The Elder

After the audience, everyone was happy. Except for one noble who had to interrupt the frolicking princess.

"I challenge Oro to a duel. If I win, he stops all sale and copying of his book!", the random noble spoke out.

This makes Princess Elia stop playing with the birds and the king look over with a frown.

The king speaks, "Declaring a duel is not a simple matter in my kingdom Viscount Kristo. You also wish to duel a 113 year old elder. Which is also unbecoming."

Kristo remains stubborn, "I will still duel him your Majesty. Well, my champion will duel him. I have the right to do so."

Kristo was a fat noble. Properly not even a good noble by my senses. Perhaps I can entertain a bit and have some fun.

"I have no problem fighting his champion...myself.", I say aloud.

King Eric then looks at me with a bit of worry, "Elder Oro, I can help you get a champion if you like. Dueling at your age...isn't good for your health."

I laugh, "Oh don't worry about me. My old bones are as strong as a dragon's. This young skipper that challenges me is a 100 years too early to fight me. Even with his champion."

King Eric sighs, "Very well then Elder Oro. Since duels are to be carried out immediately. Let us all go to the palace training ground for my royal guard. They can duel there."

By the king's order, we get going. Elia gives me eyes of worry, but I just give her an assuring smile.

When we get to the grounds. Kristo presents his champion who doubles as his bodyguard. A burly man, tall and strong. 28 years old too. A 4th tier knight at 29 years old isn't bad either.

Viscount Kristo introduces his champion, "This is my chosen champion. Klark Numen! 4th tier knight and veteran of the Summer wars with the Northern barbarians!"

The Viscount is feeling good about himself about now.

I then introduce myself. First, I take off my suit, vest and dress shirt. I may be an old man, but my body is worthy of a sculpted statue. My skin is still "aged" but wrinkles are far and in between. Which only enhances my already handsome face. So when now that my upper body is bare, with all my chiseled muscle to see, the ladies are swooning.

I think to myself, "Good to know I am still charming, hehe."

I now introduce myself, "I am Oro, and old man who has lived a long life with many descendants. Although my beloved wife has been at rest for decades now. Leaving me with only best friend Gabriel. Now I have lived long, very long. Which I will I will tell everyone here the secret to longevity."

Everyone's ears prick up to hear my wisdom on living long.

I continue, "The secret is...power!"

Great vitality then begins to stir in my body. My aura begins flaring out to everyone. The ground shakes and the air gets thick. Everyone starts to sweat and fear creeps in.

I reveal, "Well Klark, seems that your Lord has thrown you unknowingly to fight a 4th tier Hero."

My reveal shocks everyone to their core. Klark especially since he is the one who is supposed to fight me. He immediately drops down, puts his forehead to the ground and shouts out in reverence, "I surrender! I have offended the great master! I sincerely apologize!"

I then bring in my aura and stop stirring my vitality.

I laugh, "Well, this duel was easy. Also, don't be so frightened Klark. You've done nothing wrong. Get up and go back to your lord."

Klark gets up and goes back to standing next to his lord. Which is currently on the ground trembling as he could not stand while feeling my aura.

I go back to put my dress shirt, vest and suit back on. I take a look around, and everyone without exception has changed how they look at me. Now, all of them truly respect me.

King Eric come sup to me, "Elder Oro, I had no idea you were such a powerful individual." He was a little sheepish and I found it funny.

I start to laugh and slap his shoulder like a grandfather, "King Eric, no need to be sheepish. You are a king. While it is good to not be arrogant against someone like me, that doesn't mean to throw away your dignity as a ruler. Straighten that back. You are king here and I am not. Just an old man enjoying the world in his twilight years. As for not knowing? Come one, how can a 113 year old man look this good if he didn't have a ton of vitality, haha."

King Eric smiles in relief, "You are right Elder. I'll be sure to keep my back straight from now on."

"Good, a man should only become a sheep for his mother and his wife.", I say as I give him a wink. The Queen that was with the other ladies begun to laugh. Many other wives begun to smirk at their husbands.

With this, the eventfulness came to an end. I was given free reign to go where I please in the city and the palace for the most part. King Eric invited me to tour the city and enjoy myself here for a few days. A welcome invitation I accepted. I was even granted a title.

Venerable Elder...

A title that hasn't been used in centuries apparently. I took it in stride and didn't mind the title. It even gave me quite a good number of benefits too. My words are almost law and my actions are unquestionable by all except the king. Such authority makes things easier.

I stroll through the city. Although it seems my visage is famous now as everyone recognizes me. Although Gabriel is still getting more looks than me. Which mildly annoys me.

To fix this problem, we duck into an alley. Then I cast some magic to shange our appearance with an illusion. Now I look like a proper old man with wrinkles. My clothes are different but still became a set of nice robes. Not poor robes, but not fancy robes either. Gabriel was changed into a bloodhound too.

"A bloodhound? Really?", he says to me.

I shrug, "Bloodhounds are not abnormal or stand out. At least not as much. Bloodhounds are a fine breed as well."

Then we come out another alley and continue our exploration. The shops and restaurants in the city all end up being great. The last part of the city we have not explored are the "slums". The part of the city made up of only the poor and even the criminal.

We both walked into the slums without a care in the world. For slums, it wasn't too bad so far. Buildings and road were more cracked. There was some trash on the ground. The people were all poor. Getting deeper into the slums, it became worse though. Broken buildings, huge potholes, trash, and people sleeping on the streets in the trash.

Shops were sparse and many traders only had stalls or set up in alleys. Most were shady. Dirty small children were running around on thin legs. They had no smiles to them. Out of curiosity, I decided to stay in the slums as it became night.

When it became night, the slums got more lively. Not unexpected. More shady people were on the streets now. I saw a nervous man walking about with two children. A boy and a girl, both very young. He looked like he had a destination in mind. I decided to follow. An unnoticeable distance behind.

I saw the man the two kids enter a door of an old building. The door had a guard on it. I try my luck and walk up to the door. I reach to open it, but the guard's hand reaches for the door handle and opens it for me.

"Let me get that for you. Enjoy your fun old timer.", he says with a creepy smirk.

"Thank you young man. You do good work.", I then enter the door. Which leads to an staircase that goes down. We were already on ground level, so this must lead underground.

Gabriel and I ventured forth. We came upon an intersection hallway with signs that give direction. Going forward leads to the sewers. Going right leads to the catacombs. Going left leads to the "Hand House".

The Hand House seems to be the only place the man would reasonably go. So I went left towards the Hand House. Some turns later, I come to another door. The door is bigger and has two guards instead of one. They are not weak either. Both are 2nd tier knights.

One opens the door for me and welcomes me in. Apparently there isn't a no animals allowed policy since they said nothing about Gabriel.

We go in, and I take in the very large space before me. It is filled with gambling tables, exotic dancers, and in the middle of it all is a big arena. Where fighters are currently fighting. I can conclude that I am in an underground gambling den. There are a lot of poor people around trying their luck. There are also a lot of people in fine clothes and wearing masks.

Looking around some more, I got whiffs of what was on the table for the gambles. Sometimes, people were being gambled. However, I have read the laws. Using free people as gambling collateral is illegal. Only legal slaves can be used as gambling collateral. However, these people are gambling away the poor children. Even if they are their own children. Loathsome.

I've even seen some drugs being passed around.

This entire place is a den of illegal activities. What is most concerning are these well-dressed "guests". Something of this size can not be unnoticed. It is likely that this place is being protected.

Then I spot the man I followed. He is at a table and it seems like he has lost badly by the look on his face. Then two men grab the children at his side as they cry out. I nearly pop a vein at the sight.

I say to Gabriel, "This place is vile my friend. It needs to be eliminated. To not be afraid to kill the ones that partake in the evil here. As I will not hold back either. Destroy the evil."

He growls, "Gladly..."

I then undo our illusions and we both flare our auras and stir up vitality. Before anyone can figure out what is going on. We both stroke out in untraceable speed. We both are higher entities, so figuring out who is evil and who is not is easy to us. We tear through this underground place. Killing slavers, the security, the underground merchants that practice evil ways. We even came across some evil magic users and evil necromancers. None were powerful. In front of the power of a 4th tier hero, it took only one breathe.

After a minute, we were done. All the evil is destroyed. All that is left, are the slaves, the unwilling, and the tempted. As well as the nobility. As I will let the king deal with them.

I told one of the slave girls that was serving drinks to call the guard and give them my name.

Soon after, a knight order and the guard came to the scene.

A knight approached me, "Venerable Elder Oro, I am Commander Orland of the Cloud Order of Knights. We came with the guard to properly assess the situation without any issues. We will give you an explanation as soon as we are done investigating this matter. The king has put off his bedrest and will be coming down here personally to deal with the nobles."

I relaxed my body and gave him a smile. Much different than the serious demeanor I had before.

I say to him, "Alright then Commander. Go investigate."

An hour later, the Commander had already gathered damning evidence of illegal trading of slaves, drugs, goods, and services. He even had whole lists of illegally enslaved people and promised to free them all himself.

The king arrived shortly. He gave me responsible look and started to tear the masks off all the well-dressed people. He recognized nobles and rich merchants alike. Although he had to stop when he found that Duke Owlwing was under the mask. The same duke that didn't like my book in his duchy. King Eric was aghast with betrayal and disappointment.

When he got finished, he walked over to me.

"Venerable Elder Oro, everyone here that you've dealt with are scum and villains. Every slave here was illegally obtained as well. There are mountains of evidence the good commander is still going through as well. I promise that I will deal with these nobles and this operation. I will see to it that it is resolved justly."

I patted the man on the shoulder, "Good, then my work here is done. Sorry for the mess anyways. I just can't stand villainy happening in front of eyes. I'll be retiring for the night."

With that, I left the underground space. My nightly escapade is now over.

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thanks for reading.