The day of the fateful meeting part 1

Why did these things always happen to Cain? Had it not been enough for the world to take his parents away at a young age? Why did it have to throw such a difficult obstacle his way?

And by the difficult obstacle, he obviously meant the young prince of Eternia, Lawrance DeCapti.

That child was not right in the head.

Cain had met various people in his short life. He had been abandoned by his foster home again and again. He had felt the human viciousness from his classmates and his 'co-called' friends.

It was sufficient to say that he had seen a lot of crazy in his life.

But he had never met someone so eager to end his own life.

"See, no lock. I told you it would not blow up in my face."

The young prince was grinning as he held the small box containing his mother's pendant in his hand.

The hands were turning black with poison. Did the young prince not feel that at all? Or was it because of his average magical capabilities dulling his senses? Or it could be due to a head trauma Cain was unaware of.

But what he could conclude was that the younger prince was suicidal.

The young prince held the pendant out to him and Cain placed a clothe on his hand to receive it.

There was no way he was touching the pendant with his bare skin. He did not have a death wish.

Besides, dying by poison sounded painful. He had read that it began its killing by attacking the blood cells and then organs.

"Kyuuu~"

Cain tried to keep the body dragon inside the bag at his side but the small body held much more force than him.

The dragon easily forced his head out and licked at the prince's black fingers.

"Ohhh, they turned black. Did the box have poison? Should I try licking it to find out?"

The prince held the box closer to his face and Cain felt panic fill his mind. The prince would die if he did that.

Thankfully, the scaly body at his side finally decided to be useful and smack the box out of the prince's hand.

And only once the box was out of the prince's hand did Cain take a deep breath of relief.

"You did not have to smack it that hard. You even made a dent on its side. Do you know any restorative magic?"

Cain shook his head.

His life had not been easy and he did not even have any formal education available to him. How would know any kind of magic at all?

All he had managed to do with his magic up till now was what he had learned by the hit-and-trail method.

"A bummer. So a genius also has his shortcomings? Anyway, let's leave it here for now. We got what we came here for."

Cain did not know what the prince meant by a 'genius'. Cain felt like he was a dimwit when compared to other children in his class. He never understood anything when the teacher explained it in the class.

But he could not ask the prince what he had meant by those comments either. There was too much social gap between them both to do that.

And besides, the prince knew a real genius already.

Prince Lawrance's elder half-brother, Crown Prince Edward was a true genius. He was barely 19 and was about to graduate from the academy.

Most people didn't even start the academy until they were 16. And it was a 5 years course.

Cain himself was about to hit 15 years old but he had no idea what he would do with himself.

After all, it was not like he would be able to enter the prestigious central academy anyway. He was just not good enough for that.

All he had was raw power and no control. Even if he had a lot of talent, he would not be recognized without the ability to control it.

"Oi, stop getting lost in your thoughts. We need to leave this place now."

Cain tried to stop his magic from shoving the prince back but he was unsuccessful. As he had said, he had no control.

The dragon decided it did not like Cain's action and the tentative truce came to an end. Somehow he should have seen it coming.

Peace was never an option in his world and facing a dragon just felt like an appropriate thing that would happen to him.

"Ouch, that hurt. Learn to control your magic better."

Thankfully, the prince did not sound like he was hurt. And his voice instantly diverted the dragon's attention to him.

Cain used this opportunity to throw his bag on the small form and capture it.

Then the struggle began. The dragon tried to throw off the cover and Cain away from his face whole Cain held on to it for dear life.

He could not allow himself to be pushed off that easily.

"Hey, Cain let it out. It might be a kid but it is a dragon. We can't take it on if it decides to make us its food."

The prince did have a point. And Cain did lose his hold on the bundle underneath him.

And that proved to be a problem for them. The small dragon broke free and collided with the nearby table. The collision caused a loud noise that echoed through the base.

"Shit. Now they definitely know we are here. Quick, pass the bag to me."

The prince held his hand out and Cain quickly passed the bag over.

"Hey baby, look here. You see this bag, come and rest inside it. I will carry you from here on."

The pair held their breath as the dragon tilted his head to the side. If it decided to throw a temperament now then they would not be able to contain it.

Luckily for them, the dragon decided that fighting against them was not worth the effort and it crawled in the bag.

The prince held the bag, just as he had promised, and walked toward the doorway.

But he never got to open the door since someone from the other side opened it instead.

"Well, what do you know? I am the one chosen by the heavens."

===============

"Have you not found them yet? How difficult can it be to find two brats? It's not like they went in the forest or anything."

Every second worsened the boss's temper. How could these useless men of his not find two brats? It had been hours since they had last spotted even a trail of them.

It was not like the kids could have decided to enter the forest. The magic aura surrounding it was too cutting for that to happen.

It might have been named Golden forest, but there was nothing golden about it.

"Sir, they are not in the vicinity of the forest. We even deployed the hound dogs but we found nothing. And-"

"-And-"

"-And we spotted a few royal guards lurking near the forest. I am afraid that they might be on to us already."

Klein wanted to bash the man's face in but he controlled his temper. These fools might be useless but they were food fodder to get away.

If nothing else, he could always use them as a meat shield and get away safely like that.

"Umm, boss? What should we do now?"

The nervous lackey asked. Klein could see that his people were getting nervous and might abandon ship if he did not take charge.

"We need to distract the royal guards until we find prince Lawrance. He left together with Cain so we need to be careful."

A lot of his people looked angry.

'That brat. How dare he?', 'The boss took such good care of him and this is how he repays us?', 'We should kill him when we find him!"

Klien let out a small laugh as he watched his people get fired up.

He already knew that Cain was too much of a coward to be able to hitch this plan. It had to be the crown prince who instigated this plan and dragged Cain along.

Too bad for the young lad, he had to get caught up in all this. Had Klein known this would happen, he would have sold the teen beforehand.

After all, Cain might be a guy but he was well-built and had a decent face. Any guild would have jumped at a chance to get such a powerful slave under their control.

Klein was about to add fuel to the fire when he felt it. Someone had triggered one of his sensory markers.

Someone was inside his personal room and going through his belongings.

"You all, be careful. The royal guards are one opponent we do not want to mess with. Do not let them follow you here."

His underlings cheered at his words. They did not pay attention to him leaving the clearing.

Klein had to give the person who broke into his secret room credit. They had taken precautions to hide their presence. He could not tell what was inside even when he concentrated.

There was a foreign magic signature interfering with his senses.

"Well, what do you know? I am the one chosen by the heavens."

He opened the door and felt like the heavens had gifted him his present. He spotted the two brats he had been looking for the last few hours.

"You both gave me a hard time by running all over the place. Now, why don't you settle down and we have a chat among ourselves?"

It was cute to see the kids eyeing the passage behind him.

They really believed that they could get away from him if they tried hard enough. And it was cute of them to think so.

But fights like these often come down to experience. And he had the kids bet in that department.

"Cain, get ready to run. I know the royal guards must be nearby. You have to get them back here as soon as possible."

Klein sneered at the hasty plan. Did the kids really believe he would allow them to get past himself? Weren't they being too optimistic?

"Are you sure? I don't this it will be easy to get past the boss."

It was a pity that he needed to kill Cain here. The teen really had a good head on his shoulder. He would have grown up to become a great asset to him.

But there was no time to train that kid. He would be the collateral damage in this fight. And he would also take down the crown prince for Klein.

"Don't worry. I will find a way to get you past the security."

The prince sounded confident. He was such a fool, blinded by the power his background brought him.

Klein could tell that the prince had never faced a real challenge in his life. His background had always shielded him away from the horrors of the world.

"Alright. If you say so then I will believe you."

Cain was a fool, trusting the wrong person. And this will be his last mistake. Klein would make sure of that on his front.

The prince changed ahead at Kelin with his bag. It looked to be heavy and it was slow in its swing.

Klein easily dodged it and spun around to catch Cain in the same motion.

It was times like these that indicated how young these kids were. They had no experience in a real fight.

Klein could not wait to see the despair on their faces once they realise that their escape plan had been foiled by him.

"Now, use your claws and scratch his arm."

Something sharp-clawed at Klein's arm. It hurt and caused Klein to let go of Cain.

"Run and get help now. I will keep him contained."

Cain did look back once but Klein could not pay attention to him. He was more interested in the small black scaly thing curling in the young prince's arm.

"You might want to get your arm treated. It had turned quite black, just like my fingers. I guess this little one managed to nick his nails in your poison."

Klein could only watch in disbelief as the young prince held his poisoned fingers out toward him.

What the hell was this young prince made up of? The pain Klein felt in his arm was enough to make him regret his every decision. But the young prince did not even show a single hint of pain on his face.

He even held the poisonous dragon in his arms like one would a small cat.

Kelin could feel it in his bones. He was going to die if he did not get help soon. He had to find an antidote and he had to find it fast.

Too bad, his body was failing him already.

==========================

Outside the base, the bandits partied in high spirit. They seemed to have forgotten their boss's words and continued to cause a racket.

That was why no one noticed when a few of them slipped away with a serious look on their face.

One such person was Patricia Doe, the current guard leader.

The young female cut a striking figure with her straight brown hair coupled with her striking silver eyes. Her face had no fault and her skin shined with youth.

The female was counted among the top 50 magicians in the whole nation. She had so much work in her hand at all times.

And yet she had been reduced to babysitting duty by her superiors.

And all this happened because of that troublesome 'young prince.' He was the root of all her superior's headaches and problems.

That brat could not keep himself out of trouble and had to drag everyone along with him. And that includes his elder brother prince.

And that foolish crown prince was so lost in his promise to that maid (that younger prince's mother) that he chose to ignore everything and chase after the kidnapped prince.

This was an unnecessary security risk they were taking. The crown Prince was not one they could risk out in the open. What if he got hurt or worse?

Patricia was so lost in her thoughts that she did or noticed the strong magical signature crossing her.

It was not until her magic reacted to it that she snapped out of her daze and paid attention to it.

'How interesting. This magic feels just like the crown prince. Who in hell can have such strong magic?'

And her question was when a young stumbled across her path with a pinched expression.