An Unexpected Reunion

"They were looking for me? Do you know their names?"

"No, they were too tired and have been resting since then."

Slaves looking for me? The only slaves I know of is the group I let escape from the facility back in the Beast Kingdom. There's no way they were caught again. They were all powerful individuals.

When we reached the adventure's guild, everyone saw May and welcomed her but when they saw me, they all backed away. It looks like what I did here is still fresh in everyone's mind.

"Follow me, Atlas. The slaves are living behind the adventure's guild right now." I follow May as she led us outback. Behind the adventure's guild were a lot of tents that had been set up. I'm assuming that this is where all the slaves were living. May led me pass many tents until she reached a tent located furthest from the guild.

"This is where they are. Please meet with them, I need to go talk to Ior." May left to meet with Ior. I called out so that the people inside the tent would know that I was going in.

"Atlas here, I was told that you folks wanted to talk to me?"

The inside was dark. I looked around and saw one bed and some mats on the floor. I see three figures on the mat look in my direction. The smallest figure stood up first and ran towards me. I then heard a voice that I haven't heard in a long time.

"ATLAS! I can't believe that you are actually here!"

"Casper? Casper?! What are you doing here? Who are the other two over there?"

The two stood up and also walked forward to greet me. The other two people in the tent was Casper's grandparents, Mars and Kiah.

"Mars? Kiah? Why are you guys here? As slaves? What happened to living in the Draco Kingdom?"

We walked out of the tent to talk. The trio looked awful. Casper looked a little skinner. His once dark black hair was now a dull and dead. He was dirty and was wearing dirty rags. Mars and Kiah both looked worse. They both also had black hair but now there was plenty of gray hairs thrown in the mix. The life in their eyes were gone. They both looked even worse than when I found them in the facility.

"Could you tell me what happened? What about Pollux? Why isn't he with you three?"

The three of them looked at one another. Casper was wiping away his tears. Kiah had a look of absolute defeat. Mars was the only one that showed any signs of life.

"I can tell you Atlas."

Mars answered me but he was also still comforting his wife and grandson. After a few minutes, Mars now seemed ready to speak after Kiah and Casper calmed down.

"After you left us, we found an inn and began to take the steps to restart our life. Kiah found a job as a waitress at the inn we were staying in. I found a job doing labor and Pollux would spend the days training with Casper watching over him."

As far as I could tell, it looks like they didn't have any trouble getting their life back on track.

"While I was working, one of the people I was working with had told me that his son joined the adventure's guild. I looked into it and learned that they accepted all ages. So, I did what I thought was best and signed Pollux up."

"Pollux got real experience then huh? That's good." I couldn't help but be a bit happy for him. He was my student after all.

"Yeah… that's where we met the princess though."

I perked up at what he said. So, they actually met Liza.

"Could you tell me about how that went?"

"Of course, I can."

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Mars POV

The next morning, I found Pollux training outside. It was barely 7 a.m. and he was already up.

"Pollux, try to rest a bit. You don't want to die of exhaustion before Atlas comes back, right?"

"But grandpa! I can't slow down now! I can't catch up to him if I never train. He has been training since he was 10 years old."

"Listen boy. You think he wanted to do that? He was caught and sold off long before you were even born. He had no choice. I still want you to enjoy the time you have left as a child."

Pollux sighed and sat down. It's good that he wanted to get stronger but I wasn't going to allow the boy to overwork his still developing body.

"Now, come with me. I'm going to sign you up to the adventure's guild. You can go on quest, make money and still train as well. It will be perfect for you."

Pollux jumped right back up. "YES!! I heard about that place! Let's go right now grandpa!"

The little boy already ran off without me. I was old so I had to carefully follow behind. At least it's early in the morning so the streets weren't busy. We should have no trouble signing up Pollux.

After a 15-minute walk, we reached the adventure's guild. (All guild halls look the same to make it easier to identify when adventures from other kingdoms are visiting.)

When we entered, there was only a few people present. Pollux was looking around like the guild hall was a toy store. He ran around and started saying different things to people.

"I'm going to be strong, just you wait!"

"I will be a legend!"

He even ran up to lady and started shouting things out.

"I will be the strongest and save a princess one day just like my teacher!"

The girl was a Fallen Dragon. Her red scales shine as the light comes through the window. There were two other female Fallen Dragons close to her, they looked annoyed and pushed Pollux away. He fell and ended up yelling at the two.

"Hey! Why did you push me?!"

Pollux was still naïve. It seems like he forgot that he wasn't Atlas. He can't just start fights that he can't win. I ran over to keep him from saying anything else.

"Please excuse my grandson, he is just excited and passionate about joining the adventures guild."

"I want to be strong like Teacher Atlas grandpa! And teacher wouldn't let them bully me!" He got up like he was going to do something.

The two guards looked at us like they wanted us to just leave. I grab Pollux and head to the desk, but we were stopped by the fallen dragon with red scales.

"Atlas? Tell me about this Atlas?"

I look over at the girl. Her face showed no emotions but she sounded interested.

"But princess, these peasants."

"You shut your mouth. You are only here because father made me take you two along."

I don't know what happened but for a split moment she gave off the same energy as Atlas did when he killed the prince's army.

Both guards stepped aside and the girl points at the two seats in front of her. Pollux and I sat down. Pollux was excited to talk about his teacher.

"Listen here lady! Teacher Atlas saved my family when we were captured. I don't know what would happen to us but I owe him so much now. I have to show him that I got stronger when he comes back to visit us!"

"Visit you? When will he visit you again?"

"When my little brother turns 10 so in 5 years!"

"5 years?" The princess seemed to be thinking about something. She then looked back at the both of us. "Why don't you train with me? I can guide you until this Atlas comes back."

Pollux agreed instantly. He felt the same aura that Atlas gave off that night so he thought they this girl could be as strong as his teacher. I was wondering why she seemed familiar though.

"Princess, please rethink this!"

The girl looks over to the guard and the guard tenses up once more. I heard the guard call her princess and that reminded me of what Atlas said before he left us. He said Princess Liza would agree to train Pollux if I told her I knew him.

"What's your name?" The girl asks Pollux for his name, this is my chance to find out if she is the same girl Atlas talked about.

"My name is Pollux. What is your name lady?"

"Liza, please to meet you Pollux. Come on, I will help you sign up," She turned to me. "Please join us sir, you will need to be here as well."

I follow behind, now I was 100% sure this is who Atlas was talking about. She fits the same description that Atlas gave me.

After that day, Pollux would train and do quests along side the princess and others. This went on for a year.

After a year, the company I was working for had us travel to the Beast Kingdom. Not long after we returned to the Draco Kingdom, the name Ghost of the Gods became well known. The mystery person attacked the prince of the Beast Kingdom and reinstated the royale family. The Queen has been rebuilding the kingdom since that day. It looks like this time we were contracted to work there. We were leaving for the kingdom once the new year came.

All guilds were given the quest to protect us while we traveled. Pollux decided to join even though the princess wasn't going. Since he was going, I had Kiah and Casper go with us as well. We haven't been to the Beast Kingdom before so I thought that this would be the best time since the Beast Kingdom was paying for some expenses.

Once the new year came, everyone who was going to the Beast Kingdom left. In total there were 9 carriages carrying just materials and another 4 carriages for the workers to rest in, and another 2 carriages for the guards coming with us.

We spent 2 days traveling with nothing occurring. While traveling on the 3rd day, we decided to walk together with Pollux.

"Pollux, you've grown so strong. I'm sure Atlas would be proud." Kiah couldn't help but compliment Pollux. She has seen how much he's grown. From an immature and overconfident boy to a boy who has overcame all his battles and learned to cultivate his fighting skills to new heights.

"I'm proud of you as well." Casper was asleep in my arms since it was still early in the morning. I could see Pollux give Casper a loving smile.

"Thank you, grandma. Thank you, grandpa. If it wasn't for the princess. I may have gotten myself killed since I was still so immature. I thought that I could already do things Teacher Atlas did but she showed me that I was nothing compared to him."

I was always worried about my grandson when he become an adventurer. He was always in his head, thinking he was only a step or two behind Atlas. Thanks to the princess Atlas talked about, Pollux understood how much stronger he needed to be.

While the three of us were talking, we suddenly heard screams from both the front and back of the group.

"BANDITS FROM THE FRONT AND BACK!!!"

Pollux pulled out his sword and prepared to battle.

"Grandma, grandpa. Please get back in the carriage. Stay there until the battle is over."

I could see Kiah's worry. I held onto her and took her back to the carriage. I have never seen Pollux fight but the princess has reassured me many times before that Pollux is more than capable of defending himself in big battles. I put my faith in him as I held onto Kiah and Casper. We followed Pollux's instructions and waited until the battle ended.

After what felt like hours, the cries of the battle finally ended. Many of the other workers hiding with us began to leave the carriage. When we left, I could hear loud gasp throughout the crowd. I was in the back with Kiah and Casper so we had to push through the crowd to see.

The entire area was decimated. Holes littered the ground, trees uprooted, and bodies lay around, both intact and in pieces. But the worst thing was that the adventures were the ones who lost.

Before us stood at least 100 bandits. All the adventures were either dead or in shackles. I tried to search around and saw that Pollux was also captured. He was ragged and bleeding. He seemed fine but when he looked up at me, I could see a slit made on the left side of his mouth that curled up and stopped right under his cheek. (Similar to Joker)

"Brother!"

"Pollux!"

Both Kiah and Casper tried running to him but I held onto them. I could see it in Pollux's eyes. Pleading for us to stay away from him.

Our group of workers were surrounded by the bandits. I heard one of them give out an order to the others.

"Capture the workers. We can sell them to the Red Shanks. We can take the adventure's here back with us. We can have a lot of fun with these assholes."

I shiver at the thought of being slaves again but before I could leave with the other two, I felt the air around us suddenly disappear. I couldn't breathe! I look to see Kiah and Casper both trying to breathe as well. Everyone around us lost the ability to breath. Before I could do anything, I felt the darkness begin to takeover.