Chapter 15 – Lightning and Thunder

Riou left the king to his thoughts as he seemed rather disturbed by the conversation. Stepping out of the room he moved towards the exit of the Royal wing. The corridor was long and wide enough to easily fit a group of 10 people walking by it side by side. In the middle, a thin purple carpet with details in golden thread, the carpet was wide enough for 3 people to walk side by side on it with some comfort. The corridor didn't have enough windows to keep it fully bright, and some shadows formed between them and the few columns that it had.

After a few steps in it he noticed the door in front of him open, which made him suddenly stop. A figure stepped through the shadows, walking towards him. It was a man, clean shaved and very short black hair, he was using a yellow knight cape and the official knight uniform, Riou recognized him from the feast, he was the third knight.

Riou started to move once more when he recognized the knight…

The yellow caped man wasn't walking, he was strutting through the corridor, which gave him an arrogant and conceited posture in the eyes of the boy. Riou just forced a smile and continued walking.

-----------------------Yellow Caped Man Point of View

As he entered the corridor leading to the Royal wing, he noticed the famous boy coming through it.

"Fools, all of them…" he thought to himself, "This boy is clearly up to something with that half elf… to think he had found a good pawn to work with, the boy is clever and able to play his part I must admit, but only a blind man would not notice he is hiding something. Their plan seem to be moving fast" thought the man as he observed that the boy was coming from the Royal Court that could only mean he was speaking with the king.

"But no matter… whichever their plan might be… it's too late now…" He thought as he passed by the boy who was clearly forcing a smile. He didn't notice it but he was holding a haughty smirk as a reflection of his thoughts while looking the boy from above, with the certainty in mind that he would crush the Magus endeavors. He kept going, and a few more steps later…

"Poor boy, your bad timing will be your doom…" Thought the knight slightly turning around to have one last look at the boy… to his surprise, he saw that the boy was idle in place a few steps from where they crossed, he stood there facing his direction with a serious face and penetrating eyes…

"He knows…" was the first thought the knight had as his eyes widened and a sense of fear filled his mind for a moment… before he could subdue it. "Impossible, he can't possibly know anything…" he tried to convince himself, as he quickly turned back and kept walking… "Better take care of the boy as well… just in case…" the yellow caped man concluded as he left the corridor…

----------------------- Back to Riou

"Interesting…" thought the boy unconcerned by the interaction… he felt as a player once again, manipulating a character on a screen, but now with a great array of options to his disposal. He thought that he might put himself in danger by acting like that, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity as he felt the knight looking down on him. And strangely, he felt no fear in doing so.

"I knew he was looking down on me as soon as I saw that smirk and high attitude…" he thought, "And that change in attitude, from high and mighty to the fearful in a blink of an eye" analyzed Riou "It was too big of a change for just a noble's contempt wanting to crush the common folk… no…" Concluded "He is up to something, something big and that reaction was his realization I'm on to him, the fear caused by that thought… was what caused that reaction…" He wondered as he descended the stairs to the ground level… "…could he be a spy from Argos?" Questioned himself due to his recent talk with the king, while going back to his room.

Entering the room, the thoughts of home came once back to his mind, this world was not his and he missed his family and friends, his old daily routine more than he imagined he would. Been teleported to a crazy world with magic and kings seemed much better in his fantasy, the reality of it was much harsher and different than what he anticipated. He used to never understand why the protagonists of his stories strived so much to get back home… Now, after a month in this world he knew very well why, and also longed for his home.

Looking around the room as he entered, he saw a small wooden tub with 2 water buckets at the corner of the room, "Could it be!? The room maid must have been able to request it earlier" he thought while analyzing closely the wooden tub, it clearly couldn't fit a person entirely, but certainly he could sit inside and be comfortable enough to properly wash the majority of his body.

He removed his clothes and promptly sat down on the tub pouring water from one of the buckets inside of it, the water was cold and he felt the thermal shock from it, quickly stopping but only after getting a hold of his nerves, as he trembled all his body for a moment. He put his hand inside the water in the bucket and forced the magic to heat it to a better temperature.

He still was trying to get used to control his powerful and abundant mana, so he tried not to heat the water too much.

Next to one of the buckets there was a yellow bar, seemed some kind of old soap with some dark round dots all over it. Riou reached for it, and the soap felt as rough as it seemed, but it matter not to him, as long as it functioned as a soap, it was all he cared about.

The water in the tub quickly got a brownish color with dirt of his body, he promptly used magic to transfer it back to the bucket, and he was already left with only one water bucket, he went by the window to see if no one was around and poured the dirt water in the earth below.

Cleaner than before, but nowhere near the desired level, he got near the tub once again and put his right hand right above it, he commanded the mana to condensate the water in the air and added his own mana to the equation to intensify the flux, from his hand down to the tub a stream of water fell down, as if a water tap had been open. Quickly filling it over the half with warm clear water… he went back on it and intended to relax while cleaning himself more… "It's not a bath tub… I can barely fit here with modest comfort, my feet and most of my legs are outside of the tub, but it will have to do for now" the water barely covered his chest, but was good enough to relax, and so he did.

Since it took him so long to be able to take a simple bath, he intended to enjoy it thoroughly. He stayed inside the water until his skin wrinkled. After a couple hours of watery entertainment, he washed his clothes with the remaining water putting them to dry near the window.

Was then when he noticed the cloudy weather, thick gray shaded clouds took the sky completely, seemed it could start to rain at any minute now.

As he put on his noble's outfit he thought to himself he should go to the city and buy new clothes… but for that he needed Max's money, and thinking on the mage, it's being a while since he last saw him.

Max was the only person who showed compassion toward his situation, and showed great knowledge and understanding in the topic, Riou was certain that the Great Magus title wasn't just for show, and that the friend he got in this world would really try to help him, it was Riou's best shot at the moment to be able to get back home.

Riou thought strange that he was not in the kings studies room as last time, "perhaps he have gone to the Drinking Bear tavern today again… but why didn't he invite me?" thought Riou wondering why he didn't invite him, as the food there was really good.

It was lunch time when he left his room towards the messing hall, since he couldn't see anyone there he went to the kitchen once more, there were some dried meat from the morning been taken to the storeroom basement, as most of the food was already taken or disposed, he quickly grab from the dish the cook was taking downstairs a few pieces and gesticulated thanking her for the quick lunch.

Riou ate while looked for Max once more by the castle, but he was nowhere to be found, when he reached the front of the gates he asked the guards who greeted them when they arrived the day before.

- "Excuse me, did you guys see if the great Magus passed by today?" asked the boy

- "I cannot say I have, many people left today in the morning, the nobles, knights and court mages all went back to their respective lands, but I think I would certainly remember if the Great Magus was amongst them!" Said the guard proudly and vigorously.

It was strange, Riou thought, how could he not find him them? Perhaps he was on another place of the castle, and since it was too big they just missed by chance. If he had a cellphone he could call him, but that convenient technology was too far away. "Well, he must be busy, that's all, and later on he might show up" concluded Riou.

Without much else to do, he went towards the third step of the gardens, he was already at the front of the castle, and the giant staircase had many large steps that went on until the very gates on the walls down below. He could easily count about 15 steps that started wide and were getting smaller as they approached the walls, in the very center of the garden there were a stone road, well leveled and wide enough for two carriages comfortably and simultaneously transit on it. Some of the higher steps surrounded the whole castle before reaching the side walls, which were closer to the castle than the front and the back wall.

The front of the castle had only gardens and beautiful flowers and bushes well-trimmed and treated. The location the princess mentioned was at the back garden near the rear wall. Deciding to go there he moved by the garden, opting to taking the scenic route instead the usual through the castle.

The clouds seemed closer than usual, perhaps was just his impression or even because they were that high on the top of the plateau. Riou walked watching the walls, they were very high, high enough to accompany the castle floors in high, a big part of the walls were closed and resembled a corridor, with windows and doorways, probably a garrison for the soldiers to stay by in colder nights and with weather protection, thought Riou while walking through the side garden, he also saw some staircases every now and then to allow the guards quick access to the walls from the garden.

The side of the castle was simpler and clearly less used, the grass was high and the flowers were less tended to than the front ones. Near the edge of the castle he identified the kitchen by looking the different big windows, and right outside of it there was a well, probably from where all the water supply of the castle came from. The well was very deep, but had water on it, perhaps the plateau had some sort of reservoir, somehow filtering the rain, "they could use a pump to get the water up faster…" he thought while looking the well.

It didn't take much to reach the backyard… It was empty compared to the last time he was there, the arena and everything around it was empty "The guard mentioned everyone had left, but this place looks like a ghost town nowr" he wondered getting down from the first step without using the stairs that were located at the middle of the garden, he just kept going straight since left the side garden, and the step was easily as high as his waist was, he measured it after a small jump forward for then falling on his foot down near the edge. He kept walking towards the place the princess mentioned.

Arriving at the training house on the third step, it resembled a house of stone walls and wooden roof, very alike the roofs of the houses in the city, having only the ground level. It was long and wide, took him about 20 wide steps to go side to side, and it was about 15 steps wide As he approached the entry door he heard noises and sounds of chatting coming from within the training hall, seemed like there were already people there.

The door was wide open, and Riou was able to look inside, he saw the princess in hers usual training gear, unarmed, and the robbed red haired girl with purple details a few steps from her, but this time she was also wearing a training gear similar to the one of the princess. Both had their hairs tied in in a similar fashion and were taking poise…

Soon after that, the Red Haired girl began to move her right arm upwards and directing it to the princess, chanting some elven language in the process, soon fire began to form near her palm big enough to fit her entire hand, it was red as her hair and had very small parts in yellow flame.

With a quick motion she shot a fireball in the princess direction. Riou got surprised but since the princess didn't even flinch he assumed this was a kind of training, as he remembered the princess attended the academy and probably knew the basics to defend herself.

The princess quickly pushed her right arm forward and in an upward movement with it a water barrier formed instantly in front of her, without any kind of chanting or preparation whatsoever. Riou was impressed, even Max sometimes needed preparation and runes to get his magic going.

The fire reached the barrier vanishing in vapor smoke instantly.

The red haired girl repeated his moves, and now an even bigger flame appeared, it was mostly red like the one before, but 3 times bigger than the last one, easily 3 palms of diameter. And as before she quickly shot it at the princess, which proceeded in the same way… But this time the barrier barely hold and collapse right after the fire vanished in vapor.

- "You see what I mean princess? The chanting improves the magical capabilities and reinforces the mage abilities… you should chant as well to create a better barrier…" said the red haired girl approaching the princess.

- "No, I must be able to perform a good barrier without it" said plainly the princess "What happens if my adversary don't tell me the magic he is using? Or his chant is not one that I'm aware of? Even worse case, he is a high mage with voiceless casting, how can I defend it if I'd still would have to chant…" Said the resolute princess to her teacher.

- "You are too worried, even I wouldn't be able to do that, that's why you should have a quick chant barrier ready all the times, or a rune barrier to defend yourself…" Tried to convince the princess to practice her chants better.

- "Maybe, but maybe there could be a time where I don't have the time nor the resources to do so… So I'd prefer to be prepared within my own capabilities." Answered an even more resolute and convinced princess.

The red haired girl then notices someone at the door and looking behind the princess she said

– "Seems like we have company" The princess promptly looked behind her to see Riou standing in the doorway, she didn't lose time to invite him in – "Please come in Riou, we were just having some magic lessons…" Said the princess in a rather pleased mood.

As Riou entered the Red haired girl recognized him, - "You are the boy from the king's feast, the one that fought the princess in the second duel" Said the girl trying to understand why he was there, and why the usually cold princess was inviting him in so politely, even more than that, she seemed happy to see him.

- "Riou will be training with me the sword after our magic lesson…" Explained the princess, introducing them as Riou approached

- "Lilly, this is Riou, a friend of mine. Riou, this is Lilly Eilidh Fernis, she is a court mage under my Father."

Riou Slightly bowed with a smile towards them greeting them both.

– "Please, I didn't mean to intrude your lesson, if you don't mind me watching please do continue" Said the polite boy.

- "Are you interested in the arts by any chance?" Said a cautious Lilly, as if investigating the boy's reasons. Magic lessons were secretly held, and a watchful eye could prove most disastrous if it would leak information to rival mages.

- "Riou certainly know magic, I heard from the soldiers of the First he took lessons every night from Maximilian himself" Interjected the princess in an elated tone.

Lilly was very surprised…

- "It is said the Great Magus didn't took apprentices for the last fifty years… are you saying this boy is his apprentice?" Said very surprised looking towards Riou with a tad of envy in her tone.

Before the situation went out of control Riou explained himself – "It's not like that, it's true that we talked and he indeed showed me a few moves but that was it"

Lilly eyes widened up, she couldn't contain her surprise… - "He showed you… moves? The Dragon Slayer himself?" Said the Red mage clearly showing envy.

- "You make it sound a lot more bigger than it really was… he tested me after I was found, he said I had some magical capabilities but since I was unable to used it, he showed me the basics… but it wasn't of much use to me, so we basically just talked most of the time" He said clearly not lying, indeed it was of not use because of the different approach he and the Mage had about magic, but he thought he should omit that part that.

- "See Lilly" Said the princess – "No need to get so worried, it's not like we are using high tier magic here anyway, and we are just improving our reaction to real battle situations" Said the princess defending the boy.

Lilly knew the princess for a long time, they were friends even before both of them both went to the Magic Academy, as Lilly's father was also noble under the king's court. What she found curious was that she hardly saw the princess acting in this manner towards anyone, much less a boy. Which left her intrigued, the boy somehow befriended the Magus and the princess in a very short time. "I must keep an eye on him, something is not right about this…" she made a mental note to herself while nodding in agreement to the princess stepping back to get into position once more.

Riou also walked to the side and sat down in the floor. There wasn't much furniture inside the training hall, the floor was made of wood and there were a few wooden columns to support the ceiling disposed in a way to leave the center of the training hall empty and spacious.

Looking around he could see real and wood weapons of all kinds hanged in the walls around, mostly were wooden replicas, but some real were present as well, it varied from big halberds as the guards were using, to daggers similar to the ones he saw on the weapon shop. Riou noticed the swords variety were the most numerous amongst the weapons, but not impressive at all, he knew thousands of weapons for playing games, the displayed weapons there were nothing out of the ordinary.

Most were two edged blades similar to knight's straight swords, just with different sizes and hilts. The one edged ones were few and resembled a falchion, with a barely curved blade, and just by looking at them he felt they were more ornamental than proper for combat.

- "Try chanting this time princess" Said the Red haired mage conjuring once more the big fireball as she did before

The princess started to chant some elven words… when she finished Lilly threw the fireball once more in her direction… with the same movement as before the princess erected a water barrier, this time it was thicker and seemed much stronger than before. And it consumed the fireball completely.

- "See? It takes too long…" Complained the princess

- "But it is effective… if you want more power without taping into the spirit magic, you need to be able to pull more magic or water to produce the same kind of result…" Retorted Lilly.

Riou ears got up… "Spirit magic?" He remembered Max telling him about it, but at the time he didn't payed too much attention as it seemed part of his different approach to magic…

- "If I may ask… What is spirit Magic and what does it have to do with chanting?" asked the curious boy.

"Everybody knows that… is he playing us for a fool?" - Thought the Red haired girl getting visibly angry. Noticing that the princess once more jumped in.

- "Spirit magic is the magic in the realm of the spirits, a person is able to tap into it by chanting the words of power to open a connection with it. But it takes time and is not very useful in a real fight if you do not predict or recognize your enemy strategy beforehand." Said the princess ad she politely explained the topic.

- "Why the chanting is in this other tongue?" – Asked Riou right after the princess explained.

- "Well, because it's the shortest one which we can provide the words of power, it can be done in any language actually, as the meaning of the words that grant power to the chant and connect to the spirit realm where the elements dwell." - Continued Eileen.

Riou pondered for a moment… "I need to try this later on… if there is no language restriction it might work even for me" he concluded.

- "Very insightful Eileen, thank you for the clear explanation" Said Riou very politely and impressed as if complimenting the princess clear explanation.

- "E-i-leen!?" Stuttered Lilly. Clearly surprised by the casual way Riou directed at the princess, and immediately gazing upon her for an explanation…

The princess just smiled back innocently, she clearly not intending to explain anything.

A bright flash suddenly filled the room, and as fast as it came it vanished followed by a resounding thunder that made the stone walls tremble vigorously, everyone in the training hall looked around in startled since the lightning strike felt very near.

Lilly seemed excessively preoccupied – "I will take a look outside, you two wait here…" She said running towards the entrance of the hall… as soon as she crossed it Riou noticed she was fearfully surprised, he also noticed she quickly trying to utter some words while waving her both arms in front of her in a circular manner, before suddenly been stricken by a flash of light that violently hurled her out of his sight.

Eileen eyes widened and with a very apprehensive face, and even in that situation, she was able to stay with her usual calm demeanor and rational thinking, she whispered – "A high tier mage that can invoke lightning…"

- "Yeah, I noticed…" Replied a nervous Riou – "We are easy targets in here…"

Eileen agreed nodding, Riou was impressed how calm she was in this situation, of course she was nervous but she was suppressing it very well and in any way was hindering her movements or thoughts, truly impressive. And for him, he was nervous as well, but it was different, he remembered all the crazy situation he played in, and all the crazy stuff in the movies he saw. He was nervous, but still, as the heroes he saw and played with, he felt able to deal with the situation.

He quickly grabbed a real iron sword from the wall and ran outside first, the princess followed him right after. She didn't equip herself as the enemy was a mage, she didn't think it would help.

Going outside and looking towards the rear walls where the lightning clearly came from striking Lilly. He quickly saw about 20 steps away, in front of him, a dark robbed man, also quickly noticed on top of the walls to his right and left side another 2 black hooded figures, one in each wall. They were going towards the garrison in the top of the wall, probably wanting to clear the guards that could be there, seemed like no alarms were triggered and the castle was still unaware of the attack. "They probably want to get inside the castle" Riou calculated.

Their robes were very dark and the hood covered their faces… Riou kept an eye on the one in front of him while tried to keep his guard up towards the ones in his flanks. As any of them could attack him at any minute.

Riou quickly looked behind him to see Eileen also taking a fighting stance, far away he also could notice Lilly, in the middle of the way between them and the castle, and she was laying down on the ground, unmoving. But he couldn't help her now, he had dangerous enemy in front of him.

The black mage started to walk towards them, raising his hand and showing his open palm…

Riou suddenly felt all the hair from his body to stand up "Electricity…" he quickly realized pouring magic in his iron sword giving it a strong concentrated positive charge, at the same time changing his into negative charge, that was not simple to do since he was in contact with the positively charged earth, maintaining a negative chard required constant mana, but if he kept doing it might work he realized.

He promptly planted the positively charged iron sword in the ground and took a step back turning towards Eileen and touching her shoulder, quickly changing her charge into negative as well to repel the lightning that was about to come. She felt nothing but somehow understood that he was helping her.

A moment after he touched the princess the sword was stroke by a violent lightning, Riou quickly turned, as they were alright and the sword was still in place "It worked" he thought to himself happily.

Looking once again to the princess – "Go get Lilly… I will follow you shortly after…" He said confidently, Eileen just nodded, as she saw the confident Riou, she could not grasp completely what was happening, but to her seemed like the outstanding swordsman that was Riou, was somehow able to fight the mage. And as she saw his confident face she knew he would win somehow, quickly turning and running towards Lilly.

Riou didn't lose time, as soon Eileen was moving he turned around and in a single motion started running at the black mage. The robbed figure seemed having a hard time to understand why his lightning didn't hit them, but as the boy was approaching he just thought the boy got lucky and was clearly preparing once again.

Riou did not want to display his magical capabilities yet as there were still 2 enemies that he needed to pay attention to, luckily they were more worried with the possibility of the garrison guards alert the castle than the fight in the garden.

And Riou didn't want to bring attention to him with lousy spells and fireworks. So he resorted to melee attacks.

The black mage tried once more, this time he was even chanting to get an even more powerful magic out. That gave Riou a few more minutes to approach the mage "Indeed the princess was right, it takes too much time to chant" thought the boy as he approached forming a magical barrier around his skin, he was too near to avoid the lightning the same way as before, he must become an isolated this time, so he poured his mana in his invisible thin mana shield to try to isolate him completely and avoiding the magic this way. He almost in range of the mage, when suddenly the lightning magic lashed out…

Riou was a step away from the mage when it happened. The lighting clearly should have stricken down the boy, but as if the lighting moved by its own will, it bended, following a path around the boy, completely avoiding him by a safe margin, striking once again the sword in the ground far in the back where the boy once was.

The black mage could not understand and before he could recover from the mental shock Riou had arrived, and protecting his hands with the magical barrier Riou who brought his right arm low and as it was reaching the man belly he started to go up in a quick upward movement, punching the man solar plexus in a perfect angle.

The man fell on his knees completely disabled after the boy's punch, unable to breath and nauseated, Riou completed the combo with a hook to the man's jaw, causing him to fall down as a ragdoll.

Before leaving Riou removed the man's hood, he was completely bald with strange markings in his forehead that resembled some of the runes Max used on his parchments. He had light colored skin as the majority of the capital population, but he was very thin, almost in a sickly manner. Riou estimated he was around 40 years old.

The boy wanted to keep him alive for questioning, but there were too much going for him to get him to a prison, and he didn't want to let the man scape.

He looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him, and seeing the wall of the training hall nearby, he had an idea. And pointed his finger to the man, and then to the training hall stone walls… an eruption of wind sudden hurled the man violently to the wall. He hit it and fell down, it was a violent hit, but not enough to damage the wall or even cause the man to burst in blood.

"Crap… did I kill him?" thought Riou while running towards the man's body. He intended to subdue him in a less notable place in case his friends came back… killing him was not part of the plan, clearly he still needed to get a better hold of his magical powers.

Approaching the man he was still breathing with difficulty, seemed like he had some broken bones all over his body, but should live as he was breathing, his lungs were not punctured, Riou accessed.

He stood up, conjuring a magical chain around the man's legs and arms, immobilizing him in the ground and fixing the end of the magic chains to each other, as if he was tied up in the floor with a rope. The conjured chain was white, almost translucent with a thin blue glow, clearly a strong bounding spell that Riou just had created for that very situation, he calculated it should last for a couple of days before dissipating, giving him plenty of time to come back later. With his mind at ease that this fellow was hurt enough and secured he needed to get back to the princess.

He turned around and looked for the princess Eileen and the other two Mages, he was only able to locate the princess that was kneeled near Lilly probably tending to her wounds.

Riou quickly run to their encounter with his attention to his surroundings.

- "How is she?" Riou Asked as he arrived.

- "She is unconscious, she was able to create a quick barrier that absorbed most of the damage she suffered." Said the princess relieved seeing that Lilly was not critically wounded.

Riou grabbed the laying mage in his arms, she as small and easy to carry, he ran towards the castle with the princess by his side.

He opted to enter by the kitchen as it was near the messing hall and the stairs to the royal wing, probably the assailants wanted something from there.

Lying down the Red haired mage, sitting her on the ground and leaning her towards a balcony he whispered – "Stay with her Eileen, I will take a look around as we have at least two more invaders to worry about" Riou calculated at this point that the invading force could be bigger, more enemies than the ones he saw might be lurking around. And probably by this time the two man most likely were inside the castle as well.

Without waiting for the princess confirmation he moved away very quickly while crouched towards the door, very silently managing skillfully his weight distribution to make no sound with his feet. He noticed a small knife hanging on the wall and grabbed it in a quick motion, before leaving the kitchen into the corridor that led towards the messing room and the stairs to the royal wing.

Eileen was left behind to tend to the mage, in a safe position. Unable to respond she was only able to look amazed to the boy actions, seemed like he was used to that situation, as if he had done it thousands of times, before tending to the unconscious mage beside her.

Riou considered what the enemy action plan would be, probably they wanted the king or something the king possessed, and that could only be in the Royal wing of the castle. So he quickly and very skillfully ran up through the stone stairs without making single noise.

Quickly arriving at the top floor and Royal wing, he saw the two guards down, in a pool of blood, one of them had its arm ripped off and was far away in the middle of the corridor he would have to cross, the same corridor he walked that morning. "They were attacked before they could realize it, by a magic powerful enough to rip an arm apart, I don't see any aftermath of the magic in the surroundings, wind? Or just magical force perhaps?" Thought Riou while passing through the bodies without stepping in the blood, trying to understand and strategize against the possible magic he could have to face next.

As a shadow Riou moved through the corridor and swiftly reaching the open door, he positioned to look around on the other side of it, noticing a figure and some noises coming from the king study room, he began to slowly approach it, trying to listen what was going on with the knife ready in his right hand. He leaned with his back to the wall while approaching the study room's door silently, while still paying attention to his surroundings for any incoming enemy.

As he approached the noises became clear, seemed as someone was talking to the king.

- "Drop the sword, or the queen dies" He heard a coarse voice speaking.

An eerie silence followed

- "You too knight… don't think I forgot you are here as well…" once again the coarse voice spoke.

A sound of metal hitting the sound was heard, and another one in the sequence.

- "Very good… did you just now realized you already lost… you dismissed your best troops from duty, your knights and court mages are far away from here… do you feel helpless?" Continued the coarse voice after a moment of silence.

- "I wonder how Torwald will react when he discovers you let his precious daughter and granddaughter be kidnapped, right under your nose, from inside your very castle…" Said the coarse voice in a joyous tone, clearly making fun of the king and taking its time enjoying it.

- "That's right, or did you think that small, naive girl you call a mage could protect her? By now your daughter is already gone… the queen here will follow soon after, but do not worry, we will not kill them… we intend to have some fun first…" – The coarse voice was clearly enjoying the moment tormenting the king.

-

- "You bastard! Do you think I will let you leave this castle alive?" Riou recognized the enraged king's voice.

- "Poor king, are you delusional? Where this hope of yours come from? Is it the Great Dragon slayer you expect? Barging through the castle with his powerful magic?" Said the voice ironically before continuing – "Perhaps you should not put so much faith in that fake Magus of yours. He was easily lured to the city, and was already taken care of…" Said the voice in a low and grimly tone - "There is no one left to help you now… "

Riou was now right outside of the door and quick glanced inside returning then to his position.

He saw a black robbed person back holding with only one arm what seemed to be an unconscious queen leaned toward him, the other arm one was pointing a dagger to the King and Bhalrom who were faced the door, but did not noticed the quick boy looking, the dark mage was a few steps from the door.

- "The knight will die here, but you, you will live and face the despair that will follow" The coarse voice spoke in ecstasy, followed by a really disturbing laughter – "Hahahaha-ha…." That was abruptly ended.

Suddenly the man fell down as if the strings that were holding him were cut off, on the back of his head near the neck the king and the knight could see a small knife, piercing through his spine upwards towards the man brain.

Behind the man's body that fell down, appeared the boy, quickly holding the queen preventing her to fall.

The king and the knight rushed towards the queen to help her, and as they approached, Riou could see the king was extremely worried, "The princess" he thought, remembering what the dark mage said before – "The princess is fine, she is downstairs with Lilly…" he said in a calm manner to bring some relief to the king, but as a father he was, he was joyous but only would feel truly relieved once he saw her for himself.

At that moment Riou could only think in what the strange man said "the fake Magus was taken care of", and couldn't avoid but to feel worried for his friend.