31 |Past Arina POV|

"Why is Master Ralph always one step faster than us?" Georgia asked. "It's the second time! But when we first started, we were the first to find out where Old Henry was!"

"Maybe they knew where to find Clark without needing to ask Old Henry," I replied while placing a piece of black marble on the chessboard. 

We're now in a carriage on our way to find the man, 'Smoky', who claimed to find the Sword of Fate but was defeated by the corrosive nature of the Sword. We first started with his colleague, Old Henry, back in the days when Smoky was still working under the military. Old Henry said he hadn't heard from Smoky for ages since he set out to find a healer to heal his rotten hand as well as to discover the secrets of the corrosive sword. Smoky sent one last letter ten years ago before he lost all contact, it's from an inn in a town in the Northwest part of the country. That's when Ralph appeared and he was always one step quicker than us. When we had finally arrived at the inn in the afternoon, we realized Ralph had been there in the morning. 

"Sometimes wonder if your brain is filled with holes," Carlisle said sarcastically. He looked bored and I was pretty sure he won this match. Again. 

Carlisle looked more or less normal after that meeting with his father. But it's just on surface, once in awhile, some dark emotions swirled in his eyes. A number of tea cups had cracked in his hand. 

"Let me see how Janus is doing." Georgia smiled sweetly and jumped out of the carriage. 

Betrayer. You simply didn't want to suffer from Carlisle's sharp tongue. Whenever I lost in a match, Georgia would sneak away. In the hope that Carlisle would not pull her into a match as well, even though Carlisle never indicated such an interest. Or maybe she jumped away too quickly. I was kind of happy that Georgia was not invited as well, in this way I would still be the only one Carlisle had taught. I would still be special in some way. I didn't know what I was thinking. Did I have to always compare with Georgia?

We were in the middle of another match. This time Carlisle fell into my trap. It couldn't be... I nearly could not hold back the smile forming on my face. And then the situation reversed, I was crushed on the chessboard. 

"Sometimes," Carlisle said while placing his winning move, "you have to pretend to fall into your enemy's trap to gain the most." His finger tapped on the chessboard once and looked at me with a half smile on his face. "Understand?" 

I lowered my eyes and began to tidy up the chessboard. "I learnt a lot, Master Carlisle." 

"I learnt nothing, as always," 

And we continued with our journey. At last we finally found Smoky. He was currently living in a hut in the woods near a town. But every month he would come to the town to buy supplies. We were fortunate that on the day we arrived in town, it's the day Smoky came to town. We met him in the town's market. 

"The Sword of Fate?" he spatted out the words like they're poisonous. "If you buy me a meal in the town's most famous restaurant, I can tell you where to find it." 

We settled down in a room in the town's most famous restaurant. As if he hadn't eaten for a very long time, he ordered every food available on the menu. 

A slice of red bean cake appeared in my bowl. "That's your favorite. See if it tastes better than Jade Garden," Carlisle smiled gently. 

I lowered my head in gratitude and focused on eating. When nearly all the food had been cleared from the table, Smoky finally said, "That legend about the sword in the cave of the highest mountain of Cregan is correct. It's inside that cave. But even if you could get past that beast guarding the cave, you can't get the sword." He gobbled down the cup of tea in front of him like it was alcohol and said, "Look at my hand!" He took out his right hand which he had been hiding inside the folds of his robes since we met him. Not one inch of the skin on his hand was intact. Liquids that looked like slime oozed out of the red glaring scars that covered his whole hand and forearm. 

"It's ruined!" he cried. "That sword is cursed! Once your hand touches it, your skin starts to break. It's cursed." 

"What if I had a glove made of finest copper? And a solution from a healer that resists corrosion?"

"Well you can definitely try." The old man laughed harshly. "Thank you for your meal."

And then he walked away while laughing madly. 

"Janus, we'll set out to the Southern Mountains." 

"Yes, Master." 

After another four days of carriage ride, we finally reached the town below the Southern Mountains and decided to take a day's rest before hiking the mountain. As for Ralph, we had no idea where he had gone. We hadn't seen him since the day we met Smoky. Even if Ralph had got hold of the sword before us, we still had chance to get that back before we reached the capital. Hiking the mountain was going to be demanding, so we decided to get enough rest in the inn first. Georgia and I were responsible for buying materials for the hike. 

We were walking back to the inn along the main street when we were surrounded by twenty people, all holding a sword. They began to attack immediately.