“No way.” the knight said, he dropped his sword and stepped backwards then started to ramble frantically, “I…I…please have mercy on my lord…they never told me that this monster was your bodyguard… I am innocent…I wasn’t told who you are, I only came because I was asked to.”

“Just shut up already.” he commanded and the knight went silent.

The atmosphere that surrounded Nathaniel was intense and the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. The silence weighed down on everyone except for Nathaniel, whom didn’t seem willing to let any of it up. Nathaniel walked passed the man and made his way to stand beside Ajax before turning back to look at the man.

“Let’s go Ajax.” Nathaniel said and patted him on his shoulder.

“You little shit.” the man scoffed.

“I don’t care who you are, no one does this to me and gets away with it over some filthy demi-humans!” the trapped knight shouted, “Decipher creation and gave me power, Cross Slash Aura!”

Four bronze colored swords appeared at equal points around the knight’s body and simultaneously slashed at the vines in the path of an X. The moment that he was freed he ran directly towards Nathaniel with his sword raised. Nathaniel was caught by surprise and stumbled backwards as he tried to get out of range. Before the knight could slash, black hands from his own shadow grabbed his feet and dragged him to the ground.

This was followed by Ajax creating a magic circle in front of his mouth and firing a blast of pressured water directly at the knight. The force of the blast and its concentration to one spot cracked his armor and sent him flying backwards. Nathaniel slowly got back his footing and just stared as he felt his heart pound faster.

“Where did those hands come from.” Nathaniel said under his breath, baffled by what just happened.

“What j...ju…st hap…happened.” the knight groaned and struggled to stand.

“Ajax, drink this.” Nathaniel said, reaching into his pocket, he took out a glass vile and plucked out the cork with his teeth.

Nathaniel placed the vile on Ajax’s lips and emptied its contents into his mouth. Ajax gulped it down slowly and after a few seconds he felt his strength returned slightly and the pain he felt was slowly fading. His wings healed themselves, which took him by surprise the most. He wondered what Nathaniel just made him drink.

“Seems this type of low grade healing potion does work fast.” Nathaniel said with a gentle smile, “How are you feeling now?”

“So that was a healing potion.” Ajax said and nodded, “Yes I am feeling better now thanks.”

“You’ll pay for this.” the knight groaned and tried to rush them again but this time he was stopped when a yellow snake coiled around him.

“I know that skill.” Ajax gasped.

“What a disgrace for a senior.”

Stepping through the crowd as Alex accompanied by all the knights that had spectated the sparring match earlier. They all greeted Ajax with a smile as two of them rushed to detain the man and free knight with their swords. Alex and the mage walked over to Ajax, whom shared a brief handshake with Alex.

“I never expected to see you again so soon, you look like shit though.” Alex said, “You never told me you had kids, is this guy your partner or something?”

“I do not have kids!” Ajax embarrassingly exclaimed with a blush on his face, looking over at Nathaniel whom was blushing as well and hid his face away, “We are just taking care of them.”

“Well either way, glad to see my hunch was right.” Alex said, “Did you make that large tremor earlier?”

“No that was Nathaniel.” Ajax replied and pointed to Nathaniel.

“That is surprising.” Alex said and looked at Nathaniel as well.

“How dare you point those swords at me!” the man shouted, “Don’t you know who I am?!”

“Should I care?” Alex asked and looked at him.

Both Ajax and Alex shared in a laugh that only served to leave Nathaniel confused. He wondered how they knew each other much less enough to be laughing as they were. After a few minutes, the mage and the remainder of the group aided in dispersing the crowd as they waited for other guards to show up. When they finally did, they took the man and the two knights away while taking statements from anyone that remained. Nathaniel took this moment of peace to give Ajax a hug by the arm and released all his worries.

“I am glad you’re okay.” Nathaniel said and leaned against Ajax’s shoulder, “You did well, the children don’t even have a scratch on them.”

“I am glad too.” Ajax replied, “But I couldn’t do anything but take the hits since I couldn’t hit back how I wanted.”

“That doesn’t matter, you managed the situation well, you were brave and so strong to have taken that much beatings.” Nathaniel said and gripped his arm tighter, “But how do you know that kingdom knight.”

“I could ask the same on how he knows a regular civilian.” Alex said.

“Right, I didn’t introduce you two.” Ajax replied, “Alex this is Nathaniel, the human I am with, and Nathaniel this is Alex, the knight I spared with this morning and gave me those scratches.”

“Wait whaa…?!” Nathaniel exclaimed with a nod from both of them.

“I still want that match some other time, it was a fun fight.” Ajax said.

“I agree but right now duty first.” Alex said.

“It’s rather disturbing watching you two bond over fighting.” Nathaniel said.

“Either way, do one of you mind coming with me so we can collect a testimony from those involved?” Alex asked.

“I’ll go and explain what led up to this.” Nathaniel said.

“Hell no, I was in the fight so I should go!” Ajax exclaimed.

“You need to stay here and watch the kids, beside I can see how tightly you’re holding them.” Nathaniel said, “I got them clothes, just follow the vines.”

Ajax reluctantly acquiesced and flew back into their room of the inn through the hole. He watched as Nathaniel and Alex walked up to the group of guards and left with them. A new barrier was created to seal the hole and the bed was pushed to the center of the room. He brushed off the debris from it and placed the children to lay down so that they can rest and almost instantly they collapsed from exhaustion. Ajax left the room and followed the vines until he came across some bags on the ground. He picked them up and when back inside he woke the children one by one to dress them. The two boys were given matching blue tunics and brown shorts and the girl was given a pink dress that had a ribbon around his sleeves and collar.

There was one final outfit that he couldn’t account for, a green tailcoat jacket with matching green trousers, a white undershirt and vest. His first though were that they were for Nathaniel but upon further examination he noticed that they were too big. Only after a few seconds did it click with him that maybe Nathaniel had bought him for him, this was confirmed when he saw a tag with his name on it stickered to the jacket. He sat at the foot of the bed and watched the door as he waited for Nathaniel’s return, all the while keeping his senses alert should they be attacked again.

Small banging sounds soon caught his attention and when he went to investigate it, he saw small objects bouncing off his barrier. The size of the objects and the fact they clearly had no power behind them meant that they couldn’t damage it. Though the ones throwing them had him concerned. It was a small group of people that were rambling something he had no care to even try and understand.

“Honestly what is wrong with you people.” Ajax sighed, “Are you that blinded by hate just because I am a monster and these kids aren’t fully human, oh well.”

He stepped back to the bed and sat down on the floor, resting his back against it, and drifted off to sleep. Within the realm that was his dreams he saw nothing but darkness then the opening of crimson eyes that shined a blazing red. He gazed into them with the same intensity they gazed into his, as if reading into his soul.

A childlike laughter danced in his ears and the sweet scent of backing wafted through the darkness. The darkness started to change, and lines started being drawn around him. The lines transformed the darkness into a kitchen. A woman whose face he couldn’t make out walked passed him and opened the stove’s oven followed by a child that ran by and pulled on her apron, his face as well couldn’t be distinguish.

Something about the scene unfolding seemed familiar to him but when he tried to think on it he felt a stabbing pain in his head. The woman, the child, he wondered why the scene felt familiar but they had no face. Was it because this was some kind of memory and he couldn’t remember properly, or was it all just truly a meaningless dream. All these questions went without answers as he was jolted awake by the sudden opening of the real room’s door.

He jumped up and opened his wings to block whatever it was off from the children. Despite the sleep in his eyes, he gathered his focus and took a deep breath in preparation to attack whomever stepped through the door. However, before he could release his breath, he was met with a surprised expression from both Nathaniel and Alex.

“Don’t you look ready for a fight.” Alex said and crossed his arms.

“I hope you weren’t going to shoot fire at whoever entered.” Nathaniel said, “I would not have liked coming back hearing you burnt an employee.”

“Nathaniel and Alex.” Ajax said and rubbed his eyes, “Nathaniel, tell me what happened after you left.”

“I simply went and explained our side of the situation.” Nathaniel replied, stepping beside Ajax, he patted him on the shoulder to calm him down, “We aren’t in trouble so don’t worry.”

“I can confirm that, the ones that attacked you confessed to being bribed and being the instigators.” Alex said, “The witness testimonies verified that last claim so you’re off the hook, you won’t be penalized for the damages.”

Alex spent a few extra minutes explaining in detail what occurred while they were away. How the man had paid off one knight and the other one followed under false pretenses. As a result, they will be made to may for all the damages that occurred and the man would be arrested, his assets would be frozen, cutting him from his wealth, and his slaves would all be freed as an added punishment so that he couldn’t use them as a reason when he is eventually released. Ajax took a sigh of relief knowing that one of his worries after they parted with the kids was finally out of the picture.

Nathaniel tried to have Alex stay a little longer but this wasn’t to be as the latter still had duties he needed to fulfill. When the two were left alone Nathaniel went and gently stroked the heads of the sleeping children, a constant smile on his face.

“We need to make the arrangements with the orphanage quickly.” Nathaniel said, “I’d like to bring them along but they’ve been through enough already.”

“I think I have a solution for that.” Ajax said, he closed his eyes and a cloud of mist spiraled around him from head to toe, it enveloped his entire body and formed an identical duplicate when it moved off him.

“Holy shit.” Nathaniel said, surprised by the sudden appearance of a second Ajax, he got up and examined the clone, even pinching it at certain points that felt so real, “Can you like move it around and stuff?”

Ajax moved one of his arms and the clone did the same, every action Ajax preformed the clone followed. When he stopped moving the clone continued until it was told to stop by Ajax. Nathaniel nodded and decided that this would do. The two of them left the clone to watch the kids and departed for the orphanage with Nathaniel leading the way.