Mercator

Amadeus watched as his convoy moved through the clouds. Looking back, he saw the capital get further away causing him to lament,

'This is probably the second time I've ever left the capital…'

Leaning on his arm, he spectated the villages and cities that the procession passed with a smile. With his eyesight he could see the happy smiles on everyone's faces as they bowed to the dragon. Sitting back, Amadeus looked at Eriko in front of him,

"How long till we get there?"

"Not too long, your majesty"

Amadeus nodded, the last time he left was on horseback, so it took them a long time but this time the speed was quicker as they were flying.  Their destination was the merchant city of Mercator, a popular hub for trade. Located in the in between the Drakonis Empire, Humanus Kingdom and Daemon Kingdome, it was a territory that expressed neutrality. It was a core location where many tradesmen passed through to trade in different nations.

Also, there was an academy there, funded by all the nations. It housed elites from all over the place and from all backgrounds. But knowing the setting of such a place, Amadeus knew that there was some sort of dividing line within the school, separating the rich from the poor or the nobles from the commoners. But Amadeus didn't care, it wasn't like he was going to the academy anyway.

"Have the other nations arrived?"

"Yeah they have, we will be the last ones to arrive."

Amadeus nodded as he laid back and closed his eyes.

- Mercator -

The day was normal like no other. Within the dark alleys hidden from the streets, a child was scrambling through. Stumbling on the wall now and then, his sporadic steps detailed his injuries and the slight light revealed the black and blue bruises littering his body. Still the determination never left the child's face as he persisted through the alleyway and into the streets. Faint voices were behind him, but they were quickly drowned out by the chattering and voices of the crowd.

"Oi!"

"Kyaa!"

"Hey!"

Various screams were left at the child's trail, but the child never stopped. The child ignored the cries and continued forward with a bread in hand. The maturity present in the child's eyes contained maturity that shouldn't have existed. Before the child knew it, he ended up in front of a rather worn-down shack. It was what he called home and his family was present here. Entering the place, a rather mouldy smell entered his nose, but he didn't pay any heed, he was long used to it. Each step caused the cracked floorboards to creak as he manoeuvred his way round the dilapidated furniture. Although the furniture was clearly worn down, they still ended up doing their jobs.

The shack itself wasn't large, it was rather small and only consisted of one room. Within the room was a bed, a table with two chairs and a kitchen. The toilet was round the back. On the bed was a rather beautiful woman with a warm smile. Just as she was about to speak, her eyes then travelled to the boy's hand and a frown quickly appeared. The boy stopped in his tracks as his mother talked in a rather stern voice,

"Where did you get the bread from?"

Seeing the bruises on her child, she could easily think what happened as the boy started stuttering,

"I-I-I-I…"

Putting her hand out, the boy flinched but she just bought him into a hug. She knew the dire straits of her family, after the passing of her husband, it seemed that misfortune after misfortune came piling upon one another. Still, despite her loss and her suicidal thoughts, she persevered all for the sake of her child.

The boy felt the sudden warmth and calmed down, no longer stuttering. The two stayed like that for a while when a sudden knock bought them out of their thoughts. The sudden sound shocked the two as they vigilantly looked at the door. They never had visitors and if they were, there was a higher chance it was someone with ill intentions. Looking carefully, the boy slowly left his mother's arms as he went towards the door. His mother hurriedly tried to stop him, but he reassured her and went to put his hand on the door handle. Just as he was reaching it, the door was once more knocked on, scaring the boy to take a couple steps back.

A worried expression masked the bedridden mother as she looked at her son open the door. The hidden fear of something untoward happening to her son, encroached her heart as she tightly grasped the tattered blanket that covered her. She hated her weak self and she hated all the reasons that caused the two to end up in this situation.

She had hopes to make her way towards the Empire, but she knew that the journey itself was filled with danger and she may not last with only the two. With what little money they had, they probably couldn't even get a carriage there. These thoughts were slowly put to them back of her head as she carefully hypothesised who would be on the other side.

'Thugs?...'

Yet, all she could think of were bad conclusions. This wasn't uncommon, with the dire straits they were in, one could only think of the bad endings that could or will occur. The boy then slowly opened the door and peeked out. Looking out, he could only see darkness as a large shadow fell over him. His gaze naturally moved to what blocked the sun from him as his eyes travelled up. What appeared a black figure, he couldn't see properly due to the sun behind the said figure as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness.

Narrowing his eyes, red armour entered his vision while a pair of apathetic eyes stared right back. The pressure the being bought with just the glance weighed on his very being. Almost instantly, he subconsciously started trembling as he felt weak beneath his legs. It wasn't that the figure exerted his strength over him, it was just pure instinctual fear.

"See you're scaring the poor child."

A young voice filled with mockery sounded behind the figure as he embarrassingly scratched the back of his head. Amadeus looked at the large Blade standing in front of him whose height easily reached over two metres. This was Jason, the largest Blade he had ever seen. Being an Earth dragon, his legs were like tree trunks while his arms were the size of him. Still the man gave out a simple laugh as his apathetic look immediately crumbled. The boy though, didn't pay any heed to this small exchange as his mind was occupied by the large man in front. Not knowing what to do, Eriko came in front and bent down, grabbing the boy's attention.

The boy visibly calmed down, but the fear still lingered in his eyes as his eyes kept darting about. With a warm smile, Eriko asked,

"Are you Freed?"

The boy was surprised by the question but slowly nodded. Eriko smiled widened as she looked back at Amadeus,

"We found them."

Amadeus nodded as he walked forward and into the shack. The boy was one more surprised and hurriedly tried to stop Amadeus, but he realised that he couldn't move. He could only watch the veil wearing boy that was a bit older than him walk past. He desperately tried to move but let alone turning, he couldn't even speak. Within his heart he could only hope that they didn't come with any ill intentions. This was the sad reality, against powerful, the common folk could only hope nothing untoward would happen to them.

The mother, watched her son tremble in fear and then freeze, easily letting another boy walk in. The boy had dark violet hair secured into a neat ponytail while two goldish silver horns protruded out either side of his head. A crown rested on top of his head while a veil dropped down from it. His whole body was covered in a violet robe with a five clawed dragon soaring stitched into it in gold. A slight golden sheen naturally was emitted from the fabric while a golden overcoat was loosely draped over it. Although the woman didn't know, only one being was allowed to wear that specific overcoat signifying his status. Still, she could tell that he was of no character.

Despite their shabby environment, she felt no repulsion from the buy that looked around her son's age. Yet, a silent pressure engulfed her as she knew that he was of no ordinary status. Amadeus stayed silent as he observed his surrounding until his focus finally fell on the woman,

"Are you Samuel's wife, Isabelle?"

The woman's eyes widened as she heard her late husband's name being called out. Amadeus knew who she was, but he just asked for the sake of it as he waved his had as a sword and set of equipment appeared in his hands. He wanted to personally hand the armour to the woman as she received it with care. Although it was a standard squire outfit for Templars, she immediately knew who it belonged to. Her husband wasn't talented, but he was proud of what he did.

His stupid smile flashed through her eyes and something clogged her throat. Unknowingly tears came out and she started to silently weep. Amadeus stayed silent as he turned around and indicated for the boy to be free. The boy immediately ran to his mother and started consoling her. Amadeus watched this until the woman calmed down and bowed.

"I thank the esteemed sir for bringing this back."

Amadeus shook his head,

"Samuel was a good knight."

Looking around he then asked her a question,

"You want to leave this place?"

Isabelle was taken aback by the question while Freed vigilantly looked at him. Amadeus then saw a difficult look appear in her eyes and but her off as soon as she opened her mouth.

"It's fine, I'll have a carriage prepared for you."

Isabelle didn't know what to say as she once more bowed in the direction of Amadeus leaving. Leaving the shack, he gave out the orders as a hooded robe covered him while Eriko and Jason waked behind him. He leisurely toured the city, coming across many tolls. While trinkets interested him here and there, he didn't buy anything.

Amadeus then thought back to the mother-son pair and wondered why they were in such terrible state. He was pretty sure an organisation like the Templars would take care of their knights and squire's families. Believing there was more to it, he turned to Eriko,

"Find out why those two were like that?"

Eriko nodded as she left the two to themselves. Jason immediately stood straight like a spear as his movements became more mechanic. It was like Amadeus was being followed by a robot. He could feel the nervousness radiating from the large man and it only went away when Irene returned from doing an errand.

"It seemed that everyone has arrived, the summit will take place tomorrow."

Amadeus nodded and immediately felt a gaze descend upon him. Turning around, the gaze left him as soon as it came as he carefully looked around. The other two were also the same but it was only due to the actions of Amadeus, as the gaze was only focused on Amadeus, only he felt it.

Knowing that there wasn't anything he could do now, he carried on walking while Irene increased the vigilance of the Blades. The streets were already littered with the private army and mercenaries hired by the merchant's council but in the eyes of the soldiers form the countries, they were just a ragtag bunch of hooligans bought together with the sole desire for money.

Every once in a while, he would walk by a different race, each with their own story, and it was the first time he had seen such harmony between the races since leaving the empire. Well, due to this place being the first city he saw since leaving the empire, there wasn't much to compare to.

Anyway, a large commotion occurred in front of him as his attention was also grabbed by them. There were two groups of people, one was purely dressed in white while the other in black. It looked like the clash of good and evil as it wasn't far from the truth in a certain perspective. One group was occupied by knights from the country of Illustris while the other was a group of soldiers from the Daemon kingdom. Each of them looked exactly like human but some of them had horns while some had crystals embedded onto their foreheads. In the middle of the group was surprisingly Emily, his vampire maid.