5 Ch 4: Steady Bones (II)

After an hour of therapy with Laurence and a few sedatives resulted with Lucius resuming his sleep and thankfully receiving a dream instead of a nighmare. However, he woke up 3 hours later and changed his plans.

Today was his scheduled departure for Grineherd City, the nearest city from the Marquis' mansion. It was also the major city that the Marquis governs, with Lucius' identity he could move wherever he wanted inside the city without being hindered. The city was mostly comprised of merchants, with a city as large as Grineherd deep within the eastern region of the kingdom, merchants found selling and purchasing products better inside the Marquis Devinsworth's domain.

It had been a few months since Lucius issued a custom made blade from the best swordsmith within the kingdom. However, he couldn't send a servant of his to fetch the product, the security of the packaging company inside the kingdom was tight. Only those with clearance from the receiver could take the package and if the manager of the branch deems them trustworthy. Lucius could just send Laurence and fetch his new sword from Grineherd but a day without Laurence meant he had to order somebody else or do it or do everything himself. The former was impossible, he had already experience multiple assassination attempts and now he would only eat the food that Laurence and his family deems safe. And the latter was also impossible, Lucius was extremely lazy to wipe his own ass.

Now that he woke up earlier than he expected, he came up with plan B. Plan A was to enter the city, visit popular areas and shops, pick up the package, and then return back home. Plan B was technically similar except for the part where he blitz through all of the city and return back home with his package and lock himself in the study once again.

*Chirp* *Chirp*

The birds were singing in the distance as a young boy sat inside the carriage alone. He eyes and arms were closed whilst his legs were crossed. His finger was tapping his arms clearly a sign of impatience.

'Alright... Whoever that skeleton guy was, he ain't from my kingdom.' Beside Lucius was three books which had titles of "Behellin's finest heroes" "Myth of the Wayward mountains" and "Records: Identities of Behellin citizens". The information he gathered started from the very beginning of the kingdom itself, even before the establishment. He found none, not a single match to the identity of the skeleton.

'Ggaahhh... I hate this, just wanted a normal life God! Why do i have to tango with this spooky skeleton! I haven't done any genocidal acts!' Lucius was complaining inside his thoughts, his intuition was telling him that this was a tiresome and challenging problem. However, he could only complain and grumble as this 'nightmare' could have been connected to his rebirth. Any knowledge regarding his circumstance was valuable to Lucius.

He turned his head and stared beyond the horizon which had a flock of birds fly up from the forrest, the sun was steadily climbing up as his thoughts speculate more hypothesis and theories. But suddenly the carriage stopped, he changed his view to the front of the carriage only to spot a ragtag team of bandits.

In front of the carriage was Laurence with multiple knights on horseback escorting the carriage. At first Lucius was criticize them for being idiotic, no one in their right mind would take on four fully armoured knights with a dozen bandits. However, his paranoia started to emerge from the deeps of his mind. He began thinking that the bandits had a scheme cooked up and hidden within their sleeves.

He tried listening on the conversation outside but found the soundproofing of the carriage interior blocking his sense of hearing. 'Times like these were i hate fancy sh*ts!' Lucius was about to burst out the door when he suddenly saw another squad of bandits on horses rush out the forrest to his side. The bandits at the front fired there bows quickly making use of the distraction the others cause. Lucius' guardian knights raised their shields but found that all arrows missed them. They were confused when the horses dragging the carriage died from having arrows pierce their heads.

The bandits simply ran, Lucius was starting to feel confused. Why did they only kill the horses? The knights would have chased them. However, Lucius' safety was top priority.

'Thank God its Ov-' The ground started to shake. Lucius thought that a coincidental earthquake happened. 'This is a coincidence right?...Right?' To the side where the bandits on horse back came from, a stampede of aether beasts came. They had large scaly body with plates covering their back and spikes on their side and forehead.

'Son of a b*tch!' The reason that the bandits only killed the horses and didn't engage on a fight was to buy time and disable the carriage. The aether beasts were the real threat, not the bandits. Fighting an aether beast was as dangerous as jumping in shark infested waters, to make matters worse, there were an entire herd of them running towards the carriage at full force.

Outside the carriage, the knights in charge screamed out an order. A yellowish brown sphere surrounded the carriage and the knights began to raise their shields towards herd. They were all prepared to die. The herd slammed straight towards the barrier with red eyes.

*Crack* *Shatter*

Like a pane of glass, the barrier broke down into multiple pieces before disappearing briefly. The knights tried as hard as they could to endure but only ended up being flattened. The aether beasts were as large as the carriage, with their size and speed they manage to fling it multiple meters away from where it originally stood.

Thankfully Laurence had entered the carriage as soon as he saw the aether beast. When the aether beasts slammed on the carriage and flung it, it rolled and tumbled away before finally stopping. Throughout the process, Laurence used used his body to cushion Lucius and minimize the impact he would've received. However, both of them were still knocked out unconscious.

The aether beast were still rampaging and chasing the bandits that were on foot away, killing multiple of them in the process. When they finally calmed down, they sat down near the fallen carriage. Although horribly damaged beyond repair, the inside was still secure and closed.

***

Paul was inside a school room. He sat right near the back door and had his eyes closed. After taking a deep breath and exhaling out, he opened his eyes at his personally made love letter.

'I can do this!' He thought. However, a lingering feeling was discouraging him deep inside his heart. Picking his bag up and standing up, he walked towards the window. Through the glass panes he saw a girl down on a bench with multiple people. She had long black hair, brown eyes, and was exceptionally tall.

When he took the time and saw the other people sitting beside her, he felt depressed. They were all better than him, he felt anger, shame, sadness, and self hatred in one single moment. She was his crush, the person that lightens his heart. Seeing her with the most talented people in the school made he feel small and useless. He had the worst grades, a bad personality, and lastly he was the poorest person in school. Compared to the other people, he really had no significance.

The door opened at two of his classmates entered. It was a young boy and girl, they were happily chatting until they saw Paul which made them frown. The both of them felt uncomfortable and scared while Paul felt awkward.

*Crunch*

Clenching his fist and stuffing his love letter inside his pocket, he walked out the room. Paul wanted nothing more than to sleep back home. The dou felt hesitant to tell him something, Paul turned to look at them and asked "What?".

The young boy step forward. "Umm... Paul, it's tuesday today and... well, you're on cleaning duty. I know your busy, so please try to help out." A smile was forced from his mouth. Evidently he was scared, Paul was known for his explosive temper.

"Oh... Yeah." Paul wasn't a talker. He took a broom and cleanly swept the floor under 5 minutes while the other two cleaned the chalkboard and arranged the seating arrangement. Even if he didn't want to clean, he was evidently force to since the teacher can help his pitiful grades as long as he behaved appropriately. It was completely silent and awkward with Paul. He figured it was time for him to leave, he had nothing left to do.

When he was walking towards the front gate, his eyes met with the girl he loved. She smiled and gave him a wave to which he waved back. Paul looked away and continued moving. It was only then that he really felt depressed, touching his pocket and feeling nothing, he panicked. He checked inside and found it empty. "F*ck!" He cursed. Without a moment sooner, he ran back to the classroom door panting.

He grabbed the handle and walked in. Only then did he see his crumpled letter on the ground but when he looked up his face paled. Once again he was inside the statue filled pantheon. Thankfully he could move but the light of the blade still called out to him, he tried slowly backing up when felt his back hit a wall. The door had vanished again and he was trapped inside the horrid place once more.

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