Chapter 2

Douglas was unfazed. He already knew this would happen, so he wasn't in any way surprised. If it weren't even for the fake identity plaque "given to him" by his teacher, he wouldn't have passed through the checkpoints at the borders of the provinces, leading to Zion. It was truly a lucky coincidence that the image of the face on the plaque, which belonged to his teacher's late son, looked quite similar with his. So, it was easy to fool the military personnel's at the borders.

But what was the exact reason for this discrimination and disdain?

Arges was the most powerful nation in the pacific continent. It was the pride of the continent. It was so dominant and grand, that other smaller nations surrounding Arges had to pay tributes and taxes yearly to its king. Its economy was booming, its military strength formidable. No smaller or weaker nation had ever been invaded or warred upon by other stronger nations from the pacific or other continents, simply because they were afraid of the reaction from Arges, as this great nation forbade war between nations. Simply put, Arges was keeping the peace in the pacific due to its strength and dominance. It was truly an eminent and blessed country.

But there was one blemish to this greatness.

While the other provinces of Arges boasted of wealth, prosperity and was contributing to the supremacy of their nation, the province of Bermuda was plagued with poverty and impoverishment. Bermuda's economy was in shambles, its territory was compromised. Its denizens could barely afford to eat a meal a day. To a nation like Arges, which prided itself of its glory, Bermuda was its shame. And this shame begot contempt and disdain from the denizens of other provinces.

But long ago, things weren't this way.

According to the story which was passed on to Douglas by his father, which was passed on to Douglas's father by Douglas's grandfather, which was passed on to Douglas's grandfather by Douglas's great grandfather, Bermuda was once financially and economically buoyant and oozing with prosperity.

At the time, Bermuda was a popular trade center for mana stones, which was a key raw material in the development of weapons and other sophisticated equipment, which requires mana for its activation and usage. Almost close to a hundred of this mana stones were mined weekly and stored in the central depot of the province. Each one of this mana stones, at the time, had a cost of a least a hundred thousand Gold coins and there were more than a million of this mana stones stored in its depot.

Mana stones was and it's still is the primary resource of the nation of Arges and Zion, the capital and Bermuda were where this resource were centrally located. But though this two had this resource, merchants mostly patronized the province of Bermuda, as it was easier to have access to this resource in large quantity in Bermuda than in Zion and Bermuda also had less restrictions. Merchants would troop in their numbers from all over Arges and from other nations in the pacific and even from other continents to trade with the merchants in Bermuda.

But then one day, tragedy struck.

A large number of armed bandits suddenly invaded Bermuda. It was like they suddenly appeared from thin air, as it was a complete mystery as from where they emerged from or whom they were.

This bandits didn't behave like your normal run-of-the-mill bandits. With them all garbed uniformly in black, they marched with the rigid and methodical alignment of the military, without anyone from this group deviating from their mission. And their mission was the central depot of Bermuda, housing the mana stones.

This bandits were swiftly intercepted by the military of Bermuda, and a bitter battle between this two groups commenced.

The battle lasted for a week. Bermuda's military personnel's fought long and hard against this unwelcomed guests, but they were utterly dominated in terms of forte in mana ability and control, as well as tactics. The bandits were also better equipped. The military of Bermuda were ultimately defeated, with most of the soldiers losing their lives in the process, while the devastated few whom were left, retreating with their tails tucked between their legs.

The bandits catered away with all the mana stones and just the same way they had manifested, they suddenly vanished.

Then after a few months of this attack, when Bermuda was still licking its wounds and going through the process of reconstruction, the bandits reappeared again. This time around they marched and laid siege to the mines from where the mana stones were been excavated from. This mines were the bread and butter of Bermuda. It was the key economic resource of this province. This act by the bandits completely crippled the economy of this province, as the province could no longer access this mines. The bandits voraciously took all the mana stones for themselves and transported this stones to their headquarters, wherever it was.

The remainder of the defeated military personnel's regrouped and with some brave volunteers assisting, they went after the bandits. They fought bravely and valiantly, but their efforts were to no avail. They lost miserably. They were simply overpowered both in numbers and capability. This time around the bandits spared no one and all this valiant men who fought to free their land from the siege of this bandits, miserably lost their lives that day.

The Grand Duke of Bermuda requested desperate aid from neighboring provinces and even went as far as requesting aid from Zion, but none came to their aid. Most provinces were covetous of the prosperity of Bermuda and so they had a feeling of schadenfreude towards its current predicament. The provinces which sincerely wanted to assist Bermuda, had their hands tied. Why? Because there was a golden rule in Arges. A law set down by Zion, which was rigid and unbreakable. A law set since the birth of this great nation. Going against this law was tantamount to incurring the wrath of Zion and the King, himself. 'A province must defend its territory from internal and external opposition without the aid from other provinces, because each province is independent and this independence must be defended by the valor of the province.'

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to years, years turned to decades and decades turned into a century. Generations had come and gone. The bandits had greatly increased in size and had taken over half of Bermuda. They could have taken over the whole province if they wanted, but it seemed they were only interested in the mines and the borders of the province. Though this bandits were quite disciplined and completely avoided the denizens of the province, their presence and their deeds were enough to plunge the province into despair.

Bermuda, which was once viewed as prosperous and was envied by other provinces, was now viewed with ridicule. Even the provinces which had taken pity on this poor province and had once wanted to assist it, now felt disgust and disdain towards it, as the denizens of this provinces felt Bermuda was too weak and too incompetent in handling its own affairs, after such a long period of time.

Due to the grave predicament Bermuda was plunged into, Bermuda hadn't held a preliminary nor had they fielded a candidate to participate in the Arges combat tournament in over a hundred years, but now Douglas was here to represent and his intention was to turn this tournament over its head.