sigh of relief, falling back into his chair with one hand on his belly, as if he were stuffed after a great meal. “Werewolves are just myths that circulate around these parts. They’ve been extinct for centuries. You realize that if they really did still exist, we would’ve seen them by now. Horux takes up most of the peninsula in southern Escalon. Those beasts hunger for flesh; they wouldn’t be able to resist a place like Horux, which is full of juicy humans.”
“I’m being serious, though, Asmund,” Yuri insisted, shaking his head. “Archerus mentioned your father and said that Beo was the one who had the beast captive and—”
“You believe that fool? He’s just some insane freak spitting out nonsense and you’re letting it get to your head. Not once have I heard my father say a word about werewolves. I haven’t heard of these underground catacombs before, either. I doubt anyone has!” Asmund exclaimed, his eyes narrowing. “Just because some random man at a bar starts accusing my father of treachery doesn’t mean that you should believe him.”
“I don’t,” Yuri grumbled. “But my gut is telling me that it’s worth checking out. Can’t we just find out if there are secret catacombs underneath Horux? If there aren’t, then we’ll just denounce Archerus as insane and leave it at that.” He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “He even offered to lead us directly to the werewolf, which means that he really believed he saw one.”
“So that’s why you’re interested in this man’s nonsense,” Asmund said.
Yuri nodded. That and the puzzling fact that Beo leaves Horux every night at midnight.
The noble tossed his peach high into the air, his eyes trained on the ceiling. Catching the fruit, Asmund shrugged. “If you could prove to me that the catacombs are indeed real, then I’d investigate the issue further with you. However, as it is, I see no reason to—”
“No reason to what?” Beo said, suddenly opening the door to Asmund’s room. The man peeked his head inside and blinked rapidly, realizing that he’d disturbed an important conversation from the shocked stares that he received from both his son and Yuri. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No reason to believe this … claim that there are catacombs that run underneath Horux,” Asmund said, his eyes darting from his father to Yuri. “Er, Yuri ran into some maniac at a bar that claimed there are secret passageways under the city
. Is that true?”
Yuri exhaled with relief at the fact that Asmund did not make any mention of werewolves. But the boy watched Beo, and immediately saw the man’s face pale at his son’s question. His right eye twitched. “Of course not,” he said, opening the door fully as he walked into the room. “There were never plans in the original architecture of the city for any catacombs. I believe that I have a map of the city on me. One moment,” he said, reaching to pull out a piece of parchment that was tucked into the back of his pants. He placed the map on a table and unfurled it, revealing that it was indeed a detailed map of Horux.
Yuri raised his eyebrows. How convenient that he has a map….
Tracing his finger along the map, Beo smiled. “You can see that there are no entrances to catacombs of any sort throughout the city. Feel free to take a thorough look.” The noble turned his head and glanced at Yuri. “Might I ask the name of the man who told you this?”
“I … didn’t catch it. He was just some drunk guy that was yelling gibberish at the bar,” Yuri lied. He watched as Beo simply nodded and turned to the door.
“All right, well, it’s best not to believe random twaddle that drunken fools in bars spout. I figured that you’d know that already, Yuri,” Beo said as he walked towards the doorway. He glanced at Yuri over his shoulder, winking. “I came to check on how you guys were doing with the measurements, but it looks like they finished all of that already. Tonight is a big night, Yuri. Are you excited?”
“Very much so, sir,” Yuri said politely with a nod of his head.
“Good. Well, enjoy yourselves, you two. You still have a couple hours until Yuri’s clothes are ready, so feel free to relax here,” Beo said, closing the door of Asmund’s room behind him, leaving the two friends in silence.
