Goodbye! Bam

Rankers were the elite warriors of the kingdom. Unlike other officers, they were not bound by any military rules and were free warriors as no one except the king's authority could control them. Since they were elite warriors, almost all rankers were more skillful than normal warriors and had high magic power. They took an important role in kingdom as they were the main powerful forces of Anthropos.

There were different hierarchy ranks among rankers. Their ranks were distinguished by the colour of cape they wore. The brown cape was the lowest rank and made up the vast majority of rankers. The blue cape was above the brown and above the blue was the green cape. If one was either a blue cape or a green one, it could be said that he was quite strong.

Above three of them was the white cape which were quite rare and respected by even royal families. The dark capes were the highest rank and there were only ten dark capes in the whole kingdom. Their authority was the highest among the rankers. They were called the 'Elite Ten'. The higher the rank, the rarer the ranker.

Each rank had more authority than the below one. Rankers only obeyed the king or they acted on their own but sometimes, they obeyed the higher ranker. The king promoted the rank by checking the ranker's performance in battles and wars, their loyalty and overall abilities. Normally, the higher rank didn't mean he was stronger than the below one.

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"So what should we do today, Bam?" A heavy voice appeared in the room. The room was big enough to accommodate two people. Sunlight was coming into the rooms as the roof was leaking with many holes. The walls were dirty with black stains and rat noises were coming from everywhere.

These rooms, mostly old rooms no one used, were provided by the local citizens for those people who had no place to live because their village was destroyed. Two kids were sitting in this room. The voice was from the one with the orange hair. He was Jame. The other kid, Bam, didn't respond to his question immediately. Bam seemed to look like he was thinking something really hard. Might be he was thinking about the incident that happened one month ago.

"Bam, do you hear me?" Jame grabbed Bam's shoulder with his hands and asked again.

Bam looked into his eyes and said, "Don't worry. I hear. Let's go out for now. We need to do something." But when they turned to the door, they saw its handle was jiggling as someone tried to turn it.

"Who are you?" Bam asked as soon as he saw a man with a hat coming into the room. Jame was standing behind Bam.

"Easy, boy! I want to discuss something with you. Can you spare me a moment, will ya?" The stranger explained after putting out the cigarette from his mouth and blowing the smoke. The whole room was filled with cigarette smoke. Bam and Jame coughed as they didn't like the smell of cigarette.

"Oh_sorry! My bad. Come, follow me outside the room. This room smells like shit. I can't stand it. Really. What are these guys thinking? Sympathy my ass! Even a stable is better than this shit__" He left the room spouting continuously. Bam and Jame looked at each other and followed him quickly.

Outside the room, there were many people like them who lost their family in their village last month's battle. The farmers who came to this city to sell vegetables. The carpenters who came to buy tools, all kinds of people were gathering here. If they could know that kind of fate was waiting for them, they would never have come here. It was sure they would prefer dying together with their loved ones instead of living in this hell. Basically this place was hell. To survive, they had to struggle as much as they could. They had to do all kind of jobs for survival though they had no will of living. Pitiful! That was life after all.

The stranger led them to a hut near that place. "Come in. At least, this hut doesn't smell like shit. Haha_" He mocked with a funny tone and went into the hut.

"Should we went in?" Jame whispered to the Bam's ear.

"I guess we have nothing to lose." Bam said and went into the hut. Jame looked around and followed him. The hut was at least better than their room as he said.

The stranger was sitting on a wooden chair and lighting up the cigarette in his mouth with a match. He seemed to smoke a lot. When the cigarette was lit, he inhaled the smoke and exhaled. Bam and Jame stepped back a little from him and closed their nose and mouths with hands as they couldn't stand the smoke.

Soon, the stranger stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray which was on the wide wooden table beside him. Then he took off his hat and put it on the table.

"So which one is Bam?" He asked as soon as he had put his hat on the table.

"Me." Bam raised his hand and said clearly.

"So you must be Jame." He pointed to Jame and said. Jame nodded.

"Good. I am Morgan. Nice to meet you both, Jame and Bam." He greeted them with a friendly voice and continued saying, "I heard about you boys from my friend Joe. Remember? The captain of the city guards. Ahh_you boys met him at the gate last month. Remember now?"

As soon as Bam heard Morgan's name, he frowned and thought. He had heard of this name before but he couldn't remember. Having no clue, Bam forgot it and nodded as a sign of knowing the captain. Jame also nodded.

"Good. I don't want to waste your time. So I will tell you on point. I am a ranker and looking for an assistant. As you know, the war has begun. I am very busy and need an assistant to help me but I don't want shitty bastards. When I heard about you boys, I got an idea. Are you interested?" Morgan explained them patiently.

"What is our profit? And also, you said you are a ranker. But where is your cape?" Bam asked with a serious look on his face. Jame was listening to both of them as he had no idea what to say.

"I am not lying but you know? Rankers don't need to wear a cape all the time. You need to know when is the right time. And of course, you will have your own profit. Let me continue."

Bam thought for a moment and nodded. Morgan continued, "Bam, be my assistant. I know you have been working labor for the last whole month for food and you had no time to improve your magic as you can't go to academy. So be my assistant, I will teach you as my disciple and give you salary. In the future, I can recommend you to the king for ranker position. Sounds good, right? Your ice magic will help me a lot. So?" He looked both boys to check their face expression.

"But how about_" Jame closed Bam's mouth.

"It is ok. You don't need to worry about me. Just go. You can't get that kind of chance twice. Go." Jame told him with a sad voice.

"My deal is not finished yet you know? I know you guys love each other so much. I am not a bad guy. Hahaha_" Morgan laughed loudly. Jame and Bam frowned and looked at him.

"I can recommend Jame to my friend Joe. You know he is the captain of the city guards. With my recommendation, he will surely train you into a fine warrior. You have no magic right? If you are lucky, you can still be a ranker. So deal now?" Morgan told them with a big smile. He started to like these two kids.

"Deal." Both of them answered with joy. Now everything was fine. There was a saying: After the storm, the breeze always comes.

Then Morgan called Bam near him and whispered something to his ear. Bam's eyes became wider and he was in shock for a second after hearing what he said. Jame saw it but since it was not his problem, he didn't ask. He was not curious after all. Then Morgan left the hut after wearing his hat.

Bam came near Jame and said, "He will come back at evening. So we will wait here." Jame nodded. They chatted for hours about the future until Morgan came back with a man. That man was Joe, the captain of the city guards.

"You guys have already met him before, so I won't introduce him again. I told him to take care of Jame. Jame, go with him. Don't worry about Bam. I will take care of him." Morgan said quickly after entering the hut with Joe. Joe nodded with a smile to show them that he remembered them. Jame and Bam also nodded a little.

"Sorry but I don't have much time. I need to move on to another place. I will wait outside with Joe. You boys, finish talking." Morgan and Joe left the hut.

Jame said goodbye and hugged Bam one last time. He was controlling himself not to cry. Bam also hugged him back. After chatting for a moment, they left the hut. Morgan and Joe were waiting for them outside. There was a beautiful black horse with a red mane beside them. It had a long tail and long muscular legs. Morgan got on the horse and called Bam. Bam ran to him and got on the horse with the help of Joe. Jame was waving goodbye to his friend.

"We will meet again, boy." Morgan raised his hat and said. Bam also waved goodbye to Jame with a smile. Then Morgan gently squeezed the horse's side with his legs and the horse started moving. Soon, the horse's speed gradually increased and the horse, Morgan and Bam disappeared from view.

"Your friend is really lucky to have Sir Morgan as his master." Joe put his right hand on Jame's shoulder and said.

"Yes." Jame smiled at him and said. But he frowned for a second later and asked,"Wait, Sir Morgan? What do you mean? I know he is a ranker but aren't only the high rankers respected by the people?"

Joe looked at him with confused eyes. "So you don't know who he is. I thought you know him since that kid named Bam know. Of course, he is a high ranker, the highest one, the dark cape. He is one of the Elite Ten, Smoker Morgan. It is funny to think people call him that because he smokes a lot. He is a good man. I admire him." Joe explained to him.

"B_Bam k_know?" Jame stammered. That was why that name was so familiar to him. Now, he knew why Bam was in shock. He thought Bam was really lucky after all despite the fact that their families were killed.

"Come! Your friend is trying his best. You need to try hard too. Don't worry. I will train you so hard and don't regret later. I am not as good as Sir Morgan but I will try my best." Joe grabbed his hand and said. Jame nodded. Joe took him back to the barrack and from that day, he trained Jame into a skillful warrior.

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(Thanks for reading.😇)