07 THE OUTCASTS

Capital city Rudra, Royal palace, King's private chamber.

King Vikram, son of the previous king Porus who looked after Alfred, is currently reviewing a report. His blond shoulder length hair fluttering from the wind coming from the window on his back. His deep green eyes are darting all over the report in his hands.

Reading the report, the expression on his fair and beautiful face which resembles with the girl behind him is getting darker. Well losing a rank9 warrior who can go toe to toe with a few rank10 beings and also a loyal servant makes any master feel terrible.

Yes, he is now reading the report of the death of Alfred. He couldn't get the full details, but he get the main reason behind the Alfred's death, Duke Olen. After knowing this, his rage is getting out of control.

He know why the duke attacked Alfred, the duke's faction is trying to overthrow the royal family to occupy the whole kingdom and they are moving pawns in that direction. There are rumors that the previous king is poisoned by the duke too.

Even he is just 23, king Vikram is a rank5 battle mage which makes him a genius and a future powerhouse taking into account the resources Royal family can provide, but that's all in future if he can live that long.

Him reaching rank5 is something worthy for a person less than 25 years, but for a king to be a rank5, is not a good sign, it attracts lot of troubles from both inside and outside. Although he is surrounded by his loyal people, he need to prove his capabilities to the people and show his strength and talent to lead this country without any hitches as early as possible.

Losing Alfred is like losing a valuable part, but in these times the loss is more. He closed his eyes and started thinking something, he glances at the man kneeling before him and orders him to leave.

The man bows once again before leaving. After the man left, he turned to the girl behind him and gives the report to her. After she skimmed through the report, he asks, " What do you think about this Amanda"?

On hearing his voice, the girl with long blond hair which ends below her waist and is wearing a full body armour which is of silver colour and a rank7 armour, replies, "This is troublesome brother".

She is the sister of Vikram and is helping her brother with administration and she also breakthrough to rank5 recently and is having intensive training under the royal commander of the royal army to become next royal commander.

After listening to her opinion, Vikram looks at his sisters deep green eyes, which are similar to his for a minute and says, "Yeah, it is troublesome. We need to do something to keep the duke in check or else he will act more brazenly".

"What about the guild that is under Alfred"? Vikram asks his sister.

"Its just a tier 3 guild named "The Outcasts", in the town Orlando. A tier 2 town which is half a day from the capital. It only consists of low rankers, and the few mid rankers are spies from different nobles, so to sum it in one word, its fucked up now". replied his sister.( low rankers-1 to 3, mid rankers-4 to 6, high rankers-7 to 9)

"hmm... that's too bad. Ah! what about his children? How are they doing?" remembering suddenly, Vikram inquires about the children of Alfred.

"He raised 4 children and they all graduated from Eastern academy 3 years ago and currently one of them is rank3 initial stage, two at rank2 peak stage and last one rank2 high stage. They all are predicted to reach rank9, given the right opportunities and resources. They are worth investing" answers Amanda.

"oh... lets just see how they are gonna run the guild and survive for a year and we will make a decision later based on their performance" says Vikram after thinking for some time.

Amanda just nods her head.

"Make sure to investigate thoroughly about Alfred's death and cripple the duke both financially and in strength to let him know that we wont sit calmly while he is killing our people. And send some help to Alfred's children if needed". Vikram orders his sister and leaves the room.

"Ok. I will make sure the duke knows". Replies Amanda, and she too follows her brother to the court room to attend to their duties as royals.

***

East side of Orlando town, meeting room of "The Outcasts"

"Yesterday, the king officially declared the death of Alfred, captain of our guild in the line of action. And now we need to discuss about the new captain and the future of our guild. I recommend Ren as our next captain and we also should get under Starlight guild, so that we can survive better" says the rank4 vice captain Darren. Darren is a middle aged man at 47 and is one of the five vice captains of 'The Outcasts' guild.

Ren is a peak rank4 archer on the verge of breaking into rank5 soon. He is 33 and reaches 5 feet 11 inches with thick black hair and black eyes, and he is backed by the duke. He is also one of the promising candidates under the duke and also one of the vice captains of "The Outcasts".

Three of the remaining other vice captains agreed with him including the proposed captain Ren as they discussed about this yesterday. Normally, they shouldn't do this meeting for a week or later, since the death of captain is a big thing to the guild, no matter the size of the guild. As they need to settle the matters regarding to the guild. But here the vice captains are holding a meeting for the new captain the next day after the official announcement of Alfred's death.

This is because they all are the spies of nobles and they all are already informed about the mission to kill Alfred, so they made all the preparations to have the new captain already. And they are making Ren as the new captain a rank4 archer and is also strongest in the guild after Alfred in terms of rank.

Looking at all this with light blue eyes which are boiling with rage is Elena, the eldest of the Alfred and the rank3 swordsman. She is recently promoted to the vice captain in the guild, it is because, there is a rule that you need to be atleast a rank5 to be a captain of the guild and rank3 is the minimum requirement of the vice captain, all over the kingdom. Well there are some expectations, but that's for other time.

Elena stays silent all over the meeting and after the others done with the discussion after 2 hours, they left the room one after another, leaving Elena alone in the room. She is hanging her head down and her black hair covering the sides of her face.

Bursting into the room who came is David, his tall figure is trembling with rage after he heard the news of his father's death. Holding the shoulders of Elena, he says" Elena, please tell me that we are going to avenge the father's death, right"?