Prologue

"Have you heard? they say that the old earl's castle has become haunted" said a withered old man in the pub.

"Just baseless gossip!" replied another, "do you really believe in these old women's tales?"

"But then hunter Rusoc said that he heard someone playing the piano while he was picking some herbs by the castle!" said the old man.

"My daughter said that one of her friends saw the silhouette of someone ghastly moving in the dark and rigid skyline of the castle while she was passing by," a regular at the pub retorted while raising his glass of beer.

"It was probably some children playing around that old ruin in the dark of the night," someone who looked like a professor with big fat spectacles tried to raise an argument.

"True! true!" some drunkards who could barely raise their heads joined in from the background.

The one who looked like a professor then took a sip of the beer from his dimpled mug and then suddenly got lost in his thoughts.

"What if some thieves broke into that old house?" he asked.

"As if!" the withered old man laughed out rudely, not that anybody took offence in it.

"That old castle is as empty as the bubbles in my beer!" he went on raising his middle finger, "That bastard Earl left for the capital along with all his gold and any item that could be sold"

"Well, he did abandon his earldom to the mercy of the were-beasts." The man who looked like a professor agreed.

"If not for town lord Stuart and hunter Rusoc, the were-beasts would have already killed us," said the old man.

"It's nothing! it's nothing! just doing my obligations" a middle aged man with a bow and a bunch of quiver with rustic etiquettes screamed out as he wasted himself away.

"Drink up, Rusoc!" the man who looked like a professor exclaimed, "you are one of the heroes after all."

"Say, professor Jillian," asked the hunter named Rusoc, "what happened to the Earl family after they ran away?"

"Last time I checked Earl Kousov and his family settled in the capital. The Earl did get demoted but made new merits and probably bribed some officials to gain back his status," answered Professor jillian.

"Although that bastard Earl was indeed a bastard I wonder how his children are," wondered Rusoc. "If memory serves right that bastard Earl had both a daughter and a son."

"Who gives a damn about them!" the withered old man cursed. "Those spoiled brats would probably be the same as their bastard father."

"Back then thirteen years ago both children left a deep impression on my mind," Professor Jillian said, "the daughter, I forgot her name, had a lot of potential and even then when she was a child she showed us her prowess by solving various problem among the commoners. She even gave us the method of improving our drainage system."

"True! true! too bad she is born a girl. She is destined to end away as a pawn to her family's ambition," someone from the background added in.

"I remember the boy," Rusoc claimed without a sad face filled with pity that made him look as if he had sobered up, "Radcliff Kousov, that was his name. He was only three years old when they left. I remember him because he was Stuart's daughter's playmate."

"I too remember him," the withered old man agreed, "he stole my cane once along with young Elise."

Everyone laughs out loud.

"Speaking of Elise Stuart," one of the men said, "she sure did grow up to be a prodigy. They say that she is talented in both magic and swordsmanship."

"She was pretty close to Radcliff. They even often joked around of getting married to each other once they got older." Rusoc smiled feeling nostalgic.

"It was perhaps when the Kousov's family left that she changed." Professor Jillian analyzed with a shine on his spectacles, "It was then that young Elise decided to grow up. After losing her childhood friend, she decided to close all her walls and spend all her time studying. The neighboring children call her rock-hearted Elise."

"Alas! With the gain in talents she became emotion-deficient," claimed the withered old man.

"With her talent she should be able to enter the Eton academy, right Professor?" someone asked.

"She should," answered Professor Jillian, "although Eton academy does not normally accept commoners, with her father being a city lord and her aptitude in magic she should be able to enter."

"Although she had bloomed into a pretty flower with a high enough status among commoners," claimed the withered old man, "her being 'rock-hearted' is pretty much her only flaw. I wonder if she will ever open her emotions to anyone."

"that's enough old man!" a young local interrupted to relieve the heavy mood, "here, have a beer. It's my treat."

"If you say so Castellan," the withered old man answered, "this is going to be my last jug or else my old woman is going to get angry at me!"

Everyone at the background laughs at the withered old man's joke as they drowned their worries over alchohol.